Hey peoples. It's been over two months now. My apologies and gratitude to those who still read this. In short, we've been dealing with computer problems in our household and had to get a new one...then the new one screwed up. Heh. Yeah. Anyways. Since I already have the next three chapters written, you'll get updates twice this month and one in July. More violence and stuff in this chapter, more swearing too, so heads up.

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Subject 0001
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The Holding Area

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"Where's Zim?"

"Don't ask me, how would I know? Dead, probably."

The other Irken was silent for a moment.

"No way Zim is dead. Just no way."

"Pfft...come on. Zim wasn't invincible and he didn't think things through

completely. He was even younger than you. He'hut,

slamming it, then stomped off.

The new Irken stayed on the ground, panting heavily. He'd just been through a

violent punishment and was in too much pain to move. The other two Irkens dragged him

away from the cell door, just in case a guard happened to walk by and strike out at him.

"He can't be dead. There's just no way. It isn't possible."

"Drop the subject! He's dead, okay?! There isn't anything you can do about it, so

just leave it!"

"Who are you talking about?" the new Irken said, his voice cracking. He whined,

his body twitching violently.

"Zim," replied one of the others. "He's dead, and this moron here won't believe

me."

The new Irken forced himself up to a sitting position. "Zim's not dead, but he's

gonna be soon," he said, rubbing at his scarred back.

"He's not?"

"No. Not yet, anyway. They sent him to a forest to be hunted down like an animal.

I heard some guards talking about it." The new Irken sneered in disgust. "Humans are

such cruel, wretched beings. God, I hate them."

There was a moment of silence.

"I'll miss ya, Zim."

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8:02 p.m.

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It was now dark in the forest, and Zim had never stopped moving. He would run a

while, rest for a few minutes by a tree or large rock, check out his surroundings to look

for hunters, then start running again. He was exhausted now, but he pushed his weary

body on, his will to live too strong.

"What's the point?!" he asked himself out loud one time while he was resting.

"They'll eventually find me anyway!" Zim had sighed and pushed the thought away, not

wanting to think about it.

Zim trudged on, his pace slow and unsteady. His run soon turned into a jog, which

turned into a walk. He had to rest more frequently, and each time he stopped he lingered

longer than the last time. Eventually his legs gave way and he fell to the ground, panting

heavily.

'Maybe I lost them,' Zim thought hopefully, and he crawled over to a tree and

propped himself against it. He kept his eyes closed until he caught his breath, then slowly

opened them and gazed up at the moon. It was a clear night, and the moon was full. The

stars shined high above him, and Zim suddenly felt homesick as he looked up into the

darkness.

He yawned and pulled at his antenna, feeling drowsy but not wanting to fall asleep

in case the hunters showed up. There were crickets chirping in the dried up leaves on the

forest floor, and a soft breeze blew making the tree branches sway. Zim felt himself

starting to drift off, but reminded himself of the danger and forced himself awake.

'Plans for defense, that's what I need,' Zim thought, clucking his tongue. 'If I

want to live through the day tomorrow, I'm going to have to do a lot better than today. I'll

need a weapon...maybe a tree branch with a rock jammed in it...yeah.' He felt himself

dozing off again, and slapped himself to stay awake. 'Maybe I could make a trap or

something...a snare would work.....sorta.'

Zim yawned again, and he stretched his arms out. His bruises were aching him,

and the side of his head was throbbing. The bullet wound was only a dull pain, but it was

deep inside of him and he couldn't make it stop or feel better. It started to hurt him after a

while, and it became harder to ignore as time went by.

Sleep was trying to take over Zim's body, and even though he really did want to

let all his worries go and doze off, he wouldn't let himself. He didn't want to wake up and

be on the run like he had been today. He sighed heavily and let himself go limp against

the tree. It was a big willow tree with long, whippy branches that hung low. Zim watched

them wave when a cool gust of wind blew.

"Hey..," Zim said aloud, getting an idea. Some energy came back to him as he

thought of a plan. He slowly forced himself to a standing position and stood for a while to

check his balance. He then climbed up part of the willow tree and snapped a few whippy

limbs off of it. He tried to tie them together, but it took a long time to do because they

kept breaking apart.

'Okay. So far so good.'

Zim searched a small area in the forest for two trees that were close enough

together to tie the willow tree rope on. As he searched he broke off a few vines of ivy to

tie onto the ends of the rope so it wouldn't break when he tied it to the trees.

It took a long time for Zim to find a good spot to tie the rope between, but he

finally did and the rope fit perfectly. He pulled the rope at the middle after it was tied to

check how strong it was. It seemed strong enough to Zim, but he tested it a few more

times just to make sure.

After he was done with the rope, he tried to memorize his surroundings. He had

left markers for himself to find the willow tree again, but he still wasn't sure if he would

find them and be able to come back to this spot. He decided not to worry about it and

headed back to the willow tree, following the markers.

Zim rested a little while, but he no longer felt sleepy. He was still very tired and

weak, but he was excited with his plan and couldn't go to sleep even if he tried. As he

was resting, he looked around the willow tree for a good hiding spot. He'd grown to like

the area and wanted to stay near the tree if he could. Finding no such place, Zim looked

up at the tree, feeling disappointed.

"...Wait a minute," Zim said to himself, and he stood up and looked higher up the

willow tree. There was a thick branch from another tree sticking through the willow tree's

whippy vines. It was almost invisible to the eye, for the vines of the willow tree were

thick and covered the whole area around the branch. Zim had only seen it because he had

thought he had seen something and stared at it for a while.

Zim, after several miserbally failed attempts, started to slowly climb up the tree. It was a

high climb because the tree was pretty tall, but he eventually reached the thick branch that stuck

under the willow tree's vines.

Zim carefully grabbed the branch and pulled himself up, testing the branch's strength. It

didn't sway all that much and was thick enough for Zim to sit comfortably on. Zim

looked at the very tip of the branch which looked a little strange. He shrugged, deciding

that the real tip had been sawed off.

It made the perfect hiding place. Zim was high above the ground and concealed by

vines, and he could look down at his enemies without being spotted. He smiled, feeling

pleased with himself. The only problem with the spot was the risk of falling off. It didn't

bother Zim that much, and he felt more confident about his situation, as hopeless as it

was.

He rested up on the tree limb a while, and soon started to doze off. He woke up

suddenly, feeling himself starting to tip over the edge. He called out, startled, and caught

himself before he fell off. He shook his head a couple of times, then decided to climb

down and try and make a weapon. He sat on the limb listening for a moment and watched

the area down below him, then started to climb down after he was sure no one was

around.

Zim could feel his energy diminishing with each step he took, and it became

harder to fight the urge to sleep. He was feeling a little dizzy as he walked along, and he

wasn't really watching where he was going. He bumped into a few trees and stubbed his

toes multiple times before he found what he was looking for.

It was a long, thick stick with a hole in the thickest part. It was light enough for

Zim to swing around easily, so he decided to keep it. He headed back to the willow tree,

looking around the ground for a large rock to jam into the hole at the top of his club like

stick. He found a few that looked like they would fit, but all of them were either too small

or too thick to jam into the stick. Zim was just about to give up and climb up the tree for

the night when he finally found a nice one. It was a little misshapen, completely flat on

one side and half pointed on the other, but Zim felt too lazy to continue his search and

decided to keep it. He clumsily jammed it into the stick's hole and walked the rest of the

way to the willow tree.

Zim laid his club next to the willow tree and groaned, unhappy that he would have

to climb all the way up to the branch before he could go to sleep. It was late now, and the

moon and stars were his only source of light. Zim jumped at the tree, grabbed it, then

slowly climbed up to the branch. He finally reached it, pulled himself on it, and yawned.

He rubbed at his eyes and tried to get as comfortable as he could. He decided to lay down

rather than sit, with his arms hanging off the branch on either side. He thought about his

plan and felt absurd about the whole thing, but he figured it was the best he could do

under the circumstances. It did not take long for him to fall into a deep sleep.

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11:27 p.m.

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"Penalty...pfft...asshole." Castro lit another cigarette. A doctor and a nurse had

come by and fixed up his foot. They just injected some pain killers into it, took the bullet

out, and wrapped some cloth around it. Castro put his hands in his pockets, angered by

the way things were playing out. "I could have did a better job than that stupid doctor."

Castro had been sent to one edge of the forest. He had learned that the area where

he was hunting the Irken was a square of forest 5 miles in area surrounded by guards, just

in case the Irken managed to get to one of the edges. He puffed on his cigarette,

wondering if the Irken would still be alive by morning.

"If somebody else gets him..," Castro muttered to himself, and he threw his

cigarette to the ground, furious. He punched at a tree, chipping some of the bark off of it.

He pretended the tree was Dib and punched harder.

"Settle down, Castro. You should take this opportunity to sleep. The other hunters

have to keep looking for the Irken during the night. They'll be tired in the morning," a

guard said, trying to be friendly.

"The Irken will be dead before any of them get tired, you simpleton," Castro said

coldly, glaring at the guard. The guard shrugged and decided not to talk to Castro

anymore. He walked off to the resting trailer to relax a little bit.

"Bastard," Castro said to himself, and he lit his last remaining cigarette.

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12:01 a.m.

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Cleo aimed at a grasshopper and lashed out with her whip, cutting it in two. She

smiled at it, then continued walking through the forest. Her feet hurt, and her boots

weren't helping with the problem. Her rifle was becoming a burden to carry along, and

overall she felt angry and tired.

'Where'd that scar faced Irken boy get to?' she thought angrily. She was

considered one of the best bounty hunters on the streets when she used to be in gangs, but

she had long ago quit. Nothing was a challenge to her anymore, all the people she was

hunting down were too easy to kill. That's why she had volunteered for this hunt. A

challenge.

'Some challenge. Wandering around in a forest, wondering where I am,' Cleo

thought, striking a tree with her whip. 'I'm gonna sue that rich Dib boy's ass off when

this is done.' She was frustrated. The Irken hadn't come around her since the afternoon.

She wondered if she had lost her touch.

Cleo sighed and finally decided to rest. She sat her rifle down beside a rock, put

the whip next to it, then sat heavily down to the ground. She stretched her arms above her

head. She rested her head on her hands and let herself doze off.

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12:26 a.m.

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Adam watched Thorton sleep with curiosity. Thorton had given up his search for

the day at around 11:00 p.m. for his heart was acting up on him and he was sweating

badly. Adam wasn't tired or hot at all. He had followed the Irken a long time, but had

eventually lost him to the forest. Disappointed in himself, Adam had stalked each one of

the hunters except for Castro and Irvin, and had learned that every one of them were

sleeping.

He wasn't surprised. Adam knew that hardly anyone had his stamina. He could

stay up for a few days and nights without growing weary. He was sure he could get the

Irken in the next few hours of the night.

'If I'm going to kill it, I'd might as well let it have a few hours of rest,' Adam

thought to himself, feeling proud of his nobility and sportsmanship. He sighed heavily,

sat cross legged, and let his mind wander. He had been sitting there for an hour. Tracking

down the Irken would take some time. Adam decided to go look for the Irken instead of

waiting another hour, tossing sportsmanship out of his mind. He got up, grabbed at his

club to make sure it was there, then darted off into the forest, running on the tips of his

toes.

'The same strategy should work again,' Adam thought to himself, looking for

signs of the Irken. 'I'll be quicker this time, he won't have the chance for a counter

attack.' He jumped over a log, hardly slowing down. He ran with his arms sticking out

behind him, his hands clenched in fists. He was bent downward slightly so he was less air

resistant, but the wind still stung his eyes. He passed a tall willow tree with low hanging

branches, unaware that Zim was sleeping peacefully above him.

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12:42 a.m.

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Dib sat in his chair, rocking in it from side to side. His fingers gripped the arm

rests tightly, leaving dent marks in the cushions. He had canceled all his appointments for

the next day, then ripped his office phone off the hook. He had knocked everything off his

desk and onto the floor, which was now covered with hundreds of papers and folders. The

only thing left on his desk was his personal phone, which he glared at with rage.

He had locked his office door and sat a chair under the doorknob. He kept his

blinds closed and the lights off. Tom had left long ago, and Dib had been remained

silently in his chair ever since.

"...he's doing it on purpose," Dib finally said, his voice cutting the cold air. His

grip on the arm rests tightened. "He knows I'm waiting for him to die, so he's doing this

just to spite me." Dib growled in fury, and he slammed his fist on his desk. "Why won't

you die?!" He stood up and threw his chair to the side. He hunched himself directly over

the phone and glared down at it.

"You're doing this just to torment me, aren't you?! You think this is funny!" Dib

yelled, spitting at the phone. "We'll see who laughs in the end!" He grabbed his phone

and threw it off his desk.

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Dib has some issues, doesn't he? Yep.

Just a warning for some peoples - the next chapter is FREAKING INSANELY VIOLENT OMGWTFBBQ! I think so, anyways. ; Uuuuh..yeah. The chapters after that are progressively more violent, and soon it'll be so freakish that you'll think I need a psych evaluation. I know how this goes. Heh.

-Crystal