I am finally getting to the end of a difficult phase of writing this story: not knowing what to write. I've got the rest of the story planned out. So here is chapter 11 of The Bleak Future. Enjoy.
It was now the afternoon of that same day, and Sherman and Penny were bored out of their minds. They had already tried practically everything. Hide-and-seek, tag, hopscotch, everything.
"What do you want to do?" Sherman asked.
"I don't know," Penny groaned.
"There's nothing to do here!" Sherman complained.
"At least Mr. Peabody has something to do," Penny whined. "He's just been working on the WABAC all day."
"That doesn't actually sound very fun," said Sherman.
"At least he's doing something!" Penny snapped.
All of a sudden, there was a very sharp knocking sound at the door, and Mr. Peabody zoomed out of his working room like a bullet. "I'll get it!" he yelled.
Suddenly, Lucy opened the door and wandered into the room, looking real proud of herself, and Mr. Peabody stopped running and stared ahead in disappointment.
"Did I do better that time?" Lucy questioned, pointing at the door which was swinging closed.
Mr. Peabody sighed. "Better," he began, "but in my time period it's a tradition to wait for the other person to open the door before you enter."
"What?" said Lucy. "So not only do I have to take the effort to exercise my hand muscles, but I have to be patient and wait?"
Sherman and Penny burst into a fit of giggles after overhearing that bit of the conversation.
"Well, in my time period, there's such a thing as privacy," Mr. Peabody sighed.
"Sorry," Lucy said. "But I was gonna ask if you wanted to get some scrap metal! There's another bench not too far from here that we can blow up!"
"Um, Lucy?"
"Yes?" Lucy asked.
"Can we sneak the bench out of the community this time?"
Lucy's smile seemed to fade into nothing. "But why would you want to do that?"
"I think it's better if we blow up the bench outside of the community!"
"Are you sure about that? We have to sneak it out."
"Lucy, please?" Mr. Peabody begged.
"Okay, okay," said Lucy. "I guess that since we did it my way last time, we can do it your way this time."
"I have to do something first," said Mr. Peabody.
Peabody wandered up to Sherman and Penny feeling quite insecure. "Sherman? Penny? I'm gonna be gone. You guys will have to stay here."
"Mr. Peabody? Can we please wander around outside?" Sherman begged.
"Sherman, that's not a good idea."
"Come on! Please? We've got nothing to do!" Penny whined.
"Guys, it's for your own good," Peabody began to explain. "If you go out there, you could get into serious trouble without realizing it. The rules are different here."
Sherman and Penny said nothing.
"It's for your own good," Mr. Peabody repeated.
"Fine, we won't leave the house," Penny sighed.
"Thank you. I'll be back in an hour or two," said Mr. Peabody, as he left the house to go and sneak a bench out of the community to detonate it.
Mr. Peabody wasn't so sure if he should trust Sherman and Penny, as they had already snuck out of the house twice. However, he felt like he had no choice. The WABAC needed to be built so the trio could get back home, safe and sound.
Hopefully.
Now, Mr. Peabody and Lucy had already grabbed the bench and they were now wandering down the path to the edge of the community while lugging the bench. The hard part of this plan would be getting out of the community without getting caught by the authorities. Luckily, there didn't seem to be that many out today. Plus, they were just going to climb over the fence to leave the community. Going out through the front gate would be the dumbest thing you could ever do.
"Mr. Peabody, is it really necessary to sneak out of the community?" Lucy questioned.
"Lucy, I think it's a better idea," Mr. Peabody sighed.
"But we can just blow it up here and dive into the nearest building! It would be a lot quicker!"
"Quicker, but more dangerous," Mr. Peabody scoffed.
"You really need to get out more!" Lucy said.
Ignoring that comment, Mr. Peabody stared ahead at the brick fence which wrapped around the community. "Okay," he mumbled. "I can definitely climb over that."
"You know something weird?"
Peabody froze. That was definitely not Lucy's voice. Looking over at Lucy, Mr. Peabody could see that even she was scared.
"Oh no!" Lucy panicked. "Hide!"
Lucy and Mr. Peabody had to move very quickly, which was difficult because they were both lugging a bench. They were forced to hide behind a house and place the bench beside them.
"What's weird?" another voice said.
The two people came into view and they were wearing tunics just like everybody else in this community.
"I heard a big explosion the other day, and one of the benches was gone!"
"That is very weird."
The people turned a corner and went out of sight, and Mr. Peabody and Lucy proceeded to breathe a huge sigh of relief.
"You see, that is why I wanted to sneak the benches out of the community!" Mr. Peabody hissed. "We could get caught!"
"Whatever, let's roll," Lucy scoffed.
Peabody and Lucy exited their hiding spots and began to lug the bench once again. Luckily, they only had to walk about ten more feet to the fence.
"Here's the plan," Lucy said once she and Peabody got to the fence. She quickly planted a satchel charge on the bench and gave Peabody the button to trigger it. "I will toss the bench over the fence, and you will climb over and detonate it. Then you climb back and we both run to the nearest building before we get caught. Is that clear?"
Mr. Peabody sighed once again. "I think it'd be better if I ran a distance away from the community before I detonate it."
"Fine, have it your way," Lucy scoffed. "But you're going to have to lug that bench even further!"
"I can do it," said Mr. Peabody.
Lucy threw the metal bench over the fence. Peabody's experience in the Olympics made it easy to hop the fence and lug the fence a decent distance away from the community. Outside of the community, there was really no need to watch out for any other people. It was very rare for someone to be wandering outside of the community. Mr. Peabody looked back at the community nervously, wondering if he should go ahead and detonate the bench at that spot or go further away.
"Maybe Lucy's right," Mr. Peabody sighed to himself. "I need to take some risks." He set down the bench and backed away from it. "I will detonate it right here!"
And with one press of a button, the bench burst into several pieces of scrap metal, ready to use for time machine building.
The beagle swooped down and collected the scrap metal, before he made a beeline for the fence again. However, the dog had a much more difficult time climbing the fence the second time, despite the fact that he had thrown the scrap metal over the fence beforehand. When he finally did make it over the fence, he didn't land very well and he hurt his leg in the process.
"Ugh," Mr. Peabody groaned. "I've been in the Olympics and now I can't climb over a pathetic little fence? That's pathetic."
The beagle slowly lifted his head, and his eyes were greeted to a rather unpleasant sight.
Lucy was gone. In fact, she was nowhere in sight.
"Lucy?" Mr. Peabody called. "Lucy?"
Mr. Peabody found the energy to get up and frantically look around the place. "Lucy? Lucy? Lucy! Oh no..."
What happened to Lucy? Where did she go? Find out in the next chapter of The Bleak Future.
Stay tuned for more, and please review.