Chapter 26: Escaping The Swamp

Courage had made a deliberate effort to be slow while walking back to the house. It was partly because of how tired he was and he was dreading that he might trigger another attack at any moment, but he had also wanted to give Computer some time to figure out a way to get them out of the swamp. With Papa Grizzly and his truck no longer being an option, they needed to come up with something else.

He had managed to go largely unnoticed as he made his way across the yard. All the bears had gathered to watch what was apparently Jenna's marriage with the book. Unfortunately, the effort it took for him to get upstairs nearly killed him right then and there, but after a slow crawl into the room they had slept in overnight, he was able to grab their bag and make his way back down the hall. He only managed to make it down the staircase through sheer willpower alone and he barely survived the rest of the walk back to where Computer was. At the very least he was looking forward to sitting down for a little while. His tired body was at its absolute limit and pushing it any harder would no doubt trigger another attack, if the strain did not kill him outright.

When he entered the clearing, he found Computer hard at work building...well, he wasn't sure. The contraption seemed to have the general shape of a small airplane, but the metal was so twisted in many places that it looked more like a warped art experiment.

"Is that supposed to be a plane?" He asked, slowly walking up beside his friend.

Computer kept his eyes trained on the strange machine, apparently lost in thought as he puzzled over its various components.

With a halfhearted groan, Courage plopped down onto the ground, too tired to keep himself standing any longer. That was enough to pull Computer out of his thoughts.

"Are you going to be alright?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

Courage leaned backwards until his back touched the charred earth. "I don't think so." He groaned.

Though he could not see Computer's face, he still heard the machine's rather cautious reply. "Well, try to keep it together for a little while longer. I'm almost done and I'd prefer not to spend another moment in this swamp."

Courage closed his eyes and nodded slightly. "Just...just give me a few minutes. I'll start to feel a little better soon, so...so don't worry."

He heard the ground crunch as Computer turned back to the contraption.

"And for the record," His friend spoke. "Yes, this is a plane."

Courage sat back up and eyed Computer precariously. "Are you sure that thing can even fly?"

Without turning around, Computer shrugged and let out an annoyed sigh. "Look, dog. I don't know a thing about aerodynamics, so unless you have an internet connection on you, you're just going to have to make do with whatever I can cook up. Either this pile of junk is going to get us out of here or it'll crash or explode in mid-air and we'll both die a painful, fiery death. Regardless of either outcome, we aren't getting out of here any other way."

Courage stared. "You aren't exactly selling me on this, you know."

"Well, I certainly don't see you coming up with any better ideas over there, so stop complaining." His friend huffed.

With a groan, Courage flopped backwards again, having decided that he'd rather just keep his mouth shut. He lay there for awhile, half-asleep from his utter exhaustion. Only the sounds of Computer tinkering on that airplane filled his ears. It was surprisingly soothing, and yet, just as he was about to drift off, he got a light kick in the side that brought him back to wakefulness. He opened his eyes to find Computer staring down at him.

"It's ready." He spoke. "Whenever you're feeling up to it, we can finally get out of this nightmare of a swamp. Of course, if you need more time, that's fine too. Just remember that you'll have plenty of time to rest later on. We've still got quite a long and boring bus trip to look forward to, after all."

Courage nodded and slowly sat up. Much to his dismay, he ended up needing Computer's help to stand, and even then his legs continued to shake like they were about to give out at any moment. Several thick cables wove their way out from within the rusty airplane and wrapped themselves around his waist to pull him up into the cockpit, not that there was much of a cockpit to speak of. It lacked any of the fancy buttons or screens.

Computer himself opted to climb up into the cockpit without any assistance. He then took the helm, checking everything over to make sure that nothing was about to fall off. The plane really did look like it was barely holding itself together.

The fact that this hunk of junk was about to be 'soaring' high in the sky scared Courage out of his wits, but he dare not voice his fears. He was fully expecting this mechanical mishap to come crashing back down to earth, but Computer was right about one thing, this was their best chance of getting out of here, especially if they didn't want to get eaten by alligators. Of course, it was starting to feel like death was just as assured if they actually used this thing.

"Alright." Computer muttered to himself. "Now for the moment of truth, and hopefully it won't end with us meeting our fiery doom."

The engine came to life, momentarily producing a horrific grinding noise that made Courage's stomach lurch with fear, but then the sound leveled off, much to his relief. Like before, a pair of heavy cables came out from within the machine and wove their way around his waist to act as a sort of seat belt. He was quick to notice that Computer hadn't done the same for himself.

"Uh, seat belt?" He chimed in.

"I need to concentrate, and you need to not fall out while I'm concentrating." Was his friend's only answer.

"And what about you falling out?"

"I won't."

Courage wanted to argue otherwise, but the moment he opened his mouth the plane shot forward and he was left in a state of pure terror that didn't allow for him to squeak out even the smallest of words.

Fire spewed out from the tail end of the plane as they reached the far side of the crater. It was clear that this thing was made out of one of the rockets Computer had used to defeat Stump. Just as it looked like they were about to crash into the trees, the plane angled sharply upwards and for a moment it seemed more like they were a spaceship about to break out of the stratosphere before the plane finally leveled off high above the swamp.

"It worked!" Courage couldn't help but cheer. Of course, despite his adulation, he was still feeling rather queasy.

"Thank goodness..." Computer sighed, closing his eyes. "Now I've just got to keep this pile of scrap metal from falling apart long enough for us to make it over the swamp. Ugh...this isn't nearly as easy as I thought it would be."

Courage swallowed, unable to keep himself from considering the possibility that Computer might give out before the plane does. This had to be the most he'd used his ability in a single day after all.

"A-are you sure you're going to be able to keep this up?" He asked warily.

Computer dismissed him with a wave of his paw. "Of course. It's not easy, but I'm more than capable of handling this, thank you very much. Besides, if I don't, we're both dead."

That did not assure Courage even slightly. Having become all the more nervous, he bowed his head and closed his eyes in an attempt to ignore how high up they were. It did not help at all that the plane liked to make weird sounds every now and then that made him want to jump out of his skin. All he really wanted was for this 'detour' to be over with as soon as possible.

"You're afraid of heights." He heard Computer say. Opening his eyes, he found the machine looking him over with an amused expression. "Of course you're afraid of heights! I should have figured as much!"

He blinked, unsure of what to say. While Computer wasn't exactly mocking him, being the butt of, well, his amusement wasn't all that pleasant either.

"Come on, dog. Can't you for once in your life muster up a little genuine courage? You're never going to be hurtling through the air in a pile of scrap metal ever again! Enjoy the experience!"

"There's nothing to enjoy about this." He groaned, although he dare not keep his mouth open for too long, lest he lose control of his rebelling stomach.

"Oooh, is that so?" Computer chuckled as an even bigger smirk fell across his face. "How about after I do this?"

The plane sped up, pitching to the right until it slowly turned all the way upside down. Computer's laughter was easily drowned out by Courage's own screaming. When the plane finally righted itself again, Courage had to press both of his paws to mouth to keep himself from losing all the contents of his stomach. He was certain that he looked about as green as a zombie.

"For goodness sake, Courage!" Computer laughed. "Do you really think I'd let you fall out? Stop being such a wimp!"

All Courage could do at that moment was tremble like, well, a scared puppy, and do everything in his power to avoid puking his guts out. Despite Computer's high spirits, he was quick to catch onto the fact that Courage was having anything but a good time, despite his supposed 'lighthearted' prodding. With an annoyed sigh, he began to bring the plane back down closer to the earth.

"Killjoy." He grumbled.

Even that was not enough to quell Courage's terror. He knew that he was only going to feel better once his feet were back on the ground and luckily he could see that the edge of the swamp was slowly approaching on the horizon.

"Stop freaking out." Computer huffed. "You're going to throw yourself into an attack if you keep shaking and gasping like that. Go into your happy place, or whatever." He suggested rather thoughtlessly. He was obviously still more than a little annoyed that his fun had been cut short.

"I-I just...w-want..t-t-to get...b-back...onto t-the..." He couldn't even finish the sentence. Every word came out as a stutter or was cut off by an involuntary gasp.

Computer continued to eye him up with an unamused expression. "Seriously, Courage. You're perfectly safe. There's no way I'd let you fall to your doom, and even if you were to actually fall out, it wouldn't be that hard to-"

He was cut off by a loud clunk as some part of the plane dislodged and proceeded to fly over their heads.

"Oh dear, I'm, er, pretty sure that wasn't supposed to come off." He spoke, pushing past Courage to get to the back of the plane. They both watched the errant piece of scrap metal vanish into the trees below.

Courage immediately took notice of the fact that the plane was rapidly losing speed and altitude. A whimper escaped his throat and he once again had to fight the nausea building up in his stomach. Already paralyzed with fear, his heart nearly stopped when the fire spewing out of the rocket propelling them through the air suddenly went out and that same horrific grinding sound he had heard before came back even louder than ever.

Computer stared down at the malfunctioning rocket in dismay. "Uh, yeah. Remember what I said about the whole explosion and fiery death thing?"

Courage's entire body went numb. He hadn't thought it was possible to be any more afraid than he already was and yet he must have broken some record.

"Right...about that," Computer went on. "JUMP!"

"Wha-" Courage tried to say, but the glowing dog was already pushing him out of the cockpit with all of his might.

"YYAAAAAAAHHHH!" He screamed, trying to claw his way back inside. In his terror, he couldn't decide between exploding or falling to his death, but he certainly didn't want to experience either.

"Oh, enough out of you!" Computer cried out, kicking him the face, which was enough to dislodge him from the plane. The machine then jumped from the plane himself.

As they careened towards the earth, the plane exploded overhead and pelted them with tiny pieces of junk. The heat from the blast was so intense that Courage couldn't help but worry that his fur was about to be set on fire. Much to his dismay though, the rolling treetops that covered the swap was fast approaching.

He smashed into the branches full force, knocking the wind out of his lungs. Dazed, he tumbled down from one branch to the next, unable to get his barrings long enough to grab onto something and stop his descent. Suddenly, he was in open air again. He opened his eyes to find himself falling towards the muddy swamp water below, where, much to his dismay, three alligators were waiting for him. One had its mouth open wide and he was on a collision course with it...

Before he could so much as let out a scream, he fell head first into the alligator's mouth and slid down its gullet...

End Of Chapter

A/N: This chapter and the next one were supposed to be one chapter, however, due to the huge delay I decided to stop on a cliffhanger here rather than keep going and have to put off updating this for possibly another two weeks. Lucky, a good majority of the next chapter is already written because of this split and it shouldn't take too long for it to be finished.