Escaping Earth (by RAWN)
Chapter 1: Breaking and Entering
Sonic couldn`t believe he had to go back to that terrible place where the two thieves, Jason and Max, stayed. How was he supposed to even find that key? Ask them
nicely if they would be so kind to give it to him? Hardly!
They would probably just try to capture him again as soon as they saw him. And he didn`t want them to get that chance ever again. Once was more than enough!
He slowed down into a halt as he reached the much dreaded house, and he came to think of all the other animals trapped down inside that poorly lit basement.
He had informed Emily about them and she would tip the police, but…some of the unfortunate creatures had been in a pretty bad shape…
It pained him to think that they would have to stay there for who-knows-how-much-longer before the cops came. Maybe he could take a couple of them with him,
since he had come all this way again anyway.
Standing in front of the entrance he suddenly hesitated. He had, without thinking, raised a fist to knock on the damaged door, but that seemed to be a generally bad
idea for someone who by all means didn`t want to meet the residents. So he lowered his hand and started to look for another way of entering the house, and finally
found one on the backside of the shabby house in the form of an unlocked window. He peeped through it to check if the coast was clear, assured that that was the
case, he carefully opened the window and climbed through it. Almost feeling like a burglar, he tiptoed silently across the room, which was empty except for a brown
tattered old sofa, an old TV standing on a wooden box, and a thick layer of dust that tickled his nose when inhaling.
"Guess this must be the unlivable living room" he thought dryly. How anyone could live in a dump like this was beyond him. At least it should be fairly easy to find
that key if all the rooms were as unfurnished as this.
He snuck out into what he recognized as the entry he had been in just about an hour ago. Without hesitation he tried to open the door leading to the basement, only
to find out that it was locked. He decided to wait to break down the door, since that would obviously attract unwanted attention, and went to search for the key to
unlock the metal collar instead. The sooner he found that, the sooner he could stop worrying about avoiding detection from those crooks.
Speaking of which…he had neither seen nor heard from any of them so far, but he felt sure that they had to be around somewhere. Their van was still parked in the
driveway, and of course they had no idea that the cops would be on their doorstep anytime soon. So where could they be?
A quick search of the first floor, proved fruitless as he could find no key or trail of any human beings. That left him with the second floor.
Sonic warily started to climb up the stairs, pausing in alarm every time the old wood under his sneakers creaked in protest under the weight of the small hedgehog.
When he finally got upstairs, he waited a short moment to listen for any sounds revealing whether he was alone or not, but didn`t pick up anything that would
suggest the presence of anyone.
He didn`t like the situation, they had to be somewhere around. Surely they wouldn`t have left on foot! After all they were in the middle of nowhere, so to speak.
He noticed that one of the doors was open, and he decided to see in that room first.
Upon reaching it, he saw that it was some kind of storeroom filled with various equipment used for capturing animals no doubt. He looked at the room`s content with
a disapproving frown, until he noticed what was hanging on the wall in front of him. Keys! Lots and lots of keys!
"Oh boy, this could take a while" he thought with sinking enthusiasm.