Welcome home, Horror Smp (Foolish Crew AU)

Chapter 2: Machinery

Pitter, patter, pitter, patter. I dashed to the opening, where the trees groaned and cried. The rain soaked into my clothes and hair, slowing me down. Crackling beams of red thunder bellowed above the gray murky sky. I needed to act fast, before it was too late. I could hear people calling out my name behind me, but soon was drowned out by the loud roaring thunder that cackled above. I can't let it succeed, because when it does, it's over. I pulled out a flashlight and entered the woods, where the creature lay inside. I have to stop him, I should've seen his behavior. I should've seen the signs!
I should've...
I should've...
I should've...

Just like a bird about to spread its wings in the rain and take off,

something hit me.

- - - -

I entered the wide movie room where my friends were directed to wait. My blue shoes hit the soft fuzzy velvet colored carpet that covered the whole floor. When I lift my foot up to feel the pressure release, I can't help but sense an instant calmness from the bounce. The movie room had some shelves stuffed with CDs, records, a black pearl colored couch that glistened against the shining rows of dotted ceiling lights, a little projector hanging right above, and a huge white closet. It's usually echoey and lonely in the movie room. But not today. Right now, it is filled with people that I recognize and some I haven't talked to in a while. It warms my heart to see familiar faces again.
"Meme! You're finally here!!!"
An excited voice called out to me. I surveyed the room to find the source of the voice. It didn't take long before I laid my eyes on them. The person who called out to me wore light orange pastel bear hoodie that looks like the color of an apricot, wore shining black sunglasses that hid their pair of brown hazel eyes, and they also wore red peachy colored shorts.
"Blaza! What's up man?"
I walked towards Blaza and greeted him. Blaza seemed to be having trouble containing his excitement, like almost all the time. He was always the most energetic and upbeat one in the friend group. He was the type of person that wouldn't mind if an apocalypse hit and he'll still try to be positive about it to make things less miserable.
"You have no idea how long I've been waiting for Socks to come back so we can all meet up again! It's been so long! Though I gotta ask, how many people will be coming? I've only seen Socks, Tbh, Joocie, Nadwe, and Muffin."
Blaza asked. I thought for a moment before answering. The truth was, I actually don't know what I'm doing half of the time. So I'm not even sure if the rest have gotten the invitations that Laff sent. I do know that the people who are missing are: Oof, Woolf, and Tbvg.
"It should be everyone that's coming. But if they don't come for some reason, we'll just have to do the fun stuff without them. Also, I have other things to do now, talk to you later!"
I dismissed myself. Blaza nodded, giving me a thumbs up and went back to talking with Socks and Tbh in a corner.
"Oi, Meme!"
A hand touched my shoulder. I turned around to see that it was Laff wearing his annoying intimidating gas mask (AGAIN). I swear, one day when I have the chance, I am going to crush that mask into gazillions of pieces and burn it. That gas mask is so freaking creepy!
"Something wrong?"
I asked, praying that everything is going smoothly. The least thing that I want to deal with is another useless problem.
"Nope, nothin's wrong. I got the responses from Oof and Tbvg. Oof says he's on his way but will be late. And Tbvg told me that he's too busy so he's not coming."
I listened carefully to the news and nodded in satisfaction. That is mostly everyone at least.
"Okay, so Oof is coming later, and I think we can re-invite Tbvg some other time. But what about Woolf?"
There was a slight pause.
"About that... I couldn't find his contact anywhere."
"What?"
"I'm not joking, you better check."
I quickly pulled out my phone and looked through my contacts. Laff is right, there were no traces of Woolf's contact. Panic rose through my chest and I started fantasizing reasons why Woolf's contact might've gotten deleted. What if Woolf was a secretive spy for the government and decided to get rid of his contacts to prevent communication with other people?? What if he was kidnapped?? What if he just really hates Laff and I? What if he was actually a bot or cyborg that got reprogrammed or terminated?? What if he has another identity??
"Mate, you gotta calm down. I could see your eyes moving frantically like it's about to pop out of your eye sockets!"
Laff chuckled and handed me a bottle of cold water to clear my mind. I gladly accepted it and chugged all of it down in one round. That's probably going to give me an extreme brain freeze now. Awesome. I thought sarcastically before dumping the empty bottle in the trash bin.
"I'll handle this Woolf situation later. While you and I get the others ready for the surprise. How does that sound?"
Laff suggested.
"Okay, you already made a plan that we can work with. Can you also tour everyone else around while I monitor the machine?"
"Will do mate, will do."
And then an arrangement has been made in less than five minutes.
- - -
Socks, Blaza, and I spoke with each other for a while. We talked about many things. Socks shared his stories about his adventures in space while we told him our 'exciting' adventures back on Earth. This just felt like old times: chatting, making fun of each other, making terrible or good jokes, saying random things... It brings nostalgia. I also have concerns on what Joocie, Muffin, and Nadwe is doing. Nadwe seemed to be showing them an old indie horror game that he recently found, and I have a feeling that they are theorizing about it. But I won't stop them for theorizing. As I was listening to the conversation that was happening between Socks and Blaza, a random thought came to me and I realized that there was something that Socks needed to know, something important. Socks doesn't know that Oompa died yet. So I waited till both of them finished talking before saying:
"Socks, there's something that I or we need to tell you."
I made my tone as serious as possible, because this is something that needs to be taken seriously.
"What is it Tbh?"
Socks listened, turning his attention to me.
"While you were gone off to space, something happened to Oompa,"
I took in a deep breath, clearing away any heavy feelings that I may have felt from before. Blaza's enthusiastic face was soon replaced with a frown as I spoke. He knew what I was going to mention to Socks so he glared at me. He looked like he wanted to say something to switch the topic that I was about to bring up.
"Oompa might've-"
My throat felt clogged. I couldn't seem to find the right words to say, it was all scrambled.
"He... well.."
I tried to force myself to say. This is way tougher than I imagined.
"Just get to the point already!  What happened to Oompa?"
Socks looked at me with concern and eagerness to know what in the world happened to one of his childhood friends. Will I be able to handle another person breaking down? I wondered. Just say it, just say it, JUST.SAY.IT.
"Oompa d-"
"Oh hey, LOOK- Meme is showing us something!"
Blaza suddenly interrupted me, pointing at where Meme was setting up some sort of machine in the closet. All of us turned to look at it. By taking a closer look, the machine looked like a huge printer with four wheels at the bottom, there was a thick cord attached to the printer like machine where it led to another different set of the machine. The other set of the machine looked more like a portal stand or an arch of some sort.