The Final Crusade

by Enfield

New Friends

Several hours later James and the Crusaders were transported to a hospital where they were treated for their injuries. James' arm wasn’t broken but had been cracked in a few places, his arm was placed in a splint and James was instructed to refrain from excessive use for the next two weeks. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell only suffered cuts and bruises, Scootaloo however had been hit in the head by a vase and her head was cut open but she didn’t need stitches. After talking with the Crusaders James learned that they had heard the wooden beam smash through the window and they had panicked from it thinking the house had exploded. They searched for a way out but ended up being trapped, lost, scared and hurt, but they forgave James and thanked him for saving them.
Dave and Katherine arrived an hour later to pick them up and to take them to another beach house while the roads were being cleared.

“So where are we staying at?” James asked.

“A family very kindly let us stay with them until the roads are clear and we can go home,” said Katherine.

“Kind of ironic if you think about it,” James whispered to the Crusaders.

“These people are very nice to help us,” Dave said, “Let’s return the favor and be polite and friendly to them.”

“Let’s just hope this doesn’t become a repeat of what happened last time,” James said.

“What happened last time?” Apple Bloom asked.

“It’s kind of a long story,” said Dave.

“I though that we wouldn’t speak of that again,” James said.

“Why don’t you tell them?” Katherine said. The Crusaders leaned closer to James, eager to find out what had happened before. James sighed and decided to tell the girls.

“Well to make a long and rather disturbing story short, we stayed with a family for a few days and it went rather well, badly. They were unclean, rude and had no common sense that I could find,” James stopped a little as he dug through his subconscious looking for the rest of the memories, “Now if I remember correctly they really hated us in a way we couldn’t understand which might of explained why they stuck me in an unfurnished basement to sleep in. It was really dirty in there, never cleaned once.”

“How did you deal with it?” Sweetie Bell asked.

“I took the car keys and slept in the car for the night,” James replied.

“We ran off after the second day,” said Katherine.

“You ran away?” asked Sweetie Bell.

“The food that they cooked for us the next morning really put us off,” James said.

“Is this the address?” Dave asked. He pulled into the driveway of a rather large house, it was undamaged from the storm and looked bigger than the house that James and his family were staying in.

“Blimy that’s huge,” said James.

“This is the place,” Katherine said, “Everyone take what’s left of the luggage.”
James looked over to the pitiful amount of luggage that was salvaged from the wreck of the house, the rest was all destroyed. At least most of James' gear had been in bags under his bed when the storm hit.

“These people are really lucky they weren’t affected by the storm,” said Apple Bloom.

“Lucky?” James said, “Nothing happened to the house.”

As they walked up the stairs to the front door the entire family of the house were waiting for them.

“Hello,” said the father, “The Rogers I presume?”

“Thank you for doing this,” said Dave shaking the man’s hand.

“It’s the least we can do,” said the mother of the family.

“I’m Dave,” Dave said introducing himself, “This is my wife Katherine and my son James.”

“Nice to meet you,” Katherine said.

“Thank you for helping us,” James said in German, “Let us know if there’s anyway we can pay you back.”
Apple Bloom, Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo sniggered as the kindly family stared at James in amazement.

“Who are the girls?” the father asked, “Daughters of yours?”

“No, not exactly,” said Dave.

“We technically in a way adopted them,” James said, switching back to English, “It’s because of what I did which caused them to be in my care.”

“You really are a good family,” the father said, “Anyway we are the Morgans, I’m John, this is my wife Debra.”

“Hello,” said Debra.

“And these are my kids, Jacob, Sally, Billy and Wilma,” John said. The four kids all waved, Jacob was the oldest by far because of his height and the fact that he had noticeable chin stubble. Sally and Billy were about the same age as James, Wilma looked the youngest but still was older than the Crusaders.

“Oh do forgive us for keeping you out here so long,” John said taking one of the bags from the front porch, “Let us show you around.”

“Not a problem,” said Dave. The Morgans led Dave and Katherine around the house leaving James and the Crusaders standing in the living room.

“These people are nice,” Apple Bloom said.

“Just as long as we don’t mess anything up,” said Scootaloo.
James began dragging the bags deeper into the house, he stopped when he saw a particularly interesting book.

“What’s that you have there?” Sweetie Bell asked James.

“Looks like some sort of religious book,” James said as he flicked through the pages, “Can’t tell which one though.”

“James,” Apple Bloom said grabbing his attention, “The bag zipper is jammed.”
James picked the bag up and tried to open it, after a few minutes struggling with it he opened up his bag and took out his combat knife. As he was cutting the zipper free of the bag Billy entered the room.

“We’ve shown your parents around the house and they say that you can sleep in here tonight if you want,” Billy said, he then saw James, “What is he doing?”

“The bag zipper got jammed and he’s opening it,” replied Apple Bloom.

“I can’t get this last bit,” James said.

“Need any help?” asked Billy.
With a grunt and a burst of adrenaline James sliced through the bag. Billy stood amazed as James slid the knife back into it’s hilt and dropped it into the bag.
“Got it,” said James.
“So what now?” Sweetie Bell asked.
“Well we get to know some more about you over dinner,” said Billy “I hope you like steak.”

Dinner was a bit of a surprise for James, Dave, Katherine and the Crusaders. They didn’t expect to find a table crammed with different dishes, James attempted to try as much as possible. The Crusaders were a bit more direct with what they wanted choosing what was familiar to them.

“Where are you from then?” John asked Dave while they ate.

“We came from England,” Dave replied, “Then we moved here six years ago.”

“Sounds like you had an opportunity to come here,” Debra said.

“It was a job opportunity,” said Dave, “I really though that it would be better and it was.”

“How about you James?” John asked, “Do you like it here?”

“Yes,” replied James, “I’m not letting a hurricane dampen my spirits.”

The dinner conversation then switched to the Roger’s family history and what they had been doing over the summer. James was asked on how he could speak fluent German, James and Dave tried their best to explain that James for some reason just picked it up one day years ago and the next managed to speak in Russian for an entire day. Later that night after everyone had settled down and were now in their rooms James got to know a little more about Billy’s family.

“So you and your family are immigrants from Canada?” James asked as he stuffed his bag full of the remainder of his clothes.

“Yes, we came here to have a nice change of scenery,” Billy replied, “Sometimes we help out as volunteers at animal and homeless shelters a lot.”

“That’s nice, so I’m guessing that you were going to help people out after the hurricane hit,” James said.

“What we were going to do originally was help clear the debris,” Billy said, “We then saw that you and your family had lost your house and we wanted to help you.”

“How did you find out about us?” asked James.

“We got in touch with the disaster relief people and they gave us a list of people who were staying for vacations and were about to leave,” replied Billy.

“So you’re letting us stay her until the roads are clear,” James said, “Very kind of you, kind of like what I’m doing.”

“Why?” asked Billy, “What do you mean?”

“You know those girls who were with my family?” James asked. Billy nodded in reply.

“They aren’t my sisters or cousins, they were just three kids who were lost and scared,” said James, “I’m taking care of them until I can get them back to their families.”

“You’re one kind person,” said Billy.

“I help others sometimes but this was totally different,” James said.

“Shame you have to leave tomorrow,” said Billy, “Me and my family are going to the animal shelter to help the injured animals.”

“I would come if I didn’t have to leave so soon,” said James.

“Well I guess you and your family will leave before I wake up,” Billy said as he left, “I’m going to bed, hope you and the girls had a nice time before the storm hit.”

“We sure did,” said James, “Who dares wins.”
James set us his bed on the couch, it seemed like a good idea until James tried to get comfortable on the leather “L” shaped couch in his sleeping bag.

“What did they stuff this with?” James said as he shifted from one side of the lumpy couch to the other. James found a tag underneath one of the cushions and discovered that the couch was stuffed with a sort of sand based substitute, it was meant to mimic lying on a beach.

“Lying on a beach my arse,” James whispered.

After several minutes of trying to shape the couch so he could get some comfort James heard something coming from the hallway.

“Who goes there?” said James as he reached for the lamp and turned it on.

“It’s only me,” said Scootaloo. Scootaloo was holding a blanket and still had the bandage around her head, James didn’t know if she was previously sleeping in a spare room or in one of the rooms of the Morgans.

“What’s up?” asked James.

“I was sleeping in a room by myself,” Scootaloo said, “But I had a bad dream and I’m kind of scared. I’m still afraid that last night might repeat itself.”

“It’s alright,” James said, “I still feel a little uneasy but the storm has passed and we’re safe now.”

“I know but I don’t want to be alone anymore,” said Scootaloo, she walked a little closer and took a deep breath, “Can I sleep here with you?”

“Sure,” said James. Scootaloo lay down next to him and tossed the blanket over her, in the light of the lamp James could see absolute terror in her eyes. Scootaloo had probably experienced the most terrifying night of her life, James was going to make sure that her and the Crusaders would recover from the psychological trauma over the next week.

As the night dragged on James slept peacefully with Scootaloo resting her head on his arm, the morning sun rose over a land that had mostly recovered from disaster. James tried to get the sun out of his face but ended up rolling off of the couch and onto the floor.

“Well I’m awake now so there’s that,” James thought. Standing up he saw that Scootaloo had rolled over and had her back to the windows. James strolled over to the kitchen and was surprised to find Jacob there.

“Good morning James,” Jacob said as he placed dishes on the kitchen table.
“Morning,” James said as he rubbed the back of his head, “What are you doing up so early?”

“I always set the table for breakfast,” Jacob replied, “Sleep well?”

“Dropped off to sleep then dropped off the end of the couch,” James said, Jacob laughed a little.

“Shame you have to leave without trying our home made pancakes,” said Jacob.

“We have to beat the refugees to the highway,” James said.

“I saw that one of the girls you are taking care of decided to sleep with you,” said Jacob.

“She’s been through too much,” James said, “She and the other two are going to need to recover from the hurricane.”

“I’m guessing you have a way?” asked Jacob.

“Whatever it takes,” replied James.
Scootaloo’s weary voice drifted through to the kitchen, James and Jacob went to investigate.

“Is she dreaming?” Jacob asked.

“I think so,” James replied inching his way closer to Scootaloo.

“No, no more,” Scootaloo whispered. James and Jacob looked at each other then back to Scootaloo.

“What’s she going on about?” said James.

“Argh, no more,” Scootaloo said a little louder, “Stop the storm. James? Where are you?”

“It’s alright Susie,” James said shaking her awake, “I’m here.”
Scootaloo shifted over and saw James crouched next to her.

“Was I talking?” she asked.

“It’s quite common during a nightmare,” said James.

“What were you dreaming about?” Jacob said with a slight laugh.

“Last night,” Scootaloo replied.

“Remember that it’s over,” James said softly.

Comments

[midnightshadow1]

poor scootaloo

[Godiswithus3]

Geez.