The Speed of Darkness
Chapter 29 – Commitment


"Ouch!"

The specialist's sharp cry of pain echoed around the dreary sewer as Marlene attempted to stem the flow of blood coming from his face.

"Sorry, Private," she offered, using a bit of dirty cloth she had found to wipe the young penguin's wound.

The group had escaped into the mouth of a sewer that opened to the ocean just below the dock. After realizing that Alice and her counter part were not giving chase, they settled down just inside of the opening. It was far enough in so that the smell was prominent, but there was still a nice breeze of cool, fresh air blowing inside. The sun was very low in the western sky now, and the skyline that Marlene could see was already turning dark blue.

She got up from the injured Private and walked over to a broken pipe which, thankfully, was now spurting a very slow stream of clean water. She put the rag into the stream of water and watched it turn from clear to red.

The Asian otter turned her attention to Skipper, who was now standing in the opening of the sewer, flippers crossed, staring at the horizon. His ebony feathers blended into the dimming light, producing an eerie silhouette, as though it was only the shell of the real Skipper.

"You okay, Skipper?" Marlene asked, "You've been standing there for a while now."

Skipper lowered his head ever so slightly, but remained silent.

Marlene redirected her attention to what she was doing. The rag was now clean, and she proceeded to continue cleaning Private's wound. She glanced at Manfredi, who was still unconscious. She had already checked his pulse twice to see if he was still alive. Even though his heart was still beating and his chest slowly rose and fell with his breath, she couldn't help but feel like there was a dead body lying next to her.

She turned her head to look at Rico, who was pacing angrily back and forth. He only stopped every once in a while to punch the air or kick the wall. Marlene could almost feel the anger radiating from him.

"Mmmph," came Private's voice. While looking at Rico, Marlene had accidentally smothered his beak with the rag.

"Sorry again, Private. I'm a little out of it," said Marlene. She handed the smaller penguin the rag and stood up.

"Is'alright," returned the round penguin, "I think we all are." As Private took the rag Marlene noticed his flippers were still trembling.

For the most part, not a word had been said since they got there. Except for the occasional grunt from Rico, yelp of pain from Private, or mysterious groan from down in the sewer, Marlene had only been accompanied by her thoughts. What concerned her about it, though is that Skipper had not said a word since they arrived. Marlene always saw him as an excellent leader, resourceful and intelligent. Now he looked like he was as lost and dazed as everyone else in the room.

Maybe everyone just needs some time to calm down and think things over, she thought.

"Hey Marlene," said Private suddenly, breaking Marlene from her thought, "This may not be the best time, but how did you get all the way to the docks without..." he paused awkwardly, "you know..."

Marlene felt confused for a moment, but then look wide-eyed back at the specialist with surprise. Through what had happened only an hour ago she had completely forgotten about her issue with being outside the zoo walls.

"Well," she began, racking her memories. Everything before the fight on the dock was a bit blurry – she could only think about Gier's knife being pressed against her throat. She looked around for a moment and noticed that Skipper had now turned around, directing his attention towards her.

"I left the zoo a few minutes after you guys did. I started out determined to come find you, or at least get to the docks by the time you did to see if I could help at all. Things went well until I got near the edge of the park, near where the playground is.

"When I got there, I saw the slide. You know, the big, spirally yellow one? For some reason I couldn't resist going over to slide down it. It was so fast and fun, when I got to the bottom, I just had to do it again."

"But Marlene," interrupted Private, "You've got a slide in your habitat already."

"I know, I know," explained the otter, "but this was a different feeling than I ever got from sliding down my slide. I felt so free – just like the last time I was out of the zoo. I must have gone down a dozen times, until this little boy showed up.

"At first he was amazed by me, like it was his first time ever seeing an otter. He laughed, smiled, and said I was cute. I remember smiling back, and then we went down the slide together. We did that a couple of more times, laughing and giggling all the way. Sometimes I went down the slide first, sometimes he went down first. It was so much fun... I never wanted it to end. I felt like it should never end.

"Then, the boy's mom showed up. She yelled for him, told him it was time to leave the park. The boy waved to me, still giggling. I noticed him walking away from the slide... I had to stop him. I ran after him and grabbed his pant leg, stopping him in his tracks. He laughed some more and brushed my paws away, then continued walking towards his mom.

"I remember looking up at the lady, and being overtaken with a growing sense of anger as she looked confused down at me. She whispered something to the little boy, and brushed the dust off his pants. I felt my muscles tense up. The last thing I remember before I blacked out was the lady reaching down and picking up her son. I felt like she had no right to take the boy away from me. The boy was mine, and we were having fun."

Marlene stopped talking for a moment, and silence enveloped the sewer for a while. Rico had stopped his nonsensical pacing and had started listening to her story.

"The next thing I remembered was the boy's face, full of tears. He as yelling at me. He called me evil. He said he hated me. I was heart broken," the otter continued. "Then I noticed his mom. She was now on the ground, clutching her leg. I noticed there was a good area of her pants missing and some blood trickling down her hand. I stepped forward and tried to help, but she screamed. I lifted my paws to try to calm her down, but then I noticed I was holding a piece of fabric from her pants... it was torn to shreds. Not thinking, I ran my tongue over my teeth and tasted blood."

"You attacked a human?" Skipper suddenly interjected, the only thing he had said since they went into hiding. Marlene looked up at him to see his brow arched and his flippers still crossed.

"Yes, but like I said, I don't remember doing it. After that I some men began running after me, so I took off into the only place I knew I could be safe: down here in the sewer. It took me a little while to collect myself, but I'm glad I made it to the docks when I did."

"That's for sure!" offered Private, thankfully. Marlene opened her mouth to say something more, but Skipper spoke first.

"You never should have left the zoo." he said, simply, and turned back around.

Marlene couldn't help but feel anger at the statement. "Wait, what? Why?" she asked, confused.

"You can't handle being out here, Marlene," the leader penguin continued, "Not only did you let the humans see you; you actively attacked one of them. You've compromised my whole mission."

"Do you even know what you're saying?" Marlene argued, "If I hadn't have shown up at the docks, Private could be dead right now!"

Marlene heard Private whimper. Skipper stayed quiet for a moment, still looking out to the horizon. "You could be too," he said after a while.

Marlene was taken aback by the statement. She rubbed her throat where she had felt the cold kiss of Gier's knife against her windpipe. If Alice hadn't had have come around at that exact moment...

"I knew I was risking my life by coming," Marlene explained. "I know I don't have any combat training and I'm not that strong. I have my brains though," she pointed to her head, "and they came in handy, didn't they?"

"You wanted to help us?" said Skipper, still not turning back around.

"Well... yes." said Marlene. She didn't want to tell him the real reason she had ran out of the zoo the night the penguins left. She knew she had done so out of her own selfish want for adventure and excitement. She couldn't bear the idea of sitting in her exhibit while her friends were off battling some major threat. She knew they might need her help, and of course she was worried for their safety. She also knew, however, that her coming along could adversely affect their goal: she even knew it was possible that her being around could possibly even have resulted in utter failure. She knew she would make an easy target for Sarge to manipulate Skipper...

"Then help us by going back to the zoo. Right now." Skipper said, dryly. A chill ran up Marlene's spine. However, she found her voice and managed to respond.

"There's no way I can go back to the zoo now," she explained. "One of the people who saw me attack that lady probably recognized me from the zoo brochures or something. They'd probably make Alice... get rid of me."

Suddenly, Skipper spun around quickly and marched right up into Marlene's face. Though he said no words, his face was twisted in anger and his eyes met Marlene's. She felt his icy stare burn deep into into her skull. She wanted to look away, almost as if she was ashamed.

"No excuses, Marlene," Skipper began, "If you hadn't have showed up, that rock-hopper would never have gotten his hands on you. I never would have had to give Fishslader what he wanted. I would have gotten Kowalski back."

Marlene noticed something new in Skipper's eyes as he said Kowalski's name; something unique. It made him look tired, almost as if he was an old penguin. It faded as soon as it had appeared though, and Marlene was once again intimidated by the penguin's glare.

"But... but Private was..." Marlene tried to argue, but she lost her voice again and Skipper interrupted her.

"If you would have just stayed in the zoo like you were supposed to, I wouldn't have failed."

Marlene felt guilty. Skipper's words stung her, and she felt her eyes begin to water up.

"Is that all this was, Skippah?" Private piped up. He had tears streaming down his face, mixing with the blood coming out of the gash across his cheek. "Was this all just your mission? Did you fail? Did you forget what we even came out here to do? I remember you said to us that we were 'going to get our boys back.' Do you remember that?"

Skipper still locked his gaze with Marlene, but the otter could see that he no longer radiated the anger than he was moments before. Private continued speaking.

"If Marlene made you fail your mission, maybe I shouldn't have come either. Then I wouldn't have been captured. Maybe Rico shouldn't have come either. Then you and Manfredi would have had to deal with it all by yourself, but we wouldn't have been in your way!."

Skipper averted his eyes from Marlene, but did not look towards Private. "You're right, Private," he said. "I'm sorry, Marlene." The otter didn't respond. Looking tired, and now a bit sad, the flat-headed penguin proceeded back to his perch by the entrance of the sewers. "We didn't save Kowalski."

"K'waski!" blurted Rico.

"We tried our best, Skippah," offered Private, who was now rubbing the tears out of his eyes with the dirty cloth, "Now all we an try to do is go find Kowalski."

Marlene noted how Sarge had yelled to them that Kowalski and Phil were still on the boat, but they were still not sure if it was the truth or not. She knew, however, that there was little chance that Sarge was actually lying about it.

"Our best wasn't good enough," returned Skipper. What a downer, thought Marlene.

The entire sewer filled with silence once more. Marlene walked over to the side of the entrance and sat, pulling her knees up into her chest. She glanced around her; Rico had stopped his pacing and Private had tossed the rag away from himself, even though his wound was still trickling blood. Her eyes came to rest on Manfredi – who somehow was still out cold. Marlene momentarily thought about what had happened to him during the fight before she got there. Her eyes came to rest on his chest. She watched it rise and fall with his breath. Rise; fall.

A few awkward minutes that seemed like hours passed before Marlene's keen sense of hearing picked up on something new. It sounded like footsteps, but from where she couldn't tell. They were echoing all around her. She briefly thought she was going crazy, but upon seeing Private and Rico's interest in the noise as well, she knew it really existed. She saw Rico ball his flippers into fists, tense at the unknown noise.

The footsteps were closer now – Marlene could tell there were two pairs of feet. Whoever it was, they were running fast. She felt the fur on the back of her neck stand up and her heart rate accelerated. She could hear panting now. It almost sounded familiar...

Suddenly, a monochrome lemur rounded a corner a little way down the sewer.

"Julien!" Marlene cried out. What was he doing here?

"Phil, de king has found de penguins!" the self-proclaimed king declared loudly down the entrance he had emerged from. A few seconds later, a chimpanzee rounded the corner as well. The pair began approaching Marlene.

"Julien, you found Phil!" the otter said, excitedly. She didn't think she had been as happy to see Julien in her entire life.

As Julien approached Marlene noted that he looked rough. His fur was matted and untidy. He looked soaking wet. There were clumps of what Marlene hoped was just mud in his fur as well. Phil looked equally as dirty.

"What happened, Julien?" asked Private, "What happened? How did you find us?"

The lemur king leaned over, panting for breath. He took a moment to compose himself before finally explaining.

"De king... I went... de boat..." it was like Julien wanted to say everything he had to say all at one time.

"Ringtail, spit it out!" commanded Skipper, who had left his post at the entrance to the sewer once again.

"De king followed Marlene out of the zoo when she left," the tall lemur pointed to Marlene, "to... uh... see what she was doing. After she got to the ship place thingy, I saw you fishy penguins fighting with de evil penguins."

Julien stood up proud before continuing, "Using my kingly smarts, I snuck onto der ship," he made a motion of sneaking around, "and found funky monkey and de kidnapped penguin tied up below de deck. Den, just as de ship started moving, I jumped into de water with the funky monkey and saw de fishy penguins go into de sewer."

"Why didn't you come find us sooner, if you saw where we went?" Skipper asked. Marlene noticed he now looked surprised, and even a little bit excited.

"Uh," Julien answered, "You see, de king has only a few skills left he needs to master. Swimming is one of dose skills." Phil made a motion of drowning in the ocean. "We got swept away by a current, and ended up a long ways down de shore."

"It's great you found us," Private said, a visible smile now on his face, "but where is Kowalski?" He leaned over and peered down the entrance that Julien and Phil had emerged from.

"Oh, dat tall fishy-penguin," Julien explained. "He said he didn't want to come with."

Suddenly, Skipper ran up and grabbed Julien's shoulders. Julien was surprised by this and attempted to pull away, but Skipper held his arms tight.

"What do you mean he didn't want to come with?" Skipper said. Marlene noted how he looked almost as angry as he did when he had yelled at her only a few minutes ago. She concluded that Skipper really felt like he had failed his friend – and had attempted to blame it on her. She knew if Julien didn't come up with a satisfactory answer, he would do the same with him. It was as if Skipper never thought a failure was his own fault.

"De king is telling the truth!" answered Julien. Phil grabbed Skipper's flipper and nodded vigorously, trying to calm the penguin down. Skipper let the self-proclaimed king go and Marlen acknowledged that he was telling the truth.

Julien brushed his shoulders off, scoffing as if Skipper had done him some great offense. "As de king was saying," he began, "de smart penguin said he was to be staying on de boat so dat you can track de evil penguins."

Skipper visibly slapped his forehead, as Marlene suddenly realized Kowalski's plan.

"He must have realized what those penguins are up to," she offered, "and when Julien went to save them, he offered to stay behind. Skipper, he wants us to track those penguins!"

"Kowalski, you son of a gun..." mumbled Skipper, walking over to the backpack that was laying near the unconscious Manfredi. He opened up the a watertight compartment on its side and pulled out the GPS tracking device. Why hadn't we thought of sooner? thought Marlene.

She walked over to where the leader penguin was looking at the device and looked at it herself. On its screen, he had zoomed the map out to the furthest possible distance it could go. Sure enough, there was one, blinking, green blip floating in the water just off the coast of long island.

"We've got to go after him, Skippah!" urged Private, his flippers balled into fists.

"Go! Go!" urged Rico, jumping up and down.

Skipper looked up from the device. "Looks like we're going to need a boat," he returned, simply.


~Author's Note~ I have to say, I have been thinking about this story non-stop for the last few weeks. I'm hoping to write at least two more chapters before the new year, so keep an eye out for them. Also, as an odd note - After re-reading several segments of the story, I have realized that I originally mentioned the CIES tracking chips to only have a range of 50 miles and a battery life of 1 month. That's changed, in case you were wondering.