Chapter 12: Friend Or Foe?

As the bells on their alarm system began ringing loudly as a man tripped over the string outside the motel with another man next to him. The motel survivors crouched down behind the fence for cover. Valerie quickly stood up, pointing her gun at two men outside the fence and they put their hands up with fearful expressions. Danny looked over and saw that one of them holding a gas can. One was a short and portly man, with large hands, and short legs.

He had spikey, crimson red hair and pale green eyes.

He wore a light blue shirt and purple pants with a black belt. The other man had light turquoise dyed hair in a buzz cut. He had a large forehead, similar to Jimmy's, a skinny body, a big droopy nose, a wide mouth, and amber eyes. He wore a brown polo shirt with matching pants and black boots.

"Back off!" The dark-skinned girl warned.

"Whoa, lady, relax!" The man with red hair quickly exclaimed as they both raised their hands in surrender. "Me and my employee, we...we just wanna know if you can help us out."

"I said back off!" She shouted again.

"Wait, I know these guys." SpongeBob suddenly whispered. "That's my boss Mr. Krabs and friend Squidward!" He gasped.

"SpongeBob?" The man, Mr. Krabs, said, finally noticing the blonde man, but Valerie quickly cocked her gun, preventing them from approaching. Danny thought for a moment before looking at Valerie.

"Val, lower the gun." He said and she reluctantly obeyed. "We don't want any trouble!" He called to the men.

"Of course, neither do we." Mr. Krabs said as he slowly lowered his hands. "I'm Mr. Eugene Krabs and this here's my employee Squidward Tentacles; we're just out looking for gasoline." He explained as he examined the group and their camp. "Looks like you people have got this motel locked down, which is fine, but if you could spare any gas we'd be much obliged."

"Are you armed?" Bucky asked.

"Yeah, for protection, those things could be anywhere," Squidward replied as they slowly pulled out their guns and carefully put them on the ground.

"What do you need gas for?" Valerie asked as she looked at the empty gas can.

"Our place is protected by an electric fence," Squidward replied. "The generators provide electricity and our generators run on gas."

"Look, we've been hiding in a dairy farm with my daughter Pearl a few miles up the road." Mr. Krabs explained. "If you all be willing to lower your guns, we can talk about some kinda trade." He said, piquing the group's interest. "How you all doing on food? We got plenty at the dairy." He kindly offered. After a few moments thinking it over, Valerie quickly turned to Danny.

"Danny, why don't you and SpongeBob go and check the place out and see if it's legit?"

"I'll go too, improve the numbers, in case we run into anything." SpongeBob beamed. "Plus, it'll be nice to catch up with my old friends."

"You've got a deal." Danny smiled. "We'll bring SOME gas to your dairy, in exchange, you give us some food to bring back; we'll see how it goes from there." He explained.

"Sounds fair, a couple of gallons should power one of our generators for a while." Mr. Krabs smiled...


As they walked through the forest, Mr. Krabs, Squidward, Kwan, SpongeBob, and Dash were talking, with Danny, Valerie, and Jimmy following a little ways behind them, making sure no infected or ghosts snuck up behind them.

"So, this dairy...you guys really have food?" Kwan asked.

"Sure do." Mr. Krabs grinned. "After we escaped Bikini Bottom we made it up here until we ran outta gas; We found the farm but seemed like the owners were long gone and had lost most of the cattle, but we still found lots of milk, butter, and cheese stocked up in the house and with the vegetables, the original owners had grown, we got plenty of food."

"You sure you're ok Jimmy?" Danny asked the boy.

"Sure, I'd like to look at that electric fence they talked about." The boy genius smiled. "It might give me some ideas for something I can rig up at the motor inn."

"Can an electric fence really stop the infected?" Kwan asked the child.

"As long as the infected aren't completely dehydrated, and the fence has enough juice, yeah, seems plausible, the electricity basically cooks you from the inside out; it wouldn't really work for ghosts as they could just fly over it," Jimmy explained with a concerned frown. "But if an infected came into contact with the fence, it'll eventually cook its brain and heart, probably takes a while, though...and that can't be a good smell."

"Doubt it." Danny chuckled.

"It's nice to get away from that motel for a while." Kwan sighed in relief. "All the fights between Vicky, Valerie, and Bucky are starting to get really ridiculous, no offense." He quickly said to Valerie, who burned a glare into the back of his head.

"Val's way of running things is smart." Danny defended. "It's not easy, but it's keeping us alive." He added and Valerie smiled.

"Personally, I'd be happier if you started to take charge more." Kwan smiled at Danny.

"You think they'd want me for a leader?" He asked in disbelief.

"Sure, everybody looks up to you." Jimmy smiled as he walked further up to catch up with the others, leaving Danny and Valerie alone.

"Well...not everyone thinks I'm so trustworthy." The teen muttered, but she heard it.

"Because of your past?" Valerie asked and he nodded. "Does anyone else know? Because I haven't told anyone."

"Vicky knows." He admitted. "I don't know how she found out."

"Great, that can't be easy." Valerie sighed. "You've gotta let go of that fear, the Danny I know is a good man." She reassured with a smile.

"Timmy and Jimmy also know." He said as he watched the boy talk happily with the jocks about some kind of science, greatly confusing them. "They were there when we were talking in the drugstore and asked me about it; I couldn't lie to them."

"What exactly DID happen with your family?" Valerie finally asked, but Danny remained silent. "Well, I'm here whenever you wanna talk."

"Sometimes I wonder if I should talk to the group about it."

"You don't have to, whatever happened before things went to hell doesn't matter anymore." She said sternly.

"Not sure everyone would see it that way."

"Maybe you're right." She sighed before placing a hand on his shoulder. "Listen, these past few months we've some pretty messed up shit, I've seen you protect us a hundred times, remember, you are not a bad man."

"I really appreciate that." He smiled as they caught up with the group ahead of them.

"...I mean, thank god Danny showed up when he did!" They heard SpongeBob exclaimed.

"Yeah, why don't you tell us a little more about yourself, Danny?" Mr. Krabs grinned. "Where are ya from?"

"The motor inn is my home now, I guess." He shrugged.

"That place has seen better days, huh?" Squidward asked, not really turning to them.

"We've actually made it pretty secure," Valerie stated, though it vaguely sounded like a threat.

"I like that alarm system you made, that's pretty smart," Dash said with a weak smile.

"Y'all seem pretty settled in at that motor inn, who's running things over there?" Mr. Krabs asked.

"We work as a group, all of us looking out for each other." Danny quickly said, trying to remain neutral.

"I hear that! There are so many dumbasses out there fighting each other these days, it's just stupid." The short man chuckled. "How many people ya got over there anyway?"

"Enough to defend ourselves," Valerie warned again as Danny gave her a small glare.

"Well, that's good! It's getting dangerous out there, well, you guys know." The red-haired man sadly pointed out. "Well, we'd love to get ya ALL out to the dairy; as I said, we got plenty of food, and quite frankly, we could always use an extra helping hand."

"We'll have to talk it over when we get back," Danny explained.

Suddenly the group heard loud shouting for up ahead. They quickly crouched down and moved forward to see the argument with Danny, Valerie, Kwan, Mr. Krabs, and Squidward drew their weapons. They looked and saw to adult men standing in a clearing, arguing loudly.

"You think you're gonna cut me outta this?!" The first man shouted.

"No one is trying to cut you outta anything!" The other man tried to reason.

"You and Gary are always pulling this shit! Don't think I haven't noticed it!"

"Fuckin' bandits." Squidward hissed.

"Who?" SpongeBob asked nervously.

"Fucking assholes are who they are." Mr. Krabs growled.

"Those look like the people who raided my camp," Dash said.

"Calm down, your paranoia is pissing everyone off!" The second bandit exclaimed.

"Fuck you! You knew we were hungry! And you guys were keeping it all to yourselves!" The first bandit screeched.

"What should we do?" Kwan asked, feeling the tension grow.

"There's only two of them," Valerie suggested.

"Oh, no, there's a lot more," Squidward warned.

"Don't worry, Squidward and I got ya covered if something happens, but let's just wait this out and hope they move on." Mr. Krabs suggested.

"Yeah, and you know what, we ate it all! What are you gonna fucking do about it?!" The second bandit laughed bitterly as he got into his fellow bandit's face

"FUCK YOU!" The first bandit screamed as kicked the other bandit and then shot him in the head. Dash gasped as Danny quickly covered Jimmy's eyes in an attempt to protect him. "FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU!" The surviving bandit howled as he continued to shoot the dead body a few more times. After emptying all his bullets into the man, the bandit spat on his corpse before walking away. Once they were sure the coast was clear, everyone got up and walked away as fast as they could...