It was blistering cold for Courtney. She was homeless, on the streets, and barely functional. But she was still in the magical world of euphoria.
"Come on Courtney!" A blue talking hedgehog said.
Courtney chuckled as she followed the anthropomorphic creature. As she followed him, the smell of flowers and birthday cakes filled the air.
"Woohoo! Yeah!" She cheered.
Ponies, Pokémon, and Sonic the Hedgehog characters surrounded her with lots of love.
"Oh shit." One of them muttered.
"She's intoxicated with heroin."
"What?" Courtney said.
"Hook her up to the IV!"
Courtney felt herself lifted gently in the air by magic and she flew away from her friends.
"Make yourselves home."
Zack opened the door to his cabin. Everyone felt so relieved to be out of the cold night that they fell asleep almost instantly on whatever comfortable spot they could find. Couches, guest beds, rugs. Courtney checked upstairs to find Peter, still alive and sleeping soundly on Zack's bed. She smiled to herself and slept on the couch.
The smell of pancakes awoke the group. Jack, Quint, June, and Courtney arrived down quickly to scarf them down.
"You look like you've haven't eaten in days." Zack chuckled.
"We've ate up our last food." June said.
Peter arrived in just as everyone finished.
"Peter, you're alive!" Jack cheered.
Everyone embraced Peter.
"Have you seen Quinn by the way?" Quint asked.
"Who?" Zack asked.
"We're looking for a girl who's younger than us, wearing a yellow sweater and long blue pants." Jack clarified.
"Nope. Haven't seen her."
"Then, she's still out there." June said.
Everyone dipped their heads. Not even Peter tried to speak up.
"Hey, don't me those looks." Zack said. "Tell you what, I can help you escape."
Everyone looked up.
"For real?" June asked.
"Yep! I gave you food and shelter didn't I?"
Everyone packed their bags. Peter looked at the phone the writer game him in case he got into any trouble. He placed it into his bag as he rejoined the others.
"Ah! I love the smell is fresh trees in the morning!" Zach said with pride.
"And the rotting corpses of zombies." Peter said to himself.
As they continued on, Peter wondered if he should reveal everything to everyone. Maybe it was best not to lie. But if he showed them a way out, everyone would be mad for not telling them sooner. But still, Zack looks extremely suspicious and seemed to be very charismatic at least to Courtney. Screw it. He took out his phone, but it wouldn't power on. A battery sign appeared on the screen.
"Shit."
"What is it?" Jack asked.
"Battery dead. And of course, we can't find a charging spot."
"Well that sucks." Zack said.
Peter placed his phone away as he followed the rest of the group. Suddenly, the group heard howling.
"Wolves?"
Everyone readied their weapons as they followed the sound. Peter gave quiet signals to prepare for an attack. They emerged from the bushes to find a wolf with its tail trapped in a beartrap.
"Can you free it?" Courtney asks.
Zack quietly examined the trap. He found the release lever with little problem. The wolf bolted away.
"Stop right there, sprouts!"
Everyone immediately dropped their weapons with their hands up. A group of strange men with shaggy hair emerged with guns from all sides.
"Oh shit." Peter muttered.
"Well, what do we have here?"
"Looks like fresh meat, boss." A guy said.
"Cannibals..." Peter thought.
"Keep them alive. Don't want to spoil our dinner."
In a flash, Peter was knocked out cold.
tHIRSTY... SO THIRSTY...
mmmm...
Peter awoke to find himself locked in a cage. One of the cannibals that confronted Peter earlier approached him with a plate.
"Eat it."
A slab of cooked meat and a few slices of carrots came in front of Peter.
"It's deer."
Peter took a bite. It tasted okay, but it nothing like how movies and tv shows portray that food without flavoring can be just as, if not more delicious than foods with flavoring.
"Ugh, it tastes like shit." He heard Courtney's voice say.
"Well too bad."
"What are you going to do to us?" Peter confronted.
The cannibal chuckled. "Keep us feeling healthy."
Peter raised an eyebrow.
"We need more meat to give us the energy to hunt down more food. Every day, many of my people are dying of starvation. Until we found a better way to find meat."
It hit Peter like a sack of bricks. But he kept it to himself before he stirred up trouble.
"Now you got monsters out there roaming around while they rot around until they eat some more."
"You could've all left that wolf in the trap."
The cannibals laughed. Peter's cage was quietly unlocked.
"What are you going to do me?"
"You didn't keep ya mouth shut, we gonna eat you first!"
Peter was dragged away.
Peter awoke to find himself in the kitchen. The cannibals brought him to the chef.
"Um Boyarde, you're eyes..."
Peter looked up. The chef hacked one of the cannibals arms off with his cleaver like a hot knife through butter. The other cannibal was stabbed in the neck by a hooded figure.
"Grab the chef!" The hooded figure said.
Peter got up and grabbed the chef from behind. Out of the chef's mouth popped some black splotch. The hooded figure grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed the chef in the stomach. The chef dropped the cleaver to which the hooded figure grabbed and smacked it on the chef's head. Peter released the body and approached the amputated cannibal.
"Goddamnit. You hacked my arm off!"
Peter responded by just leaving him there to bleed out.
"You okay?" The hooded figure said.
"Who are you?" Peter asked.
"It's okay, he's with me."
The black splotch revealed himself to be Luci. Peter was so happy to see him that he forgot why he was here.
"Luci!"
Both the demon without wings and the boy embraced each other.
"I'm so glad to see a familiar face." Luci said.
The hooded figure unmasked himself to be a red anthropomorphic panda.
"Peter. This is Satoshi."
"Um, konnichiwa?"
"I know English, kid."
"I was just messing with you." Peter said.
"So this is the guy you were telling me about."
"Yep, meet him right now."
"What are you two doing here?"
"That guy with you, Zack, he kidnapped us."
"I knew I shouldn't trust him!" Peter said to himself.
"I mean you still trusted him, that's a pretty dumb move there."
"I only did it to keep an eye on him."
Satoshi checked the hallways before returning. "Let's get out of here before-"
"No, we have to go and rescue my friends!"
Luci and Satoshi followed Peter into the room to where they kept Jack and his friends. He found them all to be missing.
"Damn..." Luci said.
Peter found a wounded cannibal with his stomach impaled.
"Where did they go?"
The cannibal weakly pointed before collapsing.
"Let's go!"