Chapter 5

Halloween

The Homecoming

Part 2

Previously on 'The Valley Between Us'...

"W-Well..."

A massive explosion sound came across the street over to the forest. It was so big a white flash blind the Cul-De-Sac kids sending them flying in mid-air. By the time the explosion cooled down Double D, and Kevin noticed a green smoke mist was coning in the forest. It wasn't fire or anything of that nature, only great green smoke.

"Woah..."

Everyone falls back and follows Kevin. Eddy, being jealous already by Kevin's sudden authorities didn't move a muscle. Lucky for him, he was carried away with Ed picking him up, then following behind the crowd.

"Follow me."

Somewhere far away from the Cul-De-Sac was a group of three females that heard the explosion as well, deep within the woods. It was no other than the Kanker sisters, sitting together on logs. The only Kanker that honestly freaked out was May.

"Did you guys see that!?" May asked her older sisters as she panics. "We're going to die! Tell big Ed I love him"

Lee, the oldest sister, slaps her idiot sister back to her senses. "Quit overreacting!" The middle child, Marie walks straightforward to get a good view at where the green smoke was coming from, the rebel girl squinches her eyes and finds the location of the high smoke right off the bat.

"It's over at the Cul-De-Sac!" Marie informed. "Let's go check it out!" She begins to walk forward only to be tripped purposely by her older sister Lee.

"Are ya both stupid!?" She questions her confused sisters. "We go as a team. Who knows what kind of supernatural creepy stuff lurks in the shadows." With that, the red-haired curly female grabbed both her sister's shirts, forcibly dragging them. As the shallow, fiery sun has faded and the mint, the milky moon has come with a display of myriad, twinkly stars. Swaying trees were connected to rustling leaves. Who knows what hides behind the shadows during night.

Area: Forest, Time: 9:59 PM

The Cul-De-Sac kids eventually arrived at the scene. It was a gaping hole in the middle of the forest, the exact hole Jonny dug not too long ago. The tunnel was ten times bigger compared to what was there the first time. They crowd around the hole seeing green mist popping out from it. Everyone besides Kevin immediately runs off to either to a nearby tree frightened or hid behind the most significant person there, and that was Ed. Staying true to his character, Kevin stood his ground and stuck his head out more in-depth to the hole, until a bald kid came out of nowhere stopping him in his steps.

"Stop!"

Jonny 2x4 comes running down the forest catching his fellow peers attention. When he got to them, his chest heaved rapidly with heavy panting. Jonny explains to them how he could never recall how long the beating had gone on for, only the final kick and the sound of the iron bar falling to the concrete. His face wasn't too bad, just a cut above his eyebrow, the scarlet blood flowing into his eyes. It was his body that was damaged almost beyond the point at which recovery was possible. The camera cuts away to his clothes, the boy's Halloween clothing wasn't even a bumblebee costume anymore, he looked like a dead walking zombie bee. The blooming purple patches told of internal ruptures, likely organ damage. They had looked at him with encouraging faces but were utterly ashen when he couldn't see them, giving involuntary shakes of their heads. And all the while, Nazz was crying in the background like her heart had snapped in two.

"We have to do something!" shrieked Nazz. her loud voice alerted everyone to run in circles like maniacs.

Kevin begins to lose his patience and finally unleash a powerful scream shutting everyone up at once. "QUIET!"

His mighty roar rang to an ebbed to nothingness; now the silence was as pure as the wintry quietness outside. Every creature was sheltering; the birds had either flown south or had better things to do than sing; every kid remained at one spot frozen like a popsicle. When his ears became more accustomed to the lack of sound, he could hear the tinkle of the brook that was partially iced over, but other than that, only his rhythmic breathing brokered the air.

"Now, What happened melonhead?" Kevin locks his interest only on Jonny.

"T-That!" The bald kid answers him tensely as he points over him. Everyone turned around at the same time and saw the unexpected.

Every single child just stood there, frozen with shock and terror. Numerous supernatural beings started popping out the hole Plank told his friend to dig. They had never seen anything so awful, so ugly. So...scary. Most of the zombies were blind. They had an awkward gait as they approached slowly. Their jaws dislocated showing their torn tongues and blood-stained teeth. They moaned as they smelt the blood in the air and ate those who fought pinned on the ground. Skin peeled away from their bones and organs, showing their black hearts. Although they did not beat, you could see their organs hanging out of there stomach, and how their blood had turned in to a thick turbid brown and how their stomach slowly digested the flesh that was there own.

"AHHHHHH!" The kids piled up together as their eyes bulged out from their sockets.

Kevin directed everyone to follow his lead, and they gladly did. "Everyone, Follow me!" He says, rushing down the forest; Ed grabs all his companions but Kevin and dashes right behind the group leader in fear. Ed's heart pounded to the beat of his feet racing over the hard ground. Sweat beaded on his forehead, causing his hair to cling to it as his throat ached for air, more air — the delicious rush of wind past against the tall male's face. His muscles stretched, pushed harder. His pace evened out, and his legs were flying at top speed. While running in the forest, a massive crash appeared on-screen hinting; the loveable oaf hit somebody.

The Cul-De-Sac kids mumbled their words in from the strike they have just taken. By the time everyone regains consciousness, they saw the Kanker sisters who were also on the ground feeling their dizzy heads. Now the kids and the Kanker sisters were facing each other with fear and confusion.

"Kankers." Eddy snarls at them like an angry dog. "Maybe you three can be bait-"

"NO TIME!" The tall idiot boy shouts over. "ZOMBIES BAD FOR ED!"

Ed's fingers accidentally touched Lee's shoulders to move her away from there path. Doing so, activated his eyes to go pitch black. His vision was like a vortex swirling around in circles hypnotizing him from all existence. Inside Ed's conscience, we explore another future scenario.

*Ed's Vision*

Ed reopens his eyes to a new scene. He saw a stone tower, inside a room with one window with metal bars. He walked down a spooky, creepy hallway and looked out the window, and it looked like a giant factory that looked like a secret base. A clear image of Ed's friends who were now adults was emptying a bunch of human zombie torsos that was hooked onto a wire pulley system down to a Shredder. They went down the conveyor-belt style into another area where the legs and arms were attached.

An adult male who appeared to be around thirty-two seemed to be the replica of young Kevin. His hair had an edgy, slick back ponytail while his hair color also being orange. He was rocking biker gang vest with a skull on the back with what appears to be his initials, "K." Typical ripped jeans and army combat boots. He was shooting up a storm making sure no Zombie gets inside there hideout. What was more strange is that the Kanker sisters were helping him along with other people Ed notice to fight off the zombies.

"Left side!" Kevin warns a blue-haired female.

It was Marie Kanker, she aims her gun to the left, firing every bullet without hesitation. By the looks of it, the Cul-De-Sac kids worked together with the Kankers stopping the chaos Jonny 2x4 has created. Another hallucination of the same crystal Jonny, the wood boy, has picked up. Twirling in one rotation was the caused of this zombie eclipse. His vision became more blurry and ultimately cutting away to static.

*Back to reality*

His eye vision became normal again, showing he was still standing in the middle of the forest with the rest of the crowd. Ed's eyes started twitching as he began to pant heavily, the vision he saw instantly made his face went pale. Not taking any chances with the future the young male grabs every single child carrying them with his big arms and bolts his way down the forest, leaving no kid behind.

His feet pounded the tarmac with all the grace of a sack of hard crusty leaves, the easy springing steps of twenty miles earlier had long since disappeared. His rasping throat was as parched as a dead lizard in the desert sun. His head bobbed loosely from side to side with each footfall, and his eyes felt heavy in their sockets, He eventually outran the slow walking zombies and finally was back at the Cul-De-Sac. The dumbest Ed didn't stop; he continued running down the block towards his house. Soon after he got back to his place, he shoves every kid inside his outside window that leads them straight to his bedroom, when every child was inside, he mashes his chubby body inside.

"Ed! I could've had big bucks from collecting real zombie flesh!" Eddy angrily pops his head out of a pile of conjoined kids. The camera switches back to Ed were he was gluing his entire window around the edges. "Do not fear the future of the evil demons on the other dimension, I will prevent it from happening," Ed answers as he turns around facing his childhood companions.

"The heck is going on!?" Lee, out of nowhere, pushes everyone out the way even her sisters. "May, Marie we're out of here."

Jonny spontaneously gripped the bottom of Lee's leg. He was pleading begging her not to go back outside where it was dangerous. Jonny didn't like the Kankers at all, the way they treated him and used Plank as a back scratcher, the boy wouldn't dare to forgive. But losing another person like his buddy Plank he didn't want to experience another brutal attack.

"Don't go...They chewed Plank like a rag doll, turning him into one of them..." Jonny explains as he voice darkens. Not believing a word he said Lee flicks his arm away from her leg. The only Kanker that thought his haunting story was real is May who was shaking in fear behind her other oldest sister, Marie.

"This is ridiculous. Let's go girls."

The leader of the Kanker sisters leads her sisters to another door until Double D blocks them from walking any farther than the bedroom. Lee was massively annoyed by this, while Marie was in awestruck upon seeing her pumpkin dress so adorable in his silly Halloween outfit.

"S-Sorry to invade your personal space, but Jonny is indeed right. We saw a large number of mysterious beings leaving a gaping hole in the woods." quavered Edd trying his best to remain calm and collected. Marie playfully lingers her finger on his chest, rotating it in circles sexually. Eddy notices this, and storms over to aid his weak friend.

"Get lost skunk; he's not interested." Eddy rudely smacks her hands away from his friend's chest. That insult alone caused a massive heated dispute with Eddy and all three Kankers. Their argument grew from nowhere into a tornado. The whole bedroom was just in chaos. Nazz is in the background losing her mind, Ed having one of his episodes of seeing things, and more. The only stable person was Kevin, he went to Ed's uncleaned bed and yelled once again, grabbing everyone's attention.

"Listen up! Starting now, I'll be the leader of this group." Kevin ordered. Out of nowhere, both Lee and Eddy yelled in sync. "Says who? It should be me!" They both gave each other surprised looks until returning furiously back to the arrogant jock.

Kevin smirks at this. "Oh? Well, by all means. Save us." He nods his head over to the left side of the bedroom showing the two, an extended amount of zombies banging on Ed's window. The kid's scream tore through the house like an enormous shard of glass. Eddy felt his eyes widen and pulse quicken, his heart thudding like a rock rattling in a box. May screamed like a baby in a tumble dryer, garbled, muffled, intermittent, but none the less distressing and intense. Nazz grabbed Kevin by the shirt, pulling him down, horrified.

"Do something, Kev!" Nazz ordered. "I do not want to be eaten!"

Before Kevin had time to fix the situation, Jonny was being dragged out from the window by zombies. Everyone tried pulling him back in with all there strength. His body kept going farther away from his peers. There had to be at least a dozen of them outside. The walkers leaned over the masses, biting and tearing at any meat they could get a hold of, Blood spilled over their ripped bodies and dropped over the now broken window. They finally pulled him with a massive power force, and Jonny 2x4 was no longer with them. The blood of Jonny was everywhere; most of the kids were shocked to believe what just happened. Double D fainted instantly, lucky for him, his secret girlfriend catches him just in time, there were only eight kids that remains inside Ed's bedroom. The crystal that Jonny had slipped out of his pocket shinning clearly at the visible moon. Eddy dashes his way to the crystal diamond and grabs it off the bloody ground laughing all over the place, knowing he is now abundant.

"I'm rich! I'm finally rich, Haha!" Eddy giggles evilly. Even when covered with blood and whatnot, the young male couldn't care less. His selfish greed trigged him to only care for the crystal Jonny dropped, regardless if it's the main reason for this madness.

"You're sick," Kevin says to the shortest young boy, a bit mind-blown by Eddy's actions.

"We're all going to die!" May's eyes splash out tears like a waterfall, "I didn't even get to be a movie star-" she was suddenly cut short by Lee's slap.

"Get a hold of yourself," Lee said as she walks to Ed's main door, "Let's go. We're taking the smart one with us." When the loud-mouth heard this, he turned away from his shiny crystal and grabbed Double D's short leg tightly in his grip. Kankers being stupid enough to walk outside to be eaten alive, he couldn't care less. But losing the person he needs to count his money, he refused to lose.

"He's mine! Back off trailer garbage!" He insults while pulling Double D more away from Marie.

The tomboy Kanker pulled her secret boyfriend's waist forward to her with the help of her two sisters May and Lee. "Don't let that mask damage your brain too much." Joked Maire. Ed's bedroom turned into a complete tug of war, battling to see who can have the smartest Ed. It was apparent the Kanker sisters were toying with Eddy since he was hardly a match for all three Kankers at the same time. Ed was greatly panicking, watching his small friend getting outnumbered by his enemies. This scene went on pause upon hearing Nazz's question to the crowd of kids.

"Wait a minute you guys...Where are Sarah and Jimmy?" The beautiful blond female pointed out.

Not realizing their absence until now, Ed's heart sinks right to depression. Ed can feel the sweat drench his skin, the throbbing of his own eyes, the ringing screams vibrating in his ears of Sarah's voice echoed, and the thumping of my heart against my chest. Ed's fingers curled into a fist, nails digging into his palm. The voices that spoke to him in the tall young male's mind were now connecting within rapid breathing until his voice unleashed out to the public.

"I'M COMING BABY SISTER!" Ed roared his words as he runs towards his the walls, causing a huge hole. The kids looked out the wall hole and saw the tallest Ed run down the street searching for his sister; His shadow disappears amongst the crowd of zombies. One thing is for sure; Ed will do whatever it takes to save his only sibling. Will Ed make it out alive outside alone? Is Jonny 2x4 gone? Halloween is only getting started for the Cul-De-Sac kids and Kanker sisters.