Well I would be lying if I said I was expecting the result of the previous choice. You'll see what I mean later on in this chapter when the result is shown.
Speaking of which, the previous chapter contained 2 different situations where readers were provided with a choice to make, but when checking on the results, most of which only gave 1 response. Because of this I will have to assume that the option given (B, for example) is what you picked for BOTH the middle and end of the chapter.
What does this mean for the story? Well, I'll still continue on with the general plot as I planned, but I'll go into a bit more detail about this at the end. For now, enjoy the chaos in this chapter because it'll be insane!
It was either the world, or their friend...
Edd and Eddy both knew that the choice Edd had to make was a dire one, but with the circumstances presented to them, there was only one thing Edd felt that he could do.
"Oh, curse this forsaken world!" Double D bemoaned before he turned to his shorter companion and ran past him. "Come on, Eddy, we need to go after Ed!"
Eddy quickly looked back at the hotel before running after his friend. All around them the two could hear the innocent people residing in the compound screaming in sheer terror, the shouts of the military as they either ordered people to get on the ground, stop where they stood, or ordered their squadron to move into different positions. All of this, however, was drowned out somewhat by the sound of gunfire from both sides.
"So what do we do?" Eddy asked. Edd wished he could just stop and think for a moment. In truth, he didn't have any sort of plan. How could anyone have one at a time like this, with everything that's going on around them?
The two continued running forward, the Kanker sisters just barely in their line of sight until suddenly, they stopped and hid behind an abandoned car, the landing zone that the rescue helicopters were meant to use just ahead of them.
"Why'd you stop?!" Eddy asked, Lee simply pointed at another jeep speeding towards their vicinity. The vehicle drifted to the side a bit before coming to a halt. As several men stepped out of the car, one of which was General Shirley. Everyone who was waiting by the LZ had their attention brought from keeping themselves out of harm's way, including Sarah, Jimmy, Rachel, Terry and Terry's dad. The latter of the three tried his best to keep the two youngsters away from danger.
"SARAH!" Ed screamed. Upon hearing his voice, everyone's eyes turned to Ed, including those of Shirley and his men, one of which began whispering to the General...
"Ed?!" Sarah asked aloud as she saw her older brother running towards them. Eyes began to turn to the soldiers as they began lifting their rifles. "ED!" Sarah, May and the remaining two Eds screamed as the young redhead nearly jumped out of her hiding spot. The world itself seemed to slow down and become silent as the soldiers pressed down on the triggers of their rifles.
Ed had only just managed to turn his head the moment he began hearing the pops of the bullets. Miraculously, most of the shots missed him completely, but various bullets tore through Ed's thigh, lower torso and arms. May screamed at the top of her lungs for a moment before her sisters covered her mouth. Unfortunately, the armed men heard the short yelp and turned to face the teens with Shirley quickly spotting and recognizing Edd the moment he saw him. The hat-wearing Ed could feel his blood turn to ice as he looked at the General.
Just as the man was about to order his soldiers to make their move, a loud boom thundered around them, blowing one of the men away with part of his head destroyed. The rest turn to see who their assailant was, only to be met with more gunfire from Rosie and Shades alongside a very pissed off looking Lenore and Terry. The four of them sporting injuries ranging from a few cuts to a visibly broken arm from Shades.
"You want to fuck with us now?!" Lenore hissed, brandishing a pistol towards the General with one hand while holding her shotgun in the other, gunpowder smoke still seeping from the barrel. "Fuck with those kids and I'll tear your God damn heart out!"
With a grimace, General Shirley quickly drew a revolver from the holster on his hip, only for it to be blasted out of his hand by Terry.
"Try me, you piece of shit." The younger man spat. Just as the teens were about to go and check on Ed, another voice rang out amongst the chaos.
"Alright, take as much as you can! There's gotta be some fancy crap all over the place since it's Vegas!"
The voice was followed by what sounded like hooves and a large number of people. The moment the survivors saw them their mood dropped even further.
"Oh for cryin' out loud, now those Marauder guys are here, too?!" Eddy growled. With numbers no longer on his side and with attention taken off of him for at least that moment, General Shirley sprinted away from the group, taking out a secondary pistol he had on his hip and firing blindly at the group, thankfully missing them all. Once he stopped firing, everyone immediately ran over to Ed, who was still lying motionless on the ground with blood slowly pooling around his wounds.
"ED!" Sarah screamed, tears already streaming down her face as she tried shaking her older brother. "Get up, Stupid! Double D, do something!"
"Don't touch him!" May urged, pushing Sarah away a bit. Shockingly, Sarah chose to ignore the push as she continued looking between Double D and her fallen brother. The young genius himself found his mouth dry and his hands shaking as he pressed two fingers against the neck of the largest of the trio.
"H-He's alive..." Edd sighed faintly. "B-But we can't leave him here... like this. We need to get him to safety and tend to his wounds."
"What about Sergeant Psycho?" Eddy asked. "We can't just let him go!"
"After what he did to my man, I want him dead!" May shouted.
"He tried to kill my brother, he's gonna pay!" Sarah added, Jimmy immediately clung to her arm with worry plastered on his face.
"B-B-But, Sarah-"
"But nothing, Jimmy! If he gets away then he's gonna come back again! These are the same guys who came after us in that helicopter, right? I say we end him now!"
"But we'd be going up against him and all the cronies he came here with!" Marie added. "Plus these country creeps are running around now, too!"
"All hell's going loose right now." Shades said, keeping watch on their surroundings. "I'm in no condition to fight so I can keep watch over your boy."
"I can't move around much either, I'll make sure nothing happens to Ed." Eddy and Terry's dad assured.
"And I can't leave Big Ed behind!" May added.
"Jimmy, look after my brother, too."
"N-No way!" Jimmy replied, a surprisingly fierce look in his eyes despite him visibly trembling. "I can't let you get hurt!"
"If we're going after this creep, what are we gonna do about him?" Lee asked, pointing to Ed, who Double D had turned over in order for him and Rachel to inspect and try treating his wounds.
"It... It seems like a miracle, but none of his vital organs appear to have been hit. So long as we can remove the bullets and treat the wounds then Ed will be fine, but..."
"But?" Rachel asked.
"But if I stay here to help Ed, it may lead to these military officials to target this location. Remember, I'm the one they're after."
"Then that means you'll just have to come with us!" Eddy said, patting the scrawny teen on the back. "Besides, if we catch this guy, then maybe he'll spill the beans on what happened to your parents! Don't think we forgot about them!"
Edd was silent for a moment as he looked at everyone around him, even taking a moment to look down at Ed, who was breathing heavily and still unconscious.
"Very well then." Edd huffed as he stood to his feet. "I will join the others in going after that man. May, Rachel, please do as much as you can to stop Ed's bleeding, try to take out as many of the bullets as you can until we return, as that will make sealing his wounds much easier."
"Right!" "On it!" The two girls assured, with May sniffling through her tears of panic. As the group going after Shirley armed and prepared themselves for the chase, Edd clenched one of his fists as he reached down and grabbed the revolver that the General had dropped. With a venomous glare, Edd looked in the direction Shirley had run off in, just managing to catch a glimpse of him in the distance, watching the group.
Shirley pulled out a radio from his back pocket, eyes still locked on the gang as the machine buzzed to life.
"Sir?" A man called out from the other end.
"Aerial support is hereby authorized. Explosive force as well. Kill anyone that is not the target."
"Understood."
Cutting the connection, Shirley ran off as fast as he could once he noticed the group heading towards him, his only means of fighting back now being the assault rifle he had on his back.
With the General barely in their line of sight, the group consisting of the two Kanker sisters and their mother, the McGee brothers, Rosie, Sarah, Jimmy and Edd ran after the man, dodging stray bullets and taking out as many soldiers and Marauders that were in their path.
"Ugh, does this guy ever slow down?!" Eddy grumbled, already taking a few labored breaths.
"His military training has likely given him a good amount of stamina." Edd answered, getting an annoyed sigh from his shorter friend.
"He can't run forever." Lee noted. Just as she was about to say more, the group heard an ungodly sounding screech coming straight towards them. With no hesitation, Rosie raised up her shotgun and blasted the incoming zombie's upper body to bits. As it's legs collapsed onto the asphalt, more zombies swarmed the area, attacking the Army, Marauders, and the other survivors indiscriminately.
"Oh for fuck's sake, now the zombies are here, too?!" Terry groaned. As the gang prepared to fight back against an incoming swarm of zombies, the undead were torn to shreds from machine gun fire from above.
"Oh this just keeps getting better..." Eddy sighed in defeat as he and the others looked up at the attack helicopter that was currently refocusing its aim on them.
"Try to hit the right targets this time!" They heard someone say on the chopper's megaphone.
"Hey, it was an honest mistake!" The co-pilot replied. Just before the helicopter could fire again, the two pilots heard what sounded like something hitting their vehicle. As they maneuvered around to see their attacker, the two noticed some Marauders on the rooftop of a nearby building firing at them. From another rooftop, some residents of the compound also began firing at the pair.
"Looks like we've encountered an 'enemy of my enemy' scenario." Double D noted.
"Well we better take advantage of it!" Lenore called out, pointing towards Shirley. "He's getting away!"
As the gang continued following the General, they noticed him appearing to walk into his radio again before entering the lobby of a multi-story building.
As the Peach Creak survivors entered the first floor, they were immediately met with a group of soldiers aiming their weapons at them. Had it not been for a quick dive towards the nearest cover, things could have gotten messy.
As the heroes tried taking potshots at the soldiers, a horde of zombies came crashing through the wall behind the soldiers. A behemoth of a zombie leading the pack and appearing to be the one who demolished the wall. It was a hulking figure with grey skin and bright, yellow eyes. It's muscular figure too large to wear any clothes, not like it even looked human anymore to begin with. From behind it, the horde rushed in and began attacking the soldiers, who now had to switch their attention over to the undead. The moment their backs were away from the Peach Creek gang however...
"They're distracted! Rush 'em!" A southern voice called from outside. A group of Marauders rushed into the building, completely ignoring the heroes.
"Thank goodness for human ignorance..." Edd said in a hushed tone.
"Yeah, but what do we do now?" Marie asked. Everyone looked around for some sort of safety or sign of Shirley, everywhere they looked there seemed to be either a person with their guns blasting or an undead monster rushing to take a bite into someone's neck.
"There!" Jimmy called out, his finger pointing to a stairwell.
"Nice going, Fluffy!" Terry chuckled, ruffling the smaller boy's hair. "Everyone keep your head down!"
Moving quickly, yet carefully, the nine of them began to enter the stairwell, the two preteens and Terry managing to catch a glimpse of the hulking zombie grab a soldier and fling him into the elevator doors with a sickening crunch that undoubtedly broke some bones. The three didn't even hear the man scream as the doors followed him down to the bottom of the elevator shaft.
"So what floor did he end up going to?" Rosie said suddenly as the group went up to the 4th floor.
"I took note of the building as we entered." Double D replied. "There are approximately ten floors to this building that are above ground."
"Approximately?" Eddy asked.
"Well, I'm not counting any basement floors, but I believe it would be unlikely that this army official went downstairs. Him coming in here and having a helicopter provide cover fire for him means he will likely use it as a means of escape as well."
"So let's make sure he won't get the chance to leave." Lenore hissed.
"If he's heading to the roof then we should head there A.S.A.P!" Lee added.
With just a hint of confidence returning to the group, they charged up the stairs with the two remaining Eds in front, the Kankers in the middle, and Terry guarding the kids with Rosie in the rear. Without warning, the stairwell suddenly burst, knocking the rear guard back down to the bottom of the flight. As the kicked up dust began to clear, the part of the group that had been knocked back were able to see the others looking back at them in a panic, though some were obscured by the perpetrator of the explosion.
With a roar, the zombie hulk glowered down at Terry's group, locking eyes with the older brother.
"Go!" Terry yelled. "We'll hold this freak off!"
Before anyone could protest, the zombie lunged at the four down below, who ran back down to the 4th floor with Sarah and Jimmy screaming in panic.
"Protect her, bro..." Eddy said lowly to himself. "We can't lose both her and Ed..."
"That's the last one I could find..." Rachel said, dropping the last bullet she could find and remove from Ed's body onto the ground and sealing the wound. "You did a really good job, May."
"Th-Thanks..." The younger blonde sniffled before looking back at the man she loved. Ed was still unconscious, but his bleeding had been mostly stopped. Only one bullet remained inside of him, on the right side of his midsection. The two women tried to remove it, but Ed tensed up and cried out in pain when they attempted to do so. For the time being, they tried to minimize the bleeding around his wound. "Big Ed..."
"Jesus H. Christ, there's no end to these freaks!" Shades cursed.
"It's a war zone out here..." Mr. McGee grumbled. "At least not all the fire is focused on us. Don't know how much longer we can hold out though!"
May and Rachel each shared a nervous glance with each other before turning in the direction the others had ran to...
The Kankers and Eds continued their trek up the stairwell, now reaching the 8th floor. The moment they passed by the door to the floor itself however, it swung open. With his eyes widening in shock before his brows furrowed, a Marauder looked at the group with disdain and a buck-toothed grin.
"Aha!" He exclaimed. "I knew I'd catch someone out-"
Lenore promptly blasted the man with her shotgun, knocking him back to the hall he had emerged from.
"Up there, I heard something!" A voice they did not recognize called out from below them.
"Oh come on now..." Edd groaned, losing his patience.
"Relax, we'll lose them in here, you guys go on." Marie assured, gesturing towards her mother and sister.
"You think you two can handle this on your own?" Lee asked.
The two Eds looked to each other for a second in concern before Edd completely left Eddy stunned with his answer.
"We've come this far, I suppose we'll have to."
A sly grin grew on Marie's face as she grabbed Double D's shirt collar and pulled him in for a quick peck on the lips. "You've got this." She said before the ladies hurried onto the 8th floor, making sure to hurry the boys along before going.
The stairwell grew eerily quiet as Edd and Eddy reached the door to the roof. Both boys gulped to themselves as they opened the door and stepped onto the roof of the building, General Shirley was waiting on the rooftop, catching his breath as he turned to face the duo.
"So... you've finally caught up to me..." He began. "You refused to follow the orders my men gave you before, but I will say this to you personally; come with me. If you do so, I can assure the safety of both you and your parents."
"M-My parents?" Edd asked as Eddy's jaw dropped. "You have my parents?!"
Shirley nodded, keeping his stoic glare. "They're currently being kept in a military base in the state of Georgia, alive and well. However, they are being detained in order to help us end this plague."
The two young men remained silent for a moment, sharing a quick look with each other before returning their gaze to the military man...
"Shit, shit, shit!" Terry cursed as he carried Jimmy on his shoulders. The smaller boy was nowhere near as athletic as him and the girls, so the older man had to resort to carrying him, not that the loudmouthed brat was any better. The two grown-ups eventually heard her panting and struggling to keep up, thankfully Rosie didn't waste a second as she easily scooped Sarah up and placed her on her own shoulders.
They couldn't slow down for a second, that beast of a zombie was still hot on their tail and showed no signs of slowing down as it tore through almost every human and zombie in its way. The battlefield that was the 5th floor quickly became a barren wasteland with dust and debris littering the floor. In a bizarre act of what one could call an armistice, the soldiers and Marauders stopped aiming for each other as well as the four survivors and focused all their fire on the behemoth and any remaining zombies on the current floor.
At the very least, all the running allowed the four to find out that the building they were in was an apartment complex and that the floors were essentially one long hallway, meaning the path that Terry and Rosie ran on was effectively a big circle, or square in this case. This would mean that the chase could go on for as long as the two runners could last, but unfortunately, that wouldn't be for much longer, and the potshots the others were taking caused the beast no harm at all. They only managed the bounce right off of its almost stone-like skin.
The second the four saw him, they weren't sure if he was brave, stupid, suicidal or some combination of the three, but one of the soldiers pulled out a grenade and pulled the pin as the four and the beast approached him. Knowing what was about to happen, the four screamed in a panic as they sprinted past the soldier with as much energy as they could muster. While they managed to escape the blast zone, the hulking zombie grabbed the soldier just as the grenade exploded, showering the hall in smoke. Moving as quickly as they could to regain their sight and breathe in some better air (though with how damaged everything was, nothing was really good at the moment), the adults let the kids off of their shoulders and took a moment to catch their breath.
"Fucking hell..." Terry cursed. "I thought I was done with running like that after high school..."
"At least that horrible abomination is gone now..." Jimmy sighed.
Clearly, the universe itself appeared to hate the group as the monster crashed right through the wall of the room in front of them, half of its body now completely destroyed as the right side of its torso was completely gone alongside the right arm and the right half of its head. Despite the damage, it acted like it barely took a scratch as it let out a terrifying roar. With a scream, the chase resumed, only now going in the opposite direction. The four were also thankful that the beast appeared to move much slower now than before, they still had to run, but at a pace that left them even as long as they kept moving. As they ran, the air began to grow brighter as the hole left by the explosion entered their view and allowing the outside air to permeate the hallway. Not only was the carnage that went on outside now visible, but a fire escape was just within reach, having barely even taken a scratch from the blast.
"Look!" Sarah called out, pointing to the charred remains of the suicidal soldier, or at least what wasn't completely destroyed. What she had been pointing to was another grenade, miraculously undamaged as well. "I've got an idea! You guys jump for it, I'll finish him off!"
"Sarah, no!" Jimmy pleaded, he tried to stop Sarah as the young redhead stopped to pick up the grenade. Rosie had to grab Jimmy in order to stop him from restraining Sarah as the two joined Terry in leaping for the fire escape.
'Gotta time this just right...' Sarah said to herself as she pulled the pin and tossed the grenade into the air in front of her just as the behemoth drew in close. The moment she tossed it she also leaped for the metal structure her friends had reached. As she was pulled to safety by Terry, the monster zombie ran into the grenade, the momentum causing it to stick to its face as it ran right out of the hole and began falling towards the ground below. It never managed to hit the ground as the grenade exploded, leaving only the leg of the beast and various bits of its body to splatter the ground.
As the four were finally given the chance to actually breathe easy, Jimmy pulled Sarah in for a hug and began to cry.
"Sarah! That was crazy! We almost lost you!"
"Yeah... I'm sorry..." Sarah replied, still breathing hard. "It was the only thing I could think of on such short notice."
"Well it worked." Rosie commented. "Not bad, kid!"
"Is it dead?" The four heard from the hallway.
"I think so."
"Great, now let's get rid of those army guys!"
"Hostiles are resuming fire! I repeat, hostiles are resuming fire!"
"Hey, what happened to those other guys that were here?"
Knowing what was coming, the four began climbing the fire escape upwards in order to catch up with the rest of the group. As they continued to climb, they caught a glimpse of Lee, dusting off her hands as she stood by her sister and mother.
"Well, I think that's all of them." The curly-haired Kanker remarked, Lenore instinctively raised her gun when the three heard knocking on the window, but they relaxed when they found that it was just their allies. As Marie let them in, Terry quickly noticed that not everyone was there.
"Looks like you ladies handled things over here without a problem." He said. "Where's Pipsqueak and his friend?"
"Probably on the roof by now. We got separated because of more dirtbags, with any luck they've gotten to that important looking guy." Lenore explained.
"Yeah, but we haven't been lucky today, now have we?" Rosie remarked.
"Then we gotta move, I'm not letting anything happen to my man!" Marie huffed as the seven of them began running for the stairwell.
"Well, Eddward, will you come with us willingly?" General Shirley asked. "If you do so, I can give you certainty that no harm will come to your family."
"Don't listen to him, Double D!" Eddy pleaded. "He's just trying to get into your head!"
"And what do I possibly gain from lying, boy?! You are not to speak unless you are spoken to, and I don't remember asking for your input! Eddward, if you won't come willingly, I have the means of forcing you to comply!"
Eddy looked towards his hat-wearing friend and was surprised to see Edd's face burning red and tears beginning to well up in his eyes.
"You think I'm going with you?" Double D began, breaking his silence. "You attacked people who are just trying to survive, severely harming and ending the lives of innocent people and attacking my closest friends and family! I would rather die than go with you!"
"Very well then, forceful detainment it is!" Shirley scoffed.
"Oh fuck off!" Eddy swore as he reached for his gun, though Shirley beat him to the draw as he raised his pistol at the shorter boy.
The sound of a door swinging open caught everyone by surprise, but nobody turned to see who had joined them as time felt as though it began moving in slow motion.
"NOOOOO!" Edd shouted. Eddy's eyes widened as he looked back at the General. The first thing he noticed was the man's pistol pointed at him, it almost didn't register to him that the man was falling backwards. His eyes then shifted over to Edd, his eyes still frantic and almost manic as Eddy looked down at his hands.
Edd was still holding onto the revolver he had picked up back at the LZ and was pointing it at its former owner. Eddy watched as his friend pulled the trigger for a second and then a third time before he looked back at Shirley. The gun appeared to be powerful enough to blow chunks of his body off of him even through his uniform as he heard a fourth and fifth pop of the gun. With one last pull of the trigger, the last bullet hit the General square in the face, pushing him over the edge of the building and down the ten stories to the ground below. Only silence remained as Eddy looked back at Edd again, the weight of his action now hitting him with full force.
"What have I done..." Double D said as he dropped the gun and sank to his knees.
"I'll tell you what you did." Terry answered, giving the two boys a hard pat on the back. "You kicked his ass!"
"Ahhh, my Oven Mitt, the badass!" Marie added, hugging Double D from behind.
"I... I just killed a man!" The young genius let out.
"You did what you needed to do." Lenore stated. "We saw him pointing his gun at Eddy when we got here, you saved his life. Don't forget, he's the guy in charge of the ones that shot your friend and attacked this place. Him being dead means the rest of these guys won't be as organized and we can slowly pick them off. As for the zombies and country bumpkins, we can focus on them once we get the soldiers out of the way, they're probably the biggest threat."
"Speaking of Ed, we should probably go check on him." Eddy remarked.
"R-Right..." Edd nodded, slowly rising to his feet. Terry smirked to himself as he picked up the revolver in intrigue. As the nine of them headed for the stairwell, they heard the whirring of the helicopter again, although this time it sounded... off.
As they turned around in a panic at the thought of the vehicle targeting them, they were met with a much more worrying sight...
"MAYDAY! MAYDAY!" The co-pilot shouted over the helicopter megaphone as the vehicle spun in midair. "GENERAL SHIRLEY, THE PILOT'S DOWN AND WE'RE TAKING HEAVY FIRE! WE'RE GOING DOWN!"
"Oh no..." Eddy said as everyone's faces grew pale. "No... no... no, NOT THERE!"
The helicopter crashed into the building it was spinning towards: the hotel the survivors were staying at... The ensuing explosion demolished a huge chunk of the building, almost immediately after the initial explosion, another chunk of the building collapsed off due to the structural damage and hit the ground below.
"NO! AH, COME ON, ALL OUR STUFF IS IN THERE!"
"No..." Double D croaked out. "It's much worse than that..." Before anyone could ask how, Double D spoke again. "The Ruby Red Gym Sock was in our room..."
The group stood in silence as they looked at the remains of the hotel. Sarah, with a lump in her throat, was the one to ultimately break the silence.
"Let's... Let's go see how my brother is doing..."
The trek back to the LZ was shockingly quiet, most of the zombies appeared to have been taken care of and what was left of the Marauders and soldiers seemed to have retreated. As they arrived at the Landing Zone, they spotted May and Rachel with Mr. McGee and Shades, the latter getting patched up by the two girls, who looked just as somber as the others.
"How's Ed doing?" Eddy asked.
"We, um, got most of the bullets out." May explained. "But I think there's one we can't reach, Big Ed's still breathing and he doesn't look like he's in much pain anymore but... I'm scared..."
Immediately, Double D checked on his larger friend and tallied the work the two blondes had done.
"Well, I can safely say that you've done all that you could do, which is still quite a bit. Really, the only major damage Ed has taken is one wound that he has sustained to his pancreas. Thankfully, it is a minor organ and can be removed safely, but we don't need to go to that extreme. I can handle this fairly easily, Ed should be just fine after a few months."
"Months?!" Eddy and May called out.
"Y-Yes..." Double D replied. "Injuries like these and the medical care we've been able to give him would take months to heal, even for someone who's shown physical prowess as astounding as Ed. If the rescue helicopter is still set to arrive, it may be best if we allow Ed to be the one to go to Puerto Rico."
"You guys must be luckier than you think..."
The group turned to see Stacy hobbling over to them, her ankle definitely broken and with a deep gash on her forehead as she was supported by Principal Antonucci and Miss Shoring.
"We sure as hell don't feel lucky." Terry grumbled.
"Yeah, I can certainly get that. None of us saw this massacre coming. We lost a lot of good people today, but despite that, we're alive. We're bruised, bloody and beaten, but we're alive. When most of the people came here, they had jack shit to their names, now we're back to that. As much as that sucks, we can find what's still usable and rebuild. The rescue chopper's still on the way, too, so your friend can get the help he needs and get to P.R., where he'll be one-hundred percent safe."
"So it's still on the way..." Double D stated before raising a hand to his chin inquisitively and walking away from the others in the direction of the rubble.
"Hey, where ya' goin'?!" Eddy called out to him.
"I'm going to see if there's anything we can salvage from the wreckage, I would appreciate any assistance."
Everyone looked to each other in confusion before a few followed after Edd...
Spinning... that's what his head felt like. Warm, too. Like he had just taken a nap and woken up ten hours later by mistake and everything felt fuzzy.
Ed slowly opened his eyes and tried to sit up, but the stinging pain in his abdomen stopped him.
"Big Ed, you need to lie down! Here, have some water!"
Ed was gently guided back down onto what felt like a leather seat, he could feel a blanket of some kind on him as he took small sips of the water. As he slowly opened his eyes again, the world still looked fuzzy before his eyes began to adjust to his surroundings.
He was inside of a helicopter, despite his initial expectations, it was a lot roomier than he thought. Though that space was filled with some old, young and injured people sitting near him. Some were getting treated for injuries while others were waiting or talking to their friends and relatives. Among the people he saw in the crowd was some of his group members.
"Hey." Lenore greeted. "How ya' feeling, big guy?"
"I... don't know." Ed replied groggily.
"Yeah, getting shot up like you did will probably do that to you." The mother replied, giving the boy a surprisingly soft smile.
His confusion at the statement was replaced by a twinge of discomfort in his belly again, as he looked down he saw Sarah, his baby sister, embracing him.
"Ed..." She said softly.
"Hiya, baby sister!" He greeted, a bit more energy coming back to him.
"Hey, guys!" Everyone heard Eddy call out. He and the rest of the group had returned with a small cart carrying all of the possessions they had managed to salvage. The only one holding something of note was Edd... who carried the dead remains of the Ruby Red Gym Sock.
"Damn..." Lee cursed upon looking at the sad state of the plant.
"It never stood a chance." Double D said somberly. "But..." His face lit up just a bit as he pulled a small plastic bag out of his pocket that contained seven seeds. "The seeds I was able to breed have survived, so I suppose all hope is not completely lost."
"You see?" Stacy called out to them as she sat in a chair near them, her ankle now suspended as she sat. "It's not the end just yet."
"Perhaps not." Edd replied. "Although... I'm afraid this is the end of your time within our group, Ed."
"What do you mean?" The large boy asked.
"You're beat up real bad, Lumpy." Eddy answered. "It's gonna take a long time before you're back in action and, well, we can't really afford to take you with us so you're the one we're sending to Puerto Rico."
"But we are three peas in a pod, the Three Amigos, like blah, blah and blah!" Ed whined.
"Hey, don't worry, big guy!" Stacy assured. "You'll see them all bit by bit once the next helicopter comes around."
"That's gonna be a negative from us." Terry remarked.
"Pardon?"
"I'm afraid he's correct." Edd added. "I believe I had mentioned this when we had first arrived here, the military personnel that came here were after me. Once word gets back to their superiors in their base that they failed to capture me, they will likely send more troops to find me. As such, we... we've decided that it is best for us to move on from here."
"Where do you intend to go?" Antonucci asked.
"We're... not sure." Lee answered.
"I think I know a place."
The gang all turned to Geoff, who clutched at the bandaged wound at his side as he slowly walked over to them.
"Back when I was in the army, I learned about a bunch of old, abandoned bases stationed around the country. A good chunk of them are exposed to the elements, so I don't think they're your best bet at a more permanent residence, but there's one place that's top notch in terms of security. Further in the East, there's a base stationed on the Ozark Mountains over near Arkansas and Missouri. There's a secret tunnel you can use to get into the base by pressing a secret button that's embedded on a tree marked with orange paint. It's abandoned, so there's little to no supplies actually there, but it'll be a good place to stay for a while."
"If it's so secure, why haven't you guys all stayed there?" Marie questioned.
"That base can only hold so many people, and while the tunnels on the inside of the mountain are long, there's a whole lot of nothing in there. It'd basically be a line of people camping out stretching for miles. That wouldn't be great for morale." The ex-soldier explained.
"We're about to head out, we'd like to ask anyone not penciled in as part of this flight to step off of the helicopter." The pilot announced.
"I suppose this is it." Double D explained. One by one everyone said their goodbyes to the largest of the Eds, some more tearful than others. Yet, nobody appeared to be more heartbroken than Ed himself.
"Do... Do I really have to go Double D?" Ed sniffled.
"I'm afraid so, Ed." Edd replied, nearly choking back tears himself. "But please, I have one request." Edd handed Ed the baggie of seeds. "Ed, these are the seeds to the Ruby Red Gym Sock. If you can give these to any scientists working in Puerto Rico, then we may finally end this plague. You'll be the hero we all need, Ed. Please, guard them with your life if you need to."
"You can count on me, Double D!" Ed replied, giving his friend the biggest smile he could. The two were joined by Eddy, who silently pulled his two best friends in for a group hug.
"Look after yourself, Lumpy..."
As the two left Ed, May Kanker approached Ed with tears running down her face. Ed looked at the girl curiously, as if unsure of how he wanted to react. Suddenly, May rushed towards Ed and planted a quick kiss on his lips. As she tried to run away, she found something holding her hands. Or rather, someone. May then looked down to see Ed, holding her hands with no sign of fear in him before pulling her in for a quick hug.
Despite her tears, May smiled as best as she could. "Bye, Ed." She sniffled before slowly turning back and joining the others as the blades of the chopper began to spin. Ed waved to his friends one last time as the helicopter began to lift off the ground and fly into the blue sky.
Once the helicopter shrank as it went further and further away, the emotions returned as the Kankers tried to console May. Jimmy tried to console a crying Sarah as he turned to Edd, who was barely keeping himself together.
"So..." Rosie said, getting the attention of Terry, Rachel and Lenore. "You folks are really leavin'?"
"'Fraid so." Lenore sighed. "You wanna come with? We could really use some extra muscle right now."
"I'd like to, but I gotta make sure everything here stays frosty. They need me now more than ever."
"Well that sucks." Rachel replied. "I feel like we still don't really know you."
"Hmph, tell you what..." Rosie chuckled. "If all of us can stay alive long enough to see this through to the end, then you all can come back here and chill with me! Actually, better yet, maybe I'll head with you guys back to Canada and to, what was that neighborhood you were telling me about, Peach Creek? I'll hang over there."
"Hah, with you there then maybe it won't be as boring!" Terry laughed. "But yeah, we'll try and hold out."
"You better!" Shades added. "Peach Creek sounds like a nice place!"
It took a bit of coaxing, but eventually everyone piled into the RV, which was thankfully unharmed in the attack. As Terry started up the engine, Eddy sat with Edd, looking out the window into the desert sky.
"So, I guess we're headed to that Ozark place, huh?"
"It seems so."
"Well, that place better be worth it because now we're down to just 'Edd n' Eddy', and that don't sound nearly as good as 'Ed, Edd, n' Eddy'!"
Edd couldn't help but laugh as he turned to look at his compatriot.
"I'm sure it will, Eddy. I'm also sure that Ed will take good care of those seeds."
"Ah, they'll be fine." Eddy assured. "It's Ed, the worst that'll happen is that the bag those seeds are in'll be covered in gravy or something when he gets there."
"Right." Double D chuckled. The two joined the rest of the RV in silence as they drove past the destroyed gate of the compound. As they left the city, Edd and Eddy couldn't help but ponder about what Stacy had said. They were bruised, bloody, beaten, and now emotionally destroyed to an extent...
...But they were alive.
They were alive and even if nobody would say it verbally, they silently vowed that they would continue to live.
AND THAT IS SCENE!
That's a heavy note to end this chapter on! However, a lot of the more depressing aspects of this chapter circle back to the choices of the previous chapter. Things may not have ended perfectly if a different choice was made, but it certainly wouldn't have been as depressing.
Nonetheless, I hope this goes to show how important it is to answer BOTH choices next time multiple ones appear since this won't be the last time something like this happens. As for the choices themselves for this chapter, there are none for one good reason:
This is the end of what I'm going to call Side A. Starting in the next chapter, we'll flip over to Side B and follow the OTHER group of the Peach Creek Survivors. Hope you didn't forget about them! Their path will take them to a different location with different enemies to face. Will they survive to see the end of this story? Stay tuned to find out!