Please enjoy.
STRESS
CHAPTER THREE
Skipper threw his head back and forth, some drool flying from his beak and sweat soaking his feathers. He felt pain in his temples and the base of his cerebral cortex. The shocks were burning through his brain, causing him to twitch, sweat and drool. His feet kicked and his flippers gripped the chair arms and relaxed and gripped again.
Finally Blowhole cut off the shocks and removed the wires from his body. He motioned for one of the crabs to take him to the next room and had one of his lobsters bring him a fish. Skipper just lay limp as he was dragged into the next room. And the cycle started again.
Hours later. Skipper woke up. He was in a huge white room, on the floor in front of a bed… His eyes were bloodshot. He felt something different in his mind… and for some reason… his friends' faces were flashing through his mind, almost in his eyes. And though it wasn't an unpleasant sight, it wouldn't fade. He kept looking around but it was etched in his eyes. And it looked like some slideshow and there was… a spider… and a raven's… eye and… and… He screamed and threw himself on the bed, smashing his head against the wall. Needles… needles everywhere… piercing his flesh and injecting their fluids into his body.
"Oh God, Blowhole! What've you done to me?" He screamed so loud his throat was on fire and the muscles strained. Tears were running down his face, his eyes burned and his body shook.
"Are we awake, Skipper?" Blowhole's voice laughed from no where. "Well are you ready?"
"Leave me alone Blowhole1 For the love of God! Please! I'll do any-anything." He was choking and gasping for air.
"Anything?" Blowhole's voice echoed.
"Yes, just stop!" Skipper screamed.
"Would you… kill everyone in the zoo?"
"Yes! Yes! Anything to stop this!"
Skipper awoke, his throat burning and aching, his head was throbbing and his body was aching as well. He was lying in the same bed. It was soaked in sweat. And he could remember vaguely what had just happened. Had he just promised to kill his friends? Two lobsters came through the door. Skipper remembered when Blowhole's whole army had been composed of lobsters but he had changed to crabs as the muscle and lobsters as his private bodyguards. They grabbed him and dragged him out. They dropped him in a chair in another room and it began…
A spider.
Marlene.
A raven's eye.
Private.
A splatter of blood.
A needle.
Kowalski.
A raven's eye.
Rico.
A splatter of blood.
Julien.
A needle.
Marlene.
A splatter of blood.
Private.
A spider.
Kowalski.
A needle.
Rico.
A raven's eye.
Julien.
A needle.
Marlene.
A splatter of blood.
Private.
A spider.
Kowalski.
A raven's eye.
Rico.
A needle.
Julien.
This pattern flashed fifteen times before Skipper's wide eyes. He threw his head from side-to-side. Sweat flew from his feathers. He kept screaming and screaming, even after it finished. And all through the slideshow, he heard… bells twelve every few seconds. And once the slideshow finished and the lights came on… his head froze. His eyes dilated. There were five figures there. As his blurry vision could tell, it was Marlene, Private, Kowalski, Rico, and Julien. The bands released from his flippers and he attacked the figures savagely, ripping them apart.
Blowhole stood on his scooter behind a one-way glass screen and watched Skipper scream and attack, finishing by dropping to the floor and vomiting violently, and once done retching he lay there, sobbing and spitting. His mind was done. He was ready.