Author's Note: I don't know if it's the cough syrup or the cough but I just felt like writing something. It's kind of short but it shouldn't be quite as lame as the other chapters so please R/R.
Disclaimer: Me no own Zim.
***
Dib gulped as his scant covering was destroyed. His only defense was running and even that wasn't working very well. The giant robot was considerably quicker than it looked and it was hard enough for Dib to dodge the scorching attacks let alone think up a plan for retaliation. Though he supposed that was probably how the Snorkans wanted it. For the first time Dib was having real doubts about his ability to beat this alien technology. He leaped away from another blast from the laser cannons mounted on the mechanical horrors back, forget beating this thing he was questioning his ability to survive!
Shaking his head to clear it of such thoughts Dib took cover behind a rock jutting out from the cavern wall. The cover didn't last long, it disintegrated the second the blast hit it but it did give Dib just enough time to look around. He noticed a strange looking shadow on the other side of the cavern. His next run for cover brought him close enough to realize that it wasn't a shadow at all but a small opening to some sort of tunnel. Barely stopping to think Dib ran for it and dived in.
Scrambling to his feet Dib had just enough time to congratulate himself on escaping. But then the sound of breaking rock reached him and he realized that the killer robot wasn't through with him yet. The tunnel he was in was just big enough for him to run upright, and run he did. It wasn't long before he saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Dib took a deep gasping breath and pushed muscles to new limits. He had to get out of here before that thing caught him.
He burst out of the tunnel into what felt like fresh air. He seemed to be outdoors under an orange sky on a ledge sticking out from a rock wall. Dib had no idea where he was so he decided to assume he was somehow still in the maze. He looked around. There was no cover and the ledge dropped off abruptly. He was most certainly at a dead end, no pun intended. A growl echoed from the tunnel he had come out of. Trying unsuccessfully to swallow the limp in his throat Dib turned to face his pursuer. He didn't even bother to try to think of some way out.
***
Zim looked around. How had he gotten lost like this? The door he had taken had most definitely been the one to the cave room! Where was the bridge? The two doors? The room he was in was circular and metallic as well as littered with mettle blocks. How could this be? He never got lost like this; he had been going straight! Could it have been another room built to look exactly like the first to confuse him? No, that wasn't like the Snorkan style at all. It had to be more complex than just a lot of look a like rooms.
Suddenly Zim remembered something from the Invader Academy. It was fuzzy, as were all his memories of that place, but Zim was certain he had seen something like this. It had been a maze, but some of the rooms had moved. Yes, that's what it was. The maze had been installed his last year and the academy and hadn't been fully developed but he remembered one of his teachers telling him about it. It was a favorite Snorkan pass-time. The rooms would move seemingly at random and you could set the doors to close at different times. Times!
Zim looked up just as all the doors slammed shut. Well this wasn't good.
***
"Well Doctor, what's wrong with me?" asked a very nervous patient.
"Well, there's something wrong with the blobby, spongy, thingy in your head," said the doctor, a little green dog dressed in a spiffy white coat. The doctor examined some X-rays of the man's head and drew a little mustache on the X-ray of the skull; he giggled uncontrollably.
"You mean my brain?" said the patient a little confused.
"Yes! Now we operate!" GIR grabbed one of those little rubber hammers and a tongue depressor and jumped on top of the patient who started screaming. It was all going downhill very fast when the speaker suddenly crackled into life. GIR looked up from his twitching patient.
"Doctor GIR, you're needed in Delivery," said a voice over the loud speaker. The door opened a guy decked out in scrubs grabbed GIR and started heading for 'Delivery'.
"Yay Delivery!" yelled GIR. "Is that like Deli?"
AN: *Laughs like a maniac* I think that just might be my best chapter yet! If I get some reviews you might just find out what happens next. Not that I need that many reviews, apparently only one person reads this thing anyway *scowls*. Anyway, next chapter coming out whenever; things are actually going to get interesting.