Claude kicked the hatch off and climbed out of the vent. It took them 30 minutes to crawl through the vent passageways in which some lead nowhere while others lead to other weird paths. Despite Claude's skills of finding ways through vents, pipes, and other passageways in Hollow Fields at his attempts of escape, he never explored this part of the academy before. It must've been only luck of some sort that he was able to make it to Summer's lair so far. Otherwise, he'd be stuck in the vents with Lucy for eternity or until the Windmill children found them.
Both Lucy and Claude after climbing out of the vents, noticed how quiet it was in Summer's hideout. That was only natural to Claude for when Miss Weaver found the place, she already had Mister Croach escort Summer and Carmen back to their rooms. Along with Summer and Carmen, she must've sent the other kids working with Summer back as well or worse.
Lucy doesn't remember that she's been in Summer's lair before. Claude was distracted in his thoughts whether or not he should go search for Summer and Carmen while Lucy began to wander off in curiosity. "Well, guess we got to search for the- LUCY!" Claude noticed her walking away. He ran to her and Lucy stopped for him. "Jeez, we got to stick together. Don't wander off like that okay?" Claude was about say more until he spotted something coming at them and fast. "LOOK OUT!" Claude pushed Lucy and himself out of the way of the creature that tried to squash them like pancakes. "What is that?" Claude wondered. "H-HALT INTRUDERS!" A Girl stuttered whiled riding on top the creature.
"Intruders?" Claude said confused.
"Y-Your not gonna perform brain surgery on me, like your doing with Summer!"
"Carmen we're not-!"
"Animated zombie golem, ATTACK!" Carmen yelled. The beast used it's limb to try and hit Claude and Lucy but it missed as Claude and Lucy evaded it. The golem turned it's attention to Claude. "Yipe! It's lookin' at me!" Claude screamed. Lucy stared at the situation. "HELP!" Claude yelled out. "It's after me and it looks hungry!"
"Prepare to be STOMPED on, you evil kidnapper!" Carmen said with a vengeance.
If Lucy wasn't experimented or hadn't she lost Dino, she would've been able to stop this cat and mouse chase. Despite her lack of memories and skills, she didn't like the current situation Claude had to go through. This had to be stopped. Lucy picked up a rock from one of the places the golem smashed into and threw it at the creature that was busy chasing Claude. It stopped and turned it's attention towards Lucy and ran after her instead. Lucy waited for it to get close enough for when it did, Lucy sprinted out of the way and it crashed against one of the structures that most of the kids working with Summer built. It knocked the golem out cold and Carmen fell off it. Claude ran over to Lucy. "Lucy! Thank goodness your okay! But that was dangerous you know! Never mind. As for Carmen over there.."
"Noooo!" Carmen begged frightened. "Please, engineers… P-please don't take me to the tower… I'm to young to-to-to go through whatever they do to you there!"
"We aren't engineers you idiot!" Claude said annoyed. "It's about time you got your haircut- you obviously can't see properly!"
"Claude? It's you!" She said relieved. Then she started panicking. "Summer! knocked her out, and he's taking her to the principle's tower to do some EXPERIMENT on her! Something with a… psycho trasmigrator.. A-and swapping bodies!"
"Swapping bodies huh?" Claude said wondering. "Swapping bodies of course! The engineers are eliminating children's memories to leave them with nothing inside! This is probably done in efforts of taking their soul out leaving their bodies empty. The engineers are transferring themselves into the bodies of children as a way of living longer like some IMMORTAL! The windmill children are failed experiments because they couldn't suck their soul out! We have to stop Mister Croach from trying to suck Summer's soul out before either Mister Croach steal her body or she'll become like Lucy!"
"Lucy?" Carmen asked. "What happened to…" When she turned to Lucy standing next to Claude, she gasped. "Oh no! Don't tell me she-!"
"Yeah.." Claude concluded seriously. "I was able to stop the machine sucking her memories but I wasn't able to get their fast enough. She still has her soul but she doesn't remember me, Summer, or what Hollow Fields is. Carmen, what they're doing is not just wiping away the memories of kids, but they also are taking away their skills and knowledge until they have their entire soul contained!"
"I don't want that happening to Summer! We gotta find her before she gets experimented!"
"She might already be!"
"I'm not leaving her to be experimented!"
Claude sighed in frustration. "Fine, we'll find her, but we are going to have to borrow your golem. The quicker getting to her, the better. After rescuing her, I need you and her to come with me and help me get through the rubble back at the tower and search for something important. I'll explain after we get Summer!"
Carmen agreed. They went up to the golem. The creature laid down for them to climb on. Carmen climbed before Claude helped Lucy up. All of a sudden, they heard explosions coming from the surface. "Something is going on in the school grounds above us…" Claude said. "Let's go!"
Carmen's golem to her, Claude, and Lucy out of Summer's lair and headed for the surface.
…
The school grounds already became a war zone as teacher's were blasting missiles and other weapons at each other with their inventions and creatures. Buildings were being demolished, ripped, and blown apart by all the chaos let loose by the ever angry teachers.
It was dangerous enough risking being within the danger, running out of it was a challenge for Carmen, Claude, and Lucy. The golem already has risked being hit by a teacher's missile.
"It looks like the teachers are fighting!" Claude yelled. "We better hurry up!"
Carmen understood and made the Golem run faster. Avoiding any missiles coming toward it and avoided coming close with teacher in the middle of battle.
…
Mister Croach lay and strapped Summer to a table. "Now let's see… these straps go here.. Fasten under here… wouldn't want you to wander off while I'm removing tour brains would we?
"Hey!" Summer yelled. "Help! Help! I'm being abducted by this mean old zombie! He's after my brains! He's gonna-!" In less than a second, the old grump strapped a piece of duct tape over Summer's mouth to shut her up. "That should take care of that annoying voice of yours Brat!" Croach said glad to not have to hear her ditsy tone. "Now I do believe I do have one of Weaver's 'personality' containers with me. Let's see…. Ah!" He shuffled and found the same type of sphere that stored Lucy's memories. He placed the container into the machine. "And pretty soon you'll be sitting in under a shelf somewhere collecting dust… like Doctor Bleak!"
Meanwhile, Carmen, Claude, and Lucy are approaching where Summer is. "Wow…" Carmen said. "The students used to damage to school so much… I never thought it would finally get taken down by the teachers!" Carmen stopped the golem. "I can't see anything, the smoke is thick in here…"
"What's that noise?" Claude asked. They heard gears of a machine clanking. The same noise that even the machine that stole Lucy's memories made.
"Over there! Look!" Carmen pointed.
"It's.."
"What is that?" Carmen asked.
"The same type of machine that stole Lucy's memories."
Croach was laughing evilly while the machine began to hurt Summer and take her memories. Mister Croach couldn't wait to have his own body both fresh and young! Despite he'll be transferring into a little girl's body, at least he won't have to worry about falling apart or losing a limb. Despite his dislike of children, he craved to feel the youth again.
"CHAAARGE!" Carmen yelled. Her golem bit into Mister Croach's hood and shook him around like a mad dog. It then threw Croach over. "Time to put a stop to this contraption!" Claude said as he went ahead and turned off the machine.
Carmen went over to Summer and unstrapped her.
"Summer! Are you alright? Are you still.. Y'know? You?"
"Uhhh….." Summer groggled. She sat up. "Y.. you.." She grabbed Carmen's shirt. "MORON! Why didn't you get here sooner? That monster nearly turned me into an experiment! Wait until Daddy finds out!"
"Oh Summer! I'm so glad you're okay!" Carmen cried. "We came as fast as we could…."
"And we need to hurry up!" Claude stated. "This place is going to collapse any second!"
"You! McGinty! Are you here to challenge me again?" Summer yelled.
"Now is not the time Polanski!" Claude yelled back not wanting to fight.
"And what is SHE doing here?" Summer said angrily pointing at Lucy who gets a bit surprised at Summer and hides behind Claude. "What the? What's wrong with her?"
"I'll explain later! Let's get on the golem and get out of here!"
They all climbed onto the golem, and headed for the windmill.
…..
The golem entered through a large hole created by the destruction of the teachers into the windmill. Claude, Carmen, and Lucy climbed off the golem except Summer.
"Why are we here?" Summer asked annoyed. She rather get out of the school then end up in one of the last places she kept her grades up avoiding to get sent to.
"I need you guys to help me dig through the rubble and find Lucy's memories which are contained in a sphere." Claude explained.
"And why should we?" Summer said more annoyed. Claude climbed up and grabbed her by the tie. "Listen Summer, this is important! Lucy doesn't deserve to be left like this! Are you going to help us or would you rather surrender your body to that old geezer?" Claude was serious. He needs Summer to help along with Carmen with not just searching through rubble, but also facing the Windmill children. The more in number the better, even if it means twice as much frustration. Summer timidly nodded. Claude let go. Summer climbed down. "So, Lucy got experimented?" Carmen nodded. "So, this windmill has a room with the same machine that zombie hooked me up to as well?"
"Yes." Claude answered. "The machine is already destroyed because of the teachers. Parts of the ceiling collapsed onto it but I don't think the sphere has been damaged. We need to dig through the rubble and find it. After we do, we can only hope we'll find another machine, hook Lucy up to it and return her memories."
"What if there isn't? What then?" Summer asked.
"Then our only choice is to hold on to the contained memories and hope. While we do that, we'll stop Miss Weaver and you guys escape."
Summer and Carmen agreed.
"Too bad the golem can't fit through the halls." Carmen said sadly.
"I know." Claude agreed. "He could be useful for heavy lifting but he'd also get the windmill kids to notice."
Claude, Summer, Carmen, and Lucy headed off toward the direction of where the collapsed machine room was leaving the golem behind. If the golem were attacked while they were gone, it could defend itself meaning nothing much to worry about. The only danger they would have to worry about is facing the windmill kids…..
To be continued….