Death in the Zoo
Chapter 11 - Mutiny
A familiar siren. Skipper jumping out of his bunk and stood ready to face the threat. A dark figure moving closer. Private collapsing from a bullet wound. Skipper locking up from fear. Pleading that the figure would just kill him after he let his team die...
Skipper shuddered, then opened his eyes. He was lying on the cold, hard concrete of the penguins' current holding pen. A stream of moonlight fell in through a high up window, and Skipper knew it was still late. He got up, and realized that he was trembling to some extent. A gaze around the room revealed that all three of the other penguins were still asleep.
Why did he have that dream again? He was very shaken up by it the first time... why did he have to have it again? What forces were at work to make him so unstable?
Skipper sat down and crossed his flippers, trying to calm his nerves. At least this time he hadn't embarrassed himself by screaming something out in his sleep, but for some reason he knew he had been muttering.
The penguin fell back over onto the cold concrete and attempted to fall asleep once again. It was in vain though, as his mind was racing and his body was still tense. From what Maelie had said to him earlier, it took him several hours to fall asleep the first time... to stop his mind's senseless buzzing. He couldn't have been asleep for more than a few minutes, and now he was wide awake again.
Skipper knew one thing for sure: he really missed his bed.
Several sleepless hours later, Skipper saw the sky outside become gray with the morning light. He got up, and went over to a pile of fish that had been supplied for the team. He helped himself to a few, then spoke loudly.
"Men! Rise and shine!" None of the penguins even seemed to move.
Maybe he should skip training for the day? Yesterday's training had been really hard on all of them, and he was sure with everything happening at once the team wouldn't be very focused for training. As he thought of these things he slowly remembered the dream—his team needed to learn how to better defend themselves.
"MEN! RISE AND SHINE!" Skipper shouted on the top of his lungs. Rico, who was sleeping near the pool, jumped and fell into it. Kowalski bolted upright and muttered something under his breath, although Skipper wasn't sure if they were really words or not. Private groaned and slowly sat up.
"Don't think just because were trapped in this dump we're going to pass out on training." said skipper, crossing his flippers. Private looked up at the window, rubbed his eyes, then looked at his leader once more.
"Skippah? Don't we usually train in a few more hours?" he asked. Skipper knew he was getting the team up abnormally early, but he felt that he needed to.
"You need to be ready for anything, Private." He explained. "On your feet, soldiers." His team then assembled in front of him with much silent argument. Skipper arched a brow at their lack of morale.
"Alright," he said, "Since we don't have a suitable pool for swimming laps," he gestured to the tiny pool that was in the pen. "We're going to skip straight to combat training." He heard Rico groan softly.
And that was that... Skipper took turns sparring with each of the penguins. He went just as hard on Kowalski as he had the previous morning and went equally as hard on Private. Although two nearly sleepless nights was taking its tole on the leader. He found himself unable to block simple blows or take advantage of crucial counterstrike openings. Kowalski, who was more rested, quickly floored his leader.
"Skipper! Are you alright?" he said, offering a flipper to help Skipper up. Skipper accepted it, then stood up.
"Yes..." he said after a moment, "Nice work, Soldier." Kowalski smiled at the praise.
"Skippah, are you ok?" Private asked. "You seem to be making a lot of mistakes."
"I'm fine, Private." said Skipper bluntly. He just wished that he had been able to get some rest the previous night. "Alright Rico, you're up." The heavyset penguin groaned again, then walked up to his leader. Kowalski and Private moved off to the side.
"OK, Rico, I'm going to go over the same things as yesterday, and I want to see some improvement." Instructed Skipper, taking a combat pose. Rico nodded an insincere nod, then took a defensive stance.
The fight went on much like it had the previous day—Skipper started easy and then went hard. Determined not to be bested by two of his students, he put in one hundred percent. Rico was able to block most of Skipper's blows but he was unable to find any opportunity to attack back. Skipper was moving to fast for him, and he needed to focus on not being impaled before he could strike. The heavyset penguin watched his leader's moves, and when he thought he had an opening, the penguin swung.
It was a dead hit, Rico landed Skipper directly on the side of his beak with a hard chop. The blow was enough to put Skipper off balance, and Rico took advantage of the moment and floored his leader in no time, just like Kowalski had.
Rico, proud of what he had accomplished, reached down to help Skipper up. This time however, Skipper was becoming frustrated. He was annoyed at his own lack of skill and his exhaustion. There was no way his team were becoming better fighters than him—he simply was not putting enough effort in! He pushed Rico's flipper away and pushed himself up. Rico's expression turned from one of happiness to one of surprise.
"I'm not done with you yet, Rico!" said Skipper, charging. Skipper could feel adrenaline coursing through his veins suddenly, and his muscles became very tense. His vision blurred a bit and he charged into Rico.
The heavier penguin was unable to do much to stop his leader from pummeling him. He blocked a swing here and there, but each one was followed by a hit. He soon felt weak from fending Skipper off twice, and began to miss blocks that he would otherwise get. Skipper spun around his teammate, chopped him in the back, then spun back around to his front side. As he spun around he cocked his flipper, and at the right moment unleashed it with full force directly into Rico's gut. The large penguin wheezed audibly, then hunched over, gasping for air. He coughed up a few items, one of them being a short wooden bat.
Skipper turned around and looked at his teammate hunched over on the ground. Suddenly he realized he had gone too far—he was no longer treating this like a training session.
"Rico... Are you alright?" Skipper said slowly. The heavyset penguin wheezed and looked at the ground.
"Teeeam..." he huffed. Skipper knew now that he had made a huge mistake. He had hurt his teammate, his friend.
"Rico..." he started.
"Team!" Rico shouted, suddenly hopping up. He grabbed the bat from the ground and held it up threateningly at Skipper.
"No team!" growled Rico, pulling his flippers back. He swung the bat full force at Skipper, who found he could do nothing but flinch and prepare for the incoming impact. To his surprise, he felt nothing and heard the bat clatter to the floor some distance behind him. He looked back at his teammate. Rico's eyes were filled with a sort of hatred that burned deep into Skipper's core. Skipper could say nothing to his friend, the words got stuck in his throat. He had made a huge mistake.
Knowing the conversation was over, Rico turned and stormed over to the air vent.
"Rico, what are you doing?" asked Kowalski. Rico removed the cover on the vent and spun to face the other penguins.
"Leaving! No team!" he rasped harshly. Kowalski and Private both looked at Skipper who could only look at his teammate in disbelief.
"Wait!" Private cried, and Rico turned around. "Don't leave, Rico!"
"No team!" he repeated, pointing directly at Skipper. Then he spun and entered the ventilation shaft without another word. Skipper felt his gut sink and the stares of his two remaining team members burning into him.
"Skipper?" Kowalski said uncertainly. Skipper didn't respond, his mind was too wrapped up in how he had just treated his explosives expert.
Skipper had let his training sessions go way out of hand, and he finally pushed Rico right out the door. He pushed his friend right out the door. He had pushed his friend over the limit and he finally cracked. Skipper had gone all out during their spar, and he had let his instincts take control of him. Rico wasn't a life threatening super villain... he was just a lone penguin who thought his leader wanted to train with him. How could he have treated Rico that way? Skipper felt dirty—he knew he had made a huge mistake. Even though, he felt like he had been doing the right thing until his friend stormed out.
"Should we go after him, Skipper?" asked Kowalski after a few silent moments.
Skipper shook his head. "He'll come back in a few hours."
"Hopefully..." added Private glumly.
Rico waddled down a zoo path. There was not much of anything going on this early in the morning—most animals were still asleep and there were no zookeepers to be found. He didn't know exactly where he was going, but all he knew was that he had to get away from that backstabbing Skipper.
What had he done to deserve to get beat up like that? He was always loyal to the team. He responded to orders and he knew that Skipper was pleased with his performance. Why in the world would Skipper suddenly start treating him like dirt? Why would Skipper go so hard on him when the leader knew that he was a better fighter than Rico? Why didn't he complement him when he finally beat his teacher?
Rico continued down the path... walking passed Marlene's exhibit. He wasn't sure exactly what he was going to do now, but he'd figure something out. Maybe Marlene would let him stay with her? She was nice... unlike Skipper. Rico opened a sewer grate that led to the underground tunnels to get to Marlene's habitat.
"Hey, Rico." a voice said from behind. Rico turned around on the spot, looking for the source of the sound. "You look like you need someone to talk to." Rico nodded as a short, figure emerged from around a corner.
AN ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AN
Woot for a quick update! I'm going on a short vacation so i figured I'd update before I left! Thank you so much for your intrest in this story, everyone! Since i posted this on 7/6, i've gotten over 1,000 hits, 400 visits and 30 reviews! It's so great to know that many people are enjoying my story! This is growing in length pretty quickly as well =) with this chapter I break 20,000 words! woot!
*Tries to think of cheesy lines to put here to make you read the next chapter* Um... nothing :p
