The Dreadful End
Chapter 1-4: Crisis
Lumalee was having trouble sleeping. Nestled up against her mother, she felt warm and safe…but the horrible thoughts about the true nature of their grim reality were haunting her. She couldn't close her eyes. Every ten seconds she would look around to make sure her mother and father were still sound asleep by her side. When she wasn't doing that, she was listening to make sure she didn't hear any of those terrible monsters. The monsters scared her more than anything else. The fear of separation, hunger, survival…they all paled in comparison to the monsters. Those slow and shambling creatures, their jaws stained with blood and their skin green and falling apart…it gave Lumalee nightmares. That was another she couldn't sleep. She didn't want to. Sleep meant nightmares, and the nightmares were so horrible…so terrible…she rebuked the thought of sleep.
As she lay there in her tent with her parents, under the stars, Lumalee felt nothing but fear. Safety did not radiate from the warm skin of her mother. Comfort did not come from the presence of her father. Lumalee was afraid. Quivering there, shaking slightly but not enough to stir her mother, the neon luma wondered how long they had. The news of Heff T.'s sacrifice had scared her to the core. Would more people have to make sacrifices like that? She closed her eyes, trying to fall asleep…but she just couldn't.
In the tent over, Toadiko and Toadbert lay next to their father. Toadsworth was sound asleep, but neither sibling could bring themselves to face the nightmares. Lumalee wasn't alone in her despair. Everyone was plagued by their dreams. Every time she drifted off to sleep, Toadiko imagined her brother being ripped apart by those hideous things that waited out there for them. She missed the city…she missed her school and her friends and her old life. Toadbert caught her crying.
"Hey," he said quietly so as not to disturb his father. "Hey," he said again, inching close to Toadiko. He wrapped her up in a hug, planting a kiss on her forehead. "Don't cry Toadi, please…we'll be okay."
She didn't know what to say. How could Toadbert say that? He didn't know what the future held. None of them did. The world had been brought to its knees and they waited for their own ends in the aftermath. She wanted to say something positive, but she couldn't. She decided to say nothing at all.
Plenn T. had decided to stay with Tayce T. now. He had figured the older woman didn't need to be sleeping alone since the loss of her traveling companion. Neither of them had been able to sleep.
"I didn't really know him," Tayce admitted. "I just met him outside of the city," she explained. "We were both struggling to escape, and we happened to spot one another. Without him…I wouldn't have made it out of the city alive. Now he's gone and I'm here…and if it hadn't been for him…oh-oh…oh Grambi…"
"He seemed like a mighty fine man," Plenn T. said, trying to sound comforting. "I know he probably gave that mission his all."
"It's funny, isn't it," she murmured. Plenn T. didn't see a single thing funny about what he had just said. Then she made herself clear. "Wario survived. How did he do it? If the horde swallowed up Heff…how did they miss Wario?"
Her words caused an uncomfortable feeling to stir in the back of Plenn T.'s brain. He banished the thought, turning over on his side. He might as well try to get some sleep.
In the tent that Toad and Toadette shared, the siblings were still talking. They kept their voices to a whisper, careful not to disturb the others.
"You sure were a sharp shot today," Toad told his sister, giving her a smile she couldn't see in the dark.
"Well, Dad taught me well," she told her younger sibling. Toadette was older than Toad by about eight years. Having wanted a boy first, Toadette's father raised her as a tomboy. He took her hunting, fishing, and most certainly taught her how to shoot. Toadette had grown up that way, so she didn't mind. In fact, she enjoyed the tomboy side of her. It made her tough. Despite her small size, she had never been bullied because of the values her father had taught her.
"I miss him," Toad said, interrupting the silence.
"I do too," Toadette said. "We could have picked a better time to head off, huh?" This elicited a quiet and short laugh from Toad. Shortly before the advent of the apocalypse, Toad and Toadette had left their home city and were travelling around the world. They had stopped in Mushroom City to see the castle and visit Peach, but then things had gone sour. They had no word from their father. Toad, being only eighteen, was terrified for his family's safety. Toadette knew he had to rely on her now.
"Remember that time," she began, "when Dad taught you how to fish?"
"Oh Grambi," Toad said, a smile creeping up onto his lips. "And we went down to the lake and I threw out that line…"
"That line!" Toadette said, a little louder now that she was feeling happier. "Just one little worm…and then a frog jumped onto to it and that snake in the bush jumped onto the frog."
"I got so scared I just dropped the line and bolted," Toad said, feeling embarrassed.
"But remember Dad?" Toadette asked, laughing. "Remember how loud he screamed? He's so afraid of snakes."
"Was," Toad corrected, the happiness quickly retreating.
"Is," Toadette corrected. "We can't give up hope, Toad. I know he's out there."
Toad said nothing. He inched closer to his sister, looking for comfort. She patted his head, hoping he'd sleep soon. They need their rest. They needed to be sharp. Sighing, Toadette closed her eyes, trying to get some sleep.
DK was wide awake. Curled up, laying against his furry chest, was his son, Diddy. Since the beginning of all of this, DK had been detached from the group. He had been helping out, yes, but he was wracked with worry. While he lived in Mushroom City with his son, his entire family lived on Kong Island. Dixie, Tiny, Cranky, Funky…all of them. He knew absolutely nothing of their whereabouts. He especially worried for Candy, Diddy's mother. She worked on Kong Island, managing a banana plant. She came home to Mushroom City every other weekend, but she had been away with things had begun. DK had tried contacting her, but the lines soon went down. He hadn't heard a thing.
Now he had just one responsibility. Diddy. He owed it to his wife. This boy by his side was his only and greatest concern. Losing him would do DK in for sure. He had to keep Diddy safe at all costs, it was his duty as a father. Troubled by what lay ahead, DK lightly rested a hand on the slumbering Diddy and kept alert, just in case anything happened upon them.
The final tent held Wario and Waluigi. Waluigi was sound asleep, his rifle lying next to him. But Wario, Wario was awake. He was deeply troubled by what he had done. He knew it was the only way to survive, but the cost of his action had been high. Remorse and guilt crept up within him, but if he told the others he had killed Heff T., they'd never forgive him. He had established himself as valuable to these people at last when he took charge during Mario's absence.
He missed those moments. Those times without Mario.
Shaking his head, Wario tried to clear his thoughts. He only saw one thing replay in his mind over and over. The silent scream of Heff T. as he looked into Wario's eyes, blaming him. Heff T. knew Wario had killed him. He had looked into his eyes and played God. He took another man's life.
Wario wondered if he'd ever be the same again.
Parakarry had erected a lookout station on top of one of the vans. He and Luigi were sleeping inside the van, the group being one tent short for everyone. The two of them were taking turns being lookout. While Luigi slept underneath him, Parakarry sat in a lawn chair on top of the bed, binoculars in hand and rifle by his side. Having learned to shoot earlier, Parakarry had picked it up pretty easy. He just needed to take a deep breath, aim, and then fire.
He was repeating the process over in his mind, just in case he needed to use it, when a flicker of a shadow in the distance caught his attention. Something moved out there, in the darkness. Raising his binoculars to his eyes, Parakarry adjusted the focus and then looked out into the black. He saw it. A horde, of at least a twenty walking dead, shambling towards their camp. But what he didn't see lay behind him. On the other side, another group of about fifteen, split off from the other, was headed towards the camp. Without the cans bordering the camp, no one would hear them enter, their focus primarily on the other group coming from the front.
Parakarry roused Luigi, stomping on the tin roof of the van. It took a couple of stomps to rouse the slumbering Italian, but Luigi eventually came out of the van.
"What's up?" he asked Parakarry from down on the ground. Parakarry silently tossed him the binoculars, which Luigi almost dropped. He caught them, unsure of what to do.
"Look," Parakarry said, his voice hollow. He pointed forwards into the dark. Luigi raised the binoculars to his eyes and shivered at what he saw.
"We have to warn the others," he said at once. "I'll wake them up."
"Go!" Parakarry hissed. "Be quick!" Nodding, Luigi took off. He went to Mario's tent, unzipping the entrance and kneeling inside. He grabbed Mario's foot, shaking it until he stirred.
"Huh? What?" Mario asked, groggy from being woken up so suddenly.
"Get out here, now," Luigi hissed. Obeying, Mario instantly put on his shoes and tried to step out of the tent. Lumalee stopped him, putting a hand on her father.
"Daddy?" she asked, her voice full of fear.
"I'll only be gone a minute," he said. "Uncle Luigi wants to talk for a moment." He gave Lumalee a reassuring pat, but she wasn't convinced. As Luigi and Mario headed off to talk, she silently followed them out of the tent. Behind her, Peach was sound asleep.
"There's a herd of about twenty headed straight for the camp," Luigi said. "It's nothing we can't handle. I'll wake up Wario, Waluigi, and DK."
"Toadette too," Mario said. "She's a good shot."
Nodding once again, Luigi ran off to find those he had listed. Mario joined Parakarry by the edge of camp. The paratroopa had come down from the van, now on the ground. His rifle was clutched firmly in his hands.
"The shooting will undoubtedly wake everyone else up," Parakarry said.
Mario nodded. "Should we wake everyone?"
"That would only cause panic, but we don't need them stepping out of their tents in the middle of a fight," Parakarry explained, his wisdom making the situation perplex. "It's your call."
Mario thought for a moment. "Leave them be. We don't need everyone out here, it'll be more to manage." As Parakarry accepted his decision, Luigi arrived with Wario, Waluigi, DK and Toadette.
"What about Plenn T.?" Toadette asked. The four of them had been filled in on the situation by Luigi. In the distance, the herd drew closer. Behind them, the second herd silently continued along, coming closer and closer.
"He's comforting Tayce," Parakarry told her. "Leave them be." The seven of them were armed and ready to take down the herd. Unbeknownst to them, Lumalee floated along through the darkness, wondering what was going on. She continued her way towards the tent DK and Diddy had shared. Rapping on the door, she summoned Diddy.
"Lumalee?" the young monkey asked. "What's going on?"
"I-I don't know," she said shakily. "Your dad and my dad just got up and walked to the edge of camp…e-everyone has guns…and I'm really scared." Diddy stepped out of the tent, trying to comfort the Luma.
"It'll be ok," he told her. "Let's go ask them what's going on."
Nodding, she stood by his side and the two made their way across camp.
Back by the van, Mario was speaking to the other six. "I say we meet the herd out there. We don't need to wait until they're in camp. We got out there, shoot them all down, and call it a night."
"It's probably the herd that was chasing me," Wario said. "We can make quick work of them with this many people and our amount of ammo."
"Let's get to it," DK said, cocking the pistol in his hand. Nodding, the others followed Mario as he marched out into the darkness. They walked for about a minute before they came upon the herd. They were still a good distance away, but they could aim from here.
"Ready," Mario said, holding up his gun. Everyone aimed. "Take 'em down."
A barrage of shots fired off into the night. Bullets ripped through the heads of the undead, sending splashes of blood arcing up into the starlit sky. The crimson came down and landed on the bodies of the zombies, coating them in their own blood. As the crowd slowly moved forward, they became easy pickings for the seven shooters. It only took about thirty seconds to take down the whole crowd.
"Bastards," Waluigi said, slinging his rifle over his shoulder by its strap.
"Wait," Wario said, surveying the area. "This isn't right."
"What do you mean?" Toadette asked, stepping forward. Concern spread across everyone else's face.
"This herd…it's smaller than the one I fought with…with Heff T.," he told them. "There were at least twice as many. Where is the rest of the herd?"
Realization crept up in the eyes of the others. Their heads all turned back to camp. Before any of them fully realized what Wario's words meant, a scream tore through the night. It had come from camp.
"LUMALEE!" Mario screamed, recognizing the sound of that scream. Propelled by concern, Mario tore off back to camp. The same concern rippled through Toadette and DK. Their worry for Toad and Diddy sent them into a hysterical sprint back in the direction of the camp. Mario was the first to arrive, finding Lumalee quivering in fear. Two of the undead were shambling towards her. Raising his gun, Mario fired two shots, one into the heads of each zombie. They collapsed, dead for good.
"What are you doing out of your tent?" Mario asked, kneeling down to scold her. But he didn't see another one approaching him from behind.
"Daddy!" Lumalee screamed as the zombie drew threateningly close. A shot tore through the night. Luigi had fired into the zombie's head, saving his brother. Peach appeared from within her tent.
"Lumalee!" she cried, holding out her arms.
"Stay with your mother!" Mario told the luma, sending her over to Peach.
"DIDDY!" DK screamed, firing a slug into the head of a nearby walker. "DIDDY!"
Lumalee buried her face into her mother's chest. "D-diddy…" she whimpered.
"What?" Peach asked, holding up her daughter's face. "What happened to Diddy?"
"H-he ran off," Lumalee said. "We saw the monsters and he got scared and he just took off into the woods."
Grim realization painted itself across Peach's face. DK was out there, looking for his son, and no one knew where Diddy was.
Within his tent, Toad was horribly scared. He had the shots and the moans, but he didn't know if he should leave the tent or not. Suddenly, there was a rapping on the front of the tent. Like someone was trying to get in. Inching towards the door, Toadette grabbed the zipper.
"Toadette?" he asked, opening the entrance. In the opening hung a zombie, rabid hunger in its white eyes. Reaching forward, it fell into the tent, on top of Toad. Screaming, Toad tried to pull it off of him but it had his arms pinned down. With its teeth, the zombie ripped into his throat, pulling apart the skin and sending a river of blood leaking down onto the floor of the tent. Toad screamed in agonized pain, squirming underneath the zombie as it bit into his warm flesh.
"TOAD!" Toadette screamed, shooting the zombie in the back of the head. She rolled it off of him, dropping to her knees and beginning to cry as she saw her brother's neck. "T-Toad, oh God…oh God….oh, oh….oh…" she tried to stop the flow of the blood, clamping her hand over the wound. The crimson stains soon covered her hands. She couldn't stop the blood. There was so much blood. Toad looked up into her eyes. She met his eyes. There was nothing she could do.
"Oh…oh…Toad….oh my God…oh…" she whimpered, cradling her brother. His eyelids fluttered closed. He had lost too much blood.
"Grrr! Get back!" Waluigi cried, smashing a zombie in the side of the head with his rifle.
"Waluigi!" Wario shouted, burying a bullet in the head of a zombie that approached his friend.
"Where the hell did all of these freaks come from?" Waluigi asked, sweat pouring down the sides of his face as he reloaded his gun.
"They must be the rest of the herd," Wario spat, literally spitting on the grass beneath his feet. He raised his revolver and put down an approaching zombie. "Come on! We've got regroup with everyone!"
Waluigi nodded, following Wario into the camp.
Inside their tent, Toadiko and Toadbert huddled around their father. Three zombies were clawing at their tent, moaning and spitting up blood and viscera all of the sides of the tent. They could see the faces of the undead through the flaps of the tent. The zombies could smell them. Groaning and making guttural, demonic sounds, the zombies tried to rip the tent apart. Toadsworth poked at the sides of the tent with his cane, trying to shoo them back.
Toadbert held onto Toadiko, petting her hair and trying to calm her down.
"We'll be ok," he said, over and over. But the more he said it, the less he believed. Suddenly, the side of the tent tore open, one of the zombies able to tear the weak material apart. All three of them let out a scream as the zombies approached them. One grabbed Toadsworth's foot, ready to chomp in. But then, Parakarry and Mario were upon them. Firing off enough shots, the undead died for a second time as they collapsed to the ground. Mario and Parakarry quickly fished Toadsworth and his children out of their tent.
"Come on!" Mario yelled. "Get to the middle of camp!"
Wario and Waluigi protected Peach and Lumalee in the middle of camp. Mario and Parakarry soon joined them with Toadsworth, Toadiko, and Toadbert.
"There aren't many left!" Luigi cried, running up to them. He turned around, firing a shot into a nearby zombie. Letting out a sigh, Luigi rested his hands on his knees for a moment.
"M-mama," Lumalee cooed, wanting Peach to pick her up. Peach clutched Lumalee to her chest, crying now. Despite her necessary duties as a mother, Peach was afraid. She saw Toadette, kneeling over her brother, inconsolable.
"DIDDY!" DK screamed, searching for his son. Behind him, Plenn T. and Tayce appeared, trying to urge him away from the woods.
"Get back!" Tayce shouted, smashing a zombie's head in with her frying pan. "Get back, you devil!" She smashed it again for good measure. Then again. And again. Again. Plenn T. had to put a hand on her shoulder to get her to stop. Shaking, she dropped the pan, crashing onto the ground beside the zombie she had just killed. She wept.
"DIDDY!" DK cried again.
"Come on!" Plenn T. yelled at him, "Get away from the woods!"
"My son is out there," DK told him, shoving him away. With no further words, DK cocked his gun and tore off into the dark, entering the thick woods. Raising his gun, Plenn T. shot down a zombie that tried to follow DK. It was the last one in the camp.
Nearly dragging Tayce towards the middle of camp, she and Plenn T. were the last to reach the middle. Toadette still hovered over Toad, right outside of their tent.
"He's going to reanimate," Wario said. "We need to put him down."
"Not yet," Peach told him. "She's mourning."
"And what if her brother comes back from the dead and bites her in the neck!?" Wario hissed. "We have to do this."
"No!" Mario told him. "Not yet!"
"Where's DK?" Toadsworth asked, huddling with Toadbert and Toadiko.
"He ran off into the woods," Plenn T. told him. "Diddy ran in there when the other herd showed up. I think he got spooked."
"H-he was with me…" Lumalee said. "I-it's all my fault…I asked him to come out because I was scared…a-and then we saw the monsters…and the monsters scared him…"
"No, baby," Peach said, hugging her daughter tight. "This is not your fault. You didn't do any of this. Diddy's just hiding somewhere. He'll be back soon."
Lumalee wanted to believe her mother. She couldn't.
"In the meantime," Wario said, "what do we do about that?" He pointed the tip of his revolver at Toadette and the body of Toad. No one knew what to do. They were exhausted. The fear and the panic had worn all of them out.
"Let's try and rest," Mario told everyone. "Waluigi, Plenn T., keep guard." Both men nodded.
"And that?" Wario asked again.
"We'll deal with it in the morning."
"What if we don't have until morning?"
"It's not your call."
Anger brewed within Wario. Not his call? He had been the one calling the shots before Mario returned from the badlands. Growling under his breath, Wario turned around and headed to his tent. Giving Mario a concerned look, Waluigi tipped his hat and followed Wario. Peach looked to her husband, Lumalee in her arms.
"Let's get some rest," Mario repeated himself. "We all need it."
As the morning sun rose, Mario stepped out of his tent to find Toadette in the same position everyone had left her in. Toad was still dead in her arms. He had yet to reanimate, but he still possessed no head wound. His brain was unharmed, and at any time, he could come back to life as a bloodthirsty machine.
Sighing, Mario tightened his cap on his head and walked over to Toadette.
"Toadette," he began, but he was swiftly interrupted. Toadette took her pistol and pointed it up at Mario.
"Get back," she said, not wavering her gaze from Toad's paling face.
Taking a step back, Mario held up his hands. Toadette shooed him off by waving the gun a bit. Retreating, Mario was soon joined by Luigi and Wario.
"She's in shock," Luigi said. "She won't see reason. Toad will reanimate soon…and then…he'll bite her."
Wario nodded. "We've got to do something about this. We can't lose Toadette. She's a good shot."
"But we can lose Toad?" Mario asked, narrowing his eyes and tilting his head slightly as he asked Wario that question. A little embarrassed, Wario sheathed his pistol.
"Hey, guys," Plenn T. said, approaching the group. Waluigi was by his side. "Last night, Waluigi and I walked the borders of camp. I don't think anybody realized this at the time…but the second herd never hit the cans."
Realization dawned upon the others present.
"W-why not?" Peach asked. "We had them all strung up."
Waluigi held up a loose piece of string. "Someone cut them."
"What!?" Wario cried, taken aback. "Someone here sabotaged us?"
"No!" Mario shouted, trying to get everyone to keep their cool. "If someone cut them…" a thought dawned on his face. "Wario. You said the van was missing, right?"
Wario nodded. "Hey…yeah, someone had to have stolen the van. You think the same person cut the ropes?"
"That means they followed you all the way back here," Parakarry said. "They know where we are."
"If they took the van, they're most likely hiding out somewhere in the city," Mario said. "We need to figure out why they're trying to get us all killed."
Before anyone could do anything else, Lumalee let out a loud whimper. Every turned around. By Toadette, Toad was coming back to life. Everyone took a step forward, but Mario held them back with a wave of his arm.
In her lap, Toad stirred. He slowly opened his eyes which were now pure white with lines of red coursing through them. His jaw clacked hungrily but slowly. His brain was just warming back.
"Oh…" Toadette whimpered. She placed her forehead against his. Growling, Toad tried to grab her, but she had him pinned down. He couldn't harm here. Behind her, everyone realized this.
"Oh…" Toadette said again, crying. Her tears stained Toad's shirt. Silently, she brought the barrel of her pistol up to the side of his head.
"I love you, Toad," she said. The deafening bang of the gun rang out. Chunks blew from the side of Toad's head as he slumped against the ground. Crying out loudly now, Toadette let her head hang back.
Wario met Mario's eyes. "We're not safe here," he said.
"We need to leave," Luigi concurred.
"We'll go to the city," Mario said.
"The city!?" Peach cried. "B-but, remember that horde?"
"That was this horde," Wario told her. "There may be more there, but nothing we can't handle. The castle is on the outskirts of town. When Heff T. and I were there, someone locked the back exit behind me as soon as I went out. Someone's living in your castle, princess. And I'd wager it's the same person who got Toad killed."
Peach was silent after that. She put one hand on Lumalee's head as her daughter clung to her leg.
"What about DK?" Toadsworth asked. "He hasn't returned."
"We can't wait around on him," Wario said. Everyone looked to Mario. He agreed.
"We can't just leave him!" Parakarry shouted. "He's alive out there!"
"We don't know that," Mario said.
"We do!" Parakarry cried. "We would have heard something! A shot, something. We would have heard it."
"Do you want to wait here for him?" Wario asked, narrowing his eyes at Parakarry. Parakarry didn't like the way Wario was looking for him.
"We'll head back to the castle," Mario told everyone. "Gather up the supplies. Wario's right. Someone's taken the castle."
"What are we going to do?" Toadsworth asked him.
"We're going to take it back."
