Ice & Cream

The Sweetum Madness

The tram wrest into a stop on a cliff where the station had been set up. Everyone inside, all five people, stood up and walked to the door. Right away, a crew of uniformed men and women approached and surrounded the tram. Their clothes were made of grey fur and blue leather, and all but one man were wearing a blue and white bomber hat with the ear flaps hanging down.

“Hold on, folks,” called out the leader, the one not wearing a hat. “My name is Stephen Burble, and I am here to escort you to the city. There are monsters about.”

“Uhh, right, Excuse me,” a woman called to attention. “I have no intention of heading to the city,” she pointed out.

“At this hour, we highly recommend that you do, madam,” said Stephen.

She straightened up and crossed her arms. “Will I be forced to, then?”

“Obviously not,” the man said at once, “but we will not be held accountable for your safety otherwise, madam.”

“Try miss, good sir,” the red-headed woman said, slightly offended, “and I am perfectly fine with being held accountable for my own safety, thank you very much.”

Stephen didn’t lose an inch of his stony expression. “As you wish, miss.” He pointed aside and looked at the rest of them. “The rest of you, come with us, please.”

While everyone left the tram, the red-headed woman pulled her cloak around her, to cover her face against the cold, and marched out into the cold night. She soon vanished in the dark.

“Adventurous lady, huh?” Timothy nudged Jack

“A bit too adventurous for my liking,” Jack replied, appalled at the notion of disregarding the help of so many guards, instead going off alone into the dark snowy woods.

“Hey, quiet now.” Stephen demanded.

The man was balding but he had a thick mustache and beard, both chocolate brown. His mouth was hardly discernible. He seemed pretty strong in his uniform, and not wearing the hat made him stand out from the rest of his crew. Jack wondered whether that was his own personal choice.

Stephen cleared his throat. “Soda monsters are roaming around the city. You will be walking in-between our perimeter. Do not stray away, and whatever happens, do not run. Also, try and make as little noise as possible. Tonight is particularly quiet so they will be able to hear us from a fair distance. Any questions?”

Nobody had any questions, but at that point, the man’s eyes fell on Sprinkle. “What is that?”

“Sprinkle’s the name, sir boss,” Sprinkle replied in mocking respect, “I come from Ice Cream City.”

“He looks normal, sir,” said one of Stephen’s men.

“That he does,” Burble acknowledged, apparently much more aware of Sprinkle’s nature than the conductor had been. Or at least aware enough not to suspect that he might be a boy in costume. “You will not be going crazy anytime soon, will you, Sprinkle?”

“No, sir,” Sprinkle again mocked, distastefully. “I’m a sane little monster.”

Stephen grunted sagely, considering the situation. “You,” he called, pointing at a young woman in uniform. “Watch him closely. The rest of you, establish the perimeter.”

“Hello,” the woman greeted, holding on to some kind of small hand-held device that looked more or less like a squirt g*n. “No need to worry, the boss is good at his job.”

“Alright, move out. The faster we get there, the better.”

They marched on at a quick enough pace, walking along the snowy plains and quickly coming far from the mountain’s edge. Soon, Jack was seeing his very first natural trees, albeit small and covered by snow and frost. And the air, though still cold, felt less fresh to Jack’s throat and nose. It was more like warmed mist.

“Never seen a tree, have you?” Sprinkle’s dedicated bodyguard asked, in a friendly manner.

“No--”

“Not even close,” Timothy broke in, “kid’s never been beyond Slurpee City.”

“Oh, are you and Sprinkle friends?” the woman guard asked.

“You could say that,” Sprinkle interjected, “if you squint hard enough, ha!”

“Sshh!” Stephen voiced sharply.

“Ups,” she reacted with a slight giggle. “We are really not supposed to talk, huh?” she winked at them, and at that moment, Stephen held up a hand to make all the guards halt. That, in turn, made the four of them halt.

Jack could see that the girl, who was trying to look relaxed, was actually nervous. She was smiling, glancing around with casual curiosity, but the g*n was grasped firmly by a trembling hand. Her feet, as well, were massaging the snow rather than sitting still.

“We need to move quicker,” Burble whispered loudly, “go.”

They got moving again, but at a quickened pace.

“No worries, no worries,” she told them with what she thought passed for a comforting voice. “But a handful of minutes to get to the city... maybe two handfuls.” It felt like she was talking more to herself than to them.

Jack looked around at all the guards. They seemed tense, not to say afraid. This in turn made everybody else feel fear, and he was no exception. Jack started getting starkly conscious of how little visibility they had of their surroundings. The mist and the darkness occulted everything past a few feet.

“These guys don’t look all that confident, huh?” Sprinkle asked.

“SSShhh!” a soldier behind them demanded.

“Stay quiet, please,” the young woman whispered down in reply.

Trying not to let his breathing run away from him, Jack remembered about his sword. Reflexively, he looked at it, and then grasped its hilt.

He was considering taking it out of the rope loop when the bodyguard noticed it. “What good will tha--”

“Here! To our right, to our right!!” another guard yelled, interrupting her whispering.

Jack’s heart leapt at the thought of danger. This was too soon and unexpected. He looked aside to find several shapes silhouetting against the faint moonlight that could pierce the mist.

His heart skipped a beat, and the quiet all but died.

Loud voices filled the night as the little sweetums screamed with child-like voices, high-pitched and crazy.

“Move!” Burble demanded.

The guards on the side of the attack lifted their weapons and pointed them at the incoming critters, while every other guard pushed the people in their midst to march faster. Jack could not yet discern the approaching screeches, but he was able to see their weapons in action. They shot out a spray of liquid, fluorescent in the night, over which the shadowy figures seemed to stumble and slip upon. Mostly, they fell.

“From here---” the yell was interrupted by a whelp as the guard slipped on something and fell over.

Looking closer, Jack saw another group of screeching menaces coming at them from their left. The floor around the fallen guard was full with a glowing and bubbling liquid that immediately started to soak into the snowy floor, melting it. Before the guard could get up, one of the figures hopped on top of him.

Then, three more did the same, all while the rest continued their advance.

Finally, Jack could see them properly. The sweetums had one mouth, currently opened wider than seemed physically possible, and two eyes. Every single pair was bloodshot and glowing in the dark. They were about Sprinkle’s height. However, they had a more rectangular shape and seemed to have a transparent skin. Inside their belly was a core of sizzling and bubbling gassy liquid.

To Jack, it seemed that what Sprinkle was to ice cream, they were to soda.

The three bit into the man’s uniform while letting out childish yet ravenous growls. Meanwhile, Burble turned around and shot over the guard with his g*n. The liquid from the g*n was shot at a higher pressure than before, and it was differently colored, too. It was vivid green.

The critters gaped widely in protest and fell back off of the guard. They rolled and rubbed themselves all over the snow-speckled ground, as if to scratch an extreme itch that had taken over their entire body.

One of the other guards rushed to help the man up, but Jack crossed some trees and lost sight of them.

“More ahead,” Burble voiced out, his g*n wheezing as it expelled colorful vapor. “Emma will lead them on. We will make a way for them and then keep the bastards from giving chase.”

“Oh pop! Me?!” the girl next to Jack said, immediately correcting herself. “I mean, yes, sir.”

“That lady was smart to go off on her own,” Timothy said, sounding a bit nervous.

“Go,” Burble ordered. At once, he and the man at his side split off, shooting their liquids at some of the sweetums, successfully pushing them back while also getting their attention.

Then, the two ran off, and as expected, the soda sweetums chased after them.

The guards at the sides, and those behind, all parted and stayed behind, doing the same with different groups of sweetums, and using different directions. Meanwhile, Emma took the lead.

“Hurry up, everyone, hurry whuuoah!!” Emma slipped and fell on her back, violently. Her head hit the floor, too. The passenger that had been over on that side of her suffered the same exact fall at the same time.

Yelling together, they slid off and away on whatever had made them trip in the first place. Jack then noticed they had been jogging right beside a little hill. Now, the two were beyond the darkness. More than enough for Jack and the other two, Timothy and the conductor, to find themselves well enough alone and abandoned.

The now familiar high-pitched yelling surged ahead. Jack turned and saw three critters running at them.

He froze with fear.

“Jack!” With a worrying yelp, Sprinkle hopped a bit ahead to protect him.

Jack was really scared, but he didn’t want Sprinkle to get hurt. He didn’t want Timothy to get hurt. Promptly, he stepped forward and took his sword out its rope loop.

Raising it uncertainly, Jack held it in front of him.

“WAAAaAaagggghh!!!” The first sweetum leapt at him and he lashed out with his sword in a fright, whacking it away.

“Raaahhhh!!” Jack yelled right after, giving the sweetums actual pause. They stopped, flinching, and glared at him with their red eyes. “Stay back! I wish you no harm!”

“We need to run,” Sprinkle yelled, hopping to get Jack’s attention, “we need to run now!”

“Let’s listen to the little guy,” Timothy said, grabbing hold of Jack to pull him.

Soon as Jack moved, the little monsters screeched again, crazy, and ran to pursue. Jack stopped and reflexively shoved Timothy’s grasp off of him with his shoulder, and then whacked away another one of the soda sweetums while a second one bit down on his leg. Sprinkle opened his own mouth and sprayed a third soda sweetum with a white foam, much like the one that was covering Jack’s sword.

Jack swung, smacking the biting monster away, and then turned to see the white foam solidifying to freeze the third sweetum in place.

“Did you kill it?” Timothy asked.

“Him, alright, him!” Sprinkle corrected, head-butting Jack to move, “and no, I just froze him. It’ll melt when the sun comes back up and he’ll be alright.”

“Are they like you?!” Timothy asked. Jack was just glaring around them, worried that more sweetums were going to attack them. He couldn’t imagine just chatting.

“Kinda,” Sprinkle simply said, “now pick me up, Jack! Let’s run for it!”

“I’ll carry you,” Timothy offered, picking him up.

“Oh great,” Sprinkle complained, still allowing it.

Standing up, Timothy, breathing heavily, looked over. “Jack. See that sliding puke they keep spitting? Emma and the others slipped on it, so we have to go around. Follow us closely and use that sword if one of them comes near, alright?” Having said that, Timothy went into a jog.

Breathing harshly, Jack nodded. He then remembered the conductor was still with them. “Run with us, mister!” he called out.

The man shook himself off his fright, and together, they followed Timothy.

As they ran, Jack could see the eyes of the soda sweetums, all around them. Eyes glowing red with a madness that was difficult to fathom. They had to be fueled by rage, but rage of what?

“Boys?!” he heard Emma’s voice coming from the side.

“Emma,” Timothy called out, “where to?!”

“Keep going that way,” she yelled, and it sounded like she was holding in a cry. “northeast! Just keep going.”

Meanwhile, the conductor ran by the two without word or pause. He refused to stop, apparently.

“Come on, Emma,” Jack called out to her, wherever she was. He couldn’t see her, and the amount of noise filling the night made it impossible to locate her voice.

“I cannot, I--” she whimpered in the night. “The other passenger panicked and ran off, I-I gotta go find him.”

She was scared, he could tell, but she was brave. Jack and Timothy nodded, deciding to do as she said.

“Good luck, we will meet again in Soda City,” Jack yelled to his surroundings.

“Sure,” the voice came out, hoarse. “Su-sure. Godspeed, boys. Now go, go!”

They looked at each other and nodded.

We have to make it, Jack assented to himself, resuming his run.