The Luigi Story

Chapter 8: The train station part 1

With the bunker being a dead-end, the four of us resumed our journey, but this time towards the Bowser Kingdom capital. It was difficult for me to leave the castle behind in the state it was in, but I knew staying there would not benefit the Kingdom. I had to find Mario and the Princess. I hoped that they had found each other and that they were on their way to Bowser too. Although I kept this hope high, I also feared that I might never see them again.

We were heading back through the cellars, towards the stairs, with Goomofsky in the lead. We walked quietly as the airship was most likely above us right now. As we made it to the staircase, I looked back and I saw Johnny behind me looking around him with darting eyes.

'We will find them, Johnny', I told him. 'We will find your brother and mine. Don't worry.'

'We will', Johnny replied as he wiped away a tear.

Goomofsky and Captain Toad were waiting for us at the top of the stairs, but, from their faces, I could see that something was wrong.

'Shhh', Captain Toad shushed. 'The robots are here...'

'What? Where?', I whispered.

'We just saw one walk by in the hallway to the right', Captain Toad said. 'It seems like they are looking for something. Maybe for us?'

'Maybe', Goomofsky said, 'but I ain't keen on finding out. Luigi, do you know a fast way out?'

'Maybe through the kitchen', I replied. 'It is at the back of the castle and should have a service entry.'

'Good thinking', Goomofsky replied. 'Lead the way.'

Quietly, I walked to the front of the group. Once at the doorway, I looked to the left and right hallway and then started to walk softly, but quickly through the corridors to the left. The rest followed in my footsteps and stayed right behind me. The kitchen was not far away. It was just a couple of hallways from where we were. We neared to the end of the first hallway and we came across an intersection. At the left corner, I planted myself to the side of the wall and carefully looked behind the corner. I saw nothing but a trashed hallway, which was the same for all the other hallways.

We quickly crossed to the other side of the hallway and continued. Not soon after, we could hear strange sounds coming from one of the rooms. The walls were broken, leaving large openings where the robots had punched through. The sound came from the room on the right. There I stood by the opening and, once again, looked slowly around the corner. I quickly looked back as soon as I saw the robot. My heart was pounding in my chest. The robot continued with his task and didn't seem to have noticed us. I motioned to the others to back-up and go back to the intersection we had just passed.

Then we took a left turn, hoping that the other side of the room was clear for us to walk by. Luckily for us, this hallway was clean of robots and there was no hole in the wall. We could still hear the robot making its weird sounds as it kept searching for something. At the next intersection, our way forward was blocked. The only way was to go to the right, as left would lead us back to the robot. Our route then took us towards the central chamber. Knowing that the airship was above us, this would make us easy to spot through the collapsed tower. To avoid this, I went to the first room and quietly opened the door.

The room was just a small chamber used for daily castle activities, with no other doors leading out. I left this room behind and went to the next one. The next room was just a storage locker for a janitor, which offered us nothing. The second to last room leading up to the central chamber was badly damaged. The walls and ceiling leading up to it were clearly cracked due to the explosion or the collapse of the tower. The door was jammed and it took all four of us to get it open. Inside, we could see that the door had been blocked by chairs, tables and other stuff from the room. Someone had been hiding in here and blocked the doorway.