The Virus Is Incurable

Electric Theater Nerds

A/N: New chapter!! Check A/N p.2 for actual notes. Anywho the song rec of the update is Everybody's Angels by Down With Webster. Link at the bottom nerds. Love ya

 After a hurried breakfast at the dining hall the next morning they were off to training again. This time it was a little different. As they stood in a dark grey room, that appeared as if it had once been a banquet hall, but was now empty, the concrete walls rocky and uneven, Snake's deep voice rang out. "Alright folks, today you're gonna be doin somethin a little different. Threw that door," he pointed to an almost black door, that was thick with latches and complicated locks, "is an elevator-shaft-like tunnel. In that tunnel is an old electricity panel that's connected to a few of the watch towers. They're currently out of order, but with the right hands and skills, can be repaired." He paused for dramatic effect. "Whoever can successfully switch on the power in their watch tower, gets extra rations for 3 days. Not that nasty bread stuff from the parlor." On second thought he added, "Don't tell Krism I said that." They all laughed lightly, knowing how cranky the kitchen lady could get.

  About 20 minutes later Felix found himself dressed in heavy, tight layers, a face mask, with a headlamp perched atop it, sporting a heavy belt and harness laden with gear for the task ahead. His comrades were all dressed similar to him and as they stood before the door they all seemed a little on edge. Red was adjusting her sleeve, Russ dusting off his glasses, Scott twiddling his fingers somewhat roughly and Cry helping Snake undo the locks on the door. After glancing around the room, Felix's eyes returned to Scott, who seemed to be the most uptight. As he watched the brunette scratch absently at his cheek suddenly the man seemed to remember something and his thumbnail dug roughly into his skin. Scott yelped slightly, pulling away his hand quickly but the damage was done and a bead of crimson slipped down his face. As the blonde reached out to speak to him, a loud creak resounded throughout the room causing all of them to look up and see the huge door was now propped open slightly, Cry beckoning them forward as if he were a tour guide. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Jund try to wipe away the blood with the back of hand, only succeeding in smudging it across his prominent cheekbones. With that they headed forth, through the door. Felix pretended not to notice the concerned expression on Snake's face as he gazed at Jund. What was up with that? Had the two become close friends? All these thoughts disappeared though as they entered the room because it was so overwhelmingly dark. Funny how something blank like darkness, blackness, can seem so enveloping. They stood on a rim-like precipice, surrounding a dark abyss. It was as if someone had hollowed out the room, extracting the core and leaving behind a shell. Like everything in the center just ceased to exist. Felix was pulled from his thoughts of the darkness as Cry approached. "Hey." The masked man spoke softly. "Uh hi." Felix mumbled, not meeting the other's eyes. "I'm just gonna..uh.." Cry pulled the rope that was wound around a secure pole in the ceiling, forward. He began to tie Felix in which was rather awkward as the harness was around his waist, very close to-he pushed the thought out of his mind before the weirdness had an affect on him. He heard the telltale fwip of the rope as Cry secured the knot tightly. Suddenly a warm hand gripped his wrist, causing him to look up. Cry was holding onto his arm, staring at him, his mask secured tightly around his face and Felix found himself following the shadows of his hair across the porcelain with his eyes. "Listen," Cry spoke slowly, "you're not a burden Felix, I've never thought of you as one and I never will." He paused. "Unless, you spend all your time worrying about it and fuck up and get yourself killed. Then you'll be burden." His voice had turned from gentle Cry, to mentor. "Once you step into the field, you forget everything that happened out there, except for how to shoot and survive." Cry tapped Felix's forehead for emphasis. "Now go kick some ass by way of troubleshooting an electrical panel." He finished, turning and walking away. The blonde smiled after him before adjusting his headlamp. Here goes. He swept his gaze across the room. Red was prepped to go, her stance practically screamed 'come at me', Russ looked relaxed but his eyes showed signs of nervousness. Scott was currently being tied in by Snake, who had probably chastised the brunette for getting hurt before evening entering the field, telling by the slight frown on his face and the fact that the blood was mostly gone from his cheek. The scruffy man stepped away as he finished the knot, Scott's eyes following him a short way. "Alright noobs. Get to it!" Cry's somewhat battle-cry rung out in the small area. The commencement was rather anticlimactic though, as they began to move forward, edging towards what seemed like their doom. Felix began to think of how he would start his descent when suddenly a whoosh of air rushed past him and he looked up just in time to see Cry, sprint forward and jump over the ledge, pulling back the lever on his rappelling device as he plummeted, with little friction on the rope. Felix snorted as he heard the masked man's distant whooping and hollering as he raced down the tunnel. Sighing, the blonde clambered over to the edge, pushing his feet against the wall. He was no dangling in the giant abyss, his feet propped against the exterior. Felix went to lower himself slowly, but being his clumsy self, accidently pulled the lever all the way back, and began to plummet at full speed, as if the rope wasn't even there. He let out a high pitch screech but remembered to slowly let up on the lever. Slowly, slowly, he came to a slow pace and an eventual stop. Good thing he'd remembered not to let go, otherwise he'd probably be dead, such a jarring force would probably knock him out. As the blonde took in a few deep breaths, and slowly lowered himself, he realized he could see the faint outline of what looked like an old lighting table below. The next thing he noticed was the figure slumped casually against the back wall and in the dim glow of his headlamp he could just barely make out the mask. Felix pulled back the lever a little more, as he began to repel steadily. He could hear the chaffing of the other's ropes above him, who were slightly behind him due to his fortunate, or unfortunate accident. His feet met concrete as he stood on his wobbly feet, feeding the slack through the device. He had a good amount of rope left to walk around with, and the snake-like rope lay in a coil on the ground. Felix looked up to see Cry watching him from across the...room he guessed? He began to make his way toward the big table of control panels. As he approached his suspicions were confirmed. One of the control panels was different. It wasn't just any shabby old electrical panel. It was a stage lighting control board. Felix's footsteps quickened, the utilities on his belt clinking together as he walked. It was a control board. He ran his fingers along the bottom, wiping off the dust. This was perfect. Back home Felix had been a theater nerd, he admitted it. But he couldn't sing or really act, so every play he was always set crew. Doing lights, making props, controlling sound, it was fantastic. He knew a control panel like the back of his hand. Time to get to work. This would be slightly more difficult, seeing as he didn't have a visual on the tower. "Hey Cry?" He called. The man jumped slightly, surprised by the sudden voice in the silence. "Yep?" Was the response. "How am I supposed to know that I got the light turned on?" Felix questioned. "You see that little light-bulb thing under each of the panels? That'll light up blue once it's on." The blonde yelled a quick thanks, although he'd been hoping to have some sort of way to see the light while working on it. He brushed it off and set out the tools he thought he'd need. Jumper cable, tiny crowbar, screwdriver, scissors and a small amount of electrical tape. He started out by unscrewing the panel, which wasn't easy work mind you, those screws were practically rusted into the table. He quickly identified the culprit, which he was glad to realize was a simple fix. A split wire. Felix began to reach toward it and then, remembering it could be a live wire, retracted his hand. Rubber gloves. "Eureka." he murmured, before patting himself down in search of the gloves. The blonde found them and quickly pulled them on before retrieving the wire. He reached over, swiped the jumper cable, connected the two ends, and then wrapped them in electrical tape. He admitted, it definitely wasn't the most professional repair and would probably only last temporarily, but they hadn't specified how long it had to last. He then moved on to the board itself. He wasn't really sure how to go about this, the different sliding things (he'd never quite been sure what their real name was) usually controlled the type of lighting and where it appeared on the stage. But this wasn't a stage, and he assumed that there was only one light in the tower. Felix was glad this was just your standard Preset Board, much less things to mix up. Some of the levers, he decided upon calling them that, had colored dots on them or pieces of tape, while some were bare. He heard a couple of the others land and begin to slacken their ropes (that sounded dirty) and eventually Felix decided to just wing it. No harm done. He slid up one of the unmarked levers. Nothing. He tried one of the taped ones. Still nothing. He whipped his head to the side as he heard the loud clang of materials being set down, and his mouth gaped open as he saw Russ's fingers practically flying over the panel he was working on, flicking through wires and buttons simultaneously. Damn, he knew he was tech savvy, but not this good. Felix quickly turned his attention back to his own panel, squinting down at it frustratedly. His eyes landed on a lever with a blue dot on it. Worth a shot, he figured. He pushed it forward slowly and was instantly blinded. The blonde jumped back with a squeak as the blue light flickered on. "I-I did it." Another light joined his own and he glanced over to see Russ, who'd taken a fraction of the time he did to complete the same task. "Holy shit dude." He breathed at Russ. "How do you do that?" The longer haired man laughed, prodding his glasses up onto his nose. "Speak for yourself, you finished before me." Felix opened his mouth to retort but was cut off by a whoop. They both glanced over to see Scott, his light on as well, hands in the air. Felix laughed lightly at the spectacle. The 3 gathered to chat aimlessly when suddenly Russ spoke, "Wait where's Red?" Speak of the devil, the red-head came practically crashing down as Russ hurried over to steady her. She was out of breath as she spoke, "My gear was busted so I had to haul ass to get new stuff and get back down here." She pushed gently through the crowd of 3 and made her way to the panels, getting to work on the last one. Russ and Scott went back to talking about lights or something and the blonde decided to wander over to the man still slumped in the corner. "Hey." He murmured, as he slid down the wall to sit beside him. It was a familiar feeling, and he was reminded of the time in the dining hall. "Hi." Cry responded. "Remember when I barely knew you and you fell asleep on me in the dining hall." Felix said, amused. "Pfft, you probably drugged me, knowing you." Cry smirked. "Hey!" Pewds exclaimed, mocking hurt. "You were all like 'notice me Cry-Chan!'" He continued, using a girly voice and making feminine hand gestures. "Yah that's definitely how it went down." Felix replied, sarcastically. Just then they heard an excited "Yes!" and looked over to see that Red's light was now on. "Looks like we're heading back up." Cry smiled, and they went their separate ways as they began the slow ascent to the surface.

A/Np.2: Hey hey hey. Alright not everything here is obviously accurate, I'm not that good at troubleshooting but the method used in this chapter should be somewhat accurate. Most of the things about the lighting panels are true as well.

Also, the rappel device used in this chapter is called a grigri, it's a substitute for a carabiner that is completely safe and only allows movement when the lever is pulled back, if the lever is not pulled the rope cannot move. Everything about the grigri is accurate although it might not be the best for self rappelling.

Anyways hope you enjoyed this chapter :3 update will be soon.

Song Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww4gSZ_x8_k