Üksi - Dark (5)

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Part 5 of a continuing story written in installments with your feedback and input!

Previous installments: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4


Hungry hungry hungry hungry hungry hungry

Thoughts come hard. Hard to shape. Hard to make the words. Mouth doesn’t make words at all, but mind can. Hard to make words with mind.

“He is lost.” Voice, but not voice? Woman. Standing left. Death.

“No, he’s panicked. The change panics everyone. You were much the same.” Jacob. Standing front. Death.

Death death death death death death death death death death

Arm is not.

“He’s gone feral. He’s dangerous to us.” New voice. New death. Fresh.

Hungry hungry hungry hungry hungry hungry hungry

Hand pushes ground and I am up. Hard to stand. Hard to move. Stiff. Slow. Words come out screams.

“I know, I know. You get used to it, believe it or not.” Jacob makes words but not words. Growls. Groans.

What.

What the fuck.

“Can you see us at all?” Eyes burn. Blink. No help. Burn and burn and burn. Like salt. But I see. Dark shapes. People shapes in the dark all around. Blurry.

Burn burn burn burn burn burn burn

“He sees.”

“Not for long.”

“Quiet. You’re not helping.”

“I know this is confusing-”

“Terrifying.”

“Terrifying, yes. But you need to focus. Focus on making the words.”

Hungry hungry hungry hungry hungry hungry hungry

“He’s crazed. Leave him.”

“Listen to me. Make. Words.”

How?

“Holy shit.”

“Yes! Yes! Good! Keep going. Focus. You lose it all if you don’t focus.”

Hungry.

“Yes. Well, bad news on that front. The hunger-”

“It never goes away.”

“But it can be controlled. It must be. Can you walk?”

Steps are slow, but they come. Room is dark, but eyes are adjusting. Burning less. Smells are strong. Smells of sweat and death and waste and meat and bone and-

“Stop hunting and focus on my voice.”

What? Happened?

“You died.”

How? Back?

“We’re not sure. All of us are here because we died and were dumped here by the others.”

Alive?

“No. You are still quite dead. Just like us.”

Eyes.

“They burn like hell, don’t they? For some reason the nerves in the eye take longer to die off or adjust or…whatever the hell our bodies do. You’re not making tears any more, so they’re drying out. Soon you’ll be blind.”

Fear fear fear fear fear fear fear fear fear

“Calm down, calm down. Your eyes will go, but you’ll be okay. Breathe through your nose-”

“I don’t think we can call this breathing any more.”

“You’ll find Jin is just as annoyingly pedantic dead as he was alive. Fine, it’s not breathing. But for lack of a better word, let’s call it that right now. Do you smell anything?”

Dead.

“Hmmm, yes. Well for a while that will probably be omnipresent. But your olfactory nerve will get more finely attuned. You’ll be able to pick out individuals by their scent, and roughly locate us in the room. Thomas! A breeze!”

HUNT HUNT HUNT HUNT HUNT HUNT HUNT

“Ah, so your touch is already increasing. One thing you’ll notice right away is an intense sensitivity to any sort of movement, even air currents.”

How? Talk? Think?

“That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? We’re all still stuck on how we’re able to communicate and understand each other, despite our present condition.”

What? Now?

“Well, we have nothing much to do except mill around aimlessly in this old oil tank.”

“And slowly go insane from the hunger.”

“Yes, that does seem to be a concern. Of course we could try something else.”

What?

“We could get out.”