Quick AN: Hello beautiful people! I'm excited to present to you SAND. The story I've been toiling over for the past month. I began writing the 1st of May and officially wrote the final chapter on the 30th, so one day to spare before the end of the month. I do hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed torturing these characters with my writing. Thanks for reading!
Danger Close
Tails shielded his face as another bomb detonated just a few meters from his Sand Tornado, a relatively small airboat fit for quick travel in the desert.
Staying low just behind him were the ones Tails was trying to protect. His longtime friend Cosmo and a little rabbit girl who was freshly orphaned only two days ago.
The little girl, named Cream, gripped tightly onto Cosmo who was shielding her from any falling shrapnel and sand kicked up in the process.
Tails took a glance backward to check if they were safe but ended up spotting another bomb thrown just to the left of the Sand Tornado.
Instinctively, Tails veered right dodging another ear-piercing explosion. The maneuver steered him up a steep sand dune. He didn't slow his pace, though, for fear his pursuers would close the gap he worked so hard to create.
At the top of the dune, Tails urged for the girls to hold onto something. He was unsure what lied on the other side, but it had to be better than what was behind.
The Sand Tornado went airborne before landing roughly onto the declining sand. Once grounded, Tails looked back again and for a moment, he saw no sign of the enemy chasing. His relief clouded his focus just long enough to miss the massive rock sticking out of the sand a few meters away. When he returned his focus forward, it was too late.
With a wooden crack, the Sand Tornado's left runner shattered against the stone. The entire vehicle was thrown askew as the nose-end of the Tornado drove directly into the sand. He attempted to compensate for the destroyed runner with his steering, but it was useless. Tails then let go of the controls and quickly ran to the back of the Tornado where Cosmo and Cream were. He used his larger frame to protect them once the Tornado inevitably flipped over.
When it did, he gripped onto both of them and refused to let go. The Tornado flipped once before breaking up into splinters around the unlucky three. Tails landed roughly in the center of the debris, but he still held onto Cream and Cosmo. He hoped he had absorbed most of the impact.
Dizzy but filled with adrenaline Tails ordered Cosmo to take Cream and run. If it weren't for the child, she would have tried to stay. She quickly stood, snatched up Cream, and began running as quickly as she could away from the enemies that had finally caught up. But inevitably she was cut off by one of the pursuing sand vehicles.
Tails stood, feeling none of the injuries he had sustained and joined Cosmo to protect her. He knew there was little he could do for Cosmo, Cream, or even himself, but he refused to simply lay down and die.
A line of three airboats appeared behind the first one and as four they rode in circles about the trio like vultures waiting for a weakened animal to collapse. A thick vortex of sand was kicked up in response nearly blotting out the bright blue of the cloudless sky.
Three figures emerged from the opaque sand clouds. They all had makeshift gear that was tattered and torn but functioning. Over top of their gear, they wore cape-like cloths that would hang down to their ankles if not for all the wind induced by the circling airboats. This was all the typical attire of desert bandits: rag-tag groups of thieves that plunder villages within the desert.
All but one of them wore bandanas around their face which was painted in the shape of a jagged maw, one that belonged to an evil and hungry beast. The one with no bandana proudly showed his beaked face as well as an arrogant smirk. It was then that the airboats stopped circling and the sand stopped dancing.
Tails noted that only one of the three bandits near him was armed with a homemade wooden rifle. He placed himself between the three bandits and the girls. He obviously couldn't beat the army of men surrounding him, but he had a trick up his sleeve that may buy enough time for Cosmo to slip away with Cream, or at the very least, buy them a few more minutes before being killed or kidnapped.
The blue hawk in the middle was the first to speak, "Are these the ones the boss was talking about?"
The other two goons nodded.
"Perfect," he said walking closer by himself.
"Look," Tails said trying to remain calm, "This doesn't have to come to violence. Whatever you need I'm sure we can come to some kind of—"
Tails was cut short by a fist driving its way into his stomach. He bent over in pain, but it was all part of the act. He had a flare gun on his right hip that these men failed to notice. And after the hawk passed him to grab hold of Cosmo and Cream, he drew the flare gun, aimed, and fired directly at the bandit with the rifle. A trail of smoke traced a path to the shoulder of the bandit. He was knocked to the ground out of surprise and pain. After impact, the flare ignited and set the bandit's clothes on fire. He and his ally beside him scrambled to extinguish the flames.
Tails flipped the gun, holding it by the barrel and swung it like a club at the head of the hawk just behind him. A painful squawk followed a meaty thud. Before the waves of men could collapse on Tails, he took another flare, jammed it into his gun, and pointed it at the now vulnerable hawk. Any advancing bandits now stopped in their tracks.
"Anyone moves and he dies. You don't want that right?" Tails said holding his empty hand out for Cosmo to grab. She did so gently.
Tails would murder to protect Cosmo. Though he was generally opposed to violence, he understood there were times when it was necessary.
For a moment, things were quiet. He had this large group of bandits all motionless like spooked raccoons in the nighttime. It was in this silence that Tails noticed his quickened breathing. The arm pointing the gun at the unconscious hawk was shaking wildly. Even Cosmo felt the way his hands were tremoring.
Tails was afraid.
Cosmo peeked down at Cream who was latched firmly around her waist. The little rabbit buried her face into Cosmo's dress as if she were trying to pretend that none of this was happening.
Faintly, Tails began to hear a beeping in the distance. It sounded like it was coming from one of the surrounding airboats. Just as others seemed to hear it as well, a gargantuan explosion erupted from the airboat just behind Tails. He turned for a moment and saw bandits and wooden debris falling followed by trails of black smoke. Chaos broke out once more. The silence was gone.
Tails heard a series of gunshots but couldn't see past the black smoke to identify the source. He didn't question the opportunity, though, as he scooped up Cream and pulled Cosmo along as quickly as possible beneath the cover of black. He saw plenty of heaping chunks of debris to hide behind, but he wondered if it would simply be better to run. He saw the open desert with no cover and thought about the gunshots that were still being fired. If those bullets were directed at him, there's no way they'd make it. So instead, he ducked beneath a sizable chunk of the shattered airboat and took cover with Cream and Cosmo.
A bandit scrambling from the chaos was fleeing and just so happened to duck behind the same cover that Tails and company were behind. Tails wasted no time in pointing the flare gun at the enemy, but the bandit threw his hands up in defeat and begged.
"Please don't kill me!" he said in a cracking voice.
He looked Tails in the eye and saw his hardened expression. That was enough to scare him into running away. Tails exhaled gladly knowing he didn't have to shoot anyone else. After about a minute, the firing had ceased and two airboats full of bandits fled, possibly back to whatever lair they crawled out from. For another minute after silence fell again, Tails didn't dare to move. He was unsure if any armed bandits were still nearby or if the person who started all of this had a bone to pick with him as well.
"Where'd that damn fox go?" Tails heard from behind his cover.
He looked over to Cosmo and Cosmo to him. They had the same concerned and questioning look on their face. Tails rose ever so slightly from his crouched position to sneak a peek of the mobian. Luckily for Tails, he was facing the other direction, so he could get a decent look. It was a hedgehog. All black with distinct streaks of red in his spines. He was wearing shoes that allowed him to hover like a humming bird. He wore a black leather jacket with a red plus sign embroidered into the lower back just below his protruding spines. Tails did not know the significance of this symbol. The stranger also had a rifle strapped to his back which was not the sign of an aggressor. Still, Tails wanted to take no chances.
"It's a hedgehog. Should we talk to him?" Tails whispered crouching back down.
Cosmo swallowed dryly, "I don't know. It looks like he dealt with all the bandits. He could be a frie—"
"I can hear you whispering over there! I don't want to hurt you," The unknown mobian yelled.
Tails took a deep breath pulled the hammer of his flare gun. He stood, revealing himself, and aimed the gun at his savior.
"Take it easy, now…" he said in response to Tails' aggression.
He rose empty hands in an attempt to show Tails he meant them no harm. Even so, Tails' finger remained on the trigger.
"Who are you?" Tails asked.
"Shadow. You?" he responded.
"Miles. But everyone calls me Tails. What do you want from us?" he questioned once more.
"I don't want anything from you, Tails."
"Then why help us?"
"I dislike bandits," he answered, shrugging slightly.
Tails was unsure how to respond to that, so he just carried on with his interrogation.
"Where did you come from?"
"I was sleeping under that rock you crashed into. Scared the hell out of me," Shadow said pointing to a rock about sixty feet away. It had a small camp set up beneath it. Tails could see the remains of the Sand Tornado scattered just in front of it.
"Oh…uh…sorry."
"I'm not dead, so it's not a big deal," now he pointed at Tails' gun, "You done with that thing yet?"
Tails relaxed, lowering and uncocking his gun, "Sorry. It's been a long couple of days."
Shadow smirked in understanding, "Don't apologize for defending yourself—and your loved ones."
He then suggested they spoke in the shade of one of the remaining airboats to escape the heat of the rising sun. Tails agreed.
The bandit airboats were much larger than Tails' Tornado. The Sand Tornado could easily carry at least 10 people, but these raider airboats had to have a capacity five times that. There was even a below-deck area where more people could fit. Tails wondered if he could learn to pilot one quickly enough to get them moving again.
Shadow pulled his rifle off his back and tossed it in the sand. He sat beside it and leaned comfortably onto the bandit's abandoned airboat. When Shadow first moved his gun it freaked Tails out, but he kept his composure. He tried his best to keep his hand near the flare gun at all times while near Shadow. He sat a respectable distance away from the hedgehog to ensure no danger could come to them. Shadow noticed this but did not comment.
"So," Shadow began, "What are you folks doing here in the middle of nowhere?"
Tails looked over to Cosmo and shared a troubled laugh because they knew it would be a long story to tell. They tried to be brief but this only caused more confusion for Shadow who was then prompted to ask questions.
"So, let me get this straight. You three are running from some slow-moving darkness that corrupts everything it touches—what was its name again? The creeping-something?"
"The Creeping-Chaos, yes. It looks like shimmering black sand and covers everything it touches with a thin layer of black. If the corrupted object is moved, it just disintegrates like it was never there."
"Does that go for people and animals too?"
Tails, Cosmo, and even Cream nodded their heads.
"…Cream's mother was—well—not quick enough to escape it."
Cream buried her face in Tails' chest and began to sob silently. When she did this, Tails felt bad for mentioning it, especially to a person he just met. Tails just figured it was better to warn anyone they spoke to. He now realized that there are good ways and bad ways to do that.
Cosmo shot a glare a Tails when their eyes met again as she lifted Cream from Tails' lap. She held her gently trying to calm her down a few feet away from the 'meanie,' in Cosmos words, who brought the tragedy up in the first place.
"Uh…anyway," Tails said trying to dodge the awkwardness, "That's why we're headed to the center of the desert, to the Sanctuary of Chaos. They say the Creeping-Chaos can't touch that place."
Shadow did not know what to think of what he was hearing. Shadow was no stranger to bizarre anomalies, but what they were talking about was potentially world ending. He wondered if they weren't just overreacting or simply misinterpreting what they saw. He took their words with a grain of salt.
"Well I'm not sure about the Shifting-Chaos or whatever," Shadow said intentionally, "But I do know how to deal with people. If you ever get in trouble again, you'd do better with this than a flare gun."
Shadow held a shiny silver revolver by the barrel and extended his hand for Tails to grab it. Gently Tails grabbed the gun by the grip and inspected it. It was heavy like a stone but sleek like a blade. Tails flicked open the barrel and saw six loaded rounds. Shadow tossed over another six bullets.
"Twelves shots total. Use'em wisely," Shadow said standing, slinging his rifle over his back and beginning to walk away before Tails could even give his thanks.
"You're leaving?" Tails asked standing as well.
"Yep. If you what you're saying is true I'm on the clock to get what I got to do done. Take care of yourself and we may meet again; hopefully under better circumstances," Shadow said continuing into the distance, toward his tiny camp.
Again, Tails could see the plus symbol on the back of the hedgehog. He was still curious as to what it meant, but it didn't matter now. He had a more pressing job to do.
Tails grabbed the pocket watch hanging off his belt. He was relieved to see it survived the crash. With a click, he popped it open. This silvery watch was not like other pocket watches. It did not display time as usual. Instead, it ticked backward and counted down the time until a tragedy would befall him. The farther he made it away from the Creeping-Chaos, the more time he was given, and right now he only had a single day. So, his primary objective was figuring out how to operate one of these massive airboats, so they could get on the move.
Until the Next Page…