Chapter Text
Sonic wouldn’t lie, he was a bit surprised when he noticed how rapidly everything spreaded. Turns out, the serum they had used on the other subjects was poisonous to normal people, so getting any of it in your system was bound to kill you. Not only that, but with enough of it, you could become one of those creatures as well.
To make matters worse, it wasn’t exactly easy to kill these creatures. They were already technically dead after all. Sonic hadn’t figured out how to kill them yet, he just stuck to grabbing Tails and running whenever one of the creatures were around.
Tails… Just thinking of the kit caused Sonic to immediately become frustrated. He had bonded with the boy at first, he had been happy to spend time with him even.
But now? He hated him more than anything.
If Tails had never been created, Prower would’ve never had to sacrifice himself to save Tails and him. There wouldn’t even be any of these zombie-like creatures to begin with. Everything would be normal.
Part of him, deep down, insisted that Tails didn’t ask for any of this, he doubted the subject even understood what was happening, it couldn’t possibly even be his fault, but he crushed that thought the moment it entered his head. It was his fault. He knew it was.
Sonic sighed, rolling onto his back and staring up at the ceiling. He found a convenient store that had long since been raided, and while it wasn’t the best shelter even with the doors and windows blocked, it would do for the night.
He wasn’t sure about sleeping though. Sonic wasn’t sure if he or Tails would wake up if something tried to break in. Not only that, but he was already on edge.
Sonic pushed himself up, taking out the piece of paper and the tablet Prower had given to him before his death. Just like he had promised, the paper told him the location of a secret lab, one that should be safe and intact still due to being mostly underground. The paper also told Oliver that the tablet would work as a key inside.
So, from day one he has been determined to get to that base, to bring Tails to them, and to get a cure. Even if this task has been dragging on, he’s been travelling for over three weeks.
That was the only reason he kept Tails with him really. He was the key to the cure, the key to survival.
Pushing both items back into the pockets they belonged in, he looked over at Tails. He already knew the kid didn’t need sleep, though for some reason he still did, almost every night. Sonic would’ve questioned it, but Tails seemed to talk even less now, that was somehow possible. He only communicated with gestures and some noises now, maybe the occasional word.
Sonic only sometimes cared enough to pay attention to what the subject wanted.
The next morning, Sonic got Tails up as soon as the sun could be seen.
“We can’t waste any daylight.” He really doubted the kid cared, again, he didn’t need sleep, but sometimes just saying this stuff out loud helped.
As expected, the fox kit only stood up, staring blankly at some part of the wall just past Sonic’s side.
“Great..” Sonic huffed, turning away from the fox and working on pushing stuff out of the way from the door.
Eventually, he had cleared a path and grabbed Tails’ arm, pulling him along with him as he left the makeshift shelter.
Outside was completely empty, there was the occasional corpse of the unlucky victim who had been caught by one of the creatures, but hadn’t been unlucky enough to be turned. Sonic hadn’t seen any survivors since the first week of this, he assumed there wasn’t many anymore.
“If we’re lucky, we should get there in about a week.” Sonic said that to himself more than Tails, he hasn’t filled Tails in on where they were going to much. But the subject never seemed to care. Part of his mind pointed out that meant the kit trusted him enough, but the other part crushed that with the reality that the fox wasn’t capable of feeling that sort of stuff.
After what Sonic could only assume was hours of walking, there was suddenly a tug on his sleeve.
Sonic turned to Tails, barely holding back a growl of annoyance, “What?!”
The fox didn’t react to his tone, instead pointing to a building that wasn’t too far away, a group of zombies were attempting to attack two other mobians, both hedgehogs, however they seemed to be handling the attack just fine on their own.
“Tails, those people are fine..” Sonic was surprised, he could only assume the kid wanted to help. He just didn’t know that Tails was capable of wanting to. (he would assume he wanted to attack, but the subject had never shown signs of being violent)
The next tug on his sleeve was a bit harsher despite him already facing the fox, who also made a distressed noise as he pulled.
“We aren’t going over there!” Sonic snapped, pulling his arm away.
The next noise the fox made was more like a growl than anything as he ran towards the group.
“Tails!” Sonic screamed, running after him.
He couldn’t lose the only chance at a cure they had, Sonic didn’t know what effect the other zombies attacking Tails would have on the subject, and he wasn’t looking to find out.
He was too late to grab him though, Tails had already tackled the remaining creature that was about to grab onto one of the mobians.
The mobian, a black and red hedgehog, it was about to grab quickly turned, pointing the gun at the creature and Tails.
“Don’t!” Sonic grabbed his arm, shoving it down towards the ground before he could shoot.
The hedgehog he grabbed ripped his arm free, shoving Sonic away, “What the hell are you doing?!”
“Don’t shoot him!” Sonic gestured to Tails, who had managed to kill the other zombie and was now just standing there.
“Hey..” The other hedgehog, a pink one, set a hand on his shoulder, her voice soft, “I know it hurts.. But that isn’t your friend anymore.. Hes been turned.” She had grabbed Sonic’s arms, forcing him to turn his back to Tails, she glanced at the black and red hedgehog and nodded slightly.
Sonic pulled away from her when he heard the click of a gun, “No! Let me explain!” He jumped in front of Tails before the black and red hedgehog could shoot.
He faintly felt the back of his jacket being grabbed by the fox, and for once he didn’t feel the need to rip it away from the kid, it was comforting.
(He was scared that the only chance for a cure they had would be killed. He didn’t care about Tails. He didn’t .)
“Are you insane?!” The black and red hedgehog shouted at him, “That thing will kill you!”
“He won’t! Please, just listen to me!” Sonic was basically pleading now, he couldn’t fuck this up. Not now.
The pink hedgehog set a hand on the other’s shoulder, “Shadow, let’s listen to him..”
The black and red hedgehog, Shadow, sighed, but listened and lowered his gun, instead looking at Sonic and glaring, “Well?”
“Okay… Thank you..” Sonic reached back and pulled Tails a bit closer, a bit surprised himself at the sudden wave of protectiveness he felt towards the subject, “He isn’t like the other ones.. I was involved with the experiments that created these zombies-“ He noticed Shadow raised his gun again, “-My mentor led the project. He only wanted to learn how to raise the dead, that’s it! This fox, Tails, was the only successful attempt. They tried to copy the serum they put into him to see if it would work on others, but something went wrong. Rather than using it on one subject to test it, it was used on many at once. It went wrong! Tails is the only successful one, and before Prower died, he told me I needed to take him somewhere, that he was the key to a cure and they could find it.” He scrambled to pull the paper Prower gave to him, holding it out.
The pink hedgehog took it from him, looking over it, then showing it to Shadow.
“I only want to take Tails there and get a cure. Neither of us mean any harm to anyone..” Sonic took the card back once it was held out to him, putting it back in his coat pocket, “Just now, Tails ran away from me to help you both! He attacked that zombie.” He gestured to the zombie Tails had gotten rid of.
“He has a point..” The pink hedgehog looked at Shadow.
“I still don't trust it.” Shadow stepped forward, his fun staying pointed at Sonic, “How do we know any of that is true?”
“Why would I lie?! Tails is the only shot we have at a cure right now, do you really want to kill it?!” Sonic shouted, pushing the fox kit back a bit more. He was growing more and more frustrated with this whole mess.
The pink hedgehog grabbed Shadow’s arm before he could do anything else, “Shadow, stop!” He glanced back at her with a glare, but didn’t try to fight it, “We can’t risk it if he’s telling the truth about that fox being the key to a cure! Let’s take him back and speak to the others.”
Shadow finally pulled his arm away from her, growling quietly, “Fine.. I’m keeping a close eye on them both though..” He huffed.
The pink hedgehog nodded, “That’s fine..” She looked at Sonic, “Will you come with us willingly?”
Sonic sighed, “I can tell when I don’t have a choice..” He looked back at Tails, “Tails, stay close to me, okay?” As much as he didn’t want to, there was no hope trying to fight this, they were armed, he couldn’t resist right now.
The fox looked up at him, the usual blank stare on his face.
Sonic just took that as him understanding what was said and looked back at the hedgehogs, “Okay.. Let’s go..”
The pink hedgehog stayed at Sonic’s side, while Shadow stayed a bit behind, Sonic could only assume the gun was pointed at him, so at some point he had ended up moving Tails to be a bit in front of him.
Sonic looked over at the pink hedgehog, out of the two she seemed a lot nicer, and hadn't pointed a gun at him and his brother, “Hey, uh.. Can you tell me where we’re going exactly..?”
She looked over at him and nodded, “A bunch of people who survived the initial attack here formed a group, stronger in numbers. We’re taking you to our base to get their input on this...”
“Right..” He looked down, “Well.. Mind if I introduce myself at least..?” He looked back up at her.
(he might as well try to be friendly to get her to help him out of this mess)
She nodded, so he continued, “I’m Sonic, and like I said, the fox is Tails.” He held out a hand, “It’s nice to meet you..?”
She looked down at his hand, then sighed, and shook it, “I’m Amy. I’m sorry for how my friend is acting..”
“Eh.. I can’t say it’s fine, but I also can’t deny that I’d be acting similarly..” He messed with his sleeve a bit, “I can promise you I was telling the truth though. Originally I didn’t want to even go over to you both, it was Tails who wanted to help.” He glanced at the fox, some anger finally breaking through the wall of protectiveness he had been feeling.
“I do believe you.. I just know Shadow won’t without more proof..” Amy sighed, “I saw you weren’t trying to cause trouble. Just trying to get that kid back..”
“So you're taking us somewhere full of other people who might not believe me? I don’t mean to be rude, but this is a huge step back in my mission to try and get this guy to that other science facility. We need to create a cure!”
“I know! I know that, and this could help you!” She had been shouting, but then took a deep breath, “Okay.. Just listen to me for a moment.. I know the people there. I know the majority, including the leader of our little group, will likely believe you. Especially if I’m pushing for it!” She put her hands on her hips, “And because of that, they might want to help you! So this could be a step forward!”
“I don’t need help getting there...”
“Do you have a vehicle to get to your location? Weapons? Medical supplies? Food? Any supplies?”
That shut Sonic up pretty quickly.
“Thought so. Now, I’m going to do my best to help you get the group on your side. So can you at least try to be more grateful?”
“Fine..” Sonic shoved his hands in his pockets. He hated having to agree to this. But she had a point. He wasn’t prepared to make this journey on his own.
“Thank you. And good timing.. Hey Shadow!” Amy looked at the other hedgehog, “Can you go on ahead and inform everyone we need to hold a meeting? I can handle these two.”
Shadow seemed doubtful, but eventually nodded, “Sure.. Be careful. Shout if something goes wrong.” As he passed, Shadow glared at Sonic, though eventually looked forward again, finally lowering his gun.
“And now you.” Amy turned to Sonic, “Make sure Tails doesn’t wander away, and try to calm yourself down a bit. We’re almost there.”
Sonic nodded, picking up Tails. As expected, the kit didn’t react, “Alright..” He took a deep breath, “Just have to tell them the truth, and you’ll do the rest to convince them?”
Amy nodded, “Exactly.” She patted him on the back, “I’m sure your story alone will be enough though.”
Sonic only nodded, looking down as they kept walking.
For now, he could only hope things would go well.