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Oh, you did! That is hilarious. Ah, well. Let me tell you what happened next, when the gang got together, thinking that what they had done was the issue. Let Sam the skull tell you about how, because of your decisions, I’ve now ended up floating halfway across Vertex.

The gang all got back together again at that cafe that was on the corner of the main city center, where the looming clock was. The pendulum was now still. After decades of it swinging back and forth, counting down to the end of the town, it finally had found its resting place, center and still. It was nice.

There was a celebration happening at the wrought-iron table. The five individuals, four of whom were part of the original task team and one who had come just for the cocktails, were all cheering and clinking glasses. The refined bitterness of coffee beans had now been switched to the sweet-tasting cocktails, in joy of their victory.

They hadn’t decided it was Lydia and Bill’s adventure down in the sewer to collect the Slushi to freeze the man-eating plant, or if it was Rammi, Dave’s and Crystal’s tale of avoiding jam-addicted dragons and solving drunken puzzles that had saved the town, but it didn’t matter. They were all adrenaline-high from their efforts and had collectively come to the conclusion that something they did had done it. Surely. Right? Both of those turns of events could have been the end for all. And they, the heroes without capes, the Samaritans, the winners of fate, had saved the world.

The last of the sunrays slid themselves down the back of the world. As it is with all friend gatherings, there was a moment of silence after everyone cheered and sipped their drinks, to reflect on the day’s events. You know that moment? Well, it was in that moment that Bill’s eyes noticed that there was a large amount of the sunrise reflecting down one of the alleys. Crystal, coming from the farm, noticed that there were a large number of animals all of a sudden around the place. But it was Lydia, who, being a city girl, realized those animals were beavers and did a little knee-to-chest, feet-up, in-breath, gasp.

Slowly, they all got up to walk around the corner and were confronted with a severe flooding issue that had been caused by a ball blocking a drain that had been shifted by a dog, which had been disturbed by Dorothy, who was concerned about Joe, who had slept in late, because he went to bed 15 minutes late after the clock that was counting to the end stopped.

There was a huge cracking noise that echoed across the way, followed quickly by the squawking of birds, disturbed by the noise. The birds flew overhead. The group silently watched the birds for a few seconds before following the line of sight to where the birds had been, and that, my dear friends, is when they realised that the beavers, who were supposed to be looking after the dam, were instead here in the flooded street. And that the lack of beavers resulted in the dam bursting and huge baths full of water rushing out in a foamy, practically rabies-like manner.

“Holy Prickly Pears!!” a robust voice sounded. The group turned around, and for the first time in about sixty years, there was Maude.

“Maude!” Lydia gasped. “Maude, listen… the games, the games…”

“What dear?” Maude replied.

Lydia had always promised that if she ever were the one to meet Maude, and why shouldn’t she, since she knew everyone, she would tell Maude that the games were finished. The Peakish President Games had finished, and she had been the winner and technically had ‘run’ the country for eight years, before the next president was chosen. However, due to the lack of success in finding Maude to inform her that she had won, they decided that the Peakish Games were perhaps not the best way to choose a president, so the next time they played a very competitive game of snakes and ladders. But Maude had kept in hidden. Until this moment. Lydia had so much to say. But she didn’t get that chance. For the water arrived in a wave as tall as the buildings.

Maude gave them a wink and, with a flip of her wrist, she threw half a knitted scarf, with knitting needle still loaded up, over the top of a flag pole. The knitting wrapped around and skewed itself on the needles. Maude was still holding the other end of the ball of wool. With a ‘WooHooooo” she gave a little run, then pulled on the wool to keep the tension as she ran up the wall, and then swung herself completely around and up through the air, high into the sky, and landed with grace and softly on the roof, thanks to her memory foam slippers. She then jumped and parkoured her way to safety.

There was a squill, and thousands of Toshis appeared out of nooks and crannies as the water flooded the town. The humans were all rinsed out to sea, with only a few surviving. The town was demolished to the point that it didn’t make sense to fix. So they left it.

I don’t mean to pop your dreams and stomp on your thought process, but you didn’t solve the problem.