Conductor

"What's going on? Do you think it was an accident? Do you think she's coming back?" Olivia asks nervously. "Maybe." I say calmly while walking away. "Where are you going?" "To the front."  Strangely enough I always wanted to go to the very front of the subway car. This was the perfect opportunity. I had always wondered what the controls looked like. I imaged many levers and buttons. It wasn't so much like that. There was a steering wheel covered in cobwebs, and one red button. I looked down at it curiously. It couldn't be that hard to drive. "What are you doing?" Olivia asks. "I'm getting us out of here." I reply. "But you don't know how to drive that." "I know but-" "Oh come on. It can't be that hard." Norm interrupts us pressing the big, red button. The three of us are immediately flung backwards as the old subway car rockets to an unknown destination.

Set Up Base

Sgt. Rodgers led us to a grand, abandoned subway station. There were huge pillars and marble floors. Oddly there were no cobwebs, and nothing was decayed with time. Norm jumped off my shoulders and onto the the train tracks. "Careful." Sgt. Rodgers shouted. "Don't you know about the third rail?" "Thought that was a myth." Norm says. "It's not." She snaps back. We follow Sgt. Rodgers a short distance down the tracks to a lonely subway car. "I thought this could be a good place to set up our base. There's windows, so we can see, but we'll also be semi protected. What do you think?" "I think we need to see the inside." I reply. Sgt. Rodgers shakes her head. She knows my request is stupid, but she says nothing further. We walk to the side and she forces the doors open. "Usually they're automatic, but, you know." She informs. "I know." I say, tiredly. Sgt. Rodgers bites her lip. "Well, take your look."  The three of us view the inside. There is nothing spectacular about it. In fact, any other occasion it would be revolting. The seats were ripped. Some were missing, and the lights were flickering on and off. "What do you think?" She asks eagerly. "It smells funny." Olivia says. "Yes, it does. A hobo probably used it as a bathroom at one point." Sgt. Rodgers responds as a matter of factly. Olivia makes a horrified face. "We were just in the sewer. " Sgt. Rodgers reminds. "Good point." Sgt. Rodgers turns to leave through the open door. "Where are you going?" I ask. "We need supplies. I'll be back." Without saying another word, Sgt. Rodgers leaves, closing the door behind her from outside. I watch her get on the platform and then try to open the door with no luck. "What's the matter?" Olivia asks. "I think she locked us in."

Tunnel Walk

We walked for miles through the underground tunnels. It didn't seem as if we were making any progress towards finding Freddy. We were all skeptical. Olivia and I kept our comments to ourselves. Norm, not so much. "I thought you knew where he was." "No, I said I had an idea." "Oh, an idea. A precious idea." Norm mocks. "Do you have any ideas?" Sgt. Rodgers asks. "I have loads of them. My first would be to get the fuck out of the sewer." "We can't. At least not yet." She says. "And why not?" "Because there are more of them then there are of us. You want them to detect us easily? Fine, we'll go to the surface." Norm takes a deep breath. "We can stay down here." Sgt. Rodgers smiles smugly. "Good." There is a brief silence as we continue walking. "So, why did they turn against you?" I ask. "I'm not ready to answer." "That's a shame because I'm ready to ask." "Ask away, but I won't answer." I turn to Olivia. "You want to heart her again?" "No, it's not worth it. Let's just find Freddy and then we can part." "Yes, we can all go our separate ways. If you find a way out of this city that is." "We'll get out." I say confidently. Sgt. Rodgers chuckles. "We will. " She ignores my last comment. "Up ahead we're going to take a left. It's an abandoned subway station. We can set up there."

Not Trustworthy

"Yeah, I'm gonna take a pass on your friendly invitation." Norm says. "I'm going to have to agree." Olivia adds. "Do you honestly think I'm planning an ambush?" Sgt. Rodgers asks. "You aren't exactly trustworthy." Olivia quips. Sgt. Rodgers rolls her eyes. "You three may leave if you'd like, but you'll need help." "We don't need you." I reply. The three of us start to walk past Sgt. Rodgers. "There was a coup." She shouts. "And we're supposed to be surprised?" Olivia shouts back. We continue walking. "I can help." Sgt. Rodgers says again. Olivia stomps back to the Sgt. "Read my lips. We don't need your help." "But I know where his fox friend may be." She says, pointing towards Norm. "Is that true?" Olivia asks. "I don't know the exact location, but I have an idea... a better idea of where he is than you would." Olivia sighs. "You can come with, but.." She shoots a pink heart into Sgt. Rodger's chest. "I'm not taking any chances."

Waist Deep

We jumped in the opening. The dirty water was waist deep so Norm rode on my shoulders. There was an absolutely horrendous smell. I guess I must have winced because Olivia assured me it wasn't sewage. I suppose it was somewhat to comforting to at least know I wasn't walking in waste. That is until we walked a little further and saw the flicker of light. Someone was having a bonfire, but who? We continued down the path, trying as hard as we could to keep quiet. Not an easy task when you are splashing in water, and I guess we weren't successful because as soon as we made it around the bend we saw Sgt. Rodgers looking up at is in eager anticipation. Her clothes were ripped and dirty, and she looked like she hadn't slept in days. Norm growled fiercely. "Easy." She said. "I'm unarmed, unmanned, and my strength in waning. Why don't you have a seat by me?"

Shh, Listen

"That was fun. I mean I didn't like that last part, but what a ride." Norm exclaims. "I know right. It ended far too abruptly." I reply. "Guys, this wasn't a ride." Olivia jumps in. "Yeah, but we can turn it in to a ride." Norm says. "Why not? It would be like a lazy river." Norm smiles. "Better than a lazy river." You're right. Lazy River's are too slow sometimes." Norm nods at my comment. "Way too slow. When I go on a ride I don't want to be stuck there for hours, and I want a big splash at the end." "Yes, they don't always have big splashes." I excitedly agree. "Guys ,quiet." Olivia says, interrupting our banter. "Sorry, you don't feel included?" Norm asks. "No, it's not that. Listen. Someone is here." Norm and I put our ears close to the grate. Indeed we could hear someone faintly walking around. Olivia pulls off the grate. "What are you doing?" I ask. "We have to go down there." "You think that's a wise idea?" Norm questions. "Yes, I do." Without another word, Olivia  jumps into the opening. Norm and I shrug and follow after her.

Wild Ride

Norm's mouth opened wide like a small child on Christmas morning. I examined the muddy stream to try and see exactly what Norm saw. "Isn't it great?" He said. "What am I looking at?" "This." He replied simply. Waving his good paw at the stream. Olivia and I scratched our heads. "Are we missing something?" Olivia wondered. "No, this is everything." I leaned in even closer. This proved to be quite foolish for I lost my balance and fell in. The water was flowing much quicker than I realized. Olivia and Norm did not skip a beat. They jump in after me, but the current was too much for us. It took us further and further down stream. We went down bends and twists. We were going so fast I could barely keep my head above water, let alone see any of the scenery. Before we knew it we hit a water drainage grate, hard. It was painful, and the impact was enough to knock the wind out of us, but we were all thankful that that particular ride had ended.

Sirens

"But if there are sirens that could mean something happened? What happened? Are we being invaded? Is this the end times? Oh no it's the end of the world, isn't it? I can't take it." Norm starts to hyperventilate. Olivia grabs him by the shoulders and slaps his face. He quickly snaps out of it. "I think I needed that." "It's fine to worry. But it's not gonna get us anywhere." "Maybe we should check it out?" I suggest. "That's not a bad idea." Olivia says. The three of us walk outside. Except for the wind blowing, we can't hear anything. At least not anything that would be troubling. "Maybe it was just a testing?" I say. "Maybe, but why would they do that?" Olivia asks. "Who knows? Why would they choose to do anything?" "I mean it's illogical. If everyone is in that building why would  they need to alert anybody?" "Maybe they weren't alerting anybody. Maybe it was to lure us of out." I say, pointing to the Malt Shop. Olivia shrugs. "Well, it worked." Norm raises his ears and shushes us. "Quiet, I hear something." Without saying anther word, Norm runs off. We chase after him down a narrow alley, climbing over a fence, and through a valley. "We're almost there. I can feel it." He says, eagerly. We walk a little further and stop at a muddy flowing stream. Olivia and I are confused. Norm is happy as can be. "I knew I heard running water."

Malt Shop

The malt shop was a nice resting point for the three of us. Even if there were no tasty beverages for us to enjoy, it was great to be able to relax. Olivia and I sat at a booth while Norm wore a paper hat and pretended he was a 1950's soda jerk. "Where do you think we are?" Olivia asks. "I don't know, but I think we were here before. Remember  right before we got abducted by aliens?" "I do, but I still have no concept where we are." I shrug. "Hey shouldn't you kids be in school?" Norm chimes in with his waiter humor. "We're too cool for school." Olivia says playing along. "Oh yeah? Bet you're not too cool for the best root bear float in town." "Never." Norm places a dirty class under the soda faucet. He pulls the lever, but only dust comes out. "Piece of junk." Norm says in his regular voice. "That'll just be the new house favorite." I reply. But before Norm can come up with more witty banter, we are interrupted by what sounds like a tornado siren. The three of us cover our ears right away, but the blaring noise shakes the windows. I can feel the vibrations in my stomach. This siren lasts for what feels like forever. When it finally stops Norm stares out the window in disbelief. "What was that?" He asks. "It was a siren." I explain. "But why?" "I guess to alert us of a disaster." "But who would be doing that?" Olivia wonders. "It could be Eagle Eyes. It could be anyone of them." I suggest. "But if they are all together in that building who would they need to alert?" She asks. Norm scratches his head. "Maybe there's other people here."

Wandering the Ghost Town

The abandoned city was ours. We could wander anywhere we liked in the cracked and broken ghost town. Occasionally we'd look back to see how far we had traveled, but in those moments all we could see was a dense fog. We knew not where we were going. All we knew was that we had to keep walking and eventually the answer would come to us. Norm smacked his lips. "I'm thirsty." "Yeah, me too." I reply. "Wish I brought some water." Olivia says. "How about that?" Norm asks, pointing to a run down malt shop across the street. The windows were cracked and the M was missing in Malt. "You can't be serious." Olivia responds. "I am. I'm not picky." "Even if I didn't think that place would be crawling with diseases, do you really think a malt would be the best choice right now?" "We could always do tap water." He says. "Tap water? I bet the water has been turned off for years." "Perhaps, but we can at least sit down. I'm beat." He says. Olivia shakes her head. "Fine, we can take a rest."

All Clear?

To our surprise and delight, leaving the abandoned building was a piece of cake. No one tried to stop us. Not Davies, not Eagle Eyes, not any of the many soldiers. No one. The hallways were vacant. Outside was an eerie calm. All the streetlights were lit (Eagle Eye's work.) I wanted to be happy. I wanted to celebrate, but it seemed too good to be true. I knew we couldn't be out of the woods yet.

Meanwhile, high in the sky, on the top floor, Eagle Eyes studies us through the scope on his sniper rifle while Todd sits behind a desk and works on the blue prints. "I could pick them off one by one. It wouldn't difficult at all." Eagle Eyes says. "Then why don't you?" Todd asks. "Because where is the fun in that? I want a challenge." "So, we strike in the middle of the night?" "We strike when they least suspect it. I want a worthy challenger. Don't worry. I know they can't go far."

Bury Zip

Zip had never stepped foot in the Waiting Room before so he had no idea there was no escape, but he would soon find that out. He groped the walls and searched for an exit. "Where's the door?" "There is no door." I reply. "Then how do we get out of here?" Olivia points in the other direction to the E.R. Zip squints. Olivia sighs. "We go back into the medical wing." Zip shakes his head. "No, we can't do that." "And why not?" Olivia asks. "Because if you leave through that door they'll know I helped you. They'll question me. I don't know what to tell them. I don't know why I helped you." "Then what do you suggest we do?" I ask. Zip snaps his fingers. "I got it." He then lays down on the floor. "Bury me." "What?" I say. "Just throw some of the rubble on me." "Don't have to tell me twice." Norm replies. "Wait. And then what? Won't you still get chewed out if we overpowered you?" I question. "I will, but trust me. It will look much better for me if it looks like I'm hurt." Olivia looks to me. "I don't mind." We spent the next ten minuets burring Zip in bits of the coach and wall. When he was up to his neck we decided to stop. "There that should be good. I can move my right arm, but not much else." "What if they don't find you right away?" I ask. Zip stares at me for a moment as if it were the stupidest question I could ask. "Are you kidding? I'm very important. All those soldiers know where I went. I won't be gone for long." Norm, Olivia and I shake our heads. "Now get out of here while you can."

Command the Crowd

Going back in to the barracks was like being fed to the wolves. There was a commotion as soon as we stepped foot in the room. There was yelling and screaming. Some even through garbage at us. It was chaos. That is until Zip entered. "Quiet. Everybody. Quiet." He had an unusual command of the room. All eyes were on him, and no one dared to speak. "I assume you all know who these three are?" The crowed raged once more. "Quiet! I didn't say to speak. My disdain for these three matches if not surpasses all of you. But right now I turn my disgust on you." He says marching down the barracks. "How did these three get past an entire room of so called soldiers?" A wimpy soldier raised his hand. Zip directed his attention to him. "I was looking around and I think there's a hole in the wall." "I didn't ask how they entered. I asked how they got past you." The soldier gulps. "I don't know." "You don't know? Does anybody know?" He asks, directing the other soldiers. No one answers. "No one knows? That's fine. No breakfast for anybody." Some moaning is heard. "And no one leaves this room. I will take these three back to the Waiting Room and discipline them myself, but no one is to leave this room."

Lights On

In an attempt to locate a door Olivia accidentally hit the light switch. As you may have guessed it caused the soldiers to stir. It falsely made them think it was time to wake. "We have to get out of here." I say. "No shit." Olivia replies. "Shut up, shut up. It's this way." Norm shouts, pointing to a slightly opened door. We follow him as he scurries past the bunk beds. It seemed as though we were in the clear until we walked through and saw Zip on the other side with his arms crossed. "You're trying to escape, aren't you?" "Back off, Zip." Olivia shouts. "I don't want to stop you, but you can't go this way. Eagle Eyes and Davies are around the corner." "Then what do you suggest?" I ask. "Go back in there." He says, pointing to the barracks. "Are you nuts?" Olivia shouts. "Go back in there. I'll say that I caught you." "And then what?" I ask. "Don't worry." "No, I'll worry." "Don't worry." He repeats, but this time more sternly.

the Barracks

The three of us groped the walls of the Waiting Room. Olivia and I hoped that perhaps Norm could find a hinge or a button that we missed, but no such luck. We could not find any doors and knew once again that this was not the way out. "Back to the E.R.?" I suggest. "No way. That's suicide going back there." Norm shouts. "Well we can't go in through the barracks." I reply. "Sure we can." Olivia says. "What are you talking about that's even worse." "No it's not. They're all sleeping." Olivia started to walk out of the Waiting Room. Norm followed closely. I stood where I was, dumbfounded. After a minute , Olivia realized I wasn't following. "Come on, we'll be quiet."  I didn't want to argue anymore. I sighed and walked with them.
The entrance to the barracks had missing 2 by 4's from where Zip exited. We quietly entered, making  sure not to make a sound. It was pitch black, so all the more reason to be careful. The only noise we heard was snoring. Believe it or not, that was surprisingly helpful.  It allowed us to gage how far we could walk to any one side. Olivia guided the way with myself and Norm closely behind her. In no time we reached the end of the  barracks. The only problem was we hit another wall.

The Rescue

Olivia pushed Zip to the ground which caused him to drop his gun. "What the hell are you doing?" She shouted. "I'm helping." "You're helping? Get out of here."  Zip picked himself off he ground and grabbed his gun. "You really want me to leave?" He asked. "Yes, go." Without saying another word Zip walked down the hall. "He can turn on us you know." I say. " Yeah, I know. I know the pink hearts can wear off any minute, but I don't care. I'd rather not have him involved if that's how he is going to help." Olivia and I continued to work on the wall. Admittedly Zip's reckless firing did help. Because of that we were able to get to the other side in no time. There we saw the saddest thing. Norm was in the corner of the room tucked into a ball. He was shaking like crazy. I had never seen him look more like a frightened animal than at that moment. I slowly walked over to Norm. I gently placed my hand on his shoulder. This proved to be a bad idea. He quickly uncurled himself and clawed my wrist. I stepped back in shock, and pressed my left hand up against my wrist. Olivia not wanting to take any more chances, shot Norm with pink hearts. The effect caused him to sit down on the floor. His face then looked tired and melancholy. He knew exactly what he had done. "Did I hurt you?" He asked. "You did, but you you didn't mean to. It was all the adrenaline." Olivia answers. "Yeah, I guess so. Why were you guys firing at the wall?" "We weren't." I reply, ripping off a piece of my cape to wrap around my wrist. "That was Zip." Olivia adds. "He's not here, is he?" "No, he's not." Norm exhales. "Good. Shall we get out of here?" Olivia looks at the boarded up door. "No, not that way. They've been banging on that door. We gotta leave the way you came in." "But that's where Zip came from." I reply. Olivia glances at the hole in the wall. "It doesn't matter. Either way they'll catch up to us."

Help?

There was no authority in that voice, and even if there were there was still no reason for me to respect it. Olivia and I were trapped. Put their by soldiers with guns. They were not our friends. They were not our allies. We had no reason to listen. Olivia and I continued to bang and scrape the wall with our make shift tools. "I said stop."  The voice commanded. Olivia turned around and shot a pink heart down the hall. I couldn't tell if it hit its intended target, but when there was a sudden silence I naturally assumed it did its job. Eventually we were able to create a small hole. Olivia readied the table leg. She was going to strike the wall and make the opening wider, but before she could the voice called out again. "I know what you're doing." "Yeah, good luck trying to stop us." Olivia sneers. "I'm not trying to stop. I want to help. " I turned around to see Zip standing there with the utmost sincere face. "You want to help? Grab something and smash the wall." Olivia said. "No need to." Zip then pushed past us and without warning he took out his gun, firing at the wall several times.