Chapter 22: The Entrance to Coal Town Is Blocked
After passing through the Badwater Basin, or Deadwater Basin, Mumble seemed to change, at least from Freddie's perspective. He didn't seem as reluctant to lead them as he did before, and there was one night where Freddie thought he heard Mumble talking to himself. But Steve still didn't trust Mumble, and this occasionally put him at odds with Freddie.
However, when the canyons ended and the sandy desert began, the two Scouts felt relieved, but at the same time they were worried. On the one hand, this meant that they were getting closer to the Moving Fortress, but on the other, they were more exposed due to the lack of cover in this barren landscape. For miles, none of them saw a Robot in sight, but they followed Mumble as he dashed between small cliffs and large boulders that were scattered across. Then on the second day they did this, Freddie and Steve heard several footsteps marching behind a cliff that was in front of them, followed by loud ticking sounds. Cautiously, they climbed up to the top and crawled on their hands and knees to the opposite end with Mumble nervously crawling ahead of them. Once they got to the edge, they beheld a frightening sight.
"I cannot believe this," Freddie said in a loud whisper. "We're right in front of Coal Town, with the Moving Fortress just south of it."
A few feet from the cliff Freddie and Steve were on, there stood a ring of freshly-painted Tanks surrounding a small town, which was called Coal Town back in the Days of RED and BLU, that looked deserted, but there was a constant humming in the air, and it was mainly coming from the Moving Fortress, which stood like an imposing figure a couple miles south of Coal Town. Looking away from it, Freddie noticed the legion of Robot Soldiers that were marching in a uniform pattern towards the ring of Tanks. Then a loud electronic beeping noise came from one of the taller buildings in Coal Town, forcing Freddie, Steve, and Mumble to cover their ears. In turn, the Tanks started to move, with the ones on the left turning to face the ones on the right, and vice versa. Next, the two distinct lines of Tanks drove backwards from one another, creating a wide opening for the Robot Soldiers to pass through.
Not wanting to waste any time, Freddie hastily climbed down the cliff, but he slipped on the last step and fell behind a large boulder that stood below the cliff. This got the attention of a couple of Robot Soldiers, who broke off from the main legion and walked towards the boulder. Steve and Mumble watched nervously, but then just before the Robot Soldiers inspected the boulder, Freddie turned on the Invis Watch and disappeared. So by the time the Robot Soldiers looked, they saw nothing, and then left to join the legion just as the last ones were heading past the Tanks. Once they were gone, Steve and Mumble climbed down the cliff and joined Freddie. When the three of them looked from behind the boulder, the two Robot Soldiers passed the Tanks, and the same beeping sound blared across the desert.
"Well, I guess it's now or never," Freddie said, and just as he was about to make a dash to the opening, Mumble held him back. "What is wrong with you? If we don't get over there now, we'll never get to the Moving Fortress!"
Mumble in turn responded with a bunch of loud, hasty mumblings.
"What do you mean there's another way? Why didn't you tell us before?!"
"What the hell's going on?" Steve asked in an irritated tone of voice.
Freddie sighed. "Samuel thinks if we try to run towards the Coal Town entrance, we'll get spotted by the Robots and get killed. He says there's another way to the Moving Fortress that's more hidden than this one."
"Why are we still listening to this creep? Sure, he got us out of the canyons, but now he wants us to take a completely different direction when we've got a perfectly good opportunity to get into the Moving Fortress right in front of us!"
But when Freddie and Steve looked back at Coal Town, the two branches of Tanks were already moving towards one another to close the circle once more. Freddie tried to move, but Mumble's grip was tighter, and so he watched as the Tanks resumed their circle and former positions. Steve looked dumbfounded, and then he let his arms fall at his sides.
"Well, I guess we have no choice but to take the other way Mumble was talking about," Steve said, and watched as Mumble bounded towards a boulder that was southeast from them. Then as Freddie followed him, Steve said to himself, "I think we could've made it. We're Scouts, for crying out loud!"
End of Chapter 22