Backwash [Omori/Mouthwashing]

Kills Germs Without Leaving a Bad Taste

2 months after the crash.

You woke up on the floor, like usual. On the flimsy emergency sleeping bag next to yours was Kel. He was a heavy sleeper, as you've learned over the course of this ordeal. You walked by the statue of Mewo too closely, resulting in it going off. "Mewo says: Keep your shoes clean and your nose cleaner! Nobody likes a union!" it spoke in an annoying, high-pitched voice. You grimaced with annoyance at its interruption.

Such a thing would wake up most people, but it didn't wake up Kel. You continued, a bit less quietly, to go where you had planned to. You hoped Sunny could calm you down.

You opened the door, leaving the break room, and then you proceeded down the hall into the medbay. You looked over Sunny's body. He was writhing around, barely able to move in his weakened state, but seemingly in pain. His lipless mouth kept grinding his teeth. Were the pills no longer working, or did Hero just forget to give Sunny his medication?

If the latter, Basil would be quite annoyed. Sunny groaned in his hospital bed. "Shut up," Basil spat angrily. He was already in a bad mood, waking up on an uncomfortable sleeping bag, but now he had to search around for wherever Hero was. Passing the breakroom door that hadn't closed yet, he noticed Aubrey wasn't in her bed, either. That should've been obvious since she didn't make a stink when the stupid cat statue went off, but it was still noteworthy.

Going downstairs, you found them in none of the obvious spots. Not in the cargo hold, obviously, why would they be? Not in utility, since, according to Aubrey, it was full of emergency foam. You recalled Aubrey taking Kel to the cockpit when she was drunk. You hoped this wasn't a repeat with Hero.

You went down to the cockpit and opened the door to find Aubrey and Hero mid-conversation. "Is that so..? That explains a lot," Aubrey said thoughtfully as you entered.

"Hm? Oh, Basil. How's it going?" Hero asked you as you entered.

"It's fine. What were you two talking about?" You questioned the pair.

Hero began to look a bit nervous, but Aubrey answered for them. "Nothing important. It was just about utility. Why, did you need something?" She counterquestioned, shifting her grip on the axe. You eyed it. It made you uncomfortable.

"What's with the axe?" You continue to press. She crosses her arms with the axe still in hand.

"Just force of habit. Think nothing of it," she assures. You doubt her assurance, but you have more important questions.

"Did you give Sunny his medication, Hero? He's making noises," you asked with a fake calmness.

Hero slaps his forehead, "Oh, no, must've slipped my mind. I'll go and–"

"I'll do it," you say with tightened fists.

"Oh. Uh... it's fine, I can–"

You interrupt Hero again, "No, no, continue your important conversation about the utility room. I'll give Sunny his fucking meds. Like usual." Your teeth grit halfway through your sentence, and you stiffly make your way back to medbay, closing the door behind you so they can continue hiding whatever they're hiding from you.

They hate you. Everyone does. They know what's wrong with you. They're planning to get rid of you, you bet.

"Whatever," you hiss as you open the door to medbay.

You would have slammed the door behind you if that were possible, but sliding doors don't really work that way.

He kept groaning and moaning like he was earlier. "Stop with the noise. Fuck." You take a pill from the bottle on the counter. "I know what they're thinking. The way they look at me. What can I even say?"

Sunny stared up at you with an indescribable look of hatred. He hated you, too, now. Like they all did. "Here we are. Having to take responsibility because of what you did. Thanks for that. Open wide. I hope these make you feel fucking better."

You shoved a pill down his throat, forcing it down in one go. He could only choke it down with no opportunity to do otherwise. He kept looking at you. Staring at you. His eyelids had melted off, so now all he could do was stare with that look of absolute disgust. He despised you.

After a moment, you pound the side of your fist onto his chest. Sunny let's out a wheeze, seemingly having the wind knocked from him. You slam both fists down onto his stomach. He let's out a wet scream of pain, his vocal chords too ruined go make a less scratchy sound. "Damn it. Damn it, damn it, damn it," you say as you start to walk away. Sunny could be heard sobbing as you did.

You looked back at him. His neck couldn't move enough to stare at you anymore. You looked over his body. His charred limbs, his completely destroyed feet and hands. One of his arms was partly missing, too. It was a sorry sight.

"Sorry," you mumble before leaving the room behind.

PROVE YOUR WORTH

"We should have some."

"Why? It's so chewy and weird," you say with some hesitance.

Sunny shook his head, "I know. We only get the subpar stuff up here. But that's what makes the good stuff worth it when we get back home."

"We only ever get to stay home for a week at most. There's barely enough time to have any good stuff. What's the point?" You argue with a dejected look.

"Hey, now. You're missing the point here. A week of good stuff feels way better when all you've had is the bad. The cake is pretty good compared to the soup, too. Look, some days you get promoted, buy a new house, win a new car or something... and other days you eat some shitty cake with a good friend. And I wouldn't have it any other way," Sunny said with a smile that would be more charming if he still was wearing skin, "If you'll be so kind as to do the honours?" Sunny said, motioning to the cake.

"Right. I'll find us a knife," you say with an equally wide grin. Maybe not quite as wide, given that one of you was missing their lips, but still.

You moved along, searching the destroyed breakroom, looking for a knife. There was none. Piles of empty mouthwash bottles blocked one of the doors. The time-simulation screen was partly destroyed. Even the statue of Mewo was now headless.

It was unfortunate, but the knife wasn't in the break room. You'd have to find it elsewhere. You left through the unblocked doorway and found yourself face to face with a ceiling high stack of mouthwash bottles blocking the hallway to medbay. You doubted you would've found a knife in there, anyway.

You continued down the stairs and into the hallway, where multiple doors were blocked, and the hallway to the cargo hold was also blocked by a ceiling high pile of empty mouthwash bottles again. Weaving between more, smaller piles of empty bottles, you made your way to the cockpit.

When you entered, you found every screen with an emergency warning about an imminent collision. They weren't flashing, and no alarms were going off. They were just static. As if time had frozen. Embedded in the back of the captain's seat was an axe. It may not have been a knife, but it'd do the job.

You nearly fell over, trying to pull out the axe, its weight surprisingly less than expected. You were successful, and as it was removed from the seat, a tearing sound could be heard as the screens all changed into pictures of large red tinted eyeballs, staring directly at you.

It was probably best that you left. You went back to the breakroom as fast as possible, almost tripping as you ran directly through one of the piles of bottles.

Finally, you entered the breakroom. Lain out on the table was the cake. It looked different, though. It had bandages wrapped around it. Its skin had melted off of its flesh. It no longer had lips, teeth now fully exposed. You decided to ignore these changes. A cake was a cake after all. You raised your axe and