Chapter 17: Dig Them Holes
The next day...
After being woken up by the bugle, they resumed their digging of holes.
"So, you just TOLD them everything?" Joyex asked, flatly.
"Well, from what they say, they're not from this world, either. So, I figured we scratch their back, they scratch ours," Becca shrugged, pointing at ADHD. "Besides you see how fast that kid is."
she pointed to ADHD already digging
ADHD was currently more or less a mini-sandstorm, chanting "DIG A HOLE! DIG A HOLE! DIG A HOLE!"
"And it never occurred to you that it MIGHT be a bad idea?!" Joyex hissed.
"I can hear ya, y'know that?" Croccer asked.
"I swear, every decision you make objectively makes our lot WORSE..." Joyex muttered.
"Right, I'm digging OVER HERE," Sakuzy said, stepping between Joyex and Becca before digging.
"Don't bother," Becca said, walking off far from the others and started to shovel.
"I'm about FIVE seconds..." Sakuzy muttered as he dug.
"Hey, how's about somethin' else?" Croccer asked as he dug.
"Like what?" Joyex asked.
"Oh, I dunno...how 'bout...?" Croccer asked.
Croccer: You gotta go dig those holes...
"So I'm NOT the only one, good to know." Joyex said.
Croccer: With broken hands and withered soles,
Emancipated from all you know,
You gotta go dig those holes...
"Hey, found another!" Sakuzy said, quietly, as he found another Gummi.
"Hey, guys!" Joyex called, "How about I teach ya a BETTER song?"
Becca looked at Joyex, waiting for his cue. Argument or not, a song was a song.
Lucy stuck her head out of her hole and leaned on her shovel casually. "Oh yeah? What were you thinking?"
"Hey, D-Tent!" Joyex called. "Join in, we're singing! This one's much better!"
Yozora... just stared at the sight incredulously. "...we're really doing this?"
With that, Joyex began to dig.
Joyex: Dig it uh oh oh
Dig it!
Dig it uh oh oh
Dig it uh oh oh
Dig it!
Dig it uh oh oh
"Hey, Stanley, drop a verse!" Sakuzy called.
Stanley looked up in surprise and coughed. "Oh, uh, me?" he said, "O-Okay, uh-"
Stanley: Two suits, two tokens in hand,
I got no respect 'cause I'm the new man.
Got my shovel, shoes full of sand,
Check out the tag-the name's Caveman, uhh!
With that, they began digging in perfect sync, taking out bits of Gummi as they did so.
All: Dig it uh oh uh,
Dig it!
Dig it uh oh uh...
ADHD: OH!
All: Dig it uh oh uh,
Dig it!
Dig it uh oh uh...
Joyex: Take a bad boy, make 'im dig five feet,
The dirt in these shovels will give us a beat!
Sakuzy: Okay, we gotta find something never found before!
If not, we'll just have to dig some more.
"Got one!" ADHD said, happily.
"Ry, mate, more discrete." Croccer hissed.
"OKAY!" ADHD saluted.
Becca smiled digging up another gummi
All: Dig it uh oh uh,
Dig it!
Dig it uh oh uh...
ADHD: OH!
All: Dig it uh oh uh,
Dig it!
Dig it uh oh uh...
Dig it uh oh uh,
Dig it!
Dig it uh oh uh...
ADHD: OH!
All: Dig it uh oh uh,
Dig it!
Dig it uh oh uh...YEAH!
Becca: Your hands may blister,
Your muscles stay sore,
You wanna break?
Knock on the warden's door!
Uh Huuuh
Uh Huuuh
All: Dig it uh oh uh,
Dig it!
Dig it uh oh uh...
Dig it uh oh uh,
Dig it!
Dig it uh oh uh...
Armpit pit his large arm around Lucy, who cringed at the horrid smell that filled her nostrils but smiled nervously.
Armpit: A-R-M-P-I to the T.
What is that you smellin, dog that's me!
I don't take showers and I don't brush my teeth,
That's all I do is dig holes, eat, and sleep!
Lucy glanced out over the baron landscape and shook her head.
Lucy: There is no lake, there is no shade,
There is no place to hide!
So just sit and wait to fry!
Croccer: You got to go dig those holes...
D-Tent: Dig it uh oh uh,
Dig it!
Dig it uh oh uh,
Dig it!
Dig it uh oh uh,
Dig it!
Stanley then spotted something in his hole-a small, gold-colored tube.
"Huh...?" Stanley knelt down, curiously picking it up, dusting it off.
Yozora just watched the sight blankly. Nope. Nuh-uh. No way. He was not doing it.
"Is this gonna be a regular thing?" he asked.
"Get used to it, buddy boy," Joyex said.
"What'd you find there?" Sakuzy asked.
"It looks like a tube of some sort?" Becca said in her male voice
"It kinda looks like an old bullet shell," Lucy said, looking at the small object. The redheaded girl saw what appeared to be a heart etched into the tube. "Hey, it says something right there!"
Joyex leaned over. "KB? What's that stand for?"
"Lemme see," said Zigzag, swiping up the object. "Ah, KB. That's Keith Berenger."
"Who's that?" asked Squid as the other D-Tent Boys gathered.
"Guy from my math class," Zigzag snickered.
"Doesn't matter," X-Ray said, taking the cylinder. "I'm gonna give it to Mom and get the day off."
"But Stanley was the one who found it," Becca snapped.
"I've been here for six months and found NOTHIN'. None of us have. Why do you guys get it after ya just got here?" X-Ray asked in return.
"Hey, why are you so mean?" Lucy asked defensively. "Don't you have anything better to do that pick on us? There's plenty more holes that need digging!"
With a smug shrug, X-Ray pocketed the tube and went back to business. The quickly coming crisis seemed to have been diverted.
"I still don't like this," Becca said, looking like she was ready to punch X-Ray.
"Yeah, bloke's got an ego on 'im, but sometimes, ya gotta grit yer teeth, y'know," Croccer said. He gave Stanley a pat on the back. "Plus side, Stan 'ere's got a nickname now. Congrats, Caveman!"
Yozora slowly rolled up his sleeves, "Startin' to see a LOT of red flags here..."
Becca went back to her hole and started to dig. She saw Zero's hole next to her. At that point, she had another flashback to...something in the past. Becca held her head.
The town was hit by sudden and heavy rainfall. The children stayed huddled inside, but the teacher ushered them out.
"Okay, children, come back first thing in the morning. Rain or shine, we'll still have school tomorrow," she said. The children flocked out, but one came in-Sam, the onion merchant. When he came inside, he greeted her with his usual.
"Hello, Miss Katherine. I thought you might still want some onions."
"Thank you," Miss Katherine beamed. Sam walked in and saw it was leaking all over the school room.
"I can fix that," Sam said.
"Sam, are you gonna tell me your onions are a cure for a leaky roof?" Miss Katherine asked, playfully.
"No, I'm just good with my hands. I built my own boat, y'know," Sam said, warmly. "Tell ya what, I'll fix your roof for three jars of your sliced peaches."
"It's a deal," Miss Katherine said.
All the while, Sam fixed up her roof...and kept finding more things to patch up with a simple, friendly, and quite affectionate "I can fix that". Eventually, leading to one night when, after a while of his absence, the two shared a tender kiss with each other...
"Okay, what've we got so far?" Joyex asked, snapping Becca back to the present.
Yozora looked down at his fist...
CRASH!
With a single, violent punch, the earth EXPLODED beneath his clenched fist; chunks of sand, dust and debris surging upwards and washing all over him. Yozora spluttered and coughed at the mini dust storm he'd accidentally created.
"OKAYBADIDEABADIDEA!"
Still choking on a mouthful of sand, Yozora leapt out of his now very, very deep hole with a single bound. His body instinctively tucked in and his knees bent, allowing him to land three point style in a... slight save of face.
"AH, CRIKEY, MATE!" Croccer yelled.
"WHOO! THAT WAS AWESOME," ADHD laughed.
"Okay- BLAGH- hurk- PLEH!"
Yozora shook himself off, still spitting out wads of sand. "Next time? Mouth covering! REMIND ME."
"You're...real strong, y'know that?" Sakuzy asked, surprised.
Becca gave the pieces she found. Lucy emptied her pockets and handed over her pieces. Yozora dropped his pieces out as he coughed another wad of sand out.
"Got a few, meself," Croccer said.
"Yep," ADHD grinned.
"Same here," Sakuzy said, holding out the pieces he found. "We're getting closer..."
"A little more and we're outta this sand pit. Great, almost back on track," Joyex said, but took a moment to give Becca stink-eye. "Then I'm marooning YOU on the first asteroid."
Becca was still thinking on her flashback to notice Joyex. Even if she did, she had grown used to it by now. She thought of Sam and Katherine. The two seemed like they were very much in love...but every time she had these flashbacks, she got a headache. And Joyex's comment to her was not helping
Yozora just sighed in exasperation, "Here we go again."
"No matter how you're sad 'n blue, there's always someone who's got it worse than you," Croccer hummed to himself as he returned to his hole, ADHD following suit.
"Look, it's tough here, but could you lighten up just a little bit?" Lucy asked Joyex.
"If SHE'D just own up and stop treating this like a vacation, then MAYBE," Joyex muttered.
"Oh, you think I'm seeing this as a vacation, huh?" Becca said glaring hearing that. "I wish I'd have a vacation. From YOU at this point."
"Alright, ENOUGH ALREADY!" Yozora stomped his foot down as he finally swerved to glare at both of them. "Joyex, Becca crashed the ship; I know, I'm annoyed to be here too. But we don't need you ripping at her throat every ten seconds. That's doing NOTHING for anyone, it's just draining our energy arguing over it! Beck, you did crash the ship and you've been acting pretty flippant about it, You literally SMILED ABOUT IT when we landed! I can see why he's annoyed! Now both of you suck it in, or I will, so help me... I... I don't know... throw you both in the deepest hole I can make!"
While they were digging their holes, X-Ray tossed what they found over.
"Hey, hey, Mom! I found something," he called.
Stanley watched as Pendanski walked over and picked up the tube. "Hey...guys? I think that tube? It's a tube of lipstick. And KB stands for 'Kate Barlowe'..."
"Kate Barlowe?" Becca asked
"Lipstick?" Yozora repeated slowly, now confused, "Why'd anyone put a stick on their lip?"
"Really?" Joyex asked, giving Yozora a flat look.
"Oh wow, Kate Barlowe! That thing could've belonged to Kate Barlowe? Amazing! Incredible," ADHD exclaimed...before asking, "Wait, who's Kate Barlowe?"
"She was an outlaw. Had the nickname of 'Kissing Kate Barlowe'," Stanley said. "Robbed stagecoaches and banks. Got my great-grandfather, too. Made his fortune in the stock market, but then...well, she happened."
"Kissing Kate Barlowe?" Sakuzy asked. "When she held him up, did she...?"
"Apparently, she only kissed the men she killed. So, I wouldn't be here if she did," Stanley replied.
"So, she stabs them with the stick she's wearing on her lips," Yozora realised, snapping his fingers. "GOT IT. ... Also,what's a kiss?"
That question got him a facefull of dirt from Joyex's hole along with a very non-apologetic, "Whoops. My bad."
"POUH! GAK-! W-WHY-?!"
Becca actually laughed at that. That was when she got a vision...
The town was in uproar. People were tossing torches into the schoolhouse. And Kate Barlowe was running through the streets, screaming. She got to the sheriff's house.
"SHERIFF! SHERIFF! YOU GOTTA HELP, THEY'RE BURNIN' THE SCHOOL," she wailed.
The sheriff, though, looked at her and spread his arms wide. "Gimme a kiss. Ya kissed that onion-picker."
Kate seemed to realize the situation as she paled, voice becoming calm as she took a few steps back. "You're drunk..."
"I ALWAYS get drunk before a hangin'," he said.
"If you hang 'im...you'll have to hang me, too," Kate said, angered. All this because of her and Sam...?
"Not against the law for YOU to kiss HIM. Just for HIM to kiss YOU," the sheriff said. Kate bolted, knowing what was going to happen.
She came to the edge of the lake. There it was-Sam's boat, going along the way...and a motorized boat coming up on him. Run by Trout, the man who'd made advances on her, but she had always spurned.
"SAM!" she screamed, trying in vain to warn her lover...
BLAM!
That was when Becca came back to the present. She looked terrified and was breathing hard.
"I do NOT believe this," Joyex growled as he hoisted himself out of the hole. "Not finding anymore Gummis. Not a SINGLE ONE. Just add this to the growing list of things we can lay on SPACE CADET'S feet!"
"Oh no..." Sakzuy murmured.
Becca just growled as she kicked up the sand before speaking to the group, "I didn't mean to come across like I don't care. I know it was my fault! Maybe I should've told you, but you would've just looked at me like I'm crazy! I mean, what should I have said? 'Sorry, but I hear this weird singing and I gotta follow it'? And now, I'm getting these weird flashbacks and this whole world feels like it's suffocating me!"
After a moment of silence to let Becca catch her breath, Sakuzy decided to break the awkwardness.
"There, she apologized. Happy?" Sakuzy asked.
"Hmm..." Joyex said, looking around. He then said. "Nope. Still trapped here."
"Are you SERIOUS?" Sakuzy asked. "For a guy with no heart, you're holding a pretty strong grudge!"
"Guys, keep it down," Lucy shushed.
"I am this close to just shoving you two in the deepest hole I an find-" Yozora warned, pointing an accusing finger.
"Go ahead I don't care anymore" Becca shouted. "In fact, I'll do it right now just to be away from that jerk!"
Becca then jumped into a hole. Everyone stared at that sudden move. Sakuzy looked at Yozora and gave a short nod.
"Good! Stay in there and do nothing! Less chance you'll screw anything else up," Joyex shouted after her.
"Let's do it together," Yozora proposed, extending a hand.
Sakuzy shook it, quietly. He then walked up behind Joyex, quietly. One hand was extended as he looked at Yozora, nodding with a devious smile on his face. Yozora's lips curled into a Cheshire Cat-like grin. His other arm extended out as he gave a nod.
Three, two...
"LOOK OUT BELOW!"
"I'm sorry, wha-"
Before Joyex could finish his sentence, he was shoved right into the hole after Becca. He landed with a FLUMP...
Right on top of Becca.
"REALLY, GUYS?! You're REALLY going here?!" he shouted.
"Yes, REALLY. We're sick of hearing you two go at it. Work it out or kill each other. We're fine either..." Sakuzy caught himself. Then I corrected. "Actually, just work it out. A little communication never killed anyone...also, so you don't try cheating your way out? Yozora, think you could fish his chain outta there?"
Yozora just turned with a devilish grin as he held up Joyex's chain in his hand, "Way ahead of you, chief."
"Wow. You're just on top of this, aren't you?" Sakuzy asked, playfully.
"FIRST CHANCE I GET, YOU'RE BEING SHOT INTO SPACE!" Joyex shouted.
"We'll see if you still feel that way after a nice long stay in the therapy hole," Sakuzy replied.
"It's over, Anakin!" Yozora called down, spreading his arms out, "I have the high ground!"
"YOU UNDERESTIMATE MY-" Joyex shouted, trying to jump up, but only falling down since it was dug...especially deep. Once again, he landed square on Becca.
"Told you~" Yozora said, "Now just stay down there and get your act together; we'll work on fixing the ship."
"Can you please get off? Or at least move your hands" Becca said. Joyex grumbled as he rolled off Becca.
And, with that, Yozora turned and, with a high five to Sakuzy, strode back to work...while quietly asking himself, "What even IS a kiss, though..?"
Becca wiped the dirt off her keeping herself turned from Joyex, "Look I am sorry for what I did. I never meant to strand us here."
Joyex just grumbled as he tried to get up. Unfortunately, it being a rather neatly-dug hole with tightly packed earth meant there wasn't much in the way of grip, so he quickly fell down, right on his back.
"They've been planning this," Joyex muttered, not even bothering to get back up.
"No duh," Becca scoffed.
"I've had it. I'm tired of this," Joyex murmured as he rolled up, not looking at Becca. "Tired of everything..."
"You're not the only one," Becca muttered.
"It's not that," Joyex growled. "Forget it. You wouldn't understand..."
"Whatever it is, you can't just assume I wouldn't understand," Becca said. "That's what I've been doing these past few days"
Joyex just remained quiet.
"Like I said, I heard this singing and felt like it was coming from this world..." Becca said. She then sighed, "I didn't mean to grab the control but I don't think any of you even heard it...and now that I'm here, I'm starting to think I made a mistake."
"I figured 'free-falling from the sky and stranding us in a desert' would've been the place to start, but guess better late than never," Joyex muttered.
"Ever since I got here, I've been getting these...vision things," Becca started the image of the fire Kate calling out for Sam. It was itching a part of her brain as an image of a man and woman standing in the middle of two different armies. She was in the middle, hearing a loud noise as the man and woman fell in front of her as the two armies fought...
She hadn't even noticed she started crying a little. But it made Joyex's expression soften a bit. With a sigh, he folded his hands and simply said, "I'm looking for something. Not just the Keyholes. Are things just...coming back to you? Y'know, in a trickle?"
"A little, but this one seems so foreign...maybe from the past I forgot before waking up?" Becca answered.
"Well...mine are. Just a small one. More of a feeling," Joyex said. "That there's something I have to find. And being stranded out here? Just keeps me from finding it. And it's something important. That could shake everything up forever...I know it doesn't make sense. Just doing this based on a feeling, but..."
Becca hugged him, feeling a sudden burst of compassion for this Nobody who had antagonized her this whole time, "That's what it was like for me! I always follow my feelings, because I know that they won't let me stray. And I know yours haven't either."
"Funny thing about is...I don't HAVE feelings, remember?" Joyex asked. "No heart."
"But just the fact you remember you did says something, right?" Becca said "I think you were quite emotional when you were human."
"People DID usually say I had an excess of personality," Joyex nodded.
Becca looked at the Nobody before simply saying, "I really am sorry, you know..."
"Yeah...guess it wouldn't hurt to stop piling it on so thick," Joyex murmured. "You're dealing with a lot right now...I'll back off, then."
"Thanks...but I think I have an idea about why this world feels off," Becca said. "It has something to do with that Kate Barlow person..."
And then, it happened again. A flash from the past.
The Sheriff was sitting in his office when the door opened up. Kate Barlow, who now looked a bit different, walked in. Her face was completely unreadable as she walked up.
"Howdy, Sherrif," she said in a calm, measured voice. "Still wantin' that kiss?"
The Sheriff looked excited...but then it turned to fear as Kate took out a gun.
With a loud BANG, she shot him dead. Then she leaned over and kissed the corpse's forehead before walking out...her infamous life of an outlaw now started.
Becca began panting as she returned to the present.
"That another one of those things?" Joyex asked.
"Yeah...Kate used to be a school teacher...fell in love with an onion farmer named Sam," Becca explained.
"Guessing that didn't go so well?"
"No...it didn't..." Becca said, looking upset
"Well, good to know...but it doesn't really get us outta here, does it?" Joyex asked, kicking himself up. "Guys? We talked it out! Can ya let us out?"
"Promise to keep your issues in order?" Sakuzy called down.
"Yeah, yeah. Just gimme back my chain," Joyex called back up.
"I can vouch for that," Becca said.
"Now now, Kooz! Why not have 'em PROVE it?" Yozora asked with a grin, shaking his head, before peering back down,"You remember the trick back in the last world? Climb back up with that! That'll prove you're working together!"
"Yeah, I kinda like that idea," Sakuzy said.
"Guess we got no choice," Becca said
"You're really gonna make us do this?" Joyex asked, flatly.
"I mean, we've got to be sure," Yozora said with a singsong voice.
Becca turned around. Joyex offered her his arm. Becca linked hers with his. Joyex then put a foot on the side of the hole. Becca did as well.
With a heavy move, they each put a foot on the side of the hole and began slowly ascending, marching up the side.
With a heavy grunt, the two hoisted themselves out of the hole, landing on opposite sides of each other. Joyex panted on the opposite side, glaring at Sakuzy and Yozora. The former gave an innocent look.
"Congrats on getting over things," Sakuzy said.
"Don't tell me your mad at them now," Becca said
Yozora just kept his hands resting behind his head, "Now that we're all getting along, howzabout you finally explain to us why you were so honed in on this world so we're all in the loop?"
"Well...you guys will think I'm going crazy, but I heard a song coming from this world," Becca said.
"And that would seem crazy to us...how, exactly?" Sakuzy asked.
"Because I was the only one hearing it," Becca replied.
"Beck, did I or did I not literally crash land onto you guys after slicing a spaceship in half?" Yozora asked in a very matter-of-fact tone. "And you think hearing voices is the strangest thing I've experienced in my life of...a few days?"
"And what did we encounter in the last world?" Lucy asked, playfully.
"Emperor llama. Just gonna drop that one in there. Rock people and emperor llamas are our 'normal' now," Yozora cheerfully reminded.
"Okay, I see your point," Becca chuckled. "It's just...I don't know why, but it felt like this world was calling me. And ever since coming here, I've been having weird flashbacks. Not of ME, but this place involved. And I think they involve this Kissin Kate."
"Well, guess it's only a little more-" Sakuzy said, but stopped when he heard a car come to a halt nearby.
"Hey, all you. Up here," came a harsh, female voice.
The source of the voice was a middle-aged woman with red hair tied in a braid and draped over her shoulder. She wore a pair of jeans, a red shirt, sunglasses, and a white cowboy hat.
"Mate, that's the warden," Croccer said, quietly.
"I thought it was the other guy," Joyex murmured.
"Nah, mate, it's this piece o' work 'ere," Croccer said.
She looked them over before pointing at Sakuzy, Lucy, and Stanley. "You three. Come with me."
"We'll remember you in songs," ADHD said, somberly.
"Uh...why?" Sakuzy asked.
"I said so, that's why," the Warden said, putting her hands on her hips in an authoritarian fashion.
"This might not be good" Becca said
Sakuzy looked at the others, silently pleading for help.
"I... uh..." Stanley shrunk back,. "But... I, uh..."
"Got sand in your ears?" The Warden asked. "You three. In the truck. Now."
"I think it best if you go. We'll be fine," Becca whispered Lucy nervously licked her lips and gulped, but did as she was told. Sakuzy followed her, along with Stanley. Becca looked at Joyex and whispered, "Think they'll be okay?"
"I dunno," Joyex said, shaking his head.
Hitchhiker Entries:
Katherine Barlow:
A much beloved schoolteacher from Green Lake's past. Such an idyllic life could only last so long, so the death of the man he loved sent her on a spiral. Being from a time before therapy, she began lashing out, becoming an infamous bandit called "Kissin' Kate Barlow". She began her crime spree in Holes (2003).
Sam:
A humble onion farmer from Green Lake's past. Hard-working, down-to-earth, a little too interested in onions, and a good enough person to get the affection of the local schoolteacher. His circumstances led to...an unfortunate conclusion. His death seems to be the source of the world's suffering. He began pitching his crops in Holes (2003).