13. Mob Mentality

"Incoming!"

Everyone froze, thinking it was an attack, until Sonic flipped back the fake tree stump and Bunnie tumbled inside. Her face was streaked with tears and she clutched two burlap sacks like they were the most precious things in the world. Her breathing came hoarse and rapid, and all those who heard and saw her immediately felt seeds of panic stir within them.

"Close the hatch!" she gasped. When it had clicked back into place she sank down in a heap against the wall.

"Bunnie?" Rosie was at her side in an instant. "Bunnie, what on Mobius happened?"

Bunnie just shook her head, breathed deeply, and schooled her face into a mask of sure-headedness. She even smiled, though those closest to her saw it end at her gums. Her eyes were still tormented and grief-stricken.

Sonic immediately thought the worst. "Did you Sal or Dulce out there?"

She shook her head.

"Damn it!"

"Sonic! Language." Rosie tried to help Bunnie to her feet, but Bunnie waved her away and stood up alone.

"I saved the balloons," she said after a moment. Rotor took them, just as Antoine pushed past him and did the unexpected: he hugged Bunnie, forgoing all pretence at decorum because he was so pleased to see his friend safe and well.

Or … not well, because there was something seriously wrong with Bunnie. She stood like a statue and didn't return the hug. For her that was the same as anyone else kicking him in the gut.

Antoine pulled back in bewilderment. "Bunnie?" he ventured. "Are you being as all rightness as you are seeming? Are you injuriated?"

"Nah, sugar, I'm not hurt."

"I am most sorry for to be leaving you. It was …" He wrinkled his nose as though he'd smelled something bad. "It was cowardliness of moi."

"And me," Rotor added. "Sorry, Bunnie."

She didn't reply.

"How did you get away?" Rotor asked.

Her eyes flicked around the assembled villagers, pressing in around the Freedom Fighters like one seething mass of eavesdroppers. Alarm spiked in Sonic, as much as it ever did – Bunnie didn't want to cause a riot in a confined space full of already nervous beasts, which meant whatever had happened to her out there had to be bad.

Which made it even worse that he didn't know anything about Sally and Dulcy.

"I did something I ain't proud of," Bunnie said softly. "But I saved the balloons." That was the second time she'd said that. Sonic knew the balloons were really important in their fight against Robotnik, but something about the way Bunnie spoke made him wary; as though she was clinging to this fact like a life-raft in choppy seas. He wasn't the most perceptive of hedgehogs, even though he was the coolest, but right now his brain was such a syrup of hyperawareness that even he could tell Bunnie was hanging onto to this fact to deflect from something else.

Sal…

Bunnie's eyes were glossy, but she sucked in a breath, shook her head slightly, and looked directly at Sonic. "Sugar-hog, Robotnik's got himself some new allies. It ain't just SWATbots out there."

"Who?"

"That ain't important right now. What's important is that everybody gets down into these here lower chambers an' stays there until we all can say to come up again."

"The lower chambers?" echoed one of the villagers behind Sonic. "But there's a limited air supply down there! We'll suffocate."

Panicky muttering erupted like smoke from a small fire.

"Better a limited air supply than outright dead," Bunnie snapped, surprising everyone. "You'll be fine for an hour. The lower chambers are reinforced. They can withstand attacks much better than these upper compartments. Trust me when I say every beast here will thank me later for puttin' y'all down there."

Eventually, they managed to corral everyone into single file, and they trooped off to the smelly, dank lower chambers. Tails opted to go with the others, and both he and Rosie soothed the worried and recalcitrant mutterings as best they could. Before h disappeared, however, Tails drew close to Sonic and felt for his hand.

"Sonic, what about the terrapods?"

Sonic held tight to his little buddy's fingers. "They'll be fine, Big Guy. They're probably smarter at out-manoeuvring these enemies than we are. They got the whole forest to lose 'em in, remember? And it makes it easier for them to get away because whoever's out there is busy looking for us while we're sitting pretty down here where they can't get at us."

Tails's throaty noise didn't sound convinced, but he withdrew with Rosie, leaving Bunnie, Sonic, Rotor and Antoine staring at each other in a small circle.

Sonic breathed deeply. His instincts were jumping like popcorn in a popper, and it was taking every scrap of meagre self-control he had not to just burst out of this dump and strike out on his own, consequences be damned. Envisioning how Sally would react in this situation was all that kept his sneakers glued to the floor and his eyes glued to Bunnie. Sal would kill him if he did something stupid after everybody had already risked so much to keep themselves safe.

"All right," he said grimly. "Start talking."

Sally's lungs were burning. She knew she was only staying ahead of her pursuers by the skin of her teeth, and that thought provided little comfort. She ran and kept on running, dodging as best she could and wondering where the heck she was supposed to go now. She couldn't lead them anywhere near the shelters, but she couldn't keep going aimlessly forever, either. She wasn't built for sustaining running, just brief sprints. Adrenaline and fatigue were taking their toll, and she could feel her leg and arm muscles beginning to tire. Soon she'd get clumsy, and then it was only a matter of time before she made a critical mistake that put her in a vulnerable position with so many enemies chasing her.

TSEW!

And shooting at her.

Sally dived to one side and scrabbled into a shallow trench covered in fronds of aptly-named trenchgrass. It tickled her back as she crawled along, but trenchgrass moved a lot anyway, so unless that echidna with the heat-sensing visor was nearby Sally could perhaps gain a few extra seconds –

"Her signature is there, on your left!"

Well that reprieve was certainly too much to hope for, wasn't it? Sally broke cover and sprinted for the closely-knit deciduous trees that ran parallel to the river. Perhaps if she dived in she could drop her body temperature and disguise herself that way.

TSEW!

Hot pain bit into her side. She cried out, stumbled and collided with a tree trunk. For a second her vision greyed with pain, and when her hand went to her hip it came back wet and shining red. She forced herself not to stop, but the moist throb of her injury slowed her progress. Already she could hear her pursuers crashing through the undergrowth on their metal feet, growing ever closer. One of them, perhaps the one who'd already hit her, would probably be lining up for a killing shot right now …

All at once the undergrowth behind her seemed to explode. The echidnas shouted and yelped, unprepared for this new assault against them. Something that sounded remarkably like a buzz saw went off, throwing up greenery and mud faster than the worst storm Sally had ever witnessed. She tried to keep ahead of whatever new problem this was, but it quickly overtook her and she found herself losing contact with the ground.

"No-!"

"Hey, Sal. Need a lift?"

Sally blinked, her senses dulled with pain. "S-Sonic?"

"The one and only! Can you hang onto me?"

She shoved aside the cloudiness trying to over take her mind and nodded. She linked her arms around his neck, ignoring the pain in her side when she stretched upwards. Sonic's arm tightened around her. He held up his power ring with his other hand. It glowed, and Sally felt the familiar crackle of its energy coursing through him, setting her own fur on end with static.

"Juice and jam time! Whooooooo -"

Together, they raced away through the trees, bouncing from floor to branch in a haphazard, breakneck pattern not even the echidna with the visor could follow.

Bunnie felt numb, but she forced herself to keep going. She plopped into the lower chambers as though plopping into a bowl of broth. The air was soupy, full of hushed voices and thick with fear. It was also far hotter than she'd expected. So many bodies crammed into the small space had raised the temperature enough that within seconds her fur was damp with sweat. She knew she had to tread carefully – both literally and metaphorically. This kind of atmosphere bred panic like wet food grew mould, and the situation was bad enough already.

"Aunt Bunnie?"

It was dark in the lower chambers. Bunnie strained her eyes, picking out the faint outline of Tails's ears in the gloom. "Yeah, sugar?"

"Are you okay?"

She'd expected him to ask about Sonic, or what was going on, or who was attacking above. She should've known better. This was Tails after all. Still, she took a breath before answering, and chose her words precisely. Sometimes it was good to have a barnload of clichés to call on. "Finer than frog hair, darlin'. How you fixed?"

"I'm okay, I guess. Everybody's a little nervous." He gave a short laugh that was far too old for his age. "But there's nothing to worry about, right?" She could tell he didn't believe it, but he knew the others were listening. He'd read the atmosphere for what it was, too.

When did you quit bein' a kid an' become an adult? Bunnie wondered. She cleared her throat. "We'll be fine, so long as everybody sits tight an' waits for the signal that it's safe to come out."

"I hope it's soon," said someone whose voice she didn't recognise. His tone was laced with enough tension to suspend the whole village on a single wire. "I'm claustrophobic. This is killing me."

Bunnie bit her tongue. Being aboveground would kill him a whole lot faster. She'd elected to come down here and check on everyone, since her snapping at them earlier had frightened them. It made sense that if she was the one to reassure them they'd lose some of their fear – in theory, anyway. In reality she wasn't so sure, but since Sonic hared off, Rotor and Antoine had been distinctly uncomfortable in her company.

And why not? No other Freedom Fighter ever took a life before.

She tried to shake away the thought. It stuck like chewing gum in hair, too enmeshed to free and painful if she tugged at it. She'd killed. It didn't matter that she hadn't meant to. She was a killer. Her throat hurt and her eyes stung. Suddenly she was glad for the darkness. She felt sick.

Sonic had taken some of the balloons. He had gone to get Sally and Dulcy. He hadn't told her it was impossible for their enemies to be echidnas, or even showed surprise when she explained about their roboticised parts. He had just wanted to know where she engaged them and what their transportation was like – how fast it went and whether she reckoned it was manoeuvrable as a hedgehog going at top speed. His top priority had been their friends. Bunnie envied him that focus. Her own mind felt like it was unravelling.

Freedom Fighters didn't kill. They didn't. How could she forgive herself for what she'd done? How could anyone forgive themselves after they'd taken a life? Only someone like Robotnik, someone totally without mercy, would fail to feel a thing after such an act.

Killer. Knuckles won't want you now. How could he forgive you for killing one of his species, especially when he thought he was the last? Killer. Killerkillerkiller …

Bunnie turned back to the ladder. Better to sit with Rotor and Antoine than be down here where the villagers who had always depended on her were a constant reminder that she'd failed what the Freedom Fighters stood for – what they depended on her to stand for – in a fundamental way.

"Right. As long as y'all are dandy, I'd best be gettin' back to the grindstone."

"Take care, Aunt Bunnie."

"Yeah, Tails honey." Bunnie swallowed hard. "I will."

Something was wrong with Bunnie. Tails wasn't stupid. She had practically run away from him. Bunnie never ran away. She was the toughest, rootin'-est, tootin'-est gal this side of anywhere. Even so, he'd heard her go up that ladder like her tail was on fire, which left him worrying about what had happened. What wasn't she telling him?

Instantly his thoughts turned to Sally. He hoped she was all right. Dulcy, too. They had been cornerstones of his world for so long, he'd come to see them as almost indestructible. Then stuff like this happened and he felt like such a little kid for being so naïve. Being a Freedom Fighter wasn't a game. Fighting any war brought casualties, and this one meant losses whose names he knew.

Potential losses, he corrected himself. They hadn't lost anyone today. He couldn't let himself believe anything else.

"Look out, he's gonna blow!" someone cried out behind him.

Tails was less affected by the dark, enclosed space of the lower chambers than the rest of them, since he couldn't see his surroundings anyway. He turned at the voice, but his whiskers sensed someone else also in motion.

"Now then, what's the matter?" Rosie asked in the no-nonsense tone she used when telling even Sally to wash strawberries before she ate them.

"I can't stay," whimpered a small voice. "I-It's … the walls. The walls are too close. Too close … This place – please. Please, let me out. I've … I've got to get out. I've got to get out!" Whoever was speaking obviously made an attempt to get at the ladder.

Tails heard the sounds of a scuffle. Someone knocked into him. He grabbed blindly, hand closing over part of an arm. His other hand found the base of a tail. That narrowed down who it could be, though he still wasn't exactly sure who he was holding onto.

"Let go!" the creature yelled. "Let go of me! I've got to get out. I've got to – you don't understand. I can't stay. I have to get out of here. I'm gonna be sick. Yeah, that's it. I'm gonna –"

"Stop being so selfish," snapped Doctor Quack. Another of his personalities had obviously taken control, since he sounded nothing like he had when channelling his little girl. His voice had deepened, roughening at the edges with an accent. He marched up and disengaged Tails's hands. "If you go running outta here you'll give away our location. There ain't just you down here, you know."

"But -"

"Boyo, you are asking for a good thrashing. If you try to jeopardise our safety again, I'll smack the tartar right off your teeth." If this was his idea of a bedside manner, Tails was glad he'd rarely been sick before. He got the feeling this wasn't the real Doctor Quack in control, though. What was unsettling was that he didn't recognise this personality. He'd have preferred the mewling little girl voice of earlier, even if that was, in itself, rather disturbing.

"Please …" whimpered the probably-claustrophobic owner of the voice. "P-please … I can't breathe …" Soft sobs filled the air.

Tails bit his lower lip. He could feel panic rising around him. This was just what they didn't need.

Neither was the scream that suddenly erupted from the back of the crowd.

"He fell in. Oh my … the floor, it just collapsed. Help! Help, someone! He'll drown!"

"Drown?" Tails echoed, not sure he'd heard that right. They were deep underground, surrounded on all sides by solid rock. It was why air supply was such an issue and claustrophobia such a danger.

"We didn't think anyone would care if we slipped off … he said it'd be fine to explore, and there was this little passage right at the back. Nobody else could've fitted. It was a squeeze for us, too. But the floor just gave way in there, and he fell in, and then I couldn't see him anymore. There was a … a river or something, and he's fallen in, and he's going to drown if someone doesn't help him! Please, someone, you have to rescue my brother!"

The crowd undulated. Tails's own panic started to rise, but not for the same reason. He was more scared by their panic, and what it might cause, than bywhat had spooked them.

"We're gonna die," said the claustrophobic, still close enough that Tails could hear the low murmur. Then it wouldn't have mattered even if he'd been on the other side of a battlefield, as the voice rose to a shriek. "We're all gonna die! Kiss your tails goodbye, because we're finished! We're dead! This is our tomb -"

"Shaddup." Before anyone could stop him, Doctor Quack cracked the speaker with his palm. Tails heard the impact, and the claustrophobic crashed into him, knocking him to the ground.

"Please!" shouted the desperate child. "You have to rescue my brother! Won't someone please follow me and come save him?"

But Tails knew that even if the noise of stamping feet and frightened voices hadn't risen to mob level, nobody was really listening anymore.

To Be Continued …