Play@YSDC

Ronald finds himself charging down a linoleum corridor with an ashen taste in his mouth and a sick sensation that there was an ambulance wedged behind him in the emergency room (was there? wasn't there?) but it's gone now. Ahead of him, he could swear he saw a little girl covered head to toe in black disappear around the corner (or did she do that a moment ago?) but he's finding it so hard to focus his thoughts that it's funny. It's hilariously funny, in fact, like his lack of injuries and the fact that he can't quite remember waking up though he does vaguely remember the emergency room and how he's back in the hospital but where is that little girl? Where are they? It's that same damn hospital. At least they made it but then they crashed it and that's actually kind of sad now that it strikes him in a gut-wrenching and horrible kind of way and now Ronald is all on is own.

At least he still has his sock puppet.

Ronald continues down the hall after the little girl, his mind racing... giggling wildly.

What was her name again? That little time traveling girl from his dream?? Was it Brianna? All he wanted was to keep her safe and maybe sing her a song. Not in a creepy way tho... and where was the janitor? Where was Louie?

Damn you Louie...

Ronald slid around the corner and called for the little girl.

Hey Wait!!! Little Girl!!! Brianna!!!

As he rounded the corner, he found a corridor strewn with stretchers, beds, and other hospital machinery, as though someone had been through the wards and dragged it all out into the main corridor. He thought he saw, though he couldn't be certain, Brianna ducking underneath one of the beds and scampering away behind some other furniture. Somewhere behind him, outside, a siren wails, its sound twisted and broken as though it were running out of battery or partially broken or something like that. Other than that one sound, the hospital was eerily still and silent.

Ronald gets down on his hands and knees to look fro Brianna.

She must be so scared.. poor thing.

He takes off his pack and pulls out Mickey, his trusted puppet companion. He puts his hand in the puppet and calls out for Brianna in his goofy high pitched Mickey voice.



Brianna! Oh Brianna! Are you there sweeeeeeeeeeety pie?

His voice seems to bounce off the walls for a moment and then there's a dull roar that seems to gather around the building and the very walls themselves shudder as though caught up in a mild earthquake or a severe storm. Something howls from multiple quarters as a cold, ash-laden wind tears down the corridors brushing past him in the darkness and forcing him to shut his eyes or risk filling them with grit.

Ronald shrieks a high pitched lady like sound... The motivational children's singer then falls to his knees crawling towards the furniture where he thought Brianna was hiding. He tries his best to keep his head away from the ashy wind, but can't help but gag and whimper as he makes his way.

There's not much space under the hospital bed and it doesn't keep the howling ash from buffeting him or enclosing around him as though he might soon be entombed. The ashen remains of London's inhabitants assault his eyes and clog his nostrils and mouth as he cowers.

Ronald chokes and gags and vomits on the ash and soon finds himself abandoning the blurry search for poor Brianna. He pulls his sweater vest over his head and buries himself in himself, hoping to shield himself from the ashy windstorm. Ronald closes his eyes and cries.

"Hello!" calls a familiar voice. Sarah? "Where are you?" She doesn't sound too far away though he can't see her through all this ash.

Ronald wraps his sweater vest over his head and stands up.

He cries out " SARAH!!! OVER HERE!!!

He then desperately tries to reach the voice. Stumbling through the ashy halls like a Eskimo lost in the snow.

I THINK I SAW BRIANNA.... SARAH! OVER HERE!!! HELP ME!!! PLEASE!!

Sarah and Lionel emerge from the ashy darkness, followed by Agnes. All three of them are wearing surgical masks and carrying electric torches which illuminate the area. Lionel has two of them, one a heavy-duty model. Sarah walks with an arm around his waist.

"Are you all right?" asks Sarah, concern on her face. "Where did you see Brianna?"

"Here, take one of my torches," says Lionel. "It's good to see you in one piece, Ronald, and to know that Brianna is nearby. Let me check to see if there's another mask in my medical kit." After Ronald takes one of the torches and frees up his hand, Lionel looks through the paramedic's kit he had gotten from Jennifer to see if it contains any surgical masks.

Ronalds gasps with relief at the sight of his Ashy friends. He hugs Sara a little longer than he thought comfortable and then looks around the room.


She was here! She crawled under one of the tables!! I think... I think I might be going mad!!!

Ronald suddenly has the urge to put his puppet away thinking the whole business rather silly under the current apocalyptic circumstances. He chokes on the ash for a few moments and then recovers his face with his sweater vest.

What happened to the helicopter? Have you seen the janitor?

At first Sarah is stunned when Ronald hugs her, but then she realizes how terrified he must have been being alone in this place and how desperately he needs human contact. She had felt the same way when she had been alone except for her abductor. She hugs him back before he releases her. "My memory's still a bit hazy," she says, "and I know whatever happened was just awful. When I came to, it was completely dark, and I was being kidnapped by someone I couldn't see. He dragged me to a lift and sent me down into this horrible cavern deep underground. I...I think you and Brianna were there before. I figured out how the lift worked and came back up. Luckily Daddy and Agnes found me."

"Yes, some sort of monster ripped apart the helicopter," says Lionel. "Louie fell out the opening, and I thought I saw Brianna fall out too. When I came to, I was on the ground outside. The chopper was stuck up a tree. I heard Sarah screaming from inside the nearby hospital and ran to save her, meeting Agnes along the way."

Sarah crouches down and shines her torch under the tables. "Brianna, sweetie, it's Sarah! Are you all right? Please come out."

Lionel does likewise. "It's Lionel, Brianna! Ronald and Agnes are here too. We all love you very much."

The roaring of the wind slowly subsides and the ash falls once more to the tiles with only the odd flecks dancing around in the torch beams. Sadly, there is no one under any of the tables. Even through the ash they can see that.

Sarah's eyes start to water. "Where could she have gone?" she asks. "And where's Dahlia?"

Lionel peers at the ground, but he cannot see any tracks. "I wish I knew, Sarah," he says. "We know what we have to do now to set things right, though. Once we've done that, they'll be safe."

Sarah nods, also unable to find any trace of the girl. "I know it means going back down there. I...I can do it, as long as you're all with me."

Ronald whimpers out loud. He quickly gives up the search for Brianna but can't help looking incessantly to the floor for any sign of the poor girl he had taken responsibility for.

Ronald then turns to Lionel.

Go down where? Back under the hospital? Ohhhh maaaan..

What do we have to do now to end all this Lionel? Did you guys figure something out?

"Yes, we were discussing it in the helicopter," says Lionel. "We have to lead the ash to the being sleeping underneath the hospital. That's what it's looking for. Luckily, we're all covered in the stuff. Once it finds what it seeks, it will leave our world and take it with. Then the destruction will be undone, and the world will be made whole again. And everyone who died will live again."

"Oh, I hope so," says Sarah.

"It will work. We know the way back to the lift, and we can go as soon as everyone's ready."

"At least Brianna doesn't have to go back down there. I remember how frightened she was. It scared me too."

Ronald stares at Lionel with concern.

You think we should get a garbage bag of the stuff for whatever is down there. We're gonna need light too. Last time I was down there..

Ronald shivers...

Last time Brianna and I were down there... there was these kids that were trying to get us. Ghost kids.. that moved in the dark... Our torches stopped em dead in their tracks. I swear it was like a game to them.

"We have four torches," says Lionel, "so that's one for each of us. Filling a container with ash would be a good idea too, just in case."

"I remember those ghost children now," says Sarah, shivering, "but I only saw them through Brianna's eyes. She was frightened, but she was able to make it through because you were with her, Ronald."

I'm looking..

Ronald looks sad and frightened. He looks down at his hands and murmurs.

I miss her!