(AN)Miracle of all miracles - My computer came back with all my files okay. Doens't that beat all? Just when you think everything in the world is gone to hell, there's one little redeeming factor. Of course, this doesn't help my insomnia or lack of appetite or spontaneous headaches or stomach pains or ear aches or the fact that I have two giant research papers due and I have creative writer's block...

Anyway, I figured I could at least post this up here since it was already written out. I have another chapter or two done, but they need to be spell-checked and stuff. Plus I'm real busy. This doesn't mean I'm writing stuff again, so don't hope for much. But here's this at least.

See How He Runs

Dib was shaking, sternly commanding his body not to throw up or pass out. His mind desperately wondered why Zim hadn't finished him off yet. The laughing had stopped...Where was Zim now?
The answer came when his shirt was grabbed. He was dragged across the room and suddenly lifted up by his shirt.
"Run, Dib." Zim whispered, the insane pleasure rolling out of his mouth with the words. Cold needles pricked all the way up Dib's spine. He was dropped, and his arm hit painfully on the side of a tube. He fell through it quickly, banging against the sides and finally falling out and hitting the ground roughly. He stood up and started to run, banging into something and stumbling around it.
"Run, Dib, run..." Zim's voice called out again, followed by another laugh. It echoed everywhere, Dib thought he could feel the walls shake with it.
'He must be using a speaker system,' Dib's mind cried out. 'How could his laugh be that LOUD.'
He continued running until he hit a wall. Moving along it, his hands found a small area where it indented. He quickly sat down there, trying to curl himself into the tiniest object possible.
"Oh, come on," Zim said, half with anger and half with amusement. "If you pick such an open place, the game's no fun."
Dib gasped and scrambled out of his spot. He knocked over a few large objects and fell over them, hitting his stomach on a sharp corner of something. Getting up, he whipped his head from side to side as if desperately trying to see what was there. He felt warm liquid on his face, but he didn't know if it was blood or tears. Losing his sight had made his whole system lost. No longer were his ears sharply attuned to movement. He was making too much noise on his own for that anyway. His foot caught in something, and he fell forward, just catching himself with his hands. Feeling by his foot, he realized it was a handle. Lifting it, he found another little tunnel. He quickly headed down, not caring where it led.
The tunnel ended, and he began sliding along the wall again. Zim's voice boomed forth once more, causing him to jump and lose his balance. He fell on his stomach and raised his arms over his head as if trying to block that penetrating voice.
"To make things more interesting, I'm going to give you a chance, pitiful Dib." Zim told him through the speaker system. "I won't be using the house's computer to find you. I'll be hunting on my own."
'Hunting?' Dib's mind repeated. He shivered with the thought of himself as prey. That wasn't the way this story was supposed to go....
"The lab has 10 levels open to you." Zim continued. "But don't think I'm the only threat you have in them. You have five minutes to prepare a strategy for yourself, then we begin."
Another laugh filled the air. Dib felt his stomach churn at that vile sound. There had been a time when he'd questioned Zim's plans and whether or not the alien was really all that cruel, but any doubts he had were eliminated in the reverberating sound of that laugh. He crawled along the floor until he found something that seemed to be the shape of a desk. He crawled under it, pulling something in front of it's opening. There he sat, catching his breath. His whole body shook, and he felt as if he was loosing control of it. All his mind kept giving him was 'You have to pee,' 'You're going to throw up', 'I feel sick'...
'Think, Dib, THINK.' he told himself. He had only a few minutes.
'I don't know anything about Zim's base except for the first couple levels. I don't know what level I'm on. There can't be more than ten levels...'
He carefully moved out of his hiding place, stopping again to actually listen. Strange, but it was so much harder now. When he was sneaking in, he was the predator. Listening was easy then. It was him being clever, being smarter than Zim to listen so carefully. Now it was a matter of survival.
He quickly crawled back the way he had come, finding the ladder fairly easily. He started to climb when a voice told him 'Zim could be up there.'
He froze. If Zim had known where he was hiding up there, then Zim may still be on that level. There'd be no way of knowing...
'I can't freeze up like this,' he told himself. 'I can't let Zim win. If I only know the top levels, I have to get there. I'd have to get there eventually anyway to get out. Zim or no Zim, I have to go up.'
As he left the ladder, he held his breath and listened carefully. Every noise made his heart miss a beat, but he stayed frozen in his spot. He wasn't sure why. Maybe he thought if he made no movement, he'd be overlooked. It was stupid, but his mind wasn't rational enough right then to tell him that. Any possible advantage he could get, he would take.
Soon the sounds of the room began to get familiar, and he knew them to be machinery and things. He moved slowly again, being as quiet as possible.
"Time's UP, human." Zim announced. Dib leapt at the statement, his back hitting a wall hard. He gasped in air, his knees shaking badly. Forgetting for the moment to be cautious, he began running. After bumping into several large things, he finally tripped over something and once again fell, this time hitting his face on the metal floor. Reaching up a hand, he found his lip had been split open. He ignored it and examined what he'd tripped over. Only a cord.
'Waitaminnit,' his mind shouted. 'A cord means something for the cord to control.'
He quickly crawled his way along the cord, reaching the computer at the end. Not knowing what else to do, he pulled the cord out of the back of the computer. There were a few loud whirring noises, then even a couple crashes.
"yes" he whispered happily. Maybe he'd disabled something important, something that would cause Zim such trouble that he could escape-
"Bad move, Dib." Zim's voice taunted. "Now I know what level you're on."
"Oh shit" Dib whispered. He took off running again. His mind momentarily questioned the fact that Zim had promised not to use the computer. It would have been the one to alert him of this level's problems.
'Can I really believe what Zim said, though?' he told himself in reply. All this while he'd been bumping into things, moving along walls when he could find them. The fear in him had begun to settle now, and he felt as if he was in a dream, that Zim would never catch him because Zim was just a dream Zim. He had the feeling that he would get out of this with no problem and go home and his father would fix his eyes and -
He was punched. He ran right into it, and the force made him fly backwards. Pain was shooting through his already sore jaw, but it wasn't enough to keep him from scooting backwards as fast as possible. A loud whish, followed by a clinking and thud behind him made him realize Zim had moved. Hands gripped his shoulders tightly, claws digging in to him through his clothes. He was picked up and thrown forward, hitting some kind of crate and knocking it over as he fell back to the ground.
"Really, Earth-stink." Zim said. "I'm a bit disappointed. I had expected this to be...more of a challenge."
Dib's anger began to overwhelm his fear as he heard the calm, condescending tone Zim was using. His mind focused all it's energy for a moment and he tried to pinpoint Zim's position by his voice. As Zim finished his statement, Dib lunged forward, swinging out and feeling his fist connect with something that gave way. He smiled in deep satisfaction as he heard the growl Zim gave and the sound of the alien hitting the ground. He backed up quickly, feeling the rush of air as Zim leapt towards him. Knowing there was no other way to exactly keep track of the Irken at all times, Dib moved forward, wrapping his arms around Zim. The alien squirmed and growled and yelled at him to keep his "filthy human hands OFF" but Dib held on. He moved a hand at a time, ignoring as Zim's claws dug into his arms. He finally got his hands around Zim's neck, pulling as hard as possible and knocking them both to the floor.
"LET GO!" Zim screamed at him. He felt a fist connect with the side of his head, another with his shoulder. A food kicked the side of his leg, but he held on. He knew if he let go, Zim would be able to attack him by surprise again.
Unable to really aim, he did the next best thing and felt his way along, pushing his hand down firmly on the Irken's throat. A wave of satisfaction went through him when Zim's sounds cut off. A fist came up and hit his ribs roughly, knocking him off balance. He reached up and grabbed Zim's head. Finding an antennae there, he pulled on it as hard as he could. There was a very loud cry, and the Irken kicked him in the stomach, sending him rolling away. He jumped up quickly, prepared to defend, but he heard the sound of something moving away. It sounded like more than two feet, though, and with little tapping sounds.
He stood there, breathing hard and senses stretched to their fullest. After a few moments, he decided Zim wasn't going to attack.
'Maybe I really hurt him?' he thought. He made a mental note that Zim's antennae were sensitive and began moving again. At first he thought he should follow where Zim had gone. It probably lead to some kind of way to get out of this level, but it was where Zim had gone.
Dib decided to go the opposite direction. He wandered around for a little bit until he found a door. Searching the sides of it, he found a button. The door opened, and he carefully moved inside. It seemed to be another tube, but there were no buttons anywhere.
"What is this thing?" he whispered, forgetting for the moment to be quiet.
"It's an elevator. DUH." the computer told him. He jumped at the sound, but was then very happy with the news.
"Take me to the house level." he said.
"I..don't think I'm supposed to..." the computer said. Dib was a little dumbfounded.
"Please?" he asked quietly.
"...aw, alright." the computer responded. It began moving, making intermittent click sounds which Dib assumed to mean the levels. They went past 7 of them. Then the elevator stopped.
"Storage Level 1" it announced.
"But I said house level."
"House level is off-limits."
Dib stepped out of the elevator, figuring that this was at least better than where he had been. He began bumping into numerous large boxes, and it finally occured to him to look through them. He found many parts that he couldn't identify, but he finally stumbled across something the shape of a gun. He ran his fingers over it carefully, trying to decide how it would fire. He knew it wouldn't be wise to attract attention to himself again, but he had to test it. He took careful aim at nothing in particular and pulled the trigger. He felt a slight kick in the gun, only enough to move his hand, and heard something like a laser. Across the room, he heard a crash.
'At least it works,' he thought, feeling much more confident now. With his victory over Zim in the hand to hand combat, and now armed with a weapon, he felt he might still get out of this. He quickly tucked the gun inside his trenchcoat. No need for Zim to see it just yet. He then continued searching the crates.
At the end of his search, he'd found another gun and a rather sharp knife which had cut his finger. He hid all of them in his clothes and moved on. A strange sound made him duck down in the only small space he could find. He prayed it wasn't out in the open.
There were a few steps, which Dib could identify as Zim's. He breathed as quietly as possible and reached for a gun. The footsteps stopped, and Dib's breathing followed.
'What's he doing?' Dib thought. 'Why did he stop? Has he seen me? Is he preparing to attack?' The thought made his insides shake and his legs twitch. 'But what if he doesn't see me? What if he's going to leave?' Could he really risk it? His lungs ached for air, and he began taking deep, slow breaths quietly. He longed to move, to just run out and then at least know that Zim saw him. This uncertainty, this not knowing...that was what caused Dib the most distress. After all his careful study, he still didn't know how the alien thought...
'Or do I?' his mind said. He still hadn't heard any footsteps, so he snickered. Not loud or long, just a short little snicker, as if he was laughing at the alien's stupidity. The footsteps started again, then stopped. He waited. If he snickered again too soon, Zim might catch on. He waited instead, making his breathing ony slightly louder. There were a few more footsteps, a pause, more footsteps. Dib couldn't really pinpoint them.
'He's searching for me..' he thought as he pulled out a gun. If those footsteps got close enough....
His foot slipped out of position, making a scuffing sound on the floor. Immediately he froze, but it was too late. He heard the crates near him topple over. A couple hit him as he scrambled up. Something grabbed his arm, turning him around. He whipped the laser gun around and fired, feeling the thing above him move. Scrambling to his feet, he heard shuffling steps a little ways from him, then a metal clank, then nothing.
"Perhaps you aren't quite so disappointing after all." Zim said. Dib tried to pinpoint the voice, but it sounded like..the ceiling? That couldn't be right.
Something landed on him, and he felt the gun being pulled from his hand. He yanked the trigger, firing a couple shots, but evidently not hitting anything important. The gun was ripped away, and he thought he heard something hit the floor on the other side of the room. He was once again held up by his shirt. At first he tried to pry Zim's hand off, then he waited, knowing he needed to be on guard. He began to reach into his trenchcoat for the other gun.

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