Detonation, Part 1

What follows is the events of last night.

Dumas shook us all awake in the middle of the night.

“We’ve gotta go,” he hissed.  “They’re coming.”

I blinked, still half asleep.  “I thought you were on their side.”

“I am.  Was.  Look, do you want to argue this, or do you want to keep these kids safe?”

We roused Ryan and Jenny.  Dumas wanted to leave Silent Bob, but I refused to go without him.  “If you’re going against these people,” I told him, “you’re going to want his help.”

He conceded that point, agreeing that we needed his help to at least get away.  “We should ditch him as soon as possible,” he said.  “I think he’s dangerous.”  I was the one to agree at that point.  Like Last had said, he was a time bomb ready to go off. 

The five of us took off for the outskirts of Phoenix.  Dumas knew that he’d have to go on the run after this.  Once we ditched Silent Bob, the four of us would be traveling together for at least a bit more, maybe even making the arrangement permanent, or at least as permanent as we could.

Things went pretty well for a bit.  Of course, it didn’t go well for long.  As we were on the move, eight proxies stepped out of the shadows and assembled ahead of us.  Some had pistols, the rest had knives.  We slowed, and I glanced at Bob.  His eyes had widened and he looked like he was about to charge them.

“Don’t,” I said.  “You can’t take them all at once.”

“You guys need to run,” Dumas said quietly.  “I’ll try to talk to them.  Come up with some excuse about why I bolted and how it’s for the mission.  It probably won’t work too well, but it’ll give you a head start.  Just…get them away from Silent Bob, in case anything happens.”

I nodded and grabbed Jenny and Ryan and took off.  We had been moving at a fairly brisk pace before, but now we were flat-out sprinting.  We went maybe a mile before we finally slowed to catch our breaths.  We were in an empty lot behind a fairly big store.  No one around.  We were alone and helpless, and by the time I noticed it, it was already too late.

I felt a wind behind me, similar to the one I felt when I had fought Reaper and he opened the Path of Black Leaves.  I turned around to see what had happened.

There, standing less than 50 feet away, was the Slender Man.