Skipper's log. 2200 hours on August the first.
"Well it's finally happened. We were finally told today that we will be going into action in about one month from now. It's about damn time.
"We all got together in the mess hall only a few hours ago to hear the good news. I finally caught another glimpse of our Sergent Major. He's a short fellow with a flat head not much unlike mine. He spoke to us with a voice that seemed to radiate confidence when he told us. Soon after he did, the entire room was almost hysterical with excitement.
"There was no word on where we'll be going or what we'll be doing, but the other men are simply ecstatic with the idea that their hard work and dedication was actually worth something. I have to admit, so am I, but I have seen combat before and it's nothing to celebrate. We shouldn't be rejoicing that we're going into combat. We should be meditating, reflecting, and preparing. I don't think that the men realize that some of us are going to die a month from now.
"Johnson especially needs help realizing that fact, judging by the fact that he's been pretending to shoot imaginary hostiles for the last four hours. Combat isn't all it's cracked up to be, and I think he'll be in for a huge shock when we get to where ever it is we're going.
"And Manfredi? Nowhere to be found. He's been missing for most of the day. He wasn't at the mess hall when the news was delivered. I figure he's just out discussing a battle strategy or being briefed on the whole situation, but it does worry me that he's still not back yet. That's mainly a feeling because of the fact that ever since he received his promotion, he's been very jumpy, paranoid, and I'm pretty sure he's become an insomniac. Johnson and I have asked him about it, but he only replies with a bark.
"Whatever is currently bugging him, though, I hope it solves itself before we go onto that battlefield in a month."
The Speed of Darkness
Chapter 17 - Gone
"YOU BOYS GO ON AHEAD, I'LL MEET UP WITH YOU AT THE PARTY."
Those were the words he had said to Kowalski, Private, and Rico when they had left only a few minutes ago. Now he was sitting in the shelter of the HQ, watching those same blue reflections dance across the floor as he had watched the previous night. He slipped his pack, complete with all his supplies, over his back. He made his way over to the ladder, and sighed.
The leader penguin turned his head to look at the four bunks in the wall. He pictured Rico, Kowalski, and Private bounding out of bed in the morning, obedient and eager. He pictured his bunk empty.
He could feel the pressure on his heart for leaving without a trace like this, but he had already made up his mind days ago. It was getting too dangerous around the zoo now with Alice tracking him everywhere. Plus, he had unfinished business from the past to take care of.
Skipper turned, climbed the ladder, and opened the fishbowl hatch. He took in a long breath of the nighttime air. It was beginning to become cooler at night now, and the air was crisp and refreshing. He looked up to see a bright, clear sky and a full moon. A good night for traveling.
He pulled himself up on top of the fake ice floe and looked in the direction of Julien's habitat. It, of course, was all lit up with strands of party lights, no doubt hung by Mort and Maurice, and Skipper could hear the lemur's boom box blaring. Rico, Kowalski and Private were over there right now, getting settled in, and waiting for him to arrive. He felt his gut tie up a little bit. When he pictured Private's face when he never did.
It didn't look like many animals were at the party; Skipper could see many of them in their own habitats. Obviously Julien's reason for throwing a party was nowhere good enough to be a big hit among the other zoo animals. Skipper actually wondered why his team didn't question him about letting them go to the lemur's party. If there was one thing Skipper hated more than anything in the world, it was a party thrown by King Julien.
Skipper shook his head, smiling just a little bit at the memories that the thought brought to mind. He couldn't start reminiscing now though, otherwise he'd never be able to leave. Johnson had taught him that one.
He tossed his bag over the pool before swimming over and climbing out. He shook his feathers dry and put the backpack back on, then started down a path towards the zoo exit. It wasn't a long walk.
When he was about halfway there, he dug inside his pack for the EMP emitter. Sighing one last time, he pressed a red button on the side. The device whirred to life, causing a sharp pain to rush through his head, although it quickly subsided. He knew that the radar jammer was operational; there was no way that Alice would be able to track him now.
The phone rang, causing Alice to wake up so suddenly she fell out of her desk chair. She had fallen asleep in her office again, propped up against the wall with her feet on her desk. She rubbed her head while her vision cleared. A digital clock on her desk read twelve thirty AM.
It took her a moment to realize what had woken her up. She lunged for the phone out of frustration, picked it up and began shouting into it immediately.
"Hey! Do you have any idea what freakin' time it is? All I was trying to do was..."
"Alice?" said Mr. Green on the other end of the line, although Alice kept fuming.
"...and then you had to call and wake me up in the middle of the night, didn't you?" I mean..."
"Alice."
"...if this is a prank then it's not funny and I'll call the cops, I swear! I run a zoo..."
"Alice!"
"I have influence over what the police can and cannot... Wait, who is this?"
"Alice, it's Mr. Green." said the man on the other end, relieved that Alice finally stopped shouting. She continued to rub her head.
"This better be important. I think I have a concussion because of you."
"Sorry to have called you at such a late hour. I've been trying to get a hold of you for the last thirty minutes but you weren't at home, so I tried reaching you in your office."
"Thanks for that, Captain Obvious. Want to tell me how to spell my name next?"
Alice heard a sigh over the line.
"No, I'll pass. Although, I have called you to inform you of a important piece of information that turned up on your penguin monitors."
"Yeah?"
"Indeed. I have had a few of my employees keeping close eyes on the video feed at all times, and the have just alerted me to something amazing."
"Go on, blabbermouth." Alice said, annoyed.
"Thank you for that, Alice. Now, it seems three of your penguins are currently partaking in some sort of animal party in your lemur habitat." Mr. Green explained.
"Huh?"
"Look outside your window at the lemur habitat, Alice."
Alice did as Mr. Green suggested. What she saw almost made her fall out of her chair again. It looked like one of her lemurs was dancing on top of the lookout rock, and there were lights everywhere. She rubbed her eyes, thinking she was hallucinating, but it was all still there.
"You say they're having a party?"
"Correct."
"How to animals have a party, Andy?"
Mr. Green sighed again.
"I don't know, but from what I have been seeing on the monitors they have been partaking in events similar to a human get together. They have been playing limbo, Alice."
Alice the spot she bumped one more time. "Are you sure you're not just on drugs and I'm seeing things because of this damn bump on my head?"
"Positive, Alice."
"Alright, I'm going over there right now with some nets to see what's going on. But wait, didn't you say there was only three penguins at that party?"
"Yes, I lost the signal on the fourth one," responded Mr. Green.
"What?" shouted Alice, "You're telling me that your multi-billion dollar prototype thing lost the signal?"
"Precisely."
Alice slapped her head and said, "Any clue why?"
"My experts say that the penguin activated some sort of electro-magnetic device that is currently disabling the circuits of the chip. The question is, where did a penguin get his hands on that technology and where did he learn to use it?"
"Yeah. And where did he get all those weapons I confiscated the other day?"
"That is a question I can't answer as of yet. Although, I strongly recommend you be cautious when investigating that party. These penguins might be some sort of threat."
Alice was nearly rendered speechless at Mr. Green's words. How could penguins be a threat? They were penguins. Tiny, insignificant, worthless penguins. Flightless birds, for all she cared.
"Yeah right," she finally responded "I'll take my chances."
"Good luck, I'll be looking for you on my monitors," affirmed Mr. Green, and then hung up.
Alice chuckled at the idea that her penguins could be a threat. I mean, she always knew they were up to something, but never anything that could be dangerous to her or her zoo. Still, she poked around the zoo office building until she found the biggest net she could, and then carefully made her way into the night.
She walked for a short distance, eyes locked on the lemur habitat. She could still see the gray lemur on top of the rock formation, dancing very oddly to the music she was hearing. It almost made her want to laugh, but she was growing too tense. In fact, she was quite fond of the music that was playing and would have started dancing herself in any other situation.
She got to an intersection in a path between the Lemur's habitat and the penguin's ice floe. She stopped for a second and looked at the penguin's pool. She wished she could have been lucky enough to get normal penguins that would just be swimming in circles all day like the dumb animals they were. They would eat fishcakes and not always toss them back at her, making her wonder what they were eating to survive. Those normal penguins would still attract guests with their cuteness, but not randomly disappear at different times of the day.
It wasn't for a few moments that she noticed that there was a penguin sitting on top of the ice floe. From the moonlight and the faint, colorful light from the lemur habitat, she made it out to be a short penguin with a very flat head and a broad beak. She recognized it instantly as one of her four penguins, the one that always acted like a leader. He was just standing there, completely still, looking at the lemur's party.
She felt awkward for a moment, looking at a penguin that was frozen completely still, observing something else. Either way, she might have been lucky enough to bump into the one that was jamming it's GPS signal right off the bat. She walked over to the edge of the pool and reached in, using the long handle of the net to scoop up the penguin before it even knew what was coming.
She was confused at how the penguin didn't even fight back. There wasn't even the slightest amount of struggle. It just sat there, limp in her net. It didn't even look at her, but rather kept its eyes locked on the lemur habitat. She held the net up to her face for a closer look.
"Hey there buddy," she said, "where are you trying to run off to."
The penguin slowly rotated its head towards her. She was starting to get a little scared.
"You're not acting normally. You'd usually be fighting me like crazy, wouldn't ya?" she said more to herself than the penguin.
When the penguin was looking directly at her, she noticed that one of its eyes was white, while the other was blue. The white eye was blind. Suddenly, she realized she wasn't holding one of her penguins, at least she thought she wasn't. Either way, it was too late.
Several things happened in a short period of time. The penguin she had in her net raised its flipper and then swiftly brought it down. At that exact moment Alice heard a pop and felt a sharp pain in her leg. She dropped the net and lost her balance because of the unexpected pain. She fell to the ground clutching where the pain was sharply climbing up her leg. She removed her hands from the spot to see a small puncture wound and a decent amount of blood on her hand that was holding the spot. Her breath escaped her.
Then, suddenly, the penguin that was in the net was on top of her. At least she thought it was the same penguin. In the pale moonlight and with her heart racing, though, she couldn't tell. She threw it off of her but it hopped right back on her. Or was it a different penguin. She didn't care. She threw that one off of her too, and then tried to stand. But unfortunately, the penguin she was fighting with had somehow already managed to tie her legs together and she quickly fell back down.
"Help!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, although she knew nobody would hear her. The penguin she threw off previously jumped on her again as she tried to crawl away. She tried to bat it away with her hand but it grabbed onto her wrist and pinned it against her chest.
Before she could move her other hand to try to throw the penguin off of her again, another penguin had grabbed it and pinned it to the ground. She struggled against the penguins. She knew they were not strong enough to hold her down forever, but unfortunately they began to squeeze her wrists right on the pressure points, so she lost most of her muscle strength in her arms.
"Oh my, God," was all she could say.
The penguin she had previously thought she was fighting with was actually still trapped under the net. She had been struggling with two different penguins entirely. A third penguin lifted up the net that he was trapped under and let the one-eyed penguin go. Alice couldn't help but notice the look of satisfaction on the penguin's face.
The penguin hopped up onto her shoulder and looked her dead in the eyes. At that moment, she suddenly realized that Mr. Green was right. If these penguins were her penguins, they were definitely a threat and had been plotting against her for a while. She wished she had brought something more than just a net to defend herself.
In a flash, the one-eyed penguin delivered a swift chop to a pressure point on her neck, and she blacked out.