Before the Mushroom War
Last Night
"Go get her, Doug!"
"Where the hell did she go?"
"Over there! She's over there!"
I suddenly shot up from the ground, gasping for air and loudly panting to regain my breath. Ugh… My God… It feels like my head was twisted apart from the very insides. I blinked my eyes repeatedly as I was getting used to the sudden darkness surrounding me. It was then that I finally realized that it was already nighttime in the refugee camp or at least I think so… I'm not so sure how much time has passed since I... blacked out... Out of nowhere, I was suddenly coughing desperately for oxygen... For some reason, it's been getting harder and harder for me to breathe lately. To my surprise, I realized that I was lying down onto the cold and dusty ground. My head hurts like hell... What in the world happened to me? I noticed my glass hand phone was right beside my head on the ground with its light blinking on and off repeatedly. Mystified, I slowly reached for the phone and gently picked it up. When I gleaned over the phone, it was set on the contacts list and the cursor was selected on… Mom… Oh… Now I remember what had happened...
Oh God… My heart felt like it wasn't making a single sound as I tightly clasped my forehead, hoping that it would provide the least bit of comfort from the aching headache. My eyes were completely dried up and felt extremely sore. I just feel nothing inside me... The thought of being all alone makes me afraid... I struggled to drag myself away from where I was originally lying as my legs felt like they were numb to the bone. I was practically helpless… When I finally couldn't drag myself anymore, I slowly sat back up to a curled position and tried my best to warm myself up in the middle of this cold night. I was getting too weak to crawl myself towards a distant campfire and I would hate to think what the other people would do to me. Some might call me paranoid but I'm only being cautious...From my past experience, desperation could force a man do the worst of things... Right now, my best plan of action is to keep to myself until Henry gets back eventually. That is IF he gets back... No! I have to be positive and just hope for the best. For Hannah... I just don't know what's going to happen next to me… And I feel so all alone and vulnerable in this freaking place…
Minutes had passed and I was just sitting down there, closely following my plan of minding my own business and ignoring everything else. And it seemed like the plan might succeed at first, had it not been for the sudden loud and crazy shouting in the distance. Out of curiosity and just plain "What the heck is that sound?", I looked up from my curled position and tried to find out what kind of nonsense is going on nearby. What could all that nonsensical shouting be about? And then as if on cue to answer my admittedly ridiculous question, a familiar looking little girl suddenly landed right on the ground in front of me, seemingly out of nowhere. My shocked expression met her cold stare, which was partially covered by the patched shawl, as she just stood there nonchalantly. I immediately realized that it was the very same girl from this evening to whom I gave the red apple to. What is she doing here?
"There! I found her! She's over there!" A sudden loud shouting pierced throughout the otherwise quiet night. As soon as I could hear the screaming again, the little girl quickly dashed off to another direction. Wow! She was incredibly fast! It was freaking amazing! It was unbelievable... And then following closely right behind her, three fully-grown men wearing their own raggedy outfits suddenly rushed past me as they head towards the direction of the little girl. "Come back here, you damned thief!" One of them desperately screamed, his brutish voice echoing throughout the rest of the camp. What the heck just happened? What did the little girl even do? A small part of me was telling me to stay out of this and keep to myself. Stick to the plan! I cried out... Stick to the plan, Louis! But I was already half way struggling to stand back up. I knew I was going to get involve in something ridiculously stupid and possibly dangerous... Heh... If Hannah could only see me now...
I was stumbling around like a drunken fool, trying my best to not accidentally cross my legs and trip myself. My numb as hell legs and aching headache were certainly not helping at all in this matter. It didn't take that long before the three men and the little girl were already gone from my sight. Now I'm just blindly following in their last known general direction. At this rate, the Sun would come and go before I could even save that girl... Goddamn it! I gritted my teeth and decided to bear through all the pain in my head and in my legs as I charged forward into the darkness, desperately trying to find the little girl again. "Guys! She's here! I got her cornered!" A distant voice echoed throughout the night. I finally found those punks... Overwhelmed with pain, I immediately dashed into the general direction where I last heard the loud shouting. And sure enough, near an abandoned corner of the refugee camp, they were there...
I quickly crouched down and hid myself amongst the darkness so that I could observe them as I try to slowly regain my bearings. They were cornering the girl against what appears to be an overturned wreckage of a rusted van in an obscure part of the camp. How could a van somehow even get in here? I have absolutely no idea... One of life's mysteries, I suppose... Maybe it was there before they set up the metal wall or something. "We got you now, little girl..." One of the men scowled at her as he edged slightly closer to her. "Yeah, we're going to teach you a lesson about stealing our food from us... and maybe some manners about treating your grown-ups..." Another guy smiled menacingly at her. What the hell is wrong with these people? For the love of God, that's just a child... Don't they even care?
I was kind of surprised at how the girl just stood there not giving a single damn about what they were saying and what they were trying to do to her. I've got to hand it to her, she's clearly not your average little girl, that's for sure. There's- There's just something so different about her... One of the 'gentlemen' knelt down and quickly picked up a nearby large rock from the ground and immediately start brandishing it like it was some sort of weapon. What was the guy really thinking in his head? I am sure that destructive weapon would be suitable and powerful enough to combat the horrible monstrosity of that little girl... The thugs were slowly edging closer and closer to the little girl, who seemingly wasn't moving or trying to escape at all. I thought that she had some kind of secret master plan or something... But after a while, I don't think that would be the case anymore... This is not going anywhere. I have to do something... I have to save her!
"Hey! Stop it!" I instinctively called out to them, without pausing to think at all. They all jumped in shock at the sudden sound of my voice before immediately turning around to see me, angry scowls and wry grins quickly replacing the shocked expressions on their faces. "Who the hell are you?" One of them shouted threateningly at me. "I'm no one; just a normal guy, that's all... No one dangerous..." I exclaimed as I slowly walked out from the darkness and into the open, raising my arms in the air to show that I meant them no harm. "Look, I don't want any trouble, alright? I just want you to leave that little girl alone..." I begged them but by the look on their faces, I'm guessing my pleas were obviously falling on deaf ears.
"She's a fucking thief, man! Do you know what we do to thieves over here?" The guy with the large stone tightened his grip around his odd weapon of choice as if he was getting impatiently excited. This is not good... I don't think I can talk them out of this crazy nonsense even if I tried my hardest. "Hey, wait! Tell me what did she steal!" I suddenly exclaimed, trying to redirect their attention from the girl. "She stole our fucking apples, man. Do you know how long we have been saving those goddamn apples? And that girl thinks she can just steal it from us!" I could see one of the men were already getting agitated and seemingly more dangerous. "She's just a child! She needs it a lot more than you do! Can't you just let her go and walk away like nothing happened? It's not worth it..." I tried one more time to see if I could appeal to their humanity...
"No! We have to teach that little bitch a lesson to not steal from us again!" The bald and burliest of the three shouted back at me. He sounded pretty determined, which is really bad... I have to do something, "Okay, calm down! Calm down! Just calm down... I don't have any apples in me but I have a packet of crackers right here. It may not be much but right now, it's worth a lot." The men seemed to be slowly calming down, just from the simple mention of food. "I'm going to give you the crackers, no strings attached, and all you have to do is let the little girl go... Agreed?" I smiled innocently as I gave them my offer, unsure of what will happen next. One of the men which was the bald and burly guy paced around for a while, contemplating my offer to himself. You can practically hear the clunks of gears inside his head as he's trying to think...
"Okay! I've made my mind! We're going to let the girl go..." The bald man finally said, much to the painful anguish to the guy with the large rock. I'm assuming the bald guy is the leader or something, judging on how the other two loyally followed his decision. I simply nodded in an agreeing manner at the leader and slowly took out the packet of crackers from my pocket. I then raised both of my hands again to show that I don't have anything else besides the crackers. I carefully approached the bald man whilst keeping a safe distance from the other two, especially the esteemed fellow with the large rock, so that I couldn't get ambushed or something. I was hoping that the girl would be smart enough to take this opportunity and run away but for some reason, she's just standing there staring directly at me with a strangely calm demeanor. Why doesn't she just run away right now? As soon as I finally reached the leader, he slowly outstretched his hand towards me. I gently placed the packet of crackers onto his outstretched hand and-
"Oof!" The fucking bastard sucker punched me firmly in my jaw, out of bloody nowhere. Incredibly shocked, I quickly backed away as the sight of three blurry silhouettes were edging towards me. It must've gave me quite the concussion as everything, even the world around me, started to seem fuzzy to me. At the sight of one blurry figure suddenly rushing towards me, I instinctively moved my body out of the way, firmly leaving one of my legs as a would-be tripwire. The satisfying sight of the figure tripping from my legs and immediately falling face first into the ground below greeted me, much to my partial glee. Ha! Got him! I quickly turned to face the other two figures, witnessing the burly bald guy from before menacingly approaching me whilst brandishing his meaty fists right towards me. The guy carrying the large rock was just swinging it around, pretending to contribute by shouting supportive commands like "Go get him, Doug!" or "Beat that, sunvabitch!" Oh my God, I didn't know I was fighting a group of gentlemen...In fact, why am I even fighting? I'm surprised I'm still standing!
I slowly backed away to try and keep my distance from the burly guy, whom quickly pounced forward and started throwing punches left and right. I managed to dodged his ineffective punches by simply back-stepping out of the way. When the burly guy finally started to seemed fatigued, I used the opportunity to quickly grabbed onto the wrist of one of his meaty arms with a firm grip. With a shocked expression on his face, I pulled him closer to me as I quickly turned my back towards him. I carefully bent my knees and quickly mustered up all of my energy; It was then I simply pushed my legs with all of the force I could gather, immediately lifting the burly man from the ground and sent him hurling through the air. I slightly smiled at the sight of that jackass landing face first onto the ground with a loud thumping sound. That's for punching me, you bastard! Ha! Ha! And that's what you get for messing with a guy who's married to a martial arts expert, assholes! But then, I quickly turned around only to be greeted with the sight of a fist landing directly onto my lower right jaw. Out of sheer pain, I couldn't fight back anymore as I immediately stumbled backwards in a careless manner before finally dropping head first onto the ground below me. Well, that outright killed all of the confidence I just had...
"Thaatsshh wasth youe geet foour mesinghs witsh ursh!" The guy's voice echoed nonsensically through my ears as I couldn't even understand at what he was trying to say. My concussion must've gotten worst... "Agh! Fuck... you all..." I helplessly screamed at their hazy silhouettes slowly surrounding me on the ground. And to add to my aching head, the burly bastard immediately repaid what I did to him by stomping me squarely on my chest with his heavy boots. I almost threw up my non-existent lunch as I coughed desperately for air on the ground. "Nooow geit ther guirl!" Oh fuck! I don't need to have a clear head to know what he was trying to say. "No! Don't you dare!" I yelled as I struggled to stand back up onto my feet; but I immediately lost my balance causing me stumble around on the ground like a helpless idiot. No... I can't... What am I even doing? I'm freaking hopeless... I'm- I'm sorry, little girl...
"Ohh miuy Gob! Au menstoeur! Sher's ao fruckting daemun!" The sudden frightened screams immediately caught my attention... What the hell is going on? I couldn't see anything at all because the world still felt like it was spinning and dancing around me. "Guysh! Heaelp me out! Ouh God!" At least I think my hearing was slowly returning back to normal. I tried to look up from where I was lying on the ground and squinted my eyes, concentrating as hard as I could to see just what in the world was going on. The very first thing I saw was the same bald brute who sucker punched me from before, face planting onto the ground and slid across it like he just got pushed by something with great strength. I saw the same guy with the large stone immediately drop his super weapon and ran away with his tail firmly stuck between his legs, leaving the others behind. The third guy helped the bastard on the ground to stand back up and they both immediately ran away like a bat out of hell. What... What the hell just happened to them?
I then saw the blur silhouette of the little girl casually approaching towards me, surprisingly indifferent at what just happened. She immediately knelt down beside my body and promptly poked me repeatedly on the head as she whispered, "Are you still alive?" "Ugh... I'm fine..." I moaned in pain as I was still feeling a little bit sore throughout my body and mostly my head. "Don't worry about me..." I stuttered as I was slowly but surely getting back up from the ground. She just nodded at me before she immediately walked away, right back towards the nearby overturned van. Okay, that was a little strange... I-I just need to lie down for a while, take a moment to breathe and be calm... The whole world was starting to seemingly slow down around me as the numbing pain inside my head started to fade away. Okay, I think I'm good...
"You didn't have to help me..." She said softly, not even looking back at me as she approached her van. "Now, please leave me alone..." She quickly added coldly before she immediately jumped into the gaping hole where the back doors of the van were supposed to be. Ouch... that's kind of cold... Okay, I think I had enough with the taste of dirt on my face... I gathered up what remaining strength I had and let out a short burst of energy to push my arms and legs from the ground. And after a short while, I finally succeeded to get back up onto my own two feet, albeit still feeling a little bit woozy in the head. It was a good thing for me that the brutish guy wasn't anything like Henry and doesn't know how to properly punch someone or I bet my head would certainly be much, much worse. As I took one last breath of air and trying to compose myself, I realized that I was the only one standing around here. Thinking loudly to myself... It was completely empty over at this part of the camp except for that overturned van. I guess no one wanted to stay here... Well, it is the furthest part to where all the evacuation trucks are. Well, it's over now and the little girl is safe so maybe I should leave...
I continued to stare at the nearby rusted old van for what felt like quite a while. I don't know why... but I couldn't help but wonder about the girl... I don't know why... but something inside me keeps telling me to go check on her. A gut feeling, maybe... I finally caved in to this probably dumb feeling as I slowly and carefully approached the back of the van, half stumbling all the entire way. I guess I'm still not back to my hundred percent right now... As I arrived at the back of the van, I carefully peered inside and saw a wall of tattered cloth hanging from the ceiling, which was also the floor of the van, blocking my entire view. "I told you to leave me alone." I immediately jerked away as the cloth was quickly slid open. And there she was standing right in front of me with her fists clenched and her blood curdling stare held directly at me. The night seemingly complimenting her pale and somewhat a little bluish skin. "What do you want?" She demanded from me. "I... I just wanted to know if you're okay." I muttered nervously. Her cold facial expression suddenly changed slightly as her blood curdling stare briefly disappeared... "Uhm... I'm fine..." She said softly, not even looking directly at me. "Now please... leave me alone..." She quickly added before she immediately slid the tattered cloth closed right on my face.
I wanted to leave... I really wanted to... But I don't know why; but something told me to stay here instead... It's like I'm feeling that I was suppose to be here... Boy, do I sound pretty stupid right now... "Have you been living here all this time?" I asked the girl as I surveyed the old rusted van, trying to strike up a conversation with her. "Yes..." She muttered coldly. Okay, I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing right now... I have to try a different approach to her. "My name's Louis, by the way... What's your name?" "Why do you even care? I told you I'm fine so... please leave..." She said, sounding slightly exasperated at my mere presence. I wasn't sure of what I should say to her. I'm not exactly experienced in handling this kinds of situations. Hannah is usually the expert in this matter... "Um... Where's your mother?" "Gone..." She said, her voice briefly drowned in a very sad and depressed tone. Oh God, what have I done? "Uh- Um... What about your father?" I quickly added out of panic. "He's not here anymore..." Her voice lowered to almost nothing... Okay, it's now official! I suck handling with kids... I don't even know why I'm having a son if I had known that I suck this much! Oh God, I just drove right into a freaking brick wall over here... Now what?
"So... So you're alone then?" I muttered nervously. There was no response from her... Nice one, Louis! I guess she's finally ignoring me... Pretty much understandable, really... Oh, fine already, I bloody give up... "That's okay, I guess... I'm- I'm all alone too..." I whispered softly, defeated and given up, as I turned my back towards the rusted van and silently gazed up into the night sky hanging above me. To my pleasant surprise, there was a full moon shining brightly tonight amongst the dozens and dozens of glistening stars hanging in the veiled night sky. I noticed with the overall darkness from the city, it was a very bright night... Beautiful, too... "Wait... You're- You're alone?" The girl finally answered back to me, much to my pleasant surprise. "Yeah... I am..." I hesitated to admit it. "Why are you all alone?" She sounded so curious about me...
"Well first of all, I have absolutely no idea how my best friend is doing... Or what's happening to my only friend that could help me." I started slowly but I unknowingly carried on... "For all I know, he could be miles away and have already forgotten about me... He doesn't have to come back to me..." Tears, full of sorrow and dread, were slowly filling up the empty mirrors known as my eyes... "And I'm stuck here alone... Knowing that I probably won't ever be able to see my mother again... and I'm f-... angry to know that my wife is somewhere far away from me... She's in great pain right now and there's nothing that I could do about it... I'm so useless... and helpless that I can't even be at her side..." I didn't notice a single tear crossing my face as I unintentionally explained how I really felt. To a little girl, no less... I closed my tear-filled eyes as I angrily clenched my fists tightly; A numbing sensation coursed throughout my entire arms and legs... I feel like I just want to punch something really hard right now, simply out of anger and spite... But then, I suddenly felt a gentle touch on my shoulder, which immediately made the spiteful feeling inside me gone in an instant. It was like magic... I slowly turned around to see the small girl standing before me and smiling ever so sweetly at me. "Marceline..." She whispered in a sweet and comforting voice. "...Wha- What?"
"My name... It's Marceline..."