The Speed of Darkness
Chapter 16 - Questions

SKIPPER NEEDED TO LEAVE.

What choice did he have? His entire world was falling apart. Alice had compromised the whole team and removed any and all weapons they had. Worse, she had implanted tracking chips in their skulls. Skipper couldn't stay knowing that he was going to be tracked everywhere he went.

On top of all of that, there was still the mysterious penguin that attacked Marlene in search for him but never returned. He didn't know who it was that might be after him, but he knew that the longer that he stayed at the zoo, the longer he would be at risk. He was at risk now more than ever, actually, because Alice assured he was defenseless.

But how could he just leave without a trace? Private, Rico, and Kowalski had always been loyal teammates and soldiers alike. Skipper had only met them less than a year ago, but already they were as good of soldiers as he was. He hadn't known a more loyal group of penguins, at least since—he shook his head.

What about Marlene, Julien, Maurice... even Mort? Marlene always looked out for him. Julien, Mort, and Maurice, well, they were helpful in their own special ways. Surely they would be hurt if he suddenly vanished? They would probably recover within a few days, though. His team wouldn't be so easy. They would all be hurt by the fact that he didn't say goodbye, but none more than Private. Private was so young, Skipper was sure the boy looked up at him like a guardian. He would be crushed if Skipper left, regardless of farewells.

Anyway, there's no way he could just walk out the door on them without saying even goodbye. But he couldn't say goodbye. They would ask to come with. He didn't want that.

The leader penguin crawled from his bunk and tiptoed as quietly as possible across the moon-lit concrete floor of the bunker. The water distorted the faint light and made little wisps of blue dance across the floor. They were like little strands of hope, but when Skipper waddled over them, they disappeared.

He had already been planning his disappearance for some time now. He wanted to make it as smooth as possible. Nobody would see him leave, and by the time they knew he was gone, he would be more than far enough away to ever be found. He had hidden a penguin-sized backpack with some basic supplies in the secret panel. He knew none of the other penguins would bother to look inside the presumably empty compartment.

He silently flipped the panel open, avoiding the noisy mechanism by prying it open himself. He gently slid his pack out through the small hole he had made, then set it on the floor. Inside was a small water bottle he had dragged out of the trash, the crooked knife left by Manfredi which he had kept hidden safely underneath his pillow, and several unopened cans of the tuna from the store heist. He wanted to take enough food to keep him sustained for a few days, but he also wanted to travel light.

The penguin waddled back to his bed and dug under his pillow one more time. He pulled out a small, rectangular device that had a only a red button on it and a small, green screen.
Electro-magnetic Pulse generator, as Kowalski called it, although Skipper knew it as simply a radar jammer. He had the intellectual construct it some time ago, and he was glad he did. The EMP produced from the little device would be just enough to jam his GPS signal until he was out of range of the Alice's receiver. At least, that was what he hoped.

He walked back over to his pack that was spread out on the ground and slipped the EMP generator in between two cans of tuna. He thought of the tuna itself. He wondered if his team would be able to find anything else to eat besides fishcakes after the fish in reserve was gone. It almost made him want to stay.

But the leader penguin was all set to go. He was all set to abandon his family. He didn't feel any resentment at this point though. he already knew the hard part wasn't leaving, it was not turning around to come back. After all, he had already done this twice before.

The only question that remained was: Where was he going to go? That part of the plan he hadn't worked out yet, but he was exactly sure why he wanted to go.

Manfredi was out there somewhere. The robot penguin that attacked him had been almost unrecognizable, but when he had stared into the penguin's eyes for that split second, he knew that it was Manfredi. The ambition and adventure behind those eyes was unmistakable. But he had noticed something else in the penguin's eyes. Where he had one noticed hope and optimism, he had only seen confusion and resentment.

Resentment. Would he resent leaving? He shook his head.

He had a lot of unanswered questions. What had happened after he ran out of that collapsing infrastructure, cylinder in hand, and Manfredi ran back inside? How had Manfredi become part robot? What had ever happened to Johnson?

He didn't know where to start looking, but he knew Manfredi was close. The penguin must have tried very hard to track him down all the way to the Central Park Zoo. Skipper knew that Manfredi wouldn't have gone far after failing to kill him, for whatever reason that might have been. He had seen too much confusion in the penguin's eyes for him to run far.

Skipper rolled up his blanket and attached it to the top of the custom backpack. He slid his slippers through the slots and adjusted it to sit comfortably on his back. Then he slowly made his way up the ladder. This was it. He was leaving his team, and there was little to no chance he would ever see them again.

He almost stopped. But he kept going.

When he got to the top, though, the fishbowl entrance opened on its own. He nearly failed to stop himself from screaming out loud from surprise when he saw Julien's face looking down on him.

"Err... Hello, neighbor!" the lemur king nearly shouted. Skipper clamped a flipper over his mouth and shushed him.

"Julien, it's the middle of the night!" he whispered harshly. The tall lemur mumbled something through Skipper's flipper and shrugged his shoulders.

"Ugh, never mind," the leader penguin said softly. "Just let me up!"

Julien took a step back from the hole and Skipper climbed all the way out, closing it behind him. It didn't look like Julien had woken up any of the team, thankfully.

Skipper raised a brow and spoke, "Okay, explain yourself, mammal."

Julien took a deep breath. "De king, well, has a problem, with de, you know." He made the outline of an hourglass with his fingers in the air. Skipper looked confused. Julien slapped his head.

"Well, de king came to ask de small fishy-penguin about how de king might convince someone to come to his victory-over-the-evil-fishy-penguin party."

Skipper shook his head. "So you're having love problems?"

"No," Julien returned, taken aback, "de king doesn't have time for the mushy-gushy love stuff."

"Who is it?" asked Skipper, finding himself growing interested.

"De king would rather talk with the short penguin."

"Who is it?" repeated the leader penguin.

Julien looked uneasy as he made the symbol of an hourglass in the air again.

"C'mon, man, I understand that it's a woman!" Skipper snapped. "Unless you're having problems with father time. Are you going to tell me or what?

Julien averted his eyes, but quickly returned them with a small smirk on his face. "What's this for," he said, poking Skipper's backpack with a long finger. "Is de fishy-penguin leaving?"

Skipper batted his paw away. "That's not important. What's important is who you're having issues with."

Julien's smile widened a bit. "Are you going somewhere?"

"What? Uh," Skipper froze. Julien was trying to change the subject on him.

"You're going somewhere, aren't you?"

"It's classified, lemur. But I will let you know that it's somewhere very important," Skipper huffed, trying to close the conversation before it started.

Julien looked around him. "Skipper, it's de middle of the night!" he said, mocking what Skipper had said before. His grin grew from ear to ear. It almost gave him a maniacal appearance.

"I understand that, ring tail," responded the penguin, "but it's some classified recon. A scouting mission, if you will."

"At nearly midnight?"

"Yes."

Julien shook his head in disapproval. "Do de other fishy-penguins know about de racon?"

"Recon, Julien, Recon."

"Yeah, whatever. Anyway, do they know?"

"No. It's classified."

Julien crossed his arms. "Seems pretty stupid if you ask me."

Skipper clenched his beak. "And why's that?"

"Because you'll miss de victory-over-the-evil-fishy-penguin party tomorrow!" the lemur king responded quickly.

Skipper thought about what Julien said. His plan to leave tonight was obviously foiled by Julien. Julien knew that he was leaving and wasn't coming back. Skipper hated the fact that Julien could be very smart when he wanted to.

"Alright, lemur, you've got me," said Skipper, "I'll won't leave."

Julien's smile grew a little more, if that was even possible. "You'll come to my party, then?"

"Sure," lied Skipper.

"Alright. Make sure your small fishy-penguin friend comes, too, de king still needs to talk to him."

"Can do."

Julien nodded before turning around and leaping from the edge of the pool to the railing. Then he hoisted himself over and then made his way back towards the lemur habitat.

Skipper smiled a little himself. Leaving during the party would be even better then sneaking off during the night. He'd have much more cover from the commotion of the party and nobody would notice he'd left for much longer. With his current plan his teams would know he'd left right away when they woke up in the morning. With the party, they may wait a few days thinking he'd come back.

The idea of his team waiting for him to return when he never would made his gut wrench. But Manfredi was out there somewhere. Skipper had much too many unanswered questions.

And Manfredi had the answers.