Chapter 9
The first thing Blaze noticed as she caught her breath was that the sky was starting to brighten. The last twenty four-hours had been hell, but she did her best not to dwell on them.
Knuckles seemed to be hit pretty hard by all the running; the red echidna panted far heavier than the rest of them, and was bent double and pitiful to look at.
"How are you holding up, Blaze?" Rouge asked, putting a hand of the cat's shoulder. Blaze just shrugged.
"Cha chao chao cha cha chao?" -That's not much of an answer, Blaze,- Cheese commented dryly. The cat glared at the Chao.
"Shut up, Cheese. It's not like you've been helping any."
"Chao chao cha cho cha chao!" -What the hell am I supposed to do!- Cheese barked at her.
"I don't know," Blaze snapped, "Be useful? Find us ammo, or other people, or hell, I don't know, something that's helpful!" The lavender cat's face was contorted in fury and she glared around at the adults as well as up at the Chao atop her head.
"You need to calm down-" Espio started calmly.
"Calm down?" Blaze screeched, turning her tirade towards the chameleon.
"Yes, or you will draw unwanted attention."
"I don't give a fuck at this point," the cat screamed, "Let them try to get me, I don't fucking care! They've taken my family and friends, they may as well come and get me too. God knows I'm going to hell anyway, why the fuck should I wait?" Her chest heaved with fury, and Cheese removed himself from Blaze's head, hovering in the air to her left and out of arm's reach.
All of a sudden, there was a stinging feel radiating from Blaze's right cheek, and Espio had somehow moved forward.
"You may have lost your will," he said quietly, "But I have not lost mine. You, little girl, will put up or shut up. Do you understand me?"
Blaze nodded, a little wide-eyed. She subconsciously grabbed her upper left arm with her right hand and averted her gaze from the others. Cheese landed back on her head and patted her gently.
Knuckles clapped his hands together. "We need to get going."
"Where to?" Rouge asked, gesturing with her hand, "We've got nothing, no where to go, and we're not sure if there are even any other survivors left."
The four of them stood quiet, each alert for sound and nothing else as they thought.
"I can try searching from the air," Rouge said, something like finality in her voice. The rest of them murmered agreement.
"Where do we go then?" Blaze asked.
"What do you mean?" Espio gave her a wary eye.
"If you go off, you're probably going to take a weapon with you, and we'll need a place to hole up while you go search."
"Chao cha cha chao?" -How about outside the City Hall?- Cheese suggested.
"Huh?" the three adults asked in unison.
"He saying we should stay right outside City Hall," Blaze translated.
"I'm not quite sure of that," Espio said, "City Hall would be a little too heavily populated, most likely. But I do know of a small diner near by. You know the place I'm talking about Knuckles?"
"Yeah," the echidna replied, "You're suggesting the back room of the diner?"
Espio nodded.
"It's near City Hall?" Rouge asked.
The two thieves nodded together.
"Come with us on the way there," Blaze said, grabbing Rouge as she turned to leave, "That way you know exactly where we are." Rouge blinked once, and then smiled.
"Okay, I'll stick with you guys on the way there."
Without another word, Knuckles and Espio lead the way. Each of them moved as silently as possible, and they instinctively kept a large distance between themselves and any undead they found.
"Hold up," Rouge whispered, her ears perking up as they down the street from the diner.
"There's some out there?" Knuckles asked, deeper inside the alleyway.
"A lot of them, I think," the bat replied.
"I'll go have a look," Espio said, and he vanished.
"Huh?" Blaze's eyes widened.
"It's cool," the air said in Espio's voice, "I'll be back in a second."
Rouge followed the chameleon's movements with her ears, occasionally loosing track of where he was. Blaze resisted the urge to collapse, to sit, because she knew she wouldn't be able both physically or mentally to rise again, and she didn't want to lean against the wall because Knuckles was. Knuckles had his arms folded and waited, thinking of every job he had messed up in the past and how he could have done it better. It was a mental game he played with himself, one that both calmed him and kept him alert.
"This doesn't look so good," Espio said, reappearing beside Knuckles.
"How bad, then?" Knuckles asked.
"Getting into the diner's going to be near impossible."
"Anywhere else nearby then?"
"The jewelry store, where we lifted that metallic Chao egg from," Espio said, motioning the others to come to the mouth of the alleyway. "It's a quick dash down the street and a duck inside the door. There's nothing in there, but there's still plenty outside."
"We can do it," Blaze said.
"Unlikely," Rouge said, examining the undead loitering in the street.
"They seem to be blind though-"
"With impressive hearing," Rouge said.
"I still think we can do this."
"I agree with the kid," Knuckles said, sighing mentally, "If we're quiet enough, we should be able to sneak past them."
"I'm not staying for this," Rouge said bluntly, "You can hide there-I know where to find you now. I'll be back by sundown, and hopefully I'll have found someone." The bat ran back up the alleyway, leaping and pushing herself into the air with a powerful down stroke.
"C'mon," Knuckles said, grabbing Blaze by the upper arm and treading carefully out of the alleyway. Espio was ahead of them, leading the way silently around the undead.
At least we smell like shit, Blaze thought off-handedly, they won't be able to pick us out by scent if we smell as shitty as they do.
There was a crunching noise as Knuckles accidentally stepped wrong on a tiny rock, and the trio winced as several nearby undead turned towards them. Blaze looked at Knuckles with a worried look and gave him a 'Shh' signal as she bent down and snatched up the rock silently. She licked her dirty lips, cocked her arm back, and tossed the rock a fair distance up the street, shattering the far window she had been aiming for.
Go! she mouthed, and Knuckles yanked her the rest of the way to the store, ducking inside as Espio shut the door as quietly and quickly as he could.
"Impressive," Knuckles commented quietly, staring out the front window.
"I did track and field at school," Blaze said, averting her gaze.
"It was a good idea," Espio said, looking over the gun he had in his possession, "You're more useful to us than something like a tennis player or something like that."
"Thank you both," Blaze said.
"For what?" Knuckles asked.
"You're trying to cheer me up, and you've been doing your best to keep me safe," Blaze explained.
"It isn't for your sake," Knuckles said bluntly.
"Oh," Blaze said quietly, again putting her hand around her upper arm and looking silently out the front window of the shop.
"Why are we here again?" Silver asked nervously, eying the architectural achievement that was the Station Square Train Station.
"To grab some food from the motel," Wave said, "It's a shitty little joint, but it's bound to have food." The swallow looked cautiously around a corner, getting a good view of the steps of the train station and all the undead in the streets. She waved the others to hurry, and covered them as they dashed across the street with Shadow in front and Silver bringing up the rear. As the three boys made it across the street, Wave made her own dash, keeping low and with her gun at the ready.
They slunk into the building behind the barrels of their guns, looking around in awe.
"Where are they?" Silver asked, his worry on display.
"They probably stumbled out the doors. Doesn't this place have a pair of sliding doors?" Jet looked around at the others.
"Yeah," Shadow replied, "One pair as the main entrance, and one leading to the pool."
"So we took a back way?" Wave asked, her eyes anywhere but on her traveling companions. Shadow nodded.
"Friends of mine showed me the back way in back in middle school," Shadow explained, "And the kitchen's not too far from here. Follow me."
The black hedgehog peeked his head around a corner before he strode quickly down the hall, his gun in a somewhat relaxed position. There was a door at the end of the hall, which he opened slightly and squinted through before slowly opening it and waving the others through. Jet passed through first, followed by Silver then Wave, who gave him a small nod.
When he was through the door, Shadow gingerly closed it, letting it rest in the jamb more than actually closing it.
"The pantry's on the other side of the kitchen," the black hedgehog whispered to Wave. She nodded, signaling the others to stay put as she slunk over to the large doors on the other side. As the swallow slowly made her way to the other side, she held her shotgun lightly in her right hand and was alert for any sounds.
Wave quietly nudged the door to the pantry open, her eyes adapted well enough to the dark to let her know about how big the room was and nothing more. She let herself into the room slowly, cocking her gun as quietly as possible before letting herself sit and listen.
"I've got a flashlight," Shadow whispered in Wave's ear, causing the swallow to jump.
"When'd you get here?" she hissed.
"Just now. You want me to use the flashlight?" the hedgehog whispered back.
"Yeah," Wave said, and squinted by reflex when the light invaded the room. Wave opened her eyes as tentatively as though she were removing a band-aid. There was nothing, and she found herself shocked at her disappointment.
"Cool," Shadow said, standing, "I'll go grab the others." He strode quietly out of the pantry with his light. Wave rose and rested her gun on her shoulder, her hand holding it limply.
The light preceded the three boys, and did a jig as Shadow removed his pack. He went first, sticking the flashlight in his teeth as he carefully picked out foodstuffs and put them into his pack. When the elder hedgehog had finished, he waved Silver over and told the younger what to take.
"Let's crash in here for a bit," Shadow suggested once the packs were filled with food.
"Why?" Jet asked, his arms folded.
"Because I don't know about you two, but I'm running on fumes at this point."
"Let's then," Wave said, sitting in the doorway. "Give me the light."
Shadow slipped the flashlight into Wave's palm and laid down at the back of the room with his pack as a crude pillow.
"Thank you," Silver said, emulating his brother and falling asleep almost instantly.
"Why?" Jet asked, sitting next to Wave.
"This room is easy to defend, Jet," Wave said.
"Not what I meant. Why are you the guard?"
"Because I offered," Wave said coldly, "You should sleep too. I'll wake someone up in a bit, and sleep then. Okay?"
"I don't know..." Jet turned his face away from Wave. The swallow narrowed her eyes and grabbed the hawk's face forcibly, turning it towards her and giving him a hard kiss, beak-to-beak.
"I'm not loosing you," she said, her face darker because of the light, "So you be on your toes and get your sleep. Got it?"
Jet gave a little smile. "Yeah," he said, "But I'm sleeping here." He rested his head on her shoulder and fell asleep within ten minutes.
As soon as she was sure the boys were asleep, Wave clicked off the flashlight and bit her lower lip until she tasted blood. She poked at the wound she had made with her tongue, annoyed that it wasn't painful yet. The swallow then systematically started prodding herself, counting all the scrapes, cuts, and bruises she had earned over the last twenty-four hours. Wave thought vaguely of her family, of her friends, but mostly of Jet, the defenseless hawk on her shoulder.
Wave smiled, the usually warm gesture turned into a mockery of itself when complimented by her icy eyes.
When the swallow felt herself starting to succumb to sleep, she gently removed Jet from her shoulder and silently woke Shadow. The black hedgehog woke unaccompanied by sound and took the flashlight from Wave. He then took her position at the door as Wave laid down next to Jet with her arm around him.
The black hedgehog resisted the urge to cry and instead started thinking of names where the last letters were in alphabetical order. He didn't remember the origin of this game, but he knew it worked especially well when he got to the letter Q.
Long after Shadow finally gave up and skipped Q thrice, Silver woke with a yawn.
"Anything?" the young hedgehog asked to nothing in particular.
"Nothing's changed, Silver," Shadow replied with a weary smile, "If it had, you'd be up by now."
"Do you... need more sleep?" Silver asked sheepishly.
"I'm fine," Shadow said, "Why, what is it?"
"You're not guarding us, kid," Wave said coldly from where she lay.
"You're up?" Silver asked, wide-eyed.
"You started talking-of course I'm up," Wave said quietly, sitting up, "But he'll probably be out for a little bit longer."
"Morning person?" Shadow asked with a smirk.
"You know it," Wave said wryly.
The three awake got their supplies together and made any last-minute checks they felt necessary before Jet woke. Silver rose at one point and started pacing, asking for the flashlight so he could check the shelves for something they could eat for breakfast.
The hawk woke slowly, and stared up at Wave's face from her lap.
"What time is it?" he asked groggily.
"Considering you, probably past noon," Wave said curtly.
"Damn, what'd I do?"
"You slept later than the rest of us, Jet."
"Hey," Silver said, waving around a box he had found, "Here's some Pop-Tarts!" He ripped it open and handed a package to his brother and offered one each to both Wave and Jet. Each bird took the breakfast item and ate, Wave nibbling while Jet tore into his.
"Where'd you find these, Silver?" Shadow asked.
"Stuffed in a corner, more or less."
"Why are there Pop-Tarts here?" Jet asked after taking a large bite.
"I dunno. Probably for a continental breakfast or something. Isn't this one of the smaller hotels?"
"Yeah," Jet said, finishing his breakfast.
When the four of them had finished their food, they rose, Shadow in front as he led the way back out. The black hedgehog ducked his way out the door before holding it wide open for the others. They made their way carefully down the alleyway, each of them wrapped up in the other three around them or the concrete and bricks.
Before Silver looked up.
"Hey, up there!"
Four sets of eyes stared skyward to see a figure in the late-morning sky.
AN: Nowhere near the end, but I do plan on getting this finished by the 21st. However, it will be uploaded the Sunday after, due to my lack of internet at home.