chapter 4: Safe house: Finding shelter
The bus eventually stopped at a building somewhere in the countryside. There were no other buildings in sight and only dense woodland surrounded the dull and monotonous grey column of a building. "This is as far as I go" stated the driver "now get out, all of you."
"Thank you sir" replied Nazz politely, tossing him the one coin she had left in her pocket as a tip before politely stepping out of the bus after wishing the man a good day. Her friends followed and watched as the bus's door closed and the bus sped off into the distance.
"So where are we going anyway?" asked Sarah as the friends began stood there in absolute silence, unsure what to do next and unaware they were being pursued by the four horsemen of the apocalypse, the four leaders of the newly formed Capone mob. The Kanker sisters were hot on their trail too.
"Well" suggested Edd "I suggest uh, we follow this track and see where it takes us". He pointed to a crudely paved track which led into the woods. "But double D" quavered Ed, shivering with fright "there might be mutants hiding in those creepy woods, just waiting to eat us all up. We can't go in there".
"But Ed" protested Eddy "We can't just stay here, and you never know, that path might take us to a city or something. I agree with double D on this one and I think we should get going, its getting dark". "Exactly my thoughts, dude" remarked Nazz "Well... once it gets dark it'll be hard for us to keep going so I think we'd better get started."
With no further discussion, the group headed into the woods, always following the path and taking extreme care not to stray from it.
They walked in silence, unsure of what to say now that they were so far away from home. What would their parents think when their parents found them missing? How long would it be before they could go back?. Considering how angry their parents would probably be, it might well be years before they could even begin to think about returning.
At least Kevin would never find them out there, so far away from the neighborhood. That was the good part.
Sarah held Ed's hand tightly as they walked as though she hated to admit it, dark woods frightened her. She was relieved when Ed did not mind in the slightest when she grasped his hand and was amazed at how soft and warm her brother's hands were.
Nazz took point and walked a little way ahead of the rest of the group, while Edd and Eddy stayed in the middle of the convoy. Eddy would constantly glance backwards anxiously as if at any second he would see Kevin charging at him, ready to beat him to a bloody pulp. Sweat dripped in a flood down Eddy's shirt and his breathing was rapid and hard. "Chill, dude" said Nazz when she saw him trembling so hard "Its okay, Kev'll never find us out here ,so calm down dude, we're safe now and we'll find shelter soon".
But little did Nazz know that though they would indeed find shelter soon, whatever respite they found would be short lived. No one crossed Al Capone and lived. Al Capone's mob saw to that. And Al Capone's mob was tracking them down even as they spoke.
The walk was long and exhausting. Soon night rolled in and slowly the bright. clear sky became covered in a carpet of almost pitch black. The group had not gone far before they realized that trying to navigate through such a thick wood on such a moonless night would be near impossible, especially seeing as they could barely see the track which was their only guide for directions anymore. They were tired too, having been walking for the greater part of the day.
The group flopped down on a pile of fallen leaves, they were too tired to walk any further anyway. They lay there trying to catch their breath for a while.
It was hard to believe they were so far away from home. They had no idea where they were and no means of navigation. They could but wander helplessly and hope that fate would soon bring them to a place of safety. The long forgotten track was the only lead they had, they could but follow it and hope that it led out of the thick forest soon.
But what then?, they had no money and no possessions. Inns and apartments cost money and that was the hard truth of life. They were children too, and thus to find jobs would be a challenge. And if they drew even the slightest amount of attention to themselves, the local police would probably detain them and call their parents to come and pick them up. That would put their entire escape plan in jeopardy and Kevin would have their heads on a chopping board in no time.
Even if they were by some stroke of luck to find some sort of city, they were reduced to underage beggars who would probably starve to death in a matter of weeks.
Nazz had gone from being the only daughter of a wealthy family who lived in a large and comfortable mansion , to being a hobo. She had given it all up for the sake of being with Eddy. She had lost her head asking for trouble in an attempt to defend Eddy from the cruel injustice he suffered from.
But here, at least she was away from the cruel and evil bullies who she had never liked in the slightest. And at least that rapist known as Kevin would never find her out here.
Here at last, she could be with the only three people who she could call her friends. They may have had their flaws which did not make them very popular with the bullies, but at least they were not horrible bullies. They were genuinely good people who only meant well. Most of all, now she could be with her true boyfriend, and that was Eddy. Though no one knew this, Nazz would not be alive this day if it were not for the kind acts Eddy performed for her when they were younger.
These were the thoughts that circled through Nazz's mind as the group continued to walk through the woods the next day. They once again made camp when it got dark and tried their best to fall asleep despite the blood curdling howls they heard in the darkness. Ed made no attempt to regale the group with his scary stories, he knew it would only made the situation worse and weaken morale even further. The group walked mostly in silence, talking would have wasted energy and they needed every ounce of strength if they were going to get through this journey alive.
Day three was not much different and it was hard for the group to get out of bed, let alone continue to walk forward into the wilderness.
The group followed the path, and headed in the general direction of a bright light that glowed powerfully in the distance. It seemed however, no matter how far the group walked that they never seemed to get much closer to those lights. Never mind the fact that those powerfully glowing lights might not even be a city and the possibility the group might arrive at the destination they had trusted their life to only to drop dead in disappointment.
The group got hungry and thirsty, they were not lucky enough to find a river and even if they did it was too risky to trust untreated water as thirsty as they were.
And on day four, when they had still not found any sort of city, Nazz began to wonder whether it would have been better to have stayed in the "cul de sac" despite the threat Kevin posed to her and her friends. She felt as if her very soul was detaching from her body, her head throbbed with pain and her sight seemed to blur. Was she dying?
Nazz took one last look at her friends, it seemed they too seemed to be as delirious as she was. She took one last look at Eddy and held his hand. "Eddy" she confessed weakly "I'm scared". "I know Nazz" he replied weakly "but we've gotta hold on". "What's the point" asked Nazz angrily "we've been at it for days now."
I was wrong dude, we should never have left the "cul de sac". apologized Nazz, tears in her half closed eyes "I'm sorry Eddy, I was wrong".
"If we stayed" protested Eddy in a strong voice "we wouldn't be alive now because Kevin would have killed us all. Stop being negative Nazz, you're not a negative person. And what are we supposed to do, lie down and die?. If I'm going to die Nazz, I'm going to die trying. You can't just give up now, we've come so far."
"You're right" agreed Nazz, holding Eddy's hand "We have to try". I'm sorry for being so negative, we'll keep going, it can't be too far now"
Inspired by Nazz and Eddy's words, the group walked faster than they had done in days. It was another two hours before Eddy shouted loudly "I see it, I see it, I see a city".
All of Nazz's fatigue, hunger and thirst seemed to vanish and she told the group to go faster. The last few yards through the woods was made at a slow jog.
The group saw buildings, streets and cars. Things that they had not seen in what seemed like an eternity. They stared at the city as if they had never seen a city before, it was like a heaven for them. But their happiness was short lived as they began to ponder how they were supposed to buy anything, they had no money.
There was a hot dog stand not far from where they stood, but of course they had no money.
There was an ice cream stand too, but alas they had no money. Nazz had spent every last penny they had on the bus ticket they used to get here.
There were a whole multitude of other stands still serving food to eager customers who, despite the late hour had formed a long queue. But alas, the group were broke.
Nazz was not about to starve to death here and now, fourteen was far too young to die. She told the group to wait while she went and found some food.
Nazz turned her attention to a small bench where a lone man sat, with a box of what seemed to be kebabs and chips and another box which seemed to contain donuts. Nazz's mouth watered at seeing so much delicious food, the sight of so much food about to be eaten by someone other than herself was unbearable. Nazz would gladly have fought the man for the food, but she realized that in her weakened state that she was no match for such a muscular and tall man.
She decided to do this "the Eddy way". She checked once more to confirm there was no one else around before she crept up to a bush right beside where the man was sitting and threw a stone at the man. It hit the man hard in the stomach and he looked around furiously but could not see the thrower anywhere. Nazz then threw another stone at the man and this time the furious man sprang up from his bench and began to furiously march around, looking in every direction for the assailant. "You damn coward, get out here" he screamed angrily.
And when he turned away to look into the distance for someone to spring at and his sight left the boxes of food he had left on the bench, Nazz sprang into action and like a shadow, she darted towards the bench and seized the boxes with lightening speed before leaping back into the bush.
The man was naturally furious when he found his dinner missing and Nazz did feel a shade of pity for him, but alas, she and her friends needed the food much more and she was sure the man had enough money in his pocket to buy more food if he was so hungry. The man growled like a savage animal before furiously turning away and heading away.
Sarah and the Eds were reading a newspaper they had found in the trash when Nazz returned. "W, where did you get that?" demanded Edd when he saw the food.
"I took it" admitted Nazz very honestly, winking at Eddy. "But its wrong to take things that don't belong to you" reasoned Edd.
"Shut up sockhead and eat" shouted Eddy with his mouth full as he seized a doughnut and began to bite into it.
"Im in" cheered Sarah "Holy shamoly, this looks tasty" as she greedily grabbed a doughnut and began to cram it greedily into her gaping mouth. She was starving and did not want to go even one more second without food, wherever it came from.
"Me too Sarah" said Ed "boy this sure looks tasty" as he took one of the doughnuts and ate it, savoring every bite.
"I'm glad you think so dude" replied Nazz as she took her own doughnut and ate it. "You want one, double D?" she asked, holding out the last doughnut for Edd.
"W, well" stammered Edd, cold sweat dripping down his forehead "Um, I, I guess it wouldn't hurt. And I am very hungry by now". He nervously took his doughnut and plopped it into his mouth and slowly began to chew.
When the group finished the doughnuts, they divided the kebabs and chips between them. Each person got a few bites. It was only fair everyone had their share.
The group eventually found a fairly sheltered place under a bridge, where they settled down for the night.
"Great" muttered Eddy "Now we have to sleep under this stupid bridge with no bed. This kills".
"Don't worry dude" consoled Nazz "soon we can get jobs and then we won't have to sleep here anymore. We'll have a proper house with a proper bed and everything. But for now, lets just sleep. It's been a long day". Nazz yawned and went to sleep, holding Eddy tightly in her arms as she slept.
Ed, Edd and Sarah soon followed suit and fell fast asleep too, worn out by another long day of travelling through that seemingly endless forest.
As they fell asleep, they realized that though they had no money and few possessions, they had each other no matter what and that was very fortunate indeed.
They hoped Kevin would never find them here, so far from home.