Deadswap

-6-

You told me there'd
Be no secrets
You said there'd
Be no lies
You said there'd
Be no fakers
Then who are you?

We went from store to store looking for clothes that would hold up to weather but wouldn't slow us down. I mean we had time, but I didn't want to sit here and get Frisk killed if they pulled a fast one on this rumored cure. Which led to another problem, could this cure kill me?

So, from what I'm told, I'm not normal... obviously. I've been bitten but not Infected, if movies haven't failed me, I have the cure in my body. Or soul. I've been bitten three times and the most I get is a fever induced sleep, but that's why it's doesn't make sense.

I wasn't a doctor but having found shelter in some hospitals, I read some reports about former patients. Most of them about what the patients was theoretically suffering since they had no idea what this sickness was. Still aren't completely sure. Others were about how the treatments were affecting the patients and assumed plausible sickness for what this patient is suffering from. That was normal, normal patients had something around the same things.

Then, it got worse. More and more reports talking about patients going completely carnivorous, others going ballistic, and some eating healthy people. They were using so much treatment and experimental kind too.

No one had any idea what was going on.

The specific hospital we went to, had a pair of doors that were closed off because of Infected. They were banging at the doors, pulling at the locks, there was nothing we could do to help them before the virus. We didn't know what it was. That last report I read had been covered in faint smeared blood and teardrops, this one wasn't typed. They said that they had a virus that was found in people from the Egyptian period and they knew that. The only difference is the Egyptians killed the Infected before they could spread. No one believed them when they suggested a specific treatment. They... he explained how the ice walls in Antartica were falling apart and mutated virus' had been frozen in those walls.

But ice melts.

He died after writing down a specific compound for a treatment he'd only conducted once and succeeded. He 'fixed' the rotting and stabilized the the heart beat and brainwaves. Though, his subject didn't wake up from their sleep.

I kept that report and I remember, looking at the dead man that laid in the corner with a rotten broken old pencil in his hand. He was missing his jaw and his organs were exposed to this tainted world.

I kept the compound with me in my head.

Frisk didn't need to know, she had enough to worry about, she was still a child. A teenager which only made explaining this harder since her outburst to such an explanation could cause problems. I needed her to trust me and she needed me to trust her, I need to hold this in just a bit longer.

The cure is coming, I just have to wait for results.

"Frisk, put the shorts down, we are here for two things scarves and boots. No, put that down, we are not exchanging another coat for that one. Scarves and boots, that's it." I said talking mostly with my hands. She giggled at my annoyed face. I placed my right hand on my hip and pinched the bridge of my nose cavity with my left. I groaned and slouched my shoulders. "I can't keep doing this. What is it with you and decision making?" I mumbled.

I heard her sighed fondly as she ran in fingers gently down the stitching of a t-shirt with... Napstaton. (Author Note: swapped version of Mettaton.)

I remember when... when he was becoming one of the most loved pop stars after we left the underground. I helped make his merch when I had free time. Papyrus used to flirt with his cousin, a ghost he'd fallen for. Asgore used to find it funny how Papyrus would fail to get Napstaton's cousin.

"Ya know," she pondered, "I used to go to his shows, he always gave me a VIP ID so I could go wherever I wanted." Her smiled was soft and defined, but it was so fond of him. I guess I should have assumed that, they were close friends. She was talented because of him, something I gave him too much thanks for. I cringed at the memory, something I did when remembering the past.

"Leave it, we don't need stuff like that. It's dangerous to dwell on the past."

Even with such fondness of those times, I knew better then to linger on foolish things. Crazy things that didn't seem normal in these times. She sighed and her hand fell to her side. She was letting go of the past, she was letting go of her pain.

She looked at me and her gaze drifted between my eye sockets and bandana. It was stained with blood and dirt, that blue color was almost gone. "Like you said, it's not good to dwell," she said with a sassy tone. I scoffed at her, it wasn't there because of grief, it was there for your protection and my secrets. She looked up at the ceiling and ran her fingers through her hair. "Ya know, I always thought about cutting this."

I heard my walk-in talkie go off.

"Shit, Sans? Sans! Get somewhere sealed off! Now! It's- Damnit!"

I heard guns fire as I fumbled to hold it.

"Marshall, stay in front of me. Sans, it's not a cure, it a detonation. They want to wipe us out, everything! They want everything gone."

"Shit, then it's true what you were saying code detonation."

"Everything is going to shit! Tell me- Ah! Marshall head down! Where are you?"

"Oklahoma, where are you?"

"Get out! GET OUT! SANS GET OUT Of THERE RIGHT NOW!"

I heard a loud boom and Frisk jumped. Her eyes widened and she looked at me for answers. "What the hell is going on? Dad, what's happening?"

I grabbed her hand and took our gas masks out. I handed her the smaller one. They were filled with herbs and flowers.

"Project Detonation. We need to find the basement now. Sat quiet and we can't come out for two years. Push every shelf with food in the basement. We got an hour before that wave hits us. It sounded like it came from the state over, get as much at you can. Now!"

I went looking for the basement and it wasn't hard to find, it was in the office area. I threw clothes upon clothes in there, medicine, cases upon cases of water, utilities, we were staying in here for two years. Frisk had pushed two carts with food in the towards the door and pushed them down the stairs case.

"Sans, what is Project Detonation?"

I looked at her and pulled my mask down.

"They're looking for a compound, a cure. They want to destroy it."

"What compound?"

I threw another case down the stairs.

"They know who has it. Remember the hospital we stayed in? I found the doctor who constructed the compound by accident. He knew what was going on, I burned the paper."

"It you burned it then who has the copy? Someone must of made a copy if they know it's still around."

"Frisk, there is no copy. I am the compound."

"What?"

There was no more hiding it. I couldn't hide it any more. A heard the doors burst open and someone yelling my name. I heard a little boy yelling. I looked over at Wayne and he looked at Frisk. "Oh, shit."

"Frisk, I am the cure. I'm immune to the virus."