Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The world has gone to shit. People were saying that it was the end of Robloxia, not a single living soul corrected them. The government had made many, crucial, devastating mistakes. They had found and released the dangerous, hungry monster known as The Pursuer. They had opened a portal to another dimension, kidnapped a local, and now she was also out there, murdering hundreds. A well known magician had cracked and massacred his audience, and two different robots made, or adapted by the government had gone rogue, and were ALSO out there, killing everyone they could.

So that's why a group of civilians from the coastal town of Swiftwater decided to make the far journey to a government bunker. They didn’t want to just sit there and wait to be killed. So the group of 11 met up at the edge of town and prepared for the worst.

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Adrenaline looked around as they walked up to the group of civilians in front of them that were brave, or stupid, enough to try to make the journey. They would have stayed in town, they hated scary things, but their friend, the only person they were close with they had left, Punch, was going. They didn’t want to hear later that Punch died and they couldn’t do anything about it. Plus, the reward of being in the bunker, and true safety, was worth the risks.

Adrenaline looked to see if they could recognize anyone besides just Punch. They looked around, the first person that caught their eye was Punch himself, who walked over and said “Hey! Adrenaline! Glad you could make it, we’re almost ready, but Bonuspad and The Sheriff are doing some last minute things so why don’t you introduce yourself to everyone!”

Adrenaline gulped and nodded and walked toward the closest person, A woman with a dark gray shirt and a dark, reflective cloak wrapped around her shoulders. “H-Hey! I'm Adrenaline, Punch’s friend. Uhh, who are you?” he asked tentatively.

The woman looked toward him and smiled warmly before saying “Well well well, Punch has talked quite a bit about you, you're the one who tripped over the lawnmower while pushing it?” with a hint of an amused smile.

“Uhh, yeah that… was… me……” Adrenaline said timidly.

The woman giggled before saying “That was a good story, my name is Cloak. Uhh, be careful of that guy with the blue cap over there, he could give you a bit of grief about that.”

Adrenaline looked where Cloak was pointing, seeing a nearby person with said cap basically hanging off of the shoulders of a man with a nurse’s cap and a white shirt. So he made note to avoid him. So instead adrenaline walked over to a man with a yellow shirt, yellow pants, as well as a yellow bowtie and clown nose. “Hey! I’m adrenaline, who are you?”

The man looked up from the device he was holding, it looked like a grenade launcher. “Oh, hey there, I'm Banana Peel, but since that's a mouthful you can call me Peeler” While talking he raised the device and fired it, a banana peel flopped out and landed only a foot or two in front of him. “Agh, I’ll have to ask Bonuspad for help, this damned thing lost all its firing power. Oh well, see you around Adrenaline.”

“Yeah, see you.” Adrenaline said, rather confused why a banana peel launcher would be of any use whatsoever, but he just looked around more and decided to go meet the guy who was wearing a helmet. The man also had leather padding as well as bracers. Adrenaline was emboldened by the other two nice encounters and walked boldly up to the man. He discovered that his name was Block, and that he loved reading, mostly medieval fantasy, but he could make other things work too. He then met a woman with a light gray shirt with a sash wrapped around their forehead. He learned that she was good friends with cloak and loved the playground, because there were so many different ways to run swiftly through it. He also met a rather chubby man who had a grey skateboarding helmet and an unhealthy love for hotdogs. Now he had only not formally introduced himself to the two people in charge, aka who everyone called Sheriff and Bonuspad, that medic person, and the one people kept saying was a bit of a prick.

However, it was time to leave, but as they began to start trudging out of town and away toward the churchyard, however they were stopped. The priest of Swiftwater and many of the citizens either too scared, too weak, too old, or too young to leave, waved them goodbye. All except the priest, who decided it appropriate to bring them to the church and give them a blessing of safety on their journey to, well, safety.

As they made their way to the church, Adrenaline introduced himself to the woman named Bonuspad, who turned out to be really attuned to nature and had a flower garden back ho- back in Swiftwater. As well as a man named Caretaker, who was a tired, well meaning man who knew how to stitch up most any injury. The sheriff, well, Adrenaline already knew the Sheriff, well former Sheriff. They had stepped down and offered the position to their deputy due to wanting to leave with the rest of them. Their interaction was a bit of a blur to Adrenaline but he did remember one thing clear as day.

“Hey kid, you know we are more than likely to encounter one of the freaks that are running around killin people, right?” He had said. Adrenaline nodded, nerves quickly returning. “Well remember, if you ever encounter one of them, and you think that they’re gonna attack you, just holler. The rest of us, even if we seem a bit rough around the edges,” He said this part while glancing at the blue hat guy, “will help you out in any way we can, and remember, we expect you to do the same for us, all of us.”

Adrenaline just nodded slowly, in all truthfulness all he would want to do in the situation where they encountered one of the “entities” as the government called them, all he would like to do is run away, as far as he can, but, he’d do his best if the need arose, but he hoped it wouldn’t.

Adrenaline knew he should have introduced himself to the blue hat guy, but due to everyone's warnings, he simply didn’t.
Soon they arrived at the church. The civilians filled the benches or milled about while the priest got ready. Adrenaline was sitting in the corner, with Punch, but soon enough Punch was called away by the Sheriff, and then Adrenaline was alone. Not for long however, because Adrenaline soon felt someone sit next to him, he looked up and saw the guy with the blue hat. He had a cocky, smug, “I’m better than you” grin on his face. He looked at Adrenaline before he started talking. “Heya! I’m Taunt, you’ve probably heard of me because of my reputation as a handsome, strong, natural leader! I heard your name was Adrenaline. You were introducing yourself to everyone earlier, well not everyone. Just everyone except me! I’m so disappointed! Why, though? Were you just forgetting, did you never see the opportunity? Or,” He said like the idea just crossed his mind, “were you scared of me? Was little Mr wet his pants and ran away scared of little old me? Why did you come with us anyway? You’ll probably just pee your pants when we see some action anyway! So why not run back home to mommy and hide under the covers?” Taunt said, living up to his name quite well.

Adrenaline knew why everyone warned him about Taunt now, he was a prick. “My moms dead.” Adrenaline said, deadpan. Fully expecting some stupid comment about how he got her killed or how he’s a daddy’s boy, but to his surprise, it never came.

Instead Taunt sat, stunned. He looked at Adrenaline and Adrenaline thought he could see something in his eyes, but it was quickly covered up as Taunt said, “Well, uhh, I guess you're a, umm.” Taunt tried to think of a, well taunt, but his heart wasn’t in it. “Goodbye.” Taunt said before abruptly standing and walking away.

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Cloak knew something was off, Taunt wasn’t talking and looking very, un-Taunt-like, but more disturbing was the thought of, where was the priest? He had been getting ready for almost two hours now. Cloak nudged Dash and said “Im gonna go look for the Preist.” but they didn’t even wait for a sound of acknowledgement before walking toward the stand. They looked behind it and paled before covering their mouth with both hands, and then screamed, but no one really heard it, because something outside was also screaming.

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Hotdog, who had been sleeping, jolted awake. They looked around and saw everyone was scrambling away from the door. So he pulled out a hotdog, took a bite, and joined them. Suddenly the wall next to him shook, then again. The group of civilians pivoted to face the wall, hotdog now near the front, behind Sheriff and Punch as they took their places.

Hotdog watched as the wall was broken apart, and behind it, was most robloxians' worst nightmare, the monster called The Pursuer. It grinned as it looked forward, then it locked eyes with Hotdog, or more likely, Hotdogs bulk. It uttered an unnatural chuckle then ran straight in. In the panic, most of them scattered. Punch tried to hit it, but it dodged and threw him away out the front door, it dodged a bullet from Sheriff and lunged at Hotdog landing on his chest, it quickly pulled an object from its back, the object was quickly identified as it stabbed the sword through Hotdogs chest and everyone else fled the building. Hotdog looked at the fleeing civilians, he thought they were supposed to stick together, to be a team, but they hadn’t even properly left, and here he was, bleeding to death. He looked back at the grotesque face above him and smiled as he pulled out a hotdog and, as his final act, slapped the Pursuer across the face with it, before it lowered its jaws to his neck.

_____

 

Block looked inside at the monster, he saw Hotdog, dead on the floor, the now bloody creature standing up and locking eyes with him. He paled under his helmet. Block wasn’t ready to die! He didn’t want to go yet! So he ran into the churchyard hills. He was barely paying attention to where he was going, then he found himself at a fence, beyond the fence was a cliff that led away to freedom. So he grabbed a big rock and used it to pry a gap in the fence. By the time he was done, several others had joined him, including Punch, Sheriff, Cloak, Dash, Taunt, Bonuspad, Adrenaline, and Peeler. Wait a minute, where was Caretaker! Block looked back and saw that Caretaker was nowhere to be found. He also noticed Punch's injured arm and knew that the Sheriff would need to stay here. Block knew what he was about to do was stupid, but also necessary.

“I have to go back, Caretakers missing!” Block said quickly before running back toward the church. He heard someone shout something like “Wait!” or “Don’t go” but he didn’t stop. Caretaker needed help. He rushed back to the church, and just as he feared, he saw The Pursuer looming over Caretaker, who was quite injured. He saw it raise its claws for the final blow, but he ran in front of the strike, catching it on his bracer and nullifying the damage. Caretaker looked up in shock before making a sprint in the direction Black came from. Block felt pretty good, good enough to try and keep fighting. However, he had lost the advantage of surprise and it did not go well, he soon found himself in a very similar position to Caretaker. He tried to block, but The Pursuer didn’t fall for it. Instead, it simply waited for him to let his arm drop, and finished him quickly.

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Caretaker was running through the hills, he thought he was going the right direction, but little did he know, he would never see any of the others again. Caretaker found a cave, and decided that the others might be inside. He ducked in and dropped down a solid 20 feet and twisted his ankle. He groaned realising his mistake. He realised the second one when he looked around and saw piles upon piles of bones and rotten flesh around him. There was no exit except from the way he came. However, there was now a shadow up there. Caretaker looked up, hoping to be another civilian, and he saw Block! Block didn’t respond to Caretakers calls though and Caretaker soon noticed that something was wrong, then Block dropped down with a sickening crunch, and Caretaker saw the deep gashes in his side and back. Caretaker looked up at the hole again and saw Hotdogs corpse falling in too, only to be replaced by the grinning face of the Pursuer, and Caretaker knew that his end was nigh.

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The Sheriff looked in dismay from the top of the cliff and The Pursuer dropped into the cave, no one could survive that. He was having doubts that this was a good idea, but as it turned out, there was no turning back anyway. The cliff had a clear view of Swiftwater, and the 8 remaining civilians watched in horror as the Killdroid leveled their homes and killed everything it saw. There was nothing to but keep going though, so keep going they did.

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3 Weeks later (Cuz im too lazy to write all that)
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Taunt was exhausted as he felt the rain fall onto his face. Everyone was dead. All except him. After the fateful encounter with the Pursuer, they had run into Badware, and It had killed Punch, Dash, and Bonuspad. Next was that artful fellow, who then killed Cloak, Sheriff and Peeler. Now he was looking across the mountaintop that was supposed to be their salvation. He and Adrenaline had made it, they had somehow lived through 3 separate entity encounters and had made it to what was supposed to be safety, but the bunker was gone. It had been leveled by the Harken. They had got there just as the Harken was about to leave. Now it had killed Adrenaline and he was staring it in the face. It held him by the shoulders and looked at him as he looked at nothing, lost in thought about how they all died for nothing. He had hoped to become good friends with all of them in time. Even if his actions didn’t really reflect that. He knew he was about to die, and was not surprised when the harken put one hand on his head, and twisted.

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The Harken looked down on the poor robloxian they had just murdered. They didn’t really want to, but they would never go back to the cold, dark, horrible cell. So they had to kill him. Suddenly, she felt a presence around her, a cold, dark, evil presence. And she sensed it look at her, and the robloxian. Then she felt no more.

_____

The spectre had watched the civilians' futile little attempt of safety with great amusement, and it thought that it could squeeze more amusement out of them, and the ones that haunted them. So he decided to take them to his little games.

Chapter Text

It was a normal day, err night, he didn’t know what to call them, but what Elliot did know was that a round was about to start. So he and all the other survivors were gathered in the big cabin, for some reason they felt an urge to gather in the upstairs today, and Chance and Noob were lounging on the beanbags and everyone else was standing behind them, all numbly staring at the panda on the screen. They listened as the grandfather clock downstairs ticked closer, and closer to the round. Elliot counted the chimes, one, two, three, four, five, round. Nothing happened though. Elliot just thought he hadn’t been chosen, but he soon realised that all the others were still there too, no one had been taken for the round. Elliot was confused, a sentiment others seemingly shared as Guest soon said, “what's happening? Why was no one sent?”

Chance suddenly seemed to notice something as he pointed at the tv and said “Hey, look at that!” The television now showed a black background with white text reading, “Special round! Die your Death.”

“What does that mean?” 007n7 asked, stating the question that everyone had. The tv soon faded to black, and went into its spectating mode, but the people it showed looking around in confusion were new. They flicked through the P.O.V’s seeing 11 different people that seemed like survivors and also a weird black and white monster that they took to be a new killer, and for some reason it had a harmonica that it had stowed away on its waist. They watched as it turned invisible, and the P.O.V sped toward the survivor whose name was apparently “Hotdog”.

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Punch was confused, was he not dead? Lying bleeding on the floor of the baseplate, killed by Badware? Apparently not. He looked around, finding him in an unfamiliar place, it seemed they were in some sort of Hotel? A place that he had never seen. He saw most of the other civilians nearby around him, also seeming confused and looking at each other weirdly, then he noticed he was standing next to Caretaker, and Block. He knew they were dead, but they were here, he watched The Pursuer cut through Block with his own eyes!

“Hello?” Punch heard a voice behind him. He turned around and saw Adrenaline, more scared looking and nervous then he had ever seen him.

“Hey Adrenaline, what's wrong?” Punch asked, trying to keep calm for Adrenaline more than himself.

“You're dead.” Adrenaline said bluntly, voicing what Punch had been thinking himself about Block and Caretaker.

“I” Punch faltered, “I know, but I don’t know why I'm here. Isn’t there no afterlife?”

“I thought so too but,” Adrenaline said, before pointing at each different person around them, who were now listening in. “You're not the only one, so is Caretaker and Block.” At this Caretaker paled at the memory and Block put his hand behind his head in shame. “So are Cloak and Dash, as well as Bonuspad.” At this Cloak lowered her head, hiding her face in shadow, Dash averted her gaze and Bonuspad blanched. “So am I. I should be dead too, but instead of actually dying, we're all here. I want to know how, I'm grateful to be alive of course, but this contradicts everything I know.” He finished, almost shaking with the wild fantasies that Punch knew were running rampant in his head.

“Hey, look.” Punch said, putting a hand on Adrenaline’s shoulder. “Youa ll listen up too.” He said to Careteker, Block, Dash, Cloak, and Bonuspad. “I don’t know how we're all alive, if we all did truly die, but that's not important right now, we are alive, so let's make the most of our second chances. I say we look around and see if we can find Hotdog or any of the others, as I presume they're dead too?” He finished, asking Adrenaline.

“From what I saw before my, uhh, end. All but Taunt are dead.” Adrenaline responded, calmer now that he had some sort of use/purpose.

“Alright, so we look for Taunt, and if he’s here, we can assume that the others are too.” Punch concluded.

“How does that logic work?” Bonuspad asked.

“Shh, lets just go with it.” Dash said to her, and so they all started walking toward the hall that DIDN’T have the rotting arms sticking through the floor.

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Taunt was confused, so he decided to recap the recent events in his mind. He appeared here with People that should be dead, then Sheriff kinda took over, using the logic that if they were dead and also here, that maybe the rest of the group would be here too. Now he and Hotdog were arguing about which way to go. Hotdog wanted to go to “The kitchen, he could smell it.” While Sheriff said they should go toward the ball pit over on the far side of the room next to them.

Taunt thought personally that they should go the other way entirely and into the hallway behind them. The decision was made for them though, when with a shriek of a harmonica, The Pursuer materialised in their way, herding them toward the hall. Immediately, as if by instinct, Peeler, Sheriff, and Taunt all moved forward, and The Pursuer was quickly shot, slipping, and taunted as the group fled in panic down the hall, they saw some half-rotten corpse arm sticking through the floorboard, but they could be easily avoided. So Taunt and The Sheriff ran though them, and turned only to see that Hotdog, and Peeler had taken a turn into a room that Taunt hadn't seen, and with a triumphant glance toward Taunt and Sheriff before trailing them in.

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Hotdog hadn't ran this much since, well, never. “I need to get outside more.” Hotdog huffed to himself, he was already exhausted, and Peeler had to practically drag him away from The Pursuer, who Hotdog saw was right behind them, and closing rapidly. He knew that he was only slowing Peeler down and tried to push him forward, away from Pursuer, but he clinged on and kept pulling Hotdog along with him. Which turned out to be a mistake he wouldn’t live to learn from.

Hotdog watched in horror as behind them The Pursuer pulled out a sword and easily lunged right at Peeler, slashing him shoulder to waist. Peeler groaned and shoved Hotdog away as The Pursuer picked him up and, in a practised, maybe even robotic manner took a bite out of his head, then dropped him to the floor, and looked over at Hotdog with an all too wide grin.

Hotdog was now altogether panicking, he turned and started to run, bumping into a table before running around it and to the opposite side of the room where there was a dark blue room. As he ran inside he heard something behind him, he flinched as there was the sound of fist hitting flesh, but he felt no pain. He looked up and saw Punch behind him, urging him forward to where Bonuspad was setting up a Speed-Pad. As they stepped on it, they quickly outpaced the now recovered Pursuer. Hotdog realised they were in the ballpit and that Dash, Cloak, Block, and Caretaker and Adrenaline were also there.

Caretaker stepped up to him and said, “Are you alright? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you running like that.”

*Gasp* “Niether have I.” *Wheeze* “Good to know you're here too. Taunt and Sheriff would be ecstatic.” Hotdog gasped out, still catching his breath.

“Well, good to know there here too.” Punch said.

“Wait, what about Peeler?” Adrenaline asked, dreading the answer.

“He sacrificed himself so I could get away from The Pursuer. I don’t think he could have survived it.” Hotdog said sadly

“Given a second life, and he spent it well.” Cloak said somberly.

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Sheriff was distraught. He didn’t protect the civilians he had vowed to in his past life, and he still couldn’t. They had followed after The Pursuer and found Peeler. Hotdog was gone, but probably hadn’t lasted much longer. He was confident that if they went to an adjacent room that they would find his corpse too. “Hey Sheriff?” Taunt said, looking somewhere behind him. Sheriff ignored him. If only he had saved his bullet, he should have known that Taunt and Peeler would have handled The Pursuer when he was appearing and now, “Hey! Sheriff!” Taunt said more urgently. Now Peeler was dead. Again. “SHERIFF!” Taunt said, punching him.

“WHAT!?!” Sheriff snapped at Taunt, then he heard the harmonica. The Pursuer was slowly walking toward them from the other side of the table. Now, noticing that it was noticed, It lunged forward, slashing its sword at Sheriff, Sheriff raised his gun to shoot it, but, *Click* the weapon was empty.

SuddenlyTaunt shoved Sheriff away and took the slash himself, he was knocked back but while The Pursuer was putting away its sword he got up in its face and shouted, “YEAH, COME AND GET SOME YOU FRIKIN WUSS!!!” before clutching the gash on his chest and stumbling away toward the hall with the rotten arms.

Sheriff soon followed, reloading his weapon as he did so.

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The survivors watched as the guy with the blue cap shouted at the Monster, at this Shedletsky snickered and Chance full on laughed. “HAHAHA, man, that's one way to mess with the killer.” He said, wiping a tear from his eye.

“Funny maybe, but I fail to see the use of it.” Guest pointed out.

“Look at this, The Pursuer’s face, whatever the point was, it worked. See how mad and distracted it is?” Builderman pointed out.

Just then Elliot walked up the stairs. “Thats weird.” He said, “That “Peeler” guy isn’t here.”

“Wait, why though?” Shedletsky asked.

“I may have a theory.” Interjected Two Time. “It is possible that he is a fellow member of the following and is just in the process of respawning!” They finished, delighted by the idea of another cult member to talk with.

“There aren’t any new rooms either.” 7n7 reported, re-entering the room. “Is it possible that they have a different lobby? A different place where they go after dying here?”

“Maybe….” Builderman said, thinking of the possibility. Then an idea occurred to him. “Hey, what was this “Special Round” called again? Die your Death?”

“That is true, what be it to you?” Dusekkar responded.

“Well, maybe, you remember them talking about how they’re supposed to be dead, right?” Builderman continued. “Maybe they are just some rando’s that the specter has taken for shits and giggles and they don’t respawn?”

Everyone suddenly went quiet. Then Noob spoke up “M-Maybe, but that doesn’t explain how they know each other or why there is a new killer. Maybe its just a different group of survivors and 7n7 was right?”

They were now all deep in thought, thinking of who, and why these new people were here. It was a mystery to them all.

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“Well, if Taunt and Sheriff really are here then where are they?” Dash asked

Then suddenly, from the kitchen, they heard it. “YEAH, COME AND GET SOME YOU FRIKIN WUSS!!!”

“Guess that answers that.” Cloak said, before leaving the ballpit and running toward the kitchen.

The rest quickly followed. They either, purposefully ignored, or otherwise didn’t register Peeler's mangled corpse but they all saw an unrelated splash of blood. It led toward the hall and outside, where they heard many footsteps and panting.

Caretaker ran outside and saw Taunt, with a hand covering a gash across his chest, in front of him was Sheriff, and facing them was The Pursuer. Caretaker watched from the hall entrance as Punch ran up behind The Pursuer and decked him across the head. Taunt took the opportunity to run, he spotted Caretaker from a distance and followed them as they both ran further into the hall, entering what looked like a bedroom.

Taunt followed Caretaker into the bedroom. He had his usual smirk on, but Caretaker knew better and saw the cracks in his mask, though he refused to comment on them. Caretaker sat next to Taunt, and took out a bottle, he knew the potion would sting so decided to distract Taunt before he healed him. “So, what happened for you to get that nasty scratch?”

“Huh? Oh this thing. Well we were in the kitchen, Sheriff was mourning Peeler, as is natural. The Pursuer appeared and attacked! It would have cleaved Sheriff in two, so I took the hit for him, cuz im just so tough, and then I taunted the killer. You should have seen its face! It was worth the gash.” Taunt said, Caretaker could tell he was exaggerating the details to look better, but he didn’t mind. If Taunt wasn’t actively bleeding out he might have thought it was cute.

“Wow! Really? You must have been really brave.” Caretaker said, about to pour the potion on him.

“Oh yeah!” Taunt said, “So brave! I just kinda- OOWW! What was that for?!?” Taunt said in agitation as Caretaker healed them.

Caretaker chuckled, “Haha, Thought I should distract you before doing that, feeling better?”

“Acually, yeah. Thanks man.” Taunt said, noticing that the gash was all but gone. “But now my shirt is ruined!”

Caretaker chuckled again. Yeah, Taunt was definitely cute. “Hey, look on the bright side, now you have a sick scar.” they said encouragingly.

Taunt took a moment to consider this, before smiling and saying “Yeah! You're right! No wonder people called you the best healer in Swiftwater! Not to mention the cutest!” He said, shooting finger guns as he left.

Caretaker sat stunned. Had Taunt just called him cute? Did Taunt like him? Then he told himself “Wait, calm down, it's just Taunt, regular old always injured Taunt. He was probably just joking like usual. Why was it important anyway? Taunt liked girls, at least I think he does….. And its not like I’m gay.” Caretaker felt his reasoning was solid, but he also felt a little disappointed at the thought of Taunt being straight for some reason. A thought for another time though, so he tucked it away for later.

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As Taunt walked out of the room he mentally berated himself. “Why would you say that you idiot! You know your father always, well. Best not to think of him, but while it may be true that you always had a crush on Caretaker, so much so that you would hurt yourself just to go see him, it doesn't mean tell him! Ugh, what if he thinks I'm weird and won’t hang out with me anymore? Plus, he’s probably straight anyway.”

_____

 

Sheriff was in his element. He had a tried and true soldier by his side, Punch, and they would take on Pursuer together! If only things were so simple though, and it all went wrong in a flash. The Pursuer swung at Punch, and Sheriff tried to shoot him, but then The Pursuer whipped away, and lunged at Sheriff, cutting him up with its claws, sending him to the ground. Then suddenly he felt like he couldn’t move his body, like it was moving by itself, crawling slowly away from Pursuer, who picked him up and went to take a bite out of his head. Punch came out of nowhere, and punched Pursuer right in the head, but it didn’t even move slightly, and Punch grabbed his hand, like he had just punched a statue. The Sheriff looked into The Pursuer's eyes, and saw, fear? Maybe it couldn’t move itself either, maybe it was being forced to hunt them down, maybe, but he didn’t have time for another thought as he felt its teeth bite through his skull, then it all went black.

Suddenly, it was all back. Sheriff was lying in darkness, feeling canvas around him, he struggled against it, he seemed to be in some sort of bag. Then he heard running footsteps and with a zip, the canvas suddenly opened around him and Sheriff was looking at the person he least expected. It was Peeler. He sat up with a jolt, seeing that he had been in a sleeping bag, and that there were 10 other, nearly identical bags around a campfire. They were in a clearing and there was a big white tent just behind his sleeping bag with a pile of wood next to it.

He looked back at Peeler in shock, Peeler was staring back, then said “This place is fucked up.”

“What do you mean?” Sheriff asked, still wondering how Peeler, and by extension himself, were given life back, again, and also how he got here.

“Im in the same boat you’re probably in, how are we STILL alive? How did we get here? Well, follow me.” Then Peeler stood up and walked into the big tent.

Confused, Sheriff followed. He entered the tent, it was about 30 feet tall at the pole, and with about 100 square feet of space, which was about half taken over by a table with a tv on it, a grandfather clock, and a couch facing the tv. What caught Sheriffs attention most though was what was playing on the tv, a video feed of scattered, bloody civilians being chased by The Pursuer. It was currently chasing an injured Punch. “What the fuck?” Sheriff said.

Peeler didn’t respond, he just flipped through the channels, showing that Hotdog, Cloak, and Adrenaline were hiding in a ball pit, Taunt was chasing after The Pursuer, presumably to help Punch, Caretaker was healing an injured Dash, and Block was protecting Bonuspad as they tried to build a Speed-Pad for Punch as fast possible. As they watched, Sheriff noticed a timer at the top-center of the screen that said “Time left: 1:24”.

They saw as Punch successfully escaped due to the Speed-Pad, but also at The Pursuer began chasing Bonuspad after knocking Block to the side, they watched as it stabbed Bonuspad through the chest, then bit her in the head, just like it had done with Sheriff. Immediately after, they heard rustling from the sleeping bag that had her color of shirt. Sheriff also noticed the timer jump from 0:59 to 1:29. “We are in some deep shit.” he said.

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(Time skip)

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Hotdog was terrified, the safe haven he thought he had with Cloak and Adrenaline was shattered when The Pursuer chased Taunt into it, killed him, then immediately went after Cloak. He had seen The Pursuer chasing a terrified Adrenaline about 30 seconds ago, and now he was hiding behind a rock in the courtyard. When suddenly, the music changed, he felt a ping on a watch he did not have before, it said “Now playing: The Tastiest One For Last.” and under that, in big red letters were the words, “You are the last man standing.” with pictures of all his friends crossed out with big red x’s.

He looked up, this place wasn’t natural, he knew that, but now it was telling him he was the last one alive, and you know what? He had legitimately just pissed himself. He stood up and looked at the two halls leading to the courtyard, he felt better when he saw nothing. Suddenly his fear spiked as he felt breath on his neck and saw two black arms appearing on either side of his head.

Hotdog whirled around, and saw it, it was so close he could count the teeth, and he didn’t like that. So he ran to the hallway with the weird, orange thing at the end, his stomach dropped when he had to step over Punch’s corpse, then he saw Adrenalines, then Taunts. He looked back once more, it was chasing him, it seemed to be toying with him, it wasn’t going as fast as it could. It wanted to watch him fumble around and kill him slowly, and Hotdog couldn’t think of anything else to do, but run clumsily away from it, but as he passed more corpses, Cloak, Dash, Caretaker, Bonuspad. He decided that their deaths would not be in vain, even though he was going as fast as he could, out of pure willpower, he sped up.

Hotdog glanced back, The Pursuer seemed a little unnerved by his speed boost and started running for real, it was now gaining, but Hotdog knew he could go faster, not sure how, he was already wheezing like a smoker and his legs felt like they would fall off, but he thought he could go faster, so he did. The Pursuer was now losing distance, but it wasn’t done either. It stopped altogether, clearly rethinking its strategy, then it entered stalk. Hotdog knew it would outspeed him now, but he also knew that if he stopped moving, he wouldn’t be able to start again. However, Hotdog suddenly bumped into something and fell on his rear, he looked up to see a triumphant Pursuer materializing in front of him, the music was reaching its climax as Hotdog tried to get up, but his over-exertion from earlier has now his undoing, he could barely move, but he raised his arm to ward of the strike, it still hurt. He was hit again and again, and again, then suddenly, it went black, and he found himself sitting next to a campfire on a log.

Hotdog looked confused, and saw the camp as Sheriff had, then he saw all his friends walk out of the tent, looking at him with slack jaws, and he stared back.

_____

 

The survivors were cheering in the cabin. They had forgotten their previous troubles when they heard the custom music of a new LMS not unlike when 7n7 and c00lkidd were left or when 1x1x1x1 and Shed were last. They were giving each other high fives, and Chance discreetly handed a 5$ bill to Shedletsky. They were happy that the “Hotdog” guy had lived, but their previous concerns were brought up again when the Hotdog guy didn’t appear in the cabin, but instead a note. It read as follows “It seems you have noticed my new toys. A quite funny group, yes? Either way starting next round they will enter normal rotation like you 10. Same with the “Taggers” that come with them. They are in the same lobby as you, just in a different location, good luck finding them. -S”

_____

 

Sheriff had just finished, with some help from Peeler, explaining what they all knew, just then Taunt pointed to the note on the table by the tv and said, “Do you guess that, or did you read that note?”

Sheriff, who had forgotten about it, said, "Actually, no. Kinda forgot it was here.” Then he reached for it.

Taunt beat him to it though, he called “DIBS” and grabbed it and immediately started reading “Welcome my new toys, what you just experienced is called a round, you will be seeing many of those in your time here, and that time is forever. Get comfy, also, there is another group of survivors in the “Lobby” they will be in rounds, and if you find them, consider yourself able to visit at any time. Anything else of note I trust you to figure out yourself. TOODLES! -S”

“So, uhh.” Taunt said, shocked. “That certainly is a letter.”

Chapter Text

Bonuspad was stressed. She was always a perfectionist and liked to have order, to be in control. However, at the moment, nothing was perfect and control seemed like it was just an illusion that the foolish try to hide behind. She was no fool however. What she was, however, was scared. So scared that all she was doing was laying curled up in her sleeping bag by the fire. Punch and Adrenaline had left a little while ago to explore the surrounding forest, they still needed to eat, and there was no food.

Bonuspad sat up, and looked around. Sheriff was reading, and re-reading the note, again and again. Trying, and failing, to glean any new information on these “Rounds” or the other Survivors. Hotdog was sitting next to the fire, munching on a hotdog that she had no idea where he got it from. Taunt was also by the fire, trying to score another hotdog from Hotdog, but Taunt had already gotten 3 and Hotdog was now loath to share any more with him. Block was asleep, Cloak was nowhere to be seen, as per usual, and Dash was climbing a tree. Caretaker was with Peeler and they were debating if eating the peels Peelers launcher shot could be a good idea, as for some reason, like with Hotdog’s hotdogs, they didn’t seem to run out.

Everyone was on edge, and the tension was suddenly broken as the grandfather clock in the tent started to chime loudly. Making Bonuspad flinch and she heard the crash of branches behind her that meant Dash had fallen out of the tree. Cloak appeared next to the fire and looked at the tent. The clock chimed once, twice, thrice, four times, and then a final, fifth time. Then all went black.

_____

 

Noob was gathered with all the other survivors in the main cabin and was listening to the clock chime. They heard it chime one final time, then nothing. They weren’t chosen. They sighed in relief and looked around, he still saw Two Time, Taph, Shedletsky and Dusekkar around them. The others were gone, but there should only be two people left behind. Things weren’t going as they normally did, and it scared him.

_____

 

007n7 looked around, they were in a place he didn’t recognise, but by the look of Builderman's face, he did. “What is this place?” 7n7 asked as he took note of his teleport locations, one in some sort of basement, one on another side of the office building in front of them, and the final one was where they were standing. He looked around, noting that he saw Elliot, Chance, and Guest as well as Builderman.

Builderman shook his head, seemingly dispelling a memory, and said “Huh? Oh, this place. It's the roblox hq, but like everything else here, not quite right. *sigh* guess we better explore.” Then he walked into the building.

_____

 

Caretaker looked around in panic, one moment he had been listening to that clock chime, the next he was here! As Caretaker looked around in panic, he noticed that they were at the roblox hq. He didn’t know it, but this was where Badware had attacked the remainder of the party after he had died. He also saw the familiar figures of Bonuspad, Block, Cloak, and Punch. They were all also very confused.

“Wait, why are we here again?” Asked Punch, they were at the side entrance to the building but, unlike when they had actually been there, there was a low wall stopping them from being able to just leave.

“How am I supposed to know?” Block asked. “And what do you mean again?”

“After you and Caretaker died, we passed through this building and the one called Badware attacked us. This is where Dash, Punch, and Bonuspad died. It was horrible,” Cloak said, the memory of watching helplessly in their cloak as Dash was horribly mangled by Badware flashing in their features.

“Maybe this is one of those “rounds” we came to the conclusion that what he went through at that hotel was a round, and there we just needed to survive for long enough.” Bonuspad said, “Plus, maybe we could meet these, “Other survivors” that the note talked about”

“Bonuspad is right.” Punch decided. “Lets get moving, gotta meet the locals eventually, right?” Then they heard the sound of footsteps descending the steps of the building in front of them.

_____

 

So they all walked into the building. Guest and 7n7 were the furthest ahead, they were looking for generators, but couldn’t find any. Builderman Elliot and Chance were looking in a small garden area behind one of the cubicles and Guest and 7n7 were about to enter the second building through a small connecting glass hall, when they saw it. It was 7 feet tall, steel wires coiled around its metal limbs and it had a computer monitor for a face. It was a robot, a robot that saw them too, and a robot that charged.

Guest got in the way and blocked the charge, before slamming his fist into its face. It doubled over for a few seconds, then looked at them. Suddenly it pulled out a computer and set it on the floor, booting it up before giving chase. 7n7 cloned and ran past the robot, noting that there was a golden yellow chain connecting the robot and the computer. He then ran toward the first friendly noise he heard, voices. Coming from just outside the front of the second building.

_____

 

Punch stepped forward, waiting for whoever was coming, but he saw no one, what was going on, footsteps but no pers- “Woah!” Punch shouted in surprise as a man with a burger hat, a blue graphic t-shirt with a weird face on it, and a pair of jeans.

“Shh!” The man said, “The killer is right inside, I was lucky it didn’t see me. Your Punch, right? We watched your round earlier.”

“Wait, what do you mean we, also what do you mean you watched our round? What is this place, why are we still alive?” Punch said, in a sort of ramble.

“Hey punch, you remember that note?” Bonuspad said. “This is probably one of those other survivors. A local if you will.” They finished matter of factly, then added “They probably also have a tv at their camp to spectate rounds.”

“She’s right.” The man said “Wait, I haven’t introduced myself have I? My name is 007n7.”

“That's a weird name.” Said Block.

“What he means,” Caretaker cut in, “Is that you have a very, uhh, original name.”

007n7 laughed, “You could say that, don’t try to not offend me about my name, I know its fucking stupid.”

“So you said you saw the killer?” Punch asked, “Who is it?”

007n7 looked at him and said, “I don’t recognise it, I thought you would. Our note told us how some of the killers that had haunted you were here now.”

“What does it look like?” Asked Block.

“A robot with a monitor for a face.” 007n7 shrugged.

“Oh, that guy.” Block said, seemingly remembering something.

“That's Badware.” Cloak quickly said. “Alone he’s pretty weak, but let him set up his computers, well, just don’t.”

“Fuck, thats what he was doing.” 007n7 swore. “Well, how do we stop him,” He asked, stepping back a few times. Presumably to head to his team and tell them about the new developments. “Come on! All the action is in here anyway.” he called to them.

The civilians looked at each other, shrugged, and followed 007n7 into the building.

_____

 

Elliot was feeling good, the new killer was being looped to all heck by Guest, he only had to help him once. When the robot put a computer where he was currently being looped at the time. Throughout the loop, for some reason, it had peeled away from the chase and place a computer on the ground. Now there were about 3 computers in the room, near everywhere except where Guest was currently looping.

Soon he heard footsteps coming from behind him and turned, a frown crossing his face. “So, did you find anything 007n7?” He asked irritably.

“Yes actually, two things.” He responded, taking note of the computers in the room. “One thing,” he continued, a bit panicked, “We need to destroy these computers, they will power Badware up while he’s near them!”

As 7n7 says this Builderman walks over and says, “What's that? Break the pc’s?”

“Yes!” 7n7 nearly shouts, “If you let it set up pc’s it will go on an unstoppable rampage! This room is almost filled with pc’s, it's in the one spot where it won’t get any benefits!”

“What are we talking about?” Chance says, walking over. “Also are those the people we saw on tv?”

“Huh?” Elliot said, before looking past 7n7 to see a group of 5 people, indeed the people from that round, all crowded around one of the computers on the floor as the woman with the hardhat typed on it, before letting out an annoyed huff as an error message popped on the screen.

“So they are here, huh.” Elliot says, looking back to 7n7 Chance and Builderman. Then he heard it, the clacking of the final computer being put in place.

_____

 

Guest looked across the desks at the robot, it was setting down yet another pc on the ground, Guest didn’t know why it kept doing that, all it seemed to do was waste time. Guest finished regaining his stamina, but when the computer started to chase him again, he immediately realised something was different. It was faster now, overwhelmingly so, it reached him before he even made one loop around the desks, he felt a hard slam across his back, the sound of metal slapping meat filled the room, Guest felt another slam at the base of his neck before he could roll over and look at it. Its face hadn't changed at all, but it still seemed amused by how ignorant Guest had been. As Guest looked at it, he noticed a sort of link between the robot and the pc it had set up, giving the robot a boost to its powers.

Guest looked up at the robot, now realising how foolish he had been, simply sitting there doing nothing while it powered up. It went to hit him again, knocking some sense back into him. Guest caught the next punch and landed one of his own on its leg, he immediately grabbed his hand, gasping from the pain. It had worked though, the robot, with the sound of some sort of horn crumpled to the floor next to Guest, giving him time to get up and flee.

He ran outside, into the closed off garden area that he had found Chance, Builderman, and Elliot in when he first began fleeing from the robot. He ran until he could go no further, a wall stood before him, he looked behind him and saw the robot behind him, noticeably annoyed that it no longer had its boost.

Suddenly it let out some sort of shout, and it bent over and began to charge right at him, Guest met this with his own charge, and next thing he knew, he and the robot were wrestling, fighting for control and to push the other over. Guest strained against the robot, but then it grabbed his arm, and lifted. Guest was now dangling from its arm and it punched him to the ground. As he hit the floor he felt the familiar loss of control that he knew meant he was about to die. The robot’s monitor face began to glitch rapidly, clearly not used to this occurrence, but then it grabbed him by the shoulder lifting him up, and punched its fist straight through his chest, and Guest knew no more.

_____

 

Punch was looking at the computer that Bonuspad was trying to hack, but the security system had changed and Bonuspad had little experience with electronics. Then he heard the crash of Badware falling over, he looked over, seeing a now heavily injured soldier looking guy running outside, knowing it was a dead end, Punch got up and began running over to where he had seen the two running off to.

He went outside and saw the two wrestling over to his left, he began running over to assist, but suddenly, Badware grabbed the soldier guy by the arm and lifted him into the air before hitting him one more, then dropped the soldier guy and Punch was just about to hit Badware, until he had a flashback to when he tried to help Sheriff, he refrained just in time, and saw Badware pick up the soldier and plunge its fist through his chest, and then dropped him to the ground. Badware stood there for a moment, confused, then it turned and saw Punch. Its monitor stopped glitching as it stared, clearly thinking. Then it moved forward to hit him.

Punch dodged to the side, and hit it back. It doubled over, then set up a computer and moved back in. Punch was already getting flashbacks to when they fought last time they had met. That time he had been backed into a corner, it had set up a pc, then it simply outboxed him due to its speed increase.

Punch cleared his head and got ready. He decided to make the first move, Punch stepped forward to deliver a right hook to its stupid monitor face, but it sidestepped and grabbed his arm, before bringing it down on its knee, shattering it. Punch pulled back, screaming in pain and clutching his arm.

_____

 

“Yes!” 007n7 shouted in triumph. After seeing Bonuspad’s struggle with the computer, he had stepped up and offered his expertise in computers and programming, he had been able to bypass the firewall and initiate the self-destruct function the computer had for some reason.

Chance watched all this from a distance. He was leaning against the doorframe that led outside, to where he knew Guest and that Punch fellow were. He glanced up at the group around the now destroyed computer before looking back at his coin. Heads, Heads, Heads, Tails, Heads, Tails, Tails, Tails. He scoffed in annoyance. Then he heard a sharp crack and a scream from outside. He whirled around to look out. What he saw shocked him, turns out Guest was dead and that Punch guy just had his arm broken. Chance swore to himself for being so unobservant and rushed toward the two.

_____

 

Punch was about to die, he could only dodge for so long. It had only been about 4 seconds from when he got his arm broken, but it felt like it had been about 4 days. He dodged one more punch, and he heard someone shout “DUCK!” So Punch all too willingly dropped to the ground like a bag of bricks.

Next thing he heard was the blast of a gun. He looked up to see Badware bent backward. He looked the other way at his savior and saw a man in an expensive looking suit standing there holding a flintlock that looked like a museum piece. He got up and stumbled pail faced toward him, arm belt at an unnatural angle. “Thank you so much!” He gasped out while running back inside.

He heard the man following him and he said, “Don’t sweat it! I’ll help any time, you in a pickle? Just call on your ol’ buddy Chance!” The man said. Punch guessed that Chance was his name.

They were now passing the a pc Badware had set up earlier and as they passed they heard a ping on it, Punch caught a glance that said, “Oop! You have been infected!” Then a golden Halo began to appear around it. Punch quickly tackled Chance to the side as the computer exploded, being replaced by Badware.

_____

They both began to run back toward the main group, and as they did, Elliot and Caretaker both immediately noticed Punch's condition and ran forward to help him get away. Meanwhile Chance, who knew he was the only sentinel in good condition, whirled around to face Badware who was charging forward at a concerning speed, and pulled out his gun again. He pulled the trigger, but it just clicked. He looked at it for a moment before realising that the robot had caught up. He looked up, he knew he was at an unhealthy amount of weakness, and it proved to be his undoing as he fell hard on the floor with a single punch, jaw broken.

He looked up at the robot above him, its smile widened as it picked him up by the shoulder and punched a fist right through his ribs, heart, and spine. At least it was quick. Chance thought when he dropped to the floor.

_____

 

Caretaker was leading Punch far away from the action, for some reason the pizza guy was also following them, but he hadn’t done anything bad yet so he didn’t mind. Caretaker led the two downstairs and sat Punch into a corner.

Punch, who was a bit delirious, looked at the pizza guy and asked, "Who are you?”

Caretaker looked at the pizza guy too, waiting for an answer. “I’m Elliot, me and uhh, Caretaker, I think, are going to take good care of you, you’ll be on your feet in no time.” He said with a smile. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a slice of pizza, giving it to Punch. “Here, eat this. It’ll help.”

Caretaker looked at Elliot in shock. He was about to say something, call him an idiot for giving a patient in need of serious medical attention a pizza slice of all things?!? Instead though, he watched in shock as Punch ate the slice and was immediately completely healed. Not a scratch on him.

“Gee, thanks Elliot!” He said, standing up and running up the stairs to go get back into the fight.

“Heh, you're welcome!” This Elliot guy called back, a smile on his face. He looked back at the flabbergasted and quite frankly jealous Caretaker. “Never seen a pizza heal a broken arm before?” He joked before leaving him alone in the dusty basement.

“Man, that Elliot guy healed Punch in about 1 second more than I could in 60!” He thought to himself, “His healing is so good! Mine is just, ok…. I-It doesn’t matter. We can both heal, yeah! No need to be jealous!” But he was jealous.

_____

 

007n7 was not very comfortable right now, he was being chased, quite closely, by Badware. It had not fallen for his clone after discovering it wasn’t real in about 2 seconds and kept chasing him. 7n7 couldn’t blame it too much though, he was the only one so far that had proven to be able to destroy the PCs. Next thing though, he felt a metal fist hit his back, and his already low strength gave out. He was soon picked up, and killed.

____

 

“Just like last time, everything was going to shit all at once.” Bonuspad thought, as she built a Speed-Pad in the hall between the two buildings as she saw 7n7 get brutally murdered in the corner of her eye. She looked back, and saw the other group of survivors engineer, a short man named Builderman, building what looked like a sentry gun close by. She looked up again, seeing Block being chased now, and decided that she had time for small talk.

She walked over to Builderman and looked at the sentry he had just finished making. “A fine piece of work, that.” She commented, intentionally copying the way he talked, just to be funny.

He looked up at her as he got off of the ground. “True enough. Gets the job done.” He responded “If I may ask, how does your uhh, “Speed-Pad” work? I’ve been trying to make something like it for years down here.”

“Oh that?” she responded, "It's just got a layer of Speedite between the metal and plastic. Not very renewable but it works. When you step on it, you crush some Speedite and gain your speed boost.” She finished matter of factly.

“Speedite? You mean the stuff you make Speed Coils out of?” Builderman asked and Bonuspad nodded. “Well tickle my hardhat, that's genius!” He exclaimed.

Bonuspad giggled, “Why thank you kind sir!”

_____

 

Caretaker left the basement, and saw a horrid sight, 007n7 and Block were both dead. Punch had gotten himself injured again and as he saw Caretaker, he ran toward them, intent on getting a heal.

Caretaker pulled out his bottle, ready to help. He knew it would likely get him killed but he had to! However before he could he heard a voice behind him. “No! Let me!” Caretaker turned to see Elliot running up, he threw a pizza, which Punch caught and ate. Caretaker then realised Punch hadn’t been running to him at all, he had been running to Elliot.

Caretaker was broken with this realization. He had known Punch for years! He had been helping Punch with all his injuries for years too! One interaction with Elliot though, and he had already learned how much of a better healer he was. Caretaker simply stared as Punch, with his newfound health landed a clean punch on Badware. Caretaker realised how useless he was in comparison, there was no reason he should try to help, because Elliot would always beat him to it, do it faster, and heal them more. Caretaker slinked back into the basement, shamefully retreating to where no one could mock him for his uselessness and where he could try to hide from himself. But it wouldn’t work. It never did.

_____

 

Taunt was in the tent, with everyone else, watching the round. Now it was just 2 left, just that Builderman guy and Caretaker. They watched as Builderman was chased and eventually killed. Throughout the chase Taunt grabbed the remote and flicked between the Builderman and Badware pov, for some reason each time he did this he took the long way, letting him see split seconds of caretaker in the basement.

Taunt was concerned. He liked Caretaker, Caretaker was his best friend! He didn’t like seeing him like that, and the, uhh, other way he cared for Caretaker didn’t help his anxiety. He would talk to him later, seeing as he was sure that they couldn’t permanently die here as when they did, they would, without fail, reappear in their sleeping bag. “Yeah, I'll talk to him.” Taunt thought to himself.

____

 

Caretaker was still in the basement. Still beating himself up. One part of him was telling him to get up there and heal his friends, but the other, much bigger part was telling him that they were all already full health because of Elliot. Little did he know, Builderman really could use his healing, and Elliot was dead.

“The round should be over by now.” Caretaker thought. “Whats going on?” So then Caretaker got up, and left the basement. When he got upstairs what he saw shocked him. Corpses. Corpses and computers. As far as he could see. He stood there, looking at something he thought he would have been able to prevent.

Caretaker walked slowly through the chaos. He walked through the first building, identifying the corpses as he went. There was Block, and 007n7, and Bonuspad, and Punch.

He moved into the next building, and saw that one guy with the coin, and Elliot. He watched Elliot for a while. Looking at something he thought he could prevent. He heard a commotion outside the second building, he looked out, and saw the one called Builderman, being lifted, and saw as he was killed. Then the music started, Caretaker didn’t hear it though, he looked back at Elliot and then back at Badware. “How could I have been so careless?” he thought to himself. Then he heard footsteps, heavy metal, and approaching rapidly. So he ran.

He ran past all the corpses again, on his way back to the basement. He blamed himself for each and every one of their deaths. Elliot? His fault. The coin guy? His fault. Punch? His Fault. Bonuspad, 007n7, Block, Builderman, and that army guy? His fault, his fault, his fault, and his fault. It was all his fault. He ran into the basement, the metal footsteps still chasing him, then he realised he was at a dead end. Nowhere to go, nowhere to run. He looked back, he saw Badware raise its metal arm to hit him, he felt the pain, at first he wanted to run, but he figured this is what he deserved. This was his punishment for being so, goddamn, fucking careless. He accepted it willingly when the metal fist plunged through his chest, and he was glad to die.

Then he woke up, and for some reason, he was disappointed.

_____

 

The “oh wells” and the “We’ll get him next times” were a blur to Taunt. He saw Caretaker sitting unmoving in his sleeping bag. He wanted to talk to him, but not with the crowd, and he didn’t want to pull Caretaker away from the crowd as for them to wonder what was happening, so all he could do was wait. It seemed to take an eternity, but eventually everyone cleared away, going inside the tent, into their sleeping bag or something else. No one was paying attention to Caretaker anymore, so no one saw them stand up and leave. No one except Taunt.

Taunt followed Caretaker through the woods, till eventually they found themselves on the banks of a vast, expansive lake. He watched from the treeline as Caretaker walked toward the shore, hesitated, then walked into the water. He stopped at shoulder height, shivering his ass off in the lake. Taunt was confused, and Caretaker just stood in the water for a long time, then he dived forward. Taunt was still confused, then he remembered one time in Caretakers clinic after Taunt had purposefully slipped by the side of the pool and hit his head.

“You oughta be more careful around water, Taunt, Slipping is no joke.” Taunt had proceeded to make a joke about slipping and maybe pushing someone into the pool. Caretaker had just sighed, a slight smile playing around the edge of his lips, and said. “While you may think that's a funny, harmless prank, but some people never learnt how to swim. Myself, for example.”

Taunt gasped, realising what Caretaker was doing, so he ran forward, hat falling off in his rush, and plunged into the lake. It was so cold, and he immediately started shivering as he looked and looked but he couldn’t see Caretaker. So he surfaced for a breath, then dived back down again, looking, looking, looking, There! He saw, writhing on the lake bottom. Caretaker. He looked towards him and reached forward.

_____

 

Caretaker had thought about it for a long, long time. He eventually came to the conclusion that not only was the other guy a better healer, but I also will fail to see when I am necessary anyway. Might as well not increase the food problem for the others. Then he dived. He tried to breathe in as much water and dirt as possible, but he had started choking, his vision was starting to go dark, and he looked up toward the surface of the lake, and saw, someone, swimming toward him, the last thought he had before passing out was “That guy, how brave, how noble. Here to save someone who doesn’t deserve it.”

The first thing Caretaker noticed was warm lips against his own, breathing hard down his throat, he felt someone pumping his stomach, he coughed up water, then more, then mud, but now he was breathing clearly. So the person stopped and Caretaker heard splashing as someone strode back into the lake, Caretaker tried to get a glimpse, but only saw someone in a tank top, wading deeper, then diving in, and Caretaker lost consciousness again.

It was about an hour later when Caretaker woke up. He looked around. They were still by the lake and someone was trying, and failing, to make a fire. He looked around and noticed there was something under his head, he picked it up, seeing a light blue, very soggy shirt. He looked around at the person trying to make the fire, they were wearing a blue and white backwards cap.

Caretaker Groaned, the last person he would have wanted to see him try that was Taunt. He wasn’t sure why his mind jumped to Taunt immediately when he thought of people he didn’t want to think he was hurt, broken, or both. He didn’t like the thought of Taunt thinking him weak or lame for what he tried to do.

Taunt heard this and turned toward him, seeing that he was awake. He immediately rushed forward and hugged Caretaker tightly. He didn’t say anything but Caretaker thought he could see a tear roll down his cheek. Taunt eventually let go, and looked at Caretaker. “This is the part where he tells me to explain myself.” Caretaker thought, dreading the conversation.

Instead, however, Taunt said “I, uhh, would you help me with the fire?” Caretaker, happy for the distraction, just nodded and proceeded to light the fire in about 4 seconds. “Huh, didn’t know you were so good at that.” Taunt commented, before moving to sit down. Caretaker sat down too, on the opposite side of the fire, so the meager smoke could help hide Taunts face, for Caretaker didn’t want to see the disappointment that was surely in it.

They sat like this for a long while, neither speaking, and at one point, when Caretaker kept shuffling around, unable to get comfortable on the ground, Taunt left, and returned later with a log, one side had a few branches sticking out and Taunt snapped them off, then sat where they were, patting the log next to him. Caretaker hesitated for a moment, then he moved around the meager fire and sat next to Taunt.

There they sat for even longer. After a while the fire died and it got cold, when this happened Caretaker shivered and Taunt draped his shirt across him like a blanket. Caretaker had calmed down, he was now just enjoying the moment, enjoying looking across the lake while sitting next to someone who he cared deeply for. The moment could not have been more perfect.

But nothing good lasts forever, the conversation was only being delayed, and it needed to happen. So Taunt said, “Why did you do that?”

Caretaker froze, they didn’t want to talk about it, and so they said, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Taunt sighed heavily, then said “You know, many people have told me I'm not good with emotions, that I just bottle them up and don’t let them loose, but now I don’t I stopped hoarding them, you told me to talk about my trauma with my dad, and I did. With you. I’m not stupid, I know you're not feeling well inside, so let me do for you what you once did for me. Please, Caretaker, I want to help you.”

Caretaker remembered what Taunt was talking about, how he had tried to hang himself, and how Caretaker, who was passing by, helped him down, and helped him overcome his trauma, at least mostly. From that day forward Taunt just wouldn’t or couldn’t leave Caretaker alone. He spent all of his free time with Caretaker and would get hurt a suspicious number of times when Caretaker was at work. So he sighed and decided that it was only fair that he shared his problems with himself with Taunt, like he had with Caretaker.

“I did it because I felt worthless.” Caretaker said, expecting some sort of rebuttal from Taunt, but he stayed quiet so Caretaker continued. “My mindset has always been, “If you make yourself useful, then you will be wanted.” I want to be wanted. You know?” Taunt nodded. “I made myself wanted through being a doctor, one of the only ones in Swiftwater. I struggled back then with my mindset too, as everyone always went to Carepad for a quicker heal, but some people, like you, kept coming back. So I thought I was wanted. Then during that round, that Elliot person healed Punch SO FAST, and that's not a problem right? I’m still wanted, right? I was wrong. Later, badware was chasing Punch, he was injured, I was about to give my life to heal him, but that Elliot person was behind me, and Punch had been running to them. They heal more, they heal faster, and they heal without any risk. All things I can’t say. Suddenly I’m watching my usefulness melt away, I'm watching myself become unwanted, so I thought I should just hide away, no one wants me now that Elliots here anyway. The round lasted too long though, and when I got up there, almost everyone was dead, and I couldn’t help but think I could have prevented it, I could have stopped it, I could have helped instead of moping in the basement like a pathetic, useless, unwanted, coward. I still can’t quite shake that feeling. That's why I tried. I don’t think it would have worked, but thank you anyway.”

Taunt just looked at them. Caretaker looked back and suddenly panicked, did he say something wrong? Did Taunt not want to be here with him anymore?

Instead Taunt just pulled him into a hug, and whispered into his ear, “Tell your mindset, from me, that it is a fucking idiot, and that even if you were actively holding me back, I would still hang out with you. I like you for who you are, not for what you can do for me. Please, don’t take the plunge next time. I’m always willing to talk, or to just listen.” Then he pulled back, and turned back to the lake, but now he was leaning against Caretaker, a silent reminder that he was there, and that he would indeed, always be willing to help.

_____

 

Taunt was slightly scared he had pushed it too far, that Caretaker would somehow find out that he liked him, and would pull back in disgust. However, his concerns melted away when he felt Caretaker head resting against his shoulder, “I was wrong earlier,” Taunt thought “The moment could get better.

_____

 

Caretaker rested his head against Taunts shoulder and he thought “Turns out I was wrong earlier, the moment could get better.” He smiled thinking of Taunt, a bit rough around the edges, but a real sweetheart and always dependable. He loved everything about Taunt, “Wait, loved? I mean, it wasn’t wrong…….

 

Am I gay?”