Sonic Hill 2: DX
Chapter 7: Off Track
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Pete's Bowl-O-Rama looked no different than any normal bowling alley; something that Miles found comfort in noticing. Like with most of the other buildings, there were two or three cars in the small parking lot, like not many people were there before the town became the abandoned shadow of what it used to be.
'I wonder if the town changed early in the morning…' Miles considered. 'That would explain why there aren't that many cars out…'
Thinking about how many scenarios could have occurred in this town didn't seem to be answering any questions. Going into the bowling alley might though, if that pelican was headed here. Miles grasped the metal handle of one of the glass doors. Before he pulled it, Shadow spoke up, saying something he really didn't expect to hear.
"You know what, I'll stay out here." Shadow said, crossing his arms and giving the fox childish frown. "I hate bowling."
Miles sweatdropped, flabbergasted the hedgehog didn't want to come because of his grudge against the 'sport'. The look he gave Shadow was unfamiliar to the hedgehog, but Sonic would have known that as his self-titled 'Tails's Infamous WTF Look'. "I'm not going in to play, you know." He stated matter-of-factly.
"I know." Shadow said, looking around what he could see of the parking lot. "I just can't stand those places. I'll wait out here. Hurry back, okay?"
Sighing, Miles handed him the steel pipe and opened the door. "Fine. Just give me a call if any monsters decide to come by you can't handle, alright?"
He half-expected Shadow to be angry, but he wasn't. The hedgehog nodded, leaning on the wall and looking around casually – which clashed humorously with the fact he was carrying a large slightly bloody pipe in his hand. Shaking his head, Miles walked into the bowling alley.
The first room was trashed – tables and other furniture were broken and lying on the floor, like someone had ran into the room with a large mallet and smashed everything in sight. The room was rather dark, but the light coming from the fog outside brightened up the place enough to see that there was another set of double doors—this one made out of thin wood—to his left. Since he didn't even want to bother looking around the remains of the pigsty, Miles walked over to the doors and pushed them open into what looked like a restaurant area.
"So what did you do? Robbery? Murder?"
Miles's ears perked up. That voice sounded very familiar, and it seemed to be coming from the other room. Shortly after the first one, another familiar voice responded.
"Nah, nothing like that."
'Hey that's…' Miles slowly crept over to the door at the other end of the room, where a conversation was in progression in the next room over. He put his ear to the door and listened quietly.
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"Ha! You're just a gutless fatso!" the pink hedgehog exclaimed, glaring at the fat bald man next to her.
It was in the main part of the bowling alley where the two were sitting at one of the dining booths meant for people to eat in – and it was being put to good use. Eggman sat in the booth, munching on a new hot slice of pizza he had managed to find and heat up. His large egg-shaped tummy—that which had been the cause of a lot of the misery in his life—was craving for something fresh and tasty. It was quite satisfied now as the man gulped down his fourth slice of pizza within the past three minutes.
While his tummy was happy, the man himself was being accompanied—or pestered would be more like it, he partially felt—by the pink hedgehog he had ran into in his trek through town. She sat on the table right next to him, eating her own respective slice. She felt she deserved it – after all she was the one who had persuaded him to give her a piece with her lovely social skills. Had she not done that he may have possibly gotten too much to eat for himself.
"Ugh, don't diss me." Eggman said, slightly annoyed and showing it.
She put the crust down next to the other slice of crust she had left behind—she hated pizza crust—and then crossed her arms, looking away from him. "I thought you said the cops where after you."
The man took a bite of his fifth slice, alerting her with his mouth full that he wasn't as guilty as she thought. "I just ran because the cops where chasing me."
"But if you did something bad, why don't you just say you sorry?" the little girl asked questionably. After a short silence, she looked down at her pink-and-red boots she had gotten from one of her 'friends' at the home. "Well…I guess I run away lots too…" She said with a slight bit of sadness showing for once.
"It's no good." Eggman sighed, finishing off what was left of the fifth slice of warm cheesy goodness. "They just wouldn't listen. Nobody will ever believe me…"
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"Did you find the hedgehog you where looking for?" Miles heard Eggman's voice ask. A chill ran down his spine. What he was thinking at that moment was quickly confirmed. "What's his name…Sonic?"
'Jesus, what do these guys know about Sonic?' Miles questioned. Knowing he was involved with the conversation somehow, he pushed the double doors open and walked into the large open room.To his surprise, while Eggman was sitting at the booth, the little girl was nowhere to be seen.
"Eggman!" he called, walking up to him.
"Oh…um…yosh?" Eggman quickly put the pizza down and give the fox this look that reminded him of when he had been caught stealing cookies from the cookie jar way back when.
"Miles. We met in the apartment building." He formally reintroduced himself.
"Yeah I remember." Eggman said. As if saying that had made it okay to eat again, he picked the food back up and continued wolfing it down.
Miles couldn't help but get the impression that he wasn't being acknowledged as well as he should be. "Are you alone here?"
"Uh…" the older man almost seemed to consider whether he should answer the question truthfully or not. Finally: "No."
And that's when a sharp pain suddenly shot through Miles's foot. "Ooow, shit!" he cried, jumping up and rubbing his aching limb. Looking down, he saw a large green bowling ball on the floor.
Both Miles and Eggman turned to the far wall in sync; staring at who stood right next to the doors from which the fox came less than a minute ago.
The pink hedgehog held a large childish grin on her obnoxious face. "Bye bye!" she waved cheerfully, right before she turned and ran out of the room.
Miles narrowed his eyes. "Hey! Come back!" he was about to run right after her, but stopped himself and looked at the other man, who still sat at the table. "Eggman! Let's go after her!"
"Huh?" Eggman asked stupidly. "Amy? But why?"
"Amy? Is that her name?"Eggman shrugged-"That's what she said."-and took yet another large chunk out of the pizza. He didn't seem to have intention of getting out of the chair anytime soon.
"This town is full of monsters!" Miles cried, shocked at how careless the man was. "How can you just sit there and eat pizza!?"
"Like this." Eggman said. He stood up, then sat back down, continuing to chew on the cheesy treat."…" Miles fell over.
Through his thick glasses, Eggman rolled his eyes. "She said she'd be fine by herself anyway. Said a fatso like me would only slow her down."
Miles threw his arms up in the air. It was confirmed now: this whole town was crazy. "Ugh! Screw you, man!"
Annoyed, he ran out of the bowling alley, leaving the large man alone with his meal.
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Just as he stepped outside, Miles was confronted by Shadow, who ran from around the corner and stopped in front of him, panting slightly.
"Are you okay?" the fox asked.
Shadow nodded, catching his breath.
Time to get to business. "Did you see the young girl here?"
"Yeah!" Shadow pointed to where he had just run back from. "Man, can she move! She was too fast for me! I tried to catch up. Sorry." He gave a half-frown at his pathetically failed attempt to catch the girl. Then he asked, as if he was shocked his ally hadn't done it yet: "Aren't you gonna go after her?"
Miles nodded. "Yeah! Come on!" he sprinted towards where Shadow pointed, stopping when he didn't hear the hedgehog's footsteps behind him. He looked at Shadow, who was leaning downwards a bit, rubbing his knee with one hand and holding the steel pipe with the other. "What's wrong?"
"Bashed my knee on that stupid brick wall not too far from here." Shadow muttered, rubbing his knee. "Hurts like a mother."
"Need any help?"
"Please."
Miles grabbed Shadow's hand and the two ran through the bowling alley's parking lot, eventually reaching an area behind the place. There was an open gated fence that led into an alleyway. Together they ran through the open gap and into the dank alley.
At first he thought the alley was a dead end, but upon closer inspection he noticed that there was an extremely small space between the two buildings that led to another street – too small for an adult of even their size to enter, but maybe big enough for a young child to squeeze through.
"She went though there." Shadow said.
What luck. "Damn. Is there any other way?"
Shadow pointed to a door only a few feet behind them, which appeared to be the back door of the building that had dead-ended the alley for adults. Miles noticed the sign above it, made out of what used to be some multicolored light letters, but quite a few of the letters were either broken or completely missing now.
'S-n---w Gay B-r'Miles raised an eyebrow. Oh the irony.
He grabbed the door handle and was displeased when it didn't fully turn. He took a closer look and noticed that there were three small locks keeping the door from opening. "No good. It's locked."
Shadow stepped forward and pushed Miles away from the door. He reached behind his head and pulled a key out of his spikes, sliding it into the top lock and turning. The lock opened. Then he kneeled down and pulled a second key out of his shoe, putting that one into the middle lock and turning. Like the one before it, the lock opened. Finally, he moved in front of the fox, putting his back to him. Miles couldn't see what was going on, but Shadow slowly moved his hand down to his lower region, letting out a low moan. When his hand came back into view, there was a key there. Like with the other three, Shadow slid it into the lock and turned. With all three unlocked, the door opened. Shadow turned to Miles and grinned.
Miles sweatdropped big time. Shadow gestured towards the door, signaling him to walk in first. He did just that; moving in and looking around the dimly lit bar.
The place was very gritty and dirty, but other than that it was in pretty good shape. There were many tables, booths, and chairs littered all over the place, along with two doors in the opposite corner of the room. The main bar part was littered with bottles – a few of them half-empty. There was even a stage to their immediate right, which had short runway that ended at a single pole that led from the floor to the ceiling.
"I think I used to work here." Miles heard Shadow say from behind him.
Somehow, Miles wasn't very surprised. "Great." He said monotonously.
Shadow glanced at the pole, grinning madly. "Want me to put on a show?"
Miles turned to him and gave him that 'wtf' look Sonic used to guiltlessly laugh at a second time. The hedgehog chuckled nervously and held out his hands. "Just kiddin' just kiddin'."
Rolling his eyes, Miles looked back to the door on the opposite end of the room. As interesting to him as the place was (and strange; he was surprised he and Sonic never heard of it when they were there), they didn't have any time to waste. That girl was going to get away soon if they didn't catch up now, and she might know something about Sonic – it was dangerous for her to be walking around alone anyway.
He reached the door and pulled it open, looking through endless fog down an alleyway. Once they got to the end, they looked down the road. The fog was strangely clearer here, almost normal looking for fog. This road—Audra Street—led Northwards back up to Doggie Street, and South down to a road he hadn't been to yet. Miles looked at the chain link fence that blocked them off from Doggie Street, trying to figure out where that girl went.
"Look!" Shadow grabbed his shoulder and pointed down the street, where Amy's small figure could be seen running down the sidewalk through the sheet of fog. "There she is!"
"After her!" Miles shouted. The duo broke into a sprint after the girl, gaining on her fast. They probably would have caught her if she had continued running down the street, but instead she made a right turn and ran up the short steps that led to the front doors of a very large building. She opened them both at the same time and ran in.
Miles and Shadow stopped at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at what they could see of the massive three-story building. Above the door, in large steel letters, were words that they both regretted having to read.
'Brook Haven Mental Hospital'Miles shook his head in disbelief, his eyes wide. "Aw hell no!"
"Lets go." Shadow said, grabbing his hand and pulling him up the stairs. Miles was reluctant to enter the place, but he knew he had no choice. As much as he hated it, they had to find Amy. Hot in pursuit of the little girl, the two furries opened the double doors wide and ran into the building.
Little did they know that they wouldn't be leaving for a very, very long time.