Yesterday (the 20th of November) was T-nex's birthday, and in celebration of the aniversery birth of one of my oldest fans and indeed the creator of Anni and Nova, as well as the person who got me into RPGing, which in turn lead to the creation of almost every character in this story, I've stayed up till four in the morning writing the new chapter. Oh, the joys of being a uni student. Now if you don't mind I'm going to post this and then go to bed.
A couple of changes have been made. Firstly I've changed the first line of chapter 13, so raher than saying 'three years before the destruction of Rupture Farms', it now says 'two years...' This is mainly because I've been thinking about the time W@RF is set after MO, and I've decided to settle on three to four years, in relation to the ages of Anni and Dionysia.
Secondly, I've changed the length of an Oddworld year as mentioned in chapter 1 from 701 days to 401 days, and have also changed the glukkon and mudokon calendar information to match.
Zelda-Fan, you can come back to life now.
Here's...
Chapter 15
Ben was somewhat surprised, and annoyed, when he passed Anni a few days later in a corridor and she gave him a friendly wave and a grin. However, after that she didn’t bother him any more other than the occasional wave or shy greeting and after a few weeks he stopped worrying every time he saw her coming.
Nova and Anni had generally lost interest in sligs for the time being and they moved onto other things. One of their games they played frequently involved sneaking into the labs before or partway through an operation (when ever they could manage it without getting seen) and hiding in the cupboards before jumping out noisily either when someone opened one of their cupboards or when the room got quiet. Despite being unable to see each other when they were hidden in separate cupboards, they were surprisingly good at coordinating their attacks. Needless to say, this didn’t please the surgeons and more than once it had lead to them being tested on, more for punishment than anything else.
The tests were a normal thing. They always had a couple every year, where syringes were poked into them, lights were flashed at them and they were prodded and pushed around for hours. They both always hated the experience. Sometimes when they really annoyed the vykkers they got extra tests. The mudokons did not keep count of the number of experiments they ruined with their games, nor the number of times they sat in cupboards just inches away from vials and needles full of potentially lethal chemicals.
The vykkers' occasionally vicious reactions and the closed spaces and the stink of those cupboards were nearly the only things Anni really disliked about that game. The other thing she resented was Nova’s sharp instruction, “Never look at the table where the vykkers are working.” To Anni this didn’t seem fair, but she obeyed none-the-less, as she usually did when Nova told her something.
Then one day those games came to an end. They had been approaching a lab. There was a slig outside but he was asleep on the floor. Anni had stopped to examine him while Nova stepped over and poked her head through the door. She tensed suddenly and stumbled back, tripping over the slig and falling over, sprawled over him. He jerked awake and was somewhat surprised to find Nova lying on top of him while Anni looked on, confused. “Hey, get outa’ here, muds! You’re not allowed in here!” He yelled. Anni paused, seeing this as an opportunity for a good game, but Nova grabbed her by the wrist suddenly and ran down the corridor, dragging her along. She didn’t stop running until they were in their room.
“What was that for?” Anni asked angrily, rubbing her arm. When Nova failed to answer she looked up to see her friend staring at her, her face etched with fear. “What’s wrong?”
“Shut up,” Nova hissed, making Anni gasp. Tears came to her eyes as Nova turned her back on her and stumbled into their toilet, banging the door closed after her.
Anni never found out what had frightened her friend so badly, but years later, when she had learnt more of the world, she was able to make a guess.
Somehow it had never before occurred to Nova that the vykkers experimented on mudokons, and she hated herself for not realising before. The image in her mind then was of the unknown mudokon she had seen there that day, cut open, red tubes running from his body into the machinery around the table. But later on an image sneaked into her head where it was not some unknown mudokon lying there, but Anni. And once that scene entered her mind she couldn’t get it out. It haunted her when she was awake and when she slept. It terrified her.
They didn’t play that game again for a long time, which left them with a lot of free time to fill with other activities. Annoying the vykkers outside of the labs wasn’t particularly fun. Antagonising the sligs also lost its appeal when they did too much of it. Though they had other things they could do it didn’t seem to quite fill the time. Since that day Nova had become quiet and spent a lot of time brooding, which made Anni feel very lonely. Sometimes they would steal things from the sligs or vykkers and hide them, and it was funny when the person who they’d stolen from came demanding where they had hidden their things, but if they did too much of that then people started blaming them every time something went missing. Sometimes they broke into the labs or storerooms when no one was around and rearrange the equipment, but that wasn’t as fun since they never got to see the outcome now that Nova wouldn’t go into the labs when the vykkers were working.
Things didn’t stay bad forever though, and one day Nova apologised for being so miserable for so long, and Anni smiled, and hen laughed, and suddenly everything was back to normal. Nova still wouldn’t go into the labs as often, but at least she was happy again.
Nova was happy on the outside, but in her heart she was scared. She couldn’t stop herself from thinking that as long as they were in that place, Anni was in danger. For the first time in her life, she began to think that maybe they should leave. They were good at sneaking around and she could easily imagine them finding a way to escape if they thought about it for long enough. She was doubtful that she could make Anni see her way though. Anni was happy there; she enjoyed their games and she liked being around sligs, even if the sligs didn’t want her there. She still thought they were cute; she still picked out her favourites.
And things were tougher now that one of the sligs was acting more nicely towards Anni, in that he at least tolerated her presence some of the time. He didn’t get on so well with the other sligs and while sometimes he would tell her to go away when she approached, other times he would let her stay, and would even talk to her a little.
Nova decided that if she was going to discuss her plan with her friend she should do it as soon as possible. It was a few days later, in the early morning when the two of them were awake but the rest of the lab was still sleeping that Nova asked, “Have you ever wondered about what’s outside of this lab, Anni?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well like, they talk about forests and stuff out there. The world’s not all grey metal walls. Haven’t you ever wanted to see the sky?”
Anni shrugged. “It’s just a big blue thing above isn’t it? Like another ceiling?”
Nova thought about this observation seriously for a minute. She’d occasionally heard the vykkers and sligs who had been in the lab for a long time saying they missed seeing the sky, so she’d assumed it was something special. But now Anni had said that it made her wonder. “I don’t know; the sligs seem to get excited about it though. Maybe it’s really pretty or something. But what about trees, and the wild animals? They must be interesting to see?”
Since Anni was lying on her back in bed she was unable to shrug, but she gave a complicated wave of her hand that meant much the same thing.
“And what about other mudokons? We’ve never seen another mudokon have we?”
Anni gave another of those waves. “Maybe I we asked the vykkers they’d let us meet one.” She sat up. “What’s this sudden interest with outside anyway?”
“I don’t know; I just thought it would be nice to go out and see all that stuff.”
Anni made a noise somewhere between a laugh and a snort, “I doubt the vykkers would let us go out.”
Nova sat up as well now and looked at her earnestly, “Well, maybe we don’t need their permission? I mean, we can break out of this room; we can break into the labs and the sligs’ rooms. I recon we could get outside if we thought about it long enough.”
Anni looked at her, startled, “You mean escape?”
Anni and Nova were four years old (a mudokon’s average lifespan being 40 years). Three years ago some mudokon called Abe had broken out of a factory they didn’t know the name of. They didn’t know much about the incident, but the vykkers and sligs always spoke about it in hushed voices, and they tried to keep it a secret from the mudokons. It was clear that people were scared by the thought of mudokons escaping.
“Not forever,” Nova lied quickly. “We could come back after a little while. I’d just like to see a bit of the world first.”
Anni was looking uncertain and Nova knew she’d lost the battle. “Don’t worry about it if you’re not interested then,” She said with a little shrug.
But Nova was not happy about the outcome of their argument and still intended to convince Anni otherwise. She didn’t want to frighten her friend if she could help it, but that image of the mudokon on the operating table was still fresh in her mind. She still remembered Ben attacking Anni. She would find a way of bringing her round.
Anni was still her normal, cheerful self, getting close to the sligs and under the feet of the vykkers. Nova, who had always restrained her when things went a little too far, now loosened her hold on her friend, hoping that if they annoyed the sligs or vykkers a little more they might go a step further than they ever had before and do something to make Anni want to leave. They began playing the hide-in-the-cupboard game again and Nova stopped reminding Anni not to look at the table, thinking she might see something that would scare her into wanting to go. Nova herself could now never look. She didn’t think there would ever be another mudokon unless the lab was guarded like it had been that day, but she couldn’t overcome her fears.
After a few months of this special treatment, Nova began to feel an aura of barely contained anger aimed at her and Anni from the sligs and vykkers, but rather than being worried, she was pleased that her plan was going somewhere. Anni went around oblivious to the building threat. She charged around the lab like a small whirlwind, causing chaos in her wake, with Nova trailing behind her, adding a smirk or a glare to deepen the wounds.
Then one day Nova found out that the vykkers were performing a really big experiment in one of the labs. They all seemed very excited about it and Nova had been watching them for a while. They had taken only animals inside, some still alive and in cages, so she felt safe. This was the big one! If she and Anni could mess this one up it would really rile them, they’d loose their tempers and with any luck make the mistake that convinced Anni that they should leave. She would get her out to safety, to freedom. She would see the sky.
A couple of sligs stood guard outside the lab. Nova didn’t recognise them, though Anni might have done. She went off, found her friend and together they lurked around a corner, waiting for an opportunity to break in.
An hour went by before one slig said something quietly to the other. They had a short argument and then the one who had spoken first stomped off, pulling out a cigarette as he went. The remaining slig looked like he wanted to yell at him but feared to do so in case the vykker’s in the lab heard.
This was their opportunity. Nova quickly whispered to Anni, “Stay here. I’m gonna try and get this slig away. When he runs off go and stand by the door and wait for me to come back. Don’t go in before I get here, ok?” Anni nodded. Nova didn’t want her going in and getting stuck inside on her own if the other slig returned before Nova did.
She slipped around the corner and approached the slig. He saw her coming and said wearily, “Go away. I’m busy here.”
Nova laughed and said loudly, “What, you’re just standing there!”
The Slig looked angry and shushed her, “You want the vykkers to here? They asked for silence!” The slig was clearly very nervous. She could use that to her advantage.
“Come on, let me in,” She said in a sugary voice.
“Don’t be so stupid. Get out of here.”
“Hey, don’t be so rude to me,” she cried indignantly and lunged at him. He swung his gun at her, for the sligs may not have beaten Anni but they had no qualms about smacking Nova. Nova, however, had expected this, dodged the blow and grabbed the gun, yanking it out of the surprised slig’s hands.
“Hey, give that back! That’s not a toy!” He hissed.
She laughed and danced away with it. “Give it back!” He repeated.
“You want it? Come and get it!” She laughed and danced backwards down the corridor, tauntingly. He growled and lunged after her, thinking he could catch her and grab it, but Nova was much too fast for him. She ran for it, keeping a few metres ahead of him as he chased her automatically down the corridor, round a few corners, away from the lab.
She came to a t-junction. Nova had lived in the lab all her life and knew her way around. She threw the gun as far as she could down the passage to her right and ran down the left which would take her back to the lab. The slig swore at her and chased after his gun.
She arrived outside the door and met Anni there, looking excited. The door was open an inch. They shared excited, furtive grins and slipped inside without a sound.
About ten vykkers were gathered around the operating table in the centre of the room, surrounded by a loose ring of interns. As well as the normal machinery, a number of cages containing live scrabs and paramites were pushed against the walls. Some of the animals were awake but most looked to be asleep. Nova knew that the vykkers had drugs that could make you fall asleep so she assumed they had been using them.
They slipped behind a trolley that someone had left near the wall, which had a few sheets hung over it so it would obscure them from view. There was a large cabinet behind them, full of test tubes and beakers and vials of stinking chemicals, with cupboards at the bottom. Anni moved to slip inside one but Nova placed a hand on her wrist to stop her; their timing had to be perfect today, and as long as they stayed where they were they would be hidden. None of the surgeons were coming in their direction.
Anni remained huddled behind the trolley while Nova peaked out, watching the operation. She couldn’t see any of what was going on at the table for the vykkers obscured it from view, but she kept her ears open and watched the animals in the cages. She felt a fleeting sense of pity for them. Here they were alive, but in just a short time…
Occasionally the interns would go to one of the sleeping animals, remove it from its cage and place it on the table. The vykkers were chatty and talkative and Nova began to grow bored waiting for them to get to the urgent bit where they mustn’t be disturbed.
As the hours dragged by, more and more of the cages were emptied. “Hey, get us a paramite!” The vykkers called, “Get us a few fuzzles,” “We need some ratz over here!”
“Hey, get us one of the big bull scrabs!”
The interns moved over to one of the cages where a large scrab was sleeping. They opened the door just as one of the vykkers turned around, noticed them and yelled, “Hey! Not that one, it hasn’t been tranquilised!”
Before the interns could react to the vykker’s cry the scrab leapt up and propelled itself out of the cage. Nova squeaked audibly, but went unnoticed in the chaos. “Shoot it, someone shoot it!”
“Who’s got a snuzi?”
“It’ll ruin the whole experiment!”
“You idiots, I told you it wasn’t tranquilised!”
The scrab let out a horrible scream and three interns fell back, dead. The animal dived for the door.
“Close the door, don’t let it out!” Someone yelled in the chaos.
The sligs outside evidently heard and slammed the door.
“No, open it! They have guns! It’ll ruin all our work!”
The scab pulled up short of the door and then turned frantically. It came to rest facing the two mudokons.
Anni shrieked as it charged at them. Nova lunged out of its way, pushing Anni down and hitting the trolley which rolled away from them. A shot from a snuzi burst out but the noise was drowned out by the scrab which shrieked more loudly than ever as the shot hit it. It lost control of itself and its momentum propelled it into the cabinet behind the mudokons. The huge piece of furniture swayed and tipped forwards. Glass bottles and beakers rained down from the shelves and crashed like grenades on and around the mudokons, spraying them with fragments of glass and a hundred different chemicals that made their skin burn as if it were on fire, made them cry out in pain.
Nova dared to look up and saw the huge, heavy wooden cabinet dropping down towards them. Time seemed to freeze. She couldn't move. A tiny voice in her head shrieked at her to protect Anni and she regained her senses enough to push her out of the way, but in doing so she propelled herself back underneath the cabinet.
A moment later its full weight crashed down on her stomach and legs. Pain struck her; pain like she’d never felt before, and for the first time in her life she knew what it was to scream.
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I'm tired, so if there are any grammatical or formatting errors, or if you thought at any point the writing didn't seem to flow, let me know so I can fix it when I'm awake again.
Now wasn't that a lovely birthday treat for Nexy? So happy and cheerful. Big plot development comes in the next chapter so don't miss it!
Also, remember that Anni's bio in the RPG mentioned that her skin was discoloured because some chemicals spilt on her when she was younger?
Bah, need sleepghyghy <--*Sound of head hitting keyboard*