Chapter Four
Searches, Cliffs and Danger
The next day dawned bright, and for Kenny, into panic. Everyone had passed out in Cartman's van during the cold night, a lot more comfortable now that Craig and Tweek weren't there, and Kenny woke up with the horrible realization that Butters wasn't there. He'd never come back from his walk last night.
"Oh fuck." He sat up from where he was curled up in the very back, leaning over the seat in front to nudge at Kyle.
"Hey, hey Kyle. Wake up man, wake up!" Kyle moaned as Kenny prodded, and the blonde growled. "Dammit, Kyle, wake the fuck up!" He punched him roughly in the arm, and Kyle slapped his arm away, sitting up and looking at him blearily.
"Dude, not so loud, my head is pounding, man." He pleaded in a whisper, his hand going up to rub at his eyes.
"Forget that, dumbass, Butters never came back." Kenny hissed. Kyle froze, eyes widening.
"What d'ya mean, he never came back?"
"Y'know how he was just gonna take a walk?" Kyle nodded hurriedly. "Well, he never came back! He's not here!"
"Fuck!" Kyle whirled in his spot, shaking Stan, who was sleeping next to him. "Stan! Stan, wake up, man!"
The raven-haired teen groaned, trying to turn away from Kyle, but the redhead persisted, and Stan eventually sat up, yawning.
"Man, Kyle, what the hell? I'm tryin' to sleep here...y'know, like a normal person?"
"Get up, jackass." Kenny butted in. "A certain blonde never came back last night."
"Who, Tweek? He's with Craig, man. Trying to find the road and whatever..." Stan tried to lie down again, until Kyle smacked him on the head. "Oww!"
"Not Tweek, retard! Butters! Butters didn't come back!"
"Butters?"
"Yes, Butters!" Kyle smacked him again.
Realization dawned in the raven's eyes. "After fatass said all that shit to him...fuck!" He whirled around to hurriedly open the door, accidentally hitting Clyde in the chest, who was sleeping next to him by the window.
"Fuck!" Clyde cursed, eyes snapping open. "Stan? What the fuck?"
Stan ignored him, throwing the door open and launching himself out. Kyle opened his door, and Kenny climbed over the seat to dart out after him. Clyde continued cursing, and in all the commotion, Cartman and Token woke up, glancing around blearily.
The three friends met outside, Kenny worried, Stan anxious and Kyle furious.
"What the hell are we gonna do?" Kyle asked. "Those woods must be huge, he could be anywhere!"
"No, no," Kenny shook his head. "It was getting dark, he'd have to stop after a while. He can't have gone too far." God, I hope not...
A door slamming caught their attention, and they turned, seeing Cartman come around the side.
"What the fuck, guys! You woke everybody up!" He yelled, red in the face already. Kyle's eyes narrowed as he saw the fat boy, stomping toward him angrily.
"This is all your fault! He's out there, lost, because you had to go and be a fucking jackass!"
"Hey, what the hell is your problem, Jew?" Cartman exclaimed angrily. "Just because Stan didn't fuck you hard enough doesn't mean you gotta take it out on me!"
"You fat Nazi fuck!" Kyle screamed, leaping at the brunet. Stan barely managed to grab him, and Kenny had to help him restrain Kyle, who was almost frothing at the mouth and yelling out in what Kenny though was probably Hebrew or something.
Stan dragged him back, and Kenny turned a glare on Cartman. "Butters never came back last night last night after all the shit you said to him last night."
"So?" Cartman snorted. "If we're lucky, maybe he turned emo and killed himself. 'Bout time we got rid of that faggot."
Kenny had to resist the desperate urge to finish what Kyle had been unable to do and punch Cartman's face in. His voice came out more like a growl. "You sick bastard, what the hell do you have against the poor guy?" He shook his head, not wanting to hear Cartman's twisted thoughts. "You know what? Never mind. But I hope you realize there's gonna be an investigation."
"What?"
"If we don't find him by the time the others bring the police here, how much you wanna bet there's gonna be an investigation as to why he left? They're gonna find out it was you who said all the crap to make him leave. There's gonna be trouble for you, fatass. You could even be arrested in manslaughter charges. Or at the very least for providing him with an incentive to leave."
"Hey man, I just told him the truth." Cartman blustered. Kenny growled.
"You went too far." He said through gritted teeth.
"It ain't my fault. They can't get me on anything."
"They may not." Kenny shrugged. "But you'll never get your five hundred from Butters' parents."
Cartman paused, then cursed. "Son of a fucking bitch. Like hell I took that little bastard all this way to not get my goddamn money."
Clyde and Token got out of the van, approaching them, as well as Stan and Kyle, who still looked pissed.
"Dude, what the hell is going on?" Token asked, brows furrowed. Cartman sighed angrily, glaring at Kenny.
"Apparently we lost Butters, so now we have to go find his faggot ass." He turned to Kenny. "Alright, po' boy. You saw where Butters went. What direction?"
Kenny paused, scanning their surrounding. Okay, there was the firepit from last night, so... He pointed toward his left. "He went that way."
"So let's go find his stupid, emo self." Cartman muttered irritably. All of them suddenly heard Kyle gasp. Looking toward him, they saw his face pale and his eyes widen.
"Kyle?" Kenny asked hesitantly.
"Sweet God, no, he couldn't have..." Kyle muttered to himself, voice trembling. "He couldn't have...but...it was dark, really dark...no, no, no..."
"Dude, Kyle, what is it?" Stan asked, slightly worried at the look on his friend's face. A feeling of dread came over Kenny as Kyle looked at all of them.
"The cliff is that way."
There was a short pause, then Kenny took off, the rapid crash of footsteps telling him that the others were following. Shit, shit, shit! Kenny cursed inwardly. I shouldn't have let him go like that; why the hell didn't I remember the cliff was that way?
"Butters!" He cried out, hoping to hear something, anything in response. "Butters, where are you! Butters!"
Stan and Clyde took up his cry, Token and Kyle joining in a second later. Cartman was too busy trying to breathe through all the running he was doing. Together they raced through the undergrowth, six pairs of eyes on the lookout for any sign of the blonde boy.
"Butters! Butter where are y—whoa!" Kenny skidded to a stop, his searching cry cutting off into a panicked yell. The trees stopped and the ground had dropped off suddenly in front of him, as if a giant hand had reached down and scooped out a huge chunk of land. The others stopped behind him, each one mirroring the cry that Kenny had let out. Kenny felt the blood drain from his face as he looked downwards. It was a sheer drop, almost ninety degrees straight down, nothing but gravity in the empty air. It plummeted down hundreds of feet to a river, barely seen in the large height. Looking left and right, it went on in both directions, stretching on for what seemed forever.
"Holy shit..." Stan whispered, saying what they all thought.
"Dude, he had to have seen that...I mean, come on, it's huge!" Token protested. "There's no way he could have just walked off it!"
Kyle shook his head. "...this place got really dark at night...really, really dark, and remember, Butters was smoking, just like us. He was probably high out of his mind."
Kenny just stared down. "I don't know if he was high out of his mind, but he was probably distracted as fuck." There was a long silence.
Stan was the first to snap out of it. "Okay you guys, we need to start searching for any sign of him." He pointed to the rest of them. "Clyde, Token, you guys search the cliff. Go off in different directions, check for anything; footprints, blood, anything."
"Blood?" Clyde asked hesitantly. "You...you think he might be hurt?"
The raven fixed him with a steady look. "Right now, we don't know anything. We need to be prepared for whatever happens." He gestured to himself, Kenny, Kyle and Cartman. "We'll go search in the forest. Maybe he didn't even get this far."
"What?" Cartman exclaimed. "I don't wanna go look in some stupid forest; we'll get fucking lost!"
Kyle glared at him. "You better do it, fatass, it's your fault we're in this damn situation."
Stan interrupted Cartman as he opened his mouth to shoot back a retort. "Anyway! As for the lost thing, we'll need to partner up. I'll go with Kyle, and Kenny can go with Cartman. Don't search too far from your buddy, we don't need to go looking for anyone else." He looked at all of them. "Got it?"
Everyone nodded, and they all split up to go search. Kenny strode into the woods with Cartman, both of them staying a couple of feet apart to search properly. They stayed in silence, but Kenny was fuming on the inside. He truly blamed Cartman for the disappearance of Butters, and right now, he hated being anywhere near the fat bastard.
He growled. God, why couldn't they have lost the damn fatass, instead? They'd all be better off.
After a good fifteen minutes, Kenny paused, looking around. Whoa, wait a minute, where was Cartman? He couldn't see him anywhere. Taking stock of his surroundings, Kenny realized he had no idea where he was. Aw, dammit, he was fucking lost!
A loud crashing through the trees drew his attention and he froze, tensing for whatever had caused it. The noise grew louder and closer, and then something leapt in front of Kenny.
It was Token.
"Kenny! There you are! Hurry up, Clyde said he found something!"
"What? Did he find Butters?"
Token hesitated. "I-I don't know, I just went off to get you guys. I already told Cartman, he's on his way back."
"Well, come on, let's go!" Kenny took off running in the direction Token had come from, the black boy keeping pace with him as he ran.
"Wait, what about Stan and Kyle?" Token yelled above the crash of undergrowth.
"I got an idea." Kenny took a deep breath, not even pausing in his running as he put his fingers to his mouth and blew out a long, shrill whistle, the sound echoing in the trees. He was panting when he stopped, but forced himself to breathe and do it again. The blonde gulped in air. "I-I...I think...they h-heard it..."
"They better have." Kenny wasn't sure if he imagined the muttered words, or if Token had actually said them. There was a lot of noise.
They ran on, bursting out near the cliff only a few seconds before Stan and Kyle.
"What happened?" Stan demanded.
"Did they find Butters?" Kyle asked hopefully.
"I don't know, Clyde just told Token he found something." Kenny looked at Token. "Where is he?"
Token pointed to the right. Clyde and Cartman were standing together not too far away, staring over the edge of the cliff.
They walked closer, nervously, hesitantly, as if all of them knew something was waiting for them there. Kenny saw that Clyde looked almost close to tears. Cartman just looked stony.
Clyde pointed to the round, sniveling a bit. "...look."
The ground was scuffed up, dirt torn and dug from the bottom as it led from the treeline to the edge of the cliff. It wouldn't have been as bad, however, if it wasn't for the dark, smudged, dirty puddles of something reddish-brown.
"...is that...?" Kyle looked sick at the merest suggestion.
"Sure fucking looks like it." Cartman growled, prodding one congealed pool with the tip of his shoe. He cast a look over the rock edge. "You didn't see that yet."
Kenny looked to where the fat boy had gestured. Down the side of the cliff, a small piece of something that looked like fabric waved, snagged on a crevice in the rock face. It was light blue in color.
The same as Butters' shirt.
There was a stunned silence, then Cartman snarled angrily. "Fucking hell, I just lost half a grand down a fucking cliff."
Kyle practically roared in fury, lunging at him, and this time everyone excluding Cartman held him back as he screamed in rage. "You goddamned fat bastard, all you care about is your fucking money when someone's just died? What the fuck is wrong with you? You sadistic fucking son of a whore!"
"Ay, don't talk about my mother!" Cartman yelled angrily.
"Burn in hell, you fat bitch!"
"Kyle, stop it, STOP IT!" Stan cried, lifting him up out of sheer desperation. "We're three fucking inches from a goddamned cliff, do you want to die?"
The redhead stilled, panting in raging emotion as he glared hatefully at the fatass. Kenny felt like ripping out Cartman's throat and tossing him over, but he didn't want to go over as well. He'd already died and come back once, he didn't want to make it twice.
Token was taking a closer look at the scuffled ground as Kyle had stopped struggling enough to be let go. "Guys...there's something wrong with this."
"What? What d'ya mean?" Clyde asked.
"Look at this." He pointed at the marks. "He didn't just walk over this, there was force behind this. And look at the blood. You can't get this much from just falling or something. He was really hurt." He looked up hesitantly, almost scared. "Something pushed Butters off, after hurting him pretty badly."
Kenny shook his head, not wanting to believe any of this. "Hold on a sec, man, we're getting too ahead of ourselves here. I mean...we can't just say Butters is dead...like, that's fucking insane! And now we're saying something forced him over? How do we even know this is him? Shit, we can't just say he's dead!"
Stan looked down, giving Kenny a sad look. "Kenny...this cliff is high. You can see that. If he really walked off or whatever, we'd never find him. So unless we can find him in the woods or something, we have to go on the assumption that he'd dead." He gestured slowly to the ground. "Look at all this. What more can we say?"
"But he can't be fucking dead!" Kenny yelled. It wasn't right, how could someone like him just be dead? Goddammit, he didn't deserve to die like that, after being told such a bunch of shit!
He whirled on Cartman. "Fuck it, this is all your fault! If you hadn't been such a fucking bastard, none of this would have happened! I hope the police get here quick, so they can throw your bitch ass in jail!"
"Hold on a minute, Kenny." Cartman growled lowly, taking a step toward him. His foot stomped over the drag marks and Kenny felt like killing him.
"Don't say shit like that, you don't know where a mouth like that'll get you. It'll get you a whole shit-load of trouble, po' boy." The brunet narrowed his eyes. "I'm not going to jail, no matter what it takes."
Kenny stood his ground, voice deadly. "You wanna toss me over and shut my mouth for a while?" He laughed sardonically, hands clenching to ready fists. "I'd like to see you try, fat boy."
"Stop it." Stan pushed Kenny back, getting between him and Cartman. "This isn't helping anything right now. We need to wait for the police to get here, so they can look properly. Maybe they'll find Butters, I don't know." He looked at the group. "We need to get back. Alright?"
No one answered, and he repeated it again, more forcefully this time.
"Alright?"
Everyone muttered some type of assent, and Stan nodded, stepping back to walk into the trees again, Kyle walking ahead and pointing out the direction the van was in. Kenny and Cartman spared each other one more glare then followed sullenly, crunching twigs and dry leaves underfoot. Kenny resolved to mark the place where the drag marks were later, so the police could take a look at it when they arrived.
They walked for a couple of long minutes, then strode back into their small clearing of their 'camp site'.
Kyle gasped, and Cartman cursed incredulously. Clyde took a step back in horror.
Kenny just stared.
The entire place was in shambles.
The firepit was nothing more than scattered ashes, and every single bottle of booze was shattered on the dirty ground, giving the entire place the look of a glass minefield. The windows on Cartman's van had been broken roughly, and the tires were slashed. The food remained untouched somehow.
What was most unsettling about it all, and what caused everyone's heart to thud painfully in fear, was another piece of the bright blue shirt hanging from one sharp edge of windowglass, ripped and bloody, the contents of a couple of backpacks scattered on the ground around it. A message was scratched into the paint of Cartman's van, and Kenny shuddered as he read it.
'ONE DOWN'