Hm. Chapter 8 is here. Sorry for the long wait, but I've been busy and just recently had enough time to actually get to the story again. This chapter... a little dull, to tell the truth, but it kind of helps to set the stage for certain events of the story. I think. Maybe. We'll see...

Anyways, here you go! Please review, it gives me hope.

I wonder how many of you actually read these memos...

Chapter 8

The next morning was silent and grey, holding heavy coats of rain in its foggy midst. A frosty chill poked at the window beside Flaky's bed, and after an hour of heavy white fog, it finally got inside. The porcupine almost immediately noticed the chill and sat up in her bed, slowly, rubbing tired eyes. She woke up with a feeling of passage of time, yet at the same time like only a few seconds had gone by between her falling asleep and waking up. Flaky couldn't remember what she'd dreamed about, but a feeling of forbidding was left with her. There were shadows stirring in the back of her head, sinister, but broken and transparent.

For a moment she was disoriented. The walls were sodden grey, the floor close to her elevated body. This wasn't her room… But then Flaky remembered the illness and the hospital and her head settled. So much had happened yesterday, it took a moment for Flaky to recall everything. And when she did she felt exhaustion weigh on her.

"I can't believe that all happened just yesterday," Flaky muttered to herself. The porcupine, though reluctant to leave the covers because of the surprisingly cold weather, stepped out of bed and stretched. She was wearing Flippy's own clothing, and after a moment of feeling the material remembered that she still needed to find her nurse's gown. She gave the closets of the room a once over but found nothing.

It wasn't until half an hour later Flaky realized that Giggles was gone. She suspected the chipmunk was downstairs, already busy with her own duties as a nurse. Flaky could easily imagine her friend in her own nurse's outfit, scurrying from room to room with a bright smile on her fluffy face. It made her think of spring flying from door to door – the idea made Flaky giggle quietly to herself. She in contrast would probably just tag along with Sniffles, helping the anteater out with whatever he needed.

That's how things went, at least for the first few hours of the morning. It seemed that everyone was in a much better mood than the night before, and were chattering like birds about what they all thought the disease was about. And while the sickly went about their own business and speculation, Sniffles showed Giggles, Flaky and Cuddles how they would be working with their friends.

For Giggles, most of her jobs would be to help with the females and work on making their meals; it wasn't much of a problem, since her mother would also be helping. Cuddles would be busy enough working with all of the males in the hospital-tree, even with Flaky's help. The porcupine herself would be sticking close to Sniffles, helping him with his examinations – she liked to visit the anteater regularly on her own time and help him around the hospital-tree. It gave her something to do and she enjoyed the quiet afternoons here, so Flaky did have some medical experience.

The examinations were predictable enough. Sniffles didn't have much to go on with so little information on the illness itself, so he settled on giving everyone a standard checkup procedure, which Flaky ended up helping with. The usual reflex check, heart check, stomach check, ext..

Mostly everyone was fine. The Happy Tree Friends stationed in both the light and medium ward were more or less healthy, aside from the congestion and headaches. Bodily changes aside, they were fine. But once the duo made it to the heavy ward, they started to notice a steep change in health.

It wasn't that everyone was horribly sick, hacking and sneezing and falling out of bed. While they were hacking and sneezing, they seemed not to have much of a reason behind doing so. Their chest and lungs were more or less okay. It was like they were coughing just for the sake of coughing. Neither Flaky nor Sniffles could make any sense of it.

While Sniffles did the examinations, Flaky went on helping with getting new sheets for everyone, and passing out clothes for the new day. She got to talk to Lammy and Petunia for a while. The two females didn't have much to say about the illness, other than the fact that they were getting annoyed at the constant verbal hindrance. Besides that, they mostly just liked gossiping about what the guys liked talking about when they thought the girls were asleep. Flaky had started getting interested when she was dragged away by a certain anteater.

Besides working with her friends, Flaky would also be in charge of cleaning. Flaky didn't mind it at all though. She cleaned her own house very often (she was always afraid of a germ getting into something, becoming a giant and trying to eat her, or worse). Flaky had once voiced these fears to Petunia, but of course the skunk didn't take her seriously. While she laughed, Flaky huffed in annoyance and quietly said, "Yeah, like you can't imagine it happening."

Petunia heard, and then she fell quiet.

Fear of germs aside, Flaky just liked keeping things clean. And luckily for her, Sniffles used the good stuff. In the afternoon she gathered up all of the cleaning supplies and went all through the hospital-tree; when she got to one of the three rooms, she would politely ask everyone to stay on one side of the room when she cleaned the other, and then switch. It took a few hours to get it all done, even with Giggles's help (the chipmunk ended up joining in her cleaning spree). And once the two of them were completely finished, every hallway smelt like lemons and chemicals.

The day went by, slowly at first, but then dipped into night and soon it was over. Giggles and her mom made them all a proper dinner that night, with Flaky and Cuddles delivering the food to each room. The five others ate in the kitchen, talking about their own first days on the job. Flaky didn't say much, only picked at her own salad. Personally, she was exhausted, much like the day before. Trying to keep her back straight, her shoulders up and her small smile on took effort. Flaky suddenly wondered how much real nurses get paid.

Eventually all departed. Flaky hurried up to her room; she didn't bother waiting for Giggles, for the chipmunk had dived into a full on debate with Cuddles over whose job was harder. Flaky almost rolled her eyes.

The porcupine changed into the clothes she wore last night but didn't get into bed right away. She stared at the stark white sheets, the thin mattress, the dull grey walls and she silently wondered how long they would have to stay here. During the entire day, all Flaky had seen and heard was sickness. It was everywhere, and from what she could tell, it was getting worse.

Sleep took her quickly. It gently lulled her into darkness and Flaky followed it deeper and deeper into the black inky depths of slumber.

He was having the dream again.

Flippy rolled onto his side, nearly missing a bullet aimed at his face and returned fire, catching his opponent on the ear. Cursing at his miss, the bear retreated back into the ditch at his feet.

On either side of him lay his comrades, lifeless, cold and wounded. Blood seeped from their wounds and ran like tiny rivers through their fur, pooling at the base of their hiding spot. The smell of their sliced, burning flesh was almost too much for the bear. Flippy held an arm to his nose, coughed a little and then looked upwards.

Thick black snakes of smoke and ash rose high above them, and the sounds of war exploded in every direction. He could hear shouts of triumph, screams of pain and sorrow striking his ears. The sting of the ash and heat of the air made his eyes water.

Another round of gunshots, and Flippy could almost see the bullets wiz by past his head as he knelt down lower in the trench. The bear groaned, held his head and set down his rifle.

And then suddenly Flippy wasn't in his body anymore. He was above, observing. Though this was strange, he wasn't confused – it was a dream, after all. Instead the bear took a quick look around. He could see other animals running back and forth across the battlefield, some zigzagging like dazed ants not knowing where the trail was. He watched as grenades flew through the air like huge ugly beetles, and the explosions brought on by them caused small gusts of dirt and wind to fly in the faces of fighting males.

The smell was almost unbearable. Dirt, sweat, gunpowder and death clung to every surface, every body, every inch of the earth and Flippy could do nothing to rid himself of the mind consuming odor. The earth itself was scorched black and brown, with trampled grass and tree stumps being the only forms of shelter. Those who did manage to claim trenches were either holding up or already very much dead.

That was when Flippy found his own body again. And he wasn't happy with the sight.

His fur had become disheveled, more so than it had before, and his teeth long and deadly. The green bear below had bags beneath his sparkling green eyes. With a laugh, Evil unsheathed his claws, pulled out his trusty bowie knife and peeked just above the lip of his hiding place.

The opposing side before him, the one shooting the gun, was still aiming for Evil. He made the mistake of shooting a warning bullet just in front of the bear's unveiled head. This only made him angry, though.

Evil laughed deeply, loudly, and then flung himself from the trench, using his knife to deflect the bullets as if they were rubber bands. In no time he made it to his enemy; without second thought he drove the tip of his knife straight down into his skull, laughing as blood spurted from the wound and the body fell limply to the ground.

What was becoming a battle soon turned to a one man massacre. While Evil was indeed keeping a good safe distance away from his team, he showed absolutely no mercy for those who were not on their side. He ripped out their throats, snapped their bones, cracked their skulls against one another, and even allowed himself a light nibble on the fingers of a few of the fresher ones. Even after seeing it so many times it was hard to watch, and Flippy wished he could close his eyes.

And when they were all dead, slowly, as if in suspended animation, Flippy's comrades began to move away. Their job was done. They'd fought for as long as they could, and then Flippy had taken the reins. It hadn't been the first time.

As Flippy slowly regained control of his own body, the others walked off. None stayed to see if he was alright, not one of them. And when Flippy was back in control, they shrunk away at his approaches. The walk back to base was long, silent, and very, very lonely.

A frosty darkness enveloped him. Flippy suddenly felt his own body return, and he wriggled in the blackness. Finding invisible footing, the bear stood up straight and took a look around.

He found a reflective surface hovering in the limitless dark. He took a few steps towards it and then placed his hand against the smooth surface. Another hand mimicked his movements on the other side. Flippy hesitated, then walked in front of the mirror. Evil was his reflection.

Like Flippy, Evil was frowning, eyebrows wrinkled, though the expression seemed odd on his face. Then Flippy wondered why that was. Wasn't Evil's face his own? Flippy drummed his fingers against the clear surface; Evil did the same.

Flippy coughed. He put a hand to his mouth and when he was done removed it only to see tiny dots of blood staining his paw. He blinked, somewhat surprised. Coughing again, he attempted to halt them long enough to hold his hand up, facing the mirror. Evil did so as well and Flaky saw his paw was stained too.

Eventually Flippy's coughing ceased, and only tiny hiccups of agitation thumped against his chest. Then the bear was still. Perfectly still.

Evil's fingers twitched. His jaw clenched. His eyes darkened in thought, maybe even confusion.

Flippy almost flinched as Evil tilted his head and licked his lips, leaving a trail of blood behind.