Chapter 5
The explosion from the air mines had sent the crashed ship down a hill, and now the edge of the ship was looming near a cliff. Marlin and Dory, tired from the hectic events that they had experienced, were now sleeping in a makeshift hammock, which they made out of a discarded net. The hammock hung off the nose of the ship, because at the time of them making it, they weren't moving. Marlin mostly stayed silent, as he was dreaming about finding his son, while Dory muttered in her sleep about a 'monkey with a hammer' and an 'octopus who has my wallet'.
The crashed ship shifted down the hill, and the movement caused Marlin to stir. He then turned over on his side, opened his eyes a little, and saw the gaping black abyss at the bottom of the cliff! This instantly awoke him, and he started panicking at the prospect of falling into the darkness! He then looked up and, seeing the green and black pilot helmet with the strange language, quickly grabbed it and tried to read it.
"What does this say?" Marlin muttered quickly, before feeling the crashed ship shift again.
This worried Marlin even more, and he quickly moved down the net and over to Dory.
"Dory, wake up!" said Marlin, his tone worried. "Dory, wake up, come on!"
"No, this is my natural hair color…" Dory muttered.
"Wake up!" Marlin raised his voice, which caused Dory to awake with a start.
When Dory awoke with a start, she started babbling random nonsense, and Marlin attempted to calm her down. But then, the two stopped, and saw that the ship was now moving, and it was taking them, both of whom were in their makeshift hammock, all the way into the wall of another cliff! Both Marlin and Dory let out yells of fear, as they tried climbing up and out of the makeshift hammock, but they couldn't get out in time, and they crashed, right into the wall of the other cliff! Fortunately, the nose of the ship saved them, and all it did was kick up dust when it crashed.
"Wow, dusty." said Dory, after she had coughed and shooed some dust away.
Marlin looked around and, seeing that the pilot helmet was not in their hammock, looked at Dory and said in a panicked tone, "The helmet, where's the helmet?!"
The two then heard what sounded like rocks shifting, and saw that the helmet was rolling down the hill of the cliff, and into the darkness!
"No!" Marlin yelled, quickly jumping out of the makeshift hammock. "Get the helmet, grab the helmet, get it!"
He ran into the darkness, in an attempt to retrieve the helmet, but he found the blackness to be extremely thick and unnerving, to the point where not even sunlight could enter into it. Scared by this, Marlin quickly ran out and hid behind a large rock, as his mind conjured up horrors of what could be hiding in the black abyss.
Dory, on the other hand, was just floating along, and admiring how the darkness just seemed to go on forever. She then turned and saw Marlin, who had turned a small shade of white, and had a fearful look on his face.
"Hey, whatcha doing?" Dory asked.
"It's gone, the helmet's gone!" Marlin replied, his tone worried.
"What, did you drop it?"
"You dropped it; It was my only chance to find my son, and now it's gone!"
Marlin then went back to looking at the black abyss, while Dory paused for a few seconds. But what she said next, made Marlin scowl, and look at her like she had lost her mind (or what was left of it).
"Hey mister grumpy-pants…" said Dory, her tone of voice goofy, and expression equally so. "When life gets you down, you know what you have to do?"
"No, I don't want to know what you I have to do." Marlin replied, his tone annoyed.
"Just keep movin', just keep movin'," Dory sang, which made Marlin let out an irritated sigh. "Just keep movin', movin', movin', what do we do? We move on."
Dory then took Marlin by the hand, and started leading him down the hill, and into the darkness.
"Dory, stop singing." said Marlin, as Dory started to sing an operatic version of her 'just keep moving' song. "Dory, will you stop with that song?! Stop it with that song, now it's in my head!"
"Sorry…" Dory apologized, as they walked straight into the black abyss.
Dark.
Pitch.
Black.
Darkness.
To put it simply, there was nothing to be seen.
"Dory, do you see anything?"
"AGH! Something's got me!"
"That's me, that's me."
"Who's that?"
"Who else could it be, it's me!"
"Are… are you my conscience?"
Marlin let out an annoyed sigh, and decided to play along.
"Yes, I'm your conscience; we haven't spoke in a while. How are you doing, Dory?"
"Can't complain."
"That's good. Now Dory, I want to look very carefully, and tell me; do you see anything?"
"I see… I see a light."
"A light?"
"Yeah, right there. Hey conscience, am I dead?"
"No, I see it too."
In the darkness, a faint light emanated like a beacon, as Marlin and Dory walked towards it. But as they did so, they felt, but did not recognize, a strangely hypnotic feeling. And as they kept staring at it, they fell into a trance.
"What is that?" Marlin asked, his tone confused.
"It's so… pretty." Dory replied, her eyes growing wide.
"I'm… feeling… happy," said Marlin, his tone somewhat confused. "Which is a very big deal… for me."
"I want to touch it." said Dory, reaching for the light.
Suddenly, the light darted away, and both Dory and Marlin followed it. As it moved from them, the two talked to it like it was a cute little pet, saying that were 'going to catch it' and that 'they wanted it to be their best friend'. However, when they turned, and saw the 'owner' of the light, the happy, hypnotic feelings they were feeling suddenly turned to fright.
"Good feeling's gone." said Marlin, his tone now back to being worried.
The 'owner' of the light was probably human at one point in it's existence, but judging from how it looked now, there was no more human. The creature was over twenty feet tall, was heavily emaciated, had dark brown colored skin, limbs that were extremely long and thin, and hands and feet that were large and thin! The light was attached to it's right index finger, which it used to lure unsuspecting travelers who were passing through.
But the most frightening aspect of this monstrosity was it's face; it had a skull-like face, with pupils that were completely white, no nose, and teeth that were jutted out and sharp looking! It's entire body was also covered in smaller lights, which lit up upon revealing itself to Marlin and Dory. Seeing this massive horror, the two let out yells of fear and made a run for it, right before the creature was about to grab them! As they ran, the creature gave chase, crawling on all fours and moving rapidly!
"I can't see!" Marlin yelled, as he and Dory ran through the pitch blackness. "I don't know where we're going!"
Suddenly, as the two ran along the rocky ground, Marlin spotted the helmet lying on top of a sharp rock. Quickly, he and Dory dove for the helmet, barely dodging the monster, which scurried over them!
"Okay, I can't see a thing." said Dory, her tone nonchalant.
The monster, which became comedically confused at the disappearance of its two prey, quickly turned around when it heard Dory's voice. It then spotted Marlin, and started chasing after him!
"Hey, a helmet!" said Dory, picking up the pilot's helmet.
"Read it!" Marlin yelled, as the monster came after him.
"Can you bring the thing a little closer?" Dory asked. "I kind of need the light."
When it was bright enough for her to read, Dory then said, "That's great; keep the thing right there."
"Just read it!" Marlin yelled, barely avoiding the monster's grasp again.
"Okay, okay, Mr. Bossy!" Dory replied, her tone mildly annoyed, as she sat down and began reading the strange language.
Dory began sounding it out, as the monster kept chasing after Marlin. The monster then had him pinned in a crack, trying to reach at him with the finger that had the light on it. Quick as he could, Marlin grabbed ahold of the finger, while letting out a small groan at how grimy the skin was, and pointed it in Dory's direction. The darkness lit up, and Dory could clearly see the helmet.
"The first line reads 'P. Sherman'." said Dory.
"P. Sherman doesn't make any sense!" Marlin replied, before getting yanked out by the monster.
Dory then began reading the second line, but Marlin, who was hanging onto the monster's finger when he was yanked out, was suddenly eaten, which caused the entire area to go pitch black again!
"Light, please!" Dory called out.
The light turned on within the monster's stomach, which was so emaciated that the inside of it could be seen! Inside, Marlin was being flung around while holding onto the finger! The monster then spat his finger out and tried to bite Marlin, who quickly jumped off, which resulted in the monster biting it's own finger, causing it to hollow in pain!
"The second line is Squad Forty-Two." said Dory, as Marlin rushed over to her.
"That's great, now read the last one!" Marlin replied, stopping by Dory and looking back.
Marlin started yelling random nonsense into the air about how there was 'no pressure' and then there was 'a lot of pressure'. His reason for yelling was that the monster, now fueled by pain and anger at its difficulty to kill the two prey, was rushing at them with everything that it had! Dory, however, failed to notice this, due to keeping her eyes on the helmet and reading the strange language.
"Discberg!" Dory announced. "The third line is Discberg!"
"Duck!" Marlin yelled, quickly grabbing the pilot helmet, as the monster charged, and-
SMACK!
"I'm dead," said Marlin, covering his eyes. "I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead, I died, I'm dead."
But when he opened his eyes, he saw, much to his delight, that he had hit his mark! The pilot helmet was now around the monster's head, and the straps had it pinned to the rock! It couldn't break free, for the straps were extra reinforced, meaning that the sucker was trapped there. They had done it; they beat the beast!
Marlin let out a cheer and began singing, "We did it, we did it, oh yeah, yeah, yeah! No eating here tonight, whoo!"
"No eating here tonight!" Dory joined in, pointing at the monster. "No eating here tonight, you're on a diet!"
"Dory!" said Marlin, suddenly snapping out of his victory song. "The helmet, what did it say?"
"P. Sherman, Squad Forty-Two, Discberg." Dory replied, before suddenly gasping and yelling out, "I remembered what it said; I usually forget things that I read, but I remembered it this time!"
"But where is that?" Marlin asked.
"I don't know, but who cares?!" Dory replied with a question, her tone excited. "I remembered!"
The monster let out a roar of anger, which caused both Marlin and Dory to both yell in fright, and then get away from the creature as fast as they could. The two then started trying to find a way out of the blackness, and onward with their journey.
"P. Sherman, Squad Forty-Two, Discberg." Dory repeated, before excitedly yelling, "I remembered it again!"
In Discberg, at the prison, it was now night, and the guards had gone back to their homes. Almost all the lights in the prison were out, save for a few dim ones that gave off a small form of light, and the lights of the city that was off in the distance. Nemo was sound asleep in a prison cot, curled up and under a dark red blanket. His sleep was without dreams, and was relatively peaceful.
Suddenly, there was a 'psst', and a pebble went over Nemo, barely hitting him.
"Oy, Nemo…" said an oddly familiar voice, a male with a French accent.
Another pebble missed Nemo, and he stirred in his sleep.
"Nemo…" the voice tried again, now sounding sing-song.
Nemo didn't respond, and this time, several pebbles were thrown. They all hit Nemo, and he awoke with a start, turning to see the Frenchman, Jacques, standing there. For some reason, Jacques had added a green grass skirt, a necklace made out of shells, feathers, grass, and jewels, and a tropical hat made of grass, to his prison attire.
"Wha… what do you want?" Nemo asked, his tone mildly worried.
Jacques muttered something in French and walked away, but when he saw that Nemo wasn't following him, he then said in English, "Follow me."
Nemo, confused, obeyed and follow Jacques, who went through an open vent. Nemo followed him into the vent, which they crawled through for a few minutes.
As they reached their destination, Nemo could hear the tribal chanting…