Chapter 10 Escape from the City

"Don't lose him, Snively! I must have him!"
"Easy for you to say," Snively muttered under his breath, "you're not driving." Sonic was moving with a speed and agility he had never known before. Somehow, though, it all seemed so natural as if he had been born to do the impossible.
Sonic was able to keep up a grueling pace and not feel any fatigue. He flew down streets and up alleys, doubled back and slipped under conduits and bridges. He did not want to slow down, not only because it might have meant his capture, but also because it felt so good to run.
Snively, however, managed to stay on the young hedgehog's trail. He took some corners a little too sharply and he and Robotnik got knocked about in the process. Robotnik, however, kept his attention on the blue blur visible ahead of them.
"Whoa, this looks interesting," Sonic thought as he found himself heading down a side street that turned into a dead end. An enormous skyscraper marked the end of the street.
"We have him now, Snively! He's got nowhere else to go!"
"Nowhere except up, Sir. Look!" Sonic was not about to let a little thing like a building stand in his way. He was on a roll and he just kept on rolling. He was running up the side of the building, propelled by momentum. Snively put the hover unit into a climb in the nick of time.
"After him, after him! If that ring can enable him to do that…" Sonic was halfway up the building when he looked over his shoulder. Robotnik was keeping pace.
"Man, this is getting boring!" He thought. In the blink of an eye, Sonic reversed directions and was running down the side of the building. He blew Robotnik a raspberry as he passed the hover unit. Snively quickly turned it around.
"We're gaining, Snively!" They were almost on top of him. It was then, about fifty feet from the ground, that Sonic decided that he had better stop coasting and do some serious running. He pounded ahead, reached the ground, and streaked away. The hover unit, however, was in virtual free fall.
"Pull up, Snively! Pull up!" Snively worked the controls, but the underside of the hover unit scraped the street. That was enough to sent the hover unit tumbling with all the aerodynamics of a stone skipping across a pond. By the time the hover unit came to rest its shell was pocked and torn, its windows were smashed, and its contents badly shaken.
"Snively," Robotnik panted.
"Y-yes, Sir?"
"I have decided that I am going to make it one of the supreme goals of my life to get… that… hedgehog!" Snively rolled his eyes. Sonic raced back to the dump, where the others were gathered at their pre-arranged rendezvous point: the excavated remains of the slide.
"Man, you shoulda seen ol' Buttnik eat my dust! I was…"
"Sonic, not now!" Sally cut him off. "Get down!" It was only then that Sonic noticed that the others were lying prone on the ground.
"Nap time already?"
"Sonic, Rotor thinks that that ring unit is going to blow up!"
"Say what?"
"It's overheating and going unstable," Rotor added. I couldn't get the power stone out and…"
"You mean that stone thingy is still in there?"
"Of course, we…"
"Chill, guys." And before anyone could say or do anything, Sonic took off toward Uncle Chuck's.
"What are we to be doing?"
"What can we do, Antoine?" Sally asked. "Sonic's gotten too fast for…" Anything else Sally might have said was drowned out by a deafening roar as the power ring unit exploded. In moments, the home of Sir Charles Hedgehog was engulfed in flames. The children stared at it silently.
"Sonic?" Tails said in a hesitant voice.
"That's my name, don't wear it out!" The children turned. There standing behind them, the power stone on the ground at his feet, was Sonic. Tails yelped and threw his arms around Sonic's neck.
"Sonic! How did you…"
"No biggie, Sal. I just yanked it out of there real fast. And from now on, "fast" is my middle name!"
"This is what I was to be saying," Antoine sputtered, "about your unresponsibility and your utter fuelishness and your…" Antoine never got to finish his sentence as Sally touched him on the shoulder. For now they could all see that Sonic's demeanor had changed. He might have been careless when it came to putting his life on the line, but it was a more subdued Sonic who watched his Uncle Chuck's house, the only home he had ever known before Knothole, being consumed by fire. They watched for several silent seconds.
"Come on," Sonic said quietly. "Let's go home."
The children were subdued and apprehensive as they entered the Great Forest. But the farther they made their way, the louder and more animatedly they talked about what they had just done. Everyone except Tails who quickly succumbed to fatigue from the day's events. Sonic carried the cub in his arms the rest of the way back to Knothole.
They also speculated as to what would happen to them if Rosie or Julayla ever found out. They each thought that they would be severely punished if either of the grown-ups found out about their experience, but they also all agreed that any punishment would be totally worth it.
It was about two hours before dawn as the children neared Knothole. As they recognized that they were getting closer to Knothole, the children fell silent. Their luck had held in that they were able to get away undetected. If they could just get back and into bed before Rosie or Julayla learned of it, they would be home free.
They edged toward the clearing. So far, so good: there were no lights on in any of the cabins. The children all made their way into the nearest cabin, which was Sonic's and Tails'.
"How's Tails doing, Sonic?" Sally whispered.
"The big guy's still asleep."
"Good."
"Ah can't see a thing, Sal. Think we can take a chance on lightin' a candle?" No sooner had she whispered these words than there was a hiss and a burst of light as someone at the far end of the room struck a match. The children froze as its light momentarily dimmed, and then the light grew stronger as someone had lit a candle with it. That someone was Julayla. She calmly blew out the match; the children each caught the smell of burnt sulfur. Julayla stood up.
"Julayla, I…" Sally began. Julayla raised her hand.
"There'll be time enough for talk in the morning," she said quietly, as she took the sleeping Tails in her arms and began putting him to bed. Rotor, Antoine, and the girls silently drifted away. Sonic wanted to say something to Julayla, but could not. Julayla did not say anything to Sonic as she left the cabin. The silent reproach hurt Sonic almost as much as watching his old home go up in flames.
Despite the early hour at which the children had gone to bed, nobody slept in that morning. They all gathered in front of the dining hall but did not go in, except for Tails. He was as buoyant as ever as he raced from his hut. He even flew half the distance to the dining hall, since he figured that the secret was out.
"Well, someone's in a good mood," Bunnie observed gloomily.
"What to you think they'll do to us?" Rotor asked.
"I don't know," Sally said.
"Maybe it won't be so bad," Sonic suggested.
"Right, Sonic," Sally shot back, "we only broke every rule in the book and then some! Well, let's get this over with," she added as she walked toward the door.
As they entered the dining hall, Tails was already seated at a table with Julayla. Rotor volunteered to walk as close to their table as possible, in order to hear what was being said. He heard Tails happily recounting the events of the previous evening in one long run-on sentence:
"…And then Sonic seen us when he came outside and Sally said for him to run so he runned away but real real fast and…"
"So, how is it?" Bunnie asked.
"It's bad, guys," Rotor said as he sat down at the table with the others. "I was listening to Tails just now. He's telling Julayla everything that happened last night."
"How's Julayla taking it?" Sally asked.
"Tails was making all kinds of grammatical errors, but Julayla didn't even stop and correct him once!" He put his head in his hands. "That's it: we're toast!"
"How are you to be thinking of food at the time like this?" Sally was in no mood to say anything to Antoine just then, because they saw Julayla walking toward them.
"Miles has told me what happened last night. Does anyone wish to add anything?"
"I do," Sally said, her head bowed. "We should have trusted you, and told you and Rosie that Tails was missing."
"But Sal," Sonic immediately said, "they'd have grounded us and we wouldn't have gotten Tails back."
"Perhaps, perhaps not," Julayla said calmly. "But now you'll never know, will you?" This was enough to overwhelm Sonic's attempt at argument. While he and the other children contemplated this reply, Julayla went to the side cupboard where the school supplies were kept. She returned with paper and writing instruments. Sonic and the others anticipated that they would each have to write something long and chastening one hundred times. Just for starters. As the children passed the materials around to each other, Julayla began unfolding large old documents: they were maps of Mobotropolis.
"I want each of you to study the maps that I've spread out on the table. Write out any changes in the city that you noticed last night. Be as detailed as possible. You'll probably want to compare notes with each other."
"What kind of crazy punishment is this?" Sonic whispered to Sally.
"This is not your punishment, Sonic. You've already brought a very severe punishment upon yourselves. Until yesterday, Robotnik had probably forgotten all about you; today, he knows better and you've given him a reason to look for you. Yesterday you were children playing a game; as of today, you are in a war. There is no worse punishment that I or anyone else could possibly inflict." The children looked at each other silently. Bunnie looked at Sally and silently mouthed the word "war."
"It'll be okay, Bunnie, as long as we work together," she said softly. Then, in a louder voice she spoke to the others, "Okay, where did the trash heap begin? We know that it covered all of the playground where this park used to be…"
"Sally," Julayla added, "your afternoon lessons will be held in my hut." The rest of the children stayed in the dining hall and finished the map. Once they were done, they all went outside and waited with anticipation around the pool just outside Knothole.
Everyone except Rotor, who was somewhere under the water. With the exception of Rotor, none of the children particularly cared for the water. They could swim if they had to, but they were more at home on the land. This was especially true of Sonic, who could not swim a stroke.
Rotor suddenly broke the surface, getting a breath of air. The others shook the water from themselves.
"Stone's in, everybody! The machine started right up! If it's the same as the machine in Uncle Chuck's workshop it should be producing a power ring any time now."
As the other children gathered as close to the edge of the pool as they dared, Julayla touched Sally on the shoulder. The two of them moved away from the group and walked toward Julayla's hut.
Once inside, Julayla began writing something on a scrap of paper, which she then handed to Sally.
"Commit this to memory. When you have done so, burn it. Leave no trace."
"Why? What is this?"
"It is a list of four settlements of refugees from Mobotropolis located in various parts of the Great Forest. These aren't their true locations: only the locations of drop sites where we leave the messages by which we communicate with each other. We wanted to keep from jeopardizing all of the settlements, so we devised this system. It's a good thing we did; one settlement, Birchwood, was discovered by SWATbots the other day and its inhabitants scattered."
"There are others? But why…"
"Why were you not told? None knew of the existence of the other camps except for one member of each, and even they did not know the precise location of the others."
"But what were they doing?"
"Surviving. Living in hiding. Living in fear. And waiting."
"Waiting for what?"
"Waiting for whom is more like it. They have no one to guide them, no one to formulate strategy and carry it out. I knew that the day would come when there would be a sign, a sign that we can begin to hope again; a sign that the time had come to begin resisting Robotnik. Your raid on Robotropolis last night was reckless and uncoordinated, but it was also the sign that the others and I had been waiting for. It was the sign that we finally have a leader amongst us." Julayla walked over to Sally and placed her hands on the girl's shoulders. Things got very still and cold inside the hut.
Suddenly they heard the sound of cheering outside. The machinery at the bottom of the pool had indeed produced a power ring. With ring in hand, Sonic was tearing up the turf of Knothole. He was just a blur as he streaked around and between the buildings. And as he ran, the other children began chanting his name.
Sally and Julayla watched Sonic's dashing about. Then Sally spoke, with a startling bitterness in her voice, "Yes, you've got your leader…" She said no more, choked back a sob, and then ran from the hut. She ran across Sonic's path, and the sight managed to bring the hedgehog to a halt.
"Chill, guys," he said to the others, "I'll be right back." Sonic walked around the corner of a hut. He saw Sally seated on a log, her face buried in her hands and her shoulders heaving. He quietly sat down a little way from her.
Sally stopped crying and tried to adopt a formal appearance.
"Tired of your adoring fans already?" she asked sarcastically.
"Hey, Sal, you got too much class for that kind of a cheap shot."
"I'm sorry," she sniffled. "I… I guess I'm just scared."
"Scared of what?"
"Sonic, everything's changed now! Julayla expects me to start acting like some kind of leader… and I don't know if I can."
"What're you talking about, Sal? We found Tails, got Uncle Chuck's power ring machine working, and got in and out of Robotropolis in one piece! And we did it as a team, thanks to you. All I did was run fast. You're a great leader!"
"But will the other Mobians feel that way?"
"Say what?" So Sally told Sonic about the other camps hidden in the Great Forest.
"Sonic we're talking about grown-ups here! Even if I am the heir to the throne, I'm still just a kid. Do you really think any grown-up would take orders from a ten-year-old girl?"
"I would." Sonic said it so simply and sincerely that it surprised both of them. For several moments all the two of them could do was look at each other. For Sonic, it was as if he were looking at someone he had never known before. His hand slowly reached over and took hold of hers…
Suddenly a chorus of hoots and whistles broke the stillness of the moment. Bunnie, Rotor, Antoine, and Tails were looking at them from around the corner of one of the huts.
"Aw, man! Knock it off, you guys!" Sonic's face grew bright red, and Sally adopted that studied indifference which children sometimes mistake for maturity. And then the other four children began a traditional Mobian chant. It was a chant that further embarrassed Sonic and annoyed Sally, though there was a secret part of her that was glad to hear it. Later that night, after the children ate dinner and the dishes were cleaned, Sally called as official a meeting as could be in their small village. Once the children and the adults gathered in the mess hall, Sally started.
"Tonight we have seen what has become of our home, Mobotropolis. In doing so, we have also let Doctor Robotnik know that we are here. As Princess and the sole heir to the throne, it is my duty to reclaim the throne as soon as possible and secure it for future generations to come. For this reason, I am organizing a group to fight against anyone who would take the throne from my family and your homes from you. I am naming this group the Freedom Fighters and I am naming myself as leader. I won't ask you to join if you don't want to." Sally explained. The other children remained quiet for a few seconds, and then there was movement towards the rear of the group. Sonic stood up and said,
"I'll help kick some Robobutt. I'm in." The other children looked at Sonic and then one by one they all stood up. Julayla looked on as the children committed themselves to fighting the Overlander who had taken over Mobotropolis. Finally, each child had stood up and volunteered to join the Freedom Fighters and now they were cheering and slapping each other high-fives. After a few minutes, they all quieted down and Julayla stepped forward from where she was standing.
"Princess, I'm proud of you for doing this… and I'm proud of each and every one of you for stepping forward to take up such a responsibility. There are few citizens who would take up something as great as you children have. But, as happens every night… it's time for bed. For once, you don't have to hurry to get to bed. Tomorrow is a big day for all of us… it will mark the beginning of the resistance. Good night children." Julayla said as she walked around the mess hall extinguishing the candles one by one. Once she was done, she and the children went back to their huts and settled in for the night.

(End of Chapter 10)