In Revenge's Wake (Undertale Fanfic)

24.

Frisk's POV

One foot in front of the other. That's what I repeated to myself as I pushed on through the sweltering heat. Surprisingly, it didn't take a large amount of time to become accustomed to the unusual silence of being completely alone; the heat and pain somehow focusing my mind on my mission rather than anything else. I'd rolled the sleeves up on my clothing a while ago. but that hadn't done much. 

       I had hoped to find the water dispenser soon, but nothing had shown up yet. It had been so long since I'd entered Hotland; in fact it had been weeks since I'd even left the forest properly. Usually if Alphys was going to see us she would come over to Sans and Papyrus' house, as would we all. It felt strange that something that happened not so long ago go to me had been completely eradicated from everyone else's memory. 

       I wished I had gone back to find River Person again- he seemed to know more than he was letting on. It was too late to turn back now though. Every second wasted meant one less second of staying alive. Wiping the sweat off my brow, I continued on, the sandy ground only getting more cracked and neglected as I walked. The only positive side of this progression was the lessening dust piles, which I hoped meant that less monsters had made it to here in the first place. I tried not to think of the other possibility for these dwindling numbers (the fact that they were here, just very much alive, being the main one).

      The silence stretched out in front of me as I continued, my breath starting to come out in small pants. The water dispenser was still nowhere in sight. The sound of rusted grating was starting to grind on my ears in the distance, the soft- clunk, thud- causing my feet to gradually fall into rhythm with them. The sound was slightly ominous, but after walking for 30 minutes in this heat alone on an empty stomach and a severe lack of sleep was making me dizzy, letting my paranoia fade into the background; as if it was constantly a step behind me. 

         My mind stayed quite blank and untroubled for the majority of the further 30 minutes more of walking. I didn't breathe out of my mouth anymore, the hot air hitting too harshly at my dried throat and cracked lips, and the consequence of using purely my nose meant I felt as if I was almost gasping for oxygen that seemed to thin the further I went. The clunking got louder as I progressed, my body- now settling into it's slightly oxygen-starved state- observed this very objectively, as if I was a spectator of my own journey, that I was no longer in control of my actions. This dissociation may have been the leading factor of why I barely reacted upon seeing the broken dispenser, the last few stagnant centimetres of water resting in the basin. 

        I stumbled over to it, my mind hazy. My body had experienced worse than the state I was in now back when I was on the surface, of course, but my body was sluggish from the length of time that had passed since I was there. I put my hands into the water. I hadn't imagined it to be the cool refreshing elixir I wanted so badly, but I still gasped a little in shock of quite how warm the water was. It had obviously been a while since it had been refilled, or even used. I hoped that was a further sign that nothing out here had managed to survive. 

       Even so, when I brought it to my lips I felt an instant gratification from my burning throat, the water smoothing my lips as I gulped hastily. It had barely satisfied me once I had drunk it all, but I felt much sharper after all the same. It was only then that I noticed a familiar shining object poking out beside it, and my cry of surprise came before I could silence it. A checkpoint?! 

          I hadn't found any in the previous places they had been before, so I had assumed the world had become so messed up they simply ceased to function, but here one was, winking at me as untouched and fresh as I was used to seeing them. There was a slight hesitation in my movements as I reached towards it, unsure as to whether I could trust it, or if it was a trap. I blew it off. The only person that could have done something like this would be Chara- no monster could have known, and as vicious and vengeful as Chara was, she needed me to survive. She was part of me after all.