CHAPTER TWENTY ONE: Penguins Again
Skipper kept rolling to and fro in his bed. The pain in the head came back but it wasn't the main reason for his sleeping disturbances. He couldn't stop thinking about Shay. Where is she now? What is she doing? Is she safe?
There was a loud moan coming from Tracey's bed.
"Daaaarh!"
The team woke up immediately. There was a nervous rustle of bed sheets. Kowalski scrambled out of his bed and felt his way towards the light switch to see what had happened.
Tracey was sitting in the middle of her bed, her eyes widened from shock. Now it came down to everybody that she'd turned penguin again. She still wore her golden bow on the top of her head. There were some traces of lipstick at the upper part of her beak.
"OMG, when did it happen?" chirped Cassie.
"I dunno I just woke up like this!" answered Tracey.
Kowalski walked up to her bed, took her in his arms and picked her up.
"Well, that means the rest of us will go back to our penguin-shapes in no time!" he stated. Before Skipper had a chance to reply, there was a sequence of loud "POP!" noises. Two seconds later all of them found themselves on the floor.
"What time is it?" asked Cassie nervously, sweeping her eyes over the walls.
"It's four o'clock a:m!" answered Kowalski, looking at his special watch.
"Ow!" said Tracey, rubbing her bum with a painful grimace. "Watch were you drop me, man!" she said to Kowalski with annoyance.
"Well sorry, Madame, I didn't have a chance to put you down, because of my sudden metamorphosis!" replied Kowalski.
"What shall we do now?" asked Key.
"We need to escape the hostel as quickly as possible" answered Skipper. There were some traces of wound in the middle of his forehead.
"Skipper, your head." Said Private uncertainly. "Does it hurt much?"
"Nah, it's okay, soldier" said Skipper.
"Thank Goodness, we got a room on the ground floor" said Cassie. "I've always had big problems with scrambling upstairs".
Rico waddled up towards the kitchen and swallowed the rest of their food supply, not for himself of course, but to keep it for the rest of the team. When he was done, the penguins left the room and slided on their bellies in Indian file towards the entrance.
"What the!" gasped the receptionist, as eight penguins whizzed across the carpet in front of his office. He dropped his mobile phone and leaned his head across the window.
"You didn't see anything, soldier!" cried Skipper.
Two seconds later, the whole team had found themselves outside the hostel.
"Oh dear Golly, everything seems so big and overwhelming now!" moaned Tracey, craning her neck up and sweeping her eyes over the sky-scrapers.
"And its sooo freaking loud!" said Cassie, covering her ears with her flippers.
"There is only one short cut, girls!" remarked Skipper, while opening the sewer deck.
"Wait.. what.. the.. the severs?" gasped Tracey. "You must be jokin, man! There's no way I'm going inside!"
"I'm afraid there's no better solution for us to get back home, Tracey. At least under current circumstances" said Kowalski.
"In your dreams, man!" sneered Tracey and turned on her heels "I'm pretty sure there's a more pleasant way to.. DArh!" she stopped short as a fourteen year old youngster whizzed on a skateboard several inches away from her feet. "All right, then, you win!" she said, clutching her heart, her face pale as a chalk.
Skipper smiled under his beak , put the sever deck aside and gave a sign for the rest of the team to hop in.
_II_
"Ohhh, yuck!" exclaimed Tracey, watching over the dusty pipes with disgust. "This place gives me chills!"
"Get a hold of yourself, sista, there're only three hundred meters left!" replied Skipper, who was waddling at the front of the group.
"How the heck are you supposed to know?" asked Cassie, glancing at Skipper with puzzlement.
"As a matter of fact, we know these severs like the back our flipper, Tracey" confessed Kowalski. "Whenever we wanted to save our tails from Officer X's wrath, or had some important business in the middle of the town, we would always use this place for a short cut. Not one of the most pleasant ones, indeed, but still…."
"Now really?" said Tracey, while squirming away from a big spider net, floating up in the air. "I've been here for three minutes and I already have enough."
"Here's the ladder!" exclaimed Skipper joyfully, pointing his flipper forwards.
The team was sitting by the pond, sharing the rest of their food supply and savoring the fresh evening.
"Awww… bliss!" sighed Cassie, while lying down on her back and sweeping her eyes over the stars. "No cars, no skateboards, no filthy rats! Peace and silence. In the open! That's what I really needed!"
Skipper was resting his back against the tree trunk, his face pale, his expression sad and resigned.
"You look worn" commented Private, waddling up to his leader. "Is the pain from the wound gone?" he asked, taking a quit glance at Skipper's small scratch.
"It does burn a little, but It's not excruciating" replied Skipper and forced himself to smile.
"Not to worry, Skippa" chirped Private. "I will ask Kowalski to make you a warm compress by the time we get home."
"Guys, can you hear it?" cried Tracey, sitting up straight on the ground, her expression alert.
The team went silent for a while: everybody pricked up his ears.
Somebody was sobbing.
"I'm 100 percent sure it's a girl" said Kowalski.
"A penguin girl" added Tracey.
"It's Shay" chimed in Key, her look both anxious and aroused.