Thirty reviews, now. :) Thank you for taking time to give me some feedback, everyone! I really am glad that you're taking the time to review. It helps me quite a bit. :) Plus, when I get more reviews I feel that more people are waiting for the story to be finished, so I feel more inclined to work on it. ;)
Now, then... Let's take a little spin on story-time, shall we? It's time for our next chapter... (I'd add an introduction, since this one is a tad different... But I'm certain you all will be able to figure that out on your own quite quickly. [Plus, this is a bit of an intro, isn't it? :/ Oh, well.])
Yes, everyone, this is the title chapter.
Chapter Eight: Far Gone
Hmph. What irony. The single-most idiotic group of creatures I've ever met, and they are the people who run this country. I stood on the outskirts of the city, facing away from the lights, my eyes looking out towards the forest beyond. I never was much one for nature, but I was sick of the constant noise of the city.
It didn't look as if there would be a moon tonight. It was hard to tell before dark: ever since the Doctor's attack on the moon sometime ago, the giant orb couldn't stay stable. The phases of the moon changed randomly. I didn't mind; I didn't need to see it every night. I didn't need any more reminders of my failure as the Ultimate Lifeform.
Faintly, I heard sirens from behind me in the city streets. They got louder as the seconds passed... I glanced at the blood-red sky for a moment before making up my mind to skip work for the rest of the night. They could deal with it. What would they do? Fire me? Send me to prison? No, they were self-respecting enough to know better than to agitate me. Besides, something told me that I was needed elsewhere this evening. I had no idea where, but I knew that it was important I follow the feeling. So, as the sirens grew louder, I turned my head from the sky, and I ran away from the city.
The forest was a dark place. That was alright. Dark places didn't really bother me. It was the noise that irritated me. Noises would be more accurate, really. The city was a constant drone of noise that never really quieted. It was easy to get used to. Nature has too many sounds. Whether it's tiny squirrels, birds, or any of those other little woodland creatures. Everything has its own sound, and none of it blends together. Direct formula for a severe migraine.
I stopped in a clearing in the trees. There was a small river running through the clearing, and I stopped, leaning on one of the large rocks beside the edge. As before, I turned my gaze to the sky. The angry red had disappeared, fading into the black that was night.
I leaned my head back against the rock, closing my eyes. Maria... I'm sorry... The thoughts weren't new. I apologized to Maria every night for what happened... Not only did I let her die... I ruined her legacy... Her words... "Give them a chance to be happy"... I've failed you, Maria...
A cool breeze blew against my face. It smelled of salt and ocean spray. I stood up, having enough of the forest. I would find the coast and make my way back to the city. Whatever feeling I thought I had before must have been delusional. There was nothing out here. I walked, not in a particular hurry. There was nothing much new to think about. I wondered how far away from the city I was now. Maybe fifteen, thirty, or fifty miles away. I wasn't quite sure. The stupid trees looked so much the same it was hard to keep track of how far I'd traveled.
The forest grew quieter the darker it got. For a short while, it seemed everything went to sleep... Then the crickets began their incessant chirping. Conveniently, I managed to reach the shore just in time to escape another terrible headache. There was no real way to reach the ocean from the "shore". The edge of the forest was a drop-off into the ocean, which was probably almost a thousand feet down. Probably why most people stayed in the city... That and to not have to deal with all of this "nature"....
The city couldn't be seen from where I was. I must have gone farther than fifteen miles. Still, I'd been traveling in one direction, so all I needed to do was turn and go back. I almost started to go back into the forest so that I could retrace my path exactly. But then something reminded me of those crickets... In surround sound... I thought better of it. I could follow the drop-off all the way back to the city. At least then there would only be partial sound...
After about twenty minutes of walking along the edge I was regretting not going through the forest. Stupid birds... Are seagulls even supposed to be out at night? The ocean-loving birds had been flying all around, their throaty voices loud and obnoxious. To my left was the sound of the ocean and the noise of the birds, to my right was the chirping of the crickets from the forest. If this noise doesn't let up soon, I'm running back... Of course, just as I thought that, the volume level skyrocketed.
There seemed to be some congregation of gulls on some rocks below a section of the cliff. The sound was more than agitating. I was tempted to break into a run then, but something stopped me. Why were so many birds in one place? It seemed like all the birds that had been passing were meeting at the bottom of that part of the cliff. I wasn't naturally curious, but I felt driven to figure out what was going on. Something didn't feel right.
I checked for the Chaos Emerald, which I always carried with me. In case I slipped I would need to be able to transport myself to safety in a second. I walked readily to the edge of the cliff, looking downward. There must have been a hundred of those birds... For a moment all I saw was a cloud of white beneath the dark sky. It wasn't until after a few of the birds moved that I could see what the birds were gathered around. Some sort of carcass. I couldn't tell anything from where I was. Too many birds in the way. Besides, it was barely a speck from so far up... Most likely some kid that got too close to the edge... Still, for some reason... I felt I had an obligation to the body. I closed my eyes. If Maria died like this I wouldn't let these birds consume her... I would make sure she were properly taken care of... I knew that was true... For all I knew, this person could be someone else's Maria... And Maria wanted happiness for everyone... She said that's why I was created...
I opened my eyes, taking out my Chaos Emerald, and I imagined landing on a rock at the bottom of the drop, next to the body. "CHAOS CONTROL!!!" A bright flash of green light consumed me, then, for a split second, I was consumed in total blackness. When vision returned I had landed on a rock at the bottom of the cliff. The bright green flash of light had been enough to scare off most of the seabirds. My sudden appearance scared off the rest.
The darkness made it difficult to see the corpse... I was surprised to see that it wasn't floating on its stomach; however, due to the low level of water near the shore, it made sense. Whoever the creature was must have fallen directly off the cliff... There was blood on the rocks all around. The water around me was thick with blood, and I wondered how long the body had been there. Not long, I guessed. Maybe that was the feeling I'd had earlier. I was needed here to recover the body.
I jumped from the rock I was on, landing on my feet easily in the ankle-deep water. The water had a foul smell, and so did the corpse... I stepped closer to the body, trying to see better, but it was almost impossible to see anything under the shadow of the cliff...
"CHAOS CONTROL!!!" When the light from the emerald dissipated, I was in a place with light. Not much of it, but there was faint light. I put away the Chaos Emerald, looking around my apartment for the light switch. The body had transported with me; I nearly tripped over it on the way to find the light. Still, it wasn't too hard to find. Most of the time I was okay with the faint light, anyway. I preferred darkness.
The room illuminated in fluorescent light when I flipped the switch, and I turned back around, looking for the body. It definitely wasn't just some child... Most of the fur was matted in bloody clumps all over... There were cuts all over the carcass, most still bleeding, and there were some gashes I assumed came from the gulls which had surrounded it... But then there were older scratches and slices in the skin, which were covered in dark, dried blood.... It was impossible to get a definite fur color, though I was guessing it was a warm color... Brown, orange, red, or some color in between. Anything that might have been fur seemed to be stained in blood...
There's no way all of this came from that fall.... I wondered silently what the creature's story was. He looked as though he'd been through a lot of pain... Even before the fall. And he looked young, too. Late teens or early twenties, I guessed. Not really intending to, I whispered quietly, "Pathetic soul."
I walked away from the body, getting a towel from the bathroom and adding water to it in the sink. I wanted to identify the creature, at least. Fur color, eye color, skin tone... Things that would help his family recognize him. I returned to the creature and attempted to get a look at his face. Long, quill-like locks were twined together blocking any view of the creature's muzzle and eyes, so I had to begin untangling them before I could see the face. At least I knew he must have been some sort of quilled creature... The quills were too long for most hedgehogs, so I assumed the species was porcupine.
It was about ten minutes before I got the quills to separate. The fur color was definitely red. Most of what had given it the brown color had come off when washed with water. I examined the creature's face. It was the one part of the body not covered in cuts and gashes, it seemed. The creature's muzzle was fairly tanned despite its state of death... I opened the eyelid over the creature's left eye. The iris stared back at me in a dark, violet color. No...
Violet eyes... Red fur... I had thought something about the face was familiar... Knuckles the Echidna... "It reached you, too, I see..." I remembered the last time I saw Rouge... A few months of isolation to government work, and she went insane... By the time I'd realized she was changing, it was too late. She was so far from the world that nothing could bring her back. She disappeared. I'd never found out a definite reason why, but from what she left behind, I could tell clearly that the reason was Knuckles the Echidna.
I looked down at the eye which I still held open. ...Love must come straight from the depths of Erebus... The eye flickered to the left... I blinked.
The eye shifted to the right. I backed up, letting go. No.... He can't possibly have survived.... But the impossible didn't stop his eyelids from slowly opening on their own, and his chest suddenly expanded as he took a breath. ...This can't be happening... He didn't sit up. His open eyes were looking in my direction... But there was something about them...
It felt odd to be speaking to him; I couldn't remember ever speaking a word to him when he was in a stable condition, let alone in a state like this... Still, I felt I needed to say something. "Are you alright?"
His eyes stared straight through me. His voice sounded pathetic, not a whimper or cry, but it was a voice he'd never spoken with before, "Rouge... I'm sorry... I tried... It didn't work... It's my stupid job... I can't.... go....."
'Stupid job'? From all I could remember that echidna had been on the verge of obsession with his 'job'. Guardian of the Master Emerald. And what did he mean he 'tried'? ...
I don't believe this... I stood up slowly, and he continued to stare into the space where I had been... I moved, but he still stared into nothing. I ran to the door, down the hallway, out into the streets of the city... To the coast, staring off into the distance... I looked to the sky... But nothing was there. Angel Island was not in the air: the Master Emerald must be gone.
I walked back to my apartment slowly. What was I supposed to do, anyway? Help him? I pondered the thought. Some strange feeling sent me out into the forest tonight. Coincidence that I would find the echidna injured? No, there were no coincidences.
Maria...
I entered the door quietly, looking to the place where he had been lying, motionless on the floor. He was gone. I cursed to myself silently and began searching. I found him in the kitchen, lying on the ground next to a steak knife. A slash across his wrist was seeping fresh blood. Oh my Maria... What have you gotten me into...?
I stood, staring at him for several seconds with no idea what to do. I never dealt with others when I could prevent it... I cursed again. I... need help.
A cold wind blew in through a window I'd left open, blowing across the counter, flipping open the pages of a telephone book... The page stopped on an ad... I stood there for another moment, feeling like I had no other choice. I looked at the ad. "Chaotix Detective Agency".... I didn't understand the connection. I was sure I didn't need the help of detectives... I glanced back down at the body, which looked lifeless, though I knew he wasn't dead. If he hadn't died from that fall, I doubted anything was going to kill him anytime soon... Still... If I was going to help him... I looked back to the ad. I suppose it couldn't hurt to try... I hope you know what you're doing, Maria...
I walkedto the phone hanging on the wall, and I carefully dialed the number on the ad. I held the receiver to my head, staring down at the echidna on the floor. And I waited.
:O Knuckles has definitely gone over the edge... (Terrible, morbid pun, isn't it? That's my second one. XD If you didn't catch the first, it was the fact that my real cliff-hanger chapter was of Knuckles about to jump off an actual cliff... Yes, it was unspoken, but it was intended. Terrible, I know. But still...)
Is Knuckles too far gone to come back?! Or will he be able to be helped? Maybe with the assistance of Shadow and the Chaotix... Can he come to his senses? Meanwhile, what's going to happen with Rouge? Will she look for him? How will she find him? Why can't Knuckles even successfully kill himself? So many questions....
Reviews are appreciated. ;) As I've said before, the more reviews, the faster I'll update... ;)
