Sans slowly made his way around town, his heart sinking as he realized that Papyrus was nowhere to be found. "Fuck... Either he's not in Snowdin, or he's out in the forest somewhere. Or worse..." His eye lights went dim.
   He skimmed back over the sparse population of Snowdin, surveying each rabbit, dog, and various other types of monsters to be sure that he wasn't overlooking his brother. He wasn't.
   He sighed. "Oh well. Standing around here isn't gonna find him." He turned away from the town center, heading out into the forest without speaking another word.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   Toriel made her way to the Ruins exit, her expression blank. She was aware of a quiet pitter-patter of little feet behind her, letting her know that Frisk was following.
   "My child... Please... Go back upstairs..."
   Frisk shook their head. Their hands made a series of rapid gestures as they began signing a reply. 'I want to follow you.'
"There's no need for you to follow. I am just going to check something, that is all."
   Frisk frowned, signing back a response. 'Why can't I follow you?'
   Toriel bit her lip, finally deciding that it was pointless to keep arguing with the child. "Alright. But you must stay with me at all times."
   Frisk nodded, a light smile returning to their face as they ran up to the goat monster and grabbed her hand, allowing her to guide them to their destination.
   They finally came up on a large door, which was tightly locked up. Toriel shook it with one hand, making sure that it was still secure. Frisk shot her a curious look, then signed a question. 'Why is the door locked up so tight?'
   Toriel sighed. "I am doing it to protect those who live in these ruins. There is something horrible that is bringing harm to the lives of everyone outside, so that's why I've locked this place down. At least, until this thing blows over."
   Frisk nodded slowly before signing again. 'Is that why I'm not allowed to leave?'
   Toriel smiled and ruffled the mute child's hair. "Yes, indeed it is. It is a dangerous place outside. The last thing I want happening is you getting hurt."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sans walked briskly down the familiar forest path, moving quickly to avoid being seen by anything. He wasn't just doing this to find his brother. No. He was doing it so that he might have a chance of talking with an old friend.
He kept a watchful eye out for any signs of infected monsters, his paranoia nearly putting him over the edge, despite the fact that there were no signs of the beasts anywhere.
He was brought out of his thoughts at the sound of a twig snapping. He stopped dead in his tracks, frantically looking around until he found the source of the sound.
His gaze settled on a medium-sized creature with long, dark red fur, and a poofy red tail to match. It was facing him, it's empty, black eyes like voids. It had several glowing red markings; on both its cheeks and its forehead. The skeleton shuddered as he realized that the markings were upside-down crosses.
   It took him a moment to recognize that this was Rufus, the companion animal of his friend, Asher.
   "Hey buddy... Where's your owner at?"
   Rufus's fur bristled, his long ears pinning back as he hissed angrily, just before he bolted off further into the woods. Sans stood where he was for a few more moments, scratching his head in confusion.
   "That was weird... I wonder why he was so angry when I mentioned Asher...?"
He shrugged it off. Hadn't Rufus always been a bit stand-offish with him anyway?
Whatever. It's pointless to chase him. He'll find Asher eventually.
   Sans kept walking, still staying alert for any threats that could be nearby. He hoped that he wasn't making a mistake.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Toriel was caught off-guard when she heard a soft knock on the door. Curiously, she crept over to it. "Hello?"
"Hey Tori."
She felt both happiness and relief flooding over her at the sound of her old friend's voice. "Oh, hello Sans! It has been awhile, hasn't it?"
"Yeah... Things have been stressful... Haven't had much time to come out here..."
"I've heard. How's the sickness that's going around? Are they close to containing it?"
Sans seemed to be surprised by the question. "How'd ya know about the disease?"
"Just overhearing some passing conversations. It's a big deal, is it not?" Toriel replied.
"Yeah..."
The goat monster could sense that something was wrong. Sans wasn't usually so quiet. "What's the matter, my friend?"
She heard a sigh from the other side of the door. "My bro's missing... I woke up the other day, and he wasn't in his room. I hope he's not hurt, but at the same time... I'm really worried about him. That's why I came out here. Sora's nice to talk to and all, but I don't wanna get her stressed with this whole thing."
"Hmm. Have you looked in your brother's usual locations? Maybe he's hanging out elsewhere?" Toriel suggested.
"Yeah... He's nowhere to be found. Not gonna lie, I'm kinda freaking out..."
   The goat monster bit her lip. "Well... Stay hopeful. Maybe he's off doing something and he'll come back in a little while. Just make sure that you stay safe yourself, my friend."
   Sans chuckled half-heartedly. "Yeah... Maybe you're right... Thanks Tori." There was shuffling on the other side of the door. "Welp. I should get going. I'm just a sitting duck out here at this point."
   "Indeed. It's a dangerous world out there now. Be careful."
   "I will. And I'll come back and chat with you when this thing gets resolved. Until then, I'll talk to ya later."
   "Goodbye, old friend."
   "Goodbye."
   And the other monster left without saying anything more. Toriel sighed, slumping against the door and just sitting there for a moment. This disease sure was getting out of hand...
   Thankfully, she had the protection of the Ruins to keep herself, and the human child that had fallen down, safe and sound.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   Sans walked back through the woods in silence, with Toriel's soft words echoing through his skull. It was easy enough to tell himself to stay hopeful, but something else entirely to convince himself to do it.
   He completely spaced out as he walked, his thoughts becoming clouded with false realities; the ones he feared to think about, yet he did so anyway.
   What if Papyrus was stuck, hiding away from a feral beast just waiting to sink it's teeth into him?
   What if Papyrus had already been bitten, and he was fighting desperately against the takeover of that hostile disease?
   What if he'd already turned?
   What if a beast attacked him and just straight-up killed him?
   ...
   Sans was jolted from his thoughts by a loud snap. He glanced around, his left eye shining blue as he searched for the source of the sound.
   Not long after the snap, he heard a low growl from the shadows to his right, and he turned to face it. But then, he heard a higher-pitched snarl on his left, and he could have sworn that he felt his soul stop beating.
That was when he felt it. The faint aura of his brother, over near where he'd heard the first sound. His brother was here... But he couldn't see him.
Another growl came from the tree line as a massive skeletal beast stepped out, its long tail arching over its back. The creature was tall and lanky, in a strangely familiar way. Sans couldn't quite put his finger on why though.
The skeleton heard a second growl from behind him again, and he turned around to see a large, fish-like monster slinking towards him, its golden eyes narrowed and it's yellow-toothed grin glinting in the pale light of the forest. There was something familiar about this one too...
Sans turned his body sideways, not taking his gaze off of the two creatures as he backed away, his left eye flashing between yellow and blue in his internal panic.
The skeletal beast lowered its skull, its neon-orange stare fixated on the uninfected monster. It snarled, and orange smoke poured from its maw.
And that was when Sans realized why the creature was familiar. The tattered red scarf around his neck was the only evidence he needed.
"P-Papyrus..." Sans whispered, tears welling up in his eyes as he staggered back, his soul pounding so quickly that he questioned if it was actually even beating.
   He caught a glimpse of dark-red fur a short distance past the creature that was once his brother, which he instantly recognized as Rufus.
   The toy demon locked gazes with him for brief instant, flicking his tail before he ran off once more, just as the skeletal beast lunged forward, clamping his massive jaws down on Sans's forearm.
   His HP dropped from 1 to 0.01.
He cried out in agony as his radius fractured under the bite force of the beast's mandible, and he felt a strange, toxic feeling beginning to rapidly flood through the marrow of his bones.
The creature released his prey after a few moments, stepping back with a twisted smile on his face. The fish-like monster beside him shot him a satisfactory grin, her ear-fins perking up slightly.
Sans stumbled backwards, falling down in the snow while clutching his injured arm. His breathing went haggard as he felt shockwaves of pain beginning to radiate from the nasty bite wound.
   This was it. The moment he'd had nightmares about every single day since the news had broken about the disease.
   And the worst part was that this wasn't a dream... It was real.

   But nothing could have made him panic any more than that soft, bird-like squeak, far too familiar to be mistaken for anything else.
   The entire world seemed to freeze around him as that tiny little dragon came dashing over, completely disregarding the horrible danger that loomed only mere inches from her as she sat down next to him.

Aww~
You thought Mama Sora was gonna end off the chapter without a cliffhanger~?
WELL MAMA SORA LIKES TO WATCH YOU GUYS SUFFER FOR MORE ANGSTY-ANGST—
All kidding aside, this seemed like a good place to end off. :P

Oh! And I would like to mention that Rufus was an adopt that I got from Smiling_Insanity . I just wanted to make sure you saw that he's being out to some good use here! :3

This is Rufus. He be an edgy floof. XD
But this brings me to another thing (this is more regular GB! based than anything). Sans has begun to see Rufus as being a bad omen, since any time he runs into the fluffy bastard, something bad happens involving his gaster blaster thing. So he's irrationally scared of toy demons. XD

Anyway! That's all for now! Until the next chapter, stay determined!
-Sora