Dboy checked the map in their direction. Even though the detour took a while, it did help them to get around hitting major cities. But the weather was getting much colder and rougher, and they all needed to stop at civilization soon to get some supplies and warmer clothes. Feeling the frostbite on his fingers while looking at the map, hatred seethed in Dboy. He knew he should've died after dropping down in the river. And unfortunately, he knew Shmee and the others would refuse to kill him... he felt that suffering was all he was going to experience. It was fine to Dboy before turning into flesh and blood. Now humanoid, the pain of the cold was on a different level.

Smelling in the ocean air Eff grinned ear to ear, "Taking the walk near the shore is a great change of scenery," He said aloud in his scratchy voice.

Sickness shrugged not bothering to look at the sea down below their path. "Yeah if you want to freeze to death." She said as she tucked her boney hands under her arms.

Shmee's eyes gleamed looking at the cloudy marine layer, almost hypnotized by the physical world, "It is beautiful."

They've been talking like this for a while now Dboy thought rolling his eyes. He would try to skin Reverend later for this small talk.

"Todd Casil was his name?" Reverend asked Shmee who was still soaking in the view.

"Correct," he replied, "Oh but you see he was never meant to be a flusher same with Devi. Both just had gotten "infected" for a lack of a better word."

"So that's why I wasn't really able to over take her?" Sickness asked with peaked interest.

"Yes love," Shmee said, "It wasn't because you were "weak," it was because you were barking up the wrong tree. Same with Todd and me. Although through that trial and error I found out how to control him and in the end use him to my benefit"

Eff interested now, he wanted to find out a way to do what Shmee did Todd also, "So you overtook his body in order to escape, how'd you do that?" He asked.

Shmee shrugged tilting his head, which seemed to be a habit for him, "I dunno. A simple "let me in?" Cassie, the desk lady there, was in trouble since somebody tied her dainty wrists to a toilet." He finished while side-eyeing Eff before continuing.

"Either way he submitted to me and I took full advantage of that. Simple for me. Through his death, I was born."

"Somehow you knew that was certain? Okay I'll buy that for now," Eff said putting his hood up against the bitter wind, "Johnny C, the boy died once before and came back. You seem to know about that in-depth more than us."

Shmee started to fidget with his Rubik's cube in boredom, "Yes, I do. I knew the world ended as our dear Creator devoured it like that. But things got cleaned up as soon as Johnny came back."

Reverend spoke up, "So how are we all here?"

Shmee grinned, "Oh Reverend! You said it yourself: you're always a slave to something. Of course, you couldn't convince nny of certain beliefs as he started new temperance in his life after dying. Yet, he still had some residual feelings for the first half of his life that manifested in you. And if it weren't for you Reverend - the doughboys, Sickness, and I wouldn't be here. You were the true indicator that the Creator's impression of Johnny didn't totally die out even after he ran off. Even when you reincarnated in a landfill, Sickness crawled out of Devi's apartment and the doughboys woke up in Nny's house - it was enough energy to get us here now."

Dboy became irritated more than ever as Shmee continued to talk. It was starting to feel like salt being rubbed into a wound. Eff noticed how the voice of Misery clenching his fists into white knuckles and knew this conversation was getting under his skin

An opportunity to push it.

"What happens with flushers like Nny then? Where do you think he is now?" Eff asked Shmee with a large smile on his face.

"Ohhhh our dear Creator had no choice but to be done with Nny. You know I have a feeling he's out somewhere right now living his life not killing or haunted by what afflicted him. He's a retired flusher. A rarity I like to think." Shmee said and continued, "But they do usually die. I know for a fact Johnny came in direct prolonged contact with a flusher that met a tragic end. Which is how he was turned. I always believed that to be certain. But with Nny the outcome was different, he came back from the dead. So the creator expunged us before totally disappearing in one last oorah. All because Nny never really got over shit, and because of that our creator was finished here on earth."

Dboy halted in his tracks after hearing this. Eff, Reverend, Shmee, and Sickness took notice of him up ahead the trail as he crumbled to his knees, screaming.

"WHAT A FUCKING DICKHEAD THIS COCKSUCKING MOTHERFUCKER!"

Dboy snapped pounding his fist into the forest ground, he wanted to kill Johnny for bringing him into existence in the first place.

"All this shit I had to deal with he should've just stayed in hell! I was there! I was reclaimed! I was back on the other side! That beast fucking knew that...why couldn't I just have stayed there?!" He continued to scream while his voice cracked.

Eff tried to conceal his cackling as he watched Dboys outburst while Sickness and Reverend looked in bewilderment. Shmee walked past them to squat next to Dboy as angry tears flowed from his furious glowing blue eyes.

"You're misery personified." Shmee said quietly to Dboy, "You are closer to the unknown than the rest of us. But the creator wasn't powerful enough, in the end, to keep any of us contained. Unlike you, the rest of us have a desire for life. You were outnumbered in a way. Shit happens though. The blood on the wall dried up & that's it."

Silence stretched on as Shmee stood and turned toward the rest of the group.

"But I think it goes without saying, Dboy still has a special connection to another side possibly from the Creator. If I would've been a voice of Misery I would too, but I absorb trauma, I don't really entice anything except violence from time to time."

Reverend sighed, "Everyone here except Dboy has similar objectives. And although you are powerful Shmee, perhaps Eff, myself and Sickness are powerful enough to go against you or Dboy. But after connecting the dots I can only assume Dboy isn't going to be out of his "misery" any time soon."

Getting up from the ground, Dboy marched over to Reverend and grabbed him by his collar choking him as he strung his neck tight, "Just what the fuck are you assuming you disgusting meat man?! What's going through that cesspool of a head?!" He barked as his blue swirling eyes kept spinning in rage. Dboy didn't and couldn't accept this theory that he couldn't be killed or ended.

" I-I-I can't be cer-tain," Reverend choked out, "It's just a bullshit - theory!"

Dboy then aggressively threw Reverend to the ground as Eff laughed maniacally.

"Y'know..." Eff said gleefully, "I've been wrong about our Master. I think he might've favored me after all. He couldn't reclaim you because what's the point of using up all that dying energy when being expunged is much easier when the rest of his extensions wanted to."

Eff rejoiced in laughter at his seeming win over Dboy. The two doughboys' only joy in life was to always make the other suffer to affirm their own convictions and in the end, it seemed Eff had won.

Shmee stared at Dboy who held his face in his hands emitting unimaginable anger. He couldn't help but reassure a small theory of his own, a consequence of his entire being really.

"Going to Maine has been called on you Dboy. Maybe there is something awaiting you there that's going to end your suffering. What it is we don't know. But what I know for certain is I'm not being reclaimed. None of us are."

Stomping away ahead of the group, Dboy didn't want to hear it anymore. Ending his part of the conversation for the day.

Sickness walked up next to Shmee, curious about what the most powerful of the 5 members knew.

"How are you certain of that?" She asked.

Shmee twiddled the puzzle cube around in his hand as he walked along the trail with the rest of the group. It was really difficult to figure out the unknown especially being a by-product of the unknown. Shmee thought it would just be like trying to solve a Rubik's cube. But once you figured out the strategy, it would get easier to figure out other things as well. In the end, you can be proud to see your solution. However this was their Creator, and it was everything and nothing. Created in both heaven and hell but put here on earth to destroy and put balance to it.

Shmee sighed heavily at Sickness, & replied, "I'm not, but I am certain that depressed fool is the only one feeling this way because of what he represents. The rest of us can't connect with his very existence since we're not like him - a voice of Misery yearning for everything to end."