How It Should Have Been

Chapter 3: Heimlich Hospital

Begin!

Universe*

~Normal POV

The sun had started to rise over the Hinterlands as the Baudelaires and the Quagmires saw an old looking truck pull up to the store. They ducked inside the fire truck to avoid being spotted. An old man got out of the truck carrying a stack of newspapers in his arms. He locked up the papers inside a nearby dispensing machine before unlocking the door and disappearing inside the building. Thankfully, he seemed oblivious to the fire truck that had appeared overnight. The children got out, leaving their stolen bag inside the truck, and snuck over to the machine. On the cover of the top paper was a picture of all five of them together with a headline talking about the Baudelaires being murderers and the Quagmires being their supposed accomplices. As expected, all of their names were mislabeled too.

Duncan groaned, "I hate the Daily Punctilio. No journalistic integrity; all they ever do is lie."

"How did Mrs. Poe even get this picture of us," Klaus asked.

"She must have taken it before we escaped; Mr. Poe was with the mob. Mrs. Poe is the editor in chief at the Daily Punctilio; she'll do anything for her next big headline. Well, the store owner is here now. We can't go inside though because he might notice that we stole these clothes," Violet said.

"So, what's the plan?"

"Someone's coming," Isadora said, and the five of them quickly ducked behind the wall as another car pulled up.

It was another man this time and he too carried a newspaper under his arm as he got out of his car and entered the store.

"Hey boss, did you see this headline? Murderous children on the loose in the Hinterlands! What's the world coming to," They heard him say through the window above them.

"Ah, what can you do? It says they're orphans. Their parents probably never raised them right," The old man replied.

The five of them felt their blood boil at such a horrible accusation. They knew their parents raised them perfectly fine. And most importantly they were being framed for a murder they did not commit. They had only stooped to breaking the law recently out of necessity. Each of them knew that in a survival situation sometimes your personal principles must be sacrificed for your own safety.

"V.F.D.," Sunny said, getting their attention.

"What was that, Sunny," Isadora asked.

Sunny pointed to a large, blue van that had just pulled up. On the side were the letters V.F.D. in big black print. The children looked at each other nervously. The van was filled with several people, but only the driver got out and went to fill up the vehicle at the gas pump.

"Do you think we should try to get a ride with them," Duncan asked.

"It's our best shot," Violet answered, "Let's talk to him."

They walked up to the man at the pump. He was currently inspecting a guitar he had been carrying on his back as he waited.

"Excuse me sir," Violet said, "Um, you wouldn't happen to have room for a few extra passengers, would you?"

The man grinned, "Oh, we have plenty of room! We're always happy to welcome new volunteers. We're just topping off our fuel then we'll head out. Hop in!"

"Er, thank you," Violet said as the man opened the back of the van to let them in.

It was a tight squeeze, but the five of them managed to fit inside comfortably with the others. Duncan sat next to Violet, and Klaus sat beside Isadora with Sunny on his lap. The driver got back inside after several moments and they drove off to where they did not know. The children glanced at the other people in the van who were smiling curiously at them.