The Playground Wars

Chapter Fourteen

At this point, I don't know what to think anymore. How to feel anything. there isn't a window to look out inside this small room in the airship. I know we have taken off, but I don't even know the time. Sometimes I feel the airship shake a little but no damage being inflicted upon us. Perhaps the shaking is maybe even the airship releasing missiles of it's own kind onto victims below. Maybe. Most likely.

I spend the time playing with my fingers, with my dirty and stained gloves laying next to me. Occasionally a small, rectangular section on the door would open; picture a door with a slot meant for mail that can be opened. Usually when the slot opens, I find a cog with dark green eyes staring at me. Just continue playing with your hands, I think to myself. And the cog closes the viewing slot until a few minutes more pass.

I haven't even taken notice but I see some crumbs on the opposite side of the room. Following them, I find myself standing over a blue t shirt. Someone else has been here. Someone else has left. I know things won't end well. A part of me hopes that Flippy will kill me quickly when we get to Cog HQ or the Toonbot HQ Office Tower. It's weird and strange. The Toonbot HQ Office Tower is the tallest structure, from what I've seen, in the whole new Cog HQ. Yet the few moments I've spent there has had me feeling so trapped, unable to escape the presence of cogs and unable to breathe. Dread fills me as the thought of going back lingers in my mind.

A violent rumble. I'm on my knees after a loud roar of metallic and fire echoes throughout the ship. Someone is attacking us. That means... Cuddles got away! She let them know! They're here for me! I cannot even begin to explain how relieved I am. The small celebration in my mind comes to a conclusion when the door finally opens. I get a view of the cog with green eyes, a Mover & Shaker. He comes into the room but I know best than to step forward. I think he knows what I'm about to do, so he gets faster in his pace of walking until eventually he's running towards me with an angry passion. Immediately I slide under him and I make it to the door in time to lock him in.

"Cuddles?" I shout. The only response I get is a Mingler who opens her door. She looks around and I know she's spotted me when she pulls out a dip gun. Several shots but I'm still intact. I run to other way but I'm stopped when fire greets me and the heat meets my face. I guess that's not an option anymore. Once again another rumble sends me flying to the wall, my back taking most of the pain. It's hard to open my eyes and stand up but I'm forced to when a Mr. Hollywood with a black suit (like the ones the Toonbots wear) forces me on my legs. "Let me go now if you know what's good for me."

"I don't need a stupid toon like you to tell me what's good for me or not. I would kill you right now, throw you into the fire even, if it wasn't for Flippy's orders," the Mr. Hollywood retorted. I'm busy taking in what he just told me. No, Flippy doesn't want me dead yet. Yes, he wants me to suffer before I go. It's already cruel enough to be under his capture. And yet even through all of this, I've endured. I'm here and breathing. 

But I find my breath to seemingly lose hold when the Mr. Hollywood's heavy and callused metal hands are locked around my neck. 

"Stop!" yells someone out of view. A bullet enters Mr. Hollywood and he lets me go as his dead body, soon to be scrap metal, falls into the fire. Gone.

The heat of the fire increases with every minute. Another shake comes from the airship but it isn't the one where we are getting hurt. It's the one that causes us to shake after projecting a missile or something. I manage to hear an explosion throughout the commotion and still be able to hear cogs celebrate. I turn my head to the person who saved me so I can thank them. I can feel the blood rush to my face as I find myself facing Flippy Doggenbottom.

"What do you want?" I dictate.

"Not a single thank you? Damn I should've let him thrown you into the fire. But I've got plans for you," he says casually, emphasizing the word plans. I stare into his brown eyes, his eyebrows ruffled from the attack, his hair organized to show his importance as a figure. Without even time for me to react, he quickly injects something into my neck. I'm gone like several times before, into the horrors that are my nightmares.

"It's over Oswald," whispers that same familiar voice from the same dreams I've had before. Everything is dark. I can't even see my gloves. Soon enough I find myself, chained to a wall, hovering over a pool of that green toxic substance. When I blink, I open my eyes to a bright white space. I look around. There's a lot of smoke and it's getting harder to breath. When I turn around, I could see myself sobbing on my knees- someone is laying their head on my knees. A corpse? A friend? I walk to myself, scared and terrified but still curious as to what this dream is telling me. When I get too close, it seems that the toon laying their head on my knees has dissipated. Oswald, or myself really, turns to look at me. His face switches from that of a defeated general to a fury of bottled emotions let loose and into the wild. He's about to scream something. I'm about to scream something. 

I wake up. It's over for now. Yet the horrors of reality have failed to make any absence as I scan the room to find myself in a bland room. It's like the one in the airship, except that there's a very small window on one of the walls: it's big enough for me to see where I am. I'm in the Toonbot HQ Office Tower, high in some mountain, viewing the skyscrapers of the city of Cog HQ below us. The window isn't big enough for me to escape, something Flippy definitely took into mind when constructing this place.

A knock at the door breaks my thoughts into a million pieces. I don't need to move from my spot for the door to open. I shouldn't even be surprised to see Flippy but yet here I am with my eyes wide open. I don't bother to talk but it's as if he's read my mind. 

"I know you must feel angry, but that's alright. I completely understand where you are coming from. But over the next weeks I need you to cooperate with me," Flippy proposes and brushes his hair with his gloves, "for we have plans for you. We'll fix you."

You can't fix what's already broken.