I felt so weird about writing this chapter. -- It made me feel all nervous too because there's only one more chapter to go.
Yup, that's right, this story is almost over and I'm so nervous about writing the next one. This'll be the first fiction I've ever finished on my own. Wish me luck!
Hacking into the Membrane Labs security system was grueling, to say the least. He'd done it all before though, just to see if he could. The only problem was that he was caught once the cameras and alarms were down and had gotten Hell from his father from it. No allowance for a whole year! His paranormal studies suffered!
Dib shook his head, bringing himself out of his memories. Now was not the time to think of funding! Now it was time to concentrate! A life was depending on him!
Zim drew his gaze up from the ground to his right arm, staring as if seeing through the flesh and down to the very bone, where his self destruct was. It would be a shame, after all of his planning, his hard work, to actually have to use it.
His antennae wilted to the point of almost complete limpness as one heart wrenchingly depressing thought passed through his mind.
Would he be missed?
His gaze went back down as that thought brought only more terrible thoughts. Before he died his pak would send a transmission to Irk, letting them know he'd activated his self destruct mechanism. But the Tallest wouldn't care. When he was gone they'd probably celebrate, then forget all about him. They'd wipe him from Irk's history if they could!
He jerked at his wrists again. He had to get out of there! It had been hours! Did Dib even know he was gone? Did he care?
It took half a day. Half a day to get into the security system and crash it. Sure they had a backup system, but Dib was counting on the guards being too worried about finding the hacker instead of looking for an intruder.
So, quickly, he climbed to the top of the warehouse and chucked his laptop in the opposite direction that the Lab was in before using one of the lasers he carried to burn away the grate at the side of the building he would climb through and jumping into it. He only had a few minutes, he figured, before people came looking for him, so he did his best to hurry.
The grate led him into a storage room of the labs, the grate keeping the room the same temperate as the outside. Obviously whatever chemical was in there needed to be exposed to the weather, and he wasn't sure he wanted to know what chemical that was.
Membrane watched Dib as he snuck through the hallways of his lab on the security cameras. Did the boy not think Membrane would update his security systems while he was out? It had been years for goodness sake!
"What do we do Sir?" One of the guards asked, eager to finally get to do something. Few people were foolish enough to try breaking into the laboratory of professor Membrane.
"Nothing," Membrane said with such final authority no one dared argue with him.
With that said the scientist made his way out of the security office and down to where the prisoner was, sure that that was where his son was going.
Dib was surprised at how easy it was getting to Zim's cell. Sure he wasted twenty minutes getting lost, but no one stopped him, in fact, it almost seemed like no one was there. Not a single person spotted him! It was almost like he was invisible.
"Like always," Dib thought bitterly, opening the door to the cell block Zim was in.
The entire room was dark all but for the small lights in each cell, placed just right so they were illuminating the prisoners but keeping the light from hitting the viewer so they could go on unseen.
"Zim?" Dib asked, hitting the bars with something to gain the alien's attention, but he didn't move.
At all.
It was almost like….
… like he was dead.
"Zim!" Dib shouted, banging harder on the bars and in a much more rapid beat.
"He shut himself down a while ago." Came the voice of Dib's father, his big booted feat making clopping noises as he drew nearer.
"Shut himself down?" Dib asked, much too worried about Zim to worry about his father, the one who had him locked up, standing there.
"I don't know what else you would call it." The scientist said, his voice sounding more to be relaying facts than holding an actual conversation. This was just another interview by some dumb magazine rather than a father son reunion. "The representative from the military came in to talk to him again and he said that sleeping would be more fun. Then he just… shut himself down."
"So he's not dead." Dib sighed, relieved. That's when the concern he'd been holding back hit him. His father was there! He'd been caught! No way would….
He gasped at the sight of his father taking a ring of keys out of his pocket and unlocking the door to Zim's cell.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm giving you a chance." Membrane said simply. "I saw the security feed from Dr. Arkham's apartment. I saw what he did to you.
"When Arkham was discovered dead the first thing the police did was call me up to have a look at the body and to ask if you would be capable of such a thing. Obviously you weren't, you hadn't the strength to. But the police suspected you anyway so I told them I would get the security footage from the apartment for them since I own the security system that complex uses and didn't need a warrant for it.
"I was horrified at what I saw and erased all of the footage they showed the terrible things that man had done. You would never be questioned about it."
Membrane paused and Dib couldn't tell if he was more sickened by what the doctor had done or apologetic for what he had done.
"So I'm giving you this chance Dib. But, he is still my alien." Membrane said, holding up a finger. "You've got ten minute before I let the security guards come after you. After that you're on your own and…" Membrane trailed off. "If you manage to escape Dib, you will not be my responsibility any longer."
Dib looked down. He wanted to argue that his father had never taken responsibility for him. He'd always just shook his head, saying, "My poor insane son."
But he just looked back up at his father and nodded. He was getting this chance and he was taking it.
Membrane nodded back and handed his son the keys and as Dib rushed over to his alien friend and began undoing the cuffs Membrane turned to walk away, leaving his son to his own devices. As always.
Dib propped Zim up once he was free of the cuffs and laid him gently to the floor before hurriedly blasting the obstructions from Zim's pak with the same laser pointer device the alien had used to free him.
All the while he tried to wake Zim up with pleas and shakes.
"Come on Zim," He begged, hoisting one of the unconscious alien's arms over his shoulder and hold Zim around the waist, supporting him. "You have to wake up! PLEASE!
He then began to drag the alien's limp body out of the labs, trying to remember his way out.
He got lost again.
Ten minutes later, as Membrane entered the security office he looked up at the head of security and nodded.
The men in the office began to ready, getting their guns, shock batons, and various other weapons together before heading out.
Dib moved as fast as he could, really having expected to have some help from Zim's mechanical legs by now.
"Zim, WAKE UP!" He was now yelling, and even stopping once in a while to yank at Zim's antennae in a hope to wake him up. But it was no use.
"There he is!" He heard the cliché call of one muscle bound security guard, followed by ten other guys.
"SHIT!" Dib yelled, picking Zim back up, this time bridal style to make moving faster easier.
He picked his fast walking up to a run, ducking at the occasional laser fire. No one was aiming to hurt him, he figured, after all; he was the crazy boy who wasn't crazy anymore! They didn't want to kill him they just wanted the 'subject' back.
He stopped dead at a strange feeling in his chest, like a pressure that just kept building and building until it was a dull pain. That dull pain, though, kept building also, turning into a white hot burning pain for what felt like hours, but was really just a couple of seconds.
Zim cringed. What was that BURNING! It was like he was laying next to cooking bacon!
His eyes sprung open and he looked down at his chest to see what all that burning was to find little red blots on his clothes, and more were still dripping. He looked at the red blots curiously when something from before when he was cleaning the same stuff off of Dib.
Blood. Human blood was made of water!
He looked up to a horrifying sight. Dib was leaned over slightly, his eyes wide and staring ahead, though not appearing to be looking at anything. His chest looked like it had been blown open by some kind of bomb, a huge hole ripped through it, the edging sizzling in the effect of what could only be a blast from a laser.
That's when the human collapsed, the alien falling from his grip to the floor.
"Dib?" He asked worriedly. "Dib?"
"'Bout… d-damned time… space-boy." Dib said from his position on the ground. He was in an obviously large amount of pain, but there seemed to be very little bleeding and nothing major was struck, which was a miracle.
Zim instinctively ducked when a laser charge flew past his head, almost hitting his antennae. He looked up to see a group of membrane's security guards coming at them. So quickly he picked the human boy up and, using his spider legs, carried him over to a window.
Putting a boot through the glass the window shattered and he climbed out with the still dripping Dib.
"You humans," He panted, carrying Dib to the ground and around the building. "You have water… everywhere!"
"Tak's… ship." Dib ground out, pressing his hands to his own chest to prevent too much bleeding. And hey, it was numb, so it didn't hurt to do it! "In warehouse… B."
Zim nodded and quickly found warehouse B, climbing into the building through an open window, the same one Dib had climbed out of to get to the roof.
"Let's get you fixed up." Zim said shakily, starting the ship up and piloting it home. He could only hope that he would be able Dib to the med lab in time.
ARGH! So weeeeeeird! I think I'm getting better at my run on sentances though. What do you think?
Review please and I'll try and get the last chapter up as fast as I can!