The next day, I woke up to help Ms. Maria with breakfast. I heard Caleb talking with his mom.

"Should I go wake Annie up Mother?"

"No, no. Let her sleep."

I walked in and said, "Good morning Ms. Maria. Good morning Caleb. Aren't you supposed to be training with your dad?"

"Father was called into an emergency meeting."

"What kind of emergency?" The only other time there was an emergency was when there was a height in jewel thievery.

"He didn't say."

"Don't you two worry about it." Ms. Maria told us. "Shadow and the other agents will take care of it." Just like the always do.

"Okay Ms. Maria."

"Very well Mother."

"Annie, would you mind bringing me the eggs and milk?" Ms. Maria asked.

"Sure Ms. Maria."

After breakfast, Caleb and I went exploring. I took the map that I was making of the forest and told him to go to the last spot we went to and go from there.

"Which way now Annie?" He asked me. He was carrying me in his arms while I held the map.

"Um… left until we see that rock that looks like an egg. Go slowly though."

"Of course." He began to jog to the left. I could see the trees more clearly this time. I smiled looking around and trying to remember if any of this was familiar. Then. Something hurt my eyes. "Ahh." I closed and rubbed my eyes.

Caleb stopped and asked, "What's wrong?"

"I think the sun got in my eye." I opened my eyes and looked up at him. "I'm okay."

"Are you sure?" He asked me with a worried look in his eyes.

"I'm sure." I smiled a little. He glanced at me before halting to a stop.

"Hey, what's-" I looked forward. "Wow… Where are we?"

"I'm not sure."

"Can you put me down please?"

"Of course."

He let me down and I really took in the view. "It looks like, some kind of scrap yard of stuff my Uncle Tails would work on."

"Hey look at this!" I looked over in his direction. "There's, an image here." He wiped some of the dust off.

We gasped once we realized what we were looking at.

"This is Dr. Eggman's scrap yard!" Caleb exclaimed.

"Did you know about this?" I asked.

"Yes, I didn't realize how close we lived to it."

"Is this the only one?" I asked.

"No, he has some all over the planet." He knelt down taking a better look.

"This is actually really cool, looking at our family's handy work. How many do you think there are?" I said as I sat down and started to draw and write on our map.

"At least a few hundred." He walked towards me as I finished up.

"What do you think?" I showed my picture to him.

He laughed a little. "You really captured Dr. Eggman's look."

I might have drawn him with cross eyes, a pig nose and a mustache three times the length of the head.

We laughed a little before Caleb popped his head up and looked around.

"What? Did you hear something?" He didn't look at me but he nodded.

"Okay." Suddenly remember back when we were little and that robot attacked him and my dad and little brother.

Then he got a serious look in his face and turned around.

Time froze for a few moments. I remember a lot of screaming and I wasn't sure what I was looking at. Caleb was… fighting…?... something around his neck before it knocked him onto the ground… I realized he was being choked.

I ran to him and held onto the cold metal thing trying to pull it off of him. We sent it flying and it came right back for us. Caleb could hardly catch his breath. I grabbed a stick and Caleb ran after the tiny thing. He grabbed it and threw it in my direction. I hit that thing as hard as I could and it broke when it hit a robot arm.

We were breathing heavily and I was pretty shaken. My legs were really wobbly and buckled right under me. I sat down on the ground with the stick in my hand wondering what that was.

Caleb ran towards me and knelt down beside me. "Are you okay Annie?"

"I think so." I said as I stared back at the thing that tried to kill my friend. I was still breathing kind of heavy. It tried… to kill my friend. "Are you okay Caleb? How's your throat?" I asked worried and let go of the stick looking at this throat. There was blood, but I knew whatever wound he had would have healed by now.

"I'm fine. Come on, we better head back to the house."

I smiled a little and tried to get up. My legs wobbled and I fell down again. "Oh, uh, help? Please?" I looked up at him with weak smile. He grabbed my hand and pulled me up. "Thanks."

"Of course."

We headed off and I couldn't help but wonder what just happened.

"Hey Caleb, what do you think that thing was?" I said as he let me down.

"I'm not sure. I've never seen anything like it."

"Like what, Son?"

Oh boy. We looked up at Mr. Shadow and we spilled our guts out. He called my mom, dad, aunts and uncles. It was just like when I was little.

Needless to say, they were concerned about what happened to us. We explained again and again what happened and I think a part of them couldn't believe what they were hearing. My parents decided it was best that I came home and offered to let Caleb stay with us. Mr. Shadow didn't like the idea.

"I think it's a wonderful idea."

Mr. Shadow looked at her like she was crazy.

"In fact, I think we all could use a vacation." She smiled and turned to my parents ignoring the questioning look on Mr. Shadow's face.

"Well I suppose it has been a while…" Mom said and looked at Dad.

"But Maria-" Mr. Shadow tried to talk to her.

"You and I have vacation days we haven't used. We deserve this."

Mr. Shadow told us, "Children, please wait in the living room." The look on his face said they might get into a fight. Well, more like a debate.

We did as we were told. Déjà vu kind of set in as soon as we sat down on the couch.

"Annie?"

"Hm?" I looked at Caleb with, I guess a face that worried him.

"Are you going to be okay?" He asked and sat closer to me.

"I… think so." Maybe.

Even now, I think we were lucky that day. I could have lost my friend, maybe I could've died.

"That doesn't sound assuring Annie."

I just kind of looked at him and shrugged. He looked at me expecting to get more off my chest. I sighed. "It was scary. We were out in the woods like normal, like always and… "

He reached out and half hugged me.

"We could've been in serious trouble and I don't want to be scared of the woods. We've had such good memories there."

I nuzzled into his chest. I liked it because it reminded me of Dad's. I felt my heart racing thinking about that thing that attacked us.

"I'm scared Caleb. Something's not right." I wasn't sure what, but something was definitely up. I started to cry a little.

"It's okay, I was scared too."

I gasped and pulled my head up to look at him. "But you never get scared, not even with that movie about that clown that killed children." I wiped away my tears and stared at him.

"Well that's just a movie. This was real and you're right. Something could have happened to us." He sighed. "There's something I want to tell you and I want you let me finish before you say anything."

He looked at me waiting for me to say yes. I wasn't sure what he would say that would make me think he's crazy now but sure, I went ahead and told him, "Okay."

"I've accepted my own death."

"Wh-"

"Stop right there." He ordered. He looked at me with a stern face.

I covered my mouth. As much as I wanted to object, I told him I would let him finish.

He placed his hands on my shoulders and looked at me with a serious face. "I need you to know and I need you to believe nothing will actually happen to us and I won't let anything happen to you."

"But… what about you?" I asked him. "You matter a lot to me too and I don't want something to happen to you."

"I'll be fine."

I looked at him not impressed. "That doesn't really help."

He smiled and let go of my shoulders. "Do you trust me Annie?"

"What kind of question is that? Of course I trust you."

"Then trust me when I tell you that I'll be fine."

I sighed. "I should've seen that coming."

He laughed a little and I smiled a little hearing him laugh. But as soon as I smiled I frowned.

"Annie?"

"I have a really bad feeling, Caleb."

I would learn to trust my gut soon enough.