Chapter Text
Everyone has disappeared. Caboose was the only one left, stuck in a dark void that was dead silent to the point he could hear his own heartbeat pounding in his ears. The darkness slowly began to lift like a thick fog, revealing a field of flowers that seemed to stretch forever into the horizon. Thanks to Donut and Doc, he was able to identify the flowers as Forget-Me-Nots. All that was around for miles were the little blue flowers. The sun shone brightly down on the field with only a few clouds that dotted the sky.
It was peaceful yet for some reason he felt sad. A gentle breeze lightly pulled at his tangled brown hair. Caboose suddenly noticed his helmet was gone but he didn't think too much of it. Something appeared in the corner of his eye. Something blue. The sim trooper slowly turned around and felt his heart skip a beat at the sight. He was alive. Church was alive.
The light blue soldier stood silently holding his sniper rifle with his helmet on. "Church?" He said his name quietly. There was no response from Church. "Church I- so much has happened, I don't even know where to start, you've been gone for so long. How are you even he-." As he tried to process his thoughts, he was cut off by a searing hot pain that tore through his right shoulder. Caboose let out a cry of pain and stumbled back but quickly caught himself before looking up again.
Church stood there with his sniper rifle pointed right at Caboose. "I'm sorry buddy." His voice was cold and emotionless. The pain received from his words was far worse than the bullet wound. Caboose didn't so much as blink before the rifle disappeared and was replaced by a black staff very similar to the ones he’d seen Carolina use before. Electricity crackled around the end as sparks flew off onto the flowers. The sky was covered in light grey clouds now.
"Church what the hell are you talking about?" Caboose asked desperately, needing an answer. He stayed silent for a few moments before responding. "What I should've always done." A horrible chill went down his spine as he replied. Suddenly he broke into a sprint and ran straight for the dark blue soldier. Caboose barely had enough time to react before Church kicked off the ground and jabbed him right in the chest with the staff. It felt like a static shock but a thousand times worse and all over his chest.
Caboose fell on his back as his entire body screamed in pain. Not even a moment's rest and Church was already plummeting down with a large knife in his hands. Instinctively Caboose rolled to his left with all his force, barely dodging the deadly blade. He quickly pushed himself off the ground and back on his feet at the same time as Church. Caboose suddenly noticed something heavy was attached to his waist. It was his Freckles. Quickly grasped onto the assault rifle and aimed it at Church. "Freckles, target Church!" Caboose ordered.
"Target acquired!" The electronic voice buzzed. Church didn't approach further and instead kept his distance. "Don't make me do this Caboose. It's your fault in the first place I even have to be here." His heart wrenched at his words and his grip on Freckles tightened. “He didn't mean that right? Maybe this isn't Church at all. Yeah that's it. It's not real. It's all in my head. Your mind is playing tricks on you again.”
Hot tears trailed down the brunette's cheeks. The man in light blue sighed. “Caboose if you would just stop and fucking listen to me for once in your PATHETIC LIFE maybe this would be over with by now!” Church screamed in a tone caboose had never heard before. The clouds gave away and released a heavy torrential downpour as a blue transparent shield appeared in front of church. Freckles automatically began to open fire but the ais attempts were in vain as the bullets were deflected by the shield Church had put up. Caboose wiped away the tears and sniffled as he charged at church with all his force. He closed his eyes and prayed to whatever deity was listening would help him. His uninjured shoulder was met with a harsh impact as if he ran into a steel wall. The shield gave away and all of his senses went blind from the adrenaline rush.
1 bright flash and it was all over. A small spot of crimson stained the light blue soldier's armor as the rain quickly washed it away. Caboose fell to his knees mortified at what he had done. Freckles hit the ground with a soft thud from the sea of flowers. The blood that ran off church’s armor trickled onto the forget me nots dotting the blue flowered red. The contrasting red color spread like a wildfire, turning all the other flowers red. Caboose clutched onto church’s torso silently crying.
“Church… please I- I’m so s-sorry, I didn’t mean it…” the dark blue soldier weeped. Church twitched from underneath him. The Brunette looked up with light still in his deep cobalt eyes.
“You were never my friend Caboose.”
That was it. All the light and hope was extinguished like a fire. Caboose let go of church and forced himself to stop crying. He felt an emptiness inside of him that he’d never felt before. All the sadness and pain quickly turned into anger and hatred. Caboose stood up and turned away. He closed his eyes and faced up towards the now light grey clouds. Sunlight peeked through and warmed his face as cool droplets clung to his hair. His senses went numb again and he was sent back into the dark void once more. He soon opened his eyes to find he was back in the labyrinth. The others had managed to find him.
“Caboose what happened in there buddy?” Wash asked, his voice filled with concern.
“Yeah uhhhh, I think it was trying to make me hungry, so I didn’t let it make me hungry so… yeah I uh won.” He lied through his teeth so as to not worry the others.
“Caboose, it was trying to kill you.” Wash stated. Caboose already knew that and the only reason he said he was hungry was because all he could think about was not his stomach grumbling but rather the sickening nausea of guilt from his actions that lingered.