Starting New: A World Apart

Chapter 2: More Strange Events

Nicole and Gumball pushed on. They were now by several small shops and a seemingly ancient gas station. They must be getting close to a police station. Nicole felt it.

As they walked around another corner past a donut shop, they finally found it. The police station! This time Gumball, using the energy he still had left in him and despite his still aching body, walked faster and past Nicole to the entrance of the building. They were finally going to get out of here! Nicole picked up her pace too and helped hold the door open for Gumball as he basically rushed in.

"HELLO?" Shouted Gumball into the darkened room. No reply.

Nicole felt like her heart was sinking further down into her body as they went into each of the barren rooms in the building. After searching in all the rooms, they then both knew for sure...it was completely empty of people.

Nicole's mind seemed to be racing a million miles per hour with different thoughts and emotions all seemingly at once.

'This can't be happening. Maybe they left to find others. But we didn't find anyone our whole way here. What if they are gone with everyone else...What if we can't find them? What if...we are truly alone here? What if...we never can find our home...'

Nicole suddenly fell back on a wall and slumped herself to the floor. Tears started to well up in her eyes. She felt herself utterly defeated. This was a new feeling to her. She never had been this defeated before in her life. She didn't even notice the gentle hand placed on her shoulder until Gumball spoke.

"Mom, are you alright?" He asked softly.

She slowly looked up to him, and then wiped her tears from her eyes.

"I'm fine Gumball. I'm just...I'm just a bit overwhelmed is all."

Gumball knew the true reason she was crying. He felt like they would be saved here, but alas, they weren't. This was starting to affect him too. He slumped next to his mom and hugged her with all his leftover strength. She returned the favor, and hugged tightly back. At least they weren't totally alone. They had each other. As they slowly both seemed to nod off to sleep, Nicole heard it start to rain outside. It sounded peaceful enough to bring her slight peace of mind. They then both drifted off to sleep.
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The next morning, Gumball woke up when the sunlight poured into the room. He looked over for his mom. She wasn't there. He then looked around the room but still didn't see her. Suddenly he heard noise coming from another another room. He slowly got up and walked towards the noise. When he got to the next room over, he saw Nicole making some food on a table in the corner.

"Good morning Gummypuss." She said as she looked up at him.

Gumball noticed she still had a tear dried face, but at least she seemed to have stopped crying for now. He walked closer to her, and then gave her a morning hug.

"Morning mom." He said, trying to sound a bit cheery for her.

Gumball then looked at the food on the table.

"Where did you find food for us?" He asked.

Nicole pointed towards another corner of the room.

"I looked in that fridge and found us both quite a bit of food in there. I'm still not sure why it was stuffed with so much."

Gumball was now puzzled too.

'It would be strange to have so much food here and to simply abandon it. Maybe they left in a hurry or something...' He thought.

  Gumball shook his head slightly and took a seat by his mom and ate some yogurt and a cold turkey sandwich.

After he ate, Gumball looked over at his mom. She seemed to have been quiet the entire time they were eating. He was starting to get worried. This never happened when they ate. Usually she would be talking all about what to do for the day, or to make small talk about what Gumball's grades were in his classes...something he hated talking about. But this time, it was dead silence from her.