by Joy
NOTE: If Demonadramon lets me borrow her idea, once I'm done with the last chapter of my story, I'll have some funny outtakes put up at the end! ^_^
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Chapter Five - Renewed Hope
The faint glow of the full moon shone in through a barred window of a CDA jail cell. Inside, Randall sat on the edge of his bed, face in his hands. Why'd he think that such a plan as his would work? Nothing he did - past or present - ever seemed to phase Sulley much. And what about Sulley's claim of him 'kidnapping' Ceila and Mike - what was up with that? He didn't even have the faintest idea that they were kidnapped!
Randall sighed deeply and ran a hand through his fronds. Things just never went right with him. He was so close to revolutionalizing the scream industry when all of a sudden he got banished. The next thing he knew, once he had returned, Sulley took that same title changing the energy from screams to laughter overnight. Then he became "Mr. Popularity" in less than twenty-four hours. What did he have that Randall didn't? That was the age-old question that he could never seem to answer. It drove him crazy.
Not being able to stand the constant sitting anymore, Randall stood and walked around his cell, all four hands clasped behind his back. He glanced up at the CDA agent that had been assigned as his guard. He knew he'd have to do something really clever to get the keys from him and sneak out unnoticed.
That was easy enough for him to achieve. All he'd have to do was grab the guard's keys from behind his back, knock him out and open the door. But then it dawned on him that he wouldn't know what to do once he had escaped. Would he hide the rest of his life? As far as he was concerned, that was just as much of a life as staying in the jail cell.
Randall shook his head slowly and went over to the window. He rested his arms on the sill and set his head on top of them. Cool fall breezes blew in, gently rustling his fronds. He closed his eyes, enjoying the fresh air as compared to the stuffiness of the cell. When he opened them again, he saw something he had seen few times before in the monster world. It was a human.
Randall's head lifted a bit as he watched the shadowy figure head towards a local resident. He squinted into the darkness, but couldn't quite make out his features. The only thing he could tell was that it was a male. The human went towards the unsuspecting monster and took out something that looked like a bag. He watched in silence as the man scooped the monster up into his bag, slung it over his shoulder, and ran off down the sidewalk.
"What is that human doing in Monstropolis??" he muttered to himself.
Just then, the human ran into the glow of a streetlight and he saw him clearly for the first time. He had a long, white LAB coat! It was a scientist - a human scientist!
Randall straightened up with alertness and watched for a while to see which direction he was heading. He ran across the street north and immediately Randall realized where he was going. 'Monsters Inc,' he thought to himself. It didn't take a genius to figure that one out.
But the question was. . .how'd he get to the monster world undetected? And was Randall really the only one who knew about this? But he was broken out of his thoughts when he heard a metal door bang closed behind him. Randall turned around to see Roz standing outside the cell with a couple of agents to either side of her.
"Hello Mr. Boggs," she greeted in that dry, hoarse voice of hers.
He approached them and leaned an arm on the bars of his cell. "What do you want?" he asked in aggitation. He had been getting briefs from the agents all evening, and now Roz.
"I'm here to let you know that we don't plan on bringing you to court anytime soon," she informed him. "We have more pressing matters that need to be addressed at the moment. We hope you'll understand."
Randall sighed and gave a nod, looking away. "Yeah, whatever," he replied flatly.
"And we're looking into a few mental institutions," Roz continued, still straight-faced as ever. To Randall, it was a wonder she didn't start cracking a smile at the prospect of putting him in the crazy house.
He threw his hand up into the air and groaned, turning to go back to his bed. "Great, now EVERYONE thinks I'm a crazy loon," he sighed, changing to a sarcastic tone. "Go ahead, look into the most zany one you can find. What does it matter? I'm probably going to lose my mind anyways here in solitary confinement for - what? - 70 more years!"
"It's not exactly solitary," Roz corrected. "We allow visitors - as long as they follow the guidelines. Only come from 4 to 6 pm each-"
Randall turned around and stared at her, hurt filling his eyes. "Who's going to visit me? I don't know a single monster on this earth that has me on their mind right now," he interrupted coldly. "At the most, they'd all rather get me OFF of their minds. . ."
He then turned his back to them and folded his four arms. Roz, apparently, didn't have anything to say to that, because she quietly slinked off towards the exit. Suddenly, a loud, blaring alarm went off and red lights flashed. The CDA agent that was guarding Randall ran off with the other agents.
"Every agent in the building, please report to the front," a voice over the speakers announced. "Now. No exceptions." Then the speakers turned off with a fuzzy click.
Randall gave little notice to all the panic and dragged himself back to his bed. He plopped down onto it and laid with his back against the wall. The sirens soon calmed down and Randall began to realize just how utterly exhausted he was.
"Well. . ." he began. "At least the beds are comfortable - more comfortable than a leaky, rotten log."
He curled up on the bunk and yawned, rolling over onto his stomach to get more comfortable. He slipped his upper arms under his head and soon began to doze off. Within a few minutes, he was fast asleep.
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Randall panted as ran through the bowels of a dark tunnel. He saw some light shining at the end of the stone tunnel and he ran for it. Strangely enough, he didn't even know WHY he was running. So, he slowed down as he reached the opening and found himself in a laboratory. There were tables stacked with flasks and bottles of bubbling, colored liquids and scientific tools of all sorts. It began to give him the creeps.
Suddenly, he was grabbed from behind by a human - a scientist. He gave him a sicky sweet smile and led him to a chair. Randall wasn't sure what was happening, everything was moving so fast that soon he found himself sitting in that chair.
"Don't worry," the scientist assured him with a fake air of calmness. "I'm only going to run a few. . .tests."
Randall's eyes widened and he looked towards where the tunnel was. Maybe he could make a break for it. Everything about this human gave him the chills. He was preparing to do something and Randall wasn't going to stick around to find out what that was. While the scientist had his attention on a table with different colors of chemicals and nasty-looking tools, he jumped down fromt he chair and ran for the tunnel. But as he got closer, the tunnel got smaller and smaller until it disappeared totally. Randall skidded to a stop.
"What in the name of Monstropolis is going on? Where am I?" he said aloud, patting the wall with his hands, as if looking for a secret passageway of some sort. "This is beyond strange. . ."
"Randall!" the scientist said from behind him in a demanding tone, coming closer and closer with one of the nasty-looking instruments.
Totally creeped out by all this, Randall pressed his back against the wall. The scientist's mean voice suddenly began to turn into a soft girlish voice that sounded as if it was fading. "Randall. . .? Randall?"
Randall awoke with a start. He quickly looked at his surroundings, his heart thumping in his chest. He saw only his jail cell and the bed he had fallen asleep on earlier. 'Thank goodness it was only a dream,' he thought in relief, taking a deep breath to calm himself down. He made a mental note to himself not to eat the CDA's junk food before going to bed.
"Randall?" that gentle feminine voice from his dream said again.
"Huh?" Randall muttered, looking towards where the sound came from. His eyes rested on a familiar blue lizard-monster, Leia, who was looking in his window from outside. What was she doing there? It was probably past midnight! He got out of bed and slowly walked towards her, his brow furrowed in confusion. "What?. . .I mean, who?. . .I mean, er. . ."
"I'm breaking you out of here," she said.
"YOU?" he said, laughing a bit and placing all four of his hands on his sides. "Really. . ."
Leia smirked, putting a hand on her hip and holding up the other, which had a saw in it. "Don't underestimate the power of a woman," she told him. "Now do you want out or what?"
"Well, yeah, but why are you doing this??" he asked, looking at her oddly. "I don't even KNOW you."
"Look," Leia began with a sigh. "I saw what happened back there with you and Sulley. It was wrong. And. . .well. . .you haven't heard yet, have you?"
"Well, being in a jail cell kind of cuts you off from the rest of CIVILIZATION, if you get my drift," Randall said, stressing his point. "What haven't I heard yet? Seems like people are keeping too much from me lately. . ."
"Let me help you out first," she offered. "Then I'll show you what I'm talking about."
Leia began sawing at the bars, but suddenly she stopped, looking over her shoulder. She looked back at him and slipepd the saw inside. "I'm sure you can do it," she whispered. "The CDA are getting too close for comfort, I've gotta get out of sight before they realize what's going on. I'll be back."
Randall took the saw and raised an eyebrow, looking it over. He could saw his way out of there in no time with this thing. He then looked back up at her and nodded slightly. "Yeah, no problem," he replied. "I could probably get the job done faster than you anyways."
He began to saw at the bars, concentrating on his work more than what was going on outside. He cut out one bar - then two - then three - until finally the last ones were taken out. He smirked with satisfaction and peeked outside to see if those agents Leia was talking about were gone. Seeing nothing but a few swaying trees, he slipped out into the chilly night air. He just barely fit through the little window, but he was once again free!
Leia came out of a nearby hedge of bushes that surrounded the CDA property and seemed relieved that he had gotten out so fast. "Looks like you were right," she said with a slight smile. "By the way, my name's Leia."
"I'm Randall Boggs," he replied. "I guess I owe you that much for helping me out."
"Yes, I heard your name being spoken in that fight," she said, running a hand through her golden hair. "I decided that I was too hasty in judging your character. That's part of the reason why I came to help you out."
"And the other is. . .?"
"Come with me," she said, taking his hand and heading for the sidewalk. "I'll show you."
Randall couldn't help but give her another look. In the moonlight, he had to admit, she was quite beautiful and she seemed sweet and caring. But the thought that kept popping up again and again in his mind were the memories of his past girlfriend, Shani. She had professed to loving him deeply, acting all caring and kind. . .
Then came the day when she showed her true colors. Shani had betrayed him - big time. He later found out that she was the one who had tipped the CDA on his plans of kidnapping kids and the Scream Extractor. He had confided her with the secrets he would have told no one else on the planet. Now that those secrets were all revealed to the authorities, his record was scarred with the graffiti of deep-dark secrets that she just handed out like candy at Halloween. The CDA had then awarded her "wonderfulness" with the position of second-in-command.
She had only pretended to love him to achieve something she had considered much more valuable. In fact, she couldn't have cared less if it meant an eternal banishment to the human world or a life sentence in jail. No, he was just a tool - nothing more. He was determined not to let that happen again - ever.
He shook the thoughts out of his head as Leia led him off down the sidewalk. He had been in such deep thought that he didn't notice the CDA helicopters flying everywhere, spotlights scanning over the city. The streets were pretty much deserted and the remaining monsters that were actually on the sidewalk looked spooked, on edge.
Every once and awhile, a CDA truck would fly by, patrolling the streets much like the time when Boo got into the monster world - except this looked much worse. You could feel the panic in the air. It would be ridiculous to think that all this was just to find a single scientist like the one he saw earlier. What was going on. . .?