Skipper's Log. 2000 hours on July the thirtieth.
"Manfredi received his promotion this morning. It was a sad spectacle, only took about four minutes and Johnson and I were the only ones there to see it. No matter, Manfredi was proud and was beaming brightly, telling us about how his fiancé would be so happy for him. Then, Manfredi was taken to a sort of orientation, I guess, and he didn't return until only a few minutes ago.
He returned solemn-faced and tired. Johnson picked on him by saying, 'You're lazy, Skipper and I worked our butts off all day and all you had to do was sit in a meeting!' We laughed, but Manfredi's scowl only seemed to deepen. Johnson shrugged his shoulders and apologized to him, but Manfredi didn't respond. That was something about Johnson; he nearly always apologizes even if he didn't really do anything wrong. It got annoying sometimes, but Manfredi and I have both grown used to it.
I waited a few minutes before I asked him what was wrong, but he only responded by saying that it was classified and he was not allowed to tell us or 'he would be put on the fireing line.' He had made a sarcastic laugh at Johnson, who flinched, before slipping into his bunk. I tried to further question him, but he pretended to be sleeping. Whatever happened in that briefing room, I'm not exactly sure, but I know for a fact that it was bad.
I'm worried for Manfredi right now, he is already stressed out after only his first day as a corporal. I can only wonder what sort of orientation he went through; maybe it had been excruciatingly painful or maybe it had been disappointingly boring. Maybe he's going to get separated from us, moved to another unit. Or... maybe he's just mad because they're decreasing fish rations.
I had meant to ask him if there is going to be any sign of us going into action soon, but I figured it would be a bad time to ask. I also wanted to ask about the fish freezer, mis-information and general lack of information provided for us soldiers, and an all-over lack of officers. The highest rank I've seen was Sargent Major, and that was on our first day. I've only seen our Staff Sargent a couple of times and talked to him once, and there's only a handful of corporals for the thousand penguins in our squadron. At first I thought it was a good thing because positions would be open, but now I'm starting to just get worried. How are they keeping three thousand nearly bored-to-death penguins from starting anything? I guess penguins are just good-natured creatures, after all.
The Speed of Darkness
Chapter 15 – Julien's Party
Marlene was concerned for the penguins.
They hadn't been out of their habitat in days. Nearly a week, actually. She had only seen tail or flipper of them. Every once in a while she noticed Skipper pop up from the fishbowl entrance of the bunker and peer around with his high powered binoculars. She noticed how he had pointed at the zoo staff center and wondered what he was doing. Spying on Alice? Occasionally, one or two of the penguins would come all the way up to the surface, for what she assumed was fresh air or sunlight. They would walk around the surface of the bunker, and the guests would notice. They would come over saying things such as, "Wow! The penguins are finally out of hiding!" The guests would crowd around quickly, and usually Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and Private would all be smiling and waving for them, but recently there was none. As soon as the guests crowded around, the penguins on the surface of the HQ disappeared back down the fishbowl entrance. She noted how the fish-like cakes the zoo provided as nutrition for the penguins piled up in the fishbowl until a zoo keeper came to take the soggy and moldy ones away. Marlene wondered what they were eating.
Now she sat on top of her rock, legs pulled into her chest, peering down at the penguin exhibit. She was looking for any evidence of the penguin's normal life. She wanted to see them come barging into her exhibit without knocking. Even though she hated it, it was the penguin's normal behavior. She was worried about how they were staying in secret. She had never known them to be so quiet. Ever since arrived at the Central Park Zoo, she had watched the penguins bounce around the zoo every day. They got into fights with Julien, explored the tunnels beneath the zoo, or came over to her habitat to visit. All that before, and now nothing. Someone, or rather a group of people, don't change that drastically in that period of time unless something tragic happened. Suddenly, she began to worry more.
The otter rested her head on her knees and continued her stare at the penguin's habitat. A small child, resting on the shoulders of her father pointed at her and said, "Ooh, look at the pretty otter!"
She simply glanced at the girl, and then redirected her eyes back at the Penguin's HQ.
The girl tilted her head and arched a brow at the otter. "Never mind, this otter sucks. Lets go see the lions!" Her dad, whose head was just visible over the top of the brick wall, smiled a very tired and annoyed smile before trudging off to the other side of the zoo, girl bouncing on his shoulders.
Marlene didn't care about the zoo guests too much. Right now, her friends might be going through something hard.
You should always be a caring friend, her mother had said to her and her brothers once night over oysters, because friends are always there for each other. If you don't at least try to help your friends in their times of need, then you can't really consider yourself a true friend. The otter suddenly wished she had went to see what was wrong days ago. Maybe Skipper wouldn't have been so 'classified' about it like he usually was.
Right then a penguin made his way up the fishbowl ladder and Marlene's eyes widened at the sight. It looked like Private, or it could have been Skipper. It was definitely Private; Marlene recognized his small, round head and his large belly. He made his way over to the edge of the pool, then stretched his arms and inhaled deeply. Marlene had seen the most of Private; he came out more than any of the other penguins. Some zoo guests saw him standing on top of the HQ, warming his feathers in the midday sun. They came over to see him, and Marlene saw him gently raise a flipper and wave to a little boy, who waved back. She smiled; it looked like the penguins were slowly going back to normal.
Suddenly, Private moved that flipper he waved with to his head, and then the other one. He took an awkward step backward and fell, which resulted in a loud gasp from the crowd. Although, one tall man quickly followed up with, "Slippy is back!" and they cheered. Marlene's smile widened. Private lay on the roof of the HQ. She wondered when he was going to get up. He didn't get up. The otter's smile vanished along with the cheers from the crowd. "Oh my, is he alright?" replaced the cheerful Slippy calls. Marlene stood up quickly, still looking at Private who lay, unmoving, on the concrete. This wasn't a performance. Her heart jumped into her throat.
She made her way down the hill quickly by sliding down the polished slide and plunking into the pool near the edge of her exhibit. When she emerged, she shook the water from her eyes and looked to see Julien standing at the edge of the pool, flicking water droplets off his white fur with his hands.
"All of this chlorinated water is not good for my kingly fur!" he exclaimed to himself, brushing off the little bit of water like it was napalm.
"Julien?" Marlene said, surprised by his presence.
"Oh, hi, Marlene," he said, freezing in mid-swipe of one of his legs.
"What are you doing here?"
"Oh, uh..." The lemur king seemed to think for a moment. "You know, de king was just out for a kingly stroll because it is such a nice day."
Marlene arched a brow before climbing out of the warm water and onto the land. "In my habitat?"
"Well, duh. Your habitat is part of de kingdom, too."
"Uh-huh." Marlene huffed, crossing her arms. Julien smiled apologetically.
"Actually, the real reason of me being here..."
Julien trailed off as Marlene shook her head, "Look, I don't have time for this right now. Private just passed out in the Penguin's HQ and I might be the only one who knows he's up there. I need to go tell Skipper. He could be hurt, ya know?"
"Oh," responded the lemur king plainly. Marlene thought she noticed the slightest amount of sadness in his voice and on his face, but it quickly vanished. Maybe it was disappointment. She didn't really care right now, why was she standing around?
She turned to leave, but Julien placed a hand on her shoulder then spoke quickly, "Wait, I came to invite you to triumph-over-de-evil-penguin party tomorrow."
"What?" Marlene exclaimed, a little more angrily then she would have if Private wasn't in trouble, "You're holding me up just to invite me to some stupid party about a fight you had with some creepy penguin two weeks ago? Julien, you didn't even win that fight!"
"Well, de king needed a, uh, reason to..."
"Why am I wasting my time here? I need to go help Private!"
"Uh..." Julien whimpered. Marlene stormed off, and the self-proclaimed lemur king averted his eyes to the ground. Maybe, just maybe, if he hadn't spied on her so long, she would have agreed to go to his party.
The otter made her way quickly through the zoo, using benches and snack carts and cover. She carefully avoided being noticed by any of the zoo guests. It wasn't too crowded in the zoo, but several families still walked by. When she approached the penguin's habitat, she saw that the guests were still grouped around it, looking at the unconscious Private. She wouldn't be able to go directly into the exhibit; the guests would see her, tell a zoo keeper, and then Alice would board up her habitat twice as good. She sighed, then looked for the nearest sewer entrance.
Marlene heaved the grate of the sewer, but it barely budged. Rico made it look so easy. She pulled and pulled, but only managed to pull the heavy metal an inch or two. She continued pulling with all of her might, and eventually she made an entrance big enough to squeeze into. She slipped down the sewer, putrid air filling her nostrils right away.
Luckily she knew her way through the sewers, even in almost pitch black, now because she had been down here enough in the last few months. She mainly came down to visit Roger the sewer alligator, but she also enjoyed exploring the endless passageways. She had gotten lost a few times, and had grown scared. She had enjoyed the rush of adrenaline, the feeling of danger. In fact, the only real adventures she ever had were down here.
It was a short walk, although the streamlined otter ran most of the distance, to another sewer grade which lead to the underground tunnel system of the zoo. It was a fairly short and easily navigational system which allowed the zookeepers access to harder-to-reach exhibits. She heaved the grate, and slid through the opening. Then she ran the short distance to the penguin's secret entrance and burst through the fish on the wall that read Private's First Prize. Kowalski, who was standing in the middle of the room by a table jumped and spun around.
"Oh, you scared me, Marlene." he said, sighing with relief.
The otter opened her mouth to speak, but only a low wheeze came out. She suddenly realized that she was out of breath and her blood was racing. She took a minute to compose herself and then spoke.
"Private just passed out on the roof!" She said, still breathing heavily. "I saw him fall and not get back up!"
"Huh?" Rico, who was sitting in a corner of the room with his doll, said.
Just at that moment Marlene noticed a penguin sitting on the couch watching TV. She thought it was Skipper, but when he turned around she saw it was Private.
"I'm fine, Marlene. Dun worry." he said, cheerfully.
Marlene was confused. "Wait... I just saw you..."
"Yeah, I passed out on the roof, alright," explained the specialist, "but I've gotten used to it by now."
Marlene was more confused. "Wait, what?"
"Don't you know?"
"Private, Marlene has no clue what has happened to us in the last few days," said Kowalski. "She doesn't know about the chips."
"Chips? What chips? Potato chips?" Marlene wondered.
Kowalski chuckled, "No, no. You see, Alice had us implanted with GPS tracking chips about a week ago. Unfortunately for us, she had them implanted in the exact center of our foreheads." Kowalski looked like he was trying to see his own forehead for a moment.
"What does that have to do with passing out?"
"I've concluded that the chips are giving off some kind of electrical pulse, and because of the proximity of the chips to our brains, those pulse signals are using our nerves as a highway. Every once and a while a particularly strong burst of energy will cause us to loose consciousness for a few seconds or minutes."
"Oh, so wait... you're not going to die or anything, will you?"
"Actually, K'walski had to spend a few hours explaining that one to me, really. He said the batteries in the chips don't have the power to interfere with necessary functions."
The intellect nodded. "And fortunately for us, our memories will remain intact." he added.
"So that's probably why you guys have been hiding for the last week?"
"Well, sort of. Skipper's had us on lockdown because he thinks that Alice is up to something more than just tracking us with GPS chips. Probably only because some zoo keepers came shortly after we got them and found our secret panel. I think it was just unluckiness."
"Your secret weapons panel?"
"Yeah, all cleared out. Now we're pretty much weaponless, considering Alice Had Rico's stomach pumped." Rico growled.
Marlene blinked in disbelief, "Was Skipper mad?"
"You bet," Kowalski affirmed. "Although, not as much as one would expect."
Marlene looked around the room. "Speaking of which, where is Mr. Leaderpants?"
"The Skippah's been leaving from time to time, but he won't tell us why. He's only gone for a few minutes at a time usually, though."
"I see," the otter responded. She crossed her arms.
"In fact, Skippah hasn't been quite like himself," Private continued. "He hasn't been issuing us orders as often as usual, and he gave us three days off already."
"And there was the time he declined his morning coffee," added Kowalski.
"Yeah. We figure it's just the chip messing with his head, or the whole experience of having one added." Private finished with a hint of confidence.
Marlene nodded. In the corner of her eye, she saw Rico quiver with pain and then shake it off.
"Anything you can do about the electrocution?"
"I'm working on a neuroserum presently, to see if I can numb or kill the nerves around the GPS chip to stem the flow of electrical pulses. So far, results have been less than ideal."
The intellectual gestured to Rico, who moved his flippers, but Marlene noted how his left flipper hung loosely from his shoulder. It almost grossed her out.
Kowalski continued, "Luckily that was a temporary serum. It wound up numbing only the receptors in his muscles."
Marlene shook her head, "So you guys are all fine?"
The door to the HQ suddenly opened. "I guess you could say that," said Skipper as he walked into the room.
"Skippah," saluted Private.
"Hey, Skipper. Where were you?" asked Marlene, looking at the penguin leader. Skipper paused before turning around.
"Classified, soldier."
Marlene looked at Private who shrugged his shoulders. She wondered why Skipper called her soldier. Was the response so conditioned now, that Skipper didn't even realize his folly? Marlene shook her head.
"Well if everything's good here, I'm going to get headed back to my habitat before they notice I'm missing. Oh, I guess Julien is having a party sometime soon, if you even want to go to that. I'll probably pass though."
Skipper looked a little angry for a moment that Marlene even brought up such a thing, but his expression quickly changed to intrigue. "A party? How big of a party?"
"I don't know, Julien didn't really say."
Skipper paused for a moment and considered something important. Marlene could tell it was something more than just choosing to go to a party or not. "Yeah. Yeah, alright. Team, we're going to that party when it happens"
"Skipper, are you sure? I don't know if I will have this formula perfected by then or not." Kowalski offered.
"Yeah. Yes I am. Just try to finish it before, and if not, I guess its not that big of a deal, right?"
Marlene was relieved to see Private was alright when she got there, and now she worried for Skipper. Just accepting to go to a party wasn't like him. Making his team go to a party was even less like him. Marlene wondered if it was really Skipper she was talking to, or that crazy penguin who had invaded her habitat a few days earlier. She thought about how Private said he wasn't quite like himself.
He looked like himself, that was for sure. She saw that the blue eyes, the short, wide beak, and the flat top of his head. His feathers were neat and clean. His chest was puffed out, giving him a tough guy feel.
"Uh, Marlene," Skipper said, "It's time you left."
The otter didn't realize she had been scrutinizing the leader penguin for about a minute and smiled embarrassingly. "Sorry, Skipper," she said, "see you guys later."
Skipper smiled.
/AN: What can I say? I'm lazy! Sorry I havn't updated in a month. I've been preoccupied with other unimportant projects like beating video games and what not. Honestly, the only reason I wrote this chapter was because my internet was down for two days. I wasn't exactly sure on how I wanted to write this chapter, though, so I do have at least some reason. Just wanted to thank all of you readers and for the feedback I'm getting. Thanks for staying loyal! :AN\