Chapter 4

It's been only two days since Lincoln's family found out about the teleportation devices and his multiple trips to Oakdale.

Duncan took the news as nothing specials as he's now sleeping in like he usually does during spring break.

"Thirsty… so… thirsty…"

The ragged and dusty landscape of the Mojave Desert is one that Duncan is not unfamiliar with.

He'd been doing nothing but walking across the country for the past seven years. He remembered a war, along with the many famines that followed after that. He made a decision years ago to separate himself from the rest of his family just so he wouldn't want to make them feel like they're carrying dead weight. He also didn't want to see the faces of his malnourished sisters anymore.

Whether or not they're alive or dead is something he doesn't know. What he does know is that this world will never return back to the way it once was. Every day, it's shoot first and ask questions never.

He ran out of water only a few hours ago and is heavily regretting not making it last longer as he feels his throat patch up.

"Well… this is it." Thought Duncan. "I can't go on."

His vision is blurry and it has been blurry for a while. All that he can see is the road and nothing else.

The road doesn't care if he lives or dies. That thought was going through his mind as he collapsed on the ground and closed his eyes for what he felt was for the last time.

Maybe his thoughts are what stopped him from hearing the roaring of a random stranger's car engine.

It was then, Duncan felt a familiar sensation on his face.

Sweet, warm, liquid water.

His eyes shot open before he gazes into the face of his savior.

The first thing he noticed was his dirty, white hair, then his brown eyes with a pair of polarized sunglasses tucked in the breast pocket of his leather jacket.

Taking a second to lick the water from his lips, Duncan starts to talk, "Oh god… I thought I was gonna die."

Putting his canteen on the ground, the stranger asks, "I can tell you've been walking for quite a bit. You all by yourself?"

"Yeah." Said Duncan as he starts to sit up. "It's been so long since I saw someone who isn't trying to kill me. I'm Duncan, by the way."

The stranger smiles back. "Call me Lincoln."

They stay silent for a little while longer before Lincoln speaks again. "Why don't you come with me? There's a settlement out here called Bartertown and I think we can find something for you to do there."

"Hmm. That depends." Said Duncan. "Are there any women there?" He asks half jokingly.

Almost immediately, Lincoln bursts out laughing, surprising Duncan. "Buddy, there are so many women in Bartertown, it's INSANE!

Heh heh. Here, let me help you up!"

It was then that Duncan woke up. This wasn't his first Mad Max style fantasy, but it was by far the most unique.

It's Monday afternoon, and Lincoln is standing in front of the Harris residence with his arms crossed.

He then faces the fourth wall and talks to the readers. "Hey guys. I'm sure you're all wondering what's going on right now, so I'll fill you in…

Luna has been talking non-stop about her newest friendship with Duncan's dad, Jack Harris. Now they're going to be performing a song in front of everybody here. My dad supervising them of course."

There are at least two dozen people gathered in front of the house, not including some of Lincoln's family. The ones who weren't afraid to use the teleporter.

"Yeah… it's crazy… I mean, is the stage really necessary? Oh look, here comes Duncan now!"
Lincoln goes on to meet his friend. He then notices that he's carrying a box.

"Hey Duncan! What's in the box?"

Duncan nods at his friend. "Lincoln, we've known each other for a little more than a week and I wanna say that I am LUCKY to have you as a friend! I wanna give you this!"
Lincoln takes the box from Duncan and opens it. Inside is a red jacket, much like the green one that Duncan's wearing.

"Wow!" Said Lincoln. "I needed a new jacket! My old one has quite a few holes in it."

He quickly puts it on. "Thanks Duncan! But I do think it's a bit warm here today."

"It's not THAT hot out." Said Duncan. "Also, just so you know, I spent my forty-second birthday money on that thing so… you're welcome."

The mention of birthday money caught Lincoln's attention. "Wait… how LONG have you been fifteen years…"

*RING RING*

Duncan reaches into his pocket and takes out his phone. "Hold that thought, Lincoln. Yangzi's calling."

He presses the call button. "Hell-"

"-GETS STUFF WET!

The water ITSELF isn't wet! You know I'm right, guys! You know I'm-"

*BEEP*

Duncan ends the call, understanding the situation.

Lincoln on the other hand, asks him a question.

"What was THAT all about?"

Duncan puts his phone back in his pocket. "Yangzi pocket dialed me while having another one of those 'water isn't wet' debates.

It happens all the time so don't worry. Just start worrying about what song my dad and your sister are gonna-"

"Duncan!"

Duncan freezes in place as soon as he recognizes the voice that called out his name.

He and Lincoln turn their heads to see Mia, who's waving at Duncan.

Mia then stops running towards them as soon as she notices the white haired boy Duncan's hanging out with.

Noticing the look on her face, Duncan immediately goes on the defensive.

"Now Mia, before you go and judge me, I want to let you know that I met Lincoln here online and we've been…"

He then stops talking, realizing that he's just sounding more stupider.

"So this is what you've been doing?" Flatly said Mia, while giving Duncan a slightly aggressive look. "You're hanging out with elementary school kids? I… I just can't believe you're doing something like that!"

Lincoln was about to say something in Duncan's defense when he beat him to it.

"Wait, Mia. Let me explain. We met while playing against each other in Guilds of Glory and-"

Duncan then stops talking as soon as he notices Mia giggling at him. He can count on one hand how many times he's seen her giggling before in the past and it was always because he was saying something unintentionally funny.

It's one of the reasons why he has a crush on her.

"I'm just messing with you, Duncan." He hears Mia say, instantly feeling a wave of relief. "I think it's wonderful that you're giving this boy somebody to look up to. There's probably not a lot of people our age willing to do what you do."

Duncan couldn't help but smile a little. "Heh. You think HE'S the one looking up to me? If anything I'm the one who's…"

*RING RING*

He notices his phone vibrating in his pocket.

"Hold on." He said as he takes it out and sees that Bex is calling him. "It's Bex." He pushes the call button.

"...SUBMARINE!

A WHOLE SUBMARINE! When it's underwater… it's not WET!?

This is… That is what you're saying right now!"

"I agree with Bex." They can hear Wolf say. "Water is-"

Duncan ends the phone call.

Mia rolls her eyes. "Seriously? They're having the 'water isn't wet' debate again?"

Duncan puts his phone in his pocket. "Don't worry about it, Mia. Just look forward to whatever crappy song my dad's gonna-"

"Thank you all for coming everybody! Thank you!" He hears his dad speak into a microphone. "Oh no."

"Before we begin, I just wanna say that none of this would be possible if it wasn't for my son, Duncan!"

Everyone in the crowd looks at Duncan, who nervously waves.

Jack turns his head to face Luna, who's going to be performing alongside him. "Ready?"

"Ready." Luna nods at him.

Supervising the two is Lynn Loud Sr., who's holding his iconic cowbell.

"Subtle cowbell, Lynn… Subtle cowbell, Lynn… Subtle cowbell, Lynn." He nervously thinks to himself.

At the drums is Chunk, an adult friend of Luna's and is as passionate about music as she is. He's happy to have the opportunity to play in front of a crowd of people.

There's also a fifth person on stage: an unnamed extra from the 80's private club. He's currently dressed in 70's style clothes to reflect the decade the song was written. It didn't take Jack very much to convince him to join. He misses Alf.

Jack starts off the song by playing some familiar chords from a certain song from the 70's; Chunk, Lynn, and the other guy play their instruments alongside him while Luna gently taps the side of her purple guitar knowing her part will come soon.

Jack then starts to sing.

"All our times have come!

Here but now they're gone…

Seasons don't fear the reaper.

Nor do the wind, the sun, or the rain!"

Jack pauses for a second to let Luna sing.

"We can be like they are."

"Come on baby!" Jack sings again.

"Don't fear the reaper!" Sings Luna.

"Baby take my hand!"

"Don't fear the reaper!"

"We'll be able to fly!"

"Don't fear the reaper!"

"Baby I'm your man!"

Luna then starts playing her guitar, giving the song its nostalgic edge.

Listening to the song, Annie starts up a conversation with Rita; Lincoln and Luna's mother.

"So… you ended up having eleven kids?"

"I did." Rita slowly nods. "Anything you wanna say?"

Annie continues. "So that's… 99 months you were pregnant. That's over 8 years."

"Actually it's 90 months." Rita politely corrected her. "Two of my kids are twins."

"My goodness." Said Annie. "Are you, by any chance, interested in joining my book club?"

Rita smirks. "That depends… You got a good designated driver?"

While the two women laugh at Rita's joke; Lincoln, Duncan, and Mia continue listening to the song.

"Is your dad… playing a cowbell?" Mia questions Lincoln.

"He is… it's kinda his thing." Said Lincoln.

"I didn't even know this song even USES a cowbell. It's nice."

They keep listening until the end.

"The curtains flew and then he appeared!"

"Saying don't be afraid!"

"Come on baby!"

"And she had no fear!"

"And she ran to him!"

"Then they started to fly!"

"They looked backward and said goodbye!"

"She had become like they are!"

"She had taken his hand!"

"She had become like they are!"

"Come on baby!"

"Don't fear the reaper!"

The small crowd of Oakdale residents cheered for Luna, Jack, and the rest of the band as they closed off the song.

Then, in the heat of the moment, Luna puts her guitar to the side and screams at the top of her lungs,

"STAGE DIVE!"

Without warning, she leaps off of the stage, not only surprising the others that are still on stage, but also the people below. She lept off expecting everybody to catch her.

Only, that's not what happened…

Everybody moved out of Luna's way as she fell face first onto the pavement.

"Ow." That was all she could muster out.

Finding himself disappointed by the teenage rock star's actions, Duncan shouts out to her,

"We can't have middle aged men touching 15 year old girls!"

"Thank God for common sense." Said Mia as she wipes a tear from her eye; smiling happily at the sky above her.

"Oh no." Said Lincoln. "I better make sure she's alright… But first…"

He then takes a moment to remove the jacket he has on as he feels too hot to leave it on.

He faces Duncan, "Hey Duncan… would you… nevermind."

Instead of handing it over to his friend, he simply tosses it on the ground, planning to pick it up later once everything is okay. He then runs off to help his sister along with the rest of the band.

Duncan sighs. "Well… I can't just leave it like this."

Just as he's preparing to bend his knees so he can pick up Lincoln's jacket, he hears a familiar voice call out to him.

"YO! DUNC!"

Duncan and Mia then turn their heads to see Yangzi, Bex, and Wolf walking towards them with big smiles on their faces.

"What gives, man!?" Said Yangzi, still smiling. "You had this massive event going on and you didn't tell us!?"

Duncan starts to argue back. "Come on man! Why did you think I didn't tell you what was going on here!?"

After taking a second to think, Yangzi answers, "I pocket dialed you again, didn't I?"

"You pocket dialed me. Yes."

Mia then takes a step forward. "Why are you guys even having all these pointless arguments anyway? It seems like you're destroying your own friendship."

"Destroying our friendship!?" Said a surprised Bex. "Mia, our friendship isn't getting destroyed! If anything, it gets stronger every time we argue!"

"We agree to disagree." Said Wolf. "And then we go get ice cream."

"Speaking of ice cream…" Said Yangzi as he starts to look around. "Where is our boy, Lincoln! I got a free ice cream coupon with his name on it!"

Duncan points in Lincoln's direction. "Yeah… he's right over there helping his sister stand up… we should go help him."

Bex nods as the five of them start to walk over to Lincoln. "Right behind you!"

With Lincoln's jacket still on the ground, Kimberly, who has been hiding herself from the group the entire time, walks over to it and picks it up.

"I can't believe Lincoln dropped this!" She thought to herself as she brought her face closer to it. "He wasn't wearing it for very long, but maybe if I look REALLY hard…"

She then stops herself, as she thinks of doing something entirely different to the jacket.

She brings it even closer to her face… closes her eyes… and…

*SNIFF*

"What are you doing!?"

An unfamiliar voice of a young, Latina girl shook Kimberly to her core as she quickly opened her eyes and turned around.

As soon as she does this, she takes a moment to note how similar this random girl's attire looks when compared to her own.

Apparently, purple sweatshirts are more common towards preteen girls than she thought.

One thing that does make this girl different from her is that she has her hair tied up in a ponytail. No hair dye either.

Aside from that, there was not much else telling the two apart. Kimberly then thinks to herself how this girl acts like she would normally act back when she was eleven. It seemed like such a long time ago. Maybe because it was…

Because she didn't know who Lincoln Loud was back then.

She struggles to speak to the girl that's confronting her. "Uh… I'll have you know that I KNOW the boy who this jacket belongs to! I'm HOLDING it for him because no one else would!"

Kimberly then sees the girl's eye start twitching. "Oh really now?" She says. "Because I ALSO know the boy who that jacket belongs to!"

She clutches the jacket tighter with her arms. This girl knows Lincoln Loud? She was too busy looking at pictures of him on his social media that she didn't have time to look at anyone else in the photos.

The girl continues. "I was JUST about to walk up to him and say hello when… his sister made that stupid move and jumped right off the-"

"Ronnie Anne?"

Kimberly's heart skipped a beat as soon as she heard the voice of Lincoln behind her. She turns around to see that he's being accompanied by Duncan and his friends.

Lincoln walks past Kimberly and gets close to Ronnie Anne.

"Wow. The last time I got to see you in person was last Thanksgiving! Let me guess… teleporter?"

Ronnie Anne laughs, happy that she finally gets to talk to Lincoln in person again. "Hahaha! You know me! You also know how crazy our older siblings can be!"

They then hear Yangzi start to speak up. "Damn! Lincoln! Is that… Is that your…"

Lincoln puts his arm around Ronnie Anne's shoulders and introduces her to his new friends. "Guys, this is Ronnie Anne! She's a friend of mine who's moved out of Royal Woods. We've been keeping in touch ever since."

Wolf smirks. "Heh. Now that's dedication."

Ronnie Anne looks at Lincoln again. "So this is what you've been doing? Hanging out with high schoolers!? You're acting like you're too good for your other friends!"

Lincoln scratches the back of his head, unsure of what to say. "Gee… I… I'm sorry if I… Well… You know…"

Ronnie Anne then laughs again as she playfully punches Lincoln in the arm.

"RELAX LAME-O! I'm just messing with you! You can be friends with whoever you want! You're the friendliest guy I know!"

Duncan and Mia then take a quick glance at each other. Both getting a sense of deja vu.

Lincoln rubs his arm. "Uh, yeah. Thanks. Listen, there's this place here in Oakdale that serves REALLY good ice cream. Yangzi here gave me a coupon. You wanna join us?"

Ronnie Anne keeps smiling. "Heck yeah, I wanna join. I can't say no to ice cream!"

"Great!" Said Lincoln. "Now where did I leave my-"

Duncan taps Lincoln on the shoulder. "Right there." He points to it.

Ronnie Anne looks where Duncan is pointing. Whoever that girl was, she seems to have dropped the jacket and just left everyone.

After finding out about Lincoln's friendship with Ronnie Anne, Kimberly makes it to her room, feeling a little cold on the inside.

"What's that, Lincoln?" She says to herself. "You and her are just friends? Heh. I knew you two were."

She walks toward her closet and starts to open it.

"I love you, Lincoln… And you love me…"

She opens her closet to unveil a startling sight…

Dozens of pictures of the eleven year old boy are posted on the wall right where she used to put Wolf's. In the center, there's a message: L plus K equals KIMBERLY HARRIS LOUD.

"You DO love me!"

Well, that's Chapter 4.

I do have to clarify something here, Duncan's fantasy in the beginning of the chapter is a reference to 'The Loud Warrior,' a story by one of the most talented of fanfiction writers, Flagg1991.

If you're brand new, never heard of him, and decide to check him out, please keep in mind that the vast majority of his stories are NOT for the faint of heart.

Seriously, if you read even one of his longer stories, your life will be divided into two parts: the life before reading his story, and the life after.

I think that's why a lot of people in the Loud House fandom hate him. His stories are out of their comfort zones. Also, maybe because some of them really can't separate fiction from reality.

Speaking of which, don't worry too much about Lincoln, Ronnie Anne, or Kimberly, none of this is canon.

I have Chapter 5 all planned out but whatever happens in Chapter 6 will depend entirely on episodes 8 and 9 of Duncanville. My plan is that for every three new episodes of the show I watch, I make two chapters of this story. This story is only going to go on for as long as Duncanville is going to go on. When Duncanville stops, this story stops. So even I don't know too much of what will happen in this story. I'm making it up as I go along.

One more thing, I don't own 'Don't Fear the Reaper.' It's a song from Blue Oyster Cult.

I gotta let you all go now. Until next time!