I was sitting on the edge of bed swinging my legs, as Medic and Life were giving me one last check over. Reaper and Geno were standing to the side. The bitties and Ferby #149 were taking a nap at the foot of the bed. Everyone else was out getting supplies for when we leave. I was finally free of all the wrapping and was licking a green apple lollipop with my now purple ecto-tongue. It used to be red, but after I was corrupted I noticed it changed color. I might have Perseverance as a strong secondary trait now, but I would have to do a deep check to find that out. Either that or it's because of my negativity, not sure. Still, the candy tasted good. "Alright, that should do it. Looks like your all healed up. You'll have scars, but they should fade over time. Your good to go Catcher." Medic told me.
"We also have a regiment of magic supplements for you to help with your malnutrition. We made a supply for six months and want you to take one with a meal three times a day." Life said, bringing a few bottles over to me. I took them and pulled out my bag from my inventory to put them in.
"Is that everything? We should probably go and join the others in getting supplies for the trip." Reaper asked.
"Yes, all I ask is that Catcher try to take it a bit easy. That means no heavy lifting or strenuous activities for about a month. After that, they should work their way up." Medic told him.
"Will do. Now, we better hurry to get going. We promised to meet up with the others in about a half hour." Geno said. I pulled out an outfit to change into from my hospital gown.
"Give me a second. I rather not go around with my coccyx showing in a hospital gown." I said and pushed Life and Medic away from my bed. I close the curtains and change.
When I open it back up I was wearing a galaxy print hooded trench coat, yellow turtleneck, black knee length pleated skirt, black tights, black fingerless gloves, and brown combat boots. I had my old crown on and I was wearing my bracelet on my wrist now. My ecto-hair was left down. Reaper whistled. "Looking good kiddo." Reaper told me. I put my bag back into my inventory and started waking up the bitties and Furby.
"Definitely got better taste than Reaper with his emo style, that's for sure." Geno commented. Reaper gasped offended, while I giggled.
"Well we better get going. It was a pleasure working with you Medic." Life said. Medic nods.
"And, it was an honor working with the goddess of life herself. Good luck." Medic said.
The now awake bitties climb onto my head and shoulders and I hold #149 in my arms. Reaper held onto me and Geno grabbed Life. Geno and Life shortcut away. Reaper and I followed right after. Everything went dark, but instead of whispering there was screaming. Reaper held me tighter as I was I felt something try to grab me. I could feel Reaper increase their death aura to scare them off. Then we were out and in front of a large brick building. "The fuck!" the normally collected Carber exclaimed. I shivered as I held tight to Reaper.
"Sorry, the spirits have been becoming increasingly more aggressive the closer to the fall of the multiverse we become. Plus, I haven't been able to keep up with reaping them since Corruption went on a murderous rampage and had his army kill different Aus once he figured out you were freed. I may be omnipresent, but I can only do so much. I'm not as powerful and fast with my main body being here." Reaper told us.
"I thought things were supposed to be sorta stable with Ink locked up though." I said. Reaper looked nervous.
"That was the case, until he broke out the day after I rescued you. He starting to create again, which is why we're gathering more supplies now, so if we have to make a quick escape. Everyone is in a rush to finish, since we were originally supposed to leave in another six days. With Ink out again, we're trying to get anything we can. They predicted that we have a max of five and minimum three days, until it all goes down at the rate he's creating. Evacuations are already underway." Reaper explained.
"HoW ThE HeCk DiD He EsCaPe?" String asked.
"There was interference from a certain higher deity. The whole place was destroyed and almost everyone guarding him dusted. The ones who didn't barely escaped with their lives. We had a party try to go after him, but he's completely MIA and the doodlesphere has been locked down. Though Fresh was able to grab the Au pages for the universes that are part of the alliance just in case he tried something. He's been keeping the area around us and Undertale prime clear to give us as much time as possible. Though he can't destroy universes nearly as fast as Error can. That's why he's not with us." Reaper told us. I saw Geno and Life walk over to us.
"There you guys are! Was wondering where you went! Come on, the others are waiting for us inside the store already." Geno said. We walk over to him.
"What kind of store is this?" I asked as we headed to the front door.
"It's a camping and survival gear store. We don't know what kind of situation we'll end up in wherever we go, so we're trying to be prepared. We already bought a lot of freeze dried and preserved monster food somewhere else. We also got a bunch of different copies of books on different stuff like homebuild and farming. We plan on everyone getting a copy and their own supplies just in case we get separated. We'll also make sure everyone has a supply of gold since it can be used as currency pretty much anywhere and any point in a timeline. I had Blue grab anything he could for your bitties that we may not have already had." Geno explained.
"Alright, well that's good. But, is it going to fit in our inventory?" I asked.
"We were given phones to increase inventory space and with a bunch of other applications to help us. Including to appear back in the person's personal inventory if they get separated after they tune into their magic. It was a tricky project that Core wanted done, but they're being given to all the Sans and anyone else they can make enough of them for. I have one for you too, but I'll show you how to use it when we're getting everything packed up." Geno said. I nodded in understanding.
We walk inside the place and were greeted by a cold gust from the air conditioner. The place looked bigger inside than outside. There were rows and rows of different kinds of outdoor gear and items "Alright grab a cart everyone needs to have a set." Reaper said.
"Have any of you ever even bought outdoor and camping gear before?" I asked, grabbing a cart.
"No, but it shouldn't be that hard to find what we need." Life said, the others nodding in agreement. I groaned.
"Don't tell me that you all are just winging it. Did you all atlease make a list of stuff to get or compare different brands and qualities?" I asked in disbelief.
"Well we found this place, since it was supposed to have good quality and a variety of items." Geno told me. I huff at them.
"That doesn't matter if you don't have any idea what your doing. Looks like I'll have to make sure this trip isn't a bust. Bunch of amateurs, follow me." I ordered, pushing my cart forward. The others stood there in shock of my attitude.
"Wait..... didn't she have the Survivalist title?" Reaper recalled.
"I didn't realize it meant wilderness survival." Life said. I stopped in front of the first row of shelves.
"You coming!" I called. The others quickly followed after me.
We made our way up and down the rows, picking items I told them to get. I made sure we went with decent quality item that would be able to last and would be as compact as possible. Meaning things like silverware and dishware to water bottles and camping shower . I made sure the electronic items like flashlights were heavy duty. I spent an especially long time on sleeping bags and tents to make sure they would be comfortable in different climates and waterproof. Skeletons don't really have to worry about temperature for sleeping bags, but it's more for comfort. The tents ranged in sizes and shapes, but I wanted to have us use something that wouldn't be too heavy or big to carry but could handle bad weather. I went with three person four season tents. It would give us space and if something happened to one of our tents we could share. I made sure that they were a duller green to help with blending in.
We went through aisle after aisle picking up things here and there that we would need. Eventually we met up with the others. I took one look at the stuff in their cart and sighed. They had night vision goggles, a bunch of different knives, and random stuff that wouldn't work. I ended up taking them back to make sure we grabbed things they actually needed. We had fun in the fishing stuff for a while picking out poles, different lures, and bait. Everyone eventually ended up with their own small tackle box and collapsible fishing pole. I ended up with a larger tackle box and nine foot rod on top of the collapsible one, since I was the only one who actually knew how to fish.
I started to get super excited at them having a long-term survival section. I was geeking out at the different canning supplies and recipe books. I even managed to find a nice set of survival garden heirloom seeds and some collapsible tools. Life made sure to grab some of those as well. The others agreed to leave that to us since they had little to no knowledge of caring for plants and cooking for the most part. Reaper being unable to touch plants at all without killing them. I picked a few books with recipes to make different items from nature for things like soap and candles to jam and different preserved foods. I told them that we would need to stop somewhere afterwards to get pink salt for curing and any other stuff we can't pick up here. Like a hobby shop, supermarket, another bookstore, and somewhere we could buy things like grain and rice in bulk. We would also need to go to a pharmacy and medical supply store for first-aid items, since the outdoor first-aid kits here won't have everything we need. Especially healing items, like emergency monster healing items.
Lastly we ended up in the knives and marksmanship section. Blue had to hold Chara back, while Life held onto Flowey. I didn't know as much about weapons as the the other stuff, so I just asked a worker to tell us what they recommended. Luckily, it was an older gentleman with experience with this sort of thing. Life refused to have anything to use as weapon, so we just made sure she got something good enough to cut rope and saw wood if necessary. Everyone else ended up with a collapsible axe, machete/saw combo, hunting knife, survival knife, and a multi-tool. Because of my skill in archery thanks to it being one of my magic weapons of choice, I ended up with a bow and a few sets of arrows. I bought a some packs of arrow heads to replace them if they break. Sure I could always summon my magic weapons, but what if I'm low on magic, or I need to be stealthy. Those things are literally made of brightly glowing magic, not stealthy at all.
Finally, the question on everyone's minds was asked. "How Do You Know So Much About Outdoor Survival?" Blue asked.
"I lived outside and under a tree since I was born, so I had to be able to survive. I also liked to read up on different topics like outdoors and gardening. I wish I had some of this stuff. It would have come in handy. I like to label it a minor obsession." I told him. In actually, I was a total doomsday prepper in my last life, with a large collection of books and supplies for surviving possible end times. Which was definitely coming in handy right then.
With everything picked out, we headed to the register to pay for everything. That was a long process with how much we had. After everything was paid for we put everything we could fit into camping backpacks and duffle bags, and into our inventories. "Are we done yet?!" Flowey wined.
"No, we still need to pick up the other stuff that Catcher brought up. We have food, condiments, some seasonings, and basic necessities. We really didn't think long term, besides the books about building and farming." Reaper told him. The flower groaned.
And so, we spent the rest of the day and into the next going to different stores. We got everything from yarn and roles of cloth to the pink salt and vinegar in bulk for preservation. Luckily day and night cycles differ from Au to Au, so we were able to get everything done without having to worry about places being closed. Plus, the phones had a feature that let us connect to the Au's internet so we could look up places to go without worrying about getting lost. When it was all said and done we all wanted to collapse from exhaustion. We stayed at an inn in the Omega Timeline to settle down for the time being. Apparently many of the Reapertale residents were staying there since they didn't have a residence of their own and weren't going to be here long enough to settle down.
Geno and Blue brought food to our room and everyone got comfortable. We ate in relative silence. Soon Chara, Flowey, and Frisk fell asleep, with Geno soon after. Reaper got comfortable with Geno and followed. Life layed blankets on everyone and sat next to the kids, eventually falling asleep as well. Only Blue and I were left. I went to him and cuddled into his side. Blue smiled down at me and relaxed further. He decided to close his eyesockets for a moment and was out like a light. I relaxed in Blue's hold and enjoyed the calm and quiet. I wasn't going to sleep, but I relaxed safe and sound with my family.