Day 4
For the fourth day in a row, everyone but the council was still sick. Craig arrived at the entrance to the sewers wearing his water shoes. Most of the others showed up in their usual clothes. The only ones who didn't were Eliza in a pink hazmat suit and Bobby in swim-trunks and floaties. One by one they walked down to said entrance except for Wildernessa who as usual sat on Cheesesticks who leapt down, splashing some of them.
"Hey, watch it!" Jason said.
"Indeed!" Eliza agreed.
"Wait, where's the Sewer Queen?" Paintball Mike asked.
"She must be waiting for us inside." Craig said. "Come on. I know the way."
Craig stepped into the dark tunnel and the others followed. Of course Wildernessa had to get off of Cheesesticks so they could both fit. Some of the kids found the tunnel a little creepy. Others felt very uncomfortable in such a place. It didn't take long for them to reach their destination and there sitting in her throne was the Sewer Queen.
"Greetings, guests!" she said. "And welcome to my kingdom."
"Hey, this place isn't half bad." the Junklord said.
"Easy for you to say." Eliza commented.
"So what are we doing today?" Bobby asked.
"There are several options, Bobby." the Sewer Queen answered. "From target practice with water guns to just relaxing in one of our pools. This time, you have some choice of your own."
"Did you say water guns?" Paintball Mike eagerly asked. "I know what I'm doing!"
He, Craig, and Jason went for target practice. Bobby and Cannonball each picked a kiddie pool. Wren was busy examining the walls.
"So many different kinds of mold. SO LITTLE TIME!" she said.
As for Kit, Yustice, the Junklord, Eliza, and Wildernessa, they spotted something else leaning against the back wall.
"Is that a volleyball net?" Kit asked.
"Why yes it is." the Sewer Queen said. "I was about to set it up, but I heard you coming and wanted to greet you properly."
"We can help you with that." Yustice offered.
And so most of them did. After that, they divided into two teams and started playing. The Sewer Queen, the Junklord, and Kit were one team while Yustice, Wildernessa, and a reluctant Eliza were the other. All the while, Cheesesticks was just sniffing around and doing other dog stuff. For at least half an hour, everyone was having a good time doing what they wanted. Then a strange noise was heard. It sounded familiar, but also creepy and high-pitched due to the metallic echoes of the sewer.
"What was that?" Wildernessa asked.
"I'm not sure, but it could be serious." the Sewer Queen said. "I'll have to investigate."
"Not alone you don't." Craig said.
"Craig's right." Paintball Mike said. "It could be anything and too much for one person to handle alone."
Everybody volunteered to help find the mysterious noise. Wait, everybody?
"You too, Eliza?" the Sewer Queen asked.
"As icky as I find this 'kingdom', I might as well at least try to be a little nicer." Eliza said.
"Then everyone follow me." the Sewer Queen said.
After she grabbed the map Craig once made for her, the group of twelve plus one dog slowly traversed the maze of pipes, looking for anything out of the ordinary. As they kept their eyes open, some of them couldn't help giving their opinions of the terrain.
"Wow. The stunts I could pull in these sewers." Cannonball said.
"This would be way better for a paintball war." Paintball Mike said.
"I'm happy for you guys, but this place just doesn't really click for me." Kit said with a shiver.
"Fret not, Kit." the Sewer Queen said. "For no place is as bad when you aren't alone."
Suddenly, a new noise was heard. This one, the Sewer Queen recognized.
"Oh no, not again." she said. "Everybody climb!"
Some of the kids were climbing up whatever they could find, but it was too late. Water came through and took most of them with it. After a few seconds that felt longer, the tunnel was safe again. The only ones who weren't washed away were Craig, the Sewer Queen, and Cheesesticks who was big enough to handle the surprise flow.
"Are you alright?" the Sewer Queen asked.
"Yeah, but the rest of us weren't as lucky." Craig replied. "How'd you know about the water this time?"
"I didn't want to go through that again, so I sometimes go through the sewers to hear what it sounds like before it happens. Now come. We must find our friends."
The two kids and dog ran through the tunnel to find the others until they came to a fork leading in two directions.
"Marco!" the Sewer Queen called.
"Polo!" voices from both paths called.
"We'll have to split up." Craig said. "Good thing I have a spare map."
"I agree." the Sewer Queen said. "I'll take left. You take right."
"You better come with me, Cheesesticks since Wildernessa is lost." Craig said.
Cheesesticks barked in agreement. And so the kids went their separate ways to find their fellow council members.
Craig and Cheesesticks entered an open area at the top of an artificial waterfall.
"Marco!" Craig called.
"Polo!" two voices replied.
At the bottom of the waterfall were Yustice and Paintball Mike who were still rubbing themselves due to having fallen from the top after getting sent there.
"Are you guys okay?" Craig asked.
"Yeah, we're both fine." Paintball Mike answered.
"Don't worry. I know how you can get back up here." Craig double checked his map. "Just take that tunnel, turn right, and climb the first ladder you find. You can't miss any of those."
"Thank you." Yustice said.
The duo entered the tunnel while Craig and Cheesesticks waited. A couple of minutes later, Yustice and Paintball Mike were at the top again.
"Did anyone else avoid that rush of water?" Paintball Mike asked.
"Only the Sewer Queen." Craig said. "She's busy looking for the others in another tunnel. We should keep searching. Come on."
The kids and dog continued through the sewer in search of whoever else was sent this way. As they progressed, Paintball Mike started thinking about how Craig has led the way not only right now, but before as well.
"Hey, Craig." he said. "I'm sorry I didn't listen to you during the capture the flag war. I just couldn't..."
"Don't worry." Craig said. "I know how it feels to worry about a sibling."
"Thanks, Craig."
"I see a light up ahead." Yustice said.
Indeed there was a light up ahead, but it was blinking in some kind of pattern.
"Wait, three quick blinks, then three slow ones, then three quick again?" Craig said. "That's an S.O.S. signal!"
They all ran toward the distress signal and came into another open area with some missing floor and no waterfall this time. The light was coming from the missing floor. It turned out that Jason was sending the signal with his flashlight and the Junklord was with him.
"Darn. I haven't been here yet, so I don't have this on my map." Craig said. "Hang on. we'll get you out."
After a little planning, Cheesesticks held Paintball Mike by the shorts with his teeth, Paintball Mike held Craig's ankles, Craig held Yustice's ankles, and Yustice grabbed Jason by the hands before they all pulled him up. Then they repeated with the Junklord.
"You two okay?" Paintball Mike asked.
"Yeah." Jason said.
"Especially after finding so much perfectly good junk down there." the Junklord showed everyone the trash he collected in his pants.
The sound they all heard before was back and louder than before.
"There it is again." Craig said. "It must be close. Come on."
The kids went deeper into the sewers to find what ever was in there.
Meanwhile, the Sewer Queen was still searching until she came to a cracked open pipe and called. "Marco!"
"Polo!" a couple of nearby voices replied.
The Sewer Queen looked down and closer than she expected were Bobby, Wildernessa, and Wren. She held down her poolnet and pulled each of them back up to the pipe with it.
"Have you seen any of the others?" she asked.
"I'm afraid not." Wildernessa said.
"Sorry." Bobby said.
"I think I did." Wren said. "I'm eighty-five percent sure they continued down this broken pipe."
"Then let's go." the Sewer Queen said.
"Wait. Are-I mean is Cheesesticks alright." Wildernessa asked.
"Yes. He's with Craig searching in another tunnel."
After a sigh of relief, the four kids went deeper in the tunnel while occasionally calling Marco. They were still getting a Polo, but struggling to find anyone else. They eventually came to a room where they had to climb down to keep going. As they descended one by one, Wildernessa noticed the toes of the Sewer Queen who came down last.
"I didn't know you had webbed feet." Wildernessa said. "That's awesome! It's like you're part frog."
"You should meet some of the others." the Sewer Queen said as the group progressed. "It's too bad not everyone thinks as highly of this as you do."
"What?" Wildernessa wasn't the only one curious about what was just said.
"I used to get made fun of at the local pool for my toes. Other kids were teased as well, but for different reasons. Eventually, I led them into these sewers where nobody could ridicule us. That's how I became their queen."
"Oh." Wildernessa made a facial expression that the Sewer Queen knew all too well.
"You've been mocked too, haven't you?"
"Yeah. I don't even know why they do it. Everyone at school is just mean to me! If it weren't for Craig, Kelsey, Mortimer, and J.P., I'd still have no humans to call friends!"
Wren wiped her tear covered face and Bobby gave Wildernessa a hug which startled her. Then the Sewer Queen placed a hand on Wildernessa's shoulder and said. "Well whatever kind of kid you are, you'll always be welcome among my people."
"Thanks."
The group returned to their search, calling out "Marco!"
"Polo!" somebody replied from nearby.
The kids ran into an open area and found Cannonball and Kit, the latter was apparently out-cold until just now.
"Are either of you hurt?" the Sewer Queen asked.
"I'm good." Cannonball said.
"My head hurts a little, but I'll be alright." Kit answered.
Then the mysterious sound returned at a louder and clearer volume.
"Wait, I think I know what that is." Wren said. "But I need to confirm it."
The kids followed the direction of the sound as quickly as they could.
Craig's group followed the sound as did the Sewer Queen's group until they both stopped on either side of some bars similar to the kind you find in jail and saw each other.
"Guys! You're all okay." Craig said.
"As are you." the Sewer Queen replied. "Let's do a head count."
"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven...who's missing?"
"Eliza."
"Oh boy. I bet she's gonna throw a hissy fit when we find her." Jason commented.
Then came the sound once more. It was clearly nearby now. But then they realized something about the sound.
"Is whatever that noise is in pain?" Yustice asked.
Cheesesticks started sniffing and ran off.
"Follow Cheesesticks!" Wildernessa said.
All eleven kids did just that despite half of them being on the other side of the wall. Luckily they came to an opening that the Sewer Queen's group went through. Closer and closer they got to the sound. Soon it was clear to them what the sound was.
"MROWR!"
"Is that a cat?" Paintball Mike asked. "We were worried and almost drowned because of a cat!?"
"Hey! Watch what you say about animals!" Wildernessa said.
"Sorry."
The group turned the next corner and there stuck in a pile of garbage was a calico cat crying for help.
"Oh my gosh!" Wildernessa ran over to the pile and started removing pieces of it.
Craig, Cheesesticks, and the Sewer Queen joined in. Before anyone else could decide whether or not to do the same, the cat was free and rubbing up against Wildernessa.
"Great. Now all we have to do is find Eliza." Craig said.
"I'm pretty sure we just did." Kit pointed to a wall where Eliza was just getting up from being knocked out.
"Ohhh, my head." Eliza said before noticing that her suit was partly torn and her hair and dress were exposed. "AHHHHHHH! I've been exposed to garbage!"
"She says that like it's a bad thing." the Junklord commented.
However, Eliza was not done complaining.
"I try to be nice for a change and THIS is what I get for it? Cold and alone, covered in filth, and a rat trying to live in my hair!?" a rat actually leapt out of her hair. "I'm done with this stupid idea! I want to go home!"
"We're a little short on time anyway." the Sewer Queen said while looking at her phone. "At least we found the source of that noise."
Eliza noticed the cat in Wildernessa's arms and just pouted.
Half an hour later, they were all back in the throne room talking about the day. Wildernessa in particular had just released the cat and talked to the Sewer Queen again.
"Thank you for this fun day, your majesty." she respectfully said. "I never thought I could have a day like this."
The Sewer Queen smiled and replied with "Everyone! Call me Eileen."
"It's time to see who's next." Kit said.
Cannonball, Eliza(who would've already left if she wasn't picking things out of her hair), and Eileen stood to the side while the other nine kids formed a circle and this time, Wildernessa spun the arrow.
"Come on, pick me." Bobby said.
"No, pick me!" Paintball Mike prayed.
"You do realize that we'll all get a turn eventually, right?" Wren asked.
"Not if everybody's better already." Jason pointed out.
"In that case, LET IT BE ME!"
Shortly after that, the arrow slowly stopped spinning and pointed to...
Jason.
"Yesh!" he cheered. "Tomorrow we do things my way! I hope you're all prepared."
"See ya then, Jason." Craig said with a handshake.
And so like before, the kids all returned to their respective homes.
Author's Note: I am SOOOOOOOOO sorry for taking so long to finish this chapter. While I was first typing, I realized there were some parts I didn't really like and I couldn't figure out yet how to fix them. I really hope I don't do that again. Anyway, it's time to talk a little about the character of this chapter. The Sewer Queen A.K.A. Eileen is one of the show's better characters in my opinion. She's a cool leader and if you think about it, an important character too. After all, she's the one who explained the definition of a leader to Craig. While making this chapter, I knew I needed to make it one of the more adventurous parts of this whole fic. Once again I couldn't do anything new though, but at least I feel proud of the interaction between Eileen and Wildernessa.
