Chapter 5

PJ's P.O.V

Everything that happened was so sudden, it was good to get a moment to process it all. In fear that we might end up separated like last time, I kept Gradient in my arms. Nobody had said a word since we escaped the soldiers. Our little group weren't the only ones here, either. There was that skeleton that led us to this truck, the one who wore particularly colourful clothes and YO-LO sunglasses. He's been standing at the doors of the truck with his arms crossed, keeping an eye socket on everyone.

There were two others, both also skeletons. Just how common are skeletal monsters? They sat in seperate corners, curled up in a ball and not even looking at anyone. Their magic types were the same, blue. One was a glitch, like Gradient and I, but white-boned. His right arm and left leg were particularly glitchy, not even having a stable solid form. The other seemed shorter then almost everyone else here. He was covered in blue paint stains.

For the half and hour we had been sitting in silence, Moon had been trying to conceal his frustration, and had been failing miserably. He finally cracked and got to his feet, stomping up to the colourful skeleton.

"Where the hell are you taking us?" He scowled.

The skeleton raised a bonebrow. "Brah, you need to calm down."

"Don't tell me to calm down, just answer the 'd'ucking question!" Moon covered his mouth. "What the 'd'uck?"

"Swearing is super unrad, brah."

"Are you censoring me?"

Sage giggled from his seat. Moon turned and glared at him. I found it rather funny too.

"Just sit down. Everything will be explained in a few moments, brah." assured the skeleton.

Moon growled and clenched his fist. He tried throwing a punch at the skeleton, but his fist was caught. The skeleton yanked Moon uncomfortably close.

"I said sit down. Everything will be explained in a few moments."

Moon growled again. So, the skeleton got even closer and raised his sunglasses up. What was seen was indescribably terrifying. I couldn't quite see from my angle, but Moon got a clear look at it. The skeleton lowered his sunglasses back over his eye sockets and backed away from Moon, a wide smile across his face. Moon went and sat down next to Sage, looking shook. I was impressed. There weren't many people who could get Moon to go quiet like that.

The truck soon came to a slow stop.

"Alright, everybody out." the skeleton ordered, opening the door.

Everyone but the two curled up in a corner got up and stepped out. We were still in the forest, but far enough away that we couldn't see the smoke from the now destroyed soldier trucks. All the children were in a crowd, looking up at somebody who stood at the top of a massive, sturdy boulder. She looked around Faith's age. A human girl with the fancy fashion sense of someone from an anime. At least, as fancy as you could get it an apocalypse. The two birds that had swooped in during the chaos with the soldiers sat on either shoulder. That misty, black-boned skeleton stood next to her with his arms crossed and his watchful gaze over the crowd.

"Howdy everyone!" greeted the human girl cheerfully. "You may all call me FC."

FC. Where have I heard that name before?

"Are you going to kill us?" One of the children asked, scared for their life still.

FC shook her head and smiled. "Nah, I'd never do that. Rather, I have a plan to get you all back to your parents, safe and sound."

"You sure did a great job at that." muttered the misty skeleton.

"Not now, Hate." FC whispered, then smiled even brighter. "Everything's completely under control!"

"How do you plan on getting us back home?" Westy asked.

"Well, we've got trucks, truck drivers and truck trailers that can fit all of you inside as well as supplies. So I'm pretty sure we'll be using trucks."

"And how can we trust you?"

"Well...I mean...we just saved you guys from being shot out of the kindness of our hearts.

"How do we know if you're telling the truth?"

FC threw her hands into the air. "I'm a rouge kid in the middle of no man's land! How the heck am I suppose to answer that?"

At this point, I was just confused. Sage pushed Westy to the side.

"Pease excuse my obnoxious brother." he said. "He's a 'teacher's pet'."

"You're one to talk." Westy mumbled.

"No, wait, I have an answer for him now." FC pointed at us skeletons. "I know all of your parents."

"Prove it."

"Error, Dream, Nightmare, Sci and Lust all used to work for me. We spent a week getting the rest of your parents to the survivor camp you call home. We fought mutants and zombified animals together, man!"

The whole crowd looked at us.

"Oh! I've heard of you! Mum and Dad told me all about how you broke them out of a zombie arena!" Raven said.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" FC practically jumped in joy. "That was Dream and Error! You know, the overly positive guy and the god of hauling really big things!"

"I'm such a big fan!"

"I have a fan? Awesome!"
While the two were fangirling over each other, everyone else stood there awkwardly and said nothing.

"FC, we don't have time for this." Hate said.

"Oh, right." FC cleared her throat. "Like I said a few moments ago, we're going to get all of you back home to your parents. It'll be a long trip, but I guarantee all of you are going to be just fine! So, we'll be giving you all a small snack to get you through to dinner, where we'll expand on what we're going to do, OK? Now all of you go back to your trucks, your drivers will make sure your all comfortable for the long journey!"

And with no further questions, everyone returned to their respective trucks. FC slid down the rock, landed awkwardly and ran towards our truck.

"Hey guys! I gotta talk to you quick!" she said, shutting the doors quickly behind her.

"What is it?" Desire asked.

FC took a deep breathe. "OK, I'm going to be completely honest and say that I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing right now."

"What? But you just said everything is going to be OK!" Sprinkle said.

"I know what I said. I've got a general idea on what I'm suppose to be doing, but this isn't the well oiled machine of a group I had with your parents! I found these guys out on zombie infested streets and took them in because they had abilities I thought would come in useful! But they're not nearly as prepared to fight as Error, Nightmare and Dream, they don't have the equipment and supply sources like Sci and a good motivating meal is really difficult to come by without Lust! No offence, Fresh."

"None taken, brah." replied the colourful skeleton.

Fresh. A fitting name.

"So, I was really hoping you guys could help me a bit with this? I've got everything sorted, I just need to figure out how to get this plan into action."

Westy stood forward. "Sci is my Mum, he taught me everything he knew. I'd gladly help with equipment and medical supplies."

"Excellent! Thank you so much...uh...I'm sorry, what was your name?"

"Westy."

FC snapped her fingers. "Short for Westminster! Sci told me if he ever had a son, that was what he would call them!"

Westy nodded. "Indeed."

Sage rolled his eye lights.

"FC, brah, you're getting off track again." Fresh said.

"Right, right." FC smiled. "This is fantastic, thank you guys so much."

"What's in it for me?" Moon asked.

FC's smile faded. She raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean? We're taking you home to your parents, isn't that what you wanted?"

"My parents don't give a sh'oe' about me."

Moon shot a glare at Fresh, who just smiled proudly.

FC took another deep breath. "Buddy. Pal. My new emo friend. That's not at all true."

"How do you know, ay? I never saw you visiting our parents."

There was a knock on the truck's door.

"We're ready to set off on your command." a voice informed.

FC sighed. "We can talk about this later, I've got to go."

So she left. Everyone sat back down, their expectations about Moon even lower then they were before. I glanced up at Fresh for a moment, and he gave me a reassuring smile. I couldn't help but smile back.

"PJ, are you smiling?" Gradient asked.

I playfully elbowed him. "Shush, you."

Off we go again.