Day 6: (Ab)normal Days

He shifted and looked down. What was he even supposed to do? Go over and comfort him? He had voted for Alex. It was partially his fault he was even there.

Running felt like a good idea. 

"I'm s-sorry." he said quickly, "I'll leave the freezer door open, I swear!" he added, before he dashed out of the freezer, out of the kitchen, and out of the cafeteria.

Laura read over the note and was reminded that she had no idea if she even had her Electronic Student ID anymore. She felt around her pockets to find it was nowhere to be seen. "Dangit, it must still be on the other floor," she muttered.

"But yeah, let's message Marci," she decided. "Better to stick in groups I think."

She nodded. "That's really interesting. I expected you to like horror novels or something. That makes much more sense, though."

She moved - she landed on one of Adda's properties. She gave her the money owed, grudgingly. "Your turn."

David, for a brief second, was behind him. Herbert stood up, having found himself on the floor again. He dried his tears. What a friend he had. One was in front of him and the other running when he needed him most. He took out his ID, starting to walk out. he gave a last glance at Alex's body, his eyes completely without feeling.

He began to type as he closed the door behind him. He went to write a new message, adressing it to Laura, Eloise, Marci, and Adda.

"This is a mass text. I don't care if you trust me or not, but don't trust David. His name isn't even River. It's Richmond. There's bodies in the freezer and I'm not going to cry over them anymore. He was a part of everything and why we're here.

Goodbye."

His hand hovered on the send button. So many emotions floored him, as he knew his own betrayal was nigh. And then he hit it. He started the beginning of the end.

He quickly addressed one message to David.

"I'm sorry, I cannot take it anymore."

Once the deeds were done, he made his way to one of the classrooms.

Adda thought for a moment.

"I mean, I do like some I guess.  It depends, really.  Those that are very supernatural based are honestly really cheesy to me for the most past.  And the slasher ones... kinda remind me of bad times- though of course those are very dramatic!  And plus I can't handle gore very well for the most part... the ghosts I see all appear as they want to, which certainly means bodies in-tact.  I guess that rules out all horror movies then, huh?"  She laughed.

"I do like the concepts in some though!  I just don't like the formula most follow."

"Sorry!  Your turn."

Eloise frowned. The fact Laura didn't have her student ID was disconcerting. She snatched back the paper quickly,

Thats kind of serious. Want me to check that out? Where do you think it is


She handed it back and pulled out her own, poking Marci on the screen and typing up a second message. Eloise anticipated the moment when she could speak again.

Thought we'd check up on you. You and Adda together? Where are the others?
It struck Eloise that 'the others' referred to only two more people and she sent the message with a forceful tap.

Another message. Eloise let out a "What now," just for the sake of speaking.
"Oh- Oh my god" She froze up. The tone of the message was not what she hoped to "catch up on" and rung all too familiar.
She handed her ID to Laura with no further words, to let her see.

While waiting for Marci's turn to pass, she felt her ID vibrate.  She took it out, noticing she had gotten two messages- one from Herbert and one from Eloise.

She read Eloise's first, then responded.
Marci and i are in the rec room.  dont know where herb and david are tho.

After sending the message she opened Herbert's, scanned it quickly, and froze. Her eyes shot up.

"Marci, we need to postpone this.  Check your ID."
She typed out a quick reply.
where are you?  marci and i are coming right now.  plz explain in person-its easier!!!

Laura snatched the ID from Eloise, sensing it was something important, and began reading. She couldn't help but giggle a bit when she finished. 

"Wow, he's really pulling for straws! Still, the guy apparently saved my life, so I feel bad. He's probably just snapping under the pressure. Let's go calm him down or something."

David stopped running. He nearly fell over, but he stopped, breathed, and thought. He thought about how that was probably a bad idea. He thought about how much he had fucked up recently. He thought about how absolutely useless he was, basically. He thought about a lot of things. His ID vibrated. He didn't check the name. he just read the message.

I'm sorry, I cannot take it anymore.

Well, gently caress that. He got back up. Running seemed like a good idea. But where? He took a deep breath. "Monobear." he said calmly. "I really, really don't have loving time for this. You're just gonna tell me where Herbert's headed, and then you're gonna get the hell out. Understood? Okay, now get the hell to it."

He really didn't have time for this. He messaged Herbert back quickly.

Yes, you loving can take it.

Eloise snatched back her ID from Laura, glaring at the screen in a slight panic. Her thoughts fluctuated between "It's already too late" and "This is nothing".

"Where?!" She said, frustrated. She typed in the message to her ID and directed the screen towards Laura.

Monobear appeared next to David, but there was something very, very different about him.  He seemed like a completely new bear.

"Gently caress that.  You said you could manage being our eyes and ears, and that you'd go along with the game.  You already ruined the mystery way too early, and you're gonna clean this mess up.  We're already gonna have to cut this conversation, which is gonna be a huge pain in the ass.  Figure this out for yourself- no retakes."  

He crossed his arms, and his red eye seemed to glow a bit more than usual.

Laura scanned Eloise's message and shrugged. She really didn't feel like dealing with a hysterical Herbert at the moment, and Eloise could stand to bring it down a few notches too. 

"Hell if I know. You said they were in the kitchen the last time you saw them! We'll just start there, I guess."

He squinted, shrugged, and smirked. He took a glove off, revealing a tiny...metal band around his palm. "You're making me use this. This is your fault, you realize."

He looked around. No one around. Good.

He pressed all three buttons. He heard the beeps erupt from the bear and he suppressed a laugh. He'd always wanted to use that one - that whole, you know. Monobear self destruct button. He could only imagine the looks on their faces - were they regretting their decisions? He sure was!

As he ran off, he turned around - precisely when he knew he was outside of the blast radius, and screamed "HAVE FUN CLEANING THAT UP, MONOBRO!", before quickly turning around and running even more.

"...now," he mumbled, "if I were Herbert, where would I go?"

Eloise spun around, trying to gather her thoughts. She walked to the door, stopped for a moment and then straightened up.

"Kitchen it is!" She announced to herself, "And we'll talk to Mr. Richmond too!"
As soon as she said the name there was something loud. Really loud. And rather familiar. Eloise turned back around to Laura, but it wasn't like she heard it, and she stepped more carefully into the hall and then broke into a run.

Herbert placed his hands on his face, breathing into them. What the gently caress did he just do. His ID buzzed on his lap, next to the sharpest knife he had. He was curled up under the teacher's desk in the classroom, something he always wanted to try, but never did.

He sincerely ruined all the plans, in a second, because he was angry. "What the hell am I even here for? A gag?" He spat to himself, dropping his hands to see what exactly was making his phone emulate a bee.

First, Adda. His fingers felt heavy as he tapped the words out

"One of the classrooms on the bottom floor. Hell if I know which one. Looks like a tornado hit it."

And then David. loving David.

"No. I fucked up. I snapped. My emotions got to me and I'm loving sorry god I didn't mean to do this to you."

His fingers were light now. The words came easily. Was he loving writing a death sentence?

Minutes after David detonated Monobear, his cold voice echoed over the all call.  Behind Monobear, in a cabinet of the main office, multiple extra Monobears could be seen.

"Alright, you bastards!  It's time for a mandatory meeting!  And don't think about skipping like Jaden Masters!  This time, you won't just get a shower.  So come down to the auditorium-now."

Adda's eye lit up with sheer terror.  She was frozen in her seat- Monobear's tone was much darker than usual, even for a murderous bear.  She stood from her chair, grabbed Marci by the wrist, and ran.  She was afraid to not drag Marci along and accidentally leave her in wake of her panic-driven flight.

David heard the announcement and immediately knew what to say to everyone. He ripped out his ID, saw Herbert s message, but ignored it.

He mass messaged everyone.

if you go to that meeting, you'll get a fate worse than any death that bear could give you. i can promise you that much.

if you can, head to the main office. ill be there.

With Eloise gone, Laura didn't hear the announcement and was about to wheel herself out of the library and into the kitchen when a wall lit up in front of her, projecting a message.

"Auditorium. Now, Ms. Besley."

"Well poo poo, if it's that important," Laura grumbled. "Fine then." She continued out of the library, but took the much shorter trip to the auditorium, going inside the open doors as quickly as possible. She never got David's message.

She stumbled after Adda, still blubbering over not being quite sure over what exactly was going on, what David was doing, why he lied about his last name, and confused about why her pocket was buzzing again.

She grabbed her ID and read David's new message. She didn't stop running - Adda would have fell too.

"David wants us to go to the main office. Bear wants us in the auditorium. What do we do?" she asked desperately.

Adda stumbled to a stop, shaking.  Her face shifted back and forth between looks of fear and determination.

"I...I don't..."  She clenched her hands tight.

"I think we go with David.  That's just my feeling, but..."

The announcement and David's message came hand in hand for Herbert. What a case of conflicted feelings.

Who was right and who was wrong?

He stood up, taking his knife. He heard the explosion. "The hell'd ah start." he muttered.

He chose the lesser of two evils and started to run to the main office. He was in as much deep poo poo as he put David in, and it was only right he should fix it... For his dead friend's sake.

Eloise was already in the hall when she heard the announcement. "Oh, lovin' hell" it couldn't be helped could it? Was the explosion...it? Was this meeting about...?

A message. Without hesitation she pulled her ID out, took a deep breath and read the message. "...The hell. The lovin' hell." What would she do now? She recalled Herbert's message. "Don't trust David". It wasn't like she trusted the bear either. She trusted the bear least of all.

She was right outside the Main Office and there was nothing else to lose. She opened the door.

He cracked his neck. Alright, that's two down. He knew there would be Monobears everywhere - they had about 50 spares, if he remembered correctly, so there should be 48 left. Considering that his detonator had a 10 foot radius and they had already probably shut it down considering he had kind of gone rouge...well, he was probably going to die here, to say the least, but hell if he wasn't going to try and do something right before he died.

He ran down the hall and to the main office - his office, he jokingly reminded himself, and looked at the filing cabinet directly behind the desk.

"I'm a goddamn block early, there were supposed to be four stages, but gently caress, this better work, or I'm dead. And I sure as hell ain't ready to die."

He moved the filing cabinet out of the way and revealed a door - it was metal, had a card reader, and a normal key lock. He twirled a set of keys around his ungloved fingers. Something hit him. The door was designed for the fourth stage.

"...It's only designed to let....four people out."

He stumbled back and sat down in his chair. Four people. There were six.

He turned around to face Eloise - he looked at her with a mix of emotions across his face.

"Look, just stay here. I have things under relative control. You're gonna get outta here."

She nodded. "I trust a human over that robot bear any day. Let's go!" she said, nearly jumping down the stairs. "That messaged seemed kind of urgent, we need to get a move on!"