BAM! Chapter 3!
CHAPTER THREE
A Close Save
Luigi woke up. He was still sitting underneath the shady tree, a book opened on his chest. He stood up and stretched, but something caught his attention. He sniffed the air, and he smelled something out of the ordinary.
It was smoke.
He looked up, and a dark black mess of it was shifting slowly over his home.
Instinctively, he darted out from under the tree, following the same dirt path that his brother did when he left for the princess's castle...
Three hours ago.
"No..."
The castle soon came into view, but it was not at all what he wished to see.
The structure had been destroyed. Part of the front wall had collapsed, and there was a raging fire coming up from the rubble. Luigi's eyes darted towards Toadtown, and it, too was in ruins. He ran at a breakneck pace until he reached the entrance to the small town and fell to his knees, gasping for air.
Bodies littered the street, the gate that separated the town from the castle had been ripped to pieces, and homes and shops had been mutilated. Horrified, he stepped in front of the castle.
*Mario can't be in there...*
He didn't want to take any chances.
The tall, slender man burst through the flame and found himself in the foyer...or what was left of it. He began to run, but thick black smoke obscured his vision and he tripped over a large bit of the ceiling. He felt many sharp objects enter his left arm, and he screamed...more out of shock than pain. He reached for his injured limb and felt it:
There was glass sticking out of it.
*The chandelier*, he thought. *It must have shattered when...something...came barging in here*.
With a grimace, he pulled the razor-sharp bits of glass from his arm and continued up a broken staircase. To his left was a large pile of rocks that had removed from the walls. He knew there was a hallway in that direction, but there was no way he was going down there anytime soon. So he continued to his right. There was a hallway like the one to his left, but this one wasn't blocked off. He headed down it, barging in every room, hoping only to find someone...anyone...
Unfortunatley finding nobody, he headed down another hallway that connected off of the one he was in, and there was only one door on the hall. He entered it, and he found himself in a bedroom. As far as he could see it was devoid of people...
"Help!" an unfamillliar voice called out. It was a female.
"Where are you?" Luigi shouted. "Where are you?"
"Under the bed!" Luigi ran over to the large king-sized thing and looked under it. Sure enough, there was a small mushroom woman tucked under it. She had deep brown hair that fell down to her shoulders, and her eyes were a watery green. Luigi reached for her and pulled her out.
"I'm getting you out of here!" he led her downstairs and to his horror, a large bit of what was left of the foyer ceiling had fallen and blocked the door that would lead the two to safety. Luigi cursed silently, and turned to the woman.
"What do we do?"
"I-I don't k-know..." her voice trailed off. Luigi studied her face, and she looked to be in her early teens. Tears rolled down her cheeks, and she looked around. If they didn't get out soon, they would surely suffocate or burn alive.
There was a silence.
"Find a way out, my brother is still in here!" Luigi said at long last. He bolted back up the stairs, but stopped halfway.
*This isn't right*.
He turned around and the girl was still rooted to the spot with a look of true horror on her face. Motioning for her to follow, he reached the top of the stairs and stared at the pile of rubble. "We have to find a way to get past this!" he shouted over the roaring flame.
"How do you know he's behind there?" she hollered back.
"I'm sure of it. Got any ideas on how we're going to get over this wall?" Luigi looked at the girl. He saw her examining it, and though the thick black smoke, he saw her face light up.
"Up there! The rubble doesn't reach the ceiling!" she jumped up, and Luigi saw that she was right. "I want you to lift me over it!"
"Then how am I-"
"Just do it!"
"Listen-"
"Do you want to die in here?" her voice was suddenly serious.
"I-well...no. Here." He lifted her up, and with a bit of struggle, she was over the pile.
"Can you hear me?" she shouted.
"Yeah! Is...is Mario okay?"
"He's unconsious..."
"Just tell me how to get over there and I'll-"
"Get yourself out! I can deal with this! I know plenty of secret exits to this place..."
"But...how?" Luigi coughed. He couldn't last much longer.
"The dining room! GO!"
Luigi looked around, and headed down the stairs. He landed hard on his feet as he jumped the last seven steps. He turned to his left, and there was a large door that he couldn't believe he missed at the entrance. He passed through it and was led into a massive room. Upturned tables, chairs, and other broken items were scattered on the ground.
His sight began to grow dim, and Luigi began to run accross the room, for there was a massive, broken window at the very end. He was slowly losing consiousness as he ran, but the window was so close...
*No, not now!* He fought to stay awake. The window was so close now, and he reached it only just in time. His eyes were on fire as he fell a ten foot drop and landed on his wrist. He heard it break, and he shouted out in pain. Glancing at it, he noticed it was sticking out at a very odd angle. It was hard to get up, being barely consious, having a broken wrist, and a badly cut up arm. He slowly rose from the ground and looked for the woman and Mario, but there was no sign of them.
He looked helplessly around for someone...something to help him.
"Help!" he shouted weakly. He hobbled around to the east side of the castle, where he saw a small figure walk straight through the solid castle wall. It was dragging another, larger being with it. Luigi swayed on his feet and coughed some more.
"Mario..." the words barely left his mouth before he stopped fighting and let unconsiousness take over...
