Abby In Wonderland
by Lalita
Summary~ Numbuh Five winds up finding out there's a big, bad world outside of the KND. When she returns to the group, she finds out a lot of things have changed. But her team feels like she's the only one that's different, and that the change was not for the better. Will Abby turn against them and help the KND grow up? Or will they save Abby from the clutches of evil adulthood? Read to find out…
Author's Notes~ Wow, this sure took me a long time to update! Sorry, if anyone's still reading this… Well, here's the much delayed chapter one! Please read and review. ^____^ Constructive criticism is encouraged.
Chapter One~ Where'd They Go?
"This ain't Numbuh Five's block," Abby said under her breath, stating the obvious. She didn't know when the tree house had finally stopped flying, but somehow it had landed and hours later Abby awoke with a sore head and an even sorer pride. "Whoever broke Numbuh Five's head got somethin' coming," she mumbled. And, stumbling through the mess of the tree house, she emerged outside.
"Nuh uh. This ain't even Numbuh Five's neighborhood!" Abby announced, glaring reproachfully at the dead, yellow grass that crunched whenever she took a step. "Numbah Five knows the color green. The grass everywhere around Numbah Five was green five seconds ago. And this sho ain't green." She sidestepped a mound of what looked like dried dog doo and tried to think. "Dog doo means dog. Dog means owners. Owners means people. And that means Numbuh Five gettin' outta here." Abby glanced over her shoulder, frowning. "Wherever here is."
She walked through what was apparently a field and soon approached a street. There was no telling what street it was, because the street sign usually at the side of the road was gone. All that remained was a pole bent to an exact ninety-degree angle. There was another problem, too... There wasn't any people! Abby looked up and down the street, puzzled. There weren't even any kids running around and spraying each other with hoses, like Abby was sure she'd be doing on a hot day like this if she hadn't been sent to God-knows-where. She wiped the sweat from her brow and blinked. The houses didn't look right, either. Some had big boards all over the windows, and some had glass littering the street in front of them from cars that had seen better days. Abby frowned. "What the heck's goin' on here?" she said. Her voice- oftentimes considered quiet in normal circumstances- was, for once, too loud and echoed down the empty, abandoned street.
At first, it didn't look like anybody heard her. But then Abby saw a small face peeking out from between the boards blocking a window just three houses down. Determined to figure out a) where she was and b) the fastest way to get the heck out of wherever there was, Abby started toward the house. Frightened, the little face darted away from the window. "Hey! Where ya goin'? Numbuh Five ain't gonna hurt none of y'all!" Abby called, but her words fell on deaf ears. She reached the door and pounded on it, angry that the first real person she had seen was a wuss who couldn't even open the door because he was too scared.
The door opened a crack and a girl about Abby's age peered out. "What do you want?" she asked, her voice harsh but tinged with a hint of fear.
Abby's face softened. "I want to know exactly where I am and what the heck happened here."
The girl looked at Abby closely for another minute, then opened the door wider and stepped back to let her in. She shifted the weight of the little boy Abby had seen through the window to her other hip. "I'm Heather Cliff," the girl said, still squinting at Abby. Abby dropped her gaze to the floor, to the wall, anything other than Heather's intense eyes. "Who are you?" she asked Abby, curiosity getting the better of her.
"I'm Abby. Abby Lincoln." Abby surprised herself. It was the first time she could remember ever giving her real name instead of her number first. "I'm Numbuh Five of the Kids Next Door."
Revealing that bit of information, however, proved to be a mistake. A big mistake. Heather's eyes- already large- widened so that they nearly bulged out of her head and she gasped, stepping back. The little boy clung tightly to her and buried his head in her shoulder. "Get away from us," she commanded, anger and fright conflicting in her tone.
"Why?" Abby asked, puzzled by her reaction. She'd had people fawn over her solely because she was a member of the fabled KND, had rivals and enemies hate her and curse her, but she'd never had a fellow kid be afraid of her. "Numbuh Five ain't gonna hurt ya or nothin'."
The girl laughed, her laughter tinged with bitterness, and sliding awfully close to the edge of hysteria. "Sure you aren't," she said sarcastically. "That's what all you and your rotten team members said. Said they'd protect the kids. But all they did was turn out to be a bunch of lying backstabbers!"
"Hold it," Abby said, throwing up her hands in defense. "Numbuh Five don't know what Kids Next Door members did whatever to ya, but it can't be Numbuh Five's team. And just what'd they do?" Abby could guess by looking outside that whatever happened, it hadn't been good. But she didn't see why this girl would get all riled up at the KND team when what probably happened was they were fighting some archenemy, like the Delightful Children from Down the Lane. Honestly, didn't kids appreciate anything anymore?
Heather was still tense and frowning. "You should know!" she spat, a thousand other accusations clearly about to roll off the tip of her tongue.
"Well, Numbuh Five don't. Numbuh Five's just plain confused."
Heather looked like she was having an internal battle with herself before she gave in and said, "If you really are a Kids Next Door member, you should know. I've seen a few kids around here say they're a part of KND because they're scared and the name offers protection." She pierced Abby with that all too knowing look again. "But for some reason, I believe you. You don't look like a liar to me."
Abby was still confused. "Numbuh Five don't lie," she agreed. "But what the heck happened to give KND such a bad rep?"
Heather looked away. "A few days ago," she began stiffly, "we were all normal kids. All doing normal kid stuff. You've seen the houses all boarded up, right? Well, it wasn't like that before. Everything was going just fine... Until the KND showed up." Here, she paused, sending a dirty look to Abby. "I was with my boyfriend, Jimmy Brown. We were just sitting there, holding hands." Her voice, low at first, had gone soft and if Abby wasn't mistaken, tears had risen in her eyes.
"What happened?" Abby pressed again.
Heather looked pain, as if it hurt to recall. "The Kids Next Door in this section had never let us down before," she said hesitantly. "Everyone, every kid for miles and miles, trusted them. But they broke that trust that day."
Abby fidgeted. She was bursting with impatience to know the rest of the story.
"The KND came walking down the block. You could tell there was something different. They were... strange. They walked weird. Like they were on top of the world. And they were," the girl broke off to laugh bitterly. It came out more as a bark. "They really were. They stopped in the middle of the street, right out in plain sight. Everything was so quiet, not even little Freddy here was cryin'."
Little Freddy, apparently, knew he was being talked about and the toddler stopped sucking his thumb long enough to cast Abby an adorable grin.
"They pulled out these big, really big gun-like things. Everyone started edging back, because they knew they didn't want to be around when the KND got to business. But one of the Numbuh's called out to us and so we stayed put." Heather's eyes glinted fiercely. Abby stood, fascinated. She never really knew why people said eyes were the window to the soul... until now, that is. She had a feeling that this Heather couldn't hide anything from the world even if she wanted to.
"They called Jimmy up to them. At first, I didn't understand why. I knew Jimmy had once been on the team, like a leader or something, but when he let go of my hand and gave me this... well, grin and I knew something was wrong. I didn't know what it was, but I just had this feeling. I think they call it intuition or something."
Abby nodded. She knew that feeling. That feeling had come to her many times during a mission, the feeling like something bad was gonna happen, and sure enough- BAM! She'd turn around and get socked in the face or something.
"I ran back to the house and grabbed Freddy. He was playing in the yard. Mom and Dad weren't home." Heather's brow furrowed, and slowly, as if puzzled, she went on. "I didn't realize it then, but it seemed like none of the adults were there at all. I didn't see any of them. It was like they were all... gone, gone for a reason. Me and Freddy ran downstairs and hid under the stairs, just like we would if it was a tornado."
Her voice had gotten softer and softer still, and Abby had to strain to hear her next words. She had that look on her face, like she was traveling back in time and going through it all over again. "I was real scared, but Freddy wasn't. Little kids are like that sometimes, you know?" And Heather's eyes locked onto Abby's. Abby knew that before this had happened, Heather was probably just like her. A normal kid messing around and just plain enjoying life. But things changed. Abby shuddered. It almost sounded like this girl had... grown up or something.
Heather coughed. "There were these horrible noises. Big noises, loud and all. There were screams. I grabbed onto Freddy real tight and didn't let go. But he still slipped and wiggled out and ran up the stairs, and I..." she stopped, the lump in her throat growing too big to talk for a few seconds. Abby awkwardly patted her back. The girl sniffed. "I ran after him. I was so scared, I couldn't move at first. But then I made myself get up and I got him and I looked out the window..." her voice faltered again.
"And? You saw what?" Abby asked, her voice dripping with eagerness and trepidation at the same time.
"It was terrible," she whispered. "Kids were everywhere, running, screaming. I saw Jimmy once. I ducked before he saw me." Her throat constricted. "He was in on it all along. He was holding his little sister in the air by her piggy tail, laughing his head off like it was the funniest thing in the world." She clenched her fists.
Abby got another shiver down her spine. "Everyone was running, trying to get away. I couldn't stop watching to run downstairs with Freddy. I just... couldn't look away. The KND blasted everything in sight, it felt like. But now I know they were only blasting the telephone lines, so no one could call for help."
"That's terrible," Abby said, and felt like kicking herself. Didn't she have anything better to say than that? It reminded her of the way people had said "I'm sorry," when her grandpa had died, as if that made anything better. As if they were as sorry as she was, when she knew they weren't. It was stupid, mean even, to say how horrible the whole thing was when no one probably knew better than Heather herself.
The girl nodded in agreement. "Most of the kids left hide. There's a few gangs out there, tough kids that like to rob other kids for a way of making it by."
"Why?" Abby asked in confusion. "Don't they mama and daddy feed 'em?"
"That's just the thing," Heather said. "No one knows where the adults have gone."