The Damage Has Been Done (Markiplier)

Chapter 24: Newbie #1

Tom's POV.

"Hey Tom!" Bob called over.

"What's up bud?" I asked as I caught up to him.

"You hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Wade, your hearing isn't worthless, come here."

Wade walked up to the corner we stood at and looked at Bob and I. "What do you need?"

"Bob says he hears something, I don't hear anything. Can you?"

"What are you listening to?"

"Just, focus for a second. You'll be able to make it out on your own."

I listened for whatever sound the two were searching for and Wade's face turned to realization and slight happiness. I finally heard it too after a minute. Singing. Human voice. Some one that wasn't one of us. Not that I'd ever known of. It was a girl's voice. The singing was soft, not allowing me to make out words or lyrics of any sort. I couldn't hear much else from that direction, so I made the assumption she was alone. I motioned over the rest of our group and started walking in the direction of the voice. It couldn't be more than a few streets over. No more than a football field's length away. I made sure everyone stayed quiet as we walked down the back alley. The singing became barely louder with every main street we passed. I stopped at a corner, behind what used to be a small shop and turned to everyone, signaling them to keep the silence they already held. I looked around the corner and saw the source of the melody Wade, Bob and I had been hearing. A woman, at least twenty, with black hair highlighted with crimson red, height somewhere relative to 5'7 and wearing a plain white blouse, tattered jeans and jet black boots with a backpack slung over her shoulder. That's what I saw. A human. Something that won't eat any of us. Someone with the drive to live and survive in hell. I dragged Wade and Bob with me around the corner to greet the mystery woman, having the rest of our group linger behind a few feet.

"Hello?" I called out behind the girl. She spun around and directed a pistol at the nine of us.

"Who are you?" she asked harshly.

"I could ask you the same... My name is Tom. Tom Fischbach. This is Wade and Bob. And well, the rest? That's a lot of names and little time to call them off. Who're you?"

"No way..." the girl breathed, lowering the weapon she held in her hands. She seemed to recognize at least one of us. "Who am I?" she questioned. I nodded. "Um, I'm Nina. Nina Collins... How'd you find me?"

"We followed singing. Was that you?"

"Me? Uh, yeah..."

"Are you alone out here?" She shook her head no. "Who's with you?"

"M-my little sister Jessica."

"Yeah? How old is she?"

"Eleven."

"Where is she?" Devin asked concerned.

"Inside the shop, getting this window open." Nina pointed to the window to her right. "Um, this is a stupid question, but, you wouldn't happen to have a brother named Mark, would you?" There it is. I'm known only for my brother, aren't I? Not for TwoKinds? My comics? I guess I haven't done much to make a huge difference in the world like he has...

"Yeah, you know him?" I asked.

"Not just him... You, TwoKinds, Wade, LordMinion777 and Bob, Muyskerm. Even Molly, Foxtrot44."

"Great. So obviously you're familiar with Markiplier." She nodded. "What about Jessica? She know us?"

"Well, um, yeah, sort of."