Betty doesn't know how many years it's been. She only knows that she's met living candy, sentient fire, demons, talking wolves, stretchy animals and some seriously weird creations since she began her search for survivors. None of those she's close to know her real name, they only know her as 'Princess'. A few add 'Bubblegum' to the end of it, and Betty doesn't complain or correct them. It's still a little hard to correct a giant, sentient candy cane. (Or maybe she just shrunk.)
All she knows is that she's been led to an island in her search for surviving doctors and scientists. She doesn't really want her candy-esque body cured anymore, but she still wants to find more. She can't be the only scientist left on the planet. She wasn't the only human left, though many of them have gone into hiding.
Betty doesn't ask what the island is called and no one offers a name. But a human, another mutant, one mixed with what looks like fish DNA, leads her to it, saying it's his homeland and he knows there are still scientists on it.
"I know there has to be." He says quietly when she doesn't answer. "What you expecting here, Princess?"
She blinks and looks at him. He's old, weak, thin and frail, but he's a survivor, just like her, and he was kind enough to take her to this island on his boat. "Something more." She states simply.
He nods like he knows what she means. "My ma's probably dead… The bombs hit out here too, even my homeland wasn't spared…"
Betty wants to hit him suddenly. She wants to stroll across the boat and deck him. Because her homeland got hit, and here this man is, acting like he's amazed they hit the island because it was his homeland. Betty reminds herself that it's a small island off the coast of what used to be North America, why would they target such a small island? And the anger vanishes as quickly as her old life did those years ago.
Everywhere has been hit. The sentient candy/fire and the demons – those who've just come to life now call it the Great Mushroom War. Betty, and any other human, doesn't feel like correcting them. The name is very fitting, anyways, for all the mushroom clouds that formed during those times.
The boat ride lasts a month, and the man keeps telling stories. He asks about her life, but Betty doesn't want to share. She doesn't want to forget those times, but remembering those times hurts too much to keep thinking of them. The time before the world fell to pieces and rubble rained for days. She thinks of Simon often, wondering if he lived and if he's safe. She left him after the screaming and nonsense he spouted (that doesn't seem so nonsensical now that she thinks about it) but she still loves him. She misses him, too, desperately. She wants him with her, searching for survivors with her.
She shouldn't have left him.
But it doesn't make much of a difference now.
"How much longer?" She asks.
The man blinks a few times. "Should only be a couple of hours now."
"I'm going to go to sleep." She walks back to her room, her heart pounding at the memory of Simon, and when she sleeps her dreams are full of snow and that crown and mushroom clouds. She wakes up sometime later in a cold sweat (she was surprised to find that she still sweat the first time she woke up like this), terrified and shaking when the boat jerks violently.
The man shouts something that sounds like 'here!' but Betty isn't sure.
"We're here! Wake up, darlin'!" The man is laughing with joy when Betty walks out of her room on the ship, the blanket wrapped tightly around her shoulders. Her dreams felt too vivid, too real, and it takes a few more moments before she can actually walk over to see him and get off the boat.
"Welcome to the Ooo-ess-ah."
"Ooo." She wispers. "USA."
"That's what I said," the man's brow furrows in confusion. After a moment, he shrugs. "The name herdly matters, Princess Bubblegum."
"Don't—" She goes to correct him, the first time since before the drops that she'd tried to correct someone. "That's me." She nods and looks up at the sky and the land stretching before her. "I'm Princess Bubblegum."
