Chapter 14: Bandit Ambush

Danny, Jimmy, and Kwan screamed in fear at the arrow that had pierced AJ's shoulder. AJ cried out in pain, grabbing his shoulder as crimson blood poured out his wound and soaked his shirt. Kwan quickly picked up the bleeding boy as more arrows started flying at them. The attackers were hiding in the forest, out of sight from the four boys. Danny started looking for an escape and saw the gate. If they could reach the gate, they could get through the fence and back to the safety of the farmhouse.

They tried to run along the fence to reach the gate, but arrows were fired in front of their path, narrowly missing them.

Danny looked over at the tractor and they made a break for it. As they took cover behind the tractor, Danny peeked over, ducking as an arrow flew at him, narrowly missing him. With the electric fence on, the gate was their only way out. Unfortunately, due to all the arrows being fired at them, that option was the best. Hopefully, someone from the farm had heard their screams and was on their way to help them.

"I told you what would happen, you son of a bitch!" A man none of them recognized suddenly shouted from the forest.

"What the fuck is going on!?" Kwan cried.

"We have to get to the gate!" Danny growled as he shielded Jimmy and AJ.

"Easier said than done!" He screamed as an arrow struck the ground, inches from his hand.

"We had an agreement! Now you're fucked!" Another man laughed maniacally.

"Who the fuck is that?!"

"No idea!" Danny replied. "It might be those bandits we saw coming up here."

"Now what Danny?!" Jimmy asked fearfully as he tightly clutched Danny's stained shirt and AJ whimpered weakly as he suddenly passed out, either due to pain or all the blood he had lost. Thinking quickly, Danny tried to push the tractor, but it didn't budge an inch. He looked at the farm equipment over and saw the plow behind the tractor still had its blades stuck in the dirt. Danny pulled the plow lever, which raised the spikes stuck into the dirt.

The black and white-haired teen quickly took cover again as the bandits fire an arrow at him.

Realizing what he was doing, Kwan took away the chock blocking the front wheel, and the tractor started rolling forward; the four boys moving along with it.

"They're on the move!" One of their hidden attackers shouted. More arrows were fired at the tractor, but thankfully it protected the boys. Their relief was shortlived, however, as the tractor suddenly stopped as it ran into an electrified infected they had pushed down earlier. They were going to have to move it. Kwan pulled the zombie out of the tractor's path and it continued to roll along as they followed it. They continued along smoothly until an infected with no legs crawled it's way behind.

Catching them by surprise, it grabbed onto Danny's ankle with both hands and pulled him and AJ toward itself.

"DANNY! AJ!" Kwan cried as the tractor continued to move forward, leaving the smaller teen and injured boy out in the open.

"KEEP MOVING!" Danny shouted as he quickly pulled out his green sword and sliced the bottom half of the infected's face clean off, making it unable to bite and infect him. He then lifted the infected up in front of him and AJ as some sort of shield as arrows continued to rain down on him and AJ, pinning them down. The tractor stopped in front of the silo, and Kwan kicked the gate open. He gave Danny one last look before he grabbed Jimmy and ran to get help.

"They're getting away!" The first man shouted as Kwan and Jimmy rounded the corner and out of range.

"You lucky sons of bitches! Go ahead and run! We still got yer friends!" The second man cackled and Danny snarled. He was sick of this. He was sick of being chased and hunted, sick of his friends being hurt, sick of all the fights in the group, sick of the hungry and desperate look in his friends' eyes and he was sick of living every second of every day in fear. He wouldn't put up with it anymore.

"Getaway." Danny hissed he felt the rage and fear swirling around in his chest. "Getaway! Get AWAAAAAY!" He screamed as rings of light suddenly consumed his body and he transformed once again. The bandits in the woods stopped firing and started screaming as Danny fired beams of ecto energy into the woods, not caring if he missed or not. A few seconds later the screaming stopped and Danny changed back to normal. As the adrenaline drained from his body, Danny doubled over in pain and looked to AJ, he stared at Danny as if he was the devil.

He almost slapped himself for his recklessness, realizing that AJ must have woken up and seen everything.

Danny walked over to the boy to reassure him, but AJ quickly tried to crawl away in utter terror before ultimately passing out again, scaring Danny. As the teen carefully picked the boy up, SpongeBob, Mr. Krabs, Squidward and Kwan came running around the corner, heavily armed.

"What happened?!" SpongeBob cried when he saw a pale and bloody AJ passed out in Danny's arms.

"The electric fence came on! Some people started attacking from the woods and we got trapped between them and the fence!" Danny snarled in rage as he turned to Squidward. "I thought this place was safe!?"

"I heard you yell and thought you were giving me the all clear!" Squidward argued.

"Fucking bandits! They have no right being out here on our property!" Mr. Krabs growled as they made their way back to the farmhouse to try and save AJ. As they walked back to the house, Squidward noticed that some greenish smoke had started seeping out of the forest but there wasn't a ghost in sight. He also noticed all the arrows around and began to wonder how Danny had gotten rid of the bandits. He hummed in thought and quickly ran to join the others...


As they ran up to the porch, they saw Jimmy and Pearl stood there, waiting for them. They both gasped when they saw the state AJ was in and ran down to meet them halfway. As they examined the injured boy, there was a loud whistle behind them. They quickly turned around in a panic, only to see the rest of the motel group approach and Bucky gave them a wave.

"Hey, y'all!" The former baseball player called.

"Oh, my god, what happened?!" Nicky cried when they finally saw a blood-soaked Danny and AJ in his arms.

"I'm fine but AJ got shot with an arrow," Danny explained as the motor inn group ran over to join them.

"Christ! Is he gonna be okay?" Mrs. Dinkleburg asked.

"Yeah, he'll be fine," Kwan promised as he reached for AJ. "We should just pull it out now." He said but Mr. Krabs quickly beat him to it and pulled AJ out of Danny's shaking grip.

"Oh no, you don't you idiot." He growled. "I'll take him inside now and we'll have him all sorted out." He explained and he, SpongeBob, and Mrs. Dinkleburg walked into the house to tend to AJ.

"What kind of shit is this?!" Vicky howled once the door shut.

"We ran into some people on the way up here, bandits, I think it was them that attacked us," Danny explained.

"They gave us a lot of problems in the beginning, killed a bunch of the farmhands who were here when we got here," Pearl admitted. "Daddy and Squidward were able to get them to stop by making a deal."

"You KNEW about these people?" Bucky glared at the tall man.

"Food for protection." He shrugged. "Not like we had much of a choice, but they did stop hassling us."

"Valerie said this place was locked down tight!" Vicky shouted as Mr. Krabs emerged from the house.

"So much for your 'deal'." Danny glared.

"Those shitheads broke the agreement!" The red-haired man hissed before his expression softened. "I'm sorry, Danny, if I had any inklin' they were gonna give you guys trouble, I would have made Squidward go out there with you!" He insisted and raised his hand to cut his employee off. "Listen, we may have had an agreement with those people, but we will NOT stand for this shit, ain't no way we're gonna let those sons o' bitches get away with this!"

"You know where these assholes are?" Bucky asked.

"They're hard to pin down, but I think I know where at least ONE of their camps are," Squidward said. "When you're ready to go scope out that bandit camp, come find us." He said and he and Mr. Krabs went back into the house.

"Bandits? Are you serious? This place isn't safe, we can't stay here." Nicky insisted.

"Not safe?! Are you insane?!" Bucky laughed bitterly. "This place is a hell of a lot safer than that motor inn! I think all of us and our guns can handle a couple of punks playing Robin Hood with bows and arrows! What we need to do is find a way to get our whole group out here to stay; take this place over if we have to!" He ordered sternly.

"Whoa! Cool your jets there, Rambo." Mr. Dinkleburg said. "These are nice people, let's not do anything to get us thrown out before we eat!"

"I'm gonna head out and help Squidward deal with these bandits," Danny said. "You guys should try to make friends with Mr. Krabs and his daughter Pearl while I'm gone."

"That should be easy." Timmy shrugged.

"Where's Dash and Valerie?" Danny asked, noticing they had two short.

"Since Valerie and Dash ate some of the food on the way back to get us, they volunteered to stay behind and watch the motor inn until we get back." Vicky huffed as Pearl came back out of the house.

"Hey, Daddy remembered seeing kids in your group, so he made Squidward fix that swing while you were out, I hope you kids like swings!" She smiled.

"A swing! I love swings! Come on, guys!" Tootie happily cheered as she, the boys, Nicky and Bucky headed over to play on the swing, and everyone else soon dispersed as well. Not knowing what else to do, Danny decided to check on Timmy and especially Jimmy. He smiled as he saw the kids laughing and enjoying themselves as they took turns on the newly repaired swing.

"Hey, kids, do you like the swing?" He smiled.

"Yeah! It's fun!" They replied and he chuckled a little.

"Be sure to tell Squidward 'thank you', okay?" Nicky said and they nodded.

"Will you push me on it?" Jimmy asked his teenage guardian.

"Sure." He smiled and turned to Bucky, who was currently pushing his son on the swing. "Mind if Jimmy takes a turn?"

"Alright, Chester, let Jimmy have a try for a bit." The blonde man said as he stopped the swing. Chester jumped off the swing and sat on a nearby tree stump next to Tootie and Timmy with Bucky and Nicky standing beside him. Jimmy quickly sat on the swing while Danny gently started to push him.

"How are you holding up, Jim?" Danny suddenly asked, not liking how quiet the boy was.

"I'm okay, I guess." He muttered. I'm just a little worried about AJ, is he going to be okay?"

"He got lucky out there, it could have been a lot worse." Replied Danny.

"Are you going to find the jerks who hurt him?" Timmy glared.

"Of course dear, we have to make sure they don't hurt anyone else," Nicky explained quietly.

"Be careful, I want you to stay lucky, too," Jimmy said to the teen

"Ever since I've met you two I've had good luck, so don't worry." He smiled. "What do you kids think of the dairy?"

"It's pretty." Tootie beamed as a butterfly fluttered passed them and into the crops.

"Yeah, it reminds me of how things used to look before," Chester added, looking a little sad. "Do you think things will ever get back to how they were?"

"Sure thing, I'm not really sure when, but one-day things have got to get back to normal," Bucky promised his young son, not paying any mind to Danny's disapproving glare. True he hoped things would return to normal, but that seemed very unlikely to happen anywhere in the near future. As Jimmy jumped off the swing and Tootie had her turn, Danny quietly pulled Bucky to the side.

"So, ya found anything interesting while playing up here?" The man asked.

"I'm just trying to make sure this place is secure, in case we decide to make this a more long-term solution." He explained. "Except for those people in the woods, it seems pretty safe."

"Good to know, keep yer ears open for anything else that might help us.

"How're you holding up?"

"I hope they feed us, soon, on the way over here I thought me and my boy were gonna pass out."

"They've got food here."

"Yeah, but I'm not just talking about one meal, ya know?"

"Did you guys get here okay?"

"Well, it wasn't easy," Bucky admitted. "The kids didn't look so good on the walk over to this place."

"If everything works out, maybe they can have an easier life here."

"I hope you're right, they deserve a better life than starving to death at some crappy motel."

"I'm gonna go have a look around some more then I'm gonna help scope out that bandit camp," Danny explained. "It'd be a good opportunity to find out a bit more about Mr. Krabs and their relationship with those bandits or whatever." He said before heading off to check on the others. He went through the gate in front of the barn and approached the gazebo, where Vicky, Kwan, and Mr. Dinkleberg were.

"Danny, oh, my god, I'm so glad you two didn't get killed out there." Kwan gasped when he saw Danny. "Do you think AJ will be okay?"

"Wish I knew, but I think he's in good hands now." He replied.

"How could you all bring us to this place?" Vicky glared.

"How do you feel about leaving the motor inn?" He frowned in annoyance.

"It's a welcome change of scenery." Mr. Dinkleberg smiled.

"I don't know, if we'd just stayed where we were, then AJ wouldn't have ended up with an arrow in his shoulder." Kwan sighed.

"Hey, let's not think like that right now, there'll be plenty of time to talk about all our options after we've eaten and after me and Squidward investigate those bandits' campsite." He said with a comforting smile and went to talk to Squidward and Mr. Krabs, who we talking about something on the porch. As he got closer, they noticed him and gave him a look that made the boy uncomfortable.

"Fellas." He greeted nervously.

"Hello Danny, again, I'm really sorry you almost got killed out there." Mr. Krabs smiled. "We should've told you how dangerous it was."

"No shit." Danny glared.

"You saw what they did to your little friend, nobody's safe here until we start to fight back." Squidward insisted.

"But how?" Asked Danny, remembering how he and AJ had barely escaped with their lives.

"The two of us should go out and do some recon, then we'll all mount up for some revenge." The tall man replied.

"Who the fuck are these people in the woods?" He asked. "I know you said they're bandits but where'd they come from?"

"We don't know." Squidward shrugged. "We think some of 'em used to work at the Save Lots up the way."

"They're nutty as all hell and get mad when they're hungry." Mr. Krabs added.

"So, are you ready to head out there and find their camp?" Squidward asked impatiently.

"Yeah, it'll be a good opportunity to find out a bit more about what we're up against," Danny said.

"I'll stay here and hold down the fort." Mr. Krabs said and went in to get Squidward's rifle.

"Remember, we're just doing reconnaissance, for now, no use getting ourselves killed," Danny said and Squidward reluctantly agreed. A few moments later Mr. Krabs returned with the gun and Danny and Squidward made their way to the front gate. Just as they were about to leave, they both failed to notice Jimmy and Timmy watching them as they vanished into the forest.

"Please be lucky."...