Author's Note:
Alright, time for another group chapter! All parts will be updated simultaneously.
I've created a forum for those who are interested in discussing or adding theories, as well as for adding pictures that I've drawn myself :3
For the images, please refer to the corresponding "Team C Pictures" thread in the forum.
[M/R/C] RETURN TO EARTH [4]
There was darkness for a long while, filled with afterimages of what Rocky saw before he last passed out. Clear water that was starting to get a red tint as the glass shards scratched his fur or stuck in a wound, while a shadowy brown figure grabbed him up.
Suddenly, a line of light appeared and got wider and wider. With time, the band grew enough to distinguish other colors and shapes, creating a focused image.
A very bright room was surrounding him, with a cream shaded paint on the upper part of the walls, and a forest green marble tiles on the lower part. The mutt dog couldn't see the floor; instead, he looked at the white, soft clothing which he was lying on. It had a clean smell, like if it was a bedsheet.
His eyes turned on to himself afterwards. His paws were covered in white bandages, alongside with his belly and his back. He couldn't see his face, but upon having the strange feeling of fabric, he noticed that his head was bandaged as well.
Rocky knew after looking after himself that he was alive. His ears perked at the voice that resounded on his back: "Wocky! You've finally awaken!"
The mutt gently moved his head and saw a chocolate Labrador with his orange sunset eyes gazing at him. To his side, a robotic dog sat on a metallic green stool. "We were worried you wouldn't make it."
Rocky tried to reincorporate, but while trying to get up and jump out of the bed he noticed a heavy pain on his left ankle. "Ow!"
The chocolate Labrador named Zuma quickly took over the situation and sat the mutt dog down the bed. "Don't wush, you'we still not fully wecovewed yet."
"What... What happened?" Rocky couldn't stop asking questions. "Where are we...? Did we make it out...?"
Robo made a happy face on his display and nodded. But Rocky couldn't stop asking what exactly happened when he was out. The inorganic dog didn't waste time in providing an explanation. "We realized that the hatch door wouldn't open unless the entire room was full of water, so in order to buy us some time, we had to... Break the shower room door open. It was something reckless, but you wouldn't be able to hold your breath for that long... Right?"
Rocky stayed silent, but Zuma brought some more lines. "The glass shawds huwt you a lot, but I was able to gwab you and hold you until the showew woom was filled with watew. It tuwned out that we just needed the showew woom to be filled up to a cewtain point to open the hatch."
"After opening the hatch, the canal filled with the water, grabbed onto the wooden boxes, and crossed to the door on the other side. We found this infirmary room and found some gauze and band-aids to trait your wounds."
"I see..." The mutt looked down. He seemed happier and calmer than when he was a couple moments ago. "Thank you, Zuma." Rocky felt like his ankle had recovered at least enough to stand, so he did that.
"Can you walk?" Asked the Labrador preoccupied about Rocky's current state.
"Yes, I think I'm fine now. At least, if I hop like a limping bunny." Rocky giggled.
"Still... I think we should wait a bit until youw paw heals completely. It shouldn't take that long, weally." Insisted Zuma. "Wemember ouw pwomise? I think now is the best time fow you to... Fulfill youw pawt."
The mutt gave a sad sigh, looking down. "Okay. Let me take a short while before I tell you." While looking down, he uttered a few cursed words and felt like his muzzle was going to get wet from his tears, but he swallowed those tears and stopped the internal pain from being exposed. Rocky took a deep breath... And started talking.
Rocky started by talking about his life before he started being afraid of getting wet.
He used to live in a happy, small family. Two adult humans, one male and one female called Daniel and Katie, and a smaller human named Alex. The family had a fun time going to the park of Adventure Bay. Rocky loved the rainy days; he used to get dirty rolling over at mud pools in the park. He loved the feeling of the mud on his fur, and feel like he was a completely different pup. Plus, he would later enjoy Katie's grooming session, as she used to work in the pet parlor of the city. The soap, the brushing feeling of his fur, and how the refreshing mud got rid of his body, revealing the old, beautiful Rocky.
Of course, she used to work there. Someday, on her way to work, she tripped with a step, rolled downstairs... And never got up again.
The family was never the same without Katie. They still went to the park to have a walk, but the feelings were different. It was never going to be as happy as before.
But one day, something changed. It was a rainy day, and Daniel and Rocky had a walk at the park. The human smiled, and encouraged the dog to roll over in the mud. Rocky smiled as he obeyed, getting muddy and becoming a different puppy again. Then Daniel carried him over to their house. When they entered, the dog couldn't believe what he saw.
There was a bucket full of soap bubbles, a towel, and a brush. A grooming bath was ready for him to enjoy. Even though Daniel's hand weren't as soft as Katie's, and his grooming skills weren't as gentle as hers, he still cherished that close moment he got with the adult human.
Daniel had decided to rerun the business at the pet parlor, after realizing that his motorbike shop was on the reds for so much time, that it became inviable. With time, his hands got gentler and kinder. At some point, they got even better than Katie's: That's what Rocky thought when he started getting more and more grooming baths.
Happiness didn't last for long, however. One fatidic day, Daniel said as always that he would go to the pet parlor to work. And Rocky waited. And waited.
Night had already fallen and he didn't come back. That was when Alex suddenly appeared.
Alex was a nice kid, and he always wanted to help people, even if he was goofy enough to make things even worse. Despite that, Rocky was in very good terms with the kid. Until that day, the boy decided to do the same his father did to Rocky when Katie was gone.
Rocky noticed the smell of soap, which woke him up. He thought that Daniel was back, but the mutt got that wrong. The bath was ready, but the person beside the bathtub was the little boy.
"Rocky, it's bath time!", said the boy. This sentence would haunt the mutt until today.
Despite the confusion, Rocky approached Alex, who grabbed the dog and carelessly dropped him on the tub.
The tub was much bigger than the bucket he was used to be groomed with, and more importantly, much deeper.
It was so deep that he couldn't stand, and had to swim to keep afloat. But he couldn't.
Alex's hand grabbed the mutt's neck, and pressed it further below to keep the grab tight. His body sank completely, including his head. The mutt suddenly noticed that he couldn't breathe, and eventually started to move in desperation. Even if he tried using brute force, Alex's grip got harder and harder while he tried to keep him still, and apply the soap to him.
Rocky had already been 20 seconds without oxygen. He was drowning.
With the rest of his strength, he twisted his head, opened his mouth wide, and stabbed his teeth on the kid's arm. Since his instincts kicked in, he used most of his force, all in a matter of three seconds.
"OW! Rocky, you bit me! Bad Rocky!" said Alex, letting him go from the pain. His arm started bleeding heavily from his wounds, but that didn't matter to Rocky, as he got out of the bathtub and ran away as fast as he could.
He ran outside the bathroom, and jumped over the window next to him. Since it wasn't open due to the rain, the glass shattered and he got some cuts from the broken pieces of the window, but despite that, he kept running.
The rain struck hard onto his fur, now with a different feeling. A terrifying one. He was getting wet. He started thinking that him getting wet would cause him to drown again. He eventually found shelter below a trash container, and let himself dry, panting heavily. His body was cold, wet, and bloody. Licking the wounds helped closing and healing them. But even if he was getting dry, he couldn't stand the fact that he would have to get wet again...
"And that's how... I became afraid of getting wet."
There was a short silence, but Zuma didn't hold back and hugged the mutt. "Damn... Must have gone thwough a lot of feaw..."
Tears started dropping on the mutt's face, and sobbing. He had to remember that traumatic day once again... But he thought for a second that it would have been much better this way, other than keeping the secret from their teammates, so he eventually got up and started walking. "...I don't think I can run, but I can walk."
Robo, who said nothing during this time, simply smiled: "Let's continue" And pointed out to the metallic door that was not opened.
In front of them was a staircase. At first, Rocky wasn't sure if he was able to climb them safely, but after taking some steps up, the trio started following them slowly. It seemed to take them up a couple or maybe three stories upwards. To the end of the straight stairs was another steel door which was, strangely enough, open. Upon reaching the hallway on the other side of the door, they noticed the different architectonical style right away. Mostly everything was covered in metal with bolts between each metal patch, save for the parquet floor. To the left was a similar looking metal door with the plaque "Crew Quarters 2", but the knob refused to twist at all.
"Locked." Said Zuma. "Let's go to the wight and see if we can continue that way."
Following his voice, they proceeded to follow the path to the right, only to find themselves with a pair of two doors. One was a seemingly elevator door, but the button to call it wasn't functional. Robo suggested that it might not have power.
The trio gazed to the right and spied the door with a rusty plaque reading out "Crew Quarters 1", this door was, like the one after the stairs, already open. Upon entering, a short hallway distributing six doors in pairs of three could be spotted. However, only the one that read out a number "01" was openable. Beneath this door, the trio found a folding bed to the side of a wall and a desk with a computer and a notebook on it. When the trio entered, the computer turned on by its own, or at least was the monitor, as the computer was already on.
A very familiar figure, but not so sympathetic one, appeared in front of the screen.
"It seems the entire team has cleared the sewer hatch room." Y's voice resonated into the pup's ears. "Congratulations for your successful escape. How are you feeling?"
"Vewy alive. Thanks." Responded Zuma in irony.
"Please, do remember that these are pre-recorded footage. I will not be able to provide you answers to your questions. With that clear, I must say that this is not the outcome I expected. Remember that the X Door will not open unless six of you die." The trio stayed silent, as they continue hearing Y's explanation. "You must be dying to know whatever happened to the other pups. So, I will provide you a light to that question."
A noisy static footage suddenly appeared on the screen, and after a while, a camera feed was being displayed. The heads-up display showed the location of the video camera on the facility: "SECTION D / -45 meters / Sewers". It was the footage that recorded the recent events when they were back in the flooded room. But the room was not flooded yet.
"I'll grab two of these! I might be able to light this up..." Said the mix-breed dog on frame, grabbing some rubble stones and approaching what it looked like a coil fuse. A small spark caused by the contact of the stones lit the fuse, and the frozen pipe that was right above it started melting.
An announcer's voice cued a few seconds later: "Gas current has reached sufficient temperature. Incineration process will begin now according to the protocol."
The three pups didn't react at all, as they perfectly know what was going to happen right after.
What they didn't expect was the footage getting cut with another static footage, followed by a footage that seemed familiar to them. The HUD displayed: "SECTION A / -30 meters / Incinerator". The room was exactly like the one in the footage they had watched on the sewers. However, the situation seemed to have changed drastically. Apart from the fact that the incinerator room was bathed with more light, making it more visible alongside the Cockapoo, on the other room a Chihuahua was strained in some sort of strange chair contraption, and a Dalmatian was holding a weapon, a gun fixed in place, pointing directly at the restrained dog.
"Pull the trigger, and the door to the incinerator... Will automatically open and halt the incineration process the moment it detects the sound of the revolver's discharge." A distorted announcement echoed the room in the footage.
A gunshot flash, followed by a large explosion sound cued right after. Suddenly, another static clip cut the footage happened. The trio were shocked: Marshall had shot Tracker!
The video footage didn't end there, as another clip was displayed with the HUD "SECTION A / -45 meters / EDC ". This time, it was a cylindrical shaped room, with various piles of black dust, and three dogs: A bulldog, a German Shepherd, and a Husky.
The female announcement voice from before cued once again: "Incineration process has been terminated. The exhaustion valves will open now."
Rocky was consternated. "What the... Did we actually put the other ones' lives on the thread?"
The video footage made another static cut for about half a second, and displayed the same room, only a few moments later. The trio were knocked out, close to the door that was opening besides them. The clip made a final noisy transition before showcasing once again the scary figure of Y.
"As you can see, your actions have endangered the lives of others." Said Y in a lower tone. "So, I will give you a chance to bring justice to those who have tried to kill you. Whether if they have succeeded, or not."
"But that was an accident...!" Uttered the robotic dog. "The message won't get through at this rate..."
The screen switched to a window displaying two options. The upper one displayed "Team M", while the lower one displayed "Team C".
"The team names of your newfound enemies should be displayed on the touchscreen monitor." Explained Y. "Choose the team you've decided to... Eliminate. Each team gets one vote. The leader must submit it for the group. You have 23 minutes to send the vote; any team that hasn't voted before the time limit is up shall be penalized two votes. The group with two or more votes will lose, which means that every member of that team... Will be penalized with the injection." The sinister person reiterated the situation by mentioning the following: "Of course, if a pup who is already dead is penalized, the injection will be pointless."
Nobody said anything, as every pup were either completely submerged in a moral dilemma, or shocked by the feeling that they had to try and kill somebody. "Without further ado, let us begin."
Image 1. Killing Vote
Rocky bit his lip. He had the idea that by spreading out the votes, they would be able to all have one vote each, which was not enough for any of the teams to be executed. "But how can we spread out the votes without any means of communication?", he thought.
He then grabbed the notebook along with the pen inside the coil that kept the pages of the notebook altogether, and started writing some annotations.
"What are you doing, Rocky?" asked the artificial dog. He quickly replied.
"I'm writing down the possibilities." His left paw started drawing seemingly understandable letters for the other pups, in nine different lines:
Vote R | Vote M | Vote C
C | R | M
C | R | R
C | C | M
C | C | R
M | R | M
M | R | R
M| C | M
M | C | R
"Alright. These are all the eight possible results of the voting." His paws pointed out the uppermost and the lowermost lines of what he wrote down. "As you can see here, these two are the only ones that end up with everyone having less than two votes."
"So that means the odds of none of us being killed... Awe 2 in 8?" Asked the chocolate Labrador.
"As for now, yes. But I think we could narrow down the combinations." The mutt stare deeply at both other dogs. "Do you think it's safe to assume that Team M is going to vote for us?" They didn't seem to object. After all, they both saw the footage from early on. "Then I can cross out all possibilities where Team M votes for Team C."
With his left paw, he drew a line stroke over four of the possibilities, leaving out with:
Vote R | Vote M | Vote C
C | R | M
C | R | R
M | R | M
M | R | R
"Which leaves us with Team C... " Rocky took a deep breath. "We have no idea how Team C is going to vote."
"Huh? Why not?" Zuma gave out a confused look to Rocky.
"Because for two reasons." Explained the mix-breed with brown eyes. "One, we don't even know if they are still alive. Two... Once they deduce that Team M is going to vote for us, hopefully, they are pretty much safe, since they can't vote for themselves. In other words..."
"They would never reach two votes." Concluded Robo.
"Correct. So that leaves us with a game of betrayal. Either we trust both teams, and vote for Team C, or betray Team M and vote for them."
"Why awe you considewing voting to Team M, Wocky?" Objected Zuma. "I thought you didn't want to kill anybody!"
The mutt gave out a silent sight before speaking once again. "It's a valid possibility for Team C's point of view. We have no means of communication with them... They can perfectly think that we're trying to kill Team M once more, even if isn't our intention. That's why we have no idea how Team C is going to vote: Because they don't have any idea how are we going to vote."
"And considering that Team C might think that we started all this chain of life and death games, they will probably vote for us." Robo made a deduction.
Zuma disagreed. "But if they voted fow us, they'd kill us!"
"Do you really think they wouldn't be thinking of that?" The inorganic dog started arguing with the organic one who questioned his deduction.
Despite their quarreling, Rocky had already made up his mind.
"...Let's be selfish for a moment. No matter what we choose, we have the same odds of making it through, no matter who we vote for."
"What are you saying with that, Rocky?" "Yeah, what do you mean by that?" Asked both pups.
"I'm trying to say that since what we're going to vote is not going to change how likely we're going to vote, I think it'd be best to act for the greater good and trust Team C. It's the only way for all of us to make it through this killer voting royale."
"So... You'we going to vote Team C?"
"Yes." As he approached the screen, something unthinkable happened. Because irony had to struck sometime in their lives, the mutt tripped with something, although he didn't see exactly with what. Out of his reflexes, he jerked the mouse and even clicked it. By the time Rocky got up, the screen had already changed.
Your vote has been recorded.
Thank you for your participation.
A reward will be dispensed after the results of the voting.
Results will be automatically displayed 24 seconds after everyone has voted.
"Dammit." Cursed the mixed breed dog. "Did you see what I clicked at?"
Both dogs shook their heads. Their eyes were so focused at Rocky falling that they didn't even get a glimpse of what did he vote. The rock named dog punched the floor.
"Fuck! Fuck, fuck!" Howled the leader of Team R, as he hoped he had casted the vote he wanted.
At that moment, only Y did know what was the vote he casted.
STATUS
(According to Team R's perspective)
Team M:
Marshall (ALIVE), Skye (ALIVE), Tracker (DEAD)
Team R:
Rocky (ALIVE), Zuma (ALIVE), Robo (ALIVE)
Team C:
Chase (?), Rubble (?), Everest (?)