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And now, back to our regular... Fic-ing.)
Eventually, the group found each other on the train and gathered to where Miro was first, since he didn't have the mobility to go anywhere else at this point, anyway. They all gather around Miro's body and stare down at him. His eyes were shut, and he was breathing softly.
"Oh, he looks so sweet." Anna coos, smiling.
"Minus the cuts, welts, and bruises covering a good portion of him." Ricca adds, not nearly as concerned as most of the others looked.
"Well... he always does seem to have an angel face when he's sleeping." Kate says, immediately changing the subject after the statement. "I wonder what did this to him?"
"We can find that out later." Matthew says. "People, we're on a speeding train, it's not time for an emotional gawking at a half-dead-looking buddy."
"I'm with you." Ricca says, nodding and taking out the map.
"What's it say? Where do we get off?" Anna asks, trying to see the map.
"We part from the tracks when... uh-oh." Ricca says suddenly, looking surprised for a second.
"What? What is it?" Matthew asks. "Did we miss our stop?"
"No, no." Ricca says. "But we missed a good shortcut that I noticed earlier. The idiot who traveled this map first took the hard way..."
"The hard way?"
"No time to explain, we have to get off of the train, now." Ricca orders. "Someone wake up Miro."
"Will do." Kate says, looking down to Miro and taking a deep breath, sighing out again, looking like she was prepering herself. The others look at her, and then down to Miro, wondering what was going to happen.
Kate placed her face directly in front of Miro's, and took in a deep breath.
"WAKE UP, YOU MORON!"
Everyone else sighs, disappointed that it wasn't something more creative.
Miro's face tightens, and he begins grumbling random things.
"Grrm... rbblrm... Huh? S'that you, Mom?" Miro says, opening his eyes slowly to see Kate right in front of him. He blinks a couple of times, then looks around at the others.
"What're you all staring at?" He asks sleepily, still halfway in Dreamland. "Can't the Mrs. and I have some alone ti-"
He's cut short, courtesy of Kate booting him over the side of the train.
"He's off, let's go!" She yells, leading the bunch as they all jump over the same side, landing safely in a convenietly-placed bail of hay. Miro wasn't quite as lucky, and ended up landing in a patch of very short grass concealing more than just one rock.
After the rest of the group pulled themselves from the hay, they walk over to Miro to make sure that he was okay.
"Miro?" Matthew says, waving a hand in front of Miro's star-seeing, swirly-eyed face. "Miro? Are you all right? Hmm..." He withdraws his and and looks to be thinking about something.
"What is it, Matthew?" Anna asks.
"Well... It seems that Miro is in a state of total numbness." Matthew begins.
"Which is fair," Ricca says. "since he's been hit by a train, kicked off of the same train, and who-knows-what between that."
"Yeah, we're lucky he's not in a state of total... dead-ness." Anna adds.
"Yes, most people wouldn't be all together after an ordeal like that, I suppose." Matthew says. "So... any suggestions?"
"I could yell at him again." Kate offers.
"No, no." Matthew says, shaking his head. "This'll take a more serious approach than that."
"Well..." Ricca says. "We could nurse his wounds and wait it out until he comes back by himself, I guess."
"...I suppose that's all we have to go with." Matthew says, shrugging. "Now, all we need is... some bandages and about three miles of gauze."
Meanwhile, walking up the train tracks, the wives look around the area for their scattered husbands. Jack, to Nami's slight relief, is found first.
"Jack, time to get up." Nami says, looking down at her comatose husband.
"Mrrf..." Jack mumbles, turning away from Nami. "Not tonight, Hon, Miro's only in the next room, it'll traumatize hi- OOF!" He suddenly yells as Nami stomps him in the chest.
"Ugh, I swear, you're nearly as bad as Kai!"
The others shake their head, completely disagreeing with this statement.
"Wha? Oh, yeah, I'm here." Jack remembers, his eyes opening. He gets up slowly and groans, holding onto his back. "Ugh, I haven't fallen off of a speeding train since my last bachelor party..."
"Well, let's not go to a flashback just yet." Mary says. "We have more bodies to reco- I mean, people to find."
And so they continue on, finding none other than Kai next. Popuri walks up to him, seeing that he had landed in perfectly wrong ways and began fussing over his injuries.
"Oh, look at you! Look at your arms, and your legs, and your head, and your back, and y-"
"We get it!" Everyone behind her says.
"Well, what can we do to help poor Kai?" Popuri asks worriedly. "We can't just drag him along with us!"
"Can't we?" Nami says, pulling out a large net, half-filled with chocolate, from her bag. "I found this where the kids jumped for the train. It looks like they ditched it in the confusion."
"Which means we have no trail to follow..." Mary adds. "The wrappers from those bars made them very easy to track. Now it might be more difficult."
"Anyway," Nami says, holding it open and lifting Kai by his hair. "Into the net for you." She roughly throws him in and shuts it, stuffing the wole deal into her bag and swinging it over her shoulder again.
The others stare in amazement at this.
"Wow... that thing's got some capacity." Jack says.
"You mean not even you knew that it could do that?" Ann asks him.
"Tch, no, I thought it was a couch." Jack explains.
"He hardly noticed it, anyway." Nami says. "Too busy-"
"-Reading your diary, I know." Jack says, knowing that she was about to say that. "Look, I was doing other things, too, y'know!"
"Like...?"
"Looking at... you..."
"Where on me, exactly?"
"On, uhh... err, let's move!" Jack suddenly says, walking forward at a quick marching pace. The rest of the group sighs.
"Men..." They say in unison.
"Hey, I can hear you, you know!" Kai says from inside the bag. He shifts around and suddenly notices something.
"Mmm, chocolate!"
The group settled down a short distance from the tracks, and had made Miro a makeshift bed out of... a sleeping bag. They didn't feel like being too creative today. The waited paitently for Miro to awaken.
Finally, after what seemed like fifty games of Marbles, Miro began to stirr from his state of total stunned-ness.
"Ugh... why does my face hurt...?" He says slowly.
"Hey, he's up!" Matthew says. They all group around him eagerly.
"You feeling better?" Anna asks.
"I can't tell, I haven't felt anything since I was knocked out..." Miro said. "What happened to me?"
"To put it in light, scientific terms, you had the crap beaten out of you." Matthew explains. "What we need to know is how, and by whom?"
"Wait..." Miro says, thinking for a moment. Suddenly, his scattered memory pieced together his showdown on the train.
"I remember... there was someone on the train... I had climbed up to the top, and he was there. He told me that it was time to go home, so of course I snuffed that comment and went after him with a bat. He brought me down without even trying..."
"What did he look like?" Ricca asks.
"He had white hair and a cold, unfeeling look on his face." Miro says.
"Oh, that narrows it down to about a thousand villans." Kate says sarcastically. The others, though, know exactly who he was talking about.
"Miro..." Anna begins, sharing a nervous feeling with the others. "We know who you're talking about." (See?)
"Not quite." Matthew says, shaking his head. "Miro, how old did he look?"
"That was the wierdest thing." Miro says. "He didn't look any older than any of us..."
"Damn. Okay, now we're sure." Ricca says. "Miro, you're talking about something that most of us have been hoping againt from the start. He's one of us, he's from our town, Mineral Town. His name is... William."
"...That's it?" Miro says. "I was expecting a more powerful-sounding name. William dosen't sound too tough."
"He dosen't have to SOUND tough, trust me." Matthew says, taking off his cap and wiping cold sweat from his forehead. "The guy's unnatural. He's the son of a nurse and a semi-hobo."
"Yeah?" Miro says. "Well, although that's weird, it dosen't sound unnatural."
"Yeah, but he is. Supernatural, in fact." Ricca says, shutting her eyes. "We're not sure what happened, but one day, he had dyed his hair white and had his already shallow attitude was sucked completely dry. It's weird..."
"I kinda know what happened..." Anna admits. The others look over to her.
"Err..." She begins. "I saw him going to the springs. He was normal when he was on the way there, and then after a wierdly long time, he came back and was all... like he is now."
"This was just before we went to find Matthew." Ricca says. "We asked William to come help us, but he almost totally ignored us. He looked like he knew something that we didn't at the time..."
"Like our whole search for the Place?" Miro suggests.
"That could've been it." Anna says. "But... if he knew about it, why didn't he team up with us?"
"Maybe it had something to do with his changing..." Ricca says, looking unusually affected by this for someone like her. "Maybe the parents knew beforehand, too."
"Well, this is all what Jack did, right?" Matthew says. Miro looks over to him suddenly.
"Jack? That's my Dad's name!"
"It's my Dad's name, too." Anna says. "So... two cousins were named the same thing?"
"Wow, the creativity just oozes from the family bloodline, dosen't it?" Miro says, rolling his eyes.
"Can we get going already?" Kate asks.
"Are you kidding me!" Miro says. "I'm not in my best shape right now, you know! How am I supposed to walk? I've been hit by a train, you idiot!"
"...We could always leave him." Kate says, turning to the others. They all nod in agreement.
"Hey! I'm not being ditched here for the sake of quicker travel!" Miro protests, standing up and fuming. He suddenly notices something. He was standing up.
"...Can you explain this?" Ricca says, looking over to Matthew.
"Well..." Matthew says, bewildered for a second. "It is possible that everything that's happened to Miro has impacted him the absolute smallest amount. Or his sleep was very useful to his healing. Or perhaps his anger has just given him the will to stand up."
"Number 3." The rest of them say. Miro sighs.
"Let's go." He says. They all sigh, picking up their things and walking away from the railroad track.
After a bit of walking, the next person that they meet is Jack from the Town. He looks like he had suffered some mean head injuries before he fell off. Ann walks up to him calmly, prodding her stunned husband with her foot.
"You awake, Dear?" She asks.
"Le, la ba da ba, ba dooo..." He replies, opening his eyes, a goofy smile on his face.
Ann rolls her eyes. She clears her throat and looks back to Jack.
"Hurricane."
"AH! MY CHICKENS!" He yells, getting up and looking around frantically.
"...Let me guess, bad experience?" Nami inquires.
"Oh yeah." Ann says. "He recovered most of the chickens, but one of them..."
Jack suddenly begins sobbing uncontrollably into Ann's shoulder. "P...poor little Monty... N-nothin' left but little... Monty McNuggets!" He continues to sob, pausing only to blow his nose on Ann's sleeve.
"Eww!" Ann says, pulling away and looking at her now green-tinted sleeve. "You're lucky we need you to walk, or you'd be pounded a foot below sea level right now!"
The others pause before speaking, slightly shocked by Ann's outburst.
"Huh." Nami says finally. "I didn't believe it, but I guess you really are a tomboy deep down."
Without another word, they continue to walk down the tracks. About twenty minutes later, they come across Gray, who was, surprisingly, standing up.
"Oh, you're okay?" Mary asks him.
"Yes." Gray replies. "It will take more than a mail bag and a long, rough stop to keep me down."
"...Let me see your face." Mary requests. Gray had his hat lowered more than usual on the right side of his face, all the way down to his mouth.
"..." Reluctantly, Gray raises his hat, showing a black eye, lumps, bruises, scabs and undeterminable purple blotches all across his right side.
The others cringe, seeing this.
"...When I fell, I started tumbling and rolling, and every time I hit ground, I landed on the exact same point on my face. Over... and over... and over..."
"Sounds like you're having a bad day!" Kai says from inside Nami's bag.
"...I won't ask." Gray says.
"Hmm..." Elli says, walkng up to him. "Oh, I can fix that up. Would you like me to?"
"Sure, I guess." Gray replies.
"Good. Now, hold still..." She pulls out a needle, a bucket of disinfectant and a large roll of tape.
A series of painful screams later, and Gray is as good as new.
"Oh, Gray, you overcame your fear of needles!" Mary says happily.
"N...No I didn't. She just had me held down so hard, I couldn't struggle." Gray replies, and although being fully healed, looking shocked and traumatized.
"Let's keep going." Nami cuts in. "Who are we still missing?"
"Cliff." Elli says. "I wonder how he fared in this...?"
"So... What is this 'hard way' that we're now taking?" Matthew asks Ricca, trying to look at the map.
"It's a road that leads through a forest." Ricca explains. "Well... not a road, really. Any roads that led through it were probably swallowed up by the forest itself."
"...Define 'swallowed'."
"Overtaken by trees."
"Oh. Okay, I thought you meant-"
"Eaten? Well..."
"Well what?" Miro cuts in.
"According to this map..." Ricca begins. "The forest is haunted."
"...Haunted?" Miro repeats after a short silence. "What kind of 'haunted'?"
"The 'rar-prepare-for-you-and-your-descendants-to-face-the-eternal-torment-of-your-souls-in-the-jowels-of-the-flesh-hounds-for-a-thousand-generations-and-such' kind." Ricca explains calmly.
"...You ARE kidding, right?" Miro and Matthew both say.
"It's just a guess." Ricca says. "However..."
She holds the map out to them, pointing to the forest. They read the forest's name.
The Forest Of You Preparing Yourself And Your Descendants to Face The Eternal Torment of Your Souls in the Jowels of the Flesh Hounds For A Thousand Generations And Such
"...Oh." The other two say, lowering their heads.
"Wow, that's all written out in stretch marks?" Anna says in amazement.
"No wonder I can make sparks when I rub steel wool against my back..." Miro says.
"Oh, well, now that we know that, making campfires will sure be easier." Kate comments.
"That's probably just an excuse to see him without a shirt on." Matthew adds.
"Yeah? Well, I bet it would be the same for Anna in your case!"
"The same for me? How would that-?"
"Oh yeah! Well-"
"GROW UP!" Ricca snaps at them all, causing them to reach a sudden end to their argument. "I don't need you guys fighting while we're walking through that place, being watched and followed by who-knows-what!"
"...Actually, I'm with her." Miro agrees, since, for once in his life, he wasn't part of the argument. "Something tells me that this won't be a friendly little walk like most of our trip's been so far."
"Wait, it's been FRIENDLY so far?" Matthew repeats.
"Well, the walk has been, just not the things that we've met during it." Miro continues. "Such as... Kate, Anna, and Ricca."
With that, he is punched in three different angles, those being an arm, his ribcage, and his skull. Beginning to grow tired of the bruises he always seemed to receive from opening his mouth a bit too much, he just crosses his arms (rubbing the now-sore one) and continues walking.
"...Who's up for some Guess the Color?"
"Red."
"Damn. How'd you know?"
"Your hair."
"Oh..."