The Dead Body
Mikey stepped ahead of the group, trying to lead them in the right direction. The creature grunted. "Chunk, I hope that was your stomach," Stef said nervously.
Mikey shook his head. "No," he said. "That was the 'It.'"
"Sounds like Kong," muttered Chunk.
"Part of it's human," Mikey went on. "Wanna see it?" It moaned again. "Don't worry. It's chained to the wall."
Robin squeezed his hand as they walked towards the room.
"Sssh!" The creature rattled its chains, and groaned.
Mouth paled. "Mikey, I don't wanna go." "Why not, Mouth? It's chained to the wall."
Mouth sighed. "I know it's chained to the wall, alright?"
"You wanted to go, right?" Mouth nodded.
"So let's go."
They walked on, and Mikey opened the door. The beast moaned louder, and they ran into another room, falling into Brand and Andy. Robin looked at Brand and Andy. They were totally trying to make out. "Shame, shame, shame," Data said, shaking his head.
"Come on, Brand," Mouth said. "Slip her the tongue!"
Robin blinked slightly, realizing that, what felt like a long time ago, she would have found that incredibly funny and charming. Now, it was just annoying.
"That is sick," Stef said. "That is really sick."
The guys pulled Chunk up. As he stood, his eyes fell on Mikey and Robin's hands. They immediately let go of each other's hands, and Mikey's eyes began to wander. "Can't you guys smell it? One-Eyed Willy really is down here." He began mapping out the way they were going to dig into the floor.
Mikey grabbed a large tool that was resting against the wall. "Why are you talking to yourself," Mouth asked as he got beaned with the tool. "Shit, Mikey!"
"Sorry," Mikey muttered. "What the hell are you doing?"
Mikey swung the tool at the solid floor. Brand ran over and tried to stop Mikey, but he resisted. Robin stared off and started daydreaming about Mouth.
She remembered the time at the last year's dance when he danced to "Open Arms" with her, but handed her off to Mikey mid-song. She imagined that he hadn't gotten rid of her, and he had kissed her at the end. She quickly snapped out of it though, and moved closer to Mikey, to see what he was doing.
"There's something buried under there, Brand," Mikey protested.
"Mikey," Brand persisted. "This is the twentieth century."
Robin looked at the map. "The map says there's something buried under here. There's gotta be."
Mikey nodded. "See?"
Brand shook his head. "Come on, get off it."
Mouth butt in. "Look! I've got an idea. Why don't we just pour chocolate on the floor and let Chunk eat his way through?"
Robin rolled her eyes. Chunk turned to face Mouth from the water cooler he was drinking from.
"Okay, Mouth," he shouted. "That's all I can stand! And I can't stand anymore!"
He knocked the glass water bottle he was drinking from on the the floor, and it smashed. "You klutz," they all shouted.
Stef sighed. "I feel like I'm babysitting without getting paid."
"Hey," Robin snapped. "I babysit. It's not we're a bunch of little kids. We're in the same building for school, for God's sake."
Stef rolled her eyes, not even justifying Robin's rant with a response.
Mikey motioned for silence. "Wait. Listen to that."
"What," Mouth asked.
Robin saw the water puddle from Chunk's bottle spilling somewhere. "So what," Brand said.
"Sounds like my grandfather taking a leak," Mouth snarked. "Thrillsville."
Robin looked on curiously. Mikey shook his head at the two skeptics.
"No. No it's deep. Like there's a hole, or a passageway. It's real deep."
Brand moved forward, towards the puddle. "Get out of the way," he snapped. Brand moved towards the boards blocking the fireplace. Mikey looked like he could hardly contain himself. "I told you," he screeched gleefully. "I told you guys. I knew it, I knew it!"
He grabbed Robin and hugged her, twirling her around in his arms quickly.
He let go almost as quickly, and they both looked to see if anyone saw. Only Stef saw, as she raised her eyebrows at both of them. Mikey and Robin blushed, and backed away from each other.
Brand had pulled away the grate, and a slight blast of air floated through. "You can feel the air," he commented. "There's definitely something down there."
"I told you," Mikey continued, thrilled. "There might be a treasure or something,"
Mouth said, slowly perking up. Robin briefly turned to watch Data toy around with some other machine.
"Hey," he said. "This is working, guys." Robin shrugged and turned back to the real action.
Brand kicked out the boards. "Brand, careful," Mikey warned him.
"Are you okay," Mouth asked.
"Yeah," Brand muttered, inspected the hole.
"I told you there was a passageway," Mikey said, still beaming.
"It's the start of a tunnel," Mouth said in awe.
"Look," Mikey said to Robin, as she glanced down the tunnel.
"Fifty dollars bills," Data started shouting over and over. He caught everyone's attention, and they rushed over to the printing press Data had toyed with. "Guys," he said. "There's hundreds of fifty dollar bills. That's enough to save the Goondocks!"
Data passed a sheet of money out to everyone. "Billions of them!"
"Hey, guys," Mouth enthused, "They're real!"
"Quiet," Brand snapped, picking up one of the pages.
"What, what, what," Data asked nervously.
Brand shook his head. "They're fake. They're bogus," he moaned.
"No, it's not," Data said, shaking his head.
"They're phony," Brand continued. "They're phony bills."
"No," Data said, more firmly.
"You'd get twenty five years for counterfeiting," Andy said. The others groaned.
"Hey, I recognize these people," Stef said, examining a newspaper article.
"It's the Fratellis," Brand said slowly.
Robin looked at the picture and her heart stopped. "That's-that's the guy from upstairs," she stumbled. Chunk started ranting wildly about they wouldn't listen to him when there was trouble.
"-I smell ice cream," he suddenly said. He rushed towards a freezer and opened the door.
"They got Swensens," he nearly shouted.
Robin looked into the freezer and nearly puked. There was a dead body! She put her hand over her mouth and tried to concentrate on not fainting.
Chill, Robin. This isn't the 1800s. You're not wearing a corset. It's just a dead body. You see dead bodies all the time in movies. Gross, pale, bloody dead bodies. OK, think about something else, uhhh- a shirtless Anthony Michael Hall feeding you grapes on a beach, and- damn it, dead body. You're an oxymoron, Robin- a impulsive overthinker. You're nuts enough to come down here, but the minute you think about the Goondocks, boys, or dead bodies, your mind goes into overdrive and you think about five miles per second.
After what felt like many minutes, but was really only one, Chunk noticed the body and screamed. He stumbled backwards out of the freezer. "It's a stiff," he shouted. They all quieted down after they heard the Fratellis walk in.
"It's the door," Data whispered.
Robin listened intently as they argued with each other upstairs. The smell of take-out pizza filled the building with its appetizing aroma.
"Pizza," Chunk perked up. The others shushed him. "Pepperoni?" He was shushed again.
Robin could hear the Fratelli brothers arguing over food. "Put that gun away," 'Mama' shouted.
They all realized they need somewhere better to hide, but first they had to put the body back. The boys quickly shoved the body back into the freezer, accidentally leaving Chunk inside with it. Mikey pointed out to Brand that the best way out was the fireplace. The others quickly climbed in, with Robin going last.
After a while, the Fratellis passed by, and Chunk left the freezer. Brand sent him to go get the police. "The Fratellis are coming," Mikey said. "We have to go."
As they walked down the dark tunnel, Robin grabbed Mikey's hand. "I've got you," Mikey muttered. Robin looked ahead, wondering what exactly was in store for the Goonies down the passageway.
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