p class="MsoNormal"Lemonhope was faster than the monsters, but he was heavily outnumbered. The way he came in was blocked by the oozing beasts and more were stumbling out from the depths of the building. He stood at the only way he could find an escape, a faded window. He climbed up the windowsill and tried to break through the window with his elbow. His strength failed him as he only succeeded in making dull thuds against it. He turned around to look for something he could throw through it, but the nearest chair was occupied by a stumbling oozer./p
p class="MsoNormal"Seeing this reinvigorated his spirit and he rammed himself against the window with all his strength. It still did not break, but he could feel it giving away near the bottom. He clambered down quickly, all the while glancing behind him. There were more than a dozen oozers behind him and they were getting dangerously close. He looked at what made the window give, and saw a rusted latch holding the window shut./p
p class="MsoNormal"He grabbed it in an instant and started tugging at it. With each tug he could feel it loosen, and so with each tug he could also see the hoard approaching. After a few more desperate tugs he freed the latch and pushed the window open with ease. He could feel the breath of an oozer on him the moment before he clambered through the window and into the wide, car filled area./p
p class="MsoNormal"However, he had no respite when he found the car park to be filled with the oozers. The oozers made no delay in pursuing Lemonhope, forcing him to run out into the street which he came from. Every moment he spent running he saw the amount of oozers double. He saw them crawling out of the holes in the street and appearing in swathes from the towers. The hoard was endless and was catching up despite their slow speed./p
p class="MsoNormal""Help!" shouted Lemonhope. Despite his hopes that someone would hear him, he knew his cries fell on deaf ears. His run faltered as he kept looking around at the oozers crawling out of every corner. He managed to straighten out his run when he heard an ominous rumble echoing off the towers. He looked to see if the oozers were doing something to cause this, but he saw nothing except the shambling masses. For a moment, the road ahead of him was clear without an oozer in sight. The towers thinned and a small view of the wide wastes opened up to Lemonhope. All that remained was the low rumble and the moans of the damned beasts./p
p class="MsoNormal"Lemonhope could put this nightmare behind him and escape. He was not sure where he was in the land of Ooo, but if he could get anywhere other than these haunted towers, he would be happy. But that hope faltered when he saw a wave of oozers emerge from the towers ahead, smothering any way out. Lemonhope's run slowly came to a halt. He stood still, now lost in what to do in the face of the encroaching despair. The rumble was becoming louder, and the hoard came closer./p
p class="MsoNormal"Would he die alone, in a place where no-one would care that he would be missing? He would fade away from the world and become as forgotten as the towers which he stood by. No-one would notice. No-one would mourn. No-one would care. A mere blip in the universe, small enough that it could barely even be called that./p
p class="MsoNormal"Lemonhope struggled to focus on his melancholy as the low rumble became louder. He felt slightly frustrated and forgot about the hordes of oozers for a moment as he looked for a source. Lemonhope found his answer in an instant. It was hard to miss, the rumble guiding where he looked. It was a large motorcycle and someone with actual clothes was riding it! Lemonhope could not tell what the person on the motorcycle looked like from the distance at which he observed it, but it was someone who could help. Lemonhope found his courage again and sprinted towards the rumbling motorcycle. He did not even take a cursory glance towards the hoards closing in on him; he just focused on the gap which led to his saviour./p
p class="MsoNormal"What were merely seconds felt like forever to Lemonhope as the motorcycle approached, but his sense of time resumed normally when the motorcyclist came to a screeching halt next to him. The rider wore a jet-black leather jacket with chains hanging off of it. Their face was covered by a bandana with an intricate black and white pattern on it. Their eyes were hidden away by chrome-coloured aviators and they wore a helmet with a spike on top. Their torn baggy jeans flapped in the wind when they put their feet down to support the bike./p
p class="MsoNormal"Lemonhope stared in awe at the biker and they stared back in turn, only breaking their gaze to take note of the approaching hoard. "Come with me if you want to live," said the biker extending a hand to Lemonhope. Their voice was gravelly, and it sounded as if they had a lot of phlegm stuck in the back of their throat. Lemonhope reached out to take their hand but stopped short when he noticed their discoloured skin. Lemonhope looked back at the biker quizzically and made a horrific revelation. He saw a small drop of green sludge dripping from behind the biker's aviators./p
p class="MsoNormal"Lemonhope took a step back in shock. One of the monsters that were pursuing him were now offering him a ride. The biker looked at the hoard again and revved their bike. "If you don't trust me, then I guess I'll leave," said the biker in an annoyed tone. The biker was starting to pull away when Lemonhope jumped unto the back of the bike. The biker might have been an oozer, but at least it was talking. Lemonhope thought that his chances were better off with a monster that he could reason with./p
p class="MsoNormal""Hold on tight, this is going to be a bumpy ride!" shouted the biker with excitement. Lemonhope barely had enough time to grab on to the biker before the motorcycle roared with power and shot them forward. The biker made a sharp turn before they collided with the oozers, causing Lemonhope to hold on for dear life as the bike tilted and nearly touched the ground. The speed was immense and made the wind whistle in Lemonhope's ears. He struggled to hold his eyes open as the wind blasted them dry./p
p class="MsoNormal"Lemonhope could barely hear the oozers they passed over the roar of the engine. It was a raw form of power that Lemonhope had never experienced before. It felt amazing. Soon the bike slowed down and Lemonhope could look around and see where they were. The towers were shorter, and more squat buildings were around them. A gunshot grabbed his attention and he looked ahead, spotting an oozer falling over into a puddle of its own ooze. Lemonhope looked further beyond and saw a great wall surrounding one of the squat buildings up ahead. At each corner was a tower and he could see figures standing at the tops./p
p class="MsoNormal"When the bike was close enough to the wall, a well-hidden gate opened up for them to enter. Lemonhope could see just beyond it an array of motorcycles, and cars covered in spikes and metal plates. When they entered, the biker drove expertly through the lot to an open space between a couple of other motorcycles. Lemonhope found the silence unbearable when the engine was switched off, but the silence was thankfully broken by the biker./p
p class="MsoNormal""I guess I have to greet you properly, since I saved you and all," said the biker. He climbed off and faced Lemonhope. He then reached up and took off his aviators and bandana, revealing to Lemonhope the oozer's deformed face. Their face did not ooze as much since the biker kept their mouth closed and wiped away the ooze from their eyes every now and then. Since they did not have a nose, it made Lemonhope wonder if they even needed to breathe. "My name is Jack and I'm one of the many scouts for this town here," he said. "I was on my usual route when I saw the savages all going in one direction and I went to investigate. I never thought I would find a normal person out there. Speaking of which, what's your name?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanLemonhope hesitated to speak, his discomfort at Jack's appearance stopping him at first. "M-my name is Lemonhope," he stuttered. "I'm a little lost as to where I am and why you haven't attacked me."br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Well, you must have come a long way not knowing where you were to end up lost here," said Jack with a chuckle. "You're in Allmar, the city of the civilised people! I'll have to show you the town square." Jack turned around and started walking towards a gate on the opposite side of the car park. Lemonhope's stomach grumbled and reminded him that he hadn't eaten for a while. "Do you have any food?" he asked as he caught up to Jack and joined his /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"We have some of the finest food you can scavenge this side of town," said Jack. "Don't worry, first meals on me." The two walked side by side in silence before Lemonhope spoke again. "You still haven't answered my question, why haven't you attacked me?" he /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanJack stopped short and his tone grew serious. "We used to be like those savages out there," he said. "We were all like them, until we gained a conscious. From what fragments we can remember, weren't always monsters. We all can remember the sickly green flash followed by pain. We think that green is what turned us into what we look like, and it destroyed our minds in the process. The savages that you saw out there aren't even the worst cases. The green still changes them, and it has made some savages which are truly a disgrace of life."/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"But we think it's that changing nature that gave us our thoughts and minds. As our eldest tell us, they were alone when they could first think. It was only as they slowly found one another that they started to form the idea of making a town for the more civil savages. We don't know what makes the green change us so that we can think, but it is because of that that why we don't feast on the living."br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanLemonhope pondered this for a second. "Why haven't you tried going to cities with normal people?" he asked. "If you aren't dangerous, you should be able to live among the living."/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"I don't think you understand," replied Jack. "The living fears us. I saw that fear in your eyes when I offered my help. Last time we tried to join the outer world; we were rejected. Violently." Jack paused a moment. "Anyways, I wanted to show you the town, didn't I?" Lemonhope understood the change in subject and did not press any further. After a brisk and silent walk the two stood at the gate./p
p class="MsoNormal"Jack looked at Lemonhope with a smug grin. "Witness the greatness of Allmar!" he pronounced as he opened the gate with an added flair. The sun that was obscured by the wall blinded Lemonhope for a moment when the gate opened. As his eyes adjusted, he was met by the sight of a beautiful town. It was contained in another section of the walled off car park, but had colourful shacks lining the wall. In the centre was a collection of stands filled to the brim with odds and ends. Civil oozers went back and forth between the stands, either looking at the items or buying them with piles of bottlecaps./p
p class="MsoNormal"To the right of Lemonhope was a solid stone wall with a long single segmented window spanning the bottom. Near the top of the wall was the name of the town in bold blue letters. Lemonhope noticed that a few letters around the name were faded away with time. One of the more pristine letters, being the third L, was starting to fade away as well. Soon it would spell out Alimar. Despite the lively appearance of the town, it was completely silent except for a soft conversation here and there./p
p class="MsoNormal"To make up for the lack of noise that the vendors of the stands could use to attract customers, they shook their hands about wildly and indicated to colourful and inventive signs that they had mounted to their stands. The oozers that roamed the lot had a unique fashion about them. Some wore normal clothes while others had outfits made of a wide range of materials all stitched together in elaborate ways. Lemonhope felt a bit out of place among the oozers, and especially so when those that passed by stared at him./p
p class="MsoNormal""Oh, and one more thing," said Jack. "Don't make too much noise, the 'neighbours' hate it when we have fun." With that said, Jack silently lead Lemonhope to a more closed off stand, greeting people they walked by with nothing but a silent wave of the hand. Lemonhope was hit by a broad selection of aromas when he entered the stand. The outside of the stand looked deceptively small compared to how many tables were crammed inside./p
p class="MsoNormal"Jack sat at a small table nearby and indicated for Lemonhope to follow suit. The moment they were both seated, a waiter was stood at their table. "Two regulars, please," said Jack. The waiter gave a nod and went as soon as they came. Silence prevailed as the two waited for their meals. The short wait felt much longer than needed before the food arrived. Their food was a pair of elegantly prepared lunch bars with any mouldy pieces cut out./p
p class="MsoNormal"Lemonhope was hesitant to eat at first, but one taste of the sugary snack and he had no complaints. Jack was still enjoying his meal when Lemonhope finished. Lemonhope looked at all the other silent customers before he spoke. "Is it ok if we talk?" he asked in a whisper. br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Of course!" replied Jack. "Everybody is just so used to being as quiet as possible, they find no reason to talk in the first place."br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Oh, that's good to know." Lemonhope contemplated what to say next. Oddly, he found himself at a loss for words when he knew he could talk. "Jack," said Lemonhope. "If you evolved from the more savage oozers, does that mean the savages outside can turn civilised as well?"br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanJack spoke just as he took a bite, causing him to incidentally spit out a combination of lunch bar and ooze droplets. "Yes, they most certainly can. Some of the residents here have turned pretty recently."br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"So, those savages that you shoot out there can still turn. Why do you shoot the savages if that's the case?"br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Wouldn't you?" replied Jack in a more serious tone./p
p class="MsoNormal"Lemonhope was back to not knowing what to say. He thought he would have had a lot more to say to his saviour, but all he was left with were thoughts that nagged at the corner of his mind. When Jack finished his meal, he spoke up again. "I can take you close to some form of civilization which you would be more familiar with. Just don't expect me to drive into any town."br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Thank you so much," said Lemonhope. "I greatly appreciate it, but do you mind if I explore the town a bit first? I have a few things I need to think about."br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Yea, sure! Take your time, the savages calm down a bit more at night anyways."/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanLemonhope thanked Jack for the food and went back into the silent street. With no real goal in mind, he started walking down the street mindlessly. Now absorbed in his own mind, the thoughts at the corners of his mind were finally let in. What hit him first was the strong juxtaposition between the savage oozers and more civil ones. Each and every one of the silent oozers he walked by would at one point have tried to kill him. These people had changed from complete monsters to something that you could call a friend./p
p class="MsoNormal"This thought brought him to Frasier. That little green fellow was his friend at one point, and at a time a monstrous one. If these oozers could have changed from monsters that belong in a nightmare into good people, could the same be said of Frasier? What fear he had of Frasier could be proven wrong. The fear that Frasier would descend further into anger and was unredeemable. Did Lemonhope's fear cloud his own judgement? Frasier had never forced him to do anything, and Frasier had said himself that he could change. When Lemonhope had gotten a whiff of any bad that could come from Frasier, he made the fear filled conclusion that he had to get away from Frasier as much as possible. Frasier had done Lemonhope no wrong./p
p class="MsoNormal"In fact, when he was with Frasier, he had someone with whom to share his feelings with. He had someone to talk to. Now Lemonhope faced all his fears and enemies alone. No one with who he could relate his pains, no one who would care to do so. As Lemonhope looked out unto the masses before him, he decided. He would return to Frasier to make up for his selfish judgement. Frasier might not have deserved Lemonhope's selfish judgement, but neither did Lemonhope deserve his forgiveness./p
p class="MsoNormal"Seeing this reinvigorated his spirit and he rammed himself against the window with all his strength. It still did not break, but he could feel it giving away near the bottom. He clambered down quickly, all the while glancing behind him. There were more than a dozen oozers behind him and they were getting dangerously close. He looked at what made the window give, and saw a rusted latch holding the window shut./p
p class="MsoNormal"He grabbed it in an instant and started tugging at it. With each tug he could feel it loosen, and so with each tug he could also see the hoard approaching. After a few more desperate tugs he freed the latch and pushed the window open with ease. He could feel the breath of an oozer on him the moment before he clambered through the window and into the wide, car filled area./p
p class="MsoNormal"However, he had no respite when he found the car park to be filled with the oozers. The oozers made no delay in pursuing Lemonhope, forcing him to run out into the street which he came from. Every moment he spent running he saw the amount of oozers double. He saw them crawling out of the holes in the street and appearing in swathes from the towers. The hoard was endless and was catching up despite their slow speed./p
p class="MsoNormal""Help!" shouted Lemonhope. Despite his hopes that someone would hear him, he knew his cries fell on deaf ears. His run faltered as he kept looking around at the oozers crawling out of every corner. He managed to straighten out his run when he heard an ominous rumble echoing off the towers. He looked to see if the oozers were doing something to cause this, but he saw nothing except the shambling masses. For a moment, the road ahead of him was clear without an oozer in sight. The towers thinned and a small view of the wide wastes opened up to Lemonhope. All that remained was the low rumble and the moans of the damned beasts./p
p class="MsoNormal"Lemonhope could put this nightmare behind him and escape. He was not sure where he was in the land of Ooo, but if he could get anywhere other than these haunted towers, he would be happy. But that hope faltered when he saw a wave of oozers emerge from the towers ahead, smothering any way out. Lemonhope's run slowly came to a halt. He stood still, now lost in what to do in the face of the encroaching despair. The rumble was becoming louder, and the hoard came closer./p
p class="MsoNormal"Would he die alone, in a place where no-one would care that he would be missing? He would fade away from the world and become as forgotten as the towers which he stood by. No-one would notice. No-one would mourn. No-one would care. A mere blip in the universe, small enough that it could barely even be called that./p
p class="MsoNormal"Lemonhope struggled to focus on his melancholy as the low rumble became louder. He felt slightly frustrated and forgot about the hordes of oozers for a moment as he looked for a source. Lemonhope found his answer in an instant. It was hard to miss, the rumble guiding where he looked. It was a large motorcycle and someone with actual clothes was riding it! Lemonhope could not tell what the person on the motorcycle looked like from the distance at which he observed it, but it was someone who could help. Lemonhope found his courage again and sprinted towards the rumbling motorcycle. He did not even take a cursory glance towards the hoards closing in on him; he just focused on the gap which led to his saviour./p
p class="MsoNormal"What were merely seconds felt like forever to Lemonhope as the motorcycle approached, but his sense of time resumed normally when the motorcyclist came to a screeching halt next to him. The rider wore a jet-black leather jacket with chains hanging off of it. Their face was covered by a bandana with an intricate black and white pattern on it. Their eyes were hidden away by chrome-coloured aviators and they wore a helmet with a spike on top. Their torn baggy jeans flapped in the wind when they put their feet down to support the bike./p
p class="MsoNormal"Lemonhope stared in awe at the biker and they stared back in turn, only breaking their gaze to take note of the approaching hoard. "Come with me if you want to live," said the biker extending a hand to Lemonhope. Their voice was gravelly, and it sounded as if they had a lot of phlegm stuck in the back of their throat. Lemonhope reached out to take their hand but stopped short when he noticed their discoloured skin. Lemonhope looked back at the biker quizzically and made a horrific revelation. He saw a small drop of green sludge dripping from behind the biker's aviators./p
p class="MsoNormal"Lemonhope took a step back in shock. One of the monsters that were pursuing him were now offering him a ride. The biker looked at the hoard again and revved their bike. "If you don't trust me, then I guess I'll leave," said the biker in an annoyed tone. The biker was starting to pull away when Lemonhope jumped unto the back of the bike. The biker might have been an oozer, but at least it was talking. Lemonhope thought that his chances were better off with a monster that he could reason with./p
p class="MsoNormal""Hold on tight, this is going to be a bumpy ride!" shouted the biker with excitement. Lemonhope barely had enough time to grab on to the biker before the motorcycle roared with power and shot them forward. The biker made a sharp turn before they collided with the oozers, causing Lemonhope to hold on for dear life as the bike tilted and nearly touched the ground. The speed was immense and made the wind whistle in Lemonhope's ears. He struggled to hold his eyes open as the wind blasted them dry./p
p class="MsoNormal"Lemonhope could barely hear the oozers they passed over the roar of the engine. It was a raw form of power that Lemonhope had never experienced before. It felt amazing. Soon the bike slowed down and Lemonhope could look around and see where they were. The towers were shorter, and more squat buildings were around them. A gunshot grabbed his attention and he looked ahead, spotting an oozer falling over into a puddle of its own ooze. Lemonhope looked further beyond and saw a great wall surrounding one of the squat buildings up ahead. At each corner was a tower and he could see figures standing at the tops./p
p class="MsoNormal"When the bike was close enough to the wall, a well-hidden gate opened up for them to enter. Lemonhope could see just beyond it an array of motorcycles, and cars covered in spikes and metal plates. When they entered, the biker drove expertly through the lot to an open space between a couple of other motorcycles. Lemonhope found the silence unbearable when the engine was switched off, but the silence was thankfully broken by the biker./p
p class="MsoNormal""I guess I have to greet you properly, since I saved you and all," said the biker. He climbed off and faced Lemonhope. He then reached up and took off his aviators and bandana, revealing to Lemonhope the oozer's deformed face. Their face did not ooze as much since the biker kept their mouth closed and wiped away the ooze from their eyes every now and then. Since they did not have a nose, it made Lemonhope wonder if they even needed to breathe. "My name is Jack and I'm one of the many scouts for this town here," he said. "I was on my usual route when I saw the savages all going in one direction and I went to investigate. I never thought I would find a normal person out there. Speaking of which, what's your name?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanLemonhope hesitated to speak, his discomfort at Jack's appearance stopping him at first. "M-my name is Lemonhope," he stuttered. "I'm a little lost as to where I am and why you haven't attacked me."br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Well, you must have come a long way not knowing where you were to end up lost here," said Jack with a chuckle. "You're in Allmar, the city of the civilised people! I'll have to show you the town square." Jack turned around and started walking towards a gate on the opposite side of the car park. Lemonhope's stomach grumbled and reminded him that he hadn't eaten for a while. "Do you have any food?" he asked as he caught up to Jack and joined his /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"We have some of the finest food you can scavenge this side of town," said Jack. "Don't worry, first meals on me." The two walked side by side in silence before Lemonhope spoke again. "You still haven't answered my question, why haven't you attacked me?" he /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanJack stopped short and his tone grew serious. "We used to be like those savages out there," he said. "We were all like them, until we gained a conscious. From what fragments we can remember, weren't always monsters. We all can remember the sickly green flash followed by pain. We think that green is what turned us into what we look like, and it destroyed our minds in the process. The savages that you saw out there aren't even the worst cases. The green still changes them, and it has made some savages which are truly a disgrace of life."/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"But we think it's that changing nature that gave us our thoughts and minds. As our eldest tell us, they were alone when they could first think. It was only as they slowly found one another that they started to form the idea of making a town for the more civil savages. We don't know what makes the green change us so that we can think, but it is because of that that why we don't feast on the living."br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanLemonhope pondered this for a second. "Why haven't you tried going to cities with normal people?" he asked. "If you aren't dangerous, you should be able to live among the living."/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"I don't think you understand," replied Jack. "The living fears us. I saw that fear in your eyes when I offered my help. Last time we tried to join the outer world; we were rejected. Violently." Jack paused a moment. "Anyways, I wanted to show you the town, didn't I?" Lemonhope understood the change in subject and did not press any further. After a brisk and silent walk the two stood at the gate./p
p class="MsoNormal"Jack looked at Lemonhope with a smug grin. "Witness the greatness of Allmar!" he pronounced as he opened the gate with an added flair. The sun that was obscured by the wall blinded Lemonhope for a moment when the gate opened. As his eyes adjusted, he was met by the sight of a beautiful town. It was contained in another section of the walled off car park, but had colourful shacks lining the wall. In the centre was a collection of stands filled to the brim with odds and ends. Civil oozers went back and forth between the stands, either looking at the items or buying them with piles of bottlecaps./p
p class="MsoNormal"To the right of Lemonhope was a solid stone wall with a long single segmented window spanning the bottom. Near the top of the wall was the name of the town in bold blue letters. Lemonhope noticed that a few letters around the name were faded away with time. One of the more pristine letters, being the third L, was starting to fade away as well. Soon it would spell out Alimar. Despite the lively appearance of the town, it was completely silent except for a soft conversation here and there./p
p class="MsoNormal"To make up for the lack of noise that the vendors of the stands could use to attract customers, they shook their hands about wildly and indicated to colourful and inventive signs that they had mounted to their stands. The oozers that roamed the lot had a unique fashion about them. Some wore normal clothes while others had outfits made of a wide range of materials all stitched together in elaborate ways. Lemonhope felt a bit out of place among the oozers, and especially so when those that passed by stared at him./p
p class="MsoNormal""Oh, and one more thing," said Jack. "Don't make too much noise, the 'neighbours' hate it when we have fun." With that said, Jack silently lead Lemonhope to a more closed off stand, greeting people they walked by with nothing but a silent wave of the hand. Lemonhope was hit by a broad selection of aromas when he entered the stand. The outside of the stand looked deceptively small compared to how many tables were crammed inside./p
p class="MsoNormal"Jack sat at a small table nearby and indicated for Lemonhope to follow suit. The moment they were both seated, a waiter was stood at their table. "Two regulars, please," said Jack. The waiter gave a nod and went as soon as they came. Silence prevailed as the two waited for their meals. The short wait felt much longer than needed before the food arrived. Their food was a pair of elegantly prepared lunch bars with any mouldy pieces cut out./p
p class="MsoNormal"Lemonhope was hesitant to eat at first, but one taste of the sugary snack and he had no complaints. Jack was still enjoying his meal when Lemonhope finished. Lemonhope looked at all the other silent customers before he spoke. "Is it ok if we talk?" he asked in a whisper. br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Of course!" replied Jack. "Everybody is just so used to being as quiet as possible, they find no reason to talk in the first place."br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Oh, that's good to know." Lemonhope contemplated what to say next. Oddly, he found himself at a loss for words when he knew he could talk. "Jack," said Lemonhope. "If you evolved from the more savage oozers, does that mean the savages outside can turn civilised as well?"br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanJack spoke just as he took a bite, causing him to incidentally spit out a combination of lunch bar and ooze droplets. "Yes, they most certainly can. Some of the residents here have turned pretty recently."br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"So, those savages that you shoot out there can still turn. Why do you shoot the savages if that's the case?"br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Wouldn't you?" replied Jack in a more serious tone./p
p class="MsoNormal"Lemonhope was back to not knowing what to say. He thought he would have had a lot more to say to his saviour, but all he was left with were thoughts that nagged at the corner of his mind. When Jack finished his meal, he spoke up again. "I can take you close to some form of civilization which you would be more familiar with. Just don't expect me to drive into any town."br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Thank you so much," said Lemonhope. "I greatly appreciate it, but do you mind if I explore the town a bit first? I have a few things I need to think about."br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Yea, sure! Take your time, the savages calm down a bit more at night anyways."/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanLemonhope thanked Jack for the food and went back into the silent street. With no real goal in mind, he started walking down the street mindlessly. Now absorbed in his own mind, the thoughts at the corners of his mind were finally let in. What hit him first was the strong juxtaposition between the savage oozers and more civil ones. Each and every one of the silent oozers he walked by would at one point have tried to kill him. These people had changed from complete monsters to something that you could call a friend./p
p class="MsoNormal"This thought brought him to Frasier. That little green fellow was his friend at one point, and at a time a monstrous one. If these oozers could have changed from monsters that belong in a nightmare into good people, could the same be said of Frasier? What fear he had of Frasier could be proven wrong. The fear that Frasier would descend further into anger and was unredeemable. Did Lemonhope's fear cloud his own judgement? Frasier had never forced him to do anything, and Frasier had said himself that he could change. When Lemonhope had gotten a whiff of any bad that could come from Frasier, he made the fear filled conclusion that he had to get away from Frasier as much as possible. Frasier had done Lemonhope no wrong./p
p class="MsoNormal"In fact, when he was with Frasier, he had someone with whom to share his feelings with. He had someone to talk to. Now Lemonhope faced all his fears and enemies alone. No one with who he could relate his pains, no one who would care to do so. As Lemonhope looked out unto the masses before him, he decided. He would return to Frasier to make up for his selfish judgement. Frasier might not have deserved Lemonhope's selfish judgement, but neither did Lemonhope deserve his forgiveness./p