The Damage Has Been Done (Markiplier)

Chapter 18: Hey Old Friend

Mark's POV.

"So, how long has this thing actually been going on? Last I checked, it hadn't been more than two weeks," I said.

"What date do you remember?" Mokuren asked.

"Um, February 27th...?"

"Wow. No. It's been a lot longer than you remember."

"What?"

"It's mid March Mark."

"No, It's like, February. I'm not an entire month behind on this. I'd know that surely."

"Mm-mm. It's March fifteenth, twenty-fourteen."

"Wow... Wait until Tom and them hear this..." I mumbled to myself.

We walked another mile and a half or so and came up face to face with a big, tall building with a sign set right on the building labeled 'Anderson University". This is where we had been walking to. Mokuren smiled cheerfully and lead us to the left of the building to another. She turned to me and grinned, walking backwards toward the building.

"Welcome to Anderson University!" Mokuren cheered as we approached the Decker Hall. "I'll go snatch my people so you can meet them. Stay here a second."

"You got it," I complied.

Mokuren ran to the front doors and swung them open and yelling as they closed behind her. She yelled for some guy named Matt and some other people on the way in. I looked down at Chloe who had been keeping a tight grip on my hand for a while. She looked at me and mustered up a nervous smile, shrugging her shoulders. I heard guns clicking and doors opening and closing. Chloe and I stood in silent anticipation for a few minutes until the metal doors swung open again. Revealing Mokuren and about ten or so others. They all stared at me disapprovingly and kept a scowl on their faces as they sized me up. Probably trying to read me like a book for what kind of man I was. Chloe had held tightly to my left arm and stayed silent. The people who saw her smiled kindly, signifying that they weren't ruthless and unreasonable people. She returned the favor by giving a small wave and nervous smile. I'm sure I was just as nervous as she was. If not more.

I saw someone stirring in the back of the group and people getting pushed and shoved. After a second, the person made their way to the front of the group, staring directly at me with an amazed and ecstatic expression plastering his face. I knew this man from somewhere. I swear I did. He stood somewhere relative to my height with brown hair and blue eyes. He wore a black leather jacket and tan cargo pants with hiking boots. Totally supped up for an apocalypse. I thought to myself. The guy stood in awe and looked over at Mokuren as if asking permission to speak. She nodded to him once and he looked back at me wide-eyed. I couldn't place where I'd known him, but I did. He obviously had known me very well. The name was on the tip of my tongue. I saw Chloe smile at him knowingly. She knew him too. The guy waiting in agonizing anticipation for me to say something. How could I have forgotten his name? M-something. Ma-something. Matt-something. Then it hit me like a punch to the face delivered from the hand of a UFC fighter. Now I felt stupid for forgetting his name. How in the hell had I forgotten any of this!?

"M-Matthias?" I asked.

"Mark!" He yelled happily. "Yes! Yes! Yes!" he shouted, throwing his fists in the air above him.

"Holy crap! Matthias! No way!" I was astonished. It was one of my best friends. Matthias. I'd worked with this guy many different times on YouTube and talked to him almost all the time. We had filmed and edited the video 'Real Life' together!

"That's really Matthias?" Chloe whispered to me. I nodded in response.

"Matthias, I thought you lived in California."

"I do. Vacation gone bad... Mokuren told me you were out here! That she found you at a café a little ways south of Muncie! I didn't believe it! But, man, here you are! Mark Fischbach in the freakin flesh!"

"Yeah! I am... So are you!"

Stacy's POV.

"Tom, where are we?" Bob asked.

"Hell if I know," he responded.

Great. We're lost. Dammit! I thought to myself. Nobody has seen a sticker for a long time. Almost four hours. I was getting pretty nervous. I was really hoping we weren't lost. I was just hoping like crazy that we'd find a sticker of sorts.

"Tom, really. I'm getting worr-"

"Stacy, I know! Just, really... We'll figure this out. We don't have any other choice than to figure it out for ourselves. Just trust me."

"We've been doing that since Mark left!" Trace yelled, absolutely infuriated. "Look where that got us! Do you understand how boned we are right now!? We're screwed! And it's all because you can't keep an eye your only brother! The only person you have to keep track of is gone! This is your fault, you know that Tom!? This is you! If only you would've let him start up with our traveling that morning, none of this would've happened! He wouldn't have to feel that he had to do this on his own and we wouldn't be scared to death trying to find him!"

At that very moment in time. Tom snapped. Not just a crack in his mental stability, but full-blown freaked. Tom stopped in his tracks, turned on his heel and went directly after Trace. He rushed him with the force of a linebacker and held him by his throat to the asphalt street. I'm sure Trace would have a complete concussion with the force Tom used, sending the back of Trace's head colliding against the ground. Everyone was frozen, as if time stopped, watching Tom yell and scream at the top of his lungs in Trace's face. Tom was obviously much stronger than the 20 year old he was up against, and I hadn't the slightest clue what Tom was going to do to him. He just kept yelling and screaming about how he knew what he'd done and regretted every single decision he made that day after they had saved Chloe from the school. He was remorseful and scared and irritated and on the last thread of hope for his little brother, Mark and Chloe's safety, his own mental stability and humanity itself. He just kept yelling.

"Do you know what I've been going through since this all started!? Do you!? I've lost EVERYTHING! I know damn well that we're lost! I know damn well that we have no chance at finding Mark again! I know damn well this is my fault! You don't think I've thought about it! You don't know what's happened to me! I've lost my children, my wife AND my mother! All I had left was Mark! Now he's gone too! I know it's all my fault! I've considered it, I've contemplated, I've been thinking about it so much I'm certain of it! But I'll be damned if I stop trying for him! And if you wanna accuse me of being the bad guy, believe me, I already know!"

Trace was struggling to breathe and kept trying to fight back. Thrashing at Tom's hands that were wrapped tightly around his neck. Trace was coughing and trying to yell or talk to Tom to get him off, but Tom was numb. He wouldn't budge. Wade, Devin and Bob tried piling him off but Tom punched Wade on the left side of his jaw, causing him to fall to the ground. Wade got back up and kept trying, but Tom was determined. With every passing second Trace was having more and more trouble breathing and at this point could barely let out a whimper. And being asthmatic, that was just the icing on the cake.

"Tom! Stop it, he can't breathe!" Wade yelled at him. "Get off him! Quit it, man!"

"Tom, buddy, come on! Let the kid go!" Bob shouted.

Molly, Mandy, Elise and I tried yelling at Tom and trying to get him off of Trace. I don't think Tom could even register what he was doing at the time. I knew what my last option was, and decided to use it. I lead my hand to the holster on the right side of my uniform belt and pulled out the knife I had used in combat overseas. I went up behind Tom and held it to his neck and he instantly became paralyzed. He sat still, but still keeping his hands firmly around Trace's throat, almost crushing his windpipe.

"Let him go. Or so help me god I will not hesitate to slit your throat," I hissed.

(A/N. Oh. My. God. What have I done to your suspense feels? I give you hope with Mark finding Matthias, then I'm just like: 'Ha! Nah, bro'. What's with all this psycho bonkers crazy stuff with the group being lost, Trace getting choked out, and Tom... Ooh boy... His future doesn't look so bright. For real guys! If you have any ideas as to what might happen next chapter, let me know your thoughts in the comments! Do it! You guys are in for a treat! Stay amazing! And as always, I'll see you all in the next part! Buh~Bye!!! *waves* ~Melynda! Aka Luxor.)