65,588

I stand there for a while—longer than I probably should—just staring at her. She’s still sitting in the driver’s seat, like she might turn and say something dumb and hopeful at any second. Like the blood on her face is just from the crash, and not… whatever this is.

But she doesn’t move. She never will.

I stagger away from the wrecked car, legs shaking—not from pain, but from whatever’s clawing at my head. Shock, maybe. Or just that same old voice reminding me: you’re alone again. I want to talk to Her. I want to hear something that isn’t the ringing in my ears and the wind moving through a graveyard I helped make. I pat my pockets out of habit. Empty. Right. They stripped me of everything.

I force myself to look away from the car and towards the camp. There bodies are everywhere. Twisted. Broken. Some of them barely recognizable as people anymore. Even after everything they did—or tried to do—I still feel that knot in my stomach. It's one thing to survive. It’s another to walk through the aftermath and realize you’re the reason no one’s left breathing.

But, I have to keep moving. There’s no guarantee I won’t drop dead on a dime like…that girl. I head back down to the cells. At the end of the hallway of empty cells, there seems to be a locked room. I’d wager that’s where my stuff is, but without a key I’m not getting in. I go back outside, and—

I freeze.

No way.

There’s still someone here. The girl who drugged me. She’s crawling, the bottom half of her body is…gone. How is she not dead? I have to stop myself from throwing up. But then, she spots me.

“Y…yoooouu…” She says, barely able to speak. “Y…yoooouuuree…liiike…those cockrooooachesss…thaaaat…neverrrr dieeed…no matter…hoooow manyyy…parts I riiippeed…offff….of theeeem….ahahahaha…you’ve cheeeated death twiiiice…or maaaybe 3 times noooow…maybe your…e…..the one…Seeeraaaphiiinnnn…choseeee…the…fuckin…roaaach…!”

I just freeze up and stare at her. I’ve cheated death, maybe twice here…and what does she mean ‘the one the Seraphin chose’? Maybe I’m reading too far into this, she’s lost a lot of blood…and…herself…despite that, I guess I should try and ask her where the key to that room is…

“H-hey…I need to get my stuff back, do you know where the k—”

“Hehehehe…doooo…youuu…waaan…t…me to tellll…you…in my…cutesyyyy…voiiceee…?” She coughs up blood, before continuing. “The keeeey~? I belieeeve…it’s right up your aaassss mister~!” Well, I should’ve expected that from her. I walk over to the prison guard’s body, but the keys he has on him are too big for that door. I check the announcer, and…bingo. There’s a huge set of keys on him. I assume he’s the head of this operation, maybe? I start to walk over to the entrance of the cells, but that girl calls out to me.

“Heeeeyyyy…I knoooowww…we’ve haaadd our differencesss…in the paaasssttt…but could youuu…do me a favorrrr…and kill me alreadyyy….?”

I look over at her, barely able to keep myself from puking. I’m surprised she’s still alive, she must be in a lot of pain.

I head down to the cells, and…

There’s way too many keys, am I really supposed to try all of these? Hmm…I close my right eye, and I see myself in the room, with a red key in the lock. I try it, and—huh, it works. That took a lot less time than I expected.

Stepping into the room, there’s more than just my belongings in here. There’s guns, books, food, water, a lot of papers, and…vials of some liquid. It has some numbers on it, 4040-2231. I feel like I’ve heard that set of numbers before…they’re…vials of Seraphin…? They have tons of them, and there’s even more in the trash! This is weird…maybe looking through these documents will tell me something, maybe even about that scientist.

I flip through pages of documents, expecting to find something about the vials, the cult, maybe the members, but one of the first things I find is…

My name.

On a list. With a bunch of other names, most crossed out with…red pen…or blood. I never told that girl my name though. It just doesn’t make any sense. Were they watching me? For how long? What else do they know? Looking through more and more documents doesn’t give me any answers. I guess, I could ask…one person. I grab all my belongings and head back outside.

She’s dead. There’s no life in her eyes. I guess it is a little miracle she survived this long missing half of her…body. I sit down on the sand and stare at the sky for a second. I don’t think of anything, I don’t plan anything, or do anything at all. I just sit still and stare. It’s keeping me from losing my mind, I suppose.

After a while, I take out my phone and talk to Her. I press the button to record my voice input, but I can’t even say anything.

“Is this what you call a ‘butt dial’? Or is something else going on?”

“…No…I’ve just…had a lot to process recently.”

“Tell me all about it.” And I do just that.

“You should know better than to chase women with daddy issues. Sorry, I guess now isn’t the time for jokes. Based on what you’ve told me, and combined with the fact that the man who held you at gunpoint in the sporting goods store had something related to the half devils on him, I would say they have been watching you for some time. I don’t know how, or how long, or really anything more than that. I guess one more inference I can make, is that the man was most likely going to take you to the half devils after he was done looting your house. As for that girl, the sane one that is, dying suddenly like that is congruent with Seraphin deaths. Her time was up at that very moment. You should consider yourself lucky she didn’t die earlier.”

“…………..”

“I know you are still processing all of this, but I do not think it is very wise to linger here much longer. If any other cult members are out somewhere and return, they would kill you instantly. I would take what you deem useful, and find transport out of here.”

“…yeah…I’ll do that.”

I get up, and take some supplies out of that storeroom. The only issue is, I need a car. What did they do with mine? Surely they’d take that too. I press the button on my keyfob, and from a distance, I can hear it making the “I’m already locked, idiot” noise. I walk towards the noise, and find my car. I get in, turn it on, and…they’ve drained it. Well, the gas has to have gone somewhere. I look around for a while, and find some generators and many gas cans hidden under a tarp. I fill my car up and put some of the cans inside the trunk of my car. Before I drive off, a thought pops into my head.

How did they know I was going to that store, at that time? How did they know where I was going to have that girl lure me here? I get out of my car and I go back into that room one last time. I tear the place apart, eventually finding a phone hidden beneath one of desk’s drawers. There’s a code on it, but my right eye tells me it’s the code on the vials.

In one app, there’s a map with thousands of red dots on it. They’re updating in real time too, but how? My position isn’t linked to my car, so there’s no tracker on there, and even if there was a tracker somewhere else, there’s no way they have trackers for all these people too. I check my phone, no service, no anything. Yet it still knows where I am. If I zoom in far enough…

I can see myself. Standing right here.