Better Eight Than Never

Chapter 19: Get in the bag Hachi

Toda stood there for a moment, then fell over onto his side, breath shaky. He was alive, he told himself. He'd done it, and he couldn't let it be for nothing. First things first; get this tape off. Why the heck did he kick that knife so far away? He wiggled across the floor until he could grab the knife, then after some awkward handling, managed to hold it in his beak and moved his wrists up and down to cut the tape. He gave himself a small cut on one of his thumbs, but other than that, he managed to get it off without any further injuries. He lay there on the floor, trying to think through his dizziness enough to figure out a step two.

His leg, he had to bandage that. He was leaking ink fast, and he needed all of that he could get. He crawled across the floor, trying to use his stabbed leg as little as possible, until he reached the table that he faintly remembered Orion setting the duct tape on earlier, then began to haul himself to his feet. There wasn't much tape left on the roll, but there was enough to cover the wound and wrap around his leg a few times, through it still hurt like all hell. What now? His head felt so weird... Oh, his hat, he wasn't wearing his hat. He limped over to where it lay on the floor and managed to scoop it up without falling over, however when he tried to put it on, it sort of slipped downward on his head a little. He slowly tried to correct it, but every time he did his hands began to shake a little more. His tentacles were gone... Oh Judd no. Were they gone forever? Bato knew more about first aid than he did, and now he was wishing he'd asked a little more about it. How was he going to battle without his tentacles? He wouldn't be able to swim at all. As if he needed another reason to feel useless.

He closed his eyes and made himself take a deep breath, then another. He could freak out later, right now he was pretty sure he had done everything he needed to do before he tried to leave, except maybe get this 'hand'cuff off. He didn't think he'd need to squid though, so it could stay on. He hesitated, then retrieved the knife and trusty hammer once again, sticking the latter into his pocket, just in case someone came back, then limped over to the door. It had no handles, no lock, and it didn't appear to be motion activated... Oh! Maybe the mask did something? Hachi's mask seemed fairly important, maybe this was one of the reasons why. He staggered back across the room, feeling more and more weary the more he moved, and picked up Orion's mask up off the floor from where it had fallen off during the fight. It was strange looking, with a sort of pop-tab like vibe, having a hole on the left side for Orion's robotic eye to come through. He made his way back over to the door, and then reluctantly took off his hat to be able to put on the octoling mask. A light flickered a little on a screen in front of his face, but after that nothing. It was functioning as a better eye patch than a key to the door, much less a computer. Was he doing something wrong? He pulled it off, looking around it for some sort of 'on' button, a switch, anything. Why wasn't it working? He put it back on, speaking raspy commands such as 'on', and 'power', then took it off and shook it. There was no reaction. Why? How could–

Oh no... it was because he hit it with the hammer, wasn't it? He'd broken it... That had to be it... "No..." He croaked, staring at the mask in his hands. "No, no, no, No, No, NO!!" His voice became louder until he was shouting, then he just threw the mask to the side and dropped to his knees, starting to sob. After all of that, after all he'd managed to do, he was no closer to getting back out. He was still trapped. What was going to happen when the other octolings came back and saw what he'd done? His only hope would be to slip out the door after they'd come in, but even then what good would it do? There was no way he could run like this, and he'd been unable to recall or even see the path that Orion had took to get him here, he'd just get lost... He'd made everything so much worse... Tears fell into the cuts on his cheeks and stung them, but he barely cared. He wanted to be back home, play games with Bato... or be with Simon...

He blinked and gasped, suddenly digging into his pocket for his phone. Orion knew he'd known two other people that had Yuri in their heads at some point, and even though he hadn't given names it might not be hard for him to guess... Even if there was a chance only one of them was left... He pulled out his phone and turned it on, hands shaking. Please, please be a signal, please Jill be alive. He he gave a shaky sob as he saw he had one bar of signal, and pulled up the chat for the squad.