Sonic Hill 2: DX

Chapter 10: Delusion Overdose

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Taptaptap, clink, tap tap, clink…

Taptaptap, clink, tap tap, clink…

sonic hill sonic hill found another flesh kill

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Miles bolted upwards, his back screaming just as much as he was. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!"

Echoing.

It was too much, and he fell back to the floor, only to scream once again as the soft padding hit his mangled flesh. It hurt. It hurt a lot.

Swimming in pain, Miles finally came to his mortal senses and stared up at the ceiling, which now had a large hole in it about the size of his body.

'I'm…alive…'

Somehow, he didn't feel like he would be for much longer. He was laying in something. Something wet.

Slowly, he reached behind him—his muscles pulsating with pain—and put his hand to his back, only to feel the worst physical agony he ever felt in his entire life. It shot through his spine, quickly flowing through the rest of his body in an insane electrified tidal wave. He let out another scream (the feeling of helplessness it suggested was astonishing) and took his hand away from his back. He looked at his now crimson-stained glove, amazed that his body was still running.

'—First Aid Kit.'

Blindly, he reached for the bag he'd taken from Shadow earlier, feeling a huge sense of relief as his hand spotted it a few feet to his right. He opened it and pulled the first aid kit out, opening the case and feeling around for any bandages or something to help him. The first thing he felt was a bottle he didn't recall seeing before. He pulled it out of the case and tried to read what was printed on the side.

'Health Drink

Guaranteed to speed up the healing process and/or numb pains from cuts, sores, infections and menstrual cramps. Not recommended for children under the age of 12. If any side effects occur, consult with a doctor.'

'Thank God.' The thought wasn't even finished before the bottle top was off, and he was vigorously chugging the whole thing down. Small rivers of it that didn't quite make it into his mouth spilled down his furry cheeks, but he didn't care. All he cared about was at least partially numbing the hurt.

It was empty in seconds, and the pain in Miles back seemed to fade a little. Just a little. He doubted what he just did was healthy, but if it killed him, that was just too bad. At the moment he was too focused on the pain to really care about that. Putting his hand to his back, he felt along the line of torn flesh created by Pyramid Head's blade, twitching slightly from the still blinding pain it caused.

'Why didn't that kill me?'

It was then that his hand collided with his shotgun, which was still strapped to him, and now had a small dent in its side that was perfectly aligned with the large cut across his back. That piece of metal must have been what reduced the effect of the blow and stopped the knife from chopping him in half. He didn't know whether that made him really lucky or really screwed over.

Looking up, he finally fully processed the large hole in the ceiling, which was about the size of his body. Light from the fog poured in through it, which explained why he could see even though his flashlight wasn't on anymore. How did he make it through the roof in one piece?

'I must still be on the third floor…' Miles thought. 'And the roof was old and molded, or…or something. That would make sense wouldn't it?'

Time to get to business. Miles reached back into the first aid kit and pulled out a long roll of bandaging, ripping it when he felt it was long enough and slowly, painfully, wrapping it around his back. When he was done, the bandage was wrapped tightly around his chest, a little lower than the belt that held the shotgun was, covering the wound. Now at least he might have a chance of living long enough to get out of the room.

And that's when the third question hit him.

'Where the hell am I anyway?'

That's when he remembered: padding. The floor was padded and soft, like it was a…

Slow and still painfully, Miles sat up a second time and turned on the flashlight, illuminating the new room he was in more than the fog's weak white lighting ever could. The walls, floor, and even ceiling of the square room were padded with comfortable white cushions. There was a steel door not too far in front of him with a window at the top, so people could see through it. And finally, there was blood, everywhere. And not just his blood either. The cushions were stained with—hell some parts were soaked in—crimson red, especially on the floor not too far ahead.

Miles realized that, to his horror, he was laying in the middle of one of the insane asylum's special treatment cells.

'When Miles has calmed down, he can be let out of his cell for lunch hour.' Sarcasm just didn't seem quite as funny to him as he hoped it would.

After a few minutes of just sitting there, trying to get used to the pain, he finally crawled back up using one of the padded walls until he was standing upright. The bandages seemed to stretch, once again causing more and more pain to flow through his veins, but they stayed intact, and he did too.

'Oh god please tell me the door isn't locked.' He clumsily stepped forward unintentionally mimicking the way the nurses stumbled. Right when he reached the door, he felt his strength drain from his body for a moment and fell forward, pushing the door open and almost landing flat on his face in the process. The hallway it opened into, like the rest of the hospital, was dark and gloomy. Apparently the door was left slightly ajar, which was a very good thing because there were no handles on the inside. If it hadn't been opened beforehand he'd be trapped inside that insane asylum until he starved to death…

'I need to get out of here.'

Turning, he put the first aid kit in the bag and picked it up, grunting in more pain as he kneeled over. He had the feeling that he should take it easy on the running around for a little while, at least. With that thought in mind, he began limping out of the Special Treatment Hall, searching around with his trusty flashlight for a door or something. Once he spotted it, he pushed it open into the 2nd floor main hall.

More nurses, dragging their pipes across the tile flooring, stumbled towards him. Immediately, he shouldered the shotgun, aimed, and pulled the trigger. The burst of ammunition sent the nurse flying and falling to the floor, dying with the radio static once again, and almost knocked his weakened body over. The only unlocked part of the hospital he hadn't checked was the end of the S corridor on floor 3. Turning around the corner and going through the stairway door, Miles crawled up the stairs and back into the third floor main hallway. He took the door directly across from that back into the S corridor, and stared down the hall.

'Better check the rest of the hall before going back to Shadow.' Miles noted. It'd be best to at least find something useful before he worried the hell out of the poor hedgehog.

So he continued to slowly move through the hallway, feeling pain course through his veins like a bullet in every step, trying all the doors he came across and only finding most of them to be locked. He continued moving down the hall till he noticed one of the few doors on the right side. He tried it and was rather surprised when it opened easily, revealing a dimly lit shower room.

He took one step into the room before he heard a wet sound and felt something squish under his right red-and-white sneaker. Looking down, he noticed a thick trail of green sludge leading from the door deeper into the open shower room, and his foot was in the middle of it.

"Eww…"

Pulling his foot out of the icky substance, he wiped it on the dirty floor beside it and began to follow the trail of sludge, curious as where it led. Finally, it ended at a small open drainage pipe in the corner of the room. There was something shiny inside the drain reflecting off the flashlight, Miles noticed. Kneeling down, he realized it was a key.

"What the hell is a key doing down there?" he asked himself. It didn't matter, he just knew he'd probably need it. He reached in, feeling glad he wore gloves that day, and tried to grab it. All he got was a handful of sludge – the key was too far down the drain for him to reach. "Damnit…"

Sighing, he stood back up and decided to worry about it later. He wasn't in the mood to stick around this disgusting room. So he walked back into the S Corridor, continuing to check all the doors and coming up with no luck. That is, until he reached the final door in the hallway: S14.

S14 was not unlike S3: It was a small sealed room meant for the patients with nothing more than a bed and a table in it. But unlike S3, the bed was overturned and partially leaning on the wall. The table was in the middle of the compact room, and on that table was a small gray box wrapped in chains. There was also a note carved into the right wall with what must have been something extremely sharp.

'rAcheL

i wiLL Love u four ever, it is my destAny!'

Wondering who wrote that and whom it was written to, Miles examined the box. Whatever was in it must have been important – there were a few layers of chains wrapped around it tightly, and three locks. Miles pulled on all the locks, checking to see if any of them were unlocked. Luckily, one of them already was. He pulled the first chain out, and then examined the other two.

The first one was held together by a normal key-lock, and had a purple X colored onto it. The second one was a combination lock. Miles began to contemplate how he could open them. The answer came pretty quickly.

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'I g-- -he k-y --om E-pio. It'- pro-a--- --- key -- --- box.'

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'Is this the box that doctor was talking about?' Miles reached into the bag and pulled out the purple key. He slid it into the hole and felt a wonderful sense of joy as it unlocked and the chain loosened. He dropped the now useless key to the floor and pulled the chain off. Finally; got that out of the way. Now only one lock left…

'8, 5, 12, 16. That's what that typewriter note said…'

Maybe that was it too. The fox leaned forward, trying to ignore the ever-present pain in his back, and grabbed the combination lock. He put in that combo, and once he turned it to 16 he heard a click and this chain too loosened. "Yes!"

He had figured it out, and the box was finally unlocked. He pulled the chain off and grabbed the handle at the top of the box. Slowly, he opened it, curious as to what was inside. When it was opened all the way, he shined the flashlight to view whatever the doctor and the patient had been writing about.

In the box was a long, single strand of brown hair.

"…" Gripping the hair in his hand, Miles quietly grabbed the box and chucked it into the wall, screaming like an angered lunatic afterwards: "GODDAMNIT!!!"

---Later…---

Out of luck, Miles sadly walked back down the S Corridor. The past hour, and all that pain he'd just caused himself, now seemed completely worthless. He still held the hair in his hand, but he wasn't sure what the hell to do now.

He passed by the shower room door once again, wondering how he can get ahold of that key. And that's when an idea popped into his mind.

'Hey…'

He reached into his bag, pulling out the safety pin Shadow had put in it earlier, and then looked down at the long hair in his hand he had gotten from the box. Maybe if he used the safety pin like a hook, and the hair like a line…

'Thank you Shadow.'

Grinning, Miles opened the shower room door again, thinking that maybe that hair wouldn't be useless after all. He walked deeper into the room and kneeled down next to the sludgy drainage pipe. He took the hair and stuck it through the topside of the pin, causing a very unstable and exaggerated fishing hook. Slowly, as not to drop it and lose his chance at getting the key, he lowered the 'hook' down through the hole. Once it reached the key, he tried to maneuver the end of the pin into the hole at the metallic top. It took a few minutes, but he finally did it. Even slower than on his way in, he pulled the hook back up with the key like a fish with bait.

"Phew, that was tough…" he said to himself, feeling rather ridiculous right now after doing all that. He examined the words printed at the top of the key: 'Corridor Elevator'.

The elevator was locked—a rusty metal shield covered the Up and Down arrows that activated it—but if he unlocked that sheet of metal and took the elevator down to the first floor, he'd end up in the C corridor. That corridor led through the rest of the rooms in the hospital's first floor, or at least it would if the doors weren't locked. Even if they were, that meant he could check out that corridor at least.

'If I can find anything, or more importantly, find Amy, I'll come right back to Shadow and then we'll get out of here. If I don't…well, I guess I'll just keep looking.' To be honest, he really didn't want to be near Shadow right now. That whole incident in S3 made him feel really uncomfortable…

Shaking his head and focusing again on the mission at hand, Miles put the sludgy key in the bag—he would of put it in his pocket, but that'd get Sonic's photo and letter dirty—and walked out of the room. He stopped at the elevator in the middle of the hall, which was right next to the still locked corridor stairway door, and used the key to unlock the metal covering the buttons. It opened up and he pressed the down arrow. After a few seconds, the elevator reached his floor and opened up into a very clean, well-lit square.

With a soft whir, the automatic doors shut behind Miles once he entered. He looked at the floor levels and pressed Level 1. That strange feeling of descent overtook the small cube, which died away as he reached the first floor.

Static exploded to life again when the doors opened, but Miles wasn't very surprised. In fact, he had already pulled the shotgun out from behind his back, expecting the hall to be dangerous. Quickly, he jumped into the hall—doing it with not quite as much agility as he hoped, thanks to the canyon in his back—and saw two nurses standing about ten yards away, already limping towards him. He aimed in between the two and opened fire. Both nurses fell down from the wide burst of shells, just the effect he wanted. One of them didn't die completely though, and began to stumble upwards. Pumping the shotgun, Miles aimed and fired again. Another shell tore the nurse's torso to pieces and sent it reeling to the ground. This time, it didn't get up.

He pumped the shotgun again and decided to check the rooms in this corridor first before moving into any other sector of the hospital. He stumbled to the door across the hall from the elevator: C5, and tried opening it. The handle wouldn't turn all the way though, telling him it was locked. Frustrated, he walked down the hall to the next door, C4. This one opened, and he checked out what was inside.

The room was rather large compared to the other patients rooms in the hospital, and most of the furniture in it was turned over and messed up like someone was desperately looking for something in a rush. He decided to examine the place for anything useful and coming up with nothing until he reached one of the overturned tables.

"Just what I need." Miles smiled as he picked up the box of shotgun shells. What a weird place to find them, but he didn't care. He only had two shells left, and the extra seven would probably come in handy. He still hadn't found any handgun clips other than the one in the apartments since he got the gun, and he was beginning to wonder if the weapon was just useless weight now. After considering it for a while, he decided to keep it just in case.

Further examination of the room proved useless, so he walked back into the C hallway and continued his search. The door to C3 was unlocked, and he pushed into that room to examine it just like the others.

The room, unlike C4, was actually in somewhat good shape. Also unlike C4, and every other room he'd entered so far, there were seemingly tens of creepy teddy bears strewn across the floor. Quite an unsettling thing to see anywhere, let alone a place like this.

Raising an eyebrow, Miles looked around the place, shining the flashlight around and illuminating the many teddy bears' shadows, making them look like scary demons crawling up the gray walls. It made him feel uneasy, but he had to check out the place. Stepping over two of the bears, Miles began to slowly walk into the room.

Something moved.

Miles stood still, wondering what it was. He could see a shadow that wasn't his own moving across the wall, but he couldn't spot it on the ground. It seemed to be coming from behind a toppled over table – whatever it was it wasn't visible from his current location. Slowly, he crept closer to the table, wondering why the radio wasn't going off if there was a monster in the room.

As he took the final step forward, the light shined on a young pink hedgehog sitting on the floor, playing with a teddy bear.

"Amy!" he shouted, feeling very glad he'd checked the room now. He finally found her!

The little girl looked up at him, shielding her eyes from his flashlight and looking more annoyed by his presence than relieved.

"Shadow and I have been looking everywhere for you!" he said as he walked around the table to her side. He finally got a good look at her and was absolutely amazed that she didn't seem to be hurt at all considering where she was. Aside from a slightly dirty dress, she was in perfect condition. "Jeez, you're not hurt at all! I can't believe you don't have a single scratch on you!"

Raising an eyebrow in response, Amy stood up and glared at him, making her tan-skinned cheeks crumple unattractively similarly to how they did when he saw her outside earlier. "What are you talking about Tails?"

Miles wasn't in the mood for any stupid childish games. He shook his head and countered her with another question. "How did you know my nickname? Only Sonic knows that name."

"None of your beeswax!" Amy shouted. She crossed her arms and looked away, telling him anyway. "But I guess you don't remember, huh? I was friends with Sonic when I was sick in the Station Square hospital."

"But how did you know he was here!?" Miles asked, finally asking all the questions he'd been waiting ages to ask. "And how did you get here!?" He sighed and put his hand out as if to stop her from answering what he really didn't expect her to answer anyway. "We'll sort this out later. This is no place for a kid…I still can't believe you're not hurt at all!"

"Hmph, I'm big enough." Putting her hands to her hips, she began to walk past him, stepping over a few teddy bears in the process. Her interest in them seemed to have deflated.

"Please come with me." Miles tried desperately to hide the weakness in his voice. He didn't like her, but he had come all this way to find her, and he surely didn't want to be alone anymore. "It's too dangerous here."

"Dangerous?" She continued walking, and for a second he thought she was going to ignore him and cause more trouble. But she stopped and turned back to him, still giving him that look of agitated disdain. "Fine."

Miles let out a sigh of relief—maybe getting out of here would be easier than he thought—and grabbed Amy's small hand. She yanked it away before he could make another move. "Don't touch me!"

"Follow me then." He sighed, walking back to the door. Childcare definitely wasn't going to be one of his future careers, that's for sure. She followed right behind him, not seeming to be disturbed by the shotgun in his hand or the dark red-stained bandages behind it. This was so surreal, he felt, as he pulled the door open back into the hallway and looked down both ends. He decided it'd probably be best to go back to Shadow next and get out of this place with him and Amy…

His thoughts were interrupted as he heard Amy's tiny footsteps, and looked to see she was running down the corridor. "Hey, wait!" he called, chasing after her.

Rather than running out of the hall entirely, she stopped at one of the left doors, and waited there until he caught up to her. "I left something in this room." She said, looking sincere in what she was saying. "It's a letter from Sonic."

Memories of when he saw her on the brick wall flooded back into Miles's mind. She was holding a letter with her earlier…

"From Sonic?" he asked, eyes lighting up. Had she gotten a letter telling her to come to this town too? He grabbed the door handle she was standing next to and tried opening it, only to find it wouldn't open. "Da—eer…darn, it's locked."

"I know. I locked it in there for safe keeping." She pulled out a shiny silver key and slid it into the lock, unlocking and opening the door wide into a dark room. Looking at the fox, she gestured for him to enter the room. "Here. It's in the back of the room."

Excitement coursing through his veins, Miles ran into the room, shining the flashlight around the place. Strange, the room was completely empty—not only of the letter, but of all the furniture too.

"I don't see it…" he said.

"It's farther back." Amy said, pointing towards the corner. "Just a little. Don't you see it?"

Taking a few steps deeper into the room, Miles squinted to try and find any piece of paper. It didn't seem to be anywhere..."Hey, it's not—"

—SLAM!

"…shit!" Miles cried, slapping his forehead at his own stupidity. Quickly, he whirred around and saw that his thoughts were correct—the door was closed. He ran to it, grabbing the handle and trying to open it. His attempts were futile; she had locked him inside. "Amy! Let me out!!

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Its dead, gray eyes opened wide.

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Amy's muffled voice came from the other end of the door. "Is that what you want!? Huh!? Huh!? You want out!?" she teased, almost seeming to laugh along the way. "What's the password!?"

"Let me out you snotty little brat!!" he shouted angrily. This was not the time nor place for games like this.

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Its thick neck tendrils cracked, some of them snapping entirely.

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"Ha! So I'm a brat eh? No way I'm letting you out now, fartface!"

Slamming his fist on the door, an aggravated groan emitted from his lips. "Don't do this, Amy!"

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Slowly, its lacerated mouth opened wide and it let out a horribly dry roar, its sharp needle-like teeth forming around its powerful jaw.

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Hearing the roar, Miles jumped and spun around, his heart beating fast. The radio still didn't make a sound, but the monster on the ceiling was too real to be a delusion. His eyes widened in a horrified knowledge at the situation and he backed into the door.

"A-Amy…" he stuttered, no longer angry but now deathly afraid. "L-let me out of here!"

"Ha!" she laughed cheerfully, not seeming to be aware of what was happening in the dark room. "No way! I'm just gonna leave you here to think about what you called me, stupidhead! Bye-bye!!"

"Amy!!" Miles cried in panic. "No!!"

The sound of her footsteps faded away, being replaced by another breathy roar from the creature.

'Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck…' he thought to himself, realizing he was trapped in the room with that…that thing.

It was almost similar to the straight jacket monsters, but far far worse. There were four of them all-together. Each hung on the ceiling by its long thin arms; eyes focused on his small furry body. Their brownish red skin was melded not only into the straightjacket, but also into the mattress on their backs. It looked like they were once patients who were tied to the bed and burned alive. Below the mattresses, their dirty bare feet dangled at Miles's eye-level.

He grasped the shotgun tightly, knowing that if he had a chance of making it out of the room alive, that weapon was it.

Instantly the closest hanging-mattress monster swung its body towards him, almost hitting him in the jaw. He managed to jump out of the way though and backed into a corner of the room. The monsters began to crawl across the ceiling towards him, almost cornering him before he ducked under their feet and ran to the other end of the room.

'Okay, at least they can't do much…' Miles thought to himself.

That was when a long tentacle shot out of the closest creature's mouth at extreme speeds, almost putting out his eye. He side stepped just in time to dodge the slimy flesh and ran to the farthest corner of the room.

'Just had to jinx it…'

Putting his back to the wall, he aimed the shotgun and fired as fast as he could before they tried to attack again. The shells hit the one the farthest to his left, but it didn't let go of the ceiling like he hoped it would. Instead, it shook around and continued moving towards him. It shot a tentacle—which Miles suddenly realized was its tongue—out of its mouth and missed him by only a few inches. The slithery flesh stabbed into the wall, causing Miles to scream and dive out of the way just in time to avoid another of the creature's tentacles.

'Shit! Not good!'

They were closing in on him again. He spotted a large hole in their 'wall' of flesh and ran for it, trying to get to the opposite end of the room. Before he got through though, one of the monsters swung its mattress forward, hitting him in the head and knocking him to the floor, landing on his shoulder. Miles let out a groan of pain and rolled out of the way of another tentacle just in time, feeling that extreme pain in his back again as it contacted with the floor. He shrugged it off as much as he could and stumbled back up, sidestepping out of the way as one of the four beasts tried to hit him again with their long tongue.

Aiming upwards, he squeezed the trigger of the shotgun again and was rewarded with another breathy roar from the monster it contacted, which was the same one as before. It accidentally let go of the ceiling and fell to the floor. Rather than just dying, it let out another roar and charged at him like an ape. The creature missed him as he ran out of the way, instead ramming headfirst into the wall. The force from which it rammed into the wall crushed its tiny skull in, leaving it to die a quick and painless death.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Miles quickly pulled out the box of shotgun shells, reloading it as fast as he could before the other monsters—which were now circling around the room—could reach him. The second he finished reloading, he aimed up to shoot the nearest beast. But he was too late; it already swung its mattress-body and rammed into his head again. He stumbled backwards, hitting the wall and crying out in agony as the pain shot through his veins for the thousandth time. One eye clenched shut from the pain; the untrained fox pointed the weapon at the monster's torso and fired. This monster couldn't keep its grip as long as the first and fell to the floor. Before it could begin to crawl towards him, Miles fired at its fallen body. It screamed and dropped face first into the ground.

'2 More. 5 Shells left. 2 or 3 shells per monster…' he didn't have time to finish calculating. Swiftly the two remaining monsters moved in on him. Before he could even re-aim the shotgun, the farthest one shot its long tongue at him. Like before, he was able to side step out of the way, but this time it wrapped around his neck, lifting him into the air. Miles dropped the shotgun and tried desperately with both hands to unwrap the tongue before it choked him to death.

Through his gasps for air, Miles realized the creature was reeling its tongue in like a fishing rod, bringing him closer and closer to its opened mouth. Just seeing down its dead, dry throat gave him enough inspiration to pull its coiled tongue loose enough for him to drop through. He fell to the floor and instantly dived for the shotgun, landing right next to it and grabbing the handle. Right when he did, he felt the second monster's tongue wrap around his ankle. Immediately he aimed up and fired at the beast not too far up and in front of him, causing it to scream in pain and loosen its tongue. He took that time to fire again. Sprinkles of blood flew everywhere as it dropped to the floor like the two before it and immediately charged at him. He fired a third time, blowing its head off with the burst. It fell down and died.

'One left…'

He looked up behind him and saw it was almost right above him. It shot its tongue down at him, missing him by a hair before he rolled out of the way. Once he stopped, he aimed and shot it down with his second to last shell. Once it fell to the floor, it charged at him, letting out a final roar before he turned the shotgun around and swung it like a bat. The handle of the gun slammed into its head, shattering its skull and sending it rolling to the floor beside him, dead for good.

The room went almost completely silent once again, the only noise being his heavy panting.

"I did it…" he said, surprised that he managed to survive the fight. Clutching his now aching arm, he got up and looked around the room, trying to figure out how to get out of the place now. "I swear, when I get my hands on that bitch—"

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Sirens.

He felt a strange tingle arise in the back of his head, which instantly grew into a huge, blindingly painful migraine. He clutched his head with his dirty gloved hands, groaning loudly as the worst headache in his entire life overcame him.

"Ahhhhh!!! My head!!" he cried in agony, falling back to his knees. "I…I can't……AHHHHHHH!!!"

His whole body fell to the floor, sirens screaming along with the pain into his ears all the way down. Unconsciousness took him over, and suddenly the whole world around him started shifting; blood flowing down the walls, furniture being crushed by unknown weight, the floor cracking and crumbling as piping burst out of it like rusted sunflowers.

Miles couldn't see it, but he was now being pushed down the decimated bloodbath of a hospital hallway on a cart, all kinds of medical equipment surrounding him. In the distance, Sonic's voice was barely audible.

"Tails!" the hedgehog cried, his terror and worry combining into one panicked voice. "No! Please don't die on me! Don't give up Tails! Tails! Tails! Tails! Tails! Tails!"

But Miles couldn't hear it anymore. He couldn't hear anything anymore but the sound of his own screaming. It filled his mind, silence-shattering screams of pain and horror, as he was slowly being pushed into a world of darkness.