CHAPTER SIX: Escape

Nashami visited Skipper the very next day at 8 o'clock a.m. She changed his bandages and gave him some delicious Penguin Milk for breakfast.

"Just one more day, sweetheart, and you'll be absolutely fine" she said before leaving.

Thankfully, the pain in the ankle had decreased a little and Skipper was able to take some wobbly steps across the floor. Suddenly, he heard someone trashing about under the window. His heart sank for a while. He recognized Rico's horse babbling. Two seconds later, the dynamite-loving penguin jumped on the window sill, right in front of Skipper's face. The leader penguin let out a short, terrified scream and landed on his back.

"Argra,baghaa!" exclaimed Rico, which would mean: " Take it easy, man, I don't want to hurt you!"

Skipper goggled his eyes at him, his beak agape.

"Rico?" he uttered. "What the deuce are you doing here?"

"Margrahra, hragha!" answered Rico, which Skipper immediately translated as: "I can't stay here for too long!"

"What's up with the others? What the hell is going on?"

"Maronega! Kambraloga thegabramanobla!" said Rico with agitation, which would mean: "You have to listen to me! You're in a great danger!"

So Skipper sat in his hospital bed and listened carefully to his comrade. Rico told him exactly what had happened the over night. He would take one of his secret car ride around the zoo. On seeing that the zoo entrance was open, he decided to take the advantage of it and went for an extra ride in the park. He then stumbled across Mrs Jenkins, Fred's Grandma, who told him everything.

Skipper frowned.

"Evil forces? What the deuce are you talking about, man?"

Rico waved his flippers in annoyance, which would stand for: "Let me have a chance to explain, dude!"

After five minutes of nervous conversation, Skipper would finally understand the whole thing. He was the first to have fallen victim of evil forces from Madagascar Island. Now it affected the rest of his zoo cohabitants. Rico would eventually free himself from the curse, only because he was the first to find out the truth. But there was nothing else he could do for him. The animals were searching for him – they wanted his blood. So Rico told Skipper to scram as fast as possible. "It would be better for you to leave the zoo before the rest finds out, that you're still in the hospital" he said.

Suddenly, Darla's high pitched, aggressive voice echoed all over the zoo:

"Rico? Where the hell are you, man?"

"Go, go, go!" uttered Rico, anxiety and panic written all over his face.

Skipper understood he had no other choice but to escape the Zoo as quickly as possible. He jumped from the bed and waddled towards the half open door. He left the hospital zone, jumped over the brick wall and found himself outside, in the middle of the pavement.

What now? What should be his next step? Should he go to the town? Should he hide himself in the most remote part of the severs, full of unsympathetic, devious rats?

He would eventually chose the second option. He cocooned himself in one of the darkest street nooks, full of trash bags, chopped wood and boxes. His stomach lurched: he hadn't had anything to eat except of Penguin Milk Nashami had given him in the morning. He found some fish remaining in the corner and gulped them down immediately. He then jumped into one of the boxes, covered himself with a piece of yellow, shabby toilet rug and tried to fall asleep. But it was pretty hard. The whole street was jam-packed with cars and it was immensely noisy. But exhaustion would eventually take toil on his body and after fifteen minutes of nervous wriggling, he dozed off.