The Speed of Darkness
Chapter 48 – Heart
THE INSIDE WAS WARM.
Alice was glad, though. It had been so cold outside that she swore she had gotten frostbite on the tip of her nose. As soon as they stepped inside the strange temple, though, the cold vanished. It was warm enough for her to take off her jacket, and she did. She tossed it onto the sled that the interns continued to pull, even into the temple itself. She didn't mind though, it had all of their supplies on it. More importantly, it had all the gear she had brought for catching the penguins. Her net gun rested on top of the pile, already loaded and ready to go. She knew it would come in handy.
Her foot stepped on something soft, and she bent over to pick it up. It was several small pieces of cloth. One one she identified brown hairs, and on the other several of a shade of gray. These had been from her otter and her lemur. She already knew they were inside, but the cloth pieces were reassuring that fact.
"This place is incredible," gaped Mr. Green. He clutched one of the monitors in his hands as he looked up at the ceiling. "I mean, it looked impressive enough from the penguin's point of view. Looking at it in person is just unbelievable."
"Yeah," Alice agreed. "This place isn't hard to see from miles away, either. How in the world hasn't this place been discovered, yet?"
"As far as I know, this particular region of Antarctica is plagued with particularly bad wind. Nobody comes here unless they are on specific business. It's a miracle we made it here without any trouble," said Mr. Green, pushing up his glasses and taking off his coat. Alice smiled as she noticed he was still wearing his business suit underneath all of his winter gear.
"Thar be much in this world we don't be knowin' about. This could be Atlantis, or somethin'," Issac said. He was running his hand along the smooth, glass tiles that lined the walls.
Alice shook her head. "It doesn't matter what this place is why it hasn't been found yet. We can report it to whoever the hell cares as soon as we get my animals and get out."
"No time to waste," Mr. Green said. "Just like the first penguin to enter this place, we've lost all signals on the others as well. Its hard to believe that the signal isn't able to transmit through these walls, though; it is very powerful. It seems as though it is being scrambled."
"Scrambled? By what? There's no radar jammers here," scoffed Alice.
"I don't know," Andrew returned, "but it might have to do with those strange energy disks we saw outside. I've never seen anything like them, and they seem like they'd give off the electromagnetic signals capable of throwing off our equipment."
"I have no idea what you just said," Alice said, shaking her head, "but I know its not good."
"We know they are down there somewhere, though. We at least have that," concluded Andrew.
"Alright," Alice began, turning to the interns. "We have no idea how big this place might be, but we know that our penguins are in here somewhere. If we split up and take alternate paths, we may be able to find them a lot quicker. Someone is going to need to wait near the entrance, though, to make sure they don't sneak out while we're looking for them. Any volunteers?"
All of the interns simultaneously shot their hands up, then exchanged nervous glances. A particularly tall man near the front pushed his college's arm down. She elbowed him, and he grunted. Alice lowered her brow, looking angry. "You're telling me we came all this way, and none of you want to investigate further?"
All of the interns shook their heads. Alice slapped hers.
"Alright then," she said. "It looks like its up to just me and you Andy." She snatched her net gun off of the top of the sled and cocked it's spring loaded trigger back, getting it ready to fire.
"Mr. Green, please," he said, pushing his glasses up again.
"Shut up, Andy. I don't give a damn about your formalities right now. Let's get going."
"Oh ho!" laughed Issac, "That lass be fiesty. I'd be bein' careful if I were you," he said as he elbowed the businessman.
"Quite," he coughed. "Will you at least join us, Issac?"
"I ain't never been bested by penguins before," he said. "I don't plan do be doin' it again, ya hear? Of course I'll be goin'."
Alice wasn't sure if she wanted the crazy old man with them or not. Upon remembering how the opposing penguins had knocked her unconscious that one night in the zoo, she was glad to have him along. The penguins were small, yes, but they were clever. She was going to need all the help she could get.
"Let's move, then," she said, "And grab something to defend yourselves with."
Issac nodded, grabbing a ice pick from the sled. It looked menacing, but as long as he wasn't going to swing it at her penguins, Alice thought it was a good choice. Mr. Green didn't grab anything and merely stood there.
"What's wrong Andy?" she asked.
"I don't think I'll be needing anything, thank you," he said, smiling awkwardly. Alice couldn't help but smile back – he was scared. She reached out the cart again and threw him a flashlight.
"At least make yourself useful then and carry this. We don't know how well lit this place is."
Andrew nodded, flicking the flashlight on. It illuminated their way a bit more, but didn't seem to help much. Then, he turned back to the interns. "Time us. If we're not back in five hours, send help," he instructed.
The interns nodded, but none of them looked particularly interested in entering the temple, even to save their boss's behind. Alice shook her head one last time before turning and walking into the passage. The sailor and businessman followed closely behind.
"You seem pretty determined to save your animals," said Andrew as the light from the entrance behind them began growing smaller. "I know we agreed to help them, but you seem almost excited about it."
Alice slung the net gun over her shoulder and straightened her back. "You know? Over the last two weeks we've been following them, they've kinda grown on me. I don't want to see them get killed over... whatever it is they're doing."
"Because you'll loose the money you spent on them, right?"
Alice thought about Mr. Green's statement. It was true that her initial paranoia, inducing her to follow the penguins to the dock, had been over money. Penguins weren't cheap and she knew her penguins were special. They were a once in a lifetime investment opportunity she didn't want to waste. Now, however, she hadn't thought about money in weeks.
"Not so much," she told the businessman. "I mean, I dropped thousands to come here after them. I'm loosing out on money each day because I haven't been running the zoo. I've got someone running it for me, but I'll be lucky if it isn't completely destroyed by the time we get back."
Mr. Green smiled slightly. "So you're telling me you're doing this because you care for them, aren't you?"
Alice gritted her teeth, preparing to defend herself. She calmed down upon realizing that the man was right, though. She wasn't doing it for the money, so she must care for them. In fact, she did care for them. She didn't want them to get hurt. Not just the penguins, either. Her lemur and otter had practically fallen in love. She felt like she needed to protect them, too. She was broken from her thought as Mr. Green continued.
"Don't worry," he said. "I think I feel the same way."
"Huh?" she said, confused.
"You've been paying me to keep a close eye on them for the last two years. They've destroyed countless numbers of my cameras, and have frustrated me to no end. Finally succeeding in seeing the creatures they are has completely how I feel about them."
Alice nodded. "They came all the way here to save their friend. And for all we know, something bigger too."
"Bah," snorted Issac, fingering the tip of his ice pick. "They all just be a lot of dumb animals, if you be askin' me."
"Nobody's asking you," responded Alice and Andrew simultaneously. The crazy sailor shrugged and began whistling an off-tune song Alice didn't recognize.
"I agree," Mr. Green said in response to Alice's comment. "They wouldn't lead us to this temple unless something bigger was going on. This place has never been documented by human explorers. There could be something big here."
"We'll have to wait and see when we find the Penguins then," returned Mr. Green, his face showing determination.
"Yeah. Hopefully we can get to them before something bad happens."
While talking, Alice didn't even notice the trio had emerged into a large atrium. It was large enough that in the dim light it was difficult to see the walls around them, but Alice could make out her surroundings. Besides the tunnel they had entered from, there didn't seem to be any other exits.
"What now?" asked Andrew. "This is about where we lost the signal for the penguins. We didn't see where they went from here."
"They must have went somewhere. Maybe there is a secret door somewhere," Alice said. "This place looks cryptic enough."
"Secret doors only be in those movies," Issac argued. "Nobody would be buildin' them for real."
"You don't know that," said Alice, shaking her finger at Issac, who frowned. "Besides. Do you see any other way out of here?"
As Issac spun around, examining the walls, a strange vibration came through the floor. Alice had never experienced anything like it before. It grew in strength and soon her teeth were chattering. She wasn't sure what to do... was it an earthquake? She looked at the ground, her vision blurred by the vibrations. After a few moments she noticed something she didn't like. There were now slits between the tiles that had not been there before. They seemed to be growing!
Right when she thought the ground was disappearing below them, large walls clicked out of the ground. They stopped for a moment, but the vibration didn't. They looked like they were about to shoot straight up and crush them against the ceiling! Alice quickly jumped to a spot of ground that she hoped was safe, away from any of the quivering walls. Issac followed suit, falling as he hit the ground near her. Alice attempted to steady her vision to see Andrew stumbling on top of one of the shaking walls. He was going to be smashed!
Without thinking, Alice lunged for the stout man and knocked them both over. Seconds later, walls shot up with lighting speed towards the ceiling. Immediately thereafter, the vibrations stopped. Strange torches appeared on the walls like they had always been there. Then, everything fell silent.
"What just happened?" Mr. Green said, dazed. Alice got up and dusted herself off.
"I don't know, but Issac got trapped on the other side of this wall. She tapped on the tile wall, wondering how the tile hadn't shattered with the immense force that the wall had been shoved upward with.
"I don't mind being away from him," returned Mr. Green. Alice didn't either, but being separated right now was probably not a good thing. They could no longer see the exit. "At least we know which way to go," he said, pointing down the long corridor that had now opened up.
"Where did that come from?" Alice wondered.
"No idea. Maybe we can meet up with Issac later, though. Provided he's unharmed."
"He'll be okay," affirmed Alice. "I'm sure he's been through a lot more than walls springing up under his feet."
"I don't know. Call it a hunch, but I'm pretty sure none of us have ever had a room magically appear under our feet."
Alice smiled slightly at this. Even though they were now lost and confused, she still felt confident. They were going to rescue her animals, and this temple wasn't going to stop them.
"No sense in standing here crying about it," she said. "Let's go."
Andrew nodded, and they set off down the tunnel.
~Author's Note: Day 5, still enjoying myself. Quick apology to those I lied to about this chapter. You know who you are. I had totally forgotten I had planned for a chapter from Alice in here. (Good job on predicting that, though ;) )