Wonderland: Escape From The Mad House [Book One]

Chapter Seven: Home At Last

Each of them seemed to share a similar expression of horror and shock, except for Jack, who's expression was one purely of hatred. "You can either come quietly," the guard spoke, "or we'll bring you in by force. I looked at Jack, as he calmed himself. "Well," he said, with a sorrowful look in his eyes. "We have no choice, do we.

"And I was looking forward to taking it easy on you as well."

Without warning, he lashed out at the guard with a sword I didn't realize he had. The others seemed to take this as an opportunity to try out their weapons.Not knowing any better, I hid behind a tree while the others fought. Come to think of it, fight wasn't the best word. It was more like a slaughter. All around, they killed each guard, without noticeably being hit themselves. I held my breath umtil the final moment, when Jack had swung at the air, splattering blood on the ground, and sheathed back his sword at his waist. He looked around frantically untilhefound me, his eyes full of panic.

"To the Division," he spat. "Let's move."

Without warning, Crow picked me up again, but this time more forcefully. His wings beat heavily as i looked behind us. More guards poured from their own hiding spots, and a shower of bullets and arrows sprayed us.An arrow hit Crow'swing, causing him to loose control, and start crashing down to the ground below us. He held on tighter now, his wings folding over me. We crashed and Crow tucked his wings away and bolted to his feet, seemingly unharmed and unfased, and carried me the rest of the way. Still barraging us with bullets, they chaced us until we reached Jack's kingdom. At that point they paused, and walked back.

"That was close," Crow panted.

"Close?!" I questioned. "You got hit, and you could've died"

"Yeah," he replied, "but you're forgetting about my healing factor. It was more of a discomfort than an injury, to tell you the truth. The only thing that hurt was that landing. I think I may have fractured my ankle." 

"Sit down, and let me see it," I told him. I sat down in front of him. He moved his foot so I could examine it. It was slightly swolen, but it didn't look to serious. I lightly pressed the swolen area,  gaining a protestive twitch from him. "Sorry," I quickly apologized. "You wouldn't happen to have a bandage, would you?"

Shrugging, he ripped his shirt off and passed me a long sliver of cloth. His qings seemed to involentarily spread behind him. I uses the cloth to bandage his swolen area, and helped him up. "Thanks," he said, as he walked to the door of the castle without as much as a limp.

He knocked,  and got no response. "Open up, Jack" he replied.

The door hesitantly swung open, as Jack practically pulled us inside. His face was grave.

"This can't be happening" he said, slightly shell shocked. "I refuse to believe this."

"No matter what you believe or choose to believe," Hatter said, seemingly coming from nowhere, "Reality is reality. We have to think about this, and decide a plan. They will look for us. They will hunt us down. They will not rest until we're either imprisoned or dead. They will attack us, and we have to be prepared for when they do. Which is exactly why we should have surrendered."

I shot him a confused look as Jack went pale. "Surely you weren't thinking-"

"Indeed I was," he replied. "We will break out of the prison,  infiltrate the castle, and kill the Red Queen for good."

"You truly are mad," Jack doubted, and yet, he smiled as he said it.

"Are you insane," I questioned. He grew a serious and philosophical. "There is a thin line between insanity and madness,  my dear Alice."

"But can such a thing be done," Cheshi inquired.

"Of course," he replied.  "With these weapons and our wits, it shall be a simple task. However, we need time before the operatipn goes underway."

"How about a week."

"That should be long enough," he replied. "What," I panicked.

"A full week?! Where will I even stay?"

"Well," he said with a smirk.

"Well what?"

"We do have some room in the castle-"

"Are you serious," I replied with a look of disappointment.

His smile receeded. "Do you see any other option?"

"T-there must be a way to get back home-"

"And there is," Hatter interjected. He took out a small mirror,  which seemed to be shrouded in shadows. He held it out to me, but didn't let me take it.

"This is a temporal object, known to you as a portal. It teleports you to any location you think of. But you must be careful. If any other location crosses your mind while you're in contact with the device, that's where you will be taken."

I nodded,  taking the mirror and thinking of home. My nice warm bed, the bright orange walls, and within seconds, I was there. I took a moment to assess whether or not this was all a dream, and soon went back to bed, knowing that I'd find out the next day.