CRUNCH!!!
143Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡggAn3XSxSM
Crystals bursted into hundreds of tiny shards. Shug lifted the club back up and kept smashing. After every break Angeline shrieked in pain, the sounds were disturbing to hear, Brentha covered her ears trying to block out the noise.
Shug cleared a cart of crystals the best he could, with some remnants remaining. He quickly moved onto the next, immediately tearing things apart. As more and more screams filled the air, it was getting to him. He started hesitating before he could bring himself to bring the club down, the screams were the most painful to listen to. He was basically torturing an innocent girl, but it has to be done.
The train chugged forward, quickly approaching an upcoming tunnel. The black fog clouded the entrance. It was like a blink of the eye as they crossed by the cloud in a brief second.
In the groggy cave the whaling was echoed and amplified, making it more unbearable to hear. The screaming turned into sobbing. The crystals illuminated more heavily in the dark.
The shattering of crystals continued on until the second cart was completely cleared of every single one of them, he moved along to the next. Brentha stomped on all of the remaining shards that Shug couldn't get to.
They barreled out of the cave in a flash. Instead of the usual gradual curve there was a sharp left. With such high speeds the turn was like whiplash. Shug fell down on a crystal scraping deeper into his wound. Brentha fell down to the floor as well, along with Angeline who almost rolled off the edge.
“Goddammit!” Shug cursed out. He got back on his feet, lifting the club high up in the air, when something stopped him. He tried to strike down but he couldn’t, it was like a force was grabbing his hand and refusing to let go. Turning his head around he saw Angeline reaching her paw out. “Oh shit.” His heart sank into his chest.
“Die you little shit.” Angeline snarled.
Shug’s body was yanked off the ground and high up into the air, overlooking the drop below. He screamed out, flailing his arms as he started to plummet.
“SHUG!” Brentha cried out.
The bone club flew out of his hands and landed back down on the train. Angeline kept fighting for control over her body. Her head shook violently and she started flopping around.
Shug kept screaming his lungs out, heavily descending down below. Brentha sprinted over to the edge of the train and helplessly watched as he continued falling down to the ground, hollering out to him.
As his body hurled down, the crystals becoming ever closer, he closed his eyes as he kept screeching. Many memories flashed in a second, his parents selling him to the Mickels, him shivering in the cold underneath a tree in the forest, the old man falling down the stairs chasing him after he stole some gold, him charging into the tent to save Brentha, and then right now to the present. Facing his untimely death. Time seemed to slow down, his head flooded with thought.
I’m sorry Hillanter, I failed you. I couldn’t do it but I tried, I really did. Brentha, please just survive, I don’t care if you don’t get the mushroom or not, just get the fuck out of here. Yunga, I’m sorry I hid that I saw your parents' death. Maybe you’d have gotten some closure from it. Sorry Zunci and Shanta, Jinlin, everybody! That old man, god I never got to know your name but you didn't deserve to die and you shouldn’t have. I should’ve been better. With my death, I hope I gave some use to anybody, at least give me that. Please!
The glow from the crystals overwhelmed his vision, his body mere inches away from being penetrated. His eyes still closed, accepting his death with tears in his eyes when he suddenly stopped. But not completely, he was still soaring through the air, just not dropping down.
Slowly opening his eyes he was met with the pointed tips of many crystals passed by. His body glided on the ridge of them, following the train.
Out of breath and his heart racing, he turned his head to see what saved him. Angeline had her paw reach out, she was holding him up. She slowly retracted her arm and Shug started lifting higher and back to the railway, where he was sloppily placed on the train.
He was shaken, his body frozen stiff and his face stricken with pale fear. His hands were trembling and he couldn’t bring himself to stand up. Brentha came up and hugged him tightly.
“Are you alright? I thought I was gonna lose you.” She said,
“Uh, I-Holy shit.” Shug muttered out.
“You don’t have much time!” Angeline shouted out. “Destroy the crystals now!”
Brentha looked at Shug facing the ground, his whole body shivering. Swaying her head around she spotted the bone club laying on the cart. Her eyes switched back and forth between them, she realized what she needed to do.
Giving a pat on Shug’s shoulder before bolting off the ground and rushing over towards the club. Holding it tightly in her hand she lifted it up vigorously and slammed down with all her might on the pile of crystals.
The usual shrieking followed the shattering noise. She crushed the crystals with such vitriol, such maliciousness that she was getting too lost in the destruction. She cleared the carts way faster than Shug ever did. It wasn’t as thorough as a thrashing, many more fragments remained as she moved forward.
Pummeling the next cart in just under a minute, her arms were moving faster than her mind can think. The train drifted harshly to the right, not as sharp as earlier. She almost lost her balance, planting her feet down on the ground and sticking her feet to the metal floor.
The train stopped veering and continued straight forward. Stumbling around, she finally got a hold of herself and went back to work. Thrashing crystals around, with every break Angeline’s screams got louder and more irritating. She tried her best to block it out but it’s almost impossible, it’s like trying to ignore a blaring siren just centimeters away from your ear.
Clearing out seven more carts, the last one remained. Her arms were tired and the adrenaline in her died all the way down. With a struggling effort she managed to leverage the club above her head, hoping to plop it down a few more times and to be done with everything.
Right as she was about to loosely slam down, the train took another sharp left turn, throwing her completely off of her feet. Hitting the ground on her knees the club slipped out of her palms. Bouncing off the ground as she tried desperately to reach out for it, quickly crawling on all fours. It fell off the edge and plummeted down below. It broke apart immediately on impact, leaving barely any remnants behind.
“No!” Brentha cursed out. “God fucking dammit no!” She slammed her hand down, hurting it as she did. She turned around to see Angeline floundering around holding her head. She scanned the train hoping to find something or anything that could act as a weapon, but there was nothing. He started to hyperventilate and her vision started to zone in on the ground.
I’m so close! So close to winning, ending all of this! I can’t be stopped here.
She heeded, placing her hands down on the ground. She broke her attention to Shug and he was still shaken up from earlier.
Echoes of his laughter played in her head. Clenching her fists, she got up off of the ground and realized what had to be done. Looking down at her hands the adrenaline kicked back up.
Squinting her eyes, she gave the crystals one last look. Lifting her fists up in the air, she pounded her bare hands into the razor sharp tips. Her palms and fingers were sliced up, but she smashed the crystal.
The cuts were extremely painful, stinging like it was stung by a hive of bees. Ignoring the pain as best she could, she brought herself to continue the bludgeoning. Tears started to form with every new wound that she inflicted on her hands.
Combining the power of her fists and the stomping of her feet, she did her best to smash the crystals. Extremely slower and more torturing than it ever was, she was able to do it, almost getting rid of all of them.
Her body tried her best to make her ignore the pain but it was becoming unbearable, and her hands were gashed with crystal shards sticking into her skin. She couldn’t even feel them anymore, a constantly prickly tingling took over the excruciating torment sensation.
She screamed out as tears flowed out, too shocked to do anything but stare at her wounds in terror. Shug was smacked back to reality to her wails. He jumped up off of the ground and sprinted over to her in an instant.
“Oh my god Brentha are you ok?” He said and immediately spotted the dozens of broken shards lodged into her hand. “Holy-I’ll get those out!”
She continued sobbing as he grabbed her hand and plucked all of the loose shards out as quickly as he could. Blood was still oozing out and neither of them had any first aid kit on them.
He removed his shirt and took both of her hands and wrapped them together, acting like a bandage in some sense. She stopped sobbing but the tears didn’t completely stop, only droplets squeaked out.
“He’s still here! He just won’t go away!” Angeline yelled.
“Ah shit.” Shug said, looking up. He was so concerned with Brentha he completely forgot she was still there.
“We couldn’t do it, we can’t get rid of him. I’m sorry Li I tried, I just can’t, I’m so sorry.”
“Angie, we can still try to help. Maybe, but, I-I-I-”
“I’m so sorry you two, I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. All I wanted was to just leave this place. That’s all I wanted, just to leave this dreary cave behind forever.”
Shug wrapped his arms around Brentha, coddling her as Angeline kept speaking.
“I thought I could kill him without killing myself. I always thought that but it just never felt like it could happen. He was gathering those crystals to build up enough power to take over the whole island. That’s why I thought I could just-” She squealed out and her head twitched violently. “I just wanted to give Li’s death meaning!”
“You did!” Shug shouted out. “He still believed he could save you, he sacrificed himself just to give you that chance. Us trying was all he could ask of us. It’s what he would have wanted.”
Angeline smiled, a big wide smile. The first time she had this entire time. “I’ll tell him that when I see him. I’m sorry you were dragged into this.” She closed her eyes as a singular tear streak traced down her cheek. “Thank you for all of your help. Tell Huune I'm sorry, for everything.”
She finally took control over her body, slowly walking backwards and spreading her arms out in a cross.
“Angie!” Shug cried out.
She backed up to the edge, giving the world one last look, she jumped off and into the chasm below. “I love you Li.” Her final words before her body splattered into a huge bloody mess.
As soon as her body collided down below, an otherworldly ghastly spirit zoomed out and phased out of existence. It lingered in the air for a bit before completely disappearing into nothingness.
Left with nothing but the cries of Brentha as she held onto him tighter. They were left with nothing. No mushroom, just the sinking feeling after watching two people fighting an uphill battle and dying brutally. Wounds that stung, emotions in shambles, and hopes dragged down.
They were left with…
Absolutely nothing.
The train!
Shug thought suddenly. Springing into action he headed towards the conductor cart. Under the door was this strange earthly green glow emanating from it. He was weirded out but he had to stop the train.
He reached out towards the big steel handle, having to put both of his hands on it and tugging as hard as he could. The door slowly pried open until it completely let go and kicked out, knocking him down flat on his ass.
Green mushrooms tumbled out as it was piled against the door. Some of them rolled onto his feet. All of them felt mushy, like a dirty wet sock that was left out in the rain. He kicked them off and stood all the way up.
The jumble of shrooms blocked his path to the brakes. He rushed right through them, shoving some aside. He squished a couple, green goo combusted out of the insides and stained on the side of the door, the floor, and on some of his clothing.
Reaching the giant lever, he grabbed the handle and lifted his body off the ground, and tried to bring the whole weight of himself to drag it down. It squeaked back and chugged a bit, until it finally detached and drugged. It was brought all the way down, latching the brakes on the wheels.
Shug flew forwards onto the control panel as the train was coming to a screeching halt. The wheels squealed as the brakes were pressed down creating a loud irritating sound. Brentha fumbled forward on her knees, having to use her splintered hands to keep herself stable.
The whole train finally came to a grinding halt, giving breathing room for both Shug and Brentha to slow down and take a break. Non-stop action really took a toll on them.
Shug slumped down on the ground, his back resting on the control panel. Taking a deep breath, he gazed upon the overwhelming florid green emanating from the mushrooms.
“Oh my god.” Shug mumbled. He jumped up off the ground and put his fists high into the sky. “Yes!” He celebrated.
Brentha turned her attention towards the cheering. Her hands trembling from the tingling, the pain regressed immensely. She slowly stood up on her feet, trying her best not using her arms to help.
“We found it!” He continued.
Brentha hobbled over and saw all of the loose mushrooms gobbed on the ground, some green liquid splattered underneath. With her hands still intertwined between the tight knot of the shirt, she lifted them up alongside Shug.
For the brief seconds, after all of that struggle they did it. They could finally take a huge weight off their chest. They can celebrate.
Shug grabbed Brentha by the shoulders and brought her in close, and started jumping up and down with her. They both stopped as the brief excitement wore out and the adrenaline slowly trickled off. They went from laughing to just looking at each other in silence, with the two of them breathing heavily.
Shug gazed endlessly into Brentha’s eyes, and she was lost in his. The tension grew in the air between them.
All of a sudden Brentha’s hand twitched violently and she yelped out in pain. In the joy of it all she completely forgot her injury and it spiked back again without any notice.
“I’m sorry.” Shug said. “Did I hurt you?”
“No, not at all.” Brentha responded. “My hands still really fucking hurt.”
“We’ve gotta get you back. These mushrooms and…” He sighed. “Still more to deal with.”
“How are we going to-”
Vehement stomping trampled towards their way. Immediately Shug drew Brentha closer to him and slammed the conductor door. They hunched down on their knees and crawled underneath a little cubby space between the conductor controls. Accidentally squishing more mushrooms as they hid.
Brentha grunted a little, having to use her hands to prop herself up on her back, Shug covered her mouth. Both tried their best to not make any noise whatsoever.
Who the fuck could be left?
He started to ponder in his head.
I thought everyone was dead? Did Angie truly not die, or Prancer…Oh god, we never truly checked if they were really dead, maybe they came back or-
His train of thought got halted as the top of the conductor cart banged and crumpled a little. Clangs of the steel continued on slowly as it creeped towards the edge of the roof.
“Li!?” An unknown female voice shouted out. “Li!? Anybody!?”
“Who the fuck?” Brentha whispered.
It has to be one of the other survivors at the camp.
He concluded all in his head.
“Hey!” Shug yelled out. “We’re in here!”
“Oh, on my way!” The voice responded back.
An intense thud came from right in front of the door along with the moist squishes of mushrooms.
“Ah shit.” The voice said. “What the hell even is all this crap?”
“It’s the illick mushroom.” Shug hollered beyond the door, helping Brentha out of the little cubby hole. “Be careful and don’t squish them.”
“Oh shit, I’m so sorry I didn’t know.” It opened the door and revealed itself. It was a light brown mole with a bright pink nose. “We heard the train all the way from our camp and Huune asked me to investigate it. I’m glad I found you guys, I feared the worst, but holy shit you did it!”
“Yeah we’re just as surprised as you are.”
“And you found a shitload of these, my god. I’ve never actually seen any in person, so surreal up close. Huune is gonna be ecstatic once he finds out.” She looked around the compartment, turning her head and viewed the rest of the train. “Just um…Where’s Li?”
Neither of them responded to that. They only lowered their heads.
She immediately knew what that meant and had to take a deep breath as her face began to shift through many emotions. “Let’s just get you guys back to camp.”
143Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcDwgWNvhFC
Huune was sitting on the ground criss crossed, his paws conjoined together with his eyes closed. He was in his shack facing multiple statues of gods.
“May we be brought great fortune and prosperity.” He began praying. “May I be forgiven for any misdeeds I’ve ever committed and hope that when I am brought into the afterlife, I’ll be shown mercy and absolved of my sins. Shunkala.”
“We’re back!” The female mole announced, sounding far off in the distance. “We need medical attention stat!”
Huune immediately got up and opened the flat of the tent. He quickly ran down and looked far off at the train tracks.
Shug and Brentha were on top of the female mole, handling the makeshift sack that was used from his shirt to carry all of the mushrooms. She waved at Huune as they were approaching rapidly.
“You guys actually did it.” He said in amazement. He tried spotting Li also running alongside them, but he couldn’t spot him. The obvious realization of what that meant struck him and his brief smile quickly faded away.
“Huune!” The mole spoke as they arrived. “They need to be checked up immediately!”
“Right!” He snapped out of his remorse. “Come to my tent.”
They were rushed into the tent. He took a look at all of their injuries and treated them properly the best he could. Stitching up Shug’s stab wound, wrapping up Brentha’s hands with a bandage alongside disinfecting.
While wrapping up her hands, Huune looked very concerned. After finishing his job he took a big sigh, and packed all of his supplies away.
“So…” He began speaking as he closed his knapsack. “Tell me, how did you injure your hands?” He turned to face Brentha.
“Smashing the crystals.” She responded.
“Ah, that explains it. Can you feel your hands at all right now?”
“Nope it’s just this weird constant tingling.”
“Hmmm. I figured, I don’t know how else to break this to you, but you have some nerve damage.”
“Oh.” She put her hands up to her face and inspected them. “I-I thought it was something like that.” She tried to give off a little chuckle.
“It’s not going to be really life changing or anything but you may still feel a lot of tingling right now. To fully fix it you’ll definitely need surgery. But, I don’t have any supplies here to do that for you right now, I would if I could.”
“I appreciate it very much. Just one question. How long does it take to heal without the surgery? Or do I need the surgery before it starts to heal.”
“It really depends on the damage but I roughly estimate like a month or two. I don’t think it’s anything serious. If it was really critical you’d be in way more pain.”
“Alright.” She looked dejected.
“Shug you seem to be all well. Your wound barely cut deep into you. Just let it regrow and heal. Most likely it will take a week.”
“That’s great to hear.” Shug happily said.
Huune picked up some of his personal belongings on the ground. He packed it all in the same knapsack. It was an awkward silence that brewed between the three of them.
“Can you tell me what happened?” He asked them.
They gave each other a look, struggling on who should be the first to recant the events.
“We first ran into Angie in the long dark tunnel and she almost killed us and-” Shug began to recount.
“Sorry I should’ve been more specific. I meant what happened to Li.”
“Oh…” He hesitated before he started speaking again. “He-He-Angie, killed him.”
Huune exhaled out through his teeth. “I should have figured it out but I hoped just for the slightest chance. And did you kill Angie?”
“She killed herself.”
“Why?”
“She was being possessed by a wizard and he made her do every single evil thing. We broke the crystals, hoping that would break the control he had, but we should’ve realized that was stupid. It didn’t work, but with the slightest self control she had left. She jumped off the train, and died.”
He tapped his claws on the ground.
“She wanted to tell me that she was sorry, she was sorry for everything. All she wanted was to leave for the surface-”
“It was all my fault.”
“No, don't place the blame on you.” Brentha consoled.
“No, it is. I refused to return to the surface after we were shunned. I thought it was safer down here where no one could interfere with us. It was right, to a certain extent. Humans never bothered us, just a bunch of critters and stuff. I remember Li and Angie both coming up to me and arguing that we should go back to the surface. Telling me constantly that the people above are more accepting than we think. I always denied it and shut down the conversation before it would go any further. I’ve seen too many of my brothers fall to the mob, seen the horrors that such prejudice brought. I didn't want to repeat history. God, I should’ve listened.”
“There was no way for you to know what was going to happen.” Brentha chimed in. “You shouldn’t just blame yourself over and over again. I think Li and Angie would’ve wanted you to move on from this.”
“Trust me.” Shug continued after Brentha. “A lot of people will think you look so fucking cool and accept you. I guarantee it. Look, you can never change what happened in the past but you can always improve the future. You can’t just blame yourself forever, you gotta move on and do better.”
Huune sniffled and looked up. “Thank you.” He turned to them with a huge smile on his face. “If people like you exist up above then I’ll gladly return.”
“I’m sure there’s so many like us.” Brentha said.
“I hope so.” Huune grabbed his knapsack. “Honestly, when you two arrived I thought you were going to be nothing but trouble. Never would I have imagined that you were the blessing we’ve been searching for. I wholeheartedly am thankful for everything you two have done.”
“We’re happy to help.”
“I’ll get you two back to the surface, you said you’ve got to get that mushroom for your friend right?”
“Yes! Wait, how long have we been down here?” Shug asked.
“Not sure. Only one way to find out.” He walked out of the tent.
They hoped down from the table and hampered to the entrance, lifting up the flap. Revealed was all of the remaining members of the camp. Kurt, the woman mole who rescued them, and two others they’ve never spoken a word to, all bowing at their presence. They created an aisle for them to walk down the middle of.
“What’s going on here?” Shug questioned.
“You didn’t think we’d forget to give you a proper thank you.” Huune said, standing in the middle.
“Oh my gosh, we don’t deserve all of this-” Brentha said.
“You’ve saved us from Angie, without you stumbling into our camp I have no idea what would have happened otherwise. We owe you everything, and by the time after all of this you need our help, we’ll gladly do so.”
“I don’t know what to say.” Shug said. “I-I really am flattered.” He laughed nervously.
“This is all not that necessary.” Brentha added on.
“Thank you very much Shug and Brentha, we couldn’t truly express how much this means to us.” Huune continued on. “And for you Li, It’s finally coming true, we’re getting out of here. I hope you’re watching us from up there.”
Both of them were too stunned to be shocked. They looked at each other and gladly smiled widely.
This is so unreal.
Shug began spouting off thoughts in his head.
Brentha probably got this type of behavior everyday as a princess, but me? Fucking me!? I actually made a difference, helped out and saved people. Every single childish dream I had, it’s actually coming true. I’m a hero.
Looking around at all of the supporters, he spotted two slabs of stones standing up. One of them had Li’s name on it and the other had Angie written. Shug’s smile shrunk but never completely went away.
Thank you Li, couldn’t have done it without you. Both of you rest well.143Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7GkSPTZ6Sk
