The Hero, The Spirit, The Taken and... The Child? (Generation loss AU)

4: The plan..

<Charlie's POV>

(The photo is their height comparison btw-)

"So... what's the plan..?"

Ranboo sighs as they look out a crack in the wall leading out to the hallway, "well how many "guards" did you see when you took tommy to the bathroom?" I think for a moment retracing our steps. "Maybe like one but like far away that way" i point to the left which is the way we came from, "so we go the other way and we just keep ourselves and hopefully the kid quiet and get out of here!"

I pause for a moment looking down, "what? What's wrong? Do you not like the plan?" "No no ran its a good plan i agree with it but... what about... the others... Ethan, Austin, Vinny, Niki, sne-" "if we find them we'll take them with us but... i think they might be dead.." my heart drops at Ranboos words... "how am i alive then..." Ranboo stops. He doesn't know either...

"Look look char! I drew you!" Tommy comes up to me cardboard in hand and puts it up to my face, it's a drawing of 3 stick figures made to look like us, a taller one on the right with a mask, a normal sized one with glasses on the left and a small one with scribbled blond hair in the middle. They're all holding hands and smiling.

"we're in the sun outside! When can we go outside again? I miss the sun. Is mummy out there as well?"

Tears struck my eyes, he's just a kid...

"I-..it's a b-beautiful drawing tommy! Can you go draw us some more please!" Tommy smiles ear to ear, nods and walks away finding more cardboard.

I let out a shakey breath, "ran we-" "we have to protect this kid..." i look up at ran his voice shaking as well, his eyes filled with tears. I run up and hug him. We're sad not because of the future but of the past... this poor kid has been through so much and he doesn't even know it... but we know that we will keep this kid from going through anything that we've been through.

"Ok tommy are you ready?" Ran says looking at him, "yes!" I look down at him, "you remember what to do?" "Yes!" "What do you do?" "Hold chars hand and run super fast like a big kid!" I chuckle, "yes and when do you stop?" "When you stop!" "Good job!" Ran say giving him a high-five with his free hand. "Ok when i say go we run super duper fast ok?" "Like flash!" "Exactly!" Ranboo grabs the side of the door, "3. 2. 1. Go!" I hold Tommy's hand and we run.

As Ran and I run we look around making sure for those "guard" things aren't chasing us, while tommy just giggles and occasionally goes "zoooooom!" We end up at another line of shops but we don't go in them we realize not a single showfall worker is around? "So should we just walk instead, theres no people?" Ranboo says out of breath, "yes please.." "no let's run again!" Tommy is perfectly fine, not out of breath at all, "Tom we-" "my names not Tom!" He crosses his arms, "ok sorry. Uh tommy let the adults have a breather ok we can't run as much as you" tommy rolls his eyes, "boring!"

We walk down the hallway always on look out but not as much, it feels safer down here. "So tommy you just remember your mom taking you to this room and then two men put the mask on you then.. that's it?" Ranboo asks, "yep! And then you guys but that's it." We hold both his hands on either side as he skips around, "what about before that?" "Well uh we uh i don't know" me and ran look at eachother, they got most of his past memories too. "Can i ask you something char?" "Yeah sure!" "Why are you so old?" Ranboo burst into laughter, "hey I'm not that old I'm only 25!" "That's so old!" Ranboo laughs even harder as i just chuckle and roll my eyes.

"Hey watch i can do a backflip!" Tommy's says abruptly, "wha- TOMMY WAIT-" Tommy jumps using our hands as lifts and proceeds to fall flat on his face, "Oh god tommy you ok?!" I bend down as he sits up, his eyes full of tears he makes one of those faces you see a baby make you know a second later their crying, he starts to bawl. "Oh- oh no Tommy it's ok your ok!" As i try to reassure him Ranboo is dieing on the floor trying so hard not to explode with laughter.

We eventually got tommy a few bandages to help with the swelling, "well at least you didn't break it!" "It still hurts bitch" ran and i look at him shocked, "w-what?" "I called you a bitch, that's what dad would call me when i would say "stupid things" and i think you said a stupid thing so you a bitch." We pause. Then burst into laughter, "wow good one tommy that's so perfect!" "What?! He is!" Tommy says now angrier, "I'm agreeing with you Tommy! He is!" "Hey!" We all chuckle down the hallway.

"How about here?" I point at a small little alley way that leads to a wall, "yeah perfect!" We walk down it a bit then sit down and lean against the wall, "so we don't have much so what should we eat first, Charlie?" "I think the pb&js because that's most likely to rot first then all the other things" "yeah pbj!" Ranboo smiles, "well everyone agrees let's eat but that's it's since it's also the "biggest" thing we have" we all eat together, we laugh at how messy tommy gets such as, "how did it get on your back tommy? Do you have a mouth on your back or something?" Tommy laughs hard just as a little kid would.

As we walk holding both of Tommy's hands again, we stop.

We listen.

"What's happe-" "tommy shush for a second"

A loud blood curdling scream is heard from down the hallway...

It sounds... familiar...

<1042 words> (woah)