Chapter 12

Sonic had walked for hours and it was now evening as he reentered the Pine Forest. After fighting off yet another hot flash, he continued to walk, his pace slow. Sonic wanted to leave the refuge behind but at the same time he wanted to go back. He wanted to go back and take the kids on the camping trip they had been planning. But every time he stopped and began to turn around, he remembered the betrayal and the hurt so he continued on his way. When it began to get dark, Sonic decided to stop for the night. He considered climbing up into one of the trees for safety as he had done before, but after the trying day he had, the cerulean hedgehog decided to throw caution to the wind. "Any zombies around here can bite my spikey blue ass." Sonic muttered as he got a small fire going. After Sonic had eaten a dinner of various kinds of berries that he found in bushes around his camp, he studied his map. He had nowhere else to go so he figured he would continue to go back the way he came and wipe out what was left of South Hoard. With his course plotted, Sonic dimmed the fire to a smolder and went to sleep with his assault rifle by his side; just in case.

Sonic could hear talking, faint muffled talking. It slowly became audible and he could make out words, "He fought as hard as he could but it was just no use. He knew he was going to die. So he asked his best friend, his big brother for a big favor. Do you know what that favor was children?" All of the sudden Sonic realized he was trapped in a glass box surrounded by emptiness and the voice was coming from the outside. The voice, which sounded familiar but distorted somehow, continued, "He asked his big bro to promise that when he died, he wouldn't let him be one of the dead people. The big bro promised he would. But did he keep his promise? NO!" The cries of frightened children sounded followed by whimpering as Tiger, Luna, Chi, Tailor, and Sally suddenly appeared in the blackness. They were huddled in fear, staring at something Sonic couldn't see.

Sonic tapped the glass and called out, "Kids! Hey! Over here! Hey!" But they didn't seem to hear him. Sonic followed their gaze but all he could see was a shadowy outline.

The voice went on, rage becoming obvious as it spoke, "He lied to me, he didn't keep his promise! He let me be a dead person! But don't worry children, he'll be taught a lesson. Want to know what that lesson is?" The kids shook their heads, crying in fear.

The shadows melted away and revealed the speaker making Sonic gasp, "No! No!"

Zombie-Tails turned, looked at Sonic and smiled, showing bloody teeth, "Sonic thinks he can replace me. But he can't. Sonic thinks he can forget me. But he can't. Sonic thinks he can let his broken promise go unpunished. But he can't. So Sonic gets to watch all of you die."

"NO! DON'T TOUCH 'EM, DON'T YOU TOUCH 'EM TAILS! NO!" shouted Sonic as he banged on the glass. Zombie-Tails winked, sending a fierce chill down Sonic's spine. Then, to Sonic's absolute horror, Zombie-Tails pounced on the kids. "NOOO!" The zombified fox proceeded to tear the children to shreds, blood flying against the glass and gushing everywhere.

"AAAHH! HELP! HELP US SONIC! SAVE US! HELP! AAHHHH!" came the dying screeches and wails from the kids.

Sonic punched and kicked the glass, desperately trying to break it so he could rush to the children's aid as he screamed, "STOP IT TAILS! STOP IT RIGHT NOW! LEAVE THEM ALONE DAMMIT! LEAVE THEM ALONE! TAKE ME INSTEAD! TAKE ME!" But the glass didn't break and Sonic watched, eyes wide with terror as Zombie-Tails finished its grisly work. Sonic sunk to his knees, feeling utterly defeated and filled with despair.

The evil corpse came up and pressed its blood covered face against the glass, smirking, "You brought this on yourself you know. This is what happens to promise-breakers."

"Then you should have killed me!" yelled Sonic as he began to cry, "Kill ME dammit! They didn't do anything! They didn't deserve to die!" The broken hedgehog banged on the glass once more as he sobbed, "Why do you keep doing this to me!? Why do you keep torturing me?! If you wanted to kill me, you should have done it when I was standing in front of you with a gun pointed at your head! Why didn't you kill me then!? Why couldn't I shoot you!? WHY?!"

"You know why." answered Zombie-Tails simply, "You know why." Sonic just stared at the corpse, its words echoing in his head. Without warning, his glass prison began to liquefy and drip on him, splashing onto his face as he looked up and-

Sonic awoke with a gasp followed by a small shout. Crouched over him was zombie that was drooling stupidly onto his face. It registered that Sonic was alive and with a growl lunged for Sonic's chest. As he held it back, it snarled and snapped its jaws open and shut. Sonic tried to reach for his assault rifle but the zombie had kicked it aside when it had dove for him. With a shove he threw the zombie off him, scrambled and snatched up the rifle, turning and firing twice as the thing tried to jump on him. It dropped to the ground, dead. Sonic laid where he was, panting, almost in shock. It had been months since he had put down a zombie and he had forgotten how bloody it was. Droplets dotted his face and a pool was forming around the split open head. Sonic shuddered as he got to his feet and tried to wipe the blood from his face but only smeared it across in a bright red streak. He tensed as the rustling of bushes and the clatter of pebbles sounded. Quickly, Sonic scaled a tree and watched as a couple dozen zombies shuffled out of the brush. Two broke off and went over to the body of the zombie Sonic had killed. They groaned back and forth, nudging the body, and sniffing the air until another zombie growled viciously at them. The two left the body and rejoined the group moving through the forest. To get a better view of things, Sonic climbed higher, to the top of the tree and from there he had a view over the trees of the grass field, the refuge, and of dawn peeking over the horizon. After a second or two of observing the landscape, he let out a gasp.

Author's Note: Ba Ba BUUMMM! Looks like things just went from bad to worse for Sonic! Any guesses on what he saw? Correct guesses will receive a fresh, home-typed, digital brownie! Ok, I'm not serious about that but please stay tuned to see what happens, another chapter will be posted soon! Please read, review, and most of all, enjoy!