The Playground Wars

Chapter Nineteen

I greet each of the cogs I pass down the hallway as I walk to the dining room to see Flippy. I might as well being playing the part of a future General of the cogs while I'm here. When I reach the room, something feels off. 

He isn't there.

I hear a door close behind me. I turn around, expecting to see Flippy standing there in all of his power, but it's only a Telemarketer. I stare at him in awe and confusion. 

Wait. That's him! The Telemarketer from the note, could it be? Or is it just a coincidence that one of Flippy's Telemarketers happened to be in the same room as me. I acknowledge him after a few awkward moments of staring, "What do you want?"

"Relax," the Telemarketer says in a familiar voice without opening their mouths. I turn around to see the long dining table empty with only the elegant table cover to make up for anything. When my eyes once again rest on the Telemarketer, I see that he's taken off his head.

"Drake?"

"Stay quiet," he says holding the Telemarketer head in his right hand. He takes something out of the pocket of his inky, brunette Sellbot suit. It's some red tape like the one I had in my gag attack pack. Which reminds me, I need that gag attack pack before I leave this place.

But Drake has already seemed to know what tumbles through my head, as he reaches behind him and hands me my gag attack pack. I stare in confusion but I don't bother to ask how he's obtained it.

"Sorry not sorry but we're going to have to use your tape. Get over here and be useful for once," he orders as he unravels the red tape, kneeling and starting to cover the edge of the door. I smile to myself. He still hasn't lost that attitude that he had when I met him. 

We tape the borders of the pairs of doors that allow any entrance into the room. The only problem I see here is that if we're going to escape, we trapped ourselves. Drake stands up from kneeling, brushes his suit off, and takes a long glance at me while I stare at the door. 

"No, I'm not stupid," he says as he shuffles his pocket. His hands move onto the inside pockets of his suit's jacket and finally pulls out a gun. "Take this, in case we run into any cogs," he says but I can't help but just stay frozen at the whole situation. Drake. Helping me. It doesn't make sense. Drake takes a look at me again and finally bursts, "Look, I was sent with Gary and Chloe and Crackers to rescue you, so can you get a move along already?" 

"I'm sorry- I was just..."

"Yeah, yeah 'getting used to everything.' Let's go."

He walks to the side of the room Flippy usually sits. The big chair, crafted and engraved with tiny details sits in solitude. Suddenly, a bullet settles through the ceiling and into an air vent I haven't taken time to notice. Drake lowers his gun and hands it to me and I keep it in my pocket. 

"We're going up there?" I question to Drake's annoyance.

"Where else? Take off that suit, we're going rogue." Rogue. The word alone sends a shiver through my body. I take off the jet black suit and leave it crumpled on the ground. When the cogs bust through the doors, they'll see my last act of rebellion against them before I escape. And if any cogs, or even Flippy for that matter, happen to see me while I make my path to freedom, I'll be wearing my yellow cog crusher suit. The same suit I wore when Squad 13 was kidnapped. The same suit when I saw Joey in the woods, and when the hospital exploded, and through this whole journey to save my friends. The same suit that will be on me when I escape.

The same suit that will be on me if I die.

Once daylight breaks, I'll be gone. The lyrics from the song lingers in my mind as I watch Drake shoot a grappling hook to the ceiling of the air vent, and he begins to ascend. He reaches the top and he's gone for a few moments. The rope drops for me to climb.

I leave behind the memories of the dining table and Flippy and I reach the air vent. There isn't much space, but I'm not cramped either.

"Let's move," Drake orders and I follow him through the maze, watching his moves which consist of looking at a piece of paper, which I assume is the map through this hell. "Turn back. Wait, not that way. Come on, hurry." I only do what's in my power and quietly obey Drake's commands, essentially commands to safety, my escape.

"Drake, hold up," I say, catching my breath.

"What now?!?" Drake cries in frustration.

"T-tire..d," is the only word I'm able to speak. I lay on the cold, silver surface of the air vent for a few moments, closing my eyes in soft patterns. Now that I think about it, I didn't get any food or a good amount of sleep. Drake slaps me out of my small episode, literally. The burn is left on my cheek but it's enough to get me awake and moving. "Are we-" I stop my sentence because I know that it's just going to annoy him. He gives me a blank look and then continues crawling ahead of me, leading the way.

We reach a dead end, or what we think is a dead end until we look up and realize we might have to be doing some climbing. It looks easier said than done, but eventually we climb with all of our effort (Drake's foot occasionally above my face), and reach our exit. I look behind at the metallic walls of the vents, our hand and gloves marking the walls with sweat. 

We jump out of the vent and land on the same red velvet carpet from the dining room. Only, this isn't the dining room. It's a garden, with a carpet leading the path around the plants and bushes. We're outside, I could see the light from the sun covered by the smog. Drake motions me to follow him. We quickly walk, I don't know where, but Drake seems to know.

"They should be here," he grunts. I look around and suddenly, a looming shadow covers the light overhead. The glass above, the roof that made up this greenhouse garden, crashes and shatters. I crouch and cover my head, not wanting to deal with more small glass cuts. They hurt like hell, trust me. I'm still crouched, the loud noise of an airship landing above. 

"OSWALD MOVE!" I can faintly hear Drake yell, but I move just in time to save myself from being squished by the landing of the ship. The airships exhausts a bunch of smoke, and eventually a ramp opens, allowing us to enter. Safety. At last. The feeling of feeling safe is immediately broken into a million pieces when a bullet flies past me and causes sparks when it clashes into metal. "CLOSE THE DAMN RAMP!" Drake yells in more urgency. As the ramp closes, the airship begins to hover once again, and I could see some cogs running towards us. They aim their guns and more bullets begin to fly. The airship makes a crazy turn, and me and Drake find ourselves against the wall of the ship's cargo hold. I have trouble getting on my feet again when the ship finds a stable pulse.

We're out.

Drake opens a hatch over our heads, and we climb the ladder to the control station. It's a pretty small ship, it's purpose only for cargo, but it made a lot of noise back in the garden.

My eyes scan the room and I finally see Crackers and Chloe at one place in the same time. It feels like forever since I've seen them.

"Oswald!" Chloe exclaims, and she leaves her seat near the control panel to give me a hug. I'm stunned, but I hug her warmly. "You're safe again."

"Thanks. Where are we headed?"

"Oh, Acorn Acres! Our new home!" Chloe says, hope in her eyes. 

"It's great to see you," I tell her genuinely. She smiles, and behind her Crackers makes his way towards us. "Crackers, come here," I say and greet him with a hug. We're all safe. "Where's Gary?"

"Right here," he says in monotone behind me. "We need to take out your tracker." Damn it, this is going to hurt. 

"Good," I respond. I just want to be out of the cogs' grasp, out of Flippy's hands.

Gary leads me to a table, where he's going to take out the tracker, surgically I assume.

"Take this," he hands me a cup of water and two navy blue colored pills. "For sleep during the surgery. You'll be okay. When you wake up, we would have arrived at Acorn Acres."