CHAPTER FOUR - Hunter and Hunted

Sonic had just finished laughing from yet another one of Knuckles' jokes when he heard a loud BLAM in the distance. Time seemed to slow down for him while he looked up, and he saw what looked like a pinprick quickly approaching him. It was a bullet that was coming right for him. He quickly jumped to the left as the bullet flew past and left a hole in a tree. Since Sonic had developed quick vision and quick thinking from running fast all of his life, he dodged that bullet in time. Sonic quickly got to the ground to take cover from the shooter. Tails and Knuckles followed his lead.

"What's going on Sonic?" asked Tails. His eyes showed his fear.

"There's somebody with a gun over there," whispered Sonic as he pointed in the direction the shot came from.

Sonic looked up from behind the bushes surrounding their camp for a moment, and BLAM, another gunshot thundered from the darkness. Using his lightning reaction speed, Sonic again dodged the shot.

"We can't stay here, or that shooter is going to get us," said Sonic in a soft voice. "I'm going to run that way to distract him. You two stay down for now, and then run and hide somewhere else away from the camp after I've lured the shooter's sights away from here. You got it?"

"Yeah," said Knuckles. "Be careful out there."

Sonic nodded, and then zoomed off into the night with his super speed.

After Nail fired the first shot right at Sonic's forehead, he was bewildered by what he saw through the scope. Sonic had simply...vanished. He didn't see a body or anything. Then, Sonic looked out from behind a bush to the right. Nail quickly fired another shot, but again Sonic simply vanished as before after the shot was fired.

Man he's fast! Those stories about his super speed weren't lies after all... No way anybody else that's slower could dodge my shots...

He'd heard others speak about how fast Sonic was. After hearing the stories about them, he had thought they were wild exaggerations. He hadn't believed them...until now. To make matters worse, Sonic started running away from the campsite into the forest.

I missed...I can't believe it...I DO NOT MISS!

A fury had overtaken Nail that was beyond comprehension. He completely lost his cool and forgot who he was shooting at. All that mattered now was that his target be eliminated. Nail disconnected the camera from his rifle scope so that it saw through its own lens. He quickly ran to his dune buggy and jumped inside. He activated the machine gun's autofire mode. While he drove, the machine gun on the roof would automatically track and fire at a target with pin-point precision. Sonic definitely wouldn't be able to escape now.

Or so I hope. I was supposed to have that kind of accuracy with my rifle. He wasn't supposed to dodge that!

Nail threw the buggy into gear, and zoomed off into the woods. The powerful engine brought him within firing range in a few moments, and the machine gun on the roof took aim and fired away at Sonic.

Tails and Knuckles took off running from the camp in the other direction as Sonic as soon as he had gotten a good distance away. However, when Tails heard the machine gun start firing, he looked back and saw that the shooter was now chasing after Sonic in a dune buggy with a big gun on the roof.

Tails looked up at Knuckles and said "We have to help him!"

"No Tails! He told us to hide. Sonic can handle this himself, trust me."

"No, he can't! Look!"

Tails pointed at Sonic. Knuckles saw he was so busy dodging the bullets that he wasn't watching where he was going. Sonic was heading straight for a steep cliff, but he was too focused on the gun buggy to notice it.

"Come on!" said Tails as he started whirling his tails and flew off into the sky.

Knuckles quickly climbed a tree, and launched himself off of it into a glide. They both flew towards the fleeing Sonic.

Sonic was in deep trouble. The shooter's machine gun was highly accurate, and it was difficult enough to run at high speed through the dense, dark forest without bullets whizzing through the air. Suddenly, Sonic realized he was heading straight for a cliff. He tried to stop, but he was going too fast to stop before he reached the edge. Sonic slid right off the side. He scrabbled for the side of the cliff as he tumbled down, and managed to get a hold of a small ledge with his hands to stop from falling.

As soon as he realized he had a firm handhold, he started to climb back up to the top of the wall. However, a moment later he heard the roar of the dune buggy's approaching overhead, and realized the shooter was coming to finish the job. He heard a car door slam, and then footsteps approached the edge of the cliff. A grey fox looked down at him from above. He was wearing sunglasses and black combat gear, and he had a large sniper rifle in his hands. As soon as he spotted Sonic, he started aiming it towards him. He heard the fox mutter "I do not miss..." just before he fired a shot at him.

The bullet hit the ground not an inch from one of Sonic's hands and sprayed dust all over his face from the impact. The sudden noise and debris from the shot made Sonic let go of the handhold. He found himself in freefall once again.

How am I going to survive now? thought Sonic. I'm too far away from the cliff face to get back over!

The trees far below rushed up quickly to meet him. Sonic closed his eyes as he was starting to reach them, and prepared for the end. He felt branches brush across his skin as he hit the trees. Suddenly though, he felt two hands grabbing at his arms, and he opened his eyes. Sonic was no longer falling towards the ground, but flying above it! He looked up, and saw that Tails and Knuckles each had one of his arms in hand as they flew over the ground. Sonic breathed a sigh of relief as he realized he was safe.