Chapter 29: King Street Line

"Hey guys, we should, probably ... Take a little break for a minute."

"Alright then. That sounds like a good idea."

Upon hearing Peaches and Elise suggest that made me want to collapse to the ground for I needed to put my mind at rest. I didn't show it to my friends but deep down, I was so frightened that I was going to lose my mother.

I didn't want to arrive where Walter was keeping her and immediately find out I was too late ... And that she was gone ...

Just as my friends went to either sit down or stand in the room, I let my back hit the wall and slide down until I found myself sitting on the wooden floor, clutching my shotgun tightly. Unexpectedly, Sonic decided to join me. Truth be told, I thought he was going to talk to Elise since he knows her better, but ... I guess I didn't mind anyway, since he's such a nice dude.

"Hey," My idol said, instantly getting my attention. "Is there something on your mind?"

I sighed. "Yep. But ... I'd rather not talk about it, since I need to, you know, clear my head for a bit."

As soon as those words left my mouth, I mentally cursed myself since I could tell that Sonic wanted to help me with whatever was bothering me. Damn it, I should have said something different!

"That's fine..." The blue hedgehog replied, giving me a genuine smile of concern. "But if you change my mind, just give me a shout."

Phew, that's a relief ... But I do need to tell him sometime soon...

"Thanks. I appreciate it."

He nodded in acknowledgement but then, he frowned in thought. "How old are you anyway?"

"16." I responded, trying to calm my breathing.

Hearing this, Sonic leaned back against the wall as he allowed a small smile to crease his cheeks. "Man, I remember when I was your age. Good times they were."

Just as he said this, Manny decided to come over to check up on us. "You guys okay over here?"

"Eh, we've been worse. What's up?" Sonic responded, gazing back at me every so often.

"Well, I've been talking with my family and they said that they were going to continue looking around the Lynch Street Line, whilst we head down to the King Street one." The mammoth began. I could tell that he was slightly concerned and worried about being separated from the Herd as I knew he wanted to protect them from all of the dangers of the otherworlds.

Poor guy...

"Although, we will be meeting up back at the turnstiles, so it won't be for long. How do you two feel about that?"

Sonic just simply gave a thumbs up whilst I nodded in agreement. "That sounds good to me."

We then took a couple more minutes to get our heads in gear and soon enough, the three of us were down the ladder whilst Elise, Ellie and the others went through the same door we came in just hours ago.

Let's hope this works...

M-M

Deep down, I never thought I would be on a journey like this.

I hoped that this would all be a nightmare and that I'd wake up, back home, with my family and safe from this ... mess. But eventually, I knew that I had to accept the fact that it wasn't just a dream.

It was real.

The blue hedgehog and the princess seem nice, but I was still suspicious. Megan however, was different. At first, I thought of her a threat and I wanted her out of the picture as soon as I laid eyes on her. Even when she defended us from those monsters, I wanted her gone.

It wasn't until we found her on the carousel that I started to realise ... Maybe, I misjudged the poor kid. After all, the reason why she's in the otherworlds was that her mother mysteriously disappeared.

Her father was in the otherworlds for exactly the same reason...

We eventually made it to the King Street Line and almost instantly, we were confronted by two sniffer dogs. I slammed my foot hard on the ground, forcing them to stumble and almost lose their balance.

Megan took this opportunity to grab her pistol and fire two or three bullets at them whilst the hedgehog curled himself in a ball and barged his way through, somehow knocking them down.

"Nice one!"

"Got your back, guys!"

I wonder if Sid will try and get them and the princess to join us...

After the sniffer dogs fell lifeless, we began to take in our surroundings as we continued our trek. They were extremely bizarre; the walls were rusty and covered in red whilst the objects happened to be the same.

What made things more disturbing was that a large worm of some kind had itself locked in between the walls, as if linking itself to something far worse than these worlds.

"All we gotta do is find the escalator and get up there!" Megan shouted as she led the way. "Not long now!"

"Alright, kid!" I replied, trying my best to keep up with her. "Just show us where we're going!"

Who knows? Maybe ... Her two friends aren't so bad after all...

M-E

"Argh!" Crash groaned in frustration. "Where the heck are they?!"

"Hey, relax." Diego muttered, fighting the urge to roll his eyes. "They're probably caught up with something. Those three can handle themselves well."

I closed my eyes in an attempt to calm my breathing. Even though I was worried sick, I knew that Sonic would look after Megan with Manny's assistance.

To be honest, I didn't particularly hold a soft spot for the mammoth because of the way he treated my gentle friend.

I could tell that he still hated her but ... maybe, his dislike happened to be decreasing as if he was slowly starting to see all of the kindness and innocence was locked in her heart.

Please let that be the case...

"Guys, it won't be long." I said, looking down at my knife and gripping it tightly. "I'm sure Sonic, Megan and Manny will here soon."

"Elise is right," Ellie agreed, walking up next to me. "We just need to wait for a little bit longer."

And then, we'll be on our way...