It's a Kid's World
1.2: The Day After
*BUZZZZZ*
The alarm clock, one of the few electrical devices still operating, went off at 7:00am in the morning.
The remaining group of Loud children awoke from their sleep. They were about to get up and step out into a whole new world created by the events of 'The Big Vanish'.
Not that they were really waking up in the strictest sense. They weren't exactly in a sleeping mood the night before, for very obvious reasons.
"Turn off that dang clock!" Lynn shouted, resisting the call to get up.
"Chill, dude. I'll get it." Luna said as she reached for the clock and stopped it from ringing.
"Ugh! That was horrible. I had no sleep at all. Completely inappropriate for a pageant princess!" Lola moaned.
"Yeah. That's the biggest of our worries!" Lincoln sarcastically responded.
"Hey, what did you wake up on the wrong side of?!" Lola bit back.
"Sorry, Lola. I'm just a little irritable. I didn't get good sleep, either, and sometimes sarcasm just gives a little relief." he explained.
"Look, dudes. I don't think any of us got good sleep last night, and we all know why. I'm not going to stand here and lie that it's not going to be tough from today and moving forward. But what I do know is that we need each other if we're going to make it through this!" Luna stood and told her younger siblings.
"I agree with Luna. We need to work together to come up with a way to deal with this." Lincoln said.
"Perhaps we should start our day by gathering what information we can about the current predicament by checking certain circumstantial factors." Lisa suggested.
"Right! Let's turn on the TV and get the news on!" Lynn said.
Lynn then tried turning on the TV, while forgetting about the obvious problem with trying to do that.
"Um, Lynn." Lincoln tried to comment.
But she ignored him as she kept trying to get it to work.
"It's not working!" Lana yelled.
"Dang it!" Lynn angrily let out.
"The power is out, remember?" Lucy reminded her.
"Ugh! Right, sorry. This is just a lot to take in, it completely slipped my mind." Lynn justified.
"Understandable, but still a demonstration of naivety. If we are going to survive this, we are going to have to be collectively smarter and savvier than that." Lisa stated.
"I guess we'll have to go outside and get some news the old-fashioned way." Luan told the rest.
"Good idea, sis. There's bound to be somebody around that knows something we don't." Luna replied.
"Yeah, that's cool and all, but what about having some breakfast first?" Lana asked.
"Yeah, I'm starving!" Lynn added.
"I want some eggs!" Lola demanded.
"I want mine hard boiled!" Luan continued.
"I want mine devilled." Lucy said.
"Um, guys… remember, no power?" Lincoln reminded his sisters.
"Ugh!" all of the sisters except Luna blurted out in unison.
"So, let me get this straight. From now on, there's no TV, no oven, no cooking…?" Lola asked.
"Affirmative." Lisa said.
"NO! I can't believe I'll have to start living like an animal!" Lola yelled.
"Well, get used to it, Lols. No electricity, no luxuries." Luna said.
"Perhaps we will need to simply settle for a portion of sliced bread each for the morning. Afterwards, I conclude it would be prudent to conduct the search for information." Lisa stated.
Ronnie Anne and the Casagrande children had a very easy time doing exactly what Lisa suggested. Despite the dawn of a new, degenerate world being prevalent, there was still an evident ease in being able to obtain vital information in such a compact part of society like the big city.
"Extra! Extra! Loss of all adults results in great expenses!" one boy shouted on a street corner, selling a bunch of newspapers.
"We'll take one!" said Ronnie Anne as she walked past the paper boy with her surviving relatives, Carlos Jr, Carl and Carlitos.
CJ was holding Carlitos in his arms while Sergio and Lalo followed the kids. Ronnie Anne began to look at the newspaper, intending to inform the group of any important information.
"Woah, the paper has really gone south!" she criticised.
"Hey!" the paper boy yelled.
"I'm sorry, but this is just awful. There are so many spelling mistakes, the pictures are just drawn in crayon. Heck, it looks like this whole thing was just handwritten by some little dweeb." She harshly but honestly said.
"That 'little dweeb' was me. I wrote it. And yeah, it probably isn't up there with the kind of quality you're used to. In case it slipped your mind, there is no electricity. That means no machines to professionally produce papers like these! So, I would thank you for not judging my work by unfairly high standards!" the boy defensively put it.
"Alright, alright. I'm sorry." She apologised before proceeding to read it.
After a brief moment of reading to herself, she shared the information with her relatives.
"Guys! It says here that it's all the adults all over the world who have disappeared, just like the rumours said. Not just here, not just in the country, but the whole world!" she said.
"Yeah, just like we thought! What else?" Carl asked.
"There are rumours that this whole adults disappearing thing is to do with a theory about judgement day. Apparently, god judged that the earth would be better without all the corrupted, impure people of the world, in other words, all those who have lived long enough to face corruption, and decided to erase them as a means to cleanse the earth." She said.
"What a load of garble." CJ commented.
"I'll say!" said one other stray city boy walking past the group at that moment.
"There's more. This thing is saying that all the surviving children are going to start banding together to form groups and factions in a fight to claim all the remaining resources…" she started.
Cutting back to Lisa, who is reading about the same subject matter to her family, who have done the same thing as the Casagrandes and gone outside to find out exactly what's going on…
"Resources like food in stores and supermarkets, as well as factories and warehouses. Gangs of kids are raiding them as we speak for food that will last them for a while." Lisa elaborated.
"What about growing our own food?" Lincoln asked.
"Not everyone is good at planting and growing crops, especially under the age of 16. Some people will have to rely on the already made food that was left behind. For as long as it keeps anyway. Another resource of great value is batteries. They're the only source of electrical power left. Something independent of the power grid." Lisa continued.
"But batteries can hardly power up anything! They're no good for what I'm going to need to play video games, except some of the handheld ones!" Lincoln said.
"No, but they will work for things like clocks, calculators, scales, cameras…" Lana said, before being cut off.
"Oh, nothing useful, then." Lola irritatingly responded.
"The little luxuries of life it looks like are going to be a thing of the past… sigh." Lucy grimly contributed.
Cutting back to Ronnie Anne, who is still explaining her findings to her remaining family…
"The point is, guys, we've got to stick together to make sure that we get through all this! Let's be fair, despite the fact that we've lost most of the family, we still have each other!" she told CJ, Carl and Carlitos, before pointing at other stray kids lurking around the city.
And she was right. As the boys looked around them, in every direction there were little boys and girls, alone and frightened, with nobody to look out for them. Many stressed, nervous and unrested because of their loss and vulnerability as a result of the adults vanishing the day before. Some were hiding in alleys, hoping not to be preyed on by older teenagers, some were standing or sitting on street corners, unsure of what to do with themselves or how to function independently. Others were inside buildings, hiding from the big bad world. These unfortunate souls were facing unlikely odds regarding their chances of survival.
"We are lucky… relatively speaking!" she specified.
"She's right! We need to look out for each other!" CJ stated.
Cutting back to the Loud siblings… who also needed to be reminded of the importance of that.
"Well, this is great and all, but what do we do now?!" Lynn questioned angrily.
"We go looking for food to take!" Luan said.
"But where should we go to get it? Most of the supermarkets and local stores will have already been drained of their stock by now?!" Lola told them.
"I say we try the dumpster!" Lana encouraged enthusiastically.
"Um… how about NO?!" Lola responded.
"Or maybe we should look for a big courier vehicle that crashed somewhere mid-journey. That may have some food in it that we could take." Lincoln suggested.
"Isn't that stealing?" Lucy asked.
"Stealing from owners who don't exist? I'd say survival is all that matters now." Luan said.
"I guess so." Lucy admitted.
"Look, dudes! We can't keep squabbling like this! Right now, all the goods are being taken by other kids!" Luna told her siblings.
"Right. How about Luna, Luan and Lynn go one way, and I take the others and go the other direction. Between both groups, we're sure to find something." Lincoln stated.
"Who died and made you king of the Louds?!" Lola challenged.
"Yeah! Why should we listen to you?!" Lynn followed.
"But he does have a good plan." Lucy said.
"Nobody asked you!" Lola barked.
As the siblings began to fight and bicker, and siblings typically do when tensions rise, Luna felt she needed to regain control of the situation so the family didn't descend into chaos and destroy their chances for survival.
She picked up her electric guitar and tried to blast out a thunderous noise in order to get her siblings to stop and listen. Unfortunately for her when she tried to do so…
"Oops. Right, the power doesn't work. Duh!" she said to herself in irritation, remembering that her guitar's power was connected to an electronic box that no longer operated.
As a backup option, Luna simply picked up her guitar, and smashed it on the ground. The thud was enough to make her siblings stop arguing and listen.
"Listen up, dudes! I won't stand by and let what's left of my family whine and moan about everything when we need to be getting our acts together and helping each other out! Mom and Dad are GONE! So are Lori and Leni! I'm going to be praying every night that they come back! I really hope they do! But if they don't, then we need to fend for ourselves! Now come on! I say we follow our bro's plan. It's as good an idea as any of us have got!" Luna commandingly told her siblings.
"Woah, when did you get so serious?" Lynn asked.
"Since it was obvious someone in the family had to take charge." Luna said.
And with that, the siblings set off to find food and other valuable resources that would aid them in their prolonged survival. The Louds were a large family unit, which gave them an advantage when it came to their odds of making it through the aftermath.
Other kids were not so fortunate, and had to rely on friendships, bonds, alliances and agreements in order to have support from others in the newly created hostile world. Clyde, who was an only child, had to go out and search for anyone he knew. Naturally, he tried the Loud House first…
"Lincoln?" Clyde asked as he knocked on the front door.
But they were out searching for resources, unbeknownst to him.
"Lincoln? Lori? Anyone?" Clyde asked as he knocked again.
He turned away from the house, fearing he was all alone and nobody was there for him. Thankfully, as he turned around, he saw a cathartic sight.
"Hey, Clyde! Thank goodness you're here!" said a familiar voice.
"Stella? Guys?!" Clyde blurted out in relief.
Stella, along with his other school friends, Liam, Zach and Rusty were all there.
"We were looking for you at your place, but you weren't home!" Liam said.
"I was looking for Lincoln." Clyde replied.
"Is he not there?" Zach asked.
"It doesn't look like it." Clyde stated.
"Oh no, I hope he's okay." Stella said out of concern.
"It's a shame there's no more power. Otherwise, we could call him." Liam said.
"I know, my phone battery died not long after my parents disappeared." Clyde confirmed.
"Yeah, that sucks. But Lincoln has got LOTS of sisters. I'm sure they're all looking out for him. Besides, we've already got six of us to think about." Rusty justified.
"Six?" Clyde questioned, not thinking a sixth person was present.
"Yeah, my brother Rocky is here, too. Couldn't just leave him." Rusty said as he sidestepped and revealed his little brother was standing behind him.
"Oh, right. Well, hopefully Lincoln will turn up sooner or later. For now, we should probably find some shelter. It looks like rain." Clyde said as he pointed upwards at an increasingly grey sky.
The group began to walk across the streets of Royal Woods in search for some abandoned property of any kind to stay in. As they did so, they looked around. Like the Louds and Casagrandes, they saw some pretty unnerving sights as they wandered…
Lots of wreckage, crashed cars all over the place, blocking a lot of roadways and making travel harder for those left behind. The visual carnage only served to remind the children of the damaged and disorderly world that the disappearing adults left behind.
More small children and babies alone and vulnerable. Crying to themselves as the realisation came to them that they were unlikely to make it. Clyde and the other kids looked around in fright and disgust over the kind of place they were in.
But their biggest concern was about to stare them in the face…
"Hold up, guys." Stella said as she put her hand out, signalling for her friends to stop walking.
In front of the gang appeared a duo of large, burly teenagers. Their reputations preceded them, as they were known to be destructive delinquents. The two of them saw the gang and approached them with evil grins on their faces.
"What are you two doing showing your faces here?!" asked an angry Stella.
"Oh, this kitten's got claws. I like that." Hawk teasingly responded.
"Um, we should just turn around and walk away." Clyde said nervously.
"I agree." Rusty shamelessly told the others, visibly afraid.
"No, we have to stand our ground." Stella insisted.
"Pfft. At least one of you has balls." Hank mockingly said.
"Look, we were just walking by, minding our own. Why don't you just do the same?" Stella proposed.
"Yeah, you city folk ought to learn some country manners." Liam added.
"He said we don't have manners?" Hank asked.
"Yeah, I think you're right. These dorks are disrespecting us!" Hawk said angrily.
"Look, we're sorry. Let's just go and pretend we never saw each other." Rusty said as he turned around and tried to walk off.
But that was a bad move, as there were several other similarly sized burly teenage thugs approaching from behind them.
"You see, with all the grown-ups gone, there's no one to stop us from taking control of this backwater town! In a world where's it's just us, the strong survive, and the weak take a dive!" Hawk explained.
"Ha, good one!" Hank commented.
"Now guys, can't we negotiate this?" Clyde desperately asked.
"Sure. You guys give us everything you have on you. As in money, or anything that might interest us. Then we'll let you go." Hawk said.
"Yeah, or else we'll just beat you guys up and take it anyway!" Hank continued.
"Look, guys. We don't want any trouble. We really don't have anything, so…" Rusty tried to explain, but he was cut off.
"LYING to us?! Oh, that's just making things worse!" Hank responded.
"Yeah, we don't like slimy little snakes! So, make it easier on yourself and give us the goods!" Hawk demanded.
Rusty, Zach and Clyde stepped back and cowered against the threat made against them. Stella, Liam and Rocky tried to stand their ground, but they were all still outnumbered and greatly outmatched by the gang of big, strongly built athletes.
"Okay, fine! Take it! Take all of it!" Rusty pleaded with them, as he emptied his pockets to reveal… a measly two dollars and a small bar of chewing gum.
Clyde then did the same, and he had five dollars to give them.
"Um… I really don't have anything with me, except…" Zach tried to say, but Hawk picked him up and dangled him by one of the legs.
His house keys fell out of his pocket.
"Look what we have here! Keys to the house!" Hank said.
"No, give those back!" Zach shouted.
"I bet they all have house keys. Their parents aren't here, so they must have taken them to go outside. Let's take 'em!" Hawk said.
"No! Get off!" Stella yelled as the thugs began advancing on her and the others.
Stella and the boys did their best to put up a fight, but their efforts were futile, given the numbers and strength advantage of the opposing gang.
Clyde, Rusty, Liam and Zach all received brutal punches to the face that knocked them down like bowling pins, one by one. Little Rocky actually managed to bust one bully's nose, but he was quickly overwhelmed afterwards. Stella kicked and screamed as she did her best to fend off the boys, but they grabbed hold of her and picked her up. They taunted as they carried her over to one of the dumpster bins in the street. They opened the lid, and violently tossed the young girl in, completely humiliating and demoralising her.
"HOUSE RAID!" Hawk shouted as the thugs swiped all the house keys of the kids they had just victimised.
With that, the bullies ran off in victory, no doubt to steal from the houses of the poor young children they just left lying on the ground, badly beaten.
"Ow." Zach muttered as he lied there in pain alongside his friends.
Hank and Hawk weren't the only ones taking advantage of the fact that society had crumbled and the monopoly for power was up for grabs. As Ronnie Anne and her relatives were discussing after having collected all the information they could about the aftermath of 'The Big Vanish'…
"So, apparently we need to watch out for big groups and cults roaming the streets and towns. That paper said that kids are forming lots of 'mini-states', sorta like tribes. These groups are especially prone to fighting for territorial dominance with each other." Ronnie Anne said.
"Yeah? Well, all those jerks have better watch themselves with me around!" Carl bragged.
"Oh, right… sure. I bet they're all soiling themselves at the thought of having to take on the great and powerful Carl Casagrande!" Ronnie sarcastically mocked.
"Hey, I'm tough! You'll see, soon I'll be the one running this dump! Then I'll get some respect!" Carl told his cousin.
"Hey, wait a minute!" Ronnie Anne said as she interrupted Carl's rant.
At the other end of the street, she saw her friends, Sid Chang, Nikki, Sameer and Casey.
As she ran over to greet her friends, they noticed her, too.
"Ronnie Anne!" Sid shouted in excitement.
Ronnie and Sid then ran over to each other and hugged, thankful to see each other given the hard time they, along with everyone else, were dealing with.
"I'm sure glad to see you." Sid said.
"Right back at ya. How are you dealing with this?" Ronnie Anne asked her friends.
"It's not easy, we won't lie. But we have managed to make it so far." Nikki replied.
"Yeah, I miss my family." Sid sadly confessed as she sighed.
"Wait. Sid, I know your parents obviously faded away and everything, but what about your sister?" Ronnie Anne asked.
"Oh, you mean Adelaide? Mom and dad took her out to the park to play in the sandbox for a while. I was left in the apartment alone for an hour. They never came back. After I found out what happened yesterday, I ran to the park to find Adelaide, but she was gone. I don't know where she is!" Sid worryingly stated.
"Sorry to hear that." CJ sympathetically responded.
"Well, you guys should probably stick with us. Strength in numbers, and all that." Casey said.
"Good plan." Ronnie agreed.
"Let's get back to our hideout! I think we've gathered enough food between us for the night." Nikki said.
"Cool! I'm starving, let's eat!" Carl happily agreed.
And with that, the Casagrandes made some new allies. All the better, as they knew they would need strength in numbers if they were to keep pushing on in the new, hostile world without adults or authority.
Sunset approached as the Loud family made their way back to their neighbourhood, having successfully located an abandoned vehicle full of valuable food and fluids. Each family member was carrying multiple bags of goods, as much as each of them could hold and walk with.
"I gotta admit, bro. That was a pretty sweet plan." Lana said.
"Yeah, you really used that little noggin of yours." Luna complimented.
"Aw, thanks. It just came to me in the moment." Lincoln stated.
"With this much food and water, we should have enough to last us at least several weeks, maybe even a few months!" Lucy suggested.
"Contrary to Lucy's prediction, I estimate that given the quantity of retrieved edible goods, take it by the rate of consumption we typically indulge in, and divided by the nine of us, the food we have is only likely to last a month at best." Lisa deducted.
"Ugh! Leave it to the Brainiac to spoil the good moments." Lola moaned.
"She might be right though, dudes. I think we have to consider dialling back on how much we eat and drink. Bare necessities and all that." Luna stated.
"What?! No way! I need lots of protein and carbs for my diet. If I don't get a calorie surplus, I can't get stronger!" Lynn complained.
"I'm sorry, sis, but tough times are ahead. Right now, we need to focus on staying alive, and that means making our food and drink last. Besides LJ, you're already strong enough." Luna justified.
"ARGH!" Lynn yelled in frustration.
"She's right, Lynn." Lucy said.
"I concur with Luna. Rationing is a necessity in times like this." Lisa defended.
With that, the Louds recognised the extent to which luxuries were being cut out from their lives to make way for the priority of survival. Not only did it look like their hobbies and ambitions were taking a backseat to the gravity of the current situation, it appeared even their consumption of food was about to be seriously restricted.
But when the group arrived back at their house, as they approached the front door, something worthy of their attention was nearby.
"Hey, I see something." Lincoln said in curiosity.
The white-haired boy then dropped his bags and quickly ran over to what appeared to be a bunch of kids, beaten up and left in a heap in the middle of the street.
When he finally got close, he became shocked and horrified at what was laying on the ground in front of him.
His friends. Clyde, Rusty, Liam and Zach, and even Rusty's little brother. Stella, too, who was lying on the ground next to a dumpster that had been knocked over.
"Guys! What happened to you!?" Lincoln asked as he checked on the well-being of his friends.
His sisters then slowly walked over to the scene to see what the commotion was about.
"Hey, what happened here?" Lana asked.
"It… was… horrible!" an injured Clyde muttered.
"What was? Tell me, buddy." Lincoln requested as he grabbed a hold of his best friend and tried to help ease his pain.
"Hank… Hawk… watch out! They're here… they're in control… get in your house… lock the door!" Clyde struggled to say as he warned the Louds.
"Hank and Hawk? You mean those two jerks who hurt my leg that time?!" Lynn angrily recalled as she drove her first into her palm.
"Yeah, we scared them away at Halloween, remember?" Luan recollected.
"Well, it looks like they're taking advantage of the fact that there's no adults to stop them from being bullies." Lincoln said.
"Yeah, well, we'll be waiting for them!" Lola told them as she raised her fist into the air, as if she was declaring war.
"Alright! We don't know when or if those thugs will be back, so we better get inside with our grub. We're in for a long, dark night ahead without any streetlights! Lock all the doors and windows and be prepared for any attacks during the night. I know one thing, we're not giving up our house without a fight!" Luna declared to her siblings.
"YEAH!" all the siblings shouted in agreement.
The fight was on.
Authors Footnote:
What do you guys think so far? This concept is one I've given some thought into, and I believe the Loud House has a colourful cast of characters that could make a story like this narratively fulfilling. Keep checking for updates as I upload more chapters. This is only the beginning.