Wish You Were Here
Chapter 13:
The bright and clear sky had dimmed a bit. The long day had now transformed from afternoon to early evening. Wild purples, oranges, and yellows haloed the sun as it set in the West, barely hovering over the calm city.
A black Mercedes drove past the giant orb, in a bit of a rush, though still trying to obey the speed limit of 40mph. It wasn't doing a good job.
"Malik, slow down." Yugi warned, gripping the armrest, "You're going to make us get a ticket."
The eager hikari waved away the comment, "I don't care about a ticket. We lost about thirty minutes getting to the Game Shop, taking that damn bus. I can't believe how slow that bus driver was going!"
"Two miles an hour…" Ryou shook his head in pity, "How sad."
"Yeah…" Malik pushed the gas pedal down, further, "And now, even I'm worried about what's going on out there. I mean… Marik is resourceful and everything. But, if you're forced to hang out with him for a long time… he can get pretty strange."
Meanwhile, on the trail of Cake Mountain, two yamis had unknowingly been going in circles for about three hours. Somewhere along the line, Marik got so tired, he claimed he could no longer walk. Bakura believed this to be BS, but decided to help in anyway he could.
"Marik…" Bakura growled, "Do you think you could shift you weight?"
He complied with his friend's request. "There, happy?"
"No. But then, who would be? Giving you a piggy-back ride is not only ridiculous but humiliating!"
Bakura was walking rather slower than usual, with the extra weight on his back; he was dragging his feet and groaning. Marik may look slim, but he'd been eating a lot of cupcakes lately, and Bakura was feeling every extra pound.
"You're so cruel." Marik grinned, "You should be nicer to me. It's not just anyone that gets to carry me on their back. You have to be special."
All of a sudden, Marik was dumped onto the rocky ground. Bakura cracked his knuckles and looked at his friend calmly, "If you've got enough energy to be annoying, you've got enough energy to walk on your own."
"Ah, fine! Who needs your back, anyway?" Marik jumped up and turned around, "See this? This beautiful piece of skin is my back! And it's way better than yours!"
"… You need help."
"Whatever. Let's just go." He started again on the trail, and Bakura caught up to him. They headed towards a grassy basin on the mountain. They'd past a sign about half a mile back saying that the Ranger's cabin was only another five miles. It was hard to believe that, after all that running and walking, they were only half way there.
But, 'Oh well,' they thought and continued downwards.
It was much greener down there, than on the mountain's surface. Bright green trees were the main scenery and everything else was either brown or gray. Gray being rocks and woodland creatures.
"Ugh." Bakura groaned, "Don't tell me we have to go through this mess!"
"Okay, then… I won't tell you." Marik nodded and kept going.
Silence filled their ears as they went on. Of course, there was the chirping of the crickets and the occasional 'Ow!' from Marik when he stubbed his toes on a rock, but otherwise it was morbidly quiet.
A branch broke in the nearby distance and Bakura stopped, "What was that?" He asked, trying to hide the jitters in his voice.
"N-Nothing, I'm sure. Let's just keep going…"
Close by, in the basin of the Cake Mountain, the young ranger was holding his cell phone in one hand, with his trusty gun under his other arm. He'd been on the phone with a young man who was now pretty ticked at Sweet.
"You mean to tell me that you passed our yamis!" Yugi shouted into the phone, "For some stupid animal!"
"It wasn't just a animal, Mr. Motou, it was a new species! Some kind of-"
"Oh! And I find it extremely interesting that you can remember my name, but not the name of my YAMIS! I can't believe you! You passed Marik and Bakura by calling them yummy! And where the hell is Yami! I wanna know! You're so incom-" Just then, Yugi's rants were cut short and the phone was handed to someone a bit more rational.
"Um… hello?" Ranger Sweet said meekly.
"Listen," Ryou said, obviously holding his temper. "I want you to do a simple job, for me. Can you do that?"
He nodded eagerly, "Y-Yes! I can! I'm Ranger Sweet!"
"Good. I want you to find Marik, Yami and Bakura. We will be at your cabin by tomorrow morning. You have roughly twelve hours to get them there and hold them by any means necessary. If we arrive and they aren't all there… you will not be heard from again."
Bleep-bleep-bleep…
The cell phone dropped out of the Ranger's sweaty hand. He bent down to pick it up and thought, 'This is terrible! If I don't find those… uh, yamis… I'll never be heard from again. And that leaves a lot unsaid. I need to think of a way to hold them at the cabin before tomorrow-'
His thoughts were halted by a sound close by. Voices, he thought. Two of them were now audible, it sounded like two feuding boys. He crept to the trunk of the tree in front of him and peeked around the corner.
"I'm telling you, I heard something!" An albino boy, dressed in blue, was yelling at the other next to him.
The second boy, who was tanned and dressed in black, flipped the hair off his shoulder and said, "Well, whatever you heard, Bakura, it's obviously gone now. I wish you'd stop obsessing over your own imagination."
In the bushes, Ranger Sweet was grinning from ear to ear. 'Yes! There are at least two of them. This'll be almost too easy.' He cocked his tranquilizer gun and aimed for the blonde boy's head…
Bakura stopped in mid-argument and tilted his head to the side, "Wait… I just heard something, it was-"
"Oh, Bakura! If this is going to continue, just leave me out of it." Marik began to walk off and when he moved, Bakura could see the nose of a gun, pointing out of the bushes and straight toward Marik's back. Marik was clearly unaware of the danger he was in, and as the gun cocked, Bakura jumped on Marik and tackled him to the ground.
"What the hell!" He shouted as they both hit the ground.
The shot went off and a small dart flew right overhead of the two boys and into the bark of a large, redwood tree. Marik looked over Bakura's shoulder and gaped, "W-Was that aiming for me?"
Bakura sat up quickly, "Yes, that was aiming for you! We gotta get outta here!"
Suddenly, a man jumped out of the bushes with a shotgun in hand, "… Damn. I missed." He aimed again, "Let's try this a second time…!"
Marik and Bakura screamed, jumped into the air, and flew down the trail. Going at top speed, they ran past everything in the forest, including the trees, bushes, and such. But the man with the gun was in fast pursuit, and the sky grew darker as they neared a log in the middle of a small clearing.
They were about to jump over the broken piece of wood, but something lay in the middle of it all that just caught them off guard. Marik, in particular.
"Um, Bakura, do you see what I see?" He asked, looking at what seemed to be a large animal in the mist of the bark.
"I see that we're about to be shot! Marik, let's go! Go, go, go!" Bakura's arms flailed around through the crisp nighttime air as he begged his friend to hurry it up. They'd gotten a little ahead of their pursuer but now he was coming up fast and waving his gun at the same time.
Marik knelt down and poked the animal, "Eh…" It didn't move at first but then, motion came about it as the body struggled to pick itself up slowly and turn to the teenage yami.
"M-Marik…!" The old creature managed to croak out, "I-Is that y-you?"
He started to get up, "Damn, it's just Monkey-Man."
"Can we go now!" Bakura insisted, practically dragging Marik away from the monster and in the opposite direction of danger, "I swear, if we die because of your stupidity, I'll never speak to you again!"
Monkey-Man reached out to the two teens, "Wait, please… I need to tell you-" Before his sentence was finished, the ranger trampled over his face and stampeded onward in the direction of his prey.
"Ouch…" Was the last audible thing from Monkey-Man.
Tumbling into the basin of the mountain, was Yami. He'd somehow managed to slip on a wet rock near the stream running around Cake Mountain and fell into the side of one of the walls. Really, it was a pity to watch him take a headfirst dive downwards, on the way, hitting boulders and trees with his head that was considerably softer now.
"AaaAAaAaaAaaA---!" He cried out before smashing his mouth into yet another rock.
In about two minutes, he hit the forest floor, and was knocked out instantly. "…"
Somewhere down the path, the other missing yamis were sprinting madly down past the greenery. No attention was paid to the wicked wind blowing harshly or the gray clouds that were beginning to take form… No, all they could think of was 'Gotta get gone! Gotta get gone!'
Bakura was panting heavily now, sweat running down his arms and chest, "I-I don't think we can keep this up much longer, Marik! That guy's got legs of steal!"
"Tell me about it, but we have to keep go-" Marik's reply was cut short as he toppled over by tripping on a body on the ground. He landed across the slightly smaller figure and groaned, "Who the hell leaves dead bodies in the middle of the forest?"
"…" The boy made no sound but a quiet moan.
Bakura took a closer look at the young man when Marik raised himself off of him. "Wait a minute, Marik. This guy isn't dead! This guy isn't even a guy, it's Yami! Look!" He pointed to the millennium puzzle around his neck.
"Ah… hey, it is Yami. And here I thought he was a goner." Marik lifted the frail teen onto his shoulders and shuddered, "I can't believe I'm doing this…"
Bakura glared, "Well, I carried you." He gasped suddenly and looked round. The man that chased them was no longer in sight. "….Hmm. Maybe he left."
"Ah! I forgot!" Marik quickly surveyed the area, at the same time shaking his shoulders and knocking Yami off and onto the ground. "Oops."
Hitting the ground must've jolted him, because after that he immediately opened his eyes and looked up, hazily, at Marik and Bakura. "Y-You guys…? Wha…?" After a sort of long and awkward pause, a broad grin appeared on Yami's face, "Oh, Bakura! Marik!"
Surprise was the only rational way to express the two taller yami's facial expressions as Yami jumped onto them and clung to their shirts in a tight hug, "I'm so glad you're okay! You have no idea!"
"Ah…" Marik's eye was twitching, "Ah, ah! G-Get it off me! Please!" He shrieked at the top of his lungs, while fidgeting to get out of the death grip.
Bakura raised an eyebrow and sighed, "Eh."
Soon, Yami eased up and backed off, "So, what has been up with you guys? I've been having terrible luck out here! Oh, did you find the Mountain Ranger?"
"No," Bakura shook his head, "Bad news, though. Monkey-Man's still alive and there's this crazy guy running around with a gun on the mountain! He's been trying to shoot us!"
"… I think I'm going to be sick," Yami began to turn green. "This is awful."
Marik nodded in agreement, "Yeah. We haven't found the damn ranger, there's a prehistoric monkey running around and there's a crazed lunatic who happens to be following us. It's nighttime, I'm hungry, and we've got no shelter… This could possibly get any worse!"
Suddenly, as if the answer Marik's statement, the gray clouds pushed together, becoming darker and bigger. The winds grew stronger and the leaves rustled in a disturbing way. A little drop of water landed on Yami's face and about a thousand more followed. In a second, it was a complete waterfall.
"… Damn."
