Hello! I have decided to update this story (two years later) but better late than never! Enjoy :)

Characters and dialogue in this chapter belong to DreamWorks

Gone

Chanting.

That was the first thing he was aware of. It was deafening. It consumed every aspect of his being. It surrounded him, echoing from every direction, so loud and deep that it sent vibrations through his very soul. With every syllable, the terror gathering in his chest sent tendrils of panic throughout his body, choking out everything else like a weed in a bed of flowers.

Flowers.

He could smell them. Their scent wafted around his muzzle. It reminded him of her, the one he had loved for almost his entire life. They were her favorite – orchids; sweet and beautiful, just like her. Again, fragrance filled his nostrils. It would have been beautiful, too, had it not been mixed with smoke.

Now, he felt the heat, rising up from some place below him. It lapped at his ankles. Flames exploded just underneath him, a hurricane of orange, red, and yellow, filling his vision. His first instinct was to run. His hooves were rooted to the spot. He couldn't flee. He couldn't move. He couldn't scream. He couldn't breathe.

And suddenly, she was there. Right in front of him, her hand outstretched for him to grab on to. She was trying to save him, but she hadn't been quick enough. For right at the moment, the ground beneath him began to crumble. He found his legs, and ran as fast as they would carry him. But he was running on nothing but empty air.

Next thing he knew, he was falling.

Falling.

Burning.

Melman jolted awake with such force that he jumped at least four feet in the air. His heart was racing, his breathing was heavy, and it took him a good minute to figure out where the heck he was. It was dark, but he wasn't in his brick shelter where he should've been. He was outside, at the juncture where he, Marty, Gloria, and Alex's enclosures came to meet at a light post. All was quiet.

Gradually, his heartrate slowed. Darn it, antibiotics. Dr. Goldberg had mentioned crazy dreams as a side-effect, but that had been an understatement. He began to remember the night before in bits and pieces, up to when his narcolepsy sent him off to sleep early. Alex, Gloria, and himself had thrown a surprise party for their zebra friend for his 10th birthday. Gloria had gotten the penguins to track down a cake and everything, and then Marty sprang a surprise of his own – he wanted to run away to the wild.

Melman nearly had a heart attack, as did Alex and Gloria. What was Marty thinking? Leaving the zoo? The zoo was where the doctors were, where the medications were, where the sanitation department and cleaning crew were. Why did Marty want to leave all of that behind? He had tried to tell the zebra how unsanitary it was, and Alex had tried to get it through the equine's head that there was no steak in the wild, but Marty had simply shaken his head with a sigh. Hopefully they had done a decent job of talking him out of it – Marty probably wouldn't survive the in the wild. Especially not when there was Lyme disease out there.

As he recalled the events of the night before, that was when he got the funny feeling in the pit of his stomach. Something was wrong, but he couldn't figure out what it was. Everything was fine. Except for the fact that since he had fallen asleep outside, he missed his nightly reminder to pee - which was necessary due to his bladder infection. Well, it didn't actually have the symptoms of a bladder infection, but Melman had taken the necessary precautions just in case.

The feeling in his stomach lingered even after he had relieved himself. Now his mind was racing. It was probably nausea. Or indigestion. Heartburn. He had a strange dream, and now his stomach felt funny. It seemed like the sort of thing that would happen after eating birthday cake too late at night – but he hadn't eaten the cake. The giraffe was panicked now. What if he had a parasite? Like a tapeworm? He didn't think that herbivores could get tape worms. He made a mental note to get a parasite screening in the morning. What if he had completely misjudged the feeling's location, and he was having a heart attack? He could already feel his left foreleg going numb…

Wait.

His foreleg wasn't going numb. He looked around. Something still wasn't right.

He immediately looked to Gloria's exhibit. She had floated to the top of her pool, and was snoring not-so-softly. Despite himself, he smirked. She had the cutest snores. And she was okay. He now looked to Marty's exhibit. There laid the problem.

Marty was gone.

Without even thinking, Melman looked at Alex' exhibit, because if Marty was gone, then Alex had to be also. The two were inseparable. But Alex was still there, mumbling in his sleep. He looked back to Marty's exhibit. The zebra was nowhere to be found.

The events of the night before came rushing back to him once again. The wild. Marty had left to go to the wild.

He rushed over to the fence that separated his exhibit from Alex's. He stretched his neck over so that he was peering down at the sleeping lion. "Alex," he hissed, but the big cat didn't wake from his slumber. He whispered again, a little louder this time. It took at least three more tries before Alex yanked his thumb out of his mouth and stared up at his friend – yep, they eventually became friends, or at least something close to friends.

Melman recoiled. "You suck your thumb?"

Alex realized what had happened and hid his thumb under his body, apparently hoping that the giraffe would forget about it. "What is it, Melman?"

"Okay – okay – okay, um," Melman was in a panic, but tried to piece together the events of the night as quickly as possible. He didn't mention his dream or the funny feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Well, you know how I have that uh – bladder infection – " he looked around quickly as if someone were around to hear, " – and I have to get up every two hours? Well, I got up to pee, and uh, I looked over at Marty's pen which – I don't know why – I usually don't – but I looked over and – "

Alex had been watching Melman with the expression that someone would wear if they were yanked out of a good dream and then someone else frantically explained something that sounded like gibberish. "Melman. What's going on?" Melman stopped in the middle of his story.

"It's Marty. He's gone."

...

Woah, cliffhanger! ;3 And Melman's strange dream? What could it be? :0

Sorry it took me so long. I lost my Madagascar vibe, until a very kind review was posted on this story a week or so ago, and I decided to bring this story back to life! Hopefully if - when - I update again, the chapters will be better than this one. Sorry Melman seems a bit out of character, like I said - it's been awhile. I'm watching the first movie for the first time in years XD

Anywho, I know it's short and everything, and I might go back and add another chapter before this one. Tell me what you guys think :)