A/N: I know, I know! It's been a month and a half since I last updated! I am so sorry, guys. I've had some pretty crazy/tragic things going on, which included having news crews stalking me (not fun) and random people hugging me whenever I went somewhere public (also not fun). I fell into a bit of a depression, and completely lost my muse for writing. But yesterday, I was in the library when suddenly my muse came back kicking and screaming at me to get something done, so I spent a lot of time yesterday and today writing in my notebook and typing. In the spirit of Private, I hope you can forgive me.
PS- Listen to Heartbreak Warfare by John Mayer while reading this chapter, it really sets the mood.
Disclaimer- I don't own Penguins of Madagascar, but I do own four penguin bowling pins that I named after each character.
Chapter 4: Caught on Tape (Private's Pov)
"Skippah! Skippah!" I yelled, waving my flippers around in a frenzy as I rushed into HQ as fast as my short legs would carry me. I nearly fell down the ladder. As it was, I had already twisted my foot when I tripped on a root in Central Park, but that was hardly important to me at the moment.
In my panic, I ended up crashing right into Skipper. He gripped me by my shoulders, successfully holding me still.
"Slow down, Private! Where's the zombie apocalypse?" Skipper asked.
"Skippah! Something terrible's happened to Aly!" I exclaimed
"Start from the beginning. What happened?" Skipper demanded.
"Well, I was up-top perfecting a rather nice brunch, when I heard Aly scream. I ran to the park as fast as I could, but when I got there all that was left were some abandoned snow cone trays." I explained, keeping my voice as calm as I could.
"Coincidentally, has anyone seen Mary recently?" Kowalski asked.
"Actually, no." I replied at the same time Rico said "Nope."
Skipper clenched his flipper into a fist "Men, we have two soldiers gone AWOL. This has Blowhole written all over it. Kowalski, options!"
"We could either sit back and do nothing, or we could sneak into the zoo's security office on the off chance that one of the outside surveillance cameras caught what happened." Kowalski replied, producing crude drawing of either option on his clipboard.
"Doing nothing is not an option around here, Kowalski. Men, let's move out!" Skipper ordered.
Without further instruction, we flipped trough the fish bowl hole and across the fence. We landed gracefully on the concrete and began to toboggan towards the zoo office. We made it there with out anyone spotting us and entered the room.
The room itself was a small office, with barely enough room to fit a wooden desk facing a wall of monitors, each displaying a different angle of the zoo and the surrounding areas.
"Alright, Rico, you're on Alice watch. Kowalski, man the computer. Private, you're with me." Skipper said.
"What are we going to do, Skippah?" I asked.
"We're on monitor watching duty, young Private. With luck, we'll be able to see what happened." Skipper replied "Alright Kowalski, fire her up."
"Yes, Skipper." Kowalski said automatically as he pressed a series of buttons on the keyboard.
And then, almost as if traveling back in time, all the monitors began to rewind themselves as one. My eyes flickered constantly from screen to screen, watching for any sign of Aly or Mary.
Out of the corner of my eye I caught a brief glimpse of black and white movement on one of the far right monitors.
"Stop! I see something!" I yelled.
Almost instantly Kowalski complied and all the monitors froze at once.
"Which one, Private?" Skipper asked.
""Last row, middle monitor." I replied.
Kowalski pressed a few more buttons on the keyboard. Suddenly the picture I specified grew larger so that it was spread across all twelve monitors to give us a bigger picture. Then the video played.
At first, nothing really happened. The view was one of a typical Central Park, looking almost like an actual scene of nature except for the the occasional lamppost dotting the landscape or the distant sound of traffic from a road somewhere off in the distance constantly reminding one of where they were. Then the scene changed when Aly and Mary entered the camera's view, each carrying a tray of snow cones in their flippers. I silently thanked whoever installed the zoo's security for placing a camera there, otherwise we might not of ever found out what happened to them.
They soon walked close enough for the camera's microphone to pick up their conversation. But then I caught a glimmer of metal in an oak tree and realized something neither of them seemed to: they were walking right under a trap.
I heard Aly say "... What else could go wrong?" And I winced at her choice of words because right at that moment the the cage fell from the tree, capturing her.
"You had to say it!" Mary screamed at Aly.
"Yeah, whatever. Just help me get out of here." Aly replied, flustered
'I finally caught you penguins." A familiar voice sneered. My heart skipped a beat. Please don't be him, I silently begged, anything but him.
But I was proven right when I saw the officer step out from behind a bush he was hiding in. I didn't want to believe what my eyes were telling me.
"Oh no you don't. Anyone who messes with my cousin messes with me!" Mary threatened as she got into a defensive position in front of Aly.
The attacker sniffed the air, like he had done countless times before on previous occasions, and grinned "You're not the penguins I've dealt with before. No matter, you're still going down. The name's X. Officer X.
Mary said something then, but I wasn't listening to her. I was too busy focusing on the heart-breaking sight of Aly in a cage. She was such a great person, so why did she have to be cursed with such bad luck? It just wasn't fair! But then again, I remembered, if it wasn't for her bad luck we never would have met in the first place.
Suddenly Mary ran forward and jumped, readying herself for a frontal assault. But Mary didn't know that X already knew that move from battling with us before, not to mention that he had extremely well-trained reflexes, so she was caught completely by surprise when she was tazered in mid-air. She screamed and fell to the ground, where she was electrocuted for several seconds before finally passing out when the tazer was turned off. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kowalski clenching his flipper into a fist.
X picked Mary up and put her into a different cage than Aly's. He grabbed Aly's cage and started carrying them away.
"PRIVATE!" Aly screamed with terror. For a spit second she looked directly at the camera, directly meeting my eyes. Even though I knew she couldn't see me, it still felt like she was staring at me. I could see the fear in her eyes, and it made my heart ache out for her.
Seconds later my past self rushed into view. I realized that Aly was hidden from my sight by a couple of bloody trees. I could of saved her if I had just looked harder!
X slammed the door and drove off, taking with him the love of my life. My past self had already found the abandoned snow cone trays and was now running. A few seconds later I was gone from the camera's view, and the scene turned to that of a of typical Central Park, with lamppost dotting the landscape and the sound of distant traffic.
"Alright boys, looks like we're going to the pound." Skipper said after a few seconds of silence.
Suddenly Rico ran into the room, screaming "'lice! 'lice!"
"Alice alert! Quick, everybody hide!" Skipper ordered.
We all scrambled to hide. I went to hide behind the trashcan, but Rico was already there. Then I went for behind the curtain, but Kowalski and Skipper beat me to it. Running out of options, I quickly dove under the desk right before the redhead in her yellow outfit walked in.
"Say that again, you have two penguins?" Alice asked into her cellphone.
"Really? Both of them? Okay, I guess we'll take them. Who knows, maybe they'll help the penguins settle down a little, if you know what I mean." Alice snorted as she slipped on her jacket and grabbed her keys off a hook "Yeah, I'll be there in a hour to pick 'em up."
Alice passed by all of us with out a second glance back, and then left the room. As we came out of our hiding spots, I saw Kowalski shoot Skipper a questioning look.
"Skipper..." he led off.
"We'll see what Alice is up to after we rescue Cadet and Blondie. Now let's go!" Skipper ordered.
Now matter what, I silently vowed, I was going to find Aly and bring her back, safe, or someone was going to get hurt.
A/N: I'm so mean to Private! Leave a review if you feel sorry for him!