Chapter 16: Meat is Murder
As they walked inside the farmhouse, Danny got a good look at the large house's interior. The first floor of the house was equipped with a modern kitchen and one small bathroom, it also had a huge living room and a cozy dining area. From what he could see it looked like the second floor was the same size as the first, but part of it hanged over the edge of the floor below, creating an overhang on one side and a balcony on the other.
That floor had a very different style than the floor below.
From where Danny was standing he could clearly see that the backdoor was boarded up with a few boxes stacked against it.
"We had to block the back door after an infected got upstairs, but don't worry, that was a while ago and they ain't been back inside since." Mr. Krabs reassured the boy as he led him into the dining room. When they entered the dining room everyone was already sitting down and Danny was surprised at the amount of feed laid out on the table. There was bread, biscuits, fruit, vegetables, and what looked like small steaks.
"Oh, boy!" Chester exclaimed as he took his seat, his braced mouth drooling in anticipation.
"Ooh, this is a delight!" Nicky beamed.
"I could eat a horse," Bucky added.
"Where's AJ?" Timmy asked, noticing his friend was nowhere to be found.
"Now don't you worry about him, I've already brought some food up to him so you just let him rest." Pearl smiled as she placed some food on her plate.
"Mind if I wash my hands first?" Danny asked nicely.
"Bathroom's right outside in the hall and is sure to get under your nails, you've been muckin' around in the dirt all day." Mr. Krabs laughed. Danny nodded and entered the hallway. He instantly started looking around the first floor of the house but all he found was a college diploma, a baseball trophy, a blue ribbon, a photo of what he believed were the original owners, and a medicine cabinet. The only thing in the medicine cabinet, however, was some shaving cream, a bottle of lotion, and gauze pads.
Danny sighed in defeat and was about to return to the dining room when he suddenly heard a low moan coming from upstairs.
Danny glanced back at the dining room before he quietly sneaked upstairs. Once he reached the top of the stairs, Danny opened the first door, which turned out to be the closest. The closet was full of morphine, candles, towels, and recently used medical supplies. There was also a trashcan full of medical waste such as IV tubes and saline. Danny frowned, wondering why would dairy farmers need this kind of stuff. He was about the close the closet door when he saw a power cord hidden behind the medical supplies.
Danny turned on the power cord and noticed that it went through a hole in the back of the closet and lit the bedroom next to him.
Now Danny was getting really worried. Taking a deep breath to regain his nerve, Danny entered the bedroom. It was a rather small bedroom with simply a bed, a window, and a bookshelf full of farm books and cookbooks. Nothing out of the ordinary there. Danny looked at the bed and realized something that made his blood run cold. AJ was nowhere to be found. Danny was certain that he thought Mr. Krabs said the little bald boy was up here resting.
The sinking feeling only got worst when he saw some bloodstains on the floor by the bed.
Danny, however, reluctantly shrugged it off. AJ had been shot in the shoulder with an arrow, there was bound to be a little bit of blood from when he was being treated for his injury. The black and white-haired teen was about to go back downstairs when he finally noticed that the area behind the bookshelf was lit up. As quietly as possible, Danny pushed the bookshelf out of the way to reveal a door. When he opened the door, it took all his will power not to scream.
He had opened the hidden door to discover an incredible pale AJ lying on the floor of a hidden bathroom, heavily bleeding everywhere, with both of his legs severed above the knee.
"AJ?! What the hell happened?!" Danny cried and he ran and knelt next to the boy.
"...get... away..." AJ moaned in fear, his voice incredibly shaky and weak.
"What the hell happened to your legs?!"
"Don't...eat...dinner..." AJ sobbed as he slumped to the ground.
"Danny, did ya fall in?! Dinner's on the table and everyone's havin' at!" Mr. Krabs suddenly called from downstairs with a hearty chuckle.
"Barbecue! Wow!" The teen heard Chester exclaimed.
"How on earth did you get barbecue meat?" Vicky asked rather loudly and Danny got up, horrified as he realized what everyone was eating for dinner. He had to get to them before that ate something they'd regret. Danny ran down the stairs like a bolt of lightning and burst into the dining room. When he got there Jimmy and Timmy were about to take a bite of the steaks.
"DON'T EAT THAT!" He screamed at the top of his lungs and everyone stopped, startled.
"What?" Mrs. Dinkleberg asked.
"Did you find anything?" Bucky asked.
"Sit your ass down, Danny." Vicky hissed. "I won't let you cheat me out of a hot dinner."
"What's gotten into you?" Kwan agreed.
"He just had a start." Pearl quickly said, fear evident on her face, as her father and Squidward kept their gaze to their food.
"You're eating HUMAN meat!" Danny screeched, choosing to be direct.
"That's crazy!" Vicky scoffed.
"What the hell?" Bucky gasped.
"That's ridiculous!" Mr. Dinkleberg cried.
"You're scaring the kids, Danny." Mrs. Dinkleberg warned as Chester and Tootie took bites out of food, trying to ignore all the shouting; seeing this Nicky and Bucky quickly snatched the plates from their children and set them aside.
"Mommy, I was eating that!" Tootie whined.
"Quiet, honey," Nicky instructed.
"What is going on?!" Jimmy cried in confusion and fear.
"They're picking us off to trade as meat," Danny explained angrily
"You're outta your skull!" Vicky snarled.
"AJ is UPSTAIRS right now with NO LEGS!" Danny shouting her, causing the teenage girl to jump. "Tell me he's NOT being eaten right now!" He snarled as everyone looked to Mr. Krabs. The red-haired man looked at all of them before sighing and lowering his head.
"It's true." He quietly admitted.
"Everything could have turned out okay for you folks." Squidward bitterly hissed, still not meeting anyone's gaze.
"He would have died anyway! We gotta think about living!" Pearl desperately tried to justify.
"Settle down, honey." Mr. Krabs said and turned to the traumatized group. "Growing up, me parents taught me not to waste, it's how I was raised and how I raised me girl." He explained. "Now, you got monsters roamin' around that do nothin' but eat people, and for what? To continue to rot 'til they eat some more; we think we can put that meat to better use." He exclaimed as the group pushed their plates away.
"Ugh... I'm gonna puke." SpongeBob gagged.
"You're all sick! Sick in the head!" Danny cried. in disgust.
"That's not a very nice thing to imply," Pearl whined.
"Pearl's right; we go after folks who were gonna die anyway, one way or another." Mr. Krabs explained.
"Like all of you," Squidward growled, finally looking up at them.
"Alright, screw this! We're getting the hell outta here!" Bucky shouted as he stood up.
"Nobody's going anywhere!" Mr. Krabs snarled as he drew his pistol and stood up. Squidward quickly got up as well and drew his rifle.
"We got lots of use for you all right here." The tall man smirked as he pointed his gun at Bucky and the man slowly returned to his seat.
"What...the...what...the fucking...what...fuck!" Vicky sputtered in shock and terror.
"Put your guns down! We're walking out of here!" Bucky howled. "You don't go near my fucking son!"
"I don't wanna die." Chester whimpered.
"Mommy, what did I eat?" Tootie moaned.
"Danny! Danny!" Timmy yelped as Squidward grabbed his shirt and yanked him back to stand beside him. Jimmy jumped at the man and started hitting his side, only for Squidward to kick him away before pointing his gun at Danny.
"Let go of him, you son of a bitch!" Danny snarled and made to charge forward but stopped and took a step back after Mr. Krabs put his gun at his neck. A standoff ensued and nobody dared move a muscle. Just then, a lump and wet thud echoed throughout the farmhouse. Weird noises were heard in the hallway, and everyone turned to see AJ dragging himself along the ground.
"PLLLEEEASE... SOMEONE!" He groaned.
Everyone gasped and screamed in shock and horror. Danny turned to Jimmy and Timmy and tried to run towards them. Before he could, however, Pearl suddenly stood up and whacked Danny in the back of his head with a plate. Danny tried to get back up but ultimately blacked out...
Danny groaned as he finally regained consciousness a while later. The first thing he noticed was that he was no longer in the dining room. Instead, he was lying in a sterile storage type of room with Mr. Dinkleberg, Kwan, Bucky, Nicky, Tootie, Vicky, SpongeBob, Jimmy, and Timmy. As his senses returned to him, Danny saw that Vicky was banging on the door and the others, minus Jimmy and Timmy, were coughing and gagging up the food they had eaten.
"Open the goddamned door! You can't keep us here! OPEN UP! I WILL TEAR YOU FUCKERS APART WITH MY BARE HANDS!" Vicky screeched like a banshee.
"Will you stop that banging?! We've gotta find another way out!" Bucky snarled as the others vomited in the corner of the room.
"You sick fucking bastards! OPEN THIS DOOR, GODDAMN IT! I will knock the goddamn door down!"
"Vicky, stop!" Nicky pleaded as she wiped Tootie's mouth.
"Danny!" Timmy gasped when he and Jimmy noticed that Danny was awake and ran over and hugged him tightly.
"It- it was a person!" Jimmy cried into his shoulder in horror. "They tried to make us eat a person!"
"But you didn't do it right?" Danny asked and breathed a sigh of relief when they shook their heads.
"The rest of us did, goddamn it! If you hadn't dragged your feet-"
"C'mon, Vicky, now's not the time," Nicky muttered as it appeared that she was gasping for air.
"You okay, boys? They didn't hurt you, did they?" Danny asked his wards and once again they shook their heads.
"Danny, those psychos have my son and Mrs. Dinkleberg, and we're stuck in a damn meat locker! We gotta get the fuck outta here!" Bucky shouted.
"Is there a way out?" Danny asked as he stood up.
"Yeah... THROUGH THIS FUCKIN' DOOR!" Vicky shouted.
"If they so much as touch my boy, I'll kill those sons of bitches!" Bucky exclaimed.
"They locked us in here, I think it's a meat locker." Tootie sniffed, her eyes red from crying.
"OPEN UP, YOU SONS OF BITCHES!" Vicky roared.
"Vicky! Please, stop!" Nicky begged as she lightly clutched her chest.
"This goddamn black and white freak was the one who brought us here!" The red-haired teen bellowed as she glared at Danny. Danny wanted to respond but felt a tug on his shirt. He looked down and saw Jimmy looking up at him with wide eyes.
"I'm scared." He admitted fearfully.
"Don't be, it's gonna be okay." He reassured him. "I'm gonna find us a way outta here." He promised and began looking around for an escape route. Unfortunately, all he found were boxes full of meat and Danny didn't want to know what kind of meat. There were shelves that looked pretty sturdy. They could climb up but there was no way out through the ceiling. Danny looked at some salt licks on a table nearby. He picked one up and grunted when he felt how heavy it was before putting it back.
At first, Danny thought they could heave it through the door but quickly decided against it, believing that door was too solid.
"Can we help?" Timmy suddenly asked as he and Jimmy walked up to Danny.
"Sure, you two need to keep your eyes open for exposed screws or loose panels, anything we can pry away to open a passage out of here."
"Okay." Jimmy nodded and they immediately started looking around the room. Danny noticed Bucky angrily pacing around the room. Not wanting the man to go nuts, Danny quickly approached him.
"They've got Chester and Mrs. Dinkleberg, Danny! Those fuckers have my son!" He yelled in rage and fear.
"I know, we're gonna get out of here and find them." He promised and tried to think of an escape plan, but it was becoming impossible with Vicky's constant screaming and banging on the door. Holding in an irritated sigh, Danny tried to make her stop for a few seconds.
"C'mon, Vicky, do you really wanna attract their attention?" Kwan asked.
"Yeah, I wanna attract their attention so I can fucking kill them!" She shrieked.
"What the hell is your problem?" Danny snapped and she stopped her attack on the door and faced the fellow teenager.
"You refused to give me my day's rations back at the motor inn and you went outta your way to be a real asshole to me tonight, you must really hate me but guess what? You're stuck with me and I plan to be around long after you're gone." She laughed bitterly. "And if you turn I'll be the one to put that sword of yours through your fucking skull; don't forget... I know who you really are." She warned before going back to slamming her fist against the door. "Open up, goddamn it!"
"No, you're not worth the energy to hate." Danny sighed and went back to looking for an exit. It was then that he saw an air conditioner in the wall just above the sturdy shelves. He examined the air conditioner and suddenly got an idea.
"I'll break the damn door down!" Vicky suddenly hollered.
"Vicky! You can't get-" Nicky tried to speak when she abruptly grabbed her chest in pain. "Ahh! Urg!"
"Easy..." Mr. Dinkleberg tried to ease, but it didn't do any good.
"MOM?!" Tootie screamed as her mother collapsed to the ground...
