It's getting lonely, It's getting hard to breathe. That's all Dr. Coomer can think about right now, the lack of air. He comes back after death, he knows this is a game, but something's weird. He's started thinking that if he dies now he won't come back. Small bits of writing have been leading him to that conclusion as well, every hour or so there would be a loud noise and he would be able to see writing that said "Gone now." or "It's real this time, drift off and stay gone." He wasn't really scared though, he was just... Well, he hated this feeling of constant lack of oxygen. He did want to come back though, he liked not being dead, he wanted to reunite with all of his friends. Especially Bubby, they were going to fight, play fight of course but still. A promise is a promise and he didn't want to break that one, he was well aware that his friends were here. Somewhere here, but he couldn't find doors or anything to lead him to the specific rooms where his friends were. Nobody fucks with the science team, everyone knew that anyone who crossed paths with them and was unlucky enough to get on their bad side would regret it. Whoever had done this really did get on his bad side, but he wouldn't be able to get revenge, at least not like this. Especially not by himself. He was brought back to his current predicament when he tried to sigh, absolutely nothing came out. No breath. He tried to inhale, nothing came in. The feeling of drowning was growing stronger and he couldn't take it anymore, he despised this. He looked around, he was currently in a weird sort of hallway. Kind of like one of the hallways in black mesa. The thought made him want to gag, black mesa kind of really sucked ass. It took having their life depending on escaping to realize how weird and unnecessarily big Black mesa was. I mean, most of the rooms there seemed to be really useless and Jesus christ why the hell was it that big? It was like a giant maze, why were half of the things that were there even there? They all seemed like things to just make the building look pretty. Overall extremely inconvenient. That didn't really matter right now though, right now he had to figure out a way to escape. He didn't think he'd die right now, no, it was probably part of some sadistic game. Make him feel like he's drowning but don't kill him. That sounded like the plan they had, something to mix things up. He continued to wander around wherever he was, every door seemed to just be fake, he punched at them but none of them would budge. Hours passed, he grew tired and increasingly irritated. He had to wait though, patience was part of the plan, wait until something's different. He kept walking, he felt like the hallway was looping, everything was the same. That's why he had to wait until something was different to make his move, but his patience was quickly running out. A few more hours passed his legs were tired and he wanted to sit down, but he saw something, it was ink. Something was different, but this might be bad. Dr. Coomer looked at the ink and weighed his options, he finally decided that whatever the ink had in store for him was way better than the constant feeling of drowning. With one final look around he jumped on the ink, he fell through it. This time he realized he was actually in water, although his falling speed was increasing he still felt like he didn't have enough breath to make it to the end. He closed his eyes and heard a loud splash, he opened his mouth and immediately inhaled. Oxygen, fuck yeah, he missed breathing. He opened his eyes to find himself floating, he looked around as he took several fast breathes. He needed to find his friends, this couldn't wait, he had to tell them.
Darnold, poor sweet Darnold. Someone who made potions, who seemed to like flying kytes, someone so easily forgotten by so many people. Someone who was easy to open up to, someone who could not for the life of him handle any gore. He stared at the scene in front of him, he felt sick. So so so so sick. He had gone with the group for a little while, he had seen some soldiers shooting. He managed to escape by himself after staying behind for a while, the team had cleared up everything in front of him so it was easy for him to get out without any blood on his hands. On his way out of Black Mesa, he had seen some things, disgusting and horrible. Dead soldiers, the permanent mark of the team. He was a stranger to those types of things, they made him sick. What he had seen back then could not compare to this at all, because right now he was stuck in what seemed like a time loop. There were a few people in front of him, they were all so happy, they were speaking. He shut his eyes, he knew what was coming. He heard screams and felt a warm liquid splatter on his face. He opened one eye, and sure enough there it was. The scene that had replayed countless times, but it was a scene that he just could never get used to. The people in front of him were getting gutted and shot. It was a mess, but nobody ever killed him. He'd tried to warn everyone about what would happen but everyone thought he was crazy. They gave him dirty looks, nothing ever changed. He shut his eyes and almost threw up but he felt a hand on his shoulder. Yep, just like always. "Hey mister.. are you alright? You look sick!" Darnold just nodded, he sighed and shut his eyes again hearing the screams. After a while, things went silent and everything restarted again. The same man put a hand on his shoulder again, "Hey mister.. are you alright? You look like you've seen a ghost!" Darnold was always confused by this, the man almost always talked to him as if they were old friends. The first few times it happened he thought the man might know about the time loops, but when he spoke up about it the man would seem confused and leave him. Just like everyone else. Darnold thought for a few seconds, shutting his eyes as he tried to drown out the screaming. He'd done this multiple times, tried every single way he could to save everyone. He felt the hand on his shoulder again, the concerned man repeated the lines again. Darnold sighed and decided to try his other plan for the fifteenth time, he knew it wouldn't work though. He was happy as long as he was able to keep everyone around without getting hurt for a little while though. "Oh... Uhm... Actually, I feel kind of anxious, I think I'm lost." Darnold spoke quietly, his voice was laced with dread. The old man nodded, "Ah, I see. I could take you to my house for a while?" Darnold nodded. This was still so weird to him, he knew it would happen but every time it happened it never failed to confuse him. The man was so trusting, why? He had only just met Darnold. He continued walking in silence as they headed up the street to the apartment where the man lived, and then the screams were heard. Loud and pain-filled. Just as always the man's eyes widened as he tried to rush Darnold into the house. Just as always the man succeeded and they locked the doors and windows. Just as always... the door was kicked down... just as always the man died. Darnold kept his eyes open this time though, the world only reset when he let his eyes close. After a few seconds, a weird blacked-out figure came into the same room as him. He was confused, this was new. He'd occasionally do this but the blacked-out figure had never appeared before right now. "You'll have to close those eyes eventually. You'll have to rest your tired body soon. Close your eyes, friend. Let the waves of red rock you to sleep." Darnold struggled to keep his eyes open now, but he felt like he needed to. Something was going to happen, he had to stay awake. Wait... Stay awake??? He'd never gone to sleep though... He stared at the figure, eyes twitching. "Darnold, you arent being that cool right now. You have to sleep. Close your eyes. Close them now." The figure demanded. The voice sounded so familiar but he'd never heard it anywhere before. "Close them, you know you want to. You want to sleep." Darnold stared for a few more seconds before finally giving up and closing his eyes. They didn't close. It felt like he had blinked, but his eyes didn't close. It was weird, it was bad, a wave of nausea hit him hard. He felt as if he was about to vomit up all of his organs, his body hurt. It was tiring. It was fucking terrible. The figure laughed as it made it's way to Darnold, after a few seconds passed it opened its mouth. A loud crunch was heard, everything hurt more. He wants this to stop.
