Chapter Text
After a night of sleep, Yu knew well what he’d like to do today: retrieve the communication device, so he could get in touch with the rest of the Investigation Team.
“If you can get that all back maybe I can attempt to, aha, remake the device,” Snorpy said when Yu asked him if it’d be possible to continue using it after bringing back everything. “But if you can’t recover all of it then it’s done for. I got no supplies nor materials to build something back again.”
“It might have fallen into the Undersnax,” Yu tried to appeal to Snorpy, but it was pointless. After all, it wasn't that he didn't want to make another, it was that it wasn't possible.
“Then you should consider it lost. Those bugs will drag you into the murky depths of the island, and then we'll never see you again!”
“You didn't have to say it so cheerfully.”
“Because part of me wishes that'd happen to me. I'd finally uncover the origins of Bugsnax!”
Yes, the Snax parts of you, thought Yu.
Still, it seemed the only choice was to recover the device. Going into the ruins of Snaxburg would be the only choice. As usual, Dagbert was the immediate confidant for such plans.
“I'm just glad you told me instead of going alone,” Dagbert commented once they were on their way to Snaxburg.
“I feel attacked.”
“You got only yourself to blame. I have known you for two months and I know the sort of things you get up to.”
Fair enough. “I don't know what I'll do if we can't recover that device,” Yu confessed, and told Dagbert Snorpy wouldn't be able to remake the radio device.
“So you're worried about your friends. You're afraid they had to see their towns destroyed too.”
“Pretty much.”
“They'll be fine. They didn't sound helpless to me.” True enough. They were as capable as Yu, and Yu survived intact. But he wouldn't discount the possibility of something unexpected happening.
“I also would like to check the airship, see if it suffered more damages,” Dagbert said. “It's our only way out.”
Yu and Dagbert entered the town through the path to the forest, since it was the one closest to the mill. As expected, Snaxburg was clearly unlivable. “The bridge is gone. Be ready to wade through…” Dagbert said, getting into the creek that bordered this part of the town. Yu followed suit, his pants getting soaked up to the thighs, the cold water making his teeth chatter. Climbing out of the creek, they saw there was very little town left.
It was as if a giant had attacked with a sledgehammer. The center of the town had turned into a huge bottomless chasm with undefined edges. From it, cracks of varying sizes expanded like spiderwebs in all directions, sinking the huts. To a side, part of the creek became a waterfall, the water disappearing into the depths of the hole.
The mill had fallen into a big crack. The only reason why it hadn't fallen in it was because of how big the mill is. The roof had collided against a raised bunch of rocks where the barn once was, keeping the mill on the surface of the land. Problem was,the building was now tilted sixty degrees. Yu and Dagbert couldn't just walk in – this was so clearly dangerous the majority of people would stay far away.
“I’d say there are about forty percent odds we die today,” Dagbert said nonchalantly. Yu raised his eyebrows.
“Are you serious about that?”
“Have I ever said something I didn’t mean?” That wasn’t really as clarifying of an answer as the journalist thought – and that’s without taking into account the way he was smirking. “Anyway, let’s go. The entrance doors are…” Over there. They had fallen off the hinges, leaving a gaping hole. All they had to do was climb up there.
“I have the right tool for this,” Dagbert said, deploying on the ground a round slab of wood, tinkering with it to set it up right. Yu recognized the lunchpad. Oh, of course! This was a perfect way to reach up there…and also dangerous for a human like him. Grumpuses could afford to be flung around, since their bodies except the limbs were far sturdier than a human’s, but Yu sure couldn’t handle a fall like the lunchpad would cause.
“I’m not using that,” Yu said.
“Oh, right. The eternal problem of you breaking like a glass sculpture at the slightest physical hit.” Dagbert said. “Okay, how about this? I jump up there, and try to find a way to hoist you up.”
That might work. Dagbert, walking near the mill, found a stable spot of ground far enough from the edge of the chasm, that would allow Yu to be able to look underneath the building. “Stay here until I call you. It’s just so you keep an eye over there, in case I fall and end up in the Undersnax.”
“Pretty sure the moment you fall in there, Bugsnax will kill me up here,” Yu said.
“Perhaps. I’ll try not to fall, I promise.”
A bit of a lofty promise, but oh well. Yu crouched, intending to watch as he was asked to. Dagbert walked to in front of the mill and set the lunchpad, launching himself up to the broken doors.
No orange grumpus plummeted from the back of the mill. A good sign! Yu watched for several minutes, until from the doors a rope appeared.
“Narukami! Problem solved!” Dagbert shouted. Yu approached and grabbed onto the rope.
“Want me to climb up?”
“No, no, leave this to me. Hang tight!” Suddenly, Yu got yanked upwards at a surprising speed! He got brought into the mill so fast his head spun!
Dagbert snorted. “You have a face like you swallowed something spicy.”
“Sometimes I forget you're so strong.”
“I'm just average, you dummy.”
Grumpuses are lucky about many things, Yu thought, looking around to see how much damage was done to the insides of the mill.
The saw machine had fallen and broken through the wall, opening a hole that would threaten the stability of the whole building if it still were vertical. Boxes cracked open, spilling their contents, the great majority on the parts of the far end wall that hadn't been destroyed. It was really unnerving, to see the seemingly endless chasm beckoning, it's depths dark and foreboding.
“The bugs must know we're here, so let's hurry. That device is still in the second floor, right?”
“It should be.” If it hasn't fallen into the pit. Yu had to be realistic: it was entirely possible it had been lost.
“Then…over here.” There were the stairs! They looked unsafe as hell, crooked and almost on its side.
Yu frowned. “I'll go first.”
“Wait, are you sure?”
“I'm lighter than you. If you go first and it breaks I'll be unable to go up.”
“Fair enough. Be careful.”
Yu approached the stairs. It seemed to him he'd have to walk on the side of the staircase, using the handrail to support himself. Well, more like he'd have to shimmy along, bent all the time, and being careful not to step on the weakened parts. Down below, the floorboards left seemed weak. It wasn't certain they would endure a human colliding with them.
Yu got to work, moving slowly, trying to test every part he'd step on. True, this was taking a while, but it wasn't like there was any reason to hurry! Soon, Yu reached the threshold to the second floor, and peeked into the second floor.
As expected, everything had fallen onto the other end of the room. Rocks had hit through the wooden wall, splintering and creating holes big enough for most of Snorpy and Chandlo’s possessions to have fallen through. Yu’s heart dropped when he saw that. The radio device must have–
–oh, wait. It’s there! The cord that held the microphone connected to the body of the radio device had hooked onto the leg of a desk. That must have modified the fall of that all so it wouldn’t plunge into the void…now it was all just inches away from the open hole on the wall. Looking above, Chandlo’s bed had gotten stuck onto a crooked rafter that had fallen off the roof, and several dumbbells were right on the mattress. Snorpy’s corkboard had gotten wedged onto the rocks right outside the wall, and several tools had been embedded into the wooden planks of the floor.
“It’s there!” Yu informed. “Now we have to retrieve it.”
“How steep is the floor?” Dagbert asked. Yu frowned, seeing it was around seventy degrees tilted. That would make it so dangerous to try to stand on it. A single slip would mean tumbling into the darkness of that chasm and into the Undersnax – and unlike the grumpuses, a human wouldn’t survive such a fall.
“We can’t stand on it.”
“Then let me help you.”
Dagbert managed to ascend up to the second floor with far more agility than Yu expected. The wood of that staircase creaked but didn’t break. The journalist had wrapped that rope around his arm, keeping it safe. He got right beside Yu, confirming with his own eyes this second floor was impossible to work with.
“How heavy is that radio thing?”
“Not all that heavy. I could carry it easily,” Yu said. It'd be a little cumbersome but it could be worse.
“Then I’ll lower you there so you bring it up.” Tying the rope around Yu was child’s play, and since it’d be much harder to nudge Dagbert away due to his weight and size, he was the perfect counterweight to Yu.
Yu set his feet on the sloped floor and descended as fast as he could, testing how easily traversing this was. Turned out Dagbert would have to do a lot of the work, since it was hard to walk and it’d be even harder with his hands full. Yu got lowered to the wall, and he wrapped his arms around the body of the device, passing the cord of the microphone over his shoulders.
Really awkward, but so what? What was important was to get it to safety.
“Lift me up!” Yu called once he made sure he wouldn’t drop everything at the first jostle. He could barely see because the main body of the device was blocking his view. Dagbert didn’t call back, instead he pulled from Yu, the human grabbing tighter onto all he had retrieved. His feet tried to get a grip onto the sloped floor, failing at it. At least he was going upwards with quite the speed.
‘Scorpenyo…’
Yu couldn’t see anything, but he sure heard that, and he heard the subtle crackling of fire. “Dagbert?” He called. The journalist didn’t reply, having seen more clearly the threat.
That sure was a Scorpenyo, gallivanting near that mattress. It was going around aimlessly, apparently not having noticed the grumpus and the human. Still…even though it hadn't noticed anything, that didn't change it was on fire.
And fires and mattresses should not go together.
“Don't worry, Narukami!” Dagbert called.
“If you say so.” Well, to Yu's credit, he didn't sound worried in the slightest.
Dagbert stepped backwards slowly, trying to have a good place to stand at so he could pull with all his strength. Above, at the upper part of the slope, the Scorpenyo wandered a little too close to the mattress. Just one touch of its flaming body, and the cover of the mattress started smoking.
“Did that Snax set fire to the mill?” Yu asked.
“It's just a little ember! Don't worry about it.” Said little ember crackled up until, fueled by the filling of the mattress, grew until it was as big as the nearby dumbbells.
“I hear crackling.”
“How about instead of listening to that, you listen to me saying not to worry about it?”
Dagbert pulled, forgoing carefulness for the sake of getting Yu out of here as soon as possible! Yu held the objects tighter, adjusting himself while the journalist pulled. So this is how fish feel when they're reeled in ! How weird.
Dagbert saw the fire consume the mattress at an alarming speed. The mattress warped, the weight of the dumbbells starting to make it sag through the spaces right under the mattress. Smoke filled the ceiling, its acrid smell already making breathing uncomfortable. It wouldn't be long before the dumbbells fell, and how unlucky is it that Yu would be in their path, Dagbert realized!
“Narukami, hold onto those things and don't let them go!”
Yu didn't bother to respond. He just adjusted his arms to make sure he wouldn't drop anything.
Dagbert braced himself, his muscles tensing up, eyes right on that smoldering mattress, until…it gave. The mattress ripped apart due to the fire and the weight. Dumbbells tumbled down, crashing through another wooden beam and raining embers and bits of wood, the heavy objects falling right towards Yu!
Dagbert was ready. He swung the rope! Yu, holding all that and representing dead weight, was moved to a side just enough to avoid the onslaught. The falling dumbbells passed so close Yu heard the wind being displaced. He had been that close to getting his skull cracked!
Down below, the dumbbells crashed through the wall, breaking it and plummeting into the depths of the island. The sound made Dagbert’s fur stand on end – he couldn't see if Yu W was hurt or not. “Narukami! Are you alright?!”
“A little shaken, but I'm fine!”
Oh, good. It was all fine. Dagbert pulled, slowly bringing Yu up until the human was on safer terrain, his hands full of that radio device. No injuries…good!
“Mission accomplished?”
“For now.” It was hard to know when he didn't know if this thing still worked. Still, it was time to peace out.
Getting everything safely out of the mill was the hard part. Going down to the first floor was an odyssey, and descending back to firm land involved coming up with ways to let the things down from some height up without damaging it. Took about an hour to be ready to leave Snaxburg.
“Let's get going,” Yu called to Dagbert, who had walked to near the edge of the pit that had overtaken the town. The grumpus was staring towards the far edge of Snaxburg, frowning. “Is there something wrong?”
“I think I'm seeing someone over there…”
“Should we approach?”
“At least to find out what they're doing.”
It was quite the detour! Since the enormous hole made it impossible to traverse what little was left of the town, Dagbert and Yu had to circumnavigate Snaxburg, this time entering from Flavor Falls. While they were passing through, Yu passing by Beffica’s cave to leave the radio device there, Dagbert seemed a little bit puzzled.
“Anyone could go there. What I'm not sure is why.” Everybody was gathered in Flavor Falls but it wasn't like there was much to salvage from Snaxburg, much less from the airship area. Getting there, Yu carefully examined how things were holding up here.
Only the airship had survived, precariously supported by a fragile ledge of rock. It felt like the wrong movement would send it into the chasm, front-first. We better not stand up on the front end, Yu thought.
Turns out it was Filbo. Dagbert relaxed. “Why are you loitering around in the human’s home?”
“I don’t live here anymore,” Yu reminded him.
“Once your home, always your home.”
“I-I’m not loitering!” Filbo said, jumping off the airship. “I thought I should come and see if the disaster had damaged anything else.”
Dagbert passed a paw on the wooded hull of the airship. “Not a bad idea…”
“I think it’s looking pretty alright? Pretty roughed up, but it’s not gonna go on fire anytime soon!”
“We can’t leave this here,” Yu said. If this was their best chance to escape, then they better keep the airship at a safer place than the very edge of a deep jagged chasm!
“Then let’s fly it somewhere else. To Flavor Falls?”
“No way. That and Garden Grove are full of rocks and trees. We need a more open place to land this at, some place away from fiery Bugsnax.” Dagbert thought for a moment, mentally reviewing every location on the island that could be useful, until he decided onto one – although, judging by his face, he wasn’t very happy about it. “The woods.”
“But that’s full of trees!”
“The main path is more of an open place. It’s far away from Flavor Falls, but it’s the least risky place I can think of.” And really, there were open places that were even further away. No, this had to be the best choice, even though it was far from ideal. “Narukami, I think you shouldn’t come along.”
“Why?”
“Oh, right. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride,” Filbo agreed. “We just don’t want you to get hurt.”
“I don’t mean to be rude, but your brittle human bones may not endure a crash landing.” Dagbert said.
That was plenty rude, Yu thought, but, on the other hand, it wasn’t like Yu was eager to get his arms shattered because these two dorks crashed the ship and made everything fall over the edge of the airship. Fine! He’ll stay. It probably was for the best, since it’d give him the chance to go get Snorpy to set up the device again.
“I’ll run back to the caves,” Yu agreed. The Flavor Falls caves were close enough Yu was sure he could get there before the Bugsnax tried to destroy him.
“Atta boy.” Dagbert got onto the airship, followed by Filbo. “I trust you won’t go look for trouble along the way, so hurry along already! We’ll fly away once you’re on your way.” If they left first, Yu would be too close to the pit of Snaxburg and Snax might come out.
Yu wasted no time. He turned around and got running, leaving the entrance to the town as fast as he could. Just three hundred meters, that was all he had to overcome! How hard could it be to run a whole three blocks?
He didn’t get ambushed, but turns out it was not for lack of trying from the Bugsnax. As soon as Yu turned the corner, he could already hear several Strabby on the other side of the rocky walls around him. They crawled out from cracks on the stone, and from above, chicken drumsticks with legs hopped from up above, trying to land on Yu and knock him out.
But the distance was short, and when he was close to the caves the Bugsnax left him alone. Panting from the exertion and glad his many trips into the TV World had strengthened him in some ways, Yu leaned against the entrance of Beffica’s cave, wiping sweat off his temples.
“I can’t go on like this,” he murmured. The Bugsnax were obviously keeping watch on everybody, awaiting the right time to strike. How long before the presence of grumpuses wouldn’t be enough to deter them? It couldn’t be long.
After all…they did get daring enough to destroy Snaxburg.
-ooooo-
“You actually saved it!” Snorpy praised, amazed Yu had brought him that device he thought had gotten lost in the disaster. His wide grin weakened once he took a better look at everything. “Ah, okay, you saved most of it.”
“Will that be a problem?” Yu asked. Even though he still managed to keep his tone normal and even, inwardly his chest felt tighter. If it turned out this was impossible to salvage and he was isolated again, unable to know if the rest of the Investigation Team were okay or not after the disasters that probably hit their versions of this world…
…it’d be really hard to cope with, really.
“I dunno…I mean, you did what you could. I’ll have to see if I can make it work.”
Not the most reassuring response, but it was better than a ‘this is screwed’.
“I’m counting on you,” Yu said. Snorpy shrugged like Yu counting on him was a given, and got to work at setting this thing up again. Since sitting around watching Snorpy would be an inconvenience for both of them, so Yu left him to work.
Dagbert and Filbo presumably were still landing the airship somewhere, and it seemed everyone else was getting ready for leaving soon. “Can I help?” Yu asked every single grumpus. Someone might need help tying their stuff and trying to prepare their backpacks and selecting the stuff they needed to travel light and–
What? Nobody did?
“I got it under control.”
“Nah, dear, I don’t got that many things!”
“Not really, but thank you!”
“Nope.”
“Yes! I think I need someone to help me eat all these sauce pods. I can’t carry all these when we leave!”
Okay, Yu excused himself at that last one. Even though he was trying to keep himself busy, he wasn’t all that eager to devour seventeen pods of ranch sauce and wash them down with three helpings of chocolate syrup.
When Cromdo approached Yu, though, Yu wondered if maybe he should have stayed to eat all that sauce. The slimy grin Cromdo had, ready to beseech Yu into some nonsense, was enough to make the human regret not being busy right now.
“When were you gonna talk to me?” He asked.
“I was just about to.”
“Hah! Lying isn’t your thing, kid. The way you’re stepping backwards makes it obvious you wanna scram.”
Well, nobody couldn’t say Cromdo wasn’t good at catching details, especially when the goal was to convince somebody of something. Yu forced himself to stop. “Do you need help packing?”
“Nope. What I need is help with this.”
Cromdo waved a rolled parchment, and then extended it, showing a map of the desert. A square pyramid was marked with a circle, drawn in pen, and a note that said ‘god of the ancient settlers of snaktooth???’
If Yu was looking for something to do, there he had it: something novel and guaranteed to keep him busy.
Problem was, anything labeled a god was bad news, guaranteed. If it was a god on this island, it was a Bugsnak, no doubt. Also, Dagbert probably would die Yu with a leash to the neck if he found out Cromdo had dragged him in a dangerous adventure somewhere at a time like this. Heck, he probably would make the leash out of Cromdo’s tie.
“This is a bad idea, Cromdo,” Yu said, direct and dry.
“You got some big stones to be telling me that to my face,” Cromdo said with some respect. He had come to accept Yu was generally unimpressed with him in a way not many dared to show without pissing Cromdo off. “You think I don’t know that? I wasn’t born yesterday.”
“Then why do you want to risk your life for this?”
“Never heard of sunk cost fallacy?”
Yu frowned. “I have, but–”
Cromdo leaned towards Yu, putting a paw on his shoulder and making him bend down just enough for Cromdo’s long blue nose to brush against Yu’s face while Cromdo answered quietly, like he didn’t want anybody else to ever hear this:
“I have been on this damn island for months. Months, Narukami. And I got a big fat lot of nothing to show for it. Turns out the things I was pursuing are more trouble than they’re worth. You know what that does to a guy?”
Ah. Well, that feeling wasn’t something Yu was really all that familiar with, but he could more or less see where Cromdo was coming.
“I didn’t come here to hide from the world or pretend building something here was the best idea ever. I came here to hunt down something that could make me filthy rich. Filthy. Rich. Oodles of moolah. And now we’re leaving because if we don’t we’re gonna die. That makes all I went through here be for nothing!”
“It wasn’t all for nothing…” Yu said.
Cromdo let go of Yu. “If you’ll spout something weird like you’re from a Saturday cartoon then you better keep it to yourself, pal. You got no idea how it feels, to put all the eggs on this basket only to see some giant foot come and smash it all to bits.”
A little bit of a weird metaphor, but… “Yeah, you’re right. I don’t get it.”
“And I’m damn jealous you don’t. I wish I didn’t either.”
Why was it that almost every time he talked to Cromdo he ended up feeling bad someone could end up this bitter, Yu wondered.
“So I want to go hunt down whatever Snak this map leads to. I don’t wanna eat it or something. I just want to see if I can take something worthwhile. Some treasure, some proof it exists, something! Even if it’s just a picture. I want something I can take home and rub into people’s faces, tell them I wasn’t some fool who went to get lost on an island to cry or something!”
“Do people know you’re here?”
“My ex does. My daughter, uh…okay, I sent my daughter a letter. Also I might have told a bunch of people I was coming here to make them regret doubting I could make it in the world.”
“And they didn’t try to stop you?!” Yu was appalled. Snaktooth Island had a terrible reputation for a reason! Surely they tried to stop Cromdo if they knew he was coming here, right?!
“You really think my ex would stop me from coming to the island of death nobody else comes from?”
…better not touch the topic of Cromdo’s ex ever again, Yu thought.
“Everyone else did, though. They thought I couldn’t pull it off. So I decided to prove them wrong.”
“I still think people are more worried for you than you think.”
Cromdo snarled, but this time it was far less adamant and visceral than when Yu last suggested Cromdo’s acquaintances weren’t really all that acerbic towards him. “Are you coming or not?!” Cromdo pressed in a hurry. “I’m leaving in half an hour, and I don’t care if it’s with or without you!”
Yu’s lips pressed into a thin line. Truthfully…yes, he wanted to come along. It was because he was too antsy and worried. He wanted to keep himself busy, he wanted to distract himself, he wanted to immerse himself into something dangerous and…something that felt like the sort of thing he’d go with with the rest of the Investigation Team.
Right now, Yu was so concerned with his friends he felt that if he sat around doing nothing something in him would crack. Cromdo dragging him to hunt down some giant Bugsnak was ridiculously dangerous, foolish to no end, reckless to an intolerable extent…and Yu felt it was like a godsend.
Act now, regret later.
“I’ll go.”
Cromdo grinned and clapped Yu on the back. “Atta boy! Don’t worry – if you die I’ll drag your body back here.”
That brought Yu enough pause he wondered if maybe risking worry-fueled problems here in Flavor Falls was a better idea than going with Cromdo. “If Dagbert sees you with my dead body all that’ll be achieved is that there’ll be two dead bodies.”
“I’ll deal with that later.”
“Why are you asking me to come along, anyway?”
Cromdo hesitated before answering that. “Because you and that journalist are the only ones I trust enough to ask for this – and since that orange pest isn’t here, the task falls on you.”
Hardly something to feel flattered about, but…it was a good sign. At least it meant the social link with Cromdo was going well. His Shadow might be freed soon.
“So go prepare yourself. We’re leaving in half an hour. Meet me on the way out of the falls,” Cromdo told Yu. With that, he departed to make his own preparations.
This was going to either go really well, or really badly, Yu could tell.