FurtherDown

Chapter 14

     As the two friends sat happily eating, a blanket-like concord covered them keeping them warm and safe. Frisk finished off her can and set it off to the side, stretching afterward. She patiently waited for Sans to finish his ketchup, fiddling around with her hands. "You have something on your mind, kiddie?" Sans asked, leaning forward a bit after he tossed his empty bottle away. "Yeah, um, now that Flowey and The Forgotten are gone, what do we do now?" Sans sighed and gazed past Frisk, thinking. "Well, I was thinking that we should probably get out of here. Don't wanna keep the others waiting too long." Frisk nodded, beginning to get up and dust herself off. She offered Sans her hand in which he took and pulled himself up. Helping Frisk gather the remaining cans of beef, Sans then poked his head out from the alley to look for any danger before starting their journey back to the Surface. He held Frisk back behind him while he searched, eventually letting her go and turning to face her. "Okay, here's the deal: I'm too weak to teleport through those rocks back by the Barrier, so what I'm thinking is we walk back towards the other side of the Underground to where you fell so I can get some cell service. Then, I'll call the others and they can come to get us. Sound good?" Frisk nodded, smiling gently. Sans nodded. "Okay then, let's get going." With that, the two treaded along through the city keeping close to each other and keeping tabs on their surroundings.

     The pair had walked for roughly an hour before reaching Alphys's previous lab. They approached the door, sizing it up. Sans tried the door; it wouldn't budge. He groaned, opening up his hoodie and shuffling through his interior pockets for something. Finally, Sans pulled out a small, white card and held it under a scanner of sorts to the side of the metal door. The device beeped then flashed some lights, then a tiny sheet of metal slid back into the device revealing a carving of a hand with scanners below it. Sans lifted his right hand and placed it into the carving, the device scanned his hand and made some sort of approving noises. The huge door then started to slide up above the two, kicking up dust and shaking the Earth around them. "Woah..." Frisk breathed, her mouth partially hung open in awe. Sans looked uneasily down at her expression, looking away quickly and grabbing her hand. "Come on, we gotta a lot of ground to cover." Sans tugged at her hand rather gruffly which Frisk took into consideration. She sped up to a trot, trying to keep up with Sans who was walking quite fast through the empty, bleached halls of concrete. The hall was dim and let almost no light in and no light out. The girl looked up into his face, seeing his blank expression gave her a shiver. His eyes were dark and held no light, his smile was tight and forced and his nose seemed to be crinkled up making his 'lips' into a sort of snarl. He also seemed oddly annoyed and agitated, gripping her hand firmly. Frisk could sense a bit of fear in his motion as well, but couldn't comprehend it. Sans gripped her hand tighter, making Frisk want to pull away. Finally, Sans was clenching her hand so tight, Frisk became worried.

     "Sans!" She yelped. The skeleton became rigid. He slowly turned around with the look of a guilty dog and looked down at their hands. Her hand was bright red and was beginning to turn purple. Sans jumped, quickly taking back his hand and holding his wrist close to his chest. He looked at Frisk with complete guilt and horror, panting. Frisk examined her hand and shook it off, looking up at Sans. "Sans, are you okay?" Sans was paralyzed. "I, uh..."

     "Are you, are you m-mad at me?" Frisk took a cautious step back.

     "Wh-what? N-no, no! This isn't your fault kiddo, I just," Sans sighed, breaking down his defenses. He knelt down and placed his hands onto Frisk's shoulders, looking at her with intent.

     "Look, a while back when I was a baby-bones about your age, my father brought me into this very lab. He showed me around, showing me all his work and introduced me to his co-workers. Then, he looked me in the eye, and said, "Someday, you're gonna have to take my place here when I am no longer able to work anymore." Which I did. Point is, I've seen some...things...while working here that have really shaken me down to the bone. Some of the projects I've worked on, were never actually finished to my knowledge after I retired early. I just worry that we might stumble over some of those 'projects' and then we'll have to deal with them, which I do not want to do. What I'm trying to say is, I'm just trying to keep you safe. Do you understand where I'm coming from?" Frisk nodded calmly, though she didn't entirely understand what he meant.