That was the plan. I actually put Dante into that room several hours before Abe walked in.
Anyway, new chapter.
Chapter 59
I was in a very hot room crawling with interns. Not a big room, but large enough. At the back were some sinister looking machines, and in a corner I saw a large, bowl shaped structure labeled “Loading Chute.”
It wasn’t these things that immediately caught my attention, however. It was the crates.
The crates looked hurriedly made, almost temporary. And each crate held four large, bluish-purple things with little feathery protrusions on the top.
As I watched, I saw the interns indifferently picking up crates and loading them into large machines. And, after a few seconds, I would hear crying.
Mudokon crying.
This was a mudokon egg hatchery!
I nearly fainted at the realization. I had likely been born in a room just like this … and it was so impersonal … As I watched, the newly born mudokons - very small and brightly tanned - would be wrapped in a diaper and then chained to the wall. There had to be nearly fifty mudokon babies in here already, chained to the wall and crying out.
And as the final, gruesome touch, an intern was applying a small machine to each mudokon child’s lips and using it to stitch their lips shut. This led to harder crying, but the tears fell in silence. It was horrifying.
But I had to focus. I shook it off. I took a quick glance around the room and noted that there were no vykkers around. They were probably all setting up the auction, or maybe greeting that Lulu guy someone was talking about.
So I cleared my throat and took in a deep breath.
“Hey, interns,” I called out in a decidedly annoying Vykker voice.
It was enough. They all turned to look at me, and had an attentive “What can I do for you?” look.
So I raised my snuzi and fired with surprising aim directly into each interns face. I don’t think any of them knew what was happening.
With the interns out of commison, I popped - at long last - into my natural mudokon body.
I rushed over to the incubators and turned them off. I frantically grabbed a random lever and pulled.
I had lucked out. The lever controlled a crane device overhead, which I hadn’t yet noticed. I maneuvered the crane and used it to pick up, carefully and one at a time, each crate of eggs. I placed them as gently as I could into the “Loading Chute” in the corner, and hoped that I could come back to check on these eggs later, hopefully finding a way to get them to the ground.
When all the eggs were cleared out of the room, I turned upon the baby mudokons. I started over to untie them, when a
[VISION]
Outside Vykker’s Labs on a Loading Dock. The crates Dante just released are piled up against the wall and door.
A blue light appears up above the door, and it soon becomes apparent that this is a bird portal. Two mudokons, looking clean and fresh, pour out of the portal and land on the dock.
“Hey, lookin’ good,” says one to the other.
“Yeah, now that we’re out of those work clothes and all cleaned up!” replies the second.
The first grins. “These loin cloths make me feel like a new mud.”
The other nods. “Right!” After a brief and awkward silence, he continues. “So, We wait here, and gather up all the egg crates that Abe and Munch are gonna throw into the loading chutes … Right?”
The first mudokon shrugs. “That’s my understanding.”
Another pause.
The second mudokon shrugs this time. “I hope they don’t break ‘em all.”
[/VISION]
stops me short. Abe and Munch are here. Which means I had less time than I thought. I would have to get my ass in gear if I wanted to get out before these two blew the place to hell.
I approached the baby mudokons carefully, and realized the chains were, of course, padlocked.
I turned and inspected a nearby intern and found he had a set of keys. Good. I bent and grabbed them, then stood and turned back to the chains.
As I unlocked each baby mudokon, it crowded around me and hip-hip-hoorayed as best as it could through stitched lips. They followed me unquestioningly.
With the long line of mudokon infants mulled around me, I decided quickly what to do.
{Patch!}
Nothing. For a few moments, there was nothing, not even the feeling that Patch was getting pissed. I was about to panic when a sudden surge of encouragement hit me.
{Dante, you rascal! How the hell are you?}
{Shut up,} I commanded. I wasn’t in the mood. I probably had a half hour, maybe less, to find a way to get my glukkon suit and get my ass to the ground. {I have, like, fifty infant mudokons here. I’m going to send them through.}
But Patch wasn’t listening. {Dante … Abe is in Vykker’s Labs!} More news I knew. {He can help you! Go and see him!}
{I know he’s here. And I don’t want him to help. I’m sending over the children. Be ready for them.}
And I began to chant, blocking out any response Patch might have made.
A bird portal tore itself into existence nearby, and the children instinctively ran through it to safety.
I contacted Fix and, after telling him he’d have a bunch of new playmates soon, got the Vykker power from him.
I transformed and began my walk back to the seamstresses.
---
One uneventful walk later, I was leaving the Fine Clothing Department carrying a finely tailored glukkon suit and in search of a loading dock.
Another uneventful walk later, I was stepping out again onto Loading Dock J, the one I had used to enter the lab.
I popped over into my mudokon body and stepped over to the railing. For one terrifying moment I was getting ready to hop hit like a normal fence, having forgotten I was thousands of feet above the ground.
And now it hit me.
How in the hell was I supposed to get back to the ground?
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