When the two mercenaries turned around, they saw standing before them two strange looking dragons. They were short, almost half their height. One was bright yellow with orange spots and the other was bright green with patches of blue. They had strange brightly colored outfits on and stood there with huge grins on their faces.

"Welcome to Peppermint Park!" the green one greeted. "I'm Nerkle," the dragon introduced himself before patting his yellow buddy's back. "And this is my good friend, Snork!"

Nac smiled and put her hands on her knees to be eye level with them. "Hello there, Nerkle and Snork! Thank you for the warm greeting!"

Erron grabbed Nac's arm and pulled her up. "Are we done? We have work to do, let's go!"

"Woah hey, slow down! The work can wait, don't you want a tour?" Snork asked.

"Absolutely not..." Erron replied as he began to walk away with Nac dragging behind him.

Nac tugged at his cape. "Erron! Don't be rude!" she scolded him.

"I don't have time for this nonsense." he replied back, shaking his head.

"ERRON!" Nac shouted, demanding he listen to her.

Erron stopped and gave her a look. "What?"

"You made Snork cry!" Nac pointed back at the dragons as Snork was crying on Nerkle's shoulder. Nerkle was trying to comfort Snork by gently patting his back.

Erron stared at them silently for a moment before shaking his head. "They are simply weak. Let's move on." Erron told her as he began to leave, but Nac stopped him again.

"Erron, listen, humor them for 5 minutes and then we can go, okay? Who knows what might happen here if someone finds out we hurt their feelings. Do I need to remind you where we are? Anything could happen if you do the wrong things!" she tried to reason with him.

Erron let out a long, frustrated sigh before letting go of Nac's arm. "Fine. Tell them to make their tour very quick."

Nac nearly fell over when he let go of her, but as soon as she regained her balance she smiled up at him. "Thank you, Erron."

Nac and Erron approached the two dragons and nodded.

"I'm sorry that my partner here made you cry." Nac apologized while again putting her hands on her knees and shifting herself a bit so she was eye level with them. "He can be grumpy sometimes. We will go on your tour."

Snork immediately stopped crying and the two dragons lit up with toothy smiles. "Perfect!" Nerkle exclaimed as he grabbed Nac's hand.

Snork grabbed Erron's hand, but Erron immediately pulled it away. "Do not touch me." Erron hissed.

"Sorry!" Snork frowned before scuttling behind Nerkle who had already began dragging Nac off on the tour.

Erron decided to hang behind the group a bit, just in case. He didn't trust this place. They were too friendly.

-

Emily was awakened by a shrill scream. It was Lori and Lexus. She turned around and saw Lisa had gotten up, but Lisa didn't seem like Lisa anymore. She looked like those rotted beings they encountered earlier. Lisa had latched her teeth onto Lori's shoulder. Lexus was trying to pull Lori away.

"NO! LISA STOP! LET LORI GO!" Lexus screamed, tears rolling down her cheeks as her face went bright red from all the tugging and pulling she was doing.

Emily immediately got up and ran toward Lexus. She grabbed the blonde's arm and tugged her away from her two sisters, running off into the woods with her.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING? THOSE ARE MY SISTERS! WE HAVE TO HELP THEM!" Lexus shouted, struggling in Emily's grip.

"Lexus, I'm sorry. There's nothing we can do right now. We have to go!" Emily told her as she kept running.

"NO!" Lexus made herself dead weight so Emily couldn't go on anymore. "Those are my SISTERS! You STUPID BITCH!"

Emily sighed and looked at Lexus. "Lexus, please. Any minute now Lisa is going to try to eat us too. I'm just as scared as you are, but I don't want to die! Do you?"

Lexus began crying again. "My sisters..."

"I know you care about them, but we'll come back for them when we figure out what's going on. The person who bit Lisa was probably really sick, and now Lisa is sick and she just made Lori sick. They'll be fine, we'll come back for them when we figure it out, I promise!" Emily reassured her the best she could, though she wasn't even sure what to say. She was only speculating that they were sick, but she wasn't entirely sure.

"O-Okay..." Lexus sobbed. "I-I..." she was about to say something else, but Scout Master Jenny came barreling out from behind the trees growling and hissing. She looked just like Lisa looked this morning.

Lexus and Emily let out shrill screams as they immediately began running away.

-

"Jackie, I'm tired! We've been walking for hours!" Sandy leaned up against a tree and panted. Flufferz collapsed on the ground next to her and panted as well.

"Sandy, it isn't safe here. We have to find something! Anything!" Jackie told her.

"Can we stop for just a bit? I might faint if we go on." Sandy wiped her forehead. "It's too hot and I left my water bottle at the campsite."

Jackie sighed and reached into her backpack. She pulled out a water bottle. "Good thing I packed extras." she smiled before tossing it to Sandy. She pulled out another water bottle for herself and took several gulps from it.

Sandy drank some of the water and then gave some to her dog. Flufferz gave her a happy bark, and in return she patted the pup's head. They rested against the trees for a little while before getting up and going back to searching for a way out of the woods.

"So what the heck happened back there? What attacked Scout Master Jenny?" Sandy asked.

"I have no idea, but it seems like it came straight out of some violent comic book or video game." she shook her head. "Would have been nice if I actually read a few comics or played a few video games, but you know me. I'm always busy studying whatever they give us at school."

"The only comics I read and the only games I play involve animals and their adventures." Sandy admitted. "Guess we're at a bit of a disadvantage."

"We'll make it." Jackie reassured her.

They continued on for a bit and found a lone cabin in the middle of the forest. Jackie grinned and looked at Sandy. "Maybe there's someone in there that can help us!"

Sandy gave a hopeful smile and ran up to the place with Jackie. Jackie immediately opened the door and went inside, looking around.

"Hello?" she called out, walking further into the place. The place looked a bit disheveled. Some things were knocked over, like chairs and small end tables. The place also looked dusty, like it hadn't been inhabited for a bit.

Jackie and Sandy slowly moved through the place. "Please, if you are in here, our friends are hurt and we need help!" Sandy pleaded.

No answer. Jackie looked over at Sandy. "We're going to have to check the rooms to make sure there's none of those crazy things in here." Jackie told her.

Sandy nodded and carefully went up to the first unopened door and opened it. She carefully peeked inside. "Hello?" she called out and waited for a little bit. No one was in this room. It looked like a bedroom. Everything was neatly put in its place, but it was definitely not touched for quite sometime because this room was also pretty dusty.

Jackie and Sandy moved over to the next room and opened the door. This one seemed to be another bedroom, which was neat but dusty. They then moved over to an open room, which looked like the kitchen. All of the cabinets were opened and it seemed like someone stole food from all the cabinets. There were some canned goods left, but not much. The girls then moved on to the last closed door.

Jackie opened it and peered inside. "Hello?" she called out. Immediately she heard snarling and growling. Flufferz began to growl and bark before a rotted being lunged after Jackie. The girls let out a loud scream and stumbled back. The rotted being threw itself on top of Jackie and tried to bite her. Jackie let out a loud yell as she tried to push it off her, keeping it from biting her as much as she could.

"Sandy, help me!" she yelled.

Flufferz was barking and growling at the rotted being. Sandy looked around for a weapon before deciding to settle on a tall decorative lamp. She lifted up the base and immediately hit the rotted being on the side of the head. It tumbled off Jackie, but Sandy didn't stop there. After it tumbled off of Jackie, she began to furiously and repeatedly slam down the base of the lamp into the rotted being's head. The being growled and grunted a bit before its head became a big pile of mush. Once Sandy was done mashing its head in with the lamp, she tossed the lamp aside and looked down at the mess she made.

"Ugh! Gross!" Sandy exclaimed, kicking the now dead being's foot.

Jackie sat up with wide eyes. "Woah! How did you know to do that?"

Sandy shook her head. "I just acted on impulse. It was trying to kill you."

Jackie laughed before getting up and high fiving her. "You did a good job!" then she sighed. "But now we gotta clean it up if we're going to stay in here for a bit."

"But how do we know there's not any more of those things?" Sandy asked.

"This was the last room. If there were any more in here they would have come out." Jackie pointed out.

"True, but let's check the closets to be 100% sure!" she told her.

They quickly checked the closets. Fortunately for them, they did not see any more of the rotted beings. Instead, they found cleaning supplies in one of the closets.

Jackie took out the mop, bucket, and some cleaner. "This will work!" she said.

Sandy went to go fill the bucket up with water, but found the sink didn't work. There was no power in the place.

"I guess we'll just have to use straight cleaner" Jackie shrugged.