The 'Reset'
Mae knew this was bad...
Even for a nine year old who didn't really understand what was happening to her precious town, she knew this was bad. Very bad.
Alarm bells had started ringing at first when a tree had gone missing, she'd put it down to that someone had cut it down. But then rocks had disappeared, even houses were vanishing.
She'd begun to panic.
Pelly had told her that there was nothing to worry about, that Beach was just experiencing a 'reset' whatever that was, and everything would be fine after it had finished. Mae didn't exactly understand what this 'reset' was, she had never heard the word before, but it couldn't mean anything good. Her friends seemed just as confused as her, and scared. With houses just disappearing, their owners vanishing, with just a message scrawled on a piece of paper as a good-bye.
The wind howled outside Mae's window, the glass rattled and the curtains blew around. She grabbed the duvet up closer to her head, silently promising not to be scared. Mae wasn't what anyone would call brave, she was kind, and a fiercely loyal friend yes, but definitely not brave. She screwed her eyes up, willing tears not to spill, she knew she should be brave. After all, she had been living on her own, here in Beach, since she was six and a half.
It was then that she heard the scream.
It made her jump, her eyes flew open. Mae knew that it wasn't the wind, and no matter how hard she wished, she knew it wasn't the wind. She didn't really think about what she was doing, for if she had, she would have surely stayed. Mae jumped out of bed and practically flew down the stairs and out of the door. She didn't bother to put a coat on, or any shoes. Mae ran around the village in her night dress, the heavy rain pelting down on her bare skin, drenching her hair, trying to find who had screamed.
Suddenly there was a crash, and another scream. She looked around wildly, tears streaming down her face, mixing with the rain. The crash followed by the scream sounded again, she ran through the trees, or what was left of them. Mae almost screamed herself at the sight before her.
'GOOSE!' She yelled, the rain muffled her yell, but she didn't give up. She went closer to the house, as close as she dared to go and screamed, hoping he would hear her; 'GOOOOOSSEEEE!'
'MAAE?!' She heard the voice of her friend yelling back,
'GOOSE GET OUT OF THERE!'
'I CAN'T IT'S-' But what he was going to say had been cut off, as another crash came from the machine at the side of his house, and Goose screamed again. This seemed to Mae, now she was close, that it was half out of terror and half in pain.
'JUST GET OUT!' Goose's yell lingered in the air. 'TAKE EVERYONE WITH YOU!'
'I won't leave you.' Mae said, she couldn't even tell if she was crying anymore. The rain blurred her vision, but she picked up a piece of brickwork that had fallen, and hurled it at the window. It shattered.
She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, she was terrified. Mae climbed in the window and looked hurriedly around the dark house. More crashes, and ear piercing screams came from the bed. She saw Goose, his wings curled around his body, the feathery whiteness had red trickled throughout it.
Mae felt faint, she couldn't stand the sight of blood, but this was for her friend. For their lives. She grabbed him up as best as she could, as he was the same height as her, and she carried him to the window. She threw him out of it, and climbed out herself.
'Goose...' She said softly, picking him up again, trying to ignore the pool of blood surrounding him.
Something had to be done. NOW.
Mae ran back to her house, and placed him down on the sofa. She knew Booker and Copper wouldn't let her out no matter how much she pleaded, if she didn't have a destination with an open gate.
There was only one thing for it.
Mae raced to Lucy's house, her best friend and tried to wake her. Lucy wouldn't wake. In her efforts to wake her, she accidentally knocked an empty glass off of Lucy's bed side table. In a last attempt, she carefully lifted the pig, and stumbled back to her house.
There was no time to waste.
Mae opened her wardrobe and got out a bucket, and some bandages. She quickly wrapped them around Goose's injured wings and chest, and then left the house. Luckily she lived next to a waterfall, she filled the bucket and went back inside.
Lucy was then awakened by Mae tipping the water on her head.
'Mae? What's going on?'
'No time to explain, take care of Goose, I'll be back soon.'
Lucy turned to Goose and her eyes widened, she quickly started tending to his un-bandaged wounds and didn't even see her best friend leave. Mae returned soon with Chevre, and woke her up too with the cold water, and left. Three times she returned again, with Walker, Pinky, and Lucky.
Each of them had had empty glasses somewhere near their bed, all had had milk in.
'I'll explain once we're out of here.'
'We're leaving?' Chevre asked,
'Why are we leaving, the peaches are amazing here!' Walker said, Lucky quickly agreed.
'It's about the reset.' Mae said, she was getting agitated, the wasn't much time and they must all escape before sunrise or they would be caught.
Mae had a sudden thought, she ran upstairs and saw her full glass of milk, usually she drank it all, but tonight she hadn't...
'They're trying to kill us.' Mae simply stated once she got back downstairs.
'Kill us?'
'Yes!' Goose agreed. 'They were knocking my house down with me in it!'
'Surely there's a mistake!' Pinky exclaimed.
'No. Wonder why you all didn't hear Goose's screaming but I did? Why I couldn't wake you?'
They remained silent.
'A glass of milk appears on our tables every night, they know we drink it, every single night. And the one day I don't I hear Goose's screaming and I just about save him...'
They stared at her, trying to piece together what was going on.
'They've been drugging us. I'm not entirely sure what that is exactly, but they've been making us sleep without waking or hearing with that milk. Incidentally, you all drank your milk.'
Lucy looked close to tears.
'There are only seven of us left, instead of eleven. Tomorrow there would have been six. You know, they all moved out. Friga, Opal, Joey, Butch, all with no notice at all, and their houses were gone. And because we were sleeping so soundly, we didn't hear their houses being demolished with them inside. They're all dead. Just like Goose would have been by tomorrow.'
Lucky opened his mouth to say something, but immediately closed it again.
'Who would have been next? Lucy? Lucky? Walker? Pinky? Chevre?'
They shuddered slightly.
'Which is why we have to get out of here, tonight.'
'But how?' Walker asked, 'Copper and Booker won't let us out.'
'I have a plan.' She said and opened her wardrobe, she took out some arm bands, rubber rings, floats, and finally an orange blob. Or what looked like an orange blob.
'Now normally I'd ask Goose to blow this up, considering he's the strongest, but with the state he's in... We'll have to take turns. It's quite big, we'll have to fit seven of us inside, along with some blankets, food and water.'
They nodded, realising what she meant by this.
'Lucky and Walker, think you can manage to take this down to the beach and blow it up?'
They agreed quickly, glad to have some responsibility.
'Pinky, you're in charge of Goose. Chevre, go and pick seven full baskets of fruit. And Lucy, you help me get the blankets and a few other things.'
They all went outside, except for Lucy and Mae. Mae opened her wardrobe and rummaged around, she finally took out a music box.
'It may be small.' She said, opening the drawer on the front. 'But it can hold a lot.' She handed it to Lucy who opened the little drawer again and Mae took out some coats.
'I don't know how long this will take,' she said, but it'll be cold.' Mae put the seven coats inside, taking up seven of the sixty slots. She then ran upstairs and got the duvet and pillow from her bed, she put them inside and then Lucy ran around the other animals houses grabbing up their pillows and duvets. Mae had a spare set for Goose, she only put in four of the pillows, they could make do. That was another eleven slots gone.
She sighed, and took out some bandages and put them in too. Another ten gone, for the bandages would need to be changed frequently for the wounds to heal. She also put in three medicine, so he'd heal quicker.
Chevre came back with the peach baskets, Mae put them in, another seven gone. She sent Chevre out with some bottles to the waterfall to fill them up. She soon returned, and Mae put them in the little music box.
Lastly Mae put seven pairs of arm bands, seven rubber rings, and a float of some sort and then took the box from Lucy and closed it.
'That's everything we'll need in there.'
Lastly, she picked up a piece of paper, and a pen. She scribbled down on it;
'Pelly, Phyllis, Tortimer, Nook, Mabel, Sable, Copper, Booker, Brewster, Blathers, and Celeste.
I am so sorry, but we cannot save you... Pelly has told you I'm sure about this 'reset' and that its nothing to worry about, and maybe for you it isn't. None of you have died. I saved Goose, and I figured out how it works, but we've left. You wanted us gone anyway. I don't know if you'll die or not, but this was getting serious. We'll miss you...
Mae, Lucy, Chevre, Pinky, Goose, Lucky, Walker xo'
She left it on her table, she didn't know if they would see it, but she hoped that they would.
The three of them went down to the beach, after Mae had taken a pair of ores out of her wardrobe, and found the other four sitting in the blown up boat. Walker and Lucky looked very pleased with themselves.
'We blew that up all by ourselves!' Lucky said proudly.
'Well done you too!' Mae praised and she, Lucy, and Chevre got into the boat.
'Where's the other stuff?' Goose asked, he seemed to be a little brighter, even if he was still in pain.
Mae held up the music box. Goose, Pinky, Walker and Lucky stared at it blankly.
'Sixty things, all in here!' Mae said proudly.
'Wow...' Walker said, 'I hope you packed food.'
'I did, but not to scoff.' Mae said sharply, eyeing Lucky as well as Walker.
'Yes Mae.' They said in unison.
'I'd say it's about three in the morning,' Mae said, judging by the sort of light trying to force its way through. 'The sun will be up in an hour or two, we want to be well on our way by then.'
Mae took the ores in her hands and began to row, and row, and row.
{xxx}
She rowed well into the morning, and past the border that defined Beach from anywhere else- that was it, they were officially out of Beach. The others were still fast asleep by the time she grew tired; the events of the night had kept her adrenalin pumping and so she had been far from tired the whole time.
She had been brave, really brave, and without her Goose would be dead. Mae smiled to herself, maybe she was brave, even just a little.
She kept rowing even though her arms had grown tired and were aching, she promised herself to keep rowing until someone else woke.
Finally, Walker woke up, he looked around, wondering where he was, and then his mouth formed a perfect 'O' shape as realisation dawned upon him. The sunlight streamed through the clouds, but it was far from hot.
Mae stopped rowing. 'Morning sleepy-head.' She grinned.
'How long have you been up?' He asked.
'All night.' Mae replied.
'You rowed all night?!' Walker asked in amazement.
Mae nodded, she handed him the ores. 'You want to try?' She asked.
'Alright!' Walker replied, eagerly taking them from her. He started to row, but they ended up just going in circles.
'Here.' Mae said, taking them back. 'Like this.' He studied her carefully, before taking the ores back and rowing properly.
'I'm doing it!' He said excitedly.
'Well done!'
Mae pulled out her duvet, a few of the others were sharing pillows, and she had leant hers to Lucy as there wasn't room for more. She snuggled down, resting her head on Walkers pillow, it was still warm from when he had been sleeping not ten minutes before.
As she slowly drifted off to sleep, one thought played in her mind, over and over again;
We're free.
A/N: Not sure if I should continue this or not... What d'you guys think? I haven't written anything in a while and this was just me getting back into the swing of things!
This is set in Wild World, and for the purpose of the story the fruit is in baskets, also Beach is the name of my first WW town that I accidentally reset when I was about 8/9 so yeah.
Please review! Please! Even if its a bad review, I still love to hear feedback, it's what motivates me to write!
-Rainicorn xo
(Not from Adventure Time!)
Ps. The npc's are alright as when the town is reset they are still there, but the villagers, player ect aren't!