"We can't just leave them in there!"
"Just don't talk about it. Death is a part of life, Kevin. If we dwell on those who've died, we won't truly be living."
"Arin--!!"
"I'm done talking about this... get your shit and let's go."
It's been a couple days since that incident. None of us have spoken a word of Steven or Toby. I guess Arin's right when he says we shouldn't dwell on it, but we shouldn't forget them completely.
"Alright," Arin pulls the jeep over onto the side of the road. "I say that we should all switch places. Cause if I keep driving, I'm gonna pass out and kill us all." he chuckled a bit. Mark agreed to drive with Danny taking Suzy's place in the passenger's seat.
"Where are we now?" Jack asked. Arin thought for a second, "I think I saw some signs saying we were in Illinois..." he trailed off. "What do you mean you think?!" Jack exclaimed. Arin shrugged and Jack slammed his head into the door of the jeep.
While I was driving, we ended up on a long stretch of road with no signs of life anywhere around us. We'd pass a couple dilapidated road signs that advertised brands that went out of business years ago, but that only happened a couple times. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Danny starting to fall asleep.
We drove passed one of the road signs when a car started speeding towards us from behind it. I looked into the rearview mirror to see the driver, but all I saw was a shadow. In my opinion, it looked like bandits or something. The car was beat up and a couple of guys were hanging out of the windows with baseball bats in their hands.
"For fuck's sake..." I heard Jack mumble before taking one of the riffles and shooting at them. I tried to grab at him to make him stop, but I heard more gunshots that Jack did not fire. The car spun off the road into a ditch, and there was a separate car behind it. Jack began shooting that one until I finally got ahold of him and pulled him back into his seat.
"What's happening...?" Danny started to stir. "We're being shot at now thanks to Jack!" I said as a couple gunshots could be heard behind us. "Maybe they're hostile!" he said in his defense. "They are now!"
They stopped shooting, but instead sped up and began to pull up next to us. I looked into the window to see a bunch of... teenage girls?
The one closest to me rolls down her window, "Hey what the hell, man! We save your asses and you start shooting us!" she yelled. I turn me head and glare at Jack. "How was I supposed to know!" he folded his arms in a pout.
"Hey, how about we have this conversation on the side of the road!" I suggest. They slow down and park on the side of the road, and I do the same.
We both exit our vehicles and walk towards each other with everyone else in both of our vehicles also exiting the vehicles. Now that I see them all, there were four girls who look about fifteen/sixteen. The one that yelled at me had midnight blue hair that cut off at her shoulders, an Adventure Time BMO hoodie with a t-shirt, jeans, and blue converse. The one I would assume is the driver had brown shoulder length hair with fire-like highlights, a red flannel, a red neckerchief, jean shorts, and red converse. One got out of the back and had black curly hair with a blonde streak in a ponytail, a t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. Then the shortest one had red hair in a ponytail, freckles, a white hoodie with multiple stitches on it, jeans, and white converse.
"Please explain the set of circumstances that occurred before you decided shooting us was the greatest possible idea." the blue one demanded with her arms folded. "Uh, well, first we were just driving and then these bandits came up behind us and Jack over there started shooting them. Then I saw them spin out and you guys were there, but Jack continued to shoot for some god damn reason." I glared at him once more. "Alright, fuckface, don't test me. I'm the one with the army training, so I can shoot off your face like it's nobody's business!" Jack pointed at me in anger. "I could dead lift you, y'know. I'm the one with the muscular body. So how about you shut the fuck up and take your mistake like a man!" "Come at me scrub lord, I'm ripped!"
I hear the girls start to bust out in laughter. We all look on in confusion. The blue haired one wipes a fake tear, "Oh my god, I haven't laughed that hard in a while. And for that, you guys can come and take a rest at our camp." I wave at her, "Oh no, I don't think we should." "It's not like we're murderers." she says. "We kinda are." the one with brown hair says. She turns around, "Lexi. Shush. I am making the friend here. Friend equals good." She turns back to us. I smile a little at them. "Look, dude. We aren't gonna kill you in your sleep or anything. Just let us do this for you. You guys look like you've been traveling for a while and need some place to rest. Okay?" she holds out her hand with a patient smile. I hesitate at first, but eventually take her hand. It was much smaller and thinner than mine, so I felt that if I squeezed my hand I'd brake hers.
She told us to follow them to where they were stationed. As we followed, they led us into a small looking town that was almost completely destroyed. There were giant gaping holes in nearly every building, cars flipped over on the sides of the roads, street lights lying on the ground or bent in a different direction, and it looked completely deserted except for these four. We turned onto a small neighborhood and into the driveway of a house that looked relatively better than the others around it. It was a soft, dusty blue with red shutters and a giant window in front of the house. There were trees and vegetation everywhere.
The girls exited their car and waited for all of us to pile out of ours. We all walked up the steps of the back of the house into a screened in porch. "You think Dash is gonna like these guys?" Lexi asked. "Dude, Dash barely likes you guys." the blue haired one laughed, and Lexi shrugged. They opened the door and a small tabby cat came bounding towards the girls. "Hey buddy!" the blue haired girl happily picked up the cat and entered the house along with the rest of us. They led us into the living room, and turned towards us. The blue haired one spoke, "I don't think we've properly introduced ourselves," she declared. "I'm Sam and this is my little kitty Dash. He hates other human beings, so just beware that he bites." Dash, almost on cue, hissed at the group. "I'm Lexi, and Sam and I have been friends for... an amount of years." she smiles. "I'm Madison, and Sam was one of my first friends in Junior High." the curly haired girl bowed. "And I'm Lizzy. I've only known these guys for a couple years, but they somehow became my best friends." the red haired one shrugged.
"Guess it's our turns," Arin stepped up. "I'm Arin, and these are my friends Danny, Mark, Ross, Barry, and Kevin. This is my wife Suzy, and this is our little prisoner, Jack." "What?! I am not your prisoner!" Arin laughed at his little joke.
"Oh yeah we know." Sam said matter-of-fact-ly. "What?"
"Well, we kinda recognized all of you from YouTube and then fangirled in the car on the way here." she grinned nervously. "Wait, you actually know us?" Danny asked. "Why yes I do, Mr. Sexbang." she said in a suave type voice. Dan smiled warmly and put his hand on his chest.
"Well, now that that's settled, you guys can all sleep in the living room. We all kinda took over the other rooms." Madison then began to search for blankets around the house, while some of us spread out and started to look around or talk with our hosts. Suzy went to help Madison get blankets. Everyone else collected in the den and just got to know each other. Danny and I, however, noticed Sam sitting on the couch with a sketchpad and a pencil in her hands.
"You draw?" Danny asked while sitting next to her. "Oh yeah. I used to draw fan art of you guys all the time." she smiled, then blushed suddenly. "You okay?" Danny asked. "Heh heh... y-yeah..." she stuttered. "Would you mind if I took a look at your sketchbook?" he asked. She nodded and Danny started to flip through the sketchbook. There were multiple drawings of characters in different clothing, posing heroically, and a couple pieces of fan art. Then there was one piece Danny stopped on and stared a little, making her hide her face in embarrassment; it was him and I holding hands and smiling.
"Aww! This is adorable!" Danny exclaimed. "Yeah, it really is." I smiled. Sam lifted her face from her hands, "You... really think so?" she asked. Him and I looked at each other, wondering if we should show her that we're really together. I decided for us and planted a quick kiss on Danny's lips, making him giggle. He then kissed me back, and I couldn't help but grin and hug him. After squeezing me tightly, Danny looked over to Sam, who's eyes basically sparkled. After a couple moments of her staring, she fell off the couch and onto the floor. "You alright?" I asked, giggling. "I have no words to express the joy that I am feeling at this moment in time. No words." she mumbled.
"Any but," she rose up suddenly. "you two wanna play some video games?" We both nodded enthusiastically. "I have an idea..." a sly smile spread across her face.
She ran into the den, where everyone else was, then yelled, "Who wants to play Mario Kart!" Everyone agreed with smiles, but her friends seemed... scared? We all piled into the living room and Sam booted up the Wii, slid in the disc, and handed out the controllers the those who wanted to play. "Oh! We can have a tournament! I can draw up a quick bracket with everyone's names on them, and we can do vs races. Just the two of them." She then began scribbling on a piece of paper out of her sketchbook and drew a bracket with all of our names written on it. The first matches were Arin vs Barry, Danny vs Jack, Kevin vs Lexi, Lizzy vs Madison, Mark vs Ross, and Sam vs Suzy.
The first match started and Arin got into a position I hadn't seen him in for a while; at the edge of the couch, completely focused on the game. Since Barry was beating Arin by a longshot, he started to get the kind of game rage he used to. It really felt like old times. Dan, as always, began laughing at him. Which he was slightly shoved for by him. In the end, Barry came out victorious, earning a grumble from Arin.
When Jack and Danny faced off, Jack was completely confused. When we tried to help him figure out how the game works, he refused. Danny stopped his pixelated car to let Jack win, but he refused to take his "pity" and lost to Danny.
After a couple more rounds, it was time for me to face Ross. When the race was about to start, Danny shouted, "Kick his ass, baby!" To which I took very seriously and happily destroyed Ross. He whined wanting a rematch, but the result was final, and he went to pout in the corner.
Then, it was time for Suzy and Sam's match, which her friends then fled to the other side of the room. When questioned, they simply replied, "She's scary when she plays this." Then, as they played, I could see anger start to build up in Sam. But it wasn't until Suzy hit her with a blue shell that she exploded, "WHAT THE FUCK!!" She then passed the finish line after that, but we were all slightly terrified of her.
The matches continued on, Danny lost to Barry, Lexi lost to Madison, and I had my match with Sam. I was somewhat scared to beat her, since her one outburst and the fact that even her friends were scared of her. Our track was a type of road track with cars as obstacles. While we were racing, Sam whipped out a banana peel she had gotten from an item box, and just kept it behind her. I was somewhat confused by her tactics until she saw me behind her, then rammed on the brakes and hit me directly with the peel. I spun out as a Grinch-like smile tugged at her lips. As revenge, I threw a red shell at her, but she had gotten another banana before it could. She had won, again.
"You guys are so lucky we aren't playing with any of the CPUs." Madison blurts out while facing Barry. "Wait why?" Barry asks. "Cause if we were, Sam would have thrown something cause of someone like Toad or Peach... no Toad. It's always Toad she gets pissed at." "Hey, that little shit sucks in this. It's Mario Party that I despise Peach in." she replies. "Yeah, whenever she plays this, she always starts screaming stuff like 'TOAD YOU LITTLE DIAPER WEARING FUCKER I'LL KICK YOUR ASS,' or stuff like that." Lexi adds. "When I played with her she called me 'a fucking little ass leprechaun'." Lizzy adds. "Hey, you provoked me. You don't provoke me when we're playing Mario Kart. That's like asking for it." Sam pointed out. "'Little ass leprechaun'?" Danny laughed. "She almost threw a controller at my head." Madison said oddly calm. "What?!" I exclaimed. "I didn't mean to aim for your head!" Sam said in defense. "That maybe so, but you missed me by a centimeter!" "Do you have a personality disorder or something?" Ross asked. "No, no I don't." Sam rolled her eyes. "Dude, that's rude. They are the ones who took us in." Danny said towards him.
Sam won the matches, since Madison was too scared to let her loose, so we all started to chill and get ready for bed. Since everyone was just talking in the living room, I decided to head to the screen porch and just sit in one of the chairs that were on it. I sit down and just take in the night air. I hear the door open, and Danny comes to sit with me in the chair next to me.
I sigh, "Hey, can I ask you something?"
"Go ahead."
"Why were you so upset when we met? Well, met again I should say."
"I... guess it was because you said you were with the government. They hurt so many of the people I love I... I just couldn't imagine someone like you taking their side." he responded, his voice laced with sadness.
"I was never on their side. I just... I don't know..."
"You could've joined the Rebellion. You could've joined us."
"I couldn't..."
"What?"
"I couldn't join the Rebellion."
"Why? You're as much against Felix as we are."
"Yeah, but I just..."
"Just what, Mark?" he sounded aggravated.
"I don't know, Danny!" I exclaimed. I didn't mean to sound so mad. "I'm just not strong enough to be with the Rebellion! I shouldn't even be here with you guys! I belong alongside Felix! I'm supposed to be his puppet!"
"Arin went looking for you, y'know." he said grimly. I turned to face him, and he had the darkest expression I've ever seen on him. It scared me a little.
"We went looking for you for I don't know how many months. We gave up cause we thought you were dead. I was fucking heartbroken, Mark. Heartbroken. Then when you turned up, I was so fucking happy. The man I thought was dead was standing in front of me. Then you said you were with them and I snapped. Now that you've given the middle finger to your boss, you're telling me that you want to go back?!" he began to shout. He stood up, towering over me. I stood up to at least come up to his eye level, "I didn't mean that!"
"Then what the fuck did you mean! I thought I couldn't do this either, y'know! Hell, if I actually gave into it, I WOULDN'T EVEN BE HERE!"
My eyes widened at what that meant. Tears were rolling down his cheeks, one after the other. "Danny..." I reached out to hold his face, but he brushed me off and went back inside.
After that, I tried to lie down next to him, but he would get up and lie down somewhere else every time. So I just gave up trying and just went to sleep. I felt so guilty...