MonoKeras gave a grunt of triumph as the wall gave way
beneath his probing. It slid back to reveal the secret passageway that Dr. Sloth
had entered from moments before. He left the unconscious figure of Sloth on
the floor behind him without a glance, and strode down the hall.
The path led down several flights of stairs
before he came across what he was looking for. MonoKeras stepped into the middle
of the room and looked around at the array of complicated equipment as it bubbled
and beeped softly to itself, doing Sloth only knew what sort of strange computations.
"Uh-huh, another secret lab. Sloth, you never
change, do you." MonoKeras laughed softly at his own taunt before pulling out
his weapons again. Bolts of fire and other elemental damage descended on the
room and he slowly retreated back to the door as the contents became charred
rubble. Several secondary explosions and flashes came from the rapidly disintegrating
lab, and MonoKeras darted out into the hallway, slamming the door shut behind
him. Quiet slowly began to settle back in again, broken only by an occasional
popping sound from within. A pool of greenish liquid leaked out from under the
door and puddled in the hallway.
Nodding to himself in satisfaction, MonoKeras
turned and started to leave when a familiar figure came around the corner and
suddenly stopped in its tracks.
"Hey! What's going on here?"
MonoKeras centered both of his weapons on Spectre's
mid-section. "Just doing some unscheduled remodeling work. And as I recall,
you're the one that's going to be paying for it."
Spectre gulped as he eyed the firepower trained
on him. "Do you realise what you just did? That room's owner is going to be
madder than hops when he finds it!"
MonoKeras shrugged. "A bit late to worry about
that. Sloth is going to be upset anyway, after he wakes up. Forget him, he's
out of the action. Right now, I want that two million Neopoints back."
Spectre's jaw dropped. "What???"
"I said, give me back that ransom money, or...
well do you really want to find out the or else part?"
"N-no, but...." Spectre licked his lips. "What
was that about Sloth?"
"I left him out cold on your office floor. Care
to join him?"
"No, of course not, but..." Spectre's eyes narrowed
thoughtfully. "Maybe we can make a deal that both of us will be happy with."
MonoKeras cocked his head to one side. "Go on,
jetsam, I'm listening."
***
It was dark long before Meggiemufin and I reached central Neopia again. It
must have been past ten o'clock as we walked down the poorly lit alleys of the
dock areas.
"Wharf Side Alley. What a name."
"Descriptive," I agreed. "But not particularly
helpful when half the street signs are gone."
Meggiemufin sighed. "Well there's one ahead
of us, maybe it'll say."
We stepped under the streetlight and examined
the sign. Though rusty, it was still in good shape and legible.
"Yes! We're in luck!"
"What do you know about that," I murmured to
myself as Meg did a victory pump of both arms. "Now all we need to do is find
3425... right?"
"Uh..." Meggiemufin stopped dancing and pulled
out the note. "Right."
Street numbers were even rarer than street signs.
We finally found one proclaiming itself to be 2017, and the next block was 2101.
We began to count the blocks, finding just enough numbers to keep us on track
and encouraged.
"Here we go! 3425!" I raced for the door and
Meggiemufin was right behind me. I started to open it, but she slammed into
me and the momentum from both of us broke the door open instead. We stumbled
inside, and I snapped on a flashlight.
"Heilley?" I called.
"Koot! Koot, it's me!"
No response. "They must be tied and gagged somewhere."
Meg gulped. "That's an awful thought!"
"No, it's a hopeful one. Come on, let's look
through this stuff."
"Maybe they're just sleeping?"
"Heilleyyyy!" I yelled. The shout echoed off
the walls but we got no further response. "Asleep after that?" I said pointedly.
Meggiemufin didn't say anything, but the woebegone
look on her face made me regret my bad temper. We both set to searching through
the junk around us. Banging and clattering sounded through the warehouse as
we fished through all sorts of rusty machinery, broken tools, and other less
palatable items - but no Kyrii.
After about fifteen or twenty minutes, Meggiemufin
sighed and flopped down in the center of the warehouse. "I'm pooped," she panted.
Rummaging through the bag she'd brought with her, she pulled out an orange and
splime muffin. "Want a muffin?"
"No thanks."
She looked at the muffin in her hand, and suddenly
thrust it back in the bag and curled up crying. Normally, I'd think she was
nuts, but I knew exactly what she was thinking - and why. The bulge of Heilley's
favourite kyrii plushie in my own jacket pocket made me want to cry as well.
The "welcome back" gifts that MonoKeras had suggested we bring mocked us by
their futility, reminders of a more hopeful past that now...
I cut off that line of thinking and walked outside.
I carefully examined the front of the warehouse, but there was no doubt about
the number on it. In fact, when I looked at it closer, I realised it had been
tacked up there recently. Probably so that we'd find it easier - not that it
had done any good.
Walking out into the middle of the street, I
slowly turned and examined the other buildings. There were numbers on a couple
of them, both different, and both making what I saw on this warehouse plausible.
I kicked at a scorch mark on the broken pavement and sighed.
I wandered back inside, feeling numb and defeated.
Meggiemufin was still sobbing quietly and I wanted to comfort her, but there
was no way I was going to trust a single syllable to get past the lump in my
own throat. I sat down, too, and stared into space, gloomily trying to think.
All of the hurry, fear, and anger seemed to have seeped out and left me stranded
in the middle of nowhere without a clue as to what to do. I sat. I breathed.
I listened to the night.
***
Far down the piping, Kootmufin and Heilley had finally fallen asleep in each
other's arms. The silence was eventually broken by Kootmufin's sigh and the
slight scrabbling sound of her shifting in position.
"You awake?" Heilley asked softly.
"Yeah."
Silence. Kootmufin blinked as something wet
dripped onto her cheek. "I'm sorry," Heilley said, and Kootmufin realised she
was crying.
"Don't be, Heilley, you didn't get us into this
mess."
"I don't know. I've just been thinking, and
it seems like everything that happened started from something I did. I won all
those Cheat! games and that got Sloth mad at us. And then I didn't have sense
enough to insist we stay out of that stupid shuttle craft, so we got caught
again... and then we got into this pipe and I hauled you down here too far and
I got us lost...."
Kootmufin hugged her. "You're leaving out some
things. Like, you're the one that sacrificed your hair pick and got us out of
that locked room. You're the one that thought about holding tight to each other
so Sloth couldn't shake us into jelly in that bag. You're the one that chewed
through my ropes back there and got us loose."
Heilley sighed in the darkness. "I just wish
I could convince myself that you wouldn't have been better off not ever meeting
me."
"Heyyy! You're my friend! And not only that,
I can't think of anyone else I'd rather be with if it comes to... well... to
not getting out of here."
Heilley sniffed. "You're sure?"
Kootmufin's grin was lost in the darkness but
she gave Heilley a light punch anyway. "I'm sure! Now quit acting self pitying
and let's get out of here, huh?"
"That's just it," Heilley admitted miserably.
"I think that's why I started feeling so rotten. I've just been laying here
trying to think of how we can get out, and I can't."
"Well who said you were the only one around
here that had to get us out of everything?"
Heilley gave a sad laugh. "Okay, you're right.
I guess I have been feeling sort of responsible."
"Sort of? If your guilt button were any bigger,
Sloth could use it for a landing pad for that lousy shuttle of his!"
Heilley giggled at the mental image that Koot's
words brought to her mind. "Okay, okay, I get the point."
"Well finally!" Silence fell again. After a
minute, Kootmufin sneezed. "Sorry," she said as she sniffed and wiped her nose.
"S'all right."
"Hey! Do you smell anything?"
"I smell lots of things, and none of them any
good."
"No, not that, I mean... I think..." some more
sniffs sounded. "It is!"
"What is?"
"It's muffins!!!" Kootmufin broke free of Heilley's
grasp. "Come on!" She scrambled down the tunnel and Heilley followed her.
***
Meg had stopped crying, and near total silence had descended on the warehouse.
I was still staring into space, feeling sore inside, but with no desire to do
anything about it or anything else.
I heard some slight sounds and frowned to myself
as I tried to make them out. Some louder noises that sounded like sniffing.
I looked up and saw a greenish nose poke its way out of a pipe, followed by
a dirty green Kyrii head.
"Mum!!!!" Kootmuffin yelled as she leaped out
of the pipe and went racing across the floor to her owner. Meg shrieked in delight
and held out her arms. Pine green hair fell over and mingled with lighter green
Kyrii hair as they hugged, laughed, cried and in general did a lot of catching
up on things in a big hurry.
I climbed to my feet and started towards the
pipe, wondering where Heilley was. I needn't have worried. Heilley's head popped
out of the end, and then she tumbled out of the pipe.
"Heilley!!" My glad cry hit a momentarily worried
note as I suddenly got the sick sensation that she was going to hit the floor
head first. Then she did a forward somersault and I realised she'd kept her
grip on the edge of the pipe so that she landed feet first.
"Hey, you," she said as she came over to me.
"It took you long enough to get here."
"Took me long enough?" My incredulous tone was
almost broken by the sob of relief in my throat. "What about you, you knucklehead?"
I pinned her head against me as I hugged her around the neck and she made a
choking noise. She deserved it, though. She might be trying to act cool, but
the death grip that she'd slapped around my thigh betrayed her all the way.
"Hey, I brought you something."
"Huh?" She looked up and into the button eyes
of her plushie.
"Rouge!" she squealed and grabbed him out of
my hand. I laughed as the grip on my leg eased a bit and she held me as tightly
as she could in one arm, and her toy in the other.
"What happened to you, anyway? We were worried
sick!"
"Oh, I guess it was probably all my own stupid
fault. We won so much money at Spectre's place that he and Sloth kidnaped us
so they could get their winnings back."
"What?? Sloth?"
Heilley nodded. "Yeah. Weird, huh? I guess they're
partners or something. Anyhow, they were gonna shave us..." she gulped and hugged
me tighter.
"So you made a run for it?" She nodded without
saying anything and I felt her quivering against my body. "Aw, Heilley, honey...."
I stroked her hair and watched as a couple of tears trickled down her dirty
face. I bent over and softly said in her ear, "Heilley, your hair is a wreck."
Her eyes popped open. "It is?? Oh! I guess it
is at that." With that, she closed her eyes again and went back to trying to
mold herself to my leg.
I sighed and despite everything I had to chuckle
a bit. For Heilley to forget her hair, she was really far beyond normal concerns.
In fact, I was beginning to get seriously worried
about how I was going to reach her until Koot came up, hit her lightly on the
shoulder, and said, "Hey, Heilley, want a muffin?"
To be continued... | 
