CHAPTER 9

LEMUR PRIDE

"Admit it: you like it!"

When he said no, faintly, sobbingly, when he tried to escape the red lemur, when blows were raining upon him and soft touches were confusing him, this was what Julien would hear Clemson repeat to him:

"Admit it, you like it, you spoiled little bitch."

Julien mentally crawled away into his very inside, closed his eyes, and forbade himself to feel.

No feelings; no pain, no guilt, no shame, just following orders. Letting the other have his way with him. Doing what he was told, nothing more, nothing against it, trying not to feel anything, anything at all.

And when it was over he would just lie there.

Without a sound, without the slightest shiver.

His fur tousled all over his face. His body stiffened and completely motionless with terror, only able to silently weep and listen as Clemson described the various tortures he had thought up for him for the next night.

He took such great pleasure in Julien's fear and misery. This was his idea of fun.

Julien told himself it was only a dream. A dark, sick nightmare.

If I fall asleep with my head under the blanket, I will suffocate, he reflected, and then I will not have to wake up again in the morning. Perfect.

He eventually managed to fall asleep the way he had planned.

However, when he woke up the next morning, he had to notice that nothing had happened.

Waves of disappointment grieved him.

Then he noticed with surprise that the red lemur beside him wasn't awake yet. Clemson's body against his was motionless, his breath deep and calm.

Julien had never seen the red lemur asleep before. It was the first morning he was up before Clemson was. As far as he could remember, Clemson had never been sleeping as long as he was around, certainly because he wanted to make sure that Julien wouldn't do anything he didn't know about.

He carefully took up the red paw that was lightly wrapped around his waist from behind and lifted it. Clemson sighed and shifted in his sleep but his eyes remained closed.

Julien was free.

He floundered to a sitting position, cringing as he struggled upright. The stings in his wounded thighs and abdomen brought tears of pain to his eyes. He gazed at the other lemur again. Watching Clemson sleep was odd to him; he looked so calm and innocent, strands of his auburn fur draped across his face which seemed all peaceful and without a spark of evil in his relaxed features. When these eyes of penetrating emerald green were closed, no one would ever guess what was truly hiding behind them.

Julien bit his lips; he could just walk away, back to the Central Park Zoo like he usually did and pretend nothing had happened. Clemson wouldn't care, as long as he came back.

He got off the bed. A flash of pain shot up his left leg and he stifled a painful moan. He looked down on himself and tried to brush his fur at least a bit over the scratch wounds. Maybe, after all, he would have to find a more trustworthy excuse than getting stuck in a subway door or accidentally falling into an open manhole.

How sick he was of lying to Maurice…!

He took a few steps ahead, biting back the tears that threatened to take him.

After he had made half his way through the cave he noticed one of the zombies by the exit. There was no light in its red eyes; it seemed to be sleeping just like its master. Its gun lay loosely on the floor next to it. Without really thinking about it, Julien reached for it. He turned it round in his paws, inspecting it, touching the gray metal.

A thought flashed up in his mind.

He turned back to the bed.

The weapon in his paw suddenly felt warm and sticky, like molten chocolate.

Couldn't this be what solved all his problems?

The easiest and probably the only way to get out of this tragedy once and for all?

No more lies, no more horrible party nights in Hoboken, no more –.

He pulled the slide; he'd watched Skipper do this once. A soft metallic sound indicated that the weapon was loaded. He lifted it and aimed.

But he couldn't.

He couldn't just go ahead and shoot Clemson.

Resigned, he lowered the gun.

Maybe it was justified, after all the red lemur had done to him. For everything he'd taken from him, for every night he'd forced him into a burning hell of lust and torture – wasn't this just the perfect chance to show him that this was no way to treat a king, no way to treat anyone?

In a trance he watched his own shaking paw raise the weapon again. His fingers tightened on the trigger of the gun.

He couldn't just go ahead and shoot him.

Someone else could've done so; the penguins maybe. Someone who was used to deal with the violence of weapons. Someone who was used to deal with a different kind of enemies than complaining neighbors. But he, he couldn't.

He couldn't shoot at anyone.

Not even at this terrible lemur who was yet so peacefully sleeping and –.

With a soft sigh Clemson shifted his legs under the blanket and stretched himself.

His green eyes opened.

Wandered around sleepily.

And finally fixed on the weapon aimed at him.

"Oh no… no!" With a soft scream he leapt off the bed and hid behind it.

"Julien! – What… what on earth are you doing?! Don't even think about this!"

After a time, when Julien apparently refused to use the weapon or reply to him in any other way, Clemson peeked over the upper edge of the bed very carefully. The trace of unmistakable fear in his eyes was an amazing sight to Julien, yet couldn't bring him to go ahead and intensify it.

The red lemur kept on watching him for a while. When Julien was still doing nothing, he plucked up courage, making use of his greatest strength: his communication skill.

"Fine, go ahead then. Shoot me. Shoot me, unarmed as I am, and feel so good you killed someone defenseless. Is this something that makes you proud?"

Julien didn't answer. He didn't move. He just started shaking all over.

When he noticed his words were obviously affecting Julien, Clemson kept going at it.

"Let's see how you square this with your conscience: killing one of your own. One of your subjects. Your servants. What kind of king would do such things? Not a lemur king, right? A good and noble lemur king loves his people. He's loyal to them; he knows and does what's best for them. He mustn't be selfish and he always supports and loves his kingdom and people and never, NEVER does any harm to them."

Clemson now dared to step forward and out of shelter. He approached Julien directly in the line of fire, his paws raised in a gesture of capitulation but his voice clear and fearless.

"I'm sure you're a good king. – Aren't you? So just be sensible and put that gun down, okay? Put it down—!"

He stepped closer and closer, his green eyes piercing Julien, just like they had done the previous night before he—. The memory came back in a flash of pain.

Enough pain to make the choice.

With a desperate cry Julien pulled the trigger.

The gun fired with a horribly loud sound.

Once. Twice. Once more.

Clemson threw himself to the floor although none of the bullets went even anywhere near him.

Julien fired with his eyes squeezed shut. He was trembling so badly they were going off randomly across the room.

He fired one last missing shot.

Then the empty gun escaped his trembling paw and dropped to the floor.

Clemson remained motionless only for a moment; his face was ashen with terror.

Then, before Julien could make a move, he grabbed one of the cues from the billiards table and attacked his opponent. Both lemurs fell to the floor, tangled with one another. Julien screamed when Clemson broke the cue over his face with one powerful blow. The red lemur smiled widely in fiendish pleasure; for a moment his rage turned into a thirst for blood beyond control. A series of blows rained down against Julien. Ribs cracked. Julien's screams turned into moans as his body convulsed from the constant beats that didn't allow him to catch his breath anymore. His eyes gleaming with ire, Clemson dug his claws into the wounds on Julien's legs, ripping fur and tearing skin. Julien screamed again, a long, ragged cry until his lungs failed him.

Maurice come and help me –

Clemson kept on punching his left flank and stomach until Julien fell to his back, giving up any defense, not moving anymore, not making a sound.

Clemson got back to his feet, heavily breathing and licking his bloody paws.

"That's what you deserve for trying to sell me out like that," he panted, "And don't worry, this was just the beginning."

He crept back to the bed, looking for his remote. Hardly conscious, Julien knew he'd found it when he felt himself being lifted in the air by the paws of the zombie he'd taken the blaster from. It carried him out of the cave and over the visitor ways of the zoo which hadn't opened yet. Still, Clemson looked around attentively to make sure no one was watching them.

Maurice come and save me please please please –

Every single bone in his body aching and flickering lights blurring his vision, Julien realized a small well in the vicinity he was carried towards. It was probably abandoned as inside the zoo it was of no use anymore; on top of that it was located in an area of unused habitats.

Without a warning the zombie threw Julien down into it.

The water hit him hard; the shock at its icy coldness brought the lemur king back to his senses. He panted for breath. Everything was cold, cold, it was all he felt, coldness creeping under his skin and chilling him to his very bones. For a moment he believed he was going to drown; then he found footing on the ground of the well. Yet the water remaining in it was so much it touched his chin even when he stood upright.

Far up there upon him the light of the new morning sparkled. It was shadowed only by the silhouette of the red lemur's face.

"There you go," he heard Clemson's scornful voice from above, "Don't worry, I'll come to look after you from time to time… After all, I have to make sure you haven't drowned or died from the cold. Because you know I need you again tonight, my love."

Julien closed his eyes, wishing that before the night fell, the icy darkness would pull him under and into a silent death.

Maurice…

The aye-aye bounced over the wall of the lemur habitat, leaving it behind completely empty.

Mort was sleeping over at Bada's and Bing's habitat after the gorillas had provided him with a year's supply of icy pops.

Maurice was on his own.

Armed with nothing but his walking cane and the unbroken will to save his king.

It had to be enough.

He was the king's advisor; he considered it his duty to shelter him from anything that threatened him, even though Julien himself might have chosen to do a different thing. Certainly, his set of rules as an advisor forbade him to disobey the king. But he had a different reason that authorized him to do so nevertheless.

King or not, Julien was his friend. His best friend even.

And he was worried sick about him. He couldn't stand any longer to witness the pain that marred his movements every day, the grief and madness of Hoboken that threatened to devour his soul until hardly anything could keep him anchored in reality. Regardless of whether he had been elected the royal advisor, he'd become Julien's friend over the years. Someone who respected him and trusted him and didn't judge him, even though this was hard sometimes. Someone Julien could always rely on, someone who supported him no matter what, who stuck around even when things got tough, just like now. He loved him because he'd chosen to do so, not because it was advantageous to him if he did, like so many other lemurs from their realm back in Madagascar had.

Even though he was a self-centered, egoistical king all too often, who took appreciation and acceptance from everyone for granted – he'd always been like this, and Maurice had grown to live with it and love him the way he was.

All he wanted was to have his old friend back.

Noise from the entrance of the zoo caught his ear.

It was the penguin team just about to return from Miami. They had obviously managed to successfully complete their mission as they were accompanied by the two chimpanzees alive and well. Maurice lifted a paw for a short wave from a distance but didn't stop to talk to them. He wasn't even sure they'd noticed him at all until Skipper belly-slid in front of him, blocking his path.

"Where do you think you're going, gray lemur?"

"To Hoboken," Maurice explained with firm conviction, "I'm going there myself and clarify what shady business is going on there once and for all. Besides, it's Monday night already and my king hasn't returned at all." He evaded the penguin leader's appalled look and played with the subway token he was carrying. "I just have to go and see what's really happening to him, even though I know he doesn't want me to. He said there was danger for me and for him!"

But Skipper shook his head and held out one flipper to keep Maurice from proceeding.

"Negitory. You can't do that!"

The older lemur darted an angry glance at him.

"Look, I know you're annoyed because he turned a deaf ear to your advice when you tried to warn him about Hoboken. But what he's going through at the moment is really enough of a lesson! I finally want my old king back the way he used to be… I want my friend to be out of this misery!"

He pushed the penguin aside and was about to leap over the zoo wall when the leader belly-slid in his way again.

"That's not what I meant, Maurice! All I intended to say was you can't just… you know, walk in there and demand the truth. Who knows whatever this foul play is about and how many there are truly involved? At worst you'll have a whole zoo against you the minute they find out you're there."

Skipper's words unleashed a desperate frown of concern on the older lemur's face. Maurice knew he was right.

"But someone has to save him…!"

"Yeah, but you're not trained for that, soldier. When it comes to facing Hoboken, better leave it to someone adept in commando skills."

Skipper patted his shoulder. "Don't worry; you'll have your king back in no time."

This took Maurice by surprise. "But before you said –."

"I know." Skipper paused, his face pale in the shadows of slanting moonlight. "I was wrong."

Maurice could hardly believe what he heard. After all, Skipper never admitted when he was at fault; everyone knew he utterly hated to do so, and if he did, then only in case it was something that deeply, gravely, seriously concerned him and his brothers but not if it was about someone he disliked as much as Julien.

"Listen, I know Ringtail's a buffoon, no doubt about that!" he said with a scowl, "I know this isn't the last time he'll get himself into something like this, nor will he probably learn anything from it! But what can I say? It's just not right. Last time he got here, I saw what he was like. Whatever is happening to him there – he definitely hasn't deserved it. None of our zoo mates deserves something like Hoboken, not even him."

Maurice's face brightened with joy and relief.

"So you… You'll help him?"

"Affirmative."