Chapter 7: A disturbance
The penguins and as much monkeys as they could find to use their good hands, began to bring out the safety boats for the passengers. They didn't want to start a panic on anyone, but they knew that everyone was in danger and they had to get everything ready as quickly as possible.
The animals began to wake up one by one because they felt the bump, and a few of them were a bit cautious. They started to ask the penguins questions about what was going on, but so far they just told them that everything was under control and that they were to remain calm.
Melmin and Gloria both woke up at the same time when they heard the commotions. "What's going on?" the giraffe asked?
"I don't know," Gloria replied, "but it must be something since everyone is up in the middle of the night."
"Could this be bad?"
"I don't know." The hippo turned to the other bunk bed and raised a brow when she saw that it was empty. "Where's Marty and Alex?"
"Beats me."
Gloria glanced back at Melmin. "We better go find them."
As the two left their room, they noticed that lots of other animals were running through the halls and chatting as if they were alert as well. This made Gloria and Melmin really curious.
"It seems like everyone is awake," Melmin said as he rushed by his girl's side. "Good enough for me."
Otis has told Ray about his discovery of Marty by Alex's side again, and it angered the zebra so much that his head was going to explode. He was even more angry to find the rock in his room that he did not carve. And he knew for a fact that Marty didn't have that type of skill to do it. The thought of Alex stealing his talent made him shudder.
"Do you think we should see why the boat had stopped?" Otis asked curiously.
The zebra looked at him with a harsh stair. "I don't care about that right now! Marty is still spending time with that carnivore. And I want it stopped."
"We can't really stop Marty from being around him, Sir. It's his choice."
Ray looked down at the rock, and set it back down with the others, holding back his anger at the thought of throwing it. Then he looked to the door. "I have an idea."
Alex and Marty ran toward their room, but were stunned to see that their friends weren't there. So they ran back down the hall to see if they could find them somewhere else. When they got to another level of the ship, they suddenly saw Otis standing ahead of them.
They didn't stop, though, even when the elephant walked by their side. "We all have been looking for you, Marty."
"Otis," the zebra replied nervously, "hey." It was a bit awkward for them since they had run away from him earlier, but since there were more important things going on, they didn't run this time, and only continued to walk. Although, they both gave a nervous gulp as they did.
When the elephant had finally told Marty that Ray was worried about him, he and Alex decided to head back to his room and meet him there. Something defiantly wrong with the ship, and they had to make sure that everyone was alert.
Otis followed the two behind as they entered the room to see both Ray and and Mike. Although, what shocked them was that the rhino cop was in there as well. And even more shocking, Isabella, whome Alex had saved was there as well, sitting on the table anxiously.
"What's going on?" Alex mumbled, although Marty didn't really seem to care who was all there, and just wanted to get to the point that something was going wrong with the ship.
"Something has happened," he said as he looked at Ray and Mike seriously.
"Yes, you're right, Marty," Ray answered softly as he glanced at Alex, "something has indeed happened."
Alex could only stare at the bush baby with concern, as she herself glanced at him then back down. Something more than just the ship was going wrong, and he was growing cautious.
"You could have been in danger," Ray continued as he stared at Marty.
"We all could have," Marty replied, "the ship stopped, and we hit something."
Ray ignored his friend's words and stepped up to Otis, who had then put his trunk behind one of his ears, and then looked at Alex with a glare.
The rhino then eyed Alex and then glanced at the lemur. "She's been searching her son for a long time," he said to him sternly, "where do you think he would possibly go?"
"I don't know," Alex said seriously as he glinted at the bush baby and then back at the rhino, "she said he ran away from her."
"I have always had my eye on you," Otis said to the lion.
Marty was starting to get irritated now and looked back at Ray. "Ray what is going on here? Why are you questioning him?"
"Is this him, ma'am?" Otis said as he finally removed his trunk from behind his ear, holding what looked like to be a smaller version of Isabella by its tail. Only it was lifeless, and it had a huge scar on it."
The female lemur gasped and began to sob when she noticed it, and both Alex and Marty's eyes widened as their mouths dropped. Marty shook his head and Alex put his paw over his own mouth, feeling very upset.
"I knew you were dangerous!" Ray said to the lion angrily.
"I didn't do it!" Alex exclaimed as the rhino stepped behind him.
"Liar!" Ray turned to Marty with fear in his eyes. "See what i meant, Marty? He's a killer!"
"He couldn't have," Marty said as he looked at lion, "hes not a killer, and hes been with me the whole time."
"Not the times where you were hanging out with me, my friend."
"But he wouldn't!"
"He's the only carnivore that is loose on this ship," Otis said, "and the only one with sharp claws that could have made a scratch like that."
Isabella continued to cry as Alex peeked down at her with concern. "I didn't do it," he whispered to her. He then turned to Marty and whispered to him as well, "they did this, Marty. They framed me."
"Hey, shut up!" Otis exclaimed. "You are arrested." He and the rhino began to escort Alex out of the room. Their horns were a threat to him, although the lion wasn't the type to fight back anyways. Although he would defend himself with words.
"Marty, you can't believe this!" he cried as he was being pushed out. "I'm your friend, you know I wouldn't do this!"
Marty was so shocked with the whole incident that he didn't intend to move. He knew Alex wouldn't do such a thing, but everything seemed so real, and there was no way he could convince them otherwise.
Mike shook is head in disappointment as he carried the crying lemur out of the room. He wasn't really against Alex like Ray was, but he wasn't the type to take sides. Seeing this, though, was so terrible that he knew now that the lion could not be trusted.
Ray looked back at Marty, who was only staring at the door, hoping that they would all come back with Alex and say that he was innocent. But it wasn't happening. "Marty! Are you serious?"
Marty turned to him in confusion.
"How could you even think that was okay to hang out with that guy?!"
"Alex and I have been friends since we were little," he finally spoke, "I would know if he would do something like that or not."
"You can't trust a meat eater, Marty! No matter how long you've been with them. They may seem nice at first but then that inner evil comes out! You have been in danger, he is danger!"
Marty could only stare into his eyes full of fear shock, not knowing what else to say, because he knew that he had been repeating the same thing over and over again. Nothing was going to convince Ray otherwise.