“Get up!”
At first, the Girl was shocked at the sudden order from behind, figuring that one of the security guards had seen through their little ruse, and was going to spill even more evidence on the floor, until she realized she was being roused from her sleep. Even though she was still disoriented at just waking up and glad to no longer be dreaming, she still felt the need to rebel back against her well-meaning kidnappers.
“Just five more minutes.”
“No time! This is an emergency!”
Given the urgency of his voice, she got up slightly faster than usual. Inwardly, even though she’d been terrified about what she’d just been through, she lambasted herself for being so throughly scared. She should’ve known that what she was going through was just a dream. For starters, there was no trace of the intolerable smell she’d been coping with for months. But more than that, the dream made too much sense. Everything progressed smoothly from one scene to another with clear internal logic. What really bugged her was that she’d never find out how the Archeologist would’ve gotten out of that predicament.
She struggled to get out of bed, but found the process more difficult than usual, not just because of the panicky mood, but because the sheets were damp with her sweat. The whole bed was utterly soaked, and spilled out over the bedside. That dream must’ve affected her more than she thought.
All around her were aggravated shouts from the small conglomerate of guards surrounding her within the tightly confines of her room.
“What’s going on?”
“It’s the Poachers! They’re absolutely crazy.”
“They’re crazy?!” She didn’t know what the Protists’ barometer of sanity was. If these suicidal wackos were disturbed enough by their presence, then these Poacher guys must be really off the deep end.
“How did they find us?!”
“This was on one of them.”
The Protist Guard held up a small scurrying animal. The Girl had seen these creatures before, back when she’d been outed at School. It was an Odor-Sniffer, frantically trying to run the other way.
“But then...” the Protist Guard looked from the Odor-Sniffer to the waterlogged bed and back. “The pipes. Of course.” He said, as if what he’d said made perfect sense. She was still waking up, but in her addled state, figured out what he was talking about. Somehow, her sweat had pooled enough to leak out and go down one of the eyewash station drains. All that time storing her bathwater - she thought they were just being overly paranoid, when they were actually being cautious.
She’d hoped of getting word of where she was out, but never imagined that the rescue mission could’ve resulted in something like this. And from the sound of things, it might not be very much of a rescue at all.
“They’re not slowing down!” a voice called out from outside.
“It’s hopeless!”
“There’s too many of them!”
“They’re eating the dead bodies!”
“Fall back! Retreat!”
“No good! Our escape path’s blocked off as well!”
That Rarebit was really sleep-inducing. How much had she missed as she slept? How could so much have happened in the brief interval she was asleep and awake? Considering the amount of noise produced, it was a wonder she’d stayed asleep at all.
The remaining Protist Guards in the room shielded themselves around her as one looked outside, trying to gauge the carnage.
“What’s going on out there?,” she asked.
“Don’t look! It’s very disturbing!”
“As opposed to everything else I’ve seen?”
“Don’t make light of them. They’ll chew you up and spit you out if they thought it necessary.”
In the distance, she could make out the faint cries of others:
“They’re pushing past our ranks!”
“We’re not going to make it!”
“Use one of the canisters!”
“We can’t risk infecting the unborn!”
The door closed shut, she was cut off from the drama occurring outside, only to be confronted with the ensuing drama inside.
As the reality of the situation sunk in, there was an uncomfortable silence that hung in the air like a deadly stench not unlike the Girl’s stench that could only be lessened by the presence of noise, which was curiously absent. Silence that needed to be immediately broken by less serene people.
“I’m gonna try to slow them down!”
“Don’t risk your life for something trivial!”
“It’s not trivial!! Move over!”
The Protist Guard reached over to the bed, started stripping the wet sheets off, and bunched the sheets into a large sludgy mass before slinging the sack over his back. “I’m going to distract them while I’m still able!”
“Give me one of those. It’s too much for you. We’ll have more success with more than one.”
The Protist Guard was reluctant at first, then obliged. The double sheets made it too heavy to move. The Protist Guard who had the lighter sheet carried the Odor-Sniffer, who was still trying to scramble away. The division of labour settled, they settled on their plan.
“We’ll go and throw them off the trail.”
“The rest of you go wait until the group passes you, then find a way out!”
“If you hear any chewing noises, stay away.”
The two split up in the hallway and went in separate directions. The remaining two Protist Guards started spraying disinfectants and perfumes around the room. Yet, against all intents and purposes, the Girl’s smell seemed to be getting stronger.
For agonizing minutes, they waited, hearing only sounds of violence taking place outside the door. Without a way to gauge distance, the muffled noise could’ve been taking place in the next room or blocks away. The interludes of silence were the worst - wondering just what could be happening durring these moments of calm when things were most definitely not calm.
Every once in awhile, one Guard would step up to the door, peeking outside, before returning back to his station. In this way, the two changed Guards on a continuous basis, never letting the Girl out of their sight. It was already past the tenth rotation, and she’d already lost count of how many times they’d switched. If there was an opening, why hadn’t they gotten word now?
She’d awoken from one nightmare into another, and wasn’t sure which one she’d prefer. Why bother waking her up if they were just going to sit around? When were they going to move? The stifling stinky claustrophobic atmosphere wasn’t helping matters much. She was filled with the anxious need to do something, anything other than wait for something to happen.
“How long do we have to wait?”
“When the coast is clear.”
“Why can’t we just go to another room? You’ve got plenty of those!”
“How fast can you move?”
She started to get up, then found herself falling back down on the wheeled seat, the weight of her form betraying any possible movement.
“You see? We’ll only leave when we’re good and ready. Now be quiet. Take another look.”
The other Guard looked through the peephole, and then slumped across the door, his body sliding down to the floor. The last remaining Protist Guard turned, facing the Girl, his face wrenched in knowing agony. “It was only a few months, but I should give you some parting words. Remember this:”
And then his head flew apart. Whatever words of assurance or encouragement he meant to say was now lost, and she sure could’ve used some now.
She stared in wide-eyed shock at the fallen body before her, and could barely move as a bunch of men came through the door, the closest one saying, “Gotcha, girlie!” before covering her head with a bag.
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