The Damage Has Been Done (Markiplier)

Chapter 14: Finding Fragments of Hope

Tom's POV.

"Hey, Trace!" I called. Trace snapped his line of sight in my direction, anticipating what I was saying to him. "You wake up Chloe yet? We have to get going soon."

Trace's eyes went from relaxed to confused as I asked him about the little girl, shaking his head slightly. "Uh, Tom, I thought you did. When I went over to her bed, she wasn't there. So I assumed you woke her up."

"I didn't wake her up. I haven't gone over to her yet. What do you mean she wasn't there? Where could a ten year old possibly be at, at six thirty in the morning?"

"With the leader of the group maybe? You? I don't freakin know, Tom. I'm not her caretaker. She run off to the bathroom or something?"

"Nope, not there," Molly chimed.

"I haven't seen Chloe, either," Stacy said, agreeing with Molly.

"Are you serious? Did we just lose another kid?" Bob asked. Mandy hit his arm and Wade shot him a quick glare. I said what they were implying.

"My brother, the twenty-four year old Biomedical Engineer, is no measly 'kid'. He's a full grown adult who knows what he's doing and how to take care of himself. You seriously need to stop talking like that. You're making the situation way worse than it is."

"Just saying. It was a joke, Tom. You know: 'haha. Oh, good one'? Making light of the damn situation. You're too serious now that all this has gone down."

"Alright, seriously," Elise started in. "Who knows where Chloe could've gone? Tom, you were talking to her last night for a minute, right? Did she say anything to suggest where or if she was leaving?"

I began to think back to last night, trying to find when Chloe and I were talking. It was mere seconds we were speaking to each other, but I knew something must've come up. We all needed to know. If the group found Mark and Chloe was lost, he'd kill me. That was his partner in crime. His buddy. He was practically her guardian, who put me in charge of her while he had run off. I failed to keep an eye on a simple kid. A ten year old who had to be taken care of and watched over. I couldn't believe how stupid I must've been for letting Chloe go running off like that. Then it hit me. Only one damn person in this world would've been able to make Chloe leave. That person is Mark. She went to go look for him... Goddammit! Chloe left, to go find him!

"Shit," I mumbled.

"What? You remember anything?" Mandy asked.

"Mark," I said quietly.

"What?"

"Mark! The fucking kid went to go look for Mark! She ran off to god knows where to look for someone who we have no idea where he is! That's what! That's what I remember! She asked me if it'd be better to split up and look for him..."

"And...?"

"I said no... I told her we couldn't. Now because of my simple answer, she's off, running around in a country filled with those infected monsters, looking for Mark! Dammit!"

"Okay... So what do you propose we do?"

"I don't know..."

"Fine. I guess this time we should split up into groups of two and look for Chloe. Finding Mark would be a plus, but our main focus is her now. We should start soon. As soon as now. C'mon, I know a way we can keep in touch. I'll show you, grab your stuff and follow me."

We all followed Mandy down the street after grabbing our supplies and blood-stained weapons. We had no clue where we were going or what we were looking for, but, I guess it'd work to follow and trust Mandy with whatever she was doing. We walked for a while, Trace and Devin cracking a few jokes to lighten the mood of the situation we were all in. I couldn't expect any news from Mark from a video, the phone towers were down. He couldn't text, call or anything. So we were screwed. A few minutes later, I saw what looked to be blood on the side of a brick building but I wasn't sure what it was. It couldn't be blood, it was too bright and it was shiny.