Tank you, and welcome to the forums, N P.
So here it is, fresh from the place it came from,
Chapter 8
Splat
Now that I’d disposed of the sligs I decided to try and talk to the mudokons in the lorry. I walked round to the back of the lorry and knocked on the doors. “Can you here me?”
“Abe?” A weak, shakey, voice asked.
“No, it’s Splat,” I replied, softly.
“Splat!?” The mudokon sounded surprised. “What are you doing here?”
“I’ve come to get you out of here,” and prove to everyone that I’m not a psychopathic monster! I added, silently. “I’m gonna search the front of the lorry for a key.”
“You can’t. They’ve locked the key in here. The only other one is at the laquameety processing plant, where we’re going.”
Great. “Well, are you all OK?”
“Yeah. Except for the fact that Bill has a black eye and Tim has a bent-back finger.”
“Good. I’m just gonna search the cabin and then I’ll come back.”
“Kay. And Splat? Sorry I thought that you were a psychopathic monster.”
I hunted round the cabin for about twenty minutes and found about seventy packs of grade A cigarettes, a lighter, a roughly drawn map of how to get to the village (which I ripped in to little bits an ate) and a piece of paper with “Quaranai fancies the other mudokon queen” written on it and surrounded by games of naughts and crosses.
I had no idea who “the other mudokon queen” was, but I decided to keep the piece of paper.
I went round the truck to talk to the mudokons but, judging by the snoring, they’d fallen asleep.
I suddenly remembered that I hadn’t picked up the pieces of decapitated slig so I, well, did (putting the pieces into a plastic bag and putting the bag into my backpack) and then I half flew half climbed to the top of the truck. I sat down to wait in the dim light for the train to reach its destination.
Trees and plants exploded around us. Bullets whizzed past my face. The screams of our tribe echoed around us. Adey, Paras and I, all ran, desperate to escape.
A new wave of bullets shot by, almost on ground level. Paras screamed. I stopped and spun round and crouched down by him.
Adey ran back and pulled at my arm. “Splat, come on, you have to leave him.”
“No!” I gasped ”They’ll kill him! THEY’LL KILL HIM AND EAT HIM!”
“They’ll do the same to us if were caught”
But I didn’t leave him. Not until Adey Picked me up and carried me, sobbing. But we didn’t get far. I hadn’t even lost sight of Paras when Adey dropped me and clutched his arm. I saw blood trickling through his fingers!
I looked back at Paras. He was already lying in a puddle of blood, pouring out of his leg.
I suddenly felt a sting in the calf of my leg, which more-than-rapidly turned into a more-than-searing pain that spread through my whole body. I collapsed. A few seconds later I felt something dig in to the wound in my leg, and pull something out. As I lost consciousness, I heard a mocking voice laugh “Well what’s this? Two for the labour camp and one for slaughter.”
A loud clanking sound woke me up. I realised that the train was slowing down.
I quickly jumped up, then slumped down as my head hit the ceiling! After recovering I decided I’d quickly talk to the mudokons and then wait for the train to stop. Once it did I’d fly out and hide until the mudokons were let out of the van, then I’d unleash all the anger of a ticked off scrab (and if you don’t know, that’s a lot of anger!)
My thoughts were cut short by the doors of the train carriage opening.
“Ok, scrap the “talk to mudokons” plan” I thought.
I heard a slig’s voice below me: “Hey where are those two?”
“Dunno,” came the reply “those fools probably locked themselves in the van!”
“You know that’s not possible, where could they be?”
I didn’t bother listen to this anymore. Besides, now I was sitting around I’d suddenly remembered the dream I’d had. I lifted off and flew out of the door… and bashed right into a passing flying-slig!
President Martor
I roared at the slig standing in front of me. “DESTROYED!!! HOW? AND THE ANSWER BETTER NOT BE ABE, or heads will roll!”
“Like I said, sir, 0784556 somehow escaped his cell and destroyed the lab and killed 37 people, including Anclarrr!”
“This is terrible,” I said. “And it’s all Xalarrs fault. I told him, “Brainwash first, Tests after.” But of course, he acted like I knew nothing and said it wouldn’t work like that. Have him executed.”
“Yes sir, but-“
“And his partners punished too. 3 weeks, solitary confinement.”
“Yes sir, but it’s worse-“
“How could it be worse? That lab contained experiments worth more than BOTH SAM AND AMY PUT TOGETHER”
“Sir, Abe was seen entering the lab after leaving Blowco’s, 5 minutes after 0784556 blew it up!”
It took me a few seconds to work this one out. Then: “NOOOOOOOOOOO, THAT’S IT! KILL THEM ALL! FEED THEM TO THE FEKTS! (Fekts are small, flesh-eating, transparent, slug-like-things that are usually red, the colour of their last meal. They’re not my idea. They’re not Oddworld’s idea. They were created by the writer of “The Oddworld Alliance, Life, Death and Rebirth” in the Oddworld.au.com fancorner, but, now back to President Martor). Feeding people to the fekts is the capital punishment. 1 centimetre squares of flesh are, one at a time, ripped off their body! And the fekts, who crave warm living flesh, have found ways to keep lunch alive as long as possible! Which could be anything from 3 hours to 5 days!
I was silent for a while after that, trying to calm down. The slig muttered ”Yes sir,” and turned to go.
He was about to leave when I hissed “100,000,000!”
“S-s-sorry sir?” He stuttered, turning around.
“100,000,000 moolah for whoever brings me the bodies of either of those two”
“But sir, that could set us b-“
“AND 500,000,000 FOR WHOEVER BRINGS THEM ALIVE.”
“But sir, that’s more money than we can afford to loose.”
“WE’LL LOOSE MORE IF ABE’S NOT STOPPED!”
“Yes, sir, but-“
“THOSE TWO WILL BE STOPPED, AND IF ANYONE GETS IN MY WAY, EVEN MY MOST LOYAL SERVANTS, THEY WILL BE FLOGGED, BOILED, PARTIALLY DECAPITATED, PUT IN THE STOCKS FOR A WEEK, EXILED FOR 3 MONTHS, AND THEN FED TO THE FEKTS, AS SLOWLY AS POSSIBLE. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?”
The slig stuck his head out from under his chair. “Yes, sir, sorry sir, I’ll tell them to execute Xalarr and his assistants and make them raise the rewards, the posters will be all over the centre by tomorrow.” He scuttled out from under his chair and, without getting up, left the room. I heard a mudokon laughing at him as he crept out the door.
“Bring that mudokon in here.” I called.
I heard a gulp.
What do da think? And don't hesitate to reply.
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