The Black Infectious Thingy | Inanimate Insanity AU |

(CH.57) Midnight Accidental Meet-ups

\\\CW: SWEARING\\\
///SOAP POV///
I'VE BEEN SEARCHING FOR AN HOUR ALREADY AND I'VE FOUND NOTHING.
FUCK!
Try to find Balloon, they said, it'll be easy, I thought.
But nope! NOT AT ALL!
And I went back to check on Test Tube but they're not in the entrance anymore.
I don't know where their room is, so what do I do?
Do I really have to wait until tomorrow???? With all the possible yucky infections????
Fuck that!
And worst of all, I can't even find aid-kits myself.
So even if I wanted to cure myself, they're nowhere to be found! AGH!
I'm gonna go take a final walk around the hotel, if they're nowhere to be found i will officially give up.
I walked through the hotel, past the doors and locked windows.
Man, I wished there was some sort of way for me to communicate-
I want to tell them about Red, about what they're hiding.
Ugh, but I can't speak.
And I don't even know when i'll be able to once again!
I am so clueless here, I don't know what to do and I have no way to obtain the answers to my many questions.
I continued walking through the hotel, looking at the doors.
Gosh, I wished these doors had names on them, it'd be much easier to know where everyone and everything is if that was the case!
Wait! I've got an idea!
Names, writing, I can write! I can ask stuff by writing!!!
I only need to get my hands on some sort of thing where I can write in.
I'll ask Bomb about it- Oh.
Well  fuck, how do i tell him about this if i dont have it yet?
Ughhhhhhh...
I'll figure it out.
I continued to think to myself as I walked around the corridors.
Maybe they have some sort of supplies somewhere in this seemingly endless hotel?
Agh, I don't know.
I looked through some windows.
Hm.... I wonder what's in these rooms though.
And as I looked more into the room, I heard something break from behind me.
I quickly turned around and saw... Red and some sort of paper holding hands? With a broken thing on the floor in front of the paper.
"H-Hi...?"
Red visibly sighed and turned to face me, unholding the paper's hand and walking in my direction.
I tried to back away but I was already fully backed away, my hands already on the glass as I gulped anxiously.
"We're gonna keep this to ourselves, m'kay?" He said as he skillfully took out his knife and pointed it towards me.
I nodded and he smirked back.
"Good." He said and went back with the paper as he grabbed them by the arm.
"Let's go. Feel lucky that I had this one under control." He angrily stated as he took them down the hall.
I calmed myself down and let myself fall to the floor.
Ah, ffuck... There's two now..-
As I sat on the floor I took a moment to see what was in front of me, a broken vase.
Is this what they tripped over? Why is there a vase here.... I haven't seen any other in the hotel thus far.
I wonder why it was here for...
Well, not important anymore. It's broken now.
And who was that? I haven't seen them around before...
And they seemed pretty anxious, are they afraid of me?
Or of Red... Actually them being afraid of Red would make much more sense.
Or maybe they were afraid of both of us?
I don't know... But they can't be anything good.
They could've been hidden away all the time, and I didn't notice.
Either that or Red sneaked them in recently, either way, not something I'm glad to know.
I stood up.
This is all so horrible, I need to find a way to communicate with others already!
It's important that I get something to write on soon.
I continued walking, I think i'm gonna head back to my room now, I don't think I'll find Balloon or Test Tube anytime soon
I walked past the hallways, and heard some chatting towards the end of the hall.
More people awake? At this time?
I sneakily walked towards the voices, which led me to a taped shut room.
As I leaned onto the door, I carefully listened to the faint voices.
I couldn't figure out what they were saying...
Ughhhhhhhhhh should I go in? Or not...
Should I just let it be? And for once mind my own business for the sake of my safety.
Yes, no.
Yes?
Aghhhhhh. No!
I'm not doing this again, not after what happened to Mic.
But maybe, oh maybe. Maybe I should.
Whatever I find there I won't be able to share though... Is it worth bearing the burden of not even being able to communicate whatever I see?
I held my hand over  the door knob.
I'll probably regret this.
I shouldn't do this.
ARGHHH.. Fuck it, i'm checking it out.
I opened the door silently and sneaked my way into the room.
It was big and spacious, built like a set for some sort of show?
I looked around, a camera was in the middle of the room on top of a tripod, pointing towards a couch with a table beside it.
I approached the table, there were some paper notes and a mug on it.
Huh.
I looked into the mug, the remains of coffee still inside of it, yikes!
I walked back to the middle of the room, and stared at the camera and tripod.
This might come in handy later.
I grabbed the camera and tried turning it on.. But it didn't want to.
It must be low on battery, i'll take it with me and get that replaced then.
It had some sort of lace to wrap it around me, which I did.
I'll figure out some use for you.
I continued walking through the room, the faint voices getting louder.
And I quickly noticed a door almost seemingly hidden to the side of the room.
I went towards it, and I felt a shiver up my spine. I can't believe I'm about to do this all over again.
The voices got louder, and they started to sound less and less muffled as I stopped in front of the door.
Fuck. This is it.
I could barely make out the words being said, all I could understand being the tone of the voices.
One horribly high pitched, and the other considerably deeper. Both arguing with one another.
I can't tell what they're arguing about though...
Shit, I'll have to burst in.
Ugh, okay, let's get this over with.
I glanced around, and grabbed a random sharp and heavy piece of metal just in case, ugh, It's kinda dirty but this'll have to do.
I took a deep breath and before I had any chance to overthink any further, I burst into the room, piece of metal pointing towards whatever was in front of me.
There I found a coin and.. a balloon!
"EEP!! WHAT THE-" The balloon shrieked as they jumped onto the coin, slowly descending onto the floor.
"Dude, this is exactly what I was telling you! I told you that they'd send someone to follow us around." The coin said as they angrily looked over to me.
"Why are you following us around?!" They told me, with a straight face, clearly mad.
I crossed my arms as I stared at them with an 'you gotta be kidding me' look.
Who is this idiot, and how are they unaware that I can't talk? I have my mouth quite literally bandaged right now.
"Umh.. Nickel-" The balloon said, as 'Nickel' looked back at them.
"What? Really, what could you possibly have to say now, Balloon?"
"She can't talk."
"Wh- Huh? Why not? When did that happen?"
"Uh, a week ago.. She got attacked by the TEO- Lost her memory too."
"...Ah."
"Yeah, if there's anyone we can trust, I uh, I think it'd be her."
They looked over to me pitifully and sighed.
"And why the fuck are you following us then? Hm?"
I looked at them up and down and uncrossed my arms as I pointed to the door and followed that movement by making a 'chatting' type of movement with my hand.
"Huh." Nickel was dumbfounded, but Balloon's eyes seemed to lit up.
"Oh! I'm good with guessing, I think she means to tell us that she uhhh... Talking... Door... Umh... Youuuu... heard us talking from outside the door?"
Shit, they're actually quite good at this!
I nodded as I smiled with my eyes, where have they been this whole time? I really would've liked them to be with me as my translator or something.
"And why were you up this late?" Nickel asked me.
Well, how am I supposed to tell him that? C'mon.
I tried my best to explain myself using basic movements, by pointing to my bandages around my mouth area.
"Your... Mouth? What the shi-"
I angrily frowned, gosh, shut up. Let the other one translate.
"No no, it's the bandages, right?"
I nodded again.
"Well, what about them?" Nickel asked as he looked confusedly at Balloon.
"Hm... Well, they do look old... I think she hasn't gotten them changed yet? I remember Test Tube helping her back at the party... But that was so long ago.... And it'd be so out of character for her to have such nasty bandages still, unless.... I think I also overheard Test Tube and OJ discuss a possible lack of aid-kits, maybe that's why she hasn't replaced them herself? She could be searching for one right now, maybe?"
I mentally gasped, why are they quite literally reading my mind? Yes yes, yes!
Finally someone understands me!
I excitedly nodded, giving him a thumbs up.
"Jeez, didn't know you could... figure stuff out like that."
"I've been practicing. Ever since I got eliminated from season two I uh, I wanted to improve. So I tried being more observant, so I could tell when people don't want me somewhere."
"Damnn... Helpful now though, right?"
"Yeahh."
I gently touched Balloon's shoulder to gain their attention, it's all really nice and all but I wish to , y'know, receive information on what they are doing here.
"Ah?-"
I pointed at them both and made a curious face at them.
"Uhhh, us? Us what?"
I put a hand on my hip and pointed around the room and then looked back at them.
"Us... Here.... Are you asking why we are here?"
I gave him another thumbs up and he looked over to Nickel.
"We uh..."
"Nuh-uh, she don't need to know."
"But Nickel, does it even make any difference?"
"Yes! It does!"
"She's not gonna stop us, I think it's fine to trust her."
"Shut up! Balloon, please. For once just listen to me."
I confusedly stared at them, and began actually analyzing the room... huh. It's all empty apart from this one machine in the middle.
"Trust me Nickel, it's fine."
As they talked, I walked towards the machine.
"It's not."
"It is! Soap, you won't stop us, right?"
They both turned to face me.
"Ack! Get away from that!!" Balloon yelled as they approached me.
I quickly reacted and pointed the piece of metal towards them.
"Woah woah, chill! I trust you, you can trust me too."
Nickel audibly grumbled, and with my other hand I pointed at the machine.
"What? That? It's just a teletransportation machine, to get us out of here-"
"BALLOON?!"
"Nickel, it's fine! Right, Soap? Let us get to the machine now, please."
Get out of here? But that's... that's what the orange juice didn't want at all.
I looked at Balloon, who had a scared yet trying to maintain calm look on their face.
I don't want to do this.... But I have to.
I rose the metal high enough in the air and... Cut the huge cable connecting the machine with a clean slash!
"NOOO!" They both shrieked at the same time.
I let the metal piece fall the floor as I backed away, having gotten a slight cut on my hand due to the excessive heaviness of the metal.
I held my hand in pain and looked at Balloon and Nickel, faces covered in shock.
I started heavily panting, I couldn't believe what I had just done.
I quickly came back to reality and ran towards the door, leaving the room, leaving the studio..
I just messed up, didn't I?