I have to say this is one of my favourite Chapters of Book 2, I just love the presence and setting of the location. So anyway, here it is.
The Medora pulled up to the docks of Doveport and quickly stopped. The passengers, Me, Budgey, Willow, Mimi, Zee, Zuzu, Georgie and Pony got off. Somehow, the topic of why the fuel had not been brought up, and no-one really seemed to care all that much except me.
"Why did we need all that trouble then?" I had asked Budgie, the captain of the Medora. But she had either simply ignored or had a different subject brought up instead. Something very fishy was definitely going on.
"Well...mateys thanks for getting the..." Budgey's voice trailed off. "Good luck on ye future endeavors." Willow was about to open her mouth to say something, but the something else caught her attention.
"That 'luck' isn't going to help us now, look!" She started angrily. "Tigry's already here." And sure enough, Willow's boat (the one that Tigry had hijacked) was docked up about ten meters away from the Medora. And there was certainly no sign of him. Right ahead of us was a simply enormous mountain covered from top to bottom in snow. And metal workings were stretched around the hill like structure. And right at the top of the mountain was the war between the north military and the infected. Explosions were happening everywhere, it looked like chaos. Not to ideal thing to walk in on after a suspiciously short boat ride. But that was behind them now, Budgey gave one more sad smile before disappearing into the north sea.
"We may as well stick together if we want to all make it there safely." Pony suggested.
"I like the idea." Willow barked. "What's more, the quicker we go, the less time I'll have to spend with you!" Willow briskly walked in a random direction up the mountain side.
"She's gone." I muttered.
"Actually, why don't we split up into two groups." Mimi said. "We can easily cover more ground then." Pony shook his head, but only to himself.
"I'll take Georgie." Mimi said, beaming at him. And she also started up the mountain.
"It'll be just us two again." Pony stated. I followed.
It turned out that the steel workings went deep into the mountain before coming out at the top, and it looked like a good walk.
"Let's get star-." Pony exclaimed. A snuffling noise was heard, a split second later, an infected moose burst out of the shadows carrying a pitchfork. The moose wore a dirty orange ripped jacket, with rugged black shorts. One of the legs had a strange black substance rolling down it. The most notable feature was his right eye. It was orange with a single black dot dancing in it. The eye of insolence was something I knew all too well. Some of the infected had these eyes, and it seemed to almost increase their power.
The moose immediately kicked Pony over to the floor and it looked like it hurt.
"NOOOO!" I screamed. The moose was about to drive it's pitchfork right through Pony's chest, but then it stopped and stared at me, before huffing over. I would have normally been frightened out of his skin, but after seeing my friend hurt like that, my heart pumped my body full of adrenaline. As the moose brought the butt of it's pitchfork down, I sidestepped as the moose's fork clanged to the floor. It turned it's head, but I planted a full kick to it's back, which made it stumble forward and fall headfirst into the water below, causing a titanic splash, just as Zizzy had taught me. Ah..just thinking about Zizzy made my heart twang with guilt. Now onto Pony, he was kneeling down on the floor, clutching his side.
"You have no idea how lucky you are." I whispered. "Being attacked by a creature like that."
"If only we'd stuck together." Pony said, shaking his head.
"That would have been a worst case scenario." I reasoned. "More of us could have gotten infected." Pony didn't answer. I supported his back, and we slowly entered the workings. But slyly, in the corner, watching them, was a dark figure.
"We're nearly ready." It wheezed. "My army has grown." And the figure was right, last time, there were around five or six oil offsprings. But now there were three times that. Fifteen of them were in total. The five from before had grown a lot bigger, there arms had become more muscular, from all that dragging around, they were bigger, with a dripping head, and gaping mouths, with all insolence eyes on the right, the leader of the pack even had a single incisor growing. Some of the bigger ones had newborn members on their back, and the smaller ones were still going strong.
"We had followed our young hero north." The figure gasped. "And his journey shall not end here, not yet." Then all of the oil figures seemed to melt into the shadows. The journey up the clanging stairs was actually quite un-eventful. And Jason's mind was only full with one goal. Get...to...the...top! They must have been about half way up, before a freezing draft of wind blew in through the stairs and nearly blew both of them of the rails. Soon they came to near the top, and a piece of rock felt hotter. Soon it became scorching and started to crumble. His eyes lit up as a hidden door swung open, a light flickered in the room. Pony sank to the floor.
"You okay?" I asked, kneeling down to support him.
"Just fine." He gasped. "I'll catch up." I took the benefit of the doubt, crossed the door and came to an empty space with two metal crossways leading to the other side, and a near endless abyss on the bottom. I was on the left, but to the right was someone he thought he wouldn't ever see again, it was Tigry. He was visibly different, now supporting a purple scarf and a new grey jacket, even a matching grey cap, peaked low over his face. It looked like he wanted no-one to identify him.
"Hey! You!" I called. "I know who you are." Tigry stopped cold in his tracks, and slowly turned around. His face turned paler than it already was.
"I remember your face, how could I forget?" Tigry said. "At the refinery and the factory. You stopped Willow and rescued the settlement." Then he looked a the floor.
"I guess I own you an apology." He mused. "For trying to hunt you."
"I get it." I said. "Sometimes people do things because they need to, not because they want to." Tigry sort of half nodded.
"So what are you doing here anyway?"
"We've heard rumors of a cure, and we're here to find it for a friend." I explained. My heart twanged again. Then Tigry's face turned serious.
"She...she's not here with you is she?"
"Who? Willow?" I stated.
"Oh no." Tigry said, his eyes stretched so you could see the whites. "You're on the wrong side. Willow's only using you to get here before me, isn't it obvious?" I thought about this for a moment, Tigry was right, it was strange how Willow had suddenly switched sides out of a single realization.
"You of all people should know this." He continued. "She's just not the type to change!" I decided to differ the subject.
"Why do you want the cure?" I asked. Tigry compelled the answer.
"Like you, to save an old friend of mine." Tigry said. "Say what, if you come with me, I'll help you."
"Hmm. I don't know you too well. For all I know, you could be just as dishonest as her."
"My offer still stands." Tigry grunted, and he cleared off. And I stood there for a moment, what Tigry said was true. Willow was quite the un-trusting character. Then, Pony came onto the metal bridge. He seemed to have recovered.
"Hey." He exclaimed. "What'd I miss."
"Tigry." I said through thoughtful teeth. "He said he'll help us if we ditch Willow." Pony smiled.
"I'd take his offer in a heartbeat." He bounced. "Think I can catch up." Pony jogged forward.
"Wait!" I called. "Come on, let's just give her one more chance. Everyone deserves a second one. Even Willow." Pony stopped cold.
"Fine. But one more thing like that, and I'm outta here."
The lot of us met at the top of the workings and surveyed the scene ahead. An endless looking war was raging on, military helicopters were whizzing through the air, and dropping bombs and nukes, making the ground shake, as well as solo soliders gunning down infected with firearms. But the infected weren't going soft. A cross between a cat and a panda leapt forward and tore the arm clean off one of the soliders, spraying the snow a crimson color. The poor soul shrieked in pain, as his human likeliness was devoured in a matter of seconds. It was utter chaos. Then, out of the snow, was a stocky robot with two arms, and bright white eyes.
"AAAHH!" I exclaimed, as the machine bumped into me, knocking me to the floor. Everyone stepped back, but the robot threw up it's hands as if to say 'I'm sorry'. Then, in the distance, showed a figure in a red coat, and red tracksuits, he had a thick curly head of brown hair, and similarly round glasses to Mimi.
"Kona?" She cried.
"Mimi?" The figure called. Mimi kicked up snow behind her as she tore toward the figure. Both of them came to the light and the figure addressed everyone.
"Hello, my name is Kona. But you can just call me Kona." said Kona. "Now quickly, come inside, it's not safe out there."
Everyone was gathered inside Kona's small living space, the only thing there was in the main room, was a table in the far right corner, with a table, and a half finished bowl of cereal.
"Kona, it's great to see you." Mimi said excitedly.
"It's great to see you too." Kona said, with a kind grin.
"Oh, and this is my assistant." Kona said, pointing to the robot standing in the corner. "His name is Robby." Somehow that robot felt familiar to me, almost like I'd seen it somewhere before.
"Mind filling us in on what's been going on?" Mimi asked, trying to jump to conclusions.
"Ah yes." Kona replied, adjusting his glasses. "Well, the military has evacuated everyone further north, and it's strange, a metric ton of infected just appeared all over the place, the army is of course doing everything they can, but they haven't been doing so well." Kona sighed, he stared out of one of his window blinds. "It's almost as though the infected have been getting smarter, so the brainy lot of the military have been working on a cure."
"As much as I'd like to say we're here to visit." Mimi explained. "That's why we're here."
"Well." Kona said. "I'm going to be staying here as long as I can. But Robby will help me out." Willow laughed.
"That tin can of yours." Kona snapped round.
"That 'Tin can' is probably more capable than you, it can't get infected."
"Ever heard of a virus." Willow muttered.
"Anyway." Kona said, jumping to conclusions like his friend. "You can use the exit to my lab downstairs." Everyone got themselves together and headed downstairs to Kona's expansion of his lab. It would have been nice to stay for a little bit, but there sadly wasn't the time.
"Oh, and one more thing. Down there is probably more dangerous than the outside." Kona's voice echoed. "Nah...I'm just pulling your leg...I think."
Wow, that was actually fun to write. Anyway, the Survivor Version will come later this month, alright, that's all for know
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Doctor of Fun