Chapter 18
In Which We Have the Calm Before the Storm
Phoebe stood in the middle of a desert. The sand was cool under her bare feet, and she found herself shivering uncontrollably in the heat. She could hear the whinny of a horse in the distance. In front of her, firmly on the ground was a tiny cube, almost transparent but tinted pink around the edges. It was empty. Her hand reached for it.
She heard a sound and looked up in surprise. This was wrong, there wasn't supposed to be anyone else here. But there was someone, three people in fact. They wore long black robes with the hoods up, covering their faces so that she couldn't see who they were. She stared at them.
Then suddenly she was afraid. Horribly, completely afraid of something she couldn't see, couldn't sense at all. Two of the people in front of her moved away, as if they were afraid of whatever was coming also. The third person stood still a moment, then started moving towards Phoebe, stretching out a cloaked hand to her.
"No!" Phoebe tried to say, but nothing came out of her mouth. She wanted to go with the other two figures, it was suddenly vitally important that she go with the other two robed ones, but not this one. Not the one still moving towards her.
"Not you!" The words came this time but the figure paid them no heed. She turned to run but behind her was a huge stone wall that went on for as far as she could see. She turned around again to face her attacker, her arm shooting out at him automatically, as if she could ward him off with her hand. He grabbed her wrist tightly, she cried out in pain and then the figure was melting, somehow he was turning to liquid before her eyes but still gripping her. And then she realized that he was turning into a pool of blood at her feet…she looked at her hand, covered in blood now, and screamed and screamed and screamed…
Phoebe woke up. She was drenched in sweat, but she was at home in her own bed, safe. She waited a few moments for that fact to register firmly in her mind, then took a deep, long breath. A nightmare. That's all it was. A glance at the clock told her it was three in the morning, far too early to get up. She stared at the ceiling for a while, and eventually felt sleepy again. Satisfied, she rolled over and went back to sleep, and the next morning she didn't remember the dream at all.
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Gerald was bored. He hadn't thought – with three hours left to live and all – that it would be possible to be bored out of his skull. Apparently it was. He'd tried to do the whole life-flashing-before-your-eyes thing but he guessed it only worked if you were seconds away from death, facing it down and all that.
And now he couldn't even talk to Helga. As soon as Phil had left she had retreated to a corner of their cell and refused to meet his eye. His suggestion of another game of rock paper scissors had only earned him a glare, and he had a feeling that if he tried to kiss her again he'd end up…well, dead a bit sooner than he had expected. He stood up. Maybe Helga enjoyed sulking in a corner enough to want to spend her last few moments that way, but he was going to…um…walk. Around the cell. At least I'm not just sitting there anymore.
On his third time around, Helga let out an exasperated sigh in his direction. Ok, that's it. I'm dead anyway, might as well go out with a bang. And with that thought in mind, he sat down next to her.
If she knew he was there she gave no sign of this knowledge, so he poked her in the side. She raised her head from her hands and looked at him incredulously.
"Are you as bored as I am?" Gerald asked, ignoring the obviously murderous intent reflected in Helga's eyes.
"Am I bored?" she repeated, blinking at him, "I have three hours to live, and you're asking me if I'm bored?"
Gerald felt that now was probably not a good time to tell her it was more like two hours by now.
"That's right." he said and braced himself.
Helga stared at him for another minute, then gave up and leaned back against the wall. "Actually, yes, I'm bored silly. I'm all out of morbid thoughts to think and I don't feel like wallowing in self-pity. The range of accepted thought patterns for the doomed is way too limited."
"I guess rock paper scissors wouldn't be appropriate?"
"Yeah that's what I want on my tombstone: 'She bravely played rock paper scissors until the very end.'" Helga half-laughed.
"Well we could—"
"If you suggest making out, I'm gonna deck you."
Gerald blinked. He was going to ask if she wanted to play baseball, but now he was intrigued. "Why?"
Helga let out a breath of air and stared at the wall. "Look, I can understand the kiss, I was scared, you were desperate—"
"I resent that."
"All I'm trying to say is that it was perfectly natural for it to happen at the time. But it was just a last kiss, that's all. We can't read anything into it because there's nothing to read into. So let's just stop talking about it, k?"
"So you're saying it's nothing to be ashamed of."
"Right."
"Perfectly natural."
"Sure."
"So why are you so uncomfortable talking about it?"
"Gerald…"
"Ok ok, I'll shut up." He rested his head against the wall and closed his eyes. Well that's a relief. So that's all it was. Perfectly natural. Right.
Yeah right. He opened his eyes again. "That was some kiss though."
"Gerald, come on."
"I was trying to."
"We'd never work out." Helga stood, deliberately ignoring him, and started walking to the other end of the cell.
"Seems to me we don't have a whole lot of future to consider here," Gerald pointed out, standing up and walking with her, "I mean, even my shortest relationship lasted longer than three hours." Then he caught himself. Uh oh, I just said the r-word.
Helga seemed not to notice however. She folded her arms and growled. "If I ever get my hands on Syl…"
"What?" Gerald wasn't tracking well.
"Syl? Or El, or Elvis or Elfie or—"
"Elfie?"
"Anyway," continued Helga, beginning to pace while again ignoring Gerald, "Obviously she tipped someone off that we were coming and set us up very nicely. 'Here come the people you're trying to kill, right into your camp!' Bet she gets a huge Christmas bonus this year. And don't you dare defend her."
"El wouldn't do that."
Helga socked Gerald in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. He collapsed in a surprised heap.
"Uh, actually, I said that."
Helga looked up, fingers still clenched into a fist. Their guard was talking to them through the door, a bemused expression on his face. "Oh." She looked down again. "Sorry Gerald." He waved vaguely at her and worked on remembering how to breathe. Helga focused back on the guard.
"How do you know Eloise?"
"Huh?"
"Um, Syl. Or El. Or whatever the hell her name is."
The guard smiled. "Let's just say she's a good friend of mine. And I know for a fact that she would never double cross anyone like that."
"Then how else did the camp know we were coming?" Helga challenged.
"I don't know that—"
"Ha!"
"—but I know it had nothing to do with El. I'd stake my life on it."
"Which means a whole lot to me right now, let me tell ya." retorted Helga. She heard a Brainy-esque noise behind her and turned just in time to keep Gerald from falling down again.
"I did say I was sorry," she told him.
He nodded and whispered, "It's ok." Then he turned to the guard. "You're good friends with Sy—with El?"
"The best."
He nodded again. "Then this is for you." Gerald pulled an envelope out of his pocket and pushed it through the bars.
Helga stared first at the envelope, then at Gerald. "Where did you get that?"
"Syl gave it to me to give to her friend if we got a chance. I guess we just did."
"And you didn't think to read it or anything first?"
"Well—"
"I'll read it to you if you like," offered the guard mildly. "Well, part of it anyway. The rest is personal."
Helga rolled her eyes. "Oh great. We get to hear part of a message when Gerald here could have read the whole thing if he had only thought of it. Well go ahead, we've only got a few hours here."
The guard read from the note he had taken out of the envelope. "If you get this message, chances are that the people who gave it to you are in trouble. Please, somehow get them out of the camp. In case you need convincing that this is worth the risk, their names are—" the guard stopped. He had suddenly become considerably paler. Slowly, he looked up at the two prisoners. Then he quickly folded the letter back up and started fumbling for something in his pocket.
"Well? Grab your keys and let's go here pal!" said Helga as the guard continued to search.
"It's not that simple," replied the guard, "For one thing, I don't have keys to the cell. Only Phil does. Second, it's not that easy to get out of the camp."
"We've noticed," started Gerald, but stopped in surprise when the guard pulled out a lighter and set the letter on fire.
"I can't be found with this," the guard explained as he dropped the burning paper and put out the ashes, "This is going to be hard enough to pull off as it is."
"Still think Syl put us in here?" Gerald asked Helga, then added quickly, "You already punched me for that one."
He needn't have worried, however as Helga was deep in thought. "Ok, aside from wondering how they found us, we've got two things to figure out. First, is there a way to get out of this cell, or are we going to have to wait until they come down and get us? Second, how the heck do we get out of the camp once we're out of the cell? Too bad Phil isn't here now, we need his keys."
"I think El has provided us with the first answer." said the guard. Shifting the ashes with his foot, he then bent down and picked up something small and metal. A skeleton key.
Helga grinned. "Now all we need is a plan."
A/N: Sorry to leave you hanging like that, but I figured it was better than letting ya'll wait another three weeks or whatever until I finished this chapter. So yeah, I had to split this one, I've actually written more than this on it but this was the best place to put a break. So, two more chapters and an epilogue left. Hopefully coming soon! ~PJ
Snow Lane: Lol, keep thinking…someone's bound to figure it out…
Poison Ivory: Sorry no breakout this chapter, that's the next one and it'll be lots of fun, I hope! This one was just a bridge, but I felt like it's been a while and I'd better post something so ya'll don't think I abandoned the story or something. Geek Party is very close to being my fav all-time ep, if only for the way it develops so many characters in such a short time – and does it well! Amazing!
TADAHmon: AU means an alternate universe story: in other words, a fan-fic in which some major thing is changed from cannon. For example, a Harry Potter fic where Harry is sorted into Slytherin, or a Hey Arnold! fic in which Arnold's parents never left. Basically it's a "What if?" story. Make sense?
Luvya: Well it's Helga, so she probably was thinking about Lila, at least that would be my guess. :)
DropsofJupiter: ::hides from glare:: Heh, least I didn't get all mushy and stuff this chapter…? Phil has a lot to live up to as a bad guy, so don't be too hard on the poor man. After all, his bosses are ManWithShadowOnHisFaceWhoRadomlyThrowsObjectsOutOfWindows…and the other guy, lol.
nfg-babe33: Heh, just wait…and thanks :)
Miss Matched: ::listens to CD patiently, figuring I probably deserve it:: ::chomps on kudos happily:: ::chains herself to computer to write, tying Curly's leash next to her for company:: Better? :)
Sennical: Boring chapter this time, I know. Next will be better I promise, I just needed to set stuff up.
CourtneyCourtney: Will do, thanks!
pogo: I never said this was a Helga/Gerald story. grin.