Wonderer's Wish World 2: Evolutionary Rebirth

Empty Space

Day 25

Time: 4:58AM

Location: The Basement, Death-Tastin' Desert

Darius jerked his head up, staring at the person across from him in the darkness. The person stared back.

"...Ben?"

Ben blinked, and nodded. "Yeah, it's me. Darius, what happened?"

Darius opened his mouth, prepared to tell him, but then closed it. A wave of fresh pain hit him, and he shook in agony, hands reaching out to his leg, not holding it, but just... reaching out to it. As he did, he saw a blue strip of cloth tied tightly around it, the blue strip usually tied around Ben's head. It was already soaked with blood, some dry, some not.

Ben saw him looking at it. "Let's... the best I could do. I have no pain meds, no supplies, no antibiotics... we need to get you out and to a doctor as fast as possible, or..."

He tried off. Darius was grateful.

"What happened, Darius?" Ben asked again, more firmly, and Darius doubted he'd stop before he got an answer.

"You..." Darius took a deep breath. "You were gone for a long time. Me and Gregory went looking for you, and something attacked us. Then..."

Darius paused, hesitating. He looked around the small space they were in, and found the walls were the same as that in the tunnel, a weird cross between a craggy cave wall, and the smooth walls of man made tunnels. But this wasn't a tunnel. It reminded Darius of one of the rooms in the large space, only without any furniture. A torch was placed along the wall, flickering brightly, but it didn't look like it belonged here. Ben likely brought it with him when he first came in.

They were alone in the room. There was no trace of Gregory, and a dark pit suddenly formed in the base of Darius' stomach.

"...Where's Gregory?" he finally asked, and he watched Ben swallow, moving away from him to peer out of the entrance of the tunnel, seemingly trying to avoid Darius' eyes.

"Gone," Ben finally told him, his voice quiet. "I was done here when I heard the screaming. I recognized your guys voices and I came running out just when you guys landed on the floor on top of the monster spider thing. Before I could fight it, it got up from under you and crawled away, taking Gregory with it. I saw it eat him as it crawled along the walls."

Darius stared at his friend in horror. "It... what?"

"You heard me. I-."

Whatever Ben was going to say, he evidently couldn't finish it, instead choking on his words. Eventually, he seemed to swallow whatever he was going to say, instead saying, "We should get back. If more people come looking for us..."

He didn't bother finishing. Darius gulped.

"Yeah..." he agreed hesitantly. "Ben, listen, I'm sorry about Gregory. I should have made him stay behind, but I... he... I'm sorry."

Darius saw Ben's jaw tighten. "...It's my fault."

Darius blinked. "What? How? Ben-."

"You came looking for me, right?" Ben asked in a near growl. "It's my own fault for running away. Don't apologize."

Darius blinked, feeling hurt. "Still."

"Let's stop talking about it," Ben huffed. "We need to go."

Darius absolutely thought they should still talk about it, but Ben was right. They needed to get out of there before any of the others came, or before the monster (had Ben called it a spider?!) found them. Their talk would have to wait.