"It's the end of Club Penguin itself.
Not even the EPF can save the island now."

It started out as any normal day. I woke up, walked my puffle, had my morning coffee whilst in the Coffee Shop. Penguins conversed all around me, some chatting more louder than others, while some read last week's newspaper, silent as a ninja's shadow. I leaned further into the soft, red sofa of the shop, watching as a penguin waved their flippers erratically around about some penguin's puffle somehow landing in their cup of coffee. With all the chatting, I could hardly hear the penguin's rant.

The penguin sitting beside me to my right on the other sofa glanced up from reading his newspaper. He was green, with blonde hair and a blue G Billy bandana wrapped around his forehead. He wore black glasses followed by a big deal hoodie. A black shirt was underneath with matching colored shiny pants, and the sleeves were pulled up to his elbows. A feather necklace, silver watch, and slate untied sneakers completed his look. His laces were tied despite the name of them, though. Wouldn't want to trip frequently.

He continued to glance at me, clearly looking directly at me. It was about to get awkward until, finally, he lowered his newspaper and smirked. "You look a bit overwhelmed. It's busy for the mornin', isn't it?"

"Definitely. I'm sure there's a tuba vs propeller cap war outside now—I saw a group marking their turf before I came in." I chuckled, reminiscing memories of long ago. "Do you remember when this place only had the two sofas and table?"

"Ah, yes." He smiled. "The Coffee Shop and Pizza Parlor had alot of competition between eachother in those days. Not like it's gotten any different these days, though." He laughed.

"What's your name?" I reached out my flipper to shake.

"Space Wolff. And yours?" He asked, shaking my flipper.

"KayRaine. Call me Kay." I smiled.

"Alright, Kay." He replied and went back to his newspaper. I opened my mouth to speak when just then, the text jingle of my phone went off. Seeing as the conversation seemed to have taken a pause, I pulled it out of my pocket and looked at it. The text was blank, and the sender was listed as 'Anonymous'. What..? I realized then it was a secret text message. Those appeared like that when your spy phone was in regular, civilian phone mode.

I stood up, and Space Wolff glanced at me again. I pointed to my phone and explained. "I have to take this." He nodded and I waddled away, heading upstairs where I knew it was quieter. I sat down on the sofa facing the wall and did a quick scan around me. It was quiet, like I predicted, with only two other penguins with me. They were playing Mancala and were far too busy to notice my phone transform into the spy phone with the press of a button.

March 29
The Director
Agents— head to the Command Room with haste. We have an urgent situation at our flippers.

I blinked. What's going on? I wondered. The Director didn't usually send out texts—and when she did, they were usually about something serious. We hadn't had anything happen for awhile. Had Herbert decided to act out another evil scheme again? I tucked the phone back into my pocket and glanced at the penguins nearby. They were still engrossed in their game of Mancala.

I waddled downstairs and glanced at the spot where I met Space Wolff. He wasn't there anymore. I headed outside, and sure enough, there was a tubas vs propeller caps war going on. Yellow penguins with tubas and multi-colored penguins with red propeller caps chanted and engulfed the town space, each trying to claim the town as their turf by having the biggest army.

"Excuse me," I said as I tried to push past a tuba player. The penguin turned to face me and blew their tuba right in my ear. "Join us!"

My ears ringing now, I cast them a quick glare before heading on, waddling to my motorcycle parked nearby. I waddled it out to the Dock before hopping on, the Town too over-crowded to ride without running some innocent penguin or puffle over.

I parked outside the Everyday Phoning Facility and headed inside, the workers that weren't operating a phone line glancing at me. I knew they were agents—a civilian worker would get too suspicious with how many penguins came by and disappeared without using the phone or heading out the door where they came from.

Checking my surroundings again, I showed my phone—spy mode—to the phone sign, secretly the Elite Penguin Force logo. The bushes separated and the drawers reached out in the form of steps, and I stepped into the teleporter, the green shade traveling over my body as I was sent to the Command Room in under sixty seconds.

The Command Room was quiet and had an unusual eerie feeling. I looked around the room for the cause, and spotted none other than the Director standing beside the table. Gary the Gadget Guy, Puffle Handler, Jet Pack Guy, Rookie, and Dot The Disguise Gal were all seated, the Director's and Gary's faces looking grim.

I waddled over and sat down in the remaining chair. Around me, more agents began to gather, taking their seats wherever possible or just standing in hearing range. I spotted an agent with blonde hair and black sunglasses staring down at the floor before two other agents caught my attention by the jail cell.

The two agents opened the cell, escorting the criminals to the door without even cuffing them for safety precautions. One of them had been in there for only a day, arrested for trying to shoplift from the mall, so it was way too soon to be letting him walk free. I glanced over to the Director who paid no notice to them. Frowning, I turned to Rookie, who was sitting beside me. "What is going on?"

"I have no idea." Rookie replied, looking worried. And I couldn't blame him. The Director was here, criminals were being let free prematurely for unknown reasons, and agents were crowding all over the place. Was every EPF agent sent to this meeting? There wouldn't be enough room for all of us in here.

Out of my peripheral vision, I even saw a senior agent from the Penguin Secret Agency days setting up a camera nearby, directing it towards the meeting table to record, the live button blinking red. Again, the Director gave him no notice, giving me the impression this was allowed, too. Had the Director lost her mind? This went against all agent protocol!

As if to answer my frantic thoughts, the Director tapped the table with her pen to gather attention. It wasn't even loud—with the unsettling silence, everyone could hear her from all across the room.

"Agents, it is with my most sincerest—"

Jet Pack Guy shot his flipper up faster than one of Gamma Gal's rays.

"Yes, Jet Pack Guy?"

"Has Agent Chip received your permission to record this meeting? It goes against agent protocol to record any agent-related operations."

"Yes, he has." The Director replied, her voice strained. She did not sound irritated—rather, her voice sounded… resigned. Vulnerable and defeated, even, and that scared me.

"Agents were also releasing criminals, one of which had been arrested only yesterday. Had they received your permission as well?"

"Yes. Anything that would usually go against agent protocol has been given my permission and direction to transpire. Any further questions, agent?"

"No, thank you. Please carry on."

The Director nodded, and shifted her weight to stand straighter. "Agents, it is with my most sincerest… with my most regret, to be telling any of you this, that…" She froze. Her brows furrowed together like she was concentrating hard, trying to find the right words to say. The clock ticked and nothing was said.

Gary stood up from his chair, waddling towards the Director. He put a comforting flipper on her shoulder before facing us. "What the Director is trying to say is… we have discovered something, something so terrible that none of our defenses could ever hope to have prepared for. It is not Herbert P. Bear," His eyes caught the attention of Rookie, who was about to raise his flipper to ask. "nor any of the villains we have ever fought before."

The Director patted his flipper to tell him she was okay now, and Gary returned to his seat while she composed herself again. "Yes, thank you, Gary." She turned to the TV and turned it on with the click of the remote. We were greeted with a view of the ocean, the Lighthouse in the far distance, and four poles in the formation of a square holding up police tape above the water.

"Two days ago a body was found adrift by a surfer. The penguin had been reported missing five hours prior after their friend noted they had not returned," Her face got even more grim. "though since it had not been twenty-four hours or over, the police did not investigate. Not until the body was found."

The screen switched to a pink penguin lying on an operation table.

"Medical Examiners could not find a cause of death. The penguin had not drowned, been attacked, poisoned, or anything else. Though the penguin was found with a surf board, so that concludes how they got there."

The screen was turned off and the Director turned back to us.

"After they couldn't find an answer, Gary was called to investigate. He, too, could not find an answer until he ran across strange chemicals in the air for another of his experiments. The penguin had inhaled a toxin strongest in that area, a toxin that was air-borne…"

My breathing caught.

"and has already infected us all." Everyone was silent as we took this information in. There was an air-borne toxin spreading, and we had inhaled it… we were breathing in it now… and we were infected.

"With what, exactly? The symptoms?" Frankie, one of the members of the Penguin Band and among our newest recruits, asked.

"We don't know." Gary replied this time. "It would have gone completely undetectable if I had not run into it. There are no signs, no symptoms. Illness doesn't even occur, though the consequence i—is…" His voice cracked. We all knew the answer.

It felt like ice had replaced the blood in my veins. I felt so cold, my entire spine tingling as shivers ran up it, and I could hardly breathe. Was I even breathing at all? I couldn't tell anymore.

I heard the glug of the water cooler nearby, so clearly and loudly that it felt like a knife stabbing into my eardrums.

"Is... is there a cure?" Dot asked, her flippers shaking.

Gary looked at her, and took off his glasses. "No."

It went silent again as everyone digested this. My heart stammered to the beat of drums against my chest, my stomach twisting in on itself in a sickening manner. I felt like I was going to throw up.

Jet Pack Guy had been the only one not to move an inch since, his flippers holding his beak up as he stared ahead into nothingness. His lips barely moving, he murmured: "How long do we have left?"

The Director sucked in a breath. "We don't. Reports have been coming in like a stampede of puffles since the first discovery, and all the bodies have the same cause of death. We've calculated that by… by midnight, we will all share the same fate."

We were all going to die.

Emptiness entered the very core of my being. No matter how many times I repeated that in my head, I couldn't understand it. Like a foreign language, I could not make sense of it. I shook my head in disbelief. How could this happen?

As I ran the whole conversation through my head, trying to make sense of any of it, I factored in on one small detail. The first body was found two days ago. Two days they had to investigate this, and they were just telling us now? Rage overtook me, my temperate rising back to normal as my face flushed with anger. I shot up from my seat and pointed a flipper accusingly at the Director.

"It's been two days since you discovered this and you're only telling us about it now?" I snapped. "You should have told us this sooner, so we could have all looked for a cure! We've wasted time!"

"We don't even know where the source is from, KayRaine."

"I don't care! We could have done something by now! We wouldn't all have to die…" I broke off and slumped back down to my seat, the rage that controlled me fading away as soon as it came.

The Director sighed. "I'm so sorry, but there is nothing we can do. We don't have enough time left to find a cure, and even if we did, it would take time since the toxin is air-borne…"

I choked back a sob.

As minutes passed and no one said any more, the Director's voice became stern again, the command of a leader. "Agents, it has been my honor to be your director. We have saved the island more times than we can count from many forms of evil, and I'm proud of you all. Though this battle is one we cannot win…" She paused, reconsidering. "As my last order as your Director, you all will not repeat a single word of this meeting to the public. You will act like nothing is wrong and go about your normal routines." She stared hard at us all, her voice turning grave. "And despite this… keep the island as safe as you can. Make this last day of your lives something to be worthwhile."

How can you make something worthwhile when you won't live long enough to even remember it?

Penguins lifted up from their seats and began to shuffle out the door. I stood up and followed suit, glancing behind my shoulder. Jet Pack Guy was still as stone, even when Dot tried to stir him. Rookie had run to the Direc—no, Aunt Arctic, and wrapped his arms around her, tears rolling down his face while Gary tried to comfort him. Puffle Handler was nowhere to be seen.

As I stepped out of the teleporter, I looked at the workers. All their faces were grim, and I finally understood what the camera was for during the meeting. They were recording so others who couldn't make it could hear the devastating news. We were all going to die by midnight.

I didn't go to my motorcycle. Instead I waddled aimlessly out the door, drifting through the crowd of penguins. I gazed at their happy faces as they chatted, built snow penguins, and threw snowballs at eachother. Totally in bliss like it was just another normal, fantastic day, with no weight of the end of the world on their shoulders.

And they would all be gone by midnight. Gone with their smiles, their buddies, their snowballs. Their lives. No one will wake up tomorrow, look at the sun and smile. No one will make another snow penguin or dance to music. The shops will stay closed, the catalogs will stay the same. Forever never moving forward.

And here we were, the agents—penguins—who knew of the disaster. Yet we could do nothing to save them, not even one life. Not one.

I don't know how long I drifted like that, watching everyone do as they pleased without a care in the world, until I was suddenly hit with the rich perfume of pizza. I had waddled into the Pizza Parlor.

I sat down at one of the tables. The Penguin Band was playing, but only Frankie was singing with his heart and soul. Playing for the last time. A waiter waddled over and I made my order, not even sure if I was hungry or not. I stared at the doors, watching penguins waddle in and out either alone or with their buddies. Sometimes a puffle.

"Here you go, ma'am." The waiter told me, handing down a fish pizza. I mumbled my thanks as I began to eat, my thoughts rolling through my head numbly. There wouldn't be any more pizza tomorrow, either…

My stomach twisted again and I immediately stopped eating. I left the money and a tip on the table and hurried out the door, not bothering to wait for them to come by and ask if I wanted the rest to go. At this rate, I wouldn't be able to digest anything more.

I waddled to the Coffee Shop and looked around. The place was louder than ever, nearly everyone holding newspapers, though I could hardly hear their voices. Until someone said the only thing that could have brought me back to reality. The Elite Penguin Force.

I snapped my head to my right to the penguin who said it. Without thinking, I snatched their newspaper right out of their flippers and read the front page. There, word-by-word, was all the information previously classified to all but the EPF for all the public to see, leaked by none other than Aunt Arctic herself. All but the air-borne toxin, which was better off to remain unknown to the civilians.

I don't know what hit me then, but it was all perfectly clear. This was really happening. It was the last day for Club Penguin, so the EPF had been revealed, and now every penguin knew about the secret agency that had protected them for years. Herbert would get a real kick out of this for sure.

"Hey, are you gonna give me back my paper now?" The penguin I had took the newspaper from barked at me. I nodded and handed them back their paper. "Sorry." I waddled out the door and looked at the sun. I won't live long enough to remember back and smile, if there had been no toxin, but I would make my last day worthwhile.

And so I did. I went to every single building and played all the games, read all the books in the library, and danced like I never had before. I chatted to my buddies, I threw snowballs at the Snow Fort, and I even joined that tuba vs propeller caps war. I did everything I could have possible ever done in Club Penguin.

And now I sat on the ice berg, gazing at the island that was my home while the sunset cast it in an orange glow.

"Hey."

I twisted around to look behind me. Space Wolff stood there, flippers in his pockets, his face solemn.

"Hi." I responded back quietly, turning back around. He waddled over and sat beside me, looking ahead to the island. "I saw you freak out at the meeting today." So that was him I saw there.

"It's ridiculous!" I snapped. "I know it's not enough time, two days is never enough time, but we could have done something."

"Sometimes that's just the way things are."

I glared at him. "How are you so accepting of this?"

He shrugged. "I'm not. I don't want to die just as much as you do. But everything has to end sometime, whether we like it or not. And this time it's just our turn to go."

I sighed and closed my eyes as the sun's glaring rays attacked my eyelids before it slipped past the mountains. "It's not fair."

"I know."

We sat like that in silence for a long time, watching as twilight turned into night, the stars coming out all across the sky. I stood up and headed for the rowboats parked beside the ice berg to travel back and forth from the island.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Space Wolff asked.

"What?" I turned back towards him, confused.

"It's the end of the world. Some penguins wouldn't want to spend it alone, so do you want me to come with you?"

I blinked, thinking about it for a moment. "No, thank you. Do… you not want to be alone?" I asked awkwardly.

He gave me the ghost of a smile. "Nah, but I've got friends. So I'll be okay."

"Alright… it was nice to know you, Space Wolff." I replied, and I couldn't hold back a sob. This really couldn't be the end of it all, could it? Yet it was.

"You too, Kay." Space Wolff replied to me, and turned back to face the island. I took a rowboat back to shore and waddled home to my igloo, my puffles greeting me as I opened the door. My tears had dried and stained my face even though it felt like I could cry forever.

My puffles gathered around me, their eyes full of concern. I hugged them all at once, spending the last remaining hours with them until the final hour where I retreated to my bed. But I could not sleep.

Instead I stared at the ceiling. Tomorrow everything would be gone. I thought about my accomplishments. I had been there the first time it rained, I helped discover the brown puffle, and I even met all the mascots, some of them on my buddies list. Yet there was still so much I wanted to do but didn't have any time left for.

I glanced down at my puffles, most of them sleeping. What will happen to my puffles? Were they infected, too? Who will care for them? I got up and grabbed the two biggest bowls I had, filling one with water and the other with an entire bag of Puffle O's.

I then waddled over to my front door, opening it wide. I breathed in as a soft, cold breeze flowed over my face. I grabbed a plant pot and shoved it infront of the door so wind wouldn't close it. If my puffles somehow lived through this, at least they wouldn't be stuck indoors.

A stray thought crossed my mind and I wondered about Rockhopper. Where was he now, and was he infected, too? If he wasn't, then he would come back whenever to discover us all without the breath of life. Then he would be exposed to the toxin, and face the same fate as the rest of us. I shivered.

Waddling back to my bed, I settled in and looked at the clock. One minute to midnight. I closed my eyes and breathed in one last, big gulp of air, knowing this would be the last time I would close or open my eyes ever again. The final moments to live my existence.

I let the darkness consume me as the clock struck midnight.

Author's Note: It's been a long while since I've written anything, and this has to be my darkest fic yet! Maybe... anyway, this was also my first time writing in first person, so I hoped you liked it. Please review, and any constructive criticism is appreciated!