Pure Farquad Chaos

Chapter 8: Bella

We followed William Wallace all the way to the end of the hallway, at which point they found a large door, a door much too large to be found on an international space station. Also much too old.

The door, which was easily twenty feet tall, was made of dark oak wood and held together by rust steel bolts and screws.

“This is where your journey splits from mine, wee lassies” William Wallace said, locking gazes with each of us as he spoke, “I wish you all the best of luck.”

William Wallace sneezed and at the same moment the lights flickered. When the power was restored, the knight was gone.

Maddie looked crushed, and I felt a sense of dread fill the pit of my stomach. Whatever was beyond these absurdly large and interestingly designed door could not be good. But whatever was behind these doors was the last thing standing between us and eternal conquest of our hallway. We had to take a stand for what was ours.

“Y’all ready?” Addie asked.

I looked around at my friends. Olivia and Preethi had their brooms. Sammy and Rachel has their spray bottles of cleaning materials and Addie a duster taken from the barricade down the hall. Maddie had William Wallace’s sword, a parting gift he had left behind. I may sled was armed with nothing more than the handle of a mop. I guess the splintered end could cause some amount of damage if it came down to a fight, which my gut instinct told me if would. However, my gut instinct also told me to eat half a gallon of ice cream at three in the morning often, so it was debatable as to how trustworthy my gut instinct was.

“Whatever’s behind that door,” I started, “we face it together.”

I put my hand in between us all and everyone piled their’s on top.

“On three.”

“One.”

“Two.”

“Three.”

We threw our hands in the air and all yelled “Together!” except Olivia, who yelled out “Wildcats!”, which wasn’t necessarily right, but her heart was in the right place.

Together, we pushed open the doors, which took all of us because we were weak and uncoordinated. What we saw inside we would never have been prepared for.

The rustic vibes of the door were continued on the inside. It looked like I would imagine an underground temple from the Middle Ages dedicated to the worship of beefy jerky. I can’t explain why, it just was how the room was, the way it smelled. If life had a sound track, without a doubt the boss music would be playing right now, but alas, life is unfair and bland and didn’t have any music in the background.

The center of the room a pentagram was drawn, only it wasn’t a pentagram because it had 14 points to it. I’m the center of the not-pentagram stood none other than William Wallace himself.

“Hello, lasses”, he greeted, “Pleasure finding you all here.”

Maddie drew in a sharp breath, hurt and betrayed by William Wallace. I, too, found it hard to believe he would be the villain in the end.

“What....what are you doing here, William?” Olivia asked.

“Oh, I’m not the baddie here,” he said, “He is.”

We turned around to find the door we had come through blocked by none other than Felix from The Royal Baby.

“Hello, ladies” he greeted and attempted a sexy smolder.

We were all disgusted. I choked on my own saliva, meanwhile Liv puked and the others shuddered.

“What do you want?” Riti asked.

“I want the Hallway. You see, to take control of the Hallway is one step towards taking over the station. Once the station is mine, it’s only a short trip to world domination. After that, I can.....honestly give back most things. I don’t really want them. All I want is complete control over the Slums of Detroit. See, there seems to be a hidden mine under the Slums that contains the key ingredient to craft Harabo’s special gummy bears. Once I take control of the mine, I can monopolize the market of gummy bears and become a multi-billionaire. Maybe even millionaire.”

“Nobody cares” Rachel said, somewhat under her breath, but loud enough the everyone could hear her.

Felix frowned. “Rude.”

“Whatever, Felix. You’ll never take out hallway,” Preethi shouted.

“Wanna bet?”

Felix snapped and from the ceiling descended four Florida men.

We all screamed and scattered as they ran towards us.

“How do we stop them?” Sammy yelled while being chased by the one with a long beard that had some creature inside it.

“Anyone have duct tape?” Olivia asked.

“I do!” I shouted, “But it’s ninja turtle patterned!”

“Ugh, never mind!”

“Great, so what do we do?” Preethi asked.

“Wait!” Riti shouted, and from the pocket of her leather jacket she pulled a small alligator free. “Will this help?”

All four Florida men stopped in their tracks and immediately started chasing the alligator, arguing over who got the wrestle it first.

“Gosh darn it!” Felix yelled, “They we’re supposed to finish you off!”

We had him surrounded, pointing our various weapons at him.

“The jigs up, Felix,” Preethi said.

“Why would you say that?” Addie asked.

“That’s how hero’s speak.”

“Hello!” Felix yelled, “Let’s focus on me!”

Olivia groaned, “No thanks.”

“Surrender, or be defeated,” Sammy said.

“You’ll never take me alive,” Felix yelled.

He broke through our circle and ran, only, he ran in the opposite direction of the door, right toward William Wallace, who had started napping in the middle of the not-pentagram. Felix apparently didn’t see him, and tripped over him as he ran. He sprawled out on the floor dramatically. The alligator climbed on top of him, and he was tackled by all four Florida men.

“That should keep him occupied for a while,” Liv deemed.

We all exited, William Wallace included, and barred the doors behind us. We then barricaded the door just like the ALICE drills taught us to do.

“Looks like those drills did come in handy,” Rachel commented.

“Let’s go home,” Preethi said.

Arm in arm, we staggered back to our barricade, safe at last.