Animal Crossing: The Nightmare of Aika Chapter 2: The Invaders, an animal crossing fanfic

Animal Crossing New Leaf:

THE NIGHTMARE OF AIKA

(Summary: Things go from bad to worse when Mel, Cecelia, Kenshin, and Taki are forced to cross the boundary into Aika Village.)

CHAPTER 2. The Invaders

We listened to the muted yelling of commands by one of the larger animals coordinating the others to move the debris.

Only minutes had passed, but for me, knowing that a place of such horror existed beyond the safe walls of the train, it felt like an hour.

After a few moments, the orders from outside stopped.

"Do you think they're done already?" Cecelia asked.

I looked out the window. I could make out the end of one last fallen tree blocking our path far up ahead, but barely. However, there were no animals trying to remove it. "If they are, they're out of sight."

Kenshin made his way to the car door and peeked out the window, but the sheets of rain made it difficult to distinguish any clear figures beyond the railway fence separating the tracks from the town. He grabbed the door handle to slide it open.

"Wait, what are you doing? Y-you can't go out there. They specifically said all Humans need to stay inside the train. Last I checked, we're Humans."

He understood the source of my fear, though he couldn't feel it himself. "They could use an extra pair of hands to move the debris. The faster we get out of here, the faster we can get to Hana valley to get the antidote."

"Relax, Mel," Taki shielded his own fear behind a supporting smile. As mayor, he was accustomed to reassuring his townsfolk when they were in distress about any situation. "We're not inside the town limits. We're on the tracks. As long as we stay on the tracks, we'll be fine. This should be safe."

"But what if it's not fine? What if it's not safe?" Cecelia leaned over a seat back. "What if whatever knocked the trees over is still out there waiting to get anyone that leaves this train?"

"The trees probably got knocked over by the storm." Kenshin slid the door open. A push of rain drove their daggers into the car.

"Kenshin," I locked eyes with him, pleading. "Please, don't go out there."

He gave me a reassuring, small smile. "Don't worry. We'll be fine."

"Yeah, you girls should stay here if you're that scared." Taki said. He followed Kenshin outside and closed the door.

"Taki, wait!" Cecelia reached out. "Stupid boys!" She cursed.

"Wha-" My eyes narrowed. "What do you mean 'you girls?'" I balled up my fist. "I don't care if he is a mayor. The second he gets back, I'm gonna punch him in the—"

A loud thud against the door to the forward car cut me off. I yelped in surprise. Cecelia and I jumped when another followed, then another, and another. Then it suddenly went quiet-far too quiet. It made the hairs on my skin prickle. I glanced to the smaller mayor.

The little girl's fingers trembled as she clutched her doll closer to her chest. Her eyes widened, and in a flash of lightning, showed how pale her complexion had become. I slowly inched my gaze back to the door, my heart pounding. Yet all that met us was the back of the empty car.

I exhaled. "It was probably just an animal trying to get inside, or...or just the wind," I tried to disarm the tense vibe.

"Does the wind have legs?" she whimpered. "I don't like wind with legs."

Legs? I stared at the window. Something reached up slowly into view like a snake about to strike. One thick, hairy, long black insect leg ticked against the glass. Three more from different sources joined it.

My throat locked the scream inside in my chest. My eyes flicked to the slim indentation in the door that allowed someone to easily slide it open or closed. As far as I could tell, it didn't have a lock.

The door rattled against the frame as the thing—or things—behind it attempted to push it open.

I stepped back with Cecelia. I couldn't find the strength to look away, not even for an escape.

The rattling stopped.

I held my breath in the suffocating stillness.

The door slowly scraped open. Two of the legs protrude through.

Those legs connected to a tarantula four times the size of its normal counterpart.

And I. Hate. Spiders.

"Go away!" Cecelia shouted. She dropped her doll. She hastily dug through the pockets of her dress for the small collection of leaves kept there, and thrust her hand out with a gold leaf between her fingers. In a thought, it retook its original form of a golden slingshot. She placed three small bearings into the sling, pulled it back, and let it fly.

One of them hit their mark, while the other two ricocheted around the car.

I ducked, covering my head. One of the stray bearings struck the protruding legs once more. The giant tarantula screeched and recoiled back.

"Nice shot," I praised, impressed. We almost got hit, but I could let this one go.

"Thanks," she smiled proudly. "I never miss."

I risked a smile.

The door suddenly ripped open against the frame. Out poured not one, but three giant, hairy, angry tarantulas.

I screamed.

Cecelia fired off another round of bearings, nailing the lead spider in the eyes. The other two flanked it, scrambling over the seats directly for us.

I ran for the other door and thrust it open. "Come on!" I yelled. We dashed through, and I slammed the door closed behind us. The spiders rammed into it with a loud 'thud.' We leaped to the soaked ground.

The moment my feet touched the gravel, I snared her hand and pulled her toward the front of the train. We had to get to Kenshin and Taki, and help move all that debris so we could get out of this wretched place.

"Taki!" I yelled out as soon as I caught sight of his rain-soaked silhouette. His jacket fluttered in the wind. Only instead of working, he was running right for me. We hadn't reached the front of the train yet, but the air was still void of any commands.

"Mel! Get back in the car!" Fear laced his voice. "Get away from here, now!"

"No way!" Cecelia shook her head. "There's spiders in there! We were almost eaten alive!"

"Where's Kenshin?" I demanded, betraying worry for my friend. If he'd met up with those mutant arachnids, he'd be alone, even if he did have his ax to defend himself.

"He was right behind me," Taki said.

The three of us stared toward the engine. Thunder crashed overhead to a judgmental flash of lightning. We were soaked through to the skin from the rain, but by this point, we didn't care.

Seconds later, another human form emerged in a full run from the rainy fog. A golden ax gripped in his right hand.

I exhaled in relief. Kenshin. Thank goodness he was all right.

"The animals," Kenshin panted, "they're all..."

Cecelia covered her mouth beneath wide, shocked green eyes. "Don't say they're—"

"Unconscious," Taki swallowed to wet his dry throat and free up his voice. It sounded like it barely worked. "They...They—"

"Everyone was down when we got there. The tarantulas got to them." Kenshin saved his floundering new friend. His expression showed concern, caution, and determination, but lacked fear.

The rest of us envied him.

I noticed Taki's fist clenched and visibly shaking. What he'd seen disturbed him, and I knew that the images burned into his mind would haunt his dreams. He would never be able to forget it.

"We're not done here, guys!" Cecelia pointed to our right.

The staccato clicking of multiple pairs of legs against the rocks edging the tracks closed in. They bombarded us from both directions. I stepped back as four more climbed across the top of the train car.

We were surrounded.

Kenshin lifted the ax in defense.

Cecelia pushed up the sleeves of her dress and held her slingshot ready. "There's too many of them!" She switched her aim repeatedly, trying to find the right point to unleash another barrage of bearings. No matter which direction she fired, others would swarm in while she reloaded. "I know I never miss, but this is testing even my skills."

"We can't fight them off," Taki grabbed my hand. "We need to run."

"This way," Kenshin ran for the fence directly behind us. He wrapped his arm around Cecelia and lifted her up before she could fire off another round into the spider horde.

She flailed her arms. "No! Not there!" she shrieked. "Don't cross the boundary! I don't wanna go in there!"

"We have no choice!" Kenshin argued. He set her down on the other side.

"You idiot, do you realize what you've done?!"

Taki and I followed. I placed my hands on the old wooden fence...The same fence that separated the nightmares of Aika Village from the safety zone of the tracks. I recalled what Cecelia had said earlier on the train: No one has ever come back from Aika. If you're brought there, you're there forever.

We were over that fence and running through the muddy forest before I could argue. I felt my heart sink to my stomach. We were trapped in Aika Village at night in a thunderstorm. Lightning illuminated the ghostly skeletons of the trees reaching their gnarled fingers toward the clouds, and we were running right into its heart.

I dug through the pocket of my jeans and pulled out a silver leaf. At a thought of 'change,' the leaf transformed and my hand clenched around the handle of a shovel.

"A shovel?" Cecelia balked after Kenshin set her down to run. "What about your ax or your slingshot?!"

"I suck at the slingshot, and my ax has three more uses before it breaks, ok?!" I snapped in defense. "I'm just the landscape architect!"

"Less talk, more run." Taki ordered.

We reached a small clearing filled with dead plants. The petrichor of earth and decay leached up from the ground.

Kenshin releafed his ax, stuck it back into his pocket, and removed another silver leaf. He held it out and focused easily on the mental command to transform it into a bug net. He skid to a halt and waited until the closest tarantula was in range, then when it leaped to strike, he swept the net across the air, snaring his prey. Once within the net, he reached in and at the same moment, summoned the 'leafing' command. He withdrew a harmless black leaf. Confused, he looked it over. "Black?" He shrugged and tucked it into his pocket. The color could be fret over later. "That's weird."

Taki joined him. "Boy, it's a good thing you can't feel fear. We need to stall for time. Any ideas?"

"Do you have anything substantial?" Kenshin asked.

"I...Yeah!" He withdrew a green leaf from his jacket pocket and flicked it at the attackers. The second it left his fingers, it 'poofed' into its material form and slammed down on a cluster of tarantulas, crushing them instantly. Their legs twitched from beneath it.

"A refrigerator?" My jaw hit the floor. "Where did you get that?"

"I shook it out of a tree before I left home and never had the chance to sell it."

"Huh," Kenshin mused. "Mind if I come back for that?"

"Sure," Taki shrugged. "It's all yours."

Cecelia frowned. "I want a refrigerator. All I ever get are elephant slides."

"Forget the fridge!" I yelled. "If we don't get away from them, we won't have to worry about breathing, let alone storage space!"

The four of us continued running into the Village with a swarm of tarantulas filling the black woods behind us. We passed a small house with darkened windows, chipped paint, and a busted-in door. We couldn't hide there. The horde would be on us in seconds. This was one hell of a horrid experience for my first time dealing with one of the two most feared insects in the world. I prayed I wouldn't run into the second one.

I heard the squish of my companions' shoes pounding into the mud and dead grass along with mine. Lightning scared the darkness away to a stark blue reality, illuminating more spiders frothing in from the sides. What did we do to deserve this wrath? Where are they all coming from?! I wanted to scream.

"Up ahead!" Kenshin announced.

Golden lights winked into existence through the rain. Finally! We ran up the short steps to the porch, and hauled open the front door. Kenshin locked it behind us. A moment later, we heard the 'thump' of the tarantulas ramming their bodies against it to break it down. The door held. We held our breaths as the insistent pounding lessened and finally ceased.

The silence that consumed us made my ears ring. Only the howling of the wind and percussion of the thunderstorm broke it.

Kenshin peeked through the front window curtain. "They're gone."

I held onto the security of my shovel anyway. "Why were they chasing us?"

"We ran," Taki sat on a black-cushioned seat. "They hate that."

"If we hadn't run, we'd be fine?" Cecelia pocketed her slingshot.

Kenshin shook his head. "These are bigger, and they produce black leaves. That's abnormal." He held out his catch as proof. "I don't think we'd simply pass out it we got bit. And apparently standing still doesn't matter to them."

"Why did you catch one?" I shrunk away from him like he held a bottle of poison.

"Because it's different. If these are the tarantulas that keep attacking other towns, then Blathers can analyze it."

"Good idea," Taki said. "We can share his findings with the other towns."

Cecelia backed up. "Ok, but...where are we?" The floorboards creaked beneath her light steps. She turned around to see where we'd taken shelter. "Who's house is this?"

We moved further into the main living room of the house. It seemed normal enough –standard furniture, unimpressive light fixtures, sparse wall decor... It seemed like any other home you'd find in any other town. Three doorways lead to a room in the back, and to the left and right. Soft light bled out from the one to the left, but the entrance to the back room was blocked by a wide dresser.

Taki stood and removed the leaf representing his golden slingshot. It regained its form as he loaded it with a small bead from his other pocket. "We should check this place out –make sure we're alone."

We each removed our favored tools –me ready to wield my shovel like a baseball bat at the first unfamiliar thing that moved, Kenshin with his ax, and Cecelia and Taki with their slingshots.

"Do you have the full gold collection?" Cecelia tried to lighten the mood. Her heart still hadn't settled down. "L-lucky."

"Eh. I've been at this a while," Taki said. He recognized what the little girl attempted to do, and perpetuated her desire to calm the group. "I lost my gold fishing rod once."

"How?" She asked, sticking close to him as we walked through the house.

"I caught a shark, but it pulled it out of my hands."

"You didn't go in after it?"

"Uh...I, ...no. No, I didn't." He was glad he could hide his embarrassment behind their current search. "I had to ask Pascal to get it for me. Took three of my scallops to trade for it back."

"Yeah," I agreed, wanting to calm down as much as the others. "That sounds like Pascal, all right. He visits Leafside, too?"

"Occasionally. I was lucky he showed up that day," he chuckled.

"Were you afraid of the sharks?" Cecelia wheedled.

Taki avoided eye contact. "Sure. Let's go with that."

Kenshin clicked on the light to the room on the right. We stood in the doorway, staring at the single item within: a black grand piano. Sheet music littered the floor like dead leaves. The black notes inked onto the pages filled the room with their own silent tune.

My fingers tightened around my shovel handle. I had one just like this in my own living room—made by the same manufacturer, too. I'd bought it at the T.I.Y because of a feeling of nostalgia I couldn't place. When I releafed it at home and sat in front of the clean black and white keys, somehow I already knew how to play it. I was up the whole night simply playing songs that took form in my mind. It was painful, amazing, confusing, and fulfilling.

"No one's in here," I uttered.

"Let's check the rest of the house," Kenshin said. He and the other two left.

I moved up to the piano, careful not to tread on any of the sheet music, and lifted the lid over the keys.

They shone clean in the single light of the room, bright, inviting, begging to be played. I wondered how clear the strike of the hammer against the strings would be. My hand moved by another force until it hovered over 'F' above middle 'C.' I felt compelled to play it. I had to. It was my duty, my training, my way of life. Play it. Play it now. Play it perfectly. Let the sound fill this room and ring out in stale, robotic technique. Play it...

My finger lowered centimeters over the key...

Play it...

"Mel?"

My hand froze at Kenshin's voice. I let my hand fall to my side and rubbed my head. It felt fuzzy, like I'd zoned into a daydream for too long. "Yeah. Coming." What was I doing? "That was weird."

I closed the lid and left to join the others in the opposite side room. Thankfully, it, too, was clear of any living beings –animal or otherwise.

However, what caught Cecelia's attention was a doll sitting on a table next to a birthday cake. It looked like this room was recently decorated for a party that never happened.

She gasped happily and hurried to scoop up the doll and hug it close, like finding an old friend. It looked exactly like the one she'd been forced to abandon on the train. A rush of cold air fluttered the curtains on the single window, making her shiver and hug the doll closer.

"That belongs to someone else, Cecelia. You can't just take it." I said.

"It wants to be with me," she mumbled. "I can't leave it here alone." Her voice held a slight weakened squeak. "It's cold here."

I rested my hand on her shoulder in sympathy. Her skin felt chilled. The poor girl must still be scared, and without her own toy, needed the security. "Just leave it here when we go back, ok?"

She nodded and walked out of the room with me. The light was gone from her eyes. I felt like she nodded simply to placate me.

"Doesn't look like anyone's home." Kenshin leafed his ax and put it back in his pocket. "I think we're safe for now. We can stay here until the storm clears up, and then head back to the train."

I dropped wearily into a chair and pulled at my wet clothes. "I wish I hadn't cleaned out my pockets before we left. I was hoping to do some shopping on our trip for stuff we never see in Seaside." I looked up, finally taking in the make of the furniture more closely. "Wait a sec... This is a human's house." Animal furniture was always a different size to fit the animal—small for squirrels, ducks, hamsters, cats, ect, and larger for bears, wolves, ect. It was fun to find a place to sit when visiting the smaller villagers. I always felt like a giant in their homes, and far too small in the others.

Cecelia turned on the television in the corner and clicked the remote through a few channels. "Nothing but static. It's not hooked up to grid at all. And there's no computer." She pouted. "Nuts."

"This whole town might be off the grid," Kenshin guessed.

Taki lifted a wood-framed photo of a family –a mother, a father, and a little girl dressed like the doll cradled protectively in Cecelia's arms. He brushed dust from the glass with his thumb. The background was of the town tree. It was still small, and the area around them looked warm and inviting with colorful roses and perfect peach trees. "A family? What kind of family would want to live here?"

"The kind who thought they had a chance."

All four of us felt our hearts leap into our throats at the new gruff voice cutting in. We weren't alone.

The intimidating figure of a tall animal filled the open doorway. A key dangled from his claws. The lone light in the living room glint in the yellow spheres of his predator eyes to the bass crash of thunder beating the house.

The white wolf stared us down. "I don't recognize you." He stepped in, dripping water onto the floor beneath his bare paws. His motions easily betrayed his full confidence in himself and his strength. His lip curled up to show the threat of his incisors. "Who the hell are you, and why are you in my house?" He held his glare as his arm slowly bent at the hock of the elbow to the stiffening of his claws. "You have five seconds to answer, Humans. Five...four...three...two..."

TBC