Chapter 20: Investigations

After escaping the drugstore, it took Bucky and Danny just over two and a half hours to walk back to the motor inn. When they returned to the motel, they saw Dash is keeping watch, sitting in a chair on the RV, holding a rifle. The children were drawing and playing on the sidewalk and Timmy was seemingly talking on his radio but ran up to Danny when he saw his guardian.

"You're back! Mr. Dinkleberg found some stickers in a drawer and I put 'em on my walkie!" He exclaimed and showed Danny the pink and green stickers on the radio.

"Hey, squirt, that's neat, I'll find you in a minute." He smiled as he and Bucky walked passed the children and towards one of the rooms. Danny knocked on the doorframe of the open door and Valerie opened the door all the way. The men stepped into the room and saw Vicky sat on the bed waiting for them.

"Looks like we got the kid on watch again." Bucky scoffed. "We might as well leave out a giant sign on the door that says 'the men are gone, come and rape our women and children'."

"What'd you get?" Vicky glared, ignoring the man as Danny took the rifle and gave it to Valerie, who set the rifle down on her dresser.

"A lot of stuff," Danny replied as he and Bucky handed the girls their backpack. They placed them on Valerie's bed and searched it.

"Nice work, this will keep us going." Valerie smiled. "If we carry on like this, we'll get through the winter here."

"The winter? We'll freeze our asses off here!" Bucky exclaimed.

"Because piling into an RV with you, after what you did to my mom, is so appealing." Vicky retorted bitterly.

"Why wouldn't it be? You know I'll do what it takes to keep everyone safe." Bucky counted, the two of them standing almost toe to toe,

"We're already safe." Valerie agreed.

"Take a look at the wall, that's not graffiti." Bucky glared, "Those are bullet holes and we got enough arrow shafts sticking out of it to dry our laundry and that's all besides the fact that Amity Park is busting at the seams with ghosts and infected."

"We don't have ghosts or infected problems." Vicky scoffed.

"We do whatever is best for the kids, doesn't that make sense?" Danny asked, still trying to stay neutral.

"It's suicide out there." Valerie pointed out.

"We'll die in here," Bucky added.

"You're right, you could see someone sleeping and kill one of us." Vicky snarled and the room fell into an awkward silence. Having heard the arguing, the adults and teenagers began to walk up to the room and Kwan poked his head inside.

"So, you two are, uh, having a disagreement?" Kwan asked nervously.

"Can it, Kwan!" Bucky snapped.

"Don't boss people around," Valerie warned.

"I'm sorry, but somebody needs to make executive decisions for the group though, and I don't think you're capable anymore!" He shouted.

"Bucky, we're all losing it with the attacks and lack of food." Mr. Dinkleberg tried to calm the man down.

"We're strongest together." Danny insisted before turning to Vicky. "It can't be you versus us, Vicky, we're sorry for what happened to your mom, but we're in this together now."

"What about the food situation? What about protection? What about when this place falls? Somebody's gotta be thinking about this shit!" Bucky shouted.

"How has this not been working? We have everything we need." Valerie replied.

"'Cause of me." Bucky scoffed.

"That's bullshit, Bucky, and you know it!" Vicky snarled.

"What about medicine?" Bucky asked.

"What ABOUT medicine?" Valerie demanded as Danny remained silent, too worried that whatever he said would set something off.

"Everything that happens to us is another excuse for you to pull this crap about leaving," Valerie stated. "All I want is a week of peace; of not hearing it!"

"Do you know how we got these supplies?!" Bucky shouted. "We got lucky and let a girl get eaten out there!"

"What...?" Mrs. Dinkleberg gasped.

"Some girl came screaming out of an alley," Bucky explained. "She had the dead hanging all over her, she gave us enough time to get everything we could out of the drugstore."

"You just let her suffer, like what, like bait?" Valerie hissed.

"You weren't out there." Bucky huffed.

"You guys couldn't try to save her?" Dash asked, very disturbed.

"Don't take that tone with him; it's the first smart thing he's done in a while," Bucky said as Danny looked away from everyone's judgemental gaze. he really did want to save her.

"Glad to know you think being a killer is smart." Vicky glared.

"Hey, if you don't agree with it, then we'll take everything we've got in these bags and put it in a pile marked 'no hypocrites' and you can use everything else!" The blonde man shouted. "I don't like living like this but, Christ, folks, it's not getting easier!"

"She was dead anyway, it made the most sense in the heat of the moment," Danny muttered.

"Danny's right, we've been putting our lives on the line doing these runs into the city, you wouldn't believe the shit we see! You should be thanking Danny for not shooting that girl!"

"It's not so EASY for him." Vicky hissed.

"Look, Amity Park and its people aren't savable, it's not a town, it's full of those monsters and the people who WERE left are dying and wandering out onto the streets, it's hell on Earth and it's coming this way!" Bucky warned.

"IT'S NOT GOING TO BE EASIER OUT ON THE ROAD!" Vicky roared.

"How would you know?!" The man argued.

"WHAT I KNOW?! I know you're not above murder! I know somebody has been STEALING our supplies! That's right, STEALING; and I know the list of people I can trust here gets SMALLER EVERY DAY! Now everybody GET OUT!" She ranted as she pushed everyone out of the room. The red-haired girl slammed the door shut and everyone started to disperse, leaving only Danny, Valerie, and Bucky by the door.

"She's right about one thing, none of this is gettin' any easier." Bucky glared before he walked away as well.

"Oof, things are coming to a head." Valerie sighed

"You could say that," Danny replied.

"Well, I think you did really well today and I find myself thinking that most days." She reassured as she placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Thanks."

"It's probably worth following up with Vicky about what she was saying about missing supplies, 'cause I haven't noticed anything and with her wound up the way she is, I don't wanna see her paranoid."

"No problem."

"And I'd like to talk when you've got a minute." She said, Danny nodded and she left. Once he was alone, Danny gently opened Vicky's door and quietly entered the room. She was sitting on the bed with her head in her hands but looks up when Danny approached. The black and white-haired teen said nothing as he took a seat in a chair opposite her.

"Did you come in here to give me hell or to coddle me?" She growled.

"I wanted to follow up on what you said about stolen supplies." He replied

"Do you know what's going on?"

"I don't, I just heard you mention it."

"And you came in here to confess?" She asked angrily.

"I'm not stealing shit; I came in here to help!" He snapped. They both glared each other down for a few moments before Vicky sighed in defeat.

"There's a traitor, somebody, one of us, out there." She explained. "He or she or they have been taking things."

"Paranoia isn't going to help us," Danny said quietly, trying not to anger her anymore.

"I know what this sounds like, but I'm not paranoid!" She shouted. "The count's off and it's the good stuff, anything with opium in it!"

"Well Valerie checks the count too and she says it's fine."

"I keep my own, that one's getting messed with." She counted. £I'm a fucking mess right now but I'm not stupid! I know what happens if I start a witch hunt!"

"Oh I see, so you want me to start one?"

"I want you to poke around."

"What's there to go on?" He asked and Vicky reached under her bed and pulled out a large broken flashlight, which she handed to him.

"I found this tossed into the garbage." She replied as he examined the flashlight. "We don't toss out equipment, we fix it, you'd only try to get rid of a flashlight if you were using it when you shouldn't."

"Seems like you're manufacturing this from nothing."

"Prove me wrong, or I'll just assume it was you." She glared. Danny returned the hate-filled glare before leaving the room. As he was closing the door and turned around, he was suddenly greeted by Timmy and Chester just standing there.

"A mystery!" Chester gasped with a big grin on his face as Danny practically jumped out of his skin.

"Sorry, we heard you guys talking," Timmy admitted, a mischievous glint in his blue eyes.

"You need to un-hear all of that." Danny glared.

"Can we help?" The pink hatted boy asked.

"What did I just say?"

"You're the greatest detective and we can be your assistants!" Chester squealed in delight as Timmy gaze his teenage guardian a puppy-eyed look. Danny and Timmy swiftly entered a staring contest and although Danny fought valiantly, he ultimately lost a battle of wills against Timmy's pleading puppy dog eyes.

"Fine, you can help, just don't tell anybody." He sighed.

"Secrecy!" Chester whispered.

"What do we do?" Timmy asked.

"I don't know, go look around and let me know if you find anything weird."

"We're on the case!" They both grinned and ran off to look for 'clues'. Danny gave a weak chuckle and shook his head at the boys' antics before returning to the task at hand. As he looked around he looked at the RV and sighed. It sounded like Bucky actually had that thing running but Danny would only believe it when he saw it for himself.

As Danny continued to look around, he noticed some broken glass on the ground nearby.

He walked over and inspected the broken glass, only to find that it fitted the broken flashlight Vicky had given him. He hummed in thought as he followed the glass trail and was shocked when it led him to a drawing on the wall. It was a large X drawn in pink chalk. At first, he thought maybe it was the kids as they were the ones to mostly use the chalks and crayons the group had found, but he quickly realized the X was too high up for any of the children to reach.

Chester and Timmy quickly joined him.

"A clue!" Chester gasped when they saw the X.

"Maybe." Danny wondered, trying to figure out what the X meant.

"What do you think it is?" Timmy asked.

"Maybe it's a sign!" Chester exclaimed.

"It could be." Danny agreed. "It's pink chalk, which is weird."

"Okay, back to investigating!" Timmy grinned before he and Chester ran off again. Danny simply rolled his eyes at their antics, only to notice other chalk drawings on the ground, one of which was pink, then he looked to Tootie and Jimmy, who were currently using chalk to draw. Danny planned on talking to them but saw that Valerie was standing on the upstairs of the motel, waiting for him.

He climbed the stairs to speak to the dark-skinned girl, who was leaning on the railing of the balcony with her arms crossed.

"Talk to Vicky yet?" She asked.

"Yeah, she thinks supplies have been walking away." He replied, slightly irritated.

"Really?"

"There's some broken equipment too, I'm looking into it."

"Thanks for doing that." She smiled, but it dropped as she lowered her gaze slightly. "What I wanted to say was, I've been thinking a lot, about you."

"I think about you too." He admitted nervously.

"Our group is small." She stated, seemingly out of nowhere before glaring at the fellow teen. "You're parents is responsible for this mess"

"Valerie..." Danny moaned, not wanting to talk about his parents, ever.

"I think people should know." She suddenly said, catching him off guard. "Not because they deserve to and not because you're a bad man; people need to know because we're hanging by a thread here and I can't see Vicky talk about you without thinking it's the next thing she's going to say, you don't have to tell everyone, but think about who you trust and take the opportunity while you have it."

"Forget it." Danny glared. "I have, you should too."

"Vicky knows." Valerie reminded him. "If she doesn't tell everyone outright, she'll probably say enough to make them wonder; I'll tell you what I would tell anybody, apocalypse or not, there comes a time when you can get out ahead of something like this and discuss it on your terms, do it before that chance is taken away."

"No, I'm not doing that," Danny stated, disappointing Valerie. "People have enough to worry about."

"What are you so afraid of?" She asked angrily. "Three months ago, I told you to tell no one and now I'm telling you to tell everyone, do you think it's because they'll turn on you? We almost got eaten, for fuck's sake! Things are different now, I hope you change your mind." She sighed. "Now, um, is there anything else you want to talk about?"

"You really think people are ready to hear about me?" He asked as he looked down at the others.

"It's not a manner of ready or not." She replied. "There's never going to be a good time but there are going to be a lot of bad ones, right now doesn't seem like one of them but everyone's different; who knows how each person would take it, you know? Maybe it's worth thinking about who you wanna tell."

"Do you feel safe here?"

"Show me a bath with a heated floor and hand me a full-bodied Malbec, and then I'll feel safe." She weakly joked. "I don't know, this place is fine but we all know that that could change any second."

"Do you know anything about this flashlight?" He asked as he showed her the flashlight.

"It's broken."

"I know it's broken." He sighed. "Did you break the flashlight?"

"No." She glared.

"Do you have any chalk I can borrow?"

"What, the kids holding out on you?"

"So you don't have any?"

"No, why would I?" She asked, genuinely confused.

"Nevermind, I need to speak to the kids." He said and quickly walked away before Valerie could say anything. He walked briskly down the stairs and over to where Jimmy and Tootie were still drawing on the ground.

"Hey, kids." He smiled.

"Hey, Danny," Jimmy replied, but Tootie hardly glanced at the teen.

"What's that you're working on?" Danny asked.

"Just some calculations I've been working on, nothing too serious." Jimmy nonchalantly and Danny's eyes widened at the sight of complicated math and science calculations that he would never have thought an eleven-year-old could grasp as easily Jimmy clearly was; the equations looked like something he would see in his parents' lab.

"That's really something." Danny smiled as he looked at Tootie's drawing only to see it was of her parents with her and Vicky. "Do you like it here?" He asked them both.

"I don't LIKE it here." Tootie glared, not looking up from her drawing.

"Do you want to leave?"

"Where are we going?" Jimmy asked.

"Somewhere else."

"I don't know, maybe if I knew where," Tootie muttered.

"Yeah, that'd be a good thing to know," Jimmy added.

"Neither of you accidentally break a flashlight, did you?" Danny asked as he showed them the flashlight.

"No, did Timmy say I did?" Jimmy glared.

"No, did he break the flashlight?"

"I don't think so, he's just always blaming me for stuff." He huffed.

"Like what?"

"Putting a bug on his pillow."

"Did you do that?" Danny frowned, crossing his arms, but Jimmy simply shrugged his shoulders as a mischievous smirk spread across his face. "Do you have any pink chalk?"

"No, it's gone somewhere," Tootie replied and Danny hummed in thought. "Do you want blue?" She offered, holding the said chalk up to him.

"No, no, it's okay." He kindly declined.

"You know, a piece of charcoal is a suitable alternative, depending on your marking surface." Jimmy suddenly pointed out. "Since we're on the subject, did you know that while chalk is traditionally known to be calcium carbonate, what's often used in classrooms is actually made of gypsum, thanks to favorable domestic mining conditions?"

"I did not know that." Danny chuckled as he ruffled the boy's hair, slightly irritating his ward. "I'll talk to you later," He said before walking off to continue his search and saw Bucky and the Dinklebergs were having a somewhat heated discussion. "Hey, how are you doing?"

"We're okay." Mrs. Dinkleberg replied.

"Just having a little spat," Bucky added with a glare.

"We all carry guns now, and, well, I don't like it." Mr. Dinkleberg said, glancing at the gun on the couch between them.

"It's the way it's gotta be." Bucky insisted.

"I know, but we're not getting used to it." She sighed. "I'm sorry, how are you, Danny?"

"You guys trust everyone here?" The teen asked.

"More or less." Bucky shrugged. "I obviously have my problems with Vicky and sometimes Valerie but I don't distrust them."

"Yeah, we can't turn on each other any more than we have." Mr. Dinkleberg said.

"Do you guys know anything about this broken flashlight?"

"Fuck, we don't got many of those," Bucky growled, clearly annoyed.

"Yeah, it's a problem, the glass and the bulb are all busted out." Mr. Dinkleberg pointed out.

"I saw some broken glass over by the ice machine, I meant to clean it up before the kids hurt themselves on it; I forgot, though." His wife added.

"Don't worry, I'll clean it up later; I'll talk to you later," Danny promised before going to talk to Dash, who was still on watch duty.

"What's up?" The blonde jock asked.

"Have you seen anything weird on watch? Is there anybody out there up to anything?" He asked.

"No, been really quiet."

"That's good, by the way, a flashlight was broken, was it you?"

"No," Dash replied, a little too quickly.

"You're not in trouble if it was." He reassured. "I know you get nervous and maybe you went out to go to the bathroom, broke it, got worried, and tossed it."

"What's with the third degree? I didn't break any flashlight!" He exclaimed. Danny glared and wanted to press the matter further, but thought better of it. He simply walked away from the jock and over to Kwan and SpongeBob, who was leaning against a wall, looking glum. If Dash did have something to do with the symbol or the broken flashlight then it was a good bet that Kwan was in on it.

"Hey, guys." The black and white-haired teen greeted as he walked up to them.

"Hiya." SpongeBob weakly replied while Kwan just grunted in some form of acknowledgment.

"Do you know anything about this flashlight?"

"I don't." Kwan shrugged, not even looking at the device.

"Me neither, I'll keep my eye out for some suitable parts, though, that'll give me something useful to do." SpongeBob sighed.

"What do you think about Vicky?" He asked them, only for Kwan to suddenly get up and walk away. "Kwan?" Danny called after him, but the Asain jock was already long gone.

"I dunno, I guess I'm sad," SpongeBob replied. "Nobody deserves to lose their parent like that."

"You don't think that would make her delusional, do you?"

"I think it could make you anything, nothing good."

"Do you feel safe here?" Danny asked. "I mean at the motel, as opposed to finding somewhere new."

"I think if we can get whoever is out there to leave us alone, this is a good place to be." SpongeBob sighed, looking out into the woods. "You know, they sort of stopped attacking, maybe they forgot about us."

"Or maybe someone convinced them we're worth more alive," Danny muttered, more to himself than anything else. "Do you have any chalk I can borrow?"

"No, don't the kids have some?" The blonde asked, slightly puzzled.

"I'll ask, thanks anyway." Danny smiled and walked away, not really sure what to do now. After he finished speaking to SpongeBob, Danny saw Timmy and Chester standing by the RV and motioned for Danny to go over to them.

"We found something," Timmy whispered when the teen approached them.

"What is it?"

"I found this piece of pink chalk and a scuff of it over by the gate!" Chester exclaimed, holding out the piece of pink chalk. Danny quickly went over to the gate, with the two boys following him, and some chalk scuff on the ground next to the gate. Pleased with themselves, Timmy and Chester high five each other and the tried to give Danny a high five, which he returned.

He investigated the chalk scuff and moved one of the dumpsters forward.

Somebody had been outside, recently by the look of it. He needed to go out there and look around.

"You stay here this time, seriously." He told the boys before moving one of the dumpsters and walking out the gate. Whoever it was, came out there to do something, but they came and went all the time, those scuff marks could have come from anything. Danny didn't want to create more paranoia, but he knew it was better safe than sorry, especially with the kids.

As he looked around he looked at the gate, which was littered with bullet and arrow holes.

He remembered back to the bandits and how they had started to give the group hell after they had escaped from the dairy. Danny guessed without the farm to carry on feeding them, they had to start looking but they have been quiet for days now. Danny was silently hoping they'd found a better target or had been killed by the increasing numbers of ghosts an infected in the forest.

As he continued looking up and down the sidewalk, he saw more pieces of pink chalk near a grate in the wall.

Danny bent down to pick up the chalk, only to notice an odd shape in the grate. He quickly opened the grate in the side of the wall and in the alcove behind the grate there was a brown paper bag. Danny carefully took the bag out and opened it, discovering that it was filled with medicine. Medicine the teen knew came from their supplies.

Danny's eyes widened when he realized this.

Vicky had been right all along. He quickly returned to Vicky's room and found the girl still sat on the bed, in the exact spot he'd last seen her, waiting for him.

"You haven't come up with anything, have you?" She sneered.

"I came up with this." He glared and tossed Vicky the bag he had recovered. "It's got a bunch of meds in it, it was in a grate on the outside wall and there's a sign on the other one." He explained.

"Holy fuck." She gasped before her expression went cold and enraged. "Okay, ee line everybody up." She stated. "Everybody! Somebody is killing us! Stealing from that supply is the same as slipping into your room at night and cutting your throat while you sleep! You die! What is the difference?! What if those brats gets sick and we don't have what we need-"

Suddenly a flood of gunfire sounded outside...