The air was thick with smog. People coughed. Strange sounds grew louder, closer. The sounds of smashing, humming, hissing things. Every now and then, something cracked, like a burst of lightning.
The mangled towers and factories of Robotropolis cast shadows across the line of carts and the Mobians straggling in through the city walls, beneath the force shield.
Bunnie and Rotor, near the head of the line, stared up at the city, their eyes wide and jaws dropped. Bunnie had started trembling.
"Move."
A combot pushed her forward. She walked on, a stricken look passing through her green eyes.
She had been here before, but before she'd come in through the tunnels, through the sewers below the city, as a rebel. She'd never been led through the gates before as a slave.
As they passed through the wall, Rotor swallowed. He looked down, his pale eyes flickering.
The smell of the place burned into him, all too familiar. As if the chemicals and metal had embedded themselves into his very skin, and breath, and blood.
He had been foolish to think he had actually escaped this place.
Rotor's brow wrinkled. He hesitated, frowning, thinking hard. He touched his forehead, wincing…
The smells…the sounds…he was remembering something…
They walked down the paved streets, past square-shaped box buildings and tangled messes of piping, wire and tubing. Overhead, the tops of the largest factories belched dark fumes into the gray sky. The air was heavier, contained beneath the force shield stretching over the city from wall to wall. Combots and mini air cruisers flew overhead. A small cluster of dim-colored Mobians, all unclothed, were led together in electric chains across the street and into one of the larger buildings.
Bunnie followed them with her gaze. She breathed out, hard.
The cart ahead of them stopped. The combots stopped.
The Mobian prisoners froze, as if unsure of what to do now that they weren't walking anymore. Several collapsed to their knees.
"Bless mah stars," Bunnie murmured. She sat down, cross-legged on the cement road beneath her. Mobian roads were paved with handpicked rock, not poured out in a thick, impenetrable sheets like these roads.
Rotor coughed, dropping next to her, wincing hard as he bent his burned legs.
The Mobians behind were too tired to talk. But slowly some of the voices began to stir.
"So…this is Robotropolis…" someone whispered behind them.
"How do they breathe?"
"Wonder if we'll be roboticized…"
At this question, Bunnie looked around. She narrowed her eyes. "Ah don't see any roboticized Mobians here…"
"You wouldn't," Rotor mumbled. "They live in the center of the city with Dr. Nikolos, in his Command Center…"
"Excuse me—excuse me—" the Mobian eagle from the top level of their cart crawled closer to them. He was shaking with exhaustion, but his eyes were wide with borderline panic. "You know this place?"
Rotor didn't respond, but Bunnie nodded.
The eagle sucked up a breath.
"What's going to happen to us, sir?" the eagle blurted. "Why do they want us?"
Rotor shook his head to himself.
"It's alright, sugah," Bunnie said to the eagle. "We still might be able to escape if we time things right—jus' don't panic and rest while ya can."
The eagle nodded hard, then sat back. "Don't panic," he murmured to several of the Mobians next to him. "The cyborg says we still might be able to escape."
"Doesn't matter, blast her. You saw what happened last time," another voice hissed in response. "They took her arm—she's just as helpless as the rest of us now. We're done for."
Rotor heaved up a heavy breath. "Bunnie," he said.
His tone struck something in Bunnie. With that single word, it seemed as if all the noise and movement around them slowed and blurred out.
Bunnie turned her head and looked at him and their eyes locked.
Rotor tried to open his mouth, but nothing came out. Fresh tears brimmed in his wounded eyes.
They stared at each other.
"I'm sorry—I—just don't—" Rotor started, fisting and unfisting his hands. He shivered. "I just d-don't think—I can do this—again—"
Bunnie clapped her small live hand onto his shoulder. It was warm and strong and her green eyes flashed. "Rotor…"
He looked up at her. "Please—we—we can run—it would be fast—then—they wouldn't—"
Wouldn't kill the light in her eyes, he tried to say. She could die now with him and it would be over and they would be free. They would never tame her and strip her and wear her down to the useless lump of nothing he had become—the lump of nothing they'd crushed him into during the days upon days, the weeks upon weeks, the years of being told where to go, of chains and cages, of mindless factory tasks, of the strict silence, of the cruel punishments.
Mobians were nothing here. Just bodies and energy to be used up.
"I remember now," Rotor said. "I remember what happened before the sewer—I can't do this—"
Bunnie's eyes widened.
The cart ahead moved forward. The combots began to march again. "Up!" they all chorused at once.
The Mobian prisoners groaned as they tried to stand up. Bunnie took Rotor's hand as she rose back to her feet.
"Forward!"
Author's Notes: So, you guys are the best ever. Thanks for making last week awesome and for all the faithful reviews and support! God bless you all, and see you next week!
