CHAPTER 44

Fred, Daphne and Velma awoke around 9pm.

'Sleeping schedules are like, well and truly messed up,' Shaggy chuckled.

Despite being in what seemed like a permanent state of exhaustion, they were all itching to get back to Headquarters. The hike they would have to take loomed over them like a dark cloud, but they all knew the cloud would give way once they re-entered their safe zone. Shaggy and Scooby loaded the packs with whatever food looked good, which included a lot of tin cans. Daphne took some food as well, and some blankets, towels, sleeping bags and a spare tent. Velma took the weapons pack and Fred brought down some supplies, including a hammer, chicken wire and some bricks. It was far heavier than the other packs, but Fred insisted he had good reason for it.

Compared to what they'd accomplished over the past couple of days, the walk to the Lookout was easy. As was tradition, they had a midnight snack overlooking the vast plains and valley that lay beneath them. There were some distinct differences Velma noticed in the landscape, after having not been in this area for a while. When they first came, the bush was dusty, dry and parched. Now, after the huge rainstorm, there were bright green shoots sprouting up from all over the ground. The dusty track had become firmer and it was even muddy in some areas. It wasn't surprising considering the amount of rain it would had received while they were away. In some ways, Velma thought, it was lucky they weren't down in the depths of the valley during the heavy rain. They would've felt it even more so, especially with all the trees around. Branches falling and the threat of flooding from the river would've made it dangerous. They were lucky they had a roof over their heads during that downpour.

What if something like that happened again? Surely there was more they could all do to make Headquarters into more of a home. It would be a fun little project; something to distract them all from toxic thoughts of death and war.

'Rhat's wrong, Relma?' Scooby asked.

They all turned to look at her.

'Huh? Oh, nothing. I was just lost in thought.'

'Rhat about?'

'I guess I was just thinking about ways to help us survive down there.'

'What are your ideas?' Fred asked.

'Well, I haven't really thought them through… they're just ideas really.'

Daphne pulled out a pen and notepad from her pack and looked up at Velma expectantly. 'This is important. Let's brainstorm!'

'Great, I'll get the textas and butcher's paper,' Velma said sarcastically.

'Ha. Funny. I'm serious!'

'Okay, okay. Well, for starters, we need to be prepared for floods.'

'We could build a floodwall,' Fred said thoughtfully. 'When we get down there, we could map out the areas that flooded the worst and build something inconspicuous to stop it from happening again.'

'Oh,' Velma said, surprised. 'Great!'

'I've got a project of my own I want to work on,' Fred said. 'I want to create a safer harness system for getting up and down from Headquarters.'

'Reah. Rhat's rimportant and it'll make it less rary,' Scooby nodded. 'At the rarmhouse, Ri collected some seeds. Ri want to start a reggie patch.'

'Yes, Scooby!' Daphne clapped. She bent over her notebook and scribbled into it.

'That's a really good idea, and it's exactly the type of thing we need to do,' Velma agreed.

Scooby looked very proud that he had thought of something worthy of both Daphne and Velma's praise.

'Sustainable, long term living,' she continued. 'Headquarters has optimal conditions for growing things because it's damp and sunny. Plus, we really need fresh fruit and veggies in our diet.'

'Ror we'll ret scurvy!'

'Among other things, yes, I suppose we may be at risk of that.'

'I think we have bigger issues than scurvy,' Fred commented.

'Like, speaking of long term, we could also like, I don't know… How do I word this? Y'know how farms are like, pretty self-sufficient? We could do something like that,' Shaggy said.

'Do you mean something like keeping a chicken coop?' Daphne suggested.

'Like, yeah! Eggs everyday would be nice!'

Daphne smiled and jotted that down as well.

'Re could bring down a cow for rilk!' Scooby said.

'Sure, Scooby, you try attaching a cow to a harness and dangling it over a cliff,' Daphne said, and they all laughed at that.

'There's also some housekeeping things we'll have to do, such as maintaining the dunny,' Velma said. 'Unfortunately, we'll need to dig a new one. I have a horrible feeling our current one may be flooded.'

'Speaking of which, we could play around with the irrigation system down there. We could work on achieving maximum efficiency for the veggie patch and also easy access to water for boiling and cooking,' Fred said.

'Sure,' Velma agreed, 'but that'll be difficult.'

Fred's eyes lit up. 'It sounds fun! Oh, and also, I think it's a good idea to maybe dig some draining trenches around the tents. I hate damp tents.'

'Like, sounds like a good idea.' Shaggy said.

'Raggy and Ri will volunteer as the rhefs,' Scooby announced.

'What a surprise!' Daphne remarked.

Shaggy chuckled. 'Like yeah. Even with our limited food supplies, we like, want to experiment with cooking the most, like, sustaining meals.'

'Re also need more rariation. Reven I am getting sick of rice and ramper all the rime.'

'You said it, man.'

'Radd a rittle spice,' Scooby said, giving them a chef's kiss at the end.

'That'll help a lot,' Fred nodded. 'It's amazing what a difference the quality of food makes to your day.'

'Rit's the rower of food!' Scooby said.

'This is another idea I've been thinking about,' Velma said slowly. 'Say if Headquarters was discovered. Highly unlikely, but just say it was. We should be prepared for that. We have backup food and supplies in the Subie, but I was thinking we could place some food and supplies in places around the mountains.'

'Sure. And if we're coming back from a raid or something, we can go to those locations if we're really desperate,' Daphne nodded.

'Like, sort of like little care packages scattered around the mountains?' Shaggy asked.

Velma nodded. 'Yeah, exactly! We can throw in some first aid supplies too, just in case.'

'How's the list coming along, Daph?' Fred asked.

'Pretty good! I'm just going to add a couple of extra little things down the bottom.'

Daphne shifted her position so that she was getting maximum moonlight on her page. When she finished, she read it through to herself. Satisfied, she started to read it out to the others.

'Alright, here we go. Things to do in Headquarters:

1. Build a floodwall

2. Improve harness system for ascent and descent into the valley

3. Grow a veggie patch

4. Construct a chook coop

5. Dig a new dunny

6. Improve the irrigation

7. Dig draining trenches around tents

8. Cooking

9. Make food packages and place them around the mountains

10. Chopping wood

11. Dishwashing

12. Clean rifles

'That's it.' She looked up from her notebook. 'Yeah?'

They all nodded back at her.

'Yeah! That's fantastic! Almost an exhaustive list!'

'Rou need to add ruilding a rlace for the row,' Scooby said.

'The cow? Scooby, you can't be serious about that,' Daphne laughed.

'Red said he will rix the rarness! Ranything is rossible!'

'Fine, I'll write it in beside the chooks. In brackets.'

'I guess we've made the decision to arm ourselves?' Shaggy sighed, referring to number 12 on the list.

Daphne pursed her lips together and nodded sympathetically at him. 'So it appears.'

'I'm like, not opposed to it as before. Like, it still horrifies me but, you like, saved our lives with that thing, Daph.'

'That thing? The gun?'

'Reah.'

'It's necessary,' Velma said. 'If it really disturbs you that much, think of it as a form self-defence.'

'Like, I try to, but deep down, I know it's for more than that.'

'We all know,' Fred said. 'But we're the good guys, remember? Shaggy, sometimes good guys have to carry guns or the bad guys will wipe us out.'

A lifelong comic fan, Shaggy seemed to appreciate the superhero reference. Privately, he agreed with his friends, but it was difficult when it went against every value he had lived by his whole life.

They packed up the food and made their way towards the tree trunk. It was mossier than before, and the ride down was more like a terrifying slide than a neat shimmy. At the base, Fred walked over to the edge where they had tied the rope and spent ages examining the area and making measurements with a pocket tape measure he had acquired from somewhere. He borrowed a page from Daphne's notebook to record the values and said he would start constructing a harness system while at Headquarters.

From their earlier supply raids, Fred had managed to accrue a healthy range of various items. He was pleasantly surprised when they had returned to the Subie the previous night and found them all lying there, just waiting for him to use them. His pack was loaded with them, and Fred couldn't wait to get started on the most important "trap" of his life.

'Hey, Freddie, is the rope still safe?' Daphne asked.

'True,' Velma said. 'After the rain and everything.'

Fred bent down and examined the rope and the knot very carefully. He turned it over in his hands, tugged it, smelt it, even licked it, then placed it back down on the ground.

'It's safe,' he confirmed.

'Are you sure?' Velma pressed.

'Have a little faith in Freddie's knots, Velma,' Daphne said. 'He knows his ropes.'

'Half down, then packs, then the other half down. Ready?' Fred said.

'Too easy.'

~oO*Oo~

An hour later, all five of them were safely on the valley floor with all the packs. They were all buzzing with excitement at the thought of seeing their home again, but the excitement was not without worries about the extent of the flooding damage. Their first impressions of re-entering valley were of how soggy the bush was.

All the same, they picked up their packs and hiked the remaining ten minutes into their clearing. Daphne was exhausted; her feet were aching and her body wanted nothing more than to stop, but her mind didn't allow it. In the last couple of weeks, she had managed to successfully silence her body's screams of agony. In a way, you almost had to turn your mind off to get though it. One foot in front of the other, around this tree, behind that one, around the corner…

'Awe, Freddie,' she squealed.

'What?'

Daphne pointed to the tree in front of them. 'That's so adorable!' she said, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

'Huh? Oh yeah! I forgot I did that!'

When the Mystery Machine had exploded on that fateful night, Fred had taken the circular spare tyre cover from the front of the van. Though it had been burning hot, it was the only part of the Mystery Machine that wasn't totally destroyed. It still had some battle scars: burn marks and scratches, and the vibrant colours of the red flower and green background had faded, but it was ultimately a symbol of who they were.

Fred had no idea how he managed to get that down to Headquarters. That entire incident felt like one crazy blur to him. It was still difficult to believe it was even real. But he had a clear memory of polishing it and threading some rope around it to hang up on the tree just outside the clearing. He had forgotten to tell the others because it happened right before they last left Headquarters, and he had too much else on his mind.

Velma grinned: a real, proper smile that they hadn't seen for a long time. 'I really love that.'

'Like, it's symbolism dudes!' Shaggy gasped. 'Look at it! It's us; it's burned and scarred, but it's still in one piece. Like we are!'

'Reah, wow!'

'Looks like English class wasn't wasted on you after all, Shaggy,' Velma said good-naturedly, rolling her eyes.

'Like, if we ever get out of this, make sure you tell my English teacher what I just said. Maybe I'll like, pick up some extra marks along the way!'

With that said, they stepped into Headquarters. They had prepared for the worst, and as expected, it had been heavily flooded and the tents were flattened and drenched. The supply tent had blown off completely, and things like food containers and the first aid kit were scattered randomly around the clearing. The wind has even managed to move the campfire logs around, and one was currently floating in the river. The ground was squelchy and littered with leaves and twigs of varying sizes, but it was home.

They all breathed a collective sigh of relief. Being in unfamiliar bush had been stressful. Every day, their lives had depended on each other. That in itself was exhausting, and tensions had been high because everyone was in desperate need of some alone time. Now, after so long, they stood in the valley, feeling united as a group again. The cool, moist air sent a wave of friendship cascading through them. Finally, they could be alone and together at the same time, and above all, they were safe and free.

'Wow,' Daphne said quietly.

She honestly thought she would've gone completely mad if they had spent another day lost in the bush. She didn't think she could cope with the pressure of people constantly watching her and looking to kill her anymore. Her scream the previous night had shown that. The reprieve from the stress could not have come at a better time.

Velma stepped in front of the others and looked to them expectantly. 'Well, we have quite a bit of work to do.'

'I'm glad though,' Daphne said. 'I don't think I could stand it if we were stuck down here with nothing to do.'

'Like, ditto. It's going to be a good, productive distraction.'

Fred walked onward into Headquarters. 'This is like the first time we found the clearing. Remember how exhausted and relieved we were?'

'How innocent we were!' Velma scoffed. 'We didn't even know the meaning of exhaustion.'

'True. Still, I'm getting déjà vu,' Fred said.

'Get over it,' Daphne said, punching him lightly on the arm.

'Did you just tell me to get over my déjà vu?'

She laughed. 'Yes.'

'Well, like, so much for sleeping,' Shaggy groaned, motioning to the sopping wet tents on the ground, that were probably also infiltrated with silt and mud.

'I have a spare one in my pack,' Daphne said. 'It was going to be for Velma, but in light of this, I'm sure she won't mind if the five of us pile in for tonight.'

'Oh, what fun,' Velma said. 'Can five people even fit in there?'

'We'll make it work,' Fred said. 'You know what tomorrow's first job is?'

'Mm?'

'It'll be tent and sleeping bag drying day!'