SMG4:// Exodus

Part 0: Eternal Return [v2.0]

ONE WEEK AFTER THE BATTLE AT THE DARK WEB, 3 WEEKS BEFORE MEGGY AND MELONY RETURN TO PEACHE'S CASTLE]

I was scraped out of my sleep and peeled off my bed early in the morning by almost nothing at all.

I rolled back my long satin pink hair and got my bearings. Through the grating haze of half-sleep, I listened intently for a beeping noise I swore I heard, like hearing a voice you swore you recognized amongst the chatter of a crowded room. The electric chirp was faint, easily dismissable for a washing machine in another room. But the rhythm of the chimes, switching frantically between three-or-so different pitches in busy succession, I didn't recognize. My alarm clock was still sitting on the nightstand, primed to go off in a few hours and sing a much harsher and more monotone song. It was jarring to hear something so out of place, yet so unnervingly faintly familiar.

I slithered off my short bedframe, stood up, and rubbed my eyes. The cheap, fake-bronze on the old bed shifts and creaks. I really need to get a newer bed. I swore I could hear the tones coming from the kitchen. Barefoot, I slinked across my carpet to the living room-kitchen-combo. All of my appliances looked up at me innocently as the beeping continued. I guess none of them had decided to tell me they needed a repair job. I waltzed over to a lamp and turned it on, dousing the room in dim yellow light. Nothing out of place so far.

I heard a rustle from a birdcage to my right. Callid was awake. He cocked his puffy gray head and looked up at me. Tari had only just opened her eyes again a few days ago and she hasn't been in the best shape to take care of a feral swan. As for myself, I could be better. My leg has certainly healed, but I'm still halfway through Physical Therapy to walk on it right. It makes me laugh how it took so long for me to heal while everybody else just seems to regenerate like demigods or something. Although, Both Meggy and Melony are still half-dead in Surfshine Hospital right now, so I can't say much. The SMGs and Mario are starting to get serious about learning new techniques, even while recovering from minor burns and scratches from that energy blast Meggy pulled off. I sort of thought that the beeping might have been one of the SMG's trying to call me, SMG1 only just figured out how the technology in our Universe works and has been changing his ringtone around as of late.

Before Tari woke up, we all went to Officer Monitor's funeral. Since he died, there's been a power vacuum in the force with no clear successor. Peach said that she might just take over the police force herself, which scares me deeply. I honestly would have preferred Swag or Chris or Sergeant Mark to... literally the only lady scarier than me.

After standing in my living room in a tired daze for like 30 minutes, I finally figured out where the beeping was coming from. I walked limply over to a side door with a metal DO NOT ENTER sign over it. There were two big metal combination locks on the door, holding it shut. Chills surge up my back as I begin to remember the codes. I haven't used this door since I came through the screen. I forgot what was even in here. I have to search my brain to find the combinations for the locks. I find nothing. The mental fuzz in my head doesn't feel like fuzz at all, more like a big cold void inside my skull. I clatter through a junk drawer to find a note that hadn't needed in ages. Picking it up, I feel as though I'm learning this combination for the very first time, even though my name is on the bottom left. I mute my creeping thoughts and turn the first dial.

"S>>>K>>>H"

I snag down on the lock, which opens with a little more force than I anticipated. I pinch the latch and swing it open hastily.

"O>>>K>>>6"

The second lock opens with a sharp click, like the hammer to a gun. The beeping continues as I open the door to a room without wallpaper.all around me is bare drywall and wooden beams standing broodingly under a pale white, fluorescent light. My bare feet touch the rough, unfinished floor. Its coarseness and all the dust of 5 years of disuse makes the room look and feel like it's covered in ash. I feel like I'm walking into a temple, pulled lazily through the room by some unknown force. This room is a memorial to something that never happened.

I turn the corner and happen on a big wooden workbench. On it is a laptop. The screen is nothing but void. Next to it is the source of the beeping and a scrap of paper. I pick up the culprit: a small round metal beacon. One after another, memories float into my head as my hand finds a knob on the back and turns it. The sound it gave in response as it shut off seemed like both a family reunion and a middle school dance. I don't even know how it turned on. I forgot so much about this place since I met Boopkins and everyone else.

I turn over the piece of paper next to it. It's a polaroid, half burnt, it seems. I stare back at a younger me amid a sea of marker ink and ash. She looks so happy. There's an arm of an unknown owner wrapped tight around her head in a haphazard bear hug. I don't react, even though I begin to remember her name again. The two words form like a droplet in my memory, but they never fall and hit the ground.

Out of sheer morbid nostalgia, my hand drifts to the power button of the laptop. With a dampened clunk and a whir of a cooling fan, the screen wakes up. It's dimmer than I remember, the LCD display flickers wearily and the black painted metal on the bottom goes from a bitter cold to lukewarm. The startup noise startles me, a punchy symphony of synthesizers and real violins bitcrushed and distorted by age. An application opens immediately. I hear a short chiptune jingle as the name "Kevin's School" flips onto screen along with a play button. I click it, which opens to a terminal interface.

>>WARNING! CANNOT LOAD GAME. Please check source files.

>>ERROR: File not found. source/map/kevschool/lvl1.dll

>>ERROR: File not found. source/event/day1/scene1/tutorial.dll

>>ERROR: File not found. source/ui/mainhud.dll

>>...

The messages keep coming one by one, keep flooding onto my screen. I start to see familiar words and names of places and things. Each line feels like a nail pounded into my skull. It doesn't help that with each line, a sound effect plays. It's an innocent two-tone bell noise, yet to me it sounds like a storm siren.

>> ERROR: File not found. source/npc/teacher_kibishi_sensei.png

>> ERROR: File not found. source/npc/teacher_yomuin_san.png

>> ERROR: File not found. source/npc/student_satsuki_chan.png

>> ERROR: File not found. source/npc/student_ozumono_senpai.png

>> ERROR: File not found. source/npc/student_ka...

I slam the laptop shut. The fan cuts immediately. It's too freaking early for this. I carefully close the door and go back to sleep.

Or, try at least. My body all unanimously agrees that it should be resting, but my eyes stay wide open. Frustrated, I roll out of bed again and stumble to the coffee maker. I flip my TV on while it perks and try to clear my mind. I find myself on the News channel. The weatherman is giving some overexcited blurb about a cold front heading toward Mushroom city. I open the window and stare up at - indeed - a ton of clouds rolling in and smothering the moon behind them.

"Jeez, that storm came out of nowhere..." I say to no one in particular.