When Ester came to after blacking out the second time in a short time, he found himself flinching with pain as something burned in his side.
Jolting upwards in a small panic, a pair of surprised hands found themselves around his head as he was forcefully dragged down.
Briefly struggling against the pair of hands around his head, he stopped his struggles when he heard a familiar voice.
[If I didn't just clean that big ass gash on your side with antiseptic I wouldn't have thought that you fainted from blood loss with how lively you are.]
"Well its not everyday you wake up to the pain of your side being cleaned with antiseptic." Ester instinctively replied, voice heavy with sarcasm as he flinched from a cold fluid rolling down on his side.
[We can change that you know.]
"...What does that even mean."
[I can slam your body into a table and apply more antiseptic that way.]
"Is that sarcasm? I sense sarcasm"
[Of course its sarcasm you silly little bobble head, now get down so that I can properly sew you up.]
Willingly letting himself get dragged down onto the ground through a pair of insistent hands, he asked. "How much Antiseptic did you put on the damn thing? It feels like you poured acid into it."
[The whole bottle.] Eva said.
Ester paused "...The whole bottle?" he reiterated, wondering if his fainting spell had messed with his hearing.
[The whole bottle.] Eva confirmed, releasing her hands as his head fell onto something soft, her head staring at him from the side.
'?'
Wondering what in the Void he was lying down, he glanced to the right where he was greeted with a solid wall of white.
'??'
Instinctively raising his hand to touch the white wall, he blinked in confusion when he felt his hands touch something soft.
[Maybe hold off on the bedtime rituals until I can get your side sewed up you horn dog?]
'???'
Turning to look right back up at Eva, if she had a mouth Ester had the distinct feeling that she would be grinning like a mad woman right now.
Her eyes trembled when he kissed the white wall though.
"Ow"
[Don't surprise me like that next time will you? I have a needle and I'm not afraid to use it.]
"Please be afraid to use it."
[So I shouldn't sew up the large table sized hole in your waist?]
"I see I should just shut up."
[Hehe.] Letting out an amused little hiss as she threaded a nylon threaded through the head of the needle, he tilted his head as he realised something that he was instinctively ignoring for some time now.
"Since when did the lights come back on?"
[When I used your arm battery to power them.]
"Ah that makes sense." Nodding his head in understanding, Ester snapped his head at Eva's teasing face. "Wait what?"
Looking down at him with playful eyes as she tied the knot onto the end of the nylon string and pulled the thread tight, he hurriedly tried to lift his right arm.
And although he was able to lift it with what remained of his upper shoulder blades, the tactile sensation he should've felt from the whirring of pneumatics and shifting of gears was completely gone.
"You damn-" Trying to curse out at the woman with the very sharp needle only to get interrupted with a finger to his mouth, Eva raised the needle up high.
[I can see you have many questions, but we can save this until I finish sewing up the wound you ruined by waking up so abruptly. Bite this for me will you?]
Tilting his head in confusion as he instinctively opened his mouth to bite the... rolled up shirt? Eva just gave him, Ester instinctively tried to grit his teeth only to be stopped by the shirt as he struggled from the pain.
[Stop being such a baby will you? I can't sew up your wound if you keep on moving, it'll only take a few moments anyway.]
She lied as easily as she breathed, forcing Ester to exact vengeance upon her the moment that he could get rid of the shirt taste in his mouth.
Just why did it taste so much like Eva?
---
Having had to reapply the stitches on his other wounds that had opened up with the violent shaking and turnover of the Driller, in the right side up state of the Driller Ester fiddled with an old radio piece.
Usually they would use the Driller's own antenna to catch and filter the signals darting around in the heavily polluted airways, but the recent ride filled with twists and turns had it broken off some ways back.
So now they were relegated to trying to translate the heavily modulated and grainy voices being caught by the old radio piece scrounged up from some random corner of this world.
Fiddling with the knobs and switches as it switched from incomprehensible garble and gibberish to goat screams for some reason, eventually they found the channels that their sector majorly used.
[Krrrk Bzzt -ray to the Architect of the B-body for his mercy and his forgiveness- Krk Bzzt]
'Religion' Ester shifted it to the next legible channel as Eva rolled her eyes
[-runger reported near camp Ashtown, Earthquake turned-]
'Ashtown reports... wherever that is' He shifted it again
[-saw flames in the nort-]
[-monsieur-]
'WAIT A MINUTE' Hurriedly cycling back as Eva smacked his back, in the brief moment he heard the weirdly smooth language, he returned to the frequency where they had just finished what they were saying, holding his breath as the people continued to speak.
[-misphere!]
[*crackle. Could you repeat that Z?] A male voice tainted by air poisoning echoed through the radio.
[*crackle. Like I said Jay.] This Z person replied with a panicked crackle, his voice muffled from what was most probably a respirator covering his face. [The entire Northern Hemisphere lit up with Slaggin flames!]
[*Crackle]
A pregnant pause filled the air before Jay the Air poisoned man crackled back on to the radio.
[*Bzzt Are you sure with what you saw Z-Z? This isn't the time to be joking or hitting the Blasphemy. We've got dozens of folk and your mother buried under the ground wondering what in the Void happened to everyone. I need something real here.]
[*Crackle I KNOW WHAT I SAW] Z's voice came through the radio with a scream, his distraught voice echoing loudly within the small confines of the Driller. [I KNOW WHAT I SAW! THE SKY WAS FILLED WITH FUCKING FLAMES! I CAN SEE THE STARS MOVING AWAY FROM HERE!]
[*Crackle. Hey. Hey. Hey!] Shouting with increasing intensity, Jay coughed. [Calm down man! What the void are you talking about!?]
[*Crackle Ugh....] Z cry groaned into the radio, his distraught tone audible from both sides as he blubbered [I-I-I don't know what to fucking say Jay! The entire right side of my face is fucking melted to my mask! The clouds are gone! And- Oh Architects is that a... Mommy!]
A scream fell out of the radio channel with a hint of finality, the sound of howling wind echoing out of the speakers in place where the man called Z once was.
[*Crackle Z? Z. If this is a joke it isn't a funny one.] Jay the air poisoned man called out worriedly. [Hey man stop with the jokes! Your mom's fecking waiting for you down here man!]
[Ze... ve... Zeeh...]
[Z! For fucks sakes man! I thought you were dead!] Shouting angrily at the person on the other end of the line, the anger did little to hide the relief hidden within that voice.
It was probably why he sounded so distraught when the voice on the other end of the line sounded distinctly unlike that Z person.
[Zeeeee? Z... CRACK] The sound of shattered glass ringing out loudly as the line was forcefully cut, Jay hurriedly called out. [Jay? JAY!]
Radio channel ending abruptly as the air poisoned man let the radio channel join the rest of the planets ambient frequencies, the airways crackled with incoherent gibberish once again.
Letting the ambient frequency of crackling Aether fill the air that was pregnant with silence, Ester aborted the child named silence and opened his mouth. "So... it seems Project Void Buffer has just been executed."
[Do you think its to late to get them to stop Project void buffer?]
"Yeah, it's definitely to late to stop them from killing the thousands to millions of people living on this trash planet."
[I mean do you think we can get them to forcefully stop? The planet spins right? We can just fire up the engines in opposite direction]
"...Are you insane Eva? Even if we somehow waltz past the no doubt insane amount of turret set ups and guards protecting the place, what next? Our planet is going to be sent off hurtling towards a different kind of void than the one that just wants to eat our faces if we fire up those engines one more time."
[Do you remember all of the places where the old man hid the Space flight keys needed for our escape?]
"...Did the map break?"
[Worse, all the computers broke.]
"So the map is okay?"
[I didn't say that did I?]
"My fist is rising for some unknown reason."
[My needle is rising for the same reason as yours? How weird.]
"My fist surrenders."
[My needle establishes its undisputed reign.]
"Let us return to the topic at hand shall we?"
[Lets.]
Coughing into the crook of his left hand, Ester rolled his neck. "So you don't remember any of the positions that the old man recorded?"
[Do you remember something that you can just check anytime you want?]
"So I'm guessing that's a no."
[You would guess correctly.]
Ester let out a long sigh. "Remind me if the old man left the locations of other copies in his will?"
[You remember as much as I do.]
He rubbed his forehead. "Which is to say that the old man wasn't paranoid enough to leave several copies of the same thing all around the world."
[He's uselessly not paranoid in times like that don't you agree?]
"I agree."
[Which leaves us only one option if we want to get off of this rock doesn't it?]
"We have to raid the Super rockets for Space flight keys don't we?"
Eva shrugged her shoulders helplessly [They have to supply the people down there somehow.]
Ester rubbed his face.
"...Well there's no use in moping around cursing our luck, better get to cracking that whip."
[If it makes you feel better, I can bring out the bondage and whips]
"Can you please stop ruining my melancholy mood?"
[No.]
"...Do we even have bondage and whips?"
[No.]
"Damn."
---
??? DAYS UNTIL DESTRUCTION BY VOID
+++
Tree
[Rewrite]