The story is now on ON.
Chapter 14: The Unhostile Friends
The Room is of contrasting black and white, with a splatter of red - the save block that the purifiers had arrived in front of. The black walls are like a void, the white pools of plastic full of emptyness. There is something strange in the air. The smell of the dead or dying. The protagonists stand, stunned.
Of course, at this point, the Batter and the Add-Ons were used to this smell, so that's not why they were stunned. They are taking a pause, to take it in, to take in the fact that they're on the very last leg of their crusade.
"It will be over soon," The Batter said over the silence. "Soon, we will dream sweet dreams, free of the specters."
"More like a nightmare." Muttered Alpha bitterly. The Batter pretended not to hear him and goes on ahead.
The hallway is empty. No specters, no Elsen, no Secretaries even.
It led into a room with a smaller Room contained inside. At the side of the room, there are a bunch of chairs, lined up in formation. "These chairs have to be for... something." Omega noted. "Well, we... gotta stay on guard."
They head on into the smaller Room. There is a small bed off to the side, a calendar and poster pasted on the wall. The poster bares words, written in messy handwriting with a crayon. The poster reads as follows:
I don't like this place a lot. Luckily, Papa is here. Today we played together. He offered me a comic. I was ill, so I had to take pills.
"...Batter? Are you okay?" Epsilon asked.
The Batter is strangely fixated on the written poster. After a few more seconds of staring at it, he turned away from it. "Let's go."
"Go where? This place is a dead-end." Alpha pointed out; of course, since there's nowhere else to go, he chooses to follow the others out of the Room.
Outside, there is a peculiar change: the chairs had been moved away from the side, arranged in an open place in the room. There isn't a sign of anyone that could have done this.
Epsilon hovered upward and sees what the chairs had been arranged into. "Aww, the chairs are smiling." Indeed, the chairs had been arranged into a big smiley face that you would probably only see if you were playing a videogame from an overhead perspective.
"How… welcoming…." Omega murmured.
They head toward the doorway that leads into the hallway, but upon stepping through the threshold, they suddenly find themselves in the entrance room.
The Batter cautiously stepped back through, and he's no longer in the other room, but in the hallway they were originally heading to. However, there's something different: the smell of death is more fresh, more recent. "Stay on your guard. There's something here."
They begin stepping forward. That's when they heard the growls. They burst through the other side of the hallway: it looked like a pack of stampeding animals, but they weren't just confused animals, but a group intent on reaching the purifiers. They are a pack of bears, with coats as white as the specters. The bear at the front of the pack picked up the pace and managed to reach the Batter. It stands up on its hind legs and took a chomp out of the Batter's left shoulder before the man could react. Growling like the animal that bit him, he knocked the beast off and smashed his bat down with his right hand. However, the rest of the bears are upon them -
"Go away!" screeched Epsilon while indulging the horde with her finest Tragedy. The bears all stop in their tracks, letting out gurgling cries.
And suddenly the bears are all stuffed toys, laying motionless on the floor.
"...Did I just turn them into toys?" Epsilon reflected in wonder.
Alpha prods one of the stuffed bears. "...Huh. I guess you did." He said when he confirmed that it was no longer moving.
"Maybe they aren't real at all?" theorized Omega.
"I'm pretty sure that bite the Batter has is fucking real." Alpha said whilst the mentioned purifier is applying a fortune ticket on a large, bleeding wound.
After the wound closed up and the Batter swings his arm around to make sure it's still in use, he added, "Regardless, we can consider them purified."
They hurry on (though cautiously looking back in case the piles of fluff got up and attacked) into the next room. Again, the chairs had changed.
"Ah, they're frowning now. Maybe we shouldn't have broken their toys." Epsilon said, who would probably be frowning too if she had a face.
They advance into the Room, which had changed as well. Backed against the wall is a stuffed bear, which didn't appear to be animate. There is now a doorway in the wall next to the poster, which now bore different words:
I don't like these pills.
The door ahead led to a different set of hallways, plain, windy ones with nothing in them. However, a few steps in and things began to change. The metallic walls lose their shine, gaining a much rougher texture that resembles crayon. The Batter blinked when the change came about; he looks to the Add-Ons for help, but they're just as confused about the sudden change as he is.
Then, they hear the giggling.
What looked like Common Specters begin to seep out of the crayon walls. However, upon closer inspection, they weren't ordinary specters - their ectoplasm had a rough drawn texture as well, and their features seemed deformed.
"These are Abstract Specters, ghouls with deformed ectoplasm." The Batter said after a quick Wide Angle. He swung at one of the Abstract Specters, and coughs when it exploded into a cloud of chalk dust.
The purifiers begin fighting their way through the hallways. The Abstract Specters were easy foes, but they often stood in their way. They manage to reach the end of the hallway, where a doorway is -
-and it transports them back to the beginning of the hallways. Baffled, they run through the curvy passages again and end up in the same place. Maybe they have to try fighting all the Abstract Specters this time? Nah, they keep ending up back at the entrance.
"This is stupid." Alpha declared after a fourth go around, going back through the door behind them at the entrance. Either because they wanted to drag him back or because they agreed that this was stupid, the others follow him…
…
Papa said that we're going to play outside today.
…
"We should have done that first." The Batter reflected. After a flash of light, they ended back up at the entrance. Nah, not the entrance of the hallway, but the entrance to the zone in general.
They head on.
The room at the end of the hallway, this time, seemed decorated like, well, an actual room. There were tables and chairs set up in a non-creepy way and there are a few stacked crates.
The Zone 2 Add-On decided to investigate the stacked boxes. "Hm… uh, these are all boxes of meat, I believe." Indeed, all the boxes contained nourishment of some sort. "Is this… a bunker of some sort?"
"Wait… look." Epsilon said, referring to windows that lined the wall. Outside, the world seemed to be stuck in a perpetual flash, an eternal light. A light of nothingness. A bright blight. "It seems pretty outside."
"Erm… I'm not sure… there's something unnatural about that light. It seems more like… an explosion."
The smaller Room is near identical to its last incarnation, save for the calendar page baring a different date and the poster now acting as a guide, a drawn arrow pointing at the door. The hallway beyond that is normal. No strange nonsense. But then.
There's the outside world.
The world is dead. The smell of the dead lingered in the air with the scent of the burnt and decayed. The earth itself is blighted, every tree reduced to a dead state. The sky looked as if it was on fire, as if the disaster that claimed the world is still going on. There is no one in sight. There is no hope in sight.
"...That is fucking depressing." stated Alpha.
I know.
The Batter marched outside, the ground crunching underneath his boots while the Add-Ons float around his head. They look back to the Room - it's taken the form of a door stuck to a small metal structure, a bunker of sorts.
"...Sooo, what now?" Epsilon questioned. There didn't seem to be any meaningful goal over the stretches of dead land.
"...There has to be something to do for us to proceed." The Batter murmured,
"But there.. seems to be a lot of land to cover." Omega pointed out.
"Then we should split up." suggested Alpha. The Batter and the other two Add-Ons look at him; the humanoid and the more cheerful Add-On seem to agree with this, but the more neurotic Add-On is a bit off-put by this suggestion.
"Are you sure it's safe i-in this environment?" he rasped.
"...Look." Alpha paused as if to take a breath of air. "Anything is better. I am willing to do anything. I'm willing to walk through this fucking wasteland. As long as I get to spend time away from that motherfucker."
With all his complaining through the story so far, it wouldn't take a genius to know that he's ranting about the Batter. The Batter's eyebrow rose underneath his cap but didn't say anything.
"I know you heard me, don't give me the fucking silent treatment. Look man, I'm an asshole, but at least I admit that." The stresses of following the Batter around on his journey since the beginning egged the Add-On on as he gets into the face of the frowning humanoid. "But you? You're a fucking psycho, and you call yourself a savior."
The Batter sighed as if he was just dealing with an annoying child. "I've said time and time again, this world is da-"
"Yeah yeah, the world is damned. Whatever, don't give me your existential bull. I'm only helping you because it's my shitty duty as an Add-On."
Omega and Epsilon are on the sidelines, stunned, as Alpha gets confrontational with the Batter, who appeared to be unperturbed.
"Do you not want to be my Add-On?" said the Batter.
"You know. I wanted to be an Add-On at first. Saved me from being bored in that Zone all day. But I believed in you, even though you pissed me off sometimes, and that Dedan guy was kind of an ass, so I can understand beating him down, at the very least." Alpha paused. "But I've seen what we've actually done. I don't know what we're going to do when we get to the end of this zone, but I know that I'll fucking hate it."
The Batter looked down at his shoes, kicking his feet and watching the dust fly around. "...What is it then? Do you only want us to split up so you can use it as an excuse to leave?" The dust settled. "We're bonded. You can't leave on your own accord."
Alpha didn't have anything to say to that.
"...But I can break our connection." The capped man said quietly. "I can let you leave." He said, making sure that the Add-On hung on his every word. "But understand that when I do that, you can never go back to the Nothingness. You'll be stuck in the Room until the end."
A normal person would take a moment to debate that, but Alpha hated the Batter that much. "Sure, fine, make it happen."
"W-w-w-wait, what?" A panicked Omega said, shocked by these proceedings.
"...Okay." The Batter nodded.
Add-On Alpha is no longer in the party!
"You are not a creature of malevolence, so you're in no need of purification. But if you intend to stop us, I won't accept that." The Batter said, the grip on his bat tightening.
"Whatever. I just don't want any part in your bullshit anymore." Alpha hobbled forward a bit before adding, to the Add-Ons, "And if you guys had common sense, you'd ask this guy to let your asses leave too."
And so, Alpha is gone.
The trio is silent, the only noise being a hot gust of wind.
"...That was better than my dramas." Epsilon muttered.
More silence.
"...He did bring up a good idea, though." The Batter said, referring to the concept of splitting up, hopefully with less mutiny this time.
"..R-right.." Omega looked off into the landscape, trying to take his mind off of what just transpired. "That mountain looks promising. We, um, can travel there and split up to cover it. At the very least, it will, er, give us a good view of our surroundings."
"I agree with that. It can be like a hiking trip. Except Alpha is gone and everyone is dead." said Epsilon.
The walk to the mountain is uneventful, as there is nothing in sight. No enemies, no living friendly things, just dead earth. Upon reaching the mountain, they split up, now more confident about the idea due to the lack of adversaries. The Batter goes off on his own, walking up a mountain path, silently ascending the post-apocalyptic mountain.
Then, he saw something different in the environment: a cabin. The cabin looked worn down, but is still the only intact building in miles. Reasoning that somebody living, if there were any, would take shelter in the structure, he decided to go inside. Inside, the Batter saw that his reasoning was right.
Because inside the cabin is Dedan, leaning against the backwall.
The tall mister told me that he'd take me on a pedalo ride, and that we'd all work together to build the new world.
The Batter is suspicious, ready to start bashing. He was sure that Dedan was killed, but the man before him cannot be a specter, because he sensed that he wasn't. The first guardian looked at him in surprise, and said:
"Finally, somebody! You would think that there's no one on earth anymore." Dedan said. His voice sounded softer and less harsh even though it was still gravelly; the Batter couldn't quite put his foot on why it seems to be, but he felt that the guardian as younger than when he first saw him. "Finally… I'm glad to see you, my boy."
The Batter is now starting to doubt that this was Dedan - he is much too friendly.
Dedan moved his jacket aside, showing off an infected wound. "I got bitten by a cow, the pain is too much to bear."
"...Then allow me to heal you." The Batter said, seeing that there's no reason not to, since 'Dedan' didn't appear to be hostile. However, in his attempt to use a saving base on the guardian, nothing happened; Dedan didn't even appear to acknowledge it.
"It's been 9 o' clock for awhile now." The man said, glancing up to the clock; it appeared to be broken, perpetual stuck at the same time. "...I don't know how long I've been in here. Days? Weeks? Months? You must understand my boy, when you lose track of time, you start losing yourself. Without knowing time, you lose sight of the fundamentals of the world. You just start thinking: is this world still real? ...Until you showed up, I thought I was in some sort of damn purgatory." After finishing that sentence, he looked saddened. "I'm sorry for saying that. You're a child, I shouldn't be cursing around you."
It then occurs to the Batter that things are much much more weirder than it already is.
"I don't like this at all. I feel that this ain't real. Or anything is real." He paused. "What're you doing here, by the way? This ain't really a place for you. ...Ah! But no, don't cry."
"What." The Batter said.
Dedan seemed to be looking down, as if he was talking to a small child rather than someone who is nearly his height. "Everything's fine, come on, calm down. Here, let me wipe away your tears."
The Batter is subjected to the awkward situation of Dedan's palm caressing his face to wipe away his non-existent tears.
"This is only the beginning, things can only get better from now on." Dedan said cheerfully. "While you're here… I need affirmation. I need to know that time is real, that this is real. It's been today for forever, ya know. Wanna be a nice boy and find out what time it is? Perhaps your mother knows. ...I'm too injured. I need to wait here until the Queen Mother returns."
That made the Batter question: "The Queen?"
Dedan didn't appear to hear him. "The Queen Mother will make me better. She'll make everything better. Be careful out there in the wastes my boy, she'll be here soon."
The Batter left the cabin, feeling something weighing down in his heart.
For now, with no actual objective in sight, the Batter figured that he might as well help him out. If he recalls, back in the Room, there was a calendar page…
Omega found life at the summit of the mountain.
Birds are circling around the summit, flying through the dead skies, heralds of the new world. At the very edge of the mountain sat a bird.
A bird that feels familiar.
The little birdy told me that he'd show me the sky and the clouds, and that I wouldn't have to be scared ever again.
"Ah, a wanderer in the wastes." The bird spoke to him.
Omega realized who it is. "Y-you're Japhet, aren't you?"
"I am the millennial fire bird, Japhet, and I've risen out of the ashes of this world."
"What? But… er… I thought we… "purified" you."
Tiny Japhet didn't appear to hear him. "I have important matters to attend to, little boy."
"...Little boy?"
"I've been appointed as guardian, you see. That means that I have inherited a space in this dead world. I have much more important duties to be doing than talking to you."
The bird seems more… abrasive, which served as an annoyance to Omega. "E-excuse you, but…"
"These birds here are my first subjects, and I demand nothing but respect and loyalty from them, and anyone that does not bow must be punished. That may seem harsh, but I am going to be one of the saviors of this world - they need to be grateful to me."
Yep. This seems like the opposite of the Japhet he met. *cough* Or closer to canon Japhet *hack*.
"W-who do you think you are? You can't get away with acting like, dare I say, a jerk."
The younger Japhet didn't appear to hear him. "Run along now. Your mother will be back soon."
It all began to click in Omega's head. Japhet's appearance, his behavior, the current state of the world. "...Ah. This is a memory of the past. But, um…" There was one piece of the puzzle missing. "Who's he talking to?"
Amongst the ground, Epsilon found a giant white hill.
"Hey, you there!" The hill shouted.
Okay, so maybe it's not a hill at all.
The big mister told me that he'd bake cakes.
Puzzled, Epsilon circles around the giant mound. On its other side, the Add-On saw that it's not a land form, but a giant living thing stuck in the actual ground. "Ah, how do you do, Enoch?" She greeted, as if she didn't contribute to his earlier death.
Enoch attempted to wiggle, but he did not budge. "I'm in a predicament you see."
"Oh, that's awful."
"Could you go out looking for help? I need to be pulled out of here. I'll reward you for it. I can bake lots of cake for you, child."
"Cake, huh? Is that a sugary snack? Hmm." Epsilon briefly thinks about ethics in eating the ashes of dead bodies. She then decided that it'd be okay to accept and eat cake as long as Omega wasn't around (as the Batter probably wouldn't care that much and Alpha is no longer around to judge people). Without even realizing that she's speaking to a figment of the past, she answered, "Don't worry, I'll be back soon!"
After a short trek, the Batter is back in the Room; the contrast between the simple metallic walls and the post-apocalyptic earth is rather striking (though not as striking as the purified version of the Zones). The Batter walked down the winding hallway, knowing what he's looking for specifically. He entered the child's Room where…
...he found Alpha, who had taken shelter in the abode. "S'up asshole." He said.
"Hey." The Batter greeted. He walked over to a sheet of paper that was next to the poster: a calendar page. He ripped it off and faced Alpha. "Bye."
"Whatever." Thus, their brief exchange ended, as the two had nothing more to say to each other, nor wanted to be near each other.
Somewhere on the mountain, Omega and Epsilon had met up…
"...You do realize that they're not there and, well, they're remnants of the past, right?" Omega said to her.
"Well, I do now." she replied sheepishly. "...But whose past? I don't remember any of this."
"Neither do I… There's… erm, something strange about the Room. There's something railroading us to the end…"
"Do you think the end will be happy?"
"...I don't know."
While they waited for the Batter to hopefully show up, they decide to have a conversation about recent events.
"...What do you make of Alpha? Leaving and all?" Omega questioned.
"I think it was brave. He did what he wanted to do." answered Epsilon. "Do you still want to stay with the Batter, or do you want to be like Alpha?"
"I… I'm not sure.." stammered Omega. If he were to leave, where exactly would he go? He didn't have any plans in case things went south, and last time he checked, the library got absolutely wrecked by purification.
Besides, he had to admit: the Batter kinda has a point. From what he's seen, Zone 2 and Zone 3 were going south and Zone 1 was likely the same. From the Batter's point of view, he's mercy-killed the Zones with purification, even if Omega didn't agree with it. Still indecisive, Omega asked Epsilon: "What about you?"
"I'm staying, because why not?"
"...Why not?"
"As hard as it is to admit it, we've already destroyed the other Zones. Well, we didn't destroy the first one but we kinda killed Zacharie's maybe-girlfriend." Epsilon would probably shrug here. "So I think, why not just see the end through and finish the job?"
"I'm here." A voice announced. The Batter walked up the mountain trail, clutching a sheet of paper in his hand. "Come on, we have to go somewhere. Fill me in on what you found out on the way."
They enter Dedan's mountain cabin. When the Batter approached with calendar page in hand, Dedan had his first real reaction. "Is that a calendar page? Gimme that!"
He excitedly grabbed the page out of the Batter's hand and eagerly looked at it. "I suppose it's not all that important. It's probably not this day anymore anyway." Dedan said, though he looked satisfied and at peace. "Your mother? Oh, she'll be back soon, she's just seeing the new world. Everything'll be better, just you wait. We'll reconstruct everything, solely with our bare hands; no exhaustion will stop us, we'll be the builders of the future!"
An idealistic fervor pushed Dedan on. "Everything'll be fine again, everything'll be real. Time will keep ticking on in our new world as we strive to greatness! Oh, have ya ridden a pedalo before? Bah, it's awesome. A kid like you needs good childhood memories. Here, take this in the meantime, I don't need it anymore. Thanks for the calendar."
With that, Dedan pulled a book out of his coat and handed it to the Batter.
"Wait… I think I recognize this book…" The library Add-On took a peek at it. "...Yes. This was in the library. I know who to give this to…"
The scene at the top of the summit is still the same. However, upon seeing the book that the Batter carried, Japhet began to react. "What is that in your arms? Is that a book? ...What, a big mister stuck in a hole?" Even though the Batter and Omega didn't know the context to this, they knew that the bird was probably talking about Enoch. "Calm down, I don't understand a bit of what you're telling me…. If you hand me that book, I'll agree to help your friend."
"Seems kinda selfish of you." Epsilon stated, forgetting that it's still a memory of the past.
The Batter, having no need for books (unless it's about being a cool fighting master) and Omega, wanting to stabilize the timeline, allowed Japhet to take the book. "Superb! Well, let me see what we can do for that big mister." The bird hopped up and started fluttering up to the rest of his flock. "Come, do not dawdle, we have a task to complete!"
The birds obediently follow Japhet as he flew down to another part of the mountain.
"It really seems that the person they see… is a child. ...Probably the one writing the posters too..." Omega murmured. "Batter, what do you think? Who is this child?"
"..." The Batter declined to answer.
A few minutes later, they are treated to the bizarre sight of a giant man flying through the air, being lifted by a group of birds, heading in the direction of Dedan's shelter. Shortly afterward, Japhet comes back, clearly exhausted but with the job done. "Voila, the big mister is free. We will be waiting for you in the cottage. Be careful not to fall."
With that Japhet takes his leave. With everything coming together, they decide to follow after the avian.
The shelter is now crowded, as all people are present (though Enoch took up most of the room). They all stared down, happy and excited.
"Hehe, thanks boy." The big mister said. "I can see we could count on you."
"Thanks for the book, in these times of misery, it is a very precious treasure." The bird thanked sincerely.
"Hahaha, what a clever lil' rascal we've here." The tall mister complimented.
"Until your mother arrives, maybe we could keep you company." Enoch said.
"We can discuss time and the fate of the world. I shall make a fine ruler, don't you think?" Japhet questioned.
"Yeah, yeah. We're going to sketch out maps of the countries we'll rule over, the land that'll be ours…" Dedan said dreamily.
Enoch bent down, peering at where a child would be standing. "What do you think, little one?"
"A future where every one of us will be guardians of universal happiness!" Japhet chirped.
"Where every man'll have a job, and actively participate to maintain harmony." stated Dedan enthusiastically.
"Where it will be allowed to dream of a happier life at any moment, and where our sons can touch our hope." Enoch declared, every word dripping with optimism.
Japhet began to shake his head. "Of course, you wouldn't understand any of this grown-up talk. You rather should forget our words, the first bright stars in this dark sky."
Dedan walked over and patted the Batter on the shoulder. "Go on, have fun. Benefit from this new country, which'll soon be reborn out of the still-warm ashes."
"You have no time to lose!" Enoch bellowed. "Don't concern yourself with the babbling of three crazy utopists!"
"Ahahaha…" Japhet giggled to himself, imagining a new world, a world where they will be rulers and a world that will be harmonious.
And with that, the memory ended, the three guardians gathered together, bright hopes for the future.
"...What happened... ? To all of this…?" Omega inquired quietly, wondering what had gone wrong in the road toward prosperity and happiness.
"Time changes everything." the Batter said.
They exited the cabin.
And outside is something peculiar.
Amongst the dark dead earth, there is a shining light. A beacon of hope for the world yet to come, as bright as the sun itself.
The Batter recognized something in it.
He pulled out his bat and started running for the light.
"Batter, wait up!" Epsilon called after him.
The two Add-Ons followed the Batter through the wasteland. The light only seemed to get brighter and brighter as they ran…
Within the light, the Batter saw someone. A woman, that stood in the center of it all, the new world's herald…
Hello, mama. Papa left. I don't like him anyways. I hope you'll be back soon. I made three friends today…
…
Alpha sat alone in the Room.
Sure, he had nobody and had nothing to do, but it was still better than being complicit in the Batter's plans.
That's when he heard footsteps.
The cat promised me that we'll have peaceful lives and that we can atone for our mistakes.
The story is now on PAUSE.