Holy Crap, I'm Dead! Chapter 2: Her Funeral

“Dimitri! Dimitri!” Echo screamed, tears falling down her face and spattering onto the sidewalk. She stumbled and fell, cutting her knees and hands, but she forced herself up again until she got to him.

“What?” He sounded annoyed, and May looked a little scared of her. He saw the blood on her hands and knees, streams of which were running down her legs and staining her socks. “Woah, Echo, you know you’re bleed-”

“Anarchy! He...he...” She wiped her eyes with her hand, streaking her face with blood. “Please come, Dimitri! I’m scared he’s going to die!” Dimitri paled.

“Bye, May!” He said, running off. “I’ll try to visit you soon.”

“Shut up, you complete moron! We have problems bigger than your pathetic little girlfriend!” Echo screamed, running back to the car. “Just run!” He turned, growling,

“Are you just pretending something happened to him so you can get me away from her? Because that’s-” She stopped.

“Dimitri.”

“What?”

“Go to hell!” She snarled, lifting her fist and hitting him as hard as she could. It wasn’t a weak little snap like he’d gotten from May (she hadn’t really wanted to hurt him, after all) this was a vicious thok, twisting his bottom jaw from the top.

“Ow! What...?” Blood bubbled from his lips, reminding her of Anarchy. He needed her help, he would never think so badly of her. She turned from Dimitri and sprinted back to the car, crying harder now.

Anarchy saw her, bleeding and crying, and he wheezed,

“Oh, Echo, I’m sorry to worry you so much! I’ve got some time, we just need to hurry and find out more about this so the doctors can find some sort of cure. Try to calm down, please?” He wiped the blood from his face with his wrist. She shuddered, finally falling into a crouch on the concrete, head in her hands.

“Nn, I...I...Anarchy...” She tried to stop crying. After all, she wasn’t the one with the painful disease in her lungs, but...she could hardly stop from screaming with panic. Anarchy could die. And now that Dimitri had proved himself a less precious friend (how could he think she would lie so horribly to ease her jealousy? She thought he had trusted her more than that) she felt very empty. Anarchy sighed, dropped down onto his heels so he was level with her.

“Echo, please. Look at me. Where’s Dimitri?” She buried her face harder into her hands.

“I’m sorry, Anarchy! I should be st-stronger than this, I shouldn’t be the one...crying...I’m sorry!” He smiled gently, pulling her hands away from her eyes, lifting her face with his hands gently.

“Echo, please. You’re just scared. But where is Dimitri? What happened?” She looked up into his dark purple eyes. She trusted him so completely at this moment.

“He...he...said I was lying! I was so scared for you but he thought I was making it up! I...I...hate him.” She gritted her teeth. “I hate him!” Anarchy sighed.

“Well, he can be thoughtless, but you need to forgive him for that. It took me a while to get over it, to be honest with you. He can’t tell as easily as most people when something he says...” Echo shivered.

“What am I thinking! We need to get going, so we can find you a cure! You have enough problems on your own without me whining about mine!” She stood, finally out of tears to shed. It left her with raw motivation. Anarchy raised an eyebrow at her slightly bipolar switch in mood.

“Okay, if you’re feeling better now...”

“What the hell, are you kidding? You’re the one we need to be worrying about now! I’m guessing you don’t want to leave with your scumbag of a brother, so I’ll have to go track him down. Considering the way our last conversation went, I’ll have to beat him senseless then drag him back, but whatever.” She narrowed her eyes down the sidewalk, picturing how she would do it. Anarchy smiled gently.

“I can get him, Echo. I’m not disabled, I’ve had this for a week now and I’ve been doing fine. You stay in the car, okay?”

“B-but-”

“No, Echo. Stay, please?” She frowned, but let him guide her into the car. He shut the door smoothly, then clicked a button on the car keys. The car locked with a sharp click. She gaped at him through the tinted glass, looking for a way to unlock the doors. There was none, just the button on the keys which Anarchy took. He smiled apologetically.

“Sorry, Ms. Echo. I’ll be back in just a sec, okay?” Her protests were quieted by the thick insulation of the car.

“Dammit! How did he know?” She scowled, her plan to follow him the second he got far enough away foiled by the airtight car. “What kind of stupid car only has one way to unlock the doors?”

Soon Anarchy returned, dragging his reluctant brother by the cuff of his shirt.

“God, I can walk by myself! Let go!” Dimitri snapped, but Anarchy just pulled him more insistently.

“Yes, but if you had that freedom, you would be going in the opposite direction, am I right? You two are so immature.” Dimitri attempted to bite his older brother (yes he actually was just that desperate) but failed quite pathetically. The second Anarchy unlocked the car doors, Echo exploded from inside like some extremely violent jack-in-the-box. Anarchy swung Dimitri backwards, making him choke hard, but protecting him from Echo’s attack.

“Echo, what did you not injure me enough before?” He did already have a purply-black bruise steadily darkening on his cheek. She was secretly pleased she managed to hit him that hard.

“Uh, yeah! You don’t trust me, after all this! You should be bleeding on the floor! Understand?” He looked away.

“That’s not true...I just...” She snapped,

“Oh yeah? You’re brother has the stupid freaking plague, and you though I was pretending to be upset to get you away from the micro mini pale freak girl! Like I even care.” He bit his lip, then shrugged Anarchy off.

“I’m sorry.” He meant it completely. He raised his eyes hesitantly, as if he wasn’t sure he even deserved to look at her full in the face. This surprised her so much she stopped wanting to hurt him for a second.

“Wha...I mean...um...” He have her a small little smile, full of shame for himself and tenderness for her. Her mind blanked, though she shouldn’t have been so surprised. After all, he was her best friend. At this thought, her eyes filled with tears (after crying hard for a while, it’s easy to start again) and she smiled.

“M-me too...” Anarchy had removed himself from the situation, now that there was no chance of them beating each other bloody, sitting in the front seat of the car. Dimitri pulled her into a soft little hug, whispering quietly into her ear,

“Missed you.” She knew what he meant.

“Yeah.”

As the started driving back to the underworld, one question started nudging annoyingly at Echo’s brain. She didn’t want to start the fight again, but she needed to know. He was giving her mixed signals, after all. Finally, she asked it.

“Dimitri?”

“Hm?”

“What is May to you?” He looked out the window for a second.

“An old memory, and a friend.” He looked back at her. He was being honest. She was satisfied. So he smiled, and then said, “Okay, Anarchy. Now we need to discuss your illness. How bad are you now, how much time before you start shutting down, and how close are the doctors to finding a cure?” Anarchy coughed slightly.

“Normally people get this for one month before they shut down completely, the symptoms slowly accelerating until you get a final coughing spell that knocks you out for good. I’ve had this for about a week, so around one fourth of the way to my demise. But the good news is that the doctors have almost found a way to stop the nanos. In fact, they have a beta cure, and some of the victims are taking it now.” Echo and Dimitri had a twin reaction, her saying,

“Anarchy, take the cure! Come on!” Him more along the lines of:

“What the frigging hell? Are you the biggest idiot ever? Stopping the nanos seems smart, don’t you think?” Anarchy sighed.

“Please don’t underestimate my intelligence. I didn’t take the cure for a reason.” He looked up sharply. “We aren’t allowed to tell civilians this, or even the victims, but my attitude towards the Fyur is making me reluctant to obey him.”

“When have you obeyed anyone?” Dimitri asked.

“The reason for this,” He continued, ignoring his brother. “Is because the beta cure is not safe. That in fact, is an understatement. It often does more damage.” Echo’s eyes widened.

“What?”

“They make it sound perfectly safe to the victims, who offer to be guinea pigs for them. It kills the nanos, along with a good section of your brain. So far, everyone who took it has lost some to all of their motor skills, and other rather unpleasant side effects, such as medical depression and always they lose their ability to think for themselves. Complete obedience. And the nanos are only spreading. If everyone gets this before a sound cure is discovered, the only ones alive will be mindless drones who do whatever they’re told.”

“It’s a conspiracy! Dammit, I always knew the Fyur would try something like this!” Dimitri gritted his teeth so hard Echo could hear them clicking (his teeth were uneven and sharp). Echo sighed.

“But he already ruled the entire Underworld! Why would he do something like this? What more could he possibly gain? He doesn’t need any military because there isn’t a country to fight us! That’s normally the reason for something like this, right?” Dimitri frowned.

“Yeah, I guess that doesn’t make sense.” Anarchy shook his head.

“He does need a military, and he doesn’t have one. That’s a problem for him.”

“Er, why? Who’s he got to fight?”

“The Olde Century cities and the A.I. ones. There has been stirrings there for a while now, and they’re growing very restless. Plus, they’ve never taken orders that way the Fyur would like them to. And now he’s blaming the A.I. cities for this plague. I’m obliged to the Fyur, so we’re going to one of the center A.I. cities to check things out, but I’m not doing this for him. If I wasn’t worried about getting a proper cure, I would flat out lie so as to avoid a war.” He shrugged. “I don’t even know if they can get a good cure. The doctors working on this are all under the direct supervision of the Fyur, and that obedience part of the cure is not good at all. I hate to lose faith in my government, but honestly, this could hardly be an accident.” Echo’s eyes glazed over with wonder.

“W-wow. Crap. We have problems, then.” He nodded. Dimitri sighed.

“Well, we’re at the airport. Lets go.” Echo suddenly paled.

“Oh, yeah, plane.”

“What?” She shook her head, looking longingly at the dark asphalt.

“Nothing, I’ll be fine.” Dimitri smirked, taking her hand.

They got rushed into the plane by a snippy flight attendant. The seats were cushy and nice, and Dimitri noted with annoyance that it was four to a row. Room for Anarchy.

“Oh, come now. Must you hate me so? I’ll sit behind you two, if I’m unwanted.” he said dejectedly.

“No, I can sit in between you two.” Echo said. Dimitri rolled his eyes, annoyed, but Anarchy’s face brightened instantly.

“Why thank you, Ms. Echo!” Dimitri sat right next to the window, wondering why Echo was just standing in the aisle shuddering.

“Um, Echo?”

“I can’t ride this plane, Dimitri! I’ll die!” He looked surprised for a second, then relaxed.

“Oh, this is about your acrophobia, isn’t it?” He sighed, got up, and pulled her over to the seat next to him. “Just sit down, buckle up, and don’t look out the window, okay?” She looked on the verge of tears.

“Okay.” Anarchy sat by her on the other side.

“It’ll be fine, Echo. I promise.” She looking trustingly up to him, smiling.

“I guess...alright!” Dimitri frowned.

“Don’t worry me, Echo.”

“What?” She frowned, wondering what on earth he was talking about. He rolled his eyes.

“Never mind, then.” They chatted/argued between each other for a bit, and Echo’s nerves calmed down completely. Or so the brothers thought, but the illusion was soon shattered when the plane actually started moving.

“AAAAAAAAH!!!” The stewardess looked over, alarmed, but Dimitri shook his head.

“She’s fine.” He said. Now to Echo, “Hey, calm down! You’re fine! This is much better than any time we had to go on that bus up to the overworld, right? Just don’t look outside! Pretend you’re just in a car.” She squeezed her eyes shut, looking panicked. Dimitri smiled, and Anarchy said,

“You act so tough sometimes, it’s interesting that you would get so scared by heights. I’m not even a little afraid of heights myself.” Dimitri scowled.

“Everyone is a little afraid of heights. Say you’re standing on a building that’s twenty stories high and you’re on the edge looking down, without a rail or anything to catch you. That would scare you.”

“Yes it would.”

“So that means you’re at least a little afraid of heights.”

“No, it doesn’t.” Dimitri glared at his brother.

“But you said...”

“I’m not afraid of heights, brother. I’m afraid of falling.” Echo laughed, even in her terrified state, and Dimitri rolled his eyes.

“Very funny Anarchy.”

“Yes, I know.”