PART 4: Bittersweet Escape.
Mumbo sighed. "Mumbo go to market, buy totem pole, worm, spell book- g-g-ground s-start s-shaking!"
"T-that's not r-right!" cried Bottles, "it's s-s-spell b-book, c-car-"
"N-no! G-g-ground s-shaking! H-have t-to e-escape!" Mumbo lifted his wand. For some reason, his magic had been neutralized when he had awoken locked in a jar. Now, he prayed that it would work, because if it didn't... a gigantic piece of the ceiling just missed the two jars. The shaman gulped. Raising his wand, he attempted to gather enough magical energy to crack the glass jar... his wand didn't even spark. Mumbo tried a second time. The wand suddenly sprang to life and the entire jar shattered. Immediately, Mumbo felt himself enlarge to his original size. Grabbing the jar which contained Bottles, the shaman opened the door and escape. As he left, the roof of the room collapsed, completely crushing the shelf on which himself and Bottles had been just earlier.
"Whew," thought Mumbo. As he was leaving, he suddenly saw a trap door begin shaking. Using his magic, he broke it easily. A familiar voice beckoned him.
"Mumbo! Help!" Reaching into the trap door, Mumbo, with much sweat, blood, etc, managed to pull a cage up by its handle. Inside, Tooty, not exactly all for being crushed under tons of rock, sighed in relief. Blasting the cage open with his wand, the escaping threesome quickly left the room.
Banjo swallowed. Kazooie was bleeding until the backpack was soaked with blood. "Kazooie? Are you ok?"
"That depends..." she coughed and red spurted from her beak. "...am I SUPPOSED to be coughing up blood?" Her voice was too weak to tell what tone she used, but somehow, Banjo suspected that she wasn't very pleased with him. A gurgling sound rose up from her chest, making him feel nauseated. Mumbo, Tooty and Bottles found him tearfully clutching Kazooie's bleeding body.
"Breegull not look well. Much red."
"Ewww... what happened?" said Tooty, turning a bit green.
"The feather dusters looks like she got hit by a truck. (Again.)"
Kazooie spat a mouthful of blood at him. "Thanks for the compliment; I'll remember that next time I'm carrying an instrument capable of inflicting... GASP! much bodily harm."
Mumbo realized at some point that not only wasn't all this sarcasm getting them anywhere, they could be killed if they stayed here arguing. Using his very useful magic, the shaman turned a few of the pieces of debris into bumper carts..
"Mumbo and loudmouth and mole and bears jump in. Leave before turn pancake." Banjo carried Kazooie to a bumper car and lead them off at full speed, normal for most people attempting to escape certain death. Lucky him that he remembered the layout of the place, or they would have been in some real trouble. Driving at a speed to make any grouchy, no-life police officer cry in frustration the fivesome arrived at a great door. A sign high above the door read, "CENTER GATE." Mumbo tried to blast the door, but this probably wasn't the best course of action. You see, the door didn't take to well to Mumbo's attack, so it richocheted the magic off of it. The magic, in turn, richocheted off of the walls, under- yes under Bottles, who just barely managed to jump it, through- darn it, I DID say through- Tooty, changing her almost simultaneously from bear to ant to bear again. The spell bounced off of the door again, almost into Banjo, who just barely managed to duck it, into the wall and finally, into Mumbo's wand.
The force of the spell knocked Mumbo back a few feet... right under a quickly approaching and extremely huge piece of ceiling! "Mumbo!!!"
"Watch out!" Mumbo looked up.
"Uh, oh..." Mumbo tried to get away, and almost too late, as it came down just one inch away from him. The shaman nearly fainted with relief.
There was still, however, the problem of getting out. The walls were collapsing, so there was no time to waste! Kazooie weakly tapped Banjo's chest. "Hey, Banjo. Try using this key in the keyhole. It's supposed to open a center gate or summin."
The hairs on Tooty's back stood up. "Kazooie... maybe-"
Bottles looked up at the sign. "Try telling us that before Mumbo nearly got killed, please?"
Kazooie shot back. "Oh, sure... I remember keys given to me by mysterious dying old men after losing litres of blood ALL the time." Banjo stared up. In what was supposed to be a quick appeal to God, he realized that the entire roof was cracking... loosening.. falling down!!!! Grabbing the key from Kazooie's wing, the bear slipped it into the door and kicked it open. He grabbed the breegull's body, and made his way out.
Too close. As soon as the last exiter had left, the entire building collapsed.
Banjo sighed, exhausted and put Kazooie down on the grass. The entire building was crushed to bits... no one could have survived that. Banjo gave a gulp. Although Kazooie and the others had not seen much of the building, the bear knew that inside, many other slaves had been trapped in the falling rubble. Suddenly, out of the small nooks and crannies in the torture school, a few men and boys, of different sizes and species, crept out. A few looked freighted, but no worse off for wear.The shackles on their wrists fell off, and just like that, they began disappearing. Banjo blinked.
A small puppy-thing with wings ran up to Banjo, Bottles, Mumbo, Tooty and Kazooie and licked Kazooie's wing.
"Hiya... kid," gasped Kazooie. The puppy whined.
"I hope you'll be okay, Miss." He looked up at Banjo. "Miss saved my life from the mean, ol' people inside. No I can go home to the rest of the cavianines! G'bye, Miss!"
Kazooie scoffed. "Whatever."
Tooty and Banjo waved, "Good bye, weirdo birdy-puppy thing."
Mumbo waved, "Bye, canine feathered one." Bottles just stared as they, too, disappeared and re-appeared back in Spiral Mountain.
The escape, however, had been bitter-sweet. For in order to get that escape... Kazooie's eyes stared up into the sky. "Hey, Dirt-devil. Heaven has a Jacuzzi... and a free bird-seed stand..." Bottles stared at her. Kazooie had lost a lot of blood. She was mumbling, not quite staring at anything, just staring. And the breegull began having a long conversation about random topics. But a sentence caught Banjo's attention. "...and Banjo? There's some fuzzball... looks kinda like you..."
The bear looked around in fear. "Kazooie's dying!!"
"Say WHAT?!?!"
"Kazooie, just hang on. You're gonna get help, okay?"
"Free... birdseed," said Kazooie, and passed out.