Chapter 6: Suspended Memories
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"Damn."
"Sheesh, there sure are a lot of road blocks in this town."
"You said it."No one seemed to cut him any slack. Doggie Avenue curved Northwest shortly past the Rosewater Park, and it eventually led past the docks and the local museum, over a bridge, and curved all the way along the west side of the lake until it reached to North Sonic Hill. The Lakeview Hotel was—obviously—right on the shoreline at the bottom of the North part of town. It would be the first large building Doggie Avenue would have passed after leading out of South Sonic Hill. It would have, had the bridge not been destroyed completely.
Miles and Shadow stood on the very edge of the cement, leaning over the cemented guard blocks and looking down at the river about twenty feet below. How disappointing; they had jogged all that way with their hopes high of getting to that hotel, and the stupid bridge had to break some time probably long before they even got there. All they had ended up doing was wasting some ammo and energy on the mannequin and straightjacket monsters they had passed by on the way here.
"Now what do we do?" Shadow asked the crestfallen fox.
"I don't know." Miles sighed, putting his finger in his lip and biting it. "Man, how are we going to get across that lake? Ugh. If only we could fly, or teleport, or…something."
Sighing too, Shadow looked around, trying to see if there was any place—maybe a path or something, he didn't know—to go, and a gasp escaped his lips. "Miles!"
"What?" the fox turned to where he was looking.
Another mangled corpse, this one of a middle-aged male pelican, not too far away. Miles wondered how they hadn't managed to see or smell it before. The fox covered his mouth instinctively, and felt the hedgehog grab onto his arm.
"Ugh. I've seen enough dead bodies for one lifetime." Miles cried, turning to walk back down Doggie Avenue.
"Wait, there's something there!" Shadow said, grabbing onto the fox's arm a second time and pulling him back. Miles took a closer look at the body and noticed a large sheet of paper next to it.
'More notes from another person?' Miles took a step closer to the corpse, about to examine the paper, when suddenly the radio static began again. He looked down Doggie Avenue, seeing nothing but endless fog still. "Shadow, you check out the body. I gotta take care of that monster."
"Right."
Drawing the handgun, Miles crept down the road, quickly disappearing into the fog. Shadow walked over to the corpse, grimacing at it, and picked up the paper. It seemed be a map of South Vale, but he noticed that there was red markings in a few places in the northern end of the map. It wasn't blood – looked like the guy was using a red felt tipped pen. Anyway, there was also a circle around one of the South Vale buildings not too far away from where they were standing; Pete's Bowl-O-Rama, the local bowling alley.
The slightly reassuring yet discomforting sound of a handgun firing not too far away alerted Shadow that Miles must have found the monster. Shortly after that, Miles returned. "Bad news; no more ammo left."
"Great." Shadow looked down at the map. "Do you think this guy came down here from North Sonic Hill?"
Miles looked at the map from the side, noting how the pelican looked like he had been running towards where they came from before he had been assaulted. "Maybe."
"Do you think there's something in Pete's Bowl-O-Rama?" Shadow pointed at where it was circled.
"Might as well check it out; we're not getting anything done standing here."
The black hedgehog nodded. "Yeah."
With that, Miles turned and began to jog back down Doggie Avenue, Shadow following close behind. They heard nothing but the sound of their own footsteps across the pavement (along with their light panting, after a while) and the occasional burst of static from the radio. The percentage of the time the radio went off the monsters must have been too far into the fog for them to see, and they didn't have a problem with that. With no melee weapons or ammo, they were basically screwed if they ran into trouble.
A few minutes later, they finally reached the fork in the road. The left road continued as Doggie Avenue, but the right one—Audra Street—led farther South into town. Pete's Bowl-O-Rama should be to their right, on the corner, but there should be a gas station across the street from that, which was the center of the fork. They decided to check out the gas station first for supplies.
-BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!
The two jumped in unison when unexpectedly the horn of a car very close erupted into a deafening howl, scaring the silence away with its loud screams. Miles's eyes darted to where it was coming from, running up to the noise. He stopped when he saw a car next to some fallen gas pumps with a long thin pipe jabbed into its hood like someone stabbed it. Shadow ran past him and looked into the car's window to see no one was inside pressing any horn, and the keys weren't even in the ignition. Miles grabbed onto the pipe and—straining his muscles—ripped it out of the hood. The loud noise stopped suddenly, and the silence returned to the area.
"Jeez…" Shadow said. "What the hell was up with that?"
"I dunno." Miles gave a lopsided smile. "But it looks to me like we got a new thing to fend off those monsters with."
He held the three-foot-long steel pipe in his hand, waving it around unprofessionally like a sword. It was a lot more impressive than the plank would ever be, and he sure felt a lot safer with its weight joining the handguns'. "Any keys?"
"Nope."
"Didn't think so."
Miles turned to walk back to the shop when the static started again. Alarmed, Miles clenched the pipe in his hands, looking around for whatever was coming towards him. He stayed like this for a few seconds before Shadow exclaimed. "Miles, three-o-clock!"
He looked in that direction to see two straightjacket monsters walking towards him. Raising the pipe, Miles let out a battle cry and charged at them. Immediately when he got to them, he swung the pipe vertically, hitting and knocking one of them over. The other only stood up a second longer before the fox smashed its brains in with the edge of the pipe. The one still on the ground—with an abrupt burst of speed—began crawling away before the fox could hit it. It's "life" only lasted a second longer than it would have had it stayed, for Shadow jumped in its path and kicked it hard in the head. The speed at which the monster was moving, combined with the force Shadow kicked it with, resulted in a broken neck on one now dead monster.
Miles looked at the hedgehog, smiling. "Thanks Shadow."
"No problem. Let's get to that store place and see if we can find anything useful."
Nodding, Miles turned and finally began to walk to the small building not too far away from the gas pumps.
---Later…---
Shadow's opened the refrigerator door, grabbing a bottle of soda out and closing it. Soda and the mini bag of chips in hand, he placed them on the counter right next to Miles. Hungry, the two furries where snacking on the food in the gas station, since obviously no one was there to make them pay for it. Miles was sitting at the counter eating Doritos while Shadow was walking around grabbing more food.
"Miles, do you really think Sonic's here?" Shadow asked while keeping his gaze on the food in front of him.
"I'm not sure." Miles said, and he really wasn't. The radio transmission and the letter so far was the only proof he'd found, and even those two weren't fully valid. He considered whether or not he should say what he wanted to next, and decided to say it. "I've never been sure of anything since he died. It's been so weird. Dead people can't write letters………"
"Yeah…"
Hopping off his chair, Miles walked over to the window, looking outside. "I must sound crazy."
"Nah. It's understandable. If you're crazy, then I guess I'm crazy too."
Miles tried to hold back a laugh. Not exactly the usual way of comforting someone, but it did make him feel a bit less tense.
It was at that moment he realized how glad he was that the hedgehog was around. He'd only known him for about an hour, but he was already enjoying Shadow's company greatly. It sure beat having to run around the place alone. Now not only did he have someone to help him against all the monsters and puzzles, but also someone to talk to. Something about his presence made the situation seem a lot more bearable, and Miles had no problem with that.
"Miles."
The fox was broken from his reverie as Shadow's deep baritone voice spoke. Looking over to him, Miles asked "What?"
There was a long pause, but Shadow spoke, seeming to try to find the right words to say what he was wondering. "You said that Sonic died…but you never told me; how did he die?"
Surprised, Miles placed his hands on the counter and looked downwards, his eyes not really focusing on anything. No one had asked him that before. Everyone who had bothered to talk to him after Sonic's death either knew already, or just didn't bother to ask.
Taking in a deep breath, Miles spoke. "I don't know what the disease was…no one seemed to know, not even any of the professionals…"
Shadow instantly knew what he was about to hear next wouldn't be good. His string of sympathy began to roll into a ball of pity.
"It was incurable." Miles spoke hopelessly. "If it ever was, by the time anyone noticed something was wrong it was far too late. Those arrogant doctors that claim to know the cure to everything were clueless on how to save him. But the hospital managed to keep him alive for about eight or nine months. Everyone knew it was over for him though. No one could save him."
"Oh Miles…"
"That was three years ago…" Miles's face twitched, and he was beginning to feel that odd but familiar feeling at the bottom of his eyes. Years of tears, and he still wasn't over the whole thing – he didn't think he ever would be. He shut his eyes and held the tears back. He wasn't going to begin crying like a baby in front of the other adult. Eventually the feeling faded away, and he felt fine again. As fine as he could, at least.
"I'm sorry that happened to you two." Shadow said sincerely. He bit his lip, trying to think of what else to say. Before he could, Miles continued to carry on the conversation instead.
"What about you?"
"Huh?"
Miles looked over to him. The question that had hidden in shadows of his mind had finally come back out of its hiding place. He was surprised he hadn't asked this already. "Do you live here?"
"I don't know." Shadow frowned. "Maybe…I just sort of woke up here, you could say."
"You don't remember?"
He nodded. "I've got amnesia or…something. I think it may have been from something that happened before today; something that happened to the citizens of this town…all I remember is waking up not too far away from where we are now. You're the first person I've met since."
The fox sighed. That sort of figured. It seemed everyone there either didn't live there, didn't know what was going on, or didn't want to talk to him.
Miles didn't seem to know how to reply to that, so Shadow decided to switch gears a bit. "I don't know much about this Sonic guy, but he sounds very nice."
"He was." Miles grabbed onto the bag of Doritos and stuffed a few more chips into his mouth, munching on them and enjoying their addictive taste. "The nicest guy I ever met…"
Shadow frowned again. It seemed like bad things always happened to good people. From what little he remembered about the world, he knew that. "I really hope you can find him."
"Yeah…" Miles took a sip from another bottle of water. "Me too."
A few bags of various snack foods later, the two partially satisfied furries walked out of the gas station and headed for the bowling alley.