The campaign ended with the cave troll defeated, the villagers safe, and the rogue being rogue thought he could steal the gold from a noble. He got far, but unfortunately he had a poor roll and they were caught. Well the rogue was caught, the other two tried to convince the noble to release him. Which ended with them being sent to jail. It was great, I laughed at the interaction they had with each other and for the look on the DMs face when he tried to figure out what to do once the chaos started.
Seeing a DM focused confused was something everyone needed to see at least once in their lives.
As the group was getting ready to pack up their stuff I said.
"Good job rogue. You get to have my approval."
"Oh shut up, I thought I could do and my rogue needed the gold and….sorry"
"Yeah and you cost us our party wipe out. I swear if the weeks we put into this ends with us dying here I wont talk to you. I wont even be able to handle being in your presence."
"Dude. It wasn't that bad, and we have been in worse spots."
Before leaving the library the librarian wished us a good night and to come by early tomorrow if they wanted to get their chore task done. When we walked down the hallway, I couldn't help but ask.
"So, the tour was kind of boring and I wasn't really paying attention but what exactly is a 'chore task'"
Darren replied saying "Oh, it's like a job. You go to the place you want to work at, which usually has a list of things that need to be done like taking out the trash, organizing books, or whatever really."
After finishing his sentence, it looked like Darren was going to take a break before speaking again but the silence was for too long as James said "Yeah, some of the jobs can get really boring so you have to be quick about it."
"Anyway, like I was saying their just jobs. You get money from doing them, which you can use at the store."
"What is at the store? I haven't been there yet."
"Literally anything. Toys, books, comics, DnD manuals and figures. Heck there are even snacks you can buy, but honestly I wouldn't buy any of the snacks. The cafeteria has pretty good food and not only that but it just isn't worth it."
"Is that how you got the stuff for your campaign?"
"Yeah, we had to work our butts off to get all the stuff we needed. Heck Jeffrey here had to do the baby sitting job. Cause he wasn't fast enough to get anything else."
I turned to Jeffrey whom seemed to have thought of a bad memory and said.
"I will never do that again. I am telling you those babies have it out for me. One of them peed on me."
"Seriously dude this again. Your crazy babies are babies. They pee, you pee, I pee, heck even girls pee I think. We all pee, just because one baby peed on you doesn't mean they are out to get you."
"You say that, but they didn't do that to the others who were with me. They only did it when I had to change them. AND! They didn't laugh when I tried to play with them."
"Probably because of that ugly face."
Walking out of the school, I looked up to see the lights were dimming. With the 'street light' dinosaurs lighting the paved path roads that led to every building. There were kids leaving their areas with either sighs or like our group moving towards the home building. I saw the school or college or whatever groups form together while they walked to home sweet home. I also saw some kids waiting for their friends.
Some counselors were waiting by the main doors to greet and check each of the kids, they were probably checking to see if everyone was accounted for. The entrance led you to the inside which had a hallway, that led you downstairs to the main building. The floors were made of wood, while the walls were made of wood at the base with the upper half being painted with a basic house design color. It was amazing to me how big this place was, the engineering, the planning and the work needed to build all of this underground was insane.
We had to be crazy deep underground, and not only that but how did they ensure that this place didn't collapse in on itself. And, to top it all off it goes even further down with the prison and labs being down there. How the managed it, kept it a scare and hell even afford it was something else.
"Hey can I ask you guys a question" I said
"Yeah"
"Sure"
"Shot"
"Catnap, he is here right? In this building, right? He comes at night or what. Where can I find him, and like what does he say?"
They looked at each other, with James smiling and saying
"what scared of cats? Well you better be he eats kids like yo-" Jeffrey hit James in the shoulder hard this time with James complaining "Serious dude! The shoulder again."
"Yeah, don't scare the new kid. You know that isn't cool."
"Well he scared us, first"
Jeffrey completely ignored James comment and spoke
"Don't listen to him man, Catnap is just a robot that walks around and helps you sleep. He DOESN'T do anything else, and the only thing he says is 'go to bed' or 'sleep' and 'goodnight'. The older kids, the ones that have been here longer say that he used to say more but his voice box broke or something like that. I have been here for a year, and every time there is a new kid someone tries to scare him with the Catnap trick. Oh he is going to eat you, or oh he is going to do that or that. Bottom line he is robot, and wont do anything beside walk around the halls and the rooms. THAT'S IT."
"Oh..ok..interesting. So, catnap is a robot I see. You have been here for a year? Who has been here the longest? And how long does it take to get adopted here."
"Hmm..I honestly don't know who has been here the longest, but for adoption it honestly luck of the draw to be chosen."
"Chosen?"
"Yeah, if you are older it might be a awhile before getting chosen, but you are young and parents like younger kids. And babies go fast, all the parents that come by want babies"
I immediately stopped walking, looked Jeffrey and said.
"what."
"Babies man, parents love the smaller kids everyone knows that."
They wouldn't do that would they? They couldn't possibly use kids that young right? No one could be that…evil..messed up..just, no humans were selfish right. They already used kids that were under 14 years old. Wasn't catnap 7 years old when he became catnap. I wanted to shake my head of the thought, but once it started it kept going. SHIT, FUCK…what if all those smiling critters the player meets are fucking infants, toddlers, Fucking babies!
It made sense didn't it? Why they acted like the way they did, why they crawled around like that.
God just thinking about it makes me want to throw up. I thought about the kids I met in my life, the babies and their little laughs. Holding my little cousin in my arms, I couldn't just couldn't imagine. It..I-I God help them if it was true. If it was true then I might actually join the prototype in what he would do.
Fuck.
"Hey you okay, you kind of just froze up." Darren asked
"Y-yeah..fine..I-I..bed. I will go to bed and see you guys tomorrow." With that I left them quickly. My head felt light, my vision was focused, and I could feel my the sweat in my pales. No, they wouldn't do that. It was impossible to do something like that and get away with it. No one was that cold hearted, and it would be impossible to fly that many under the radar without adults looking into it.
It simply was impossible.
I didn't notice, until I felt a hand on my shoulder. If I had been in my original body, I would have broken that wrist. I wasn't in a good head space right now, and I didn't like when people I didn't know touched me. I looked at the hand, turn around and saw one of the counselors looking at me with a smile.
"What. Do you want?"
"I wanted to let you know that you are going to the girls side of the room, the boys side is the other side. You are Max right? We were told by Keckler that you might need help finding a bed. Come with me"
I didn't question him, only followed. We walked to the other side of the building. I wasn't paying attention to what the guy said, nor where we were going. The only thing I knew was that we somehow ended up in a big room with bunk beds and a huge smiling critter statue in the middle of it. I looked at the kids jumping on beds, playing and doing last minute activities. I turned to the counselor and with a straight face said.
"What the fuck is this?"
"Excuse me?"
"You hear me. Read my lips, What. The.Fuck. Is. That." I said while pointing at the statue. There was no way I would sleep in the same room as that camera thing. After having the disturbing babies thought, I wasn't going to sleep in the bed. Hell, I was going to find a hiding spot to sleep at. If I could sleep on the fucking ground for a month in the god forsaken jungle AND desert I could and would sleep on the floor of this fucking place.
"Young man, you will not and can not use that type of language here."
I waved him off, like a bug. If this dude and I met before I got placed in this body I doubt the motherfucker would have the balls to say anything to me.
"Yeah, whatever. Show me my bed."
He sighed and showed me to my bed. It was a bunk bed in the far corner of the room next to the outside window. He informed me that my bed was the bottom bunk, and that my dresser was the one closest to the bed.
"Thanks now leave."
He looked at me, and sighed deeply before leaving. It was only after I saw him leave the room that I looked more closely at my surroundings. The statue was in the middle of the room facing the door, I was in the corner looking at its back. If I remember right that thing is motion sensitive, and had its battery in its back.
I could definitely use my pillow and sheets to fake being asleep here. And that dresser was enough to hide in, probably would be uncomfortable but I could make it work. By the time I was half way done with my set up my bunk mate came. I knew he was my bunk mate because when he saw me, he ran and said "I got the new kid"
He was probably about this body`s age. He had a Hispanic face, with big ears and short straight black hair. He looked really excited to meet me, when he finally came face to face with me he said
"You're the new kid right…the one that they had to bring in..that chair right. Ryan told me and the other kids they had you in there because you did something bad. Did you do something bad?"
"Maybe."
"Whoa…that is so cool. Hey I fell and hurt my knee once and didn't even cry. I a scar do you want to see"
"cool. Little man and no thanks. Say what happened to your bunkmate?"
"Oh..that? Ms. Smith said that he got chosen. They said he got chosen because he did well on the test and that a good family liked him. I-I…don't do well on the test, they are hard, and sometimes I get scared and don't know what do or say. But, Ms.Smith said that if I do well next time then I that I might get chosen too."
I smiled at him and said.
"That is cool, I hope you do well." It wasn't cool, and it wasn't alright. This kid was my bunkmate, and either had the devil`s luck or an angel was watching out for him to have me as his bunk mate. Hell this whole room was now under my protection, and I wish a motherfucker would try to come here. I knew so many ways to kill a man, and I wouldn't even lose sleep about killing people who literally knew they were talking children.
In war sometimes the other side is force to fight, either because their leaders encourage them to fight for a cause and or reason OR they fight because they have no choice. The enemy forces grunts tell you that their leader has their family and will kill them if they don't fight or something similar. Killing those people was wrong that is a what I truly believed, but killing people who took these kids knowingly as a fucking job. A fucking 9-5 job on taking children into God knows where, and you don't question that. Don't look at that and say 'wow that is fucked up'. I don't care if you are under contract, or need money or whatever that wasn't right. Wasn't worth the money to stain your soul with. Not only that but the kids in this room were around my age give or take a few years. So, what 5–10-year-olds. Yeah, the reaper would be coming to claim what`s due.
He tried to talk to me again, but the announcement came on saying that it was time for bed. It was only about 10 maybe 15 minutes later, when I saw that the area was at least safe enough did I move as quietly as possible into the dresser. As I moved and opened the door, I watched as the statues eyes turn on. It slowly rotated around the room, by the time it got to being able to see my area, I was already in the dresser. I really hope that it didn't see me, as I didn't and couldn't open the door to check.
It was cramped in the dresser, and I had to bend my knees to even get a little comfortable. However, this was better than risking being in bed. I didn't see catnap but I did hear him. I hear the 'bump' foot or paw steps he made. Red smoke began to slip in the cracks of the dresser. Seeing the red smoke in the game, and in real life is different. In the game it was over the top, but here it looked like colored smoke bomb.
I didn't know how long the effects would take, but I decided to hold my breath just to be safe. I held my breath, and started counting in my head. I wanted to know how long I could go holding my breath in this position. I also made note of the route Catnap would take. Did he have a pattern to it? If so how did he move through the room, and did the camera follow him.
30 seconds was the time in my head, before I started to have that feeling of my body wanting oxygen. Based on the foot steps, Catnap makes a circle around the room and then leaves. Foot steps are heading for and seem to be fading to the right it sounds like. What was to the right of this room? Damn, I should have paid more attention. I need to make note of that tomorrow.
50 seconds, I exhaled and had to breathe again. This led to me having to breathe in the red smoke. I thought that breathing in the smoke was an instant knock out, but I was wrong. I was able to stay awake for a little bit, but just like the sedation they gave me I could feel it. My eyes were heavy, and focusing started to become hard to do. I tried counting to see how long it would take for me to pass out, but I think I got to 23 seconds before darkness.