#chases

“Hey Blathers! Look what I found!” His little sister yelled out from about 15 feet away. 

“What is it, Celeste?” Blathers asked. 

“A big hole!” Celeste was actively trying to dig into the hole with her kid-sized shovel. Seeing that his little sister was struggling, Blathers grabbed out a regular shovel and dug into the ground. One dig in, and Blathers had unearthed the fossil. 

“Awww…I wanted to dig it out…” Celeste mumbled. 

“You can take it out with me if you want.” Blathers offered. 

And almost like magic, Celeste’s face grew excited as she let out an enthusiastic ‘Okay!”. She grabbed onto the shovel with her brother and helped him lift the fossil out of the ground. A little cheerful sound filled their heads as they held up the blue fossil together. 

“Look! We dug up a fossil!” Celeste declared. 

“Indeed we did.” Blathers added. 

Celeste and Blathers put the fossil down, and looked at it up and down. “It looks to be a fish of some sort.” Celeste admitted. 

“I don’t know…” Blathers shuddered slightly. “I-it looks more buggish to me…” He admitted. 

“Buggish?” Celeste looked at it closer. “Well if it’s a bug, it would be moving more.” Celeste mentioned. 

“It’s really a bug fossil, meaning this bug has been dead for a very long time.” Blathers admitted. 

“I don’t know…” Celeste reached out her feathery hands and picked up the fossil. 

“Ah! Careful!” Blathers ordered. 

“Why? Scared that I’ll use it against you?” She asked him. 

“U-uh…I meant more like…you might break the fossil.” Blathers admitted. 

“I’m sure you did…” Celeste muttered with a smirk, picking up the fossil. “Because the last thing you want is a bug fossil coming back to life and crawling on you.” Celeste declared, fluttering her feathers against his shoulder. 

“Celeste!” Blathers tried to slap her sister’s wing away, but to no avail. 

“What’s wrong, Blathy? Don’t like the idea of a zombie bug?” She asked, picking up the fossil as she smirked at him. 

“What are you- Put it down!” Blathers ordered. 

“Why? It’s not alive.” Celeste told him. 

“You’re gonna chase me with it!” Blathers reacted. 

“Is that so?” Celeste asked with a giggle. “Yes! You’ve done it so many times!” Blathers argued. 

“Well believe it or not, I wasn’t going to…” Slowly, a mischievous glint showed up in her eye. “But now that you mention it-” Celeste brought the bug closer to him. 

“DON’T YOU DARE!” Blathers yelled out. 

“Aww…Come on, Blathers! All he wants is a hug!” Celeste placed the fossil right onto her brother’s belly. 

“EEK!” Blathers screeched and sprinted the other way. “Get away from me!” Blathers yelled. 

“Just one kiss!” Celeste started chasing him with the fossil. 

“NO!” Blathers sprinted as fast as his little feet could carry him. 

“But Blathers!” Much to Blathers surprise, Celeste was right on his tail. “I thought you liked fossils!” 

“YOU’RE SO MEAN!” Blathers yelled over his shoulder. 

“And you’re being a big baby!” Celeste replied with a giggle. 

Blathers kept an eye on the path in front of him. If he wanted to trick his sister, he had to be smart about it. He ran through the trees, making sure to deke through the trees. This made his moves sporadic and unpredictable. 

But when that didn’t work, Blathers tried flying up one of the trees. Hopefully if he goes up high enough, Celeste won’t be able to see him. Just because Celeste was younger and a lot more spry than him, doesn’t mean Blathers couldn't make a sneaky get-away! 

Blathers breathed in and out rather heavily as he held onto one of the lower branches with his owl feet. Fearing the worst, Blathers turned around to look behind the tree trunk. Thankfully, no one seemed to be there. It looked like he was safe…for now, at least. 

With this, Blathers could have just enough time to come up with a plan to distract Celeste from her evil plans. 

“BOO!” 

Blathers SHRIEKED and spun around, holding his chest in shock! Quickly, his big eyes fell on his playfully evil sister, and the creepy bug fossil! NO! He’s DOOMED! 

“I gotcha, Blathers~” Celeste teased, still holding the bug fossil in her hand. 

“No! NO!” Blathers covered his eyes with his feathers, fearing the worst. Though, covering his eyes would end up being a terrible idea, due to the large amount of surprise that he felt when the fossil touched his feathers. 

“Boop!” Celeste chirped playfully. 

“Whahat-?” Blathers squeaked as he felt the fossil against his side. “CELESTE NO!” 

“What’s wrong? Ticklish~?” Celeste asked, giggling. 

“YEHES!” Blathers reacted as he tried to run away. Since Blathers was naturally stronger than Celeste, Blathers was able to get away. “Leheheave me alohohohone!” He started running. 

“Aww man…” Celeste muttered. “Well, here we go again!” Celeste declared. It looked like the chase was afoot once again. 

Blathers ran around the yard once again. Unlike last time where he twisted through the trees, he decided to go up their outdoor playground. He ran up the stairs, and walked across the red bridge. But his anxiety began to worsen when he heard the clicky steps of his sister’s feet filling the wooden bridge behind him. Just one little peek behind him, told him everything: 

Celeste was right on his tail! 

Realizing he had no other choice, Blathers jumped over the handrail of the bridge, and opened his wings to slow his fall. The moment he landed on his feet, he sped off running forward. 

“GOTCHA!” A pair of wings wrapped around Blathers and tackled him to the ground. 

“NO!” Blathers screeched as he felt her evil claws tickle his sides. “GAAAHAhahaha!” Blathers laughed. 

“Tickle tickle tickle!” Celeste teased. 

“WHEHEHERE’S THE FOHOHOSSIL?!” Blathers asked. 

“It’s on the bridge!” Celeste told him. “I placed it down so I could go down the slide.” She told him. 

“Ohohohoho…” Blathers rolled around, unable to stop his spry sister. The running had rendered him exhausted, and the tickling was only further weakening any strength he had left in him. “Plehehehehease stahahahap!” “Only if you say ‘I win’!” Celeste declared. 

“NOHOHO WAHAHAY!” Blathers covered his eyes with his wings. “NEHEHEVERRR!” He shouted next. 

“Alright, fine.” Celeste leaned in a little bit. “I’ll just go for your worst spot then~” Celeste winked, creating a little yellow star beside her closed eye. 

Blathers gasped and froze. “WaitNO!” Blathers wiggled around all over the place as squawks and shrieks filled the yard. “EEHEHEEEK! STAHAHAP! NAHAHAHAHA- GAHAHAHAHA!” 

If it wasn’t evident before, Celeste had decided to use her favorite mischievous maneuver on him: She had started pecking at Blathers belly. If Blathers wasn’t laughing before, he was certainly laughing now! 

“EEEEHEEEHEEHEEHEEE!” Blathers struggled to push his sister’s face away. 

“You give up yet?” Celeste asked. 

“HAHAHAHA- NOHOHOHOHO!” Blathers shouted back. 

“Well, suit yourself! Om nom nom nom nom!” Celeste resumed nibbling and pecking her brother’s belly. The laughter felt like it was NEVER gonna end! 

But slowly, the laughter began to muffle slightly…And a new face began to fill his eyes. 

Wait…this isn’t Celeste. 

Is this one of Celeste’s friends? No, that would make no sense…

Wait…I recognize this person! 

“Hooooo… WHO?!” Blathers widened his eyes and dropped his beak, staring almost behind you for a moment. Blathers quickly pulled himself together and scratched the back of his head. “Oh dear. Pardon me…” He muttered. He lit up. “ Good morning, [Player]!” He greeted. “Welcome to the [Name] Museum.” 

You give Blathers a curious look. 

Behind him, he heard the slick sounds of the monster that he ran into back on the top floor sliding in his direction, keeping up with him. When the factory first went dark, Brimstone had sent him. As a solo scout, it was always going to be risky, but he had done this so many times that he didn’t even feel the twinge of unease as he accepted and got on the carrier. Perhaps he should’ve taken what Breach said that night more seriously when he took Sova aside and whispered praises in his ear until Sova was red in the face and squirming away from him. He was so focused on the good, that he almost missed the part where Breach then looked him in the eyes and begged him to take his time.

The thing about being so close to someone else was that their little habits bled through the lines and were subconsciously picked up. It surprised Sova one day when he sat down and ate his regular breakfast and realized that he thought it was bland. Breach liked to cook, and for the dishes he knew, he cooked it well. Or at least well enough for Sova to develop standards. And Breach definitely never swore in Russian before. But he must’ve heard Sova curse enough times for it to sneak into his vocabulary too. But not everything he picked up was good, or for the good of the team. Just in the last mission, he took his team by surprise by just how fast he had gone through his role. It had caused a bit of discord amongst the agents, but no harm truly came out of it. When Sova told Breach about his mistake while he was on his back, looking up at Breach who was settled on top of him and gently running his fingertips through the long red strands, Breach’s mouth did something it rarely did when with Sova, he frowned. Then he made sure to look Sova in the eyes as he asked him, with the most sincerity Sova had ever seen from him, to never learn from him. His specialty wasn’t the same, and Breach would tear down the world before tearing himself apart if Sova got hurt because of something like that.

It was a solo mission, so it wasn’t like Sova had a team to bother with. But on his own, maybe he could’ve taken more time, and cleared angles a little deeper. Would that have helped though? Because this monster could not hide easily. It was not the fact that he missed the monster that got him here. It was the fact that he hadn’t noticed the signs – how could he? It was like nothing he had ever seen before. He took the slime on the ground as natural fungus, for it reeked of rot, just like the mushrooms that used to grow on rotting logs in the forest. He took the dried splotches of blood for a natural part of what happened here, not the careless remains of… that. No, slowing  down would not have helped him here. Nothing he had ever done or experienced could have prepared him.

The path ahead would take him either deeper into the forest or an abandoned mineshaft that he had been briefed on. If he wanted to live, he would need to take it to the woods. It didn’t matter if the workers here reopened the mine, being in an enclosed space with those things… he shuddered. The forest it would have to be. There, he had more space to run and hide. This monster had the senses of a human, which made sense since it was once human. Or, rather, multiple humans. But at least that was a familiar creature, even if this abomination wasn’t. Sova veered towards the tree line, joy leaping up into his throat at the thought of escaping. Just a few steps off the path, he saw more. Two… a third in the distance.

Huge mounds of flesh, perhaps nearly two meters tall which were still smaller than the one he found indoors, slid amongst the foliage, just mere shadows to his eyes, but too big to miss. As he slowed to a stop, willing the sounds of his footsteps to be muted on the dirt, he saw their paths turn towards him. Behind, through the huge double doors, he could see the original monster crawling out, struggling to squeeze through the small space.

He reached for his gun before he remembered what he read about these creatures. There was only one sign of any previous life in the building. A computer with a crack in its monitor. It was the last thing still drawing power, and he thought he was safe enough to sift through all the files. What he found confused him because it was beyond his expertise. Altered UV rays. Ones that changed the human form by liquifying it. Sova hadn’t understood what that meant until he saw the creature itself. As a whole, it was unrecognizable. It reminded him more of a scoop of melting ice cream than an actual creature. But the more he stared in horror, as the creature’s amalgamation of what could have been many eyes and ears, the more he saw familiarity. There. A torso stuck out with a caved in skull, and its arms waved around, limp and practically dead. A little lower closer to the bottom, he saw many arms pull the creature forward, causing that horrible, slimy sound to echo down the hall. As he ran out of there, he also understood what the slimy trails were. He almost puked as he looked at the white streaks on the ground while he fled. That was human fat. It was cannibalizing its own fat to move. With all these bodies stuck together, flesh mixing with flesh, there were no organs to kill or damage, rendering his bullets useless, not even good enough for stalling. Whatever was keeping that thing alive was beyond Sova’s comprehension. He reached for his quiver, but his heart sank as his fingers touched nothing. He swore he brought more shock darts than normal. He thought about the tumble he had and cursed under his breath. He must’ve lost them when he stumbled amongst the debris when he ran away.

With the four creatures starting to surround him at an alarming pace, he looked around desperately. Yes, there was a mineshaft but with no prior intel, he didn’t want to run into an enclosed space with no guaranteed way to escape. One last scan that revealed nothing new sealed his fate.

He gulped air into his lungs then ran as fast as he could towards the entrance. Loose stones rolled with every leap and bound he took. Around the place, lanterns were strung up, though no electricity flowed through, and he had to slow down, lest he trip over something else in the darkness. From one of his chest pouches, he tore open the velcro strap and quickly took out his flashlight. The white beam was all he could use to move forward. One step in front of the other until he couldn’t hear the sounds of the creatures crawling towards him. In a space this small, they would have to lose some of their… mass. And that was if they would chase him. Maybe they would understand that he wasn’t worth the effort.

Deeper and deeper he went. At some point, he couldn’t even imagine open air again, and wind felt like a memory. But there was plenty to distract himself with. Along the ground, there were broken tools. Handles to pickaxes were strewn around, even a half decent axe that Sova picked up and kept at his side. For a place that was so close to that upscale building, this reeked of ages past. If they planned on reopening this mine up for some strange purpose, they hadn’t gotten very far. The only sign of anything new were the laminated sheets that shared hints at what these tunnels would soon be. If only the people who cared weren’t blobs. He looked over the letters, notices, and updates. They mentioned a plan, Code name Mud Farm. They mentioned farming, different names of plants. Sova only grew more confused as he read through.

Then, he reached a fork in the road. There were no hints, nothing to suggest where he should go. Any footprints or clues were lost to time, and so he could just stare into two dark paths. Were there no differences at all? Would they just connect just out of sight, and render this choice meaningless? No. He felt it just as he was going to choose the other pathway. Cool air. Not as stale as the rest of this place. He eagerly turned towards it.

Not even five minutes into this new path and he heard it. A slow rolling. A slow slide, only over a rougher surface. The sound echoed and bounced within the closed hall, but if he closed his eyes, he could sense where it was coming from. Above. Were they tracking him? How?

A stone rolled forward, and he looked back to see a lone blob, no more than half a meter tall and wide, sliding towards him. It was quiet, rolled more than slid, and now that his breathing had slowed, he could just hear the barest bits of noise it made. It all made sense. They were acting like back animals, and they had Sova basically cornered. The ceiling above him rumbled, and he started walking again, though quicker. Faster than the smaller blob, but not fast enough for the bigger one. The ceiling kept shaking. Dust and pieces of the tunnel ceiling were starting to drop, and Sova burst into a sprint. His legs were tired, worn out and slow to get moving, but the threat of something dropping down on him was enough motivation for him to just keep his eyes forward.

There.

In the musty tunnel, he could feel the slightest bit of wind. It was getting stronger, but the rumbling and shaking was getting more violent. There was starlight coming in from somewhere in the distance. Twenty meters, ten, less now, but he didn’t reach the small opening in time. Pieces of dirt and the wooden beams came crashing down, and no matter how fast he ran now, it wouldn’t matter. A lone beam hit his back and pinned him to the ground where the dirt quickly buried him in.

Still, he was lucky that he was not killed outright. The dirt threatened him, but the beam also acted as support against the larger chunks of rock and dirt that were landing on him and squeezing him against the floor. He had his own cave now – he wasn’t suffocating.

Though, perhaps that would’ve been better than waiting for himself to die. Whether at the hands of the creature, or a further collapse of the stone walls caging him in, there was only one end for him now.

Inevitability is the last thing I want to hear when it comes to… those things. I’ve survived a whole week in this place, and for what? I hear it coming for me now, and this is it. Where else can I run? It’s faster, stronger, impossible to kill. I can see the small ones coming in through the vents. Like fucking silly putty.

He thought about the files he had read. The words on that screen had slowly devolved into more and more gibberish, a smash of letters in no language known to man. A hand slapped down over the keyboard as it was consumed. Then, the lines that haunted Sova now.

We are immortal. You who reads this may have only one choice: accept us or die. You will join one of us in the end either way.

The end.

He heard and felt the things slide over top of him. Searching. But there was no body to find. He prayed for them to slide away. He would rather be crushed or suffocated or starve than join… whatever that was.

Inevitability. Nowhere to run.

You will join us in the end.

No.