Author's Notes: Hi again!
Alrighty. I'm evil. Just so I say that right up front. I hope I don't get killed for this chapter. I warn you, there's some swearing and blood (poor Stanley! ^_~).
Wonderful oh wonderful reviews:
WheelerChick: Yes! * Kicks Mr. Sir as well * Heh. Well, this chapter doesn't have a cliffhanger. I think. I don't really know what qualifies as a cliffhanger anymore. ^_~ Sorry, I had this written a long time ago, but my life's been hectic. Sorry bout that. Hmmmm....* gets into Holes- plot-thinking-mode *. .... * ponders * I'll think about it. I'll let you know if I do! * spreads holes love far and wide *
H-Chan: Gee, thanks! Poor Stanley is right. You have no idea what I have in store for the little guy.
Incubus4lotr: You have a really hard screen name to type out, you know that? -_- lol. Ok. Anyway... It's ok. I'll do it for you. YO! Stanley! * Stanley comes over * Hey Stanley!
Stanley: Erm. Hi.
Man: * gives Stanley a hug * That was from Incubus4lotr.
Stanley: * Scratches head * Uh. Ok. * leaves*
Hheheheheh. Oh, by the way, I read your fic about a week ago. I reviewed. My computer crashed. Review go byebye. Man get mad at computer and go outside. End of story. It was good though! Keep it up with the Holes storys, everyone!
Shae Elven Heart: Alright! Heheh! I call him Stanleypoo too! Mwahaha.
Lotrfreek/holesfreek: Hmm, we get a lot of lotr fans here, don't we? ^_~ No, I checked. No Holes section in the movies section. A couple fics, but no section.
GeeseFlySouthForTheWinter: No, it's not good. I will keep writing! Thanks for the encouragement! Sorry 'bout the cliffy. I don't think there's one here...You'll have to tell me! Yeah, I figure (along with WheelerChick and other authors!) that Squid would be jealous of Caveman. Yeah, I love my lil' Zero! * huggles Zero * He's so cute and cuddly! * pats him on head *
Alrighty, because of the delay in updating and the evil cliffhanger, this is a semi-longer chapter. Hope you like it!
~*~
Zero walked slightly in front of the other D-Tent boys after Mr. Sir. The other boys followed through the dirt and sand; the sun hadn't risen yet. Stanley still hadn't come back.
Mr. Sir was weaving through the holes, not able to walk in a straight line.
"Maybe he'll fall in." Magnet muttered.
As Mr. Sir told them where to dig, the D-Tent boys stared at his back, hoping to extract answers just by glaring at him. Finally, X-Ray asked the question.
"Where's Caveman?"
Mr. Sir turned around, and peered at him through squinted eyes. He chewed on some sunflower seeds as he pulled his cowboy hat lower over his eyes.
"Dig." He grunted, and turned away; not answering X-Rays question.
Squid covered his eyes and looked out over the dirt to the retreating form of Mr. Sir. Suddenly, he laughed.
"Ha! The bastard tripped and almost fell in!" He sniggered.
"Shut up, Squid." Armpit grunted from where he was already starting his hole.
Giggles came from where Zigzag was digging, and X-Ray rolled his eyes. But X-Ray was starting to get very worried about Caveman. Shouldn't he be here by now? To be gone for a day, it wasn't normal. He pushed his glasses higher up on his nose and glared at his shovel. He liked his shorter one much better.
Zero just sighed. He had his hat pulled low over his eyes, with some stubborn black curls sticking out from the bottom. He was already a good way into his hole. Where was Stanley?
~*~
With a gasp, Stanley's hands flew to his stomach. He was leaning up against the wall for support, and was starting to slide down. Mr. Sir brought the red-taped shovel away from Stanley and through the shovel to the ground, it's metal blade covered in blood.
Mr. Sir sneered at Stanley, and left the office, the door slamming after him.
Stanley concentrated on breathing. In, out. In, out. He brought his hands shakily up to his face and was startled to see both hands completely covered in blood. It reminded him almost of finger-painting when he was younger with red paint. Slowly, Stanley looked down to his stomach.
His orange suit was ripped across his stomach. A five-inch gash was just above his navel. His skin was torn wide open, and blood was pouring out, staining his orange suit red. Staring down, the sudden shock passed and harsh dizziness and pain assailed him. He cried out, but the hoarse scream was lost in the wooden cabin.
Stanley shoved his hands into the hole in his stomach, and took a few uncertain steps towards the door. He couldn't stay here, not Mr. Sir's office. What if he came back? He stumbled, but continued to walk towards the door. He had to get out of here. He reached the door, and leaned against it, closing his eyes. If only he could close his eyes for a moment...
Stanley's eyes snapped open. No. He couldn't take the risk. Mr. Sir might come back to finish the job. He took a heavily shaking hand out of his wound and pushed the door open with his arm. Somehow he didn't think Mr. Sir would like it if he left a bloody handprint on his office door.
As he came out into the sun, the world spun harder, and he couldn't tell up from down or left from right. His stomach turned over and he thought he was going to be sick. He just pressed his stomach harder to try weakly to stop the blood and continued to stagger on his way. The pain in his stomach intensified with the heat, and a cold sweat broke out on his forehead. For the first time in how many months, Stanley was cold. He couldn't figure out why, the sun was burning hard and as hot as ever. Maybe it had something to do with the incredible pain in his stomach.
Stanley didn't know where he was going, but stumbled out in the direction of six clouds of dust on the dried lake bottom.
~*~
Zigzag dug his hole deeper, and deeper. He chucked the loose dirt up over his right shoulder, and into a growing pile on the surface of the lake. As he threw the new dirt over, he saw something fly through the air from his shovel and into his dirt pile. Eagerly, he searched through his pile. Maybe he would get the day off! Finding it was just a stupid rock, he through it back down and picked up his shovel again. His hole was the closest to camp, and when he thought he heard something like a groan, he looked up from putting the rock back in the pile.
He saw a slightly bent over figure walking towards them, feet slightly dragging in the dirt. There was something familiar about the figure...
"CAVEMAN!" Zigzag shouted, and jumped out of his hole.
Heads of the rest of D-Tent snapped up and looked out to where Zigzag was pointing. As the figure got closer, they saw Zigzag was right, and it was indeed Caveman. The boys leaped out of their holes and ran towards him. Why wasn't he going any faster?
Zero ran as well, realizing immediately that something was wrong. It wasn't like Stanley to just walk slowly like that.
~*~
Stanley wasn't feeling well, to say the least. His hands were firmly in his wound, and fresh blood was trickling down the side of his face. He felt dizzy and sick, and was shivering from cold, despite the sun and the fact he was sweating. Pain was coming in waves from his stomach, sharp and hard.
He heard someone yell up ahead, and tried to lift his head to see who it was. He couldn't, only weakly tilt his head up. The bright sun sliced into his eyes, and the darkness that had been hovering on the edge of his vision increased, and he felt himself falling as he passed out into the darkness.
*
((I was going to stop there, but it was pretty short, so I'll go longer.))
*
"STANLEY!" Zero shouted, causing surprised and disbelieving faces from the other boys to be turned in their direction while they were running. Zero never talked. Ever. Only to Stanley. Even so, for Zero to yell something was out of the ordinary.
As the boys came closer they saw what was wrong. Stanley had two hands pressed to his stomach, and a trickle of something dark running down the side of his face. Just as they came level with him, he raised his head a little, and they saw the shockingly paleness of his face, before he suddenly fainted and fell to the ground.
The boys dropped to their knees beside him and Zigzag reached and pulled him over, face up. With a strangled yelp, he brought his hands away and gasped, staring at them.
"Bloo...Blood." He stammered, eyes wide.
"No shit Sherlock." Squid muttered as he stared at the unconscious boy lying in front of him.
Stanley's hands had fallen away from his stomach as he fell. Dried blood covered his hands completely, and the front of his orange suit. Blood streamed down from a cut on his head, hidden by his hair. A huge gash was in his stomach, ugly and pouring out fresh blood. Stanley's face was pale and sweaty, but even though he was unconscious he was shivering.
"Holy-" Magnet started but X-Ray cut him off.
"Someone get Mom!" He said insistently, but no-one got up.
Zigzag fell back and started muttering, eyes wide.
"He killed him. I knew he would. You guys didn't believe me, but he did. He's dead; Mr. Sir killed him. He killed him-" He murmured, staring at Stanley.
"Shut UP Zig, he's not dead!" X-Ray snapped, hitting the boy over the head. The leader of the D-Tent boys started to give orders. "Armpit, get off your ass and go get mom."
Armpit nodded, looking dazedly at the blood seeping into the dirt. He didn't move.
"ARMPIT!"
The boy's head snapped up.
"Go. Get. Mom." X-Ray said slowly. Armpit wasn't dumb, but he certainly wasn't getting the message.
This time Armpit got up and took off towards camp.
Suddenly, Magnet's head snapped up. "Where's Zero?"
X-Ray turned and saw the short boy running towards them from the holes. He must have left without them noticing.
"What are we going to do?" Zigzag asked, panicking. Without Stanley's hands pressed to his stomach, the blood was coming faster.
"We gotta stop the blood, dumbass." Squid muttered. He looked at his dirty hands for a second, then tried uselessly to rub them clean on his even dirtier orange suit. With a shrug he just pressed his hands onto the gash in Stanley's stomach.
"Uhm. How do you know first aid, Squid?" Magnet asked.
Squid just glared at him, and kept the pressure on the wound, but pressed Stanley's hands there to.
Suddenly, Zero was back. He had his water bottle, and pulling off the top, poured the contents on Stanley's face.
~*~
Stanley opened his eyes to a cold shock, which sent him into even more spasms of shivering. He tried to sit up, but hands were pushing him down. He realized there were five faces looking down at him. Through the dizziness, he tried to concentrate on the face directly above him.
"Zero, dude, you wasted your water." He mumbled to Zero, who had still been trying to shake water from his empty bottle. Zero just smiled down at him.
Something jarred his stomach, and he cried out as new waves of pain came on.
"Sorry, man." Squid said. Stanley tried and finally pulled Squid's face into focus. He shook his head slightly, and some of the dizziness went away.
Stanley realized his hands were pressed to his stomach in something wet and sticky. Something was holding his hands down. It was Squid. So that's why he had said sorry.
Stanley squeezed his eyes shut, and then opened them with determination.
"Help me up." He said. The boys above him looked at each other, than shook their heads. "Come on." He pleaded. Lying flat on his back in the middle of the desert wasn't exactly thrilling.
"Caveman...you don't know how it looks, man." X-Ray said.
"Just help him up." Zero said quietly. The other boys looked at him in surprise, then nodded.
As he was helped to his feet, new dizziness assailed him. He squeezed his eyes shut, but it didn't help. The pain in his stomach increased, as well as the weakness. He was still shaking. He was standing, but with Zigzag and Magnet's help. All of a sudden his stomach, which had been going in circles because of the dizziness, roiled. As his stomach churned and lurched, he broke away from the boys and stumbled toward a vacant hole.
"Yo! Caveman! Where are you going?" Magnet yelled, but Zigzag chased after him and caught him as his knees buckled as he reached the edge of the hole. He leaned over and threw up into the hole, with Zigzag supporting him and keeping him from falling in. "Common, man, it's ok." Zigzag murmured as Stanley continued to heave.
"Ew." Magnet commented calmly from with the other boys.
All the boys had experience with people throwing up. Barf Bag had gotten heat stroke his first day there and had thrown up for two days straight. But he had never been this weak, and needed someone to hold him up.
When Stanley had finished, he was weak and barely able to move.
"Alright, just a bit farther. You can do it, common. It's going to be ok." Zigzag muttered to Stanley. Zigzag put Stanley's arm around his own neck and put his arm around Stanley's waist. It helped to be tall. Zigzag didn't even notice he was getting covered in blood in the process.
By this time, the other boys had come over and Zigzag let Stanley down again. Squid took the bandana out from under his baseball cap and pressed it over Stanley's stomach, which had never stopped bleeding.
"Back where we started." X-Ray said, shaking his head.
~*~
Author's Note: Mwahahahaha! I think I'm sadistic. You know what? I've been torturing my favourite characters since I was nine. Hmmm....
Lol.
Anywho, please oh please review! As you've probably noticed by now, I answer them all personally. ( I can't afford to hire someone to do it, ^_~)
Alright, till next time,
Luv y'all,
~Eh, Man
Alrighty. I'm evil. Just so I say that right up front. I hope I don't get killed for this chapter. I warn you, there's some swearing and blood (poor Stanley! ^_~).
Wonderful oh wonderful reviews:
WheelerChick: Yes! * Kicks Mr. Sir as well * Heh. Well, this chapter doesn't have a cliffhanger. I think. I don't really know what qualifies as a cliffhanger anymore. ^_~ Sorry, I had this written a long time ago, but my life's been hectic. Sorry bout that. Hmmmm....* gets into Holes- plot-thinking-mode *. .... * ponders * I'll think about it. I'll let you know if I do! * spreads holes love far and wide *
H-Chan: Gee, thanks! Poor Stanley is right. You have no idea what I have in store for the little guy.
Incubus4lotr: You have a really hard screen name to type out, you know that? -_- lol. Ok. Anyway... It's ok. I'll do it for you. YO! Stanley! * Stanley comes over * Hey Stanley!
Stanley: Erm. Hi.
Man: * gives Stanley a hug * That was from Incubus4lotr.
Stanley: * Scratches head * Uh. Ok. * leaves*
Hheheheheh. Oh, by the way, I read your fic about a week ago. I reviewed. My computer crashed. Review go byebye. Man get mad at computer and go outside. End of story. It was good though! Keep it up with the Holes storys, everyone!
Shae Elven Heart: Alright! Heheh! I call him Stanleypoo too! Mwahaha.
Lotrfreek/holesfreek: Hmm, we get a lot of lotr fans here, don't we? ^_~ No, I checked. No Holes section in the movies section. A couple fics, but no section.
GeeseFlySouthForTheWinter: No, it's not good. I will keep writing! Thanks for the encouragement! Sorry 'bout the cliffy. I don't think there's one here...You'll have to tell me! Yeah, I figure (along with WheelerChick and other authors!) that Squid would be jealous of Caveman. Yeah, I love my lil' Zero! * huggles Zero * He's so cute and cuddly! * pats him on head *
Alrighty, because of the delay in updating and the evil cliffhanger, this is a semi-longer chapter. Hope you like it!
~*~
Zero walked slightly in front of the other D-Tent boys after Mr. Sir. The other boys followed through the dirt and sand; the sun hadn't risen yet. Stanley still hadn't come back.
Mr. Sir was weaving through the holes, not able to walk in a straight line.
"Maybe he'll fall in." Magnet muttered.
As Mr. Sir told them where to dig, the D-Tent boys stared at his back, hoping to extract answers just by glaring at him. Finally, X-Ray asked the question.
"Where's Caveman?"
Mr. Sir turned around, and peered at him through squinted eyes. He chewed on some sunflower seeds as he pulled his cowboy hat lower over his eyes.
"Dig." He grunted, and turned away; not answering X-Rays question.
Squid covered his eyes and looked out over the dirt to the retreating form of Mr. Sir. Suddenly, he laughed.
"Ha! The bastard tripped and almost fell in!" He sniggered.
"Shut up, Squid." Armpit grunted from where he was already starting his hole.
Giggles came from where Zigzag was digging, and X-Ray rolled his eyes. But X-Ray was starting to get very worried about Caveman. Shouldn't he be here by now? To be gone for a day, it wasn't normal. He pushed his glasses higher up on his nose and glared at his shovel. He liked his shorter one much better.
Zero just sighed. He had his hat pulled low over his eyes, with some stubborn black curls sticking out from the bottom. He was already a good way into his hole. Where was Stanley?
~*~
With a gasp, Stanley's hands flew to his stomach. He was leaning up against the wall for support, and was starting to slide down. Mr. Sir brought the red-taped shovel away from Stanley and through the shovel to the ground, it's metal blade covered in blood.
Mr. Sir sneered at Stanley, and left the office, the door slamming after him.
Stanley concentrated on breathing. In, out. In, out. He brought his hands shakily up to his face and was startled to see both hands completely covered in blood. It reminded him almost of finger-painting when he was younger with red paint. Slowly, Stanley looked down to his stomach.
His orange suit was ripped across his stomach. A five-inch gash was just above his navel. His skin was torn wide open, and blood was pouring out, staining his orange suit red. Staring down, the sudden shock passed and harsh dizziness and pain assailed him. He cried out, but the hoarse scream was lost in the wooden cabin.
Stanley shoved his hands into the hole in his stomach, and took a few uncertain steps towards the door. He couldn't stay here, not Mr. Sir's office. What if he came back? He stumbled, but continued to walk towards the door. He had to get out of here. He reached the door, and leaned against it, closing his eyes. If only he could close his eyes for a moment...
Stanley's eyes snapped open. No. He couldn't take the risk. Mr. Sir might come back to finish the job. He took a heavily shaking hand out of his wound and pushed the door open with his arm. Somehow he didn't think Mr. Sir would like it if he left a bloody handprint on his office door.
As he came out into the sun, the world spun harder, and he couldn't tell up from down or left from right. His stomach turned over and he thought he was going to be sick. He just pressed his stomach harder to try weakly to stop the blood and continued to stagger on his way. The pain in his stomach intensified with the heat, and a cold sweat broke out on his forehead. For the first time in how many months, Stanley was cold. He couldn't figure out why, the sun was burning hard and as hot as ever. Maybe it had something to do with the incredible pain in his stomach.
Stanley didn't know where he was going, but stumbled out in the direction of six clouds of dust on the dried lake bottom.
~*~
Zigzag dug his hole deeper, and deeper. He chucked the loose dirt up over his right shoulder, and into a growing pile on the surface of the lake. As he threw the new dirt over, he saw something fly through the air from his shovel and into his dirt pile. Eagerly, he searched through his pile. Maybe he would get the day off! Finding it was just a stupid rock, he through it back down and picked up his shovel again. His hole was the closest to camp, and when he thought he heard something like a groan, he looked up from putting the rock back in the pile.
He saw a slightly bent over figure walking towards them, feet slightly dragging in the dirt. There was something familiar about the figure...
"CAVEMAN!" Zigzag shouted, and jumped out of his hole.
Heads of the rest of D-Tent snapped up and looked out to where Zigzag was pointing. As the figure got closer, they saw Zigzag was right, and it was indeed Caveman. The boys leaped out of their holes and ran towards him. Why wasn't he going any faster?
Zero ran as well, realizing immediately that something was wrong. It wasn't like Stanley to just walk slowly like that.
~*~
Stanley wasn't feeling well, to say the least. His hands were firmly in his wound, and fresh blood was trickling down the side of his face. He felt dizzy and sick, and was shivering from cold, despite the sun and the fact he was sweating. Pain was coming in waves from his stomach, sharp and hard.
He heard someone yell up ahead, and tried to lift his head to see who it was. He couldn't, only weakly tilt his head up. The bright sun sliced into his eyes, and the darkness that had been hovering on the edge of his vision increased, and he felt himself falling as he passed out into the darkness.
*
((I was going to stop there, but it was pretty short, so I'll go longer.))
*
"STANLEY!" Zero shouted, causing surprised and disbelieving faces from the other boys to be turned in their direction while they were running. Zero never talked. Ever. Only to Stanley. Even so, for Zero to yell something was out of the ordinary.
As the boys came closer they saw what was wrong. Stanley had two hands pressed to his stomach, and a trickle of something dark running down the side of his face. Just as they came level with him, he raised his head a little, and they saw the shockingly paleness of his face, before he suddenly fainted and fell to the ground.
The boys dropped to their knees beside him and Zigzag reached and pulled him over, face up. With a strangled yelp, he brought his hands away and gasped, staring at them.
"Bloo...Blood." He stammered, eyes wide.
"No shit Sherlock." Squid muttered as he stared at the unconscious boy lying in front of him.
Stanley's hands had fallen away from his stomach as he fell. Dried blood covered his hands completely, and the front of his orange suit. Blood streamed down from a cut on his head, hidden by his hair. A huge gash was in his stomach, ugly and pouring out fresh blood. Stanley's face was pale and sweaty, but even though he was unconscious he was shivering.
"Holy-" Magnet started but X-Ray cut him off.
"Someone get Mom!" He said insistently, but no-one got up.
Zigzag fell back and started muttering, eyes wide.
"He killed him. I knew he would. You guys didn't believe me, but he did. He's dead; Mr. Sir killed him. He killed him-" He murmured, staring at Stanley.
"Shut UP Zig, he's not dead!" X-Ray snapped, hitting the boy over the head. The leader of the D-Tent boys started to give orders. "Armpit, get off your ass and go get mom."
Armpit nodded, looking dazedly at the blood seeping into the dirt. He didn't move.
"ARMPIT!"
The boy's head snapped up.
"Go. Get. Mom." X-Ray said slowly. Armpit wasn't dumb, but he certainly wasn't getting the message.
This time Armpit got up and took off towards camp.
Suddenly, Magnet's head snapped up. "Where's Zero?"
X-Ray turned and saw the short boy running towards them from the holes. He must have left without them noticing.
"What are we going to do?" Zigzag asked, panicking. Without Stanley's hands pressed to his stomach, the blood was coming faster.
"We gotta stop the blood, dumbass." Squid muttered. He looked at his dirty hands for a second, then tried uselessly to rub them clean on his even dirtier orange suit. With a shrug he just pressed his hands onto the gash in Stanley's stomach.
"Uhm. How do you know first aid, Squid?" Magnet asked.
Squid just glared at him, and kept the pressure on the wound, but pressed Stanley's hands there to.
Suddenly, Zero was back. He had his water bottle, and pulling off the top, poured the contents on Stanley's face.
~*~
Stanley opened his eyes to a cold shock, which sent him into even more spasms of shivering. He tried to sit up, but hands were pushing him down. He realized there were five faces looking down at him. Through the dizziness, he tried to concentrate on the face directly above him.
"Zero, dude, you wasted your water." He mumbled to Zero, who had still been trying to shake water from his empty bottle. Zero just smiled down at him.
Something jarred his stomach, and he cried out as new waves of pain came on.
"Sorry, man." Squid said. Stanley tried and finally pulled Squid's face into focus. He shook his head slightly, and some of the dizziness went away.
Stanley realized his hands were pressed to his stomach in something wet and sticky. Something was holding his hands down. It was Squid. So that's why he had said sorry.
Stanley squeezed his eyes shut, and then opened them with determination.
"Help me up." He said. The boys above him looked at each other, than shook their heads. "Come on." He pleaded. Lying flat on his back in the middle of the desert wasn't exactly thrilling.
"Caveman...you don't know how it looks, man." X-Ray said.
"Just help him up." Zero said quietly. The other boys looked at him in surprise, then nodded.
As he was helped to his feet, new dizziness assailed him. He squeezed his eyes shut, but it didn't help. The pain in his stomach increased, as well as the weakness. He was still shaking. He was standing, but with Zigzag and Magnet's help. All of a sudden his stomach, which had been going in circles because of the dizziness, roiled. As his stomach churned and lurched, he broke away from the boys and stumbled toward a vacant hole.
"Yo! Caveman! Where are you going?" Magnet yelled, but Zigzag chased after him and caught him as his knees buckled as he reached the edge of the hole. He leaned over and threw up into the hole, with Zigzag supporting him and keeping him from falling in. "Common, man, it's ok." Zigzag murmured as Stanley continued to heave.
"Ew." Magnet commented calmly from with the other boys.
All the boys had experience with people throwing up. Barf Bag had gotten heat stroke his first day there and had thrown up for two days straight. But he had never been this weak, and needed someone to hold him up.
When Stanley had finished, he was weak and barely able to move.
"Alright, just a bit farther. You can do it, common. It's going to be ok." Zigzag muttered to Stanley. Zigzag put Stanley's arm around his own neck and put his arm around Stanley's waist. It helped to be tall. Zigzag didn't even notice he was getting covered in blood in the process.
By this time, the other boys had come over and Zigzag let Stanley down again. Squid took the bandana out from under his baseball cap and pressed it over Stanley's stomach, which had never stopped bleeding.
"Back where we started." X-Ray said, shaking his head.
~*~
Author's Note: Mwahahahaha! I think I'm sadistic. You know what? I've been torturing my favourite characters since I was nine. Hmmm....
Lol.
Anywho, please oh please review! As you've probably noticed by now, I answer them all personally. ( I can't afford to hire someone to do it, ^_~)
Alright, till next time,
Luv y'all,
~Eh, Man