Quick AN: For the next two weeks or so, My Name is Molly wont be updating. I'm going to be on vacation and wont be able to write! Sorry! This chapter is also pretty short because I had to finish it in two days.
Molly walked out into the town of Sunville. Alli quickly gathered them behind her.
"Stay quiet, stay in the shadows, stay careful," she whispered, then scooted behind the message board located directly next to the train station. There was a few seconds of silents while the group sized the town up.
Contrary to its name, Sunville was not sunny. At all. There was hardly any public works projects, the houses were banged-up, and the smell of smoke pervaded the air. The trees bore little to no fruit, and some were completely dead, despite the season being late summer. From her spot, Molly could see a simple streetlight with cracked glass, and a bus stop with a moth circling lazily around its dim lights. Overall, it seemed like a perfect town to be shady and sneak around in.
"Who's the mayor of this place?" Liam whispered, sounding frustrated. "This place is a pile of trash!"
"An alligator. Alligators are the mayors of all the towns," Gayle murmured.
"Then who was supposed to be the mayor of Solar-"
"Probably Alfonso. He let you have his position," Alli interrupted. Liam contemplated this while the rest of the group continued looking around.
"Lets start looking around for a better hiding place," Alli breathed. Carefully, as if the ground were laced with traps, the group inched away from their hiding spot and explored. Then something hit Molly.
"If alligators are the mayors of all the towns, then what happens after they all die in five years?" she asked.
"A villager would take their spot. It's all very carefully planned out. The medicine is programmed to make everyone vote for the best mayor. In fact, if Alfonso lead your town, I think you'd be the next mayor, Molly," Gayle replied. Molly's face went red, but she didn't reply. Me? They'd all vote for me…!
Suddenly, a loud alarm started wailing. Everyone jumped and dove behind the café to hide, then cautiously looked out. A group of villagers had languidly gathered around the town hall, where the sound was coming from; they didn't seem alarmed at all.
"Warning! Two criminals are on the loose! Warning!"
Molly tensed. The residents of Solaris would panic, but here, the villagers hardly reacted. One, a yellow elephant, rolled her eyes and muttered "Another crime, huh! What else is new?" the animals around her nodded their heads in agreement.
"Warning! They are a brown duck and an unidentified, peach-furred creature. If seen, report immediately to your mayor! There will be a generous reward! Warning!" At this, the gathered villagers perked up in interest.
"Unidentified peach-furred creature?" Liam repeated, sounding offended.
Oh, great! Now they have the entire dimension looking for us. This day couldn't get any better! Molly thought grumpily.
"Well, this town is perfect. There's so much crime that nobody really cares," Alli remarked. "Still, be on your guard." Alli and Gayle kept moving, and Molly and Liam followed. Finally, Gayle stopped.
"Here, this is a good hiding spot," she whispered, gesturing to the ocean.
"Err, there's nothing there," Liam pointed out.
"Past that stretch of water, there's a secret beach that can only be reached by swimming. And villagers hate to swim," Alli answered readily. "So come on."
It took Liam a second to realize what she meant before she shoved him in the water. He spluttered and resurfaced, glaring at her but not daring to shout in their dire situation.
Molly could swim perfectly fine, being a duck, but she flew instead. It was faster, and she reached the small island before the others.
Liam and the alligators clambered onto the mini-beach and plopped himself onto the sand.
"What now?" he asked.
"We wait it out. They'll stop eventually. And if they find us, we can swim away. Liam can ride on my back," Gayle said. Liam frowned.
They sat there for a long time. Just when Molly wanted to explode from boredom, Gayle asked casually, "Whats your plan?"
"Plan for whaa?" Liam mumbled, distracted by a beetle crawling in the sand. How it got there, Molly had no idea.
"Plan for everything. It's not like you can hide from the alligators forever," Alli commented. Liam went red.
"We can't?"
Alli spluttered in surprise. "Are you crazy? Do you think you can just run away for five years and hope all the baddies die before you do?"
"Do we have another choice?" Liam argued.
"You have to come up with one! You'll be dead if you don't!"
"What, break into the alligators' lair and steal a magical cure and heal everyone and make an army of humans to defeat the alligators?" Liam said sarcastically. Alli paused, and Liam smirked, thinking he had won the debate; but really, Alli was thinking.
"You know…" she began slowly. "That could work."
"Bullcrap!" Liam shouted. Molly glanced at him sideways. "The alligators are invincible! Alfonso said it himself. We can't just-"
"But not really," Gayle butted in. "Humans are smart, but not magical. Alligators have a weakness. An Achilles heel, if you will."
"Why didn't you tell me that before?" Liam said incredulously. "What is it?"
"I can't tell you," Gayle said plaintively. "It's top secret, locked up in my brain. I can't unlock the locks that guard that information."
"Thats bullcrap too. You don't have locks in your brain, you-"
"So, it's perfectly normal to have medicine in your brain, but not a lock?" the pink alligator said, eyebrow raised. Liam fell silent. "If I tried to tell you, I don't know what would happen. Perhaps I'd kill you, or torture you till you swore not to tell. The medicine runs deep in us, and unlike you, Molly, we can't just destroy it. We can ignore it, but we can't get rid of it."
Molly didn't reply. She was idly playing around with the sand, trying to remember some memories of the beaches at home. Mm, I remember I had a red bucket I used to make sand castles with. And a green shovel. Did I ever use it? I think I just used my hands to scoop sand.
There was a rather awkward silence, then Liam spoke up.
"So, ah…that plan thing, you said it might work?" he began hesitantly.
"Well, definitely not what you suggested, but something along those lines," Alli answered. "Getting the cure and healing all the humans. The alligators…those, we can-"
Gayle suddenly gasped and shouted "Their weakness is-the…Operation! Perform it on them and they-can't…fight back!" and she sunk to her knees, grabbing her head in her hands.
"Gayle!" Molly cried, snapping out of her stupor and running over to her.
"Stay away from her," Alli ordered, thrusting out her arms. Gayle was on the ground, her eyes unfocusing.
"Come on, Gayle!" Alli murmured, staring intently at her friend.
"Whats going on?" Liam asked tetatively.
"She's fighting her own 'medicine,' if you will," Alli replied grimly. "Lets see if she can beat it."
Gayle convulsed once, then looked up, her eyes wide.
"G-Gayle?" Molly whispered. Gayle looked at her, and her body stiffened. She got up and calmly walked to Molly. "Are you alright?"
Gayle then collapsed again and began coughing violently. "Ack…ugh. Yeah, aah…I think I'm-ahhgh-okay."
"Gayle, you stupid pink pile of goo," Alli said exasperatedly. "You could of killed us. You were loud enough for the villagers to hear us."
"While you were talking, I was planning a way to-ack, ugh-to defeat the…yeah."
Liam jumped up and down excitedly. "We know how to attack the alligators now! We have to-wait, what was their weakness again?"
The two alligators glared at him and Liam laughed nervously. "I was just kidding. But, er, how are we going to Operate on a hundred alligators?"
"Well, counting us, there are nine rebel alligators," Alli said. "We can capture one alligator at a time, operate on them, and put them on our side."
"One more question," Liam said. "Did you used to be humans, too?"
They both stiffened. Gayle answered.
"Yes," she murmured. "We were. But unlike you, we can't go back."
Liam frowned. "You're sure?"
"Positive."
"Well," Molly said suddenly, clapping her hands together. "Lets get back to Solaris."