I'd just like to take the time to thank everyone who has read and commented on my story. I'm glad that you enjoyed it and I'm very grateful for all your comments.
The halls seemed mostly empty. Dib eventually ran out of breath and had to walk the rest of his search, but every person he came across didn't know anything about Zim. They weren't even aware that someone named Zim was here. After nearly fifteen minutes of wandering around the base, Dib found Gaz talking to a group of people.
"Gaz, have you seen Zim?"
"Dib, did you sleep in those clothes? You do know that there were clothes in your room,? You look like you crawled out from under a bridge."
"Have you seen Zim?"
"Not since I last saw you? Why?"
"He's missing."
"It's a big base. I'm sure he's around here somewhere," Gaz turned away from her brother and continued talking to the crowd of people around her.
Dib was too frazzled to think about clothes or what Gaz was talking about. He kept searching through the base, but soon he had covered every inch of that place enough times to know it off by heart, and Zim was still nowhere to be found.
Dib walked back to his room, hoping that he might have just missed Zim and he was really waiting for Dib back on the bed. But his room was just as Zimless as the rest of the base. Fell back on the bed, tired again, but too worried to think about doing anything but looking for Zim.
He stared at the ceiling. What was Zim thinking? Dib wondered. Was this why he asked Dib if he'd be forgotten? Dib started banging his head against the mattress. Why did he let sleep decide how far he took that conversation? If he had been more awake, he would have been more suspicious about what Zim had asked. He would have made Zim talk more and found out what Zim had planned. How could he have been so stupid.
"Hey, Dib, you're awake!" Zim said.
Dib sat up. Zim stood in the doorway with a smile on his face. Dib launched himself off the bed and at Zim, knocking all the items that Zim was carrying on the ground.
"Zim, where were you, I looked all over."
"I borrowed one of Gaz's underwater boat things. I thought that, since things are going to get crazy really soon, you should at least have a human birthday celebration."
Dib laughed. "That's alright, I never really liked celebrating my birthday anyway. You don't have to go through the trouble."
"But I already bought you a gift. But if you don't want it, I guess I can just put it back."
"You got me a birthday present?"
"Of course. Zim is so amazing that he found the perfect gift for you." Zim bent over and started looking through all the bags, pushing aside streamers and confetti, and paper plates, it looked like Zim had bought out some party store. "Here it is!" Zim pulled out a small, rubber alien toy and put it in Dib's hands.
The alien was about the same size as Dib's hand. It was one of those squeeze toys that if you hold it tightly enough, its eyes would pop out. Its yellow eyes stared back at Dib. Dib gave it a squeeze and the two eyes popped out in two different directions. Dib smiled.
"Thank you, Zim." He said, releasing his grip on the toy and letting the eyes sink back in place.
"I knew you'd like it ."
"I do. You know, Zim, if you painted this thing green he'd look a lot like you," Dib said with a playful smile.
"Would not!" Zim nearly screamed the words, "I for one look much handsomer than that ugly thing. And Zim's eyes are not a sickly yellow."
"But do you liked to be squeezed?" Dib said.
Before Zim could even answer that, Dib wrapped his arms around Zim and gave him a big, squeezing hug. Part of it was for the present, and another part of it was the last of the earlier anxiety leaving in one big hug. Zim panicked at the sudden attack, but he calmed down and wrapped his arms around Dib's head.
"You know, Zim," Dib said, not releasing the hug, "This is easily the best birthday present I've ever gotten."
"Really?"
"Well, whenever anyone remembered by birthday it would either be birthday punches from Gaz, or a chemistry set from my dad, so yeah. This is the best one ever."
"I'm happy you like it. So," Zim said, breaking out of the vice like hold Dib had on him, "Now that you've gotten your gift, let's start decorating."
"It's alright Zim, I don't want a party."
"But..." Zim paused for a second, "Alright, the real reason Gaz didn't want you to hear our conversation was that she wanted me to get this surprise party thing."
"Then, why did you bring all the stuff here and announce that we were going to celebrate my birthday?"
"How is Zim to know all the specifics of your human day of birth customs!" Zim said, pointing at the mess of party decorations laying on the ground.
"The word 'surprise' is right in the name."
"You lie!" Zim said, now pointing at Dib.
Dib smiled. "Alright, how about I pretend you never said anything and you can get Gaz to help you." Dib stood up to his full hight and held the rubber alien toy above his head, "But I'm keeping this."
Zim gathered up all the decorations that had fallen out of the bags and slowly walked out. Suddenly looking like he was trying to hide the fact he had party, and ran the other direction. Dib couldn't help but laugh. He couldn't believe that he thought something bad had happened to Zim earlier. He never would have guessed a birthday party, but he should have known better than to suspect the worst. They've been through some pretty crazy stuff, but here both of them were, more or less the same from when things had first started.
Dib looked around the room, he remembered Gaz saying that there were clothes for him somewhere in the room. It wasn't hard to find. The drawers were embedded in the wall. Inside was a blue shirt, black jeans, and a long trench coat. It felt like years since he wore these clothes. He knew just from the feel of them that they were his. Of course, the only difference between then and the last time he saw them was that now they were clean. Dib changed out of his tattered clothes, which had seen much better days, and put on the new ones.
Dib smiled as he looked himself over. There was something about wearing clothes that hadn't been through hell and back that made him feel a little more whole. Wearing those clothes brought him back to a time before all the insanity started. Or rather, a time when the only insanity was the usual stuff, when he was still all flesh. It was odd how just a change of clothes made things seem so different.
Dib walked back out of the room. Only this time he wasn't frantically searching for Zim. It had probably been a little more than a day since he had eaten. It felt like months had passed, but still, it had been far too long since he's had anything to eat. At least his panicked search for Zim had one benefit, he could find his way to the kitchen without a moment of hesitation.
On his way there, he could see Zim and Gaz arguing. He pretended not to notice Zim trying to push off all the decorations onto Gaz, who in turn was trying to push Zim away. Once he was out of their sight, he had a private laugh to himself. It felt good having people who cared. Sometimes it was easy to forget about the people who care the most about you.
When he got to the kitchen, Kyle was hanging over some sort of chocolate batter as X leaned against the fridge. The kitchen was just as metallic as the rest of the place. There was plenty of counter space. It definitely looked like the kind of kitchen that was used to cook for a lot of people at once.
"Hey, long time no see," Dib said, waving to X.
X gave him a quick wave as well. X had changed a little bit since Dib had last saw him. For one it seemed like his natural hair was growing back. He still had it spiked, but the brown roots were showing. He still had the cool indifference that Dib knew.
Kyle turned around. "Dude, we're making brownies. They are going to be awesome!"
"Sounds nice. I''m just in here for a snack." Dib said, walking towards the fridge.
X stepped aside to let Dib pass. "I'm glad to see your survived."
"Yeah, well, these past few days didn't exactly make things easy.'' Dib dug around through the fridge. There was a big bowl of macaroni salad sitting in the middle of it. Dib carried it out and set it on the island counter. The bowl weighed a ton. It was probably to feed everyone, but a little bit wouldn't be missed.
X pointed at one of the cupboards. Dib took out a bowl and set it next to the big one. Just as he turned around, X held out a fork and large spoon. Dib gave him a nod and served himself a heaping bowl. He knew that he probably wouldn't be able to eat all of that, but right now his stomach was doing all the thinking for him.
"So, how have you been doing?" Dib said, taking a bite of the macaroni. Instead of cheese like he was used to, someone had made it with ranch and lemon. It wasn't bad, but a little more sour than he expected.
"Surviving." X said, taking back his initial spot on the fridge after Dib put the big bowl back.
"It seems like things are going to get a little crazy around here soon." Dib said between bites.
"Or crazier sooner," X said with a nod.
The conversation pretty much ended there. Dib finished eating. His stomach wasn't too happy about the huge amount of cold macaroni. It ached a little, and Dib was beginning to regret having the big portion of macaroni salad.
"So, what do you think will happen in the next week or so?" Dib said after dumping the bowl in the sink.
X shrugged. "It's hard to say. Sometimes people act the way you expect, and other times they surprise you."
"What does that mean?" Dib asked.
"Dude, I think it's X's way of saying he doesn't know." Kyle said, licking off the batter from a rubber spatula. "X is one of those people who can't admit he knows nothing. But I guess not everyone can achieve the same state of knowledge as me." Kyle's attempts at talking while licking the spatula resulted in batter ending up mostly on his nose. Dib couldn't help noticing how bloodshot Kyle's eyes were.
"Yeah. The world would be a poorer place." Dib said, making Kyle grin. Dib pushed away from the counter he had taken to leaning on, "Well, it's nice talking to you guys. I'm going to head out."
Dib walked out. He couldn't help but be grateful that he still had friends here. He thought back to the time on the island. Things really seemed bad there. It was a good think that Gaz had saved them, for more reasons than one. But it's not as if Dib would ever tell her that.