Chapter Text
Leo helped me inside the caboose and as we entered the train car, I could see everyone all sitting in little seats in the dark or on the floor, swaying along with the train's movements as Carl sat closest to us and looked up at the sound of the door.
"Hey, Mike...are you okay?" Carl asked and then he looked like he regretted asking that question since I was anything but okay right now.
"I don't think any of us will be okay after what we've been through," I muttered and the others didn't respond but they didn't need to say anything for me to know that they agreed with me, that this was going to scar us for the rest of our lives.
"Yeah, sorry..." Carl trailed off and I sighed.
"It's okay, I'm just glad we're alive," I replied quietly.
I see Jenna and TJ together on a seat further along the wall and Flynn sits opposite of them while Chase and Kudzu are sitting on the floor as Micha and Daxton are across from them but further still, a small shape sits as the person leans against the opposite end of the caboose, curled up on his seat.
It's Clint, who Flynn occasionally glances at but the ringtail doesn't seem interested in coming closer to us as Leo guides me over to the seat next to Carl and I didn't say anything as he helped me into it, though he went to examine my bad arm.
"Dios mio, what the hell are we going to do about your shoulder?" Leo wondered and I winced as I adjusted in my seat to get more comfortable.
"It's going to need to be popped back in so I'm gonna also need Jenna's help for this," I groaned and Leo gestured for Jenna to come over, then the kit fox left her seat and came over.
"Mike, what is it?" Jenna asked.
"I can't pop my shoulder back in on my own so I'll need some help, as well as making a makeshift sling for it until I can get to the hospital so give me your belt, Leo," I instructed and the wolf removed his belt before handing it to me, then I started folding it up.
"Okay, now one of you is going to have to take my arm, and when I give the signal, you're to pop it back in," I continued and Jenna looked concerned while Leo appeared worried.
"Mike, this is going to hurt," Leo told me and I nodded.
"Yeah, but I'm already hurting and we need to do this now or my shoulder isn't going to heal right," I stated.
With that said, I went to bite down on Leo's belt and he took my bad arm carefully before raising it as gently as he could, making me wince and groan from the pain that flared up in protest until I looked at Leo and sent him a nod.
With a quick pull from Leo, my shoulder relocated back into its socket with a pop and I let out a short yell of pain before it was over and the belt fell from my mouth, then Jenna went to try to find something to create a makeshift sling as I went to hold my arm up until she came back with what appeared to be a curtain that had been torn up into a strip of cloth.
"Here, this should help," Jenna said before she went to put my bad arm in the cloth and moved the rest of the cloth around the back of my neck to tie it, creating a sling for my arm.
"Thanks, Jen," I said tiredly and she nodded before going back to her seat and Leo went to put his belt back on until he sat next to me.
Unsurprisingly, the others were looking at us and nobody said anything while there was definitely a variety of emotions in the air but the one I felt the strongest was relief as Carl smiled at us, TJ seemed to relax, Chase sent me a small smile, Kudzu sent me a nod, Daxton looked at us with a grin, Jenna sighed, Micha appeared stoic but he also nodded in our direction, and even though Flynn continued to look out the window, I could just barely make out that he was trying not to smile.
There wasn't any doubt, but to see the others looking relieved that I was still alive brought me a considerable amount of comfort so I leaned to my right, resting my head on Leo's shoulder as my eyes grew heavy from my body finally relaxing now that we were no longer in any danger, but I struggled to keep myself awake since I clearly had a concussion and it was a really bad idea to fall asleep because of that.
Still, the warmth of the male wolf next to me, combined with the rhythm of the train quickly soothed me as I just stared at nothing with my eyes taking on a thousand-yard stare as I slipped into shock now that we weren't in danger.
I was exhausted, injured, and no doubt traumatized from the horrors of Echo but I was grateful that we made it, relieved that we were still alive when we should've died and it was that thought that made me think that maybe we will turn out okay after all.
"I'm sorry...I'm so sorry," Leo told me, his words barely a whisper with his tone filled with despondence and guilt so I realized that he must feel that all of this was his fault because of how he set up the reunion to try and get everyone together one last time in Echo, and it was heartbreaking to see him like this.
I remember how sorry was one of the very first words he learned in English so memories of my childhood ran through my mind as I went to reach over to carefully rest a paw over his, the warmth feeling so wonderful.
"I know...it's okay," I mumbled as the gesture seemed to put my boyfriend at ease.
We're a mess, it's pretty obvious to everyone in the room after tonight but I didn't worry about that for now since we're all breathing and that's all that matters after the hell we suffered and escaped from so I just rested on Leo's bulk as Carl cleared his throat.
"So, uh, where do you think we're going?" Carl wondered and Chase looked at him.
"Anywhere's better...as long as it's not hell, I guess," Chase replied.
"I guess," Carl muttered as Kudzu's arm went around Chase's shoulders automatically and we all sat in silence for what felt like a long long time, which I didn't mind and I wouldn't mind if the peaceful silence was all I have to look forward to for the rest of my life, honestly.
Yeah, I wouldn't mind that at all since for the first time in several days, I feel safe but mostly numb because of the shock as a result of the trauma I experienced and then I saw a sudden shift in Flynn's posture until the caboose was suddenly illuminated with occasional flashes of light.
"Payton," Flynn notified us while looking out the window.
With a grating screech, the train started slowing down and I should have been surprised since I was expecting the train to not be real and that it would go on forever but I didn't react much at all, just sitting with a blank emotionless look on my face as the train comes to a slow stuttering stop.
We all sat in the dark, just being quiet and listening when Flynn stood up, and then the Gila lizard went to open the door before soft orange light spilled inside and out of the doorway, I saw rows of train tracks occupied with other boxcars.
"What the hell?" an unfamiliar voice spoke up just before someone moved into view, the person being an older-looking fox in overalls and he stared up at us as if we were aliens.
"Where the hell did you come from?" the fox questioned in bewilderment, and there was a moment of silence until Flynn cleared his throat.
"We're from Echo," Flynn replied before the fox managed to see my injured exhausted self and his eyes widened in alarm.
"Oh my god, what happened to him?! H-Hold on, I'll call an ambulance!" the fox exclaimed frantically before he went to take out his phone and dial 911 to call an ambulance.
We waited while I just stared at nothing as the minutes went by but then the sound of sirens soon appeared in the distance and grew closer and closer until they stopped nearby, then two EMTs arrived with a stretcher and went to examine me before they carefully moved me onto the stretcher and secured me to it.
I was taken out of the caboose and wheeled over to an ambulance before being loaded inside as Leo went in after them with an IV and heart monitor being hooked up to me, then one of the EMTs shut the back doors and got into the driver's seat until the sirens started up and I felt the ambulance starting to drive to the hospital as Leo took my hand and gently squeeze it.
"Hold on, everything is going to be okay now," Leo reassured me and I squeezed back in response before continuing to stare up at the ceiling, just taking in the fact that the nightmare was finally over.
I was moving quickly down the street to the diner while Leo kept my head down, Leo, Micha, Jenna, and I leaving the sheriff's station and checking the street for traffic before making our way to the others as a few reporters from the parking lot spotted us and tried to get our attention but Leo ushered us forward.
"Fucking vultures," Leo muttered and Micha laughed, glancing over his shoulder while Jenna just shook her head, the kit fox clearly annoyed but still relieved.
A few more police cars roll out, honking at the news vans to get out of the way before heading down in the direction of Echo while I was now wearing a fresh change of clothes and having my injuries stitched up and bandaged with my makeshift sling replaced with a new more modern one the doctors put on me.
These past couple of weeks seemed to go by in a blur as I had been treated for my injuries and had to spend some time in the hospital but I was seriously lucky that the worst of my injuries was only a dislocated shoulder and a nasty gash on the side of my head, as well as a concussion.
My parents had been notified about the situation and they flew down from Arizona to come to visit me as they were understandably worried but relieved that I was okay, then I tearfully gave them the news that Aunt Janice was dead and Dad did not take it well as he broke down sobbing that his sister had been murdered yesterday and Mom wasn't any better either.
Pretty soon, two detectives showed up to interview me after the police had questioned my boyfriend and the others so I told them what happened in Echo while making sure to leave out the supernatural horrors that happened since they wouldn't believe me if I told them that.
They asked questions to confirm what the others had told them and then they said that they would keep in touch before leaving, then I spent the rest of the week recovering in the hospital as the others showed up from time to time to leave get well cards and flowers while Leo visited every day and stayed until visiting hours were finished.
Once I was cleared to leave the hospital, Leo's parents took me in so that I could keep recovering until I could get back onto my feet but I spent the next week suffering from horrific nightmares and panic attacks whenever I heard glass breaking or a car backfiring.
It was going to be a long painful road to recovery from my hellish experience in Echo but the thought that we all made it out of that hellhole is what kept me going since I couldn't bear to think about what might've happened if I had lost Leo or any of my friends.
I also lost weight since I couldn't eat or do my regular workout routine because of how traumatized I was but Leo was always by my side and helping me cope so it made things feel less bleak, now I was heading to the diner but I was starting to get really anxious from the reporters trying to grill us about what happened in Echo.
During these past couple of weeks, it didn't take long for the media to catch wind of what was going on, and like vultures, they swooped in immediately so Leo was pretty peeved at them about not caring how they were pretty much harassing a group of people who nearly escaped Echo with their lives and he was pissed that they were bugging me, mostly because of how I was traumatized by what happened and that they didn't care as long as they got what they thought was the story of the year.
They had no idea of the horrors we truly witnessed and that we damn near died a few times but we tried to ignore them to the best of our ability as we made it to the diner, then Leo pushed open the front doors and he peeked in to search for the others.
Once he spotted the booths they were in, he gestured in their direction toward us and we made our way over to them as Leo was mostly guiding me over to them while I still had a blank look on my face and didn't react much to everything around me.
"I swear, those fucking useless pigs were gonna keep me locked up in there indefinitely 'till you vouched for me. Just 'cause they can't do their fucking job, they gotta find someone to pin all this bullshit on so why not the kid with a record?" Micha grumbled irritably.
"They're still trying to figure out what exactly happened," Jenna said before Micha scoffed.
"And they won't, because it ain't the sort of thing that can be figured, you know?" Micha pointed out and Jenna nodded.
"Yeah, I do," Jenna agreed as she closed her eyes for a moment, though they opened up again as she was startled by Leo coming up behind her with me and he was about to speak when a particularly rotund female alligator saunters up beside Chase as she wore a white polo shirt, jeans, and a blue Pancake House apron.
"Why hello there, you all got enough room here in these two booths?" the woman inquired, seemingly unfazed by the sorry state we all looked to be in but I suppose when you work at a 24/7 diner in the middle of the desert, you tend to see some oddball customers.
"Yeah, we're good," Chase replied as Leo helped me sit down in the booth the otter, Flynn, Carl, and TJ were in as the lynx moved and so did Chase so that Leo, Jenna, and I could sit down while Micha sat with Daxton and Kudzu.
Once that was done, the others went to tell the waitress what they wanted in no particular order as I just stared at the table, just lost in my own little world as I tuned out everything around me until someone gently nudged me in the side and I looked to see that it was Leo.
"Mike, you want something?" Leo asked and I just stared before going to speak.
"Just two house-style waffles with a side of bacon and a small water," I said quietly and the waitress wrote down my order on her notepad.
"Alright, if that's all, I'll be back with you folks in a bit," the waitress said until she walked away and Flynn went back to looking at his phone.
"I still can't get a hold of my aunt..." Flynn trailed off and even though he wouldn't show it, I could tell that he was worried.
"Mayor-aunt?" Micha inquired.
"Yes, my aunt who's the mayor," Flynn replied gruffly.
"Maybe she's still tied up with the police, sorting stuff out?" Chase spoke up helpfully as he picked up a sugar packet from the table and emptied the contents into his mouth like an absolute cretin.
"Yeah, but it's been two weeks so you'd think she'd call me back," Flynn pointed out as Leo raised a brow at Chase, taking a sugar packet for himself.
"That reminds me, how are you holding up, Mike?" Jenna asked me and I just slowly looked at her with a distant look in my eyes.
"He's...managing, though it's been a tough two weeks for him," Leo replied for me before downing his sugar packet.
"I'm not surprised, nobody would be okay after what we've been through so I hope he'll recover soon," Daxton said and Chase grimaced.
"Yeah, and Janice's funeral is coming up soon so that can't be easy for him either," Chase said solemnly, then there was a moment of silence as Micha stared impatiently at the kitchen and Flynn dialed up his aunt again until Jenna broke the silence by exhaling.
"Regardless, I'm just glad we made it out of there alive...and I just want to say I'm sorry, about what happened three years ago. Looking back on it now after nearly dying a couple of times made me realize that things between you and Leo were none of my goddamn business.
You could say I did it out of jealousy since I didn't have what you two had, a happy relationship and a stable life so I took that out on Leo by orchestrating that prank and because of that, Mike didn't speak to me for three years out of resentment and I caused you both to break up.
"So, that was a dick thing for me to do and I apologize," Jenna told Chase, then the otter and Leo were speechless while I didn't react.
"Wow, we should go through more tragedies if it gets you to admit you're just as shitty as us for a change," Flynn grunted and Jenna waved his comment off.
The others talked for a few more minutes, mainly riffing on what the hell we're all going to do after all this and the food arrived before Jenna and Chase could really get a chance to weigh in but I just stared at the plate of food and the small glass of water being placed down in front of me.
I paid no attention to the others as I gathered enough energy to take a fork and Leo helped me by cutting up the waffles into smaller pieces before I started eating slowly as Flynn's phone vibrated and he quickly snatched it up.
"Hello? Mark," Flynn said as he spoke on the phone, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the tabletop.
"Yeah, hi. I left a message earlier. Have you heard anything from my aunt?" Flynn asked before he frowned suddenly.
"Uh, okay. Why?" Flynn inquired and he was silent for a moment.
"Alright, alright..." Flynn trailed off as he gestured for Carl to move and the ram got out of the way as the Gila lizard tried to stand and scoot past him.
"I'll be right back," Flynn told us as he attempted to exit the booth.
After accidentally hip-bumping Micha in the face a half-dozen times, Flynn managed to exit the booth and headed out toward the parking lot but while I would get the impression that would annoy the shit out of the bat, Micha was too excited for his plate of food to complain.
The bat dove into the bacon first, shoving it all in his mouth as a whole wad as even Leo raised his eyebrows a bit but I was busy eating my own food so I wasn't paying attention to what the wolf's response was to that as the hungry bat was already moving on to his jam and toast by the time Chase bites into his sandwich.
We eat in silence for the most part, though it's not exactly awkward and I think we're just mainly content to have each other's company after everything we've been through since I couldn't fathom being alone with my thoughts after all this as Jenna gently nudged Chase's shoulder, a french fry poking out of the corner of her mouth.
"You falling asleep on me, Chase?" Jenna questioned and I slowly looked up to see the otter send her a reassuring smile.
"Oh no, I'm just...uh, taking a moment," Chase replied.
"Oh, you holding up alright, though?" Jenna inquired.
"You know, I think I'm okay, actually?" Chase replied in uncertainty.
"Really?" Jenna questioned, her tone skeptical but in a joking manner.
"Yeah, really," Chase said and Jenna hummed in response as she finished the rest of her fries, wiping her paws off with a napkin before something caught her attention across the room.
"Oh, would you look at that, a jukebox," Jenna said and Chase followed her gaze before he spotted it by the door to the bathroom.
"Come on, let's take a look," Jenna added.
"Uh, okay?" Chase replied in confusion.
After scooting out, she offered Chase her shoulder while her tail gently swished behind her and the otter offered her a little nod of thanks, using it to help him stand and he relinquished his leaning on Jenna before they went over to the jukebox.
I finished my food after that and went to take a sip from my glass of water but then I looked down at the clear liquid and stared, just staring with a vacant look as the cold feel of the glass and the water sloshing slightly caused my environment to change around me until I was back in Carl's car that was sinking into the lake, hearing TJ's yowling and Leo frantically yelling for us to get out as the water came rushing in.
"Mike?" Leo spoke up and I snapped out of it before seeing that I was back in the diner and I looked at the wolf.
"Sorry," I said quietly as Leo looked at me in concern before he wrapped his arm around my waist and gently nuzzled me.
"It's okay, I'm right here," Leo reassured me before kissing me on my cheek.
I slowly started taking sips from the glass as music from the jukebox started playing and I was mostly focused on Leo's scent, which helped me a little bit as I soon finished my glass of water but I definitely wasn't going to be the same again after what I've gone through, though I think I'll be okay because as long as I had Leo and the others, I'll survive this.
Still, there's no telling where my life will go from here but the only way to find out was to keep living and always cherish what I do have, and as I gazed at the others, I realized that I wasn't going to take things for granted anymore so at the end of the day, it was all worth fighting for.