Chapter 3 - The Encounter
Going at a jogging pace, Sonic began exploring his surroundings. Keeping on the dirt path roads that were in his sight, he looked over everything. To explore without the hinges of the adults or authorities gave him the sense of a new world waiting for him to see. Despite the forest having a consistent look of vegetation and greenery, not one area looked the same.
After some time jogging and slowing down to a walking pace, he found the first neighboring village Baal. Thinking about going into the encampment to explore, he remembered about the strict village rules for orphans that were set in place. One could not enter the village freely unless they had business to do there. Especially if one was from another village. Trying to remember the rules regarding strangers entering villages, the hedgehog vaguely remembered that it depended on certain aspects.
'Well...I have a free pass...' the child thought staring at the village. Seeing people move around in the inhabitant, there were warrior guards patrolling around it.
"..." Sonic commented with a small frown.
Deciding to follow the rules for now, he got out the map. Seeing where he was, he looked up and down the clear pathway in front of him. Putting the map away, he trekked onward. Finding the runway that had more guards posted, he went into the forestry to not disturb them or potentially get caught. Looking up to see if there was a towering tree, there was one some distance away.
Heading toward it quickly, the blue boy went into a full-on sprint. Coming up to the trunk, he sized it up and looked for leveraging branches. Coming up with a pathway and using the small incline of the ground, he high jumped towards the first branch. Grabbing it and climbing, he began to hop his way up the tree. Getting to where the branches sort of supported his weight, he cleared the leaves and twigs.
"...whoa..." Sonic whispered staring in front of him.
Though there were tall trees that compared to the same height of the one he was in, there was enough clearing to see the mountains to what look to be the horizon. Turning slowly around in place, it gave a better mapping of where he was in the land. All the villages could sort of be seen if you knew where to look. The coastal town could be seen followed by the massive sea. It seemed to cover the horizon the more distance from the coast he looked.
Continuing to turn, he saw something further north-east from Baal's Village. Putting a hand above his eyes and narrowing them, it looked to be a structure. Appearing like a factory, there was a high wall and posts around the corners. Seeing things move around like ants, the child couldn't determine what they were. Lowering his hand, he began climbing down.
'So that has to be the evil scientist's place,' Sonic thought carefully descending the tree. 'That must be the place all the villagers go when they get captured by the patrolling bots.'
Reaching to the ground, the hedgehog thought about what he saw above. Recalling all the information told to him about the forbidden place and the beach town, he decided to put those two places on his bucket list. Focusing back to what was in front of him, he continued on his trekking exploration. Losing track of time, he saw where every village was within the map boundary. Seeing that he was in the area that was in the central point of all four villages, he thought about the one place that was left to go see.
"..." the blue boy stated looking up at the sky. Seeing that it was nearing dusk, Oberi village was roughly a few minutes away if he jogged. The cave that he saw during the race was roughly the same distance.
'If I go and quickly see the cave then sprint back, I can make it back home prior to the sun coming completely down.'
Turning south, he jogged toward where the second obstacle course was. Finding what seemed to be a deserted and forgotten road, he followed it from curiosity to where it would lead. At the end of it, the forest opened up. In front of him was the obstacle course with the rock formations in the background. Going through it to reach the other side, he saw the cave from a distance. Jogging down to the front of it and stopping, he observed around himself.
Looking at the size of the cave opening, it was tall and wide enough to maybe fit a large truck. From what light that was still in the sky, it only illuminated so far into the earth's cavity. Though pass the entrance there was a rather spacious chamber, there were other passageways on the side walls and back wall. Grabbing both straps of the backpack with his hands, Sonic began walking forward. Avoiding the areas that had small puddles, his footsteps barely echoed inside.
'Definitely could be used as a hideout,' the child thought halfway through the first space.
Exploring the large chamber itself, there was nothing noteworthy from what he found or saw. Getting to the back end of the open room, the illumination from outside began to weaken. Looking back, it was due from the sun not angled down enough to shine through to the end of the space. Turning around and approaching one of the passageways that would lead deeper into the sediment formation, the boy stopped.
'...' the hedgehog thought from feeling his ears perk up and stiffen.
Waiting and listening, something soft was heard. However, it was not pleasant to him. His curiosity of exploring the cave slowly changed to apprehension. Taking a slow step backwards, the eerie noise got a little louder. Trying to determine where it was coming from, he couldn't tell from the three passageways. The sounds began to echo and distort inside the spacious cavern which increased in volume.
'I-I'm not stickin' around for whatever shows up!' Sonic stated in his mind in a mild panic.
Turning around, he quickly tries to escape the cave. In his peripheral, he spotted something that made his curved short fins stiffen. With goosebumps flaring over his body, he spotted a red-light orb along with more eerie noises. Sprinting to the entrance, he slid to halt from looking outside. What he thought he had enough time before dusk, it was passed it and nightfall was beginning to fill the sky.
Briskly walking out of the cave entrance, he slowed down to a stop again. Looking out to the forest, the missing sunlight began to make seeing through the forest challenging. It was as if he were staring down a darkened pit where he could only see some feet ahead of himself. With fear still pushing him to leave the cave, he took a quick scan around himself. The blue boy began to tense up from see predators emerging from various locations.
Clenching his teeth together, some of the large carnivore animals were converging toward his location. Glancing behind him feeling scared, the glowing red light was still in the same place he first spotted it. Feeling trapped and trepidation gripping him, all he felt he could do was glance back and forth. Though the thing in the cave did not move, a couple of the predators from the forest were now in the opening passed the obstacle course.
'I'm not scared...I'm not scared...' the hedgehog repeated to himself in his mind. Feeling butterflies in his stomach and his legs starting to shake from struggling to not give in, the large animals got closer. Seeing their menacing eyes glow, they made haggard growls that sounded a combination of hunger and killing intent.
Without warning, a gust of wind blew past the child from behind hard. While reacting to it and automatically trying to keep balance, there was a kind of air snap that occurred. It echoed and blasted from the cave which made it sounded very loud and big. Blinking and looking forward, there were sounds of fighting and nasty snarling. Seeing all the predators instantly try to attack and follow what rushed them, only a silhouette was seen moving around them quickly.
"...!?" Sonic reacted from hearing a gruesome sound.
A massive bone crack was heard followed by a loud painful roar. Feeling able to move, the child took a couple of steps back. Veering back and cringing his face, the dark silhouette ripped out a limb out of one animal while dodging an incoming blow from another. Barely making things out from how dark things were getting, there was another bone chilling scream of pain. Seeing something heading toward him from the air, it plopped in front of him heavily.
"..." the blue boy said breathing faster. Feeling afraid and looking down at the being, it was a forest lion.
Knowing that these were dangerous beasts alone, his eyes widen from how butchered it looked. Limbs were either smashed or torn out of their sockets. Claw lacerations were seen with one being deep on the side of its torso. Not only that, but its muzzle was also impacted into its face and bleeding profusely. Staring at the dying creature with terror, Sonic flinched from hearing more bellows of death.
Looking up to see what was ahead of him, the silhouette had pierced through the body of a massive bear. Thinking it was a sword or something that the person used, the individual yanked it out of the forest animal. Hearing it croak and drop to the ground as a corpse, the dark figure approached the deceased being. Seeing it lean forward and look like it was reaching for the bear's head, it gave an airy snarl.
"...!?" Sonic reacted with terror from seeing it decapitate its head with a bloody rip. Now feeling frozen with horror from the brutality, the silhouette lifted the head with its hand. Holding it outreach, the child could hear the soft droplets of crimson hit the ground. As if caught being stared at, the killer turned its head toward the hedgehog.
Not noticing that it was wearing clothing or not, something on the being's face horrified him. A glowing red ring was seen to wear a person's eyes would. It was the only color that the boy could see on the dark figure. Hyperventilating and shaking with absolute fear, Sonic panicked. Rushing back into the cave, darkness swallowed him.
Running blind, the hedgehog tried to remember where the closest passageway was. Tripping and falling to the ground, he felt his knees scrap on a rocky surface. Ignoring the pain and getting back up, he rushed to the back right corner of the chamber. Moving his hands in front of him frantically, he was able to find the opening. Glancing back at the entrance, Sonic willed himself to not scream. The red eye ring figure was in the middle of the cave space and staring directly at him.
Seeing the outline of the figure a little, it seemed to be wearing a heavy cloak that obscured its shape. In the dimming light seen, there was droplets of liquid coming down from its left hand. Hearing multiple growls and snarls from outside the cave, multiple beast silhouettes rushed in. Watching the red eye look to the right, it stopped indicating the corner of its eye socket. As it turned to face the intruders, Sonic proceeded quickly into the passageway to escape.
Sounds of the battle ringed and echoed through the darkness tunnel the child was in. The yelps and death screams were getting quieter the deeper the boy traveled. Feeling that the path he was blindly walking was curving, the hedgehog tripped. Thinking he would hit the cave wall, he impacted nothing and continued to fall down. Curling up to do a spin-roll, he bounced a little off a boulder.
Descending a bit more and hitting more hard surfaces, Sonic felt what seemed like flat ground. Rolling to a stop, he uncoiled himself and felt around. Loose gravel underneath his searching hands and standing on his feet, he looked around himself. Only seeing darkness, the sounds of the debris under his feet seemed loud enough to echo. Realizing that he was in another large chamber, he felt vulnerable and too frighten to calm down.
Taking deep breaths seemed to reverberate in the open space making it sound noisy. Waiting and listening to the surroundings, the child could not hear the fighting anymore. After five minutes went by which seemed like an eternity, nothing came nor could he hear someone coming. There were only small sounds around him that made him jumpy and made him dart toward where it was. None of them sounded like a predator coming toward him.
Thinking it was clear enough for him to move and get out, Sonic slowly proceeded forward. Gingerly walking trying to make the least amount of noise possible, his fur hairs began to stand on end. Kicking what felt like a large rock bigger than him, he crouched and hid behind it. Feeling his heartbeat go faster again, he slowly moved to peer around the left side of the sediment.
Only seeing darkness around him, he couldn't even see what was in front of him. Seeing something further ahead of him and up in elevation a little, his eyes went into micro-vision. Slowly, a glowing red color was appearing on the far wall. When it got closer enough to see clearly, it was the same crimson ring for an eye. Instead of walking like someone normal, it seemed to levitate while moving.
'...it's...it's...it's that...' Sonic said in his head frightened.
Remaining still and holding his breath from fear, he watched it intently. The floating ring moved to the left then to the right as if scanning for something. Seeing it stop and look what felt to be straight at him, the child turned to be completely hidden behind the small boulder. Trying hard not to breath loud and frantically, the boy started silently praying for the metallic monster clone to go away. Nothing but distance water droplets and small pebbles dropping sounded in the spacious cavern chamber.
Waiting in suspense for something to appear, nothing happened. Curling his lips inward and biting down, the boy slowly peered around the large rock again. Seeing nothing on the back wall or in the darkness, the floating red organ was not there. Slowly standing up and keeping a hand on the rock, the child did a slow 360-degree turn. Only blackness was around him. Determined to sneak out and escape, he tried going to the area where he fell into the large space he was in.
"...!?" Sonic reacted with a flinch.
Freezing in place, his ears perked up straight. Hearing things, he moved his ears and his eyes in the same direction. Listening closely, goosebumps started to litter his skin. The ripping and tearing sounds from the battle earlier were heard in the distance again. However, there were no yelling, death screams, or noises of fighting or resistance. Pondering only a little, he assumed it was the killer with the red floating ring for an eye.
Feeling trapped, a wave of exhaustion flooded his mind and body. The hedgehog's legs began to buckle a little as his tired mind tried to think of a way to get out of here. Too spent to contemplate or even move, his stomach groaned. Stiffening from thinking that someone or something would have heard it, Sonic quickly went back to the large sediment. Back in his hiding spot behind it, the blue boy leaned against the rock and sat on the ground.
Getting his backpack around, he rummaged through it to feel if there were any snacks left. Finding one left, he shoved the entire thing in his mouth quickly. Covering his mouth and nose with his hands, the child chewed slowly and quietly as possible. Swallowing, the hunger pain subsided a bit. Closing the bag and hugging it in front of him, he curled his knees up.
'...I'm in so much trouble...' the hedgehog thought putting his head down on his knees. 'I should have gone back instead of coming here...stupid.'
'Will the villagers find me?' he wondered then remembered something. 'Wait...I have the wristband. They could find me with it!'
"..." Sonic reacted feeling a bit of hope come to him. Feeling his left wrist, he lifted his head up. Not feeling anything on it, he tried his right side. Worried again, he opened his backpack again. Going through it, nothing he touched seemed to be a wristband of any kind.
'I lost it...everyone is going to be mad at me,' the child remarked to himself. Slumping his head back onto his knees, he let out a tired and defeated sigh. About to let his mind wonder, a strong pulse of sleepiness hit him. Slowly feeling like he was falling, his right side made contact to the ground. Moving the knapsack to be under his head, he tried to get comfortable.
'Will that clone get me?' Sonic's inner voice questioned as he felt his eyelids getting heavy.
'Will it find me and take me to that jungle place?'
'Will the villagers come find me despite me losing the tracker?'
'Will someone...save me...I...am...sorry...' Sonic's last conscious thought ringed in his head. Falling asleep, the eerie sounds in the distance slowly faded away.
In a dreamscape, it wasn't like the one that he had last night. Instead, he seemed to be floating above the ground. Looking around himself, there were platforms that looked similar to what would be seen in a cave. Doing a complete turnaround, he stopped and saw someone. Appearing as a silhouette of a hedgehog, it was curled into a ball with hands over its ears. About to ponder what that was supposed to mean, unnerving noises began sounding.
A sense of being surrounded came as he began looking around himself again. Not seeing anything, the eerie sounds of echoing children's voices and a thunderstorm in the background became loud. As it continued, the noises began to become a constant change. Sometimes it would be harsh and ear piercing that made both Sonic and the obscured hedgehog wince. Covering his own ears, fear creeped into him from hearing everything go silent except the whispering of boys and girls.
'...' the blue boy reacted and darted around himself a third time.
There was no one seen whispering or a group of them nearby. Listening to them, the speech was incoherent and muddled. When the voices began to slow down to a stop, they began speaking backwards. Letting go of covering his ears, a thunderclap boomed and echoed. Seeing a bright flash, Sonic covered his eyes as everything became bright.
'This...will be the new evolution for all animals on Mobius,' a voice spoke from everywhere.
'This...is wrong...we cannot change the nature of what god has laid on the land!' another voice retorted.
'By doing so, we will have more communication...a unity with all life...have them humanized...they can help us build a better world,' the first person continued trying to be calm, collected, and trying to reason.
'As a scientist...and an ethical and moralistic human being, this is equivalent to mass genocide. This experimentation is madness and evil!' the other barked and made a dull slam afterwards. Sounded like he banged on a desk.
'I understand you are against us...but all of us here see this as the next path to enrich our world.'
'Then all of you will reap what you sow. If all of you uphold to your religion and science as it should be, you all would see the horror you seeded. All of you will pay for your acts of Apotheosis,' the man threatened in a stern tone.
'...that man...' Sonic stated in his mind. The bright light was dimming, and he squinted to try and see who were speaking. '...sounded familiar...'
Seeing the blinding illumination fade more, he lowered his hand. Feeling his whole-body tense up from what was seen in front of him, it was a sea of robotized animals. Some were in various stages of having human traits while others were closer to the size of an average individual of mankind. However, it was the eyes that they had. All were red circles that glowed as if turned on.
Taking a step back, the surrounding group of critters began to proceed toward him. Backing up some more, he ran into something that felt like a person who was a foot taller than him. The hedgehog slowly turned around and saw a dark silhouette wearing a heavy cloak. With a hoodie over its head, it was looking down at him. Seeing it glitch in front of him, the crimson ring eye appeared. Before Sonic could yelp from fright, it snatched his mouth and gripped it hard.
'...R...U...N...' a distorted airy voice breathed as the red ring eye bored into his.
'NO!'
"NO!" Sonic blurted out in his sleep.
Snapping awake, he sat up and backed up. Hitting the small boulder, he leaned forward a little and put his hands on his head. Rubbing a little to make the pain subside, he froze. Looking up and glancing around him, he was still in the large chamber inside the cave. However, there was enough dull illumination to see where everything was. Glancing to his left from smelling something off, he lurched to the right to put distance away from what he saw.
Breathing hard and feeling his spike fins stand on end, there were mutilated corpses to the left of where he slept. Plugging his nose from the rancid smell of death and iron, he tried not to gag from how strong it was. Immediately bending forward, he placed his other hand on his stomach. His belly growled loudly as hunger pains shot through him. Not wanting to stay in the cave anymore or caring about being quiet, he hurried to his backpack.
Snatching it and putting it on, Sonic jogged to where the light was coming from. Seeing the opening up ahead, there were small platforms to jump on to reach it. Hopping and stopping on the last one, the child saw what looked like dark colored smear trails. It stopped at the entrance of the chamber and seemed to lead through the passageway back to the beginning of the tunnel. Doing a quick jump, he cleared the opening and landed in the enclosed pathway.
Unplugging his nose to see if the awful smell was less, it was still the same. Cover it with his hand again, the hedgehog proceeded down the tunnel. The brightness slowly increased to the point of being able to see things in detail. Walking next to the right wall as much as possible, he was trying to avoid stepping on the dark colored trails that were of blood. Hearing a rumbling groan from his stomach, the child grimaced. The hunger pain was gripping. Putting a hand on the wall as support, the boy continued forward.
Reaching the end of the passageway, he was back in the first carven space. Seeing where the sunlight was coming in, it was after sunrise. Feeling relieved, another pull from his stomach occurred. Much stronger than previous ones, Sonic went down on his knees. Breathing through his mouth, he put his free hand on the ground to stabilize himself.
Unable to think because of being starved, he tried to push himself to continue. Gritting his teeth and looking up, something immediately caught his attention. Before he could process what he saw, his body hurriedly moved towards the items. Fast crawling on all fours, the boy stopped over it. Seeing what appeared to be food in a makeshift bowl, it had what looked to be cooked meat and root vegetables.
Ravenously, Sonic grabbed the food and began eating them quickly. There seemed to be a broth in the lower half of the bowl which made things easier to swallow. Despite tasting earthy with a bit of metallic, the child consumed all of it. Picking the bowl up and drinking all of the broth, he felt immense relief. Sitting down on the cave floor, his thinking ability became less foggy and straining.
'...if there is food lying here...then someone does live here...'
'...is it the dark figure that killed those monster animals out there?'
'...why didn't the red ring eye monster get me? Did it not notice me being in the second cave?'
"...?" the boy reacted from hearing something. Perking his ears up a little, it sounded like someone calling. Slowly standing up and walking forward towards the main entrance of the cave, the voice got clearer. Recognizing it was the lead warrior of Oberi's village, the hedgehog felt hope and jogged toward outside.
"Sonic!" the lead of the scouting party of three called. "Where are you?"
"Based on the last known location of the bracelet tracker, it is pinging around the cave up ahead," another stated. The adult male fox looked up from his map and pointed.
"I don't think giving that kid a free travel pass was a good idea," the female scout commented. "Letting a child go explore on his own in these forests is dangerous and reckless."
"Yeah...hopefully he just holed up in the cave and not what normally could happen," the leader added. Passing the obstacle course and going through the clearing, they stopped from seeing what was on the ground near the cave opening.
"..." all three reacted with grimacing.
Continuing toward the entrance, they cautious began scanning around. There were a few large predator animals that were butchered outside. All the blood that had soiled the ground had either dried up or become partially moist. Body parts were torn or ripped from their sockets as all of the corpses had facial expression of doing battle with something fierce. While the two scouts examined the dead bodies, the lead scanned around them with his weapon drawn.
"Sonic! Are you here? Say something!" he called again.
Hearing soft quick movement, all three turned to the cave entrance. Seeing a pint size individual jogging toward them, it was the blue hedgehog child that was missing. However, the trio's eyes widen from seeing the boy covered with blood stains. Despite seeing that he was alive and seemed okay, each footstep he did left bloody footprints. The scout leader shook his head then kneeled down to be at the same height as the kid.
"Sonic...are...you alright?"
"...I...I think so..." Sonic replied then looked down at himself. The adults saw the boy's eyes widen with fear as he lifted his hands to his face. Seeing them smeared with blood as well, he started to shake.
"Whoa whoa whoa...easy squirt...easy," the adult fox scout said quietly. Kneeling next to him, he reached a hand to him. Placing it on a part of the blue boy that wasn't stained with crimson, he could feel the fur on him standing on end.
"If you can son, tell us what happened...?" the lead began to say when the bird-woman scout stiffened.
"Something moved in the cave...dark figure...standing to the right wall," she whispered. All three saw the hedgehog's spike fins straighten out.
"...dark figure...red ring...for an eye...wiped out...all beasts," Sonic mumbled and began to turn around.
All focused on the area that was mentioned. As if on cue, a single crimson ring floated into view. With its figure obscured from the shadows in the cave, the lead was about to ask for a visual when quick movement was seen. Flinging out of the cave, a circular object was heading towards them. Hitting the ground hard, it began tumbling and rolling toward them. Recognizing it was a head of a primal mountain lion, it stopped rolling with its face pointing in their direction.
"...!?" everyone reacted with a start. There was a word that was cut on it from its left side to the right side of its face. Immediately picking Sonic up and carrying him, the three turned around and sprinted hard in the opposite direction.
"What the hell was that!?" the fox asked out loud unnerved.
"How the heck should I know!?" the bird woman answered disturbed.
"Less talking. Just do what the message said on that head and keep running," the scout lead ordered.
"..." Sonic spoke watching the head and the cave opening get smaller and smaller. The crimson ring eye only became a dot till it vanished inside the cave.