Chapter 13: Out of the Frying Pan...
March 21st, 2314 – 12:55 PM – Zerawian Countryside
Another fifteen minutes later, the truck left the concrete road and turned into the forest. The driver was pulling onto a wide dirt track in the trees. However, a lot of the trees around the track seemed to have been ripped down, as if by a massive physical force. Furthermore, there were huge tracks in this road. Whatever had made them, its wheels or treads were at least three feet wide, and it looked like a lot of them had come through here. What kind of machines could do something like that? Sonic felt like he really didn't want to run into it, whatever it was.
Onward and onward the path winded through the forest. The dirt road was covered with potholes from where trees had been yanked out of the ground to allow the trail to continue. The holes were probably deeper before, but the large amount of machines trampling through here had worn down the earth to the point where the holes weren't so big anymore. However, the truck still bounced up and down over these holes in the road quite a bit, making it difficult for Sonic and Tails to keep from falling off of the roof. After about ten more minutes of these bumps, the truck came to a halt. Sonic turned around to see why the truck had stopped, and his mouth fell open in awe.
The truck had come to rest on a rise of a hill, which gave it a great view of a large military base about a mile on up ahead. Calling it "large" could be inadequate though. The thing was built into a mountain in the distance, and even from here it looked gigantic. A control tower of sorts sprouted out of the peak, while artillery cannons were situated at various positions along the cliffs and slopes. At the base of the mountain and along cliffs, large metal doors could be seen, which were probably used to allow vehicles like tanks and aircraft to enter and exit. The base looked all but invincible.
Sonic actually gulped a bit, feeling doubts in his plan to avenge Kyle's death for the first time. It looked like this wasn't going to be as easy as he thought. If that was the outside of the base, who knew what was waiting on the inside?
However, the truck gave a sudden lurch and started down the path again. After it had driven forward about half a mile, it pulled off of the dirt trail and into a place in the trees where it was less visible. The engine switched off, and for the first time Sonic could hear other sounds inside the truck. There was the sound of men talking to each other, and the rattling of metal as they checked their weapons. Finally, there was a series of clicks as the doors opened and the policemen got out. Sonic and Tails ducked down on the roof, so they wouldn't be seen.
"All right everyone..." Sonic heard Zack say. "We're going to have to walk from here. We can't risk driving any closer, because they might spot this truck. Anyway, stay close and follow me to the refuse dump. That's our entry point."
Sonic then heard some blips and beeps, followed by a high-pitched whine. The whine died out quickly though. Sonic peeked out from the roof of the truck, and saw that Zack was holding his motion detector with a confused look on his face.
"This is odd...I'm getting a reading right next to us...on top of the truck."
Sonic's eyes popped open and he ducked back to hide.
"You sure?" one of the cops asked.
"I dunno...it might just be a glitch in the machine. I'll go up and have a look though."
Dammit! I forgot about his motion detector. Now he's gonna see us!
Sonic considered running for it with Tails, but why bother? Zack would just find them again since he still had his motion sensor. A few seconds later, the bobcat's head poked up from above the roof. As he saw Sonic and Tails, he got a confused look on his face, but then it quickly faded to annoyance.
"Hey...what are you two doing here?" he asked, a big amount of irritation in his voice.
"We…erm…well…" Sonic started. He doubted Zack would take well to him saying 'Oh, I wanted to go kill Robotnik. That's all.'
"Never mind...I don't care what it is."
Zack turned back to look at the ground.
"At ease men...it's just the two kids we found the other day."
"Those kids?" Dr. Skeleck asked. "Why would they come along? This is no place for a child!"
The cop turned to face them again.
"Anyway, come on down off of the roof."
Sonic and Tails obeyed, jumping down to the ground. They walked over to the back of the truck, where Zack had opened up the door. He gave them a hardened gaze.
"Well, I don't know why you came with us, but I certainly can't bring you into the base. I'm afraid you're going to have to stay in here until the operation is over."
"Excellent idea Zack," Dr. Skeleck voiced. "Best idea you've had all day."
Zack looked at the doctor, and then looked back at the two kids before he nodded towards the inside of the truck.
"Aww come on! Can't you let us come with you?" Sonic begged. "We survived Robotnik before!"
"I don't care..." Zack replied, as he moved closer to the two and stood over them. "Just because you got lucky once doesn't mean you'll get lucky again this time. Now get in the truck."
"Please let us go!" Tails said, practically crying out in his request.
Sonic looked at Tails, surprised that he was this determined to go after Robotnik, when only a few hours before he would have never done it for anything.
"No," Zack firmly stated. This time he grabbed Sonic and Tails, easily picking them up with his muscular arms. He set them down inside the back of the truck. "Now stay in here and don't make a fuss."
Then Zack closed the doors in their face, and then there was a click as the door locked.
Well…dammit…what do we do now?
"Keep an eye on the truck Samuel," Zack said, his voice muffled a bit by the metal walls of the vehicle. "Don't let those kids out."
"Yes sir!" Samuel said back. Sonic recognized his voice as belonging to the tiger that had been in the van when they brought them to the station the first time.
"All right men...let's move out!" Zack yelled.
Following that was the sound of feet trampling across the ground, as well as the sound of crinkling leaves on the ground and snapping twigs. Within a minute or so though, the sounds were virtually inaudible.
As the noises finally vanished, Tails whispered, "What do we do now Sonic?"
"I dunno Tails..." Sonic whispered back.
The hedgehog started looking around the inside of the truck, trying to think of some way they could get out. The back compartment of the truck had no windows, and all of the walls were made of steel.
"Hey Sonic," Tails whispered.
Sonic looked at him, and Tails was pointing at the ceiling. The hedgehog looked up and saw there was a hatch in the roof. Sonic nodded to Tails, and climbed up on top of a bench next to the hatch. It was then that he noticed the thing was locked with a padlock. He could just grab the thing in his hand, although there was still the problem of getting it off the latch.
Hmm…maybe I can do what I did back at the station with the ventilation cover.
Sonic pulled another quill out of his back, and used it to slice the padlock in half. While he grabbed one side of the lock in his hand, the other was falling to the floor. However, with his super speed, Sonic managed to reach down and grab it before it could hit the floor.
"Whew..."
"Close one," Tails whispered. "That would have made a big racket."
Sonic nodded, and set both halves down on a bench, wincing at the clanking sound they made. He then reached up again to open the hatch. However, as he started to push it open, it made a loud creaking noise.
"Hey!" Samuel yelled from outside. "What are ya'll doing in there? You're making a racket!"
"Ahhhh...nothing!" Sonic yelled back.
"Well whatever it is, stop it!"
Feeling defeated, Sonic jumped back down and sat on the bench. He let out a sigh.
"Great...that hatch is too squeaky. If we try to open it he'll hear us. Any ideas Tails?"
"Well...not really."
"Fantastic..."
Sonic and Tails sat next to each other on the bench in the truck for a few minutes, both of them pondering a way they could open the hatch in the roof without alerting the guard outside. Not like there was much to work with in here. There was the empty gun rack at the front of the truck, the two halves of the padlock, the benches, and that was about it.
Suddenly, Tails pulled Sonic's arm.
"What is it Tails?"
"Listen..."
Sonic stopped talking and listened, but he couldn't hear anything.
"I don't hear anything. My ears aren't as good as yours, remember?"
"Just listen a little bit longer..."
"Well, all right."
As Sonic started listening again, he heard it. It was a low droning sound, and it was difficult to make out what it was supposed to be at this distance. However, it was quickly getting louder. After a moment or two, Sonic understood what it was. They were loud jet engines; most likely they were from Robotnik's aircraft.
"We can use the noise for cover," Tails whispered.
"Huh?" Sonic whispered back.
"We open the hatch when the jets pass over us. By then, the engines will be making so much noise that the guard won't be able to hear the hatch opening."
"Great thinking," Sonic said with a smile.
"Thanks, but get ready to open it when they get close."
Sonic nodded, and jumped up onto the bench so he could reach the hatch. After another moment, the jet noise had turned to a dull roar. Sonic gently pushed the hatch open, trying to minimize the noise. The jets were loud, but not that loud. Finally, he'd managed to make a big enough opening for them to slip out, and just in time. The noise of the aircraft was now fading out. Sonic clambered up onto the roof as silently as possible, with Tails following behind him. The engine noise had just finished subsiding.
"I'll fly us out of here," Tails whispered.
"Good idea...your tails won't make a lot of noise."
Sonic grabbed a hold of Tails' hands, while the fox started twisting his tails. Within the next few seconds, they were on their way, flying above the treetops. Up ahead was Robotnik's fortress. It looked even bigger and more intimidating than it had been when they'd seen it the last time. Sonic could hardly believe Robotnik had enough resources to make something like this.
"Hey Sonic..." Tails said. "I think I can see the dump they were talking about from here!"
"Where?"
"It's on the right side of the base."
Sonic twisted his head to look, and saw what Tails was talking about. It wasn't that hard to spot from here, since bright orange lights lit the thing up for miles to see. Underneath the lights were massive piles of refuse. Most of it looked like bits and pieces of metal, in addition to various metal drums and containers. There was even a few scrapped aircraft and other vehicles out there.
Sonic also saw the big trucks Zack had been talking about before down there. These were huge hulking things, with beds that were nearly as long as a football field. They first appeared from a garage door at the foot of the mountain base, drove out to a location in the dump, and tilted their beds to the side to drop off their load. Then they headed back to another garage door to reenter the base and get another load.
Also like Zack had been talking about, the area was lightly guarded. There were a handful of robot soldiers here and there, but they looked like they wouldn't be too hard to sneak past.
"All right Tails...here's what we gotta do. Zack said we need to get on one of those trucks, and let it take us inside the base."
"Got it Sonic, but what about guards?"
"Hmm...how about this? We dive towards one of the trucks really fast so they don't have time to spot us. Then we pull up at the last second to land."
"Well, okay... Are you ready?"
"Sure am...let's do it."
"All right, hold on."
Tails tipped down and dived towards the nearest flatbed truck he could see. It looked tiny at this distance, but it was growing larger at a frightening speed. The wind whipped past the two of them, flapping their fur around. Still though, Tails didn't slow down. At the last possible second, Tails pulled up. Sonic landed with a hard bump on the metal bed, and dropped to his knees. The impact had hurt a bit, but the pain would fade soon. Tails landed with a hard thump right next to him, but had fallen on his belly instead.
"Ow!" Tails cried. "I messed up!"
"Nah, you did fine," Sonic said, helping him up.
The truck was now approaching the door that would take them and it inside the base. Beyond the door was nothing but pitch black darkness. They had just crossed over the threshold, and were starting into the dark.
"Well, that was the easy part," Sonic said. As the darkness replaced the light and washed over their bodies, he added, "Now we're heading right into the fire."