Chapter 5: Past nightmares
Our stay at the work shop was longer than anticipated. I wound up in the bathroom heaving up literally every drop of synthetic gummi berry juice I had consumed. The effects wore off the moment I walked in through the front door, and immediately, it disagreed with my stomach and there was no holding it down at all. So I dashed to the restroom as fast as I could and just hung my face over the porcelain bowl. Awful, sickening noises came from my mouth as the juice was forced back up my throat from my stomach and out of my mouth. Somehow the juice felt like melted gum coming back up and it had with it a bitter/sour flavor that burned my tongue as it passed over it. My head felt bubbly and I was almost unable to see straight for a time. Twenty minutes passed by while I heaved out the synthetic juice. When I finally emerged from the rest room, my head began spinning and I was barely able to maintain my balance. The bubbles continued to pop in my head and I found myself so delirious that I fainted where I stood. Luckily Eric moved in quick to catch me before I collapsed to the ground.
I stayed asleep during the entire car ride to the new location, and my dreams were of my horrors. Zummi finished explaining what he had discovered about the time stone when the leg of the farming robot plunged through his back and out his chest, his blood spattering all over my front. His eyes implored me to run and so I did in fear. Just as I moved one of the drones lunged at me and narrowly missed, crashing right into the one that stabbed Zummi. The two damaged each other enough to cease functioning completely, their sharp legs piercing through each other. Electricity and sparks flew out of their wounds. Panicking, I dashed out of the room and saw Cubby lying in the main hall, clutching his stomach in excruciating pain and bleeding profusely. I tried to assist him but he stopped breathing the moment I touched his head. Suddenly another drone burst through the door of Gusto's room with him skewered on two of its sharp legs, crying out in pain, blood pouring out of his wounds. He looked over in my direction and I started running toward him to try to get the creature off of him. "Sunners!" He called to me like he was angry that I even thought of coming in to help. I stopped in my tracks and stood there as he told me, "Run...away!" The drone then pulled out its left leg and thrust it through Gusto's chest. He cried out in pain for a few seconds, and then simply fell limp, his eyes quickly glazing over and blood running out of his mouth and wounds. The drone then simply tossed Gusto's lifeless body back into the room like a rag doll and turned its attention to me. Fearing for my life I ran away from the spider-like metal creature as fast as I could, it moved in silently and quickly and was on me in seconds looking to thrust its sharp leg through me like it did Gusto.
Before the creature could even think of stabbing me, Tummy came in from nowhere and bowled it over with his shoulder, followed up and lifted it over his head to throw it into another of those creatures. The two again pierced through each other and ceased to function. "We've have to move, NOW!" Tummy said to me. I have never seen him so focused in my entire life. He was usually the lazy one that thought more about food than anything else. I couldn't complain though, knowing that he could be so bold when the situation called for nothing else was comforting. The sound of sliding metal and the strange clicking noise of the monster's legs came from virtually everywhere. Tummi just stood his ground and clenched his fist tight enough to crack his knuckles. When one of the metallic creatures emerged, he would avoid its strike, grab it by the sharp leg and either tossed it into one of its own kind or against the closest wall, and slowly lead me toward one of our secret entrances. It was only when three attacked him at once did he fall in the heat of battle. One of them lunged at him from the front while a second came in from the left side and, with one swipe of its sharp leg, cut off Tummi's left hand at the wrist. Yelping in pain, Tummi stood his ground still, and snagged the lunging robots with his right hand. However, a third one darted in from underneath and plunged both its front legs into his chubby body and tackled him onto his back.
I turned and ran while the robots continued to maul Tummi. Scared out of my wits, and in a state of sheer panic, the only thing on my mind now was to get away, any way that I could. I headed toward the quick cars to see if they could be my ticket out. I ran by the kitchen and noticed something out of the corner of my eye. Hoping it wasn't what I thought it was, I backed up to get a better look. Unfortunately, it pretty much was what I feared. Both Grammi and Gruffi were lying on the floor of the kitchen within a foot from touching each other, a large pool of their blood soaking their fur and clothes. I could see Grammi's eyes glazed over, they seemed like they were staring right at me for a while and I returned to my state of fear and panic and took off toward the quick cars.
When I finally reached the caves for the quick cars, there was Igthorn standing there, however, something was different with him. He was tall and quite built for a human. It could be that his tunics head covering was missing and that his black hair was revealed. Or was it the blood lust in his eyes? I noticed that he had a strange gadget mounted on his head that covered his right eye and he was holding some kind of stone in his left hand. I witnessed four of the metal creatures working together on carrying the "Great Book of Gummi" toward Igthorn and presented it to him. He said something about going to the future to himself as he picked up the book and held it up in front of him.
"Zummi would want me to get the book before escaping." I thought to myself. I sneaked around and hid behind the caves stalactites while making my way toward Igthorn. When I got close enough I waited for him to send his drones away and then dashed in to snatch the book. I smashed into his back as hard as I could and knocked him flat onto his face. "What? How did you escape my drones?" He asked slightly irate. Rather than answering him, I scrambled around and snatched up his weird stone and the book and then began to run off toward the quick cars. However, before I could get far, Igthorn tackled me to the ground and snatched the book from my hands. The stone went sliding across the floor toward the quick cars. "THE TIME STONE!" Igthorn gasped as it slid out of his reach. His distraction was my opportunity for escape. I scrambled back up to my feet and made a beeline for the quick cars, scooped up the stone on my way there, dove into the car and pulled the lever to speed off. Realizing that he would be too big for some of the quick tunnels, Igthorn simply cried out loud in frustration. I stopped the quick car at the first stop available and got out as fast as I could. I emerged from the quick tunnel entrance out into a thick forest and the first thing I noticed was the right arm of a gummi bear. When I went to go and inspect who it was, I found that it was Ursa's arm. Without her body attached. Her body actually had been pinned to a nearby tree by one of the metallic creatures' legs that had broken off in the struggle. Her arm had been cut off near the base of her shoulder and she bled out from her wounds. Buddy, Grubbi, and Gritty were slain nearby, each with stab wounds that passed completely through their bodies.
I clutched the stone to my chest as the air hung thick and moist. Rain began to fall from the sky and fell heavier and heavier with every second. I stood there, frozen in fear for a short time until the first bolt of lightning brought the image of Calla's face to the forefront of my mind. Worried for my best friend, I ran toward the castle as fast as I could, mumbling to myself, "Please be alright. Please be alright. Please be alright." My dream then began to fade and I found myself moaning and tossing in my sleep. My eyes opened quickly and I shot awake with sad tears streaming from the corners of my eyes. My breath was heavy and my memories finally clear on the horrors that I had seen.