"*Gasp!*" I start as my eyes open to see a light gray sky, not entirely sure what's going on. A sound comes from my right, something like a thump from inside the bakery. Someone inside starts fiddling with the doorknob, and I shoot up and look frantically for a place to hide. Seeing a stack of wooden pallets towards the back of the alley, likely from the grocery store, I dive behind them and hope to Chaos the person doesn't see me through the slats. A middle-aged man with a graying beard steps out into the alleyway, carrying two large bags. He puts them down to open the large metal bin, and then lifts them into it. Seeing my pile of cardboard and the tablecloth I had used, he frowns and picks them up.
"What the devil?" He mutters, looking at them, and I realize with horror that my spines had left punctures in the cardboard and rips in the cloth. Panic starts setting in, but then he shakes his head. "Must've dropped these out when I opened the dumpster yesterday... Mangy alley cats sure are gettin' vicious; God forbid I ever run into one of those things without a broom. It's the spoiled fish that blasted supermarket throws out, I've said it for years..."
The man walks back inside, leaving me panting from nervousness. Barely paying any attention to the fact I just learned several new curse words, I feel myself shake and I quickly stand up from my crouching position. I look up, see the top of the several story bakery, and I spring upwards before I can even think about what I'm doing. To my surprise, the jump is easy and I land lightly aboard the roof. Deciding I need to find a place where I can watch humans without being seen, I leap up a story to the grocery store's roof. I allow myself a breath of relief and scan the rooftop. It has a large, hollow, metal vent that curves over to the side near the top. The vent is square, over a foot across, and I carefully climb in, finding that I can see the streets below. The vent gives out heat, something I appreciate, and I get pretty cozy as I lie down, my legs draping down the curve inside it.
Only a few people are out right now... I think, watching the few that are bustle around below. As the sky gets lighter, more people appear, with rushes that seem to all come at one time. I notice worriedly that many people in uniforms are out, ones that seem like enforcers instead of well-dressers. Many of them carry guns, and I feel my breath hitch every time someone in one of the dark blue or dark green outfits walks past. I wonder if I'm somehow related to this surplus of armed people, and decide that I probably am. My sensitive ears pick up on conversations easily, and I listen with apprehension for anything that could be related to me. My fears are answered when a human woman walks by, talking on some sort of black device held to her ear.
"Yes, I know, I'm nervous walking anywhere alone," she begins, the odd sentence catching my attention. "Grace, you have no idea of the tension here in south side. I don't know what it's like uptown, but I've hardly seen any kids out. And the ones that are have their parents death-gripping their hands. Everyone's hurrying from place to place, and the few people I've seen not fast-walking have been either teenagers or people walking next door. This missing Robotnik weapon has the entire city on edge." My throat clenches, and my ears are perked to the max to hear every word. She walks past me, not talking but instead nodding and making sounds of agreement.
"Insane, right? I just hope G.U.N. finds the thing and destroys it before Dr. Eggman can activate it to start attacking people. For all I know, though, it might have already attacked a place, and we just haven't found the carnage yet..." A slight pause, and I have to strain my hearing to hear her response to the device.
"...absolutely terrifying? Yeah, really, though. I better hang up soon; I'm only a few blocks from work... Make sure to call Eric and tell him to get home fast today. I know he's capable, but this is a superweapon we're talking about, and he's all the way on the west..." She turns the corner, and I start mulling over what she said. So the entire city is "on edge" because of me? I don't understand why they would all be so scared of me, but who else could they be talking about? "Robotnik weapon," she said, like they don't even know my name. That's pretty terrifying to me. ...but who's Doctor Eggman?
YOU ARE READING
The Difficult Task of Raising a Weapon
FanfictionShadow the Hedgehog is a young creation who has lived with his friend Maria aboard the Space Colony ARK for as long as he's been alive. No one on the ARK expects everything to go wrong in an instant, but a G.U.N. attack on the ARK causes just that t...
