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Walking through the barrier, Frisk held her breath in anticipation.
And judging by her friends' reactions, she was glad she did.
They stepped through the barrier into a large tunnel filled with discolored water. It wasn't the clear, clean kind of water that ran through waterfall. It was thick, dark, and the whole place smelled like the south end of a north bound goat.
Er, present goats excluded, of course.
Alphys threw both clawed hands over her nose, her tail curling upward out of the water instinctually.
"O-oh my god?! It smells w-worse than t-the dump here!"
The other monsters mumbled their agreements, also covering their faces in a similar manner.
Sans walked over to the front of the group where Frisk was standing. Holding a skeletal hand over his nose, he asked her quietly,
"are we in hell again?"
Frisk shook her head, "I don't think so. Hell didn't smell this bad." Walking forward and looking around, she mused, "Maybe we're in a sewer of some sort?"
Sans shrugged. Having never been on the surface, (at least, not the normal surface) he had no idea what a sewer was so he couldn't really say.
Alphys and Undyne were no where to be seen, but it wasn't hard to figure out where they'd gone since the King and former Queen were already headed back they way they'd came.
Sans moved to follow Frisk, curious to where she was going, but stopped when Papyrus laid a hand on his shoulder and said,
"SANS! I'M GOING BACK UNDERGROUND WITH THE REST. ARE YOU COMING?"
Sans shook his head, "nah bro, i'm gonna follow the human for a bit. what's the matter? is the smell getting to you?" he asked jokingly. Then, after a moments pause, asked, "wait, how does that work if
we don't have noses?"
Papyrus rolled his eyes, or what equated to them, and reprimanded him, "IT SMELLS MUCH TOO AWFUL IN HERE TO BEGIN QUESTIONING THE WORKINGS OF OUR BODIES!"
Waving good bye as he walked back to the entrance to the underground, Sans and Frisk were left alone.
Or, more specifically, now Sans was alone and Frisk was no where to be seen.
Up ahead, Frisk had found a small walkway off to the side that wasn't submerged in water, and had climbed onto that. Following it had led her down a straightaway and to a rusted metal ladder positioned under a manhole cover.
"Guess we really were in the sewers." Frisk thought to herself glumly.
Maybe it wouldn't be so bad though! Sure, a bunch of monsters and a small human child randomly popping up from the sewers and into the street was a less than elegant way for the monsters to begin to reintegrate into human civilization, but it could be worse!
Frisk climbed up the rusted ladder as carefully as possible. Making sure her balance was good, she let go of the ladder with one hand and began pushing on the manhole cover with the other to open it.
Unfortunately, it didn't budge.
But, Frisk was known for her determination, if nothing else. Grunting, she pulled on it with all her might, leaning in the direction she pulled.
Suddenly, with a loud "clang!" The manhole cover unlocked, jerking to the side with Frisk's pressure, and sending the small human flying backwards off the ladder.
Before she could plummet to what would certainly be a very slimy and smelly death, her soul was turned blue in a fashion she was quite familiar with, and her fall was stopped midway, leaving her floating in the air a few feet above the water.
Standing on the walkway she'd followed with one eye flashing cyan, was Sans.
Gently, he set her down on the walkway, her soul changing back to its normal red color. But before he could say anything, Frisk was running to the ladder again.
"frisk, what are you doing?" He asked, following her at a walk.
She was halfway up the ladder before she responded,
"I was right, this is a sewer. And sewers are gross, but they're a normal thing under cities."
Catching on, Sans began climbing the ladder too. Frisk pried the manhole cover open the rest of the way and poked her head up through it.
"if what you're saying is true, then that means this reset is "normal", right? so this reset might work out after a-"
Frisk's scream cut him off.
"never mind, then." Sans thought sarcastically.
A frantically shouted "Run!" was all the warning Sans got before Frisk let go of the ladder completely, knocking him off it in the process as well.
This time, they both landed in the sewer water with a loud "splash!"
Sans sat up, placing a hand to his head and glaring at the coughing child beside him.
"Oh, god I -cough- got some in my mouth, eww!"
Ignoring Frisk's gross dilemma, Sans snapped,
"why'd you let go!?"
Frisk, still preoccupied with spitting out sewer water, pointed upward.
Looking up, Sans saw a whole group of humans standing above the manhole. Which would've been to be expected, had it not been for the fact the humans skin was missing in some places, revealing bone and muscle, some were missing limbs altogether and one appeared to be missing its head entirely.
"Braaaaiiiins!" They chorused.
Sans may not have known what a sewer was, but he'd watched enough anime with Alphys that he could recognize a zombie when he saw one.
Although, from what he'd seen, a lot of humans were expert zombie killers. He turned to look at Frisk with this in mind. She was still scrubbing at her tongue with a dry part of her sweater to get the taste of sewer out of her mouth. When she noticed the zombies start to move to climb down the manhole, she screamed and leapt up from the water, bolting back the way they'd came.
"frisk...must not be one of those people." Sans thought, standing up the rest of the way to follow Frisk
Frisk had run screaming halfway back to the underground before stopping abruptly.
"Wait, I don't need to run for my life. I can just reset."
And so she did.