STRANDED [ON HOLD]

Serenity

"I feel like we've been walking in circles." Knuckles groans and stretches his arms out and places his hands behind his head while he walks.

"That's because we made a giant circle." Rouge stares at the compass. She's not the one in charge, Shadow is. "Are you sure we went the right way?" She asks Shadow, who nods.

"I am the ultimate gps." He nods and they sigh.

Sticks drops to the ground onto all fours and starts sniffing around. Knuckles nods to her and the other two share a glance. "I have a high-strength schnoz." She says nonchalantly with her nose in the dirt. "I'll be able to pick up Vector's scent if he's on ground."

"Okay, I think we should take a break." Sonic suggests to the girls, who nod. Amy takes out a blanket and spreads it on the ground. The other two walk over and sit with her, letting the peace and tranquility wash over them. The first time they've felt calm like this in a week.

Amy and Sonia had to deal with the zombies for a week longer than Sonic and his best bud, Tails. It wasn't too bad, as the outbreak didn't spread too fast so they were able to breathe, but now it's like there's a group of zombies at every corner, except for in this cave surrounded by water, their one weakness. These zombies can't swim, it's as if their limbs would disintegrate if they were to hop into a body of water, and let's not even talk about how rotten their flesh smells without being able to shower for as long as they've been... well, zombies.

Sonic grabs a granola bar from his bag and splits it into three. Amy shakes her head, she has some snacks, and Sonia gratefully accepts it. She hasn't had 'food food' in a while. They let ten minutes pass by just talking. Reliving memories with each other from before Sonic and Sonia split off ways and before him and Tails left their friends for their mission. Sonic folds up the blanket and hands it to Amy, who sets it gingerly back into her bag. He holds her hand and the three of them go further into the cave.

"I'm getting worried about everyone." Silver admits to Blaze, who nods her head in agreement.

"I feel like sitting ducks here, just waiting for one of them to come back, infected by a zombie." Her eyes slit and Silver nods in agreement.

"Would you want to go out and look for them?" He asks and she shrugs. "Well then, let's just let the rescue team go, if they can't find them, or all of them, then I think we should." He reassures her. The rescue team is the Chaotix. They will be plenty capable to help them out.

Sticks lets her nose lead the way. She continues on until she bonks her head on a tree. She shakes out her head like a dog then walks faster. Shadow holds on to the two-tailed fox on his back, worried that he'll wake up still confused. Rouge offers to take Tails off his back, and Shadow waves his hand in a way to say he's fine. He always found Cream and Tails to be like little siblings to him, no matter how annoying the two-tailed goober could be. All he wants is the best for them. Rouge flaps her wings and flies up above the trees, wanting to see what is up ahead. She sees nothing but green leaves on the treetops for miles, except for a small circle. A shuttle is seen flying down to the ground. She flies back down to the group and mentions that the shuttle is coming down from the sky to the open part that's barely a mile away, it's the rescue team's meet up spot! Salvation!

"Come on, we're so close, everyone!" She exclaims and bolts forward. They run after her with joy, ready to go back and see everyone. Vector opens the door to the shuttle and notices them all running at him. He smiles and moves out of the way from the front door. They run up the stairs and hug each other.

Knuckles looks down at his hand and notices a green mark on his far left protruding knuckle piece and he hides it from everyone else. He wraps a bandage around the knuckle before continuing to celebrate with everyone else. He doesn't want to show weakness until he can get back to the base and someone can help him out, because currently his team consists of the edgelord who has no idea how to do that kind of stuff, edgy's bat best friend who would make fun of poor Knuckles, a passed-out genius, a feral badger who eats from the trash for fun, and Vector.

Yeah, none of these jabronis would be able to help him out, especially Tails and his condition, the only one who would be able to help him. What a day.

"I'm going to backtrack a bit to see if I can find any clues from Manic's disappearance. I'll link back with you guys in ten." Sonia nods and walks away from the two of them. They walk forward and notice another fork in the road.

"Left." Sonic starts and Amy takes a deep breath and realizes it's not worth fighting about for a second time. He's too stubborn. She walks ahead of him in the left direction. "What's wrong?"

"Even if I tried to tell you we should take the other path, you would be too stubborn to listen to me." She shrugs and he raises an eyebrow.

"Is this about earlier?" He asks and she crosses her arms as she points her nose to the ceiling. "Oh, so it is. Ames, I'm sorry I took charge like that, I should've listened to your judgment, you're the one who's been through caves excavating different artifacts. I do think I'm still right."

"Admit you were wrong and I will agree with you, we will drop this." She turns to him and looks into his eyes.

"I think you were right, now can we drop it?" He groans and she scoffs.

"Your ego can't understand that you're wrong, can it?" She grimaces.

"Ames, we're not even sure which way was right yet! We haven't been through the whole cave!"

"Yeah, but what if my way DID lead us right out of the cave and into salvation where we could see our friends again?! I'm worried sick about everyone, Sonic. Worried SICK!" She exclaims and he reaches out to her arm.

"I'm worried as well, don't think I'm not worried. I'm so worried we won't be able to see them again. I'm so worried that we won't get out of her alive. I'm so worried that we're going to fight this whole way. Amy, I'm worried. I didn't mention it before, but I'm worried. Let's just turn around."

"No, THE Sonic the hedgehog said we should go left, we go left!" Amy starts to stumble backwards towards the left path more.

"I thought we dropped this!"

"And I thought you appreciated my judgment!"

"I do! Amy, I really do!"

"I don't know if I believe you!"

"Amy, I love you!"

Amy stops. "I-I- love you too-" She starts as she hears crumbling below her feet. She looks down  and gasps before noticing she's falling. "SONIKKU!!!" She screeched as she falls down into an abyss below. Dark, cold and no way of knowing how far it goes until she lands.

"AMY!!!" He reaches his arm out, but it was too late. She was falling down with all of the rubble. He starts jumping on all of the broken pieces of rock and dirt. He can't see her anymore. Just a dark chasm below. He jumps over to the wall and slides down the big rocky cliff and lands on a rock.

He slumps to his knees and watches the rock continue to fall further and further below him.

They're both alone.

The last thing they did before she fell was have a fight.

He needs to find her again, and yet...

He was too slow.

And ARC break.

I promise it won't take as long as last time :D

Love you, I swear :)