Chapter 11
"Think we can hole up in that burger joint for a bit?" Blaze asked, pointing across the street, "There we can come up with a plan of how to escape." They had headed through back alleys parallel to Kapella street, the main street in Station Square, for defense.
Rouge and Knuckles took a look down the street before waving the others across. Each of the others hauled ass across the street, with Espio and Wave out in front. The swallow hit the door first, ripping it open for the others to dash through before letting herself inside.
Silver was slumped over the table he sat at, his older brother alert through bloodshot eyes. The cat, Blaze, was across from them, her head propped up lazily by her fist. The echidna and chameleon were both leaning against walls, and the bat was sitting on a table. Wave walked inside and sat with her feet in a boot and her butt atop the back of the booth so that she commanded a good view.
"We need to get out of here," she said, and the others looked at her.
"Thanks, Captain of the Obvious," Blaze shot back, "Any other bits of wisdom for us."
Wave glared at the cat.
"I don't see you manning up and trying to take control of the situation," she said shortly.
"I had to kill my little siblings," Blaze roared.
"And you're letting it get to you."
"Kids," Rouge said, but Knuckles cut her off with a look.
"I doubt you had to do anything like that-knowing you, you don't have any friends!" Blaze jumped to her feet. Silver opened his mouth to say something, but Shadow silenced him by shaking his head.
Wave looked down from her perch. She had seen the brothers' actions and smiled inwardly at the thought.
"That's how you know I'm doing a good job keeping my head together," Wave said coldly, "You don't think I've lost anybody. And I haven't, not really. Unless you count my family and friends as somebody, that is."
Blaze blinked.
"Survival is important at this point, not who's done what."
The cat sat down, and Knuckles nudged himself off of the wall.
"We need to get out of here," the echidna repeated, "And as simple as that sounds, it's going to be a pain in the ass if we're not prepared. First, I want to take stock of what we've got now."
Shadow rose, went to an unoccupied table and carefully unloaded his back pack. Silver followed suit, as did the others. There were several small piles of ammunition, and a decent pile of food for the four people it had been gathered for. For all seven of them, though, it wouldn't last more than two days. The medicine was placed on a different table along with the bottles of water, and all the guns except for Wave's shotgun were left on a third table.
"There's not much of the water left," Silver said with a small hint of worry to his voice.
"How much did you get in the first place?" Knuckles asked the older hedgehog.
"Twelve bottles, four for each of us," Shadow replied.
"There's only eight here."
"Sonic's dead now-his bottles went with him."
Knuckles nodded.
"What kinds of meds you get?" the echidna asked as he pawed through the medicine.
"Whatever I could grab before having to run," Shadow replied, "And I tried to grab a lot of band-aids, gauze, and triple-antibiotic."
"You thought ahead," Knuckles commented.
"I had two little brothers to look after." Shadow shrugged.
The red echidna gave Silver a good hard look.
"You can't shoot?"
"Not very well, sir," the younger hedgehog replied timidly.
"Can you run?"
"I'm not the best."
"How the hell'd you survive then?"
"Luck, I guess."
"You guess?"
"Look, I don't know!" Silver cried, "I'm surprised too! I'm surprised Sonic died and not me-I can't help I'm not him! I'm not as popular, I'm not as strong, and I'm not as brave, and I know it! You think every one else has kept it a secret from me?" Silver glared up at Knuckles, "I know Sonic was the better twin! I know he had more love from both our parents! What the fuck am I supposed to do? Be something I'm not? Sure, I'll go do that!"
"Silver," Shadow said, grabbing his brother's shoulder. The younger hedgehog shrugged off the elder's hand and he continued.
"I don't give a fuck anymore-I'm tired of damn well having to compete with him, even after he's gone and gotten his dumb shit stupid ass self killed! I hope he burns, and I hope all those other fuckers who thought I wasn't as good as the 'great Sonic the Hedgehog' finally fucking see who wound up on top!"
Silver's shoulders heaved up and down while Knuckles gave a little smile.
"Now I see how you made it," the red echidna said, going back to the piles.
The younger hedgehog gave Knuckles a confused look but said nothing as he plopped down in a seat nearby.
Wave was picking through the ammunition when Knuckles came over to her.
"What's your story?" he asked.
"How's that?" she responded, sorting the ammo.
"How come you're not dead."
"Skill."
Knuckles raised an eyebrow. "You're not a thief-how do you have skill?"
"How do you know I'm not a thief?" Wave glanced up at Knuckles for a brief instant to get a look at his face before returning her gaze to the ammunition.
"I'd know who the other thieves in the town are," Knuckles said, folding his arms, "We have a network like that."
"Hunting," Wave said, piling up the ammunition and heading over to the table with the guns on it. She picked up two of them quietly and placing each gun by its respective pile of ammunition.
"Deers and stuff?"
Wave shrugged.
"Sure, stuff like that."
The swallow turned to pass the echidna, but he grabbed her by the arm. She turned and gave him a cold look.
"What's eating you?" Knuckles snarled. Wave said nothing as she continued staring. The red echidna released his grip and the swallow continued on silently.
"I might have an idea," Rouge said, absentmindedly pawing the guns.
"About what?" Knuckles asked, his fists uncurling unconsciously. Rouge nodded her head to Wave, who was back on her perch staring out the window.
"When I found them originally, there was four of them-the three there are now, and a green hawk. Where'd the hawk go?"
"So?" Knuckles folded his arms, realized after a few seconds that was strangely uncomfortable, and let his hands dangle awkwardly.
"I imagine she's the one who had to deal with him," Rouge said.
"That doesn't give her the right to be a bitch," Knuckles grumbled.
"It's probably her coping."
"Bullshit."
Rouge shrugged.
"Call it bullshit all you want," she said, "But from what she said to Blaze, it's probably the truth. And if that's the case, she might be the one to lead us of of this shit hole."
"I'm not being led anywhere by a fucking kid," Knuckles snorted.
Rouge gave a little laugh.
"What's so damn funny?"
"Nothing," Rouge said wryly.
Knuckles gave her a glare but said nothing.
"Oh, and hey, I've been thinking about the question you asked me earlier," Rouge mentioned.
"What question?"
"Why I came back."
"You have a less shitty answer?" Knuckles again attempted to fold his arms, but they just ended up at his sides again.
Rouge shrugged. "Not sure. I've got it narrowed down, but nothing quite final yet."
"You're not going to tell me, are you?"
The bat grinned. "Nope."
"'Cause you fucking hate me." Knuckles sighed, "Whatever. Once we're outta here, you can get as far from me as you want. I'd say go now, but I don't think Dust-on-Wind'll like that."
"Scared for your sister?" Rouge asked quietly.
"What would you care?"
"Honestly, I wouldn't normally," the bat confessed, "But for some reason I care. I'm still figuring that one out."
Knuckles blinked, surprised that he wasn't so surprised.
"Anyway," the red echidna said after a small silence, "I don't give a shit what you do after we're free of this place and my sister's back with me. Just stay with me until then, got it?"
Rouge nodded.
"Yeah, I'll stick around. I've got to see this person who's unlucky enough to call you their brother."
Knuckles glared at the jest, but Rouge just smiled as she sauntered off to the restrooms.
The red echidna turned his attention back to the provisions that were on the tables, slightly worried about how little there was, and even more worried that most of it had come with the trio they had found. Espio appeared beside him.
"We're in trouble," the chameleon commented as he picked through the food.
"What was your first clue?" Knuckles snapped.
Espio didn't reply.
"This is your show, in all honesty," Espio said as he moved on to the water and medicine.
"How? That little swallow seems to be the leader," Knuckles grumbled.
"What's her motivation then?" the chameleon asked, looking up at his friend.
"What do you mean?"
"You've got motivation to do this," Espio said, poking Knuckles in the chest to emphasize 'you've', "You've got a better reason than just surviving this experience."
"That doesn't she doesn't have a reason to live."
"But that doesn't mean your reason is greater."
"What if her reason to survive is greater?" Knuckles asked, "Then where's your mighty rebuttal?"
"Where's her reason to protect the rest of us, then?"
Knuckles blinked and shut his mouth.
"She doesn't seem to have one, if you ask me," Espio said, with a shrug.
"What if she did?"
"Fuck man," Espio exploded, "I'm trying to damn well help you get it together and you piss on all my attempts! You've got a reason that may as well be your own existence riding on this! No one else has that, not really! So stop acting fucking pussy-whipped. It's a kid-yes, I get that-but she's not fighting you for control!"
Knuckles averted his gaze for a second before saying, "Thanks, man."
"Whatever. We've fucked around here long enough-we really need to work on a plan."
Rouge strode back out of the restroom and sat in one of the booths as Knuckles walked towards the group.
"We need to come up with a plan to get out of here," he started. "Looking over our stuff, we'll need a lot more ammo."
"The police department's got plenty," Rouge said, "And I've got a haul at my house as well."
"I've hit only one of my family's normal gun stores," Wave said, "There's another not too far from the train station, and they've got a good selection-enough ammo for all the guns we've got."
"Where's your house, Rouge?"
"Closer to the NiGHTS hotel, I'm afraid."
"So we're going in the opposite direction, then?"
Rouge nodded.
"Shadow, you know any place?"
"Not particularly, but I know there's a mini-mart between both places-it might be worth checking out."
"So three places, and one's a long shot," Knuckles said.
"Why not hit the train station one first," Silver suggested.
"Why?"
"It's closest, isn't it? And there's not too much back-tracking. We hit that first, got north-east to hit the mini-mart, then swing around and hit Rouge's house and the police building."
Knuckles blinked, then nodded.
"All right then."
"And that way, we can grab extra food at the mini-mart even if it doesn't have ammo."
"What are we doing once we've got the ammunition then?" Wave asked calmly, her gun laying across her lap facing the windows and street.
"Leave," Knuckles said.
"Where to?"
Knuckles thought back.
"Angel Island," Rouge spoke up.
"Why?" Wave asked, her eyes narrowing suspiciously.
"I've got friends out that way," Rouge lied, "If this thing isn't global, we'll be able to crash with them."
"Hold up," Silver said, raising his hands in the 'woah' gesture, "I don't care where we're off to, but I know we've barely had any sleep in the past couple of days, and frankly, I'm running on adrenaline at this point. If we're doing this, we should head out tomorrow morning and get sleep tonight."
"Where do you suggest we stay, then?" Wave asked threateningly.
"Well," Silver said quietly, "We could always hole up in the NiGHTS hotel..."
"No," the swallow said.
"Hear the kid out," Knuckles shot back at her, "He seems to be pretty bright-let's see what he's got."
"Well, the hotel is pretty big, and the rooms are supposed to be high-end, right? That's got to mean they're easy to lock up, and the hotel's bound to have a well-stocked kitchen."
"Wouldn't it be out of electricity?"
"Casinopolis wasn't."
Wave didn't reply.
"I like the thought," Blaze said, "I've heard it's really cool in there-all the rooms are done up like different amazing creatures."
"Wasn't the hotel under construction recently?" Rouge asked.
"Yeah, they added new rooms," Shadow replied, "But that's all finished up and everything."
"So," Knuckles said, "We're heading out, getting the ammunition, and swinging around to the NiGHTS hotel, got it?"
The others nodded and rose, anxious to leave.