Chapter 4
The next morning, I awoke in a dank, dark room. After my recent 'transformation' into a slig, I had been obliged to live at the Slig Barracks, which seemed only natural. Glancing over to the right, I saw that the other bunks were already empty. A singe of pain rushed through my head. I had a searing headache. What had happened last night?
Upon leaving the bunkhouse, I looked around for the other sligs. There were none to be seen, although I could hear their familiar chatter in the distance. I turned and walked along to the canteen, and it came as no surprise when it was packed with other sligs.
"Hey, man" came a voice from the right. I turned and saw a bunch of sligs gathered round a table, stuffing their faces with food.
"Me?" I asked inquisitively.
"Who else?" he replied. "C'mon, siddown. Have a Scrab Cake." Reluctantly, I sat at the table with the group, and tried a bite of the purple cake before me. Surprisingly, it was delicious! I must've eaten about 20 of them in one sitting.
"Man, you sure are hungry, eh? You gotta geddup real early to get a good place in the line, tho'."
"I slept a little late, didn't I?" I asked with a mouthful of cake.
"Sure did. Mind you, that's probably cos' you was up all night getting' drunk!"
I paused for a second to swallow my mouthful, and then asked, "Drunk?"
"Yeah, drunk. Remember, we had a party cos' o' your promotion? You really musta drank a lot to forget the whole damn thing!"
"Yeah… Listen, I gotta go. There's… somewhere I need to be." I stood up and left the canteen, coming back to grab a last slice of Scrab Cake. As I left, the sligs at the other table shouted their goodbyes, and I was soon back in the bunkhouse.
At the bunkhouse, I looked in my locker for as much as I could scrape together. There was a half – eaten piece of Paramite Pie, a few packets of cigarettes, an unopened Mudokon Pop, and about 35 Moolah. Despite the fact that I was heading of to save the fate of every Mudokon on Oddworld, I'd have to eat something, so I grabbed the Mudokon Pop. I also took the Moolah, and then, I set off.
Reaching the train station, I climbed on board the next train to the Feeco Depot, where I planned to check the customer service boards. In my mind, I had a vague idea of what I had to do. There was only one species on Oddworld with the technology to save Abe, and I had to find their base of operations, at all costs. I had to go… to Vykkers Labs.
When the train arrived at the Feeco Depot, I looked around for any signage to point me in the direction of Vykkers Labs. None was present, so I asked around. Nobody really seemed to know. They were more concerned about why I'd want to go to a place like Vykkers Labs. Even the Vykkers that were wandering between platforms were of no use. I thought for a while that all hope was lost, until a long, spindly arm pulled me aside into the shadows.
"You want to go to Vykkers Labs," said the figure. It was unmistakably a Vykker. The three stumpy legs, the small, dark eyes, and the shriveled skin.
"Well… yeah." I replied reluctantly.
"Why? Why do you want to go there?" Just the shrillness of his voice made me want to smash him over the head with my rifle.
"Okay, I'll tell you," I began. "It's all to do with…" wait, no. I couldn't give anything away. "Say you did something, and you wished you hadn't. Would Vykkers Labs have the technology to fix this… problem?"
"Well… depends" said the Vykker in it's shrill, annoying voice. "Do you have Moolah? Cos' there's only one Vykkers Labs with that kinda technology, and they'll want a bit on the side to solve your, erm, problem." I thought to myself. How would I scrape together a large amount of Moolah like that?
"Well, when you figure out how to get the cash, you wanna go to Vykkers Labs 25. It was last seen over Western Mudos, somewhere called Ma'Spa, wherever that is."
"I can find it. Thanks for your help." The Vykker walked away to the Soulstorm Brewery platform. So, I had to cross the entire continent of Mudos. And it wouldn't be easy.