A/N: Woop! Finally, chapter 7! Sorry for the wait everyone :(

Enjoy!

CHAPTER 7:

The truck filled with the five sleeping Tree Friends was lazily parked by the edge of the road, just before the city ahead of it. Flippy had became too tired to drive any longer, and didn't want to risk swerving off the road and crashing. They were left with no other choice; Shifty, Giggles and Cub had already fallen asleep hours before Flippy stopped and parked up to do the same, and Sniffles had never driven a vehicle in his life - so that was out of the question.

The calming tranquility of the truck was as quiet as the night itself, and the several different snores meant that they were all well away in their slumber...but the being in the boot of the truck wasn't going to come out from hiding just yet. His ear twitched with anticipation as the sleepy snores and heavy breathing grew louder with every passing minute, meaning that it was now or never to make a move. Idly curling up in such a small and enclosed space for so long was a real pain in the limbs.

So with the steadiest of motions, the invading guest carefully lifted the busted lid of the boot before snaking his way out of it, creeping his way around the side of the truck. Any sudden movements will lead to noises, and noises will likely stir the animals in their sleep; he didn't want that.

As he cautiously peeked into the window, he first made sure that they were all definitely sleeping soundly. Then he scanned around the inside of the truck, hoping a certain sparkling glint would catch his eyes in the process. The being silently chuckled to himself when his eyes finally rested on the glittering gem on the lap of the anteater.

Previous instructed words trailed back to his thoughts, "Take the gem, its holder, and bring whatever else will be of use. Nothing more." and just after he'd successfully removed the blue anteater from the truck, along with the important crystal, and flung him over his shoulder, the pink chipmunk caught his eye. A toothy smirk spread across his dirt-stained face as he whispered to himself, "The boss said bring whatever will be of use...looks like I've found a new toy."

...~x~X~x~...

The following morning brought a cold chill in the air along with it; the sun was shrouded behind a cloudy, grey sky. The cold wasn't a pleasant thing to wake up to, but when Flaky finally felt the morning hours creeping, she slowly cracked open her eyes. Lammy was still peacefully sleeping as she cuddled up against Flaky, and it brought a smile to the porcupine's face; she'd love to sleep some more, but when a shrill screech from Petunia sounded from the front of the bus, Flaky knew that there was no more sleep for her.

Thankfully, the scream didn't affect Lammy; she'd always been a heavy sleeper. So Flaky slowly and carefully slid out of the lamb's sluggish grip before rushing to Petunia. There was no doubting the possibility that Evil had startled the skunkette, and when Petunia saw Flaky had woken up she ran to her, cowering behind the porcupine as if she was a shield.

"FLAKY WHAT THE HELL IS HE DOING HERE?!" Petunia screeched, pointing with a shaking hand at the golden-eyed bear. Evil had an unimpressed frown on his face, and his eyes looked tired, "I haven't done a thing, before you ask," the bear mumbled, stepping towards Flaky, "She woke me up calling out Flippy's name and poking my shoulder. Boy was she surprised to see me."

Petunia's face scrunched up, still shaken from fear, "Then where's Flippy? We don't want you here!" Flaky turned to shoot a silencing look at the worrisome skunk, shaking her head, "He isn't going to hurt us," she turned to Evil with a smile, "right, Evil?"

Evil shrugged his shoulders, "Eh...I don't really plan on it," he just wanted to sleep more than anything. Thus he plopped himself down onto one of the seats, and kicked his legs up onto the metal framing of the seat before him, "but I might if the next person decides to disturb me again."

Shrugging off his threat, Flaky turned back to Petunia and sighed out of sheer hopelessness; the skunkette was practically burning holes through Flaky with her vicious glare. She managed to read Petunia's lips as she silently mouthed the words 'what the hell', but sadly had nothing worthy of a response that the skunk was likely looking for. So Flaky decided to jump to a different topic to avoid Petunia's unnerved shock, "I think we should start looking around for food."

Petunia instantly shook her head, and raised her hands to Flaky, "Nope. That means going out there, and I'm not going to do that. You heard those funny noises back at the hotel, and you - Flaky, the cowardly porcupine - want to go out on your own?"

For Petunia to openly call Flaky a coward to her face could only mean that her patience had vanished, because not even the hurtful look on Flaky's face made her think twice about what she'd said. Petunia meant it. During the skunkette's outburst, Evil had found a slight interest in their fall out, and peeled an eye open to watch them.

Flaky knew she was fearful and driven by her paranoia in many situations, but to call her a coward was just an insult that she didn't deserve; all Flaky wants to do is find food for her hungry daughter. So the moment a flare of anger flicked inside of her, Flaky's saddened eyes hardened as she glared at Petunia, "Fine! I will go out there on my own, because I'm not going to let Lammy starve," she then turned her back on the surprised skunk to make her way to the door of the bus, taking on look back at Petunia before storming out, "so you can be the one to stay here like a coward!"

Flaky must have been blinded by anger inside the bus and its safety, because the moment she stepped one foot outside of it and gazed around the eerily tranquil and trashed streets, all of her despised fears came full swing to hit her hard in the face - opening her eyes for the realisation that she was definitely going to regret opening her mouth.

...~x~X~x~...

A cold and unpleasant sensation splashing harshly against the fur on his face made Splendid spring up from his sleep. A loud sniggering noise was heard from Lifty, and if the hero didn't know any better, Handy's laughter chimed along with the raccoon's. So after shaking off and spitting out the dirty water, Splendid set his cruel gaze on both of them, "You think that's funny?!"

Lifty sarcastically shrugged and looked away from the squirrel, "Oops! I must'a missed the campfire...ah well!" Handy was soon taken aback by shame when Spendid's eyes set on him, "Why are you of all people laughing along with this clown?!" he yelled at him, his hand pointing angrily at a smirking Lifty.

Handy frowned at Splendid, "Well there wasn't really any other option, you wouldn't wake up to anything else we'd tried." the hero's face dropped; he didn't even want to begin to wonder what else they'd 'tried'.

As the two males walked off to parade in their jokes elsewhere, Splendid remained sat on the ground as he narrowly stared into the singed pile of firewood. Ever since the loss of his powers, Splendid feels as though the rest of the Tree Friends are gradually going against his lacking of abilities. Besides, Lifty wouldn't have dared to act so stupid around him if he still had his powers, so there was no doubt the raccoon is going to take him for granted. Who knows? The others may too, eventually.

Splendid stretched out his limbs and tiredly yawned, his eyes scanning the small clearance they'd previously settled for the night. Handy and Lifty were over by a rotten bench as they sat and laughed over god-knows-what. Mime and Nutty, however, were nowhere to be seen as Splendid curiously looked around. So he stood and decided to check up on Toothy; he was still fast asleep by the looks of it.

"Hey, Tooth," the blue male started, plopping himself down besides the resting beaver, "how's your leg?"

With little response from Toothy, Splendid grew wary, and closely watched to see if the male was actually breathing, "Toothy?" he reached over to shake at his shoulders, but failing to rouse a peep out of him caused a surge of panic to get to him, "Guys, get over here now!"

Splendid's stressed call easily caught both Lifty's and Handy's ears, and they turned to face him from the bench, "What do you want?" Lifty half-heartedly called back. Splendid impatiently frowned and went back to hopefully searching for a pulse in Toothy's neck "Just get your asses over here!"

Eventually they did, and it didn't take much else but Splendid's shaken expression over Toothy's limp body for them to think twice about smark-remarking.

"I think..." Splendid started, swallowing back his cowardice, "I-I think Toothy's dead."

The two couldn't find words to say; they could only gawk in distress, unsure of what to think. The typical rumination that would cross their mind was that he'd return to life by the next early hours of the morning. But Splendid was the only to confidently disregard that factor, knowing that their curse only worked on them in Happy Tree Town - they were far from there.

"He isn't going to come back to life, guys...I...I don't even know what to do." Splendid brooded, staring into the closed eyes of the lifeless beaver.

The state of his leg was a dead give away, and he'd clearly slipped away in his sleep due to a profuse amount of bloodless during the day. If only they'd considered treating his leg, this wouldn't have happened, and it pained them to realise this as the three of them silently sat in their grief on the filthy bench. Poor Toothy didn't even speak a word of his pain, but it was obviously getting increasingly worse over night, and no walking stick was going to heal it.

Toothy's upper body was now covered using Splendid's jacket, and the hero was now anxiously pacing back and forth in front of Lifty and Handy - they were too fazed to care about his pacing. Until Mime and Nutty return from wherever they'd wandered off to, all three of them were going to shrivel in a startled silence.

Approximately ten minutes away, the two said males were calmly strolling in and out of the lifeless shops inside a small mall. They each carried a sack of supplies they'd gathered over their shoulders, happy and satisfied to find more than what they'd hoped for. Nutty was certainly happy, having found himself a few sugary treats to quench his desperate sweet tooth. On the other hand, Mime has acknowledged that fact that pretending to have the necessary supplements in their dire straights wasn't so wise; so the deer took one step down from his acts of illusions and did something that no one has ever witnessed.

Nutty had been a big hinderance, of course, but that was just one of his typical traits. Nutty didn't, however, expect to hear a remark from the agitated deer after he'd suffocated him with a hyperactive flow of speech.

"You certainly 'ave a talent for over-talking, don't you, squirrel?" the Mime sneered, a french accent coating each word. Nutty's jaw almost hit the floor, "You ju-...YOU JUST-YOUJUSTSPOKE!"

Mime brushed off the green male's obnoxious surprise, and rolled his eyes, "Oui oui, mon ami fou, now please, let us get a move on," he firmly stated, adjusting the sack over his shoulder, "Toothy is in need of medical attention." with that final comment, Mime proceeded towards the exit, leaving behind an absent-minded Nutty to try and interpret Mime's never-before-heard voice. Shortly, he noticed the deer halfway down the main hall of the mall, "Hey, wait up will ya?! I wanna hear your voice again!"

Moments later, they found their way back to their camping spot, but Mime and Nutty were greeted with the silence of the other three males, still sat on the bench. Mime remained silent, but Nutty was open to question their emotionless faces, "You guys seen a ghost or something?"

For the first time, Lifty didn't utter a word or a remark. Handy continued to stare into the dirty concrete path before him. To avoid leaving the two Tree Friends confused, Splendid rubbed his hands over his damp face and sighed, standing up to walk over to where Toothy was lay on the ground. Curious and unsettles by the odd atmosphere, both Nutty and Mime closely followed behind the squirrel.

The sack containing the first-aid gear intended for Toothy was sluggishly dropped from Mime's hands. Toothy's...dead? But he'd gotten everything to help him! Nutty watched Mime's face as it twisted into a pained look of devastation. If only he'd found the supplies earlier.

No. It was Nutty's fault. That squirrel was more bothered about satisfying his sugary addiction than quickly finding things to repair Toothy's leg. That thought blew a fuse inside of the deer, and he turned to Nutty with his beetroot face and bawled fists.

"This is all your fault!" he barked, pointing senselessly at the green male who then raised his hands in defence, "M-My fault?! No way!"

Mime retorted, "Yes way! You spent so long looking around that mall for sweets, and now our friend is dead!"

"Shut up! I haven't had a spec of sugar since we woke up in this place, do you know what that does to me?!" Nutty hopelessly fought back, doing anything to relieve himself of the heavy guilt piling on top of him.

From the bench, Lifty and Handy were more focused on the strange fact that the oh-so silent Mime had just spoke- no- shouted in the face of Nutty. Besides his shared surprise, Splendid had to break up their rising row, and stood between them, "Will both of you just stop?! Toothy's death is nobody's fault...he died in his sleep..."

On that note Mime and Nutty backed off, but continued to glare at one another in spite of the situation. The grieving deer stared down at Toothy, utterly gutted that he was gone. He then looked at his leg; its state was sickening to view. Knowing there was nothing that anyone could have done sooner, Mime subsided from pinning the blame on Nutty - no matter how greatly he narked him with his candy-crazed obsession.

After a while, they'd gathered around and came to a decision that they were going to bury him. Leaving him to rot in place when they venture off somewhere else seemed so morally wrong to do. So after Splendid arrived back from his short trip to the abandoned mall in search of a shovel, Toothy was eventually buried deep. Splendid sacrificed his jacket, and kept it over Toothy's body. Then just as everyone expected, Nutty opened his mouth to debate over the silence of the group.

"Wait...won't he just wake up good as new tomorrow? Y'know, like we used to in Happy Tree Town?" nobody answered, but their obvious expressions answered for them. Nutty shrugged and looked away from them, "I was only wondering..."

Lifty became quick to change the subject, wanting to move on from the depression of the situation, "We should carry on searchin' around. Stickin' around in the same place isn't gonna help us find more people."

Despite the raccoon's rude abruptness, the others agreed; acknowledging their gargling tummies made standing idle uncomfortable, so searching for food - other than Nutty's sweets, which wouldn't really be considered food to the rest - seemed like an ideal thing to do for the most part. So as they said their silent goodbyes to Toothy, now below the surface, they gathered up their belongings and took off - settling on making the mall their first designated place to find food.

...~x~X~x~...

Having walked for a long period of time, the sight of the bus when looking back was nowhere to be found. Flaky continued to walk, though, despite her paranoia increasing by the minute. To fend off her fears, she kept Lammy strong in her thoughts, telling herself that she needs to find and bring back food no matter what. Further down the road she was currently walking on, Flaky could see a large sign above the road, and it read 'Mall Parking Lot - Open 24 Hours'. This could be her best bet so far - a mall. Surely there is food within it, or even the possibility of other people.

Flaky sighed through her nose and rested her hand on her hip; there was no turning back now. Yet she anxiously glanced around, somewhat hesitant to proceed towards the mall. The car park had several cars, presumably abandoned, scattered around the car park. As she slowly trekked through the car park, Flaky curiously peeked into each car she passed. Not sure of what to expect, however, as each one was void of any signs of life. So to waste no more time, Flaky quickly made her way into the mall.

Weirdly enough, the faint sound of music playing from within the mall was heard upon entering, and it actually calmed Flaky to hear something other than the deafening silence in this dreary city.

"This place is huge," the porcupine murmured to herself, her eyes scoping around the large opening, "I don't even know where to start..."

That didn't stop her from carrying on further into the mall though, because Flaky didn't want to spend too long in this place by herself.
Shards of glass and other crumbled debris crackled and crunched under her brown laced-up ankle boots, and she noticed that several windows of shops were unusually smashed to bits. Whatever the events were that took place in this city are yet to be discovered, but everything about this situation on a whole still remains to mess with Flaky's head.

Eventually, the porcupine had conveniently strolled into the right place, and came across the exact things she was looking for; food and water. Tinned beans, and thankfully, bottles of fruit-flavoured that weren't toppled over and spilt everywhere. It wasn't the best meal, but home cooked meals are going to be hard to come by - that's for sure. So with a little satisfactory, Flaky gathered together all of her findings into a stray shopping bag she'd found on the floor, hung it over her shoulder and immediately turned back in her tracks. She has what she came for, now Flaky just wants to leave.

The soothing music was still playing faintly around the mall. That was something to help ease her growing nerves. The feeling of solitude in a place full of unsettling possibilities was really starting to pluck at her paranoia, and Flaky didn't know how much more of looking over shoulder she can take. It only seemed to strengthen her want to be back in the bus with the others. Lammy would likely be awake by now; hungry, and wondering where her foster mother had gone.

As she made it back to the stairs leading to the ground floor, Flaky was certain she'd heard a noise, and froze in place out of unnerved curiosity. Slowly, she turned her head to look around, presuming that the quiet noise had sounded from somewhere behind. After a few seconds, Flaky shrugged off the thought, and whispered reassuringly in an attempt to calm herself, "You're hearing things. Just keep walking."

Now on the ground floor, the entrance to the mall was right around the corner...at least, Flaky assumed it was.

Oh no. This isn't where she'd came from at all.

Flaky felt her worrisome mind begin to panic at the very thought that she'd gotten herself lost in this place. She hopelessly cursed to herself, shameful for being so forgetful and clumsy. She'd walked around to far, and clearly long enough to forget where the mall's main hall was.

This was enough for the girl to hit a major panic wall. Then then with an agitated sigh, Flaky turned in her tracks to hunt down her exit.

Flaky had spent several minutes walking down every corridor on the ground floor in a hurried pace, desperate to leave once and for all. Her stomach-turning paranoia was increasing by the minute, and her heart was now beating at a startled speed. What could possibly make things even worse for the porcupine?

A painfully familiar wailing noise.

It echoed down the lifeless, outstretched corridors to send unpleasant chills down her spine. As the memorable images of the dead and mutated creature came flooding back to her, Flaky squeezed her eyes shut, silently praying for luck and hope on her side. In an impulse, Flaky was quick to scurry into the nearest store to hide away from whatever was lurking out there. It was a home furnishing shop, filled with plenty of furniture to hide in or under. To the left was the bedroom section, and Flaky was quick to dart to the closest wardrobe in sight, swing open the doors, and shut herself inside its darkness.

The sickening aroma of fresh wood was empowering from inside the wardrobe, leaving Flaky to clench her hand over her mouth and nose. That, and because she needed to muffle her shivering noises of fear before they can escape; possibly alerting the horrid creature that she was close.

The odd grunts and growls that emitted the creature were gradually getting louder, along with its footsteps. It sounded as though it was prowling on all fours, but Flaky was too petrified to be sure, or even care at this moment, she just wanted the thing to shift away completely.

Its raspy breathing was clear at ear's reach. It was dangerously close now. Any sudden movements or noises and she was going to need to do more than pray. But everything about this situation was becoming more than too much for Flaky to handle, and she couldn't do anything to silence her nerve-wracked cries, with or without her muffling hands.

But it was too late now. And as the two wooden doors were practically pried off their hinges, Flaky was now face to face with a new fear.

A/N: Uh-ohhh...what's Flaky gonna do now? We'll have to find out next time!

I apologise if this was a little shorter than usual. I was just dying to get this finished for you, and just so happened to end it at a cliffhanger XD

And yes, Mime has used his voice! Yay! Will he keep speaking frequently? Hmm...maybe ;3

Also, some of you may be wondering where the rest of the Tree Friends are. Don't worry! I haven't forgotten about them! I just have a few ideas stashed up my sleeve for a few unseen characters so far. You shall meet them soooon~!

Anyways, I can't thank you all enough for your reviews so far! You all deserve endless bear hugs from...bears! c:

~Loli x