I'd like to dedicate this chapter to Bri357. Happy Birthday Bri357! :)
Chapter 7
Look Behind You
A creature jumped out of the building, Skipper immediately stepped back and grabbed a metal cover of a wastepaper basket. There was dark so he didn't see what was attacking him, the fight was risky and dangerous in that case. But he didn't escape, he stayed there and prepared for an attack.
"Stay away! I have a, um, fish bone and I would not hesitate to use it" a familiar voice said. Skipper put the cover back and stepped towards the creature.
"Wait I.."
"I'm going to use it, hey-yaa" The creature jumped out of the shadow. A lamp over the door lit up. Though the light was weakly blinking, Skipper could see everything well.
"Moon-cat!" Skipper said.
"Oh, Skipper! How long didn't I see you, my friend. By the way, I'm not really a moon-cat. I have never been on the moon" Max the cat said. He was holding a fish bone.
"Anyway, what are you doing here?" Skipper asked.
"Um, I'm living here"
"Oh, right, sorry I forgot..."
"What are you doing here? And where's your team?" Max asked.
"Classified. But why don't you visit us? It's really depressing to sitting alone now"
"I-I can't. I'm hiding here" Max said shaking his head and stepped back into the shadow.
"Why?"
"Listen, I'd recommend you to leave this place as fast as you can. Being here is dangerous, especially alone, come back to your team and don't leave the zoo"
"Why... what's happening here? Max, please tell me everything you know"
"It's not normal, you have to leave, now" the cat looked around.
"If you tell me what's wrong, I'll be able to help" Skipper said. Max sighed and came closer.
"Everybody is hiding, the panic is around. It all started two weeks ago, since the shadow came. The animals felt it and… and… We're scared. Officer X is the only one brave enough to hunting it the night. It's not good, he uses the animals' inattention and simply catches them. But it isn't the worst…" Max whispered "A few days ago we… we saw…"
"What?" Skipper asked. Max didn't replied, so Skipper repeated "What did you see, Max?"
"We-we saw a creature" Max said very quietly and nervously looked around.
"Was it an animal?"
"I don't know. It appeared suddenly. It was far from us, so we could see only a black character. But it isn't a human, it looked like… like…" Max stopped and looked around again.
"Calm down, nobody can hear you here" Skipper said.
"It looked like your worst nightmare. Like, um, something worse than a werewolf, I think… I don't know, I don't remember it very well"
"Okay, thank you for the information. I have only one question for you"
"Okay, go on"
"What exactly do you mean saying 'we' and 'us'?"
"Oh, none of the animals wants to be alone now, so we're trying to stick together"
"I understand, be careful, okay? I'll try to do something with it" Skipper said and walked along the street. Max sighed and came back to his 'room'.
Officer X, he was so annoying. Skipper thought while he was walking through the dark thriller. Suddenly he heard voices, the humans' voices. He slipped to a direction of the voices. There were sitting two humans. One of them was fat and the second was skinny. Skipper came closer and hid behind a few boxes to hear their conversation. He immediately recognized their voices… Cecil and Brick! They were whispering, so Skipper couldn't hear every word. But he found out that they were waiting for someone.
"How long?" Brick asked.
"Uh, how many times do I have to repeat it? I don't know!" Cecil replied.
"Do you think the plan will be successful?"
"Shh, don't say it too loud, Brick. It's a top secret. But he is the best! If everything goes well, we…" Skipper couldn't hear more, so he came closer. Unfortunately one of the boxes fell down making some noise. He stopped breathing and leaned against a wall to be not noticed. "What was that?" Cecil asked and took a few steps towards hiding Skipper "Um, nevermind. Nothing is normal here. Okay, about the plan, he said that…"
Why? Why did they have to talk too quiet when it was something important? Skipper had to get that information from them. Fortunately, Brick was stupid enough to say it louder. Skipper just had to wait. But their quick whispers were annoying. Skipper decided to take a chance. He moved closer again and carefully leaned out from behind the boxes.
"... and after that they'll prize us and he'll get his job again. Do you understand it Brick!? We'll be rich! And no stupid penguins will defeat us again. He'll take a good care of them. Just follow the plan..." Cecil said smiling. They were leaning against the a door. Near them there were laying a few black bags. Suddenly something moved behind Skipper…
Katherine felt a pain all over her body. She didn't know where is she, what had happened. But she wanted to stop the pain. It was like a fire. Slowly, she reminded what happened. She was in the Denmark Prison and the puffins gave her a poison. She could moan, but no, she was too weak even for it. She wasn't able to do any move even to open her eyes.
She had a nightmare, a scary nightmare. But she didn't remember it. Maybe it was better. She could feel the every pain, every pain which she had with every breath. Breathing was hard, everything was hard. She knew she had to remember to stay in consciousness, to keep breathing, to stay alive. She couldn't give up , she had to fight. Not only for herself, more… for her friends.
But she felt as if she was slipping into the black infinity. She noticed that she was laying on something cold and though. Maybe on the ground… she didn't care. She took one deep breath and opened her eyes. She immediately felt tears, her eyes were smarting. The view in front of her was fuzzy. She moved her flipper by the rest of her force and rubbed her eyes.
She was laying on a prison 'bed', a cold platform chained to the wall by two chains. She sighed.
"You finally woke up. Luckily. Because you couldn't have woken up, in the worst case." someone said in a danish accent.
"Uh, what are they going to do with me?" Katherine asked, she felt a strong headache. She didn't even care who was she talking to. She was too weak to turn her head.
"Who am I? A fairy? I don't know. Probably they'll torture you or in a better case they'll just kill you" the voice replied. It seemed very familiar to Katherine.
"So 'kill' is a better case? Good to know" she said and sighed. She tried to sit on the bed leaning against the wall.
"See, you can dying in tortures or you can die quick"
"It isn't very comforting, you know" Katherine said and shut her eyes. She felt a stronger pain in the ribs and she moaned.
"You can keep your sense of humour even in your last hours. Like always"
"Huh? How did you..." Katherine turned her head to the prisoner who she was talking to. She gasped. "Ah, you! And you're talking so calmly as if nothing's happened! Traitor" she said when she saw the puffin who was sitting on the bed opposite her.
"You and Skipper will never stop calling me 'traitor', huh?" Hans asked.
"You don't deserve to stop being calling 'traitor', Hans" she said.
"Listen, if we want to get out from here we have to work together" Hans said. She wanted to protest but she knew that he was right. They couldn't escape on their own.
"Have you got a plan?" she asked.
"No. I thought that you and Skipper are 'the persons of plans'" Hans replied.
"As you see, Skipper's not here" she said and sent him a cold look.
"Okay, just saying. First of all, we have to wait, you aren't able even to walk..."
"I'm always able. And I never fail" Katherine said and stood up ignoring the pain. It wasn't a good move, she felt dizzy and fell down.
"Then, why are you here, huh? And actually, no, you aren't able"
"Haha, funny" Katherine rolled her eyes. Hans walked up to her and helped her to stand up. They heard the steps. The puffins were coming back "Have you got a plan? We don't have enough time!"
"Errr, they'll torture you now, but I can make a plan. And remember, don't let them break you. As long as you have something important for them, they can't kill you" Hans said. Katherine lay back on the bed.
"I wasn't going to let them break me and I'm not going to" she whispered. The puffins came with a handcuffs. They opened a prison cell.
"How was your sleeping, huh?" a puffin asked. They put the handcuffs on her flippers and led her out. Hans sent her the well-known look, she nodded.
They led her down the stars. Walking was so hard for Katherine, at least the puffins were holding her. What the information was so important that they wanted to know? Whatever. she won't give up... Never. They can do everything but she won't tell them the thing which they wanted to know.
They were on the first level where was the entry to the prison. But they walked lower. Probably there was a torture-room in the dungeons. Katherine felt the goose-flesh, she thought that nothing could be scarier than the view of Denmark Prison. No, she was wrong. The dungeons were terrible. No windows and lights, only the darkness. There were lots of corridors as if it was a maze. A gloomy maze with something like the fog, the fog of fear. Wait, the fog? Katherine felt strange, the same fog was following her. It was just everywhere. Something was lurking there and waiting for her.
When they walked along a corridor the torches lit up. But even the fire of torches, which was brightening the place a little, didn't make the scenery less dark and murky. Quite the opposite, it was waking even more terror. The fire was red and the red light was going through the black dungeons. That place was full of the only one feeling; the fear. Katherine looked down while she was walking, she didn't want to look around. She felt that she was losing her consciousness again.
Her forehead was hot, she had a high fever. It was the really high fever and she had a headache. She has never felt so much pain and sick. But she couldn't show her weakness, she couldn't show that she's in pain, she couldn't show…. that she's scared. She didn't know what the fear was, she's never scared. But now… everything changed, the world changed. The shadow which came so suddenly had to destroy everything.
"The place where we're going is classified. Don't worry, you won't feel much pain" a puffin said. Before Katherine could do something she felt a hit in the back of her head. She couldn't hold on, she fell down "Hm, or you will. Sorry"
You're the last hope, Hans. She fainted… again…
"Are you lost, penguin?" Skipper heard a voice behind him, that voice. He saw a man-shaped shadow on the ground in front of him. It was familiar. It was obvious. Cecil and Brick looked there. Skipper knew that he lost his cover, they saw him. There was nothing else to do, he turned and stood face to face with him...
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