Decembersville Ch. 11

Chapter 11: Car chase Downtown!!
          That early winter morning, outside Carvel's Circus, Zero and Sophia and Pendulum Tin were staring with wide open eyes at the lamp post. There was taped paper on it with a notice:

                                                  WANTED!! Human Girl Child; small in stature, whitish blond hair, short, big eyes and a whole lot of bratty attitude! She's a bad person and is to be reported to the nearest member of the Dolls for instant extermination!! Love, your mayor (aw, you know who I am).

     Sophia turned away from it and looked at her friendly misfits saying, "Was somebody watching me!? How do they know how I look like!?"
They both shushed her not to say it so loud because they were in public outside the circus. Zero was speechless but Tin just stuttered, "Okay, okay, okay! Look…uh…w-well….th-there are over a hundred freaks in this city with short blonde hair, big eyes, and a whole lot of bratty attitude!"
     "I DON'T have a bratty attitude! Shut up!" the little girl shot back, just about proving the poster's point. She was not the cutest little girl in the morning.
     "Hey, guys! Not so loud. For all we know there are spies around here," Zero pointed out. "Look, they have no idea that we are helping you out and so you'll blend in if you are seen with us. Just keep your head down until we…until we find out what to do next."
     "Zero," Tin snapped at him. "There's NOTHING to do. NOTHING. How do you expect us to get her home when it's impossible for us to leave ourselves? There's NO WAY. She might as well just live here."
Sophia made an angry face at him but Zero just sighed and said, "You're right. But I'm pretty sure there's at least ONE way to leave this place and get her back. I mean Darkslaw did it! Why can't we?"
     Sophia's attention was caught instantly, but Tin replied to Zero "Yeah! And look at what happened to him when he got back!"
     "W-why?" Sophia asked with some franticness in her tone. "What happened to him? Is he okay?"
     "Y-you should know," Tin said. "I mean…they say you're the one who--"
     "Sophia would NEVER do something like that!" Zero said back in Sophia's defense.
     "Not that I believe them or anything, but they said so themselves that this little girl did him in not so long ago! Actually, it was the very day she got here…they said."
She didn't understand. Did she even want to understand? Well, she didn't have time to understand anyways because then she found herself being led around the corner of Carvel's Circus tent to a giant metal door marked: Employees/ performers/ those who actually work here and you are not one of them ONLY. The door was opened and inside there was a zany, colorful car obviously belonging to the circus; there were musical organ pipes sticking out the top and the wheels were decorated with piano keys. Its primary color was yellow. Next thing she knew, they all snuck inside with Tin at the wheel and both Sophia and Zero in the back. I forgot to mention that he woke up that morning saying he'd help Sophia out but only up to the limit of driving her places. Not too many freaks owned a car in Decembersville.
     "Little girl, help Zero with his seat belt. I'm taking you both Downtown to shop a little."
     "Shop?" Sophia asked as she helped Zero with the seat belt.
     "He's taking us Downtown to buy you a disguise and anything else you'll need to be safe here," Zero said to her.
The car turned on and it went sliding into the snowy street. It did not direct any attention from the civilians for that car was pretty common (at least to them). Zero told Sophia to try and not look out the window in case anybody recognized her from the wanted posters. He also told her to stay close when Downtown because it was the most dangerous part of the entire city. It was at its center and Sophia stared at the front window. She saw them driving towards a large, gothic, almost old-looking metropolis what with the black, twisted skyscrapers of cobblestone and bluish castle-like structures. They were going to leave the Neighborhood and head Downtown.
Then she remembered something that kept her a bit curious the night before.
     "Zero," she whispered over to him in his ear. "Who is Chimabell? Why is Tin so scared of him?"
The ax-handed freak hesitated to her question and then gave in to answering quietly in hoped the driver would not hear.    "Did you look at his tongue? Well…you see…he used to bring up the sun around here."
Sophia's eyes widened, "Bring up…the sun?"
     "Yes he did, Sophia. His tongue is actually a pendulum. It's as long as a snake if he lets it drop out. A long time ago, he used to swing his tongue and hit it against the palms of his hands," he said. Sophia remembered how freezing his hands were the night before. There was metal on his palms. "It would make a beautiful sound…and then the sun would come up and brighten everything."
She imagined the scene. Then she quickly looked out the window at the sky and noticed there was no sun at all. Perhaps that is what made the mornings look so bleak and gray. Still interested, she whispered "Then what happened?"
     Zero let out a sigh and his eyes lurched, "Well…our mayor, Chimabell…uh…he hates the sun, you see. He…he brings down the rain and he did not take Tin's actions so lightly…so…he," Zero looked at the driver's seat and noticed the driver was not listening. "He…he locked up his family, turned them into Dolls, had him stay in the Chopping Place for a few days, and threatened him never to bring up the sun again or else he'd kill him. His confidence fell and he began to live in constant fear for many years to come."
          She didn't know how to react to this, so Sophia just shut up afterwards. After many minutes, they found themselves Downtown. God, did their car stand out. Downtown reminded Sophia of New York and London mashed up together with a whole glop of black and blue paint thrown on top. It sure was a lot bigger than the Neighborhood and a whole lot grittier what with all the graffiti, broken lamp posts, and dustiness. It was beautiful yet chaotic-looking. Many of the residents eyed the circus car with mischievous smiles and there were a whole bunch of gossip mongers.
     "Uhhh…Zeeerrrooooo….?" Pendulum Tin suddenly spoke up with intense nervousness. "M-m-m-mind l-looking at what's behind us? Zohmygod...zohmygod…"
Zero and Sophia exchanged a look. Zero took a little glance at the side mirror and saw what he feared: hooded police Dolls driving up from behind them on their metal cycles. Oh my god. Did they see her in there? Do they even KNOW she's in there?
     Zero let out a nervous giggle, "Oh, i-it's fine! Hehe! Y-you know what? I'm not even sure it's us they want to pull over!"
The lead cyclist let out a long, loud signal from his cycle; the signal to pull over. Sophia's heart started to pound again. She knew they were in trouble.
It didn't take Zero long to figure out that the lead Doll was in fact Tammy. They were all in BIG trouble.
The car ride was getting a bit bumpier for the driver was flinching in anxiety at the wheel. "Zohmygod! Zohmygod!" he hyperventilated.
     "Why!? What's happening!?" Sophia cried in worry. "Is someone following us!?"
The signal to pull over sounded again. Zero was worrying horrendously but tried not to show it, "L-look, don't panic! Let's just pull over somewhere…"
Tammy reached into his cloak.
     "…hide Sophia in the trunk with all the other stuff…"
Tammy began to pull out something.
     "…and then when they get close enough, all we'll have to do is run…"
Tammy aimed the sniper at the circus car.
     "…FOR OUR LIIIIIIIIVES!!"
BOOM!!
          A massive impact exploded right beside the circus car. Sophia let out a scream and Zero yelled at Tin who was freaking out and twitching violently, "DRIVE, TIN!! DRIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!"
Then the circus car shot through the street like a bullet! The pedestrians and residents taking up the area threw themselves off the street and ran into the alleyways and hid behind anything they could to avoid contact with the speeding car, swerving and turning sharply as if a crazy drunk was at the wheel.
Sophia was being throttled in her seat with her eyes squinted closed and screaming in fear; her hands were tight around her seat belt. Tammy shot again and caught one of the wheels, but the piano keys on the wheel reflected the bullet and it went soaring through a shop window, hitting a customer's mug of coffee.
           The customer was shocked then he ran out of the little shop to see all the commotion. He thought he just saw a large yellow car spin around a corner followed by a bunch of Dolls. Knowing what he saw was not a delusion, he tightened his spiked dog collar, made a wide smile of excitement, took out his switchblade and ran out of the little bakery and into the darkness of an alleyway.  
          Meanwhile, down Bedlam Street, the car was swerving and spinning out of control. Tin didn't even know where he was going anymore! Sophia was still screaming and Zero was trying to calm down the driver by directing him through the street, no matter how impossible it seemed. "WATCH OUT! TAMMY'S COMING UP!!"
Tammy drove ahead of the other Dolls and he was now driving up the side of the circus vehicle with his weapon still in hand. He aimed it at the driver who let out a girly scream before making the sharpest turn he could, causing Tammy to shoot the back window instead. Some of the glass pieces almost grazed Sophia's face. The side of the car dragged along a shop's wall until it threw itself into another street. Zero yelled out at the driver, "IS THERE ANYTHING IN THIS CAR THAT COULD HELP!?"
     "ZOHMYGOD!! ZOHMYGOD!! I-I-I HAVE NO IDEA!! THIS IS NOT EVEN MY CAR!!"
Zero yelled back in extreme curiosity, "WHAT!? WHO'S CAR IS THIS!?"
     "THIS IS MY BOSS'S CAR, ZERO!!"
Aw, swell. Out of rush, Tin started clicking on random buttons and gizmos inside the car. One of them made it blare out loud, organ vibrating, joyously insane circus calliope music! It interrupted the driving by a grand load. The driver's wheel was sucked into the car front and out came headphones instead for each seat, "Please keep the music level at a certain level of slowness for so much noise may damage your hearing. Please keep the earphones clean and--" said a machine-like voice coming from the car stereos.
     "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!! WHAT HAPPENED!!? WHAT DID I DO!!?" Tin screamed as the driving wheel disappeared and the car kept spinning and shooting down the lane at intense speed with Tammy still trying to shoot at them along with the other Dolls. Zero was yelling even louder, "WHERE'S THE WHEEL!!? GET THE WHEEL BACK!!"
     "IDON'TKNOWWHATTODOANYMOREZOHMYGODWEAREALLGOINGTODIEHEREANDWEARESOSCREWED!!" the circus freak worryingly screamed highly. Then, next thing they knew, they were all screaming and spinning out of control.
Everything was like an insane blur. The car was hitting up against things and being skinned against buildings. Tammy was still trying to shoot the car in hopes of stopping it from the side, but he almost got hit himself. So then Tammy jumped from his cycle high up onto the top of a random building, leaving fate to the victims.
          "ALLEYWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!" Zero screamed out as the car was going head first into a deep, dark alleyway. They all screamed even louder seeing that there was a person standing in the middle of the alley, right before the car. The person was smiling and standing uniquely still as the car went into the alley and started heading towards him, ready to crush his body. "WATCH OOOOOUUUUUUUTTTTTTTT!!"
But the person didn't move at all. The circus car came in so close and so fast and so ready to kill.
Closer.
Then closer…
THEN CLOSER!!
          The seemingly suicidal stranger suddenly lifted his leg up and kicked forward, making contact with the speeding car going over a hundred miles and hour…and stopping it dead in its tracks. The back of the car lifted up immensely and came crashing back down. It finally stopped. The driver and his two passengers were expressing faces of extreme, stunning shock. They were all breathing slowly and silently while staring into nothingness with their eyes wide open as well as their mouths. The stranger, with his foot still against the front of the car, was smiling happily and he expressed no worry but lazy excitement. Everything was so silent now.
Zero's gaze slowly went from nothingness down to their strange savior. For some reason, his expression didn't really say "Thank you for saving our lives". It was an expression saying "Oh, out of all the people".
His mouth let out a few words that broke the silence, "Me…Mellon!"
The stranger's mouth curled into a more evil grin, "Helloooooo, Z."