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A moist smell was in the air, a steady drip of water echoed around. Groans were soon heard as the bodies scattered around slowly awoke from their slumber. One of them, their name is Dream, scurried around looking for something. A mask, he had said when one questioned. Others asked what it looked like to quicken the process.
‘Round and white, with a smile drawn onto it,’ was the response.
‘Why do you need such a mask?’ A short, dark-skinned, bleached blonde girl asked. Rose Lalonde was her name.
‘Why do you need to ask?’ Dream responded with a grunt, words muffled from him hiding his face using his dulled-down green hoodie. Rips and red stains littered his clothing, black pants covered in dirt, various straps were on his hoodie. Rose scanned Dream thoroughly, trying to understand more of him.
‘I just don’t understand what you need to hide? Unless you’re someone we should be wary of, or you’re a wanted criminal-’ Rose started.
Dream cut her off. ‘It’s just a mask. Nothing more and nothing else. A mask that I wear to shield my face.’
“Tsk, you remind me of my twin brother.’ Rose smiled, ‘Always saying that the shades he wears are “for the sake of irony” when in reality, he’s just terrified of being able to be read so easily. Terrified that people will realize that he isn’t the facade he hides behind and is just a mere child who was beaten into toxic masculinity. Afraid that the guardian he had would look down on him and realize that he has emotions, inferior compared to him.’
“Yeah, well, I'm not your brother. There’s nothing more to me wearing a mask all the time.’ Dream scoffed, getting more and more irritated that his searching is yielding no results.
‘I never said you were my brother, I merely said you reminded me of him.’ Rose looked at him for a moment, ‘But now that you mention it, there are very subtle similarities between you and him.’
‘Hey, green hoodie.’ One called with a scratchy British accent, interrupting Rose. Dream looked up to see whoever called him, only to be faced with nasty pale green skin and mismatched eyes; right eye black, the other a pale red. In his hand was the mask Dream was desperately looking for. ‘This your mask haw?’
‘Yeah, uh, thanks…?’
‘The name’s Murdoc Niccals.’ He gave a hand out for him to shake that Dream took out hesitantly.
‘Thanks, Murdoc.’
‘Anytime’ He gave a small wink and left, probably off to talk to the short talking skeleton that was spouting out terrible dad jokes and puns.
Looking around the room, everybody was now conscious. Half of them were roaming around trying to figure out where they were, whilst the other half was trying to start up friendly conversations amongst each other. It took a while, but Rose had managed to gather all the members of their group into a small circle to discuss a plan.
‘First of all, my name is Rose Lalonde. It’s nice to meet all of you.’ She looked around the circle saying this, nodding at the small murmurs of acknowledgement. ‘Introductions aside, you may be wondering why I gathered you all here, but I suppose you can see what the problem is here.’
‘We all woke up in a cave without explanation.’ A tall girl replied, chestnut brown hair tied up in a white scrunchie.
‘Correct, does anybody remember where they last were before they woke up? Or whom they were last talking to before they awoke?´
'The last person I've talked to was...' The same girl answered, 'I'm sorry, but I don't seem to remember who I last talked to.'
'That's quite all right, don't worry about it. May I ask for your name?' Rose asked, pulling out a notebook and pen, writing what she had heard.
'Monika. My name is Monika. But, I do remember where I last was! I was in the classroom that hosts my literature club!' Rose nodded and wrote it all down.
'Anybody else? Not to put pressure on you guys, but we're not sure if this place holds a stable source of oxygen. And the easiest way to know where we are is to figure out where we all last were and to see the distance between our locations. If we all hold something similar, then we can pin down where we are.’ Rose explained. ‘So Monika, where is your school?’
‘Japan!’ Monika responded, ‘I’m a high school student in Japan.’
‘The last place I remember being was in my house and that’s in the US. More specifically New York. Right on Rainbow Falls, Adirondack State Park in New York. The last person I talked to was my twin brother Dave online.’ Rose said as she wrote everything down.
‘Well,’ Murdoc started, ‘I was in my love shack, posing for the cover of real Egyptian silk. All while I was being interviewed... what was their name? MTV Cribs! I was being interviewed by MTV Cribs, then, boom lights out. The last person I had talked to? That would be my good ol’ pal 2D, haw haw’
‘And where exactly is this… love shack of yours?’
‘The UK in Essex.’
‘Okay, that’s three different locations in three different continents.’ One of them stated. They all looked at the new person, head balding, tall and pudgy with mirror shades perched on his nose. Everybody recognized him instantly, Dr. Phil.
‘Thanks for stating the obvious Dr. Phil, or should I say Captain Obvious.’ A small ba-dum-tsh came from his words somewhere and the speaker chuckled at what he had said.
‘And you are?’ Rose asked.
‘Sans, Sans the skeleton.’ The man gave his arm out for Rose to shake, she looked at it and shook her head no.
‘No thanks, I wouldn’t like to be the subject of a prank. The whoopee cushion is very obvious, or it is to me; years of being John’s friend had me immune to this sort of behaviour.’ The last part she muttered to herself. Sans frowned - somehow, despite being a skeleton he managed to show some sort of emotion - at that and placed his hand back into his pockets, displeased.
‘So,’ Rose turned to address Dr. Phil, ‘Where have you last been? And the last person who talked to?’
‘The last I remember was being on my talk show in Los Angeles speaking to a girl who claimed she was pregnant with the child of Christ.’ Rose wrote it down.
‘Finally, a place that is in the same continent.’ Rose murmured under her breath, somewhat glad for this development. She quickly looked at all her information.
‘Sans? What about you?’ Monika asked.
‘Well, I was in literal Hell. I was fighting this kid, who quite literally murdered everybody I knew, turning to stop them from escaping to the surface. The kid must’ve beaten me cause here I am...’ Sans looked away while saying this, clearly uncomfortable.
‘Do you know where you were though? Literal Hell isn’t a place that I’m aware of…’ Rose remarked, writing it down.
‘In the Underground. Which is beneath the Earth’s surface. I’m not going into any more detail.’ He grunted. The rest of the members of the circle recalled their last memory; while in the corner, Murdoc and Dr. Phil were having a conversation that didn't seem to go well. . Dream had said he was streaming with his roommate, a man with a pig-like mask by the name of Technoblade says he doesn't remember the last place he was but does know he was last in the US. Everything they had said, Rose wrote it all down. Altogether, they had decided that they were somewhere underground and underwater. This caused panic to erupt amongst them, fearing the lack of oxygen that would inevitably come.
'In all honesty, I'm surprised we didn't figure this out sooner...' Monika piped up, 'the walls are made out of stone, there's water coming out of somewhere and ...' She paused realizing, 'Where is the light source? Are we seriously this dumb, or...?'
'I figured this out a long time ago, I wanted to see how long you guys noticed.' Technoblade announced, adjusting his mask to show off his crown that laid slanted on his long pink hair, tied up in a braid.
'And you didn't care to inform us?' Dr. Phil asked, disgruntled.
'Again, I said I wanted to see how long it would take for you guys to notice. Did nobody hear me?' Everybody in the circle groaned and looked around. Rose looked at the information and made some guesses.
‘I mean, I did say we were in a cave, but I never said what type… Aren’t most caves underground? Or are they high up in mountains?’ Monika pondered.
'We're most likely in a cave within the Atlantic Ocean, but one of us last being in Japan is throwing me off...' She announced.
'Maybe take into account what the date is, and how long we've been knocked out?' Monika suggested.
'If we've been unconscious for a long time, imagine the amount of oxygen we have left...' Rose muttered under her breath, she looked up trying to find more clues, dread filling her up more and more.
'Where exactly are we?' She thought, why are we here; there must be a reason why we were being held here as hostages.' As Rose thought, she looked around trying to find more clues. 'But before I figure that out, I have to look for a way out, then I can ponder on those questions.'
'Wait a minute, where's that pickle guy?' Sans exclaimed, now realizing that Murdoc was nowhere to be found. A groan came from Dr. Phil as he remembered the conversation they had in secret.
'I advised him not to do it, and yet he still insisted on doing it. I should've tried harder.' He growled out, angry.
'What do you mean by that...?' Rose asked, fully knowing that he and Murdoc had a conversation alone whilst everybody had been planning.
'The mad man kept complaining about the fact that nobody's going out nor looking for physical clues. I attempted to talk him out of it, but seeing as where we are, it didn't work.'
Sans sighed and looked around, 'Oh hey! There's an opening over there!' He pointed over to the darkest part of the cave, and sure enough, there was.
'Well then, what are we waiting for?' Dream asked, shifting over to one leg and crossing his arms. 'Let's find the guy. Minecraft Manhunt but with no murder.' Technoblade let out a chuckle at what he said at the end, giving him a fist to bump. Dream just looked at it and started to walk towards the opening. Technoblade looked at his fist and bumped it himself. Rose sighed behind beside Dr. Phil, muttering something along the lines of 'you are more like my brother than you think, Dream.' Something which Dr. Phil caught. This piqued his interest, and he made a mental note to ask her about it once they manage their way out. Monika shoved her way past the two and skipped alongside of Dream.
'I can't see anything past here, does anybody have anything we could use to make into a light source?' Monika asked, looking back towards the group.
'Don't worry, Technoblade is always prepared.' And from his tattered red coat, he pulled out a torch alongside some matches. He lit the torch and made his way in front to guide the way. They trekked the path, the sound of water dripping breaking the silence every so often. Beside them, Monika seemed more and more scared, something which Rose noticed. As a sign of comfort, she gestured to Monika to hold her hand, something she gladly accepted. More and more moments of silence later with the tunnel seeming more and more neverending, she spoke up.
‘What happens if we don’t know how to swim.’
‘You idiot.’ Sans replied.
‘Well, I’m sorry that my family thought that swimming in the water was a waste! And what about you, you’re a literal skeleton, I bet you that your so-called “body” would be destroyed the moment we touched the water because of the pressure.’
‘Geez, calm down shawty ain’t that big of a deal.’ Before Monika could reply, in front of them, Technoblade made an abrupt stop and made a soft grunt.
'What is it?' Rose asked, letting go of Monika's hand and making her way to the front. Once she got there, she gasped.
The sight before them was surprising, to say the least. On the ground, laid the body of Murdoc Niccals in the middle of a large, flat room; quiet, and unmoving. Ahead, the sound of water grew loud. Everyone was quiet, hoping that it was only him deciding to take a nap to regain his energy. Technoblade stepped forward, trying to figure this mystery out when the sound of a gun firing was heard. Panicked, Sans jumped out in front of Technoblade and took the shot for him. Rose's eyes widen when she realized what was going on, and tried to warn the others when a gun fired and the piercing shriek of Monika broke the silence amongst the group.
'3 down, 3 left.' A voice called out, seemingly to another person.
'3 down?' Rose thought, confused. 'But there were 7 of us, 4 of us are alive and 3 of us...' Then it clicked. There was a traitor amongst them. And just as she was about to tell the rest of the remaining members, Technoblade dropped dead beside her, and Dr. Phil let out a pained grunt. Behind her, Dream laughed.
'You certainly were the smartest out of all the test subjects. But not smart enough.' He said, pulling the knife out of Technoblade's thigh. 'Thank you, Rose Lalonde, for participating in this event. You certainly made it more entertaining.' A sharp gasp was heard, then a thud.
'All 6 are down. Calling in for the next group.' Announced the same voice, signalling for Dream to head back. Grinning, he took his mask off and stared at his handiwork. But they didn't check thoroughly, because, on the ground, Technoblade peeked up from his position on the floor.
'You're going to regret that, Dream.' He muttered, 'after all, Technoblade never dies.'