Despite what the title suggests, this story is not actually inspired by the movie in question and has nothing to do with it whatsoever (and Grass Land itself is not involved either). I just thought it was a cool reference, and fits the fact that it is a horror story (and every one of the chapters is named after a movie in that genre).
The Hills Have Eyes (but Only in Grass Land)
Chapter 1-1: The Village
-Village Outskirts-
"Thanks again for the ride guys," Mario tells two Koopa Troopas who are driving him through the backwoods outside of a small village in the mountains.
"No problem," the Koopa who is driving, Dave, answers.
"Personally, we think you'd be crazy to want to come out here," Kurt, the Koopa in the passenger seat, remarks.
"Well, I've never been one to back down," Mario answers, "Plus, Peach was kidnapped and she was last seen in the village." Mario suddenly hears the two-way walkie-talkie in his pocket begin to play static, and he pulls it out and begins to talk into it.
"Hello?" Mario asks, knowing who is on the other end but feeling the need to do this anyway.
"Hello Mario. I hope your trip is going well?" Toadsworth asks on the other end. "Have you found the princess yet?"
"Not yet. I'm just coming into the village. I'll call you when I find her."
Mario turns the device off and puts it back into his pocket. The van they are riding in continues to move further down the old dirt road, kicking up dust and bouncing on the rocks that frequent the path. The van comes to a stop when a two-story house comes into view. Mario steps out of the door nearest him, and walks to the driver's door.
"Are you two coming?" he asks.
"Nah. We'll stay and keep watch. Don't want to get any parking tickets," Dave answers, obviously scared but doing a good job of hiding it. Mario walks up to the front door of the house and knocks, getting no answer. He knocks once again, this time louder, and still no answer. Mario shoves his shoulder into the old door, and manages to knock it clean off its hinges. The door lands on the floor, making a loud KWANG! sound that echoes through not just the house but the surrounding mountains. Mario walks into the next room, where he sees a Koopa Troopa looking to be about the age of 60 hunched over a pot, cooking something.
"Excuse me, sir. Do you kn-" Mario is interrupted as the Koopa lets off a weird primal shriek, then spins around to reveal a truly horrendous sight: parts of the Koopa more closely resemble a Dry Bones than a living Koopa, the flesh that remains has a bizarre purplish tint to it, and the bones that are showing have weird purple moss forming over them. The creature looks like a Dry Bones that has been brought to life a few weeks too quickly.
Speaking of quickly, the creature immediately charges Mario with the speed of a freight train, jumping onto him and leaning over as though it is planning to devour him. As the Koopa-like creature's face gets just inches way from Mario's, the plumber manages to get out his hammer. Using the one hand he has on it, he manages to nail the Koopa with it and then kick the creature off. As the Koopa starts to get back up, Mario takes a swing with the hammer and shatters it much like a standard Dry Bones. Immediately after the creature falls apart, the purple moss begins to move, devouring the bones within seconds before Mario hits it as well, ending the process with the moss being destroyed.
Mario's first reaction is to pull out the walkie-talkie and turn it on. "Toadsworth, this is Mario. I've just-" He suddenly stops, hearing the van outside pull away and speed out of the vicinity.
"Mario, what was that sound?" the old Toad on the other end asks, concerned.
"The van that brought me here pulled away. Not sure why. Anyway, I just encountered some strange Dry Bones."
"Dry Bones? Nasty things. How could something like an animated corpse get much more strange anyway?"
"This still had most of its flesh, and it was covered in a weird purple moss of some sort. After I defeated it, the moss absorbed the remains. I killed the moss as well."
"Odd. Keep on the look out for the Princess, Master Mario. Hopefully the creature you were describing is not related to her disappearance, but somehow I feel as though you may be having some more encounters with them."
Mario hangs up and, almost as if on cue, he hears a shriek similar to what he heard from the creature he has just killed. He looks out the window to see three of the Dry Bones-like creatures, all waiting for him to come out. Mario, seeing no way around the creatures, runs upstairs, where he sees, almost as if calling for him, a door cracked slightly. He looks inside said door and sees there are no lights and he can make out nothing but a pair of purple eyes staring back at him.
"Hey, wanna buy something?" the figure inside asks, his voice sounding like a kid around 10 years old.
"How'd you get in here?"
"Me? I come and go. I saw you coming up the road and I knew you'd be coming here, so I rushed up that ladder outside and waited on ya."
"Ladder? I could use that to escape..."
"Exactly right, but first, are you interested in buying a weapon?"
"What do you have?"
The boy inside the room takes a deep breath before exclaiming quickly, "Super scopes, Gatling Goombas, red Mr. I's, hand cannons, grappling hooks, Master Swords, beam swords, freezing missiles, Katamari, butterfly knives, Pikmin, Poke Balls, Bob-ombs, and propane and propane accessories."
"Alright, give me a super scope."
"Great, that'll be 800 coins." Mario nearly falls over upon hearing this somewhat outrageous amount, but he pays it nonetheless. The boy reaches his arms out of the room long enough to hand Mario the gun and to collect the money, and the plumber happens to notice that while his left arm is a pale white, almost like a ghost, his right arm is much darker and appears to be tanned. His arms are those of a human.
"I'll leave in a bit," the boy tells Mario as the plumber stuffs the Super Scope into a small armory he is carrying with him. "I'll hang out here for now and see if I can't find some more things to sell lying around. By the way... I could sell you a bigger case for your weaponry."
"I'll buy it when I need it then," Mario answers before starting to climb down the ladder.
"Suit yourself," the boy yells to him. Mario pretty much ignores him, instead continuing to climb down. When he gets down a few feet, he sees that the three Koopa-Bones who were standing outside earlier are now directly at the foot of the ladder, looking at him and moaning in what sounds as though it is agony. Mario, rather than continuing to climb down, jumps, landing on the three creatures and causing them all to shatter. A shot from the super scope on each of the mold-things afterwards ends the battle at that.
"What are those things?" Mario asks no one in particular, but gets a reply from the boy nonetheless.
"I've heard some of the normal folks nearby refer to them as Ganadors, whatever those are." Mario begins to walk cautiously toward the village, looking around and carefully making sure no other Ganadors are coming after him. He walks through the thick grass lining the path to the town, eventually reaching a small shack. He then hears some moaning behind him and turns, seeing a Goomba stuck in some type of modified bear trap.
Mario runs over and lets the fungus out. "Thanks," the Goomba tells him. The small monster appears to be hurt a bit, but is able to run off. As he does, he shouts to Mario, "I'll find a way to pay ya back!"
"You're welcome," Mario answers before turning around to face the cabin once more and nearly getting his head taken off with a pickaxe. Mario is luckily able to dodge the weapon swung by the Ganador standing before him, this one looking different from the others in that it has on a Phanto's mask and blue overalls. Mario does two backflips, and the mutant comes running in for a second attempt at a hit only to be shot with the Super Scope. The creature falls to the ground, but then begins to pull itself right back up.
Mario instinctively fires the gun once more, once again sending the Koopa toppling to the ground. Again, the zombie-like Koopa just stands up once more. Mario, instead of firing again, instead runs at the pickaxe wielding maniac and jumps, stomping on his head before running off in the other direction, trying to lure it into following.
This works, and the Koopa begins to limp after him while clutching the pickaxe, the two eventually reach a bridge, on the other side of the bridge stands three more Ganadors. These, unlike the one following behind the plumber, are like the ones seen before. Mario starts to back away, then sees that the masked Ganador is about 20 feet away. Thinking quickly as both sides rush toward him at once, Mario jumps on the heads of the normal Ganadors, landing on the other side of the bridge. He then shoots one of the ropes on the bridge, causing it to fall over and drop all four into the rushing river below.
"This... isn't going to work..." he pants, seeing no Ganadors coming from ahead and obviously none from behind. He walks over to the ledge and looks down, to his shock seeing the pickaxe wielding Ganador still clinging on via the pickaxe being stuck into the wall. The Koopa makes a grab for Mario's ankles, but Mario quickly backs away, breaking into an all-out sprint when he realizes this particular Koopa just will not die.
The red-clothed plumber reaches a large stone door, quickly opening it assuming it is the entryway to the village. Little does he know a certain other figure follows him to the door...
-The Village-
"Hopefully the Koopas here are normal," Mario whispers as he ducks behind a tree right at the entrance of the village. Mario then reaches his head around, looking and seeing that there is a large stone pike in the center of town, a Koopa Troopa laying at the foot of it and not moving. He looks more carefully and sees that the Koopa he is seeing is Dave, one of the Koopas that had helped to bring him here.
Just as Mario is about to sneak into town, he hears a loud grunt behind him and instinctively ducks, causing the pickaxe of the Ganador behind him to miss and wind up stuck in the tree. Mario uses the Super Scope that's still in his hands much like a baseball bat, smacking the Koopa upside the head with it. The Koopa spins around at such a degree that it's neck should break, but instead the mutant retaliates by grabbing him by the throat with both hands and beginning to choke the life out of him. Mario kicks the Ganador in the stomach, doing anything he can to stop what the Koopa is planning, but the mutant doesn't seem to notice the strike at all. In one last-ditch move, Mario takes aim with the Super Scope and shoots the Koopa directly in the face with it, sending him toppling to the ground before shattering. After the usual process of the moss devouring the remains, Mario puts his gun away and digs out the hammer, slamming it down on the moss and killing it as well.
"This... is... too... much..." he pants, exhausted from dealing with the persistent freak. Just as Mario is about to go on, he sees a group of 10 or 11 Ganadors walking toward him at once. Just as Mario thinks he's done for, he hears a loud bell echoing through the town, causing all of the mutants to stop in place.
"La iglesia."
"Es tiempo de orar."
"Debemos ir."
"¿Terminará jamás Martin al Aprendiz? Probablemente no."
"Cackletta llama."
Every individual in sight turns and walks away, heading to a large building in town and entering, the last Ganador to enter locking the door behind him.
"Did that one say 'Cackletta?'" Mario wonders aloud, but dismisses it and begins to walk until he sees another door in town, this one leading into another section of the area. As he is about to open that door, someone on the other side does and approximately 8 Ganadors emerge, walking past him and entering the building as well via a key that one has. The door is locked again afterwards. Mario goes into the door those eight emerged from, and once there immediately withdraws his walkie-talkie.
"Toadsworth? I'm in the village and there are a lot more of those creatures. They all went into some building when a bell went off. I think one mentioned Cackletta."
"Cackletta? Why would she kidnap the princess, or have anything to do with something like this? Mario, keep your eyes open."
"I will." Mario turns the walkie-talkie off, then sees a large cabin in front of him. Crows fly all around the building, the wind blowing slightly and creating an unbelievable amount of tension. The plumber cautiously enters the house, seeing nothing inside except some dusty old furniture. He then sees a typewriter lying on a table, but ignores it. Mario continues on, reaching a room being blocked off by a bookshelf. Seeing no other way to go, he stands to the side and grabs the front and back of the bookcase, shoving it forward and causing it to fall to the ground. He steps over it and through the doorway.
Inside this room he sees a bunch of spiders, two tables, an extensive collection of weapons on the wall, and a bureau, the latter shaking and sounding like there is urgent mumbling going on within. Mario puts away his hammer and gets out the Super Scope once more, opening the piece of furniture and gasping as a bound and gagged Iggy Koopa falls out. Mario pulls the tape off his mouth.
"Iggy? What are you doing here?"
"I never thought I'd be happy to see you!" the Koopa replies before answering his question with, "It's a long story. Just untie me and I'll explain the best I can."
Mario uses the Super Scope to shoot off the tape, then pulls the Koopa off the floor.
"Basically, the person behind what's going on here wanted to hire Ludwig to do some research to find out how to reduce the effects. Ludwig was busy, so King Dad sent me so he could make the money offered anyway."
"So Bowser's behind this?" Mario asks, not surprised.
"No, he didn't and doesn't know what's going on. He was assured the idea was to figure out how to reverse the effects of this, and he wanted in on it not just for the money but also for the idea of having an attitude in case it were to ever strike. The truth though, is-" but the Koopa is cut off when three figures enter the room: two Ganadors and a tall Beanbean man that Mario has not seen before.
"Who is that?" Mario asks.
"He's the guy who oversees the town. Not real important in the grand scheme of things though." Mario, deciding their only option now is to fight, rushes at the leader of the village and is promptly knocked out cold with a powerful right hand. Iggy decides to charge as well, meeting the same fate.
-End of Chapter 1-1-