Earthbound: Simple Gifts







"It's cold," Paula said through chattering teeth.
    "It's okay. . ." Ness said, shivering himself. "We'll be okay. . ."
    Paula stretched out on her back. "I'm going . . . to take a nap."
    It took a second for Ness to make the connection that when one is extremely cold; it's a bad idea to take a nap.
    He made the connection a tad too late.
    "Paula! No!"
    With the swiftness of a fox, he shot over to where Paula had just dozed off.
    He hovered over her.
    She gave one last breath in a mist of white. And then nothing.
    "No. . .Paula. . ."
    Ness kneeled over her, hanging his head. "First Colin, then you. . ."
    He took his hat off and tried not to cry.
    Kaboom
    The room was filled with a sound that was, as Ness' father would would say, louder than the voice of god.
    Paula shot bolt upright.
    "Paula! You're alive!"
    "What was that sound?" Paula asked.
    Both of them found themselves looking at a smoking hulk of something, and a boy about their age, trying his best to look dignant.
    "Well . . . that landing was a bit harder than I'd hoped it would be. . ."
   
    With a huge hit from the percussion, the show started, the snare line marching sideways at a blistering pace, nearly running over the judge.
    "Ooh, change of drill," Jack said. "Oops. Concentrate. Alright, come on."
    The snare line began their backfield move, every other snare circled another.
    Kent watched intently. Colin, on the other hand, could feel something. Corrie could also feel it.
    "Kent . . . you feel that?" Corrie asked.
    "Yeah . . . I do."
    Kent grabbed Corrie and dashed sideways to avoid an energy blast.
    A pure black energy blast.
    "That's never a good thing." Kent said. He dropped his shield, as everything on the field and in the stands was a mass of chaos.
    "What the hell?" Colin asked.
    "Someone just started some shit." Kent said. "And he's right behind us."
    All of them turned around to see Jack floating right in front of them.
    "Why, hello." He said, and shot a blast at Kent.
    Kent caught it and launched it skyward, just in time to see a green streak across the sky.
    "The hell . . . Casey?"
    "I hope she learned reeeal damn fast." Kent said.
    Casey stopped. She immedeately got the attention of Jack and Colin.
    She charged up and launched herself at him.
    "He'll never know what hit him." She smiled inside, and got ready to kick him straight across the face.
    She ended up hanging upside down, in Jack's grasp.
    "Not quite good enough." Jack flipped her around and grabbed her by the throat. Furiously, Casey tried to fight his hands off her throat, kicking furiously.
    Not phased a bit, he put his hand right on her chest and charged a blast. Letting her go, he shot her square in the chest, point blank.
    Her face became blank, as she slowly began to float downward. Colin rushed as fast as he could to her, grabbed her, and set her on the ground.
    "Casey, are you okay?"
    Her face was still blank.
    Quickly, he looked under her overshirt. "Oh, god, Casey. . ."
    Blood covered her entire torso.
    "Jesus. . ."
    Slowly, Casey began to close her eyes.
    "Don't be sad. . ." She barely whispered. "Maybe . . . I should have trained more."
    Casey died in his arms.
    The Starmen and the woman watched the monitors as the machines they had Colin hooked to forced him to witness Casey's death over and over, ad infinitum.
    "Remind me," The leader, Starman Deluxe began, "What will this accomplish?"
    "It'll weaken his mind and make it easier for us to reprogram him."
    Starman Deluxe looked at the woman, who still looked like Casey at this point. "That's not the best idea. . ."
    Colin's eyes shot open, a red fury in his eyes.
    Their red gaze locked onto the Starman Deluxe.
    The bed they had him strapped to simply dissolved. Energy crackled across his body. His hair shot to shoulder length and his eyes glowed an eerie red.
    "This is why it's a bad idea to do that. . ." Starman Deluxe said.
    Colin looked at the Starman. "So, Jack," He began, walking towards the armored entity. "You think it's funny to kill people, eh?"
    "Colin, I'm fine!" Casey said.
    In his mind, all Colin saw was the Starman Super as Jack. The rest of his landscape was finals night, as far as Colin was concerned.
    "Colin, Casey's fine!" Starman Deluxe shouted, pointing over to Casey.
    Colin's gaze met with Casey.
    And his stone cold gaze turned soft.
    "Oh, thank god. Then . . . wait, what happened to you?"
    "It's a long story. . ." Casey began, putting her arm around his shoulder.
    Starman Deluxe grinned.
    "Well, I'll be a wooly shambler. It worked."
   
    Ness looked at the rather disgusting jar of fly honey in his hands. He sighed and shook his head.
    "Okay, great. We've got the fly honey. Now what?"
    "Beats me." Paula said. She still had Colin's jacket on.
    From out of nowhere, something began to ring in Ness' backpack.
    "Oh! My phone!" Paula said, digging through Ness' back in search of her stray cell phone. She fetched it from the pack and picked it up.
    "Hello?" She asked.
    "Well . . . who is it?" Ness asked.
    "It's Apple Kid." Paula said. "He says you know him."
    She handed Ness the phone. "Hello?"
    "Hello, Ness?" Apple Kid began. "Nice to hear from you again."
    "How'd you get Paula's number?" Ness plainly asked.
    "I live right across from her."
    "Fair enough." Ness said. "What's up?"
    "Well, I created something new . . . it’s called zombie paper. It's the same theory as fly paper, but it traps zombies."
    "What kind of a need would we need for zombie pap . . .?"
    Colin's words still rang through, nearly a day and a half after the fact.
    "Okay, anyway, it's pretty clear. Couple of ghosts, couple of zombies. . ."
    "How fast can you get it here?"
    "I gave it to the Mach Pizza guy." Apple Kid said.
    Ness nearly shouted in anguish. "Mach Pizza? He'll take forever and a day!"
    "Hey, man, it's already on its way." Apple Kid said. "I'll be in touch, alright?"
    Ness sighed. "Alright. See 'ya."
    "Peace."
    Apple Kid hung up, followed by Ness throwing the cell phone back into his pack.
    "Well, we've got some zombie paper coming."
    Jeff and Paula looked at Ness. "Beg your pardon?"
    "We have zombie paper coming." Ness repeated. "Via Mach Pizza."
    Paula groaned. "You've gotta be kidding me."
    Ness shook his head. "Nope."
    Jeff spun around his air gun in his hands. He pulled out the broken pop gun he got from a locker at Snow Wood. From his pack he pulled a roll of duct tape, and old piece of PVC pipe, and a tube of crazy glue.
    Paula and Ness watched, entranced, as Jeff turned the totally worthless piece of plastic into the magnum air gun.
    "Time - thirty three minutes." Jeff said.
    "Jeff . . . you’re amazing." Paula said.
    "Ain't it the truth?" Jeff asked, laughing.
    Ness smiled, and turned to walk away. . .
    Just as he bumped into the Mach Pizza delivery guy.
    "Alright, here's the deal," The delivery guy said, "This weird kid in Twoson said to give this stuff to Ness Hert. I don't want to deal with it, so I've made the decision that you're Ness Hert."
    "I am Ness Hert." Ness said.
    "That's the spirit!" The delivery guy said, handing Ness the box of pizza, hopefully full of zombie paper. "Well . . . Ness . . . there 'ya go. See 'ya later!"
    Paula looked as the delivery guy then took off.
    Ness looked to Paula, then to Jeff, then down at the box.
    "Okay. So, let me get this straight. He didn't wanna take this to me, so he gave it to me, not thinking it was me?"
    "Umm . . . what did you just say?" Paula asked.
    "Allow me to explain." Jeff said. "The delivery man gave this box to him, not thinking it was Ness. However, the delivery guy didn't know it was Ness, and, in turn, handed it to the right guy."
    Paula shook her head. "I think I understand . . . I think. Look, let's just lay this stuff down and get to goin', eh?"
    Ness nodded, and opened the box.
    Inside were seven rolls of zombie paper.
    "Hmm. . .Instructions just say to lay it down in a tent or other enclosed area."
    Paula pointed towards the circus tent that appeared to be the center of the town. "Would that work?"
    "I'd think so. Here, let's lay it down and stay somewhere."
    "Not the hotel." Paula said.
    Ness sighed. "Then where?"
    Paula sighed. "Fine."

    Kent looked at his gloved hand, lying down by Lake Tess. His chain maille lay by his side, along with his sword and hat.
    "So, what now?" Kelly began. "Do we get to go home?"
    Kent sighed and sat up. "Man, can't you ever just relax?"
    "Dude. We've got school in two weeks." Kelly said. "I can't relax. I've got the musical to think about, Camerata, Saxon Knights. . ."
    "And we don't have stuff to think about?" Adam replied. "Trust me; we've got plenty on our minds."
    "I just don't think we should be here." Kelly said.
    "Then why did you come along?" Kent asked, standing up. "You knew this wasn't gonna be a one day excursion!"
    "Kent, notice my lack of caring."
    Kent bit his tongue to keep him from saying some things.
    "Besides, I'm sure Colin can take care of himself."
    At that point, Adam had never seen Kent mad.
    And at that moment in time, Adam was glad he hadn't.
    Kent's sword flew from its perch atop his chain maille and into Kent's hand. With a swing of the sword, the sheath came flying off. Kent's other hand grabbed Kelly by the collar of his shirt and brought his face to his, and within inches of the tip of the sword.
    "If Colin could hold his own, why would Mr. Saturn have come a world away to get our help?
    Kelly just looked at Kent. "Beats me."
    Kent's eyes hardened. "Then why did you come?"
    "I dunno."
    Kent narrowed his eyes.
    To Adam, Kent looked like the messenger of death with his coat billowing out in the brisk breeze.
    "Why are you here?" Kelly asked.
    "Because Colin is my cousin and he's in trouble!" Kent roared.
    His voice echoed across Winters. . .
    As about fifty people emerged from their tents to see a purple monster rise from the water.
    "Kent! Look!"
    Kent spun around to look at what Adam was pointing at.
    He dropped his sword and let go of Kelly as he took several steps towards the lake.
    "It's Tessie!" One of the new people said.
    "Tessie?" Kent asked.
    Kent shook his head. "I've seen a lot of stuff in my seventeen years, but this, this definitely tops it."
    "Even seeing the Cavaliers?"
    "No. It doesn't top that."