Chapter 4
Dissection Day
It was Friday, the last day of Zim's detentions with Ms. Bitters. Zim and Dib had taken to walking to school together over the past week. Partly because they figured they had a better chance of not being attacked by Tak if they were together and partly because…Dib could barley bring himself to think it…they were almost…friends? At the very least they were allies. That was a thought Dib was much more comfortable with. At least for now.
They walked into class side by side. The desks were pushed into two groups of four rows one group on either side of the room. The children were seated in pairs, two pairs per row. Dib groaned. "Dissection day." Zim looked at him with some sort of sick interest. "Dissection?" He said it like a question. "Of what?" He cocked his head as they sat down in the back row closest to the window. "Frogs. Ms. Bitters mentioned it on Wednesday. Don't you remember?" Zim hadn't really been paying attention in school ever since Tak attacked them in his base.
Ms. Bitters had drawn a diagram of a frog on the black board with the right way to do an incision. She began passing out the frogs from a metal bucket. "Put on your goggles." She directed. There were three boxes on the table in front of Dib. One had instruments for the dissection; the other two had goggles in them. Dib opened the left-most box and pulled them on over his normal glasses. Zim copied him. His purple eyes would have looked almost funny behind the clear plastic if Dib hadn't felt so nauseous. He was so nervous. He couldn't stand the thought of gore and blood, much less be exposed to it. He helped Zim pin the frog to the tray, but refused to do anything further. Not that Zim cared, that meant he could do the dissection on his own.
Dib watched Zim make the incision in the first layer of skin. He felt sick. As Zim lowered the scalpel through the pale skin underneath, Dib's vision began to swim. He didn't want to see the rest, but couldn't look away. He forced himself to close his eyes. The feeling passed. He sighed a little. He felt Zim's gaze on him. "What's wrong, Dib?" Was he mocking him? He almost sounded sincere, but his voice sounded mostly smug. Dib shook his head. He decided to treat it as though Zim were being sincere. "I'm okay. You- You go ahead and finish." He said. "Woah!" Yelled some kid just in front of him. Dib automatically opened his eyes just in time to see the esophagus of his own frog fill with air for the last time and inflate like a balloon. He saw Zim's face twist into a sort of disturbing grin then Dib's eyes rolled back into his head. The last thing he heard was Zim begin a sentence. "Dib" And then nothing.
"Dib are you…" Zim never finished his sentence. He watched the human flop backwards in his chair and pass out. The chair tipped up on two legs and Dib landed hard on the ground. His unconscious body lay spread on the floor with his legs still over his chair. "Ms. Bitters!" Some child called. Zim watched silently as some human in a white coat. The nurse? Came and took Dib out of the room. "Continue you're work, Children!" Ms. Bitters announced.
Dib woke up in the nurse's office. He sat up. He was alone in the white room lying on a cot. Suddenly the door opened. "Oh! You're awake!" The nurse sounded happily surprised. "Uh, Yeah." Said Dib. "How long…" He didn't finish his question. "About three hours." The nurse told him. Dib blinked in surprise. He couldn't remember the last time he had been passed out for so long. "Its lunch time now, but I wouldn't recommend eating for a while." She said and walked out. She paused just before she left. "Oh, you can go now." She said. Dib jumped off the cot and left the office.
Dib walked down the hallway unsteadily. He wondered if Zim would care that he was awake. Then suddenly Torque and his friends came around the corner laughing and shoving each other. "Neanderthals." Muttered Dib, rolling his eyes as they walked past. "What was that loser?" Torque snapped."Leave me alone, Torque." Dib grumbled. "Hey worm! Can't even keep conscious around a little gore, huh?" Taunted Torque's friend. "Hey, yeah! I wonder if he'll do as well in a toilet!" Torque smirked when Dib shrank back against the wall. "Swirly! Swirly! SWIRLY!" Chanted Torque's friends behind him. "Aw, come on Torque!" Dib secretly hoped something would happen to distract the bullies. Like Zim coming around the corner and challenging Torque. Or the principal would come through the door. Or even Gaz might be right behind him and feeling nice today. But no such miracle happened and Dib was dragged off against his will to the boys room.
Dib screamed as he was dunked head-first into the toilet and it was flushed. Dib bit his lip to keep himself from screeching in pain as his scythe hair was sucked down the tubes and tore at his scalp. Torque's friends shoved him back in such an awkward position that he couldn't even put his feet on the floor. When the water settled it was up to his eyebrows. His glasses had been swept off his face and were drifting in front of him. He had eventually stopped kicking his legs and struggling after about ten minutes.
Dib had been upside down in the smelly water for about a quarter of an hour before he finally felt someone pulling his legs back to the ground. Someone grabbed his collar. Dib expected to see the principal or a teacher judging from the angle he was being pulled at. But he looked up to see Zim retracting his Pak legs. He managed a weak smile at the invader. "Thanks." He mumbled. Zim smirked but didn't say anything. He simply shoved Dib in the direction of the sinks. He took some paper towels and wrung out his hair scythe and wiped his face."You're welcome, Dib." Zim said from behind him. Dib turned around. Zim was leaning against the stall just beyond the angle of the mirror. Dib's glasses were dangling from one finger. He handed them to Dib. "Er, thanks." He muttered awkwardly. He put them on and blinked. Hi eyes had more or less adjusted to being without them for a while. Dib could feel himself blush a little. He was embarrassed to have needed Zim to come get him. Dib ran some water and began washing his hair. He managed to rinse it and scrub a little soap into it, so at least it didn't smell like toilet water anymore. He even managed to dry it in a position more or less like his scythe. All the while Zim watched silently leaning against the toilet stall smirking. When the bell rang Dib straightened up from washing his glasses. "That'll have to do." He sighed. He would have to do a more thorough job at home. "Come on." Zim was already at the door. Surprisingly, he was waiting for Dib.
Dib sat down in his desk. Someone had rearranged the desks back to normal. The class filed in. When the bell rang again for class to begin, Ms. Bitters got up and wrote on the board 'Paranormal Studies'. Dib grinned. Maybe this day would turn around. "Class, for reasons unknown to me, the school board insists we must do something 'about our community'. I want you to team up with a partner and find something "strange" about our town. Some sort of rumor. Research it and investigate it. You're presentations are due next Monday." She said and gloomily slumped back into her chair. The room burst into commotion. Children ran around the room trying to find a partner.
Dib glanced across the room at Zim. He was met by the alien's gaze. Dib sighed and stood up. He picked up his chair and clumsily carried in front of the class across to Zim's desk. He sat down and looked over at the Irken. "Okay, so we need something supernatural." Said Dib. Zim raised an eyebrow. "I mean besides you." Dib sighed. "There's this alley where people have claimed that they've seen a ghost. I've researched this. But I haven't found any tangible proof so far." Zim looked at him. "Okay." Dib pulled out a notebook and showed Zim a page with the words "Mystery #7: The Haunted alleyway" Scribbled at the top. There was a short list with two items; "A garbage can that moves, = Just a cat/ dog?" And "Wobbly fence post when there's no wind." Dib unfolded a photograph that was folded up at the bottom of the page. It was a blurry image of a fence with a faint white wisp in the general shape of a person. "We can go there after school today, I suppose." Dib mused. Zim nodded. "Alright I guess." Zim was uncharacteristically calm and accepting again. Dib wondered for at least the third time that day about that.
After school that day, Dib was dangling from the window sill again. He pulled himself up to the pane to look inside and a spider crawled over his fingers. "Ack!" Dib dropped to the ground in surprise. He turned around Gir had taken to waiting with him. "Dibby, Dibby, Dibby, Dibby!" He chanted from where he sat on the ground a few feet from the window. Dib sighed and watched Gir run in circles for a while. How could Zim stand living with him? He heard the school doors open and came around to the front. "C'mon, Gir!" He called. Gir ran across the grass to meet his master, chanting nonsense about tacos. Dib rolled his eyes. "How was detention?" Dib asked teasingly. "Shut up!" Snapped Zim. Dib snickered. "GIR! Go home! The Dib and I have some work to do!" "Okie dokie!" Shrieked Gir and took off flying through the air. "Nothing conspicuous about that." Dib muttered sarcastically. "Come on, Dib-monkey." Zim began off towards the back alley."Just call me Dib! D- I- B! DIB!" He yelled as he followed the alien.
Dib practically bounded down the alley way. He was so excited to share a paranormal investigation with someone, even if that someone happened to be a paranormal phenomenon himself. Zim, on the other hand looked utterly bored as he trailed behind his human companion with his hands in his pockets. Dib was carrying a radar device that could track specters as they appeared. Zim had taken his contact lenses off because they were scratchy, and the alley was more or less a private place. But he left his wig on. If someone came out of their house, Zim would shut his eyes. The sun was beginning to set when Dib said, "Uh, hey Zim?" "Yes?" Dib turned around. Zim's red eyes looked a little creepy in the faint shadows. "D-Do you like cats?" "What?" Asked Zim. "Cats." Said Dib. Zim started to walk again, but Dib stayed where he was, trying to make it clear he wasn't just making conversation. "Because…I probably should have mentioned this before…"Dib shuffled his feet awkwardly. "But there's this cat stray cat that lives around here. She's really mean and there's something strange about her." Zim squinted one eye. "Strange like how?" Dib ignored him. "Only a few have clearly seen her. She does this thing where she runs up to you, barely visible, scratches you from the elbow to the wrist and runs off. The victim usually suffers a horribly violent swing of anger for no apparent reason." Zim looked at his arm. Dib turned around and started walking again. Zim followed after a moment's hesitation. "Her name's Nightbird." Dib continued. "Because no one's seen her during the day, and when they do see her she's swooping around like some majestic raven or something." Zim looked up from his arm. Dib glanced over his shoulder and their eyes met. Dib turned around after a brief moment. "She's black with a blonde stripe and yellow eyes, just so you know." Zim nodded. "she's really mean, so if you see her, run." Zim nodded but Dib didn't see.
Dib tripped over a box. "Ow." He muttered on the ground. He rolled up his pant leg. His knee was bleeding. He grunted and leaned over it. He looked up to see Zim watching him with something like concern. "I'll be fine." Dib muttered, rolling his pant leg down. "It's just a scratch." Then the Irken did something unexpected. He extended a three-fingered hand and Dib grasped it. Zim wrapped his fingers around Dib's wrist firmly and he was jerked to his feet. "Thanks."Dib said, brushing himself off. Zim shrugged and turned around. "Are we near the site yet?"He asked. "Close, but I'm not picking anything up on the radar." Dib glanced down at the silver device. He fiddled with the antennae a little. "Still nothing." He sighed. "Give me that." Snapped Zim, snatching the device from Dib. "But It's very complex! It took me…" Zim silenced him with an arrogant glance. He opened the back and messed with some wires. He put the back on again flipped the radar and looked at the screen for a minute. He moved it around and stared it. Then he grinned and let out a snort of laughter. "There's nothing wrong with it, Dib." He laughed. "There's just nothing here." Dib's face fell. "We may as well go home, I guess." He said. "Not quite yet, Dib-th…Dib. I have to show you something at the base." He said, beginning to put his contacts back in as he led the way out of the alleyway.
Zim opened the door and motioned for Dib to enter. "Thanks I…" Dib started as he turned around. "Zim!" He said. He was a little scared at what he saw. Zim turned around and his breath caught in his throat. Dib gasped. "Nightbird!"