The Stories He Has to Tell | SabreTober Prompts | Hosted by IcyWillowSong

~| Day 23: Scent |~

Bit of a mutilation warning, but it's not that bad. This contains zombies so yk-

Series: Rainbow Quest

AU: Apocalypse (Sabre's world turned zombie apocalypse, survived with his friends for a long time before one night everything goes wrong and they all get infected and turn. During the time Sabre's a zombie, the RQ world falls apart and all of the Steves (including the Red Steves because they were forced out of hiding by the event) moved into Sabre's world)

Context: This is how Sabre was able to return to the story, with some help from Professor Red (read the chapter in my AU book for more backstory and some stuff that takes place after this)

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[Professor Red's POV]

"Professor, what even is that thing?" Scout asks me as I pick up my new weapon.

"It's something I based off of the old weapons of this world! Pretty cool right?" I reply, holding up the replicated weapon I finished building yesterday. The one I based it off of is apparently called a 'sniper rifle'.

"Better not point it at anyone." Scout sighs. "Also what's that weird second pipe below the first one? The glass one?"

"Ah- that's for a later experiment." I say, quickly covering the glass 'barrel' below the main one. "That one doesn't shoot bullets, don't worry."

"Bullets?"

"That's the name of the ammunition for these things, remember?"

"Right, right..."

Orange Steve, the strange one with the diamond-shaped mark, peeks around the doorway. He's apparently been friends with Scout for a while, even before we were forced to evacuate our world.

"Red Steve, Professor, are we gonna get moving or what?" Orange asks. "It's not gonna be much longer before the zombies follow their routine and crowd that area again."

"We're coming, hold your horses Orange." Scout says as he picks up his nailed bat.

I walk over with my new weapon- I should really take to calling it what it is, a rifle- and follow the other two.

We soon get to the no-man's-land of this large abandoned base; a spot where we haven't settled and the zombies rarely come over here. It's risky for both sides, but we use it as where to mark the spot where we're leaving the settlement.

A Yellow Steve and another Orange Steve are waiting there, the Orange Steve seeming scared. The Yellow Steve, who's apparently been doing this for a while, just looks bored. They both see us.

"Took you long enough." Yellow Steve says.

"I had to find the Professor." Scout says.

"I was working on the last touches of my new invention- well, it's a copy of an old weapon from here, but still!" I explain, holding up my rifle.

"Whatever, can we just get this over with?" Yellow says, getting up from the bench he was sitting on.

Orange Steve walks over to the scared-looking Orange Steve, and places his hand on his shoulder while we're all double-checking our gear.

"Shy, it's gonna be alright. It's just a simple scouting mission." Orange says. "Nothing serious."

"I-It's still s-scary..." The other Orange Steve, who I now know is Shy says.

We finish checking our gear, and we all head out into the infested areas of the base.

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Alright, finally had an excuse to separate from the group and test this.

I palm the small dart as I sneak through the dark rooms of this area. I then hear a zombie, just one zombie, groan nearby and I hide behind a few boxes near the doorway I just walked through. I recognize this specific spot as one of the ways back to base, and make a note about it.

Peeking over the boxes, I see that lone zombie. Forest green shirt and jeans, combat boots, brown hair, and for some reason a blindfold...? Either the person this zombie used to be was a little odd, or that was one terrible way for a party game to go wrong. Either way, this zombie isn't as withered as the others and has some gear similar to what we've been using. Whoever this was must have survived for a while and got infected shortly before we arrived a few years ago. However, it still looks to be not very well off. It's missing an arm, even part of the bone poking out, and there's quite a few bad gashes on its face. Its leg is twisted up a bit, probably sprained but not broken thankfully. It'll need to be able to walk once I do this.

I carefully and quietly load the dart armed with the elixir I created into the glass barrel of my rifle, and slowly get up from my crouching position so I can have a clear shot, the smell of rotting flesh making itself very obvious as the zombie gets closer (ew). I'm still getting used to aiming this thing, I didn't have time to experiment with it before the mission.

I was about to pull the trigger when the zombie suddenly turns its head and spots me, making me jump. It lets out a screech and starts to run towards me with its singular working arm and torn-up stump outstretched.

I panic and just fire.

The shot echoes throughout the building, probably getting the attention of my teammates and a few other zombies. The zombie that was charging towards me stumbles back, and when I look up I see that I nailed it right in the chest.

The zombie stumbles back for a few more steps, then looks up at me. It tries to keep standing still, but it seems to have become dizzy by the elixir's effect and sways quite a bit. At the last second it stumbles forward, shakily reaching towards me, but falls backwards to the ground and lands on its back. It's still shaking, but it doesn't get back up. Is it... breathing?

The rest of the group suddenly enters the room, Yellow holding a bleeding spot on his arm. I look towards them.

"Professor, what on earth was that?!" Orange whisper-yells. "You've probably attracted so many zombies just now!"

"Well if they haven't arrived yet, we're fine." I whisper back.

They all notice the zombie on the floor in front of us.

"Professor Red, did you seriously just send a friggen signal to where you are to every zombie in the arena, just to get rid of one?" Yellow asks, sounding annoyed.

"U-uh, why is it s-shaking?" Shy says.

"That's because-" I start, but I'm interrupted.

The zombie on the ground suddenly makes a hoarse gasping noise, and the shaking becomes more frequent. Everyone else looks towards it as its green-tinted, grey skin starts to become a warmer color and looks less... dead. As soon as all of the grey skin has turned into a tan-peach color, the zombie stops shaking and quickly becomes limp. It is very visibly breathing... it's alive.

Everyone stares in silence, holding their weapons. A minute passes.

"...Professor." Scout says with a shocked tone. "What on earth did you do."