Chapter Text
A year has passed since the human child, Frisk, freed the monster race from their supposed everlasting imprisonment and brought back HOPE to the monsters.
A year has passed since they first set foot on the outside world and got smack dabbed by thousands of shrill screams from the suffering humans, greeting their comeback with a scene presenting the ultimate destruction of humanity. Explosions rang out from the far distance and the smell of rotten flesh made everyone question what the hell were the humans doing while they were gone. They watched the world die from their very eyes with horror, making them conclude that the humans have indeed--for lack of a better term--"royally fucked up".
A year has passed since the monster race invited themselves into the dead society and refused to go back to the Underground for it will put the child's efforts (and the deaths of the six children) in fruitless vain. They built buildings inside their territory that was located near the foot of the mountain to make their New Home, helping each other and those who managed to survive the world's meltdown. In a span of a year, they dedicated their time and effort on figuring out how to live in a world where literal zombies that--mind you, have the capability to melt monsters with a single bite, roamed around the face of the Earth.
To put it into simpler words, a lot of things happened when the year flew over everyone's heads.
And with all of that out of the way, we can finally go back to the still fucked up (but manageable) world of today. The present.
"SAAAANS!"
The short skeleton woke up with a snort as he fell down on the floor with a thud, causing a sharp ringing sound to echo inside his skull. He mumbled an "ow" and decided to lay on the floor like a helpless burrito, knowing that he would probably be carried by his brother regardless if he was standing or lying down. A normal everyday morning routine.
Loud footsteps can be heard from outside his door, presumably from his brother. Seconds passed by and the sounds screeched to a halt. Sans expected for his brother to shout "WAKE UP, YOU LAZY BONES!" but contrary to his little prediction, Papyrus knocked on the door frantically and it made the older skeleton's bony brows shoot up. Papyrus never knocks when he wants to wake him up. He would only proceed to bust the door off its abused hinges and carry the small monster for breakfast. The strange little detail was enough for Sans to stand up from his spot and open the door, revealing a sweating skeleton.
"sup, bro. why are ya rattling your bones? you look like you've seen a ghost." He joked with a smile. However, the taller monster didn't even scold him, let alone react, to his little pun as he continued to twiddle with his thumbs and avert his eye sockets. Okay, something is definitely wrong.
"uh...paps? something wrong?"
Papyrus gulped. "I, UM...I THINK WE HAVE A PROBLEM…"
Sans narrowed his eye sockets and remained silent, letting his brother continue.
"I...I...I…" He sniffed a little, too ashamed to spit out whatever he wanted to say.
The smaller one placed his hand on his brother's forearm, concerned as to why Papyrus was acting like he broke a precious vase or something.
"wha--"
"ITHINKWELOSTTHEHUMAN!" Placing his gloved hands on his face, he blurted out the word vomit, not seeing his brother's horrified expression.
Sans' eyelights extinguished as beads of sweat rolled down on his skull, displaying the skeleton's nervousness. The sharp ringing in his head got worse so he placed a hand on his sweaty skull, anxiety making its way inside his soul.
Oh, Toriel was gonna have his skull for dinner.
"we... what? how? weren't they sleeping beside you last night?"
"I-I DON'T KNOW, BROTHER! I JUST WOKE UP AND I DIDN'T FIND THE HUMAN BESIDE ME! I THOUGHT THE HUMAN WAS JUST IN THE BATHROOM DOING THEIR LITTLE HUMAN BUSINESS BUT THEY WEREN'T THERE! I TRIED CHECKING UNDER THE BED, INSIDE THE TOILET, ON TOP OF THE BOOKSHELVES--T-THEY'RE JUST GONE!" Papyrus explained frantically as he started pacing around, a nervous habit that he rarely uses because he never actually gets nervous in the first place! Lady Toriel asked them to watch the small human while she's gone for a trip and he failed her on the first night! What was he supposed to tell her!?
More sweat rolled down on Sans' skull as he considered if he should have an arrangement to put his dust in a jar or to let it be washed ashore. "...did you check the inside of the garage?"
"YES. I EVEN CHECKED MY CAR AND YOUR SCOOTER BIKE THINGY!"
"even the sink?"
Papyrus nodded to his brother and still kept pacing. "I EVEN TOOK OUT EVERY SINGLE BONE INSIDE OF IT AND SHOOK THE DOG TO SEE IF IT ABSORBED THE HUMAN!"
"uh, the couch cushions?"
"I BELIEVE SO! I DUG MY HAND INTO THE COUCH WITH MY BEST EFFORTS BUT I SADLY DIDN'T FIND THE HUMAN, ONLY 25G AND 2 TICKETS FOR AN OUTDATED HUMAN BASEBALL MATCH!" He explained as he took out the tickets from his pockets and waved it around sadly.
Tapping a phalange on his chin, the short skeleton thought for a place where a determined ten year old child could be hiding.
"...how about...the inside of the washing machine?"
The question made the tall one halt and stare at his brother as if wordlessly saying "no". Both nodded to each other and ran for the laundry room, hoping to find the little human there.
Toriel is so gonna dust him.
The sun was setting and still no sign of the human.
The monsters searched high and low for the missing child, checking every bush and every lamp just to look for them. Around the afternoon, they just couldn't find the human in their territory so they concluded that they're either dead or outside the built walls--in which both possible outcomes caused the Dreemurr's despair to worsen. They ordered the dog squad and the royal guard to patrol the outside area to look for the human (except for Undyne since she's tasked to be guarding one of the entrances). Alphys even looked at the CCTV cameras but it seems like they've gone through a blind spot.
Papyrus, as expected, felt incredibly guilty for losing the kid and started blaming himself. Naturally, the monster family assured the young skeleton that he didn't do anything wrong.
Everyone really wanted to blame it on the possible kidnappers, but the speculation of someone kidnapping the kid was kind of unlikely since there were no signs of trespass inside the skeleton household. But for now, they can't really focus on whether there's a kidnapper or not. They just needed to find the child and ensure their safety... if they could actually find them alive, that is.
And so, Sans sat on his stationed watchtower with a telescope in hand, keeping an eye socket out for the human. In truth, he was also worried for the lil' kid. It wasn't much compared to Toriel's "I will flip the world upside down just to find my child" kind of worried, but worried nonetheless. He knew that the kid can handle their own just fine considering their old background, but hey, there's still a possibility that they could die out in the wild. Unlike the Underground, the outside world won't have any sane and possibly merciful monsters to spare them so they couldn't really talk their way out of their situation. They had mindless zombies to stand up against so this will be a new territory for them to walk on. They were just...all on their own on this one. And everyone couldn't really risk the child getting infected because if their citizens find out that their hero is gone…
HOPE will be lost for everyone.
Sighing to himself, he opened a bag of "chisps" and popped a piece into his mouth. Briefly glancing towards the setting sunset, he looked around with his old telescope.
The outside of the walls were just...what's left of a human city. Cleared buildings, abandoned streets and everything that you would expect for a ghost town to have. Setting New Home here was a good choice because cleared out cities contained a whole bunch of supplies so that they didn't need to venture out and the wide streets gave them a clear ground if a horde wanted to infiltrate their territory. And because of that decision, their place is now flourishing with buildings, (mostly)fresh supplies and satisfied people.
The short skeleton gave a firm sigh and squinted at whatever moving thing that his eye socket could spot.
A piece of newspaper that got carried by the wind. 'wonder what humans wrote about back then...'
A struggling body of a zombie that was trying to reach for a non infected human corpse. 'man, buddy. get a shower.'
A still sparking light bulb from a broken lamp pose. 'huh, better put that out later.'
A roaming deer that briefly stopped by to nibble on vegetated grass. 'oh, a healthy deer that doesn't have its guts spilling out of its stomach? heh, niceee.'
Sans took out the attached walkie talkie from his waist, briefly remembering that time when Papyrus suggested to use walkie talkies instead of regular cell phones. He chuckled from the fond memory. "ey, sushisticks242. it's me, "s". just wanted to ask if the food storage is running out of grub."
"SushiSticks, here. Sorry, I didn't catch that. What did you say? Roger."
"the grub. are we running low on our grub? if we are then there's a lil' deer running around the territory, roger."
There was a short pause. "...Nah. We're okay for a few weeks tops. Roger."
"oh, okay. just wanted to let you know." He said nonchalantly as he crunched the small snack.
Sans was gonna turn the radio off when Undyne suddenly called out to him.
"Uh...Sans?"
"hm? roger."
"Have you spotten Frisk yet?"
He scratched the side of his skull. "nope. not a single trace."
"...Damn it. Where is that dang wimp?!" She murmured mostly to herself with a frustrated tone before closing her radio.
Sans breathed a harsh breath through his nonexistent nose and adjusted his grip on the telescope.
'jeez, kid. where the hell are you? everyone's worried about you.' He thought quietly as he proceeded to continue his search.
A bird stopping by to nip on a corpse's eye. 'ah, that must sting.'
A kaleidoscope of butterflies hanging around a somewhat fresh patch of golden flowers. 'pretty. the kid would be smiling nonstop if they saw those.'
A child wearing a blue sweater and a lady zombie walking towards the gates. 'nothing to see here…'
A lone tumbleweed passing by the--
Wait.
Wait.
Zooming his eyelights on the approaching pair, he let out both a gasp of relief and shock from…whatever he was seeing with his two nonexistent eyes. Frisk was covered in mud, dirt and leaves as they walked side by side with a literal zombie. They were waving at the skeleton happily and signing the words "Don't hurt her. She's a friend" while holding hands with the creature as if they were chums or something.
The lady zombie beside the child wore a dirty lab coat, a worn black turtleneck sweater and bloodied slacks. The most noticeable feature on the zombie was her (can he even call it a "she" when it wasn't even a living human anymore?) small dried up wound on the right side of her forehead. Other than her old flesh, dried up blood and decaying look, she honestly could be mistaken as an actual human if she were to dress up as one.
She was also looking straight ahead and sneaking glances at the skeleton as if she was... afraid. This completely threw him off because zombies are supposed to be mindless creatures that would attack any human without a second thought. But this, she was just...walking limply and holding hands with a small human child like an actual person…
Sans saw the kid nudging the lady zombie's arm and gesturing a wave at her, directing it towards the skeleton. She seemed to have understood the thing that Frisk gestured with their hands. Leaning her head upwards with a small tilt, she then slowly lifted her arm lazily and shook it around as if she was waving at him, mimicking the kid's actions.
"holy shit…"
Lifting his walkie talkie, he started speaking. "ey, it's "s" again. i...um, found the human…"
"REALLY!? That's great! Bring the brat in--"
"...but, uh... they brought company."
"Company? What do you mean by company? Did they bring a horde? Sans? Sans? Ey! Answer me, god damn it!"
The sound of Undyne's screeching was completely tuned out by Sans' mind as he wiped a bead of sweat from his skull.
Man, he's gonna need a drink after this…