Hatter and Alice in: Race for the Black Rose
Chapter Eleven
Sitting on the new beach Hatter looked up at the thick forest growth. He was amazed at how quickly it grew out of the waters. Several Suits worked around him unloading supplies onto the shore.
Plopping down next to him, Moxie nudged him with her shoulder. "This is incredible, sweetie. I don't know how you did it."
Hatter gently laughed. "Walk on water, raise islands, that's easy. Now trying to get a dormouse in a tea pot…"
Moxie laughed with him. In all the years she's known Hatter, she passionately flirted with him, only because Grypht ordered her to. Sitting next to him now, having a nice chat with him, she realized that she didn't want to flirt with him anymore, she just wanted to be his friend.
Basking in his smile, she hoped that Grypht's men would take a bit longer getting ready before they began to explore the island. She thought, maybe with time he would start looking at her just as he looked at his Alice.
Her smile fell as Grypht called her to him. Standing up, she brushed the sand from her pants, "Duty calls." As she took her place by Grypht's side he was ordering six Suits to keep watch over Sir Leon and Lord Corn. "In case we don't find the Black Rose, I can ransom them," Grypht told Mad March. "I always like to have a little insurance in the wings. Lets go!" Grypht shouted. "The sooner we start, the sooner this will end."
"I will not be kept from being a part of this," Lord Leon roared. "The Black Rose will be mine to use, not yours Grypht."
"Mine too," Lord Corn whined. "Oh, Mother will be missing me. She'll be sending some men to look for me."
'I'm counting on that," Grypht said. With twenty Suits in tow he stepped up to Hatter. He was currently using his hat to knock the sand from his pants. Grypht stopped just in front of him. "You've done wonderfully so far my boy, wonderfully. Don't disappoint me now, or endanger your friends." Pointing to the jungle he told Hatter, "Just lead us to the location of The Black Rose. Oh, and don't take this personally, it's just a warning." Grypht pulled out a gun. Moxie screamed as he fired at Hatter. The bullet tore into his jacket and grazed his left arm. Gripping his arm Hatter was in shock. This was the last thing he expected Grypht to do.
"That was just a warning," Grypht casually informed him. "You see I'm tired of the games you've been playing, I want you to take us to the location straight away. No detours, no diversions, otherwise the next one will be your other arm, then a leg, and so on…do we have an understanding?"
"Perfectly," Hatter hissed. Clutching his arm, he saw blood through his fingers.
"Excellent," Grypht cooed. "You've always been a quick learner. Now you lead, we'll follow." He tucked the gun back in his jacket.
Hatter struggled to contain his anger as he took out the map with his other hand. Opening it he tried to find out their location on the map, suddenly he felt someone tug at this jacket.
"Let me wrap that up," Moxie said.
Taking his arm out of the jacket Moxie began to clean his wound and then wrap his arm with a familiar looking handkerchief. "Sorry Hatter," she whispered to him as he examined the map. "Grypht has always been very impatient. Please, don't mess with him anymore." Finished dressing the wound she helped him put on his jacket. As he looked at her he couldn't help but notice the tears under her eyes. "Never told you about my tears did I?" Gently patting him on his back she said, "Let's just say they were in Grypht's way and he got them out…permanently." Weakly smiling she stepped back, "Okay Grypht, I fixed him. Now can we go? When this is done I'm going to take a long hot bath!"
Once he got his bearings Hatter silently marched into the forest. Setting the pace he led Grypht's little gang deeper into the jungle.
It took hours of walking before Hatter actually spotted something that was marked on the map of the island. They walked out of a tropical jungle into a forest. According to the map the forest was called the Devouring Grove.
"What is this place?" March asked.
"It's called The Passive forest," Hatter lied. "We have to pass through here to get to where the Black Rose is hidden." He tucked the map in his pocket. "It shouldn't be far now."
As he carefully walked into the forest he kept a close eye to everything around them. Hearing a strange sound he suddenly stopped.
"What was that?" Grypht shouted.
"I'd keep my voice down if I was you," Hatter softly whispered.
"I…I don't know what that was," Moxie said. "But it sounds big."
"The island is only several hours old. How could there possibly be animal life here?"
Hatter scolded Grypht to be quiet. "You've just seen an entire bloody Island lift up out of the ocean, and you have a hard time believing that there could be creatures here?"
Everyone jumped when they heard a scream from behind. Looking back Hatter saw one of the Suits being dragged into a ring of bushes. Leaves flew in the air as well as legs and arms as something unseen was devouring the Suit. The remaining Suits pulled out their guns, aiming them at the bush.
What happened next was so fast it took everyone's breath away. The Suits began firing at the bushes where the creature was eating their companion. Hatter heard a warning and saw another creature rush towards them. It was all teeth and claws, flying out of the bushes it headed straight to a Suit. They fired at the advancing creature, but it was to fast. It managed to duck every shot, latching on to another Suit it dragged him into another ring of bushes. There it contentedly began eating him.
"We have to get out of here," Grypht said.
"Where?" Hatter pointed out that they were nearly surrounded by the bushes.
"I didn't see them there before," March pointed out. At the rate the bushes were going, it wouldn't take long for them to be surrounded. Then the creatures would have a field day picking them off one by one.
"Got any plans?" March asked Hatter. Cocking his gun, he shot into a bush that was getting a bit to close to them. He heard a shriek that was so high pitched it hurt everyone's ears.
"Me?" Hatter squeaked.
"You've always had a strong sense of survival Hatter, one of the reasons you made a good partner. Figure something out."
Seeing a third Suit being dragged towards a bush Hatter realized that he just may have found a way to end this madness, or rather the Island did. Once Grypht shot him he quickly realized that the rules had changed. If he did manage to find the Black Rose Grypht wasn't going to let him live, he knew that now. March would then go back to the fortress and kill Alice and Charlie. Hearing a blood curdling scream Hatter saw another creature had popped out of his bush and latched onto the legs of a Suit being dragged away. Both creatures played tug of way with the man until their dispute was finally settled. Hatter had to look away as the creatures ran into their bushes with what was left of the Suit.
"This was it," Hatter thought. "The chance he'd been waiting for." If they all died then Charlie would be safe, Wonderland would be safe, and most importantly, Alice. He was now willing to forfeit his life to save his friends. Stepping back he waited for the creatures to stop Grypht and March.
"You're giving up," March growled. "I know that look, seen it hundreds of times."
"At least Alice will be safe," he numbly replied.
March cursed as his last shot missed a creature. "If I get out of this alive, what I'm going to do to your girlfriend will make this massacre seem like a walk in the park."
Grypht shoved one of the Suits forward just as a creature was about to snatch him. Latching onto the Suit, he began to pull him away. The man clawed the ground begging Grypht to shoot the creature.
"Sorry," Grypht said, "Have to save them for myself."
"No!" Moxie cried. "I don't want to die like that." She pleaded with Hatter. "Please Hatter, don't let me die like that. Please, help us."
Hatter felt sorry for her, sorry that she was a part of all this, but this was the only way he could think of to protect Alice and Charlie. Resolved that he was about to die, he waited for his end. Cocking his head he heard something over the cries of fear and Moxie crying, it was a roar in the skies. Looking up he saw something, something that brought back his will to live. Something that made him desperately search the forest for a way to escape. Spying the bush where March had first shot one of the creatures he noticed that the ring of bushes was dying. The leaves had turned brown, and fallen. He saw the creature lying in its center, a fatal wound in its side.
"They must be connected to the bushes," Hatter said. "Get rid of the bushes and just maybe." Hatter searched his pockets, he pumped his fist in triumph as he found what he was looking for. He then checked the ground, finding a branch that had fallen from the tree above he greedily grabbed it.
Another cry was heard and then another. The creatures managed to take four more of the Suits. Everyone fired into the bushes but the creatures now knew the danger of bullets. They moved their bushes out of the way.
"See you've changed your mind, well you'd better do something quick," March warned him. "We're running out of bullets."
"What makes you think I got something planned?" he snapped back.
March eyed the branch he had in his hand, nodding his head Hatter said, "Okay, I've got something planned." He pointed to the bushes. "I think they're somehow connected to them. If we take them out that would expose them."
"How are we going to do that?" Grypht asked.
"By introducing them to fire," Hatter replied. Flicking his lighter on he passed its flame under the dry leaves of the fallen branch. Immediately it ignited in flames.
"Cover me," Hatter shouted to March. Hatter ran to the closest bush, lunging the branch forward he touched the flames on the bush. As he backpedaled away he actually heard an unearthly scream as the leaves on the bush burst into flames. In seconds the bush was engulfed in fire. The creature inside wailed in agony as its shelter was being destroyed. As the bush died, so did the creature.
"Better than I hoped for," Hatter gleefully said. "This way," Hatter shouted.
"That branch isn't going to last long," March snarled. "There's too many of them."
"We don't have to burn them all, just enough for us to escape. Quickly, this way."
With March watching his back Hatter touched the burning branch to any bush that blocked their way. Leaping and jumping over the burning bushes they were able to work their way past the devouring creatures. Holding the burning branch ahead, Hatter told what was left of the party which way to run. Once the last one was saved he threw the branch at the closest bush and ran to catch up with the others.
They didn't stop running until they were sure they were far enough away from the deadly creatures. Stopping, they all tried to catch their breaths. Hatter saw Moxie smiling at him, "Thanks sweetie, for saving me, I mean us." She gently kissed him on the cheek, "You did it for me cutie, thanks."
"Your…welcome," Hatter panted back. For now he would allow her to believe it was her that influenced him to save them.
March suddenly grabbed Hatter by his shirt, his steel head leaned on his, "If you try that again I'll gut you like a fish."
"Good job," Grypht gasped. He was totally unaware of Hatters death wish.
"I'll keep your little secret for now, but I want you to know I noticed how you changed your mind thanks to Moxie, duly noted, Hatter."
Hatter realized that March now thought that he saved them only because Moxie asked him too. Pursing his lips, he slowly nodded his head.
"Now that we're on the same page again, let's go, daylight is burning."
Once everyone caught their breaths Hatter again took the lead. As they left the forest behind, Hatter fought to contain his excitement. Looking up Hatter searched the skies, to see if he could see Alice, Jack, and Charlie again. He didn't know how they did it, but he was thankful that he saw them flying on of all things, pink horses. They couldn't have picked a better time to fly over head. He now had a purpose, to stall this expedition until Alice and Charlie figured out how to save him. As to Jack, he had no idea why he was with Alice and Charlie. He hoped he would be finding out soon from Alice herself.