Chapter 24
I slowly paced the hotel room, as Sonic lazed on the bed, watching some sports network that was highlighting the race.
"Josh, calm down, it's not gonna be pitch black like the haunted house." He said.
"That's not the point, it's the fact that visibility is limited, I can't see more than 50 feet away, and it's just dark in general!" I said, obviously in slight hysterics. "I didn't even drive at night back on Earth! I mean, you know, if I had a car."
"You won't get hurt Josh!" Sonic said, sitting up.
"How do you know that?" I said, turning to face him.
"Because I wouldn't have let you enter if I thought you would be!" He smiled. "I saw Amy and Tails here right when we walked into town. I just didn't get time to say hi because Amigo came up to us." He stood up and walked over to me. "I could have gotten either one of them to race with us if I thought you couldn't do it!" I blushed a bit.
"...Thanks Sonic." I said quietly.
Sonic chuckles and mussed up my hair.
"They're talking about you." He said, pointing to the TV. He grabbed the remote and turned up the volume.
"Oh boy..." I said quietly. It showed footage of me starting the race.
"You know, when I first saw Josh, I didn't know what to think of him!" Lola Omochao, one of the sportscasters, said. The pink robot drew on the small tablet in front of her, drawing a circle around me. "I mean, we barely know this guy, aside from all the rumors about him, and here he is joining one of the biggest races of all time!"
"I was beginning to doubt him when he crashed into the fence." The other Omochao, Luke, said, forwarding the video to that point. "It seemed like that was the end of Team Knuckles."
I watched as I stood there, looking rather helpless, as Sonic helped me up. I blushed out of embarrassment.
"Did I really look like that?" I said quietly, hiding my face in my hands. I opened them up again so I could peek out through my hands.
"But his comeback was nothing short of remarkable!" Luke continued. The video skipped to the beach. It showed me speeding up and joining the leaders of the pack. "There's no doubt, all eyes will be on him at the next race!" Sonic elbowed me, smirking.
"See? You did great!" Sonic exclaimed. He walked over to the balcony.
"You almost ready?" Sonic said, looking back at me and jerking a thumb outside. Floodlights lit up the sky on the beach, the starting location of the next race. I walked out to join him.
The sun had started to set.
I took a deep breath.
"Let's do this." I said, looking at Sonic. Sonic whooped before jumping right off the balcony! I leaned over the railing as I watched him land on the ground. He looked back up at me and waved me down.
"You want me to jump?!" I yelled, looking down at him. "Are you CRAZY?!"
"Come on, I got ya!" Sonic said, holding out his arms.
"But-"
"Come on Josh!" Sonic called out. "You need to learn to be less afraid! Take a leap of faith!" I nervously looked down, before I climbed up onto the railing. I had a firm grip, my hands firmly gripping the rail, right next to my feet. I looked back down at Sonic, who laughed and waved me down again. I took a deep breath again, let go of the rail, and shoved off with my feet. I shut my eyes as the wind blew past my face. I yelled, partly out of terror, but partly, and surprisingly, out of sheer joy! What a difference between unwillingly falling, and jumping... weird huh?
I grunted as I roughly landed in Sonic's arms.
"Care to explain why the door wouldn't have been easier and safer?" I asked, laughing.
"What's the fun in that?" Sonic asked, winking. I laughed harder.
"Weren't you the one who wanted me to be more careful?" I retorted. Sonic's whole expression changed. He smiled warmly at me, his eyes full of love.
"As long as you're with me, you'll always be safe." He said. There was a certain gentleness in his voice, one I had rarely heard throughout this journey, and one I almost never heard back on Earth from the video games. He stood me up and mussed up my hair a bit like he always did. "Come on, we have a race to get to!" He said. Old Sonic was back once again.
"Let's do it!" I cheered. We both started to walk off to the race course. I lagged behind a bit, staring at Sonic in curiosity. It never occurred to me how out-of-character he had been ever since I got here. From what I've seen of him from my brother playing his games and watching the anime, Sonic was never this emotional to others... what made me so different?
…...
"Race begins in 5 minutes!" Luke Omochao said over the intercom. I looked back out at the track. The city was lit up like a beacon, casting a comforting glow on the beach. Not that it was going to last. I had recently learned that they turn all the lights off in the city, just for this race.
"So, what's different, besides the track not being lit?" I asked, turning to mine and Jet's group. We were back in the side alley, fixing some things up. We weren't going to be in the same heat, much to my dismay, but they were kind enough to come out and support us. Tails and Amy had joined us too, as they casually watched us, Tails occasionally stepping in to help out.
"They usually have some surprises in store." Wave said, briefly looking up from her board. "Water cannons, false paths, sometimes they even have people in costume jump out and try to scare you." Sonic glanced in my direction. I had my best poker face on. "It's all to try to knock you off your board." Wave continued, returning to her work. "No penalty if you fall off by the way, besides losing time trying to get back on and having to regain speed." I nodded, then slowly began to walk off.
"H-hey, where are you going?" Jet asked, standing up. "The race is about to start!"
"I just gotta... take a walk..." I said quietly. I felt unsure of whether or not I could do this race. I was going to let everyone down...
The familiar sense of depression welled up inside me for what seemed like the umpteenth time. I knew it was probably just from the Emerald, but no matter how badly I tried to fight it, it just came...
I slowly walked off, fully prepared to just give up on the race, when someone grabbed my shoulder.
"Don't give up Josh." Sonic said from behind me.
"...I don't know if I can do this..." I said quietly.
"I know you can." Sonic reassured me. "You'll be so focused on the race, you won't even notice anything." He walked in front of me. "And I'll be right next to you, the whole time."
"No Sonic, you can't do that!" I said, a bit panicked. "I'll just slow you down, you guys need to go ahead without me and win." Sonic shook his head.
"We're family. We stick together." Sonic said.
"But what if we lose?"
"Then we lose." Sonic shrugged. "We'll explain what's going on to the winners, I'm sure they'll understand. It's probably going to be Jet's or Ice's team anyways, they'll give us the Emerald!" I looked down a bit. Sonic gently put his hand under my chin and brought my eyes up to his. He moved the hand to my cheek and smiled. "Let's just have fun tonight, you and me."
A warm feeling bombarded my insides, as it seemed to almost beat the depression out. I smiled a bit, before hugging Sonic and kissing his cheek.
"Let's have fun." I repeated. Sonic smirked.
"That's what I like to hear!" He said.
…...
We were lined up at the starting line. The crowd was cheering excitedly. Amy and Tails especially were making a ton of noise, as Me, Sonic, and Knuckles waved to the fans. We were in the very first heat. There were only three teams racing this time, so I knew that, if we wanted to win, I'd have to step my game up.
"Ladies and gentleman, get ready..." Lola chirped over the intercom. "We're turning out the lights... now!"
We heard a whir as the lights of the city slowly dimmed. The audience ooohd, some making some... interesting noises in the dark. I only hoped they were joking.
I began to get a bit nervous once the lights fully went out. I could barely see anything, everything being lit by a dim half-moon. I looked over at Sonic. I could make out his outline, and his eyes shining in the dark. He gave me a thumbs-up, which I returned. But I was feeling anything but ok.
"Racers... on your marks..." A new voice said. I looked up in confusion. It was very... smooth... and... um... well, you know that guy who does the voice overs for action movie or horror movie commercials? Yeah, it sounded like him.
Spotlights shot out from the darkness, and descended on each racer. I shielded my eyes and quickly looked back down. This time, a red line shone out from below us. The voice began to count down, and we all began to run. I was careful to stay behind the line this time.
"5...
"4...
"3...
"2...
"1..." Well, I didn't get shocked this time!
"Go."
I tried as hard as I could to leap onto my board. I managed, but only barely. Sonic smiled, as we quickly departed out of the spotlights shining circle.
"You ready bud?" Sonic asked, as darkness encircled us once again.
"Ready as I'll ever be..." I said nervously. I heard Sonic chuckle.
"Don't worry, nothing will hurt us."
That was before a powerful stream of water came from a wall on my side and hit me hard, knocking me over into Sonic, and knocking both of us off our boards. I laid still, dazed from the sudden hit, soaking wet with water. I felt movement underneath me.
Oops, landed on Sonic!
"Sorry!" I said, quickly getting up and helping the soaking hedgehog up. He quickly shook himself off, spraying me with a mist of water in the process.
"Water..." Sonic moaned. "Why is it always water?"
"Come on, we're losing time!" I said, urging the blue blur back onto his board. We both quickly took off. "Holy cow, I didn't even see that coming!" I said in shock. "How are we going to do this?"
"Trust your instincts!" Sonic replied.
"Easy for you to say!" I retorted. "I don't have instincts!"
"I don't think you'd be alive if you didn't have them." Sonic said, looking at me.
I wouldn't be alive...
It was instinct that made me pull Jacob to safety when the robbers came.
Instinct made me bond with my brother, and do all I could to keep him alive on earth.
Instinct made me blow up the laboratory of a mad doctor.
I quickly ducked as a large something-or-other flew past my head.
"See, there you go!" Sonic cheered. I smiled.
Instinct. Who knew?
…...
"How long is this thing?!" I asked Sonic over the wind. We had been racing for what seemed like an eternity!
"I don't know! Not this long!" Sonic replied. He started to slow to a stop, and I followed suit. We had traveled back into the forest we were in to get to Seaside City. "Hold on, I'm gonna try and get my bearings..." Sonic said. He quickly ran up a tree.
"See anything?" I called up.
"...Come look at this..." Was the reply. Sonic quickly ran down before pulling me up by the hand. I stared out in awe.
A small section of the forest had simply been cut out of the earth it seemed like. We were standing in a very small circle, about 50 yards in diameter. The rest of what we could see was just blue. No sky, no ground beyond the small clearing, nothing. Just blue.
"Stay here, I wanna try something." Sonic told me. He hopped out of the tree and began running. He passed by the tree about five times before stopping and looking up at me.
"We're on a loop!" I said, realization dawning on me. I looked around again. "Is this part of the track?" Sonic ran up and helped me down out of the tree.
"I don't think so." Sonic replied.
"And you'd be right." Ilo said.
"There's a large amount of Chaos Energy surrounding you." Viha said.
"I gathered." I said, looking around. "Is this being caused by the racing league?"
"We can not say." Pelko said timidly. "We can not tell who is using the Emerald, if anyone at all."
"What do you mean?" Sonic asked.
"The Emerald seeks out the strongest source of the emotion it craves, remember?" Ilo said.
"Yeah, but it's only me and Sonic out here." I said, looking around.
"Well, considering your back story..." Viha started. Me and Sonic both looked at each other.
"...You're the perfect candidate." Sonic finished. I quickly held up my ring. It was glowing incredibly bright.
"It's close!" I said, looking around. "...Well, obviously, since there's not much ground to begin with."
"Can you tell where?" Sonic asked, looking at my ring. I moved it around.
"It's too bright, I can't tell if it's getting dimmer or brighter." I said, putting my hand down. "Let's split up and start looking around."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Sonic asked, looking around. Despite the blue sky, the forest was still almost pitch black.
"Please, we'll be fine!" I said, smiling.
"Famous last words..." Pelko said quietly. I imagined the green Spirit timidly wringing her hands.
"I don't see what the fuss is. It's just the two of us, and the area's so small, I don't see how we'll get lost!" I gave Sonic a wink. "If it's here, we'll find that Emerald in no time flat!" Sonic looked a bit resistant at first, but sighed and nodded.
"If you say so pal." Sonic relented.
"Go that way." I said, pointing behind the hedgehog. "I'll go the other way, and we'll meet in the middle. We'll do that going the other way too." With that, we both turned around and started walking.
…...
I slowly began to get worried. How long did it take to walk half an American football field? I had been walking for what felt like 15 minutes with no sign of Sonic anywhere. I sighed.
"Famous last words..." I said to myself. I groaned. "Why didn't I just stay with Sonic?"
That's when it hit me. The depression once again. But this time, it was coming from nowhere! I felt all resistance drop as it washed over me. In the back of my mind, something was screaming that this wasn't natural, that this was the Emerald doing its work on me. But I didn't seem to pay any mind. A hurricane of thoughts stormed in my head.
I'm an animal...
I let Sonic down...
I'm an embarrassment to all around me...
I could have tried to save my parents...
That's when I saw the Emerald, slowly coming towards me. I felt like I should run, but I couldn't. It slowly rotated, the bottom tip pointing at my face.
I quickly snapped back to reality. My first reflex was to try to conjure up one of my Emeralds.
But the Dark Blue had other plans. It quickly shot toward my face.
…
To be honest, that's the last that I remember of it. I only learned the details about an hour ago from Sonic. He had to fight another Emerald Monster, like with Blitz.
But, according to him, this was one of the shortest, and one of the the hardest, fights he had ever had to date.
…
Sonic had been walking in the loop for a long time now. He was worried, because he knew he should have run into me by now.
"Did he get lost?" Sonic thought to himself. The thought seemed ridiculous, but just to be safe, he ran up a tree to get a bird's eye view.
That's when he saw something odd.
Coming off from the circle of forest was a line that wasn't there before. It was lined with trees, like the circle, and was continually extending. Sonic didn't have much time to think of it before he saw a large, blue, beacon shoot up from the end of the clearing. He didn't know what to make of it, until he heard something.
Me screaming.
He knew I was in trouble.
As quickly as he dared, he dashed through the forest, making a bee line down the path the Emerald created for me.
He found me sooner than he expected... but I wasn't me anymore.
Sonic saw the Dark Blue Emerald planted in my face where one of my eyes would have been, as if it were forced into it. The skin beneath was covered in blood. The life had gone from my remaining eye, as if I wasn't really in my own body anymore. I began to stagger towards him.
"Josh?!" Sonic yelped. He quickly dashed over to me.
"Get... Away..." I growled, softly. It sounded very similar to a death rattle.
"What happened to you?" Sonic asked as he came up to me. He gently reached up as he tried to touch the Emerald.
My hand suddenly shot up and grabbed his wrist. He looked at my hand in surprise before I roughly threw him over my shoulder. He flew into a tree, smacking into it with a loud thud. He groaned and coughed, looking at me in shock.
"J-Josh?" Sonic asked quietly. "What-"
A green glow caught his eye. He looked over to see the Green Chaos Emerald lying close to where I was. He quickly looked back up at me, as I began to stagger towards him once again. Sonic quickly stood up, but held his ground.
"Who did this to you?" Sonic asked. He quickly glanced down to the Green Emerald, trying to see how close I would have to get towards him before he could dash over and grab it.
"Get... away..." I rattled again. Sonic understood this time. It wasn't a threat. It was a warning.
"Tell me who did this to you!" Sonic repeated. Just a few more feet.
I quickly lunged at the hedgehog, quicker than he originally anticipated, pinning him to a tree. I spoke to Sonic again... but it didn't sound like me at all.
"You won't take him away. He's mine now." The voice that came out of my mouth was much deeper. It sounded a bit distorted, at times sounding like many voices. It made Sonic shiver a bit.
"We'll see about that!" Sonic yelled, anger welling up inside him. "Sorry Josh..." He thought to himself. He quickly raised up a foot and kicked me square in the chest, sending me reeling back. He ran around me and quickly grabbed the Emerald.
"Can you hear me Pelko?!" Sonic yelled in his head.
"Yes." She replied.
"What's gotten into Josh?! Did he-"
"Not exactly."
"What does that mean?" Sonic asked, looking me up and down, before quickly jumping over me to dodge.
"Take a look." She replied. Sonic's vision glazed over for a bit, before he came back into focus. "You can now see the Chaos Energy." Sonic gasped.
Hovering above me was a large, black figure. It was hooded, but Sonic could see two red eyes peeking out from it. The robe it wore was tattered and frayed. Two gnarled hands protruded from the sleeves, each holding what looked like a wooden cross. The four ends of each cross had a string attached to them. Each string was attached to me.
"That thing is controlling him!" Sonic said out loud. The creature looked surprised that Sonic could see it now.
"This is a ritual practiced when the world was younger. A shaman would let the Spirit of an Emerald channel through him, allowing the shaman to predict the future and perform impossible feats." Pelko explained.
"And they stabbed the Emerald into their eye?!" Sonic asked, disgusted.
"No, not at all! Look at his eyes!" Pelko instructed. Sonic squinted. He saw something else mixed with the blood running from the wound, as well as something running from the other eye.
"He's crying!" Sonic became even more angry.
"Suru is getting stronger by feeding off the tears!" Pelko said, panicking a bit. "You must make haste, I fear he may soon be trying to merge with Josh!"
"You mean Josh could die if I don't hurry?!" Sonic shrieked. He recalled what the Emeralds had said earlier. If Josh ever tried to harness the power of the Chaos Emeralds by having them merge with him, his body would consume itself. Sonic wasted no time. He jumped into the air and curled up into a ball, preparing to perform his signature Homing Attack. He launched at the specter... and sailed clean through, not even damaging it. He turned back in fright.
"I didn't even hit it!" Sonic cried.
"It is just energy right now! There is only one way to get rid of it!" Pelko said. Sonic went wide-eyed as his Chaos Vision went away, leaving only Josh.
"...No...I can't do this!" Sonic said, preparing to attack the air again.
"But you must!" Pelko shrieked. "If you can knock him out, we can drain the energy from Suru, and remove the Emerald!"
"NO!" Sonic launched through the air once again. I was yanked up by the Spirit, grabbed Sonic, and slammed him into the ground. I brought my face close to his.
"He's mine now." The deep voice, Suru, cackled through me. "I will stay strong." I sneered. "You lose."
My face snapped back to my own, as I began to sob. (This I do remember.) The combination of great pain from my eye and the confusion of what was going on caught up with me.
"S-Sonic, what's going on?!" I screamed. Sonic went sheet white. "Sonic help me! It hurts!" More blood began to spill down, falling onto the hedgehog's face.
The sneer returned to my face as my sobs quickly stopped. (As did my recollection of the event.)
"He is allowing Josh to break through to speed up the process!" Pelko realized. "He must not be able to hold it for very long." Sonic said nothing. He trembled a bit. "...Sonic?"
I sneered again and stood up.
"It's over hedgehog." Suru said. "Say goodbye to the human."
Sonic said something, very quietly.
"Speak up mortal!" Suru yelled. "Be a man."
"Take me instead." Sonic said, staring dead at me. Sulu snapped back to me. I fell to the ground, holding my hand over the Emerald.
"What's in my eye?!" I yelled.
"Did you hear me?!" Sonic yelled, looking above me. "Take me instead!"
"Who are you talking to?! What's going on?!" I shrieked, looking up at Sonic. The Emerald started to glow again, and I began freaking out a bit more. It literally ripped itself from my eye, causing me to scream. I held my hand up again, as blood poured out of the wound. I looked up. "The Emerald was in my eye?!"
Sonic looked resigned. He held his hands out to the Emerald.
"I'm all yours." He said quietly. The Emerald started to float towards him. I saw the life leave his eyes, as he seemed to just give up. The Emerald slowly tilted, tip towards his eye.
We heard a voice echo across the forest, a deep voice that I had not heard yet.
"You are now mine." The voice said, calmingly. "I can make all your pain go away."
Sonic spoke as if he were in a trance.
"I am yours..." He mumbled.
"N-NO!" I yelled. I quickly lunged forward. Reaching out, I quickly laid a hand on the Emerald. Sonic quickly escaped the trance, as I landed on top of him. Our vision went blank, as the world dissolved in a sea of dark blue.
…...
Me and Sonic woke up, standing among a small crowd, made of humans and Mobians, as usual. Everyone was dressed in black, and all of them were standing around something...
Sonic looked over at me. My eye had healed.
"Sorrow." A voice said. It sounded like the voice we heard in the forest, and the one Sonic heard coming from me, but it sounded much more compassionate. We both looked over. A dark blue cat, wearing a black hood and black jeans, was looking into the distance, in the same direction as the other people gathered. "It can tear people apart, causing people to distance themselves." The cat looked at us. "I am Suru." Sonic looked enraged.
"You did this to him!" Sonic yelled, pointing at me. I looked at Sonic in confusion.
"Did what?" I asked.
"I'm sorry." Suru said, looking deeply grieved, which seemed to soften Sonic a bit. "I didn't have control of what I was doing. I wish I didn't do that, but I wasn't exactly myself." Suru turned back to what he was focusing on. We looked over to.
We were at a funeral.
Everyone was mourning over a closed casket.
"Sorrow can be destructive..." Suru turned and motioned to two people. "But it can also create."
A human had walked over and sat next to a squirrel, and put his arm around her. She looked up at him and smiled a bit.
"We crave someone to be with when we are sorrowful." Suru said, smiling a bit. He looked at me. "You bonded with your brother, which, had your parents not died, would not have happened." I nodded.
"Now could someone explain to me what just happened?" I asked. Suru looked at Sonic.
"...Make sure you cure yourself when you get back." Was all Suru said. Mine and Sonic's vision clouded over in blue once again.
…...
When we came back, I keeled over, in pain. Sonic quickly stood me up, supporting me. He handed me the Green Chaos Emerald.
"I wish I was healed!" I said through gritted teeth.
The Emerald glowed, and a warmth spread through my body, focusing especially on my eye. Once the glowing and warmth died down, I slowly opened my eye. Me and Sonic were both breathing pretty hard. Sonic looked over at me. He stood up, looking at me with a combination of anger, worry, and relief. He roughly pulled me up off the ground.
"Don't you ever try to split up again!" Sonic almost shouted. I looked fearfully at him before he quickly pulled me close to him. "Don't you dare leave my sight again." He said quietly into my shoulder. I was a bit shocked. I had no idea what had just happened, but it shook Sonic to the core. He seemed so... fragile. I wrapped my arms around him, pulling him to me, trying to comfort him. "I thought I lost you..." He almost whispered.
It was quite a twist, me being the one to comfort Sonic instead of the other way around. It felt nice to know he needed me too. I gave him a reassuring squeeze.
"It's okay now Sonic." I said quietly. "I'm here now. I'll always be here." I pulled back a bit, and looked at him. He was shaken pretty bad. "You're not gonna cry on me are you?" I teased, trying to make him feel better. He gave me a small smile. I gently rubbed his cheek like he had done to me. Sonic chuckled and took my hand. He pulled me to the top of a tree. We looked out.
"We're back." He said, smiling. We both looked at each other, before hopping down. Our boards were right where we left them.
We were just about to get them when a large group of hoverboarders nearly ran us over. Knuckles was the leader of the group. That is, until he stopped and looked back in what could only be described as shock, wonder, and "What the #3/ is going on here?"
"How'd you guys get ahead of me?!" He asked in shock. Me and Sonic looked at each other.
"...I don't know." I said. "But look what we got!" I held out my ring, showing off the new Dark Blue gem.
"You stole the grand prize?!" Knuckles yelped.
"Out of self defense, it tried to kill us... I think." I said. Knuckles looked over at Sonic. He still looked a bit stiff.
"What's his deal?" Knuckles asked me.
"I don't know..." I said, trying to think.
"It's nothing." Sonic said. "It's over now, it's done." Knuckles looked curiously at the two of us. He squinted.
"...What's all over your face Sonic?" Knuckles asked. Sonic reached a hand up to his face. He looked at his glove. The white had been stained red on his fingertips. I looked at him in shock.
"What happened to you?" I asked him. I couldn't quite recall everything that happened when Sulu snapped his personality over to me. It wasn't until later that I remember bleeding all over Sonic.
"Josh," Sonic smiled at me. "It's over. Don't worry about it." I smiled back uncertainly.
"If you say so." I replied. We were quiet for a moment.
"...Guys? The race?" Knuckles reminded us.
"Race?" Sonic looked at me for a moment. We both gasped.
"We're dead last!" I shrieked. "I don't have my board!"
"It's right there." Knuckles said, pointing. Indeed it was... just... sitting there, right where we left it. Sonic's was there too. We both looked at each other again.
"...I hate Chaos Monsters." I said, quickly grabbing my board.
"That makes two of us." Sonic chimed in, running up behind me, board in hand. We both quickly hopped on and sped off, Knuckles close behind us. He pulled up even with us.
"How far along are we?" Sonic yelled over to Knuckles.
"We're almost out of the forest! The half-way mark should be just up ahead!" Knuckles yelled back.
"How's the competition?" I asked.
"Easy pickings." Knuckles sneered.
"Good..." I said to myself. "I need all the help I can-"
I stopped mid-thought as we almost ran into the whole group of Hoverboarders. We quickly pulled back, me once again falling to the ground, on my butt. Sonic helped me up.
"What's going on?" I asked him.
"I dunno. They're just... standing there..." Sonic said. I looked at the crowd.
"Do they seem nervous to you?" I asked.
"Kinda..." Knuckles said quietly. He reached over and tapped someone on their shoulder. "Hey, what's going on?" The racer said nothing. He just laughed and pointed forward. We squeezed our way up front, trying to see what was going on. I shrieked in surprise when I saw what was going on.
Everyone was standing in front of a chain-link fence.
On the other side was a bunch of freaking. Zombies.
Seriously?!
Zombies?!
Can you imagine if they did this in NASCAR, or Motocross or something?
No? Exactly! What's wrong with these people?!
"Oh no..." Sonic said, looking back at me, who was currently hiding behind him.
"Dude, relax, they're just in costume." Knuckles said, laughing a bit.
"He knows that." Sonic said quietly. He put an arm around me. Knuckles looked at me.
"...Well... let's just blast through then." He said. "The faster we go, the quicker we'll get out of there."
"Knuckles, no, we have the Emerald, let's just go." Sonic said, turning away.
"No." I said.
"...No?" Sonic looked at me.
"We made it this far, we need to win." I said.
"It's ok now buddy, there's no shame-"
"Sonic," I cut him off, "Someone will realize the grand prize is stolen, and if we forfeit and just leave, all fingers will point at us!" I said. Realization sank in for him. "We have to finish, like it or not. And we have to win." I finished, looking at the field ahead with determination. I took a few steps forward, and grabbed one of the chains. I stared defiantly at the actors. "I can do this." I said, more to myself.
One of the zombies quickly lurched at the fence from my blind-spot, causing me to jump back and yelp in fright. Everyone gave a good natured chuckle. I sneaked back to Sonic and grabbed his arm.
"With you of course." I said quietly. Sonic smiled and put an arm around me.
"What are you going to do without me?" He asked me teasingly.
"You planning on leaving anytime soon?" I replied, chuckling out of nervousness and embarrassment. Sonic and Knuckles both chuckled and started to walk forward.
"Do we just hop the fence?" Knuckles asked one of the people.
"I guess..." The hover boarder replied.
"Why haven't you yet?" Knuckles asked.
"One team tried. They got caught, and were dragged off into the forest, back closer to the starting line." The boarder replied.
"How did they get caught? How did those guys catch them without hoverboards?" Sonic asked.
"They don't work!" Another boarder spoke up. "There's an electromagnet in the fence posts, it interferes with the boards."
"You and Knuckles can outrun them." I told Sonic. "No problem!" Sonic laughed and rubbed my arm.
"Just leave it to us." Sonic said, gesturing to him and Knuckles. Knuckles flexed his arm and grinned.
"Anyone comes close, they'll get a Knuckle Sandwich!" He said, pea-cocking a bit to show off his manliness. I held back a snarky comment about how cheesy his last sentence was. I just gave a polite smile.
"Thanks guys..." I said meekly.
We bravely (and not so bravely) pushed through the crowd and made it up to the fence. The zombie actors crowded in front of us, moaning and growling, trying to reach at us. One shook the fence, which made me start to wonder how I would climb the stupid thing. My question was quickly answered when Sonic wrapped his arms around my waist tightly.
"Hang on!" He cried. I quickly latched onto Sonic as he and Knuckles took a mighty leap into the air. We easily cleared the fence and soared past the somewhat dumbfounded actors. The boarders cheered. One girl screamed "I Love You Sonic!"
We landed, and I had no time to regain my balance as we scrambled off. We all took off at a sprint.
"Why aren't you running at your normal speed?" I asked him, gasping a bit.
"One of the announcer dudes told me I couldn't on day one." He replied nonchalantly, not even breaking a sweat. "I had no idea this was why though!"
"You didn't tell me that behind the fence?!" I yelped.
"I didn't want to freak you out!" He replied, shrugging. "Besides, look, we're almost home free!" He pointed to the fence in front of us. It was close, yet still seemed to be so far away.
I suddenly tripped and fell. I used my arms as best I could to catch myself, then tried to stand back up and run. One leg moved, but the other felt like it was caught on something. I turned to try to get it off... and nearly wet myself. Sonic and Knuckles turned around to check on me and jumped back a bit.
A zombie hand had a hold of me.
Coming out of the ground.
It started to pull on me, as it began to sink back into the ground. I flipped over and began clawing at the ground.
"GUYS!" I yelled, looking up at them pleadingly. They both rushed forward and started to pull on me. The hand began to move forward, until it popped out of the ground. Sonic and Knuckles fell back and laughed a bit, while I layed there, shaking.
"You okay buddy?" Sonic asked between laughs.
"No..." I said trembling, which caused the two to laugh a bit harder. I slowly rolled over and sat up. I scanned the crowd, seeing how many others were laughing... and that's when I saw it.
No one was laughing.
The actors weren't acting.
Everyone was just standing there, staring. I looked down at the hand. It looked different from the actor's makeup... and it didn't look like an animatronic prop. I gingerly reached down and started to work the hand off my ankle.
It certainly wasn't rubber... It felt like leather.
I worked it off and checked the arm end. A bone stuck out, as well as some red what-looked-like-muscle. I cautiously brought it closer to inspect it.
The first thing I noticed was the stench. It was enough to cause me to gag.
The flesh was moist, and too real... simple makeup couldn't have created it...
I almost immediately threw the arm away from me and ran over to Sonic, pressing myself against him. He stopped laughing and followed my gaze. I wanted so badly to look away from the arm... but I just couldn't. Sonic wrapped an arm around me and pulled me close to him.
"Josh...?" Sonic left the question unasked. He didn't need to say it.
"Yeah..." I said quietly. "It's real..."
JJ: School's started again...
Josh: Can't you sluff or something?
JJ: No way!
Josh: Just a suggestion. So, zombies?
JJ: Of course! Why not, it's getting close to Halloween!
Josh: It's so cliché.
JJ: Do I need to remind you-
Josh: I know, I know... delete button.
JJ: Good boy! Don't worry, things are going to get pretty crazy after this zombie part.
Josh: ...How crazy?
JJ: Want a hint?
Josh: Uh, sure...
JJ: It has to do with "SW7."
Josh: SW7? What is that?
JJ: Something on Earth that's going to tie into the story heavily.
Josh: Give us more than that!
JJ: ...What is the high place of a castle called?
Josh: ...A Towe-
JJ: SHHHH! Don't say it out loud!
Josh: Sorry...
JJ: ...Okay all you intrepid readers! Want a sneak peak for what happens after the race? Figure out what I mean! SW7 and the word for the high place of a castle... hmm...
