The End

Chapter 10: The Difference A Day Makes

The teens woke far too early for most concerned. The loudest was of course the fattest, but after all the years that the company had known Eric Cartman, tuning him out was second nature. So within an hour and a half, everything was packed, breakfast was had, and they began walking once more.

Kenny's eyes lit up as they fell on a few familiar markers in the area - he recognized this area... Moving quickly to the head of the pack to intercept Stan quickly. "Stan. We need a quick detour."

The dark-haired leader turned to his blond friend, confused. "What do you mean? We need to head to South Mountain as soon as possible and meet up with the other survivors."

Kenny opened his mouth, but staring into the warm chocolate coloured eyes of his close friend, he stopped short. Both knew what was almost said, but verbalizing the thought that this small group of teenagers might be all that had escaped...

The blond swallowed and tried again, "Stanley, I am aware of that fact, but right now we need all the help we can get to survive. I know where we are, and I have a bit of a... Stash of sorts, not far. Please."

With a barest moment of hesitation, Stan nodded. He rarely saw Kenny this serious, and when he was, it warranted complete trust. The small smile he received warmed him slightly, as he let Kenny take the lead.

Of course as they turned into a more eastwardly direction, Stan could physically feel a three-chinned mouth open to whine, and decided to cut it off. "Kenny knows of a stash of supplies not far from here, we're heading there before continuing to the mountains. It won't be long, so be patient and we'll get there soon enough."

Kyle smiles as Cartman shut his mouth and grumbled to himself. Stan was definitely the choice for leader, and he too trusted Kenny implicitly to do the best thing for all of them in a serious situation.

Looking back at all the others following, Kyle couldn't help but remember two good friends who were no longer here. Jimmy and Timmy had been recruited into some kind of disabled-only high school, which they said would help them better learn with their conditions. The boys didn't think it was necessary, Jimmy was one of the funniest, most popular kids in elementary, and Timmy grew to be quite wise, although he still hadn't learned more than four words.

Shaking himself out of it, his eyes passed over each teen one at a time; Wendy, Bebe, Red, Tweek, Craig, Clyde, Token and Butters were joining the four boys on what seemed to be their most dangerous adventure to date.

Suddenly the group stopped as Kenny moved around an old, gnarled tree. He stuck his hand inside and stopped. Turning to the others, he spoke to his three best friends. "Don't be mad."

"Why would we be... Kenny!" Stan shouted as his orange parka-clad friend pulled a pair of tonfa, a set of nun chucks, two sai and a bunch of shuriken from the hollowed out tree. "We thought that stuff had been stolen! It was you?"

Kenny knew Stan wasn't really angry, even though the disappearance of these weapons had caused some strife among the boys for a few hours. Still, he explained with a single look towards the back of their group.

Stan's eyes followed Kenny's sight line and he gasped slightly as he saw Butters shuddering slightly as he stared at the ninja stars. "Oh..."

He moved to put his hand on the small blond's shoulder, eliciting a startled jump from the boy. He stood firm however and look into the cool aqua eyes. "Butters. Are you going to be okay if we..." Stan looked back at the weapons of their childhood, then returned to his fragile friend.

Butters, for his part, was scared shitless. He couldn't fully remember what had happened after being hit in the eye with the sharp star, it was all a haze of pain and dog pee. But despite his own feelings, he knew with those giant crabs out there, they'd need every chance they could get to fend them off. He swallowed hard, squared his shoulders and nodded at Stan, staring him straight in the eye.

Stan was momentarily taken aback by the show of strength from Butters, he had no idea the boy was capable of this. But it gave him a great deal of pride and he nodded back, smiling.

He turned and sighed as he noticed Cartman twirling the sai around. "Cartman, be careful for fuck's sake."

"Don't tell me what to do with MY sai, Stan!" Eric leered greedily at Stan, feeling fulfilled that something he had written off as lost had been returned.

"Don't you think that those would be better suited for someone with a bit more speed and arm-reach? Like Token or Craig, even Butters or Red would do better with them than you, Carman." Kyle spoke out, his knowledge in video game logic seeming to shine.

Of course it was all lost on Cartman, "Screw them, Jew. These are mine, I paid for 'em! They should get their own weapons!"

Kyle and Cartman started glaring at each other, both opening their mouths to undoubtedly start a massive fight, before Clyde cut in. "Hey Kenny. You didn't happen to... Appropriate our weapons too, did you?"

A smirk and a wink was all they needed to know, as Kenny pulled out a katana, two kama, another set of nunchucks and a pair of eskrima.

Clyde took his sickle shaped weapons back, smiling to the others as they grabbed theirs. Looking at Jimmy's short, strong sticks left them all feeling the loss of their stuttering friend, until Wendy sighed loudly and grabbed them.

"I'll take these I suppose." She says, and quick as a flash, she points the tip of one right between Eric's eyes as his mouth opens. "Yes, girls can be ninjas, Fatass. Not that that really matters, but if only to shut you up before you start. So keep your trap... Shut." She uses the eskrima to close the fat mouth soundly.

Cartman glares, but returns to twirling his sai dangerously. The rest of the group shook their heads.

"Well," Stan spoke up, "This looks like a rather nice, secluded place to have lunch. No fire, so just grab something that doesn't need to be cooked and eat it quick."

The group ate quickly, and were soon moving out. Kenny waited until they had moved past a part of the undergrowth to stick his hand into the tree one last time and extract a razor blade covered in dried blood. He was about to slide it into a pocket of his parka when a voice interrupted him. "You should put that back."

Without a thought, Kenny extended his arm with a shuriken in hand towards the voice. Fate would dictate it to be pointed directly at same spot on Butters' face as the first time.

Butters gasped and stumbled backward, tripping over himself and ending up flat on his back.

Kenny rushed over to him, shuriken tucked safely in his pocket once more, and helped him up. "Oh my christ Butters, I'm so sorry! I wasn't... I didn't mean to..." He couldn't even finish, he felt so awful.

"I-i-i-its okay, r-r-really." The smaller blond swallowed and brushed Kenny's helping hand off of his arm, steady on his own again. "I-I just wanted to say you don't need to... You know." He motioned at the tree and Kenny.

The other blond sighed and pulled the hood of the parka over his head, but not shutting it. "I know. I shouldn't. But sometimes its... It just..." Kenny wished he had his parka over his face, it cut out his words enough that he didn't need to make sense around most people. He liked making sense when he could be heard.

But Butters understood completely. He just swallowed and nodded at the tree again. "H-how about this? If you put it back, I'll d-do the same?"

Kenny's head cracked as it turned to look into Butters' eyes. All he found in them was truth and understanding and it shook him to the core.

With a shuddering breath, Kenny reached back into his pocket and extracted the bloody blade. He hovered it over the hole in the tree for a moment, unable to open his fingers to let it drop. He stared at it until his vision was filled with the sight of another blade, so very similar to his own, right next to his. Kenny's whole body shook as he heard the metal thunk as it hit the inside of the tree, and without warning his own fingers unclenched, and another thunk rang out.

His hand still hung there as Kenny tried to comprehend what was happening, but soon it was closed in Butters' own. The other boy pulled Kenny forward, "Come o-on. Stan and the o-others will wo-worry if they see we're not there."

Kenny nodded, and allowed himself to be pulled forward for a moment, until his brain kicked back in. "Wait!" He shouted and ran back to the tree. Instead of reaching into the hole as last time, he moved aside a rock at its base and grabbed a pair of bottles from within. Kenny ran back and handed the unopened bottle of rum to Butters, keeping the half full one for himself.

Butters shook his head, but smiled slightly at the other blonde. Kenny merely grinned and put an arm around him. "Hey now Leo, it's a good excuse to Stan why we're lagging behind. Also, consider it a Thank You. I had been meaning to do that for a long while now, but never really got around to it. Just be sure if you're going to get smashed and vulnerable, make sure I'm there." He winked and squeezed Butters, who responded with a blush and a nod, before it registered what exactly he was nodding to.

"H-hey!"

Kenny laughed as they walked quickly to catch up to the rest of their group.

Stan berated them once they caught up, alcohol was no excuse to be that separated from the group. Kenny and Butters nodded and the lie was bought.

They kept moving as the sun peaked in the sky and began its path back down, making relatively good time.

Keeping an ear open for any crab-like noises, they found a small cave-like hole in one of the large hills, and since it was getting dark, it was decided to set up camp.

This time, Stan allowed a fire, knowing how cold it was likely to be without being fully enclosed, and thinking a belly full of warm food would do them all some good. Plus Tweek was about to start withdraws from lack of coffee.

Token and Cartman worked together to cook them all some nice hot soup and warm bread. Token seemed to be one of the few people who Cartman was semi-not-a-jackass to, so he didn't mind the help. After all, if anyone knew food... Token himself liked to spend time with his family's cook and had picked up a few things.

Soon they were all rolling out their sleeping bags and going to sleep in the small cavern. "Wait. Before we go to sleep, we need to start a rotation for lookouts. We're not as safe as we might have been last night, and we need someone looking out just in case something shows up."

"L-like what? You don't think a crab would make it all the way here do you?" Bebe whimpered, looking around fearfully.

"Who knows if they can move quickly over this kind of terrain or not. Or if they were the only thing that showed up from the forest yesterday. We need to be prepared." Yesterday? Had it only been that long? "Also, make sure we keep the fire going enough to keep us warm, and so we don't need to waste any matches lighting it in the morning. But not too high, or else whatever might be out there would have a beacon right to us..."

Everyone shuddered before someone spoke up. "I'll take first watch." Kyle said, startling Stan.

"Are you sure Kyle? I mean aren't you tired or anything?" Stan tried to reason with Kyle. He didn't want the red haired boy to have to do this if he was still not sleeping well.

"I'll be fine Stan. It's all really just keeping the fire stoked and my eyes peeled. Its not even like this little cave is big enough for me to be ten feet away from the rest of you. If anything happens, I'll wake you up, don't worry." Kyle reassured his brown eyed friend.

Stan nodded, lying down and closing his eyes along with the rest of the teenagers. "Fine. But wake me in an hour, I'll take second watch."

Kyle nodded as Kenny said he'd watch after Stan, and a few more spoke up. Cartman was volunteered by Kenny to go after him, much to their collective amusement. The fat boy mumbled, grumbled, ate a snack and was soon asleep.

The others soon followed and quickly Kyle found himself the lone conscious person in the camp. He sighed and stared into the fire, spending the whole hour thinking about Stan, and if he should make a move. After all, they were all in mortal peril. Tomorrow might be their last day alive!

These frightening thoughts plagued Kyle until he saw an hour had passed on his watch, and he moved to wake Stan.

Shaking the other boy, Stan's eyes opened immediately, "Smthing wrong Ky?"

The jewish boy shook his head, "No, just its your turn. If you want, I can take your shift..."

He was cut off by Stan. "Nuh..." After a yawn, "No way Kyle. You sleep, don't worry. I'll wake Ken in an hour and I'll be right back here, kay?"

Kyle nodded and yawned himself, snuggling into the sleeping bag. Stan watched as he fell asleep quickly, and turned to curl into Stan's own empty bag next to him.

With a smile, Stan started his shift as lookout. His hour passed quickly, as did Kenny's, before Eric was woken to keep watch.

After much mumbling and grumbling, Cartman was sitting at the low fire, poking it with a stick. He was contemplating a number of evil schemes, tossing a few more sticks on the fire. It was cold outside his sleeping bad.

He kept piling the wood on until it was rather high, but he was nice and warm. Grabbing a bag of Cheezy Poofs, he quickly scarfed it down and tossed it aside.

Propping his head on his bag, he sighed. It was boring keeping watch... Within minutes he was fast asleep.

A few hours later, Butters stumbled out of his sleeping bag at the edge of the cavern mouth. Still half asleep, and seeing the fire still going low, he moved to the edge of the light and started going to the bathroom.

Upon finishing, Butters sighed and zipped up, turning back toward camp. Suddenly from the bushes, a claw reached out and clamped around his wrist.

The entire mountainside must have woken up at the blond's scream of pain, none faster than Kenny and Stan. Before the latter had been able to extract himself from his sleeping bag, two shuriken zipped out at the crab. One hit a tree half a foot off the mark, but the second hit its target, planting itself right in the face of the crab.

The lucky shot under the shell loosened the claw around Butters' wrist, and he pulled the now-bleeding appendage back and quickly backed away from the monster.

Stan had managed to get out of the sleeping bag and pick up his tonfa, and he charged the crab. He was eternally grateful this crab was only three feet high, unlike the ten foot behemoths that had been rampaging through town.

A few strikes to the creature yielded little in effect, but it did cause the screeching creature to target him with its sharp and heavy claws. Stan did everything he could to deflect them as he backed away.

The crab fell on its side as its left legs were swept out from under it by an eskrima. Wendy hit the crab's shell covered side, who turned to slash a claw at her, which opened its other side to Stan who stuck it with both tonfa under its standing side.

The crab flipped over onto its back, and before it managed to right itself, Craig's katana stabbed it clean through the unprotected underbelly. The monster shrieked an unholy sound as it was pierced by the blade, but pushed the ground from under it with its claws, propelling itself up back onto it legs.

The sword was thrown into the undergrowth and the crab was back on the offensive. Craig backed away, now unarmed, and Red took his place. Armed with Cartman's sai, the girl struck out at the other eye as Stan and Wendy blocked a claw each.

Growling at them, the now blind crab still advanced, almost uncaring about the shuriken and sai implanted in its face, and sword wound to the stomach. Stan and Wendy did their best, and a few more shuriken tried to land into the flesh, but they were quickly pushed back towards the cavern.

Inside, Tweek, Bebe and Cartman watched wide eyed as their friends battled against the smaller crab, Kyle and Token standing at the defense of the other three, knowing that the smaller crab wasn't a big enough target for five people to attack without getting in each others way.

Stan was pushed far back as he felt his arms bruise behind his tonfa. Even one claw packed a huge punch, and it was hard to keep his sore arms up to protect himself, much less attack at this point. He looked behind him at the others, and he swallowed hard as he spied Kyle, nunchucks raised and ready to defend them should he need to.

Then he saw the still-lit fire and shouted out, "Cover me!"

Running towards the fire, he felt a cold bucket of water crash over him for the smallest instant as Kyle ran in and struck at the crab, filling his defensive position and letting Red get another swipe at it. But no time for such things now, as the black haired boy grabbed the biggest stick that was on fire still, and did a one-eighty.

"Red, back off!" The auburn haired girl turned to look at Stan as he said that, and received a closed claw to the shoulder for her lack of attention where it aught to be.

Stan was forced to jump over her prone body and with a loud battle cry, he shoved the burning hot stick right between the shuriken and sai in the creature's face.

This time, no sound was heard as the crab stood there for a moment. The longest moment in these children's lives. But after it passed, its legs gave way and the monster collapsed.

They stood transfixed, staring at it for a long while before it suddenly twitched and they all shrieked. Stan pushed the stick up and over, forcing the crab onto its back and he grabbed the sai that was knocked away as Red was hit. He stabbed the soft underside over and over until he felt a hand on his shoulder.

He look up and saw through watery eyes that it was Kyle. Stan sniffed and sat back, shaking.

Kyle sat with him and put an arm over his shoulders as the dark haired boy wiped his eyes. Stan didn't even know when he had started crying, or why. Then he looked around.

Appearing from the undergrowth with his katana and a few shuriken, Craig quickly handed the stars back to Kenny before moving to the cavern.

Kenny was still crouched in front of Butters, who was crying and holding his mangled wrist. Kenny hand a shuriken still poised to throw as his eyes roamed the black forest surrounding them for signs of any more intruders.

Wendy had moved over to Red, who was sitting up and gingerly checking her shoulder. She winced as she touched it, but it seemed to be alright enough for having been punched by a crab claw. Wendy's arms were shaking from the beating they took trying her best to fend off the crab's attacks.

Inside the cave, Token still had his nunchucks poised but he was sitting with the others, shaking. Bebe was crying and Tweek was full out vibrating with fear.

Cartman just sat there, still as a boulder.

Kyle helped Stan to his feet, and led him over to the fire. There, he took a cloth and wet it, before proceeding to wipe Stan's face and arms. He was covered in the sticky black blood of the crab.

No one spoke as wounds were tended - Kenny bandaged the sliced up wrist of Butters while trying to make lewd jokes to try and break the shaking boy from his catatonia. Red put her arm in a sling, just to make sure she didn't make her shoulder wound worse. And a number of smaller nicks and bruises were bandaged and treated.

Before long, they all sat around the fire, looking up suddenly at any noise from the brush surrounding them. While there were no more attacks on their camp, no one slept any more that night.