Woooooow

this chapter is craaaazy.

Okay, so first thing's first - hi again everyone! It's been a little while, yeah? *checks* About four or five months to be exact it seems, since the last chapter was uploaded. And for that I apologize! But Junior year is busy ^^;

Luckily for me AND for you guys, winter break is coming soon, and I'm seriously hoping to finish this story, if not during that time then in the next few months. Also, remember when I said last time there would only be two more chapters? Well things have changed my friends :'D

This chapter ended up becoming much longer than I initially anticipated (and a bit crazier than I imagined as well), so by my estimate there will be two more after this, perhaps even three, although I really hope not ' But I think I'm getting back into the swing of the story, and the next chapter will be very action-y, a lot will be going on. Having written this chapter, it doesn't seem like such an impossible feat now... I think I'll managed to pull it off well enough!

Anyways, I've ranted long enough, just thought you guys could use a little update and some notes. Sorry if I sound more down-to-business and boring than usual, but I'm seriously about to fall asleep as I write this :'D So tired.

Here's chapter 24! Please enjoy~

Chapter 24

It was hard to recall for Flaky if time had sped up or slowed down. From her spot against the window she witnessed an awesome creature burst from the earth beneath the roots of the hospital-tree. It was easily as tall as the tree, if not higher; strong purple shoulders, carpeted with matted, bloody fur, worked to uproot the beaver's body from its hiding place underground. Around him clots of earth and dead grass caved in, falling into the crater his emerging form had created, giving his small hind feet leverage to propel himself from the darkened pits. Flaky tried to remember the creature's name, who he really was - hadn't she known only yesterday? - but was too distracted staring at his giant, terrifying incisors.

Then her memories were little more than a stream of light and sound, shouting and color; voices belonging to her friends echoed through the senseless tunnel that seemed to lead downward. Flaky must have fainted then, because next thing she knew, she was in the basement, curled up between a crying Giggles and the busted heater. The basement was dank and brown, and was now soaked with the smell of sickness and fear. Sniffles sat at the base of the stairs; Petunia and Nutty were off in a far corner, as alone as the confined floor space would allow, with Petunia doing her best to keep her delusional squirrel companion quiet. Flaky blinked, amazed that everyone could have fit down here without stacking on top of each other, but taking a quick look around, she quickly noticed a gap in the headcount.

"Where's Flippy?" Flaky's voice, faint and scratchy, easily gained everyone's attention. "And the twins? And where's Cuddles and Mole and Handy?"

Sniffles stood, on his way to her side. Flaky continued counting; Flippy, Lifty, Shifty, Mime, Handy, Mole, Pop and Cub, Cuddles, Splendid, Disco Bear and Russell were all missing. Flaky took Sniffles' clawed hand, waxing scarlet eyes crying her distress.

"Try not to worry," Sniffles whispered to her, kneeling down in front of her and straightening out her loose shirt, dusting gravel and dirt from her knees. The ground was uneven, gritty, cold. "Lifty and Shifty had run off, I think, before we got to the infirmary. Cuddles, Handy and Mole had been in the kitchen, but I'm hoping they did the smart thing and went into my room."

A rumbling sound growled ominously above them, making Flaky and Giggles both cringe. Sniffles held onto Flaky's shoulders, sensing her fear and worrying she might become overwhelmed. He continued, his tone even in an effort to sooth her, "When we got everyone down here, Flippy-" Another boom, and a crash this time as well, like the entire kitchen was turned on its head. Voices were suddenly heard, and dusty silver light from upstairs flooded down into the basement.

Flaky couldn't see him from where she was, but she knew it would be Flippy at the top of the stairs. The porcupine cried out to him, trying to stand; Sniffles kept her down and against the wall. He then shifted, shielding her small form with his long arms and broad shoulders, and Flaky realized something was wrong. There was a deep creaking sound coming from all around. Like bones breaking beneath a merciless weight.

Pops flew down the stairs, a crying cub held up to his chest. Handy, Mole, and Cuddles followed, along with Russell, all scrambling after the older bear with arms over their heads, as if expecting the floor above them to shatter. The basement door slammed shut, and Flippy cried out, "Everyone, get down!"

Flippy couldn't make it down the stairs in time. Above them, the floors of the hospital really did crumble and crack, collapsing onto their heads. Flaky screamed, huddling against Sniffles, whose massive frame protected her from falling debris.

Dirty, cold light was their ceiling now. The few Friends who could lift their heads did so, and saw what had happened. Some incredible force had begun uprooting the hospital-tree. Enormous roots hung sprawled half in the air, like a spider's legs curling in death. The trunk of the tree, while not completely uprooted, tilted dangerously.

Flaky, shaken as she was - and in truth, to say she was merely shaken would be a horrible understatement - forced herself not to scream, not to writhe in panic. She needed to stay calm and not allow fear to overflow her and drown her concern for the others. She unfurled from her instinctual fetal position and nudged Sniffles' heavy arms. "Sniffles? I-I think y-you c-can move n-now." God, the stutter was back. She was even more frightened than she realized.

From her enclosed space inside Sniffles' solid arms, she could see little more than dirt and lumber, hear a few groans and the ominous rumbling above. Giggles had been diving for the base of the stairs - for Cuddles - when the downpour of earth and floor had occurred. Flaky could see the half-buried chipmunk from beneath Sniffles' shoulder, though she had no idea if her friend was crushed.

"Sniffles! Hurry, we have to help..." Flaky paused, hands against Sniffles' chest. The anteater, who had not responded yet, was leaning against Flaky with considerably more weight than she thought necessary. He was silent, his body limp, and Flaky noticed that he'd buried his long claws into the dirt wall behind her. His face and forehead were planted into the area directly above her head.

A shiver. Flaky finally noticed the blood-stained slab of concrete beside her, the expressionless gaze on Sniffles' face, the red liquid now soaking the fur of his neck.

"S-Sniffles?"

"Flaky!?"

The porcupine jolted, almost surprised to hear another voice. She wanted to look over Sniffles' shoulder to see Flippy, but fear of the gruesome wound on his head, most likely impaled, discouraged her from moving. The familiar scents of death were suffocating her. "Flippy!"

"Flaky! Flaky, are you alright? Where are you?"

Flippy's voice was shaken, frantic. He rummaged, limping slightly, making his way toward Sniffles' corpse. Without fear, the green war bear leaned over the anteater's shoulders to look down at his trembling friend. "Can you get out?" Flippy asked, eyebrows creased in worry.

Flaky looked around her. The areas on either side of Sniffles protective arms were covered with dirt and debris from the landslide - it was already crawling into Flaky's little space, surrounding her with dirt and broken cement. She shook her head at Flippy, breathing heavily.

Flippy smiled at her. He was covered with dirt and dust, and Flaky could see blood staining his lips and chin, but his eyes seemed so alive. Roughly, and with more strength than Flaky had expected to still reside in the sickly bear, Flippy pulled on Sniffles' dead weight. The anteater's body lurched, claws inching from their grip in the wall. Flaky watched hopefully, but cringed and hid her face, having caught a glimpse of Sniffles bleeding head wound.

Eventually, Flaky was free. Flippy was nudging Sniffles body to the side as Flaky lept onto her feet, catching the bear by his neck and shoulders. Flippy returned the hug, wrapping his arms around Flaky's weeping body. "Don't cry, Flaky, don't worry. It's..." The bear hesitated. Then his voice grew firm, and his embrace was lost. "Listen, we need to get everyone who's still alive out of here, and quickly. You didn't see that thing... Things."

Flaky shook her head. "Did anyone else make it?"

"Over here," came a mutter. Flaky and Flippy turned to see Russell, his entire bottom half covered and buried. His head and shoulders, however, were safe. The scruffy otter waved to them, then pointed beside his ear with a hooked hand. "I thinks there be a swabby buried next to me! I c'n hear 'em jabberin'!" The otter's voice, though strong, sounded oddly bubbly and hollow.

Flaky and Flippy got to work, digging up as many Friends as they could locate. They uncovered Cuddles and Mole, but Handy was dead - head injury, skull crushed, his hard-hat having flown from his head when he'd dived onto the ground. Mole seemed very... 'put out' about it, for lack of a more accurate term. The turtleneck wearing rodent kept silent and kept to himself.

Pop and Cub were dead and buried. Petunia and Nutty had been pretty safe in the corner, their arms wrapped around each other, heads down. They said nothing as Flaky quickly worked to uncover Russell's half-buried torso, but Flaky had hardly released him when she'd realized there was blood flooding from a wound at his chest. He'd been impaled by something. The porcupine looked up at her sea-sailing friend and realized he'd already fainted from blood loss. She didn't continue to dig.

"We can't waste any more time," Flippy said, dragging everyone over to rest by the far back corner, furthest from the stairs. Flaky had seated herself to rest beside Petunia. Part of her wanted to stand and be closer to Flippy, but she was so shaken, it had been difficult just to stay upright.

"What's wrong?" Flaky managed to ask, recalling Flippy's odd words earlier.

"What the hell is happening up there?" Cuddles asked, eyes wide and body trembling. "What's going on?"

There was a long, tense moment of silence. They all looked at Flippy, but the veteran bear seemed to be afraid even to speak. They heard large footsteps rumble above them, each almost as loud as a tremor. The ground above them shuddered, and debris fell onto their heads like snowflakes.

Eventually, Flaky shook his head. He was wearing little more than his usual tank top and camouflage pants, a dirtied towel resting askew across his hunched shoulders. Flaky could see in every aspect of him - the lines of his face, the bags under his eyes, the way his body hung on its joints, how his fur had grayed - that he was sick, and he had started to die. As Flaky quickly inspected the other living patients, she realized this to be true for them all. In the few days she'd been dead, they'd all begun to wither away, and it was terrifying to see that there was such a difference. She'd just been Reborn, but they'd been dying slowly and surely.

Flaky supposed it didn't matter now, though. They were all going to die, no matter how healthy or sick anyone was. She glanced almost absentmindedly at Sniffles' body, and a dry sob hiccuped in her chest.

Finally, Flippy spoke up. "It's... a giant beaver. I... I feel like I knew him. Like when it broke into the kitchens and ate all our food, I feel like I'd known that beaver before..." Flippy shivered. "Maybe that's why it was so haunting to see him like that. So large and... there were cuts on his entire body, but they looked like letters, like bleeding inscriptions. But that's not all. There were two more creatures."

Flaky's ears perked at this. She sat up straighter. "What did they look like?"

Flippy was visibly surprised by the sudden force in Flaky's voice, but didn't hesitate in his answer. "They looked like two cats. They were our size, not giants, standing on the beaver's head. They were laughing and... I can't believe I'm about to say this, but it looked like they were doing magic."

"Magic?" Petunia scoffed, but even that was half-hearted. "Are you serious?"

The bear nodded. "They were shooting things from their hands, pulling darkness and light out of thin air. They were destroying things. And I think they're looking for us."

At that moment, a sudden force of wind blew into the basement. All heads looked up to see the tree being moved again, and more light spilling in to unveil the renegade animals from sight. Flippy ducked down, kneeling beside Flaky, who gripped onto the bear tightly. Everyone tensed and unconsciously pulled back, away from the light and further together into the corner.

A large, purple hand found its way between the roots and broken kitchen floor. Nubby fingers, rubbed raw and bleeding heat, fumbled around. The hand itself was large enough easily to catch and hold three Friends within its palm, and the mere thought forced Flaky to look away, less the fear drive her to scream.

Flippy and the others watched as the purple and felt around, carefully. Far beyond, angry and excited voices could be heard, and they seemed to urge the hand on. Suddenly, its fingers grazed Giggles' lifeless body - Flaky glanced up just in time to see the hand curl around her, pulling the chipmunk's body from the earth and slowly carry the corpse out of the basement.

Flaky's body reacted faster than her mind could; she shot up from her hiding spot, pushing Flippy away, and dived across the basement to the stairs. She then crawled frantically up the broken wooden steps, leaping upward when there was no longer a path, her hands gripping onto the edge of the kitchen floor, now revealed above them.

"Flaky, what are you doing!" Petunia called in a harsh whisper. Flippy didn't call, but rather followed the insane red porcupine up the stairs, trying to catch up to her and convince her to stay put. But Flaky was already on her feet, and she quickly dived out of sight, looking for a place to peek outdoors without being seen.

The whole area was a distorted image of a previously familiar setting. The floor tiles of the kitchen had been peeled away and flung about like scabs, leaving patches of exposed dirt. Everything had been shaken from its rightful spot - pots and pans scattered, utensils littered the floor; the sink was broken, the door to the oven caved inward. The tree was tilted to its right, exposing the entire left side of the bottom floor to outdoor light, and an almost clear view of the far-off tree line. Flaky dared not venture out into the open, but rather shot for the staircase. Though tilted, she could still climb it if she pulled herself up by the handle.

Flippy had no time to call after the porcupine, and instead followed closely behind, helping Flaky as they made their trek upward. When they got to the third floor, Flaky immediately headed for a window. It was harder to walk up here, for the floors were slanted more steeply the higher they went. Flaky and Flippy had to hold onto doorknobs and frames to keep from sliding and crashing into the wall diagonal to them. Finally, they made it to a window they could reach, and the duo quickly pulled it open and peeked outside.

They could see the two creatures so clearly that Flaky almost flung herself away from the window, immediately afraid they themselves would be seen. The beaver was facing away from them though, and so were the two felines perched atop his head. They'd arrived just in time to hear the end of what must have been a disgruntled argument.

"...'Ain' no good t' us! If they ain' got no soul in th' body 'n ain' no way we gon' get any power out 'em! Th'r prolly got dere souls flyin' 'round like drunk-assed butterflys an' we c'nt reach 'em!"

This was the white one, a creature Flaky now recognized as some sort of leopard, and female. She remembered the disjointed, haphazard speech, the stinging of her switchblade tongue, and the way it seemed to contain more than one angry voice as she spoke. The other feline, black and sleek and quiet, replied in his cruelly cold voice.

"Shut up. Be calm. They can't have all died. We only need to consume a few of their souls to finally break away from this accursed spell they branded. Just have the beaver keep looking."

"Screw th' oversized wood chewer!" cried the female. Her fluffy tailed puffed up extravagantly in her annoyance. "Ahm' callin m' caveman, least he c'n get some work done!"

They continued on with their squabble. Flaky saw the beaver holding Giggles limp body up, as if presenting it to the felines bickering on his head. After a moment of arguing, the black one seemed to remember the chipmunk's body. He waved a paw, spoke something in a language Flaky couldn't even begin to recognize, and almost immediately after, the beaver tossed Giggle's body away like it was nothing.

Another brief order from the black one, and the giant beaver began his search again. Flaky realized he was slowly turning around, as did Flippy; they both pulled away from the window.

"What the hell is going on here," Flippy demanded, though Flaky knew he didn't expect an answer from her. "What are these things? What language were they speaking? In all my years in war I've never heard anything like it, nothing even close to it."

Flaky wasn't sure how to respond. She thought about her dream, though still hazy, and what those creatures had just said. An idea suddenly occurred within her head.

The porcupine was on the move again, even faster this time, which caused her to slip on the inclined floor once or twice. Flippy sighed in exasperation and followed her as they tried to make their way back downstairs. "Flaky, please, explain what's going on! Were these the two 'gods' you were talking about earlier?"

Flaky nodded. She said, "I think they're gods. I really, really think they're bad gods, or something, and they've been trapped here for a really long time. And I think they're going to kill anyone who isn't already dead."

They made it back to the kitchen floor and moved more carefully, talking in softer voices, though Flippy's was growing harsher. "What do you mean?"

Flaky shook her head, tears starting to form. She really didn't have any idea what was going on, but she had an extremely bad feeling, as well as an idea, one that reminded her of the one she'd had three days ago. She felt like she was going insane. She felt almost like Evil. "I m-mean they're g-gods, and they've b-been trapped, and I don't know why but they n-need to get more power, s-so they've been making us sick and feeding off of us."

Flaky blinked. Things... things were starting to make sense. Her voice was almost frantic as she continued to speak. "They were the ones who make us die all the time. But they needed us all in one place..." She thought about how the grass and trees were dead the closer they grew to the tree, but they seemed almost healthy beyond. Flaky thought about the early winter, and the odd days and nights, and how everyone's personal illnesses or mental issues seemed to be removed the longer they stayed, although their physical condition still deteriorated. "They were feeding off of us! They made us sick to keep us in one place, directly above them, so they could feed off of us and get stronger. But... they said something, something about someone banishing them here..."

Flippy was looking at Flaky like she'd grown another head. In a sudden fit of hysterical discontent, Flaky let out a harsh laugh at his expression. It seemed the more things made sense, the less they made sense, the less Flippy believed her, but the more Flaky believed herself. She really was going insane, wasn't she?

"And..." Suddenly the fear returned, ten-fold, pushing away the wired and crazy thoughts buzzing around Flaky's now electrified mind. "If they consume our souls, like they said they needed to, they'll kill us forever. They'll have us forever and we won't be able to be Reborn. Those who are already dead, they can't seem to consume them..." Flaky remembered now, being in the room with those two creatures, and with Evil - she remembered seeing him tied up and talking to them. The white one had seen Flaky, stared directly at her, but hadn't tried to eat her or anything - she'd simply had her black-furred partner to send the porcupine's spirit away.

That meant only one thing. There seemed no way to save everyone, to stop these creatures and their minions, but Flaky believed there might be a way to buy everyone some time.

She looked at Flippy straight in the eyes, taking a moment to drown in the worry and warmth of his golden irises. For a second they were alone, and Flaky was safe.

The porcupine spoke. "We… have to kill them."

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