AU BASED ON "A QUIET PLACE"
[NO, YOU DON'T HAVE TO SEE THE MOVIE TO UNDERSTAND]
DAY 121
If they hear you, they hunt you.
Don't talk.
Don't move.
Don't even breathe.
Don't make a sound.
Mad Gear tiptoed through headquarters, the soft sand on the trail squishing between his toes.
He passed Renegade, who was busy pouring fresh sand on a trail that lead to the pit. Jack was standing next to him, a closed sack of sand slung over his shoulder.
Sand was crucial. It let you walk noiselessly.
The Clique had robbed so many hardware stores for bags when they had come, but now that it had been over one hundred days, everything was abandoned and up for grabs.
Mad Gear raised two fingers in a casual salute, and Renegade stopped for a moment and nodded in response. He was breathing heavily, his navy blue shirt tightening around his chest.
Jack stood awkwardly, looking down at his feet. He fiddled with the silver Clique chain around his wrist.
Across the silver plaque, DEMA was written over Clique in black permanent marker.
Usually Tyler would've scoffed and shook his head. Jack, who didn't even have a Clique name (besides Jack-fucking-Barakat, if that counted), never quite fit in. He stayed glued to Renegade's side, only comfortable around him and his old buddies Zack and Rian.
Tyler shoved his hands in the pockets of his jumpsuit as he walked on.
He was supposed to be overseeing each squad doing their work, but in all honesty, he didn't feel like it.
Donnie the Catcher and Horseshoe Crab had it under control. Tyler could see them telling their squads—silently in sign language of course—to keep pouring sand all around the pit.
The medics, Mr. Benzedrine and his boyfriend Youngblood, sat on the stage just in case.
Just in case someone made a sound, and they came.
Tyler shuddered. Images of those horrifying alien creatures flashed through his mind.
His anxiety ran wild. Mad Gear had changed. Blurryface was long gone, sure, but there was still something different about him.
The Clique had changed too. All members had to go through even more training than they already did—a different kind of training.
They weren't psychotic murderers anymore. Of course they still wanted to be, but those monsters had forced them to change.
Silent assassins. Kill anything or anyone that made a noise. Sign language. You can't talk. You can't even breathe too loud, or they'll find you.
After they had come, the Clique had been renamed DEMA.
Headquarters was the tower of silence.
It had been one hundred and twenty-one days since those monstrous creatures had come down from space and completely destroyed practically all of civilization.
They were just sleeping, and they had woken up.
The Clique had dedicated themselves to staying alive by staying silent.
All of the rival gang fights and murder missions of the past seemed petty now. This was survival.
Now, their only missions were to go out and kill anyone and everyone that threatened to make a noise before the aliens did.
Keep the tower of silence silent.
And then there was the boy. Clancy.
He was so, so young. Just fourteen years old, and he had already lost his entire family to those monsters.
Despite all of Missile Kid's protesting, Tyler had taken him in. Something about that kid reminded him of himself when he was younger.
He was a fighter.
Tyler cracked the tiniest of smiles as he saw the boy approach him, almost as if reading his mind.
His skin was dark and smooth and glowing, a nice change from the harshly scarred and injured bodies of the other DEMA members.
His black curly hair reached just below his earlobes, which had silver gauge earrings. (After he had seen Missile Kid's, he insisted on having them). He even had painted his nails a sparkling black.
Dark freckles dotted his nose and cheeks, and he had two dimples on either side of his chapped pink lips when he smiled.
Clancy ran up to Tyler, his bare feet kicking up sand as he did. A look of worry was strewn across his face.
Tyler's smile disappeared as quickly as it had come. Adrenaline and anxiety shot through his veins.
As Clancy grew closer to Tyler, he could see the tears sparkling on his cheeks.
"J-O-S-H," Clancy held up his hands and signed. "West wing. Hurry."
Tyler's eyes widened, and he took off running without hesitation. The familiar feeling of the wind blowing through his hair and his leg muscles burning and his heart pumping propelled him forwards.
West wing.
His bedroom.
Missile Kid's bedroom.
Sand flew up in Clancy's dark chocolate eyes and made them burn like fire as he ran behind Tyler. He had been with the Clique a little over a month, and still wasn't used to pain or fear yet. He cried as he ran.
Tyler's lungs screamed desperately for him to stop and take a breath, but he didn't dare. He kept sprinting down the sand path, jumping up the stairs two by two, and up to the west wing.
And then he saw it.
It was ginormous. Almost three times the height of an average person, but slouched over and walking on all fours. Its skin was disgusting shades of red and maroon and brown, covered in exposed blue veins and pulsing muscles.
Sharp crablike pinchers were at the ends of its long, skinny arms. Its feet were spread like claws, dripping with blood. It had no eyes; just a mouth with razor sharp teeth that was big enough to swallow Tyler whole.
But its ears were the most horrifying. They were huge, spanning most of its body, not just its head. The eardrums were on the outside of the ear, crude growths that were constantly pounding and bulging as it listened.
Tyler skid to a stop. How the fuck did it get in?
He held his breath. Behind him, Clancy finally caught up, but stayed behind him, tightly holding onto the back of his jumpsuit.
Tyler reached behind him and took Clancy's hand. The boy clutched onto it like his life depended on it.
But his life didn't depend on anything.
Josh's did.
Missile Kid was there, hazel eyes wide as he stared at the creature in front of him. He pressed up against the wall, getting as far away from it as he possibly could.
Sweaty strands of his wild yellow hair stuck to his forehead and fell in front of his eyes as he shifted his gaze over to Tyler.
When his terrified eyes met Tyler's, both of their hearts sank at the exact same time.
Tyler yanked his hand out of Clancy's grasp so he could sign.
"Code Red," he signaled. "Now."
Clancy's eyes widened and he stared at Tyler for a split second more before quickly nodding his head.
The boy turned and ran as fast as his sickly skinny legs could carry him.
He was a member of DEMA. He had to hold his own.
He had to make Mad Gear proud.
Clancy turned his head to the side and looked down into the pit. Renegade and Jack were sitting on the stage, smiling and signing to Youngblood and Mr. Benzedrine. A few other DEMA members who couldn't remember the names of for the life of him smoothed over the sandy pit.
His brain was so fixated on how many people might die right here, right now, that he almost missed his turn.
He gasped ever so slightly as he grabbed onto the metal barrier and slid around the corner.
Just as his set his sights on the electric box hanging on the wall, he slipped and fell face-first into the sand.
The tiniest of cries escaped his lips as he landed, ankle twisting underneath his body. Pain shot up his leg.
"Dammit," Clancy hissed through gritted teeth.
He froze.
Time seemed to stop as he slowly turned his head and looked behind him.
The alien creature had spun around, still close to Josh, but now its eyeless head was facing Clancy. Its eardrums were beating faster than ever.
Clancy bit his tongue as he painfully pushed himself up onto his feet, using the metal railing of the barrier to help him stand.
His ankle grew number with every passing second. He clamped his hand over his mouth so he wouldn't be heard and limped over to the electric box on the opposite wall.
The alien leaned forwards, listening. Away from Josh. Toward Clancy.
The boy bit down on his tongue so hard he drew blood. He let out a breath he didn't even realize he was holding when his fingers wrapped around the cool metal handle of the box.
Soundlessly, the door swung open, and Clancy was met with confusing fuses and blinking lights and tangles of wires. Good thing they were blind.
His dark, misty eyes darted around the box as he scanned the fuses. He had never done this, and his anxiety was making his mind fuzzy. He couldn't concentrate.
And even though Clancy had no way of seeing it, Tyler's hands twitched "Now." at his side.
Finally Clancy caught sight of the strip of tape labeled 'light color' under a black switch.
He flicked it from the left side to the right side, and instantly every single light in the abandoned arena turned from a dim orangish-yellow to unmistakably red.
Tyler closed his eyes and let out a silent sigh of relief.
Clancy slowly turned away from the electrical box and stepped up to the barrier. He leaned against it heavily, lifting his twisted ankle a few inches off the floor. He felt sick to his stomach.
He had never seen a Code Red before.
And he never wanted to see one again.
The color was everywhere.
The entire headquarters was doused in blood. The stage lights burned the brightest, drowning the platform in red. Unlike the yellow, the red lighting was so much darker. You had to squint just to see two feet in front of you.
Something about the red made the hairs on the back of Clancy's neck stand straight up. The color of blood. Death. An anxious color. A Blurryface color.
It was unsettling. Haunting. The eerie glow casted by the red lights sent shivers up and down Clancy's spine.
As if DEMA wasn't quiet enough, it somehow shifted from a comfortable silence to one of pure terror.
Every member tilted their heads up at the Code Red simultaneously. Their faces morphed into terrifying shadows from the red lights. They got up, grabbed their weapons, took a breath. It was time.
The tension in the air was so thick you could cut it with knife. Tyler's body tingled all over with anxiety and fear as he stared at the alien in horror.
He had convinced himself it would be okay. Clancy had called Code Red. DEMA was coming. They'd make it out alive.
Wouldn't they?
Unsatisfied when no more noise came from Clancy's direction, the alien turned back to Missile Kid. It could hear his heart pounding. Any more and it might burst right out of his chest.
Ever so slowly, Missile Kid inched his hand down towards his gun hanging from his belt.
If he could fire it away from him, away from everyone else, the creature would go towards it and he could escape.
That is, if he could actually reach his gun in time.
A sickening mixture of saliva and blood dropped from the alien's teeth onto Josh's bare feet. A low growl crawled up its wide throat. Josh wrinkled his nose and squeezed his eyes shut. When he opened them again, he was looking at Tyler.
Tyler's bare feet were frozen to the ground.
An idea flashed through his mind, and he tried to push it away, he really did, but the thought kept fighting back.
What if he made a sound?
He'd save Josh. The boy too, if he got away in time. Maybe even the whole of DEMA.
Somehow, Josh knew exactly what Tyler was thinking. Just by the look in those crazy eyes of his.
Josh shook his head ever so slightly. "No," he mouth silently.
Clancy was looking on from a distance, gripping the rail so tightly his hands numbed.
Josh held his breath as the alien raised its head, its crude nose holes flaring and ears pulsating violently.
"I'll be right there," Tyler spoke out loud. He raised his finger to his lips. "Shh."
Then he screamed at the top of his lungs.
✗✗✗✗✗
✗✗✗✗✗
WELL FRICK FRACK DIDDILY DACK PATTY WACK SNICK SNACK CRACK PACK SLACK MACK QUARTERBACK CRACKERJACK BIOFEEDBACK BACKTRACK THUMBTACK SIDETRACK TIC-TAC TWENTY ØNE PILØTS IS BACK BABY
AFTER A WHOLE ASS YEAR
THE HIATUS IS OVER
OUR BOYS ARE BACK
JUMPSUIT, ITS MV, AND NICO AND THE NINERS ARE SO FRICKING AMAZING I AM SO PROUD OF TYLER AND JOSH
ALSO THE COVER ART OF THE ALBUM ?? SO GOOD ?!!!!!
YOU BEST BELIEVE THEY'LL BE MORE BONUS ONE SHOTS BASED ON THE NEW SONGS, VIDEOS, DEMA, TRENCH, THE VULTURE, AND THE WHOLE LOT
AND WHO KNOWS? MAYBE EVEN ANOTHER ACT IN THE FUTURE?
also Clancy is a character now ??? a precious boy that deserves the world ???
should i keep him for future one shots or an act?? lemme know
I'M A VERY VERY HAPPY MOM
-LIZ.