Chapter Text
"...the Great Island Chain Authority has declared South Island to be under complete quarantine. No one goes in, no one comes out, even the airspace above is restricted. The Guardian Units of Nations have announced their support towards this endeavor, but the leaders of both the Mobian nation and our own Federation have so far refused to clarify what exactly is happening. Rumors abound, offering potential explanations ranging from infectious plague to secret government projects, but nothing concrete has been confirmed. In other news, disappearances have continued as the year draws to a close, occurring mainly along the coast. Most authorities claim that these are unrelated due to how far apart and yet how quickly these disappearances happen in relation to each other, but in this newscaster's opinion--"
He turned the radio off. It was all just depressing sensationalism. For three years now, ever since the Green Hill place burned to the ground, the news had only gotten more and more fearmonger-y. It was ridiculous.
Hayden Fiver didn't want tot hink about all that right now. He was recently graduated and looking forward to a summer on the road, all by himself for the first time in his life! It was a shame that Ringo and Penny didn't want to come, but they'd already managed to lock down potential careers and couldn't afford to slask off right now.
"Heh. Ringo not slacking off, never thought I'd see the day."
He chuckled to himself as he drove. He didn't begrudge them their decisions; Hayden still didn't know what he wanted to do with his life. If he did, maybe he'd be doing the same. That was part of what the road trip was all about--self discovery!
The other part was just getting away from it all. As a hare in a human city, Hayden had always felt slightly out of place, but the past few years had been... weird. For reasons that escaped him, all the other Mobians in Central City had been increasingly unsettled and paranoid ever since he turned fifteen. Hayden wasn't immune to it; he'd been a little twitchier about unexpected sounds compared to how he used to be. Yet no one seemed to have an explanation for it. The most anyone had been able to tell him was that the thing at South Island was worrying, but no one knew what was happening at South Island. Or if they did, they weren't telling him.
And over time the humans had noticed the change too. That had caused some problems...
Hayden shook his head clear of the errant thoughts. This was precisely what he was trying to get away from! Just focus on the road.
The drive was a pleasant one. The truck was an old, pre-owned one, but it was still a comfortable ride, and the forest road he was currently driving through was lovely. He was in one of those forver-autumn zones--he didn't catch the name when he passed the sign--so the trees were beautiful and mulitcolored leaves blew past the windshield every few seconds. What a wonderful world it was...
He pulled into a gas station to refuel, grumbling over the jacked-up price and walked inside.
The place was empty. Someone had to be there, because the sign said open and the lights were on, but no one was at the counter and it was totally quiet except for the hum of the fridges.
And a weird smell.
He rang the bell on the counter. "Hello? Anyone here?"
No answer. The lights flickered overhead.
"Grumble," he grumbled, taking a tourist pamphlet from a metal rack and browsing while he waited. Apparently this autumnal forest area was simply called... Autumn Forest. Real creative. There was a small Mobian village near the center of the area, and a campground not far from this gas station.
Well, that could be nice. A single cabin in these lovely woods might be a nice way to spend a week. It even had a running track with leafy loops an everything. He'd always wanted to try one of those, but Central City only had Radical Highway and he wasn't setting foot on that death trap.
He tucked the brochure into his belt and rang the bell again, but he was starting to think no one really was here. And what was that smell? It was rancid.
Idly, he glanced out the front windows. Someone was moving behind his truck.
Right up against his truck.
"Hey! You!" He ran outside. "What are you doing?!"
The other person ran off, fast. They sprinted across the street and vanished into the trees before he could get a good look at them.
Hayden glared after them for a moment before turning to inspect his car. The asshole keyed the door, looks like; a silver streak against the normal dark green. Jerk.
Well, he wasn't going to stick around here any longer than he had to. If there wasn't anyone in the store, he'd just have to use the self-service pump. He hated using those, since he was always paranoid that it would take more off his card than he wanted it to.
...It took him an embarrassingly long time to even figure out how the pump worked, since it was an old model, but eventually he was back on the road, leaving that awful place behind him.
The drive to the campground was uneventful, and he found himself looking forward to seeing some other people now, after that mess. The parking lot was already half-full when he pulled in.
The second he stepped under the arch to the campground, he paused. Hayden was used to hearing all the little sounds of nature and technology around him; rustling leaves, humming machines, all the little things that most people tuned out, his enhanced hearing meant he was intimately aware of all of it. It was comforting, in a way. The white noise was something he expected.
So when he realized that he couldn't hear birdsong, or crickets chirping, or voices chattering, or anything other than the wind through the trees, it instantly put him on edge. No one was here.
He stood under the archway for what felt like ten minutes, just waiting for a sound.
"...Okay, just relax, Hayden... Maybe everyone went on a hike! At the same time. That sounds plausible."
...
...
...crrrrrreak...
A door creak. Thank goodness. It wasn;t much, but hearing anything was a blessing at this point, so he stepped along the dirt path towards what looked like the administration building, hoping to get a cabin with a lockable door.
No one was at the check-in counter, and he was starting to get worried about that, but at least these guys had the decency to put up a 'Back Soon!' sign. No idea when 'soon' was supposed to be, Hayden instead turned and walked back out. It was still a lovely evening, after all, and maybe a walk around the grounds would ease his nerves.
This was defenitely a Mobian settlement; most of the doors were low enough that he'd have to duck, which was a charming novelty. Hayden was short by human standards but quite tall for an Islander, so being big for a change was amusing. They did have a couple cabins for human guests, though, so maybe he'd get one of those and be able to really stretch out. That would be nice.
...It was too quiet. There were cars in the lot, so where was everyone? Was there a lake and everyone was swimming? He'd be able to hear that, surely.
And that smell again. It smelled like rot. Must be a dead animal somewhere.
whimper
His ears twitched, and he turned to a particular cabin that was set off a little bit from the others, on top of a small ledge. The door was hanging lightly open, but the lights were off inside.
...snff
Hayden looked around, just in case someone had decided to show up out of nowhere, but no such luck. "Dammit." That sure sounded like someone crying in a dark cabin all alone, and with no one else around, it looked like it was going to fall to him to check on them. So he stepped off the path towards the crying shack.
Here's the thing. When you're watching a horror movie, it's easy to make fun of the idiot teenagers for splitting up or (ahem) lowering their guard at an inopportune time. But it's harder to see those things from the inside. When you're watching things from behind your own eyes instead of a screen, you have access to a lot less information. And no one actually expects to stumble into a monster movie, because monsters don't actually exist.
Right?
So despite all the signs of what was happening, Hayden stepped up to the door of the cabin and knocked once, twice, thrice.
The sniffling inside stopped, and it became deadly quiet.
"...Hello?" he called. "Is someone in there?"
...
"I thought I heard someone. Is everything alright?"
...snf
"Hello?" Hayden hesitated, then slowly opened the door. "I'm coming in, so don't be alarmed. I just want to make sure whoever it is is o--"
The door opened, and he turned the lights on.
"--kay." Hayden stared.
He stared.
He stared.
The smell of rot was gone now, drowned out by the overwhelming scent of copper.
"...Oh god."
There was viscera everywhere. Bits of multicolored fur, beige fabric, and blood staining the floorboards red. Hayden covered his mouth, feeling his last meal trying to come back up, but he forced it down, because as terrible as the blood was...
...as terrible as the blood was...
...he shoved the horror into a little box and shoved it into the back of his head, because there was a living person in this cabin. A little girl, facing away from him.
If the situation weren't already so distractedly horrifying, he might have noticed that there was a circle around her where there was no blood at all. And her fur was pure white, not a hint of red to be found.
Maybe he assumed that she got lucky. Maybe she stumbled into this the same way he did, and collapsed here in shock. He certainly wanted to do that right now, but there was a little girl in raggedy clothes in the middle of a bloodbath and that overrided everything else in his perception.
"Oh god," he repeated to himself, before carefully stepping into the circle with her. He bent down, but didn't touch her yet. "Kid, are you ok--no, you aren't okay, what am I saying. Um. Are you... hearing me? Are you hurt?"
The girl didn't respond.
Hayden's face crumpled. "Oh, kiddo. I'm here to help, just let me..." He put a hand on her shoulder, and she let him turn her around. Hayden blinked. "Oh my."
She had the brightest, most startlingly red eyes he'd ever seen. Albino, huh? Neat, he thought distantly.
She stared at him, utterly expressionless. The little mouse girl must have been scared senseless. She looked like a kindergartener.
Hayden took a breath, and regretted it as the copper filled his lungs again. "Okay, kid, we gotta get out of here. Can I pick you up?"
The mouse stared at him, not blinking. Then, slowly, she raised her arms, which he took as an invitation and gently lifted her up, tucking her into the crook of his arm.
He stepped out of the bloody cabin and closed his eyes, taking a moment--just a moment--to let himself feel the terror before shoving it away again. There would be time to panic when they were safe.
"First," he said out loud, mostly to keep himself steady, "we go back to the check-in place. They'll have a phone and we can call the police. Then we're getting the hell out of dodge."
The mouse girl's grip on his chest fur tightened. She turned her gaze towards the cabin, behind them.
Hayden dropped his ears so they were in the way. "Don't look at it, little miss. Don't think about it, not right now. You're safe with me. I promise."
She looked at him, expression unreadable.
"...safe?"
His heart just about broke and he pulled her close. "Safe."
They started walking back the way he'd come, Hayden hanging onto her like a stuffed animal. The mouse didn't quite relax into his grip, but she did let her head fall onto his shoulder.
She still didn't blink. She just looked off into the woods...
...and behind Hayden, where he couldn't see, something looked back.