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Chapter 14: A Surprise at the Lab
Gizmo led the way out of the passageway to the Bullet, the others following a ways behind, unsure of whether they should or not. They felt like they should give him space, but it seemed like he expected them to follow him still. Eventually they emerged into the bright sunlight. Thankfully the black Lab seemed to have gotten over whatever had gotten his leash in a knot. "Welcome to Tomorrowland," he proclaimed.
The pups gasped as they looked at the buildings and locations around them. Even though everything was old, worn down, and corroding, it was an impressive sight. They had never seen a city like this before. Everything was dog-sized. Buildings, doors, benches, and even cars were all built in a scale that would be just right for a typical adult canine. Rubble marveled at the infrastructure, noticing that the building floors were about half as tall as they normally would be. All of the buildings looked much like what you might see in a typical skyrise, just they were shorter. Not many of them breached above the treetops. In front of them was a large open city square, a road on the right and far sides. Behind them, was a large brick building, the wall of which they had just emerged from. To their left was a parking lot, still with some cars in it. They all strongly resembled the pup's emergency vehicles in form and size, though it was clear all of them had been there for quite some time, and it was doubtful any of them would start. The pups were blown away at it all.
"Wow!"
"This is totally awesome!"
"Everything is dog sized!"
"Cool!"
Skye marveled at the sizes of everything. "Were there any humans on this island at all?" the cockapoo queried.
Gizmo turned to her to reply, a questioning look in his eyes. "No. Is that not normal?"
"No que yo sepa. Not that I know of," Tracker informed him.
"Oh…" Gizmo replied.
Rocky nodded in understanding. "I wondered why the train was just our size!"
Everest spoke out, "Hey, what happened to that building?"
Everyone looked over to the right where the husky was pointing. On the other side of the street, directly across from the building behind them, was a metal tower which twisted like a corkscrew. The floors spiraled upwards in a chaotic manner, clearly not built that way.
"I don't know. It would have needed a torque of at least-" Gizmo stopped himself, realizing that none of them would probably understand what he was about to say. "I don't know. I'll probably never know what happened to it. Same way for the building in front of us."
"Which building?" Chase looked around at the buildings on the other side of the square they were facing.
"Exactly."
The canines looked at the open space in front of them in confusion. Then Rubble gasped. "That's not a square! That's a foundation!"
As he said it, the rest of the pups noticed it too. Around the edges of the vacant zone before them were signs that a building clearly had occupied it at some point; there was exposed rebar, worn down mortar, and even discernable marks showing where the entrance used to be.
"Are you coming?"
The pups turned back to their right to see Gizmo looking at them from around the corner. They raced over to him as he padded to the front entrance of the building that had been behind them.
Marshall marveled at the building with a sense of wonder. "Is this the FIR building you were telling us about?"
"Yep!" Gizmo replied with a grin as he walked through the automatic door to the building.
"And you just use this building all to yourself as a lab?" Rocky gasped in amazement as he absorbed in the environment. There were a good number of rooms, many of them with fascinating gadgets and mysterious machines in them.
Skye answered for him, "Why not? He's the only one here!"
"Man I would love something like this!" Zuma cheered.
Everest laughed. "I'm not used to having a roof that's this close to my head!
"So let me get this straight," Chase processed. "You have the lab to yourself, the storage warehouses to yourself, the factories to yourself, the farms to yourself, and literally an entire city to yourself?"
"Imagine having an entire gym to yourself!" Rubble exclaimed.
Gizmo spoke up, "Actually, I think the gym was the building that disappeared. I probably wouldn't use it much anyway. I, um, spend most of my time here or at the library." He looked somewhat nervously around, again feeling the weight of everyone's attention on him. "Um, feel free to look around while I gather up some blueprints. Just don't touch anything if it looks dangerous."
The pups brightened up at the prospect of exploring this incredible research center. "Hey, Rocky, I bet I can identify more gadgets than you!" Rubble called out.
"Oh, yeah? You're on!" Rocky shouted back to his bulldog friend as they both raced into a nearby room together.
Skye giggled, "I'd know I'd like to see that thing that was flying back near the entrance!"
"Oh, yeah! I saw that too! I'll race you to it!" Chase grinned back at her before they both shot away.
A few seconds later, Marshall, Everest, and Tracker all went in a group together to explore as well. Gizmo started to continue down the hallway.
"Hey, Gizmo?"
The black dog stopped and turned around to see Zuma still there. "Yes?"
"You're a Labrador retriever, right?"
"Yeah. Why do you ask?"
"Well, I've been wondering what's up with your ears."
Gizmo lifted his right paw up to his ear in an instinctual manner. "What about my ears?"
"Why are they pointed like Chase's? I'm a Labrador retriever and I've never seen a Lab with ears like yours. They're all floppy like mine."
"I- I don't know," Gizmo stammered, now feeling overly self-conscious and embarrassed of his ears. He pushed down his right ear with his paw. "I never really thought about it. I just assumed it was normal… It wouldn't be inbreeding; the records say there were a few hundred original settlers. Maybe it's a mutation?"
Zuma shrugged, "Beats me, dude, but I think it's cool!"
Gizmo lowered his paw. "You do?"
"Totally! It's unique!"
Gizmo smiled. He wasn't used to being complimented. "Thanks," he said warmly. Then he thought of something. "Hey, looking at your gear just reminded me of something I think you'd be interested in seeing. Follow me."
"Really?" Zuma perked up, tail wagging.
"Sure, why not? I want to see the look on your face."
"Awesome!" the water dog yipped. "What is it?"
"Wait until we get there," Gizmo replied. Somehow he found himself looking forward to this.
The two Labrador retrievers padded down to the end of the hallway before descending a flight of stairs. Gizmo pushed open a door, walked through, and held it open with his paw for his brown friend to enter behind him. The lights flipped on automatically.
"What do you think?" Gizmo asked.
At first Zuma didn't see anything extraordinary about the room. Then he noticed some blueprints on the corkboard. "Wait, that looks like…"
"Looks like…?
As he walked forward, something caught the corner of Zuma's eye that had been previously hidden behind the door. It was mostly silver, but Zuma would have known what it was anywhere. "No. Way."
There, shining under the lights on the other side of the room, was Zuma's hovercraft.
The chapter a day thing caught up to me with this one; writer's block happens to everyone. It's also gotten to a point where details become more important. I'm going to start releasing chapters on a less frequent basis. That way I can have things better planned out. As for the chapter itself, I had a hard time figuring out how to accurately describe the city, which is why this chapter took a while to write. I had wanted to include a better description of both the city and FIR, but there wasn't that great of a spot to put it in the story without interrupting it too much.
