Do You Remember Me,Charlie Brown? A Peanuts Musical

Chapter 10: The Long Road Ahead

It took a long time,it took a long and grueling car ride along with a painful hike through the woods,but the gang had finally made it to Mrs Hampton's Orphanage as they were now standing right outside the mansion in the parking lot. They were all left in awe of the fact that the parking lot was completely abandoned and that the look of the building was overall very desolate and overrun with plants,but Charlie Brown however was absolutely ecstatic to see Rebecca again as he wasted no time and ran straight towards the front door when he suddenly heard a familiar voice call out to him from what seemed to be the tallest floor aside from the clock tower "Charlie Brown?!"

"Rebecca?!" Charlie Brown called out to her in excitement and surprise as he barged right through the front door and entered the orphanage,he wasn't the least bit bothered by the large amount of dust and dirt that somehow fouled up the air and only cared about Rebecca as he frantically ran up the stairs and exclaimed "Rebecca I'm coming!" when the voice called out his name again. When Charlie Brown finally reached the highest possible floor,he bursted right through the door of where the voice seemed to be coming from,the main office.

"Rebecca I'm-" Charlie Brown ecstatically called out to the voice but suddenly stopped when he saw that the office was completely dormant aside from the sunlight coming in through the window before he finished much more confused "here." Charlie Brown then proceeded to slowly walk around and examine the office as he tried to look for Rebecca and called out to her "Rebecca are you here? It's me Charlie Brown? Rebecca?"

*SLAM!*

Charlie Brown jumped and yiped when he heard that the door to the office suddenly slammed shut and that the window was covered by curtains as he turned around to see that the door was almost imbedded shut. He ran to the door and tried to open it but it seemed to be locked and it wouldn't budge at all as he called out to the others down below "Guys the door's locked! I need help up-"

*SWOOSH*

The boy stopped once again when he suddenly heard something brushing through the air as he was too shocked by fear to move and he started to sweat bullets. He knew he had to turn around to see what was lurking inside the office with him and because a yellow light suddenly turned on,but he was scared that what he would see would shock him to the bone. However he soon felt something urge him to turn around when he heard a very familiar voice codly call out to him "It's you."

As Charlie Brown gulped and slowly turned around to face the figure head on,he instead saw a shadowy figure standing in the unlit darkness as he meekly replied to the voice out of a mixture of surprise and confusion "Rebecca,is it you?" to which the figure in question slowly walked into the light as it answered in a shrill and emotionless voice "Charlie….you're too late."

Standing in front of Charlie Brown and staring back at him in the golden light was a bruised,haggy,rugged and most of all angry looking Rebecca. Her previously golden,blonde hair was now a ghostly white mess,her eyes were dark red and any kind of emotion other than contempt had long been sucked out,her clothes were incredibly rugged and stained with ash,and her fingernails were grown so long to the point of being razor sharp. Charlie Brown was absolutely horrified to see his childhood friend be reduced to this visual and mental mess as his eyes instantly widened at the sight of her and he asked in a panic "Rebecca,what happened to you?!"

"You abandoned me,that's what happened." Rebecca codly replied as she stepped out of the light and walked through the pitch black darkness before Charlie Brown nervously stammered "What? Wh-what do you mean? I came here to find you a new home with a new family,and get you out of this place! I came here so I'd never lose you again!"

However Rebecca wasn't having any of Charlie Brown's defenses as she scoffed and retorted "I was stuck out here for years and years,I lost my parents,my home and everything I ever had. For years you lived your happy little life with your friends and your dog,while I rotted out here alone waiting endlessly for help,but no help ever came. You thought you had it bad? You thought losing a baseball game and getting the blame for it was bad for you? For years and years all I've felt is misery and despair,and I want you to feel every bit of it!" before she suddenly ran out of the darkness and pinned Charlie Brown on the ground with the intent to choke him.

"Rebecca please stop it! You're my friend!" Charlie Brown nervously pleaded as he tried to keep Rebecca's hands off his neck to which she merely raised an eyebrow and replied "Oh please Charlie,since when did you ever care about me? Those friends of yours weren't the only ones who wanted you to stay out of their lives,so was I!" before she managed to put him in a powerful chokehold.

"R-r-Rebecca please. Stop." Charlie Brown stammered pleaded endlessly as he felt himself start to lose consciousness but that plea fell upon deaf ears as Rebecca instead evilly smiled to herself and squeezed his neck hard enough to the point where it snapped in an instant.

"Ahhh!" Charlie Brown yelled in fear and shock as he shot wide awake from his little nap in the car and greatly startled Snoopy and the others as the dog continued his driving. It was none other than a nightmare as the boy was breathing heavily and his heart pounded violently like that of a drum,not to mention that the clock in the car said that it was 9:00 in the morning so it was still relatively early.

"Charlie Brown are you alright? What happened?" Linus frantically asked in a panic as he leaned his head forward to which the round headed boy merely kept silent while he put his hand on his neck to thankfully see that it was free as he gave off a sigh of relief.

"Come on Chuck spit it out." Patty firmly insisted that Charlie Brown tell them what happened as he nervously gulped and stammered nearly out of breath "I…...I had another dream,no a nightmare…...about Rebecca." to which Lucy rolled her eyes and groaned "You know maybe you should start trying to learn how to lucid dream. You gotta get control of your mind back Charlie Brown."

Marcie on the other hand ignored Lucy's sny remark and comfortingly asked Charlie Brown when she noticed how fearful yet relieved he seemed to be "What happened Charles? You can tell us." to which Scheroder nodded his head and backed her up with a faint smile "We're all ears."

After a few more moments of everyone staring up ahead awaiting an answer,Charlie Brown lifted his head up and begun to recall his latest dream "We found the orphanage like we hoped,it was like a huge mansion like the chateau we stayed at in France except this one had a clocktower at the very top. I went in and tried to look for Rebecca,but she was absolutely mangled from head to toe and she was furious with me for…..abandoning her….and she choked me to death before I woke up."

Everyone in the car including Snoopy and Woodstock gasped out of shock as Linus asked just to make sure he didn't hear wrong "Wait,are you sayin Rebecca choked you?" to which the boy merely nodded his head in what appeared to be embarrassment and shame before Sally groaned and asked her brother "Are you still worried about her being angry with you big brother? We talked about that the day before we left."

"I know Sally." Charlie Brown turned around and replied in a somewhat shaky voice before he continued in a more upbeat and cheerful tone "I know…...it was….it was just a bad dream. She'll be fine….she'll be fine." to which Patty shrugged her arms and retorted "Well if you say so Chuck. Anyway where are we? It's been almost a week since we hit the road."

"Really? It's been that long already? Didn't Rebecca supposedly die the day that they left?" Lucy asked in bewilderment that they have already been on the road for almost a week as Linus calmly replied "Well when they're always adding new highways,construction areas,towns and that kind of stuff,it should really be no shock that it's taking us longer to get to the crash site. Although I would like to see some kind of hint that we're almost there soon."

"Yeah I'm already getting home sick big brother." Sally added in agreement as she and some of the others were starting to already get homesick to which Charlie Brown took a look at the map and remarked "Well if I'm right we should be nearing the city border,and if I recall correctly that's where Linus said the crash site was since he looked it up the night before we left."

"Yes indeed Charlie Brown." Linus nodded his head and calmly confirmed that he did as he continued "From what I've read of the location,the crash site is in an area called Bakersfield. It used to be nothing but another stretch of highway on top of a hill next to a huge forest. But now they've since done a lot of construction there and turned it into a small rest stop,there's an old fashioned diner,a gas station,a small shop,and they've even built a huge flight of stairs that you can use to go down into the forest for hiking and camping."

"So does that mean we can use the car's GPS to find this Bakersfield place?" Charlie Brown asked out of curiosity as he glanced at the car's touchscreen interface that happened to contain a GPS before Scheroder shrugged his arms and suggested "Let's give it a shot and see if it works." to which Woodstock used his talons to type in Bakersfield into the GPS since Snoopy was driving.

Everyone's attention was dead set on the GPS as it showed nothing but a blank loading screen for at least 10 seconds until a robotic female voice came out and said "Starting Route To Bakersfield." to which they all gave a sigh of relief that it actually worked,only for them to get confused when the voice suddenly came back and said "Congratulations,you have reached your destination."

"Huh?" They all said to themselves in confusion as they lifted their heads up to see that they were approaching what appeared to be a small rest stop,and like Linus said it had an old fashioned diner,a gas station,a store and the stairs leading into the forest below as Charlie Brown grew a smile and remarked "Hey we finally made it. Slow down Snoopy." to which the dog slowed down the car and got into one of the available parking spaces.

"Finally,let's get out of this thing already." Patty stretched out her arms and ecstatically remarked as Lucy added equally as relieved "If I stayed here any longer I think I would have been permanently glued to the seat."

"Dreams do come true!" Sally happily exclaimed as well due to them finally reaching the crash site before they all got out of the car and were immediately greeted by the early morning sun rising over the hills and trees. It was still mostly cool outside since it was early in the morning,and they were all glad to finally be out of the car again.

As they were all looking around the parking lot and glancing at the various stores and places to rest in,Charlie Brown turned around to the others and suggested as he handed Linus the map "Why don't you all go on ahead to the diner and get us a table for breakfast,and I'll get us some camping gear from the store?"

"Sure thing Chuck. That's what I like about you,you're quick to think ahead." Patty instantly agreed with the boy's idea as Sally sternly added "Make sure you get the right stuff this time,remember our last camping trip?"

"Yes…..I remember." Charlie Brown sighed and confirmed that he did indeed remember as he started to shudder at the thought of the last time he was in charge of getting camping supplies before he started to head on over to the store,while the others headed into the diner as Snoopy started snickering uncontrollably in excitement.

Once Charlie Brown made it to the small little country shop down the street,he slowly creaked open the door to be met with the sound of a small bell ringing at the top of the door as he timidly called out "Hello? Anyone here?" to which a little boy's voice instantly responded "You ain't alone here buddy."

Afterwards a little boy that looked around Charlie Brown's age with short brown hair,square glasses and a blue t-shirt stepped on out from behind the main counter where the cash register was as he cheerfully greeted the new customer "Hi there,names Devin. My dad owns this shop but he's currently at the other side of town for a business trip,so I'm running things for the time being till he gets back. Now what can I do for you this morning?"

"Uh,pleased to meet you Devin." Charlie Brown enthusiastically greeted the worker with a small little handshake before he continued "I just wanted to know if anyone was here. I'll be right back with what I need." to which Devin chuckled and joked "Just make sure you pay for it,I don't wanna have to bring out Mamma's taser for the second day in a row."

After about a few minutes of searching,Charlie Brown finally came back to the front desk with a huge pile of camping supplies,a map of the reigion,and some snacks for the hike up ahead in his arms as Devin gasped at the sight of it and asked in awe "Gee wiz are you planning on living out in those woods? That's enough to last you a month out there." to which the boy shook his head and politely corrected him while he put them up on the counter "Actually it's for me and my friends. They're at the diner across the street. We got ourselves a long hike up ahead."

"Really? What for? Usually people just come on out here to get some food and go,they rarely go down there into the woods." Devin asked out of curiosity as he got up on a stool and started checking out the items to which Charlie Brown clarified on what they were doing "Well me and my friends are out looking for Mrs Hampton's Home For Abandoned Children. One of my friends is there and we're trying to get her a home."

Instantly Devin stopped checking out Charlie Brown's items and instead raised an eyebrow in confusion as the letter started to sweat in nervousness before he timidly asked "Is something wrong?" to which Devin brushed it aside and replied as he went back to checking out the items "Oh nothing,but last I heard she hasn't sold off a kid to be adopted in ages. I've heard she's very recluse,she only goes out when she absolutely has to,but the strangest thing…..is that there are rumors,well it's more like an urban legend that she's holding one last kid there,and that she forbids them from ever getting adopted. Who knows,if the rumors are true,then that kid could very well be that friend of yours."

Charlie Brown was left in awe of the supposed rumors about Mrs Hampton and this other kid of hers,but in the back of his mind he knew that it had to be Rebecca as he got a more determined look on his face and asked Devin while he payed for the camping supplies "Do you happen to know the way to the orphanage? I really need to get there as quick as possible." to which Devin pulled out Charlie Brown's map he intended to buy and wrote something on the back of it with a pen as he replied "The woods that are down there are as far as I know,the fastest way to get there. It should take you and your friends about a day without any major hassles,I'd recommend that you just head on north and you'll know it when you see it."

It seemed that Devin had finally finished writing whatever it was he wrote as he slid the map over to Charlie Brown,and the boy instantly looked at the back of it to see that it was the directions to the orphanage as he ecstatically thanked the boy "T-thanks so much for your help Devin."

"Hey no problem,it gets very boring in here very quickly,all I do most of the day is stare out the window and wait for people going to The Grand Canyon or some other place to show up. This was a nice change of pace for once." Devin cheerfully replied as he handed Charlie Brown his huge bag full of all his camping supplies to which the latter thanked him once again before he headed out "Thanks again for your help Devin."

After Charlie Brown put the camping supplies in the back of the car for the time being,he soon felt his stomach growling violently and loudly as he groaned to himself "Good grief,I'm starving. I gotta eat." before he headed over to the diner. When he finally headed inside however,he would be shocked yet simultaneously not shocked at the same time to see that Snoopy and Woodstock already had a huge stack of 20 pancakes and waffles,and that Patty and the others hadn't even gotten their drinks yet.