Despite everything going on right now (especially in the U.S. at the time of writing this chapter), I come to bring you the next chapter, enjoy!
Janyse and the Kanker sisters stared at the door heading into the basement. May tried to find a hole or something that she could use to look into the basement without drawing attention to themselves, but she had no luck. As the girls stared intently at the door to the basement, Lee finally spoke up.
"It ain't worth it. We don't know what's down there and the others probably have everything we need already."
"Yeah..." Marie added. "You're probably right."
The girls exited the house, each with a bag or backpack of supplies they scavenged. As they exited the house and were about to head back however, the door of the house they were just in slammed open. The one responsible was revealed to be a man.
Or at least it looked like a man?
It wasn't a zombie, aside from the obvious signs of rotting flesh and missing limbs, the zombies they had seen usually varied in color from a sickly green to a light teal or blue-green.
If this thing was a person, they must have had a very bad addiction to some sort of drug or just outright insane. The man was incredibly thin to the point where his ribs were visible, he seemed to have a very bad rash covering his bare torso. Any part of his upper body that wasn't red was covered in white spots that looked like some kind of mold or fungus, the girls didn't know or want to know. They were just thankful that he wore tan pants that were sagging down a bit revealing a pair of stained tighty-whiteys, he was also barefoot, with the nails on his hands and feet looking like they hadn't been clipped in weeks. The man had barely any hair on his head, and the few stands that he had looked like they were hanging by a thread.
The one thing that truly made the girls panic a bit was the rusty pipe he held in his hand, ready to batter anyone and anything.
"Git outta here!" The drugged up man shouted, his yellow, crooked teeth bared into a disgusting scowl as he charged at Marie. "You won't get any o' my stash!"
Once the sudden shock of seeing the man wore off, May snapped into action and whacked the man with a hammer she had brought with her. The attack struck the man's shoulder, knocking him to the ground a few feet away from the blue haired Kanker.
Despite being left with a large bruise that looked like a single purple spot amongst the white and red, the drug user continued to fight as though nothing happened, his mouth now beginning to spew foam as he charged at the girls again.
At first the four of them believed they could take on this one man without much issue, but after seeing how he seemed to ignore a direct hit with a hammer made them questions their initial assumptions. Janyse was hesitant in taking out her sledgehammer, despite the man being clearly violent with them, Janyse didn't exactly want to kill this guy, even if he was a druggie. She just had to make sure the Kanker sisters didn't kill him.
The man charged at the girls again, swinging his pipe around wildly, Lee narrowly dodged a swing to her head, allowing the eldest Kanker to whack the psycho's arm with a crowbar, knocking the pipe out of his hands. Despite his lack of a weapon, the man continued to fight like a rabid beast. However, without the pipe, the girls considered him a little bit less of a threat, now opting to use their number advantage to beat him down.
With one swift kick to the man's leg, the sound of glass breaking made the man's eyes go wide in horror. He stepped back rapidly and examined the pocket of his pants where Marie kicked him, taking out shards of glass in his bloody hands. Along with the glass was some sort of brown, viscous substance. The man eagerly licked it right out of his hands, ignoring his bleeding hands. The man turned back at the girls and his hands a few times before running away.
"What the fuck was that?!" Marie cursed.
"Now we got deadbeat drug addicts running around too..." Lee sighed. "As if zombies and the Marauders weren't enough." May stood close to her sisters, wary for any other addicts nearby.
"We should head back to the group and tell them about this. Even if he's the only guy like that around here, which I doubt, he could be a problem." Janyse explained.
Ed sat away from his best friends as he watched them tinker with the new radio. Everyone managed to return safely to a base camp that they had set up in an apartment building. The gas and water systems were both running, but the lights were completely shattered and the ones that weren't were rather dim. The showers in the bathroom were also not functioning, it was uncomfortable but at least the group were able to at least stay there for a bit. He, alongside the others listened as the Kanker group explained their encounter with the drug addict.
"And that's what happened." Lee finished.
"Great, first it was these stupid zombies, then it was those crazy Marauder guys, and now we have psycho drug addicts to worry about!" Sarah moaned.
"The whole world really has gone to hell." Eddy added.
"Yeah, and it's like every group of bad guys that we meet are just as deadly as the last." Matt said.
"Well, going by the description of the individual and the substance you saw him ingest before he fled, I am fairly certain that the man who attacked you was under the influence of some sort of methamphetamine."
"I've personally never heard of a methamphetamine that is a liquid though, usually they appear as small crystals, hence the term 'crystal meth'. The actual appearance of the substance more closely resembles heroin."
"So we're dealing with some super drug that's basically a mix of both?" Kevin asked.
"Sounds like it, in Health class we researched the effects of drugs on people's bodies and minds, this new drug must really mess a person up if that's how it made that guy act." Nazz added before Erin also chimed in.
"You also have to factor in why he's turned to drugs in the first place. Maybe he was already using drugs before the zombies came around but... there's also a chance that everything going on right now stressed him out so much that he turned to drugs."
"So what does this have to do why the guy attacked?" Tony asked in confusion, as Matt began to ponder something.
"It means that people are starting to get desperate." Eddy answered. "They could be doing things that they wouldn't consider doing before any of this happened, like with Double D taking those guns. He'd never even think of doing that if it weren't for this zombie plague."
"But that isn't the scary part though." Terry said ominously. "People turning to drugs is probably the most stable scenario, sure they'll end up being psychos like the one you guys met, but what about the ones who'll start killing innocent survivors just to survive."
"Hey Ed, you still got that journal?"
Ed was snapped back to attention, he drifted off into a bit of a daydream about how his fellow Eds must surely still be mad at him. However he handed Matt the journal he had been writing in with a bit of a blank look that made May raise her eyebrows in concern.
Matt began to write down an assortment of notes, showing the others what he wrote, a journal entry about the drug users that Matt colloquially dubbed 'Meth Monkeys'. He tried to emulate Double D's and Kathy's more extensive and detailed description, but it ended up sounding rather basic and had a bit of repetition.
"Well it may need some revisions in terms of the description and the name seems a bit... crude. Though I suppose it's good to at least have the information on anything that could be a threat to our safety." Edd explained.
"We'll get this right back to you after our changes, alright Ed?" Kathy asked, to which the sci-fi fan nodded in understanding. Ed still wanted to find the right time to talk to Edd and Eddy, but he just didn't know what to exactly say...
Time continued to pass into the evening hours as work on the radio continued. Kevin, Nazz and Lenore decided to take on the task of cooking while the others took turns looking out onto the streets below for any threats.
"Can I just say that I'm thankful this place still has a working stove." Kevin grinned as he carried in some steamed vegetables. Nazz came in with some cooked potatoes and rice while Lenore finished making some hamburgers. The last object in particular caught the attention of the Eds, who perked up with nostalgic smiles.
"Dinner time everyone!" Nazz called out.
To say everyone was more than happy to have the closest thing they could to home cooked meal was an understatement. The Eds in particular were stuffing their face with the Kanker Burgers.
"Been a while since we had one of these, ain't it!" Eddy said with his mouth full, his companions nodded in blissful agreement before Ed began to chew more slowly before stopping and swallowing.
"Um... guys." He began, looking at his best friends with sadness. The two looked back at him, confused about his demeanor. "I'm sorry about what happened back there with Sarah and that guy... I just thought that... She's my sister and I already lost my mom and dad, I didn't want to lose her too, and..."
"Ed, there's no need to apologize." Double D said in understanding, placing a gentle hand on Ed's shoulder. Eddy looked down...
"Look Ed, I'm not gonna lie and say I'm happy that you wanted to save her instead of us. But I get why you did it. If I was in a position like that with my brother then I might have done the same thing. My dad might have that big grin on his face but he's hurting a lot, my mom's gone and he's down one leg. So don't worry about it, Lumpy. You did what you had to do and I respect you, let's just hope we don't end up in another situation like that again. We don't want to lose anyone else." Eddy explained, taking another bite of his Kanker Burger.
Those two might not have known it, but they lifted what felt like the weight of the world off of Ed's shoulders, allowing him to give the first real smile he had in quite a while. Ed looked up and saw Matt looking over to them, giving the boy a thumbs up.
As the sun finally went down, the work on the radio was nearing completion. It was slightly less bulky than the one they had used before, but it was still rather sizeable.
The sound of the frequencies being scanned brought everyone to silence in anticipation.
"Hello?" Double D called out. "Come in, if anyone can hear this, please respond!"
The smartest Ed repeated the message while Kathy slowly adjusted the frequency and made sure the radio was functioning.
"I read you."A male voice responded. The man sounded like he was definitely an adult.
"We're currently looking for a safe refuge, if it's not too much trouble, are you willing to help us?" Kathy asked.
"We do have room for more people but only for ten people, maybe eleven if we try making a bit more space."
"I... I see. Well we unfortunately have a much larger group of people than that." Double D said solemnly.
"No worries. If anything we're located in the Southeast portion of Wisconsin. If you find yourself in that area just be on the lookout for a marking of a goat. You'll know it when you see it. Our group pretty much has that entire part of the state covered."
"I see. Thank you for informing us about this."
Once the person on the other end disconnected, Terry spoke up."
"Well, looks like we're heading East. Shame that we're going there during a zombie plague, I hear they're known for some good food there."
"Yeah, well, we're not on a food trip." Kevin lamented. "We gotta-"
The sound of static coming from the radio caught everyone's attention, a person's voice cutting through at a few points.
"He..o? Is... there?"
"Y-yes?! Hello?!" Kathy asked while Edd tried fixing the frequency.
"Yes, hello! I overheard your broadcast, do you need any help?"
"Yes! We have a rather large group and we're looking for a safe place to stay."
"Well you're in luck, we have space for about ten people down here in our hideout. It's in a stadium down South over in Nevada, not too far off from Vegas. Once you find us, just remember the passcode: Freedom."
"'Freedom', got it." Double D noted.
The connection quickly cut out before either party could say anything else.
"Alright..." Kevin began, taking a deep breath. "Two options to head to but neither has enough space for everyone."
"Is it worth it to go to either one?" Erin asked.
"If it means having a place to stay for a while, I'd say it's worth a shot." Lenore stated.
"The distance from this area to both of those compounds is just about the same, with the stadium in Nevada being slightly closer, however the terrain heading there is more of a desert. While the path to Wisconsin should be more of what we've seen here, though with perhaps a bit more of a mountainous terrain."
"So, mountains or desert?" Kevin asked. "Honestly, I think I'll be heading East."
"I'm heading to Vegas!" Eddy said in excitement, Double D almost had to take a second to remind him that the location wasn't actually in Las Vegas but he decided not to ruin the moment for his friend.
"Anywhere Eddy goes, we go with him!" Ed proudly exclaimed while pulling his two companions closer.
"Yes, well, I suppose this series is called 'Ed, Edd, n' Eddy' for a reason." Edd added.
"And anywhere you three go, we'll follow. We can't let our boys get into any trouble now, can we?" The Kankers teased.
Pick up a nice girl for yourself, eh Pipsqueak? Don't worry I'll help you and your friends out. " Terry laughed while his little brother almost visibly steamed with frustration. Rachel had to nudge him in the ribs to have him ease up on his teasing.
"You coming with us, dad?" Terry asked, the older man shook his head.
"Not me, boys. With my bad leg I'd probably just slow you down. Besides, we all knew there was going to be a time where I wouldn't have to take care of you. Terry's already doing fairly well on his own. But Eddy, well you're not a kid anymore. You've proven yourself to be a good leader and I don't want to be shadowing you all the time. Now I want both of you boys to get along and make sure everyone in your group makes it through this."
"Same goes for me and my girls." Lenore Kanker added. "If you run into any trouble then I know you can handle it, Kanker Style!"
"Eddward, since you'll be going to Nevada, I believe it would be in everyone's best interests if I joined the team heading East. That way we both have someone to handle anything needing an astute mind!"
"I may not be able to give the same amount of muscle as the Kankers, I'd say I'm still pretty tough." Janyse piped up. "I'll head to Wisconsin."
"I'll head with Janyse, I-I mean the Wisconsin team! You guys might need someone who fast and that's something I'm good with! Hehe..."
"Um... Baby Sister?" Ed asked, approaching Sarah with a look of deep concern. The redhead smiled and embraced him.
"I know Ed, I'm going with you. Family sticks together." The two teared up a bit, remembering their deceased parents.
"I'm with you, girlfriend!" Jimmy added enthusiastically, placing a hand on Sarah's shoulder to cheer her up.
"Well I've taught Jimmy a bit of what I know about birdwatching." Keenan said. "Because of that he's got a good eye, makes sense that I joined the gang going East so I can give them that same eye."
Tony looked at the two groups, scratching his head in confusion as he counted the number of people on each side, ultimately joining the Wisconsin team.
Jonny listened to his wooden companion intently before vocalizing their decision.
"Plank says that we should go on the Wisconsin team. Plus he and I are really good with trees and the rest of nature so I think that'll suit us better. Good choice, buddy!"
"So it's settled then." Kevin announced. "Tomorrow morning we'll split up into our two groups. It's gonna be a long road but we'll survive!"
The group cheered a bit, although the thought of separating gave rise to some anxiety and even a bit of upsetting thoughts, but nonetheless they knew it needed to be done...
Thank you all for being so patient with the chapter, with so many characters in the story it can be a bit difficult giving each one meaningful screen time without having the story drag on. Nevertheless, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and will await the next one!
Our gang has long roads ahead of them, there's no telling what they could find next...