Chappie Eleven
Emily's POV
Ahh, recess time. The most wonderful time of a school day. At least for most people anyway. For us, recess is the same old thing as any part of our skool day. You see, well...the playground equipment is plain cheap. It's so cheap it could be broken by just sitting on it. I was starting to go on the swings with Rosa when the chains on my swing broke and the swing fell down. I stood up just in time.
"This playground sucks," Grace said to Dib, who was spying on Zim, with Gaz next to them, ignoring everything.
"Let's play catch guys!" Sha said, standing next to Zim.
"I'm in." Emmy stood next to Sha.
"I kinda don't want to get hit," Narm said, standing near a slide. "But I'll play." And he joined the group.
I wasn't in the mood, so I stood aside with Mica, and Rosa. Alyssa, Michelle, and Janay still fooled around and listened to music. Sarah and Makya, two girls who attended the school, were standing by the building, also conversing. Dani and Annie and Gina were not too far away either. Basically, Emmy and Sha and Narm were the only ones playing.
They stood together. The dodgeball game turned out to be more of a game of "catch" but with the heavy red dodgeball replacing a regularly light, any colored ball. This meant the chance of getting injured increased!
An overweight boy in our grade (makes me think of Ewic!) tossed the dodgeball to Zootch, another boy playing in the group. "UGH! MY ORGANS!" Zootch groaned. He fell to the ground in pain, as the boy had thrown the ball to him pretty hard.
Zim, standing next to Narm, burst out laughing "Rhahahaha! Inferior human organs!"
"Irkens rock!" Narm cheered in agreement.
But then a boy named Dylan in our grade grabbed the ball from Zootch and threw it at Zim, then stole the ball away from Zim and threw it at Narm.
"Oh my squeedily spooch!" Zim held his supposed "squeedily spooch" as did Narm who yelled, "IT HURTS!"
I glanced over at the bench on the playground, where Gaz, Dib, and Grace were sitting, to see Dib's reaction. Gaz was gaming as Dib and Grace watched what was going on.
"Squeedily spooch? Did you hear that you guys? That's no HUMAN organ. Humans don't have squeedily spooches!" Dib was over-excitedly explaining to the two girls on either side of him.
"I've got a squeedily spooch," Gaz sarcastically remarked from her game.
"So you're an alien too, huh?" Grace smiled.
"If only we had some way of looking inside his body." Dib had referred to himself and Grace.
And then, strangely enough, a truck pulled up on the skool grounds.
"Hey, there are no vehicles allowed here!" Rosa pointed out to me.
I shrugged. "Hey, this is Invader Zim. Anything that goes against the rules would happen here. It's that type of cartoon."
"That's Jhonen for you! He's awesome though!"
A delivery man walked out of the truck and pulled out clipboard. "I'm looking for a Mr. Dib?" He didn't say his last name because Dib didn't actually have one. No one in the show had a last name and even though people thought Dib's last name was Membrane, it actually wasn't.
"That's me!" Dib rushed over to the man in excitement, took the package, and signed his name on clipboard. He rushed back to the bench and he and Grace ripped the package open as if it were a Christmas present. "It's my personal ex-scope! I ordered it from the back of Crop Circles Magazine," he explained as he took it out. Grace immediately took it from him and held it in her hands, looking at it, but Dib grabbed it back and put it on, watching Zim.
"You had it delivered to skool?" Gaz asked in a "Really?" sort of tone.
"And the delivery truck really comes that fast?!" Mica added.
Dylan tossed the ball to Emmy, who tossed it to Sha, who tossed it to another boy playing the game.
"HEY! Throw it over here you filthy stinking friends!" Zim was saying to everyone else playing the game, while Narm was, at the same time, saying, "Zim and I are humans too!"
Yeah, Zim was a human. I'd believe that for a second. Maybe a millisecond No...I wouldn't believe that at all. Narm, on the other hand, was more...able to blend in.
"Incredible!" Dib said staring at Zim with the ex-scope. "Grace, look at this!"
Grace quickly took the ex-scope, put it on and looked at Zim, then at Narm. "That's so cool! They really do have squeedily spooches!"
I laughed. I always thought that word was funny.
Alyssa poked Michelle repeatedly while laughing at the word too.
"You see Gaz, to defeat my enemy I must study my enemy, then become my enemy, then move in with my enemy, then wear my enemy's clothes, then-"
"You're in my light." Gaz shot Dib a glare.
Dib backed away to Grace.
"I AM ZIM!" Zim yelled, causing Sha to blush.
And that was recess.
Emmy's POV
The dodgeball game was fairly boring. Sha was having a much better time than I was because of her insane love for Zim. If only GIR was playing. If only he could go to Skool. Maybe the game and the skool day would both be better.
But the ear-piercing bell suddenly rang and everyone froze in their positions. Some of the kids were "Awww"-ing and some of us, like me for example, were "YES!"-ing
But there wasn't really anything huge to "YES!" about. It was only more lessons. More boring lessons.
The moment we arrived in the classroom, and I sat in my regular seat next to Sha, we noticed the words "BUBONIC PLAGUE" on the board.
"Today, you'll be learning about a horrible disease called Bubonic Plague that spread through Europe and killed a LOT of people!" Of course, being Ms. Bitters, she wouldn't tell us the estimated-or exact-number.
So she launched into another lecture about how rats came and carried a disease and transferred them to people and the people would die. Not really something I would care to know, but hey, skool was necessary...more school than "skool" though.
"So you see, Ring Around the Rosie refers to horrible symptoms of a horrifying disease. A disease which-" Ms. Bitters was cut off by two pigeons flying in the room and landing on both Zim and Narm's heads.
She started again. "A disease which-" The pigeons on Zim and Narm's heads cooed loudly.
She was starting to get annoyed, and I was too, sort of.
"A disease which-" She tried last time, but the pigeons opened their beaks and cooed once again. Ms. Bitters looked like she'd had the last straw. "ZIM! NARM!"
"SIR!" the Irkens yelled together.
Ms. Bitters was a dude?!
"There are pigeons on your heads. You two have got head pigeons. Get to the nurse before they spread to the other children," he/she demanded firmly.
"Yes Ms. Bitters." Narm and Zim stood up and headed to the door.
Wait...I'm confused! Is Ms. Bitters a woman or a man?!
"No leaving the class without a hall pass, boys."
It was one of the normal things Ms. Bitters made us do.
Zim and Narm took the hall passes on Ms. Bitters desk. They were collars. That's what made the rule technically not normal.
She placed both collars on Zim and Narm and they shrunk around their necks. Once again, not normal!
"If you leave skool grounds, it will explode," the teacher threatened.
Thus strengthens the "not normal" part again.
As they passed our desks, Dib leaned over to them. "You know guys, when the nurse examines you, she'll notice that you don't have human organs. Then it's just a short step to a hospital and from there to an alien autopsy table and then you're just another segment on Mysterious Mysteries!"
Obviously, Dib saw through Narm's disguise as well, which was pretty darn incredible for him.
"I'll be fine. I bet my squeedily spooch on it." Zim confidently left the room with Narm.
Sigh...this is not going to go right.
I raised my hand as high as I possibly could, which meant I had to stand.
Ms. Bitters looked even more annoyed than she already was. "What do you want Emmy?!"
"May I use the lavatory?" I asked, trying to sound as polite as I could manage.
"No, Emmy, you may not."
"Why?"
"Because you're disrupting the class! Now sit back down!"
"Ms. Bitters. It's an emergency. I'll go in that trash can if I have to!" I received many disgusted looks from my classmates. My friends, however, were not among them.
"Fine." She tossed me a piece of paper with a sliver of medal near the end. "You have ten minutes...or else the paper will go on fire and I don't care if your hand falls off!"
I'm surprised I didn't pee my pants, that's how much she scared me.
I left the room frantically.
When I was in the hallway, I noticed many doors. The hallway itself was very small. And then I saw Zim and Narm studying their surroundings.
"Hey. Where's your hall pass?" It was the Hall Monitor. A normal part of our entire skool.
But Zim didn't answer when he turned around to face the Hall Monitor. Instead he studied him as well. "Say, you're full of organs, aren't you?"
I guess the Hall Monitor was pretty dimwitted since he forgot his question, because all he did was look at himself. "Why yes, yes I am."
Narm didn't look like he was enjoying this. "Zim." He tugged on Zim's glove. "We have to go to the nurse now."
Zim shook Narm's hand off. "And you wouldn't notice if you were, say missing a few?" he continued to the Hall Monitor.
The Hall Monitor thought for less than a second before saying, "Probably not."
And then Zim got an insane look on his face. And he started laughing. Maniacally. The Hall Monitor laughed too, not understanding what was going on.
I was starting to get a creepy feel to this all. I didn't feel safe. I slowly started to back away.
But I didn't do it fast enough and I saw Zim take an organ harvester out of his PAK.
...Let's just say what he did with it was not something that pleasant to watch. It took every muscle in my body for me not to make a single move, to be strong about it. I'm not a tomboy, but I'm not girly either, which leaves me in an awkward position in the middle. However, I do not really enjoy seeing gore or anything sick like that in real life. A computer game or TV show or picture or video? Sure. But real life? Maybe sometimes but it depends. Anyways...this is one of those times where I prefer not to watch.
The Hall Monitor was green. I could hear beeping in his body. Narm stood, staring in shock.
I ran to the bathroom as fast as my thin legs could carry me.
Gina's POV
"And then the rats came for them. Thousands of them, dirty, dirty rats." As Ms. Bitters continued to talk in her monotone voice, I ignored her and started passing notes to Dani. Up ahead, I could see Dib drawing a picture of Zim in a hospital, all cut open. Grace was adding some finishing touches. It was pretty sick and made me think of that My Little Pony video and fan-fiction entitled "Cupcakes". And the title is not as innocent as it seems.
I noticed I was not the only one watching Dib. Practically every girl in our friend group was watching. Alyssa wasn't watching because she thought that sort of stuff was really gross and Janay wasn't watching because Alyssa wasn't. Michelle was watching, but then she saw Janay and Lyssa weren't watching so she didn't either. Also Dani wasn't watching. I dunno why. I had stopped from watching Dib to see if Dani was watching and she wasn't. I went back to watching Dib right after that. He was not drawing anymore. He'd given it to Grace, who was hugging it to her chest. Now he was looking over at Zim's desk. And Narm's.
"And these weren't the cuddly kind of rats you get in today's sewers."
Yeah Ms. Bitters...rats were cuddly...sure.
A piece of paper slid across my desk. It was folded into a very tiny square. Ms. Bitters couldn't catch me. So I took the paper, and unfolded it under my desk.
Dib's on a roll today, huh? He really thinks he hit the jackpot since Zim and Narm are at the skool. Almost seems like it boosted his ego more.
Dani couldn't have been more right. I place a book on my lap, the loose-leaf sheet on top of it, and search for a blank space. When I find one, I scribble, He really is. He thinks he's some sorta paranormal superhero. Pretty annoying, right?!
I fold the paper up and drop it on Dani's desk. Fortunately, it doesn't make a sound.
I spotted Dib breaking his pencil and shoving one half up his nose. Then he raised his hand.
Before the teacher could call on him, he said, "Ms. Bitters, I think a pencil is lodged in my brain. Can I go to the nurse?"
"How far in your brain?" She wasn't giving him as much trouble as she gave Emmy.
Crossing his eyes, he responded "Pretty far."
"Alright," Ms. Bitters gave in. "Take the auxhillary hall pass."
The auxhillary hall pass was a heavy radiator with the words "HALL PASS" on it. Ms. Bitters had made Mica and Annie spray paint those words, with green spray paint, on it. It, apparently, wasn't as easy as it sounded.
But Dib surprisingly managed to haul the thing out of the room.
Right then, Emmy came back in the room, the piece of paper that Ms. Bitters had given her smoking. She looked as if she had been scarred mentally. What was wrong with her?
Throwing the paper on Ms. Bitters desk, she took her seat next to Sha.
"What's the matter?" I overheard Sha whisper to her.
"Oh, no-nothing." Emmy was trembling.
"That's not true. You look like you saw a murder."
"That's because it almost was a murder! Zim stole one of the Hall Monitor's organs and I saw it with my own eyes!"
Sha's eyes widened quickly. "No... And now Dib's left the room which can't be good."
And then I shocked myself. "Hey you guys," I whispered loud enough so they could hear me, but Ms. Bitters could not, "I could go...spy on them."
Dani heard this. "Are you sure, Gina?" she asked.
"I can do this. I totally can."
"How're you gonna do it?" Emily, who also heard, asked me. "We're all running out of excuses to leave this room."
"Nuh uh. Watch and learn." I suddenly shouted out, "OH MY GOSH! THERE'S A FIRE IN THE SCHOOL! EVERYONE RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"
At this, everyone in the classroom started screaming, except for the girls in our little "gang", and running around the room, some even running into the hallway. Ms. Bitters stood there, not knowing what to say or do.
"I'm going to the nurse. You guys all stay!" Through all the chaos, I found my way out of the room, to the nurse's office.
"Gina!" someone called my name. I whirled around and saw it was Grace.
"Grace, what's up?" I asked her.
"I need to come to the nurse's with you. Dib is there and he'll probably need me."
Ahh you can feel the love between them.
"Okay, Grace, but we have to hurry."
We took off running.
When we arrived, we caught up to Dib. Grace was very close to him, literally, and I tried not to interrupt their "moment" if they were about to have one.
"I'm looking for the pigeon-head kid," Dib told the secretary.
The secretary shook the can she held in her hand. It was almost like one of those baby toys, because it made a "moo" sound. "Nobody's come in with head pigeons, young man."
"Zim? Or Narm?"
She shook the can again and didn't say a word.
"The green kid..."
"Oh, the green child!" She pointed to a boy sitting in a chair. He did, in fact, look pretty green, and like he was about to barf any second. "He's right over there doubled over in pain."
"The cooing...The cooing!" Was he talking about pigeons?
"He's missing his liver. That's how some kids react to the cafeteria food... The lucky ones..." The secretary turned over the can again.
"So Emmy was right..." I trailed off.
"What do you mean, Emmy was right?!" Dib suddenly shifted glance from the secretary to me.
"She said she saw Zim take an organ from the Hall Monitor with her own eyes."
"Really?! What about Narm?!"
"I'm guessing he had no part in it."
"But Narm...isn't he allies with Zim?"
"Narm is more of Zim's 'backup plan'."
"Huh..." Without another word, he put his ex-scope on and looked at the Hall Monitor.
"So...Zim! He's stealing organs and replacing them with...stuff. He must be stopped!"
"Don't forget the your pass!" The secretary shook her mooing can and Grace looked like she'd had it. I knew it, because I had too.
"Never. Shake. That. Again." Grace gave the secretary a death glare as Dib pushed out his "hall pass".
Mica's POV
Lunch is coming up. I'm pretty hungry so that's a good thing. Ms. Bitters managed to make everyone stop screaming by giving us all an electric shock. It actually worked though. But while we were being shocked, I left the room too. I don't know why I did...I guess it was because the lesson was too boring for me and I just...wanted to leave.
No sooner had I run out of the room and down the hallway did I bump into Gigi (one of my nicknames for Gina).
"Mica...what...?" Gina was staring at me, with a quizzical look on her face.
"I had to leave. I wanted to. Nothing interested me in that room," I explained quickly.
"Must...warn...others..." Dib murmured. He and Grace were pushing the auxhillary hall pass through the hallway and were attempting to catch up to Gina and me.
"GUYS!"
It was Narm and he still had a pigeon on his head. I was closest to him, so I successfully shooed the pigeon away and it flew, still cooing.
"What's the matter Narm?" Gina asked him. Dib looked not so happy that Narm was here.
"Zim, he-"
"We know he's trying to steal organs, Narm. And where are you involved in this plan?!" Dib cut him off.
"I'm not involved in any way."
"You're lying, aren't you?" Dib stopped pushing the radiator and walked closer to Narm.
"I swear, Dib, I'm not." Narm tried to back away, until his back hit the wall.
"I don't know if I believe you..." Dib's nose touched where Narm's was. He was that close.
"Okay, we really don't have time for this!" Grace stopped pushing as well and broke them apart. "Are we gonna stop Zim or not?"
"As long as I don't have to be near him!" Dib angrily joined Grace in pushing the auxhillary hall pass again.
Narm just walked with Gina and me, ahead of the lovebirds.
But even as we walked...we still heard something.
It was the familiar "coo" of a pigeon.
It couldn't be Narm. It just couldn't be. I'd pretty much cured his head pigeons a few minutes ago...so who was it then...?
"Zim?" Dib said aloud.
That definitely wasn't good news. And there was no response.
We heard another "coo".
"Zim?" He said again.
No answer.
"Do not show fear," Dib said to himself. I thought I heard him say under his breath. "I have to be brave for Grace."
Grace didn't hear that. She looked fearless though.
"This is me without fear...and a sixty-two pound hall pass...and my best friend...and a stupid alien...and...other girls." Dib squared his shoulders, trying to look stronger and less scared.
The bell rang again and suddenly every child in our grade was pouring out of their classrooms, including my other friends.
"I'm still worried about where Zim is," I could hear Sha saying to Emmy.
"He's fine, I'm sure," Emmy assured her, and then they, along with the other seven girls, were not in my view anymore...and out of earshot.
A bunch of the children bumped straight into Dib and knocked him to the ground.
"Hey! Wait! Your organs! In danger!" Dib struggled to speak and get back up again.
All of the kids ignored him completely whilst Grace helped Dib up.
As we (Gina, Narm, and I) watched this partly romantic scene, we heard a "ZAP!"
"Spoo?!" Gina had turned around before the rest of us had. What was wrong with our beady-eyed fellow classmate?
"I don't feel so good." He collapsed onto his back to the floor...and we saw the radiator was inside of him.
"The hall pass!" Dib stared at him.
"ZIM!" The rest of us yelled.
Janay's POV
I sat in my regular seat next to Alyssa, and took out my lunch. Alyssa was doing the same. Of course we'd brought the same thing again-pizza. It was a whole friend thing. Michelle sat on the other side of me and we saw she'd gotten the same thing.
Ahhh, us "Three Musketeers".
"HEY GUYS!" a voice I was pretty sure belonged to Grace's called out.
"We're not guys." Rosa laughed. "We're gals."
Sighing, Grace said, "This is no time to kid. We have a real problem on our hands."
"It involves ZIM!" Dib appeared next to Grace.
"You know, I hate to say this, but whenever Zim has a plan, it usually fails," Sha commented. "So it's not gonna be that big of a deal."
"Yeah...but GIR's not there," Emmy said from her place in between Sha and Emily.
"So?" I asked.
"GIR...sadly usually ruins Zim's plans."
"Sometimes Zim wrecks his plans on his own!" Emily said.
"True," everyone except Lyssa, Chelle, Em, and I said.
"Look at them..." Dib told us all.
And when we actually did we were shocked as ever! Everyone around us all looked sick, like they might throw up. In fact, one kid was near a trash can, leaning over it, probably trying to force something out.
Revolting...horribly revolting.
"...And it's not even ketchup and rice day..."
I'd rather not get into that absolutely sick combo. Why did Dib have to mention that?!
"Um, Dib?" Grace poked Dib and when he faced her, she pointed over to another table. There was Gaz, who was slumped over and poking herself in the side.
"Gaz!" Dib ran over to Gaz in concern, with Grace at his heels.
"Don't bother me, you guys. I'm in the zone." Gaz didn't even look up when she said it.
"Of course. Zim took out one of her organs and replaced it with her Game Slave. No surprise there," Grace summarized.
Dib gasped.
"What?" Grace asked him.
"Z-Zim..."
We all stood up and joined Dib and Grace...and gasped too. Zim was sitting at a table and he was huge...morbidly obese! And the pigeon was still on his head.
"That's it, Zim! This has to stop!" Dib moved closer to Zim uncertainly.
"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about," Zim calmly said back.
"What?! You don't-" I started to say but thought twice and shut my mouth.
"Look at you! You've gone too far! You're a hideous blob of stolen organs!" Dib pointed to Zim.
"I've been working out."
"Zim, if you were working out, you'd be all hot and muscular," Sha corrected, then, realizing what she said, blushed very deeply. "I-I didn't mean..."
Zim stared at her, then spit up a long organ, choked, and swallowed it back up. Almost like he had thrown up and chose to just...eat it. Sick. REALLY sick!
"That wasn't because of me...was it?!" Sha looked worried...more worried than she'd ever looked before.
Zim just shook his head.
"You think you can fool a trained medical professional?" Dib placed his hands on his hips.
"I didn't know you were a trained medical professional!" Grace exclaimed.
"Well of course, I am! A paranormal investigator just has to be trained in medicine! Why...you like it?" He was trying to flirt...I could tell. He was trying to look like a guy that Grace might crush on.
Grace just nodded.
"I DO in fact think I could fool a trained medical professional because I AM ZIIM!" Zim answered Dib's question.
"Hm. I suppose you've got a heart in there..."
"Six of 'em."
If possible, Zim could outlive us all. I think I overheard Mica saying once that Irkens could live longer than humans anyways.
"Intestines?" Dib challenged.
"Large or small?"
"Spleen?"
"In three different colors."
"I didn't know you chose your designs carefully. What about lungs?"
"Why're you giving him ideas?!" Narm asked.
"Why're you asking me that?!"
Zim hadn't given an answer-he was using his Pak to boost him into the vent...then he was gone.
Narm pointed to the ceiling...
Michelle's POV
I agreed with everyone else about this entire thing-Zim was taking this waaay too far. As in the farthest he had (and according to my diehard Invader Zim friends/fans in the group, ever will) ever gone with his plan to take over the world. Never again will his plans be so extreme.
"You won't find any lungs on my watch, Zim!" Dib determinedly stated, his eyes looking all around the room. They finally stopped on one of the bullies in our grade-a strong boy by the name of Torque Smacky. He was lifting a weight while eating peas which basically seals the deal there.
"You! You look like you still got all your organs!" Dib approached him.
"What about us?!" I asked.
"You're girls!" Dib said.
"Don't be racist, Dib." Emily glared.
"I'm not being racist!"
"You're gonna hurt Grace's feelings!" Rosa was next to Grace actually.
Dib went red. "Oh...I'm...um...sorry! Sorry Grace."
The rest of us girls stared at him.
"And...the rest of you."
We all winked at each other.
"I have my organs..." Torque had, indeed, seen the entire conversation between us and had Dib's question in mind still. "So?"
Dib seemed to forget about the "racist" thing. "You're in danger! We're all in danger, except for Narm! Come with us!"
"I have to go lift things..." Torque really was all about working out.
"D-um, then I'll come with you."
"So will we," Narm volunteered for the rest of us.
So we left the cafeteria and walked straight into the hallway. Torque was still lifting his weight as he walked. I didn't know how he did it. Up and down. Up and down. Up and down.
We were walking behind him in an awkward single file line that wasn't really all that much of a single file line. Dib and Grace were at the front, and behind Torque. Basically Dib was telling the story of Zim's evil plan.
"And he wants to destroy us all. Now I know you think I'm crazy, but you'll thank me..." he yelled out. "You'll all thank me!"
We weren't thanking him enough, honestly!
"Aliens are kind of a hobby of mine. Well, more like a way of life, really..." Dib was starting to get into his life story as he ran ahead of Torque and looked extremely, extremely close around ever.
"Man, you're creepin' me out," Torque remarked.
"I have vague memories of being taken on board an alien ship as a baby."
"You were abducted?!" Grace asked.
"It's too bad I wasn't one of those genius sorta babies. If I was, maybe I would've known how to use a camera, and then I could've gotten pictures of those aliens. And they'd HAVE to believe me then! Am I right?"
And then we saw it. A Pak leg...one that obviously belonged to Zim. It reached out of the ceiling and wrapped its cold metal arm around Torque. He was still lifting the weight when the arm/leg lifted him up into the ceiling and closed the vent. Yet Dib, was oblivious to all of this!
Narm stopped walking. "Dib..."
"And I'm not sure, but I think they were doing tests on me... Trying to maybe change me into a genius super baby!" He was acting as if Torque was still there.
"Dib!" Grace ran up to him and turned him around.
"Wait...where..." Dib was at a loss for words.
"Zim got him."
"Wha-what?!"
"Zim kidnapped him. Now he is probably going to take his lungs."
"And then...we'll be his next target..."
"It's up to us," Narm declared. "Let's stop that failure of an invader!"
We heard noises in the ceiling...walking sort of noises...Zim was out to get us all.
A ceiling tile fell off. He was getting closer. It was as if our worst nightmare had come true.
"C'mon Zim!" Sha pleaded while we all broke into a run. "I'm your slave! I'm better than GIR! Please don't do this to me!"
We hit a dead end.
"I'll miss you mom..." I started to say my goodbyes. I knew we wouldn't make it. I knew my life was over. Lungs were one of the organs that we needed. And without them...we wouldn't be here. So we knew we were done.
What a nice way for our lives to end.
"THIS WAY!" Emily pointed. We followed where she'd guided us. She seemed to know exactly where to turn if we hit a dead end and I was more than grateful because of that, especially because we hit a few more dead ends after that.
Finally we found a place we thought was good to hide in. The boiler room. Dib opened the door and held it open for all of us, except Narm. He closed the door on him, but Narm managed to squeeze in, barely. I thought Dib was being a little too hard on Narm. The guy wasn't doing anything. He was taking Dib's side this time and Dib just kept suspecting that Narm was gonna do something Benedict Arnold-like.
Ahead of us was a staircase that spiraled down...and down. We ran down it as fast as we possibly could. As I ran, I tripped on my feet. Everyone else ran ahead of me.
Where was Zim?!
Afraid, I got to my feet and began to run again. I managed to catch up with them, much to my relief, and we crossed a wire bridge. Steam poured above us. But midway through, Zim appeared, all of a sudden, right through the fog.
"NOOOOOO!" Dib cried.
Grace gripped Dib's hand.
"Go...just go...the rest of you leave," Dib urged us.
We followed his order, turned around, and left the room just as Dib screamed for a long time.
While everyone else ran for the classroom, I decided on going to the nurse's instead. Maybe the nurse was creepy like Ms. Bitters and could brainwash me into forgetting this whole thing.
When I got there, Dib and Zim were surprisingly there too. Zim was still morbidly obese and sitting in a chair. Dib was sitting too. When he opened his mouth, instead of his voice coming out, a mooing sound did.
"That one has head pigeons." Ms. Bitters, who was strangely in here, raised a finger at Zim. "The other one is just annoying. Fix it." And then she exited.
"Your stupid plan won't work, Zim." Dib's voice came out weak. He mooed. "You'll never pull this off. Moo."
"You shpeak craziness, Earth boy!" Zim said. With all the organs in his mouth, it was difficult for me to sort of understand what he was saying. "More organsh meansh more human. It will work..."
Where was Narm anyway?
But Narm did not enter like I thought maybe he could...instead the nurse did. She took the thermometer that was in Zim's mouth at the moment. Then she simply shooed the pigeon off Zim's head. That's how easy it was.
The nurse looked at her thermometer. "There! Why, you're one of the healthiest little children I've ever seen! And such plentiful organs!"
Zim stuck his long, Irken tongue out at Dib.
"And what's the matter with you, young man?" The nurse looked at Dib next, and took out the thermometer she had placed in his mouth. After listening to his breathing and hearing his moos, she screamed. "It isn't human! It's horrible!"
"But, he-" Dib started...and then he realized he couldn't finish.
Hence was why the next day, the front page news on our newspaper was "HIDEOUS MOOING CYBORG BOY FOUND!"
FOOTNOTE:
Okay, so the chapter had an excerpt of "Dark Harvest."
You know the drill with reviewing and...yay, the dark episode is over.