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Mumbo paced the alley. It wasn't smart to pace and tire himself out, but he needed to move. To get this restless energy out of his body some way or another before he'd figuratively explode.
He didn't want to think about what he was doing there, but the silent radio told him otherwise.
Life had fallen apart, and now there was nothing but static over the radio, and it was driving Mumbo wild.
He had been all alone for weeks, and he still didn't have a clue how he was alive after all that time.
He hadn't seen another person in weeks.
It was no wonder he was going insane, slowly but surely. It was awful, it was grating, it was soul-sucking to not hear a single other person for weeks.
It's like everyone had vanished off the face of the earth, and he was the only soul left out there.
It was... not a good state to be in, and Mumbo didn't know how he could keep going like this at all. If there was nobody else, why should he keep going at all? It was a foolish endeavor, like all others.
"Fuck," Mumbo hissed and kicked at a can, making it clatter down the alleyway far louder than it has any right to.
Fuck.
Mumbo grabbed his radio and his backpack and hid behind a dumpster, slowly counting his breaths as he waited for anything to notice him.
He couldn't. He couldn't be caught by them. He'd rather kill himself than be caught.
Despite everything, he didn't want to die. He wanted to hope instead.
It was the only thing he had, and the only thing that kept him going.
There were too-heavy footsteps just outside of the alley. Mumbo held his breath.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Six.
Seven.
Eight.
Nine.
Ten.
The too-heavy footsteps moved on.
Mumbo sighed in relief, dialing through all stations of the radio clutched in his hand.
Just when he was about to lose hope there wasn't going to be anything yet again, the radio crackled to life.
Or at least to something other than pure static.
Mumbo fiddled with the dials, hope surging inside of him.
"This is... we're here to... go to..."
Mumbo cursed when the radio ad stopped, when it went back to static. "No no no no no." He mumbled over and over again, pressing the buttons of his tiny, hand-held radio. "I'm sorry please no come back can you hear me? Please can someone hear me? I'm not going crazy. Please tell me I'm not going crazy." His voice cracked, an involuntary thing that had him biting on his own hand to force back the sobs threatening to spill out.
He wasn't alone, but he had no idea where to find help. He might have still been alone, but now the hope clawed at his chest like a feral, wild animal that wanted out but couldn't.
He was not alone.
He could deal with the rest later.
First he had to find somewhere safe.
He could find the other humans later.
Yeah.
First find safety.
It was the least he could do right now.
And then, just as he was about to climb to his feet, he looked up into two peering red eyes.