A/N: After this chapter there will probably be three more chapters plus the epilogue. This chapter is about 'dealing' with Richard (I know all of you guys want him dead!), and some questions will finally be answered…
The ground was surprisingly still warm, even if the explosion happened hours ago. The smoke was gone and so were all the fires. The place looked like it had been like that for a long time. As if some bigger than just a bomb happened here. From the soft moonlight that fell onto the territory, everyone saw that the ground was mostly black and burnt. There a few patches of the floor, that had been part of the Sardine Factory, but otherwise the ground was black. The bricks and wooden beams that held the factory together were strewn all over the place.
Most of the wooden beams had burned up or were lying in smaller pieces. The bricks were scattered all over. But not all of the Factory had gone. There was a piece of the west wall that still stood strong. Flint came over to the wall and touched the wall with his fingertips. It felt warm. On the wall there was a poster with long faded colors. It was a poster advertising sardines.
"Guys, if someone ends up following us, just hid anywhere. But right now, we must head to the tunnels." Angelica told everyone.
"What do we do if Richard is still alive?" Reg asked.
"We'll figure that out when we see him." Angelica turned to look at him.
Then she saw Jag; who was walking between Reg and Albert. Jag was still not used to having Albert Shelbourne around, so he was still a bit scared. Rolling her eyes, Angelica motioned Albert to come walk next to her. Nodding, he came over. Immediately, Jag relaxed.
They walked down to where the door that led to the tunnels was supposed to be. The door wasn't there, but there was an opening in the ground and a set of stairs leading underground. Frowning, Angelica looked beyond the stairs. Most of the ground had collapsed where the tunnels were supposedly supposed to be. It was going to be dangerous going underground, because the tunnel roof could fully collapse and trap everyone underground.
"We can't all go down. Albert and I should go down. Albert's immortal and I don't really care if I end up dying. You all still have lives out there." Angelica replied.
"We go down with you. We will fight with you till the end. Besides you have a life to live now too." Flint stood up taller and smiled at Angelica. She smiled back.
"Thank you, Flint. And thanks to everyone else here too." Angelica nodded and even turned to smile at Albert.
Back in the hospital, when Sam had left the room, she and Albert had sat there talking. Not about how they'll end up living now, but about everything concerning what has happened almost 2 years ago and about Denis. She had told Albert about all the things they did together and how much she missed him now. Albert listened. Angelica knew he had always been a good listener. When she finished 10 minutes later, he took her hand and told her he was very sorry. They sat like that for a few seconds and then they had left the room.
Right after they had left the room, a couple of doctors had entered the room and crowded around Denis. Angelica didn't know what they were going to do to him, but she knew they couldn't really do anything. Only attend the funeral and keep his image in her mind.
"Let's go then." Brent spoke up and Angelica broke out of her thought.
Albert led the group down the stairs and into the tunnels. As they made it to the bottom, Flint saw that some of the walls that hadn't collapsed were coated in his Spray-On Shoe substance. Those won't probably ever fall. But then there were a couple of walls which didn't have the spray and had a few cracks running along them. When everyone looked up, they saw that most of the tunnel roof had broken away and now they saw the night sky twinkling down on them.
The moonlight seeped in through those breaks in the roof, but there still wasn't enough light. Most sides of the tunnels were dark and shadowy. No one knew where Richard was, but they hoped he wasn't in the dark corners. The last thing everyone needed was a heart-attack. They walked on.
Suddenly something growled. Really loudly.
"HOLY CRUD MUFFINS! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" Jag screamed like a girl and grabbed Reg's arm in complete terror.
"Geez, Jag! That was only Brent's stomach!" Reg pushed Jag's arm away and stared at him like he was insane or something.
"And who says 'Holy crud muffins'?" Brent raised an eyebrow as he came to walk next to Jag, grinning.
Jag turned red in embarrassment and looked down at the ground. But he looked up and realized no one saw him through the dark anyway. He slipped his hands into his pockets and trudged after Reg and Brent. Maybe I should stop being so afraid and clumsy all the time. But again, that's what makes me stand out. Jag smiled to himself. He just hoped that next time he didn't include 'pink frosted sprinkled donuts'. It would come out as 'Holy pink frosted sprinkled donuts!' Then everyone would be laughing and joking about it for at least a week. Now that Jag thought about it, he was hungry. All his swears seemed to have food in them.
They walked over a pile of stone that had come off the roof and finally made it to what was left of the main foyer. It was really bright in the foyer. The whole roof had come down here and the moon was shining brightly into the open foyer. It was eerie. It was because of the silence.
"Where is he?" Sam asked and peeked over Flint's shoulder.
"Shhh!" Angelica shushed and crept to the dead center of the circular foyer. She glanced around with narrowed eyes.
Everyone looked really scared now. It was the silence that scared them. The lighting of the room wasn't bad, but if it had been dark that would made things worse.
Click!
Gulping, everyone huddled together in one group. No one dared say anything.
"Hello." came a gruff, familiar voice.
Jag opened his mouth to scream, but Reg slapped his hand over Jag's mouth. Jag let out a muffled scream and shoved Reg's hand away. Jag was trembling. He wasn't the only one.
"Hello." Angelica looked over and everyone turned their eyes to look at the person, who had emerged out from one of the doors that circled the foyer. It was Richard Shelbourne. He had this evil gleam in his eyes, like he was ready to attack.
"Interesting, you all have returned. You knew I was still alive. So why come? Hmm?" Richard began to walk around them.
No one dared take their eyes off him. At the same time, no one wanted to answer him. So he stopped pacing and came to stand a few feet away from where Angelica stood. His eyes were trained on her. Albert snatched her hand protectively.
"If you won't talk, then I will. Okay? No answer, very well. First thing I've got to say is that all of you—each and every one of you—have been wrong. This is what I've heard 'Oh! It's all Angelica's fault, with her inventions!' or something like 'It's Albert's fault!' NO! I will say this once and ONLY once. It is my fault. And I'm proud of it." Richard's lips curled into a smile and he eyes Angelica and Albert like they were some sort of prey.
When his eyes fell on the rest of the group, they met his glance with a steady one. Even Jag tried hard not look like a trembling rabbit.
"Here's what happened. After Angelica had tested The Evil Injection Liquid on herself and ran off to London, England, Albert was alone for a couple of days. At the time he had been Mayor of Swallow Falls. I came to him one day and told him that since Angelica had left him, he could invade her lab and now everything that once belonged to her, was his. I told him to bring me those inventions. Albert, being the stupid person he was, went and took the inventions he thought were important and brought them to me. The moment they were in my hands, I drank the Immortality Liquid. Then I took the Injection Liquid and the Immortality Liquid, mixed them into Albert's coffee the next day and TA-DA! He was evil and immortal. Then I ran off of course." Richard replied dramatically.
"You're my father! Why shouldn't I listen to you?" Albert cried.
"Ah! But if you loved Angelica and cared for her, you would have known better and wouldn't have obeyed me. You would have protected her lab, believing that she will return in the future." Richard crossed his arms over his chest.
"B-but, I—" Albert stammered. He didn't have time to finish. Richard cut him off with a raised hand.
Angelica let the information she just heard, settle inside her. Then she looked over at Albert with narrowed eyes. He looked at her with wide eyes; not really knowing what to say. She was confused. Maybe it wasn't confusion, but she still had questions swimming in her mind. They were questions about what happened when Richard ran off, questions about him even knowing about her lab and questions about what was happening now.
What did Richard want now? What does her Lockdown map have to do with anything? What is his plan? She looked at Richard and he glared back at her.
"Richard, why do want to do all this? I mean you aren't injected, so why do all this evil?" she asked. Her question came out in a quivering voice and she wondered why she was so afraid.
"That's none of your business, Rita!" Richard snapped.
"Don't call me that! My mother is dead and you will NOT call me by my mother's name!" Angelica then snatched her hand away from Albert's and took a step out of the group.
"Your mother actually thought before her actions!" Richard snapped back.
"Are you blaming ME now? You just said it was YOUR entire fault!" Angelica snarled.
There was a silence. Richard then pulled out a dagger from his pocket and dropped it at Angelica's feet. She bent down to pick it up. It was her dagger. The last time she had seen it, it was when Albert attacked her back in the Mayor's office. She looked up at Richard, but he just stood there.
"That dagger once belonged to your mother." Richard replied.
Angelica ran her finger down the handle, along the carved out designs and then along the blade. She twirled her dagger in her hands. Her mother's dagger. But she shook her head and dropped the dagger back onto the ground. There was something about this dagger that was different from hers.
"This isn't mine." Angelica told him.
Richard's eyes gleamed and Angelica glared back at him. He opened his mouth to say something, but shut it. Angelica picked up the dagger again. Even if this wasn't hers, she had an idea. The blade was heavier on this dagger and the tip seemed to be a bit duller.
It was either now or never.
Richard slipped his hand into his pocket and slowly pulled out a syringe. Angelica watched it. She knew what was coming and she wasn't going to give in here.
"This is the last few drops of your injection liquid. The jar I had got smashed during the explosion, but I managed to save a few drops." Richard came at Angelica.
"Whatever your plan is, it'll never work. Whatever you know about me, will never be said and will be forgotten, whatever you want from us, you will never get." Angelica said and then threw the dagger at the wall behind Richard.
She had aimed the dagger at a very long crack in the wall. It landed there perfectly and more than half the blade fit in the crack. When Richard turned around, he glanced at the dagger and laughed.
"That's it? I thought you'd use the dagger to kill me!" Richard cackled.
"I know." Angelica nodded.
The wall with the dagger in it began to crack along the large crack. The cracks ran along the entire weak wall. The wall was coming down anyway. Angelica knew that this wouldn't have worked if the wall had been sturdy.
"Everybody stand where you are. If the foyer collapses, it'll collapse around us. The roof it broken overhead us, so—" Angelica began to say.
"No, we should get out." Flint told her.
There was a loud crunching noise as the wall shifted. The wall that stood behind Richard was falling.
If they didn't make it out in time, the tunnels will crush them.