Chaos was in full bloom in the depths of Junk Bunk.
Triggered by the Corrupted's laughter aggravating many of the living beings within earshot, blood of all kinds flowed ceaselessly down the gutters of Junk Bunk.
Human blood, insectoid fluid, plant sap, liquid coolant, whatever the liquid that was spilled, the sewage system of Junk Bunk didn't discriminate as it let it flow into the numerous pipes lining the megastructure's interior.
*Swoosh*
Watching as an Ergul of all things came barreling down the narrow halls without even tucking and rolling like they usually would, Ester watched the large mammal speed past where he, Eva and two others were hiding.
Slamming against anything unfortunate enough to be in its war path, it was a testament of how effective the laughter of the Corrupted was in causing panic.
*BANG*
Ester winced as he saw the Ergul slam a cyborg that failed to get out of the way into a wall, blue colored coolant exploding from the impact point as it then dripped down the sewer grates lining the hallways corners.
And it wasn't just the Ergul causing blood to spill.
Ester stepped away from the wild flails of an adult crawler, watching its insectoid frame pivot from mutilating a corpse with its blade like limbs to bouncing into walls with its body to savaging its fellow crawlers with its mouth.
It was a chaotic mess that he, Eva, a familiar looking slum rat and a legless, mouthless man unfortunately had a front row seat to.
Hence why they were leaving the theater ahead of schedule.
A familiar looking kid pulled on the hem of Eva's sleeve. "I know a safe spot sis." The kid glanced at Ester.
"if you and that guy pick up my brother, I can lead you both to it."
Nodding her head, she hoisted one arm of the legless, mouthless man over her shoulder. [I-I'll take t-this end and-and y-you'll take the other e-end.]
Nodding his head despite not knowing who in the void this guy was, Ester swiftly followed up and looped the man's other arm around his metal one as the slum rat anxiously waited at the mouth of the alleyway they had found themselves in.
Hurriedly gesticulating towards them when he saw that they had picked up his brother, all manners of blood continued to splatter onto the floors, walls and ceiling behind them as they dodged into a path that was hidden when viewed directly from the mouth of the alleyway.
Walking at a brisk pace so as to not leave his older brother behind, the slum rat who knew this place like the back of his hand led them away from the ensuing conflict.
Checking corners for danger with nervous and jittery motions, the slum rat led them deeper and deeper through the maze of newly made walls and repurposed holes in said walls.
"So Eva..." Ester whispered as he batted away a rapidly spinning rotling, launching the spiral shelled creature back into the fray from whence it came. "Who are these two?"
[T-these guys?] A loud explosion originating from the Ergul slamming into a wall rung in their eardrums as a burst of wind brushed past their faces. [W-well the k-kid leading us-us is a-a c-client.]
"For what?"
[A j--b to-to look f-for h-his older bro-brother be-being trapped by a-a cannibal.] Eva glanced at the man missing his lower half currently being carried by her. [A-Although I-I would say I-I only c-completed half of-of it.]
"Since when were you the Altruistic type?"
Eva turned to look at Ester with a raised eyebrow. [I had t-to do something f-for an en-entire w-week.]
Their boots splashed through puddles of crimson blood as they trailed behind the slum rat.
"Fair enough." Ester kicked away the Rotling aiming to inject bio matter eating fluid into his flesh with its serrated teeth. "Did you at least secure payment from the kid?"
[D-do you really t-think that I'm-I'm-]
"Stupid? Why ask the obvious." Ester looked over at Eva, his eyes glinting mischievously. "Don't worry though, even if you stayed as dumb as rocks, I would still love you."
Eva glared at Ester [H-Have I ever told y-you how much I-I hate y-you?]
"Many times."
[W-well I hate you.]
"Love and hate go hand in hand." Ester replied candidly before changing the subject. "But back to what you were saying, what was the slum rat paying you in?"
[...] Glaring at Ester, she eventually turned her angry eyes away and said. [A-a ferm-fermenter.]
Ester blinked as his mind returned to a certain dream in his memories. "A... fermenter huh? For alcohol?"
The dream may have occurred a long time ago, but Ester could still recall it in stark detail.
In particular, there was this one detail that he couldn't help but recall at Eva's comment.
'A fermenter is used for... alcohol.'
Ester's mind flashed the to the dream where he stared at a blotted out sky drinking disgusting alcohol.
'...'
Eva glanced at Ester as the wind brushed past their backs. [W-why so q-quiet a-all of a s-sudden?]
"Just... thinking about something"
[H-How about y-you d-do that when we-we aren't in d-danger?]
An explosion occurred right that very moment as if to affirm Eva's words, a good portion of the lights getting knocked out in the process.
Blinking rapidly to adjust his eyes to the sudden darkness, Ester gave a quiet hum of acknowledgement as his mind moved away from the dreariness to... something that just happened.
"Hey kid who I still don't know the name of."
"Velux." The Slum rat named Velux curtly replied, their small form anxiously peeking around a corner for danger before gesturing for them to follow.
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Eek!" The kid yelped as he darted backwards just as the torn off limb of some sort of giant insect flew by where his head previously was, glancing desperately at Ester. "Can you ask it later?!"
"Is there a safe spot nearby? Your brother might be dying."
"WHAT!?"
Head snapping away from Ester towards his brother, Velux was greeted with the sight of his brother not breathing.
It wasn't particularly noticeable in the relative darkness, but upon closer inspection, the conclusion that the man wasn't breathing could be made.
'And I think I know the reason why.'
Ester glanced at the older brother's missing lower half wrapped up in red bandages.
Previously white instead of red, it seemed that the wild jaunt they took through Junk Bunk had jerked the bindings loose, allowing blood to soak the bandages through as it left a trail behind them.
And it seemed that Velux realized that fact as well as his pace went pale .
[A-Answer the question V-Velux.] Eva snapped her fingers in front of Velux's vacant eyes, her speaker crackling. [Is-is there a safe s-spot n-nearby or not!?]
"Oh-Oh yeah." Velux stuttered as his eyes snapped back to reality. "There's a safe spot up ahead in a few turns b-but what are you going to do?"
Ester and Eva met each others eyes as Ester answered.
"We're just going to use some stuff we learned from a paranoid old man."
---
"Fuck this is worse than I thought."
In a small side room with a single entrance and barely functioning lights, Ester cursed as he observed the mouthless, legless man.
He hadn't seen it before since he was immediately trusted with the task of carrying the man to this small safe spot, but the older brother of Velux was in bad shape.
'They may have been a cannibal, but they sure as hell wasn't an embroiderer.'
Appearing skeletal thanks to malnutrition, the blood leaking out of the poorly made stitches weren't doing the man any favors.
If he lost any more blood, it wouldn't be strange for him to pass at any moment.
'So the first order of business is to close these things... But how?'
Clothes were off the table since they would only end up like the bandages, stitches would be better but as of now, Ester didn't have any thread or needles on him.
'So the last thing is...'
Ester caught sight of the lights flickering weakly up above. 'Aha.'
"Eva." [Hm?] "Give me a boost."
[W-what's the plan?] Eva crackled as she moved towards his side and knelt down, interlocking her fingers so that he could use it as a platform.
Taking the provided footstool and rising up to the lights hanging weakly in the ceiling, Ester grabbed at the long cylindrical lights. "I'm going to use the building's power to scorch these wounds closed."
[Using a-a transf-former?]
"Yep."
Touching at both ends of the lights, Ester found where the current was flowing in from, moving to the other side to cut it off.
This had the side effect of plunging half of the room into darkness, but that was why he left one of the lights still intact.
Jumping down from Eva's little footstool, Ester brought with him the wires hidden within the lights as he swiftly got to work.
Pulling the screwdriver out of its hole in his right arm, Ester pried out a pair of coils previously used as shock absorbers in the now ruined arm.
Placing them next to the wire weakly sparking at a current to weak to ignite the numerous chemicals in the air, Ester moved to change that fact as he tied it all together to form a makeshift transformer transforming the voltage into more current.
An amount of current that was definitely hot enough to ignite the numerous chemicals in the air hence why his heart rate was slowly but steadily speeding up.
"Velociraptor or whatever your name is! Get over here and help bring your brother closer to this thing!"
"It's Velux!" Velociraptor or something snapped at Ester as he hurriedly worked to help Ester. "What do I do!?"
"Hold his body up so that I can scorch these wounds closed!" Flinching slightly from the surprising amount of heat passing through his gloves, Ester pressed the scorching hot transformer to the numerous bleeding lacerations coating the body.
This had the noticeable side effects of producing the smell of cooked meat and acid capable of burning flesh together.
One of them was a boon for the time being, and the other hopefully wouldn't be inconveniencing them later.
"Okay that's enough, now let him down now."
Hurriedly cutting off the wire before the acid could start eating at the second layer of clothes, Ester and Velux slowly placed the body onto the ground as Eva pointed out a problem.
[Hey g-guys? We-we have company.]
Several growls echoed out from the doorway of which Eva was standing guard at.
[B-Bad company.]
---
25 DAYS SINCE PROJECT VOID BUFFER FIRST FIRED ITS FLAMES
13 DAYS SINCE PROJECT VOID BUFFER FIRED ITS FLAMES THE SECOND TIME
13 DAYS SINCE THE CORRUPTED OF C-POINT BEGAN 'HER' HUNT
+++
Tree whose bloody computer crashed right when they were about to upload.
And it didn't save.
Fml.
Enjoy the transformer scene with a literal grain though.
Tree