Archive of Our Own ^beta

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Alice asked Erwin as they entered the castle of a home through the empty doorway that was the front door. "What if someone sees us?"

"Really, Alice? It's not like anyone's going to see us after half of the town fled before the quarantine a few days ago, unless they got infected first."

"I know, but is breaking into someone else's house really that necessary?"

"Coming from the one willing enough to sneak into the local lab with me," Erwin said.

"That's because it was already abandoned when we got there!"

"Keep it down, will ya? Last I've heard, the Beakers abandoned this place after we accidentally released the spore storm from the lab, and abandoning a home lacking in front doors is pretty stupid, even for them."

"Doors that would keep out intruders like us," Alice stated.

"We're not intruding if there's no one here. And besides, this will help us in our search for the formula needed to make the cure."

"Do you honestly believe a couple of scientists would keep their most important data within their own home? And even if they did, they probably brought it with them when they left, or saved it digitally on their computer-"

"Hello?" came the weak voice, causing her to freeze, Erwin doing the same while giving a confused look.

"Did you hear that?" she whispered.

"Hear what?"

"Who's there?" the voice said again.

"Okay, now I hear it," Erwin whispered back, sounding almost frightened.

"I thought you said no one was here."

"I did."

"Then who's that?"

"Just please...don't hurt me..." the voice continued.

"Only one way to find out now," Erwin began. "Come on."

They moved more carefully to follow the pleading voice, leading them inside the room farther back within the house.

A room filled to the brim with scientific equipment and machinery, along with many tables, including the metal operating table with leather straps, a few splatters of dried blood staining the table's surface and the floor beneath it. All of these objects stood next to the sunken basement in the room's center, steel railings surrounding most of it, a set of stairs leading down into it.

"Holy crap, it's a secret...ish...lab," Erwin whispered. 

"But for what purpose? Aren't there enough secret labs in this town already?"

"Hello?" the voice spoke up. "Who are you?"

Alice and Erwin moved to look over the railing, both nearly gasping at the sight in the room below.

Lying on the floor of the basement's makeshift bedroom was a man around their age, wearing nothing but a cloth hospital gown on his lanky, malnourished body littered with scars and stitches, an oversized black mohawk sitting on the top of his head. The man's sad, brown eyes then looked up to them, as if begging them for help.

"Dear Watcher," an appalled Alice said. "You don't think they...they..."

"I think they did. You bastards."

Alice moved away from the railing, running down the stairs without a second thought.

"Wait for me!" Erwin said before following her into the basement, the man flinching at their approach.

"Hey, it's okay," Alice began in a more gentle tone, holding her hands in the air. "We won't hurt you. Do you need help?"

"And who are you? Did you know the Beakers?" Erwin asked.

The man flinched again at his words, letting out a pained whimper as tears spilled out of his eyes.

"Shit, I didn't mean to upset you like that," Erwin was apologizing. "But whatever they did to you, they won't do it again."

"I know," the man quietly began. "They left me."

"What?"

"Left me," he simply repeated. "After what happened outside, they were in a rush to get out of here, packing everything they could, taking whatever was important to them with them. Except me. They said I was too much of a liability to bring along, as if their prized little lab rat they kept in a cage for all his life wasn't the most important thing to them." The man paused for a second. "And now, it seems like the story of my life will end exactly as it began: lying here in this hellhole of a cold, uncaring lab..."

He broke out into a fit of laughter, his ferocious cackling more sad than amused if anything, his eyes filling up with more tears that poured down his skeletal face and onto the concrete floor.

"Uh, you alright there?" Erwin asked unsurely.

"No," the man barely got out in-between his laughing fits. "My life's a joke. One big, fucking joke. A comedy of errors. A series of unfortunate events."

"Poor thing," Alice began. "Don't say that about yourself."

"But what else is there for me? I was left here to rot after apocalypse came to town, and on my twenty second birthday, no less. It's like fate, the Watcher, whatever else really has it in for me at this point."

"So why didn't you leave? There's nothing that'll keep you down here forever."

The man pointed a bony finger at his leg.

"My leg. It broke from an endurance test before all this happened. They didn't even bother splinting it first before leaving me behind. Then again, I don't think they even planned to."

"We know someone who can help with that. Her name is Jess, and she's a friend...ally...whatever you call an odd acquaintanceship with a corporal, of ours. But more importantly, she knows a thing or two about treating broken limbs," Alice offered.

"You really think she'll allow us to bring back another stray survivor when our resources are at a low?" Erwin asked.

"She's our only option at the moment. And it would be cruel of us to just leave a victim of illegal human experimentation to rot away or until something worse comes along." 

"I guess we can get him out of here," Erwin agreed with reluctance. "Even if it means we'll have to come back for the formula later."

"There is no formula," the man informed. "They took it with them from what I've heard."

"Shit," Erwin muttered.

"Told ya."

"But fine, we'll still help you get out of here."

"You...you really will?" the man asked, unable to hide the optimism in his tone.

"Of course," Alice replied, the man giving a hopeful smile. "Now come on, let's help you up."

"And let's hope this won't come back to bite us."

Carefully, Alice and Erwin helped support the man into a standing position, the man having trouble standing properly with the broken leg

"Do you want us to carry you?" Erwin offered.

"I'm fine. I just want to get out of here as fast as possible."

"Couldn't agree more," Alice said.

It was a long trip up the stairs and through the house, but they managed to make it outside. The purple-reddish sky was still obscured by the sickly green clouds, clumps of purple and blue spores flying in the air, the three ring stack of funnel clouds rose high into the sky as usual, the purple glow from within the rings not letting up anytime soon. The man stared at all this with an uncertain look, as if struggling to take in everything happening around him.

"What is all this?" the man asked as they helped him into the backseat of Erwin's van, which was covered with all sorts of alien and supernatural themed decals. "Is this what the apocalypse really looks like?"

"Pretty much," Alice told him as she and Erwin got in their seats, Erwin taking the wheel.

"Floor it?" Erwin asked with anticipation.

"Yes, Erwin, floor it."

Erwin stomped on the gas, the van lurching forward before speeding away from the Beaker's former home, the man briefly looking back to watch as the building he had ever known growing up disappear into the distance.

"So, what's your name?" Alice spoke up.

"Me?" the man asked.

"Yeah, Did they even give you a name to begin with?"

"I do have one. Mind telling me yours first?"

"Sure. I'm Alice, and the guy with the colander on his head is Erwin."

"It's not a colander!" Erwin said with offense. "It's a custom made mind reading defense hat. How many times do I have to tell you that?"

"Oh come on, man. It's just a metal colander with Winterfest lights tapped around it."

"Can we discuss this later? We still need to know the man's name."

"Nervous," the man said. "Nervous Subject."

"...What?" Erwin said flatly.

"I know, but it's the name that's been given to me, and it's the name I always go by."

"Whatever works, I guess. Let's only hope Jess doesn't get too mad with us for this."