Hey Yo! chapter 9 of The Last Loud!
Last chapter The Last Loud rescued Cassie, the young girl from the Slavers, and in the past, Lincoln and Lynn obtained the armor that'll protect them in the wasteland!
I didn't received any question this week, so let's straight to the chapter!
Disclaimer: I do NOT own The Loud House
It's time. Suits ready. Helmets secure. Life support on. Geiger counter on hands. Okay. We looked back. Our sisters had to lock the door so the potential radiation of outside wouldn't enter by the hatch and flow to the rest of the bunker.
I looked at Lynn, she was looking at the metal latter that led to the hatch and to outside. "I'll go first." She said. I couldn't hear her voice directly, but our mouth piece had speakers that we used via radio. She didn't waited me to respond and climbed the latter up. I followed suit.
She stopped when she reaches the top of the latter, rotated the lock and pushed upwards.
The sun light shone down, making us blind for a second, Lynn climbed up and exited the hatch, I did the same.
It was nightmarish. Our neighborhood completely in ruins. Houses falling apart, dead trees, not even a single live plant, the sky, was yellow, and the sun shone furiously above our heads.
But what really sunk my heart was our house. Our good old, not so little house. In ruins. Broken windows, walls corroded, roof falling, the entire house was slightly slanted to the right. Lynn stood in silence, looking the house we grew up on. I approached her and put my hand on her shoulder.
"Are you alright?" I asked.
"It's been… Five years… But it feels just yesterday…" She said, gloomy.
"Come Lynn, let's look around." I said pulling up my Geiger counter. "Hum… the radiation levels here are indeed very low. Lisa was right."
"How low is it?" Lynn asked, I turned around to check better the Geiger counter.
"I think that it's on a safe level." I turned around and saw Lynn unplugging her life support and removing the helmet. "Wait Lynn, No!" I grabbed her wrist before she could remove it.
"What? You said it's safe." She said.
"But… it's risky!" Was all I could speak.
"Come on Stinkoln, life is made of risks." She said grabbing the side of her helmet. I let her. With a sudden movement, she removed her helmet and made a big breath. "The air doesn't have any smell." She ensured smiling.
"He, that's not how it works." I said putting the Geiger counter back on my belt.
"Come on, remove your helmet too!" She said, putting her helmet under her arm.
"I don't know Lynn…" I said unsure. She made a soft punch on my shoulder.
"Come on, don't you want to breath fresh air again?" I looked down and made a nod. I turned off the life support and removed the tube that connected it to the mask and removed the helmet.
The cold wind hit my face as I exposed it to the outside air for the first time in five years. I made a deep breath, feeling the cold air.
"See? Let's look around!" She said, pulling me, we walked around our house to the front yard. It wasn't any better than the back yard.
"Want to see inside? See how things are?" I asked, she nodded and we walked to the front porch. The front door was broken, with termite holes and a rusty door knob. I gently grabbed that door knob and pushed, opening the door. I stepped into the house, and looked at the living room.
I felt my knees getting weak and I had to hold myself onto the wall. What made me react like that wasn't the complete shambles our house was, but what was sitting on the rotten couch.
"Lincoln, are you alright?" Lynn asked as she entered the house. She gasped when she saw what I had saw. Tears began to fill up on our faces.
The skeletons of two people, setting on the couch. Holding hands. One had a very recognizable green sweater and the other a salmon buttoned shirt with a skirt.
I felt sick. I thought I was going to pass out when I felt Lynn grabbing my shoulder and hug me. Was on that moment that I let the tears flow. I knew. We all knew that… but actually seeing was different. It hit differently. We stood in silence, sobbing.
But suddenly that sadness I felt changed completely onto anger. I hit the corroded wall, making a loud thud that scared Lynn.
"Lincoln?" She asked as I started punching that wall repeatedly. Crying and growling, I just filled my brain with that feeling.
"Why? Why? Why?" I growled repeatedly. My knuckles started hurting, but I didn't care, I just wanted to dump all that anger into something. "Why…" I cried as I felt my arm being held.
I looked back. Lynn was holding my arm with a tender look in her face. She made a gentle smile and said with a smirk. "The wall won't five you a challenge."
She released my arm and raised her other one, entering a defense instance. I punched her arm. Again and again, until my anger vanished and with it, the adrenaline and my energy, I had to sat down, resting my back on the wall.
"Man, you're hitting hard." She said, sitting with her back on the wall in front of me, rubbing her arms.
"Sorry…" I said, cleaning my eyes from the tears. " I think I got emotional."
"You think?" She said smirking. "Even with this armor my arms are sorrow!" I sighed.
"Damnit… I don't think it was a good idea entering the house." I said throwing my head back.
"You still wanna see the rest of the house?" She asked. I lifted my head to the direction of the stairs.
"Yeah… I want to see our old rooms… and maybe salvage something."
The Last Loud remained silent while driving the bike. Cassie was sitting in the backseat, hugging them. The girl on other hand wasn't silent.
She kept talking and talking and asking things, just to answer them herself, The Last Loud had to be impressed for how much she could talk without stopping, but after a while, the unstoppable blabbering of the 14 year old became annoying, and after that, tedious.
After what seemed an eternity, they finally arrived at the ruined town that The Last Loud found the kid's mother, and drove straight to the building where they ordered her to stay while they got the girl.
After hearing the noise of the engine, the mother peeked her head out of the window and jumped up when she saw her child. She jumped over the window and run to hug her kid, who got out of the bike and opened her arms to accept the hug. Cassie had the brown hair and eyes of her mother, along with the Latin origin.
They hugged tightly each other.
"Oh Mija, I'm so glad that you're okay." The mother said with tearful eyes. "Are you okay, are you hurt? What they did to you?"
"Thankfully they didn't did anything with her." The Last Loud said, grabbing the attention of both. "I intercepted them before they could regroup with more Slavers."
"Mom, I killed a man!" Cassie said smiling and making tiny hops.
"What?" The mother looked the Loud.
"Threw him out the car while in movement. I have to say. She's a brave kid… Or a very stupid one." The Last Loud added.
"You should have seen it mom, they came with their bike, freed me, and together we defeated them and even destroyed the car! It was awesome!!!" The mother chuckled.
"You got lucky." The Last Loud said. "If I didn't catch them on time, they would have done horrible things to her."
"Oh, I don't even know how to thank you for saving my daughter." The mother said.
"Don't." The Last Loud said starting the bike of the engine.
"Wait!" Cassie called, the Loud looked at the girl. "Are you going to leave us?"
"My job here is done." The Loud said plainly.
"But then you'll be alone." Cassie said.
"I'm used to." The Loud replied.
"But what if more bad men appear?" Cassie asked.
"I can take care of myself." The Loud answered.
"And us?" Cassie said. The Loud remained in silence, the mother spoke up.
"Please, let us go with you. It's the least we can do for you." The Loud looked over to the mother and back to the child. "I know you don't trust us, but Cassie and I are in debt on you."
The Last Loud remained in silence for a minute straight, than looked at the sky. It was getting dark.
"You don't need to be alone." Cassie added. The Loud looked down to them.
"It's better if you two get some rest. We leave at down."
N/A: So yeah, this chapter, Lincoln and Lynn ventured outside the bunker for the first time! and we discovered the fate of Rita and Lynn Loud Sr.
Lincoln's reaction to that is part of the characterization I'm giving for him in the future, this was just the first sign of what is coming
on the future arc Cassie and her mother convinced Loud on tagging along with them.
If you have a question, or want to say something, feel free to comment or DM me, I'll try to respond everyone.
I deeply thank all of you for the feedback this story is receiving, I love everyone of you. thanks for reading 'till here.
Bye.