CHAPTER 12

If possible, Westopolis looked even more run-down than before.

Immeadentally, everyone in the red van spotted G-virus victims behind buildings and in the streets. "Let's get them!" Tails cried, rushing forward with a syringe filled with the antidote.

The G-virus zombies gave a low growl and charged at him. Tails dodged one's claws and stuck the syringe into its neck. Another zombie came at him, but he ducked and rolled and stabbed the needle of another syringe into its leg. Within two minuets, both zombies were back to normal, although they were very confused.

"What…what just happened?" Asked one of them.

"Um…we'll explain later. Now take these and make sure those guys get it." Lilly handed them a belt loaded with syringes filled with the G-virus and the blood. She quickly explained which was which, and then sent the two off.

Within the hour, more people arrived from the other towns, ready to go zombie hunting. Tails gave them a quick pep talk and then they were off.

"Come on, we should get out there too." Amy grabbed a small pistol and put in her pocket. "This city is far too big for a few people to rid it of zombies by themselves."

With that, they split into groups. Lilly, Tails and Knuckles went one way; Sonic, Amy, Eggman and Shadow went another; and Blaze and Silver stayed behind near the car.

"What if we run into Sinister and Mephiles?" Sonic asked worriedly. "Then what?"

"I'm more worried if another group runs into them." Shadow muttered. "They won't know what they're up against."

"Good point." Amy said in a near whisper. "So in that perspective I sort of want them to find us."

"Um, what?" Eggman squeaked. "How bad are these guys?"

"Pure flipping evil." Sonic said plainly.

"Mephiles didn't lose his mind like the other G-virus victims." Shadow said. "He knows what he wants to do and he's a lot worse than the other zombies we've encountered."

"And Sinister, on the other hand," Sonic shuddered. "he pretty much kills on sight. We've got to watch out for that guy."

"No duh." Amy said.

The group rounded a corner and came face to face with a zombie.

"AAYYAHAAA!" Sonic yelled, jamming the needle into its face and jumping back. "Holy shit! That was close!"

"On that note, we need someone to direct this guy back to Silver and Blaze, because they got extra ammo." Amy said as the zombie began to change back to normal. "Why don't you do it, Eggman?"

"Sure, no probablem!" Eggman said very fast. "Sounds good to me! You guys just go on ahead and take out those creepy people you talked about two minuets ago!"

"Where am I?" Asked the former zombie, who was a small white cat. "Um, why are you guys all armed with needles, and why does my mouth taste like blood?"

"I'll explain later." Eggman practically grabbed the cat's arm and dragged him off. "Bye!"

"Wuss," Amy muttered. "Anyway, come on. We need to move fast. This is the biggest friggen' city I've ever seen."

They carefully moved through the city's alleys looking for any zombie or other group of zombie hunters to converse with.

"I hear someone up ahead." Sonic warned when they came to a long, dark alley. "I'll go first."

Sonic took two steps into the alley and screamed bloody murder.

"Whoa, relax, hero." Shadow grabbed Sonic's ear and dragged him back. "You might scare someone."

Tails was standing in the middle of the alley, clutching a syringe so tightly that they all feared it would break. His eyes were as wide as they could go and his fur was fluffed up to the maximum. "Wha….wha….wha…?" He stuttered.

"Relax, Sonic's just a moron." Shadow cast Sonic an evil glare.

"Oh, it's you guys." Tails relaxed a little. "We just cured about five people and there's a huge group starting to form around our van. They all want weapons and things, and Blaze and Silver can't work fast enough to meet their demands."

"Wow, either there's a population of sixty three billion here, or we're doing better than I thought." Amy said. "This is great!"

"Come on, we were just about to head down the alley over there. Want to come with us?" Tails asked, pointing behind everyone.

"Sure."

So their two groups met up and they went down another alley, although this one wasn't as dark and evil looking. There were just trash cans and dumpsters.

"Ok, I think all the zombies would be more in town, you know…where there's other zombies to attack." Lilly said. "So we'll have better luck if we head downtown."

So head downtown they did.

"We've been walking for half an hour and not one zombie showed their damn face." Shadow hissed. "Where could they be?"

"Right here."

Before anyone could react, Mephiles sprang out of nowhere and shoved Shadow to the ground. "I knew I should have killed you when I had the chance." He hissed.

"Shadow! Don't worry, I got him!" Sonic lunged at Mephiles with a syringe. But Mephiles was quick. He swiftly dodged and sent a sphere of dark energy at the syringe. It broke and the contents dripped on the ground.

"What..?" Sonic looked really worried. "Um…what just happened just happened, right?"

Suddenly all the syringes everyone had shattered. Glass, virus infected blood and the antidote fell to the ground.

"Holy crap." Lilly muttered. "How can you do that?"

"As easy as I can do this." Mephiles sneered. With that, he unsheathed long curved black claws and plunged them into Shadow's side.

Shadow went rigid and Mephiles began to laugh. "Yes, finally!" He laughed evilly. "You are one of us now."

"Bastard!" Lilly did a flying roundhouse kick into the side of Mephiles' head. He hit the side of a dumpster with a loud clang. "I won't let you get away with this!" Lilly came at him again, her fists and feet flying.

Mephiles managed to block a few of her crazed attacks and grab her by her throat. Lilly let out a small gasp and tried to kick him in his kneecaps.

"Mom!" Tails cried. He picked up the biggest shard of glass off the ground and flung it at Mephiles. It cut his arm open and he dropped Lilly with a hiss of pain.

"Guys, Shadow isn't doing very well!" Sonic informed everyone in worried tones. "Um…he's sort of…dying?"

Amy dropped next to Shadow's side. "Shadow, hang in there, please! We'll get the cure!"

Shadow didn't seem to hear her. Blood flowed freely from his side, pooling around him. His eyes were half closed and he was gasping pitifully for breath. Amy took one of his hands and held it tight. "Come on, Shadow, please…"

"I'll kill you all!" Mephiles roared. His arm healed itself and he conjured up another dark sphere of pure energy and flung it at Knuckles, who was closest. He dodged and the sphere hit the wall, blasting it to bits and reveling the inside of the building, which was some sort of Asian restaurant. Knuckles lunged at Mephiles and knocked him into the restaurant. Sonic jumped in after them, yelling battle cries the entire way.

"I'll go back and get the cure. Wait here." Lilly turned and ran down the alley.

"Wait! Mom, it might not be safe!" Tails ran after her.

"Oh, come on! Both of you don't have any weapons!" Amy screamed, but they were both gone. "Shit, we're doomed." She muttered.

Meanwhile Mephiles, Knuckles and Sonic were fighting for their lives. Knuckles grabbed Mephiles by his shoulders and slammed him into a nearby table. Mephiles didn't seemed fazed by the attack and threw a chunk of the broken table at him. Sonic had gone to the kitchen and returned with a long knife, with which he charged at his opponent.

He caught Mephiles in the back. Mephiles let out a cry of pain and twisted around, knocked Sonic off balance and tore the knife out of his back. While Sonic and Knuckles watched, the wound healed.

"Oh, great thinking, Smart One. Now he's got a weapon. Just what we needed." Knuckles hissed. "Plus he's got the G-virus and his blood's on the knife. If he cuts us with it, then we'll end up with it too."

Mephiles sized up his opponents, like he was deciding who to kill first.

"One weapon, two of us." Knuckles shouted. "Who're you gonna kill first?"

"You." Mephiles' eyes flashed red and he flung the knife at him.

Knuckles couldn't have reacted in time. He shut his eyes and waited for the knife to hit him and for the world to go black. But instead, nothing happened. Knuckles opened his eyes to find Sonic standing in front of him, the knife embedded in his stomach.

"Oh, damn…" Knuckles muttered as Sonic collapsed on the ground and didn't move.

"Now this seems fair." Mephiles laughed evilly. "One on one."

"You'll pay." Knuckles hissed, jumping over Sonic and getting into a battle stance. "Bring it on. You and me, nothing or no one else."

Amy could hear the sounds of battle coming from the restaurant, but there was nothing she could do. She could only watch helplessly as Shadow became infected with the G-virus, Sonic was stabbed and Knuckles began to fight Mephiles singlehandedly. It was almost too much to bear.

"I shouldn't be sitting here…" Amy whispered to no one in particular. "I have to help in some way…"

"Amy…" Shadow gasped. "Amy….get out of here…."

"I can't Shadow, not without you." Amy sobbed. "I can't leave."

"You have to…" Shadow wheezed. "…please…"

Amy let herself cry, not caring who saw her or what they thought of her. "I just don't know what to do right now…"

Shadow let go of her hand and his hand brushed her side as it fell to the ground. Wait…did I have something in my pocket? Amy thought. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small pistol. Then she spotted the broken remains of the syringes that had held the cure. It was sure as hell worth a try…

Knuckles barely dodged Mephiles' dark sphere thing for the umpteenth time. He didn't seem to be getting tired, while Knuckles was about ready to pass out. He threw a vase at Mephiles' head, but he dismissed the attack as if he had thrown a pillow.

"Come on, you bastard!" Knuckles hissed. "Show me what you got!"

Mephiles laughed evilly. "You'll regret it."

That was when two shots were heard. Knuckles blinked in surprise as two bullets tore through Mephiles' body and three more followed. Both of them turned to see Amy standing at the hole in the wall holding a pistol with fire burning in her eyes. "Die, Mephiles!" She growled, shooting more holes in his chest. "Die now!"

"You can't defeat me like that." Mephiles hissed. "You'll have to do a lot better than that."

"Like coat the bullets in the cure?" Amy hissed back.

Mephiles' eyes got wide. "You…you… you did what?"

"You heard me. And I'm pretty sure the piece of glass that Tails sliced you with was full of it too. It just hasn't taken effect yet." Amy growled.

The bullet wounds in Mephiles' chest tried to heal up, but only succeeded in partly closing. His blood began to flow freely to the ground.

"What…how could this happen?" Mephiles screamed. "No! No!"

He collapsed on the ground, coughing and writhing in pain. "This can't happen! NOOO!"

Within a few seconds he breathed his last.

"Wow, it worked." Amy muttered. "Amazing."

In the corner of the room, Sonic began to move. He stood up, his eyes burning red. He pulled the knife out of his stomach and turned to face Knuckles.

"Oh, shit. Here we go again." Knuckles muttered. "Please tell me you have a few more bullets left."

"Just one." Amy took aim briefly and shot Sonic in his leg.