CHAPTER 10
It had been a couple of days driving on the busy EAC Highway. Marlin and Dory watching as cars drove pass by them. During the ride along with Crush and Squirt, the two had grown close with the two travel partners.
During the ride, Squirt had become really close to the two, seeing as Marlin or 'Fuzzyman' was fun when he's not so stressed or worried, in fact he was actually funny. And to Dory, she was just being fun to be around, despite her asking questions due to her Short-Term Memory Loss.
Even so during the ride along, Marlin was still fascinated by all the stories that had been passed down in Crush's family, all generation of Sea Romani. Crush was even impressed by the Marine Biology Marlin was in, however Crush could tell he was bound for something else. Crush gave him some advice 'Go with the Flow of your heart.' To Crush that meant 'Follow your heart' which Marlin was surprised by this, thinking back of his true passion long ago of comedy.
Marlin thought back knowing he did miss making people laugh, he even try to use some of his jokes along the ride to help him feel confident in the world of comdey he long forgotten. But he was still rusty, however Crush and Squirt laughed as they still found it funny, confusing but still funny.
However today seemed to be a bit more busy as they were rushing on the Highway, Crush looking at the sign they passed before turning back to the two in the back.
"Alright, we're here Dudes!" he shouted to them, still behind the wheel "Get ready! Your exit's coming up, man!" "Where? I don't see it!" Marlin looked at the sides, not seeing any exit. "Oh right there! I see it! There!" Dory cried out pointing.
Marlin looked to see there was indeed an exit that swirled and turned about. However he didn't like the looks of it, as that exit was under construction.
"You don't mean that swirling exit up ahead, do you!?" Marlin turned to Crush "That's it Dude!" Crush replied "Oh course it is" Marlin mumbled under his breath "But the exit looks closed, due to construction! How do we get off?" "You're gonna have to 'Tuck 'n Roll' it out!" hearing what Crush said, Marlin began to regret ever asking.
Crush just laughed a bit before giving out instruction "Okay, first: find your exit buddy!" Marlin was suddenly wrapped up in Dory's arms and was pulled into her side, both were now cheek to cheek. "Do you have your exit buddy?" "Yes!" Dory quickly responded "Okay, Squirt here will now give you the rundown of proper exiting technique!" Crush turned to his son and gave him a nod. "Good afternoon, we're gonna have a great jump today!" Squirt turned to the two and began the rundown.
"Okay, crank a hard cutback as you hit the wall! There's a screaming bottom turn, so watch out! Remember: rip it, roll it and punch it!" Squirt told them, as he was doing some hand movements and actions.
However both Marlin and Dory just stood, still wrapped up in eachother arms, having no clue what the little boy meant. "It's like he's trying to speak to me, I know it!" was all Marlin responded.
"Listen Squirt, you're cute! But I don't understand a word it was you said!" Marlin told Squirt, getting out of Dory's arms. "Can you just repeat that first part slowly?" Marlin asked him but to his luck he didn't have time for a repeat of the instructions given to him.
"Okay Fuzzyman! Go! Go! Go!" Crush turned to them, Squirt decided to give the two a push. Both Marlin and Dory were pushed out of the truck and out onto road but tuck and rolled out onto the exit. Both screaming, as they were carefully tuck rolling down the spiral exit.
Both continued to tuck and roll, tumbling and rolling down the exit as if it was one big ride and/or slide.
By the time they had made it safely close to the ground away from the road, rolled away from the pavement and onto the safe grass. Both Marlin and Dory lay there laughing and whopping for what they just did.
"That...that was actually kind of...fun!" Marlin laughed, never in his whole life he would say something like that. Thinking back he would at first thought it was dangerous, of course it was, but with a right timing technique it was indeed like a wild ride. Both Marlin and Dory continued to laugh as they slowly got up before something caught Dory's attention "Hey look! Surfers!"
Marlin turned back up to see that Crush had stopped for a moment, while he gestured the other cars to go by pass him. While some of the other cars, being they were the caravan stopped too.
"That was most excellent!" Crush called out to them "This is where we part ways!" Crush yelled out to them "Now what you gotta do is turn your butts over in that direction, go on for a couple of miles straight down that way, and you'll be at Sydney!" he yelled out the directions. He and Squirt then waved to them. "No worries man!"
"No worries! Thank you so much again, Dude Crush!" Marlin yelled out giving them a wave goodbye.
Marlin and Dory stood there waving and watching as the caravan began to continue driving. While all of the rest of the caravan including Crush's friends, family, and the kids waved goodbye. Waving bye and good luck to the 'Fuzzyman.'
"Tell your Little Dude I said 'Hi'!" "See ya later Dudes!" Crush and Squirt cried out, as they began to join the rest. "Bye everyone!" Dory called out, waving them all goodbye.
"Nemo would've loved this!" Marlin sighed to himself, but then he just remembered something important. "Hey Crush, I forgot! Your Spirit Brother, is a turtle right?" "That's right!" "How old would he be?" Marlin yelled out "My Spirit Brother is 150 Dude! And he's still young like me!" Crush yelled out from the distance before driving away down the Highway. Both Marlin and Dory stood, waving goodbye to the surfer as he continue to drive off on the Highway.
"150! 150! I gotta remember that!" Marlin said to himself "Alright Dory, let's go!" Marlin and Dory turned around to continue on their way.
Only to stop, with Dory responding "Whoa!"
Both of them looked up to see a misty forest standing before them. Both of them stood in silent just looking at the thick misty forest.
"We going in there?" Dory asked.
"Yep" Marlin responded.
"P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney?" Dory asked again.
"Yep" Marlin answered again.
"We're just gonna walk straight through" Marlin told her, both began to walk into the misty forest. Now from what Crush had instructed them they would have to go in a straight direction, that way they would get to Sydney. Marlin walked on while Dory was singing her familiar little song
Dory: Just keep going,
Just keep going,
Just keep going, going, going-
"Dory!" Marlin eyed her, warning her about the song. Dory just smiled and began to hum the song and skip along beside him as they continue treking through.
Marlin and Dory walked through the misty forest, having a hard time to see. Only thing they can see in front of them was fog of the forest. "This is taking a while" Marlin said out loud, still kept his pace. Dory looked to the ground, seeing something caught her eyes "What's trash doing here?" "People don't think when they throw their garbage, that they are destroying the world while doing so without a second thought in their actions" Marlin replied to her "How rude!" Dory heard this and shook her head in disapproval.
A while long they continued to go through the mist, when Dory suddenly had an idea to pass the time "How about we play a game?" "Okay" Marlin shrugged, knowing there wasn't anything left to do besides walk. "Okay, I'm thinking of something that is orange, and small..." "It's me" "Right!" they kept on playing for the next round.
"It's orange and small..." "It's me" "Okay Mr. Smarty Pants" Marlin and Dory continued walking and playing the game. Marlin was suddenly getting a little board knowing the answer to Dory's guess is just gonna be the same as the last few turns.
"It's orange and small, and has white stripes on his shirt" "Me." Marlin guessed for the final time "And the next one just a guess: me" he added, turning back to the blue haired woman. "Okay, now that's just scary" Dory respond, looking a bit freaked out.
Marlin stopped both him and Dory in their tracks, looking around seeing that something is wrong.
"Wait, I have definitely seen this little shrub before." Marlin looked to see the shrub with some garbage around it "That means we've passed it before and that means we're going in circles and that means we're not going straight!" Marlin began to pace around, already in panic. Dory looking at her partner ran to him. "We gotta get out of this forest, come on! Let's figure it out." Marlin was about to go but Dory cut him off a couple of times.
"Let's go! Follow me!" "Hey! Hey!" Dory finally manage to stop Marlin, grabbing his shoulders "What?"
"Relax." she said calmly to him "Take a deep breath." next both were inhaling and exhaling for a few seconds until he was calm. Dory smiled to see Marlin calming down "Now, let's ask somebody for directions." she said simply. "Fine, who do you wanna ask? The garbage shrub!?" Marlin frowned "There's nobody around this forest!" he added, seeing that he was right, there was nothing but mist. "Well, there has to be someone in this forest, silly. We're not the only two people here" Dory chuckled to herself.
And so Dory began to check her surroundings by turning around in her place, making a 360 degree angle in her spot. Marlin stood there watching her and rolled his eyes.
"Okay no one there." seeing nothing.
"Nope" seeing more nothing.
"Nada" once again, seeing nothing around.
When all of a sudden, she stopped and managed to see something was out in the forest, just straight ahead of them out in the distance. It was still misty but they managed to see a little glowing light about.
"There's someone! Hey! excuse me!" Dory ran out calling to whoever it was with the glowing light. "Dory stop!" Marlin ran and cut Dory. "Okay Dory, now it's my turn and I'm thinking of something that's dark and mysterious" Marlin began to tell her "It's a stranger we don't know. And if we ask him for directions, he could cut us up and leave our remains for certain animals to chew on!" Marlin finished, seeing this was already a bad idea.
"What is it with men and asking for directions?" Dory groaned, placing her hands on her hips.
"Look, I don't wanna play the gender card right now. You wanna play a card? Let's play the 'Let's Not Die' card." Marlin told her, trying to get her to move. "You want a get outta here, don't you?" she asked, eyeing him "Of course, I do." he replied "Well then, how are we gonna do that unless we give it a shot and hope for the best?" she said, giving a good point.
Marlin still having a bad feeling "But, Dory you don't fully understand." however Dory responded with a hum "Come on, trust me on this" she told him.
Hearing what she said, Marlin stopped. He remembered her saying that back at the subway. Eying at Dory's arm to see the scratch and bite mark still there. That injury was something Marlin regretted as that was the biggest mistake of tricking her trust and ended up with her getting hurt. He didn't want that to happen again.
"All right." was all he could say and gave a sigh.
Dory smiled at Marlin to trust her. So she turned her attention to the strange figure with the light out in the distance.
"Excuse me! Woo hoo, little fella? Hello?" she called out, trying to get their attention. "Don't be rude say hi" Dory nudged Marlin "H-hello" Marlin uttered and gave a tiny wave, feeling a little nervous.
"His son Bingo-" "Nemo" "Nemo, was taken to..." Dory called out, but was having trouble, so Marlin leaned towards her and whispered "Sydney" "Sydney! And it's really, important that we get there as fast as we can. So can you help us out?" Dory continued to call out to the figure. However there was still no respond "Come on little fella, come on" Dory cooed, trying to coax out this stranger to come out and talk to them.
However there was something suspicious about this stranger in front of them. Marlin knew his gut feeling was somewhat right.
"Dory, I'm a little fella...I don't think that's a little fella"
Marlin and Dory looked around to see that the mist had began to clear up. Looking around they noticed the new surroundings, seeing that they exit the forest and were now in some sort of place that was a garbage dump. Which kinda explains the garbage laying around the forest.
Dory looked up and awed "Huh, guess I was talking to a truck" she said, looking that the strange figure with the glowing light was indeed a garbage truck. "Dory look!" Marlin stopped her and made her turned.
Both of them looked to see there was an actual person walking by. They took note that the clothes the person was wearing didn't look like uniforms that people at the dump wore. It looked to be made up of old clothing materials, even wearing garbage as if they were accessories. As matter a fact the accessories they were wearing were made of garbage and recycling. And on his backs they were carrying a huge sack with collective objects found within the dump.
That's when it hit Dory "I know! I know those kinds of people, they're known as Garbage Nomad!" she exclaimed.
Marlin looked surprised by this. He had heard of Garbage Nomad before. Said to be homeless people living in certain unheard of garbage dumps, but they said they 'believed' that the Garbage Nomads love to travel from one dump to another dump, collecting old and useless junk they find in the dumps. Making and recycling them into materials in/or for their sacks or accessories. Said that their collections tells stories and how they came to be in the junk.
But Marlin knew that the Garbage Nomads were somewhat a bit strange and crazy, being as they were homeless people going from dump and dump, just to collect junk and wear them as a collection of useless souvenirs, even sleeping in garbage.
"Maybe he can help us?" Dory said, Marlin turned back to her "What?" "You know I can speak Garbage Nomad, it's said their language is low range, almost identical to a whale cry." Dory told him as she began to clear her throat.
And thus Dory began to 'speak' Garbage Nomad language "MwOOooo! WwwwEEEE... nEEeeeedd tOOooo FINNND hiIIiiss SONNNNN...!" and just as she said, her Garbage Nomad language was as low just almost like how a whale would sound. Marlin just stood there looking at the woman, thinking she was even more crazy "Dory, what are you doing? Are you sure this is Garbage Nomad language and are you even speaking it?" he raised a brow at her.
But Dory continued "CaaaAAAaaN yoooOOOOu... mMm...giIIIVe uuuus dirRECtiooons?" "Dory! Heaven knows what you're saying!" Marlin tried to stop her.
Both looked up to see the Garbage Nomad stared at them. Standing there as if he was a deer caught in headlights. Before finally turning around and running away, disappearing into the forest.
"See that, he ran away" Marlin waved his hand out to show the obvious. "CoooOOOOOOme bAAAAAAAack!" Dory called out "He's not coming back. You offended him." Marlin told Dory "Maybe I should try a different dialect?" she ignored Marlin, looking deep in thought for a second and began to make a strange noise.
"MOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! MOOOOOAAAAAAAAAA..!"
"Dory. Dory, this is not some Garbage Nomad language. You're speaking like..upset stomach." Marlin told her, making Dory stop, but she still kept ignoring him. "Maybe I should try in a different range?" "No, don't try in a different range!" Marlin once again tried to get her to stop.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOO! WAAAAAAAAAOOOOOO!" "Okay, now you actually sound sick." Marlin told her, getting pretty tired of this and want it to stop. "Maybe louder, huh? RAAAH! RAAAAH!" "Don't do that!" Marlin glared at her, really wanting her to stop.
Dory covered her mouth after she made that sound "Too much accent on it. Didn't it sound a little accenty?" "It doesn't sound like an accent! It sounds like nothing I've ever heard!" Marlin shouted to her.
Seeing that Dory was down making those strange sound to attempt to speak Garbage Nomad language, Marlin just sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Let's just hope this Garbage Nomad isn't violent" he muttered out loud to himself "Don't worry. Garbage Nomad aren't known to be violent, they can be quite civilized, despite them living in and wearing garbage." Dory told him, trying helping him to relax a bit. Marlin just stared at her in disbelief, how would she know of these people and how they live and act? Not like there was any documentary on the Garbage Nomad to begin with.
Suddenly they both jumped a bit as they heard a sound of an engine being turned on. Dory turned around and smiled "Hey look, he came back! And he knows how to drive a garbage truck" she was surprised to see the Garbage Nomad can drive.
Marlin whipped straight around, he looked up with a wide eyed expression. Seeing that the Garbage Nomad was indeed driving, and was driving straight for them.
Marlin took a few steps back before making a run for it "Move, Dory! Move!" he cried out to her, taking her hand as they ran.
Marlin and Dory continued to run, looking up ahead they found a trash bin, seeing that it was the only option. They would have to hide in there and wait for the garbage truck to drive pass them. Both jumped in and waited it out. They stayed duck and covered until they didn't hear anything at all.
"Is it over?" Dory asked breaking the silence between them, Marlin looked up to check. "I think we're in the clear. Let's hurry and get outta-" Marlin was suddenly cut off as he tumbled a bit. When all of a sudden both jerked around in the trash bin and they felt like they were being lifted up.
Marlin and Dory looked to see the Garbage Nomad in the garbage truck was lifting the bin they were in, and gonna dump them inside the truck. "Move Dory! We gotta jump!" Marlin cried out for them to jump out. Both tried to make a jump out of the garbage bin, but the struggled as tons of heavy garbage was pulling them down with their weight. Having it harder for them to try to jump and escape.
But it was too late, they screamed as they were suddenly thrown into the garbage truck with the rest of the garbage.
Both landed on the trash pile that was thrown in with them, and watched as they were shut in surrounded by darkness and trash from inside the garbage truck.
To Be Continued...