CHAPTER 8
"Is he crazy?" Knuckles shouted. "He's going to die too!"
Rouge dived off the boat after him, swimming expertly down towards where Sonic was pinned under and struggling to lift the pipe out of the way with Shadow. Even with their combined efforts, nothing happened.
"I'll help!" Silver followed them with a loud splash.
"No! You can't! It's sinking further down as we speak!" Blaze shouted, but she knew that he didn't hear her.
There was only one thing she knew she could do.
"Blaze! You too?" Knuckles shouted as she hit the surface. She could barely see the others through the murky water and the depth they were sinking to. She grabbed a section of the pipe and tried to move it out of the way as much as she could.
It jerked to the side, releasing Sonic's leg. Blaze grabbed his arm and began swimming as hard as she could up to the surface; the others following very closely.
Knuckles and Tails pulled them all back into the boat. "Is everyone ok?" Tails asked, wide eyed and scared.
"Sonic, say something!" Shadow coughed, grabbing and shaking his shoulders hard. "Anything!"
"Is he dead?" Tails squeaked.
"Of course not." Knuckles muttered, but the group caught the doubt in his voice.
Silver pushed Shadow out of the way and began giving Sonic chest compressions. He was still unresponsive even after thirty seconds. Tails' eyes welled up in tears, terrified that he had lost his friend. Blaze pulled the Chaos Emerald out of a pocket and placed it in Sonic's hand.
"Come on…" she whispered.
There was a brilliant flash of light that caused Silver to stumble backwards off the boat in a loud splash; nearly taking everyone else on the craft with him. Sonic began to cough, water spewing out of his mouth.
"You're alive!" Tails jumped. "We were so worried!"
"T…Tails! Aaagh! What…?" Sonic gritted his teeth together and tried to sit up. Blaze shoved him back down again.
"Don't move! Your ankle is badly injured!"
"What do we do?" Knuckles asked. "I mean…we're who knows how far we are from land. And this little boat isn't going to do anything-"
He was cut off as Sonic gave an agonized moan, curling into a ball and gripping at his injured limb. "And Sonic needs help…fast." Knuckles finished.
"I think the only way to go is back to the island. We'll get something there…" Shadow winced. He hadn't exhorted himself like that since he had been captured by GUN. The muscles in his arms and legs felt as though they were twisted in knots.
"Yeah, we'll get something, all right." Rouge growled. "Captured."
"And where do you suppose we'll go, if not the island?" Shadow retorted.
Rouge didn't say anything. She just narrowed her eyes and glared.
"We're going back to the island." Blaze said, pulling Silver from the water again. "Everyone be on your guard."
XxXxXxXx
Ginny sighed, completely relaxed. She had been in worse situations before, so being tied to a chair in the middle of a room surrounded by guards with guns was nothing. Her weapons were laid out on a nearby table, a few more guards trying to figure out what the 'crayons' were for.
"Careful," Ginny warned, but her warning came too late. One had twisted the bottom of the lighter, burning his fingers. "Sorry. I warned you."
The door was opened and a black and white Mobian guinea pig walked in. She was mostly white, a black band covering her eyes. She was dressed completely in gray, complete with gray shoes and gloves. "I'm Bandit. From the prison back over there," she jerked a thumb in the general direction of land. "You've escaped along with Shadow the Hedgehog. Where is he?"
"Like I'd tell you. What would you do to him next? It took him about five months to recover…and that's with his sped-up healing ability." Ginny sighed again. "This room is so boring. You could really use a painter or something."
Bandit took a few steps towards Ginny. "We're not in the mood to play games. Tell me where he is and I will spare you from a fate like his."
Ginny scoffed. "And then what? When I'm beyond words in pain…what'll you do next? You have no one else to question."
Bandit barred her teeth and began pacing back and fourth. "You're standing in our path…our path to total control. We won't treat you humanely like our other prisoners if you don't cooperate. We will use brute force to get what we want." She leaned in towards Ginny's face so her nose was only a few inches away. "If I were you I'd start talking."
Ginny nodded and yawned. "Ok, yeah, sure. Just one thing…" Her tone began to get serious. "How and why did you decide to frame Shadow the Hedgehog? How and why are you doing this? What will you gain?"
Bandit grinned. "Just the world,"
XxXxXxXx
It was dark. Searchlights adorned parts of the shore. The group managed to find a dark place to go ashore on, and were now gathered in the leafy canopy of a few bushes, out of sight and safe from prying eyes. But if someone was to walk by, he would have heard their voices.
Sonic moaned loudly. His ankle had most definitely been broken, and there was nothing the group could do until they escaped Prison Island completely. Tails glanced around nervously, terrified that a guard would find them.
"Sonic, please try to be quieter!" Knuckles growled. "You're going to get us all killed!"
Sonic gritted his teeth together in an answer, stifling another pain-filled sound. Shadow turned his attention back to watching the shores. Nothing had happened yet, but there was no guarantee that would last the night.
"Isn't there another pier at the other end of the island?" He asked.
"I don't know…that's at least a mile long walk. No telling how much security is guarding this place or how many traps are set." Knuckles muttered. "Besides, I don't think Sonic can take two steps at the moment."
"Everyone be quiet!" Rouge hissed suddenly. "Don't make a sound! Someone's coming!"
The group hardly dared to breathe as the sound of crunching leaves met their ears. Someone was indeed walking in their direction…almost directly towards them.
Just when all seemed lost, the guard stopped and spoke, probably into some sort of communicator. "All's quiet out here, Tom. They must be out on the waters by now." He was hardly five feet away from where Shadow was.
A second of silence before the soldier continued talking. "Yeah…about that…how is that even possible? I mean, half these murders couldn't have been committed by Shadow. Just look at the facts; even if he did murder some of these people—which I'm seriously beginning to doubt he did—the murders are too spaced out. All over the continent." Another moment of silence.
"Tom, something's going on with GUN. Something serious. I don't know what yet, but when I do…" The soldier trailed off and stumbled backwards, like he was getting ready to run. "Tom…Tom, call backup! Now! I'm under attack!"
Shadow could not nothing but watch as the soldier turned and ran. He didn't get far before he tripped, seemingly on nothing. He turned onto his back, backing up furiously, still unable to escape an invisible threat. What was attacking him? What was he so scared of?
And then out of nowhere came a figure that Shadow would have easily mistook for himself. The exact height and build, quills upturned at the ends like his. The only difference was the bright red markings didn't seem to be present at all. The double had his back to him, staring at the struggling soldier as he searched frantically for his communicator, finally saying, "Tom! He's here!"
With a choked gasp, the soldier dropped the communicator and was lifted into the air by apparently nothing but the darkness itself. Shadow's double walked calmly towards the GUN guard, a knife in his hand that hadn't been there a second ago.
As he watched, the double slashed the knife across the soldier's throat, separating his head from his body. The now dead soldier fell to the ground, never to move again. The double laughed; a cold, cruel laugh that chilled Shadow himself to the bone. "One less." He chuckled before forcing the knife into the dead soldier's body. With that, he turned and melted away into the dark.
Shadow was slowly becoming aware of the fact that Tails was whimpering, Rouge whispering soothing words to try and quiet him. They couldn't dare to move from their hiding place just yet…doing so would be suicide.
"What was that?" Knuckles asked. "Who the hell was that guy?"
"I think we've found the real killer." Blaze whispered. "And if you ask me, we need to get out of here before he finds us."
"We've got to get to the other side of the island." Silver said. "Sonic, if you stand I can help you walk."
"Can't…" Sonic spat out between clenched teeth.
"You're going to have to." Silver threw Sonic's left arm around his shoulders and hauled him to his feet. They began limping awkwardly in the general direction of the other pier, the others getting up slowly and glancing around, terrified that the killer would return.
Tails was still clinging to Rouge, completely silent. As a searchlight lit up the beach down by the shore, the light reflected off the sand into the woods slightly, lighting up his terrified face. Blaze could only ruffle the fur on his head and whisper, "It's ok, Tails." as comfort.
"Did…did you see his eyes?" The fox whimpered.
"No, he had his back to me." Blaze said.
Shadow was now listening in on the conversation while at the same time watching for any movement in the quiet woods.
Tails hesitated for a second longer before saying, "Well, he…he had green eyes. But they weren't like Sonic's. They…they had veins of darker and lighter green distorting the emerald colour… and his pupils were slits. Like a snake's. Like…like a monster."
Shadow stopped walking and stood still as a statue. Green, snakelike eyes?
He had seen them before.
Back in the prison's labs…just before he completely lost a grip on reality and all he knew was pain. He was there. Watching and laughing with the doctors at his agony. Shadow could hardly recall much from the lab other than the intense lights and blades that tore his flesh, but the memory of those eyes would never leave him as long as he lived.
He was certain they belonged to nothing else but darkness itself.
XxXxXxXx
Hope you enjoyed this chapter…
All right, guys. It seems like everything depressing is happening in these Author Notes at the ends of these chapters.
If you don't already know, both Ginny and Bandit are based on my two guinea pigs in real life. Bandit is white and black, and Ginny is black and white, ect. And I really love my Squeakers.
This morning I woke up and Bandit was dead.
She hasn't been doing well these past few days, but this really came unexpectedly. My brother, DinosaurKing82 and I were absolutely heartbroken. We buried her in the garden.
I had to force myself to get this chapter up on the internet for you guys. And I have to say…don't expect a few more chapters for a week or so. Partly because my Fluffy is in this and it makes me really sad.
Hasta la Vista, Readers.
Lordoftheghostking28
