Buy a New Brain Now! (ONC 2020)

I Ask If We're There Yet (Several Times)

I never knew that passages could be so long.

"Are we there yet?" I whine, dragging my feet as we travel down the passageway.

"No," Dr. Gloop replies, and I huff as we continue walking.

"Are we there-"

"NO."

Snickering to myself, I decide that this trek isn't so boring after all. It is, in fact, a great opportunity to test the limit of Gloop's endurance.

"Are we there yet?" I ask again, watching in interest as his face slowly begins to turn purple. A thought crosses the more mature part of my brain that perhaps I'm being a tad mean to him, but the rest of my brain quickly shakes it off. This is still the patronising Gloop who invaded my cell.

Sweet, sweet revenge.

"Are we-"

He cuts me off in mid-sentence. "The answer's the same as before," he responds in a disappointingly neutral tone.

Ah well.

I tried.

The further we travel down the passage, the dimmer it becomes. It seems that the lights have stopped working and the bulbs haven't yet been replaced. Curious as to the lack of light, I ask: "Why is it so dark?"

Doctor Gloop's step falters for a bit as he looks at me, seemingly surprised that I've asked a question other than 'are we there yet'. "I'm not sure," he responds. "It's been like this since I joined."

Furrowing my brow, I think over his words, before a solution comes to me. "Have you tried using candles?"

A small chuckle escapes him before he manages to contain himself and straighten out his face. Giving him a hard stare, I'm gratified to see him actually flinch back a little.

"Candles are relics of the past," he explains.

I frown. "You mean, they don't exist anymore?"

His face solemn, he looks at me. "The raw materials are unattainable," he explains. "They exist, but with the rapid spread of the virus, there's no safe way to attain them."

As we continue down the passage, I mull over his words. Since waking up - with the exception of my family - the outside world in its current state hadn't been something I'd considered. I wonder just how much the world has changed since the virus' spread.

Before I can ask the question, Doctor Gloop abruptly stops and I slam into him face-first, hard. Wincing, I rub my nose and stumble backwards, glaring at his back.

I open my mouth to air my feelings, but as he sharply looks back at me, I snap it shut again. He puts a finger to his mouth and gestures for me to listen. Curiosity getting the better of me I do so. At first, there's nothing. But as the seconds tick on, faint cries and raw throated yells draw my attention. It sounds like a fight.

"What's that?' I ask, tilting my head in Gloop's direction. His face is unguarded and worried as he turns to face me again.

"Zombies," is all he says. I wait for him to elaborate, but instead he turns on his heel and marches down the passageway. With no small amount of curiosity and irritation, I follow. Then, a mischievous thought pops into my brain, and a smile tugs at my lips.

"If you're not going to give me a better answer, can you at least answer one other question?"

He looks back at me over his shoulder. "No, we are not there yet," he says without emotion. I glare at his back as we continue onwards, wishing for the first time that I'd saved some of the green gloop they gave me when I was in the cell.

His back would make perfect Gloop target practice.

A/N:

Heya all!

Sorry for the big delay in getting out this chapter. The Zombies stole the writing part of my brain, so I had to wait for a new part to come in stock.

Seriously speaking though, I had a bit of a block on this chapter, which is why it's shorter than I initially intended it to be. It's mainly setting the scene for the future (plus I have wayy too much fun writing Eve).

Also, THANK YOU FOR 1.2K READS! I honestly didn't expect this, and I'm grateful to you all for reading, and for all your comments <3 I read every single comment, and I'm going to try and get better at responding to each one.

Thanks again,

- Hollie