Chapter 48: Death Trap (Early/Late Halloween Special) Part 2
(WARNING: This chapter may be disturbing to some readers. Those of you of the weak of heart should not try to read. This is a lot like some of my extreme chapters but two times worse. This may be my most graphic chapter in the story so far. You have been warned. If none of that bothers you, Enjoy the thrills the chills. Mwhahahahaha! )
Narrator: First person, Rogue log.
4 Days Ago…
Today, Marco found the entrance to an underground base. Judging by the structure, it looks like one of the old G.U.N. doomsday bunkers we've heard about. Fat load of good that did before the Exus Army was on top of them I guess.
We managed to get the door open, but we had to break the locking mechanism to do it. We had to put a brick under the door of the main entrance just to be sure that it didn't lock behind us. Good thing I saw the spring-loaded mechanism for keeping the thing open rusted on the ground otherwise we would be trapped in here, not the best, but beggars can't be choosers.
At least now we have a place to shelter from the Chaos Storm that's heading our way. Who knows, this place might even become a more permanent camp for us. It's too soon to say, but now it seems we might've finally found the light at the end of the tunnel. No more sleeping with one eye open, tonight, we can finally sleep without worrying about those junk heaps attacking us in our sleep.
3 Days Ago…
Next day and we decided to explore the base to see what we can use. There are traps everywhere, I mean seriously EVERYWHERE! Kilwolsky must've tripped an alarm or something. Didn't think anything would still be working in this base to be honest, the whole place even has rust on the walls. I'm afraid there might be a leak somewhere in the ceiling structure, which is bad for us considering the Chaos Storm should still be on top of us. If any of that fallout gets in, then we'll be facing more than just the possibility of being executed by security traps.
We got separated from the other members of our group when a wall nearly slammed shut right behind us; it's just the four of us now. The wall also appears to be sound proof, so I'm not even sure if the others are just on the other side, or if the wall itself was a crusher trap. We know one thing though, Kilwolsky's dead. All that was able to make it on our side was his arm, so it's obvious he was crushed.
Hopefully we can rendezvous back with the others by finding another route. Or at the very least find a supply storage, our food on hand is already running out.
2 Days Ago…
Next day and still no sign of Ryker's group. This place is less of a base and more like a labyrinth of the damned. As a G.U.N. base, you would think that there would be more doors and exits to be able to get back to the outside world; however, nearly every door we have encountered was either sealed tight or lead to another series of corridors. This place must be massive.
Our food is gone and so is our water. I really hope that we can find the stupid supply room in this place. What kind of doomsday base was this anyway? The Mobian tax mobiums at work apparently.
We decided it would be better if we split up and mark our directions with charcoal. We plan on meeting back at the junction once we either run into a dead end or within the hour. At least one of us should be able to find something I hope.
1 Day Ago…
Waited here all night and still no sign of the others. I have a feeling it's just me now.
I keep hearing sounds in the walls, like something is crawling and scraping to get in. It must be the hysteria from lack of food and water. Even the prospect of being alone in a place like this is enough to get on anyone's nerves.
I take back what I said before, something IS in the walls. Not sure what, but there is something. Whatever it is, I think it might know where I am.
Found a new place to hide, I hope it doesn't find me…whatever it is.
I remember a few weeks ago, Ryker told me how silly it was to actually keep a journal after I found this notebook. He thought it was a complete waste of time. Well, maybe he might be right, but at least if someone ends up recovering and finding this place, anyone for that matter, we won't be forgotten like so many people were since this war started.
A part of me hoped that it wouldn't come to it and that the others will find me if they are alive, but with all the turns in this place and no way to contact the outside, I don't see that happening. It seems that me not making it out of here is a major possibility.
Just in case, if something happens…
This is Gene Walker.
Finally got communications with the Ryker's group, they're alive. But it looks like they're not coming back for me, stupid bastards. And to think, I was actually worried about that *scribble*. Honor among thieves my ass! Thanks Ryker, *scribble* I hope you burn for this…
Now…
Narrator: None, third person format
With the Freedom Fighters, a few hours passed after the halls inhabitants settled down for the night. Sleeping through the creaking and the groaning of the base's structure proved hard enough on the young freedom fighters, but for a few in particular it was extremely difficult to get passed the thick eerie atmosphere that filled the place.
While the others in his group slept, a young meerkat shivered, his thoughts running wild with frightening scenarios.
This place…why'd we have to get stuck here? Might as well be stuck in a haunted fun house.
Crash tried closing his eyes again, knowing that he needed sleep, but was still terrified. Suddenly, a distinct sound caused the meerkat to let a gasp and a shudder escape him. It sounded like something metal falling and hitting the floor from the ceiling. His eyes opened wide as he scanned the room, but it was so dark, he could only make out some shapes in the dim lights. At least he could see where everyone was.
Lara Su's group in New Company were on the meerkat's right, each member found their own space to sleep comfortably. While most of the team slept peacefully, the other groups as well as some members were finding it difficult to sleep due to Lucky's loud snoring. Crash almost wanted to cover his ears, but he remembered where he was and forced himself to refrain from it. He wanted to stay alert in this unknown place, but he did see that others in the group actually covered their ears. In Trace's group, the grey wolf himself was covering his own ears and muttered something under his breath that the meerkat couldn't hear before seeing the wolf readjust himself.
The Renegades rested ahead of the meerkat, though further away than the other groups. It was obvious that they were not used to spending the night in places like this and Crash could hardly blame them. This was easily getting on his nerves, but he was able to see that this other group was extremely on edge for some reason, making sure that at least one of them was standing watch. The one that was awake at this hour was Rook, the black and white cat that Nikki and Dark had been talking to earlier. Crash didn't know how Nikki and Dark knew this other group, but at least they weren't complete strangers. However, it was unsettling to him how much this other group affected his friend Nikki, especially the group's leader. It was easily seen that the two despised each other for some reason, though no one clearly knew what that reason was.
Nikki and Dark were not too far from him to his left, both sound asleep. Before they had turned in, Dark was resting against the wall and it was actually assumed by the young meerkat that the midnight hedgehog would stay up all night to keep watch. He wasn't even sure if the android hedgehog actually needed to sleep, but seeing as Dark was sleeping against the wall, that put that theory to rest. His friend Nikki had begun her attempts at sleep just feet away from Dark; however, now the two were sleeping next to each other, the blue hedgehog resting her head against Dark's chest.
When he saw this, Crash thought that he would've been upset or jealous, but the meerkat seemed to feel the opposite. Seeing those two like that at that moment just seemed to feel…right to him somehow. The meerkat already knew how Nikki saw him; she saw him as a close friend and he treasured that. Still didn't stop him from trying to ask her out a couple of times, but he already knew that she didn't feel the same way about him as he did about her and he was…oddly okay with that. He didn't get it either, but it was just how he felt. At least that took his mind off of being in a scary place for just a moment.
However, it was just at that moment when the meerkat heard a strange sound…and it wasn't Lucky snoring. It sounded like something was scuttling around the room, the image of a terrifying creature with long, creepy legs like a huge spider crept into his mind.
Looking toward the two sleeping hedgehogs, Crash shuddered as he whispered, "Nikki…Dark?"
But the hedgehogs didn't hear him and slept on. He gasped as he heard the sound of movement grow louder. "Guys come on, wake up. I think there's something in here."
"Uhm…Crash, it's probably nothing…just try to get some sleep." Nikki mumbled in her sleepy daze.
"But I'm serious." The meerkat whimpered quietly as he looked around him wildly.
Dark growled, he actually had not planned on falling asleep, but now that he was, he really didn't want to be woken up.
Nikki heard the midnight hedgehog's growl in her half-asleep, half-awake daze. She knew why Dark was not only tired, but tense as well. They had talked about it for a short time in thought when they realized they were trapped and had to stay for the night. The alarm on Dark's watch had gone off about three hours ago and the two hedgehogs were the only ones in that base that knew what it meant. With the recent injury to his wrist, Dark's recovery with his arm had been set back. He had been going back to Charles' lab every night for the past three weeks for regular healing sessions. Now being stuck in that base, both Nikki and Dark knew they had find a way out by tomorrow, or the midnight hedgehog's injury could become worse. So Dark was resting…or at least trying to.
Crash heard another sound that made him jump clean out of his fur. "Gah! Guys, I am not kidding, there's something in here!"
"If there was, I would sense it." Dark muttered annoyed. "Quit being paranoid, shut up, and go to sleep."
"Yes, please." Zephyr added as he turned onto his side and readjusted himself, trying to fall back to sleep again.
Trying to ignore the voices at first, Nikki found herself waking up. Sleepily, she blinked her eyes open, her brow then rose in confusion for a moment. The hedgehog didn't recall her backpack feeling so…fluffy? Slowly, her eyes drifted upward till they met the crimson gaze of a midnight hedgehog. Apparently, their gaze had met at the same time, because Dark was wearing the same bewildered expression as she was. Simultaneously, Nikki's hedgehog's face turned completely bright red as Dark's did the same, only more subtle than the female blue hedgehog in front of him. But what wasn't subtle was the reaction that happened next. At the same time, both hedgehogs yelled and pulled away from each other.
It was at that moment that Rook looked over at the other group across the room. "Huh? What is it? Is something wrong?"
"Gah! Nothing!" The two hedgehogs looked at each other, realizing that they both said that at the same time; their faces still a little flushed.
Then suddenly, a blood-curdling scream echoed off the walls. That was what woke everyone else up, and it was enough to make all that was present in the room jump and on high alert, well except for one.
"Ugh…who is that now?" Zephyr moaned as he covered his face with his knapsack that he was previously using as a pillow.
Dark's eyes narrowed as his ear flicked toward the direction of the sound. "That's not too far from here." The midnight hedgehog then took off out of the room and down the hall to his right.
"Dark wait!" Nikki quickly took off after him, catching up as he turned the corner.
Gulping as he realized that two of the strongest members in the group just took off after that scream, Crash shouted after them. "Wait! So you're just gonna leave us here?!"
"Heh, not like they said for us not to follow." Zephyr responded as he ran on ahead, taking something out of his knapsack then pulling the bag over his shoulder as he ran. The device looked like a throwing disc, but when he did throw it, it split into two discs, each one hovering with a small bar in between them. The green and black hawk hopped on the portable Extreme Gear and then followed Nikki and Dark down the hall, though still far behind.
"Bu-But-" Before Crash could finish, Gale came up behind him and grabbed his hand. "Whoa!"
"Come on Crash, we have to catch up!" The sugar glider then threw her portable Extreme Gear and pulled the meerkat on.
"Whoa! Wait- this gear's not tested-"
Gale kicked it into high gear and they took off after Zephyr. "Wha-hoo!"
"Yeeeet!" The meerkat held on for dear life as the two flew and turned the corner.
Up ahead much further down the hall, Nikki turned a corner, only to suddenly stop to a skidding halt that sounded like squealing tires. Time seemed to have stopped as she tried to process what was before her among the shock.
On the ground in front of Dark, sprawled out on the cold metal floor was a lifeless, mangled corpse. Blood was pooled next to the body, as well as splattered all over the walls. It as though the poor soul had been carved-open with a saw or rather a sharp, long blade…many times to a point where they were nearly unrecognizable. Nikki had seen dead bodies in bases before, but those were old, skeletal remains… and every time, still made her feel uncomfortable, which she was thankful for, she never wanted to get used to seeing that. But this…this was something far more brutal…and as the frightening thought occurred to her…this body…this Mobian…had to have been alive just moments ago…before they had turned that dark corner.
Before it even had a chance to sink in, Nikki gasped as she instantly backed up, looking back to Zephyr who was coming up the hall.
Seeing Nikki's rare shocked expression, the Zephyr quickly slowed his Portable Extreme Gear to a halt, catching Gale and Crash before they went passed him. The hawk didn't look back at his two young teammates, keeping his focus on the corner ahead just in case something went wrong.
Eyes still wide, Nikki returned her gaze toward Dark, the midnight hedgehog's eyes glowing red in the darkness that still lingered despite the flickering light above them.
He then thought for her to hear. Are you alright?
She replied in thought as she slowly nodded. Yeah…just…wasn't expecting that. Kinda freaked me out.
Dark returned her nod with one of his own. Same here.
"N-Nikki?...everything okay up there?" Crash stuttered from behind the black and green hawk.
"Um…maybe…" The truth was Nikki didn't know what to tell them. She didn't want to lie to them, but she also didn't want to freak them out either. "You guys might wanna get back to the other room."
Zephyr raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What? Nikki we're a team remember?"
"Zeph, just trust me, okay?" The blue hedgehog then looked to him and Zephyr recognized that look instantly. It was the same look that his own father gave him when his mother died. His father was trying to protect him from seeing that back then, and he realized that was what Nikki was trying to do with him, Crash, and Gale at that moment. In order to have made her of all Mobians react this way, whatever was around that corner must be something that would be too much for not only him to handle, but the two young Mobians behind him as well.
Zephyr closed his eyes and nodded. "Okay, we'll go back and find Gyro."
With that, the hawk turned his gear around, calling to Crash and Gale as he took off. "Let's go you two!"
"Wait what? So we're just gonna leave-" Crash instantly stopped himself with a gasp as he caught a glimpse of Nikki. She had turned and stood defiantly in front of the corner, looking directly at him with a look that told him not to come any closer and that she meant it. However, it was far stranger than just that. True it was look that was telling Crash to stay back, but it also had something hiding behind it. Her eyes were sharp, strong, and intense. But he could still see the shock that lingered behind them. He didn't understand why Nikki was acting this way, but he did know one thing, whatever had her so on edge, he wanted no part of. Shakily, the meerkat gave her an understanding nod. "O…okay…"
Both Crash and Gale took off following Zephyr's path ahead of them.
After seeing her friends leave, Nikki allowed a long sigh to escape her. She then looked to the midnight hedgehog in the hall next to her, trying extremely hard not to look at the corpse on the ground and keeping her focus on him, a slight worried look in her eyes as she asked. "What did this?"
Dark simply replied with a question of his own. "You're sensing it too…aren't you?"
It wasn't long until Zephyr showed up with Gyro along with Rook and Trace who insisted on coming as well.
"What savagery…" Gyro turned away with grimace. Trace had done the same, though turned completely around and faced the wall behind them.
Rook was still surveying the body, but he did glance back at his wolf comrade as he saw him turn away quickly. The cat turned back to the scene and then looked to Nikki and Dark. "Did either of you get a look at who did this?"
"It's not a question of who…it's a question of what."
Rook shot Gyro a glance at his interruption. "What? So it was an Exus then?"
Gyro looked back to the cat and knelt down as he delved deeper into his analysis. "This wasn't done by a living creature…or an Exus…they wouldn't cause these kinds of injuries."
"So what caused it then?!"
The group glanced toward the corner where the question came from. Nikki called out. "Zeph, you sure you okay over there?"
"Ugh, yeah, just not getting a second look at…"
Nikki cringed as Zeph's response was interrupted by the sound of heaving followed by coughing. She sighed as she added. "I tried to warn you."
The hawk's voice came back again. "Okay, okay you were right! Happy?"
Gyro then continued. "Well to answer Zeph's question, I'm not sure. There are many things that don't add up here."
"Like what?" Nikki asked.
The lynx knelt down next to Rook and looked to that cat. "May I?"
"Certainly." The cat moved over slightly, allowing Gyro to have the floor.
"Thank you." Gyro nodded to him with gratitude as he took off his satchel that he was carrying, he then took out a device that Nikki had recognized from a long time ago. It was the D.N.A. scanner that he had used when Nikki herself was attacked by an Exus Sleeper for the first time. The machine was able to take any D.N.A. sample and match it with any in the known database. However, that was a cover. It was actually made entirely of the lynx's own nanites and Gyro used this trick around those that didn't know that he was a nanitan, which at the moment was the majority of the members in this hallway.
Rook confirmed this as he saw the strange device and what Gyro was doing. "Is that a D.N.A. scanner?"
"Yes." Gyro answered. "I take it with me just in case we run into Sleepers. It's helped us find prisoners of the Exus before, so it might just help us figure out what happened here, or at least what did this and who this was."
"Gene Walker."
The group looked to Dark after his sudden interruption with shared looks of confusion. Rook then asked. "You knew him?"
Dark shook his head in response. "No."
The midnight hedgehog then tossed something to the cat, who caught the object easily. Looking at it, Rook knew what it was easily. "It's a journal." The cat then flipped through it, finding the last page. "The final entry was last night…though, hold on." The cat takes another look. "The writing is different on this last page. It's rather sloppy."
"Well yeah, if I was freaking out, I wouldn't be worrying about how my penmanship looks." Zephyr retorted from his end of the hall.
"We'll look deeper into this later. Now…" Rook then closed, looking to Gyro as he asked. "You were saying?"
"Yes just a moment." After taking the sample, the lynx placed the D.N.A. scanner down then continued, pointing to the areas as he described his diagnosis. "Now, here you can see the blood is still draining from the body, which means these wounds are fresh. However, this is where things are complicated…"
The lynx placed his hand on the side of the dead rogues face, pausing for a moment. He then looked to the others as he added. "Just as I thought, he's too cold to have died recently. And the decay of the body also shows signs that he's been dead for a while."
"But we all heard the scream and it came from here, right?" The female hedgehog then looked to Dark, who simply nodded. "See? So it had to have happened right before we ran here."
Knowing the issue was with the time of death, Rook shot Trace a glance once again, it was apparent to him what was going on with Trace. The wolf saw what happened using his psychic ability, or at least a part of it he guessed. That was why Trace still looked so unsure, something wasn't adding up with what he saw either and that raised far more questions than Rook had originally deduced.
"That means we should be able to track it down, right?" Nikki looked to her teammates as she continued. "This happened just moments ago, we should find it before whatever it was that did this hurts someone else!"
Dark quickly shot her a look. He knew that when it came to situations like this, Nikki wouldn't stand by and risk someone getting killed. But he had to get her thinking in the right frame of mind before she suddenly took off to try and find the mysterious unknown that killed this rogue. "Nikki, whatever did this was fast enough to kill this Mobian and leave out of range before we got here. That means that whatever this is…is faster than both of us."
He then thought for her to hear. And you sensed the energy that was lingering when we got here.
Nikki thought in return. I know but that shouldn't matter. Whatever did this…
The female hedgehog allowed an exhale to escape her as she clenched her fist. "We have to find a way to stop this…even if it is faster than us."
She then looked to the group. "You guys got everything you need right?"
Dark and Gyro looked to each other. Gyro then looked to Rook. Then all three of them nodded, as Gyro spoke for the three of them. "Yes. I think we have all we need here. We should get back to the others and let them know what happened."
"You sure that's a good idea?" Zephyr hollered from down the hall.
"Yes I'm sure. We're all trapped down here until we can find a way out. We need to come up with a plan of how to get out of here and everyone needs to know the risks of wandering on their own." Gyro then looked to Dark and Nikki. "We might not know why this happened, but I do know one thing…I hope none of us run into whatever did this."
Shocked eyes were trained on the recon group as they broke the news to their fellow team members.
"So…let me get this straight…" Argul, the crocodile from Genesis' New Company was the first to say what everyone was thinking at that moment. "You mean to tell us…that we are locked in here with some psycho killer?"
"Yes." Nikki closed her eyes as she replied. She was trying not to sound nervous about it, and she hated to admit it, but she was. The part that confused her about it was she didn't know why she was so nervous. True, someone was just killed in this place they were currently locked in with no way out. However, people like that didn't scare her. She could handle a rogue, she could handle a robot; she could handle someone that would try to kill her. The one thing that she couldn't handle…was that she was too late. She, Nikki, the hedgehog that was fast enough to keep up with anything they could possibly run into…and she was not fast enough to stop whatever happened in that hall. And they were so close, not that far away at all. It might was well have happened right next to her with how close and how fast she should've gotten there. What on Mobius was fast enough to do that? How can she even hope to keep her friends safe if something can out speed her and Dark so easily?
"Are you sure? I mean, do we know what happened?" Lara-Su asked.
Dark answered her. "There's no mistaking it. The condition they were found in proves it."
"Oh Chaos this isn't happening." Crash muttered, shock still reflecting in his eyes.
"So, what do we do?" Spectra asked as she stepped forward, turning to the group. "Build up our base camp here? Try and find a way out?"
"We're supposed to be finding a way out of here." Jade pointed out as she crossed her arms dismissively. "Either way it doesn't matter, there's more of us and one of whoever they are. We outnumber them."
"Yeah and you can say the same for the Exus. There's usually more of them and we usually take them out easily with just a small team." Argul countered. "You heard what they said. This thing is fast, whatever it is."
"But it can't be f-f-faster than you two right?" Crash asked timidly, really hoping that the answer would be something along the lines of Nikki's typical 'pssh don't worry about it, it's not faster than us, we got this'. However, as he saw Nikki and Dark looking to each other and not answering, the young meerkat asked again with a slight crack in his voice "Right?"
"Crash I…" Nikki started to answer him; however, when she looked to the scared little meerkat, it made her pause. She really didn't know what to tell him. They agreed that they would tell the group what they knew, but she couldn't tell the others about what herself and Dark sensed earlier, she didn't even understand it herself. The only thing she remembered was how fast she wanted to run in the opposite direction when she did sense it. What she just couldn't place was why. She didn't see what killed the rogue and they still were not sure exactly what the time frame was thanks to when they heard the scream didn't match with the time of death calculated by Gyro.
Admittedly, Nikki closed her eyes as she answered. "I'm not sure." As she heard Crash gasp, she then added quickly. "But that hasn't stopped us before. We'll figure it out, I'm sure."
"Yeah…I still vote on us finding a way out of here." Jade voiced.
"And lead this killer out of here with us? Right, smart plan." Arloc retorted as he rolled his eyes.
"The Oce-bat is right." Trace interrupted as he added. "Your group should find the exit, my group will hunt down the killer."
"Okay whoa wait a minute what?" Nikki blinked at Trace. He was there, he heard what Gyro, Dark, and Rook said back in the hallway. Did he just not pay attention? "You heard what we said right? That thing is faster than us, You guys shouldn't try to stop it by yourselves."
"And the Oce-bat has a name, it's Jade." That said oce-bat stated with a glare as she flicked her cat-like tail to the side with irritation.
Trace completely ignored Jade and looked directly at Nikki, his eyes seeming to glow in the dim light. "You're not coming with us, end of discussion."
Nikki's eyes widened at Trace's sudden 'order' and in hearing what their leader had just told the leader of the other team they were trapped with, Rook refrained from face-palming himself while Caper's eyes widened as he muttered. "Uh, Mate, I don't think that was-"
The blue hedgehog's eyebrows creased forward as she shot back. "Excuse me? Who said you could give me orders for one, and second, who the hell do you think you are?! You were there! We saw the same thing! And you're willing to risk the lives of your teammates just to not have our help in this?! Are you crazy?! Why are you so against us helping you?!-"
"Because I can't trust you." Trace interrupted. Even though he didn't shout what he said out loud, the words rang out in the spacious room, bringing the room into a dead silence.
With the pause letting the notion sink in, Nikki gave him a glare that would suggest she was refraining from hitting him, but oh did she want to at that moment. "What? Still? I hate to break it to you genius, but we're stuck down here together! We have to trust each other in order to get out of here-!"
As Nikki was going off, the subtle growl could be heard coming from Trace when he finally cut her off and shouted with an angered growl. "I would rather let my team take the chance than even so much as think of putting the slightest hint of faith in the metals you keep!"
"Wait what? What do you mean 'metals'?" Zephyr asked defensively. "If you're talking about the tech we're using, that's hypocritical coming from someone that uses shock gauntlets as a weapon."
"It's not your tech, moron!" Trace shot back at Zephyr, he then glared at Dark. "…it's something else."
Dark also caught sight of the glare, matching it with narrowed eyes.
Nikki knew exactly what Trace was talking about and in a moment of haste she warned. "Trace, don't."
"Don't what?" The hawk asked as he turned to his leader. "Nikki, what's he talking about?"
"Oh you never told them?" Trace blinked with a mild surprise, though he his look still showed his anger from his earlier outburst. "You never told your own teammates? I honestly thought they would've known about this given they have been working with him for a few months now."
The Genesis leader shot the wolf a glare, her emerald eyes nearly glowing in the dim light. It felt to her that he only pointed that out to draw attention to Dark and what he was, not out of concern for her 'leadership skills'.
"Wait so…" Zephyr blinked as he looked to Dark. "He's a…" He then looked to Nikki, his eyes narrowing. "And you never told us?"
Gyro could see the tension being to rise and he stepped between Nikki and Zephyr. "Now wait a minute. Now is not the time for this. I'm sure Nikki had her reasons-"
But the hawk didn't even acknowledge Gyro's words and glared right at the hedgehog in question. "So you knew?! You knew the whole time and you didn't tell us?!"
Nikki was almost completely taken aback by Zephyr's sudden shift; however, she didn't show it as she fired back, though more calmly. "I didn't think it would be a problem. I trust him and I thought that you guys would too once you got to know him."
Zephyr then shot back. "Right 'you thought'- But you didn't think about it, you just met him how long ago?! And you trust him more than telling us what's going on! We're a team, Nikki!"
"That's right! We are a team!" Nikki yelled back.
"Then why keep something like this from us?!" Zephyr shouted back in retaliation.
As the arguing escalated, most of the group was focused on what was happening, they didn't notice Trace's group slipping away and heading deeper into the base. The only one that seemed to notice was Crash, who was walking backwards away from the conflicting sides at first until he saw that they disappeared. The young meerkat at first tried to get the group's attention. "Um… guys?" But no one was listening as the group members were trying to either reason what was going on from both sides.
The young meerkat looked behind him again to see that Dark was heading on his own down one of the shadowed walkways.
Author's Note: Wow, so sorry this took so long. But here it is! Yay! There are still more parts to this beast that I created and I'm still going for it. No worries, I'm gonna not wait a year to post for each one. That wasn't my intention before, life, hardships, and severe writer's block just got in the way for this one. But hopefully, my writing is back and the other chapters won't take nearly as long to finish up. I don't give up so easily, even if it takes forever lol XD
So a lot of hostility amongst the group and Dark seems to have left the group. Um... Dark... have you not seen a horror movie?! Get back here! And he's gone, oh by, we'll see how this goes in the next chapter.
