Trigger Warning for graphic descriptions of dead bodies

~X~

We all stared at the scene in abject horror, as the grizzly imagery painted across the walls. Ruby and Iris fainted, Maria nearly did, and Majima looked like he was going to throw up.

Before us, hanging from the ceiling, were corpses. Corpses with mutilated flesh and snapped bones that hung from the metal bars stabbed through their skulls. All over the walls were dried blood, and shattered bones laid in pieces on the floor. It was like a scene right out of a horror movie.

"Okay, what the fuck", I said bluntly. "This is… I can't…" I finally noticed something in the corner under a layer of dust and dirt. Walking over and lifting it up, my horrible thoughts were made clear.

It was armour that belonged to the Capital's army.

These were the long dead members of the rumoured task force sent here for clear-up.

"So they weren't rumours…" Gladius squeaked out. "Great. Rainbow will be happy to hear about this."

"Is this what's going to happen to us?" Steve asked fearfully as he poked one of the corpses with a sword. That tiny movement made the neck break, a sickening flesh-tearing noise hitting our ears and a thump when the now headless body landed on the ground.

McGee fainted while everyone looked very green.

And it only got worse when an eye rolled out of the now lone head's eye socket and onto the floor.

With that, we all ran out of the room, leaving Ralph, Dry and Baby to slam the door closed and blocking it off with a variety of destroyed furniture. We decided to get as far away as possible, so we headed towards the back of the building where we found an abandoned office meeting room.

This was decided to be our hideout for the time being, so we blocked the doors off and closed the blinds and curtains. With the outside world thoroughly cut off, we all relaxed just the tiniest bit.

"Okay, can we talk about the fact we just saw two, maybe three, mangled corpses!?" Jenny roared in horror.

"We shouldn't, but I'm going to", Flowey said. "And I have to say that even that is too far for me."

"Those things ripped them apart like nothing!" Rory hissed, Amy leaning against him as she was silent and in catatonic shock. "Through everything we've seen with The Doctor, this is by far the worst we've seen."

"I had my eye fucking gouged out", Majima said in a lifeless tone. "Those poor bastards probably suffered far more than me."

"We have to get to the Hub", Maria said, carefully peeking out of a window. "We're running out of time, and since none of us want to die, we need a plan. Now."

"But what the heck are we supposed to do?" Star asked. "We're outnumbered, out gunned, out matched… do we just run and hope for the best?"

"That's a horrible idea, Butterfly", Galacta chided. "What we need is a distraction. Something to set our pursuers off so we can slip by just enough so they can't catch us."

"But then how do we do that?" Ruby asked weakly.

Everyone fell silent as that thought hung in the air. We were in a tough spot. Outside was our painful and overwhelming death, so until we thought of something clever, we were stuck here. I frowned as the group began to walk around the room aimlessly, quietly chatting between each other about what we could do.

I quietly sighed and walked off to one end of the room, sitting in an old office chair and watching the others all do their own thing. It made the mood very sour and sad. We were on the edge of defeat, and I was doing my best to not burst into tears in front of everyone.

I was obviously failing without knowing, because Maria and Manolo silently came over and knelt in front of me.

"Mijo, are you okay", the musician asked.

Miserably, I shook my head and launched at him, hugging him tight.

"I just feel like I've failed you guys…" I whispered out as the tears flowed. "I just wanted to get home, and now all of us are going to die in a universe that's trying to kill us while it's dying…" I choked out a sob. "This is all my fault…"

"Caleb, no", Maria began firmly. "This isn't your fault. We didn't know about this place until we showed up, and if Gladius told us about these freaks trying to kill us sooner we would've been fine!" She raised her voice and shot a ferocious glare over her shoulder at the sword, who tucked up a bit in guilt.

She then spun back at me and gave me a calm, motherly look. "We all chose to tag along with you, so we're all in this together. Don't start going and blaming this all on yourself. It won't get us anywhere if we start pointing fingers."

"She's right, mijo", Manolo added. "We need to keep our heads on straight and focus. We will get out of here, we will all make sure of that. So just take some deep breaths, and relax, okay?"

I nodded and took some shaky breaths, burying my face into the crook of Maria's neck. She simply just hugged me close and whispered reassurances into my ear as her husband rubbed my back. The soothing motions made me calm down significantly, and before long I was relaxed.

Tears were still trailing down my face as I leaned back, giving the wooden woman a weak but heartfelt smile.

"Feeling better?" She asked me quietly, putting her hands on my cheeks.

When I nodded, she smiled and planted a quick kiss on my forehead.

"Alright!" Maria began angrily, standing up and spinning around to the others. "We can't stay holed up in here forever. I have a crazy idea that might help us get out of here and to the Hub, but it's risky. And I need to make sure you're all on board."

The others all gave her silent looks, then glanced at me. I tucked in under the attention and carefully used Manolo as a sort of shield. They all frowned slightly, then looked at Maria again and nodded.

"Then this is what we're going to do…" She took charge and began to explain the plan she had come up with, and from what I caught, it seemed sound. But honestly, I'd take anything at this point just so we weren't at risk of dying.

My role was… nothing. I was in the group of 'Protect At All Costs', which was basically all us kids who couldn't match up to those with battle experience. While I was a bit insulted, I eventually accepted it and grouped up with the others.

Maple was on Ralph's shoulder, which made mine free real estate for our resident glitch.

"You going okay, Glasses?" She asked quietly.

I knew it was because I was still silently letting out tears every so often, so I just shrugged with my free shoulder. "I'm fine. Just… overwhelmed. I just want to get out of this place and get home. We are so close."

The racer said nothing, instead looking at me sadly. Then, she decided to ride me piggyback style, all just so she could hug my whole head. I smiled, and soon enough we were all leaving the room, ready for our final push.

~X~

Ralph, Jenny and Majima were studying outside like hawks, triple and quadruple checking for any danger. When we were given the okay, we all made a break for it.

All of the adults and more combat ready of the group were surrounding us kids like a barrier, careful to try and keep us shielded from all harm.

And it didn't take long for harm to rear its ugly head.

"Here they come!!!" Iris cried.

From behind, all of our pursuers were coming out of the alleys and streets like a swarm of ants, thousands of them. There were even multiple versions of ARMAGEDROID and the Movie Lot Monster, which made my blood run cold.

"Pick up the pace, gang!" Steve called. He quickly planted a wall of TNT, trailing a line of redstone. He quickly placed a lever and flicked it before picking it back up.

Behind us, just as the murderous crowd reached the explosives, they ignited, a huge cloud of fire and smoke erupted. The ground began to give way at how intense the explosion was, which sent a massive chunk of the city careening into the singularity below.

This gave us just enough breathing room to gain some distance, but the crowd behind us that weren't caught in the blast were smart enough to walk around, shovelling over or past the wreckage that was left behind.

We all sped up, trying our hardest to keep a distance from our pursuers. But they were gaining ground fast, so that meant part two of the plan.

"Jenny!" Maria barked.

The teenage robot's shoulders expanded out and up till there was a platform over her head. Majima, Star and Merida hopped onto it, sound around, and unleashed a barrage of projectiles down. Bullets, arrows and blasts of concentrated light rained down, turning most of the imitations into Swiss cheese, pin cushions, ash, or a mix of the three.

We were getting closer to the Hub, but still had a ways to go. Ralph picked me up and placed me on his back, with Hilda and Vanellope placed on either shoulder. He stomped the ground, and took off at speeds that were far above his usual.

This seemed to give the others this burst of adrenaline, as after picking up those that were struggling to keep up, they all rushed forward. I beamed as my head snapped between my friends and the Hub.

We were so close.

So close.

One of the Movie Lot Monsters let out a powerful blast that cut down some buildings in an attempt to stop us. But the Powerpuffs were quick to act and lifted one of the buildings with their combined strength. With a mighty throw, they tossed it back at the crowd, crushing most of them in one fell swoop.

The crowd behind us was getting more uncontrollable, but luckily we were finally starting to scale the bridge that led up to our destination. This was it.

Jenny, Galacta, Majima, Dry and Merida provided covering fire as we all ran inside the front entrance. We were in an empty metal hallway with the door at the end sealed, which was really bad.

"Caleb, the lever!" Gladius called out. I looked over and saw a closed box on the wall. I ran over as my five trigger happy friends slowly backed inside, and I swung the wall-mounted box open. Inside were two levers, the right one switched down and the left one switched up. I grabbed the left lever and forced it down, causing a loud series of bangs and clangs to emanate at the entrance.

We all watched as the large bronze door slowly lowered, cutting off the imitations as they ran at us in desperation. With a loud lock and click, the door was sealed.

We all breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed onto the cold metal floor, all of us suddenly exhausted.

"We're safe now…" Gladius breathed out, falling onto the floor next to me. "We are now in the pocket dimension, and those constructs are incapable of breaking through that door, so we are safe till this universe drains all its energy."

"Finally!" Flowey cried out. "There is a god!"

We all quietly chuckled as Hilda sat up. "That was crazy. But I'm so glad it's over." She looked around the empty, rusted hallway. "Now what?"

"Now…" Gladius said, hovering back up and towards the two levers. He wrapped his wing around the right one. "We get out of here."

He pulled it down, and the other door slowly opened. As we all stood up and dusted ourselves off, a harsh cold wind rushed out through the door. It was so strong I was nearly knocked off my feet, but luckily Corey and Laney caught me.

I quietly thanked them and followed Gladius into the main room…

~X~

So, this chapter is a lot shorter than the others, but that's because this chapter didn't have a lot going on. This was more of an abridge chapter that's here for getting from point A to B. So that's why it's so short.

Next chapter will be a lot longer, however, with a lot of planned character moments, exploration, and adventure. It'll be worth it, just give me this.

Up next: Caleb and Co., finally within the safety of the Hub, realise their work is far from done. They split up to try and search for the main generator so they can finally go home.

~Caleb~