Distrust

3 • Found

[The end segment of the chapter was slightly changed, sorry for any confusion!]

Donut rested his back against a tree, breathing shakily, he had been travelling for 4 hours looking for another contestant, it didn't really matter who he found, but really he was hoping to find Barfbag or Gelatin. Thankfully he wouldn't go hungry because of his object type but he knew he'd need to sleep eventually, and sleeping alone in their situation would be a death wish.

Swallowing, he pushed himself up from the floor, and slowly walked on. In the quiet of the area, Donut's senses seemed to heighten, he stiffened at any small sounds, easily created by birds or animals. From a distance he heard a desperate cry of help, "shit..." Donut muttered under his breath. Ignoring his desire to rest he began running in the direction of the yells, before coming to a small clearing. Lightning's eyes were glazed as he struggled to fight Bomby off, he was begging him not to hurt him. Lightning tried to escape by flying away but Bomby seized his arm and pulled him down before he could.

Donut's eyes drifted toward a large branch on the ground. Neither Lightning or Bomby had noticed him yet so he picked it up and swung straight for Bomby. In one swift movement he fell to the ground, twitching slightly, "We need to go Lightning" he sighed, Lightning looked at him hesitantly, "I won't hurt you, for one i'm too tired to try..." Donut half-joked, starting to walk away from the clearing. After deciding he was trustworthy Lightning followed along, twiddling his fingers, "Erm.. thank you, for saving from Bomby..." he thanked Donut, "I was flying for so long, and then I saw Bell but her eyes were those weird spirals, so I panicked and that's when I saw Bomby in the clearing, but he was completely fine at first!" he explained, "And then this weird goo stuff started to come out of his eyes and mouth and he tired to attack me!"

Donut looked over to him sympathetically, he had been lucky enough to not encounter any infected contestants. He let his mind wander as the pair walked along, he wondered just how many people had become infected now, he considered how long it took for someone to become infected, and how they got it in the first place. "Lightning..?" He asked, "What did Bomby look like before he starting attacking you?". Lightning pressed his lips for a second, recalling the moment, "Well he had a massive gash on his back, it looked really sore and bloody...".

"Did it have anything else on it? Like that liquid that started to come out of his eyes?" Donut added, if he was correct, whatever had started to come out of Cakes mouth, had gotten into Basketball's bloodstream through her eyes or mouth, carrying the infection to her, through this process others attacked would be infected, creating a more dire situation. The way Bomby had been infected was most likely through the slash, so it took longer for him to become fully affected compared to those who had it straight to their face.

Lightning paused to think again but subconsciously maintained his forward momentum and hit a tree. "Oww.." he moaned, rubbing his eyes, "but he did have a stain of yellow near the gash, it looked like he had tired to rub it away if that's what you mean?" he said, getting back on track with the conversation. "Uh yeah, that's exactly what I thought. I think I know how this is spreading..." Donut confirmed. Due to his exhaustion from being on foot for so long he slumped to the ground against a tree, which granted him a confused glance from Lightning, "I'll tell you tomorrow, I know it's only dusk but I really just need some sleep right now." he sighed, closing his eyes.

"Ok! I'll keep watch for a couple hours and then we can swap," he joyfully agreed, Lightning was happy to have found someone that wasn't insane. Donut fell asleep moderately quickly and Lightning soon found himself extremely bored. He had tried to entertain himself in many ways like playing rock paper scissors with himself or seeing how long he could float upside down without having to turn right side up. Yet, nothing quenched his boredom despite trying for a 2 hours or so, it was hard to tell the time without Clock around.