Chapter 17
"Are those Casper's uncles?" Wendy asked as the three got closer to where those from Logansport were gathered.
"Yeah, you know them?" Oswald asked.
"Yeah! Casper's my friend," Wendy said, giving Oswald's hand an excited squeeze. "Did Casper come with you?"
"No, he stayed in Logansport," Oswald admitted.
"That's good, he's safe," Wendy said with a sharp nod.
"I wanna know how this place had an infestation," Sadie mumbled to herself.
"Hey Wendy, there's the Cat in the Hat," Oswald said, pointing out the creepy looking cat. "Maybe you should stick with him until your aunts get back to normal."
"Okay, Mr. Ozzie," Wendy said, letting go of Oswald's hand. She ran to the cat, giving Oswald one last look before joining two red and blue creatures.
"Come on," Sadie said, getting Oswald's attention. "I wanna know who was in charge here."
Oswald followed the cat over to where Felix and Woody stood talking with what looked like a muscular man but instead of having a human head what peaked out of his white space suit was instead a pink snake-looking creature.
"I tried what I could but nothing seemed to stop them," the toon was saying. "Peter gave his life."
"He'll be remembered," Felix offered solemnly.
Woody noticed the two as they stopped a couple of feet away and asked, "Did you find anybody?"
"A girl was still alive, she's with the Cat in the Hat," Sadie reported. "Her three aunts were inert."
"Wendy?" the stranger asked, getting a nod from Oswald. The toon turned his thin head back to Felix and Woody to say, "That means we're still missing thirty-six, thirty-seven counting Peter."
"Were you the one in charge here?" Sadie asked, eyeing the toon. She placed a hand on the strap holding her large gun and added, "How the hell did you let the blotlings inside?"
"It was an accident and they've already been punished enough," the toon said, eyeing the cat. "Who are you? I don't remember seeing you before."
"You can't remember most people," Woody retorted.
"This is Sadie and Oswald, they're from Disney," Felix offered simply. He looked at the two and offered, "This is Earthworm Jim. Yes, he is in charge of this shelter."
"Disney, so those round ears I saw?" Jim asked, eyeing Felix in surprise.
"Probably Mickey," Felix said with a nod.
"Why are Disney toons here?" Jim asked, looking at the two.
"You explain," Oswald threw off as those round ears caught his eye. "I wanna talk to Mick." Before anyone could protest he left the group to step over to Mickey and Ted talking to some toons that looked to Oswald more like video game characters than Jim did. What looked like a father and daughter gave a polite nod of their heads before leaving the two to join their group of Universal. "Who are they?" Oswald asked.
"Indr and Ajna," Mickey explained, turning to face the rabbit. "They said they don't even belong here, they were here for a business deal and got trapped by the blotlings."
"So they're not even Universal?" Oswald asked.
"Not yet," Ted admitted, shaking his head. "They hope to get a show. I hope all of this doesn't make that harder than it already is."
"Hey Mick, do you know if the extra Gremlin Gun got brought with us?" Oswald asked.
"I think Felix has it, why?" Mickey said, glancing over Oswald's shoulder to see the cat. His eyes fell back on Oswald as he asked, "Weren't you just talking to him?"
"They needed to tell Jim the whole story again," Oswald said with a shrug. "I know a bit about his game and thought if his shooting was better than my kids', maybe he'd wanna help."
"Is he in charge here?" Ted asked.
"Yeah." Oswald glanced over at the Universal toons gathered and caught sight of the three ghost brothers talking to the little witch. "Doesn't Casper and his family live over here?"
"And from what I know, Oz and Mo," Mickey said with a nod. "Remember Friendship used to be Comicland?"
"Makes me wonder why they were at Logansport's shelter," Oswald admitted.
"From what I heard they left because this place was getting too crowded," Ted offered, looking over the brothers at where most of the Universal toons gathered. "Doesn't look so crowded now, does it?"
"I'm sure we'll find out about a lot of MIA toons," Oswald said, those surviving the infestation only numbering a little more than fifteen. "Unless they all got turned inert."
"I hope they just escaped," Ted said. He gave the two a nod of his head and stepped over to where the fighting group from Logansport was starting to separate themselves from the locals.
Oswald noticed Sadie coming over to join them as the three leaders looked the groups over. She stopped beside him and turned so she faced the three Universal leaders as she said, "They're gonna announce a few things. Mickey, I hope you don't mind but I volunteered you to help."
"I'll do what I can," Mickey said as Woody let out a loud whistle.
Oswald watched the three Universal toons as they waited for everyone's attention.
"Does anyone know how many left with Doc Brown when the attack started?" Jim asked, quickly getting a murmur from those in his shelter.
An orange collie rose to her hind legs to be above the St. Bernard and blue mutt beside her as she called out, "I counted about thirty."
"You saw who all left with him?" Jim asked as the crowd grew louder, each asking their own questions. The earthworm threw a glance at Woody, silently signaling for the woodpecker to give out another loud whistle. It took a while longer for the crowd to quiet down this time, almost getting Woody to let out another ear piercing sound. Once he could be heard again Jim asked, "Ginger, did you see who all went with him?"
"Not fully, no," the dog admitted, dropping down onto all four paws. "I'm not even sure on the number. They were leaving out the old main door beside our hiding spot." She let out a growl as she added, "It's because of them most of Beethoven's family got hurt."
"That'd add up to almost everyone though," Felix said, just loud enough Oswald could hear it. He looked at Jim and, in the same volume level added, "Just six unknown."
"Still don't like it," Jim mumbled back. Holding his head up he added, "We're gonna need everyone's help. Before the end of the day I wanna get this place safe again. Mickey's got something to help bring back the walls and foundation. While he does that I'm gonna need two groups. One to come with me and collect those frozen and the other to help repair the walls and dividers that were torn away. That groups also gotta fix the old main door's barricade."
"Those who came with me, we're gonna need to keep the monsters away while they're working," Felix called out. "Dark's coming fast so I'd like to get the walls safe as soon as possible."
"Guess I'd better get to work," Mickey said, already turning to find where to start.
-.-.-.-
Oswald found himself on what was called the west wall of the warehouse facing the same white expanse that all of Universal seemed to be. He stepped back to lean against the wall only to think better of it and went back to his spot, not sure where they were inside repairing the walls. Looking up at the sky he realized he missed the small bit of blue he had seen on the journey to the shelter. A smell that had now become familiar assaulted his nose before the ghost opened his mouth.
"This yer first time seeing night fall here?" Stinky asked as he stopped next to Oswald.
"Since all of this happened, yeah," Oswald admitted, taking a step away from the rank ghost. "What happens?"
"It'll be coming up soon," Stinky said. "I'll let you see for yourself, but you'll wanna have this."
Oswald caught the object thrown at him before he could register what was being tossed. Looking down at his hands he saw a flashlight had been given to him. He looked back at the ghost and asked, "It really gets that dark?"
"I haven't had a problem yet but then again, us ghosts enjoy the dark," Stinky said with a shrug. He looked up at the white sky, getting Oswald to do the same.
Oswald stood uncertain where trees or buildings might be blocking his view of the sky and realized he wasn't sure if only the sky would change or if the world would as well. He gave a glance to the ghost, who kept where he floated above the ground, and saw he was looking up at the sky as well. Oswald looked back only to feel like he had closed his eyes. Blinking he realized this was what Stinky meant. Clicking on the flashlight didn't seem to help his cause until he shined it on Stinky, blinding the ghost.
"Hey, not the eyes!" the ghost exclaimed, holding up his arms as if to try and shield himself from the light.
Oswald quickly lowered the beam of light, aiming the center at the ghost's tail, as he asked, "How can ghosts even like this? It's not darkness, it's a black abyss."
Stinky gave the rabbit a shrug as he said, "Don't ask me to explain it."
Oswald turned to where he knew Fatso was supposed to be guarding, shining his flashlight over the large ghost sitting with his back against the wall and his tail hanging from an imaginary chair. Past him, beyond where Oswald's little flashlight would cover, a different light shown out. Like Oswald's, he couldn't see where the light fell, just the source of the beam. Turning back to Stinky to see the ghost already heading back to his station Oswald mumbled to himself, "Hope we don't have to stay out here much longer. Don't know if I could see them if any blotlings did show up." He panned his light like the far away flashlights were doing, hoping the locals knew more than he did.