Mobius Chapter 2

The thick smog that was black as soot from the chimney began to thin out as we flew further away from what I imagined was a city at some point. As it did so, I could make out trees in the distance. I wanted to speak and ask where we were going, but I was too captivated to be flying for the first time in my life. The feeling was...indescribable. The rush of air through my short brown hair, the way my stomach seemed to lurch up into my chest and just being able to look down on the world. I could not see much, albeit the outline of the city which was slowly fading into a black oblivion.

The trees came closer to us and they looked dead. My heart sank. Was everything dead in this world? My cynicism was quickly set to one side. The beauty! Green trees came into view. They were huge, nothing like what I had ever seen before. Even during my field trip to Yellowstone park I had not seen trees this size. They were green and vibrant, full of life. None of it felt real. What I was seeing, one cannot possibly comprehend unless they experienced it for themselves.

"Say" Knuckles started "Where did you come from? I've seen the Great Forest countless times and you are acting like you just seen an alien."

"Mister..."

"And stop with the Mister, just call me Knuckles. Everyone does."

"OK. The last thing I remember was being beat up by this guy I know. Billy Creel. Have you heard of him?"

How stupid of me, of course he hadn't heard of him. I was in a whole different world. Billy Creel didn't exist here. Neither did his gang of racist shitheads. I was alone. Alone in a world where I was known as Whitby, David Whitby the Overlander. What the heck was an Overlander anyway?

Knuckles shook his head. I remained silent throughout the rest of the journey.

"OK, radar detector is clear, nothing followed us. Fasten your seat-belts, we're landing" Tails spoke in a very soft voice.

He sounded very young, I couldn't accurately estimate his age because I'd never seen anything like him before. In fact I had never seen anything like these creatures before, except in comic books from when I was still in elementary school.

It was about now that it struck me, that they were all speaking English. How was this possible? I had begun to think that maybe I was in one of them comas I had heard about on the TV. One news report had mentioned a girl who had been ice skating out with her parents, had slipped over and hit her head. She didn't wake up for over 40 years. Was this what was happening to me?

I tried to push the thought aside as we approached a clearing in the forest. The trees had all been cut down but there was no way we could land in there. An airplane, as far as I knew, needed a good long runway to land. But the plane slowed almost to a stop in midair above the clearing. I felt a sudden jump as what I think was a second engine on the underside of the plane kicked into life. It roared loudly, scaring birds I had never seen before out of the trees nearby and we slowly descended to the forest floor, coming to a gentle stop on the ground.

"Ok, activating stealth mode" Tails pressed a few buttons out of hundred or so that were in front of him.

I didn't notice any change. We got out of the plane. I hit the floor on my hands and knees and vomited in the short grass.

"Huh, you think he'd never flied before" Knuckles casually mentioned to Sally as I wretched. My guts heaving.

Finally I picked myself up and looked around. To say I was in paradise was an understatement. This was heaven. The grass was so green and full of life. The trees towered above me, far taller than any tree I had ever seen. Bright flowers seemed to sprout in the shadows where the sunlight failed to pierce through the dense trees. It all seemed impossible, it all seemed so fake to me.

Sally walked over to me, her movements fluid, like poetry in motion and she patted me on the back.

"Easy now, it will pass" she said in a soft, soothing voice that instantly reassured me and I no longer felt afraid of what was happening. "It happens to everyone first time, even Knuckles here" Knuckles flashed her a mildly irritated look and got to work pulling a very-well camouflaged tarpaulin over the plane...which had disappeared.

"Sally...the plane...where did it?" I failed to find the words, it had literally disappeared.

"It's still there" she banged on something invisible in the air and it made a solid metal clank as she did so.

"Incredible" was all I could manage.

"Come on, let's get you inside, I smell a rainstorm" she looked up at the clouds rapidly forming above our heads, dark gray ones.

I nodded and took my hand to lead me into the forest. Her fur was soft, not bristly as I had thought they would be. Warm too. It sounds crazy, but I expected to feel cold, as if she wasn't real. This just confirmed to me that this was all real. That this was actually happening. Even if it were my mind wondering in a comatose state, it was very convincing to say the least.

We walked for a good few minutes into the forest, it was surprisingly clean. No weeds were growing, just grass that looked as if it had been cut short only yesterday. Did someone actually mow all of this? I looked about in wonderment, the trees were just too perfect. No signs of dead branches, there was not even any leaf fall on the ground. This truly was heaven.

Sally paused in front of a tree stump. An old tree stump, could have been there years. "Knuckles can you get this for me?" she asked Knuckles who nodded and gripped the stump in his gloved hands.

He heaved at it with such intensity, sinewy muscles stood out on his arms as he lifted this stump straight up until it tipped like a lid from a half-opened can of baked beans. To my surprise, there was a hole underneath the stump. A great hiding place.

Sally turned to me, her hazel eyes caught mine and she told me "Ok, this may seem scary, but just jump into the hole, it will be fine, I promise. Just follow me"

I nodded and she jumped in. Not wanting to appear a coward in front of these strangers I jumped in after her. My heart leaped into my throat for a moment. I was not free-falling like I thought I would, but I was sliding. Yes, sliding. It was like one of those slides at the amusement parks. The air whistled through my hair as the slide curved and curved into a spiral shape. I made the foolish mistake of putting my hands down on either side of the slide to slow myself, only to be punished with an almost-instant burning sensation in my hands. I quickly drew them in. The pain was agonizing yet also served to reassure me that this was real.

Suddenly, I stopped sliding and landed in something soft and stopped moving just like that. I looked around, dazed and confused only for Sally to grab me by the wrist and pull me aside.

"Come on, otherwise Knuckles will land on you" her grip was strong, like a vice.

Sure enough, Knuckles landed in what I could now see was a huge pile of leaves quickly followed by Tails...who landed right on top of Knuckles.

"Dammit Tails!" he shouted, pushing Tails off of him.

"Sorry...my bad..." Tails replied, almost mumbling.

'Tails...' I found myself thinking as I spotted Tails two tails sprouting from the base of his spine. 'Aha, that's his nickname!'

I took a minute to look around me, it was not dark, but well-lit by lanterns embedded in the walls. I was in a huge cavernous space that was was lit by lanterns, a lot of them. Flames that did not move. They did not act like flames at all. They were perfectly straight and did not even so much as flicker when we all came crashing in from the slide.

"Take a moment...um" Sally begun "My apologies, what is your name? I fear I missed it"

"David. David Whitby" I extended my hand to Sally as one should do with a lady.

Unlike Knuckles, she firmly grasped my hand and shook it.

"Ah, Whitby, I am surprised by your etiquette, most Overlanders are not concerned by such trivial formalities"

"Oh please Sally, just call me David" I was taken aback by her proper formalities.

"Of course David," she smiled, no teeth showing, just a friendly smile "I am Princess Sally Acorn. Where you are standing now is Knothole, our forward operating base."

A princess?! I found myself at a loss for words now. I had addressed a princess of all the people in this world by her first name!

Sally could see the look change on my face and laughed "Don't worry David, the only royalty out here is Mother Nature. Titles are meaningless here."

I merely nodded. I was just glad that this new friend had not taken offense to my indiscretion. I had read that in the country of England, that the Queen was to be addressed as Her Majesty. So anyone could see why I thought I had made a serious faux pas.

Tails was looking at my hands, blood was dripping from them. I felt embarrassed now to be bleeding in the presence of a princess.

"Looks like you put your hands down on the slide" Tails commented "Come on, let's get you cleaned up" He motioned for me to follow him.

I nodded silently and followed him into a tunnel. A huge tunnel at that. The width was of two strong-men and the height almost double that of a man.

"I don't know where you came from, Overlander, but your presence here could be of use to us."

"Overlander?" I finally asked "What is that?"

Tails spun on his heel, his two tails straightened in what I guess was an expression of surprise. "You are an Overlander. How could you not know this?"

"I um...I never heard the term before. Sorry" I added, feeling as though I owed him an explanation.

"Oh wow, I've never met an Overlander that didn't know the name of their own people. Just...wow. Rotor is gonna have a field day with this. Chuck too."

I felt a little uncomfortable. "And how is it that you expect me to be of use?"

"Well, I cannot say much but, Sally has big plans to get the Overlanders to help us defeat the ultimate evil"

"And what is the ultimate evil?" I felt intrigued now.

Tails looked at me blankly "Robotnik of course, you are going to help us kill the dictator Robotnik."

Taken aback I asked him "You mean, like Hitler? That kind of dictator?"

"Hitler?" he really did look confused "Who is that?"

Of course, Hitler never existed here. Come to think of it, Judaism probably never existed here either.

"And who is this Robotnik?" I repeated the name slowly, it sounded foreign.

"Robotnik?" he asked incredulously "Robotnik is the reason everything has gone bad. He is the reason that most of the Mobians are now robots. He is the one responsible for the city we pulled you out from. How can you not know him? You really must be an alien. Either that or you've been living under a rock your whole life."

"I see..."

Now it was starting to make sense. I was in a world where there had been no Hitler. Only this Robotnik who had turned his citizens into these things they called 'robots.' I was way in over my head and I had only just realized it.