Chapter 14: Extinct, but not died out yet

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After their short sit-down they continued walking disoriented through the sewer; they were following rather fortuity than any sense of direction, but at least walking reduced the feeling of helplessness and upcoming claustrophobia. Now and then they checked one of the covers, but they were all locked.

"Kowalski, I'm tired... and hungry," Private whined as the kid he still was.

Rico tried to regurgitate fish, but instead of the appetizing odour of seawater-fish there were only gurgling sounds. "Wa?"

"It seems as if we have run out of food supply," the scientist pointed out the obvious.

Private's stomach rumbled as an answer.

"The only positive thing about this situation," Julien remarked, holding his nose with one hand and fanning the smelly air away, which was approaching from Rico's direction. He looked away and to the filthy water next to them. "I'm actually quite surprised that my royal nose has not committed suicide yet."

"We're doomed to die here." There was panic flowing in Marlene's voice. "My dream was to meet the Spanish-guitar-man before meeting death. KOWALSKI! WE NEED OPTIONS, MAN!"

This was the danger of people, who were not trained and prepared for death every day. They often lose their rag and turn into a danger for the whole team, not least because of spreading their panic onto other members of a team. Panic was like a disease. Once broken out it was affecting nearly everyone – only a few were able to withstand – and destructive.

Marlene grabbed Kowalski at his shoulders and shook him back and forth, while the others were watching her in fear. "I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIE YET!"

"Is she going wild again?" Maurice whispered to Private.

"I hope not!" he replied.

"Ma… ma… mar… leeee… heeeen… stooo… hooo… op!"

Kowalski was surprised when she followed his request. All of her anger suddenly disappeared and she looked ashamed and sad onto the floor. "I'm sorry… I have lost my temper… again. Although…" - she sniffed - "although I had promised Skipper that it would not happen again."

"Marlene, we won't give up. Never. Not this easy," he comforted her patting her shoulder.

"Not this easy? You're kidding me," Maurice laughed sarcastically, the second victim. "We passed the Atlantic, got lost in a strange city, were caught by foreign zookeepers, assaulted by 'old friends' of your leader, then attacked by ninjas and since hours we're running around in this sewer-maze. And you call this EASY?"

There was surprised silence, while Maurice breathed heavily. Now and then they had seen Maurice angry, but during that very moment he was fury as they had never seen him before.

"YES, KOWALSKI! AND WHERE ARE YOU HIDING YOUR WHITEBOARD AND THE ABACUS? THEY ALWAYS 'APPEAR' SUDDENLY."

All looked at the king of the lemurs.

"Now that everyone is allowed to shout at Kowalski I didn't want to be left out," he explained.

The tall penguin sighed. A motivation speech was necessary, he was sure about that. But deep inside he knew that the disease 'panic' had already affected him too. He tried to think of a classic and usually working statement: "Okay, everyone. We've been through much worse…"

"Namely…?" Private asked doubting this assertion.

The scientist looked angry at his younger companion. "Like… like…"

He was clueless. There never had been a more desperate situation before. "OKAY! Okay… WE'RE DOOMED AND THERE IS NO HELP OR CONFIDENCE. ALL HOPE IS LOST. GONE. DEAD. ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?"

He turned and looked at his whiteboard, which had appeared from somewhere. "I've run out of ideas. I thought about following the water, but I fear that we won't find an open passage into somewhere. It just ends into a dead end at a purification plant. There is no reception down here. And I cannot hear any public works."

He threw the whiteboard onto the floor. "I'm sorry."

They lapsed into silence, following their own thoughts. Kowalski thought about Doris, who had never returned his love. Rico's thoughts wandered around his beloved Miss Perky, who was sitting at home waiting for him. He wondered whether there would be ever a chance again to pet her hair. Private was picturing his wedding – that suddenly appeared far away and unreachable. Marlene was playing her favourite Spanish song on a Spanish air guitar, trying to fancy the man playing it. She was a little confused when Fred appeared next to him. Julien thought of Madagascar, the green trees, the late night parties and his mother telling him that he should get himself a queen – another reason why he had left Madagascar. He moved back from his imaginary projection of his mom. Maurice was remembering his oath of protecting the king whatever the costs were, while Mort eyed the feet of his king saying to himself: "As long as I can be with them, I'm fine."

And of course they all thought about Skipper.

"Let's be honest. Skipper concealed his past activities. Don't you think he might…"

Suddenly Rico's flipper was covering Maurice's mouth. There was no need for the nearly mute penguin to say a word; his face expression was conveying everything the king's right-hand-man needed to know: "Don't even think about finishing this sentence!"

"Rethinking the affair by regarding it from the point of view of an objective observer I need to agree to Maurice. Skipper's behaviour IS suspicious."

Two slaps hit Kowalski's face. One – the one hurting most – on the right and one – the one nearly missing him – on the left.

"HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT!" Private shouted. "HOW CAN YOU EVEN THINK IT!"

Rico approved his little companion's furiousness. He growled at Kowalski, giving him the most sinister look he was able to put onto his face. It was really frightening and all of his 'cute and cuddly'-ness was gone.

"Guys… guys… calm down." Marlene walked between them, knowing that it was probably not a good idea to stand between three well trained, angry military soldiers. But she had no other choice.

"Rico is right, there is no way, Skipper could have done something like killing a whole family," Julien agreed. "A whole 'royal' family."

"Skipper didn't kill him. That's enough proof," Private explained.

Sorrowful Kowalski looked at his whiteboard, which was still lying on the ground. He lifted it and suddenly it was gone. "I'm sorry, boys. But… you see… I cannot come up with any other explanation!"

Private looked at him angry. It wasn't frightening at all. "Just that you cannot come up with an explanation doesn't mean there is none."

"Yes! Listen to!" Rico nodded.

"Isn't this why we are here – wherever we are: To explain what he did, or rather if he did it," Private continued.

"He was seen with bloodstained feathers. Running away! What kind of excuse do you expect?" Kowalski interfered.

"I'm expecting an explanation! A good reasoned explanation!" the little penguin answered. Suddenly he looked sad. "Were you thinking this all the time?"

"I'm not sure what I think!" Kowalski shouted. "The proofs – the science – say he is guilty."

Marlene put a paw on his shoulder. "And what does your heart say?"

He took some time before answering. Then he said: "That he is not."

"HAHA! Well said, soldier!" a dark voice echoed through the sewer.

"Where is there?"

The penguins went into their fighting postures, peering into the dark shadows outside their flash light radius.

"Oh… let's say an old relative… rather less than more, though."

Out of the dark a white belly appeared, followed by a dark back. Its feet and beak were black; the feathers on his head were all black except for two white spots in front of both eyes. He looked like a penguin, but was much taller than Kowalski and his friends.

"What… who are you?" Kowalski asked.

"I'm a Great Auk, but you can call me G.A.," the bird explained.

Kowalski gazed at him and remarked: "This cannot be. They were exterminated 1844."

"And yet I'm standing in front of you, am I not?" The auk laughed.

"Kowalski, what is a Great Auk?" Marlene asked.

"A bird that lived… lives?" In real life, when people were losing relatives, they had to correct themselves changing the present term into past term. This odd time it was the other way around. "…in the Northern part of the Atlantic. The Latin name of the Great Auk is pinguinus impennis, and this in fact already explains everything. Although we spheniscidae aren't related to the pinguinus, we look alike – due to reasons I won't explain now – and therefore human explorers named us after the 'penguins' they knew from their home. But Great Auks were exterminated – or at least that's what I and science have thought – in the 19th century."

"In fact some of us survived. But I'm one of the last ten still living Great Auks. I'm living history." He smiled. "You see. The obvious can be fallacious."