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.

Running out of doors, the defenders mounted the walls as a voice called out from the darkness, "Oy! Toss us a ladder!" came a very distressed voice on the other side. Immediately convinced that they were not goons, but mere children they obliged. A rope was thrown over and people began struggle to climb in. The first one in was a kid badly mangled with dirty white linen wrapped around his arms, face, and his coat was ripped apart. He fell into Susie's arm and was carried inside. The next two over were a boy and girl both coughing violently and sniffling, a sign of a cold or flue. These to were followed by a string of healthy ones that lacked proper winter gear. Some had inept jackets, half had no gloves, and a couple were even wearing tennis shoes. One that came tumbling in, to everyones surprise was James Mortimer himself, a neatly combed, blond haired, self centered brat, even more so than Calvin. "Thank goodness for you" said a cheerful James, hugging all those inside the fort, "We've been out there for two days, running from snowmen gone amuck. What's going on?" asking them. No one said a word, no one seemed to know, save Calvin, but he remained tight lip.

"Do you have food? We are starving" he asked, holding his stomach. More than happy to feed him and his eleven comrades that accompanied James inside the fort Susie said, "Sure we do. Come on in," knowing full well that now it further strained their beleaguered food supply but decided not to make a fuss. Hustled back into the warmth one by one, Calvin remained reluctant to go inside after eyeing Mortimer as he commented on the pale looking wall paper of Susie's house. Only ones left outside were Calvin whom pulled Susie aside, "I don't trust this guy," putting his point bluntly.

Susie was not too sure about him either, "Yes, but they need our help." With that, she went in to prepare some food and drink.

Eating delicious sandwhiches of fresh ham and tomatoes with juice, James, and his close friend Oliver, began to tell Susie and Calvin at the kitchen table how they eluded the snowmen as the rest of their party huddled near a roaring fire. "They came at us when we were at Oliver's house," telling them sadly, "Bashed in the door. We fled into the woods, with only our clothes on our backs. We stayed away till the next morning, living in igloos basically. We came back home, found the place abandoned, so, together, me and Oliver tried to find others. I wanted to get to my parents, but those snowmen seemed to be everywhere. For a while, my group held up in someone's basement, then, we saw this house, and your flag. Naturally, we came here to seek help." His story impressed the two leaders, a testament to perseverance, but Calvin did not really believe into it as he stared James right in his blue eyes, both men did not budge.

"Well" Susie broke the tension, "Now that you are here, you can help us with our fort."

"Fort? What fort?" scoffed James as he sipped on his juice.

"This is our fort," she smiled.

Both of the new boys fought hard to try and not to laugh, but it was evident that they were, "You call this a fort? My dad can build a better one on his own, in one day. Besides, why build a fort? We need to get out of here as soon as possible," raising his voice so others can here outside the kitchen.

"Our best chance is to stay here and wait for someone to find us" Calvin insisted that his course of action was the best. "We stand a better chance inside here, than out there where they can get at us easier."

James looked at this spunky lad, and smiled, "OK, boy, we'll stay," finishing his drink.

"Good, because, if you stay, you have to work..." added Susie an extended finger stabbed into the kitchen table.

Next morning, the defenders awoke to find that they were still alive for another day. Breakfast was small though this time around. With a dozen more mouths to feed, the rations were reduced to a little more a couple mouthfuls of meat, an egg, and a glass of juice. Surprised that Mortimer and his band was still here Calvin gave them the task of the North west corner to work on, because, it was the weakest part for the "weakest" people. Snow needed to be shoveled out of the way in the plaza created to improvement movement from place to place and more rocks needed to be taken in. Calvin directed them to do this however Mortimer could only laugh. "Rocks? Rocks! You honestly believe that rocks can kill snowmen? God, man, you're even wierder than I thought." All twelve of these new people were the richest in the neighborhood, thus they were snotty, stuck up, superior feeling, typical richn folk and elected not to listen to an inferior being. Work still progressed however elsewhere. When noon came around, everyone took a break inside. Sitting around a rejuvenated fire, James did not relent in his prospect of abandoning this position for some place "better."

"If we stick to the woods, we can reach the other neighborhoods to the south," he said, "They have houses made with gated windows and have guns. You know those people have to fend for themselves alot."

"But, the goons seem to go to the woods. The people they capture are last seen dragged into there," Calvin said in his one of them liked the other's idea, nothing was accomplished except wasted breath. Hobbes tuned his catapult with Gerald and Bryant's help. He saw Mortimer's group at their area of the wall, they were seemingly lax, not working at all. Some even took the whole situation as a joke, even plotting to overthrow Calvin and Susie and making James as head of the fort.

To himself the tiger growled, "This is madness." He did not trust them either sensing cowardliness at the wrong time. Inside the shed, more and more planks of wood fueled the tiger to build more and more to help keep his mind occupied where precision counts. Calvin asked him if he can build as many of these new catapults as possible to cover every part of the walls, "Will do" the furry feline smiled.

As the feline continued with his labor he was suddenly called away by another trying mission to fetch more food. "You know, I wonder how many castles would not have fallen if they had not run out of food. Sometimes I wish I were a tree and had no need to eat again," Hobbes recounted thoughts from his mind aloud as he cleaned off his hands and met with his friend.

Billy and Floyd volunteered to go out again as well, however, before they could start Mortimer protested this "useless" sortie as a needless excuse to waste precious time."Those things will find you, and when they do, they will scoop you up and devour you," sneering to Calvin as they climbed over the wall, but Calvin was not scared by this. He stared right back and spat, "I hope that if they do get in here they get to you first," then he slide down the face of the wall and disappeared into the night. Though exhausted by his work in the shed, Hobbes wanted to scout about this night, he sensed something, but kept it to himself what it was.

Slinking away around trees and frost covered bushes, a house was scoped out. It was a single story dwelling with gray aluminum siding. "Who's house is this?" asked Billy in a whisper as they watched the tiger sniff about. "Not sure" Calvin replied, "But I bet it's loaded with good food." Very idea of fresh fruit and milk brought a smile to his face. A door was ajar, Hobbes slipped in to find a narrow corridor that led to a kitchen and a family room to his immediate right. A tense moment passed, the three boys watched edgy, hiding behind a hedge in the freezing snow for the all clear. When it came, they burst out from hiding and dragged their sleds behind them into the surprisingly still warmed house. Billy and Floyd raided every cabinet, throwing canned food onto their transports as Calvin went to get a look see outside. A frost covered window offered a good view towards the West. Some houses, with flickering lights, could be seen, but he wondered if anyone was inside them, waiting to be rescued like they were. "We're finished," Billy spoke loudly. Coming back to the kitchen, all three sleds were overloaded with cans, containers, and trays, and both Floyd and Billy had wild smiles on their faces. Smiling back, Calvin took the rope to his toboggan and began to drag the overloaded plank to the door. Just as he was about to get outside...

GRRRRRRRR

Squawking, the boys ran into one another in the narrow hallway as a giant snow goon with three heads and branches for antennas, charged in. Neither one of them were armed. With long limbs, the goon snatched up Calvin whom fought desperately to get free. For saplings these branches would not break and the goon drew Calvin in, opening its mouth.

"DIE!" a roar caused the goon to release Calvin and looked up. Hobbes brandished a club, swinging it wildly. With speed, Hobbes tackled his foe from behind knocking him over and nearly crushing his friend underneath. Pinned for just a moment the tiger stood on the beasts' shoulders, held his club above his head and brought down his weapon onto its head. One strike and it was over.

"Are you all right?" asked the tiger to the dazed Calvin.

"Yeah, I guess so" collecting himself, "We have to go. More will be here soon," taking up his knocked off beanie.

A mad dash back to the fort came, all four dragged the burdened sleds towards the walls, where fellow defenders encouraged them on. Giving up their sortie early to compensate to save what they did have now coupled with their encounter with a goon the team clambered up the icy slope of the fort. There were cheers and back pats as one kid dived into the food pile bathing himself life giver. As they laughed Billy called out a warning, "Over there!" in the direction in which the party came. Loading up the catapult the crew fired a canister round that disappeared along with the goons.

"That was a close shave" panted the boy, resting his body against the snow wall.

"Let's not do that again," smirked his furry friend.

After a pause to rest, Susie came up with some good news while they were gone. "Three more made it to us. They say that another group is holed up further down the street."

It was good news indeed, but everyone was too exhausted to do anything about it. "Can they get to us?" Calvin asked, heading for the front door. Following at his side, Susie told him, "They can, but it won't be until maybe in the morning. We'll need to send a messenger back to tell them about all this and that we will accept them." Nodding back in approval, Calvin entered the solace.

As the night wore on, a figure jumped the wall and raced away...

Next morning, work was restarted again. Meals were much better this day, including some fruit cocktail. Happy children smiled, "I got a cherry!" Work was also hard again, at this part of the siege more ramparts were needed to carry the catapults Hobbes was rolling off his assembly line. All were upbeat. If reports of another group were indeed true then that would mean more friends, more power, and also more mouths to feed and the need to make room for them. Thus all of the furniture was rearranged to meet this new demand. Unneeded desks and chairs were chopped up into firewood to fuel the fire to keep them warm. During the night the power cut out thus leaving the garrison only the light from the fire and some flashlights to show their way. Only one door remained unsecured, the front, everything else was barred shut. As he toured the insides of the house Calvin said to Hobbes, "If they get over the walls we'll have to fall back inside house. Have extra rocks placed by the windows and doors that way we don't have to run around with all that, all the time."

He seemed rather proud that all this will stop snowmen, but Hobbes remained unsure, "Why don't we forget the walls and use all of our resources on the house?" A pause came between them then Calvin turned to his friend, "We need to have an outter barrier," meaning the snow walls, "Otherwise, if they break into the house without them, we have no fall back place and they might be weakened with lesser numbers." Thinking about, Hobbes finally accepted the proposal of his friend. It was also hoped, if this new group comes in, they would have enough numbers to man these positions. All day long, the boy wondered how many were coming. Would they be fit to fight? Were they sick or wounded? How much supplies did they have? How much did he have?

Susie was still sorting through the many cans of goods that were fished in from the night. Water was still plentiful, faucets still worked. All plastic jugs were filled and when the spigots were not working fast enough then snow was boiled. Also an added bonus, Susie's two toilets also worked as well, making life just a little bit more bearable though the electricity was still out.

Outside, Mortimer and his gang were slowly working on their ramp. "Hey, Mort" barked O' Rouke, one of his followers, "Why do we have to work like this? I followed you to find us sanctuary not to build a dang fort." Others seemed agree with his sentiments, this was not a fort, but a trap.

Coming out to inspect them, Calvin saw their progress, their laziness, and was livid. The snow was pitifully piled up, men were sitting, asleep, or drinking cocoa. Calvin tried to deal with the problem himself, marching right up to the older Mortimer. With angry eyes, the two stared at each other, practically nose to nose, "I told you, I wanted this ramp up by noon" Calvin yelled.

"I don't take orders from a peasant" Mortimer spat.

Hobbes was ready nearby to pounce, but remained fixed. Calvin could fight for himself.

"Look here, you jerk" Calvin said, "Those snow goon will be here at any minute. We need this ramp up..."

Mortimer cut him off, "What for? What can a catapult do? Why are we afraid of stupid snowmen?"

"Because" Calvin answered, "These are not regular snowmen. These are deranged killer mutant monster snow goons. And they will kill us when they get the chance." Finished, Calvin stared at Mortimer whose lower lip turned up. Both turned and walked away from each other, leaving the garrison baffled. Was there a battle in the command chain?