Hey! I managed to finish this chapter tonight! Yay me! But, I may not be so lucky with chapter 5. I am currently working on it and it could take a while as I have other responsibilities to attend to such as getting a job and such. But enough about my life. I will aim to have chapter 5 out by next weekend but no promises. Love to all my readers. Enjoy!
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Karkat awoke in the fetal position, drenched in sweat. He cursed under his breath and straightened out on the sofa, tossing off the blanket covering. He slowly began to stretch his limbs when a noise from the kitchen made him freeze. His mind started to race, and his heart rate picked up speed. Suddenly, John popped his head through the doorway from the kitchen.
"Oh, you're up now. I didn't want to wake you up, and since our choices are limited, I kinda made breakfast." John beamed at Karkat who grumbled under his breath as he stood up, his mini heart attack over. "There was a little food here so I went ahead and fixed it up. None of it required cooking, so…"
Karkat entered the kitchen after the rambling boy to find the table set with two plates. On each plate were some potato chips and half a can of baked beans.
"I know it's not much…" John started.
"The breakfast of fucking champions," Karkat mumbled. In fact, it was about what he was used to eating every meal of the day, every day. He sat at the closest plate and picked up the plastic fork set out for him. He began eating as John sat across from him silently. They ate in silence. Not a word was spoken until Karkat had finished his portion. It was then that John spoke up.
"So… do you think… there's a way to save my friends?"
Karkat looked at the human across the table from him. "That all depends if the blonde male human can keep from jumping all the trolls he sees."
"Dave."
"What?"
"His name is Dave."
"Oh. Well, if Dave and the other two managed to keep from getting in trouble, they could be processed and put to work in some of the camps I've seen around here." Karkat wiped his hand on his jeans.
"Rose and Jade."
"What are you going on about now?"
"The other two. Their names are Rose and Jade."
"Look, no offense, John, but I don't really care what their names are. They aren't my problem. I already told you I am not helping you find your friends, shitstain. So if you are gonna go on a rescue mission to save the assclowns from the big bad evil trolls, go right ahead, but don't expect to call on me for assistance." Karkat's rant was really half assed. He was still reeling from his nightmare. Every night seeing Gamzee killed a different way. He thought he would get used to it eventually. He had thought wrong.
"I know. I wasn't going to ask you to help me get them out. Just… maybe help me get ready… I mean, you seem to know a lot of how things work around here…" John pushed his half eaten pile of beans around his plate.
Karkat sighed. "I can tell you what I know. Maybe help you find some supplies you'll need, but I'm not helping you break them out. Once you set off on that road, we will say goodbye forever."
John nodded in understanding. "I know, but I have to do it. I can't leave them there." He sighed. "I wish I hadn't gotten separated, then we'd all at least be in the same place…"
"Hey, fuckass, if you had gotten caught then you all would have been forced into slavery or killed. At least this way you still have a chance to do something about it, nooksniffer."
"Yeah. I guess you're right." Just like that, John turned his sadness off and was all smiles again. Karkat just stared at him, baffled that someone could be so bipolar. Even Sollux wasn't that bad. Karkat shook his head to rid that thought. Thoughts of Sollux meant thoughts of childhood. Thoughts of childhood meant thoughts of Gamzee. Thoughts of Gamzee meant pangs of guilt and loss, and that was bad. Karkat stood and moved out into the hallway.
"Where you going" John inquired.
"To find some new clothes. These are getting fucking rancid."Karkat trudged off to the bedroom. Most of the houses had been left the way they were found. The only things the trolls changed was the food, restocking when supplies got low, but only the things that they wouldn't eat. Karkat was betting on there being clothes in the closet or dresser. His bet paid off tenfold. Not only were there clothes, but they were the right size. No overly large shirts now. Karkat stripped down to change. He grabbed a pair of boxers from the dresser and slipped them on. He found a new pair of jeans and slipped them on, running his belt through the loops. He paused momentarily, feeling a breeze. He looked to the window to find it open.
"Hey fuckass, did you open the window?" He yelled down the hall.
"Yeah, it got hot last night. Why?" John yelled back. An internal monologue of curse words went on in Karkat's head. Among this litany of curses and rude names and the occasional flipping off was a rant about the dangers of an open window and how he had nearly had a heart attack for the second time this morning. Karkat silently decided that this John Egbert human was going to be the death of him.
"Why did you want to know?" John interrupted Karkat's thoughts, making him jump.
Heart attack number three. He glared at John. "Can't a troll change in peace you nookchaffing, bulgelicking, fuckass," Karkat spat.
John blushed and turned around. "S-sorry! I didn't mean to intrude!"
"Just shut the fuck up. Anyway, I asked because, if you didn't, we had a problem. But we don't now, so crisis avoided." Karkat pulled a black t-shirt over his head. It was a slim fit shirt that clung a little too tightly for his liking but it was better than the ones sporting the brightly colored miniature earth hoofbeasts. Karkat shuddered at their colorfulness.
"Oh! Cool! They Have My Little Pony shirts here! I wish I could have met this guy! I'm sure we'd have so much in common!" John exclaimed upon seeing the other shirts.
"Odds are he's either enslaved or dead, so tough luck meeting him. They kill more than half of their captives, so the odds are leaning more towards dead." Karkat said bluntly. He turned to leave but stopped when he saw the look on John's face. John looked defeated and depressed.
"Shit… I didn't mean it like that… I'm sure they haven't killed your friends." Karkat placed a hand on John's shoulder.
"You mean it?"
"Yeah. I'm sure they're fine." Why was he comforting this human? Why did he care? Karkat couldn't find a reason, but he just did. John looked up and smiled. Karkat removed his hand and turned away. "Anyway, if you want to break them out, I should tell you what I know about the compound." Karkat left for the kitchen motioning for John to follow him. He searched for a pen and some paper, and, upon finding some in the living room, he returned to the kitchen. He set them on the table then flopped into a chair.
"A few miles out from the last house, there is this compound thing. It's in the woods, so it should be easy enough to approach unseen. This smaller rectangle here is the arrival area. It is the smallest area. Its whole purpose is to evaluate newcomers and judge whether they are keepers or not." John listened intently as Karkat talked. "Now this bigger rectangle is the area where they send the keepers to work. The smaller rectangles inside it are the sleeping quarters and eating quarters. And this one here," Karkat pointed to the small square on the other side of the big rectangle from the small one. "This is where… well… that's where they send the dead."
John sat for a while staring at the paper. Karkat looked at him and couldn't help but notice the human's blue eyes and how attractive they were when he was focusing on something. Karkat's eyes wandered around John's face to his hair, jet black and falling just short of his eyes, offsetting them wonderfully. Karkat looked down the nose to the boy's mouth. The mouth was moving, flashes of white showing here and there between red lips, lips that were speaking his name. Speaking his name?
"Karkat?" John said again.
Shit. "What?" Karkat spat viciously, angry that he had been caught ogling at the boy.
"Well…" John began, flustered. "I asked how you knew all this?"
"Oh." Karkat tried to regain his composure. "Oh, I… before I came here and stayed in the houses, I was just moving through the wilderness and forests. I came upon this place. I watched it for a few days before following the dirt road between the Compound and the houses. I stayed out of sight but close enough that I could still see the road and followed it to the houses. And I've been staying here ever since."
"Oh," John said. "How do I get in?"
"Well, the main area and the processing area are fenced in, but the dead house isn't. You could wait until night when it'll be harder to see you and climb the fence, get the others and climb back out."
"But what about the other captives?" John asked.
"John, you can't go rescuing them all, that'll just draw too much attention from the rest of the empire." Karkat warned.
"I can't just leave them." John looked shocked.
"Why not? Do you know them? Are they friends?" Karkat couldn't figure this out.
"No… but it just wouldn't be right to leave them all behind," John said, looking down at the table in front of him.
"Why? Why do you care about them?" Karkat was getting riled up.
"I don't know, I just can't leave them behind." John didn't look up. Karkat threw his arms up in exasperation. John looked up. "If it were trolls captive, wouldn't you save them."
"No I wouldn't. If you haven't noticed most of my race is a bunch of nook sniffing, bulge sucking, grade A fuckasses." Karkat grumbled.
"Surely you don't mean that?" John looked surprised.
"I do. I would fight them if I could. They haven't ever done anything for me except label me a freak and try to kill me for it. They even killed my…" Karkat didn't finish the sentence. He felt the tears start to well up at the thought of Gamzee.
"Who?" John asked tentatively, not wanting to upset Karkat.
"Huh?" Karkat looked at John as if in a fog, his thoughts elsewhere on Gamzee.
"Who did they kill?" John asked softly.
Karkat snapped back to reality and slammed the door to his emotions shut becoming a wall of stone and rage again. "No one. It's not important," he snapped. "Come on, we have to go find stuff for your mission." With that, he stood and strode for the door, picking up a black zip up hoodie from the hanger next to it and shoving his arms into the sleeves and then zipping it up. He stormed out and didn't look back to see if John was following. When he heard the door shut and steps coming after him, he knew that he was.
