That's right! The Cataclysm is back! Unfortunately, this chapter turned out quite short. I hope you enjoy it anyhow! Also, quick warning, this chapter is where everything starts getting extremely disturbing and possibly offensive. This chapter contains graphic gore and implied rape. If you don't care, well, enjoy.
:)
Dave flips the page of the newspaper he carefully splays in front of him in one hand, his other grasping the handle of his coffee mug. He takes a sip as he reads the different articles, searching for anything remotely interesting, but with no avail.
He glances over at the digital, integrated clock on the oven. It's 10:52 in the morning. 'Huh, that's odd. Everyone's usually up by now.', Dave thought to himself whilst flipping to another page. He skims through a short paragraph talking about a strange, black animal that had been sighted in town a couple miles away. He thought nothing of it, assuming it was just a dog or bear and folded up the newspaper before setting it aside. That's when he heard the scream.
Dave bolted up, dropping his half full mug to the tile floor and ran as fast as he could. Dave almost slipped when he skidded to a halt in front of the 'munks' and 'ettes' bedroom, quickly regaining his bearings and pushing the door open. Jeanette and Eleanor were both huddled together on Jeanette's bunk, their screams already diminished to stuttered sobs.
Dave took note that the boys and Brittany were all missing before quickly trying to calm the hysterical chipettes. It took a few minutes of coaxing but he eventually quieted them down.
Eleanor was the first to speak, although a little unsteadily. "D-Dave! It was horrible! We were attacked last night by some big, demented thing! I-I can still smell it...I, oh no...", then she quickly rushed out of the room and into their bathroom. Jeanette and Dave could both hear her retching into the toilet.
"You were attacked?! By what!", exclaimed Dave, his eyes wide with shock.
Jeanette answered his question as calmly as she could, "I really don't know...", she buried her face into her paws, "It was all black and smelled like death! I-It was touching my head and I couldn't breath. It felt like it was physically clawing at my mind! The next thing I knew, I woke up here, and Britt, Simon, Alvin and Theo were gone!"
Eleanor returned to the room, pawing at her tongue, "Blegh! I hate throwing up!", she clambered up to her own bunk with a sigh, "At least it isn't as disgusting as the smell of that thing..."
Dave had had enough. He immediately vacated the room, heading for the kitchen where he snatched up the house phone and dialed 911. A woman answered shortly after.
"Hello! Thank you for called 911, what is your emergency?"
"Hi, my name is Dave Seville. My kids were attacked last night.", he responded, his eyes absentmindedly shifting back to the newspaper.
*SCENE TRANSITION*
Simon had had a LOT of trouble getting to sleep. His mind was flooded and drowned in the endless flow of questions. How had this horrid world come to be? What were those black creatures? Could he even survive? Could his brothers and Brittany survive?
As far as Simon could tell, he'd be dead in a week. Aside from all this contemplation he'd been going through, the air was dry and hot, almost scalding. The pathetic excuse for a bed that was the pile of dead leaves, dirt, and filthy rags was incredulously uncomfortable. Simon spent at least and hour just trying to find a comfy position. Fortunately, exhaustion eventually took over and he dosed off.
Simon got in a mere three hours of sleep before being kicked awake by the Cannibal chipmunk living in the adjacent hut, "Wake up. We've gotta get started post haste.", said Bloodnick.
Simon, unsteadily got up to his feet, slightly delirious from the rude awakening. He shook his head a bit, profusely rubbing his face and fur. Simon groaned in annoyance before following Bloodnick out of the hut. Nothing had changed. Same desolate skies, same rotting stench.
They headed out along the path Bloodnick had pushed Simon across to get to the huts. Now with the blind fold gone, Simon could see where he really was. Not much was that different from their small camp. Same huts, more in quantity. Huge, burly chipmunks roamed the area, talking amongst themselves, drinking and eating food. When the two of them walked by one hut, Simon heard a strange noise coming from inside, like struggled breathing. Did he hear someone whisper 'help'? He mouthed the word as he kept walking.
"Come on, Simeon! Pick up the pace!", barked Bloodnick, Simon finding that he did indeed fall back a bit.
He jogged up along side Bloodnick as they passed through a larger clearing. A skinny chipmunk, almost twice as tall as Simon but still thicker, was turning a spit over a large fire in the center of the clearing, surrounded by more chipmunks. On the spit was a skinless animal, mangled beyond recognition. The tall chipmunk turned to Simon and grinned.
"Hey, look who it is! The new victim of The Cataclysm! How'd you like my snot yesterday? Heheheheheheh!", the chipmunk chuckled.
Simon gagged, walking to the other side of Bloodnick to hide from the antagonizer.
Bloodnick shot Simon an obviously pissed look before turning to the chipmunk at the spit, "Just fuck off, 'Timmy'.", Bloodnick emphasized. The other chipmunk contorted his face in anger.
"SHUT IT BEFORE I SLIT YOUR THROAT! You will refer to me by my last name and ONLY by my last name!", Timmy screamed.
Bloodnick just flipped him off and walked away without looking back, Simon following close behind.
"I'm gonna kill that runt of yours as soon as I see him without you!", Simon heard behind them as they walked off.
It wasn't long until they at last vacated the camp and followed the earthy path onward. Everything went silent, aside from the sifting gravel beneath his feet. Simon followed Bloodnick but kept his distance. He had a feeling he made a mistake.
After some time, Bloodnick broke the silence, "What the hell was that, Simeon?", he questioned with obvious agitation.
"I-I was scared! I didn't know you'd be mad...um...w-why are you mad?", Simon stuttered. Bloodnick stopped and turned, walking up close to the blue-clad chipmunk.
"You made yourself you pathetic! Weak! Now, because of what you did, Timmy wants to kill you.", he shuddered in anger and sighed, "Here, fear is the most dangerous emotion one can feel. Whether or not you feel fear dictates your survival. The Corruptions use fear to take control of you. Fear makes you hesitate. Fear makes you merciful. Afraid to take a life. There...is...NO...room...for...fear! I promise you, by the time Bleek gets back, you'll loath me so much you won't even think about being afraid. NOW COME ON!", he yelled, grabbing Simon and shoving him forward. Simon wasn't prepared and lost his footing, falling onto the filthy ground on his paws.
"Come on, GET UP!", Bloodnick screamed, kicking Simon in the side.
The small chipmunk couldn't think about anything but fear. Fear of pain. He curled up into a ball, covering everything he could with his arms and legs. Bloodnick kicked him again and readied for another...but he stopped.
"Beating you won't help if you're just going to curl up and die. You sicken me. You're just going to hide and let your family be slaughtered? They're already as good as dead, except maybe Alvin, but that doesn't mean you can abandon him. When I came here, I wasn't alone.", he trudged over to a rock and sat down, burying his forehead into his paws then looking back up at Simon, who was slowly and tentatively getting up, "I watched my brother give into The Corruption as if he wanted it. He was a coward. He wanted nothing more than the easy way out. The black creature shoved it's fucking claws into his chest and tore his heart out. Then the corruption was absorbed into his body. The wound instantly healed, but that's not all. His body began changing, getting bigger, stronger, twisting every good thought and memory inside out. He looked at me through...well...literally heartless eyes and he grinned at me in the most satanic way one could imagine."
Simon sat up, rubbing his sore body, but looking intently at Bloodnick. He was so mesmerized by what he was hearing that he didn't notice his glasses were missing.
"That was the day I lost all fear. I could feel nothing but anger. I hated my brother, and still do. Other emotions like happiness, love, sadness. Those too eventually faded away. That's what kept me from falling for The Corruption. The day they tried to corrupt me, I knew what to do. My desire to not be like them was so strong that I barely noticed the changes the corruption created. Being strong willed and controlled of your emotions is what will keep you from falling for them, becoming their murderous slave. Do you understand what I am telling you?"
"U-um...yeah...", Simon replied with uncertainty.
"Good.", Bloodnick cocked his head to the side, "Your...uhhh...whatever those things are that you wear on your face. It's on the ground behind you."
"Huh? Oh! Um, thanks.", Simon said while bending the frame of his glasses back in place and setting them atop his short snout.
"We'd better get going. Now you've got to promise me you'll do everything I say from now on. Can you uphold that?"
"I don't know, w-well...I'll try I guess. I wasn't emotionally scarred like you. I care about others and like to be cared about. The only time I ever hit anyone or anything was when I got in a fight with my brother, Alvin, back when we first started high school."
"High what? Is...that something from your world?"
"Yeah, it's where I go to be educated. I'm a straight A student."
"Straight A stu-oh fuck it! Let's just go.", Bloodnick exclaimed as he sat up and motioned for Simon to follow him.
"Where are we going exactly?", Simon asked while starting to run as Bloodnick did, "and why are we running?"
"It's fifteen miles away to the place I'll do most of your training at. This saves time and toughens you up! That's why we're running!", Bloodnick yelled over his shoulder. Simon blinked.
"Fifteen miles?!"
This would not be fun...
*SCENE TRANSITION*
Theodore collapsed onto his rump, panting heavily from his work. He'd at last completed the meal for the chipmunk that had threatened him, just in time too as the burly chipmunk strode back to the stone counter again."Where the fuck are you you little runt!", the chipmunk barked before leaned over the counter and noticed the green-clad chipmunk sitting there, a roughly carved, wooden spoon dripping with liquid laying beside him.
"Where's my food you rat!", he screamed, shooting flecks of saliva onto the exhausted chipmunk.
"I-it's over th-there. To your right...", Theodore mumbled.
"And you planned on serving it to me. Right?"
Theodore unsteadily lifted his head, then looked down again with a labored sigh, "Yeah..."
*SCENE TRANSITION*
Alvin had lost almost all feeling in his legs from hanging by those chains for so long. They slowly recovered but it wasn't until he'd been dragged along by Bleek for almost half an hour through many dim corridors that he could manage to follow Bleek on his own.
The corridors were lined with surprisingly luminescent torches and prison cells, containing not only chipmunks, beaten, defurred, and clearly violated in every way, but humans! Alvin glanced into a cell as he limped by and nearly vomited right there at the sight of a little girl completely naked. Long, deep gashes lined her back and legs, and an expression of unrelenting terror was carved onto her bruised face. She lays, curled into a ball in a puddle of blood, vomit, urine and feces. The smell of death over comes Alvin and he gags as he quickly runs ahead of Bleek to get away from the horrid scene presented to him. He collapses to his hands and knees, retching painfully hard but with nothing comeing up while Bleek catches up to him.
"Get up!", Bleek yells before striking the back of Alvin's legs with the back of his scythe, making Alvin yelp in pain, "We've almost reached the chamber of the traitors. Once we pass through, we'll make our way to the camp site."
Alvin was hesitant to respond but couldn't help himself, "W-what's the chamber of the traitors? And where are we going anyways? Uh, like after we go to the camp?"
The next thing Alvin knew, the scythe had been swung around in a wide ark, slitting the front of his hoodie wide open where his neck was. Alvin screamed in shock, frantically pawing at his neck. He was now hyper ventilating despite finding his throat in tact and only the fabric of his clothes cut open.
"Any more questions?", Bleek asked.
Alvin simply shook his head, his eyes still wide with fear as he continued to follow the grey chipmunk.
After another minute, they rounded a corner and the cold, iron corridor quickly transitioned to dark red rock. The torches glowed bright red on the ground, making it look like they were walking on exposed organs and spilt blood, and the flickering and dancing light made it seem alive and moving.
As they progressed further into the tunnel, the smell of death seemed to grow stronger and stronger. Suddenly, Alvin reeled back at the sound of a terrifying shriek that echoed from deep in the earthy tunnel, making bits of dust and rock fall from the ceiling.
"W-what was that?!", Alvin shuddered.
"The Traitors...the ones who failed to abide by The Cataclysm's law or who managed to over come their corruption. Those who are identified as traitors are brought here and made to look like the filth they are.", explained Bleek just as they turned another corner.
Alvin's eyes widened and he froze. They'd walked into a large cavern, crevices etched into the ground like a cross word puzzle and glowing with bubbling magma. Scattered throughout the cavern are about three dozen iron stakes that extend almost to the ceiling. Heavy metal chains connect to the stakes and snake along the rock until ending at a barbed collar. In the collars are just about the most abominable, disgusting, horrifying creatures he'd ever seen or even dreamed of. It's hard to say if they're even chipmunks. The creatures are blind folded, dark red stains where their eyes would be and another cloth is tied tightly around their head and across their mouths. Those too are deeply blood stained as well as the fur on their chin, all the way down to their chest. They'd been lacerated countless times on their back, legs, chest, and what was left of their arms, the most disturbing part. Where the hands should be, are a bundle of cloth and nails surrounding the base of a bloody, iron blade that extends from their wrists.
"You know, Alvin. According to a Corruption, you are very strong willed. It had difficulty bringing you here. If you are strong, you may overcome the corruption when we reach The Cataclysm's mountain top. You heard what I said identifies one as a traitor right? When you are to be corrupted, I suggest giving in to it. It will save you from a lot of pain and suffering.", says Bleek.
Alvin was speechless with fear. These chipmunks were tortured and turned into monsters. Creatures bent on killing. 'What kind of choice is this?! Become evil and murderous or be tortured, then become mindless and murderous!', Alvin mentally exclaimed. 'He said I was strong willed. The corruption couldn't control me. I have to give into the corruption? What do I do?! I don't want to give in or be thought of as a traitor!...I...I have to make a choice...', Alvin contemplated. Sweat rolled down Alvin's cheek and he took another good look at the traitors.
"I won't become a traitor...", said Alvin.
Bleek stared at him for a moment and smirked as he turned and headed into the cavern, followed closely behind by the red-clad chipmunk. None of the Traitors seemed to notice them, that is until Alvin accidentally kicked up a pebble as he was walking along. Several Traitors perked up their ears and looked over directly at Alvin. Time seemed to stop. He was snapped out of his trance of fear by a deafening scream from behind him. Alvin turned sharply around just in time to see a blade come inches from his chest, swiping at the air. The ruined chipmunk growled and hissed, swinging wildly at the air but couldn't get any closer due to the chains.
Alvin yelped slightly, startled when he felt a paw tap his shoulder, "Come on now! And make sure to follow everywhere I step. One wrong one and they may just reach you."
Alvin swallow the bile that was rising in his throat and did as he was told.
"W-what do they even want?", Alvin asked in a whisper.
"Your blood. It's how they feed. They have to find a victim and kill it. Then they use the blade to cut you open and press the cloth in their mouth against the wound, where blood soaks through and they drink it like that. They find prey by hearing.", Bleek replied while continuing down the path to the tunnel at the other end of the cavern.
At last, they reached the other side where they followed the connecting tunnel until arriving at an opening lined with iron. Alvin stepped out into the hot, desolate air of a large clearing. The sky line was lined with jagged mountains and the red glow of lava and fire. He turned around to see the entrance they'd just came from, a half circle crevice cutting into a mountain. Lava spilled over the sides of it's peak, forming streams of orange and black towards a river of more lava far off to the right of the clearing. Screams and laughter could be heard in the distance, one scream catching his attention. 'They said help. Hmmm, that voice sounded familiar.', Alvin thought to himself with a shudder of anguish.
*SCENE TRANSITION*
"AAAAAAAH!", the female chipmunk screamed again when one of the corrupted chipmunks jabbed her in the side, followed by hysterical laughter from him and the other corrupteds. She turned to him with an expression of mixed embarrassment and anger, only to be poked again from behind.
"S-stop it! Stop it right now! Leave me alone already!", she half commanded, half begged.
In response, one of the chipmunks grabbed her around the throat and pinned her against the dirt, prior to tearing off what was left of her now filthy clothes. She tried to scream again but was silenced by the chipmunk's lips and tongue. She gagged painfully hard at his rot filled breath and vomited.
"Hahahahahaha!", cackled several corrupteds as the chipmunk that had been on top of her jumped back, coughing, spitting and pawing at his tongue while the female chipmunk was now on her side trying to spit out the rest of the bile in her mouth.
He looked down at her with an expression of pure hatred, "YOU STUPID BITCH!", the chipmunk screamed at her.
The next thing she knew, he was on top of her again with one paw on her throat, the other pinning her arm down while his knees pinned her legs. He leaned down to her ear.
He whispered while stroking her cheek, "Hey, when I'm busy raping beautiful whores like yourself, I like to know who it is I'm raping. So before we get started, tell me. What's your name?"
She slowly looked at him, fear and panic still painted on her face, "Screw you...", she mumbled.
She yelped in pain when his fist connected with her cheek then into her stomach. Tears formed in her eyes and she began to sob loudly when she felt something brush against her stomach, but the chipmunk's hand were on her arms. She began hyper ventilating.
"Nonono, no no no! Please don't!", she frantically begged, but it was too late.
She took in a deep breath and yelled as loud as she could, "HEEEEEEEELP!"
That ends chapter 3. Again, I'm sorry this was so short. I will continue writing this, but I first need to work on other stories. I also recently got a lot of song request for my youtube channel, so I'll be very busy with that as well. On top of all these, I play a lot of video games!
XD