Ch.10-The search is a-go!
"But it's too early..." Private moaned out while he wiped his eyes.
"You heard me, Private." Skipper said, "Come on, on your feet solider." Private slowly gets out of his bed and stands in front of his leader with his head lowering slightly from tiredness. Skipper smiles at Private, then looks up at Kowalski's bunk and sees that he's still lying in bed."Kowalski, you up?" He asked.
"Affirmative, Skipper." Kowalski responded with a yawn.
"Good." Skipper said, "Meet up at the table, I've got something for us to do."
Kowalski climbs out of bed and follows Skipper to the table area. Private slowly stumbles towards them. They look at the table and they see papers with word written on them.
"What's going on, Skippah?" Private asked, then wipes his eyes again.
"I'll get to that." Skipper said. "When I woke up from my nap this morning, I decided to do some recon." Skipper stops to see they were listening, it seemed like they were, so he continues with his ."A civilian came up to me and said that a zoo animal has gone missing..."
Private suddenly felt his heart skip a beat, He has a feeling he knows who that animal was. He looks up at Kowalski and Kowalski looks down at him and nods at him to let him know that he's got the same feeling. "Um... it's Rico... isn't, sir?" Private asked.
"Yeah, Private. He's missing." Skipper said. "So, it's our job to look for him." He picks up one of the sheets of paper and reads what he wrote for a split second, then crumples it up and tosses it on the floor. Kowalski and Private give him a confused look. "Let's just go find him, men." Skipper said, and with that order they quickly climb up the ladder and hop onto their island. They see Marlene standing near the enter. "Hey, guys..." She said, but it wasn't in her usual happy, go-lucky attitude.
"Marlene, what are you doing here?" Skipper asked.
"Sorry Skipper, I... couldn't sleep."
Private quickly walks up to Marlene. "Marlene! Rico's missing! You've got to help us!"
"That's why I kinda came here..." Marlene said. "Alright with you, Skipper?"
"Fine by me, Marlene." Skipper said. "We'll split into two teams to search the zoo. Kowalksi and Private, search the left side. Marlene, you're with me. Roll out!"
Kowalski and Private head towards the Chimp Habitat, they all around the habitat to look for anything that could be a clue. They didn't anything except for fur and banana peels. They move on to the Elephant Habitat to do the same thing again.
Marlene and Skipper are standing outside the Lemur Habitat, trying to think of a way to get this search done quicker. "Maybe we should split up for this one? It'll be quicker." Skipper said, and Marlene nodded in agreement. Skipper and Marlene did their best to stay quiet while searching for clues so that they didn't catch the attention of the lemurs. Now wasn't the time to be bothered by the mouthy ringtail.
"Anything?" Skipper asked as they walked out habitat and moved to the next one.
"No, nothing." Marelene said.
"He's gotta be around somewhere..." Skipper muttered to himself
Both teams continue to search the other habitats for Rico. It took them about an hour and a half, or so, to search the zoo. After a while, they decided to take a break and continue the mission later that day.
"I don't get it." Skipper said with his voice filled with a little bit of confusion and frustration. "How could anyone go mssing without any clues or a trail or something?"
"Well, it is possible he left by himself..." Kowalski pointed out.
"Yeah." Answers Skipper, "But why would he?"
Private walks up to Skipper. "Maybe he was angry and wanted to go for a walk or something." He said, then shakes his head when he realized that it wasn't a very convincing answer. "Who would go for a walk and not return?" Private asked himself.
"I agree, sir." Kowalski said. "I bet he'll be back soon... hopefully."
"He's probably stiil mad at this fight stuff..." Skipper muttered to himself, then turned to Marlene. "Do you have any idea where he would go?"
Marlene thinks about it. She couldn't really think of a place he would go if he was angry or just needed to get some alone time. All of a sudden, she remembered the flowers that were floating her pond. "I don't know Skipper, but I've got a question for you guys." The three penguins look at her, interested. "Did any one of you try to give me flowers or anything like that?"
The penguins look at each blankly, then look back at Marlene. "No, I don't think any of us did that, Marlene." Private said.
"Oh." Marlene said. "I asked because I found them floating in my pond- you think Rico has something to do with it?"
"It could..." Kowalski said. "It doesn't really explain the missing part though."
The room fills with silence. Private starts to feel a little uneasy and decides to break the uncomfortable silence by asking Skipper a question. "So, when are we going to go search again, Skippah?"
"After we figure out some stuff, Private." Skipper said. "Also, we should eat, or something like that, restore our whits."
"Roger that, Skippah." Private said, then went to the fridge while Kowalski, Skipper, and Marlene discuss the situation.
A/N- Yeah, I switched the habitats around a bit. Hope everyone's alright with that. FUN FACT (Well, not really "fun" but, it's a fact...) I was going to give Julien some lines in this chapter, but for some reason, my brain couldn't really think of lines for him... maybe I'll have lines for him in the next chapter. Anywho, feel free to review, next and final chapter will be coming soon :)