Chapter 8-Karin and Maria

The next morning, Wally is gently shaken awake. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he's surprised to see Karin kneeling next to him and Maria standing behind her. Both are holding large platters piled high with food. They place the platters next to Flash and without hesitation, he quickly gobbles everything down.

"Got any more?" asks Flash licking the plate.

"Sure do." Karin moves to revile five more plates. Flash inhales the food. There is also a picture of water that Flash gulps down in seconds. Karin smiles as she watches the Flash eat like a ravenous wolf in fast forward.

Finishing all the food, Flash feels just a little bit better than he had the night before and his head is a little clearer. He sits up as both girls smile at him.

"Thanks;" he says smacking his lips, "but won't you two get in trouble for feeding me?"

Karin shakes her head, "Oh I don't care about Eric. I never listen to him anyway. I'm really sorry about him Flash. He wants to believe that he's the ultimate survivor and that the rest of us are helpless kittens who couldn't possibly survive without him. He really wasn't so bad when he first got here. We were so grateful to finally have someone who could actually teach how to survive while having some human dignity again. We were practically mere animals before he got here."

Karin takes a pause before continuing, "As time went by and we became more self-sufficient, however, the worse he became."

Flash is confused by this; "That makes no sense at all. Doesn't he want everybody to take care of themselves? Why is he so mean and heartless?"

Karin kind of shrugs her shoulders, "Pride and ego I guess. And perhaps bitterness. He wants everybody to go begging to him for help, especially me and Maria." Karin looks at Maria with a little smile, "but I'll tell you, I think Maria has develop even greater survival skills then Eric"

"I don't know," replies Maria rather bashfully. She then looks at Flash and smiles shyly, "Hello Mr. Flash. I'm sorry I got you into so much trouble."

Flash is shocked, "Huh? Why are 'you' apologizing? I should be apologizing to you. I'm the one who ate all the meat and got you into trouble."

"If it wasn't for me," replies Maria, "You wouldn't have given me any meat in the first place."

"Now Maria," replies Flash, "That wasn't your fault. I'm sorry for getting 'you' into trouble. Now please don't blame yourself. It was me. So don't worry."

"But you didn't know..."

"That's alright Maria," interrupts Karin, "I'm sure Mr. Flash would love some of your 'you know what.' So why don't you go check on that."

"Yes ma'am," Maria gets up, "I'm sorry again Mr. Flash that you went hungry."

Maria jogs out of the room. Flash is very amused, and worried, at Maria's attitude.

"Man. It wasn't her fault. Way does she act like that?"

"Oh I blame Eric for it," answers Karin, "All he does is strike guilt into her. He always tells her that she's selfish, but she's the least selfish person here might I say."

Flash agrees, "I agree. But how did a sweet little girl like her end up in a place like this? What could Chunk possibly have against a little girl? And where are her parents?"

Karin sighs, "It was an accident actually. She skipped in front of Chunk's black hole. Of course her father ran after her. They got stuck in Chunk's gravity and ended up here. Her Dad died a few years ago, not long after Eric got here. Eric promised to care for her and keep her alive. I've never heard anything about her mother or anyone else."

Flash rolls his eyes, "Well if you ask me, it seems like Eric's trying to starve her to death rather than keep her alive."

"I'm not so sure," replies Karin, "He doesn't make her skip meals to often. He's just trying to get her to grow-up and face reality."

"What reality?" wonders Flash, "Doesn't she have enough reality to face as it is? Why not let her be a kid? Childhood's short enough as it is."

Flash starts to fill woozy again and lays back down. "I know I shouldn't be asking this, but is there any more food? Better yet, I probably should be asking how we get Chunk to take us home and none of us will starve to death anymore."

"Maria is checking on food." says Karin, "As for Chunk taking us home, you can forget that. You can't talk to Chunk. He'll absorb you out of existence."

"Aw come on," says Flash, "Has anyone even tried? It seemed to me that Chunk feels very alone, not any different from the villains I deal with at home. He couldn't be that difficult to talk too. I'll bet all he needs is a friend."

Karin shakes her head, "I don't think so. Look Flash, I think you're a very brave individual, but I don't believe we're ever going to leave this place."

Flash pulls his cover back over him, "I'm not sure about that. I know people who have been in worst situations then this and have gotten out. Besides, we've got some of the best minds in the Justice League. I'm sure Batman and J'onn can find a way to bring us home, if we can't find one ourselves, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try."

Karin sieges, "I admire your spirit, but please. There is something I want to tell you."

"What?"

"Women are a premilim here, and I shudder to think of what happened to some off the others."

Flash is confused, "What are you talking about?"

"We've talked about this a number of times, our council has," answers Karin, "Sooner or later we'll be forced to pair off. Eric has his eyes on me, and there was talk yesterday that since you're really not that much older than Maria, she could be paired with you when she comes of age."

Flash can't believe what he's hearing, "Huh? What a minute! What do you mean? Whoever said I would..."

Karin puts her figure against Flash's lips, "Shh. I don't want to go with Eric. I'd rather be with you."

Flash is still confused, but smitten, "Really? Well I don't think you have to worry about that."

"I do," Karin leans closer to Flash, "I can give you something; I can give you a lot."

Karin gently kisses Flash on the lips. Confused yet smitten, Wally closes his eyes like out of instinct and returns Karin's kiss. Then the door suddenly opens.

"EXCUSE ME!"

There is Eric in the doorway staring furiously at them. Flash thinks he sees fumes coming out of Eric's ears.

Instead of yelling at them, Eric storms out.

"Great," gasp Flash, "Just great."

"It's none of his business. I told him we were just friends."

Flash shakes a bit, "I don't think he's very happy right now. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to, um...Did you just kiss me?"

"Believe me Flash, he's just using me. He uses everybody." Karin stands up, "And don't tell me you're not interested. I've got some chores to do."

Karin leaves the room; Wally stares awkwardly at her as she walks away. He places his fingers on his lips. He's still a bit confused by what just happened. He didn't see it coming. Sure, he loves to look at women and dreams of them flocking to him like a magnetic and such. He usually tries to avoid women who are already taken, even though Karin says she's not taken, Wally doesn't think that Eric thinks so. If Eric was mad about the 40 lbs. of meat, he'd hate to think how mad Eric will be about this.

Still, the kiss did feel, rather good. And Karin's right, Wally is interested.

Wally feels his head and realizes that he's not wearing his mask.

A few minutes later, Maria returns with a pitcher with the top on.

"Hello Mr. Flash," she greets. She sounds more cheerful then she did just ten minutes ago. She kneels next to Flash, who has put his masks back on.

"Oh, I see you put your mask back on. I love your red hair."

"Oh really?" Flash sounds a little embarrassed, "Well thanks, even if you weren't supposed to see that. No offense, but I like to protect my secret identity."

"Like a secret service agent?" asks Maria.

Flash is amused by her example, "Yea, something like that."

"I love detective stories, especially Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie's Miss Maple"

Flash grinds his teeth at hearing Sherlock Holmes. He remembers the torture of having learn about him in middle school. He never read any of the books he was assigned to read, just rented a couple boring movies on the famous detective so he could turn in a book report on him, which he got an F on.

Wally doesn't have a clue who "Agatha Christie Maple" is and he doesn't care.

Maria offers the pitcher, "Thought you might like this."

Flash accepts the pitcher. He's a bit disappointed that it's not food, but he needs more water as well. Flash can hardly hold what shouldn't be so heavy pitcher and quickly puts it down.

"Open it," urges Maria. Flash removes the top of the pitcher and can't believe his eyes. There in with the water looks like the top of candy bar wrappers. Flash takes one out and it's a Milky Way Bar! Flash can't believe it! He's face beams with joy.

"Thank you!" Flash quickly opens the rapper. The candy bar is all melted and gooey, but Flash doesn't care. He devours the bar then another. He eats about 10 in all. He's body desperately needs the sugar.

Maria herself actually hates chocolate and candy bars, but keeps the stuff around for others.

"You got anymore?" asks Flash licking the chocolate off his fingers.

"In my room," answers Maria.

Flash springs up, he wobbles a bit but adrenaline soon takes over, "Lead the way."

Maria leads Flash to her room. The room is bright and colorful, unlike the rest of the place. The walls are full of colorful drawings and other art work. Maria is a very talented drawer and seems to draw a lot of pictures with people or animals in them, like it was a scene from a story or something. The room is full of books, art supplies, and a few toys, which are amazingly organized. Maria also happens to have a couple of old couch pillows. Flash takes a seat on one.

Maria then grabs a book and hands it to Flash. From the cover, it appears to be an adult fiction book. Flash gives her a wired look.

"Ah, thanks Maria, but I thought you were going to give me more candy."

"Open the book," says Maria. Flash opens the book and is quite surprised indeed. A square has been cut into the pages as if to make it a box, and in this square are jelly beans and skittles. Flash is speechless and gobbles them up.

Maria hands Flash another book which has some hard candy.

"WOW!" exclaims Flash as he sucks on the candy, "Where did you find all this?"

"In cars, lunch boxes, and other things Chunk brings here. He dumps a lot of stuff in the dump. That's where I find all my books and things too."

"Really?" asks Flash, "Why haven't I seen food like this here?"

"It's very dangerous to go to the dump," answers Maria, "That's where the punks hang out."

"Then why do you go there?" asks Flash.

"My curiosity gets the best of me," answers Maria, "I only go right as the sun is going down. That's when the punks are in camp eating dinner and before the nocturnal animals come out."

"The nocturnal animals?" asks Flash a little bewildered, "Does that mean night time animal?"

"Yes."

"Do you share this food with anyone else in the camp?"

"Oh yes," answers Maria, "Just about everyone, as long as Eric and a couple other guys don't find out. They'd just hoard for themselves, and Eric says it's not proper survival technique, but I think he's just jealous he's never found any. I only eat the candy myself in an emergency, like when Eric deprives me of food."

So that's how she does it, Flash thinks to himself, "Do you use all your books like this?"

"No," says Maria with a little giggles, "Just the ones I don't really care, like horror novels and adult romance. I just love to read! Dr. Parker taught me."

"Hey," exclaims Flash, "We haven't properly met, have we? I'm Flash, the fastest man alive, also known as the Scarlet Speedster and Central City's proud hero." Flash smiles as he says that, "I'm also a member of the Justice League. We're a group of super heroes who joined together to protect the earth. I'm sure you've heard of Superman!"

Maria shakes her head. Flash tells Maria all about the Justice League and its members, all while sucking on candy. Maria listens to every word with interest.

"Really neat," she says, "Do you know Jay Garrick?"

"Who?" ask Flash, confused.

"He's the Flash from World War II."

Flash shakes his head, "No, I've never heard of another Flash besides me. Where did you hear about him?"

Maria gets what looks like a comic book and an old newspaper clipping attached to it. The article speaks of the legend of a heroic speedster who helped troops during the Second World War.

"No," says Flash, "Can't say I have. That really would be something though, if he's real. I just hope he wasn't faster than me."

Just then, the door opens and Dr. Parker comes in.

"Hello Dr. Parker," says both Flash and Maria.

"Hello there," greets Parker, "I'm glad to see you two have finally met."

"Yea I'm glad," agrees Flash, "She's awesome."

"Listen, several of us are going hunting. Why don't you come with us Flash? We could show you around a little and Maria could show you some survival skills. You up to it?"

Flash still feels very weak, but he does feel up to looking for more food.

"Sure am Doc, I mean Doctor."

"Alright then," says Parker, "Let's go."

Note: The kissing scene appears in "Flash: The Savage Speedster" issue #10 by Baron, Collins, and Mahlstedt. March, 1988. Some of the original dialogue I used, some I changed slightly. Of course, the scenes with Maria are original.

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