Chapter Text
Crunch, crunch, crunch.
A set of footsteps came closer in front of Rudo. He stayed motionless, aching hands laying limp in his lap as his head hung low on his knees, which pressed sharply into his forehead. He was kneeling, squishing his hands between his torso and his thighs.
Rudo felt a sense of coldness, nearly phantom-like, as a large shadow befell his figure.
He didn’t look up.
This fucker could take him like the others tried to, for all he cared. He’ll escape one way or another.
…He would. Just like he managed to, just then. He remembered splattered brains and he shuddered.
But for now, Rudo just wanted to close his eyes to escape the harshness of this reality.
He didn’t. He eyed the warped shadow of the person on the ground as his head laid on his knees, the outline stretching across the trash-littered ground, and closed his eyes. His headache pulsed heavily through his temples; his scarred arms convulsed with every zap of pain shooting through them as if they had a will of their own.
There was a man in front of Rudo. Silent. Still. Like a cobra waiting to strike.
Rudo could barely move.
He was so tired.
He heard something move in front of him. A rustle of clothing.
Then, silence. Seconds passed, and when nothing happened – no words spoken or hands striking him, Rudo finally looked up.
A man looming over him, tall and daunting. A hand extended towards Rudo, hovering right by his nose. Rudo recoiled instinctively like a defensive animal, his frame strung taut and ready for conflict despite the protests of his aching body. Poised just like any other time he had been cornered by other Tribespeople or Apostles.
He saw light strands entwined in dark hair, pushed back and out of the man’s face. Saw a cold expression set like stone, unreadable and piercing, despite half of his face being covered by a gas mask.
Penetrating amethyst eyes staring directly into the carmine of Rudo’s own.
“Sphereite,” his voice was deep - like the reverberating rumbles of the earth itself as monsters erupted from the alps of trash - and Rudo couldn’t break his gaze, “do you wish to return to your heaven?”
Everything hurt.
That was the first thought Rudo had as he slowly regained consciousness. He winced as he turned his head to the side since it caused something particularly pointy that he was laying on to jab further into his back. Where was he…?
He remembered the scornful eyes driving holes into his vulnerable body, splayed open as he was hung up high in the air over the groundless cavity of the pit like a marionette on strings.
The way all of the bastards watching his execution chanted over and over, “Send the filth to the pit!”
How, in the end, he never saw a glimpse of Chiwa’s face as she stared at the ground and instead saw those words mouthed, laced with disappointment. He could nearly hear how derisive they were from beyond all the cheering of the Tribespeople around her as she muttered how she was wrong to believe in him, that ‘he was just a son of a killer after all.’
He saw the stuffed bunny in her arms which he had spent hours delicately sewing back together with unskilled, shaky, too stiff hands, cursing whenever the needle stabbed too deep or when the threads unfurled from amateurish effort. The bunny had fell from her grasp, hitting the ground as she turned around and walked away, discarded once again, right as the ropes holding him above the pit were severed.
Discarded, always thrown away. Anything that was deemed worthless and ultimately unneeded became the trash of society. Those disgusting fuckers, Townspeople and Tribesfolk alike, had no idea they were the true filth of their damn society!–
Rudo’s eyes snapped open as he heaved heavily.
…How was he alive? He should have died from a fall that great, right?
Then, a memory made itself known in the forefront of Rudo’s mind. He had been falling for what felt like minutes, before he saw something. A massive, dark figure, shrouded in foggy clouds, and Rudo had felt so drawn to it. He had reached a hand out towards it, determinedly fighting against the wind resistance. It was like the thing was looking right at him as well, despite only its torso being visible. And…
Rudo blinked. What was he thinking about again? His thoughts from mere moments ago felt unclear and muddled. He breathed in deeply, and slapped a hand over his mouth as he realised the sheer toxicity of the air he was breathing in.
He coughed, shaking his head and sitting up. His eyes widened impossibly as he took in his surroundings.
An endless landscape of just mountains of trash. Rudo swivelled his head around, and it was the same sight no matter where he turned. The sky was dark and grey, sunless. Rudo looked up and saw only obscuring dusky clouds.
Rudo dropped his gaze, seeing that he was too sitting on a pile of garbage.
“What the…”
This is what lied at the bottom of the pit?
Before he could dwell further, a loud, earth-shattering sound reached his ears.
His head whipped around to look behind him and saw something he could barely begin to describe. A thing was emerging from the piles of trash. It was growing and growing, until it stood tall and enormous, towering over Rudo where he sat, casting a huge shadow over him.
What the hell was this? Living heaps of trash?!
Rudo clapped his hands over his ears as the monster gave a piercing scream. His hands lowered as he stared, jaw dropped, before snapping out of his horrified amazement. The beast’s head lowered, and it was as if it was staring directly at him.
Rudo startled as the thing made a start towards him.
Oh, fuck. He had to go.
Rudo scrambled to get up and he surged forwards just as a limb made of trash slammed down on where he was sitting before. The disturbance caused the pile of trash to shake, loose objects falling down the slope like a waterfall. Rudo lost his footing, falling down the hill.
Rudo heard more rumbles as the whole ground shook more as he steadied himself from the tumble, before beginning to sprint away from it. Chancing a look behind him, he saw more of them. There were three of them now, charging right at him.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he whispered incredulously in between gasps for air. Dread settled in the pit of his gut. How was this real?
One of them gave a mad dash towards him, lunging headfirst as its jaw opened like a death sentence. He dove out of the way, hearing the metallic crack of the creature’s jaw snapping closed around nothing but thin air. However, the force of it made Rudo collapse to the ground. He closed his eyes and winced as the gunshot wound on his shoulder he forgot about was jostled, feeling warmth spread across his bicep as the injury probably opened.
He had to get up…
Rudo fumbled around to get his arms underneath him, to push up and keep running from whatever the hell was chasing him.
He pushed himself up to his elbows weakly and opened his eyes.
A decomposing human skull stared up at him.
“What the fuck,” Rudo breathed, shock written in every line of his face.
The empty sockets were haunting. He couldn’t look at it anymore, a warning of what he could be reduced to if he couldn’t make it out of here alive. Rudo’s breathing sped up. He shook his head wildly, pushing himself up blindly to just keep on running-
His foot slipped, and instead of meeting solid ground, it met air. And so, he fell. Rudo’s eyes widened as he plummeted down a cliff edge of trash. His back eventually hit the slope of the garbage mountain, and he toppled down to the bottom.
Rudo lied there, limbs aching and sore, and he could barely move. He felt a something rise from the back of his throat, and he coughed. Blood splattered out of his mouth, and he choked. Yet, the metallic taste invading his senses somehow was a reprieve from the trash infested air around him.
Rudo clamped a hand over his mouth as a full-body tremor overcame him.
Shit.
He couldn’t keep breathing this air in. It would kill him sooner or later.
It was crazy. The fact that he was down at the bottom of the pit, the same pit everyone discarded their trash and criminals in, being chased by a bunch of monsters out of some sort of twisted, deranged fantasy story.
He clawed at the ground with his other hand with frustration. Blood leaked out of his mouth as he yelled hoarsely at no one, “How could you fuckers send me down here? Do you even know what lies at the bottom?!”
Rudo felt like he was going to pass out. Not good, he thought to himself deliriously, if he passed out… there’s no shot that they wouldn’t tear him to pieces once they got here.
He tried to push himself up, but he couldn’t. He was too beat up; his entire body was sore and stinging from the falls he had taken. His upper arm stung, a reminder of his life up on the surface.
He tried again to no avail.
He couldn’t move.
Alarm settled over his immobile shoulders, blanketing and completely unwelcome.
No. Was he really doomed here?
Rudo shivered.
Regto… what should I do? Regto-
He looked to the side. He saw Regto’s dead eyes fixed on him. Corpse dead and bloody. He wouldn’t greet Rudo as he came home ever again with his usual boisterous teasing, he wouldn’t ruffle his hair with an expression of such fond exasperation ever again. Rudo nearly threw up.
Until he remembered.
That’s right.
I’m not done here.
It was like something in him clicked. He looked up and saw a pipe close by. Rudo crawled towards it with pulsing tunnel vision. He reached out for it with a trembling hand, gloved fingers closing around the object. And he felt something like a spark of electricity running through his arm to the pipe.
It felt as if his body was overriding with the sudden surge of power, and he shook with the mere gravity of it. Rudo got to his knees, then feet, and he silently stood there.
It’s not over. There are still things…
A head extended down, observing Rudo as he remained motionless with the pipe in hand. It opened its jaws after a moment, ready to tear his body to pieces and it dove.
I have to do!
His arm raised, moving on autopilot, steady and powerful, and he knocked the beast’s head away with a blow to the skull.
Whoever framed me… whoever killed Regto…
I’ll kill them.
I’m going to beat them to a bloody pulp.
“That’s why…” Rudo growled, leaping back a fair distance away from the trash monsters. His stance was ready, the pipe in his hand held up defensively as he eyed the beings with newfound determination.
“I can’t die just yet!”
It felt like time went by extraordinarily fast as he lunged at the closest one, the pipe held high above his shoulder swinging down like he was using a baseball bat. With each blow, the creatures began to fall apart – loosened bits of trash crumbling off and slowing their movements. He soared through the air in a final rush of power, slicing right between the vulnerable joint of its jaw, causing its head to come collapsing down in a rain of garbage.
Rudo had hit the ground not too far away, and he cursed seeing the torrent of trash falling his way. He quickly scrambled out of the way, recoiling as some stray projectiles hit his arm.
Did he kill it? He got rid of its head. It had to be gone for good.
Rudo breathed heavily from the exertion as he finally allowed himself to relax, staring at the trash monster gradually falling to the ground in pieces. He did it.
He…
Yet, that same relief was quickly shattered into pieces as the beast stopped, limbs holding itself up as if its head hadn’t been cut off.
Rudo’s grip tightened impossibly around the pipe, and he watched the monster’s head rebuild itself. Some kind of force was forging the collapsed trash together again.
His breath stuttered as he stared up at the thing knitting itself together, even though he had sliced through the monster’s neck just moments ago.
Oh.
He stilled, eyes wide and then he realised. The hope that built in his chest fell apart.
…I can’t kill it.
Rudo narrowly rolled out of the way of a clawed limb smashing down where he was just standing, having to drop the pipe.
Even with the power that had surged through his body like lightning, it was useless.
“Shit,” Rudo whispered to himself, getting his legs under him in a determined attempt to just survive, “Shit!”
There was no one coming to help him. It was just himself and these beasts that were resolutely after his life.
He was alone.
And Rudo was terrified.
He managed to dodge the attacks, but it was too close. One misstep or slip and it would be over. Rudo had to do something, fast. But what? He couldn’t kill them, they would just come back angrier than before.
Then, his head spun with a sudden dizzy spell, and he nearly fell to the ground. But he quickly stumbled to picked himself up to dash away from a claw lashing out at him.
Run.
Someone, something in his head told him. The command rung clear like a bell through his racing thoughts, and Rudo flinched. It wasn’t his own voice. It wasn’t anyone he recognised.
It was like…
He got the notion that, something was interfering with his fate.
He wasn’t sure what made that thought appear in his mind, but he listened anyway. Rudo turned tail, abandoning his efforts to defend himself to just run like the prey the trash beasts had reduced him to.
He ran.
He ran and ran, until his legs were burning with every desperate stride, and he continued.
With every inhale he put one foot in front of the other. The putrid, acidic air filled his lungs, vicious and stinging against the rawness of his blood-coated throat. The metallic taste of blood filled his mouth, and his mind was muddled with adrenaline.
Run. Run away as fast as you can. Get somewhere safe.
It wasn’t the voice from before. This was Regto – and it was like he was right there with him, egging him on and willing him to survive.
Run away and hide, Rudo.
Hide.
Rudo gritted his teeth and doubled in his efforts. Okay, air hissed out of his mouth as he exhaled, I will, Regto.
He could still hear the thunderous roaring of the living trash creatures behind him. He knew that if he slowed down, they would catch up within moments.
Rudo wasn’t sure how long he ran, he wasn’t sure how he was still able to stand if not because of the adrenaline causing his heartbeat to thud loudly in his ears like a countdown to something. He had unconsciously followed the discreet trail free of garbage, feet hammering along the path in a sprint.
Somehow, there were no howls of the trash monsters or the ground shaking as a sign they were still following him. Did he really outrun them?
He shook his head. He just needed to keep going.
He must have been running for ages, since the landscape eventually changed from what seemed like an endless wasteland of trash to dry, clear red land. There was nothing chasing him anymore.
Rudo grasped at his chest and fell to his knees. Every frantic breath he took to quell the rapid beating of his heart didn’t feel like enough. He was lightheaded, dangerously so, it was like he was about to…
Rudo’s vision swirled.
…pass out.
His temple hit the ground.
…
Cherish them… and a soul may come to dwell in them someday.
Rudo slowly came to awareness with the lingering memories of Regto’s words that he’s stuck by his entire life.
With half-closed eyes, he mouthed to himself, “Cherish them…”
Rudo’s eyes fluttered open fully. He stared at the unfamiliar environment, the occasional litter of trash lining the dry cracked land that terraformed up in two looming walls of land opposite each other, surrounding the wide, worn stony path he was laying on.
He shot up to his hands and knees. How long had he been out for?
It didn’t seem to be night, but he still couldn’t really tell beyond that fact. At the very least, he somehow wormed himself out of that risky situation he found himself in before. However, his entire body felt heavy from the toil it took running and fighting the creatures, and his lungs felt raw and sensitive. Rudo frowned and sighed to himself.
There was no use in sitting around doing nothing. He needed to find a way to get out of here, to get back up. He decided to follow the road and see where it took him.
Rudo walked, dragging one foot in front of the other despite the strain weighing down on his legs. He walked, and it wasn’t really long until he saw something promising ahead of him.
It was… a station of sorts? Rudo gasped to himself. A station and two trucks? So people have survived the fall down here like he did? Were they still alive?
He squinted, walking a few strides closer before he flinched as the truck doors suddenly slammed opened. Figures clambered out of them.
There were… people? Rudo’s eyes widened.
Before the people could notice him lurking, he quickly hid himself by the side of a tall rocky overhang, where they wouldn’t be able to see him. He was a distance away from them, close enough to hear their casual conversations if he bothered to listen.
There were people living in the pit?
It was always unknown what horrors actually resided at the bottom of what seemed like an endless void, but it was commonly assumed that at the bottom of the pit lied simply a barren wasteland of nothingness. Rudo never really considered the fact that somehow, a civilisation could also exist down here.
Rudo felt conflicted on what to do. On one hand, he didn’t know if these men could be trustworthy or not. He wasn’t going let his guard down around people who potentially wanted his head on a spike, even down here. Even if they had no idea who he was.
Yet on the other, what else could he do? Walk around aimlessly and get lost? What could he even do if he got lost here? He had seen no sign of nature or civilisation at all so far. It was like it was all replaced by mountains of trash instead. He wasn’t surprised about it, not with everything the people up there dumped down when they simply decided that it wasn’t worth anything anymore.
Rudo stared at the ground.
He remembered Regto’s rough yet kind eyes, as he quietly pressed a pair of large, brown gloves into Rudo’s trembling hands as he had another episode of pain out on the side of the road. Rudo had looked up at him with wide, unsure eyes back then, his vision blurry with unshed tears as he clutched the gloves tightly. It was the first time a stranger had showed him such open compassion.
He would never be able to see those eyes again. Rudo had watched as the soul had drained out of them, as Regto yelled at him to go, run, Rudo, and make the world a better place with desperate frenzy before his face slackened with lifelessness and his shaking hand that had found purchase on Rudo’s arm fell to the floor with a dull thud, too much like a ragdoll.
It all felt like a blur after that point, when the Apostles has barged in and rendered him immobile despite his attempts to tell them the real killer just left he still has to be somewhere nearby it’s not me I wouldn’t ever do something like this–
But why would the Apostles, the Townspeople, ever believe a filthy Tribesfolk like him? And all those other Tribespeople – they were all too busy trying to suck up to the very same people who caused the poverty in their lives. How dare they look at him with contempt and disregard as he was strung up, hung on display as his feet dangled over the unforgiving depths of the pit? As if one misstep and they wouldn’t be right in the same position as he was?
Rudo gnawed on his lip, hard enough for a prick of blood to ooze out. He repressed the urge to cough, swallowing down the bad blood welling in the back of his throat and ignoring the better yet still foul-smelling air around him that was dizzying him.
I will revenge you, Regto.
And I’ll kill all of those shitty, son of a bitch bastards up there too, who hear but don’t listen and see but don’t believe.
Rudo needed to get information on how to get out of here.
He straightened, bracing himself for a bad outcome if they turned out to be hostile. He peeked around the side of the wall he was leaning against in hiding. There were five of them, and they were still hanging around by the truck, chatting. One of the men said something that caused the other to bark out a laugh and slap him on the back. Their stances were loose and wide with easy confidence, yet he could see the tension in the lines of their bodies as if something could potentially creep up on them. Rudo twisted his mouth to the side. It made sense that living down here would cause you to be on guard all the time with all the monsters. It still felt a little bit unreal, even though he had witnessed first-hand as a huge beast rose from the piles of trash.
Rudo blinked and squinted at the men. They were wearing something over their faces. Gas masks? Rudo brought a hand up to his own mouth, frowning. He could use one of those… though the air here was considerably better than the air he was breathing in moments prior as he stumbled through the land filled with garbage, it still wasn’t good air.
Right. He should try and ask them some things about how to get back up. If it turned out to be bad, he could just run away and hide until they left.
Rudo inhaled deeply to steady himself, about to call out to them.
And he regretted the decision nearly immediately as the large lungful of acidic tasting oxygen caused him to keel over into a coughing fit, and more importantly, that this caught the sharp attention of the masked men by the truck.
They all whirled around to the source of the sound in unison, and Rudo quickly hid himself again. He covered his mouth with both of his hands, cursing at himself internally.
He could hear the men talking amongst themselves, rather hushed but still loud enough for Rudo to hear.
“Did you hear that? What was that?”
“Someone else is here!”
“Hey, we should go check. It might be someone tailing us.”
Ah, shit. This was no good. He should just reveal himself willingly…
Rudo straightened again, and he walked into view with robotic movements. The men paused, staring at him with expressions Rudo couldn’t see from beneath their masks.
One of them muttered disbelievingly, “It’s…”
Rudo contemplated on what to say. He seemed to have stunned the guys into silence. He opened his mouth, fell short on what to say and his jaw slackened again, and he brought a hand up to his chin. Um… what should he start with?
The men were graciously allowing him to find his voice.
Finally, he shouted awkwardly, “H-hey! I need information!”
Rudo waited expectantly for a sign of acknowledgement, yet nothing came. He frowned out of confusion, wondering why they were all standing so still as if they had been struck by lightning. Then, they all abruptly turned to each other, whispering in muted yet frantic voices.
Rudo blinked, then muttered to himself, “…Okay.” He decided to try again, maybe they didn’t hear him, “Uh, I said-”
The rapid speed at which all of them closed in on Rudo made him yelp. He slid a foot backwards to run away, but a large, firm hand clamped down on his arm, preventing him from escaping. He blanched at being restrained, then scowled instinctively.
“Hey! What’s your deal?! Lemme go-”
“You…!” The man in front of him holding his arm leaned in too close towards him. “You’re from the Sphere, aren’t you, kid?”
Rudo halted at the question. His mouth twisted in puzzlement, “Wha? Sphere?”
No one answered his question and instead started to discuss between themselves.
“Those clothes… he has to be,” one of the guys lingering towards the back remarked.
“What if he’s faking it?”
“I don’t think he is...”
“Where are you from, kid?” The man holding him asked, and he sounded shakingly eager.
“Huh? Um…” Rudo’s voice was small as he responded, glancing up at the sky, “I fell from up there…”
The men all looked at each other with surprise etched in their body language.
“He really is from the Sphere!”
“No way, alive too!”
Rudo winced away from the shouting. Still stiff in the unrelenting grip of one of the men, Rudo asked hesitantly, “Who’re you?”
“Ah! Where are our manners?” The man in front of him said cheerfully, too cheerfully, it was like a switch had been flipped on – and it made something in Rudo’s skin itch. The man finally let Rudo go, and he stumbled back a few steps, rubbing at his arm. The man gestured towards the other men with some sort of signal, and they all pulled their gas masks off at the same time. The man who was holding him before had a black bowl cut and facial hair around his mouth. “There. You have a face to put with the voice now.”
Rudo blinked, overwhelmed. “Oh. Okay…?”
“Is the language of the Skypeople the same as ours?” Rudo heard one of them ask curiously.
Bowl-cut-guy closed in on Rudo, invading his personal space, and went all touchy feely with his face. One of his fingers prodded underneath his eyes and pulled down. The man said with fascination, “Actually alive… you’ve done well to stay alive. Without a mask, too.”
Rudo twitched and slapped the hand away, jumping another few paces back. Maybe this was a mistake.
“H-Hey!” Rudo barked, cradling his face. “Hands to yourself, weirdo…”
His rumination on whether to just run away or not must have shown on his face, since the man backtracked.
“Wait, wait, I’m sorry about that! Many of the Sphereites we find are already dead, that’s all,” The guy laughed and waved his hands placatingly stepping back in a show of surrendering, “Don’t go, it was information you needed, is that right? We can provide you with that.”
Rudo had stiffened at the first half. It made sense. No one could survive a fall that deep.
So then… how did he?
The man started walking towards Rudo, closing the gap between them. Rudo tensed. The other men came closer too.
Bowl-gut-guy clicked his tongue, looking worried. “Look at you. You’re all beat up. And what’s that nasty gash on your arm? We can help fix you up.”
Rudo furrowed his eyebrows, unconsciously untensing.
Would they really? The guy did look genuinely worried about him, despite his weird actions before. Maybe they were all just surprised about finding someone who had fallen still alive.
That had to be it. They couldn’t be worse than the people living up there.
Rudo was too late to react as he was shoved face-first to the ground and as his wrists were bound in tight, metal chains. The man’s previous gentle smile had turned wide and wiry and sinister.
Rudo stared up at him with wide, betrayed eyes.
How did it turn out to be like this?
Rudo thought, as he stood in front of the cowering figure of the very same man who stood over him with a creepy grin just before. With his newly awakened power, whatever the hell it was, he had knocked out all of the other guys. Transformed tire in hand, Rudo glared down at the shaking man, feeling not all that there.
“Lofty Skypeople!” they had said. “The reason why we want people from the Sphere, is because we hate you,” they had said afterwards with grins that made Rudo want to claw their faces off. Rudo had enough of it – about all that talk about labels and the Sphere and the Ground and the Tribesfolk and Trash.
It made him sick, the way people so freely talked with derision about others when they themselves were no better.
And then he felt this surge of power, stronger by ten-fold than before. He had broken out of the chains restraining him, and instinctively, something in his gut told him to wield something as a weapon – and the objects transformed in his own hands.
Rudo stood there, conscious yet at the same time barely in his right mind and lifted the spiked tire up above the terrified man’s head. He could hear the man shaking and crying, begging him.
To stop.
Stop, something deep in his mind told him, but it was too quiet, it was too drowned out. Stop. Don’t-
He swung the tire down like the sword of judgement itself.
The man’s head split open as the spear pierced his skull. Gore splattered across the ground. The man’s struggling ended brusquely, like a candle’s life as you snuffed out the fire.
Rudo breathed heavily. He dropped the tire and watched it disintegrate into dust, and he closed his eyes. It was like his powers had been flipped off, and Rudo gasped into reality as something warm began to trickle down his nose. His arms started to tingle the same way they did whenever his scars had a flare up of pain.
Rudo glanced down at the mess he made, suddenly aware.
…Dead?
The sight filled his bones with deep-seated dread.
He killed him?
Rudo stumbled backwards.
He killed him.
He killed him.
He killed a man for the first time, and he’s dead.
Rudo gasped into his hand.
No, no. He wasn’t himself, he wasn’t there, what did he do?
Rudo collapsed to his knees, suddenly unable to hold himself up anymore. His hands laid shaking and sensitive in his lap, and he bent over, unaccepting, confused, wasn’t this the same fate he wanted for the people living up there, mind a tangled mess. A sharp headache spread all the way around his head, and Rudo groaned pitifully.
He heard a distant thud, like someone or something had landed heavily on the ground from a height. He closed his eyes again, this time clenched shut in a silent wish for everything around him to just dissipate.
…He felt like he was going to pass out again.
“Do you wish to return to your heaven?”
Rudo blinked. The hand in front of his face hadn’t moved an inch. He frowned, and the movement caused the crusted blood around his nose and mouth, long-since dried, to flake unpleasantly.
Who…
He forced his mouth to open, and it was like his tongue was swimming in a mouthful of tar, “Huh...? What’re you…”
Another wave of pain washed over him, and the fight to keep his head up drained out of him. Rudo hung his head, groaning and scrunching his face.
He heard a drawn-out exhale. A minute woosh of air indicated that the man’s hand finally moved away.
“Hm. You’re more out of it than I had anticipated.”
In Rudo’s addled state, he could barely piece the words together to find a meaning. Who was this man? He hasn’t hurt him yet. What does he want from him?
Rudo found the strength to look back up at the man.
“…Who are you?”
“My name is Zodyl Typhon,” the man answered directly.
He stepped closer, closing the distance further. Rudo eyed his actions with wariness, staring up at him with narrowed eyes. His movements caused Rudo’s head to reel, and his eyesight shook as he tracked the motion. Through his blurry vision, he noticed the man’s gaze lingering on Rudo’s hands, half-hidden in his lap.
Violet eyes shifted upwards from his agitated hands as the man stared down at him, and his eyes were so, so cold, “And I can help you, Sphereite, if you let me.”
Help… him?
It felt like Rudo was going to pass out.
It must have shown somehow, since the man’s eyebrows pulled down faintly. He frowned.
Rudo’s vision was becoming increasingly spotty, and his head tipped forwards. He felt as if he was fading out of consciousness, from the way his body rejected his attempts to move.
He heard a sigh.
“I suppose the surface hasn’t treated you gently.”
Rudo heard another sound, and a presence even closer to him now as if the man had knelt down right in front of him.
“Look at me.”
Rudo lifted his head up to snarl weakly, “Don’t tell me what to do, fucker-”
He jolted as something sturdy was pulled down his head to fit snugly around the bottom half of his face. Rudo looked down at the thing as best as he could, bringing a shaky hand to feel what it was. A gas mask...? Oh, right. He had wanted one of these earlier. He breathed, and for the first time in what felt like eons it was fresh air. The shift in air, though relieving, caused a sharp stabbing pain in his temples.
He wanted to close his eyes.
While Rudo was distracted, he felt a steady hand lift him upright on the middle of his back, and then another slotting underneath the crook of his legs. The grip made him want to jolt and kick away, yet all he could manage was a weak jerk against the hold. He was lifted into the air, and his side made contact with what he assumed was the man’s chest.
“Don’t touch me,” he managed, flinging a feeble fist out blindly. The touch of the man felt like searing irons – Rudo wanted nothing than to just be left alone right now. His fist swiped nothing but air. “Put me down-”
“Lively, are you,” the man remarked tonelessly. “I highly doubt that you can walk. It’s a miracle you even managed to survive up to this point without a gas mask, and then running into those traffickers as well.”
Was he just watching them then? Rudo glowered up at him through the spots dancing in his vision. Rudo growled at him even as his eyelids lowered against his will. “Who the hell… are you?”
“Close your eyes,” the man said as Rudo fought to keep his consciousness, and it felt oddly like an order. “Sleep. I will explain everything once you’re awake.”
A pause.
“After all, you want to find a way back up to the Sphere, do you not?”
Rudo twitched. The words were like a trigger. He had to get back up. He had to get his revenge on all of the people who wronged him and Regto, he had to… kill them, kill them all!
Kill them. Could he really do that…?
He had to…
Rudo felt his body go limp, and slowly, everything began to fade away.