Chapter 15: The Rescue

Arnold and Rudy had spent hours putting their plan into action. Arnold found a small opening under the basement and decided to use it to dig a way out of there. It was exhausting work but it was the best choice of a plan.

"How much longer man," Rudy asked impatiently.

"Just a little bit longer," he said with reassurance.

"You said that for the last three hours, if I didn't know any better I'd say this plan is more stupid than I imagined."

"Will you shut up and just keep digging."

"Alright," he said with defeat.

Eventually the wall broke open and revealed their way out of there "Jackpot," Arnold said as he got down and looked through but he found out something that really pissed him off, "fuck, I'm too big and I can't get through."

"I'll go," Rudy said, "I'm smaller than you and I fit through there."

"And I thought you were the weak type," Arnold said confused as before he saw Rudy on the floor shaking like a wuss.

"You really bought that act," Rudy said, "Come on, I was gonna pounce on you the second you let your guard down."

"Then why didn't you," he asked as Rudy was getting ready to crawl throug the open space.

"Because you didn't seem worth it anyway and I like messing with people," Rudy then crawled through the space.

The friends were in the woods trying to track down where they took Arnold. Genevieve sniffed the ground trying to find any scent of Arnold. Unfortunately there wasn't any sign or anything that could pinpoint where he was.

"This is hopeless," Dexter complained, "there's no way we're gonna do this correctly."

"Just keep moving," Danny ordered.

Genevieve pointed forward and began to bark, she was on to something.

"She's on to something," Annie said, "come on let's go."

They ran forward and stopped when they saw a log cabin, and out in the front were the bandits and Davey, taking a smoke and chatting away.

"There they are, let's get to our positions, Danny you know what to do right?" Hogarth asked.

"Yep, going ghost," Danny then changed into his ghost form and overshadowed one of the bandits.

The other bandits and Davey look confused as the bandit Danny possessed looked like he was in a trance.

"Hey man you alright," Davey asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine so what were you guys saying," he said playing along with the ruse as a way to distract the bandits, he turned to his friends and gave them a wink.

"Okay, he's got them distracted, Dex you got one of those devices to scan the interior," Hogarth asked.

"Sure do," Dexter said, pulling out the device he had and switching it on, "it was a little on the fritz but I made a little adjustments to it so it should work okay for now."

The device scanned the cabin and gave them all an interior look at the cabin. It showed the upstairs and downstairs and detected a lifeform in the basement area.

"It's got to be Arnold," Elizabeth said, "no wonder they trapped him there, but what's that?'"

There was another lifeform detected crawling out of the basement and making it's way to the back area of the cabin.

"I don't know, maybe another prisoner?" Tut asked.

"Whoever it is, check him out and see if he's good or bad" Sam told Elizabeth and Hogarth, who both nodded in response.

"You're both clear now find a way around and get Arnold out of there," Tucker said, to which they again nodded.

Elizabeth and Hogarth took off with their weapons in hand as they went off to the back of the cabin avoiding any bandits in the way. As they took off, Annie, Sam, and Tucker took their weapons in their hands and aimed their guns down, ready to snipe anyone who gets in their way.

Rudy finally climed out of the basement and was outside again, he had to find the camp and tell them how to get Arnold back. Just then he was grabbed and put in an armlock with a gun to his head.

He opened his eyes and saw a female mouse standing in front of him with a crossbow in her hands, he was too frightened to speak but he found out that he was being held by another guy with a gun to his head.

"Tell us who you are, and what you're doing here," the mouse said to him threateningly.

"I don't know what you're..."

"TELL US MOTHERFUCKER," the kid holding a gun to his head said.

"I'm trying to help my friend Arnold get out of here, I'm looking for his group. I thought we could get him out of there together.

"Oh, we're sorry," the mouse said, "let him go Hogarth."

Rudy was released from Hogarth's grasp and he turned to him with an angry look.

"Sorry, we can be a little too paranoid sometimes," Hogarth told him.

"We're from Arnold's group, we came here to rescue him and if you're his new friend we could definitely use his help."

"Yeah, I'll help. I'm Rudy Tabootie."

Elizabeth and Hogarth both snickered at hearing his ridiculous name.

"Why does everybody laugh at name," he said annoyed.

"Anyway, where is he," Hogarth asked.

"He's in the basement, we were trying to dig a hole out but only I could fit through because I'm small enough, there's got to be another way in."

"Well there's armed people surrounding the cabin there isn't any other way in." Hogarth said looking at the ground in defeat.

"What about up there," Elizabeth said pointing to the chimney on the top of the cabin.

"Man we are the biggest shit for brains in the world," Rudy said to Hogarth.

"Yes you both are," Elizabeth said with a sweet smile.

Climbing up the side of the cabin wasn't really hard but getting down the chimney was another thing entirely. It was very claustrophobic and getting down wasn't easy.

Hogarth was the first to make it to the bottom.

"Ho ho ho," he said to himself imitating Santa Claus

"Look out below," Rudy yelled as he came down and fell right on the top of Hogarth.

"Rudy, get the hell off of me," Hogarth grunted as he was being crushed.

"Sorry, I'll..."

"Here I come," Elizabeth said as she fell down on Rudy and Hogarth, "Oh dear, I'm sorry."

"Get the fuck off of us," they both said in unison.

"Is that any way to talk to a lady," she said putting her hands on her hips and looking at them with a smile.

"Please get off of us," they said again.

"That's better," she said and got off of them.

They climbed out of the chimney all covered in ash and soot and looked around.

"Nice place they got here," Hogarth said.

"Yes, it could be a nice place to vacation for the winter," Elizabeth said, "but that's not the point now, we've got work to do."

"Anyway, the basement is down that door." Rudy said pointing to the door in the room.

They walked down and found Arnold sitting there in the corner of the room, when he saw them his face lit up and he got up.

"Guys, you're here."

"Of course, a team always sticks together and we weren't going to let you down," Hogarth said to him, "let's get you out of here."

Arnold nodded, but just as they were about to leave..

"HEY!"

The bandits from outside, and Davey were there in the basement and were standing before them.

"I thought I'd see you again," Davey said, "couldn't let a friend go and die."

"Not like you could traitor," Hogarth said to him.

"No matter now," the bandit leader said, "now that you're back your going to get all of the pain you deserve."

"No," Elizabeth said walking up to the bandit and looking him straight in the eyes, "he's coming back with us and we're leaving right now."

"Shut up bitch," he snapped as he hit Elizabeth in the face.

"DON'T TOUCH HER MOTHERFUCKER," Hogarth screamed as he was about to punch him but was thrown down the floor.

"Now you listen here you little shit, you have double crossed us and made us look like idiots and now you're going to pay and this time it's going to be even more painful then before."

"Not if I have anything to say about it," Danny's voice said from out of nowhere as he knocked out the bandit and became visible again. "GO," he yelled to his friends.

He knocked out the bandits and Davey and then looking over at the furnace in the room shot it with his gun before running out.

Hogarth, Elizabeth, Arnold, and Rudy ran out of the cabin and met up with their friends at the front entrance. All the guards were gone as they went inside to check on the rucus.

"Guys you made it," Sam said.

"We got to leave now," Arnold told them.

"Who's this," Annie asked, pointing at Rudy.

"Don't worry, he's friendly he helped us find Arnold," Hogarth said.

They turned around and saw Danny running towards them frantically.

"GUYS LOOK OUT AND DUCK IT'S GONNA BLOW," Danny screamed.

They all dropped down to the ground and covered their heads as the whole cabin exploded. It blew up in a huge explosion full of fire and destruction.

After it was over they all got up and looked at the destruction.

"Holy shit," Elizabeth said.

"Well I guess we won't have to worry about these guys again," Tucker said humorously.

"Guess again."

They saw Davey crawling away from the house. He must've waken up early and got out before the cabin exploded.

"It ends now," Davey said.

Hogarth walked forward ready to face him. Everybody looked at him with disbelief. He was going to take on Davey by himself? But with the look of anger on his face it seemed like there was no way he letting this guy win.

"Let's finish this," he snarled at him.

Davey threw a couple punches at Hogarth which he dodged nicely. Hogarth got the chance and threw several hits on Davey's face. All the pent up rage and hate he felt towards him was all being let go. Eventually though Davey got one lucky punch, knocking Hogarth to the ground. He then got on top and grabbed Hogarth's neck, he was going to strangle him.

Hogarth tried to pull his hands off of his neck but it was no use. He felt all the air escaping his lungs.

His friends saw this and ran over to help. Danny, Dexter, Arnold, and Tut all got on top of Davey's back and tried to pull him off. "You let him go you bum, you fucking psycho."

Davey pushed them all off. "You're all gonna die too after I'm finished with him." He then looked at Hogarth with that detestable, sadistic smile. Hogarth was gonna die in a minute.

"You're gonna die you little shit. Say goodbye to your mommy and your friends. You couldn't save them, cause you're nothing more than a stupid little brat."

Those words caused the anger to grow in Hogarth, and what happened next surprised everyone. He dug his nails into Davey's hands drawing a lot of blood. Davey shrieked and loosened his grip. Hogarth then let out a scream as he pushed Davey back with unbelievable strength and he unleashed his rage.

He then smashed his fists into Davey's face breaking his nose and leaving his face bloody. He grabbed Davey's hand and twisted it to the side breaking his wrist. As Davey kept yelling from the pain Hogarth then got up and began kicking Davey in the face, getting blood all over his shoes and messing Davey's face up even more. Eventually he stopped and pulled out his rifle aiming it at Davey's head just like he did back on the road.

"Go ahead," he said, "Do it."

Hogarth began to think to himself, "he's enjoying this."

"DO IT," Davey screamed.

Hogarth lowered his gun and shook his head. The others looked at him with confusion. Why didn't he just do it?

"You're just a little pansy kid, you can't even kill me," Davey said as he began to cackle and laugh.

"No," Hogarth said. He then heard the sounds of walkers approaching their position. "But they can." He then spat on Davey and walked away.

Hogarth and the others returned to their friends and walked away just letting Davey sit there as the walkers came closer. He began to scream and yell.

"COME BACK HERE YOU PANSY, COME BACK AND FINISH IT, COME BACK!"

As they went back into the woods, the four boys who Davey tormented looked back and saw as the walkers closed in on him and tore him to shreds as he screamed. They then walked off with their friends back to their camp.

They walked off for a while staying quiet for most of the time. Eventually Tut went up to Hogarth and talked to him.

"Hey Hogarth, why didn't you just do it, he was asking for it why didn't you just put an end to it?"

"He wasn't worth it Tut, and I'm not a murderer, I'm not going to kill someone just because they want me too, otherwise I'm a bigger coward than he is."

"I guess," he said to him as he walked away.

Annie went up to Hogarth and decided to talk to him

"You did the right thing Hogarth, sometimes you just have to get up and walk away in those kinds of situations. But you also..." She stuttered remembering how he beat the living shit out of Davey.

"I don't care anymore Mom, I know now how everything in this world has become, there's gonna be fallout."

"I would expect so," Annie said.

"Hey Hogarth," Rudy said walking up to him, "thanks for letting me come with you, I don't think I'll survive out here without you guys."

"We'll teach you all we know Rudy, you'll know how to survive and how to live."

"Thanks Hogarth."

"No problem."

Eventually they got back to the camp and finished their day. This was the beginning of a long trail of horror and struggle that would go on for a very long time.

Well that's it. There will be a second season starting and this will be an ongoing cycle. I'm glad I finally killed off Davey. Leave reviews and have fun everybody. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!