The Surviving Few - A DANDY'S WORLD FANFICTION

Chapter 3 - Left Behind

So! Have you heard the joke about the uneducated fish? Well legend tells me they had no school!

Here I was, rocking back and forth behind a tall bookshelf. Telling myself fish puns! Fish puns!

I guess however you cope, or however you copepod!

I'm so scared.

It was loud and thundering, those footsteps. Dandy. Stalking through, breathing labored breaths. Somehow wherever he went music played. I don't know the science behind that.. I don't know how that even works. Haha! I'm so scared.

I felt my breathing grow faster. Can he hear me? Can he? Is he getting closer?

This happened on occasion. Dizzy spells. Nervous breakdowns. I rummaged through my head trying to figure out a pun to lighten the mood. Hah! I'd need a lantern fish- no.. there's no wordplay to that.. a LAMP-rey? Hahaha! I'm freaking out, this isn't helping. Where were the others?

I heard footsteps and the typical ding of a completed machine. The footsteps grew louder, bashing and clattering. He's gonna see me. He's gonna see me. He's going to flippering see me.

I let out a labored whine curling in on myself, wincing even more when water trickled from the rim.

I'm going die- I'm.

"Finn."

A sophisticated drawl pulled me back into reality. "Are you quite alright..?"

With a hiss like the blowhole of a whale, I took a deep breath. "I'mmm as swell as a sea slug.." She could probably tell from my voice, from my fidgeting that I'm not alright.

"Here Finn, have a bite." She offered me a protein bar. Reluctantly I unwrapped the morsel and began nibbling at it. Sensory overload clawed at my every move but I forced it down anyway.

I sighed. "Finn.. you're shaking.." I felt her hand rest upon mine. Her hand was cold, but still. Like a cool breeze against tremoring fists.

"There's one machine left, Glisten's on it. Soon we'll be able to breathe, all we need to do is get to the elevator." I hissed. I didn't want to be an issue but I was scared. I was petrified. Comedy was not helping. Nothing was helping.

"When we figure out how to get back up.. we can have some tea I'm sure of it. We just need some cables to reroute the elevator.. you'll be okay Finn, I promise."

I averted my eyes as she soothed me. I was no good, just a jokester, and a bad one at that.

"Thanks Teagan. You're sunnier than a sunfish.." That doesn't even make sense. It was almost a compulsion at this point. An expectation I had to meet.

Ding! The elevator creaked open and a fatigued Glisten came sprinting from another room. Elegantly he weaved his way through obstacles, just in time to evade the stomping monster.

He was a natural. Just like Teagan. Why did I have to end up with the two most glamorous toons in the whole of Gardenview! I was but a minnow compared to them!

"Come one!" Before I knew what was happening Teagan took me by the hand, sprinting me to the elevator. Just in the nick of time the three of us made it. I felt my anxieties partially melt.

For now, we were safe. I was safe.

It was supposed to be a normal trip. An average journey to the depths of Gardenview, to gather resources but. Brightney.. got caught. Only she knew how to reverse the elevator's direction. Now she was gone.. and we were.. alone. Going down and down and down. Made me dizzy just thinking about it! I feel so small compared to the other two though.