ALTERNATE REVOLUTION

Chapter XIV: The Escape

The two met Abigail and Revel (much to Buzz's disgust) on the steps a few moments later. Abigail had been waiting rather impatiently for them to arrive, as her arms were crossed and her foot was lightly tapping, but upon seeing them she brightened and immediately straightened up. Revel eyed Delete, then placed both hands behind his back and slowly drew his gaze over to the bottom of the steps.

"It's about time you got here," Abigail exclaimed, still rather impatiently; she then lifted the hem of her dress and began to quickly descend the stairs. "Come on, follow me. I'll lead you to the soldiers' quarters and show you where the hole is."

Delete and Buzz exchanged glances, then quickly followed her down the stairs, Revel behind them, keeping rather closer to Delete than to Buzz. Buzz growled and narrowed his eyes at Revel; he didn't like this at all, but there wasn't time to stop and snap at the soldier. Not until they found the hole, anyway, and Lord and Abigail knew where the heck that was…

Quickly turning to the right, the group of four ran past the looming shape of the stable and began to head toward the soldiers' quarters. Of course, there were quite a few buildings in the area, but Abigail had already memorized the spot where the hole was, it appeared. She halted for a moment to hesitantly look them over, then turned her head to the right, nodded, then began to run toward that building, with the three robots trailing behind her. Quickly going up the steps, she grasped the handle of the moldy wooden door and yanked it open.

It took some force, but the door eventually obeyed her command with a sickening CREEAKK sound. A ray of moonlight wafted over the currently empty, and pitch-black, at that, quarters, revealing the bunks and the poorly tended fireplace near the wall. Abigail sighed, looked around for any signs of danger, then cautiously took a step into the building and looked around, her eyes scanning every bunk in the room—which, considering that the interior of the building was rather large, was a lot. Buzz, Revel, and Delete waited anxiously at the door as she finished her inspection, then nodded and turned around.

"It's all clear," she told them, smiling ever so slightly. "The soldiers residing in this bunk must've been pretty devoted to all want to go to the inaugural."

"Yeah…devoted," Buzz replied, laughing uneasily and placing his hands behind his back.

Abigail looked at him for a few seconds, then finally walked over toward one of the bunks and dropped down onto her hands and knees, beginning to crawl along the dusty floor. Revel, slightly curious, took a step or two forward, then dropped down onto his hands and knees and began to search as well.

Abigail seemed to have it well under control, however. Getting down on her frontside, she finally looked under one of the bunks—the second one from the fireplace, currently doused in shadow—then smiled and quickly raised her upper body from the floor, looking at the two robots as she did so.

"Yeah, it's still here," she replied, sounding rather pleased with herself. "I'm rather appalled that no one's even noticed it yet." She motioned for them to come toward her. "Come over here and I'll show you just what I mean."

Buzz and Delete once again exchanged glances at each other, then walked over toward where Abigail was currently knelt. The cat creature then pointed down below the bunk and said, "Just look under there and you'll have everything all figured out…for the most part, anyway."

The two robots dropped down on their knees, then obeyed Abigail's order and saw, sure enough, a large, gaping, jagged hole about Buzz's width and just a little bit shorter. It looked like a large rat had gnawed right through the wall; looking closer, Buzz could see that the brick wall that separated the grounds from the outside world was gone from the hole as well; he could see a few stalks of gray-colored grass licking the edges of the area, along with the night sky pouring in through the gap.

"We're getting out of here through that?" Delete asked, pointing at the hole.

Abigail nodded and looked up toward the ceiling. "Yes, what did I just say," she replied, sounding rather annoyed. "Now look. Nebulon's got the horses over near the front gates. Since he's a retired commander I'm sure that the other soldiers trust him, so he won't have much trouble getting by the grounds. We're going to head along the wall over to the front gates, he's going to give us our horses, and then we're going to run for the windmill like the madman's got us. Understand?"

The other three didn't exactly know what she was getting at, but responded simply by nodding. Abigail looked at them for a few moments, then smiled and replied, "Good. Now, then, let's go."

She then got down completely onto her frontside and, without much trouble, managed to snake under the bed and get herself through the hole, eventually. It took her awhile to pull herself out completely, seeing that the hem of her dress had gotten caught on one of the particularly large splinters in the wall, but even then she did manage to do so. Getting to her knees but still managing to keep low in the grass, she looked down at the others and motioned them to come toward her. "Come on!" she urged, waving her hand toward her face. "Get going! I'm not sure how much longer Machinos plans the inaugural to last."

Revel was the one who got down next, and followed as Abigail had done, without much trouble with the splinters this time around. Delete followed, although he had a little bit of trouble getting through the hole; it wasn't vertically wide enough for him to slip through. Abigail and Revel had to grab him by his shirt collar and yank him out, nearly ripping his outfit in the process. After he landed in the grass, Buzz crawled through, just barely managing to fit himself through the hole altogether. Getting to his feet, he sighed, then brushed the collected dust off of himself and looked up toward the direction of the gates.

Unintelligible shouts could be heard from that direction, but for the most part Buzz couldn't make out any soldiers. He was planning on suggesting to Abigail that all of the soldiers were probably at the inaugural, but he crushed that theory quickly. No doubt Machinos was paranoid; he'd probably stationed a few to guard the gates. Of course, by the way they were shouting, Buzz guessed that they had been drinking vodka, and thus had damaged their eyesight thoroughly for a few hours…

Man, he thought to himself, shaking his head in disgust. Is every single soldier on these grounds obsessed with alcohol? But, once again, upon thinking of his addiction to the wine earlier on at the welcoming celebration, he shamefully withdrew this, instead focusing back on what they were supposed to be doing at the moment.

If they had indeed been drinking, he guessed, their eyesight would be bad and they either wouldn't recognize them, or manage to make them out but not remember them afterward. When Buzz had consumed alcohol he had absolutely no knowledge of what he had done while he was drunk, and perhaps it was better that way. But, either way they could easily manage to escape undetected…

But then there were the Blind Trackers, Buzz suddenly remembered. If the soldiers didn't get at them, there was a good chance that the Blind Trackers would. Remembering Wielder upon the first time they entered the area, he sure as hell didn't want to repeat that moment. And of course the horses would make vibrations with their hooves, and the Blind Trackers had an acute sense of smell and hearing…

He shuddered. If they didn't get past Wielder, they were done for. No doubt about that.

"Buzz!" a voice hissed.

Buzz, suddenly snapping out of his train of thought, looked up in time to see Abigail standing over him, her arms akimbo and a rather vexed expression on her face. "Buzz, are you going to stall for the next three hours, or are you going to get going? We're supposed to meet Nebulon over near the main gate. Delete and Revel have already gone over there, and I think it's best that we should too."

That caught Buzz's attention; he snapped his head upward and stared at the cat creature, wide-eyed. "What did you say?" he said. "You said 'dat you sent Delete and Revel over toward 'da gate? Together, at 'dat?"

Abigail growled and looked up toward the sky. "Yes," she replied through clenched teeth.

"You're crazy, woman!" Buzz accused, sounding rather annoyed himself. "I told Delete a million times 'dat he's supposed to stay away from Revel, and now you're going and sending 'dem off alone toward 'da gates without any intention of what dey're planning on—"

"And you're paranoid," Abigail hissed at him. "What Revel did at the sickbay doesn't amount to anything. I witnessed it as well, you may very well know, and I wasn't affected at all. I actually think it's just fine that Revel feels that way."

"Well, I don't!" Buzz stubbornly snapped back, crossing his arms. "What he did was wrong, and you and I both know it."

"There was nothing wrong about it," Abigail replied, narrowing her eyes. "It wasn't anything serious at all. It was just play, that's all. Just play. I'm sure that he won't do anything too serious to Delete; if he did I'd probably sense it. I lost James due to lack of suspicion, you know, and I don't intend to do it again."

"Play, huh?" Buzz scoffed, folding his arms and glaring at her in return. "Well, I don't know what you was thinking 'dat day, but it looked pretty real to me. I don't want him near Revel, and 'dat's final."

Abigail scowled and was about to make another comeback when Delete came running over. At the sight of him both of them immediately stopped bickering and looked over at him as he stopped, then panted a few times and pointed out toward the gates.

"Revel and Nebulon have already got the horses in front of the gates," Delete informed them. "But we're waiting for you guys. Are you gonna come with us or not?"

Abigail and Buzz exchanged glances, a little embarrassed about their previous show of behavior, but merely smiled and nodded, although it did seem rather fake to both of them. Delete didn't notice this, however, and merely smiled in response, then turned around and began to run back toward the gates. "The soldiers are missing. I think that we can get outta here without any trouble after all!"

Abigail and Buzz looked at each other again, not sure what to think, then finally sighed and followed Delete toward the direction of the front gate. Sure enough, Revel and Nebulon were right near the edge of the iron bars, along with Macbeth, Silver Arrow, Jackson, and two other horses that Buzz and Delete didn't recognize at all. One of them was entirely brown save a white splotch on the forehead, and the other was a muscular pinto…

Nonetheless, Buzz didn't care right now; he walked over to Macbeth and mounted her (with a few difficulties, of course; it had been awhile since he had gotten on her when he had consumed a few wine glasses). Delete mounted Silver Arrow, while Revel took the pinto and Abigail took the brown horse. Nebulon finally mounted Jackson, then took one last look at the grounds before narrowing his eyes and spitting in the dirt.

"This night is the last you scorn me," he growled under his breath before slowly turning his head back to face the darkened fields, along with the looming silhouette of the windmill in the distance. "Alright, let's move."

He snapped Jackson's reins, and the old horse began to trot away slowly from the grounds, along with the others following in a tight group. Upon getting out of the light that the windows cast, Nebulon turned around to look at the grounds again, then finally, unexpectedly, screamed "YAH!" and dug into his horse's sides. Jackson let out a whinny, then stepped to the side a few paces before finally charging forward at breakneck speed into the blackness. The remaining four, who had been startled by Nebulon's sudden change of pace, looked back at the grounds, then Abigail finally sighed.

"I suppose we should do what he does," she suggested firmly, then quickened her horse to a canter as well. Revel and Buzz followed, but Delete, who was still rather nervous about riding Silver Arrow at high speed (he had only managed to tame her at a trot), tried to get her to go just a little slower than the others, but being a stallion she ruefully ignored his commands, sooner or later charging directly ahead of the others.

Whatever happened then, Revel seemed horrified. "Delete!" he called into the blackness, but it was too faint for Delete to hear now. Silver Arrow was thundering across the field at high speed, there was no way of stopping her, and he was much too frightened to make any sudden movements. He simply clutched the horse's neck as tightly as he could and prayed that she would stop sooner or later so he could possibly slow her down…

"Delete! Stop!" This time it was Nebulon's voice calling him, and it sounded horribly panicked. "Delete, I mean it! Stop her! Stop her before she veers toward the direction of Heaven's Lake!"

Delete noticed the panic in his tone, although his words were unintelligible, and looked back at Nebulon—and almost got his neck snapped in the process. Silver Arrow was going too fast for him to even move, now…he had to do something, anything, and Nebulon seemed rather desperate…

Then she veered off to the left, away from the windmill and toward a distant grove of trees that seemed to be illuminated by a few shafts of light shining through the night sky, even though it was pitch black elsewhere. He tried to stop her, but it was much too late to do anything now, he knew. He heard Nebulon scream, then he heard Buzz call after him, "Delete! Get out of 'dere! Get out of 'dere NOW!"

Amazingly, then, Silver Arrow halted immediately and reared up on her hind legs, in an almost completely vertical position, almost causing Delete to fall off. She whinnied loudly, sounding stone-cold horrified, then backed up a few steps, shook her head, and dropped back onto all fours, still screaming. Delete whimpered, much too scared to let go of her neck even though she had stopped, then finally bit his lip and looked up in time to see what had scared his horse.

What he saw then almost froze him too.

Wielder…

"So, um, what do you wanna do?" Codebird asked as he threw a rubber ball against the wall, allowing it to bounce off and head over in the direction of the hallway. The group—that included the Cybersquad and the Freedom Fighters—were now sitting in the Control Central lounge, unsure of what to do while the time passed, and needless to say they were getting rather restless—all except Zeny, who was on the floor and appearing thoroughly entertained with Digit's little bird Widget.

"Your kid is just too cute!" she exclaimed to Digit as she rolled Widget over, then began to tickle him. "I wish Codebird could have offspring, but you know him…he's always too busy for anything these days, being our scout and all."

"Um…well, to tell you the truth, he's not exactly my kid," Digit responded, looking over at her. "I'm a cyboid, so I can't really…you know. He's more like a mini version of me, but if you want to call him that…uh, I guess you can go ahead." He shrugged.

Zeny stared at him blankly, then finally shrugged and resumed to playing with Widget. Jacqueline groaned, then flopped over on the edge of the couch. "This is so boring!" she said through clenched teeth, staring up at the ceiling. "Let's see some action here, for once! Someone do something!"

"Like what? Jump off a cliff?" Matthew said blandly, shifting his gaze over to her.

"Funny, Matthew," Jacqueline replied, her voice emotionless as she got up from the couch. "Very funny. I'm laughing my sides off, here."

"No, really," Matthew replied just as blandly; he then shook his head. "But she's right in a way. Unless we find something to do the time is going to pass pretty slowly, I think."

"Well, why don't we go do something, then?" Zeny suggested, finally picking up Widget and getting to her feet. "Like…I don't know, maybe we could go see a movie or something? You guys have a movie theatre around here somewhere, don't you?"

Digit looked up at her, then shrugged a shoulder. "Sure, we do," he replied, finally getting down from the couch to go find the rubber ball that Codebird had thrown against the wall earlier. "But there aren't any good movies playing there, from what I've heard. Most of 'em are those teenage soap opera things, you know? Those really bad ones about 'some boyfriend broke up with his girlfriend or whatever' things. Really…uh…what was that word again…?"

"Cliché?" Inez suggested, looking over at him.

"Right, right, I knew that," Digit said, nodding. He then squeezed himself under the couch to look for the ball, being careful not to choke on any of the dust underneath there. "So I think that's pretty much out of the question. I don't like those movies…comedies are more my thing."

"Well, that's kind of obvious," Matt told him; he then folded his hands behind his head and looked up at the ceiling, along with Jacqueline. "So…how about we go out for another Coupe ride? Our last one wasn't too bad…maybe we could stop at an ice-cream store or something."

"Again? No way," Matthew replied, swinging his legs over one side of the couch. "It was way too crowded the last time we went for a ride in that. I fell out the second we opened the door, remember?"

"So, why don't a few of you go?" Zeny suggested, shifting Widget to one arm. "I'd really like to stay here and baby-sit Widget, if that's okay with you," she nodded over toward Digit, who looked at her again with the "he's-not-my-kid" look. Zeny ignored him, however, and said, "Really, you guys can just go without me and…Codebird. Yeah, me and Codebird."

Codebird looked up at her. "Excuse me, what did you say?" he asked.

"Look, Codebird, you used to work in the mines, right?" Zeny told him. "Well, maybe you can pass the time by helping Dr. Marbles out around here. He could use a little more handiwork around the place, if you know what I mean." She looked around the room, then looked back at Codebird, who seemed to be considering.

Before the bird could answer, though, Jackie stepped between them. "Wait, guys," she told them, holding up her hands to halt their speech. "Wait. I just got the greatest idea."

"Oh no, what?" Jacqueline sighed, looking up at the ceiling again. Jackie glared at her, then looked back at the others and tried to continue what she had been saying.

"Okay, you guys—" She gestured toward Matthew, Zeny and Codebird—"You guys want to be civilized again, right?" The trio looked unsure for a few moments, then Matthew finally, yet reluctantly, nodded. "Okay, so, I was just thinking of something. What if we were to teach you how people today act, and then you could just live as civilized people for maybe just one day, until Globus Jayon gets that pendant fixed?" She looked around at the others hopefully. "What do you think about that?"

There was a long pause, then Jacqueline finally replied, "Oh, man, no! I'm already as civilized as I'm going to get, thanks." She pulled one of the pillows out from behind her and slapped it over her face. Jackie glared at her again, then looked back at the others.

"It sounds like a great idea, Jackie," Matthew replied, shrugging a shoulder. "Although I've mostly forgotten what it's actually like to live as a normal human being, I still know a few of the common courtesies of the olden days."

"It sounds fine by me, too," Zeny replied, as she set Widget down on the floor. The little bird muttered something, then picked himself up and began to walk over toward where Digit was standing. "But I never really was social as is, so I have no idea on how to communicate and stuff. Around others, that is."

"Okay, well, I'm going to try and show you how things are here in cyberspace first," Jackie told them. She took Matthew by one hand, Zeny by the other, and began to half-lead them, half-drag them over toward the direction of the hallway. "But first, we need to get you some proper outfits. I'll show you where we keep some spare outfits for our other missions."

Jacqueline removed the pillow from her face, then looked over at them and smirked. "Hmm, maybe this won't be as bad as I thought it was," she snickered, before getting up from the couch and casually following them out the doorway. Digit and Codebird exchanged glances, while Matt and Inez stared after them like they didn't have a clue as to what was going on here.

Delete shrieked in pain as Wielder's massive paw came down on him and raked its claws along his back, leaving more large scars on his little body as he hit the ground. Sobbing in pain, he tried to get up again, but the smell of blood had driven the Tracker wild. With an earsplitting roar, it swiped its paw again, sending another array of marks down Delete's back, ripping the back of his uniform to shreds and exposing his flayed surface.

Shortly after Silver Arrow had run into it, Wielder had sought her and Delete out as foreigners (obviously, being a field Tracker, Wielder hadn't quite gotten the hang of Machinos's older scents) and had immediately sprung to attack. The first blow had struck the horse across the muzzle, and the second had sent Delete off of her back and onto the ground. He had tried to get up and run, but before he could even take two steps forward the Tracker had been upon him.

Revel was horrified, and Nebulon wanted to fight the Tracker, but Abigail held them both back, explaining that if they got near a wild Tracker like this it would rip them apart before they could even spring for it. Buzz, meanwhile, was shaking in mortal terror at what he was seeing. Terror…and rage. Wielder had no right to do this…to his little brother, of all people. Looking back at Nebulon and Abigail, who were still fiercely debating about the behaviors of Blind Trackers, and then over at Revel, who was watching the scene fearfully but frozen in place, Buzz sighed, then looked back at Wielder and decided that, if he was to do anything about it, he had to do it now, before the Tracker struck a fatal blow.

Sighing, he closed his eyes, then quickened Macbeth to a canter across the field. The horse seemed reluctant, and he knew that she should be, but he had no other choice for either of them to make. Delete was sure to be killed if he didn't, for one thing, and for another, with the way Delete was screeching and Wielder was roaring, it would surely reach the grounds…

He shuddered at this thought, and hoped for dear life that it wouldn't. The last thing that he wanted tonight was a Blind Tracker and Machinos on his back.

Soon enough Wielder was within range. Without stopping to think, he stood up on Macbeth's back, unsheathed his sword, then unsteadily leapt off of her as soon as she was within range, landing on the monster's back. Wielder angrily screeched again, then shook his head violently, trying to throw the intruder off.

When he found that he couldn't shake Buzz, he shrieked again, then whipped his neck to one side, in hopes that the sudden movement would shock him. Buzz growled in anger, then finally took his sword and, swinging it in the way Machinos had taught him, left a good-sized gash between Wielder's shoulder blades. Wielder shrieked yet again, this time in pain, a long, loud one; Buzz then jumped down and walked in front of him, grabbing him by the muzzle.

"Tansemos!" he exclaimed fiercely, using the word that he had learned from Machinos to keep the Trackers at bay; he then released his grip from Wielder's snout and pushed him backward, lightly. The Tracker, finally recognizing the General's scent, whimpered, then backed away and finally slunk off, his tail between his legs and his head bowed. Buzz huffed, then looked over at Delete, who was still lying on the ground, sobbing in pain.

"It's okay!" he called over to the other three, who were still rather far away from the spot. "You can come over now! 'Da Tracker's gone!"

There was a pause, then the other three horses finally began to gallop over toward the spot where the two robots were currently standing. The stocky robot sighed, then finally dropped to his knees next to Delete and gently stroked him on the head.

"It's fine, Deeds," he said softly, in hopes of calming him down. "Wielder's gone. You'll be fine…you'll be just fine in awhile…"

Delete sobbed a few more times, then finally said, though Buzz could hardly understand it; it had been muffled by the grass and tears. "Buzz…where—where did you l-learn th-that w-word?"

"What word?" Buzz asked.

"Th-that—that word y-you u-used to s-s-send Wielder away," Delete replied, attempting to turn over onto his back but ending up failing miserably. "OWWW! OW!…That command…w-where'd you l-learn it?"

"It's a Machinos command," Buzz heard a voice say behind him. Whipping around, the stocky robot looked up in time to see Nebulon standing over him; he hadn't even noticed his shadow there until the last moment. "It means 'halt' in some other language. I think it's the only language those monsters understand."

The robot then gravely walked over to Delete, then bent down beside him and felt his cuts. Delete whimpered but didn't have the strength left to shriek again. "He looks pretty bad…Abigail, I think I need to take Silver Arrow until we can get him some medical attention. You take Jackson, and put Delete up onto Grant and tie him behind you. We can't make any more stops until we get to the windmill."

Abigail nodded gravely, her lips pursed, then descended her horse and walked over to Delete, gently picking him up. Delete whimpered a few times again, but still didn't have the strength left to truly express the pain that he felt. As the cat creature carried him back over to Grant, Revel assisting, Nebulon looked down at Buzz, his expression serious.

"What?" Buzz finally said after a few moments. "What did I do?"

There was another uncomfortable pause following this. Finally, Nebulon spoke, in a voice as serious and dead as his stare, "Never use that word again. Machinos commands are not permitted in the land of the rebels."

"But…I mean, did you see what Wielder was doing?!" Buzz exclaimed. "'Dat was 'da only way I knew how—I mean, 'dose things are so hard to cut 'troo—and, I mean, I didn't know 'dat I wasn't supposed to use it, but—"

The remainder of his speech was cut off by a few more shouts from the grounds. A few of the lights surrounding the fence then came on, and Buzz halted mid-sentence, staring out at the looming silhouette in the distance for a few moments. Nebulon was looking back at it, too, sporting a very uncomfortable gaze at this time.

"Oh, of all the gods…" he muttered; he then broke off into a run toward Silver Arrow, still standing in a panicked position next to a tree. "Let's go. It won't be long until they figure out that the horses are missing."

Buzz looked over at him, then walked back toward his horse. And although Abigail was in a bad mood as she set the wounded Delete onto Grant, she looked over in time to see Buzz staring back at the grounds…

And his gaze was not to be mistaken. He looked desperate…almost longing…

Like he wanted to go back…

But soon it quickly passed. Abigail cleared the thought from her head abruptly, thinking it was just a mind trick, then mounted Jackson and began to head toward the direction of the windmill, keeping close after the others.