What Dangers Lurk

Couples: Doug/Bobby, Brenda/OC

Warning: This fic will include in later chapters: death, violence, paranoia, and revenge. This chapter is pretty much explaining how they managed to get out of the desert and what troubles they ran into trying to escaped.

The pov in this chapter is Doug except if there is Italics and then it is in a secret pov.


It has really been a bad weekend. We were all so hurt. We must have walked for hours before we saw the gas station. It had been a hot day, the sun beating down on us, beating down on Katherine who we tried to keep as covered as possible. For all of us knew how easily babies can be affected by the gruesome heat.

Beast was wagging his tail as we saw the gas station that we first passed. Bobby was currently holding Katherine as Brenda was walking ahead of me and I was walking slowly, making them slow down as well. My legs where cramping and it was hard for me to catch my breath, but at least I saved Katherine. Who ever that woman was who saved Katherine and me from that mutant I thank dearly. If it was not for her we would both be died. We could have all died, Bobby, Brenda, and us.

Brenda pounded on the gas station door asking the gas station attendant to let us in but no one came out, no one at all. Katherine was crying now and Bobby was trying to calm her down as much as possible, I wobbled over to the door pounding on it mimicking Brenda. "Come on, I know you are in there!" I screamed before crying in pain looking at my hand which was still bleeding from losing two fingers.

Brenda turned to me looking at my hand in distress. I wanted to tell her not to worry that I will be fine but the look on her face froze me. She thinks that at any second I'm just going to fall over and die which at times even I thought I was just going to fall over and die. But I will never admit it to her who had been so sickly raped in the trailer before watching my wife die, Am I mad at her for not trying to save Lynn? No, how can I blame someone who had been though something as horrible as rape. She was in no state to think clearly about trying to help Lynn…

I turn my direction to Bobby and sighed. I was mad at him at first for the whole thing. I mean he saw his own dog cut up, he knew they were something off about the place but he did not warn us at all. I'm still trying to figure that one out; he could have saved them all, Lynn, and Ethel. Big Bob probably would have died no matter what the boy did so I was not blaming him for that death. But he could have saved Brenda from being raped, could have saved Katherine from being kidnapped, could have saved my fingers from so cruelly being chopped off. Still as easy as it would be to blame him I could not fully blame him. He was only a child still who had hit his head really bad. He was probably suffering from a concussion.

He was rude to me when I first met him; he was also such a teenager thinking, as all teenagers do, that he was king of the world. But now I miss that arrogant little attitude of his. Now he was so quiet, his eyes full of guilt and terror, and Brenda her eyes full of disbelief and shame. Would these kids ever be fine again? I sighed remembering Ethel's words "take care of my children?" I lied to her about Lynn saying she was sleeping, she knew though, she knew that she was died. I saw her pain in her eyes, one daughter raped the other died her own husband gruesomely killed. Still I must keep her promise; I will make sure her children survive. I walk around the gas station yelling for Brenda and Bobby to stay together, if they see anything run as fast as they could and hide, hide as well as they could. I took the dog, we where a good team together, he saved my neck back in the house, he was the reason I was still alive. Therefore he was like a lucky charm; as long as he was beside me I will be safe. I circle the gas station staring at the fence beside it, where the desert laid. I knew something was up about this place. I read the sign, No trespassing. United States Government, department of energy. Jesus, this was a government society, what happened to all the people? What happened here that turned those people into such mutants.

No one was here; maybe the mutants killed him as well. Where we stuck out here by ourselves? I return to Bobby and Brenda who looked scared out of their minds. They ran to me again hugging me for the tenth time today, Brenda telling me to never leave them again. I sighed again, their hugs where really hurting me but I knew they hugged me to try to feel some sort of safety. They worried so much about me, every time I leave only for a second they suspect I had died. I worried about them as well but still they worried about me and that worried me. They did not need to worry about me; they have themselves to worry about.

A car was coming shaking us of our hug Brenda and me flagging the car down begging them to stop. I knew that was a lot to except of a car to do, stop for four people, one of them seriously full of blood. If I was in the car I would have thought the four people where killers or something and would have kept on driving. I was surprised when they stopped, a nice elderly couple who smiled at us until she saw me.

"Oh god, what happened?" She asked us no one wanting to respond, to even think about what had happened to us. I wondered if she would have believed us if we told her the truth, somehow I doubted that she would.

"We got into a car accident about a mile and a half left of here." I responded as Bobby and Brenda stared on straight looking into the desert with large eyes.

"Oh, my dear," the old woman said, "Are you guys the only ones involved in the car accident? Or are there others?" Such an odd question to just throw out, old people they are always so funny.

That question stung my heart as I remembered Lynn laying in her own blood, her face frozen in time in horror. Ethel getting shot near her chest alive enough to whisper those dreaded words to me. Long enough so I could lie and say that Lynn was still alive. Big Bob being burned to death and Bobby cried and wanted to get revenge and Brenda was being raped, and Katherine…it was too much to think about, I did not want to remember. A short sob escaped both Brenda and Bobby and I put my arms around them, hugging them again trying to give them the feeling of safety. I knew it would not work but still I tried.

"No, we are the only ones." I said sounding fake and harsh and too emotional.

"Do you need a ride?" They asked us, I looked at them in shock. If we did not need a fucking ride why in the hell would we flag them down? "Yes, a ride would be nice." Was what I chose to say instead of cussing at them.

"Well then mister, where to?" The old man said. Where the fuck do they expect us to say. Take us to Disneyland. Whee. These old people are two very dumb people.

"Please, we need to the hospital." I snapped at them too full of pain and too hot to tolerate their weird attitude.

"Hey, don't get mad at us mister, I was not the one who got his family into a car accident was I, dufus." The old guy screamed, "Maybe I should just leave you guys out here, huh?" Please do, make it easy on all of us.

"No, please! We really need to get to a hospital." I pleaded to them. They looked at each other for a minute before finally the old woman said, "come on in them." Damn!

"Now the fastest hospital is in the last town which could be about forty-five minutes from here." The old guy said as he did a u-turn in the gas station and drove away from the part of the desert, the desert where the mutants once laid. The mutants which I hoped had all been killed, but even as we drove away from the desert I stared from the back window at the desert, Katherine in my lap, waiting to see any form of the mutants. See you soon.

The hospital was really busy when the old couple dropped us off, a nurse immediately separated Brenda and I from Bobby who was left in the waiting area, the nurses only worried about Brenda, Katherine, and me. I looked back at Bobby sitting in the waiting room, beast lying next to Bobby's chair. Bobby just sat there staring out in space not saying a word to the nurse who was trying to talk to him. It worried me; the bobby I knew would never act like he is acting like now, still not speaking, not a word to anybody. Leaving the boy alone in a waiting area where the women at the front desk were not paying attention to anyone, how foolish. At the same time Brenda was yelling at the nurse who was taking her into a room, begging them to let her go, to let her stay with me. Katherine was still in my arms, I would not let the doctors separate her from me.

I was taken into a room, stripped of my clothes and being stuck wearing a ridiculous short hospital grown before being told to lie down on the bed, and then the nurse tells me that the doctor will be shortly. The only thing I wanted to tell the doctor was to hurry the fuck up. To get this over with so I could go home. I was glad that the nurse let Katherine stay in the room with me. She was asleep right now, her little chest moving up and down with every heartbeat. It made me think about Lynn and how beautiful she was and how intelligent she was and how much she loved her daughter. Our daughter, so beautiful and alive, I don't know what I would have done if she died.

I heard a door open as the doctor walked in, he was old, probably around sixty years old and had the look of kindness in his face that you don't always see in too many people these days. I felt like I could trust him, I felt safe. He came in reading a chart before saying in a loud voice, "So I heard you got into a car accident?"

Yes, how about the others, Brenda and Bobby? Are they okay?" I immediately asked.

"Brenda is still being examined as for the boy he is still in the waiting room, we will have the nurse do a check x-ray test but other then that the boy seems okay. We are more worried about Brenda and yourself." The doctor told me as he re-read a chart. I frowned, Brenda does not look any bit worse then Bobby does, so why pay attention to Brenda and not Bobby?

"Now, we should probably get some X-rays done to check for any broken bones. Oh my god, what happened to your hand?" The doctor asked me making me look at my three-finger hand.

"It happened during the car accident, I was switching the radio station when I hit a large rock and the front car was smashed and here I am, with two fingers missing." I said in complete panic knowing that what I said was really stupid but it was the best I could come up with at the moment.

"Let me see!" The doctor ordered taking my hand into his hand as he expected my hand. "The fingers where removed very cleanly. It is almost like the fingers had been cut off by something sharp."

Panic gripped me hard, oh god, what do I say to that? "It was cut by the radio; I guess it was sharp enough." I said closing my eyes begging him to believe me.

"Okay if that is what you say I will believe you. Okay let's go and get the x-ray done." The doctor said as he pulled a wheel chair up to the bed and helped me into the chair. I sigh as a nurse came into the room and picked up Katherine and I froze. "Don't take her, please let me take my baby with me." Both the nurse and the doctor gave me a strange look.

"I'm just going to take her to the doctor's lounge. Don't worry Mr. Carter she will be safe there, we will have a local doctor watch her until the x-ray is all done. Once the x-ray is done and we make sure that you have no internal injuries we will give your baby back to you" The doctor says smiling at me.

"You promise." I asked them sincerely.

"Yes, we both promise." The doctor says as he started to wheel me out, the nurse with my baby right behind us. We passed though a couple of hallways, passed the waiting room, Bobby still sitting there as still as stone not responding to anyone around him.

I looked at him, feeling really sad, feeling really hopeless at seeing him so traumatized. "Hey, can you give my baby to Bobby?" I asked the nurse sill staring at the silent boy.

"No, the baby will go into the doctor's lounge." The doctor says. I started to get suspicious; I mean why they would want my baby to go to the doctor's lounge so badly, "are you going to steal my baby?" I asked before I could stop myself.

"No, not at all, I promise you your baby will be safe and you will be getting her back. Okay?" The doctor said to me rolling me into the x-ray machine. They had me lay down on the bed telling me strictly to be still, that the x-rays should only take a couple of minutes. I did sit still though the x-rays, and then I was rolled to another room and had a cat-scan to make sure that nothing had happened to my head. Then I had to lie still as a nurse washed me from all the blood I had collected, my heart crying as I saw the amount of blood being washed away from my body.

I was actually surprised that after all the blood was washed away from my body I was not as hurt as I thought I was. Yes I still had the cuts from the tire-thorns, and I had all sort of cuts and bruises but I was not that bad off. The nurse looked at the cuts from the tire-thorns but did not say anything thankfully.

After I was clean they gave me some scrubs which I was thankful for as they looked at all the x-rays and the cat-scans.

"Well, we looked at the x-rays and you have a broken rib which needs to be wrapped and you have a sprained arm which needs a cast, and you need a couple of stitches on some of your deeper cuts. But other then that you seem pretty good, no internal bleeding, and no damage of any of your organs." The doctor said reading off the chart.

"How long will it take?" I asked him sincerely.

"About half a day." The doctor replied. I sighed putting my head in my hands. Half a day, Jesus. All I want to do is go home and fall to sleep.

Half a day later I was wrapped, switched, and I was ready to leave. A nurse came into my room carrying my little sweetie, Katherine who screamed and screamed until she saw me and she suddenly started smiling holding out her little arms toward me. I immediately took her in my arms, smelling her little hair. God, I love her so much. What would I do without her? I kissed her little head before smiling at the nurse who smiled back, "thank you." I said to her. The nurse smiled at me before giving Katherine a little rattle, "have a safe trip home." She said to me before leaving the room. I stood up painfully, my leg still hurting like crazy before shaking the doctor's hand and walking out the door.

The door opened and blond hair came into view. Brenda stared at me her head bowed, eyes teary. I frown at her as I took her in my arms. It's okay Brenda, no need to cry.

Someone touched my arm and I excepted it to be Bobby but as I turned around I saw another doctor, this time a girl doctor. "Mr. Carter, I need to speak to you about Brenda." The girl doctor said, I looked back at Brenda handing Katherine over to her as I followed the girl doctor over to her office.

"Okay, Mr. Carter. I don't know how to say this but there is evidence that Brenda has been sexually molested. I don't know who had done it, but I do know you are not part of the family so that makes you a suspect." The doctor said I just looked at her in shock. What in the hell, I would not rape my own sister-in-law.

"I never laid a hand on Brenda." I spit at her rudely. The nerve of this little bitch, stupid nurse how could she think of such a thing.

"How do you know her?" She asked me.

"She is my sister-in-law." I told her calmly.

"Okay, will you agree to take a blood test?" She asked me just as calmly.

"What for?" I asked her getting more fed up, "I told you I did not touch her."

"I know Mr. Carter, but a simple blood test will only prove your innocence. I think you should really agree to take the test."

"Fine."

The test was quick; waiting for the results took forever. I sat in the office waiting for the test results, the doctor glaring at me suspecting me of a crime so horrible that I was shocked that they would even suspect me of it. Finally the test results came back, the stupid doctor taking her sweet ass time opening it. Finally she looked at the results before sighing throwing the paper away looking at me. "You are free to go, you did not rape her." She said sounding sad, as if she wanted me to be the one who raped her.

I left her office rudely, what a waste of time. Brenda was waiting for me near the waiting room. I grabbed Katherine from her making faces at Katherine smiling as she laughed. I looked at Brenda who was slightly smiling at me.

"Seen your brother yet?" I asked her and her small smile faded really quickly.

"No, I have no idea where he is." She replied looking around the waiting room, "oh god he is not in here." She said starting to freak out. "Bobby!" She screamed, "Bobby!"

The nurses started to run over to us looking at her screaming, I run up to the nearest nurse, "have you seen a boy around here?" I asked her.

She nodded her head lightly, "does he boy have brown hair, tall, around sixteen or seventeen?"

"Yes, have you seen him?" I asked her feeling more afraid by the second.

"Yeah, the boy and his father walked out the door." The nurse said.

"What do you mean he walked out of here with his father? His father is dead!" Brenda said with large eyes.

"We thought it was the father, he said he was the boy's father and he was taking him home. He said that staying in the waiting room was not something a fifteen year old should be doing. He said he will bring the boy back as soon as his friend reawakens." The nurse said, as my blood freezes in my blood, oh god, Bobby what have you gotten yourself into? Will maybe it was another boy, right?

Brenda pulls out her purse and looks though the pictures holding a school picture of Bobby in her hand and held it out in front of the nurse. "Is this the boy you saw leaving?" She asked.

"Yes." She said taking the picture from Brenda. "Well the boy was not fifteen years old but sixteen and he was here waiting for us, oh god where is beast?" Brenda asked looking around.

"Beast, you mean Wolf?" The nurse asked Brenda, my heart pounding in my chest.

"Who is Wolf?" Brenda asked me as tears started to build in her eyes.

"The dog that was with the boy, the one who the father told us hated him, it was basically growling at the man the whole time." The nurse said.

"You don't think that was suspicious?" I asked her wanting to slap her across her face.

"No, the father told me that his son had run away a week ago along with his face because he was going to put Wolf to sleep the next day at a Veterinarian Office and the boy was not happy about it. I thought his father was trying to drag his son home and the dog was choosing his sides.

"Again, the boy's father is dead. That couldn't have been his father."

"There was no evidence that the guy was not his father. The boy did not seem frightened or panicked or said anything to us so we just thought it was his father."

Both Brenda and I darted to the door, Katherine still in my arms. The only thought I had was who had Bobby, was it one of the mutants? Of course not, the mutants were dead, weren't they? Could it be a murderer, a rapist? The guy could be anyone, anyone who wants to hurt the boy.

"Bobby!" Both Brenda and I screamed as loud as we could. Why didn't he speak up against the man? I mean he was in the fucking hospital for heaven's sake, all he had to do was yell or cry or punch the guy. Oh god, I should have never left him alone. I should have demanded that he came with me, so I could watch over him. I knew Bobby has not been himself lately. He did not speak at all, in fact the last time I heard him speak was when he saw me coming back with Katherine and the trailer was exploded, and they where standing around looking around, one mutant laying on the ground dead. They hugged me with so much force at that moment. Still why did he not speak out?

He could be dead right now, he could be raped right now, he could have been locked in a room and we will never see him again. I can't let that happen I need to see him again; I need him here with us. Most of the family had already died I could not bear to lose another. "Bobby," I screamed again as loud as I could, "Beast!" I cried suddenly, over and over again I called them, freaking out with each passing second.

Brenda was crying now, sobbing loudly into the night, it was a small town; Bobby has to be here somewhere. Memories flashed before my eyes, walking in the mutant little town, looking for Katherine, how I found her in that bedroom rolling around on the bed. The terrors that I found inside the house were way too much to ignore. I cant go though that again, I barely survived the last time. What if we meet more trouble here?

Over Brenda's crying I heard something else, it was really quiet, but I could hear it. I covered Brenda's mouth with my hand and tried to listen very hard. There, I heard it again, it came from north of us. I start to run toward the sound not really sure what it was but not really caring. All of the sudden Brenda gasped. I turn to her suddenly as she looks more focused then before. "Its beast." She screamed running ahead of me.

I ran as well, hearing the barking getting more defined, louder as we got nearer and nearer. We stopped, the barking as loud as it could get, we look at what was blocking us from the barking, was a house. I frowned looking at the front door, Beast growling and howling angrily. I looked at Brenda who was biting her lips as silent tears ran down her face, "What do you think happened to my brother?" She asked me quietly.

I did not tell her but I had ideas of what could be happening to Bobby and none of them was good. "Brenda, no matter what happens; I want you to know that I will always be there for you." I told her not being able to look into her eyes. Not wanting to see the fear and bitterness and deep sadness in her eyes, not wanting to admit that I'm feeling the same way. I hand Katherine to Brenda kissing her head softy, before turning to the door.

"Hide, okay. Run and hide, hide near." I told her picking up a heavy rock and walking to the front door. The problem is how do I except to open the goddamn door? I don't have a key and I doubt the door is as brittle as the doors and walls in the mutant village. Still, I back up as far as possible and I threw my whole weight into the door which surprisingly swung open, I crashed to the ground.

I was not ready for the sight in front of me even if I expected it. Beast was tried up to an old radiator. He was growling and trying to jump away from the radiator trying to crawl as near to a door as he possibly could. I untied Beast who immediately licked my hand and whimpered. I grabbed his collar as he dragged me to a door near the back of the house. Sweat fall down my face as I panicked when I heard no noise from Bobby, no word at all. I watched as Beast stiffed around the floor growling louder as he pawed the door whimpering up at me.

The message Beast was trying to tell me was clear. Bobby was in the other room, but what condition he was in is a whole other issue. I paused in front of the door afraid to open the door, afraid to find out what happened to him, if he was even still alive. It was all too quiet but not quiet enough for I could hear the bed springs squeaking and I almost cried. Hoping, no praying that it is not what it seems, that the bed that is squeaking has nothing to do with him even though I know it is probably what I first thought. Just leave already. There is nothing you can do. He will belong to us.

Beast whimpered up at me shaking me out of my thoughts. The squeaking stopped and that only made me close my eyes hard. Why didn't he make any noise? Heavy footsteps were getting louder as someone walked to the door and I ducked behind a dusty couch, taking Beast with me. The door was swung open; a middle-aged person walked from the doorway toward the kitchen, Beast growling loudly. The guy laughed at beast's yell before helping himself to some disgusting looking pie. I could not believe that someone could do that to another person and then just eat pie like it was nothing. Bobby was only sixteen soon to be seventeen; he was not even of legal age yet.

I let go of Beast and immediately he ran over that guy and bit him hard, the guy wailing in pain. Yes bastard scream. Scream like they screamed. "You stupid son of a bitch." I screamed as I came at him hitting him over his head with the rock, the guy immediately passing out, out cold. It was a good thing because I would have seriously killed this bastard. I would have ripped him apart. I grabbed Beast away from the passed out bastard, freezing when I saw a shadow near the front door. Another person, maybe one of his friends, fuck. I ran into the kitchen taking one of the guy's butcher knife and headed toward the front door raising it high over my head only to see a scared looking Brenda and my sleeping baby.

"I told you to hide." I yelled at her as she looked at the guy passed out.

"I heard screaming, I thought it might have been you or it might have been Bobby. I had to make sure you were okay." She whispered closing her eyes tightly against the sight of the man.

"Okay stay here." I ordered her and the dog as I ran into the back room, knife in my hand frowning at the sight. I quickly cut though his binds trying not to look at him laying so still in the bed. I threw a coat I found around him as I lifted him up coming into the living room, seeing Brenda grabbing something.

Brenda looked over at me, at him, fresh tears running down her face, into Katherine's hair. "What did you grab?" I asked her looking at the guy still unconscious on the floor. Brenda lifted car keys up in front of her still focusing on her brother's still form.

Brenda grabbed Beast by his collar as we ran outside toward the car. She unlocked the door shakily as Beast started to bark again. I turned my head toward the south and for the second I thought I saw someone standing in the distance before running toward the hills and disappearing. Fear gripped me again but I have the kids and I have the dog and I have my baby. I can't get freaked out now. If I freaked out it will only make Brenda freak out, she does not need the stress right now. None of us did.

"Get in the car!" Brenda screamed to me snapping me out of my daze. I gently put Bobby in the back seat before calling Beast who jumped into the back seat right next to Bobby, whimpering at Bobby. I jumped into the front seat of the car, grabbing my baby and holding her tightly. "Drive safe." I warned her looking at my baby warily. No baby should be in the front seat, but what are the choices?

"We have to get him to a hospital." I told her suddenly as she nodded while focusing on driving.

"Should we go back to the hospital we went to earlier?" She asked me quickly.

"No, let's wait until the next city." I said to her not waiting to ever go back into that hospital again. Something was off about this place. Also I did not want to be blamed for another crime, as selfish as that sounds.

"Oh god." Brenda said as she continued driving none of them wanting to think about what happened to Bobby, what happened to all of them.

"Get in the car!" That little bitch Brenda screamed at Doug who was holding the boy, Bobby who was unconscious. That stupid dog once again barked at me. Oh go ahead and bark you goddamn dog, but you wont be able to save your humans. They belong to me, they are all mine.

I watched as the car drove away, that bitch speeding going as fast as she could trying to get away from this place as soon as possible. I quickly walk over to the house seeing a guy passed out in the kitchen. Someone else is keeping watch on the car but for the rest of us we need to eat. I dragged the guy out of the house the others meeting me outside they smiled as they saw the guy passed out, defenseless. "Easy Prey" is what Lizard use to call these people, passed out cold.

I look at all the others, the same look in our eyes. They killed Lizard, they killed Pluto, they called Goggle, they even killed Jupiter, and they killed Big Mama. We swear we will get revenge no matter who we have to kill to get to them, they will be yours. They will forever belong to us.


Authors note: If this chapter seems a little rushed or a little harsh remember Doug just lived though something really traumatic and he is really hurt so he would have a hard time expressing himself perfectly. I hope this chapter was good. SHORT DESCRIPTION OF NEXT CHAPTER: They return home but had serious problems once they do. Also is Brenda pregnant? The answer is no, sorry. No mutant baby will be coming from her any time soon.