It's a bit awkward writing for this story with everything going on in the current world at the time of this chapter being uploaded. But it's important to remember to stay calm and take care of yourselves, be mindful of everything around you.

But despite everything, I hope this chapter and this story as a whole, can at least ease the stress a little bit.

The choice Ed had to take was a brutal one that he was not prepared to make, he never wanted to make this choice and he felt it would only end badly no matter which he picked.

One one side were Eddy, Double D, Jonny and Janyse. Ever since he started high achool Janyse looked out for him. Even though she hung out with the Kankers, Ed always thought she was cool and tough. Speaking of the Kankers, Ed always saw them under control whenever Janyse was with them and that always made Ed feel safe.

Jonny was always a fun guy in Ed's eyes. There was one time he thought of Jonny as annoying, with him constantly cracking his bones with extreme flexibility, but afterwards there was nothing but fun times and laughs with him. Plus both of them thought Plank was a riot!

Then there we're Eddy and Double D...

Ed didn't even know where to begin with them, his closest friends. Friends that he saw more as brothers, and that's essentially what they were. It had gotten to the point where it was an extreme rarity to see any of them apart.

But on the other side was Sarah, his younger sister. Despite all that she had put him through for years, he never once lost his love for her. Part of which was in fear of what his parents would do to him if anything happened to her. But after the ordeal with Eddy's Brother, the two truly started getting along, and their family even began functioning properly and with that, Ed felt proud to protect and watch over his younger sibling.

And wherever Sarah went, Jimmy was close behind. As with Sarah, Jimmy also began treating the Eds better after the movie, with Eddy and Jimmy now working together to scam members of their respective schools. Jimmy and Ed themselves even developed more of a brotherly bond, which allowed all three of them to play together.

At the current moment though, Ed had to make his choice; and he had no time to waste. He sclosed his eyes and clenched his head in frustration before running at the people he felt he had to save.

He ran at the Marauder brandishing the machete at his sister and punched him square in the jaw with an audible crack. Once the man was knocked out, Ed pulled his sister and Jimmy into an embrace before turning his head to his friends.

"Kill 'em!" The Marauder holding the ax ordered. He readied his weapon to strike Jonny and Plank until...

"Get away from those kids!" A grown man shouted.

It was Terry, holding an AK-47 and not hesitating to blast the Marauders with surprising accuracy, securing the safety of his brother and friends.

"You guys alright?" Terry asked.

"Y-yeah, Plank says he's ok, and I am too!" Jonny replied. Double D looked like he nearly had a heart attack, but he took deep breaths in an attempt to get his heart rate down with Janyse helping him and giving Terry a thumbs up.

"Thanks, bro..." Eddy said, his tone sounding like he was still trying to take in everything that had just happened.

Sarah and Jimmy ran over to the others and let them know they were also alright. Ed looked at Eddy and Double D, the latter helping Ed back up to his feet and bringing him over to the others. Eddy however didn't look at Ed. Ed couldn't even tell how Eddy was feeling since he couldn't see his face.

"Hey, you folks alright?"

Dusty Oakton ran over to the group and was relieved to see them alright, at least for the moment.

"Thank goodness nobody got hurt. But we gotta hurry and get out of here!"

"Where can we even go?!" Janyse asked, her voice a bit hard to hear over the sounds of shouting, screaming, and gunfire that rang out around them.

"I'll show you, but you folks need to get your things quick!"

The group ran over to their cabins, taking out any singular or small groups of Marauders that were in there way while avoiding larger groups.

Once they arrived, Dusty agreed to keep watch while everyone packed their bags. The Eds were surprised to see Rolf was already there and packed up.

"Rolf? What are you doing here?" Double D asked.

"Ed-boys, a pandemonium worse than we have expected has come! Rolf has collected all of our friends and allies, we must flee to a new location!" Rolf announced.

"Rolf, we're all packed up!" Kevin called out as he entered the room, his bags all packed. He noticed the Eds and pushed them to pack up, helping Ed and Double D since he knew those two would take longer to pack.

Once everyone was all packed up, Terry realized something that made his eyes go wide with horror as he turned to Eddy.

"Where's dad?!"

Almost like clockwork, the teens could hear the aound of shouting heading towards them.

"YYYYYYAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!"

The father of the two boys charged in, being pushed by Lenore Kanker and followed by her daughters and the rest of the gang. The latter carried an Uzi while the former with two M16 rifles, the others were either unarmed or had simple 9mm pistols. Several Marauders fled from the group, either not having weapons that would be effective against them all or simply wanting to avoid the psychotic shouting of the adults leading the pack.

Rolf's parents embraced their son, thankful for his safety, with the other parents doing the same.

"You folks never stop surprising me!" Dusty said with a smile, though it quickly faded into a more serious look. "Follow me, I know a way you can get out of here!"

As the group followed Dusty, the noise and chaos attracted a horde of zombies to the camp, with James leading the pack...

Armando wore a bear pelt as he charged around the compound, eviscerating anyone that wasn't a Marauder with a SPAS-12 shotgun.

The sounds of human zombies groaning and the sight of animal zombies made him smirk and chuckle.

"Oh? Do we have a few uninvited guests crashing the party?" He said to himself.

"Hey kid!" A voice called out. Another Marauder ran over to Armando, lookibg as though he had been searching for the young man. "I saw that group you were talking about. They're heading to the east section of the compound!"

"Good to know." Armando replied with a bit of an annoyed look on his face. "And by the way..."

The Marauder was suddenly shot point blank by Armando, his face exploding from the blast and his body falling with a resounding thud.

"Don't call me kid." Armando spat as he headed in the direction of the group.

Dusty lead the gang to a wooden cabin that held wooden supplies for the compound. There was however, one object that looked incredibly out of place: a worn and dirty mattress.

Dusty pulled the mattress away to reveal a hatch that had a ladder going down.

"Down here, hurry!" Dusty urged, following the gang down after every one of them descended. The ladder lead to what looked like a boiler room full of pipes and what appeared to be septic tanks.

"What is this?" Nazz asked.

"Our compound qas built on top of an old coal mine. When we moved in here, my dad and some of his friends looked all around these caves and agreed to use them in casd the government ever came to hurt us." Dusty answered.

"But what if we're followed. I'm sure those guys will find that way in sooner or later." Lee questioned.

"And the other people from the compound?!" Erin added.

"Yeah but these caves are a maze and there are a bunch or other exits and entrances so anyone else who could get away should be able to. For now let's just focus on getting you folks to safety."

"Hold on." Terry said, placing a hand on Dusty's shoulder. "What about your parents?"

"My ma and pa will be just fine. They're the toughest people I know, and they know these caves like the back of their hands! I know they'll be alright."

While many of the group were skeptical, they placed their faith in Dusty.

Eventually they reached a crossroads of eight pathways, not counting the one the group was just on. Several lines of different colors pointed in the direction of the caves, one was red, another was blue, green, and then yellow, he remaining four were all white.

"I think we're safe for a bit." Dusty began. "All the paths with a white line pointing to them lead to other exits, the red one is for medical supplies, yellow is for food, green is for weapons, and blue is for other clothes and other supplies. Feel free to get some things you might need, but don't waste too much time, those guys will find us if we take too long."

"What are you gonna do?" Matt asked.

"I'll wait here, if I see or hear anyone suspicious I'll signal to you all." Dusty answered as he took out a woodblock and small drumstick. He tapped it three times, with the noise echoing slightly throughout the surrounding paths.

"That is actually rather ingenious!" Kathy admitted.

"Indeed!" Double D agreed. "The sounds of the woodblock are at a different frequency than that of a human voice. Using it would allow us to hear the instrument before any intruders would."

"Well if we don't have that much time then we have to hurry!" Janyse announced. Everyone split up into four groups and headed to get supplies.

The Eds went to go get food with Matt and Jonny. Normally, Ed would have happily done the task and tried to take as much as he could with a happy grin. But with what happened earlier, Ed had too much on his mind to work with a smile. He slowly and carefully handed Matt bottles of water, Matt picked up on Ed's melancholy and felt like he had to act as he placed a hand on his friend's shoulder

"You alright?"

Ed looked over at his best friends, who were packing bread and meat products into their bags. The two didn't seem to notice Ed looking at them, with Ed able to see Double D in an understandable panic. But Eddy, he couldn't see Eddy's face...

"They're mad at me... I know it!" Ed said in a hushed tone.

"Why?" Matt was surprised and confused at Ed's answer. From the years that the four have known each other, Matt had seen Edd and Eddy annoyed with Ed, but never outright angry with him. Even then Ed never did anything bad enough for him to act this way.

"Earlier, there were these guys threatening to kill my baby sister and Jimmy. I went to go help them but then more guys came and they were about to kill Eddy and Double D and Janyse and Jimmy! I knew I couldn't save everyone and... and..." Ed explained, the stress he was going through caught up with him and he began to cry as he put his hands to his face.

"So you saved Sarah and Jimmy."

"Uh-huh." Ed nodded. Matt looked at his friend and thought for a moment.

"Well big guy, you know I was never really good with situations like this but the best thing I think you could do is be straight with them and talk about how you feel."

The sound of the woodblock tapping made the group fall silent. Matt and Ed turned around to see Edd and Eddy turning to them, Ed could now see Eddy's face. He didn't look angry or disappointed. Maybe Double D knew the right word to describe how Eddy looked, but Ed simply didn't know what the word was.

"Let's go, boys." Eddy said softly, the four of them hurried out of the cave without another word.

Everyone regrouped with Dusty and immediately heard voices they didn't recognize.

Dusty stood in front of a path with a white Mark, signaling the group to follow him. Rolf brandished a large club with his mother and father readying a machete and battle ax respectively. Kevin placed a hand on his best friend's shoulder and gave him a concerned look.

Rolf knew what he wanted to do was risky but he took a deep breath and closed his eyes, facing the direction of their pursuers.

"I must do this Kevin. If Rolf does not stop them, they may take the lives of the rest of you. All of you are strong and you know more of this western world than Rolf and his family does. There are more survivors in this world that you can save just like all of you have saved Rolf so many years ago."

"Rolf, no!' Nazz added, grabbing onto his arm.

"Go! You all must flee before they find us!" Rolf said sternly. Dusty watched everything unfold, a confident look growing on his face.

"Don't worry, I'll stay with them. They might need all the help they can get. Follow this path and you'll be out in no time!" He told the others.

"But what if you're outnumbered?" Jimmy asked. "They might come after us next!"

"Then we have ro be ready." Kevin said flatly, he turned his hat forward to cover his eyes. He knew there was no way to change Rolf's mind now. The least he could do was honor his best friend's wish.

"Let's go!"

Kevin's voice cracked as he gave that last statement. Streams of tears beginning to flow from his eyes as well as Nazz's. Some of the other Peach Creek residents were close to sheddibg tears as well. But there was no time to waste as they followed the path Dusty told them to go down.

"Are you sure you wish to stay?" Rolf asked Dusty.

"Yup, I have a plan to help everyone else escape! Can you stall those guys long enough for me to set everything up?"

"Stall?" Rolf chuckled. "No, we shall conquer!"

The path the rest of the group were taking was empty and the only noise echoing through it were the sound of everyone's footsteps.

Ed was thankful that was the only sound they could hear, because if any of them was a mind reader then they would hear his thoughts screaming. His best friends being angry with him was one thing that ate away at his mental state but the sacrifice of another close friend made everything ten tines worse. But while Rolf was a close friend of his, he couldn't even imagine what Kevin was going through...

Kevin wiped away his tears but kept his hat in the same position over his eyes. He knew Rolf for what felt like his whole life and now all the time they spent together seemed to flash in front of him.

Peach Creek: 14 years earlier...

Kevin, a four year old boy at the time, was riding a tricycle in his front yard by himself. Usually he would play with Nazz but her mom always made her go shopping with her. He would sometimes play with Jonny but he didn't know where he was, maybe at the playground but Kevin wasn't allowed to go there alone and his mom was making snacks for him inside.

That was when he saw a large cart being pulled by two cows, a goat, and a pic. There was a man and woman driving the cart and an elderly couple in the back. The elderly woman was holding a little boy that was about as old as Kevin was. He had blue hair and wore a yellow shirt under brown suspenders.

The family stopped the cart in front of the house across the street from Kevin and they were putting everything in the cart inside. The older man was guiding the animals to the back too.

"Oh, looks like the new neighbors are here."

"New neighbors?" Kevin asked as his mother went back inside for a moment before coming back out and handing Kevin two juice boxes and a plastic bowl with apple slices.

"Mhmm, they were supposed to be coming in today, and it looks like they have a boy the same age as you! Why don't we go and say hi!"

Kevin hopped off his tricycle and walked over to the neighbor's home. His mother talked to the new family while Kevin walked over to the boy.

"Hi, I'm Kevin! What's your name?" Kevin greeted, the new boy looked at Kevin in amazement and wonder as he struggled to think of what to say.

"Um... I am Rolf." Rolf greeted.

"Rolf? That's a cool name! Want a juice box?"

Kevin handed the juice to Rolf, who studied it as he was a deer in headlights.

"So this is the new kid?"

The two boys turned to see Ed, Edd, and Eddy (appearing as they did at the end of Every Which Way But Ed) walking towards them.

"Hello... I... Am Rolf." Rolf greeted.

"It appears as though he doesn't know much English." Edd noted. "Not to worry, we can teach you!"

"Yeah we can!" Eddy added. "For a quarter!"

"Eddy!" Double D called out. Ed was hopping around as soon as soon as he heard the news thay Rolf moved in and went to go shake his hand and greet him, but he tripped on hos untied shoelaces and fell on his face.

Ed tried to speak but his voice was muffled by the sidewalk.

"Ed!" Double D cried out, helping his friend up.

"He doesn't have to oay to learn how to talk!" Kevin spoke out. "Come on Rolf, we don't need to give any money to those... those dorks!"

"D-ducks?" Rolf asked.

"No, Rolf!" Kevin laughed. "I said dorks! It's a word I heard on tv!"

Rolf, his parents, and Dusty stood their ground against the approaching Marauders.

"There they are!" One of them called out upon spotting the group.

As they approached, Rolf felt as though time moved slowly as he looked back at the years he spent learning about the Western world, and all the memories he made with his friends:

These memories included: the Kankers giving him and his fellow Urban Rangers makeovers in Ed Overboard.

Him helping Sarah find her diary in For Your Ed Only.

Him, Jonny, and Jimmy going on their camping trip in An Ed In The Bush.

Nazz laughing at how he and Kevin had shaved Victor's fur in the shape of Nazz's name.

Eddy challenging him for the Hairy Chest of Resilience Badge in The Good, The Bad, and the Ed.

Him seeking Double D's help when lobsters invaded his farm in Scrambled Ed.

Ed working for him for the first time in Will Work For Ed.

Janyse helping him learn how to properly type when he started high school.

Matt teaching him how to speak proper English, it helpes him a lot academically, but Rolf was accustomed to speaking how he did so he only ever spoke properly when it came to school.

But by far, the memories that touched him the most were Kevin becoming his first friend in the cul-de-sac and with his help alongside Nazz, helped him understand English; the events at the end of the Big Picture Show and the gang just celebrating and singing as they headed home; and him standing alongside Matt, Jonny, Eddy, Ed, and Kevin during their senior year of high school, winning the biggest football game of the year against their biggest rivals: the Lemon Brook Lumpers.

Once Rolf snapped back to reality, the Marauders closed in and he fought them along with his parents. Dusty thought it was hopeless as he saw that the attackers had guns, which should theoretically be more than enough to stop the melee weapons that the family used. But the speed and sheer warrior instinct that Rolf's family had proved more than enough to even the odds.

Every so often, Rolf would take quick glances at Dusty, who seemed to be setting something up by the walls of the cave that the Marauders came in from...

Rolf had no time to think about what Dusty was doing though as a Marauder sped towards him in an attempt to whack him in the head with the butt of his shotgun, but Rolf was quick on his feet and smacked the gun away with his club before smacking the attacker away right after.

Rolf's parents beat more and more of the Marauders, bashing them into one big pile in front of the cave they came in from. Rolf then reached into his pocket and pulled out a large hat in the shape of a hammer.

"W-what... What is that?" A marauder asked, taking deep breaths out of exhaustion.

"This? This is the Hat of Discipline! Are you not aware of this?! Do you live in this cave?!" Rolf asked in fury. He took a running start and battered the pile with a swinging blow that knocked them all back the way they came!

"Awesome work! This is perfect!" Dusty proclaimed as he pulled out a remote from his pocket as he urged the three of them to step back. "You folks might wanna get away, I'm gonna blast this to slow them down for good!"

The rest of the group saw light at the end of the tunnel, once they were all outside they couldn't help but look back inside the cave, hopeful that Rolf and his family would run right out with them, Dusty right behind them.

What they got however was something none of them expected.

An explosion, unlike anything the group has ever heard before. Louder than the time Ed destroyed Edd's house with static electricity.

The caves began to rattle as the sound of the explosion reverberated throughout the mountain, nobody was sure how far away the explosion could be heard but they didn't think about that.

With the explosions came a cave in, the group could see boulders falling inside the cave.

Everyone could only watch as the boulders continued to fall until they finally blocked the cave entrance.

"Rolf..." Kevin choked out as he sank to his knees, not caring if everyone saw him crying. Most of the others were stunned and/or crying themselves.

Kevin always felt like he had a plan for his life; be it for a career, or just for something to do for the day. But not this time.

Right now he had no idea what to do, and he felt hopeless because of it.

I know this chapter ends on a low note, but I don't want your spirits to be the same. Keep your chin up and stay hopeful.