CoCo

Chapter 4

The Tediz arrived at Castle von Tedistein. They unloaded the resources they had ran-sacked and dumped their hostages in the dungeons. Half of the prisoners had died during the trip. The Tediz knew the SHC would organize a rescue mission soon, so they prepared for an attack.

CoCo was thrown into a small cell, with no roommates "Ugh!" she grunted as she hit the cold, hard ground. Almost immediately, she jumped to her feet and ran up against the bars of her cell.
"Hey!" she yelled at the Tediz. "Can somebody please tell me what's going on here?!" A Tediz soldier barked something in Tediz language and poked her in the belly with his gun. "Oompf!" She fell on her behind as the Tediz left the dungeons. "Hey..." CoCo called after them, but they were already gone.
"Humpf!" she huffed. "It's no use. It's not like I'll understand what they are saying, anyway." Crossing her arms, CoCo sat there and waited for something to happen...

CoCo sat in that dungeon for weeks, living off of low rations and a foolishly high sense of optimism. Some of the other prisoners had died from blood loss, due to their severe wounds. The Tediz didn't bother removing their bodies, so the stench of dead carcasses filled the air. Some hostages caught diseases and died of illness. Others died of malnutrition.
CoCo was kept in a cell that was separated from the most of the others. The closest prisoner to her was three cells away. Therefore, CoCo was very much alone. But, at least now she would have lots of time to do some thinking.

This wasn't what I wanted at all! That old man lied to me! How long was I asleep anyway? What the hell happened? Who are these weird-looking bear things that talk as though they are choking on their own spit all the time! Maybe I shouldn't have left home. I mean, seriously, what was I complaining about? My life back there was waaaay better than this! Look at me now! Sitting in the cunting dungeon! Gonna rot away like everyone else is!

Then CoCo got mad at herself. She started to bang her head against the dungeon wall, screaming, "Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!"
A couple of Tediz saw this and cackled at the scene. They really enjoyed seeing her inflict pain upon herself. They cruised along up to her cell and jabbed their weapons into her sides.
"Hey, quit that!" CoCo screamed angrily, as a sabre sliced a small cut on her thigh. "I mean it! Stop!" But the Tediz didn't stop, in fact, her anger fueled their cruelty. "Dammit!" CoCo cried and finally she sat down scooting away from them as far as the cell would let her. The tediz growled and walked away, still laughing.
"This sucks ass!" CoCo mumbled. "This sucks some huge, fat, grimy ass wit-" a large, sudden explosion interrupted her rant. The SHC was bombing Tediz territory! Another explosion bust a huge whole in the wall of the dungeon. The cell walls crumbled, enabling the prisoners to escape.
A Squirrel soldier peeped his head in. "C'mon guys! Follow me!" he waved his hand, motioning the prisoners to follow. They followed him outside onto the battlefield. There were Tediz and Squirrels fighting and killing each other. "We just gotta run right through them!" shouted a Squirrel Grunt to the prisoners. "We'll try to protect you!"
CoCo didn't follow the huge crowd. She saw that they all weren't going to get through that tiny hole. She pushed her broken cell door out of her way and headed the opposite direction. She left through the dungeon's main entrance and started to sneak around the Tediz base. Keeping a low profile, she crawled around the base, hiding in the shadows when Tediz ran by. She found a good sized nook in the wall and slid herself in. There she would hide until she was certain the coast was clear.

After most of the Tediz had gone outside to fight the Squirrels, the base became eerily quiet. CoCo poked her head slowly out of the nook she was hiding in. There was no one around. She slipped out of the hole and snuck around the Tediz base, looking around for something. She wasn't really sure what she was looking for, exactly, perhaps a safe way out or answers to her questions. But one thing was for certain; she definitely wasn't looking for love...

CoCo continued to explore the base. She even became a bit fascinated by it! Of all the interesting rooms she saw in the base, there was one specific room that caught her eye. A laboratory.
She noticed the streams of flashing lights shining through the lab doors. As she slowly approached it, she heard a voice. She couldn't make out the words being spoken, but she knew that it wasn't that guttural tongue that the Tediz spoke. She hid behind the open door.
Cautiously peering around the lab door, CoCo saw a fantastic collection of machines and tubes, shelves filled with flasks, books, and small jars, diagrams littering the floor, and a large, intimating looking machine busy working, sending sparks flying everywhere. But the most fascinating object in this room was a weasel, sitting in a marvelous floating hover-chair that flashed with electric zaps every so often. He had a bionic arm and wore a telescope on his right eye. (You know who I'm talking about, right?) This weasel zoomed around the room, muttering to himself.
CoCo was intrigued. She decided that maybe he might be able to help her out, answer her questions.
She approached him slowly. He continued to mumble things to himself, unaware that CoCo had crept up behind him. In a small voice, she asked, "Um, excuse me, sir, but could you-" Her question stopped abruptly when the weasel, startled, turned around and grabbed CoCo's neck with his bionic arm.
"A squirrel!" He shrieked, his grip around CoCo's neck tightening. "Vat are you doing here?! Tell me vat you know! Tell me or I'll strangle you!"
CoCo squirmed and tried to pull his hand away from her throat, but he was too strong for her. He continued to squeeze her neck.
"I...can't...breathe...!" she choked. She squinted her eyes at the weasel and took a good, long look at him.

I have heard it said that when somebody meets the love of her life, time stops. Well, in this case, time didn't freeze at all, but CoCo did. As she looked into the face of the weasel forcing the life out of her, she felt an odd feeling, an odd emotion. She didn't really know what this feeling was, she had never felt it before. Her heart raced and her stomach churned. Just like I said, she froze, she quit fighting him.
The weasel was a bit surprised by CoCo's sudden lack of movement. Assuming that she was dead, he released his grip around her neck and let her body fall to the floor. He turned and slowly floated back to his machines. CoCo, still frozen, lied on the ground, but only for a few seconds.
Snapping back into reality, CoCo coughed and held her throat. The weasel halted.
"Hey..." she gagged. "I didn't mean to sneak up on you, but I was wondering if you could tell me what's going on around here? You see I-"
"SILENCE!" the weasel blurted. CoCo jumped. He quickly zoomed over to her. "You idiot!" he bellowed. "Zere is no vay you can talk yourself outta zis one! Tell me vat you know! "
CoCo cringed as he yelled at her. "I don't know what your talking about! I don't know anything!"
"Damn right you don't know anyzing, you stupid squirrel!" The weasel sneered. "But playing dumb von't help you zis time! Tell me, spy! Tell me vat plans you've been eavesdropping on! Tell me vhat ze SHC knows!"
"What?" CoCo said, confused. "Spy? Eavesdropping? I'm not a spy and I'm not eavesdropping on you! And I don't even know what the SHC is! I jus- oh!" CoCo's train of thought wrecked when she noticed that the weasel was legless.
"You don't have any legs!" She felt sorry for him. She became interested to know how he lost his legs. What was his story? But she dared not ask.
He looked down at his own stumps and scowled. "I am avare zat I don't have legs!" he yelled. "And it's all thanks to your kind zat zey are gone!"
"Well don't get mad at me!" CoCo huffed, looking him straight in the eye. "How could it possibly be my fault that you don't have legs when I have never seen you before in my life!"
"Vat I say about playing dumb!" the weasel shouted as he slapped CoCo across the face. "Vat ze fuck is wrong vit you! Dammit! If you aren't gonna tell me, zen I guess I'll have to torture it outta you!"
CoCo gulped. Things just got serious. "Torture?" she squeaked as he grabbed her and dragged her away. "You're making a big mistake! I haven't done anything wrong!" She screamed and tried to wriggle out of his grip.
"Shut ze fuck up!" the weasel demanded. He looked around his lab."Now vich torture device shall I use first?" He chuckled, softly but sinisterly.