Chapter Two: Responsibility

It had only taken a good five minutes to reach Nicky's lab, and it had taken a few more to break into the locked back door and find their way up to the main room. However it was obvious after mere seconds that they were slightly too late...

Chilling hollers and screams and the crunch of bone, steel and wood thundered through the air as the troggs hammered through the lab, smashing vials, tables and Gnomes wherever they could reach. Vimmi didn't even have time to think whether Tozzle was alive or not, she just moved right into the fray as if she even had a chance, her weapon swinging...

There was a heavy thud as the Gnome slammed her wrench into the back of a troggs head; it fell to the ground in a heap. One more thud and her arm was aching, but she saw what she needed to see. Tozzle was still alive, and he was with one of the Gnome Peacekeepers, who with his wrench and whirligig shield was holding the line, with Tozzle behind him.

Vimmi leapt forward with a burst of energy and shattered a troggs leg, causing it to trip to the ground, where both the Peacekeeper and she removed its threat permanently. They took a third trogg down and there was a brief silence. The Peacekeeper looked up at Vimmi, not even needing to talk for the female Gnome to hear his question.

"Yes, down here... there's an exit through the back..."

"Yes good, we're evacuating Gnomeregan; you have to get to the surface... Do not attempt to rescue friends and family," the Peacekeeper warned, as if he had already told way too many people that today. There was a buzzing as he finished talking, and a light started to glow on a small communications device on his waist, he lifted it up. Vimmi couldn't hear the whole conversation, but she heard the end of it, the electronic tone of the communications device still piercing a hole in her head, 'Get. Out. Immediately.'

"We're evacuating everyone, the elevators are too dangerous, we've already lost one completely and the others are being overrun, my orders are to take any survivors to the west elevator here, but we are to go up the emergency stairs." The Peacekeeper motioned downstairs, "Lead the way to the back entrance, the west elevator is not far from here."

Vimmi swallowed briefly and looked at Tozzle, who appeared to be too shocked for words. He wasn't usually one to be scared witless in a dangerous situation, so what had him so shaken? "Are you okay Tozzle?"

"Nicky didn't make it," he whispered weakly, "I saw..."

"It's okay," Vimmi interrupted, pulling him closer into her, "tell me about it later, we don't need to talk about that at the moment. Let's just focus on getting out of here for now." With that, Vimmi led the other three back the way herself and her friend had originally come. Her friend had been silent the whole time, simply scared, wanting to run.

Tozzle nodded, letting go of Vimmi and straightening up. While he wasn't as prepared and suited for this situation as Vimmi was, he could handle himself. He was only a year or so younger than her and wasn't the helpless little brother. The Peacekeeper thrust out a hand to heave Vimmi's friend through the window, he then leaned back through to help Vimmi herself and Tozzle up through as well.

There was a cry from across the street. "Help! Please help me!" it was a woman's voice; it came from inside the house opposite Nicky's. Vimmi could hear troggs inside the house as well as whoever was inside there. Vimmi went pale as she realized who it was, it was Terry. Terry was one of her friends too, but more importantly, was her balding friend's wife.

Vimmi turned towards him, ready to tell him not to go... but it was too late.

Her friend sprinted off towards the house, "I have to save her!"

"No!" the Peacekeeper shouted, lunging forward to try and grab the Gnome, but he was too slow. They could only watch as he ran through the front door, several troggs streaming in after him. Vimmi went to move forward but the Peacekeeper managed to grab her. "It's too late, we have to go!"

"We can save him!" she argued.

"It's too late!"

Crunch

"It's too late..." the Peacekeeper said again weakly, the blows that presumably killed Terry and her husband, also slamming into the heart's of all three of the still-living Gnomes. "We have to go..."

There were a number of elevators throughout Gnomeregan, they were massive platforms that mostly led to the surface, and if they didn't, they usually led to the top level where you could easily get to the surface. They were wide enough to hold at least fifty Gnomes and could hold a lot more weight; this was often used for transporting planes and tanks for the Alliance Military.

Yet like any intelligently designed electronically-powered lift, there was also a set of stairs near them for emergencies or maintenance. Vimmi, Tozzle and their Gnomish Peacekeeper reached them within a few minutes, thanks to the lack of troggs on the way. Vimmi and Tozzle sprinted up the stairs faster than anyone had ever done before, but something caught the Peacekeepers eye, which caused him to stop.

The elevator...

There were at least fifty Gnomes standing on it, ready to go up. The Peacekeepers blood ran cold as ice as he remembered what his superiors over the communications device had told him.

'Do not use the elevators. None of them have made it up to the surface so far. Do not use the elevators!'

"No! Wait! No!" he shouted, running forward, waving his arms above his head. Even before he spoke however, the elevator platform started moving upwards. "Stop! Danger! You'll all die!" he screamed as loud as he could, but they mustn't have been able to hear him over the mechanical grinding of the giant construct. He watched it hopelessly until the ceiling consumed it and their fate was sealed...

On the platform...

The whole platform descended into darkness as they passed the ceiling and arrived in the elevator shaft. The power must have been out, because the lights were off. Milly was a Gnomish schoolteacher, she had been the one at the controls of the elevator. She had only just heard the Peacekeepers cries, and only heard enough to presume him simply a desperate man who wanted to get on the elevator. It broke her heart to have to leave him there, but it would take too much time to cancel the lift and take it back down... it was the peacekeeper or the other fifty people on the platform.

Milly heard a thud, and then the most bone-chilling sound she had ever heard. It was the vicious cry of the trogg, followed by a thwack and the sound of a Gnome breaking. Her lips trembled; there was another thud, another, more cries. Twenty... thirty... the troggs were jumping out of holes in the wall and onto the platform.

Milly fell to her knees and blocked her ears. It took ten seconds for a trogg to find her and put her out of her misery. It was the longest ten seconds of her life.

The Maintenance Shaft...

Vimmi heaved open the large metal door with her left arm and barrelled out onto the highest floor of Gnomeregan. This whole first level was like a giant airplane hangar; you could sometimes feel the wind or smell the snow, since it was so close to the surface. You could even sometimes see the occasional Dwarf conversing with a Gnome about transporting a tank or plane to Ironforge.

However as Vimmi turned out of the maintenance stairs and into the large hangar, she definitely did not smell snow, she smelt blood. All she could feel was the horrible presence of the mutated troggs. And she definitely could not see any Dwarves. There was a soft thud as Tozzle came out of the maintenance stairs and immediately stumbled to the ground.

In front of them, between them and the exit ramp, was at least twenty troggs, all of them shambling around, some of them were still beating corpses with their clubs or cleavers. Some of them started to notice the two Gnomes. Vimmi didn't seem to care. What could they do against this? They had come so far. She stared blankly forward, her arms limp at her side.

"Vimmi! Vimmi!... Vimmi-Vimmi-Vimmi!" Tozzle shouted in her ear, as the troggs started running towards them. It took a few seconds, but Tozzle seemed to shake Vimmi out of her stun, and she grit her jaw.

"Get behind me Tozzle," Vimmi whispered, lifting her oversized wrench into both of her hands.