Damn. It's been forever since I've updated this. (And the sad thing is I have something else that's begging for an update.)

So, I got Brawl on Thursday! No, I haven't unlocked Sonic yet, but I'm having a ton of fun with it. And Subspace Emissary... (H.W. drools)

Only problem is, I can never get the god damn Smash Ball whenever it appears! I've gotten it exactly twice; once as Pit during my first Brawl in the game ever, and once as Dedede today. And whenever it appears, I can never get it. It's sad and retarded!

Eh. At least in most cases Final Smashes don't mean instant doom. They also don't mean that the person who gets the ball is the victor, so that's a relief.

What am I rambling about? Here's the chapter, and enjoy!

Chapter 13

Saturday, July 24

10:52 A.M.

"All right. Here's a spare computer chip."

"Good. I think that's all I'll need."

Tails handed Rouge the spare computer chip, and from there Rouge took up her screwdriver and got to work prying the wireless radio open.

The group had barricaded the entrance of the hardware store in Grand Midtown Station with a huge desk, and they had proceeded to put black sheets over all of the windows so that none of the zombies in the city would be able to see them in there. Jet had smuggled a trio of kerosene lanterns from another shop just before they barricaded the door, and they had enough food and water in there to last them for as long as the small group needed.

Right then, it was a matter of getting communications to a satellite radio network so that they could get some help from the military. They had just tested a brand new cell phone from the shop across the corner, and on finding that there was no reception at all, they decided that the satellite radio was the only thing they could use after all.

And so, they were all huddled around Rouge, the lanterns lighting the dark space inside the shop as Rouge pried the communicator open with a screwdriver and got to work.

"Are ya sure this is goin' to work?" asked Jet. "I mean, we don't know how to get onto a channel once we get there."

"We'll figure that out when we get there," replied the bat, her expression unchanging as she went to work. "And if all else fails, we have Tails."

"Hey!" said Cream innocently. "That rhymed!"

Shadow rolled his eyes in an annoyed gesture, the bat sighing and returning to work.

"You know she can't concentrate if you keep talking, right?" asked Shadow.

"You're not helping much either, Shadow," stated the bat matter-of-factly as she continued to work.

And as such, there was complete silence as the bat worked on the communicator.

After a few minutes of fiddling with the device, Rouge looked up.

"Masking tape?" asked the bat.

The hawk looked over by one of the kerosene lamps to see the roll of masking tape that he had procured the day before. His hand went over there and gave the roll to Rouge.

"Check," he said, handing it to her.

The bat grabbed the roll, pulled out a small amount, and bit down with one of her fangs to separate the tape from the roll. She then applied the tape to the device, and then she pushed the power button on to see what she could do.

"So you have the implant now?" asked Shadow.

"Yes," said Rouge. "This could take a couple of hours."

The other members of the group nodded as Rouge turned her head to the typewriter that she had plugged into the communicator.

She then got to work, the clacking of keys starting with a determined drive in its pace.

1:26 P.M.

"So, any progress?" asked Shadow.

"No, damn it!" shouted Rouge, pounding her fist on the floor with such force that Jet had to steady one of the kerosene lamps to keep it from falling over.

The group had stood where they were for all the time that Rouge was hacking into the satellite radio network. The bat had managed to hack into the database of the network that Rouge knew was a station that the President of Knothole listened to often, but she was unable to hack her way to a program that could record the communicator. As the communicator's screen shone brilliant white light in an otherwise dark room, Rouge could not comprehend the lines of code that were before her.

And she was showing frustration; for the past hour she had been struggling with the code on the communicator, typing away at the keyboard that they had acquired for her use, and yet she was getting nowhere with figuring out the code. Tails had asked several times if he could hack through the program, but Rouge refused his help every time he had offered.

However, the bat was at the point where she knew that she had tried everything, so she knew that eventually the two-tailed fox would have to look at it.

Finally, after typing a few things and getting nowhere, she sighed and stood up.

"I can't hack into it…" said Rouge. "Tails, you take over for now."

"All right!" said Tails. "Time to test that trick!"

"Trick?" asked Jet as the young fox took his seat.

"Well, to write a good security program, you have to know all the stops that a hacker can pull to get into a program," said Tails. "So, I knew a hacker for two years, maybe, and he told me many tricks."

"Right…" said Jet. "You know that it might not get you anywhere, right?"

"Yeah," responded the young fox. "But it's still worth a try."

The hawk nodded simply as Tails began typing.

Within a few minutes, Tails stopped typing.

"I think we're on to something!" said the fox gleefully.

"You are?" asked Cream. "Great!"

"Cream, please…" said Shadow as he, Jet, and Rouge all walked closer to the communicator.

The clacking of keys in the store continued for quite some time.

"I think I'm almost there…" said Tails, squinting a little as he continued typing.

And then, a beep from the communicator sounded, and a red light was next to the word 'REC'.

"Are… Are we on...?" asked Cream when she saw this.

"I don't know…" said Jet.

"I think we are…" said Tails.

"We are?" asked Rouge.

"Probably," said Shadow. "But we should hurry."

"Right…" said the bat, clearing her throat after she said this.

And then, she delivered the same speech she had delivered through the AM broadcast a few days earlier, except with a few major tweaks to accommodate for the fact that they were broadcasting to the entire world. As she went through the familiar inflections of the voice, though, her ears picked up the familiar moaning, and then her speech got uneasy.

And as soon as she finished the final word of her speech, she tensed up.

"They're here…" she said. "Everybody be quiet…"

And there was silence as nobody dared to move a muscle. Not even Cream moved anything as the familiar moans came within hearing range. After an interval of three hours, however, the moaning finally died down, and Rouge let out a deep breath.

"Are we still on?" asked Rouge.

"No…" said Shadow, who had kept watch on the communicator the entire three hours. "The battery died half an hour ago."

"Aw…" said Jet. "I was wondering if I could say something to mom…"

"Well, that's probably enough time for them to track it to here…" said Tails. "In other words, we should get out of here soon."

"Yeah," said Cream.

And Rouge nodded, pleased at how events had turned out for them.

4:53 P.M.

The group had just left Grand Midtown Station.

There was nothing else for them to do in there. They had to get a new communicator since the old one's battery had died, but other than that they were done with it.

As Jet stepped outside, he looked around, noticing how eerily empty the streets seemed.

And that was the moment he realized that he had never noticed how empty the streets were. He used to steal around the area all the time, and yet he had always taken for granted that the only reason he went there was because of the abundance of people that were running about this way and that for appointments and such. He had gotten very good at picking pockets from the area around Grand Midtown Station because it was so crowded.

It made him do a double take when he realized that he had never noticed the empty silence.

"Um, guys…?" asked Jet, continuing to walk. "Do ya feel like the silence is… weird?"

"Now that you mention it…" said Shadow.

"No?" asked Rouge.

"Something like that, yes," responded the hedgehog. "Man, it's strange knowing what thinking only of survival does to your brain…"

"You're telling me…" said Jet. "I actually miss society right now, and that's something I never thought would happen…"

"We're really messed up in the head right now…" joked Rouge, chuckling a little.

"In a way, yes," said Shadow. "I think we better move it now. At this rate, Cream and Tails will leave us here to fend for ourselves."

"Then we'll just have ta catch them," said Jet. "Hey! Kids! Wait for us!"

And when Jet pretended to trip and fall flat on his face over a grate in the road, Shadow and Rouge actually laughed for the first time in ages, the hawk joining them four seconds into it. They kept on laughing, even as the children approached them from the direction they had been walking in.