Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction. Thanks and enjoy!
Fate—Chapter 3
Yamato walked down the cold corridors in the Droglidite base, careful not to make any noise that would bring the guards down to the prisoner block. Everything had happened so fast it was difficult to believe it had happened at all. First he had returned to the Digiworld, then he went unconscious and the next thing he remembered was waking up in a cold cell and being informed he was now "property of the Droglidite clan" as the two tall guards had put it.
So he'd made a crucial decision: he was going to escape no matter what, and he was bringing all his friends with him. He'd managed to kick in the lock on his door and now here he was, tiptoeing down the deserted corridor, looking into the tiny barred windows on each cell door and looking for any of his friends.
It seemed like hours before he came across the cell that held Hikari. She was sitting with her back against the far wall, face buried in her hands. Whether she was sleeping or crying he could not tell.
"Hikari," he whispered.
She looked up, startled. "Yamato," she hissed back, "what are you doing here?"
Yamato was startled at Hikari's appearance. It was obvious she had been crying. Her eyes were red and her face was marked with tear streaks. "We're getting out of here," he replied. "All of us."
With that, he reached down and opened the door, astonished at how poorly the Droglidites secured their prisoners. They must be crazy, he thought. What kind of people are stupid enough to only have locks on the inside of their cells? Not that it really mattered. It sure made his job easier, though.
The door was open, but Hikari did not get up from her place against the wall. She only looked up at him, an expression of fear written on her face.
"Well, come on," he muttered.
Hikari vigorously shook her head as she wiped away a few stray tears and he inquired: "why not?"
"What if we get caught? Who knows what they'll do to us?"
"Then we won't get caught. Now come on!"
Cautiously, Hikari got to her feet and stepped out of the cell. She was afraid, but at the same time happy to leave this place.
"Do you know where Koushiro or Mimi are?" Yamato questioned.
"They're on the other side of the base in prison block H. I was going to be put over there, but they moved me here instead, so I know the way."
Yamato followed behind Hikari until they reached a large metal door. "Through there?" he queried.
Hikari nodded and he tried the handle. Of course, it was locked. Figures that they would put a lock somewhere, he realized. He let go of the handle and that was when the alarm began to sound, loudly blaring through the empty hall.
"Is there any other way to where Koushiro and Mimi are?" Yamato shouted over the raucous alarm.
"No! That's the only way! Now what?"
"Back the way we came. Hurry!"
They ran back down the hall as quickly as they could. It had many twists and turns, but it did not branch out into any other passages, making it easy to find the end of the hallway—and the exit of the compound.
Once again, Yamato was pleasantly surprised to find that this door was unlocked. He threw it open and the two of them ran outside, into the cold night air of the Digital World.
"What about Koushiro and Mimi? We can't just leave them there!" Hikari panted as they ran.
"We'll come back for them. Keep going!"
They ran for what seemed like an eternity until Hikari gasped: "Yamato, I have to stop. I'm really tired."
Yamato nodded and noted with relief that a house was up ahead. Sure, it looked a little odd out in the middle of nowhere, but then again, this was the world where phone booths were found on the beach and trolley cars were found resting on islands for no apparent reason.
The house looked somewhat modern, though unkempt and dirty. Behind it was a dike that he supposed blocked off a ditch of some sort. It appeared as though it would be a safe place a safe place to spend the night, as it was about a mile away from the Droglidite base.
Yamato stepped inside the house and looked around. He was standing on a hardwood floor with large cracks in it. The paint on the walls was peeling considerably and the carpet on some of the rugs had been worn away. Everything was covered in about an inch of dust; making it quite obvious that nobody had been there for quite some time.
Beside him, Hikari yawned and shut the door. He smiled broadly and whispered: "we did it. We made it."
Hikari smiled, too and sighed. But then the smile on her face faded and was replaced with a look of fear. That was when Yamato noticed she was not looking at him; she was looking past him to the shaded picture window behind him.
Quickly, he turned around. Through the curtains, he could just see the silhouette of a man in a long cloak moving about outside. In fact, there were several men in long cloaks outside. Droglidite guards. They were after them.
"Come on, Hikari," he whispered, herding her down the hall and into the back room of the house. He opened the closet, hoping against hope that this house was like a normal house on Earth. The floor of the closet was covered with dust and he scraped some of it away. His hand bumped against a small handle.
"Yes!" he hissed, grabbing hold of the handle and pulling with all his might. A square hole in the floor of the closet opened, leading to underneath the house. "Go in," he whispered to Hikari.
She nodded and slid into the hole as the front door of the house opened. Yamato quickly climbed down into the hole and closed the trapdoor behind him. He knew where they had to go; there was a rectangle of starry sky in the foundation on the other side of the house. If we can just get over there we can climb out and get out of here, he thought. "Over there," he breathed, gesturing to the sliver of sky.
Hikari scooted on her back toward the hole, Yamato following beside her. All went well until they came to the area of hardwood floor that had the cracks in it. The Droglidites were up there, shining their flashlights around—and through the cracks.
A beam of light hit Hikari and she froze, forcing Yamato to stop as well. She trembled as it moved up her legs and across her stomach. She tightly closed her eyes as it rested on her face, but she could still feel the heat across her forehead.
Unintentionally, she began to whimper in fear. It was a small, crying sound that came from the back of her throat.
"Shhhh," Yamato hissed, quickly covering her mouth with his left hand. She wasn't the only scared one, though. His face was a river of sweat and he was afraid the beating of his heart would alert the Droglidites above of their presence.
And then the light withdrew. Hikari quickly resumed scooting toward the tiny vent and soon was crawling out. Once Hikari was outside of the house, Yamato heard somebody opening the trapdoor they'd come through. Quickly, he pushed his head through the hole, and then pulled his body through. He was just pulling his legs out of the hole when he heard a sudden exclamation of surprise, then a shout of: "there they are!"
"Run, Hikari!"
"Run where?"
Yamato looked desperately around. "The dike!" he shouted. He didn't have to say it twice; Hikari was already running for the dike.
She ran the distance across the small backyard that felt more like it was a million miles and stopped short at the dike. The edges were high and steep. Too high and too steep. Even by jumping, her outstretched arms reach the area where the ground leveled out to form the top of the dike.
"I can't get up!" she cried.
Yamato bent down and picked up Hikari across the knees. She kicked in surprise and he almost dropped her, but instead lifted her as high as he could.
"A little higher!" she shouted. "I can almost reach!"
He strained, the muscles in his arms screaming in protest and Hikari cried out in triumph: "I got it!" She was soon standing up on the level ground.
For Yamato, the jump wasn't as big and he was able to grab onto the sharp corner where the vertical slope became horizontal. His legs were still dangling down precariously when he felt a hand latch around his ankle.
"Ahhh!" he cried in surprise.
"Yamato!" Hikari shrieked. She knelt down and tried to pull him back up as the Droglidite below tried to pull him back down.
In desperation, Yamato kicked his leg. His foot connected with something solid and he heard a shout of pain and anger, then he was free! Immediately he pulled himself the rest of the way onto the dike.
"Come on!" he shouted and began running across the top of the dike, hoping to be able to get down to the other side. His hopes were quickly dashed when they came across a high wood fence. There was no way around and it was far too high to think about climbing. "Dig!" he shouted and dropped to his knees.
Frantically, they dug in the soft dirt near the bottom of the fence until they created a moderate-sized hole.
"OK, stop," he muttered as he got to his feet. He hooked his foot under one of the boards on the fence and jerked backward, causing the board to come loose.
"Hurry!" Hikari cried out. "They're coming!"
Yamato dislodged two more boards and replied: "go! Crawl under!"
Hikari squeezed through the hole and under the fence, scraping her back on the rough wood planks. Yamato looked back and saw a mob of Droglidites racing toward him. They were close. Hastily, he dropped to the ground and forced his head and shoulders through the hole. He was nearly halfway through when he somebody grabbed his legs and began yanking him back through the hole, painfully scratching his back on the planks.
"Yamato!" Hikari shouted, kneeling down and reaching for him.
"Run, Hikari. Get out of here!"
"But---"
"Do it now before they catch you, too!" he hollered as he was pulled the rest of the way through the hole.
Hikari turned and fled toward the edge of the dike—and stopped short when she noticed that where there had once been a ditch there was now a dried-up hole in the ground. She couldn't jump. At least, not unless she wanted a broken leg. Then it hit her: the drainpipe!
The large white pipe was sticking horizontally out the ground to her right only about five feet below her. Steeling her every last nerve, she jumped and landed safely inside. Seconds later, the Droglidites arrived at the scene, searching for her with their flashlight beams.
She backed as far into the pipe as she could and huddled into a small ball. From far away, she could hear Yamato shouting. It made her shiver. He hadn't gotten away and she felt sick thinking of what they were going to do to him. As one guard had said: "there are things worse than death. If we catch you trying to run away, you will get to explore these things."
After nearly an hour, the flashlight beams disappeared. Hikari crawled to the lip of the pipe and cautiously peeked outside. The Droglidites had left. That was when the sobs escaped Hikari's throat and the tears ran freely down her face once again.
Still crying, she slipped out of the pipe and ran down the dried ditch bed, running to get as far away from the Droglidites as possible.