War with the Deranged Killer Mutant Monster Snow Goons
Disclaimer: I do not own Calvin and Hobbes and all characters associated with the comic. All rights are owned by Bill Waterson.
The night dragged on towards midnight. Sitting around and constantly glancing at the clock the survivors counted the minutes to midnight. Second day of the outbreak. A count was made of all of the supplies inside the household. "Three days" replied a perturbed Susie, "If every person got three meals a day with sixteen mouths, then, we should last three days."
Hobbes did not like being excluded from the count, Hobbes also did the math on the fort itself. He predicted the entire length of the wall and divided by the number of the garrison. He estimated that there would be fifteen feet of space between each man or girl manning the outside wall. Looking outside into the neighborhood he could see the some of the households still had their lights on and an idea clicked.
Coming into the kitchen the furball made the suggestion that helped to lighten things up, "Perhaps we can raid the other houses. They are vacant. Only problem would be to get past them," refering to the snow goons. It sounded simple. Many good houses were nearby, and the sled could carry their loot. By good that meant they were wealthy people in large houses and the tiger deduced that the larger the house the larger the food supply would be. Not only that, many of the kids brought their sleds with them when they sought sanctuary at Susie's.
Calvin slammed his hands together creating a loud clap, "We'll do it. We'll raid the houses and get the food."
Naturally, Hobbes volunteered to go as well, "One can smell a snow goon a mile away" pointing to his projecting nostil and taking pride in his heightened senses.
It was pitch black outside, the perfect cover, and when the time came to leave, Hobbes, having marked out the desired household opened the door and slipped out. Three houses were selected: one next door to the west, then two across the street to the south. Just as they were about to leave Billy and Floyd offered to go with them, it was better in numbers, and offered their sleds. Calvin said to them, "We are only going for food, nothing else." They agreed, no looting of anything. Now cloaked in darkness, the party slipped over the wall, their sleds fixed with rope to the drag behind them. Hobbes took the lead, sniffing the way in front of them. It was an quick trek to the first house and with Hobbes slinking his way up the windows he peeked inside and found it was vacant. The back door was ripped from his hindges allowing him a way in and giving the signal the party went in. Fully expecting goons to appear from the darkness and swallow them up at any minute Calvin spurred the two boys to hurry as Hobbes went from room to room to find anything else of use. Opening up cupboards and the icebox they swiped everything and threw it onto the sleds. In five minutes all four came out, their sleds grinding into the ground by the weight of the food onboard. As they ran towards their next destination across the street Calvin glanced up to the left and saw the heads of the others on top of the wall watching them. He smiled and gave a thumbs up. Across the street, the second house was silfered through, what little that was not spoiled or destroyed already was thrown with the rest. Then, it was on to the third. This was the largest house on the block, owned by the Mortimer family, a very wealthy couple that had a smart lad named James. No matter of wealth of intelligence could disquise the fact that up the intense gravity field he projected towards himself to fill his high self esteem. Going in, the house was completely ransacked, and there was no food at all. Much to the jargon of the party they returned with their sleds, their mission now over. Crossing the street, the last leg of the journey was the most hair raising. Hobbes bounded across the open lane to the fort then paused and looked both ways. It seemed clear thus he summoned the others to cross at once. The party could feel their hearts climb up to their throats as they sprinted across, their heads jerking either which way fully expecting to see a goon come out of the darkness yet none came. A rope was thrown over the wall and the four brave souls and their guerry were hauled inside Susie silfted through the foodstuffs and came up with a count: 13 loafs of bread, two dozen eggs, several wrapped packages of fresh meat, a little bacon, flour, two gallons of milk, sixteen cans of soda, five gallons of juice of various kinds, and forty cans of soup. It was not much, but it helped feed the hungry mouths a little longer, "Tomorrow" said Calvin, "We'll go to three more houses."
That night, the defenders ate and slept wherever they could, on the stairs, on the floors, and on the kitchen table. Even then, sleeping was difficult, they were home sick, missing their parents and their own warm beds, the only person awake was Hobbes. He could not sleep at all, his animal mantality was on full alert. He got up and went around the house, peering through frost caked windows, taking a glimpse of everything outside. Empty mugs, coats, hats, and snow boots lay everywhere. That red brick wall in the back yard was on his mind. Behind them was the corpse of trees. "That's where they are going to come from" he thought, "from behind". As the hours fetted away, no one noticed a ticking clock on a night stand beside Susie's bed. Neglecting to deactivate it the alarm sent many running outside thinking an attack was underway with its constant high tone blare. Mouting the walls was a comic matter where no one was laughing. Tripping, falling, and cursing were rampant as the children rushed to the pales of stone stacked by the doorway and carry them outside. Tense, their blood pumping, they waited impatiently in the slowly growing lightness for an attack that never came. A deep red faced Susie came out, "Sorry, everyone" she said, "It was only my alarm clock". Groans and sighs went all around.
Since they were already awake, the garrison went to work anyway. Billy returned inside to get his scarf that was forgotten in his flight. As he wrapped the cloth around his neck, Calvin approached the freckle faced, glasses wearing boy, "Can you climb the roof to provide a look out?" Thinking about it for a moment, Billy accepted the offer, however, Hobbes was taken aback.
"Why not me?" protesting loudly, "I have eyes sharper than an eagle".
Acting calmly, Calvin told him why, "You have the strength of ten men. We'll need you down here for something else," zipping up his jacket and applying his beanie. Hobbes did not say another word about it. A ladder allowed Billy to climb to the top where he straddled the A framed roof. Forgetting he was afraid of heights he carefully inched his way towards the chimney to rest his back against it, then began his scan. From his perch, the whole neighborhood could be seen, and not a soul was around, "It's a ghost town" he thought, crossing his arms trying to keep warm in the frigid air. Down below Billy could hear the high pitch whine of Calvin as he sloshed through the snow, going from place to place. This little boy and his furry companion were thinking of ways to fortify their position even more. After taking a tour of the walls Calvin called inside his friend and Susie to the kitchen, on top of a table, Calvin threw out a piece of white paper. Coupled with a pen, he sketched out the entire house, and began to show his plans on how to defend this house against the goons. "Our walls are strong but what we needed is a catapult or some type of artillery that can deal with them at long range, and ramparts in which to mount them." The idea was rather farfetched. Susie rolled her eyes and groaned. It was inconcieveable to even have a notion of battling these things. What the boy was asking for was impossible, but the boy explained his plans in detail and with simplicity. He also had persistance. It was beginning to make sense now as he drew out areas of danger then Hobbes took up the pen and drew the corpse of trees to the south. The land there slopped down gently all the way to the creek and there was a large rock outcropping that was concealed by the heavy snow. This was a blind spot. If the goons could get enough people there then they would be cut off from their main weapon. The houses here varied their defensability after the outbreak and there was no sighting of the goons but they could surround them in just minutes after stepping over the walls. It was clear: this was there Alamo. They were surrounded, and it does not appear that help was coming, and their mood changed completely, "Im not going to fall to them like my parents did" Susie proclaimed, "What do you want us to do?" looking at Calvin right in the eye.
A small shed in the back offered some help, it was a work bench Susie's father used to help fix the house. Opening it up Calvin's dream came true. Power tools, hand tools, plenty of wood, everything he wanted, but instead of forefilling his fantasies, they were to be used to save their lives. No time was to waste. This is where Hobbes's strength came into play. First, a sketch of his work was made, then the saw was turned on, and did not stop for hours. Outside the un-insulated shed, workers began to work on a snow rampart the south west corner, bordering the street. This was deemed by them to be the most likely place of attack. In addition to a catapult wooden stakes, sharpened at both ends, were driven into the ground at a 45 degree angles below the rampart giving the fort a growing porcupine look. All through the day, work progressed with undieing devotion. Susie was everywhere, helping and encouraging her friends, Calvin was there was well albiet edgy along the same walls, waiting for the goons to find him. At last, the saw stopped, as was did the hammering and cursing. Proudly, Hobbes announced that his "weapon" was ready. Delighted, Calvin asked for help from Floyd and younger Gerald O' Brian to help move it out using tow ropes to the finished rampart where fears persisted that the combined weight of peoplpe, the catapult, and the ammunition would cause it to crumble. Inching its way up the slope the catapult suceeded to the top and remained solid.
Everythng was perfect now, all they needed was a foe to try it on. Ask for it, you shall recieve. Billy called down that he saw movement to the south-west. A group of goons were seen about 100 yards away, mooping about carelessly in a open patch of land. It was too far for one to throw, so they would be the first victims of Hobbes's creation. Using hemp rope Calvin and Floyd pulled down the flexible arm until the bowl was level with the ground and a projecting wood tip allowed the lock to activate keeping it in place. Several handfuls of rock filled the bowl and then the kids adjusted the small wood wheels at its base to adjust the projection. The kids wanted this shot to make some sort of difference as everyone else climbed to watching positions along the walls and were apprehensive whether or not the rampart would sink or the catapult would shatter on the first shot. Once the weapon was sighted, a long laynard of rope was unraveled by Calvin heading down the rampart slope. One good jerk on this would release the lock and the arm would snap forward. Holding up one hand he beagn, "Ready!" drawing out the tension, "Aim!" People groaned, they wanted to see some action.
"Fire already!" protested Susie loudly.
Jerking on the rope, the arm was released and snapped forward in a instant. Everyone gasped, thinking it might break, but the wood and snow was firm, and the rocks hurtled towards the unsuspecting foe. Hearing the snap the goons looked in their general direction and then up at the sailing rocks and then death rained down on them. Heads were smashed, arms ripped off, guts pierced. Cheers broke out, everyone celebrated this victory as the group lay withering. To add to the joy, Calvin took a discarded stick, tied a discarded black shirt to it, handed it to the sentry up top whom attached it to the chimney; a symbol of defiance.
Now armed with a fearful weapon, the defenders of the fort was now begging for the enemy, daring them to attack. "Come on now!" they screamed together, "Try and get us now!" For the rest of the day, nothing happened. All of the goons seemed to have vanished following the squashing of their comrades and decided to stay away. Several more forays went out to retrieve more stones, including heavy ones for the catapult and then to the nieghboring houses for supplies. Another such weapon was under construction by Hobbes including a rampart to mount it. No one was slacking in their ventures. Calvin was surprised to see such diligent work, and it's speed impressed him as well. "We should have the whole place built like a castle by morning." When night settled, people collasped from exhaustion, but they went to sleep knowing that they did some good today. They were not going to fall easily to snow men. Only Billy remained awake, scanning about in all directions. It was a clear, full moon night, he would see as if it were day. Nothing moved. Then, something stirred in the distance, coming down the street from the West. Weary that it might be a mind trick, Billy continued to watch it, something was moving out there. It came closer and closer, house by house. It was not a goon, much too fast. It was human. Quickly, he climb up and shouted down the chimney stack, "Someone's coming!" No one heard him over the crackle of the flames so he threw down some collected snow, the noise of it hitting simmering embers awoke many to what was happening.