Darkness (2)

"Shoot!" I hissed reaching forward to grab both of their wrists.

I griped them tightly and dug my heels into the dirt. Together they weighed an annoying amount. The ground below my feet started to crumble as well and slide down.

No not again, I am not falling twice in one day! I put all my focus into my ice magic trying to freeze the ground below me with how much I already wanted to just drop these two piles of germs.

My ice shot all over the path and surrounding areas encasing everything. I dropped the two of them back on the ice and tried to find my sanitizer.

Shoot I had dropped it when I grabbed them. I looked pitifully down at the darkened abyss. I wonder if I fell could I survive and find my germ-x?

I think my face paled quite a bit as my hand started to shake. Huh? Only one hand was shaking. But STOP NO UGH SANITIZER! I rapidly started searching through my pockets and items. Come on where is my back up sanitizer don't tell me I lost it in the fight earlier.

The horrid sensation was spreading like my whole hand was in a pot of boiling water. NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO UGH! I'd just have to scrape the germs off!

I took the palm side of my hand that had been gripping Deck and shoved it against the ice trying to run off the germs. They wouldn't be able to stay on my hand forever the little brats!

A hand reached out gripping my wrist and pulling me away from the ice.

"ROYAL!"

I glanced sideways to see Blank staring at me in horror.

The ice was partly covered with my blood now and my hand didn't look so great. The germs had somewhat subsided, although I could feel my whole body shaking.

"DECIMAL, Oye what's wrong with your friend here?" Blank looked at where Deck was crouched on the ground. Probably trembling from how terrifying those worms could be.

I was starting to feel sick. Shoot. Could I just fall over and die? That sounded nice at the moment.

Deck came over cursing under his breath.

"Royal, hey Royal focus, where is your sanitizer?" Deck's crouched by me making his eyes level. Blank was still holding my hand hostage by my hoddie sleeve.

"Gone" I finally managed to mumbled. My voice was practically a whisper.

"Gone where?" Deck started then frowned realizing it had probably fallen. "Shoot!" he hissed as he started check his own pockets over for potential cleaning supplies.

"You need sanitizer?" asked Blank directing the question more at Deck.

"Yeah do you have any?" Deck asked.

"Will this work?" Blank pulled out a small bottle of rubbing alcohol from what appeared to be a first aid kit on a little waist pack.

"Blank you're a lifesaver." Deck said taking it from him and pouring some on my hand. Then he did my other hand which was surprisingly still fine.

"Go ahead and release him" Deck said.

"You sure?" Blank looked skeptical.

When Deck nodded he released me and I just curled up into a ball against the wall while burying my head in my arms.

"What exactly happened?" asked Blank.

"Ah well….. Royal is it okay if I tell him?" Deck said.

I felt like smacking him. When he phrased it like that Blank would probably never give up till he learned about 'it'. Couldn't he just make something up? Whatever right now I just felt like becoming one with this wall behind me. I'd just ignore him.

"Royal."

"ROYAL!"

The idiot would never just shut up would he? Do what you want I don't care at the moment. If it will make you both shut up fine.

I gave a small nod that could have been taken more as jerk.

"Uh okay, I guess that's a yes?" Deck said. "So Royal is just a little bit special....."

He started chatting about me, which just made me want to throw up more. I hated anyone focusing on me, feeling sorry for me, or trying to 'make me better'. They were all just the worst.

Next time maybe I'd just let them fall and keep my germ-x instead. I did my best to tune out Deck's recount of my life. Couldn't he just keep it simple instead of practically writing my biography?

"So then is he immune to you, is that why you're friends?"

"Huh" Deck asked.

"His hands he only scrapped up the one when he caught both of us. So it seemed logical." Blank said.

"Uh no, he definitely won't let me touch him." Deck replied.

I could feel their eyes on me but I ignored them. I had been able to touch Blank. Why though? Was he not human? Had the crazy AI built an impersonator and killed off the real Blank? Hmm maybe we'd better do a blood test on him.

Well at the moment I still didn't care. I was doing my best to keep from passing out. Deck had missed a spot when pouring sanitizer on me. Maybe I could just rub it off real quick before they noticed.

I reached my hand down brushing across the ice again and instantly felt a hand grab mine.

"Knock it off Royal." Deck put something into my hand.

The rubbing alcohol. I absconded with it into my tiny bubble of personal space. I happily rubbed it all over my hand until all the germs had vanished. Blank was never getting this back.

Clean, I was clean and happy again. Rip now my hand had started to hurt and it was still stupidly bleeding away.

"Royal, hey Royal, you still alive?" Deck asked me.

I slowly lifted my head up to meet his eyes.

"Wow you're more pale than a ghost" Blank commented. I would have smacked him if I was in a better mood and had more germ-x.

"Let me see your hand" Blank continued, "don't worry I'll do my best not to touch your skin."

Hesitantly I let him bandage my hand up. What, did he want to be a doctor or something when he was older? I hate to admit it but he was actually pretty good at it.

When he was done I pulled my hand back into my bubble.

"Can you walk?" Blank asked.

A solid question. But now that I was clean I definitely could. I got to my feet feeling a little light headed for a few seconds.

Our pace was a lot slower. Blank had purposefully slowed down and kept looking back at me. Darn it he'd probably treat me like some stupid invalid from now on. We took the smaller tunnel and followed it as it sloped upward.

Finally something that was definitely going up. I tried to keep the sawoped worm from my mind. If the AI had already made those then the world was doomed. Forget building a bunker we were all dead as soon as it got bored with us.

Just how many different types of monsters did it manage to make in the little bit of time since it was free.

My mind wandered back to Blank. Why was he able to touch me? I'm still not completely past the whole alien theory. Maybe I should test it again? At his slow pace I could easily reach out and just grab his hand for a second.

Would that be weird after Deck told him I lost my sanity every time I made skin contact with someone? No I had to know. Or at least talk to Deck about it. He could be dangerous or something.

Making up my mind I shot forward two steps and placed my good hand on the back of his neck. He froze for a second then turned his eyes toward me curiously. My blue eyes met his brown ones. His black hair partly covered his left eye.

I held my hand against his neck for a few seconds. He gave me a confused look. Yep I confirmed. He didn't make me feel germy at all. That was definitely not normal. I had touched thousands of people. Especially under the so called 'treatment' plans that some idiots doctors had tried to put me through. Blank wasn't normal. If going by my logic he was the human furthest from normal.

I stared into his eyes. "Just what are you?" I asked.