"Bold."/"Bold italic" : animatronic is talking/animatronic is talking in mind
"Normal."/"Normal italic." : human is talking/human is talking in mind
=o^o=
Two in the morning.
No people visible at all. Dim lighting as not everyone turned on their headlights. The sound of crickets can be heard clearly accompanied by the leaves rubbing together because of the night wind. The air was quite cold.
"Can't your eyes emit light like a flashlight?"
"What do you think I am?"
"Emergency equipment."
Michael grinned as Ennard smacked him on the back of the head in irritation. The two of them walked together down the uneven path, to the left and right were trees as they drew away from the settlement towards Lucy's apartment building. The darkness meant that Michael had to rely on Ennard who could see in the dark through one of his eyes in human form, so Michael drew closer to Ennard.
"We don't have flashlights," Michael complained afterward.
The bridge of Ennard's nose scrunched up. "The only flashlight you have is broken because you threw it at me last year. You should have stolen the flashlight while working at that restaurant."
"Their flashlights last less than six hours! They were so violent."
Ennard's snort of amusement was heard. "So it's more fun to face me in that place, hm?" Ennard's eyes darted to Michael who flinched.
It seemed Michael had gotten too comfortable with him that he had forgotten what he had been through the day they met.
Michael shuddered, he immediately shook off the memory of the scooper. Michael suddenly stepped away from Ennard with caution, while Ennard only raised his eyebrows upwards to see Michael now puffing out his cheeks in annoyance. Once again the red-haired man snorted, before rolling his eyes in boredom and looking straight ahead again.
"You monster."
"Oh now you hate me again?"
Only a shrug that Michael gave before moving closer to Ennard again. "Maybe I hate Alice and her gang more," Michael replied perfunctorily. "They made us have to move places. Why don't they just give up?"
"Knowing that a human who should have died is walking beside his killer, scientists wouldn't miss that opportunity."
"It sucks."
"Who, the scientists?"
"You."
Michael turned as soon as he heard Ennard laugh—it seemed the first time he had heard Ennard laugh out loud. If he can be honest, Michael seemed momentarily stunned; Ennard had never laughed like this. He reminded himself again that it was this man beside him who took his internal organs and made him what he is now, but it felt like melting—oh no had he really lost his mind now?
He decided to think about something else. They will probably return to his hometown and he will be able to make another pilgrimage to his younger brother's grave. He hasn't been there in a long time.
"Dawson is waiting."
Ennard's words broke his little reverie. Michael glanced forward and squinted to make his vision clear. There was a figure from a distance, and Michael was very familiar with the hairpin that the girl always wore. Lucy had been waiting.
The closer they got, the clearer Lucy's figure became in the dim street lights. They both walked faster, even though there was a feeling of discomfort left inside each of them realizing that Lucy looked very nervous. The worry on Lucy's face was mapped, plus her fingers that were behind her body seemed to be squeezing each other. Cold sweat flowed from Lucy's forehead, while her eyes even glanced here and there until she was not aware of their arrival.
This is weird. There's something going on, there must be.
"Lucy?"
His call made Lucy gasp in surprise, widening her eyes at them for a few moments before breaking a relieved smile. However, it didn't last long. "Let's go," Lucy said suddenly, immediately grabbing Michael's wrist to leave their place.
"Not even bother to say hello." Ennard frowned, Lucy just glanced at him. "What's wrong, Dawson? Why so much rush?"
"My residence has been bugged."
That short answer succeeded in making Ennard and Michael roll their eyes together at Lucy. They let Lucy lead the way, even though their heads were thinking the same thing; Lucy's apartment bugged? It reminded Michael of their conversation on the phone back then.
"I don't know when they broke in and put a tape in my apartment, maybe when I went out—but if they did, they were very slippery. I didn't suspect anything until I found the device hidden under the telephone table," Lucy explained to them after a few moments of silence. "I noticed when we were talking when we were going to leave, after you hung up I pretended to say that there's a change of plans and we have to leave around three in the morning." Lucy pressed her lips together tightly. "Mike can you drive?"
Michael tried to digest Lucy's explanation first before answering the question. "I don't have a driver's license."
"That's not important!"
"I can—I can, my father's friend taught me."
Lucy nodded in satisfaction at that. "I parked my car near the supermarket, the colour is white."
"Why did you park it near the supermarket?"
"Because there's no parking available in my apartment building?" Lucy looked at Michael boredly, Michael blinked—just realized it. Lucy also took out a key from her pocket, she intended to give the car key to Michael until a gunshot was heard and they were both shaken when Ennard's cable moved quickly to deflect the lead even though the cable was destroyed afterwards.
"They know, run."
That was all Ennard said before the man pushed the both of them back to run. Now they heard footsteps behind them trying to catch up. Ennard glanced around, counting how many people were after them. One, two, three, Ennard pulled Michael aside violently as gunfire returned with the muzzle aiming at the eldest Afton.
Michael couldn't protest, his mind told him they had gone mad for using a real gun—maybe the anesthetic they used before was no longer working. He saw Lucy running in front of him, feeling guilty again because Lucy had to be involved with all this shit.
He and Lucy gave a little gasp of surprise as Ennard wrapped his wires around them and forced them to turn sideways. The sudden change in running direction made Michael feel nauseous, Lucy also seemed to cover her mouth while Ennard kept telling them to look ahead because they were breaking through trees with tall bushes. Now they heard the sound of a gun being fired at them from behind.
Every now and then Michael turned to the source of the sound of the gunshots, he found Ennard blocking the bullets using his cables—Michael could catch the expression on Ennard's face that showed he was in pain, could losing the cables give Ennard pain? Michael was worried.
Then a gunshot sounded from the front, Michael's eyes widened watching Lucy fall.
"Oh no, no no no." Michael muttered frantically as he crouched quickly towards Lucy who winced in pain, the girl's shoulder covered in blood. "Lucy—Lucy are you all right? Try to calm down—"
"You should be the one who needs to calm down," Lucy replied, it was very clear that Michael was going to be on the verge of tears at this point. "Don't worry, it's just a gunshot wound."
"Gunshot wound!" Michael repeated Lucy's words loudly, he looked scared.
Ennard crouched down too, he tore at Michael's shirt fabric—not caring about Michael's gasp of course—and pressed it directly against the wound on Lucy's shoulder. Ennard looked back and squinted, the people were getting close to them. Then his gaze turned to the front, there was someone approaching. He growled, and Michael and Lucy finally stared in the same direction.
Alice walked up to them with a faint smile on her face, smoke billowing from the muzzle of her gun. "Looks like I got the wrong target."
"Get lost," Michael said angrily, gritting his teeth.
"But I don't want to," Alice laughed, before she pointed the gun at them. "Next time," Alice said, "I'll aim for the head."
Michael hissed, he stood in front of Lucy to protect the girl who was trying to get up. It wasn't long before Ennard stepped and turned his back on him, Michael was astonished. Alice looked at Ennard impressed, Alice didn't seem to realize that the red-haired man was the animatronic who was always with their target. They both stared at each other, the situation was tense.
The trigger was pulled and at the same time Ennard lunged forward to grab Alice's wrist and spun it quickly until the gun shot into the sky. Taking advantage amidst the surprise of Alice by his movement, Ennard grabbed Alice and easily lifted Alice into the air before slamming her hard.
"Go, now!" Ennard called out to Michael who threw Lucy's arms around his neck as he kicked away the gun Alice had been holding.
"But—what about you?" Michael pursed his lips together, looking at Ennard intently.
"Just go!"
"We're not leaving without you!"
"Better be that way since I intend to catch up with you guys, don't you dare running away without me."
Ennard's reply at least made Michael relieved, that Ennard had just told them to split up—of course, knowing Ennard it was impossible for the animatronics to want to sacrifice so easily for them. So Michael nodded and with Lucy he half ran towards the supermarket.
Throughout their journey there, they didn't actually sense anyone else chasing them—was it Ennard holding them back? Even though Ennard had indeed said that he would catch up, it was still a little worrying. Can Ennard do it? Will Ennard be all right? Will Ennard be able to make it on time? Michael bit his inner lip in dismay. Lucy now released her arms and limped a bit towards the car in question.
Michael glanced back, anxiously awaiting Ennard's presence for several minutes. The sound of the car starting up caught his attention, Michael tilted his head to see Lucy was already in the driver's seat.
"You're going to drive? How about your shoulder?"
"Don't underestimate me, Mike." Lucy flashed him a smile and Michael was taken aback for a second. "You can't possibly drive well anyway, so let's get on board now."
The ridicule broke Michael's admiration, he sneered incoherently for a moment. "What about Ennard?" Michael looked back again worriedly after opening the car door, there was still no sign that Ennard would appear.
Lucy also looked in the same direction, she pursed her lips and raised her eyebrows. Looks like they'll have to wait a while—
A loud thump came from the other side of the car, which startled them and Lucy popped her head out of the window while Michael spun around; the man they had just been talking about was now holding his head while leaning towards the car. Did Ennard just crash himself?
"He's an idiot, but at least we don't have to wait long." Lucy grinned.
"How could you ram yourself into a car ..." Michael said with a sweatdrop, but Ennard paid him no heed, instead opening the rear of the car door and grabbing Michael before throwing him inside. "Hey!"
"Let's go." Ennard ignored the protest and immediately told Lucy to drive as soon as he got into the car.
Without a second thought Lucy immediately stepped on the accelerator because she too could hear the faint screams of the people who had been chasing them earlier. Lucy swerved to the right, then with high speed they immediately shot away from the supermarket. Leaving aside her injured shoulder, Lucy actually liked to drive quite a bit. Even though they had swerved because she suddenly turned right, she calmly straightened the car back up.
Lucy could hear Ennard and Michael both gasping at that, then chuckling. They have now left the city.
"You're such a crazy woman! Are you a former street racer or what?!" Ennard exclaimed in disbelief at her.
"At least I didn't crash myself into a car. If there's any damage because of that, I'll ask for compensation from you," Lucy casually replied. She glanced in the rearview mirror, Michael seemed shaken. "Are you okay, Mike? Better calm yourself since we're getting away from them for now."
No answer from Michael for five minutes, then;
"I want to throw up."
"If you puke in my car, I'll drop you off on the street."