Chills ran up and down my spine as out of the mist I saw thegroup of Rockhopper penguins living up to their name by hoppingover the still and occasionally moving bodies in our direction.Their eyes shone purple, and they had some sort of death-breath asthe same strange white mist escaped from their orange beaks. I feltthis wasn’t their normal method of catching food, although it wasvery effective as whoever breathed it ceased moving. Quickly Ilooked around the auditorium floor trying to remember the dressHazel-eyes wore but couldn’t make her out. I could only hope thatshe’d escaped.
Slowly walking behind the murderous penguins was a strangejerky figure. Even though I could guess he wore some sort ofbreathing apparatus his own bodyshape and mannerisms reminded meuncomfortably of gothic nightmare visions. He was covered head totoe in some shiny black material, two black canisters on his back had tubes leading to a black facemask.His left arm and leg seemed to be badly hinged and he would shuffleand then jerk his body forwards onto his left foot.
Stilldazed Peter watched the strange apparition and his poison-breathingpenguins move towards him, the purple fire and sphere providing anotherworldly feel to the scene.
TheDepartment liaison and I again looked at each other and then at SirPercival.
Withfear making my voice nearly fail me I managed to whisper, “Have yousolved it yet?”
“Monkey wrench,” Sir Percival tersely responded.
Ihastened to the toolbox and retrieved the requested tool. Afterhanding it to him I asked the Department liaison, “Do you have agun?”
Silentlyhe nodded.
“Would it be too much to ask you to use it?”
Hereached into his tweed jacket and brought out a small handgun.Carefully I peered round the curtain. The purple-eyed penguins hadstopped their movement with some standing on the floor, others ontop of motionless bodies. The black-covered person approached Peteras he lay on the ground next to his aetheric devices.
“Toby? I– I thought you were dead?” he said to the advancingapparition.
Meetingthe brass chain the figure moved his left hand forwards so thechain was between his fingers and, like they were scissors, hesnipped it in half. The sound of metal hitting the floor wasstrangely loud in the almost silent auditorium.
“Toby is dead, Peter,” the figure said in a harsh rasping voice. “Imanaged to survive, dragging my ruined body from out of the pit youcreated to kill me. Using my knowledge of clockwork devices and theaether I rebuilt myself, making it better, stronger. I am nolonger Toby,” thefigure seemed to spit his name out. “But Tok, a higher evolvedhuman. A self-evolved human.”
Oh dear. Oh dear, dear, dear. It sounded like he was well onthe path to insanity, caused by safety not being first during aethericexperiments.
“What? What do you mean?” Peter said.
I couldhear the fright in his voice and, turning to the Departmentliaison, hissed, “Shoot him.”
Just ashe pointed his small gun at the black figure, the purple aethericfire disappeared.
“Yes!” Sir Percival said loudly behind us, completelyoblivious to the danger past the curtain.
“No!” cried Tok at the loss of the aether.
Thenboth Peter and Tok looked in our direction spying myself and theliaison. Tok raised his left hand and pointed his fingers as ifaiming a gun. I didn’t like the look of it.
Smallbursts of compressed gas fired from his fingertips and littletracers of purple headed towards us. I dove into the Departmentliaison to get him out of the way – Tok hadn’t seen Sir Percivaland didn’t know he was there – and we tumbled to the ground. I felta sting in my arm and saw the blue dress material had been slicedopen. Red blood began to seep out and then quickly turned a nastyshade of purple. A chill went through me as I knew aetheric poisonwas now invading my body.
TheDepartment liaison scrambled to his feet and grabbed Sir Percival’sarm. He started to drag him further into the darkness to find a wayout while leaving me lying on the ground. But Sir Percival noticedme.
“Wait–” he began showing his surprise at what washappening.
“We go. Now.”
Resolveflared in Sir Percival’s be-goggled face.
“No. She comes with me.”
TheDepartment liaison pushed against Sir Percival’s reluctance butfound there was a reason in his university days he’d been picked tobe a front row in rugby scrums – he was trying to move an immovableforce.
Ignoringthe Department liaison’s feeble efforts Sir Percival walked backtowards me and bent down to grab my wrist just as Tok appearedround the curtain. He took one look at the black covered figure andheaved me over his shoulder like I was merely a sack of coal thenran to Peter’s power source and, picking up the wrench, laid aboutit like a madman. All the time I felt further stings of aetherdarts.
Apparently satisfied with his wanton destruction he ran afterthe Department liaison.
Liftingmy head I saw Tok standing still watching us leave, probablyknowing he had no chance to catch us, but also the power sourceflaring bright orange – Sir Percival had damaged it enough so thatit would melt and be useless to Tok.
Myvision now had a strange purple tinge. From reports Sir Percivalhad given me to read (as a sort of ‘don’t do this’ lesson) I knewmy lifespan would be severely truncated. Strange thoughts boiled upin my mind – why didn’t I just kiss the girl when I had the chance?I should have knifed the disgusting fellow after the Christmasparty; Why are a flamingo’s knees on backwards? Funny what thebrain thinks of in times of stress. So funny that, as I wasbouncing along on Sir Percival’s shoulder, I started giggling whichthen turned into a laugh which then turned into gasping for breathwhile wetting myself with uncontrollable hilarity. This was thenext phase of poisoning.
Thendarkness.
Three
Themists of a dream evaporated from my mind and I realised I’dforgotten why it was so important that I chase the spoon down theroad.
Memoriestentatively came back. Was I dead? I didn’t feel dead.
Movingslightly I realised I was in a sweat-soaked bed. And
