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Josie and Peg were catapulted to the other end of Wool Works by the chimeras who aided in their escape. Josie landed a ways away from Peg and found herself in a peculiar room. She looked around and saw that it was filled with maps of different locations, presumably on The Great Stalk. What really caught her attention was a huge wall covered in mirrors. Walking closer she realized that the mirrors did not show a reflection. Instead the mirrors showed various locations such as towns and forests, acting more like a window. Each mirror had a title engraved on it and one in particular grabbed Josie’s attention.
“Sweet Street?”
She had some trouble at first making out the image the mirror showed her but as she continued to look she realized wherever this was it was a bustling neighborhood. It was hard to make out the people but it seemed like they were all eating something. Glancing at the name and then back at the people Josie made what she believed was an apt observation.
“Candy! The streets are made of candy!” She said aloud as the thought came to her. “That’s why everybody’s eating! Oh man, Peg! Look what I found!”
But there was no response. She yelled out for Peg a few more times but there was no answer in return. Looking back at the mirror she carefully brought up her hand to touch the glass but as soon as her fingertips touched the mirror, bright lights poured from the reflection nearly blinding Josie.
She shut her eyes tightly but could feel a force against her body pulling her into the mirror. Josie tried to fight it but nothing she could do could stop it. She even tried directing her new cloud accessory which shattered the glass but it was too little too late. As the shards fell to the ground Josie had disappeared, leaving behind her hat and broken glass.
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Moments later Josie blinked as her eyes focused and she found herself behind a brick building. Soon her senses were assaulted with the stench of despair and garbage which lined the alley around her. She remembered the mirror that got her here in the first place but it was nowhere to be found. It seemed like she wouldn't be going back anytime soon.
The sound of people nearby reminded Josie of all the people she saw eating and she ran towards the sound. She may have been in a strange new place but at least there was candy to get her through this. She made her way to the busy street, excited to take bites of everything she could but was instantly disappointed. The streets weren’t made of candy, they were caked with muck and grime with garbage littered all over. The people she had seen eating candy looked miserable, standing around like zombies fighting each other over scraps. Josie noticed that some of them were holding colored rocks, popping them into their mouths and chewing them. The more she watched the less she remembered her appetite and wanted nothing more than to get out of here.
“Stop squirming you junkie, or do you not want another bag of rocks?”
Josie turned towards the yelling and found herself following the voice down an alley. When she arrived she found a homeless man being kicked over and over again by a woman dressed in a trench coat as if she was hiding her identity. She was accompanied by two men in suits with small crowns on their heads. The woman in the coat seemed very out of place compared to the filthy streets they stood in. The woman’s dirty blonde hair was disheveled from the exertion of kicking a man with her sharp black heels and her puffy cheeks were red like cherries. The man curled in the fetal position rocked back and forth as she continued kicking while others in the alley did their best to ignore what was happening.
“Leave him alone!” Josie yelled.
The woman in the trench coat and her two guards looked in Josie’s direction along with the other street dwellers lining the alley walls. The woman looked Josie up and down before turning her attention back to her target.
“They get addicted younger and younger. Sorry but I’m not feeding your habit, scram!”
“I said…” Josie growled, stepping towards the woman and gripping her fists. “Leave. Him. Alone.”
The woman was startled by Josie’s response and stared into her determined eyes. No one had ever spoken to her in this way, especially anyone on Sweet Street. She brushed her hair out of her face and gave an annoyed smile.’’
“You must not be from here little girl, or else you’d know better than to speak to me like that. Now run along to your mommy and daddy and pretend you didn’t see anything.”
The woman returned to kicking the homeless man, ignoring Josie’s request as the guards stepped between her and Josie.
“You see, I paid Tezuka Park a lot of money for this exclusive experience.” She spoke, continuing to kick the man. “I get to pick one of these lucky junkies to take one thousand kicks from me and I give them a nice bag of Glintshard for their troubles. It’s a great stress relief excercise”
Josie’s eyes glanced down at the man who was taking the hits. He grit his teeth as tears rolled down his dirt caked face but his mouth was shut tight to not release even the tiniest yelp.
“Though now with your interference,” The woman said, taking a break while breathing heavily. “I’ve seem to have lost my spot. Was it 750 or 850? Hmm, guess I’ll just have to start over.”
She swung her leg back ready to start from the top but Josie had run out of patience, she took a step forward but noticed the ground below her was more malleable than expected. She glanced down and noticed that her personal cloud had spread itself under Josie’s feet, giving her something to bounce off of. Josie took advantage of this, putting strength into her legs and letting the cloud catapult her in the woman’s direction.
Josie rocketed towards the abuser and the two bodyguards immediately jumped in the way to protect her. The speed and strength Josie launched with knocked the guards causing a domino effect as they slammed into the woman as well. The three went flying into a wall and Josie landed safely thanks to her cloud.
When the dust settled the woman stood to her feet, her face beet red with embarrassment and frustration. She opened her mouth to speak but felt something trickle to her lips. She reached up and felt her nose was now bleeding.The two guards quickly got to their feet, sheepishly shuffling around to protect the woman.
“How dare you!?” She screeched, pointing at Josie. “You have no idea what you’ve just done you little bitch!”
The woman snapped her fingers and the guards quickly left the alley with the woman in tow. Josie however could care less about empty threats and instead rushed to the side of the man who had been at the end of the woman’s onslaught.
“Hey mister, we need to get you to a doctor. Is there one nearby?”
The man didn’t respond, he just slowly dragged his battered body closer and closer to a bag the woman dropped. The bag was open and multicolored rocks, the same ones Josie watched people chewing earlier, spilled out into the alley. Josie wasn’t getting through to him and the onlookers didn’t offer any help of their own. Instead once the rocks rolled from the bag the zombified people leapt into action to each get a piece of the bounty. Josie took the moment of chaos to grab the wounded man, carrying him over her shoulder as she went to find a place to get him help.
Out of the alley and back on the street Josie walked to try and find a doctor. Every building she passed by seemed to be abandoned and no one would respond to her questions of where to find a doctor. She walked down the main drag of Sweet Street for nearly an hour until she found something. The words on the building were mostly faded but from what she could make out there were the words ‘LOVE’ and ‘CLINIC.’ She knew the word clinic was associated with doctors and medicine and how could one possibly go wrong with love? She stumbled up to the door, pushing herself through and immediately yelling out to whoever was listening.
“Please! Can anyone help us? He’s hurt pretty bad!”
Josie expected the clinic to be overrun as that was her experience back on the roots but she still wasn’t prepared for what she saw. They were clearly above capacity and then some. In every direction there were people. Leaning on the walls, laying on the floor, even two to a bed on some of the stretchers.
“Standing room only.” A voice called out from around the corner.
Josie turned to find a woman in a black sweater dress wearing a facemask looking at the two of them. When she realized that Josie was a child her demeanor changed from annoyance to concern.
“Is this your father? Did he overdose?”
“No! This isn’t my dad, he was being kicked by this mean lady and I sent them running. He needs help fast though!”
The woman raised an eyebrow at the strange situation dropped at her doorstep. No one ‘helped’ each other when it came to Sweet Street, especially strangers. She sighed, rubbing her temples before motioning for Josie to follow her.
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“He’s got some pretty bad bruises but there doesn't seem to be any internal bleeding. He can dry out here for a few days,” The woman explained, finishing up the last touches on the man’s bandages. “But he’ll probably be back on the street taking beatings for Glintshard in a week’s time.
“Glintshard? Is that this stuff?” Josie asked, pulling the pouch of stones from her pockets.
Without a word the woman smacked the pouch from Josie’s hand, causing the rocks to spill on the floor. The patients with enough energy to move noticed the rocks but the woman gave such a menacing glare that no one would dare move to grab them. Moments later she apologized to Josie before cleaning up the mess.
“I’m sorry but I don’t want this poison here. It’s bad enough what it’s done to the community but if I can keep it out of these four walls then that’s at least something.”
While cleaning she looked up to give Josie a smile with her eyes.
“My name’s Ida, Doctor Ida Lee.”
“Josie.” she replied, kneeling down and doing her part to help clean as well.“Well Josie, I take it from you saving this guy and not running off to sell these rocks that you’re not from around here?”
“Nope! I’m from the roots!” She beamed proudly. “I came up here on a train called Midnite Cruiser with my friend Peg cause we were in this race and then we-”
“Whoa whoa, slow down kid. What do you mean you’re from the roots?”
After cleaning, Josie told her entire journey thus far to Dr. Lee. How she met Peg, The Millenia Derby, her fight against Deaconess Loveless and how she magically ended up in this town and separated from her friend. Afternoon turned to evening and Dr. Lee sat deeply enthralled by Josie’s tale.
“Not surprised Deaconess Loveless is a scumbag.” Dr. Lee said as she leaned back in her office chair. “She advertises these clinics and how great they are but if you aren’t in one of the nicer cities higher up it’s just an overburdened and understaffed shelter. This place used to be an independent clinic, my independent clinic but she strong armed me into buying it and left me with nothing.”
“So this place is a dump cause this city’s a dump?”
Dr. Lee grabbed a pen and tossed it at Josie’s head.
“Think what you want but if you’re not from here keep it to yourself. I’ve lived here my entire life and it may not be paradise but once upon a time it was really something. At least that was before-”
Screams came from the lobby, interrupting Dr. Lee’s sentence as both she and Josie leapt up to investigate. When they arrived Josie saw the same crown wearing guards she had crashed into earlier but instead of the woman there was a strange individual draped in a cloak standing behind them.
“There she is!” One of the suited men yelled. “The runt that attacked us and the Platinum Member!”
The cloaked figure slowly stepped forward and past the suited men.
“Listen kid, you can make it easy and just come with us now.” The other suited man spoke. “You don’t want to make this any harder for yourself.”
Josie smirked, tightening her fists. “I already knocked you bozos over earlier so don’t think bringing another knucklehead with you is going to make things any easie-”
Josie’s breath left her body in an instant as she felt a fist slam right into her stomach. Her eyes never moved off the cloaked man and the suits but somehow the hooded figure was now an inch away with his fist pressed into her stomach. She couldn’t track his movements and as her consciousness faded she heard the suits cheer and celebrate.
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“And that’s the last I saw of her, a little under a month ago.” Dr. Lee spoke in the present.
Peg sat across from her, shocked at the entire story. “But I don’t understand, how did she know I was going to make it here?”
“She didn’t. I told her that Sweet Street is the blemish that Megashine City tries to ignore so if you’re not from here you’re not going to know about it. But no matter how I explained the improbability of you coming here she just said the same thing; ‘Peg’s the smartest person I know AND she’s my friend. I know she’s gonna’ find me, it’s just a matter of time.’ She’d repeat it over and over so much that I thought she was crazy.”
Dr. Lee then gave Peg a smile under her mask. “And yet, here you are.”
Peg was so moved by Josie’s trust in her, it made tears well in her eyes. She quickly wiped them away trying her best to save face but before she could speak Dr. Lee stood up and walked towards a locker and pulled out an old envelope.
“It’s not everyday that someone stands up to the monsters up on the hill.” She laid the envelope on a table in front of Peg, tapping her fingers against it. “Now, let’s get down to how we’re going to save your friend.”
To Be Continued...