"Stop this is happy county.."

Pest stepped out of the ice cream shop as poob followed witha come and soon lampert. Who didn't look too thrilled to be in such a dirty wreckage.

"Yupyup! Wellactually itz da main central- and Itz a lot more uh....empti than I expected it 2 b..." Poob commented, licking on their birthday cake ice cream

"And dirty.." lampert added, shivering as he felt the dust and whatever other stuff there was coat his metallic body.

"Whatever, where should we start looking anyways?" Pest looked around "maybe.. south?"

"How abt at da gates?"

"Gates??"

"Yuh! U didnt knoews? Theres an entrance gate in dis place!"

"Wouldn't that just the border..?" Lampert worsened

"Oh no itz a lot more diffrent than that! I'll show u when we get dere."

"So where's that gate?"

Poob stayed silent for a little as they realized they probably forgot to ask crem for directions

"Uhhhh...one minute-" they smiled awkwardly as they got back inside for a moment to ask for directions and after a bit of bantering they got back out.

"Its right of the postal office!"

"Alright 十分だ (good enough)" pest shrugged as he motioned the other two to follow, in the meantime, they'd all take on the dark and moody scenery around them, some of the buildings were crumbled down and some were having skeletons hang off their windows like a twisted decoration, it made lampert squemish as he imagined all the germs flying through the aur at this very moment.

"This place is hella creepy-"

"Can't be more creepy than your face" pest scoffed

"PEZT!

"Hey! I'll let you know I drew it myself!"

"...so that's why.."

"PEZT!!!1"

"何？？(what??) I'm just teasing him."

Poob glared for a moment, but pest just scoffed, not even doing the bare minimum of apologizing. Which was typical, but then they pass by the postal office

"!! Postal office!! We muzt b close!!"

"Thank god-" lampert muttered 

"What? Can't wait to go back to murdering people o-"

"PEZTTTT!!!" Poob latched onto their ear and he started to flail a little "OWOWOWOWOW ALRIGHT IM SORRY!" Poob smirked in satisfaction as they let go of pest, and spon kissed their grumbling face on the cheek. Lampert just made a fake gag earning a stare from the two.

"What? Its the germs!"

...

The gate was wide and tall, taller than any gate that the three had seen, but hey- at least it was open.

"Jesus- why did they need a gate this big??"

"Crem told meh itz to protect da county from liek- a goverment-"

"??? What governent-"

As the two discussed lampert looked over head the big plaque of rules, noticing a few that were incredibly strange.

-no going to the border of the under city without a permit.

-no contacting the greater government for any reason at all.

-no crossing the gate without gaurd approval and documents.

"..strange-" lanpert muttered as he went back to poob and pest who was reading the book he'd stolen from splits library. Trying to find any information about the gate and whatever the fuck is going on.

"Found anything intereztin?" Poob asked lampert who just shrugged in response "hm..how abt u pezt?"

"Nothing but nonsense" he groaned as he let the book slump against his arms "apparently this gate was just to ward off any greater government people and under city residents-"

"Oh I just read that through the rules there- why would they ward the under city? Don't they like...inhabit the same county?"

"Yeah I have no idea why either- but we're here to find the eye of the shit- i dont know- not go on an archeologist expedition." He scoffed as he and the other two walked through the gate to fund a kangaroo off roads and offices, and some spaces of winding holes gated off that go so deep it's mysterious depths were blackened.

".. do you think there's something down there?" Lampert said as the two looked through the cubicles scattered around this mysterious maze. Almost like some sort of checkpoint for gaurd to check documents and what not "uhhh I dunt know and id rather not-" poob gulped at the staggering height of the square hole as pest pulled out a thick rope from one of the cubicles "well we will whether y'all like it or not." He approached the railings and tied te rope to them as poob started to fumble

"But wut if deres nothing!?"

"We climb back up"

"Wut of deres a monsta????"

"Ill kill it"

"What if-"

"Poob there's nothing to worry about ok!?" Pest reassured as he fonihed tying and went to poob, soghing, to give them a kiss on the cheek to furter ecement theyre all safe "I'll make sure of it."

Poob managed to crack a smile "alright fine...thankz dear"

Lampert gagged again "EUGH are you guys CORNY"

The two stared at lampert before looking at each other, confiming they had the same idea

"How about you go first lampert boy?

"Excuse m-" 

Just then Poob shoved him into the hole as he screamed, the two snickered as poob decided to go first, climbing down the rope with pest descending down next...

...There was nothng- only more roads and gates, except no cubicles or offices and definitely nothing to gate of the edge of the canyon this layer of maze was standing on.

"Holy shit-"

The canyon itself didn't even look like a natural one, it was all concrete and smooth, like a mangled man-made structure. Even pest noticed the small inaccessible platform deep in this grand concrete canyon giving home to a singular open metalic door.

"Ohhhh- thiz uh.... Thiz iz intrestingggg" poob gulped

Lampert limped behind them "yeah, you know what else is interesting? SHOVING ME INTO A FUCKING HOLE!"

"Oh SHUT IT" he yelled at lampert and chittered as he turned back to the door and saw it closed.

Ok..that was strange..

"Shuld we keep lookin-?"

"Yeah..-" pest agreed, tensed "yeah we should-"

...

Poob and lampert watched as pest lockpicked the stained glass doors to the mysterious art museum they'd found hidden deep within a tunnel.

"Why is there an art exhibit in a tunnel..?"

"Who cares!?" Pest said "this place is strange as it is- no wonder the government didn't like them.."

Click

"Ahhh there we go."

Pest ipened the door out, the dusty and strange musty smell hit the two, making lampert REALLY gag.

"Oh stop being dramatic and just GET IN"

Poob went it first with pest holding the door for them, before lampert attempted to get in, however pest decided to just let go of the door, making it smack lampert on the face, who took to offense as he had to enter himself, pest snickered at this before earning a glare from poob

"What? You're the one who shoved him."

"..touche" poob shrugged as the three finally entered the strange museum and stare at all the strange art and sculptures inhabiting the stands, some of them seemingly untouched in decades, but it slowly got more and more crumbled and destroyed the further down the trio descended into these spiralling dark hallways

"I dont have a gud feelin abt dis.."

"Me neither-" lampert shuddered

Pest just scoffed but he had to admit it too- he was a bit spooked out by all of this. That's why he kept close to his lover. With lampert staying behind a feet or two until he screamed.

"WET!! EURGH!!!"

The two turned confusingly before freezing as they saw blood pour onto the panicking lampert, the three looked up in terror as they saw a mauled body hung up on the cieling.

A fresh body.