Chapter 18: Desperate Decisions
No one spoke as the group trudged through the dark forest to return to the motor inn. The storm had stopped a few minutes ago, but the dirt trail had turned to mud, causing them to be mindful they didn't slip. They were all still in shock at what they had witnessed at the dairy farm with Squidward, Mr. Krabs, and Pearl. Mr. and Mrs. Dinkleberg were holding each other's hands tightly. Bucky carried his son in his arms, too scared that if he put the boy down something would snatch him back up again.
Danny also made sure both Jimmy and Timmy were holding his hands.
The only one not comforting the kids was Vicky. She was too busy glaring at the ground as she walked along. Her little sister Tootie was trailing behind the red-haired girl, still sobbing but by that time she had long run out of tears to cry, but the older sister refused to comfort or even acknowledge her. Seeing this, Timmy and Jimmy let go of Danny's hand and went to give the little girl some support. Danny wanted the boys to stay by his side where he could better protect them but knew Tootie and Vicky need as much support and comfort as the group could offer, even if the latter refused their help.
As they continued along, Valerie sped up so see was walking beside Danny near the front.
"Hey, Danny, I'd say I'm sorry for leaving the motel unattended, but, ya know." She said.
"I'm glad you showed up when you did," Danny replied. "If you hadn't taken that shot at Mr. Krabs, we might not have gotten out of there."
"Were they really killing people? For food?"
Yeah, they were." He growled in disgust. "We should've known something was up..."
"How the hell do we foresee that?" She asked in disbelief.
"I don't know, I really don't." He muttered.
"Mrs. Dinkleberg managed to grab this while she was in the house, she said it was with your stuff." She said and handed him Ashley's video camera.
"Yeah, I found it while I was looking for the people who shot AJ." He explained sadly as he remembered AJ. "Do you want it?"
"Why don't you keep it? Sometimes it helps to have something you can document your thoughts on." She smiled warmly at him, which he weakly returned. All of a sudden everyone stopped when Bucky suddenly hunched over in pain and groaned, nearly dropping his son. Danny walked over to see if he could help as the Dinkleberg's rushed to the father and son's side.
"How are you doing?" Mrs. Dinkleberg asked as she and her husband took Chester and helped the father stand up.
"I'll be fine." He reassured the concerned couple. "I'm just not as young as I used to be." He joked until he saw Danny walking up to him with a steely expression on the teen's face. "Could you two go on ahead with Chester and give me and Danny a second?" He asked and the couple walked away with the blonde boy. "There's gonna be fallout." He said quietly once they were both alone.
"For killing Tootie and Vicky's mom? Yeah, I would imagine so." Danny glared.
"What do you think about all this?" Bucky asked, but much to his frustration, the teen remained silent. "Fine then, I saved Chester at the school and didn't save Dolores; now I kill someone before it can put your little boys in danger, and I'm even more of a monster." He chuckled bitterly. "I don't care anymore, you do what you have to do, I'm'a keep doing what needs to be done." He glared before walking away towards his son and the Dinklebergs.
Danny sighed and was about to walk back to the others when Tootie suddenly stood in front of him.
"Danny? Are those bad people dead?" She asked and Danny froze, trying to think of the best answer.
"We didn't kill them, so I don't know." He admitted. "They might have been able to get away from the ghosts and infected, but I'm sure they won't be coming after us now." He reassured her.
"That's good." She muttered. Danny was about to say something else, but everyone froze in fear at a rumbling type of sound.
"Hey, what's that noise?" Chester asked fearfully.
"Sounds like a car..." Dash replied.
"Oh, god...not more strangers." Kwan whimpered as took the lead and the group snuck over to the sound and saw what appeared to an abandoned black van on the road with its lights on and both doors open.
"Hello?" Danny called nervously as he pulled out his sword. When he received no reply, he snuck up slowly to the car. He noticed that the gas was completely empty and took the keys.
"Oh, crap! You guys gotta see this!" Bucky cried happily as he threw open the van's back door. "There's a shitload of food and supplies back here!" He laughed as everyone went up to the car.
"This food could save all of us." Mrs. Dinkleberg smiled, nearly crying in relief.
"Not ALL of us," Vicky muttered, glaring hard at Bucky, who simply sighed.
"Look, we don't know if these people are dead." Dash pointed out. "If they come back, then we're just monsters who came out of the woods and ruined their lives."
"This stuff isn't ours," Jimmy added.
"Dad, whose car is it?" Chester asked uncertainly.
"Don't worry about that, Chester, it's ours now." He reassured. "It's abandoned, don't worry.
"What if it's not? What if it's not abandoned? What if it IS someones?" Tootie asked with a small glare. Danny looked between her and Jimmy and the others who were crowding around the van. He looked back at the van and noticed boot prints in the mud by the driver's side door. Whoever owned this van had left very recently and was probably nearby.
"You're right." He sighed, much to the shock of the others. "We shouldn't take this."
"What?! Did you get some meal back there the rest of us missed out on?! We HAVE to take this stuff!" Bucky shouted.
"We've done enough damage already." The black and white-haired teen glared.
"What do you mean by that?" Bucky asked coldly.
"Come on, Bucky, between this and the meat locker, you know what it means."
"Fine, suit yourself, the rest of us are taking this stuff." He huffed and the group began searching the supplies. Jimmy and Tootie stood back and watched with Danny, holding the teen's hand. "Okay, what have we got in here?" The former baseball player asked.
"Look, there's more food in that box!" Dash exclaimed.
"They've got antibiotics!" Mrs. Dinkleberg gasped.
"What else do they have?" Her husband asked. "Any electronics? Radios? Batteries?"
"See if there's any water," Valerie called.
"Here," Bucky grunted as he handed some of the boxes to Dash and Kwan. Chester and Timmy sat in the van's front seats, watching the teens and adults unload the supplies.
"Hey," Valerie said as she walked over to Danny. "There were some batteries in one of those boxes, I thought they might work in your camcorder and for Timmy's walkie-talkie." She explained and gave him the batteries.
"Thanks," Danny replied and waited until she had gone back to the group before putting the batteries in the camcorder.
When the video it had recorded started playing, Danny's skin ran cold. The video showed the group at the motor inn. By the looks of it, it looked around the time they had first set up camp there. Vicky and SpongeBob were carrying a couch out of one of the motel rooms, and Danny and Bucky were pushing a car away from the front of the motel. The video then zoomed into the kids drawing on the floor and Nicky approaching them to talk.
The video then cuts forward to when Danny, Kwan, and Bucky first found Dash, Dale, and Ms. Tetslaff.
It recorded as the boys left the teacher to die, but to Danny's utter shock and terror, it recorded him transforming and destroying the infected as well as the nearby trees. The video suddenly turned upside down as Ashley dropped the camera.
"YA FUCKIN' SICKO FROM HELL! THEY CALL YA GHOSTS! BUT YOU'RE FUCKING RAPIST MONSTERS-" She howled before the video cut out.
The video suddenly showed the motel group from later in the day, after Dash had arrived at the motel while Dale was being treated by SpongeBob. The video zoomed onto Timmy, then followed Danny as he walked up to the boys.
"Oh, darlin', baby. Look at you. Look. At. You. Oh, you need a mama, sweetheart. We won't let them bandits or monsters get you, will we?" Ashley rambled on as the camcorder continued to record Danny, Jimmy, and Timmy.
"How ya doing, guys?" He smiled but noticed Timmy's hat was missing. "Where's your hat?"
"I don't know, can you help me find it?" The buck-toothed child asked.
"Sure, when did you lose it?"
"I had it a couple of days ago."
"I promise, if I find it, I'll let you know."
Ashley suddenly turned the camera around to her face.
"All thinkin' you're safe, sittin' there actin' like things are the way they used to be." She twitched madly. "The dead don't kill their own, it's the living you gotta be afraid of... the people I used to call friends... the people who took..." She let out a breath that sounded like a sob crossed with a rabid growl before scowling. "Don't worry, little boy, bandits and monsters got their eye on that dairy; as long as they keep getting food from them, you'll be safe, I promise."
With that, the video ended and Danny stood still, trying to comprehend everything.
He knew he had heard a woman shouting in the woods when he had transformed, but he had chalked it up to being the dying screams of Ms. Tetslaff. That must have been how she knew what he was, she had seen him. Danny looked up at the group and back to the camcorder. He couldn't let them see this, ever. Quietly, he removed the batteries and tossed the device behind his back and into the bushes, hoping that was the end of it...
