After Danny had managed to pull off the manhole cover, he jumped down the ladder into the darkness of the sewers. Once he was in the sewers, he looked up at the opening again. Suddenly an infected fell from the open manhole above and crashed to the ground, smashing its brain. It twitched for a few seconds before dissolving into goo. Danny looked back up at the opening and all he could see was the sky and infected stumbling around on the surface.
He couldn't hear the others, but he hoped they got out alright and were heading back to the house where he would meet them back there.
But when he turned around to head into the sewers, his shoulders dropped when he saw that it was a maze of endless tunnels and horrid smells. Seriously, if Danny didn't think he smelled just as bad he would gag. He would give anything for a hot shower again. Not wanting to go wandering around in the tunnels he looked at the two grates nearby, but they were built solid and there was no way he could pry them open. Danny walked down the steps and through the sewers and reached a tunnel sloping down with sewage running through it, being careful not to slip and fall the rest of the way.
He knew he looked and smelled bad, but he didn't want it to get worse.
He noticed that the floor around this tunnel was littered with half-eaten sewer rats. Infected must be down here, too; that or there were some very desperate people hiding down hear. As long as they weren't cannibals than the teen didn't care. Danny continued to walk through the sewer and froze when he turned a corner and came across a group of infected consuming the corpse of a sewer work. Before they saw him, Danny quickly entered the small passageway on the left.
When he was sure that they hadn't seen him, he cautiously poked his head out and looked around.
His eyes widened when he saw as sign for an exit at the often end of the tunnel, but the problem was that it was behind the group of infected. He would have to get them to leave so he could pass. Danny carefully looked around again and almost smiled when he saw a large water pipe down the way his originally came. If he could get that water running, then it might be enough to lure the infected away from the exit. Lady fortune must have been smiling on him that day because when Danny tracked the pipes, he found a pipe valve in the small passageway he was hiding in.
Danny turned the wheel of the pipe and water began flowing through the grate near the pipe, and infected stop eating and approach the sound.
Once he was sure they were gone, Danny entered the area the infected previously were. He noticed that the partially consumed corpse and tried not to think about what happened. He continued to the end of the hallway. A single infected stood at the end of it, its back turned as it concentrated on the grate in front of it. Danny sneaked toward the infected, planning to kill it with his sword. Suddenly, a infected man's hand reached out from the grate on the floor and grabbed Danny's leg.
The teen gasped as he fell with a loud thump.
The first infected heard this and started to approach him. Danny used the sword to slice the zombie's hands off him. As he stood up, the other zombie was soon standing in front of him. Before it could do anything Danny quickly stabbed it in the head destroying it. After taking a couple of seconds to steady himself Danny walked to the end of the hallway where the exit was supposed to be located. He almost swore, however, when he saw that the only exit was a manhole cover with no ladder leading up to it.
As Danny examined the ladder, he realized that it hadn't just fallen off; it looked like somebody sawed it off.
Seeing no other way out, Danny tried to jump up the wall, but his foot hit the large exit sign, making it come loose and reveal a hole in the wall behind it.
"What the hell?" He muttered. Drawing his sword just in case, Danny pulled the sign down and stepped through the passage behind it. Soon he entered a dark room with supplies and furniture. Danny frowned in confusion as he scanned the area. This place must have been one of those old nuclear fallout shelters. He looked at the beds, wondering if someone was still living down here, before turning his focus to the supplies. It was enough to keep people alive for months.
He thought about grabbing some for the group when a sudden noise in the next room had him on his guard again.
Being more cautious, Danny opened the door and entered the next room, where he found a group of survivors. There was five of them with one in hospital scrubs and the others looked to be elderly people. As soon as they noticed Danny, the one in scrubs shakily pointed a revolver at him, and Danny raised his hands. Yes, he had a sword, but everyone knows you never bring a knife to a gun fight.
"Who are you?" The man demanded.
"It's alright, it's okay, I don't want any trouble." Danny said, trying to calm things down.
"Neither do we, which is why you'd do well to turn around and leave, right now." The man ordered, refusing to lower the gun.
"Look, I'm sorry I disturbed you folks, I'll just be going." Danny said as he slowly started backing back towards the door with the man keeping the gun trained on him.
"You can't let him leave!" A large woman suddenly protested. She had beige skin with big light teal eyes with lots of wrinkles around them, showing her old age. She also had round lips that she usually wore pink lipstick over. She had short blonde wig with an orange outline. Her attire was a blue sailor's outfit with a yellow string necktie, a blue sailor cap, a red skirt and bright crimson shoes. "He's from Atlantis! If he goes back there and they find out we're down here..."
Danny remembered the barricade and what Mindy said about Atlantis, so he didn't blame them for being scared.
That didn't mean he wanted to be shot though. The man in scrubs frowned at the teen as he took in the boy's appearance.
"Are you from Atlantis? Don't lie to me, I'll know." He warned.
"Where else can he be from? Everywhere else around this place is dead." The woman spoke out again and Danny wished she would shut up.
"No, I'm not from around here, I'm from Amity Park; I found a group in Dimmesdale, and we came here." Danny replied, hoping that they would believe him. The man in scrubs scanned him once again before the man's eyes suddenly widened in realization. While he kept one hand holding the gun, he lifted the other to his face mask and lowered it to reveal the familiar face of Dr. Rip Studwell. Danny could only stare in shock. The last time he saw Studwell was when he, Timmy, and Jimmy first arrived at Dimmesdale elementary.
"D-Danny? How are you here? I thought you were dead?" The doctor stammered, trying to wrap his mind around all of this.
"What do you mean?"
"The morning after you and the boys arrived, I headed back to the school to check in on everyone, but when I got to the school things were quiet and as I walked further into the school I-I found Geraldine's body." Studwell stumbled with his words, trying to get the image out of his mind. "Thinking you guys were all gone, I made to leave when I heard a noise further into the school, and I, thinking it was a survivor, followed it and I found Crocker in the school cafeteria with his mother, but Dolores was reanimated as an infected, and when he saw me, he lost it."
"What do you mean 'lost it'?" Danny asked, almost scared to know.
"He started screaming and making these strange noises like an injured, rabid animal; then he started firing his gun at him and he only just missed him." He shuddered and Danny could see his arm was bandaged through a tear in his coat. "That psychopath chased me throughout the whole school and the only way I survived was by jumping out the window, and driving away as fast as I could; I drove until I wound up here and the rest is history." Studwell finished his story.
He was still shaking at the memory of looking in his rearview mirror and see Crocker's insane face as he tried to chase the doctor's car.
Danny couldn't suppress his own shudder of terror either, thinking how lucky they were that they had managed to escape when they did.
"I came here with a small group, hoping to find a boat, but we can't find one."
"There aren't any boats around here; Atlantis took everything." One of the other group members spoke up.
"Yeah, I heard." Danny huffed, remembering how everything was stripped bear. "Look, while we were looking for a boat I got cornered down here and now I all I want to do is to get back out to the streets and find my group."
"Bullshit!" The first, large woman shouted. "You can't trust him, doctor! You can't let him leave."
"What do you want me to do, shoot him in the head?" Studwell snapped.
"Why not? That'd be more mercy than anyone from Atlantis ever showed us!" The woman spat, much to Danny's horror and the others' shock. "Think, you guys! What do you think they'll do if they find out we're down here, right under their feet?" She said to the others and, much to Danny's growing fear, they were actually considering it.
"Damn, you're right; I'm sorry, friend, can't take the risk." Studwell suddenly said as he re-aimed the gun, causing Danny's stomach to turn.
"I'm not from Atlantis, but I saw what they did up there; it made me sick." Danny said, choosing to reason with the group. "I'm not like them and I don't think you are either; I know you're a good man doctor." He promised as he slowly walked forward.
"Keep back or I swear I'll shoot!" The doctor warned, but despite that he didn't fire as Danny calmly took the gun from him and put it away.
"What the hell are you doing?!" The woman screeched as the others also started to panic. As far as they were aware they were now locked in their bunker with now weapons and a stranger who could now easily kill them if he wished.
"Relax, I'm not here to hurt you." Danny promised, and after a few seconds it seemed to finally sink in that he wasn't a threat to them.
"You're really not from Atlantis?" One of the men asked and Danny nodded, feeling relief that they weren't going to kill him.
"Well... we were." Studwell confused with a scowl. "I thought I was helping people as one of their doctors, but we got out of there when they started sealing up the place, started weeding out the sick and the old so their perfect survivor society wouldn't be threatened; no room for weakness or vulnerability in their little master race." He explained solemnly and Danny did a double take of the group.
"So... you're all sick?" He asked, not quite believing it. They didn't look sick and if they had a condition that required constant care, they surely, they would be dead without a functioning hospital anywhere.
"We WERE sick." The first lady growled as she glared at nothing. "We were all members of a cancer survivors' group that used to meet here at the hospital and we're in remission, but that wasn't good enough for Atlantis."
"We left after Atlantis put their little master race plan into effect, but Atlantis had already rounded up five of them before the rest managed to hole up and hide from them down here; this old basement's been abandoned for years." The doctor explained and Danny looked around the room they were currently hold in.
"What is this, a morgue?"
"Irony's always high on my list when I'm looking for a place to survive." Studwell snapped before gesturing back the way he came in. "That sewer system you came through runs all over the city, it'll take you wherever you want to go."
"Doctor, you're not just going to let him go back there alone, are you?" One of the men from the group suddenly spoke up. "Those sewers are like a maze; he's got no chance of finding his way back without a guide." He said and the doctor thought it over before turning back to Danny.
"You're not going to be able to get out of here on your own." He admitted before frowning. "But we've all got our own problems; two of our group are sick and need constant care, and I'm the only doctor here." He explained with an apologetic look in his eyes.
"Besides, why should we help you?" The first woman spat and Danny clenched his fist to stop himself from saying something he would regret. As much as he hated to admit it, those damn sewers were like a maze, and he knew he would get lost in there and never get back to the others. He didn't want to risk the doctor's life, but right now, getting back to Timmy, Jimmy, and the others was his top priority.
"Look, I'm sorry if I scared you but I just want to get back to my people, back to Jimmy and Timmy, and I can't do that on my own." He pleaded.
"Are they your brothers?" The other woman asked but Danny shook his head.
"No, they both lost their real parents, but I'm doing what I can." He replied honestly.
"You're not seriously considering going with him." The first woman protested, not trusting him for a second.
"It's going to be alright, Mrs. Puff." Studwell told her. "I lost a lot of people in the first days, and I'll be damned if I'll just sit back and let that happen to someone else." He confessed and that silenced any other protests from his group. After promising he would be back before they knew it, and exchanging hugs goodbye, he and Danny left into the tunnels...
Even though he was against it at first, Danny had to admit that without Studwell he was definitely be lost in these sewers. It was like a giant, smelly rat maze down here. As they made their way back to the house, Danny filled the doctor in on all that had happened with the group since they had last seen him. He told him about returning to Amity Park, meeting other survivors, the dairy farm, the ambush at the motor inn, and finally how they ended up in Bikini Bottom.
Studwell was saddened to hear about all the deaths that had happened to Danny's group, especially with Chester and AJ, but choose not to say anything.
He couldn't think of what to say, and even if he did nothing, he could say could make this ok, least of all for Bucky or Mr. Dinkleberg. The doctor almost vomited when Danny explained what happened with the cannibals and what they did to AJ and Nicky, and Danny couldn't blame him for that. Eventually they got back to the house safe and sound, with no infected or ghosts on the streets. Quickly, Danny rushed inside with the doctor, but froze when he realized how quiet the house was and there was no one in sight.
For a second, Danny feared that something had happened to his group.
Suddenly hearing someone in the kitchen, Danny rushed inside to find Mindy searching the kitchen cupboards and drawers for something.
"Mindy?" Danny asked, startling the other teen.
"Oh, hey! You made it back." She smiled sheepishly but tried to play it cool. "Who's this guy?" She asked when she saw the doctor standing behind him.
"This is Rip Studwell, he's a doctor and he helped me get back here after we got separated." Danny explained. "Where are the kids?"
"Their around here somewhere so relax, I got them and Bucky back safely; you're welcome, by the way." She replied and Danny visibly relaxed at this news. After he processed that piece of good news, however, Danny narrowed his eyes at her.
"What were you doing?"
"Just looking around; figured that you might have something you'd want to donate as a thank you for getting your friends back safely." Mindy shrugged before walking away. Danny was about to ask her something else when Sandy suddenly rushed down the stairs and into the kitchen.
"Danny! Thank God, you're back." She cried in relief when she saw him.
"What's wrong?"
"It's SpongeBob; he's gotten worse." She replied grimly, before suddenly noticing the doctor. "Who's that?"
"This is a doctor who can help."
"I'll see what I can do, take me to him." Studwell ordered and the trio headed up to the bedroom that SpongeBob was resting in with Patrick by his side. Even Patrick had to admit that his friend had seen better days. He was sweating buckets, his skin was pale, and his breathing was shallow. For a second, Danny got a flash of an infected and dying Chester, but he quickly shoved that thought down. SpongeBob wasn't bitten, and they had a doctor now that could help him.
Everything would be fine now.
"Hey buddy, you're gonna be alright, Danny brought a doctor." Patrick smiled as the doctor took his place at the other side of the bed.
"Alright, let's take a look at him... I work better without an audience." Studwell frowned as they all started crowding around the bed. "I'm sure you have more things of your own to attend to." He kindly suggested to the teen. Danny nodded and left the room. Now that the doctor was taking a look at SpongeBob, Danny thought it was best to check on the kids. He looked through hallway window down into the yard but there was nothing down there.
The teen carefully poked his head into the attic but found it was still empty, same with the bathroom.
He checked every bedroom, finding nothing, before checking the study. Inside he found some of Tootie's crayon drawings scattered around the floor but there was still no sign of any of the kids. This was starting to freak him out now. While he didn't know Tootie that well, he knew for a fact that Timmy was not a quiet kid, so for it to be so silent in the house was scaring Danny. He looked through office window to the street but didn't see them anywhere out there.
There were no infected or ghosts either, though, so that was a relief.
Knowing now that they weren't upstairs, Danny headed back down the stairs and into the living room. There he saw Dash, Kwan, and Bucky sitting down at the dining room table. He heard movement and saw Mr. Dinkleberg in the kitchen sorting out their supplies. What surprised Danny the most, however, was that Bucky was drinking from a whiskey bottle.
"Bucky?" Danny frowned, trying not to sound disappointed. Bucky was a grown adult who had been through so much, he deserved a drink, even if Danny thought they had all best stay as clear headed as possible.
"Oh, hey, you made it back, good job... good job." Bucky slurred sleepily as he raised the bottle in some sort of cheers.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"What does it look like?" Bucky mumbled, not focusing on anything.
"Where'd you get the bottle?" Danny frowned, not remembering finding any food or water in house when they searched it.
"He found it." Bucky shrugged and pointed vaguely at Kwan, but the jock shrunk back at Danny's glare. "First good thing that's happened since..." Bucky trailed off with tears in eyes before taking another gulp. Seeing that Bucky was too far gone for any conversation, Danny turned his attention to the two jocks.
"What the fuck were you guys thinking, letting Bucky get like this?" He snarled, but Dash rolled his eyes.
"Hey, man, I tried, but he gave me a look like he was gonna rip my face off; besides, he looked like he needed it." He shrugged, not seeing the big problem here, and Kwan agreed.
"Yeah, he won't listen to you, you think he was gonna listen to us?"
"TO HELL WITH THE LOT OF YA!" Bucky suddenly roared as loud as any human could, scaring everyone in the house, even the ones upstairs. Sandy considered going down to see what the problem was but decided against it at the last second. If Danny needed any help, then he would call out. Said teen waited for a minute to see if Bucky would say or do anything else, and when he didn't Danny took a deep breath and thought over his next words carefully.
"Getting wasted is not going to help anyone."
"Yeah, well, what is? We are fucked! Mindy said there's not a single boat left in Bikini Bottom! No way out..." Bucky muttered as his had gripped his hair tightly. "We got the dead all around us, that crazy fucker on the radio messing with us... Hell, if now ain't the time for a drink..." Bucky growled lowly as he took another long gulp and offered the bottle to the two jocks. Kwan was about to take it when he noticed Danny glaring at him and decided not to have any.
Dash either didn't notice or didn't care as he quickly took the bottle, had a few sips, and passed it back to the grieving man.
Seeing that he was wasting his time, Danny chose to focus on more important things.
"Have any of you seen the kids?"
"Damned if I know; gotta be around here somewhere." Bucky slurred, but Danny doubted the drunk man understood the question. When the other teens shrugged, Danny felt his rage returning with a powerful vengeance.
"By the way, how the hell did Timmy and Jimmy sneak out of the house?" He growled at the jocks.
"Hey, don't put all that on me or him." Dash snapped "SpongeBob took a turn for the worse and Dinkleberg asked us to help."
"I'm sorry; we're doing the best we can here." Kwan added. "Tootie was frantic and things got kind of crazy so I told Timmy and Jimmy to stay put, what else could I do?" He said and now that Danny got a good look at him, he saw that both Kwan and Dash looked tired, like neither of them had slept well in days. While Danny was sympathetic for them, he was still pissed at them for what they had done and what could have happened to Timmy and Jimmy.
Sure, the kids found him and Bucky alright, but it could had gone so bad so fast.
"That's not good enough."
"Whatever." Dash dismissed, angering Danny even more. "I think they went out to play in the backyard."
"On their own?! With no one watching them?!" Danny shouted, but it seemed Dash had had enough.
"Man, will you get off my back? They're fine out there!" The blond exclaimed, but was shocked into silence, along with everyone else, when Danny suddenly grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him out of his seat.
"They'd better be, or it's your ass!" He snarled before throwing Dash back into the chair and went to the backyard, only to find nothing out there. The streets were empty, the alley beside the house was empty, and the backyard was empty. At this point Danny was on the verge of a panic attack and he was sure his hair was going to go completely white from stress. Preparing to set off into the city with a search party, he stopped when he heard something bump against the shed door from the inside.
Danny froze and drew his sword as he approached the door.
They hadn't included the shed in their initial search because they were looking for food and it was unlikely there were supplies in there. But now Danny was scared someone, or something could be hiding in there. Maybe what was in there had taken the kids. Bracing himself for a fight, Danny opened the shed just as something pushed against it, and accidentally knocking the teen to the ground.
"Danny!" Somebody cried and Danny sat up just in time to see Jimmy and Timmy running over him and hugging him tightly. Danny looked up and smiled when he saw Tootie standing awkwardly off to the side. Danny sighed in relief as he hugged the boys' back tightly, glad that they were all safe and sound. After taking a minute to calm his nerves and reassuring himself that they really were ok, Danny pulled away and looked they all dead in the eye.
"What have I told you two about wandering off on your own?" He scolded lightly, but it was cancelled out by the smile he couldn't keep off his face.
"I know, I know, stay close to you! But you weren't here! And look! Look what I found!" Jimmy beamed as he and suddenly grabbed Danny's hand and started dragging him towards the shed.
"Excuse me? You mean what WE found!" Timmy argued and Jimmy just rolled his eyes. Tootie laughed at their antics and Danny couldn't help but join in her laughter. He wished there were more moments like this. They walked up to the shed and Tootie opened the doors all the way, revealing a small houseboat. It was painted white with a blue roof and through the windows he could see that if was full furnished. Danny almost wanted to pinch himself to see if he was dreaming.
Suddenly the sound of glass shattering came from behind them.
Danny whipped around to see Mindy, Bucky, Mr. Dinkleberg, Dash, Sandy, and Kwan standing behind them. They were all looking at the boat with joy and disbelief. The glass shattering was from Bucky dropping the bottle he had been drink. Danny looked at the father and he saw the first, real, hopeful smile on his face since Chester was bitten. Danny soon found his cheeks hurting from how much he was smiling. Finally, things seemed to be looking up for their group...