Chapter 95: Escape
Yu Sheng ducked just in time. A “plastic” baton whooshed past his cheek and struck the wall behind him, scattering bright sparks and ringing like metal against stone. He glared over his shoulder at Little Red Riding Hood, who was busy guiding a pack of shadowy wolves into battle. “Didn’t you say these things wouldn’t attack us?” he shouted, pressing his back against the cool wall.
Little Red Riding Hood struggled to hold her ground in the far corner of the exhibition hall, her wolves snarling and snapping at the plastic guards. She shouted back, “I don’t know what went wrong! We followed every single rule of the museum! Normally, these guards shouldn’t even show up!”
Yu Sheng clenched his teeth. The guard that had swung at him now lay pinned to the floor, thanks to a quick twist of Yu Sheng’s arm. He’d discovered something crucial: destroying these mannequins too completely would only make them rebuild themselves faster. Better to just break an arm or a leg—then they wouldn’t trigger their strange self-repair. So he dislocated the guard’s arm, wincing at the plastic crack, but refrained from ripping its head off.
In the middle of this chaos, Yu Sheng heard more footsteps echo from the corridor at the far end of the hall. A clumsy crowd of figures began to stumble out, one after another, as if an endless line of these plastic guards were being conjured from thin air.
Nearby, Irene had just trapped two oncoming plastic guards in her spider-silk threads, their smooth bodies straining against the black, sticky strands. She caught her breath and turned toward the corridor. When she saw more of the plastic figures pouring through, she groaned, “Oh, come on—more?! Are these things infinite?!”
Little Red Riding Hood, straining to keep her wolves under control, answered quickly, “They might as well be! They’ll keep coming until the night show ends, or until all the ‘actors’—that’s us—are gone. The only other way is to escape their line of sight. If we hide from them, the museum won’t send more. But as long as they can see us, they just keep appearing!”
Yu Sheng’s eyes darted around, searching desperately for a way out. The main doors were blocked. Mannequins clogged every entrance. Not a single blind spot or opening offered a safe exit. They couldn’t linger here much longer or they’d be overwhelmed.
“Retreat!” Yu Sheng barked, his voice cutting through the din. “We have to find a place without guards!” He sprinted toward Little Red Riding Hood and her wolves, determination burning in his eyes. “Everyone, follow me—Foxy, clear a path and block that corridor!”
Foxy, standing with her glimmering silver tails spread wide, nodded sharply. She conjured up eerie foxfire, blueish flames flickering and spinning through the air. The flames danced over several plastic guards, melting their faces and twisting their limbs into useless shapes. Then, with a grin, Foxy whipped around, and two of her silver tails detached themselves, shooting forward like gleaming missiles.