Chapter 24: Be Prepared

As soon as Danny and Bucky returned from the forest, everyone silently got back on the train and they start moving again. Danny sighed as he handed the gun back to SpongeBob and looked around for the others. SpongeBob and the kids were still in the boxcar while Dash and Kwan were standing on the back of the train car with Mr. Dinkleberg on the front.

Bucky had returned to the conductor's chair but no one dared disturb him now.

Before he sat down, however, Danny noticed the kids sitting on the edge of the boxcar, Timmy fiddling with his walkie-talkie while Jimmy and Tootie looked very upset about something. Believing they were thinking about Chester, Danny sat next to them, hoping to ease their fears.

"You want to talk?" He asked them nervously, not sure what to say, but they all shook their heads. "You understand what happened back there, right?"

"Yes." Jimmy sighed and the other two nodded in agreement.

"Okay, what are you thinking about?"

"What Mr. Dinkleberg said," Tootie said quietly, almost as if she was afraid the man would hear her.

"What'd he say?"

"That what happened to Chester and AJ would happen to us." Timmy glared, not looking up from his walkie-talkie, and Danny saw red.

"The fuck he did." The teen snarled.

"Swear." Tootie quickly scolded and he blushed.

"Sorry, I'm just gonna go talk some sense into him." He replied as he stood up but Jimmy grabbed his wrist.

"Don't be mad." He pleaded, but Danny pulled his wrist free and gave SpongeBob a look that said watch the kids before he went outside to join Mr. Dinkleberg at the front of the train.

"I don't care what reasons you had for doing it, no reason to go and tell those kids they're gonna end up dead!" He angrily exclaimed before the widow had a chance to blink

"'Cause they are." He replied as he kept his gaze on the tracks ahead of them. "I don't know much these days, but I can tell you, sure as the sun's going to come up tomorrow, that you all keep going on like this and those children ain't gonna make it."

"What do you know?" He snapped.

"I know that you don't have a goddamn plan." He glared. "We get to Bikini Bottom and then what? I know Bucky was dead set on finding a boat, but do you think that's a new idea? You got even the foggiest idea about where we're gonna find one of those?"

"We do what's best for the kids."

"Oh! Well, then! You do have it all figured out! Never mind." He jeered before sighing and turning to the steaming teen. "Look, sit down with the kids and hash it out, find a map for Christ's sake, and if something were to happen to you..."

"It won't."

"If it WERE, you gotta prepare them." He said. "Teach them to use a weapon, and for criminy, cut that girl's hair."

"A weapon Like a gun? Are you kidding me?" He asked in disbelief.

"What? They're too young to handle one? There ain't too young, not anymore." He scoffed. "You gotta consider them as living people, that's it, you're either living or you're not; you ain't little, you ain't a girl, you ain't a boy, you ain't strong or smart, you're alive."

"I... guess."

"Look at Tootie's hair, how do you think I lost my wife? You got her running around with a mop that's gonna act like velcro to any hands swingin' its way; find some scissors in my pack and take care of that hair before an infected does it for you and then show those boys how to use a gun, because like it or not, that's what saves your life from here on out." He explained.

"Okay." Danny sighed, whether he liked it or not, Mr. Dinkleberg was making some valid points.

"We've still got Valerie's bag of anti-Ghost weapons in the boxcar with the other stuff, explain to them how they work and not to be afraid." He added with a sad look in his eyes. "I don't mean to tell you how to do your job, but too many people have died already..."

"They have." Danny nodded. "A plan, a haircut, and a weapon; it's good advice.

"It's something." He shrugged and Danny headed back to the boxcar to talk to the kids. He noticed Dash and Kwan were whispering about something again but as soon as they saw him they instantly went quiet and looked out to the passing forest. The skinnier teen simply shrugged it off and was about to enter the boxcar when Kwan suddenly grabbed his shoulder.

"It was us." He blurted out.

"Kwan?!" Dash gasped but his friend just glared at him.

"No Dash! I'm tired of keeping it a secret, what's the fucking point anymore?!" He cried before looking back at a confused Danny. "We were the one giving the bandits supplies."

"WHAT?!" Danny exclaimed. "What for? Why the hell would you do this?!"

"They said they had Ms. Tetslaff, that she was with them!" Dash quickly replied. "By the time e realized they didn't, it was too late... they said they'd kill us, kill all of us!"

"We're sorry," Kwan added, really looking regretful, and Danny's eyes softened.

"You got anything else you wanna say?" He asked them after a moment.

"No," Dash admitted.

"Good." He sighed. "You can never tell Bucky or Mr. Dinkleberg, you understand?"

"But-"

"Do NOT!" He shouted. "If you two hadn't sold us out to the bandits, they never would've attacked, Mrs. Dinkleberg wouldn't have died and Chester never would've been bitten; they'll kill you." He warned. He stood there until he was sure they got the message before heading back into the boxcar. Upon seeing him, the boys and SpongeBob smiled while Tootie kept her gaze to the ground.

"Did you talk to him?" She asked, almost coldly, as Danny sat down beside them.

"I did, he had some, uh...he explained himself and made some good points." He admitted. "Look, we're not going to let anything bad happen to any of you, but there are some precautions we have to take."

"Okay, yeah, that makes sense," Jimmy replied.

"Okay, what should we do?" Timmy asked nervously.

"Well, we're gonna figure out a plan for when we get to Bikini Bottom, teach you all how to protect yourselves, and, uh, tidy you up a little so you can't get grabbed so easily." He explained.

"I'd like that." Timmy shrugged.

"Good." Danny smiled before he got up and began searching for some scissors and some small weapons for them to train with. He eventually found the bag of weapons along with a pair of large scissors. He pulled out two pistols and a crossbow. They were the only weapons in their supply that were roughly the right size for the kids to use.

"What are you doing with those?" SpongeBob asked when Danny walked back over to them with the weapons.

"You three need to know how to protect yourselves." He replied as the kids stood up.

"Like hiding or running away?" Tootie asked.

"I mean with one of these." He said as he handed her and Timmy a gun each and Jimmy the crossbow. "First, don't be afraid of it, it's just a thing, but know where your finger is all the time and don't put it on the trigger unless you want to hurt somebody."

"Okay." Jimmy gulped as they carefully gripped the weapons.

"See, it's not scary." Danny smiled after a few tense seconds while SpongeBob glared at him.

"It's heavy." Timmy frowned as he adjusted his grip on the gun.

"You'll get stronger." The teen said as he set up a line of empty cans and bottles on some boxes at the far end of the boxcar and stood behind the kids. "To aim, you look right down the top, through that notch, line up the sight at the end with your target."

"Is there anything else we should know?" Jimmy asked nervously as they aimed for the targets.

"I know these are just bottles and cans, but you have to aim for the head or heart, the head's a much easier target." He explained. "Unless it's not an infected or ghost and it's someone trying to hurt you."

"And then?" Timmy asked.

"Head or body."

"I don't wanna think about that." Tootie whimpered.

"I know, but I'm afraid you'll have to sooner or later." SpongeBob sighed sadly.

"You ready?" Danny asked, wanting to get this over and done with as soon as possible, and all three nodded. "Okay, Jimmy, let's take the first shot, squeeze the trigger smoothly; nice and easy."

"Nice and easy," Jimmy muttered before firing an arrow only for it to miss. Not discouraged, he simply ran some quick math in his head and adjusted his aim before firing again, this time sticking an arrow into an old can. He did this on two more targets and didn't miss a shot.

"Good shot Jim." Danny smiled before turning to Timmy. "Your turn squirt." He said and the bucktoothed boy took a breath as he stepped forward and cocked the gun before taking aim.

"When you're ready to shoot, make sure you're not breathing too hard, and then hold your breath right when you pull the trigger," SpongeBob explained as he got behind the boy to cover his ears.

"Like when I'm swimming?" He asked.

"No, just for a quick second." The blonde man chuckled. "I found that if I did that I was a lot more accurate." He added as he covered Timmy's ears with his hands.

"I can do that," Timmy replied as he looked right down the top and aimed for three glass bottles in front of him. He stood there for a second before firing three shots, all of them shattering their targets. Danny and SpongeBob just stood there in shock, they had never met anyone, let alone a child with that pinpoint accuracy with a loaded gun.

"You- You did it, good job." Danny grinned when he finally recovered his voice.

"Thanks!" Timmy giggled, very pleased with himself, as he went to go stand beside Jimmy and Tootie stepped forward.

"You ready?" The teen asked when he saw she was shocking.

"I... t-think so." She stuttered as she aimed her gun and SpongeBob covered her ears. She quickly fired the gun but missed the target. SpongeBob tried to help her adjust her aim but she missed again. This happened a few more times until Danny decided they were wasting bullets and took the gun off her, saying they would try again some other time.

He figured she was probably still shaken up at losing her sister, Valerie, Mrs. Dinkleberg, and Chester in one day.

"I just pretended they were infected's heads or ghosts." Jimmy offered when she sat with him and Timmy.

"They're not monsters, though." She mumbled.

"No, far from it, but you know how these things work now," Danny explained as he took the weapons back and put them away. "We'll graduate you all to ghosts and infected one day." He joked.

"It wasn't too scary right?" SpongeBob asked them but they shook their heads.

"My hands hurt and my ears have noise in them, like eeeeee," Timmy whined as he rubbed his ears.

"That's probably just the tiny coils in your tiny brain trying to turn." Jimmy laughed as Timmy gave him a shove.

"You'll get used to it." Danny chuckled before he knelt in front of Tootie. "So, you're probably not gonna like this." He told her nervously.

"Oh, no, what happened?" She whimpered.

"Nothing bad." He quickly reassured her. "We have to talk about your hair, it's not safe."

"That's not nice." She glared.

"What?"

"Are you saying it smells? Because it does, kinda." Timmy pointed, only to get glares from the others.

"What I'm saying is that it's getting too long and if it an infected grabbed it, well..." He trailed off, not wanting to think about that. "We need to trim it."

"Just a trim, right?" She asked, nervously looking at the large scissors in the teen's hand.

"I need to cut it short enough so that it can't get grabbed."

"Okay." She sighed and turned around so Danny had better access to her hair. "Do you know how to do this?"

"No idea, I'm not much of a stylist, you know?" He replied as he began cutting as carefully as he could.

"I'm going to look like a boy." She scowled.

"But think how much safer you'll be." SpongeBob smiled.

"I'd rather be dead." She huffed.

"Don't talk like that." Danny scolded, a little too harshly. Everyone sat in silence for a few minutes until Danny finished his barber attempt. Tootie's hair was definitely shorter and safer but it was very clear that it wasn't done by a professional.

"How... How is it?" She asked as Jimmy and Timmy were desperately trying to hold in their laughter.

"I've tried my best." Danny offered weakly. "I can probably tie these pieces back with something." He added.

"Here, I have some hair thingies." She said and pulled a pair of purple butterfly hair ties and handed them to Danny. "Mommy gave them to me for sleeping." She added sadly. Danny paused when she said that but he had no idea what to say so instead he stayed quiet and tied Tootie's hair back. All those years of his sister making him play with her and her dolls paid off.

"There, all set." He smiled and she felt her new hairstyle, then pouted.

"Does it look dumb?" She asked.

"Ha, no." SpongeBob laughed as he patted her head. "You look cute, and a lot harder to grab."

"If I ever need to let Danny cut my hair, shoot me." Timmy bluntly said to his genius friend.

"Yeah, my mom wouldn't like it." Jimmy laughed and Danny quickly pulled both boys to the other side of the boxcar.

"I want to talk about Bikini Bottom and what we're gonna do when we get there.." He said, catching them off guard. They thought he was going to scold them for making fun of Tootie's haircut.

"Ok," Timmy said nervously.

"We don't know what to expect; the city could be bad or totally under control." He explained. "The thing is, you two and I, we're a team, you know? And a team needs a plan, aside from everyone else when this train stops, we should know exactly what we're doing."

"A plan." Jimmy smiled. "I like it."

"Whatever." Timmy groaned as he rolled his eyes. "I'm more of a 'go-with-the-flow' kinda guy."

"Trust me, we can't just go rushing in blind," Danny warned. "We need to help find a boat, it's our best bet at safety."

"Okay, but we'll be IN Bikini Bottom and our parents were in Bikini Bottom." Jimmy implied.

"I know, look-"

"No!" Timmy exclaimed, starling everyone in the boxcar. "I don't care about safety! I care about finding them!"

"Where would we even look?" Danny frowned, trying to make the boys see sense.

"I can remember where they were staying, maybe they didn't go far," Jimmy replied. Danny thought about it for a moment and sighed in defeat. It was worth a shot, even if there was a small chance.

"Alright, we'll have a look for them when we get there, but if the city is overrun with infected and ghosts then I'm sorry but we'll have to focus on helping Bucky find a boat, a boat is the ultimate plan.

"Yes." Timmy sighed, knowing that was the best as they were gonna get.

"If we do find them, they can come with us, right?" Jimmy asked and Danny nodded.

"When me and Bucky found that map it looked like we'll come right through town if there's nothing on the tracks to hold us up." He explained. "We're gonna want to look for a boat by the beach, I imagine, and from there, we've got all of Bikini Bottom to the southwest of us; where do your parents stay?"

"They always stay in the same place when they go there," Timmy replied.

"The Marsh House," Jimmy added.

"So we'll head there." The teen smiled. "You think we have a good plan?"

"I think it's very good." Jimmy agreed.

"Can I...tell our parents?" Timmy asked and Jimmy gave him a hard glare. Danny frowned at that but shrugged it off.

"Sure, go ahead." He smiled. "I guess we should see how far-"

"OH, SHIT! HOLD ON, EVERYBODY!" Bucky suddenly screamed. The others didn't have a chance to move, however, as they lurched forward as the train suddenly squealed to a halt...