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"Scar, please let me in," a soft, kind voice called from the other side of the door.
He was certainly kinder than the man who barked death orders at him 10 minutes ago.
Scar checked the peephole and saw the owner of the voice was still standing on his front porch. A man with soft, curly blond hair and violet eyes stared back into the peephole, almost as if he was trying to look in and see if Scar was there. He smiled a genuine smile at the door waiting for it to open. His brown sweater was tucked into his jeans all neat and pristine contrasting, and his jeans were just long enough to cover his ankles but short enough to let the world see his shiny black shoes.
Anyone would be forgiven for thinking he was an innocent man if he wasn't standing in a pool of blood with a small pile of viscera behind him.
Scar wasn't even sure how exactly the man did that. At around 4 this mourning, there was a loud banging on the door, almost as if someone was tiring to break it. Whoever was on the other side was also bossy as hell, demanding Cub and Scar come out this instant. Scar just grogally walked over to the door to see who wanted them that badly this early. There was something at the back of his mind, but it wasn't screaming out to him loud enough for him to really notice till he checked who was there. Every fear and anxiety hit him all at once as he was greeted by a massive, muscular man in a black suit.
One of the government's erasers.
They'd finally caught up with Cub and Scar after they leaked news about what the government was doing to their citizens to the outside world. After all the times Scar stole food to feed the ones the government consigned to die on the streets. After all the protests those two organized across the nation. After all the times Cub has hacked into smaller government channels to get information. They were caught with nowhere to run.
"Oh this is bad," he said.
And those or a warning to Cub would have been his last words if it wasn't for the screaming.
And then the silence.
Scar honestly did not believe he could feel fear worse than the fear he felt when the eraser was at the door, but there he was on a whole new level of fear.
'What happened?' he thought to himself.
On shaking legs, Scar made his way to the window and made a small lookout hole in the curtain. In the lake of mostly blood slurry sat 20 piles of organs with not even bones around them in a pitiful attempt to protect them. Standing in the middle of the slurry was a man who didn't look like he had a drop of blood on him. Questions whirled around Scar's head. What happened? Did he do this? How? Why? Were Cub and Scar next? Then the man started walking up to the door, and Scar scrambled away.
And that's where they are now. Scar knew the government was going to come for them again. The list of people the government erased for resisting their rule was as long as his arm.
'But maybe the man outside my door is much worse than the government.'
Cub came out to the living room.
"Hi Cub," Scar called.
"Hi. Is he still at the door?" Cub asked.
"Yeah, and he hasn't moved. Did you see anything on the cameras?"
"Another one was walking around the house for a while now, but he disappeared 30 minutes ago."
How did Scar miss that?
"Has he come back yet?"
"No"-
A knock on the kitchen window sent Scar and Cub into a shrieking fit. The two turned to see a black-haired man with a mustache and wearing a suit standing by the window. He held up a bag from the convenience store down the road.
"I brought food," he said in a shook voice.
'Did he forget he and his friend murdered 20 people in our yard?' Scar thought to himself.
If Scar thought that was crazy, what Cub did next was absolutely insane. He made his way to the window and opened it. The suited man handed off the bag and stepped away from the window as Cub closed it.
"Cub are you crazy?!" Scar yelled.
"No, but we're also out of food. We weren't able to go get food before the Erasers came."
"Did you forget they just murdered 20 people?"
"No,-" Cub said while pulling out a small can of peaches to examine, "but I don't think they could have messed with our food."
Scar sighed as Cub opened up the peach can.
Cub forked out a peach and chewed it before swallowing. And then they waited for symptoms. Cub was still standing. He was not bleeding, throwing up blood, or crying blood. All the contents of his stomach stayed in his stomach. The house wasn't filled will screams of agony. There were no signs of poisoning, and Cub was still hail and healthy.
'Okay, maybe it's too far-fetched to think that the government would send 20 erasers only to be horribly murdered by monsters who would just poison us with fruit,' Scar thought to himself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Three days passed. Of course, Cub and Scar could not expect the government to just stop spamming Erasers until one of them manages to get past the two absolute monsters guarding the revolutionaries, but what can they really do? There are now upwards of 100 now rotting piles of viscera around their yard. Scar often wondered how the two monsters stood the stench sends him into a wrenching fit every time he walks by the drafty window.
'That scent leaking in is better than poison gas I guess,' Scar thought.
Scar knew going into hiding was going to be nerve-wracking. Back when he and Cub first joined a resistance core, he heard stories of people who had to disappear for years to avoid being erased. Just hearing them shot his nerves for a week even though he wasn't likely to be erased right away if he got caught, he was jumping at any shadow out of the corner of his eye and any noise. Fear and terror only grew bigger and latched on harder and never left as he started stealing food to feed the homeless. Right now, he was feeling similar, long-lasting feelings as the monsters still stood around the house.
And right now Scar was going to do something really stupid.
Scar knocked on the door. "Hello, are you still there?"
"Hello, I'm still here Scar."
For all Scar knew, the monster on the other side of the door could hear his heart going 200mph. How that monster knew his name, Scar did not know. All he knew was he didn't want him inside the house.
"Well I need to talk to you-" The creature tried to open the door. Scar didn't know why he tried to hold the knob shut. He barely had the strength to open a stubborn pickle jar let alone win a full-on fight with a monster. "-hold on. I'd feel much safer if you stayed on that side of the door."
"I understand," the monster said. "What do you want to talk to me about?"
"First off, where did you two come from?"
"You know how normal human Erasers can still be killed?" Zed asked.
How could Scar not know this after the past 3 days?
Zed continued. "The government knew that and wanted to make a fail-safe just in case the resistance started trying to kill off Erasers. Unfortunately for them, they didn't really count on the fail-safe developing free will." Scar could practically hear Zed's smile after the last sentence, and even though Zed did not need them, Scar still imagined rows of knife-like teeth in his mouth. "Mumbo and I broke out about a month ago, but neither of us had enough foresight to take any documents about our creation with us for when we got here."
For when we got here. That sentence stuck out like the sun in the sky.
"Out of all the people in the country, or even out of all the other members of the resistance, why us?"
"The lab wanted to use you as our first test subjects. Not a lot of the higher-ups liked you guys. But I really started crushing on you because of your kindness, and Mumbo likes Cub because he's so smart."
There was a notable silence until Zed spoke again. "Maybe after we get rid of the government, you and I could go somewhere quiet and peaceful."
If Scar's heart wasn't already threatening to bail from his body, it was threatening to do so right now.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It had been 5 days since the monsters showed up. Cub sat in the cam room counting the bodies. The number stayed steady at 100.
"No new bodies. That's...interesting," he said to himself.
"That's because we haven't killed anyone in two days," a voice crackled over Cub's headphones.
Cub almost jumped out of his chair. Mumbo just stared into one of the cameras.
His black 3-piece suit was still free of blood. His red tie was a bright red instead of the rust color of blood. His hair was still all neatly in one place, which was more than Cub could say about himself and Scar after this whole week. Had it really been a full week already?
"How did you do that?" Cub asked.
Mumbo wore a sly smile. "Why don't you just let us in?"
"Did you forget you murdered 100 people outside of our house while we were already terrified of being erased?" Cub said.
That got a chuckle out of Mumbo. "Smart. That's what I like about you."
"So I've heard."
Hoesnlty, Cub did not know what to do with that information. It's not like he encountered this kind of thing every day before.
The next thing out of Mumbo's mouth spooked Cub more than that.
"You know, Zed and I have been thinking of toppling the government for a while now. It may take a couple of murders,"-
"Only a couple," Cub mocked. Internally the alarm bells were going off. A couple of people didn't work for the whole nation's government. The number Mumbo was probably thinking of was around 2 million people. 2 million was the maximum number of people that would die if those two monsters decided to clear out the whole government if Mumbo was thinking of a full clearing instead of starting at the top and clearing out till he runs into nothing but people just trying to do their job without being erased, and even then that was still a lot of death.
"Mumbo, have you thought about how many people you and Zed would have to kill to get rid of a whole national government through murder?" Cub asked.
"Yeah, only like a couple."
"More like a couple million."
Mumbo started to blush and gingerly rub the back of his neck. "I guess I never thought of that."
'Why is the murder monster blushing at me correcting him?' Cub thought to himself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It had been a full week since all this started. The death count stayed steady at 100. Cub was pacing the length of the kitchen for an hour while Scar sat at the table planning.
'There's no way the government is taking this lying down. Just no way.'
"You're pacing again," Scar said, "Is something on your mind?"
"Yes." Cub said. "It's been too quiet ever since Zed and Mumbo showed up. I don't believe they're trying to hurt us. If they wanted us dead, they could have just broken down the door and killed us as soon as they were done dealing with the Erasers. I'm worried the government is planning something."
Scar hesitated. Cub knew what follows hesitation. Scar's gonna throw out an idea he thinks is so insane Cub might call him on it. Cub never has, and most of his ideas are extremely reasonable considering the circumstances. In this situation, almost anything would be better than just sitting and waiting for whatever's gonna happen and reacting to it as soon as it does.
Scar spoke. "You already told Mumbo he and Zed can't kill 2 million people. How many do you think we'll run into if they take us to the border?"
"Half a day by car, but all cars have tracking devices," Cub said.
And walking would take even longer. About a week or so. Or 4 days if they were pushing themselves to walk for 20 hours a day, something Cub knows he and Scar can not do.
"I feel like you were originally going to suggest having them be our bodyguards, but that trip would be hell to make on foot. Cars are out of the question," Cub said.
"How long do you think it took them to get here?"
"We need to ask them."
And that requires talking to them. Even if they ask them through the door, eventually Cub and Scar will have to interact with the monsters without it between them.
"Cub, do you trust them?"
Cub sighed, though it was more like a deep breath out taken during meditation. He needed that. He'd been holding onto a lot of fear and anxiety for a whole week, and they all just blew out with that exhale of air. "Honestly, I think we have to. We don't have any other choice that doesn't involve waiting for the government to make their next move."
Scar let out a similar breath. "I'll let them in."
Scar got up and knocked at the door. "Zed, go get Mumbo."
Within minutes Zed knocked back. Scar opened the door, and he and Cub saw the two monsters. Zed's eyes were more on his wringing hands. Even at that angle, the bright red blush was not obscured. Mumbo stood tall, his mustache barely hiding the blush on his face.
Cub was the first to speak. "Come on in guys. We need to talk."