Chapter 16
A man in a hooded cloak sat slumped in a large chair, watching a monitor. He chuckled to himself as he watched a couple of screens, monitoring the passageways. Everything was going just the way he had planned it to…
Sonic peered round the side of the wall. All these corridors were completely empty… he couldn't believe that Eggman could actually have been trusted.
"How much further?" Sonic queried. Tails flipped out a PDA.
"No signal… shit…" He reached back into his pack and pulled out another device with a screen and lots of buttons. "There should be some kind of map here…" He tapped away for a few moments. "Nothing! Absolutely nothing! It's like this tunnel doesn't exist!"
"Well, if it's a secret unguarded tunnel, that is kind of the point, right?" Rouge failed to see why Tails was frustrated. Shadow went ahead a little. He peered round the corner. He silently smiled. He looked back. Rouge and Tails were breaking into an argument, and Sonic was trying to broker peace to no avail. Perfect. He slipped away unnoticed.
He hung himself by his arms from a beam. He looked at the guards below – they were now wearing substantial armour. We must be getting close, he thought. He swung to the next beam, so that he was directly over them. He pulled out his trusty machete. The guards still suspected nothing. He dropped straight down on one, knocking him to the ground. He swiped at the other, knocking the gun out of his hands. Shadow stabbed the unfortunate soul he was standing on, before turning to confront his counterpart. Instead of backing away in fear, he stepped back a few times, and pulled something out of a pouch. It was a small vial, with a swirling sandy yellow substance inside. Shadow, though puzzled, was undeterred. He advanced slowly. Then he clutched his face in agony as the guard threw the vial's contents on him, mostly hitting his face. He stared in horror as the substance spread on to his arms. The soldier threw a spiked chain at him – it wrapped around Shadow's right arm, digging into his flesh. In an instant reaction, he pulled away. The chain snapped next to his wrist, leaving a segment embedded in his forearm. He fell back on to he ground, writhing in pain. The guard saw the fight as won, and fled.
Knuckles struggled to keep up with Espio and Amy, who were moving quite fast. Every now and then, they would reach a fork or crossroads, and Espio would think a moment, before saying "This way," and starting again. As they reached the end of a long pipe, a small gap lay between them and the hall ahead. Espio leapt across the gap with no problem. Amy took a run up, and only just managed to grab the ledge and pull herself up. Knuckles stared at the abyss with a look that said 'you have got to be kidding me,'.
"Come on! Jump!" Espio yelled across frustratedly.
"Wait there, I'll be right back!" Knuckles said as he ran back down the pipe. Espio looked like he was about to have a stroke. A few moments later Amy and Espio heard a rumble. Staring down the pipe, they saw the flow of water along it reduce to a trickle. The rumble grew louder and had become recognised as the sound of large amounts of flowing water. As it grew louder, it must have been an awful lot of water moving very fast. They could only watch as round the corner, an enormous wave of water surged down the pipe, and along with it, on a makeshift board made from a piece of loose metal, Knuckles. As the water burst out of the pipe, Amy and Espio were utterly soaked, and Knuckles soared overhead, and skidded across the floor, and into the next room. Amy and Espio followed, sorely tempted to throw Knuckles into the abyss he just flew over.
The area was empty – completely deserted. When the missiles struck, people just fled. Scanning the lawn for any signs of life, Cream gingerly stepped over rubble and ashes. Big followed. They left Tikal and Chris in a safe place (with the snacks from the vending machine).
"Where is everybody?" Cream enquired.
"There are no bodies or anything… it's just completely empty," Big was a touch wistful.
"Maybe everybody fled,"
"And took the bodies with them? Doubt it."
"Maybe there are no bodies because there weren't any to start with." Big didn't follow. Cream rolled her eyes. "It's possible not that many people died when the missiles hit." Big raised an eyebrow.
"Okay. Big noise, ground shakes, and when you look up, all the buildings are on fire. Nobody around. What do you think happened?" Big tried to rethink. Cream thought, and then glared.
"Let's just get moving,"
"Fine…"