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Epilog

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All existence was quiet and still.

It wasn't cold nor warm.

It wasn't bright nor dark.

It wasn't soft nor hard.

It wasn't old nor new.

It wasn't real nor dream.

Dream?

Was it a dream?

Could it possibly be a dream?

Or was it death?

Finally, gentle, welcoming death?

If it was death, why did his toe itch?

Toe?

Dr. Sidney Zwiebel bolted up in bed. Frantically he tore at the blankets, trying to dig his way down to his legs.

"Sid!" someone called to him, trying to grab at his arms. "Sid, calm down! You're alright."

But he didn't hear anything but the unbearable loud beating of his own heart.

Twisting about, he threw the blankets away from him until he saw them:

Legs! Two of them! Legs, ankles, feet, toes. They were all there, as perfect as they had ever been.

And that's when he saw them, holding the blankets: hands, arms… strong and healthy and unscathed.

"Hey, Sidney." Buckaroo called to him again, his voice gentler. "You're okay, buddy. You're all here. Just take a few breaths."

"Yea." Perfect Tommy spoke up. "We counted. All ten toes and nine fingers."

Jersey frowned. "Nine?" He looked down at his hands.

Rawhide groaned. "Damnit, Tommy…. Any other day and I'd beat your butt…"

"Why do you think I'm getting it all out today?" Tommy returned, followed by a sharp "Ow!" protesting the smack up the back of his head.

Knuckles simply smirked and went back to her pacing.

"And that's how we know Knuckles is just fine and dandy. She doesn't have anywhere near the restraint Rawhide has." Reno offered. He tried to chuckle, but it just came out as a grunt.

Looking up from his ten fingers (he counted them twice), Jersey blinked at Buckaroo. "I…" he tried, but when the words wouldn't come, he just shook his head. He didn't understand. He couldn't understand.

Had it all been a dream?

Was none of it real?

Was any of it real?

The island? The children? Katarina? Pecos?

Jersey suddenly grabbed Buckaroo's arm so tightly, the man hissed in pain. "Pecos! Where is she? Is she alright?" he demanded.

Buckaroo stood very still, resisting the urge to yank his arm free, afraid it would just agitate the situation. "She's fine, Sid. She's right here." He nodded across the bed.

Pecos stood a few feet away, her arms wrapped tightly around herself as if she didn't trust herself… didn't trust anything.

Letting go of Buckaroo, Jersey focused on the girl. "Pecos, you alright? How do you feel? How's your hand?" he wanted to know as he swung his legs off of the bed.

She glanced at him, then quickly dropped her eyes. "You're still asking if I'm alright? After… after everything I did?" she whispered.

"That wasn't you!" Reno quickly corrected. He reached out for her, but stopped just short of touching her. He was afraid to touch her. Afraid to hold her, even when he needed to so much… when she needed him to. After all, he was the one who killed her.

Jersey shook his head. "Pecos, you would never hurt me… any of us." he assured. When she didn't look at him, he pushed off the bed and reached for her.

But his legs seemed to dissolve out from under him and he was falling.

"Jersey!" Pecos cried, stepping forward and catching him before he hit the floor. A step behind her, Reno helped him back up on the bed.

For a panicked breath, New Jersey thought that this had been the dream, that the reality was his legs were gone. He tried to breath, tried to calm himself, tried to reason.

It was Pecos' equally panicked voice that snapped him out of it. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Sorry…" She backed away, wrapping her arms around herself again.

Jersey looked up at her and it accord to him that she thought he was freaking out because she had touched him. She thought it was her who sent him into a panic.

His own fears dissolved with the need to help her. "It's alright. Legs are just asleep." he reasoned, rubbing them. "'Supposed it's been a bit since I've used them." He looked around again. "Where are we? What happened to us?"

Each took a moment to look around once more. They were in some sort of hospital ward with no real details except for the mirror, no doubt a one-way window looking in, on the far wall beside a locked steel door. Bland walls, bland tile floor, bland ceiling, bland hospital garb, bland beds, bland, bland, bland…

The crew was scattered about the room, each one in an obvious state of mild shock, numbly moving about with the need to do something… anything. Some fumed, like Knuckles, pacing angrily, but never getting further than arm's length from Perfect Tommy. Some just clung on to someone else, like Mrs. Johnson clung to Tommy Boy, afraid of what might happen if she let go.

Buckaroo had backed up to his wife's bed. "Hospital ward. Few nurses come and go decked out in bio-hazard gear. No one's telling us where we are, but, by the accents, Austria. Size of this room and quality of equipment we've seen, Sydney."

Peggy pulled him to her until he was close enough to curl up in his arms. "I don't care where we are." she told them all. "We're alive. We're together. And, except a few horrible memories, we're alright."

But that wasn't enough for Mrs. Johnson. She was sitting on a bed across the room, one hand rubbing her stomach where there had been a bullet hole, the other clinging to Tommy Boy's shirt tail as if she was a frightened, little girl. "Is it just memories?" she wanted to know. "Or a dream? What really happened?"

"Lots and lots of questions." Tommy Boy agreed. "And no answers."

Perfect Tommy chimed in, confusion far on its way to anger. "What? How? Why? And let's not forget… What the fuck? Ah mean… ah remember a bunch of knee high cannibals and a whole hell of a lot of dyin'. And, 'les there's some other reason we all took turns countin' Jersey's fingers and toes when we woke up, Ah'm thinkin' you all remember the exact same way ah do." He waved a hand in the air at their surroundings. "Oh, and hey, anyone remember how the hell we got here? Not to mention, oh, yea, who duct taped all of us back together? 'Cause we were all dead?!" He looked at each of them, giving them a chance to deny it. When no one could offer him an answer, the kid slammed his fist against the footboard. "Really! What the fuck?!" he yelled at them.

Rawhide gave an all too tired sigh. "Perfect Tommy, take a breath. We're all okay." he assured.

"Rawhide!" Perfect Tommy snapped. "You left Knuckles behind. Left her to die. You call that okay?!"

"I told him to do that!" Knuckles answered before Rawhide could even react to the accusation. She faced off with Tommy and growled "Don't you ever blame him for that! I was already dead. I was bitten! What he did… it saved me."

Tommy huffed. "Saved? You were torn to pieces. I heard you scream!"

"I would die a hundred times that way, than live long enough to hurt you… any of you." Knuckles dared a smile. "When I died, I woke up here. If anything, I was saved from what the rest of you went through."

Perfect Tommy glared at her. But only for a moment. He rubbed the palms of his hands in his eyes and groaned. "Really, Jessica, what the fuck…"

Knuckles stepped up, wrapping her arms around him, set and determined that she would protect him if it meant she had to stand there to the end of her days.

"I wish I had died." Pecos whispered.

"No, you don't." Reno growled.

She looked at him. "What I did…"

"Wasn't you!" he told her again. "You didn't do anything. That… bitch! She did it! Not you."

"Pecos," Tommy Boy spoke up. "Sweety, you already told us the last thing you remember before waking up here is throwing a canteen at that kid in the woods. If the rest of us woke up here when we died… then you died there in the woods." she reasoned.

Pecos frowned at her. "But, you said I…"

"Your body, that's all." Jersey quickly assured. "It's like… like someone stole your car and used it in a bank robbery."

Reno took her by the shoulders, turning her to face him. "You have to know… it isn't in you to do those things. You are a good, kind, beautiful soul who could never hurt those she loves." He had to drop his eyes, his own shame surfacing. "Not like me."

"Reno." Buckaroo called. When he looked at him, Buckaroo reminded him "It was you who first saw that that was not Pecos. You knew she wasn't there to save. You didn't kill her. You stopped whatever it was that was using her body."

Peggy nodded her agreement. "You stopped the bank robbers."

Pecos took Reno by the chin and raised his head until she could see his eyes. "You have to know… it isn't in you to hurt me. Not ever!" she whispered.

Reno wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into him, just holding on for dear life.

Rawhide reached up as if to push his Stetson back, but, remembering he didn't have it, ran his fingers through his hair. "Damn, I want my hat." he growled. Stomping over to the mirror, he banged on it with a big fist. "Alrighty, folks. We're all up and about. Time for some hellos and howdies."

They all leaned forward, waiting for an answer.

After nearly a full minute of silence, Mrs. Johnson looked up at the ceiling. "Tic tock, tic tock!" she called out to anyone who might be listening.

Tommy Boy chuckled. Wrapping an arm around the girl's shoulders, she said "Don't think that's going to…"

The door swung open and a group in bio hazard suits walked in. Some carried trays, others clip boards. But one was pushing in a dog cage and arguing with the others.

"Hey." he was saying. "They're in quarantine. He's in quarantine. Don't see why they can't all be quarantined together!"

Tommy Boy instantly recognized the voice. "Thunder!"

Knuckles instantly recognized the bark. "Oddity!" Abandoning Perfect Tommy, she spun and hurried to the cage.

Perfect Tommy, stood, arms empty, and frowned. "Did ah just get dumped for a dog?" he wondered. But, smiling, he followed Knuckles over.

A rather large bio-suit stepped in front of her and gave Knuckles a warning glare.

Knuckles matched her glare. "Nurse Jabba the Hut, you do not want to be standing there." she snarled.

As if she needed encouragement, at the sound of his mistress' voice, Oddity started barking excitedly.

But, before either woman could make a leap to battle, Thunder threw open the cage.

Oddity sprang out, between Jabba's legs, and leaped up, his front paws landing on Knuckles' shoulders.

With a cry just as happy and excited as the barks, Knuckles fell back against Perfect Tommy.

Perfect Tommy's cry was less happy, less excited, as he fell back against the foot board, Knuckles and dog falling on top of him.

Tommy Boy was about to make her own long lost love charge at Thunder when she was reminded of Mrs. Johnson being securely attached to her shirt tail. As much as she wanted to crawl into his arms and never let go, she wasn't about to abandon the girl.

But Mrs. Johnson wasn't about to deny her. "Go get him." she suggested, releasing her hold.

Tommy Boy barely smiled at her, before she was racing across the room.

Nurse Jabba the Hut snapped her fingers at a couple of her cohorts who quickly moved to cut Tommy Boy off. "No, sorry, Miss. No touchin' him. Dats da rules." she barked at the Cavalier.

Tommy Boy skidded to a halt as a bio-suit made a grab for her, trying to stop her. "Hey!" she snapped.

Rawhide was at her side instantly. "Back off!" he growled, towering over the suddenly very little man.

More bio-suits hurried to back up their fellow, earning the growling attention of the Cavaliers.

Buckaroo and Reno both stepped away from their girls, ready to back Rawhide up. Knuckles pushed away from Perfect Tommy. "Yea. Have no idea how much I need a brawl!"

"Easy, guys!" Thunder hollered, holding up his hands. When he had everyone's attention, he turned to Tommy Boy. "You're quarantine. I can't touch you." he told her. "It's the deal I made so they'd let me come in and talk to you guys."

"I didn't make any damn deal!" Tommy Boy protested. "And why the hell are we quarantined?"

"I gave them my word so I could come in and tell you guys what's going on." Thunder pointed out. "That is if everyone would put the killing each other on hold for just a few minutes." He gave the Cavaliers the same pointed look he gave the medical staff.

Tommy Boy crossed her arms over her chest, obviously unhappy, but she didn't make any further move toward him. Following her lead, the Cavaliers relaxed, though Rawhide stayed at her elbow, giving Knuckles the added order "Muzzle it, girl."

The little bounty hunter glared, but obeyed, standing down.

Jabba waved to her cohorts and they backed away from the Cavaliers, taking up guard positions.

Knuckles frowned at that. "Are we under arrest, or something?" she wanted to know.

"Something." Thunder answered. Leaning against the mirror, he admitted "We don't know much of what happened or what caused it, but… you missed your restock in Tanqui, Brazil ten days ago. We couldn't locate the Aurora's signal any where in the world."

"Ten days?" Peggy breathed. Her eyes shifted, counting the days she remembered. "We're missing… six days."

Tommy Boy shook her head. "Our systems were down. The storm blocked all signals. We couldn't get anything out." she explained.

"Tommy Boy, we didn't find a storm either." Thunder returned. "Not where you should have been. And nothing anywhere in the Atlantic that could have brought down the Aurora."

"So how did you find us?" Rawhide wanted to know.

Thunder shrugged. "Every ship we have, every satellite we have, every favor from every country… and all we found was ocean, Until three days ago. Clear as a bell, the Aurora's emergency beacon started blaring a little above Antarctica. She was drifting, no apparent damage. The only sign anything was wrong was the ten of you, plus dog, lying on the deck, sleeping like babies." He threw Rawhide a glance. "Big babies."

Rawhide snorted.

And Thunder continued. "We brought you to Sydney International, ran tests, ran more tests, made up tests to run when we ran out of the ordinary ones…. Hell, even Alaska Anne came on down to check you guys out herself. No one could find anything wrong with you and no one could wake you." He waved a hand at Pecos. "Then, yesterday morning, Pecos shot up so sudden like Doc Reynolds is still sitting with a heart monitor. The rest of you started coming around one by one… Reno, then Knuckles… so on and so forth. All with the same, nasty tale to tell."

"So, it was some sort of shared dream." Buckaroo mumbled. "And they didn't find anything wrong with us?"

"Checked the ship's air filtering?" Rawhide asked. "Water cycling? Food? This didn't just happen!"

"Checked, checked, quadruple check." Thunder answered. "Even inventoried all the drugs and chemicals on board, checked them against manifest… nothing used, nothing missing. Whatever knocked you guys out was long gone without a trace by the time we found you."

Knuckles threw a glare at Nurse Jabba. "Why we quarantined… or something… if there's nothing wrong with us?"

"Politics."

"Politics?" Tommy Boy huffed. She sniffed. "I can't touch you because governments are arguing over… what do they have to argue about? One of them do this to us?"

Thunder groaned, bouncing his head against the wall behind him. "It's a big tug-a-war mess. Everyone wants credit for pulling the Aurora and the great Dr. Buckaroo Banzai from the water." He started his own angry pacing. "We received the Aurora's signal through a US Navy satellite, so they want the credit. A Chinese Whaler was the first to eye ball you, So, China wants credit. We reached you on our own ship, but it happens to be registered in France. So France wants credit. We brought you to the closest medical center, Sydney International. Austria wants credit. And no one is letting anyone else say you're clean because that would give that someone else credit for a rescue that we, the Banzai Institute, in the whole, paid for, performed, and everything else required! And they're using your quarantine to keep us from just up and walking out of here with you guys. I mean, I had to wheel and deal to get this far! Did I mention Alaska Anne came all the way to Austria to check you all out herself? For crying out loud, it's been so long since she left Alaska, she arrived in a parka! Our own zoologists took care of Oddity. It's even his own cage brought all the way from the Jessie James Club in New York!"

Knuckles held up one hand, while scratching Oddity's ears with the other. "BTW: thanks."

Thunder stopped his pacing and offered her smile. "Truth be told, I was a little afraid you'd hurt someone if he didn't show up sooner rather than later."

Another glare at Nurse Jabba, who threw out her chin in challenge.

"Politics." Rawhide snarled, the word leaving a nasty taste in the back of his throat.

Buckaroo sighed and dropped back on the bed beside his wife. "I was hoping we were helping world peace." he grumbled. "Not causing World War III."

Peggy leaned against his back and asked Thunder "Any idea how long we're stuck here?"

Thunder sighed. "Well, Books is working legalities now. He's throwing a fit about illegal detaining and law suits and human rights and some sort of accord and a bunch of legal stuff I really don't want to understand." He tilted his head. "And, if that doesn't work, Alaska Anne has a whole long list of reporters and talk show hosts. We'll have you out in a few days."

"Days?" Tommy Boy groaned.

Thunder winced. "Maybe… a week…? A week at most!" he gave an uneasy promise.

"A week?" Tommy Boy practically sobbed. Dropping her head, she hugged herself.

"That's a whole hell of a load of crap!" Knuckles snapped. "All I want to do is go home and curl up in the tub!"

Perfect Tommy waved his hand. "That's got my vote!"

"That's all any of us want to do." Buckaroo agreed.

Perfect Tommy and Knuckles glanced at him sharply.

Buckaroo blushed. "I was speaking figuratively. We all want to go back to our own safe, warm, cozy spots."

Peggy swatted his shoulder, but Tommy pointed out "I wasn't speaking figuratively." and Knuckles promptly smacked his shoulder.

Thunder chuckled softly, then turned his attention back to his girl. "Yea, well, so do I." he admitted to her. "I want to get you back home, safe, warm, cozy, protected…"

Tommy Boy wiped her eyes.

Thunder took a step toward her, instinctivly offering her some sort of comfort… any sort of comfort.

"Mister Thunder!" Jabba snapped a warning.

Thunder's out stretched hand dropped, balling up in a fist. "Yea, yea, yea." he growled. "Okay, let me go yell some and see if I can't get things moving any faster. Not that it'll do any good, but…" He ground his teeth, not actually wanting to say that yelling at a bunch of idiot politicians was easier than standing there, just a few feet from Tommy Boy, seeing how much she needed him, and not being able to reach out and just touch her.

Damn, damn, damn!

He spun away and stepped through the door just as quickly as he could.

Tommy Boy took a step after, but Nurse Jabba was quick to cut her off. "Fine!" she snapped at the nurse, spinning about and stomping off.

Rawhide followed, putting his hand on her shoulder. "You okay?" he asked softly.

"No!" she snapped at him. Wiping her eyes again, she leaned against him. "I don't need home. I don't need safe or warm or cozy." Sniff. "I just want to curl up with Thunder and forget everything…. Everything that happened…"

The big cowboy couldn't help but feel his own heart ache. And not just for her longing, but for his own sake, for the fact that it wasn't him she wanted. Glancing around he saw Buckaroo and Peggy leaning against each other; Reno and Pecos clinging to each other for dear life; Knuckles and Perfect Tommy fussing over Oddity; even Mrs. Johnson had wandered over to New Jersey to check on all his fingers and toes herself.

And he made a decision.

"You know that moment when you die and you see your life pass before your eyes?" he asked her. "When you see all your regrets? You know what I regretted most?"

Tommy Boy looked up at him.

"Letting you go." he admitted.

She dropped her eyes. "Rawhide…"

But he grabbed her chin, bring her eyes up again. "Don't let him walking out that door be your regret."

Tommy Boy's brow scrunched in confusion. "But the qurantine…"

"Since when have we given a damn about politics?" Rawhide grinned and stepped away. "Knuckles! Feel like a fight?"

Like he needed to ask.

"Aye, aye, my Captain!" Knuckles snarled, her eyes instantly locking on Nurse Jabba the Hut.

"Consider the muzzle off." Rawhide growled. He stepped up to the nearest man in a bio-suit and walloped him right in the jaw.

"Yee-haw!" Knuckles lunged at Jabba.

"Ah, hell." Reno groaned, stepping away from Pecos. "Think it's a mess now? Wait till we're all straight jacketed." That said, he sprang into the fight.

Pecos actually laughed. Then she too picked out a target… victim.

Buckaroo contemplated joining the fray, but Peggy rested her chin on his shoulder and whispered in his ear "Remember? You're on vacation. Enjoy the show."

So he resigned to sitting back and reminding them "Don't hurt anyone."

Tommy Boy stared. "Oh, my god…" she laughed as Rawhide began throwing bio-suits into the bathroom, trapping them.

"You got a reason to still be standing there?" Peggy called to her.

It was all the encouragement she needed. Tommy Boy was out the door and down the hall before anyone even knew she had moved.

Thunder had only made it half way down the hall before he had to stop to argue with some man in a lab coat. His bio-suit had already been tossed aside.

"Thunder!" she called after him.

He turned just in time to catch her as she jumped into his arms. "Tommy Boy, what are you…" He stopped when Nurse Jabba stumbled back out of the room and crashed into the wall.

With a growl, the hefty woman picked herself up, readjusted her bio-suit, put her head down, and charged back in.

"What the hell…?" Thunder asked.

"The detaining is about to become legal." Tommy Boy informed him. "Kiss me quick!"

Grinning, he did just that. Wrapping his arms around her back, lifting her up off her feet, kissing her for all he was worth…

And, for a moment, the world slipped away, leaving just the two of them.

"Ow!" Tommy Boy suddenly hissed.

Thunder dropped her back to her feet. "What?" he wanted to know. Not waiting to be told, his hands followed hers to the back of her right shoulder. Pulling the hospital shirt out of the way he saw what she was complaining about.

"It burns." Tommy Boy hissed, tilting her head, holding her hair out of the way.

Thunder frowned at what he saw.

A small chunk of flesh torn away.

It didn't bleed as if it had just happened, but it hadn't been there before. The edges of the wound were turned up slightly, the skin already dead, the exposed muscle graying. A clear, glistening ooze seeped from the wound.

"I think… it's some sort of bite." Thunder mumbled, puzzled.

Tommy Boy gasped, her hands coming up to her face. She stumbled back away from him, staring at him with big, frightened eyes.

Thunder looked back, confused. He held out his hand, not understanding why she was backing away from him. "Tommy Boy?"

But her eyes shifted passed him.

Frowning, he turned.

Coming down the hall, in through every door and window were hundreds, thousands even, of small, blond, blue eyed children, each armed with a knife and a blood stained grin.

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The Island

The End

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