DSMP Backrooms AU

Chapter 23

Level 194

Karl's heart was beating extremely weakly. Ant took his glasses off for a moment, pressing his bloody hands to his face in frustration before he picked his glasses up and put them on again, ignoring the blood he got on the lenses.

Sapnap dropped next to Karl and grabbed the brunet's hand tightly. "Karl, please stay with us!" Tears brimmed in Sapnap's eyes. Karl wanted to respond, but he couldn't find the energy as his head lolled to the side again. "I...." Karl trailed off, he couldn't muster the energy to speak. He tried. He tried so fucking hard to speak. But he just couldn't. Ant lifted Karl's hand before speaking, "Can you form a fist with your left hand for me?" Ant asked.

Karl managed to muster the energy to close his hand into a fist. He held it for as long as he could but his hand soon fell open again. "You're doing well Karl." Ant reassured.

"M-My body hurts.... So... s-so bad..." Karl lifted his head slightly, just for it to loll to the side again. Ant could hear Sapnap's shaky breathing next to him as he worked. "Ant! You have to save him!" Sapnap cried out. Ant's hand tensed around the needle in ill-placed frustration and took a tense breath in. "I'm trying Sapnap!" Ant seethed out.

"Ple...ase j-just leave m-me..." Karl rasped out weakly. "No!" Sapnap and Ant cried out in unison. "We won't leave you here Karl!" Ant said, sinking the needle into Karl's arm, stitching up the last scratch. Ant grabbed a makeshift washrag and a bottle of rubbing alcohol from his med kit. He opened the bottle, soaked the rag, and closed the bottle back up. He ran the rag gently against Karl's bloody arms. "Ow..." Karl groaned in pain. A feeling of relief washed over Ant as Karl lifted his head and kept it up. "How are you doing Karl?"

"B-Better... but... I'm still..." Karl trailed off, looking for the words. He was still out of it, that much was clear. Ant kept cleaning the injuries until the rag was soaked more with blood than rubbing alcohol.

"You're doing good Karl, I promise." Ant forced a smile. "Is he going to be okay?" Sapnap asked, tears running down his cheek, clearing faceling blood from under his only functioning eye. Ant just sighed and softly muttered, "I hope so."

Ant tossed the rag to the side and carefully put Karl's shirt and sweater back on. He collected the scattered pieces of Karl's torn up sweater and put them in a pocket of his bag. Ant made a mental note to sew Karl's sweater back up for him. Sapnap picked Karl up, making sure not to put too much strain on the stitches.

"We need to get out of here. We need to get Karl out of here and back to the Hub." Sam said, lending a killing blow to a child faceling and turning around. "Sam, you killed a child." Wilbur chuckled, his statement and posture being overly nonchalant about that. "Yes I did. It's a disgrace." Sam chuckled back despite his extra comment being serious.

The group walked through the level carefully, everyone making sure to keep Sapnap and Karl in the middle so Karl didn't get further injuries. The room reeked of blood and the group didn't smell much better. They killed whatever attacked them as they went on. The entire group was soaked with blood. Ant knew damn well how the rest of the group would react. He just imagined things like, "Oh my god! Are you guys okay?" and "What the fuck happened to y'all?". He was personally indifferent to it all. He looked over to Red, who was shaking slightly.

"Red? What's wrong?" Ant's voice was soft. Red turned to Ant, blood still dripping down his face. Ant never expected to see his boyfriend covered in blood, and it made his heart ache. "I-I killed so m-many t-things A-Ant... I... I'm a murderer..." Red's voice was just barely audible. "Red... those things are monsters... if you didn't kill them, they'd kill you and many more people. Don't worry about it. No one here will blame you for what you did. Personally," Ant smiled softly before continuing. "I'm pretty fucking proud of you!"

Red wiped some of the blood from his face and smiled softly. Red mouthed the words, "Thank you."