The Speed of Darkness
Chapter 41 – Concern
WAS HE CRAZY?
Marlene couldn't believe her ears when she had heard Manfredi's statement. Would the penguin really put his own hunger for revenge before his friend's lives? He would really sacrifice one of them—if not all of them—to get back at Sarge? Even the idea of it made her feel a little anger towards the robot-penguin, but she didn't act on it. She knew that arguing amongst themselves was not the thing to do right now. Besides, Manfredi had very nearly struck Private. She wasn't particularly interested in irking the metal bird any more, and risk getting punched herself.
"I am thinking dat Manfredi is being a little loco," whispered Julien as he leaned into Marlene's ear.
"He's not crazy," Marlene whispered back. "It's just like he's so consumed by hatred that he can't see the good in anything."
"Well I am not going to die so he can get back at dose evil penguins," Julien said, looking surprisingly serious.
"Skipper wouldn't let any of us get killed over this. You heard what he said."
"Until he is being dead," Julien said, his face now glazed over with fear. "Den nothing is between us and dat crazy penguin."
"I trust Skipper, though. None of us are going to get killed or even hurt," Marlene returned, though she was not entirely faithful in her own words. She wanted to believe that they would all come out okay, but after what Manfredi had said she wasn't so sure.
"So long as de crazy robot doesn't snap," Julien said under his breath, gesturing to the cyborg penguin leading the group.
"Be careful what you say, Julien," returned the Otter, crossing her arms, "I 'snap' sometimes, too."
Julien looked thoughtfully back at Marlene before continuing, "I am supposing you are right. Why haven't you gone berserk yet, anyway?"
"Wondering the same thing myself, actually." Marlene wasn't sure if it was the cold or the fear of becoming separated from the group and dieing that was helping her keep her cool. She had figured that as soon as she stepped off the confined spaces of the boat, she would black out. Antarctica was a very wide open space, and wide open spaces seemed to set her off best. Or, maybe it was just slides. Either way, she hoped with all of her heart that she could stay sane for the remainder of their journey. The last thing she wanted was to cause more problems for the group than she already had.
"If you do wind up going crazy and stuff, can you please be directing your rage away from us and towards dose other fishy penguins?" said Julien, smiling as if it was a joke. Marlene didn't find it so funny.
"I don't know what happens when I loose it Julien," answered Marlene. "I mean, I almost put that lady in the hospital for no good reason."
"Maybe it could be coming in usefulness," responded the ring-tailed lemur, his face surprisingly bright despite their situation. Marlene nodded. "If it happens, though, de king will be sure to protect you."
"I think crazy me will be able to handle herself," smirked Marlene, though she was appreciative of Julien's gesture.
"What are you two talking about back there?" came Skipper's voice from the front of the group.
"Just worried about what's going to happen when we confront Sarge," called Marlene.
"We'll worry about that when we get there," said Skipper. Though the statement was simple, Marlene found some relief in it. Though they had a few shaky days in front of them, all they needed to concern themselves with for the time being was the present moment, and presently, they were approaching Sarge's ship.
The boat itself was completely frozen in the ice. It gave evidence that the ice had not extended so far from the mainland until less than twelve hours ago. From the looks of it, Sarge had also driven his boat too far and it was pushed up onto the ice a bit, but there was no visible damage as bad as their ruined boat. The entire boat itself was made of solid metal, whereas their boat had been made of rotting wood. Marlene thought it was some sort of research vessel rather than a simple fishing trawler. It could have easily been a tug boat, though.
As they approached, Skipper climbed a rope that had been left behind. Presumably, the other penguins had used it to exit the craft. Marlene was glad to see it, though, because the high walls of the ship prevented any other entry. With some trouble, she and the other penguins managed to heave themselves over the edge of the railing and fell onto the deck.
"Alright team," announced Skipper when everyone was accounted for, "collect anything useful you can find. We need food, supplies, and weapons. Knowing Sarge, their might even be some gauss rifles on board, so we definitely need to keep an eye out for those."
"Firearms, Skippah?" said Private, looking confused and a bit scared. He still was keeping Rico between himself and Manfredi.
"Yes. Things will be a lot easier if we can fight fire with fire." he affirmed. Private didn't seem to happy with the answer, but Marlene could tell he knew that at least Geir was already armed, and that put them at a huge disadvantage.
The animals split up to all different sections of the ship, and after a few minutes, had rejoined on top of the boat with the useful supplies they found.
"They didn't seem to have much food left," said Private tossing down the items in his arms, "but I did find a few dried fish. It'll be nice to have something other then that canned tuna to eat. I also found a first-aid kit, but there wasn't anything in it except for a pair of scissors."
"Ka-boom!" cried Rico, throwing down several firecrackers an a butane lighter. Marlene had no idea why there were on a boat like this, but she was glad to see them. She knew Rico's use of explosives had been invaluable in the past, and was sure that it would become useful now. She briefly imagined Sarge holding one of the firecrackers as it exploded, but then wiped the vision from her mind.
"We found some more clothes so we don't freeze," offered Marlene, gesturing to Julien. He had ditched his sock and was now wearing a makeshift jacket, like her own, "and a few more tools." She set down a hammer, a screwdriver, and wrench.
"Unfortunately," spoke Manfredi slowly, "no firearms. In fact, there is no evidence that there was ever a supply of firearms present here at one point. No empty magazines or gun polish. That rockhopper is probably the only one with one."
"At least they're not all armed to the teeth then," said Marlene. She was not particularly interested in wielding one of the death-machines, and was glad to hear she wouldn't have to.
Skipper looked down at the items, a distinct look of disappointment on his face. "Looks like we've only got unconventional weapons then," he said, picking up the hammer and swinging it around. "They'll have to do."
"There is being one other thing, Skipper," said Julien, who had not shown what he had found yet, "but I am not being sure dat you want to see it."
"Hand it over," commanded Skipper, and Julien complied by passing the papers he had found towards the leader penguin. He glanced over the drawings on the paper, and then said, "what does this mean?"
"I am guessing dat it is de smart fishy-penguin's writing," the tall lemur returned. "He always likes to draw dose pictures and things."
Skipper nodded understandingly, then showed the drawings to the others. On the papers were draw several rough sketches of some land mass that Marlene presumed was Antarctica, with a pseudo-compass, distance scale, and a path of trajectory. "Kowalski was helping them get here," he concluded simply.
"That doesn't mean anything special," defended Private quickly, "they probably forced Kowalski into navigating for them."
"That could be the case," answered Skipper, flipping the papers back around to look at them some more. "I don't think Sarge actually knew how to get here on his own."
"Do not you think its strange that your friend Kowalski would go through all of this trouble to get my target to Antarctica? He has drawn very detailed maps," said Manfredi with a blank expression. "Would it have not been wiser to navigate my target away from his goal?"
"That's not so easy to do if you've got a gun pointed at your head," countered Skipper. Manfredi nodded, but his face didn't change.
"I'm sure that Kowalski knew that we'd catch up to him if he took them to Antarctica," said Marlene, thinking about why Kowalski would help out their enemy. "I mean, he doesn't know about the Sun yet."
"Yeah, but it's all a bit suspicious," answered Skipper. "My first lieutenant wouldn't just take them exactly where they wanted to go. He's smarter then that. He must have realized that they would be lost without his help, and we could have rescued him much earlier."
A few moments of silence passed before Manfredi interjected, "Mutiny is most common among the second-in-command."
Unsurprisingly, Private scowled profusely at this. Marlene could tell he wanted to say something to Manfredi for accusing Kowalski of such a crime, but he remained calm at risk of angering the metal-bird again.
"K'waski loyal," wheezed Rico, not as modest. "No help bad guys."
"Good call, Rico," agreed Skipper. "Kowalski is one of the most trustworthy penguins I know. There's no way he would do this without being forced to."
"Sarge has a way of convincing penguins to make terrible choices, Skipper," answered Manfredi. Marlene thought back to how Skipper said he, Manfredi and Johnson had been roped into joining the Penguin Army by merely Caspian's word. It was a valid point.
"Kowalski wouldn't fall for tricks like that," argued Private, "he's far too smart."
"The longer we stand around here talking about him, the further he's going to get away. We need to move out," interjected Skipper. All of the others nodded in agreement. He put a few of the items into the backpack and tossed a few of the larger ones to Rico for him to swallow. "We've got about a day of walking ahead of us before we reach the Penguin City."
"Penguin City?" Marlene asked. "Isn't that where you come from, Manfredi?"
Manfredi looked out on the horizon. Marlene expected he was looking in the direction they were going to head. "Yes," he spoke finally, "though it is not as I remember it. A ruin is all that remains in place of my hometown."
"Sarge shot the hell out of the place and then blew it up the first time he got his hands on the sun," explained Skipper. "We didn't find a single survivor."
"It will be painful to return to the place where everything was taken from me," narrated Manfredi as if he was in a trance. "Hopefully it will be unrecognizable. I do not wish to tarnish the memories I have of my home before my target smashed it to pieces."
Marlene worried about traveling through the Penguin City. She wondered if Manfredi would go completely crazy upon returning to the place where he experienced such grief in the past. She wondered if he would snap and turn on all of them. She thought back to the robot-penguin's story about the pigeon he slaughtered and briefly compared herself to the small bird. She would never provoke Manfredi with an insult... but Private might. She glanced at the small bird and hoped that he could keep his beak shut. She glanced to Skipper. Even though the possibility of Manfredi attacking them existed, she was filled with a little confidence again at the fact Skipper would be the voice of reason. Manfredi would listen to Skipper, if nobody else.
"Time to get headed out, we've wasted enough time here already," ordered Skipper. Manfredi nodded in agreement, and then the animals made their way off of the boat.
"I hope everyone's prepared for a long nighttime walk," offered Skipper as the sky faded to darkness and the group began their journey.