The Speed of Darkness
Chapter 19 – Sarge

Blackness.

Through her cracked eyelids, Marlene could only see the endless black void created by the blindfold over her face. She felt confused at first; nearly nauseous as she tried to figure which way was up. She wriggled her arms only to find out that they were bound behind her back. As her mind cleared she could tell that she was sitting propped up against a wall, although she had no idea where she could be. She attempted to take in a whiff of air to see if she could take in any familiar scents, but when she did all that she could smell was what she thought was sweat and grease. There was a filthy rag stuffed in her mouth.

She squirmed, opened her mouth as wide as she could and managed to spit the cloth out. She took a deep breath of air, relieved that her mouth was not taped shut. With the rag gone, her nose was now greeted by an even more putrid smell; she was in the sewer. With her mind clear, she could now hear some water flowing nearby.

What was she doing in the sewer? Marlene struggled with her restraints one more time before her memories came flooding back. When she returned to her habitat, she encountered two penguins. She had screamed for help and fought back with all of her might, but they were too strong for her. The last thing she had remembered was a sharp pain in the back of her head; one of the penguins must have bludgeoned her with a rock.

The sound of the flowing water began to grow more quiet. The water level was falling, she thought. She wondered if she was in risk of drowning if it went high enough. Maybe that was the reason she was down here?

Suddenly, she realized she was not alone. The sound of flowing water had been replaced by another sound. This one was a steady, slow breathing. She held her own breath. To her, it sounded like someone large was sleeping nearby.

"Roger?" she said, thinking the sewer alligator was the only other possible thing that could be down here.

It sounded like there was a gasp, and then a deep voice said, "Good, you're finally awake." Marlene's heart sank when she recognized it as the larger penguin that had attacked her. "Sarge was worried that I hit you too hard and killed you. I didn't mean to, because he needs you alive and all, but you were just too frisky for my tastes." The penguin laughed.

Marlene struggled against her restrains again. She was beginning to feel a little claustrophobic. Her heart rate sped up.

"You just sit tight, princess, and I'll go get Sarge." The penguin assured. Marlene heard footsteps going away from her. She could picture the smirk on the gray-chested penguin's face.

The otter's mind was going at a million miles per minute. She wondered who this 'Sarge' was. She wondered what the penguins wanted with her, down in the sewers. She wondered if these penguins were connected to her previous attacker. Even though these questions were buzzing around her mind, she couldn't suppress a rising feeling of panic inside of her.

Marlene now heard some footprints coming closer to her, except these were much softer, faster, and coming from the opposite direction as the ones before.

"W-who's there?" She stuttered. She was starting to shake from fear.

A hand touched her shoulder. The otter's heart skipped a beat and she opened her mouth to scream, but another hand clamped over her mouth before she could. She heard someone shushing her and she calmed down.

"Marlene," said a familiar voice, "It's me, King Julien."

"Oh, thank goodness." She responded as the lemur removed her blindfold. She didn't think she had ever been more happy to see Julien's stuck up face.

The area around was very dark, and although Marlene possessed exceptional night vision, she could barely make out her surroundings. She was definitely in the sewer, though.

"Quick, untie me," instructed Marlene with a whisper. Julien nodded and began fumbling with the rope behind Marlene's back.

Suddenly Marlene heard several pairs of footsteps coming up to corridor to her right. Her heart sped up again. Julien froze when he heard the noise, his head whipping around frantically.

"Julien!" urged Marlene, but the lemur king abandoned the ropes and dove behind a pile of rubble only seconds before three penguins rounded a nearby corner.

Right away, Marlene recognized one of the penguins. She had thought it was Skipper with a glance, but she realized it wasn't. Standing in the middle was the same penguin that attacked her weeks ago; she would never forget that face. She shivered at what he had said to her.

" I have a highly trained force of over one hundred men who are just outside the city. On my word, they will storm this place and burn it to the ground."

The penguin to his right was the deep-voiced one that had tackled her in front of her habitat. His chest, complete with gray feathers, was puffed out and he was beaming at her, probably because he just received some sort of praise. Marlene thought that the penguin he had referred to as 'Sarge' was the flat-headed penguin that looked like Skipper.

The penguin on the other side of Sarge was the smaller, grim-faced penguin with the long, orange feathers on his brow. Marlene had seen pictures of penguins like him in pictures around the zoo, and now recognized him as a rock-hopper penguin. She had stumbled upon him when he was in the bushes outside of her habitat. He was now holding his rifle. Marlene felt a wave of fear wash over her when she caught a glance of it.

"Oi, how'd you get your blindfold off, princess?" said the deep-voiced penguin when they had gotten closer to the otter. He walked over to her and attempted to put it back on, but Sarge's voice stopped him.

"That won't be necessary, Thurgo," he said, smoothly, "She's already seen what we look like."

Thurgo rubbed the back of his head and smiled guiltily. "Uh, sorry, Sarge."

Sarge directed his attention to Marlene. She flinched when his icy stare made contact with hers.

"So, we meet again."

Marlene was speechless. Scared stiff, she thought.

"I told you I'd be back with reinforcements, didn't I? You obviously hadn't prepared for the occasion." Marlene suddenly wished that she hadn't blown the threat of his return off at the Zooviner meeting.

"Anyway, the only reason you're still alive is because you have information, and I want it."

Marlene opened her mouth to speak, but she suddenly felt like she had forgotten how to talk. She closed it again, glancing at the rifle held by the rock-hopper.

"So I'll kindly ask you again." Marlene felt like his gaze was staring deep into her conscious. "Where is Skipper?"

"What?" she said, finally finding her voice.

Sarge shook his head. "Don't play stupid."

"I-I... don't know..." she responded, wondering why these penguins were so intent on getting the information out of her.

"I said, don't play stupid." said Sarge, with more authority than before. The rock-hopper penguin cocked the rifle, causing Marlene to gasp from fear.

"No, r-really, I don't know," Marlene pleaded. Figuring it was a bad time to lie, she told them what she knew. "Skipper d-disappeared sometime earlier today. He was here last n-night, and he wasn't at the party. That's all I know, okay?"

Sarge rubbed his chin. "Geir, if you would do the honors."

The rock-hopper penguin, called Geir, nodded and raised the butt of his rifle to his shoulder, sighting it directly at Marlene. Marlene gasped again, eyes swiftly bouncing back and forth between the gun and the penguin leader next to it.

"I'm not playing with you, otter. Where is Skipper?"

"I-I'm not lying, I swear!" pleaded Marlene.

She heard her own voice quaver with fear and could feel herself shaking. The thought that she might die right there crossed her mind. She pictured the loud crack of the gun being fired, the sound echoing all over the sewers. She envisioned the pointed metal slug traveling through her soft skull and implanting itself in her flesh. She shook her head quickly, trying to get a hold of her senses. She wondered if Julien was still behind that pile of rubble. She hoped Julien was behind that pile of rubble. He was her only hope.

"What do you w-want with Skipper, anyway?" she asked, unsure of what else to say. She heard Thurgo laugh. He had sat down on a pile of concrete not far from where Julien was hidden. Marlene prayed that he wouldn't look too far to his right.

Sarge huffed. "Skipper and I have some unfinished business, if you must know."

"Then how did I get mixed up in it? Why didn't you just ask one of Skipper's men where he was? Speaking of which, didn't you lead them away at the party? Where are they?" Marlene wondered why she suddenly had the courage to ask so many questions.

"The answers to your questions are not important. I'll just say that the other penguins were not any more cooperative in relaying to me Skipper's location than you are. So, they've been... dealt with."

Geir, who was still pointing the rifle at Marlene, smirked slightly. Marlene's heart sank. Had this crazy penguin really killed Private, Kowalski, and Rico? She didn't want to believe it. She tried to keep her mind focused, but she couldn't help the sudden, overwhelming wave of grief.

"No... you monster." she said softly.

"Ha-ha," Thurgo mocked, "we've heard that one before."

"You've got one more try, Marlene," Sarge said, grimly, "Three strikes and you're out. Where is Skipper?"

Marlene opened her mouth to speak, but closed it again. She couldn't just say 'I don't know.' She didn't know what to do. She knew her life was relying on the answer of this one question that she didn't know the answer to.

"S-Skipper's dead." She felt stupid, but she knew it was the only possible way of stalling these penguins any further.

"Oh?" wondered Sarge.

"Yep. He d-died a few months back. Really bad sickness, poor penguin. The vets did everything they could to save him, b-but he just died. Poof. Kablooey. Bye-bye Skipper."

"You're lying through your teeth."

"No it's true. The other penguins don't know about Skipper because they got here only shortly before he died. They were his replacement."

Sarge rubbed his beak thoughtfully.

"But, Sarge!" said Thurgo. "If Skipper's dead everything we've worked for will be nothing! How'll we find the Sun?"

"Huh?" Marlene asked. "What sun? The sun in the sky?"

"Shut up, Thurgo." Sarge scolded, ignoring Marlene's questions. "Skipper is not dead. But I see that the otter really does not know where he is. It is easy to tell when someone is lying when they tell an obvious lie like that load of garbage. She was not lieing about not knowing where he is."

"Alright, so what should we do with her?" Thurgo asked. "I want to toss her into the sewer water for causing us so much trouble."

"That will not be necessary," Sarge assured.

"Why, do you want to waste a bullet on her?"

Sarge thought for a second before responding. Marlene knew her life hung in the balance. Finally, the penguin leader spoke.

"No." Geir finally lowered the rifle. Marlene sighed with relief. "That will not be necessary either."

"What, have you gone soft, Sarge?" said Thurgo.

Suddenly, Sarge whipped around quickly, charged at the larger penguin sitting not far from him and slammed a balled flipper into the side of of the penguin's face. The impact was enough for the penguin to go flying several feet and almost slide right into the river of sludge.

"Don't ever question my authority, private. Everything I do has a purpose, do you understand?"

Thurgo rubbed the side of his face, eyes bulging with surprise. "Y-yes, sir." he said meekly.

Sarge turned back to Marlene. His flippers were still clenched into fists and his glare radiated anger, enough to make Marlene scared once more. "When you see Skipper, you will relay to him these words."

The penguin paused. Marlene held her breath.

"The Sun will rise again."

Sarge turned to leave, closely followed by Geir, still holding his rifle. Thurgo sulked behind the two, rubbing his face. Marlene watched them walk further and further away, until they rounded a corner in the sewer and she could no longer hear their footsteps.

"Alright, Julien. They're gone," Marlene said to the pile of rubble she assumed Julien was still hiding behind. A few long seconds passed, but there was no response. "Julien?" she asked the darkness. Nothing but the sound of flowing water answered her.

She awkwardly stood up, realizing that only her hands were bound. She walked over to the rubble and peered over it. Julien was nowhere to be found. All that existed where he was hiding was a decent sized crack in the sewer wall.

A crack just big enough for a lemur to squeeze through.

Julien had abandoned her. She cursed the lemur king under breath. She could have gotten shot, for God's sake! But he just abandoned her.

She shook her head. She would have to deal with that thing another time. Right now, all she knew was that she was lost in the sewers, had some important information that needed spreading, and had no clue if three of her best friends were even still alive. Her mind began racing again, but she tried her best to calm it down.

For now, she just needed to find her way out of this Godforsaken sewer.

~(Author's Note)~ Looks like I was able to write a chapter after all. As always, thanks for all the great reviews, and keep reviewing! I'm getting a lot of complements on my writing, but I'd love some constructive critisim as well!