The rickety little raft crashed against the walls of the pipeline causing its two passengers to emit screams of fear.

CRASH!

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHAAAHAHA!"

SCRAPE!

"AAHHHHAAAHAAAHAHHHAAAHAHA!"

BIFF!

"WE'RE GOING TO DIE, AREN'T WE!" screeched Matt.

"YEAH!"

CCCCRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!

"AAAAAAAHHHHAHHHHAAAAAAAAAA!"

XXXXXX

"Heh, heh, heh..." Digit cleared his throat, "So, um, Inez. How are you?"

"I'm okay. We're just waiting for Jackie and Matt to contact us on the pipeline situation."

Digit laughed weakly again, "Ah, yeah, that's...um. Nice."

He was trying as hard as possible to ignore the piercing glare being sent his way from Zeke's direction.

"Are you sure you wouldn't like some tea?" Zeke gritted out.

Digit looked nervously at the pot.

Digit's brain: Don't! It's poisoned!

"No, really, I'm fine."

"Um...I'm kind of afraid to ask," said Inez, "But what's going on between you two?"

"Nothing!" Digit squeaked.

Zeke stood up abruptly, "I think I need to get some fresh air." He walked toward the back door and slammed it on his way out.

Digit sighed. Inez raised an eyebrow toward him and cleared her throat, "So what's going on?"

Digit smiled nervously, "What do you mean?"

"Don't try that shit, Didge. It's all over your face."

Digit sat in silence, but Inez refused to relinquish her stare. "Ahhhh. Fine. Zeke and I have a little...history."

Inez glared, "A-duuuuuuuuuuh. But what kind of history?"

Digit glared back, "A complicated one."

"Oh," she shrugged, "Well, we've got time and our little friend is all a huff so I don't think he's coming back anytime soon."

He leaned back in his chair, "It started a while ago. I was drifting around a little while after..." he trailed off, "Anyway I ran into Zeke in Lanoa which is a pretty skeezey place way out North. We had both come for a little bit of partying and...well...we were both drunk off our asses...and...eh..."

"You had sex with him."

Digit sighed, "Yeah. I had sex with him. Don't get me wrong, I don't usually go for guys, but I was upset, I was drunk, I hadn't been laid in months and he was wearing next to nothing and dancing on the bar...well, you get the idea. The next morning I woke up next to him in a sleazy hotel room and I almost had a heart attack. I got dressed and left him there, but I paid for the room."

"And you thought that would soothe his hurt soul?"

"Look, what was I supposed to do? Wait for him to wake up? And then what?"

"Tell him it was a mistake."

"It all would've ended the same way anyway. He would've been hurt in every scenario I could up with except pretend I liked him and I didn't want to do that."

"So..."

"So I guess I should've left right after that, but I saw some sweet lookin' ladies and my hormones went haywire. By some stroke of ill luck Zeke walked into the same bar I had met the women in and he saw me making out with one of them. He got all angry and started yelling and I tried to calm him down, but he wouldn't and people were staring so I yelled at him. I told him that I wasn't gay and the only reason I slept with him was because I was drunk and he had a nice ass."

Inez shook her head, "Tactless."

"I know, but what was I supposed to do? He was screaming like a banshee! But after I yelled at him he got all quiet and I could've sworn he was crying. I think that man has some sort of bipolar disorder..."

"He seems nice to me."

"Well, yeah, but I suppose under the circumstances...I'm not entirely sure he was sober either."

"You're such a jerk."

"Look, I know I screwed up, but he was acting like a pussy so it's not entirely my fault."

Inez just stared at him.

"Oh god, don't go on a 'you're not righteous!' rant."

She reached for the teapot, "I wasn't." She poured herself some more tea and got up, "And you're wrong. That wasn't complicated."

XXXXXX

Delete watched Zeke leave the shack and sit down at the edge of the lake. His finger was on the trigger, but sulking wasn't very suspicious so he waited.

XXXXXX

Zeke dangled his legs off of the edge of the lake and sighed. He heard footsteps behind him.

"Oh, hello, Inez," he smiled, "I suppose you know now."

Inez took a sip of her tea and shook her head, "I didn't come here to talk about that. Your business is your business," she sat down next to him.

"Then why did you come here."

"Why do I need a reason? Good weather, good company..." she smiled.

Zeke smiled back with all of the warmth and happiness he had had before. The two looked down into the lake.

"I wonder what happened with Matt and Jackie..."

XXXXXX

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHAHAHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

"WHEN'S IT GONNA END!"

"I DUNNO!"

"WHAT'S THAT!"

"WHAT!"

"THAT OPENING! I THINK WE'RE REACHING THE END!"

The small raft approached the light faster and faster until they were flung from the metal prison into a lush, green garden. The rickety structure splashed into a large pool sending a wave of water over the edge. When the waves settled Matt opened his eyes and looked around at the debris. The raft had come completely apart and Jackie...

Wait...

Where was Jackie?

Matt looked around him frantically trying to find her. He felt something brush against his arm and he looked down to see a braided extension floating in the water. He stared at it for a moment.

"EW!" he shrieked and jumped back sending a few more drops of water splashing over the edge.

"Oh, Lordy..." he heard someone say, "Oh, Lordy, Lordy, Lordy. Mama gonna keel me." Jackie's arm flung over the metal side of the pool from the opposite side and soon she dragged the rest of her top half into view.

"Jackie, you're all right!"

Jackie slapped his hand away as he tried to help her which was somewhat difficult to do when he was floating in the pool, "Boy, of course I'm all right. Git yo hands off me."

Matt held up the stray extension, "Um...I think this is yours..."

"Oh man...do you know how much these cost?"

He pointed to his own blue, gelled hair and sported a "duh" kind of expression, "Do I look like I would?"

"We can't stand here bickering, bitch, we gotta figure out where we are!"

Matt glared and got out of the pool...only it wasn't a pool. It was a water tank. "It looks like someone's been stealing water."

"An' look where we are too," the two of them stood in the middle of Hacker's garden staring out past the plants to a giant metal wall with a huge, gaping hole in it.

"I knew he was lying."

"Boy, we all knew he was lyin'. Shut up."

Matt rolled his eyes, "Whatever. We should probably call the others on the squackpads," he pulled his out and punched in a few number. The screen crackled for a minute, but soon he saw Inez's face.

XXXXXX

"Inez, Hacker has been stealing the water. He diverted the pipeline to his own private system."

Inez looked down at Matt's face in her squackpad and nodded, "Okay, I'll tell Digit. We'll go down to the valve and re-open it."

"What are we supposed to do?"

"Just don't confront Hacker."

She turned off her squackpad and looked over to Zeke. "I have a boat you can borrow," he said and got to his feet, "Get Digit and meet me 'round back."

XXXXXX

"Oh, we're in it now," said Matt sitting on the grass next to Jackie.

"In what?"

"Deep shit."

"Oh," Jackie looked down at her hair extension again and pouted, "Why?"

"Remember how Inez told us not to confront Hacker?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I think that plan just went out the window."

Jackie looked up and saw the dark, billowing figure of Hacker coming at them rather quickly. The two got to their feet unsure of what to do.

"Matt, I ain't so sure of what I'm s'posed tah be doin' here..."

Matt shrugged and pulled out a sword, "I don't know. Fight?"

"Where'd you get that?"

"I'm not sure. This story doesn't make much sense anyway."

Jackie shrugged and pulled out a long chain with a spiked ball at the end, "Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout. Let's do this thang."

Okay, so maybe that ending was a little...cut off, but I wasn't planning to end it there. It just kept going and going and there was no good place. On top of that I wanted to post something before what few people read this story forget about my lovely story. Just know that...it takes me a while to do anything now a-days. So don't abandon my story!

The next installment will feature...whenever I'm done writing it! I'll be here, will YOU:shifty eyes: