Chapter Text
So much kept happening. Gordon's not sure how anyone's sanity is staying in tact.
Between the aliens and the bodies, keeping Joshua from panicking had been a hassle. On top of that the other adults all have been a bigger handful.
It was like Gordon was taking care of a bunch of children all of a sudden and only one listened to him.
He honestly wasn't sure how much worse things could be. Fortunately his group proved that.
By making more bodies. And pretending it was no big deal. Heck, Benrey seemed to only be "helpful" when killing innocent people. Coming up with excuses to keep Joshua calm has been hard.
"Hey, hey guys, can we talk?"
"We've been talking the whole time." Bubby said like it was an obvious answer to a school question.
"I mean serious, important talk." Was all Gordon said as he rubbed the bridgr of his nose.
"But of course Gordon! We're all friends here!"
"Ok, listen. I know there's not a ton we can do to actually prevent truamatizing my son-"
"Pretty sure that ship sailed a long time ago."
"-BUT! Maybe you guys could, I dunno, stop killing every scientist we see? If for no other reason than to make sure Joshua doesn't have even worse problems?"
There was a pause, and eventually Tommy answered.
"W-we can try, Mr. Freeman." The other two scientists nodded in reply.
Benrey seemed unfazed, or uncaring, of the fact Gordon was practically pleading. Whatever. 3/4's pretty good.
"Thanks, guys." He says in relief.
He went back to Joshua who took the opportunity with the current calm to hug him.
He returned the hug, planning on mentally going back to this moment when stressers increase again.
Which happened rather quickly, as the military showed and started firing at them.
Honestly the universe wanted to be sure everyone was scarred after this.
The events after the military's showing blurred, really. The main stand outs were Joshua's crying, every time, Benrey being cut in fucking half, and a skeleton following them around.
Life is hell here. He should've let Joshie stay home.
Eventually Benrey somehow came back and got a big hug from Joshua, who interrupted the should be dead guard.
Gordon couldn't help but side eye and glare at the guard frequently. He should be dead, after all.
He and Bubby seem to whisper among each other a lot, too. Gordon had a bad feeling about this...
He should've known to trust his gut by now.
Because things went wrong fast.
Lights out, no vision.
The voices of his 'companions' cheering on the beating he's getting.
Every now and then the lights would flicker back on for a fraction of a second. Which allowed them all to see when a knife was pulled.
Gordon's searing pain signals screaming.
Not just his own screams of pain. Everyone was shouting.
"Woah hey that's uncalled for!"
"Oh, no! That's his arm!"
"Oh, that's supposed to be attached to the body!”
None of those would stick in Gordon's mind like the last one he heard before passing out.
A single, ear-piercing scream of terror.
And then blackout.