LO AND BEHOLD, after a thousand years, the next chapter has finally come! I'm so sorry it took so long!
"Solaris? Why get back so soon? They could still be searching for us."
"I mean," Molly said, frustrated, "We need a plan. To get the cure."
Liam frowned. "Cure?"
"There has to be a cure for the Operation, right? The humans needed someway to restore their…lab tests," Molly replied.
"Perhaaaaps," Liam murmured, his face tight with concentration.
"We know where it is," Gayle butt in, and Liam looked up with surprise. "However, it is very, very carefully guarded. Getting it would take a lot of effort."
"Well, maybe we should do it, like…now," Liam said. "After all, half the alligators are out looking for us. It's the best time, right?"
"Well, we need a plan," Alli responded. She shuffled around in her pockets and pulled out a hauntingly familiar black stick.
"Electricity is an alligator's second weakness," Gayle explained, wincing when she said this; she still must be fighting her own medicine, Molly concluded. "Shoot an alligator with a taser and they'll be momentarily stunned."
"News flash: That happens to literally everyone," Liam retorted. Without warning, Gayle swiveled towards him, pointed the taser, and pulled the trigger. Molly gasped and dove for Gayle, then saw her eyes glittering with amusement, Liam still perfectly fine.
"But…but the first time, they caught us…they used tasers…" Liam mumbled, still shocked, no pun intended.
"Human tasers," Gayle corrected. "These are specifically for alligators. And before you ask why the heck alligators crafted their own weakness, lets say that this is an invention by me and Alli ourselves." Alli grinned at this.
"Okaay. So, whats the plan?" Liam asked, his voice getting increasingly excited.
"I think we should start like this…"
Alli and Gayle went into the train station. Molly and Liam were decked out in disguises from the Able Sisters in town; Liam had a knight helmet and a black-denim jacket with one too many pockets, while Molly was wearing a floppy hat and a pink-wave tank.
"Hello, Sir," Gayle said kindly to the conductor. "Could you please take us to Reset Surveillance Center Fourteen?"
The monkey glanced at her skeptically. "Thats been closed for years, eek eek! Are you sure you want to go there?"
"Positive," she replied smoothly.
As the group took their seats, Molly raised an eyebrow at Alli. "Reset Surveillance Center?"
"Thats what our hideout is disguised as," she replied absentmindedly, studying her claws.
The train ride was long and boring. Molly stared out the window as thriving towns turned to ruins to endless fields of emptiness. I never really considered it…this is a real, true world. Not a garbage can for the human race's experiments.
"Stop for Reset Surveillance Center 14, stop for Reset Surveillance Center 14!"
Molly jerked back to reality and started to get up. They began leaving the train, and suddenly Alli stopped, whispering to the conductor.
"I'll pay you double if you can wait right here for half an hour and pick us up when we come out. If we don't come out within that time, feel free to ditch us."
"Sure," the monkey said with no hesitation, as Alli handed him the Bells. She thanked him and stepped off.
"So, we understand the plan, right?" Gayle said, her voice low. Everyone nodded. Molly went towards the circular door and opened it, her heart hammering. The gravity of her job was immense.
She forced herself to grin and give the others a thumbs-up, before descending into the depths of the lair.
Diversion. I need a diversion. Molly struggled to think straight. Shouldn't be hard.
She had been selected to distract the alligators, since she was the fastest, and she could fly. The tunnels were very narrow, but the ceilings were high. All she had to do was dodge bullets and tasers and hungry alligators. Easy as pie.
Molly took a deep breath and shouted,
"I'm here, you great piles of dirt! Come an' get meee!"
Instantly, there was an earthquake of heavy footsteps. Adrenaline poured itself all over Molly and she ran as fast as she could down the hall.
Alli said for me to…ugh…take a left, then a right, then…then…yes, another right…
Molly dared to look behind her and her heart dropped as she saw a pack of alligators racing after her, their expressions furious.
Okay, okay! Take a left! Go there…aaargh! There are so many!
Molly jumped up and spread her wings, struggling to fight panic. The feeling of flight calmed her down slightly. She heard a curse, and she quickly zipped down to the side as a bullet flew past her. She kept flapping, waiting to reach the place where she would meet up with the others; by now they probably had the cure. But to her horror, the tunnels opened up into a wide, empty, room.
A dead end.
Molly froze with horror. I must've missed a turn…or taken the wrong one…
The alligators hooted and grinned as they cornered their prey. Molly felt sick; I came this far, only for it to end here?
No.
No, it wasn't ending here.
Molly raced to think of something. What do I do, what do I do? Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap.
One alligator stepped up to the front, and took meticulous aim with his gun. Molly surveyed the alligators. Their arms were tense with excitement, waiting to see Molly drop dead; too tense to move quickly and grab their guns if she were to leap over their heads and fly off. The one holding the gun already, however…well, she just had to hope.
She saw his finger move over the trigger. "Any last words?"
"Yeah," Molly said, amazed that her voice was steady. "You're all dumb as doorknobs."
Confusion played out on his face, then shock when Molly ran straight towards him. He was stunned for only a second before he was furious and pulled the trigger; but by then Molly was opening her wings and soaring over all their heads. She gritted her teeth from the effort; she hadn't practiced flying very much, and her wings were utterly unused to the exertion. They shrieked and snapped angrily after her, whirling around to continue the chase. Molly grinned widely, half from hysteria and half from relief. She swerved down a tunnel and saw Alli, Gayle, and Liam just racing out of a laboratory, their clothes lumpy. Molly now saw the need for all the pockets on Liam's clothing; they were all brimming with small vials.
"Run!" Molly shrieked as she swooped down the exit tunnel. They raced after her, the immense amount of alligators still roaring and growling with anger.
Molly saw the ladder and relief flooded her body like an ocean. She flapped up it, her wings burning and numb. She then burst out of it, the rest quickly following, panting and heaving.
"Everyone, in the train, right this instant," Alli demanded. Molly turned and expected to see alligators swarming outside, but none came out of the hole at all. They all obeyed without question, leaping in the train.
"Take us to Solaris," Molly ordered. The monkey nodded calmly, completely unaware of what had just happened under his train.
"Solaris? You sure the alligators are gone by now?" Liam asked as they returned to their seats. His face was red, and he was panting.
"Doesn't matter. We have to distribute these cures." Molly gestured to their lumpy pockets, and Liam pulled out one vial.
"It's so tiny," Molly exclaimed, taking it and observing it. It appeared to be made of glass; it was short and squat and filled with a translucent gray liquid. Molly winced at the memories of the pseudo-gummy bears, filled with a potion of similar characteristics.
"Yeah, I hope it's enough to-" Liam suddenly broke off into coughs, and his body hunched over.
"Are you alright?" Gayle asked in concern.
"Fine, I'm fine, I-ack…" he spluttered, taking some deep breaths. "I'm just-ack-out of…breath, from running that much."
"Bet you swallowed one of Molly's feathers while she was flapping like an ostrich," Alli remarked.
Molly shot her a look.
"I'm fine," Liam insisted. Conversation dwindled after that, and the ride was silent. After about 15 minutes, Alli got up.
"I have to go to the bathroom," she announced.
"Same for me," Gayle said. Liam made a face at them and resumed staring out the window. With both the alligators gone, Molly switched seats, scooting over to Liam.
"You sure you're all right?"
Liam didn't respond for a moment. "Perfectly fine," he replied, and his voice was clear and not raspy at all.
Molly picked up one of the cures in Liam's pockets.
"So this is it, huh?" Molly murmured.
"Yep."
"Think I should…drink it?" Molly turned it over in her wings. The answer she had been looking for for months was in her hands, in this tiny vial.
"No," Liam replied instantly. "No."
He offered no explanation, and Molly didn't question him further.
"Liam?"
"What?"
"If the medicine is all gone, and I can access any memory I want, why-why am I not human? Right now?"
"Because," he said softly, "the medicine erases your most heartbreaking memory. It doesn't lock that one away, it erases it completely."
Molly's heart fell to her feet. "W-what?! Why didn't you tell me that?!"
"Because thats why you need two people to complete the 'ritual'. I need to tell you the memory, and maybe then you can remember it."
Molly blinked. "But do you know what my most heartbreaking memory was?"
His eyes softened. "Not positive," he responded. "But I have a good idea."
"Then why don't you just tell it to me right now?"
Liam opened his mouth to respond, when the train jerked and vials of Operation-cure flung themselves onto the floor. Liam jumped and scrambled for them; they hadn't shattered, which made Molly guess that they were made of some hard-to-break glass. Of course. Can't have the cure for all your lab tests breaking all over the floor, now.
And then Alli and Gayle came back and their conversation was over.