What If The Darkness Infected Sooner?

Chapter One, Marcy...? At The Gates (Part One)

"Wow." My eyes snapped back to Sprig who now had a glass of water. Where did that come from? "That must be horrible." Of course, ironically his hands slipped and the glass fell. Its contents spilled across the table. I stifled a chuckle looking down at the photo.

The laughter was extinguished as my mind began to worry again. "Back home we were there to protect her," I was there to protect her. My mind unhelpfully supplied. "But here, she's alone instead of kickballs..." I stopped, not wanting to go back into that dark pit. Sprig had hopped down grabbed a towel then went back to clean his mess. Dabbing at the water instead of cleaning it.

"She could get mauled by an elephant scarab. Or crushed to death by a heron." My heart fell even more with every word that left Sprig's mouth. "Or worse, flayed alive by a-" I had enough and reached over grabbing onto his mouth to shut him up.

"Not helping." My eyes narrowed. A sudden lurch brought attention to the fwagon, as it came to a stop and soon the hatch opened revealing a very excited Polly.

"Guys! Come... It's... I... Not gonna believe it... Ah! Just get out here!" Her small arms waved out in excitement and Sprig leaped out of the bench, hopping excitedly. We both climbed the fwagon our heads coming up into the light.

It took a second for my eyes to adjust to the bright environment but when they finally did I couldn't hold back my gasp. I heaved myself up, then ran over to the edge of the wagon. After jumping down, I landed with a small thud before standing up and running forward. There stood a massive city, its splendor was nothing like I'd seen before. The city seemed to glimmer in the sunlight almost making it look like gold. Footsteps could be heard behind me but I refused to take my eyes off the beautiful city.

"There she is, gang... Newtopia. If there's a way to get you home, it's in that city." Hop-pop's scratchy voice reassured.

My body filled with excitement, "Well, then let's get down there!" We all jumped letting out cries of excitement. Then returned to the fwagon to lead Bessie down the dirt path. There was no way I was going back into the fwagon, my excitement wouldn't allow it.

When we reached the foot-deep water I hesitated. I've been through worse, so I stepped into the water. Sprig was already racing ahead and Polly just started to float forward.

"Well, my feet are soaked." I joked trying to hide my discomfort with wet socks.

Polly continued to float in tell she ran into a hole. I wonder what made those. I could hear Polly say something but couldn't quite make it out. Hop-pop ushered her away from the hole and we continued on. Coming up on the huge gates filled with captivating carvings.

My fist clenched as the realization dawned on me. "We're finally here." My hands lifted up as I started to yell, "Yo! Anybody home?"

One of the shell carvings opened as a... salamander? Poked his head out. His nasal voice replied, "You can't come in here. Newtopia's closed."

Wait... WHAT?

"Seriously?!" We all yelled out my hand reached out in irritation. We had come all this way, only to be refused entry?

"Closed? Like closed, closed? Or like closed for lunch?" I questioned and instantly regretted questioning that. Why would a city close for lunch? That's silly.

"The city is closed, closed to all outsiders." The salamander supplied a look of irritation crossed his features.

"What the hey hey? Why? Till when?" Sprig shouted from behind me his voice filled with annoyance.

"Until the barbari-ants are gone, of course. Good luck out there." The salamander reached out trying to grab onto the handle. His grunts resonated due to all of us just watching him. "Stupid handle." When he finally reached the handle his entire body staggered forward falling out the window. "Whoa!"