Chapter 3: Escape

March, and White kept their hands on their weapons waiting anxiously to arrive at the dungeon. The guards led them through a secret passage that White never heard of before; he knew there was a dungeon inside the castle but wondered why it needed to be hidden. They were led down some dimly lit stairs that spiraled downwards, and soon enough they emerged into what looked like a cave more than a dungeon. There were only two torches on the walls near one cell that contained a small blonde girl in a dirty dress. There was enough light to make out the cell and its single inhabitant but on the other side lead a passage completely black that looked like some sort of tunnel.

White was to busy starring down the tunnel beginning to question things when the sound of metal clashing brought him back to reality. He turned away from the tunnel in time to see his brother March dueling with the second soldier; the first lay dead a couple feet away from him. March parried and danced around the card soldier until he made an opening and in a flash March thrust his thin blade into the chest of the soldier and it too fell down dead.

March pulled out a key from the first slain soldier and unlocked the cell door with it, then pushed it open. Alice came running from her corner in the cell and wrapped her arms around March, sobbing quietly into his armor as the two whispered to each other. White let them have their moment of reunion as he continued looking down the dark and empty tunnel something pulling his attention back there. The more he stared the more he wanted to walk down there to see what that darkness was hiding from him when a massive pair of glowing purple eyes appeared from deep inside the darkness of the tunnel.

A low laugh sounded from the tunnel, it was feminine and White's eyes went wide with fear. He grabbed his brother and Alice by the hands and said, "We have to go right now!" he led them back up the stairs as they were starting to run instead of walk. The sound of the laughter reached March's and Alice's ears as they both asked, what it was. White continued leading them up as he said, "Something I thought was long extinct from this world. When I met Cheshire I had my suspicions but it took me years to figure it out and even then I thought he was the last. But now I understand it all, the missing pieces to the puzzle, that's how the queen came to power, and that's why she can rule so freely without a full army of cards anymore."

"Brother what are you talking about what's down there?" March asked.

"No time to explain now, we must find Hatter regroup and get as far away from here as possible."

"Wait, Hatter is here too?" Alice asked with joy.

"Of course he is, the moment he found out you were captured he set out to rescue you with or with out me; so I had Cheshire send word to my brother here and with his help we infiltrated the house of cards here and set out to rescue you. By the way Alice this is my brother White Rabbit."

"Yes, yes we can introduce our selves later right now we need to find Hatter and Cheshire and make our escape." White said as they emerged from the stairs and out of the secret passage.

The three made there way back to the throne room which was surprisingly empty and went to go into the east side of the castle when Hatter came running out from one of the halls that lead there. His face had a couple scratches and one eye was black all around, his cheeks were also a little yellow and he was weary as if he just came out of a bad fist fight. His hat was also gone and there was no sign of Cheshire, he still had his weapon sheaths but there were no weapons in them or in his hands.

"Hatter!" Alice shouted excitedly as soon as she saw him.

Hatter waved at them and smiled then shouted as he didn't slow down his pace, "Hi everyone we have run now."

"What happened to you boy and where is Cheshire?" White asked as Hatter soon passed them running towards the front entrance of the castle.

"No time, just run!" Hatter called back to them still running.

For a moment they all stared at him incredulously until they turned around and saw a massive group of card soldiers coming out from the hall he emerged from lead by two large black knights. None of them even hesitated for a moment to marvel that there were any knights left alive even if they were black ones; they just turned around and followed Hatter. White went down onto four legs and quickly ran after Hatter as March threw Alice onto his back and did the same. Alice hung on tight as March sped through the castles front doors and into the courtyard. They quickly caught up to Hatter and White and were about halfway through the courtyard when a group of card soldiers blocked off their only exit forward.

White leaped into action swiftly pulling out his swords and dueling with the card soldiers. There was ten of them in all but White managed to keep them at bay and even started to push them back when one of the black knights landed on a card soldier crushing it. White reflexively leaped back and away from the battle losing his moment as the card soldiers regrouped and the other black knight landed in front of White. The card soldiers went to advance when the Black knights held out their arms stopping them.

White studied the black knights for a long moment; they were about a foot taller than him humanoid and with massive upper bodies. The two had a dark exoskeleton like armor surrounding their entire bodies even their heads were covered in it. It looked to be like a special armor but White knew it really was a part of their bodies. "Well, well the infamous Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum." White said casually. "Honestly the queen would brag about you two all the time but no one has ever seen you, we all thought you two died of old age or something."

One of the black knights stepped up to White and went to punch him, White blocked it with his swords and it held for a moment. Then the black knight put more pressure on the blades and they snapped into two and White was forced to stumble back. As the knight lifted his leg to bring it down onto Whites head, while he was disoriented, Hatter tackled him out of the way and the Black knight's foot smashed into the ground creating a small crater. "Thanks." White replied as he stood back up.

Hatter, White, and the two black knights; Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, starred down each for a moment. Then the two knights simultaneously rushed White, and Hatter; White was quick enough to leap out of the way but Hatter was too drained and he took a powerful blow to the stomach. He was lifted into the air a couple feet and the black knight spun around and kicked hatter in the head sending him flying.

Hatter hit the ground hard and skid a few feet away from Alice and March. Both of them ran to Hatter and kneeled down to check if he was alright. He had a large cut on his head that was hidden by most of his hair and they couldn't see how bad it was. Hatter coughed out blood as Alice said, "Come on your going to be alright." She was in tears as March started crying with her but he was still calm and steady his eyes going back from Hatter to his brother who was retreating back to their side.

"Any back up plans?" White asked as he slowly stepped back to them his eyes never leaving the card soldiers movements or the black knights. Alice pulled Hatter's head into her lap and stroked his hair crying and shaking uncontrollably. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum stepped forward slowly approaching them; White, and March stood together to face them but they were easily knocked right back down.

As they struggled to stand back up one of the knights went to grab Alice when a white hand swiftly grabs the knight's wrist and begins to crush it in its grip. Hatter stands up still gripping the black knight's wrist. Alice stopped crying and starred at the transformed Hatter, he looked like an exact white shaded copy of the black knights except not as massive and about a foot shorter. "His true form has finally awakened," Cheshire said appearing from behind Alice.

Alice leaped back with surprise and turned to face Cheshire; who appeared as his old mischievous self. Alice got back to her feet as Cheshire floated up to keep eye level with her. Before she could say anything though a loud grunting sound coming from the black knight caught her attention. Hatter had snapped back the wrist of the knight he was holding then kicked him straight into a group card soldiers. The other Black knight rushed at Hatter in rage and Hatter leaped up and drop kicked him sending him flying forward into a larger group of card soldiers.

March and White used the opening Hatter created using the knight to dash past the cards that had fallen down and make their way out of the courtyard and into the city. Hatter turned around ran towards Alice and picked her up; he then followed the mess of confusion March and White made while running through he city ahead of him. Alice only starred at Hatters new form as he carried her away, he looked beautiful yet scary at the same time, his eyes were white and she could see nothing in them.

The trail that Hatter had followed led him to a stable where four dodo birds were pulled out; March and white sat on two of them leaving one for Alice, and Hatter. To Alice the dodo birds looked just like ostriches with shorter necks and long blue feathers. Hatter put Alice on one of them, handed her some reins and slapped the dodo bird's side as it started running forward. March and White ran ahead of her and guided her to the front gate, She had some issues controlling the dodo bird but quickly got the hang of it.

They all stopped at this massive wooden gate and two card soldiers started to approach them, spears in hand and ready to use. Hatter got off his dodo bird first and ran up to the guards as they jabbed the spears at him. He grabbed the spears right away and snapped them, and then he smacked the guards away and walked towards the gate and started punching it. For a moment Alice thought he had lost it until after several punches his hand broke through and he started ripping the gate apart literally with his bare hands.

When he made a hole in the gate large enough for them to fit through he walked back to his dodo bird as White called out to him, "were regrouping at the chess kingdom." Hatter said nothing only nodded at him and they set off through the hole in the gate, Hatter right behind them. The birds moved faster than even Cheshire did and Alice like she did when riding Cheshire kept her head low and followed White rabbit and March.

After they made great distance from the house of cards in the barren lands of Wonderland, riding for hours at incredible speeds; they came to a cross road and stopped. The sun was starting to set as they looked down the paths and white studied the roads to see which one would lead them to the chess kingdom. As White had made a decision and set off down one path March said, "Alright everyone its time to get off the dodo birds hurry now."

They all glanced at each other confused but did as March said. When they were off the birds March strode up to them still on his bird and gathered them together behind him and started walking down the other path. "What are you doing?" Hatter asked; who was back in his normal form and looking exhausted.

"The queen is going to track us by way of these dodo bird's tracks and I am going to lead her off from our real destination. Don't worry when I feel that I have taken the birds far enough away from the chess kingdom I will head over on foot leaving the queen to find four then useless dodo birds."

March then started to make the birds run as he called back to them, "Don't worry I will meet back up in a couple weeks tops. Besides she never caught me before I'm not going to let her now."

As they watched March run off to create a greatly needed diversion, a horrible feeling of unknown dread washed over them. All of them wanted to speak up and stop March but none of them could find the words and soon he was too far off for them to be heard. Alice grabbed Hatters hand and leaned herself against him for support. White started to cry a little as he watched his brother ride away; then he said, "That idiot is probably going to make himself lost out there and not find his way to the chess kingdom for at least a couple months. Then he is going to find his way there and act like it was nothing, meanwhile we all go without a good cup of tea for a long time."

They all starred at the empty road now, night was upon them and the horrible feeling they had just wouldn't go away. They set off to the chess kingdom on foot, the sky was filled with beautiful green moonlight but none of them noticed they only thought about March; all of them knew something horrible was going to happen to him but still they carried on because they had to.