Bryson gulped.
"What... what do you mean we're not alone?" he asked.
"I can hear something..." Finely whispered, frantically looking around him.
"It sounds like... wheels..." Dorothy whispered
Bryson figured it was a Wheeler, he quietly took his backpack off of his shoulders and gently stuffed the journal in his backpack, just in case, doing the best he could to remain silent as he zipped it back up.
He motioned Finley to come closer to he and Dorothy, huddling to them and whispering. "I think I hear it too... "
"What are we gonna do?" whispered Dorothy with a worried look.
Bryson shrugged and shook his head.
"What do you suppose that is, anyways?" asked Dorothy.
Bryson shrugged. "Let's just hope it's not the guy we saw at China Town.." He muttered softly.
Dorothy and Finley nodded in agreement, all three could hear the sound of the wheels come closer. Bryson pointed to the left. "Alright, there's still a lot of space that way... let's just... let's just.. go."
His companions nodded and they slowly and carefully moved to the left, unsure of whether or not whatever was with them was following them, but their question was answered Finley blurted out a small gasp. Bryson and Dorothy turned with a confused look.
"Guys...look to your right..." Finley whispered.
Bryson and Dorothy did as they were told.
Bryson had to bite down on his lip to stop from gasping... the Wheeler was not far from them, it wouldn't take much for the Wheeler to see them. Bryson motioned for them to huddle together again and started whispering to them. "Okay... let's just keep going.. and be very quiet to be sure it doesn't notice us..."
"I'm not sure why a Wheeler would be here anyways... but then again I'm not sure why they were in the Dark Forest... maybe they had to.. migrate or something because of what's been going on..or, maybe they followed us, but let's just hope it's the former." Finley whispered.
"Didn't you say they only attack if you get into their territory?" Bryson asked silently.
"Well... yes.. but who knows... maybe this is their new territorry... wouldn't be hard to believe that the Dark Forest was already changed or destoryed at this point...either way, some can get violent when they see something that's foreign to them." Finley replied.
"This is frightening me... before we know it.. Oz might be gone..." Dorothy muttered.
"Well... I'm sure the Emerald City isn't that far.. but with everything being changed and killed... it's hard to recongnize anything anymore..." Just then, Finley's eyes went wide. "What if we're the only ones left?! It sounds crazy but a lot can happen in a day! I mean, what if the Emerald City has already been burnt to the ground?! Oh... gosh.. I.. I couldn't take that!" Finley raved in a whisper.
Dorothy frowned and looked at the ground...
"Maybe I shouldn't have said that..." Finley mumbled softly.
"Guys.. let's just keep going..." Dorothy whispered, almost sounding miserable from the ideas Finley brought up.
"Hey, hey, hey! I'm... I'm sure I'm just being paranoid as always... Emerald City has great security.. I mean, we have Glinda, the Munchkins, King Scarecrow, Tin Man, the Lion, countless other soilders whose names I don't remember... and the other Flying Mo-" Finley stopped. "Okay, so I saw some Monkeys with that guy at the China Town.. but I mean those things are easy to control. Just give 'em that Golden Cap or some banana's and they succumb to your every desire, as I just said, they're very simple and easy to control. Excluding me of course... but I digress... I'd better shut up now before a Wheeler finds us.."
They all nodded in agreement and kept walking on as silently as they could, until they came across a dead end, but there were boxes that seemed to lead up to an entry to another section of the cave. They turned to each other and Finley whipsered to them. "Maybe we'll have to climb up those boxes... because we can't risk going back, we could run into that Wheeler..."
They nodded in agreement and walked up the boxes, careful to not be seen or heard. Finley climbed on the box, he looked at Bryson and Dorothy and mouthed to them: "One of you lift me up."
Bryson volunteered to, silently walking to Finley as he got on top of the box, slowly grabbing Finley and lifting him up to a large hole, Finley then started to climb into it, and after a moment, he shimmied out of it and faces his two friends, whispering to them. "Guys we need to get through this hole, the cave continues from there."
Dorothy nodded and walked to her companions. She attempted to reach for the hole, but she was just a bit too short.
"If you want, I can try and pick you up, Dorothy.." Bryson offered, a bit embarrassed, because he wasn't sure he could do that, he always considered himself pretty weak, but he wanted to be help.
Dorothy kept trying for a few more seconds, then sighed. "I guess you'll have to, I'm too short." She chuckled nervously, seeming a bit embarrassed.
"That's alright.." Bryson replied. He silently hoped he could pick her up, because if not, that would just be humiliating. But he was still nervous, being the awkward teenaged boy he was, touching a girl in any way, shape, or form was a bit scary to him. But how would he pick her up?He was always one to overthink things, sometimes go as far as to overthink simple things like blinking. But he mustered up the courage he had and grabbed her by the hips. Thankfully, she was lighter than he imagined. He then softly put her down on the hole. Finley then proceeded to climb through it, Dorothy followed, and Bryson lastly. After they finished crawing through the hole, they got back up and checked their surroundings, and it was basically the same as what they had seen before, this cave seemed to go on forever, it was so huge, and they knew finding a way to get back outside could be a hassle.
"Well... we should be safe from the Wheeler, so let's ju-"
Finley was then interuptted by the sounds of shrieking, it was awful to listen to, all three of them covered their ears, a Wheeler was a few feet away from them, jumping up in the air and doing all sorts of strange things, the gang yelped.
"Run!" Finley cried.
Bryson picked Finley up and started running with Dorothy, but the Wheeler was gaining on them, so they started sprinting until they ran into something, causing them to fall. They were now pratically trembling in fear, they could hear the Wheeler coming closer, but they looked up to see a Winkie guard, he didn't look like the one that they had seen earlier, but he was wearing the same uniform. He gave an odd hand motion to the Wheeler and it nodded, rolling away, growling at them as it left.
"What are you guys doing here?" He asked in a deep, intimidating voice.
None of them answered, not quite sure what to say, until Finley spoke up.
"Uh... um..." Finley laughed nervously. "Well sir... ya see, we were attacked by one of those weird rock monster things.. and we uh.. kinda ended up here through a series of other events..."
"You are not supposed to be here. Rabadan has ordered me to find you three. I know who you are. And the whole 'Dorothy Gale, the savior of Oz' trick isn't gonna work with me like it did with that disgrace of a guard. What a foolish man. Thinking something like that would just fly by Rabadan. He hears things and he's asked me to come and capture you three. So yo-"
Finley panicked, jumped up, and kicked him hard in the groin, shocking Bryson and Dorothy, but their shock turned into amused smirks.
The guard, however, did not do anything. Just raised his eyebrow and chuckled. "How cute. You really think we don't protect ourselves down there?"
Finley shrugged. "Well.. I mean... it was worth a shot..."
The guard snarled and yanked Finley up hard, causing him to gasp in pain.
Bryson and Dorothy gasped at the sight of their friend getting hurt. Dorothy stood up, "You leave him alone!" She commanded, but the guard took out his sword.
"If you don't surrender, this filfty animal gets it."
Bryson gulped but then thought of something. He was fairly certain it wouldn't work, but he decided, in Finley's words, it was worth a shot. Then, as quickly as he could, he slinged the backpack off his shoulders and threw it at the guard, causing him to stumble back in surprise and drop both Finley and the sword from his grasp, Bryson quickly crawled and grabbed the sword from the floor, lifting it up.
The guard growled and threw the backback back at Bryson, but he caught it, and laid it down on the floor, but he dropped the sword, thankfully, Dorothy intervened and picked it up, causing the guard to laugh. "Ha! How cute, you're practically a child and a girl... and you think you can defeat m-"
Dorothy then kicked him hard in the stomach, causing the guard to fall on his back.
"Let's go!" Finley cried.
Bryson put his backpack on his shoulders again and they agreed and started running as fast as they could around the cave, but to their dismay, they could hear the sound of the wheels again and they started moving faster.
"I am SO done with all this running and screaming!" Finley panted out.
Bryson would have picked him up, but the Wheeler was gaining on them, and if he just stopped for a second, who knows what could have happened.
Just when they thought their legs were about to give out, Finley pointed over to a large set of boxes to hide behind. They stopped and panted, but the Wheeler rolled over to them, Dorothy yelped and lifted up her sword, and now there were several different Wheelers closing in on them, they all climbed into the set of boxes and hid behind them, the Wheelers couldn't climb, but they could probably find a way to break through them, but Dorothy looked over, and patted Bryson and Finley's arm, she pointed in front of her and there was light, causing them to all smile. "Come on, let's go!" Dorothy cried. Bryson and Finley nodded, but a few of the Wheelers started breaking down the boxes and were right in Bryson's face, it creeped him out to see them so close, they looked so bizzare, he screamed out from the sight. Dorothy and Finley pulled him over, he kicked back at them and jumped up, running out of the cave with Dorothy and Finley, they were not outside, thankul to see the beautiful sunlight, but Bryson made a screeching hault at what he saw, causing Dorothy and Finley to almost run into him, there were a few guards with their weapons in their hands, glaring at the trio.
They gasped and Bryson turned to them, whispering. "Let's go to the right.." They nodded and followed Bryson's suggestion, the guards chasing after them. The guards were fast, and just when Bryson thought they were done for, he noticed Dorothy and Finley had fallen, and before he could stop and ask what happend, he felt something hard hit his head and he fell over with them.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed! Review if you'd like. I can't believe it's already almost Christmas, BTW. Time seriously goes by to quickly.