The lack of external cues begins to play tricks with the young girl's sense of time and space. Has she been here for hours? For weeks? For months? Teddy begins to visit her in her cell, whispering words of comfort, only to transform into a leering officer in a CPC uniform or a monster or one of the doctors from the clinic before vanishing again. Waking and sleeping become almost indistinguishable, nightmare fading into waking reality only slightly more pleasant. The only breaks in this endless monotony are conversations with Mitts, and these end abruptly after Mitts is taken away for a time and returns able to utter little more than the occasional bass moan of anguish.
Paco also visits the cell block twice more, resulting in similar traumatic horror down the hall. On his second visit he drops by and visits Mitts as well, screaming "Who's gonna die, freak? Huh? Who's gonna die?" while applying a shock prod liberally and with vigor.
So needless to say, when a large, glowing black hole opens in the ceiling and Sam falls out of it, landing in the middle of the cell on his butt with a resounding *THUD* just before the hole winks out of existence, Marda merely rolls over and tries to ignore this aberration as she has struggled to ignore the others.
"$%^$" whispers Sam to himself as he picks himself up off the floor. He opens a black duffle bag and begins to check his gear with military precision all the while mouthing something incomprehensible under his breath. Finally, he takes out an odd looking object and passes it over Marda's child size frame. Once he seems satisfied, he puts that gizmo away and draws out what looks to be a TV remote. He points ithis one directly at the prone form and frantically starts pushing buttons.
With absolute determination - nothing happens. Marda appears to be ignoring Sam utterly as well.
At about this time Sam notices that there is a video camera in the cell, pointed directly at him. It is recessed into the wall and encased in what appears to be some sort of clear plastic. (i.e. hard to get at, hard to break).
When the Tata hallucination doesn't fade, but rather begins to take actions which seemed beneficial (if less than completely Tata-like), Marda immediately jumps up and squeals "Tata! It is you!" moving with such force as to nearly tackle the poor chap. However, she lands with full force on the blister on her left foot and immediately shrieks in pain and starts hopping on the other foot, which is probably a good thing for Sam, since it allows him to work relatively unimpeded.
She does have one obvious comment, though. "Tata, there are really bad people around here. We've gotta get out."
"Hey Kid...glad to see that you are still alive..."
So instead of pointing the TV remote at Marda, Sam starts pointing
it at the camera recessed in the wall. After a few seconds of being
fustrated he lays it down and bends over to help Marda up. For the
sake of expediency, he only removes what restraints she has that will help
her walk and move her arms. "Can you walk Marda dear? Sorry
to say that it looks like we've been F...., I mean Scr..., Um what I mean
is unless you know how to make little black holes, we are going to have
to walk out of here. You don't happen to know the way out do you?"
He reaches into his bag and pulls out a Whammo ping-pong ball gun and shoves what looks like a travel size lava lamp into his pocket. Sam looks quite the terrorist in his black jeans and black T-shirt except for the fact that he can't stop scratching himself.
"Well, the door's over there," Marda replied while shaking her hands free of the strain put on them by days and/or weeks on end being cuffed behind her back as Sam removes her handcuffs. "How did you get here in the first place?"
"Gee Marda, maybe I could sit at tea with you and your dollies and explain it all but we don't have time. That little TV remote there," he points to where he put it on the floor, "was supposed to make sometype of dimensional door but as you can see it didn't do it ,so we will have to walk out of here?"
Sam moves the big funky box with tubes over to the door. "Ready, Marda?"
Marda nods. Out is a direction she wants to go, with a small but necessary detour. "Yeah, sure, Tata. But can I try and fix it later? It looks really cool. Oh, and my foot hurts. It got burnt."
"Sorry about your foot Marda, try not to use it much. You know how to play hopscotch, don't you?" Sam starts to shove the Whammo Ping Pong Ball Gun (WPPBG) into his waist belt, thinks better of it, and shoves it in has back pocket as he moves the black box over the door, expecting a resounding 'click' or something.
There is a resounding *CLICK*.
"Marda?" calls a low voice from a nearby cell. The basso voice is calling very softly, but the note is so low that it still creates a resonating vibration. "Are you OK?"
Marda calls back across the wall. "I'm fine, Mr. Mitsy." Which brings her to another minor complication. "Tata, can we help Mr. Mitsy get out too? And there's this lady down the hall who gets hurt by the guards, and of course, Mr. Nigel, but I think they took him away already. And we gotta rescue Teddy."
"Come on Marda, let's get you outta here." Sam does not poke his head out the door at eye level, he squats down and takes a quick peek down the hall one way, comes back in and then looks the other way. When satisfied it is clear, he moves with Marda into the hallway and says, "Do you remember which way is out?"
Marda shrugged. "I dunno. I was unconscious at the time. Maybe Mr. Mitsy knows."
"Yeah, as a matter of fact I do," confirms the rumbly but weak voice of Mitts. He is speaking softly, drawing ragged, shallow breaths. "And, mister, I may be able to help you with your 'dimensional door' problems if you get me out of here."
From the sound of it, Sam and Marda would judge that Mitts' cell is situated across the corridor and one door down. "Come on!" he adds urgently. "There isn't much time, and you definitely don't want to be caught!"
As Sam doesn't see anything down the hallway either way, he moves quickly to the door that he suspects the sound is coming from and puts the black box up against it. There is a resounding *CLICK* and the door swings open.
Mitts is large. Very large. Over eight feet in height, with a broad chest and huge, thick arms and legs. His face has a distinctly simian appearance. In most places where skin should be showing, he is covered with long, white hair.
In short - Mitts is a yeti.
More than that, Mitts is a very badly beaten up yeti. The fingers of the hands are oddly bent in directions that fingers really shouldn't bend, and the toes are the same. While there are long, thick nails on some of the digits, others have been removed completely, leaving only a mass of scab. The eyes are swollen almost shut, and there are several obviously missing teeth. The white fur is also matted with blood in several places, particularly around the scalp. Mitts chest rises and falls irregularly, as though breathing itself were painful. Lengths of very thick chain shackle Mitts' arms and legs.
Marda looks up at her companion in suffering for so long in awe and surprise. "You're all fuzzy, Mr. Mitsy!" Of course even Marda knows that there is little time for idle chitchat, so she immediately poses the question on how they are supposed to get out of there along with the suggestion that they save the nice lady up the cell block who gets beat up all the time by that Paco guy...
Mitts' swollen face crinkles into a lopsided, painful smile when Marda limps into view. "Hello, little Marda," he rasps. "I'm glad to meet you!"
His gaze trails to Sam's black-clad silhouette. "You must be Marda's
'tata'?" he guesses. "You may want to get rid of that camera up there
in the corner. Then if you bring your malfunctioning equipment
closer and get me out of these chains, I'll see about fixing it."
He rattles the chains meaningfully.
He then turns his fuzzy head back towards Marda. "Marda, I may need your help because I know how to fix things but my fingers are all broken. I can tell you what to do and it sounds like you're pretty good with electronics yourself."
Sam, using his free hand to put his jaw back up to his mouth, says, "Whooa, this stuff is getting weirder by the minute." He slaps himself a few times. "Dang, I was hoping I was dreaming again!" Finally, turning to Marda: "Gee Marda darling, you did'nt tell me that you were an electronics wiz or that you were friends with the abominable snow monster...but I am going to bend you over my knee for what you did to my hotel room."
As he cautiously moves to open any visible locks with the wonder machine, he says: "Ahh... umm.. Mr. Misty.. or whoever/whatever you are... I was wondering if you could take care of the camera for me since I only have this ping pong ball gun to shoot with and... ahh... forget it... well... if you could help Marda with that stupid channel clicker... maybe, ahh... maybe we could all get out of this zoo."
Once the Yeti is free, Sam returns to the door, leaves it open a crack, while he keeps an eye down the hallway.
Marda just gives Sam a guilty smile. "I told you I was a freaky kid. But yeah, I can help Mr. Mittsy out with that electronic stuff. That's what got me here in the first place." She thinks for a moment, then remembers something important. "Hey, wait a minute. Those guys didn't come for me, they came for you, Tata. We gotta get out of here before they find you!"
DING!!!
"What?!?!?!? Me? They wanted Me? Must have
been those stupid credit cards." Sam's face pales and beads of sweat
form on his forehead. "C..c'mon, Marda, c..cann you fix that
thing?" He pulls his whammo ball gun out of his back pocket.
"H...hey Wh...oo t..turned the heat off....It's g..getting cold in h...here..."
However, Marda has made it out of that place (with a good deal of help), so she still believes she can get out of this one, too. That in mind, she motions Mitts over to provide guidance, takes the bizarre remote from Sam's hands and attempts to pop the cover with the intention of taking a look inside.
Mitts precautiously moves closer to examine the box over Marda's shoulder. The movement makes him grit his teeth, but he still shuffles as fast as he can. He considers the gizmo, then points at one side with a dislocated finger. "There!" he grunts. "I think that's where the sub-mesonic transducer should connect to the multiphase neutrino rectifyer. Open it and we can see if the capacitor is still functional."
He looks at Marda's handling of the electronic components and nods his approval. "Oh, you're good," he smiles crookedly.
Marda looks at Mitsy with an inquiring glance as she doesn't know all of the names of the advanced terminology in English and is going more by technical intuition than anything else. "What do you mean? Is it this one here," pointing at one circuit, "or do you mean this thingy over here?"
Sam, recovering a bit, makes a few double takes and looks like he is about to say something but doesnt. Finally he looks over to the two nuclear scientists and asks, "Any idea how long this is going to take?"
In a few breathlesss words, Mitts lists complex names as he points to the various components he can recognize in the device, and explains how they should connect. Over his shoulder, he says to Sam: "If we figure it out right, it'll take just a moment. If not... we won't have to worry about it."
Marda and Mitts spend a minute or two fiddling with the remote, but even their combined efforts don't seem able to get it working. Marda looks up after examining the device with the useful advice from Mitsy. "I don't think that it's broke. I think that someone's stopping it from working."
Sam shakes his head in disbelief. "Bunch'a Tech-NO-Wizzes..." He takes another look up and down the hallway. When he doesn't see anything or anyone, he says: "Do you think one of you is capable of using this Unlocking Thingie here? Maybe we can release all the prisoners and cause some confusion while we come up with a plan."
Marda nods. "Sure, I can do that." With that she immediately scampers off (limps off?) to create as much chaos as humanly possible while the two responsible adults consider their options.
Sam moves into the hallway, following Marda and providing cover with his Whammo ping pong ball gun. He tries to use doorways, corners, columns and anything else for cover. He will also do his best to protect Marda from security forces or inmates which are not appreciative of being released. "Come on Misty, let's follow the crowds maybe they know a way out of here."
Mittsy would be much happier about doing that sort of thing if all his
toes weren't broken.
The first few cell doors that Marda opens (there are twenty in total, ten on each side) open onto empty cells. Sam does the cool tv "swing gun in to cover the room" move each time Marda opens the door, though the effect is somewhat mitigated by the fact that he's swinging not a .44 magnum but a Whammo ping-pong ball gun. It isn't until Marda opens the sixth cell that Sam actually finds anyone over the plastic toy's sights.
The cell is pretty much the same as all the others, but dirtier. Bloodstains spatter the floor, and there are blood-soaked pieces of fabric (the remains of a rather slinky looking dress a small part of Sam's mind notes) scattered about. Lying in one corner, curled in a fetal position, is a woman. Her hair, once a luxurious blonde, is now tangled and matted with blood and other material. Her face is a mass of bruises and her blue eyes are swollen almost completely shut. Blood is crusted on her lips, teeth, and nose. Her body is completely bereft of clothing, but is covered with soft, downy gray fur which begins at her neck and travels all the way down to her feet. In the places where is is not matted with blood, feces, or other material it looks very inviting, like it would be most enjoyable to pet.
To Marda she looks like a big stuffed animal.
To Sam, despite the oddity, she looks like one of the most beautiful women he has ever seen.
As Sam stands, staring at her over the sights of the Whammo ping-pong ball gun, she makes a soft whimpering sound of utter terror, and tries to curl up tighter into a ball.
Sam suddenly realizes that his mouth is hanging open, and closes it with an audible *SNAP*.
Mitts follows Sam and Marda as best he can, gasping in pain at every move. He braces himself against the walls; every toe of his very large feet is bent at an unlikely angle and swollen, several missing the nails (or claws). His progress is very slow, as the movement of raising his arms to push against the wall jostles his broken ribs. He keeps looking over his shoulder for the expected CPC troops.
"You're not going to take root here, are you?" he asks Sam in a wheeze.
Looking at the other fellow prisoner that she knows about (Mr. Nigel now being absent), Marda comes to two general conclusions: 1) Getting out of here is a consummation devoutly to be wished for, and 2) Regular old non-furry human prisoners like herself seem to be in a definite minority - Marda even entertains the thought that they were actually more interested in imprisoning Teddy than her, although she pretty much knows otherwise.
"Lady, lady," she whispers as she taps the woman on the shoulder, "we gotta get out of here while we've got the chance."
"Come on Marda, if she wants to come she will." Mr. Dart turns to see how Mittsy is getting along then back to Marda "Let's see who else we can help and maybe we'll find Teddy." Sam moves back into the hallway, tries to notice the layout of the immediate area to cover the little disaster.
Marda urges the nice "lady" up one or two more times, and then, at mention of Teddy, chirps, "OK", and moves on as best she can towards the remaining cells.
Sam begins to leave but can't take his eyes off of the beautiful and savagely mistreated woman lying in the corner. Tucking, his whammo gun in his back belt loop, he walks up to her and gently lifts her up in his arms. As he does so, he tells her that everything is going to be o.k., no one is going to hurt you anymore, and any other appropriate cliche's that he can come up with.
Walking out of the room he, expects to get blasted by guards for his stupitidy, checks the hallway before following Marda to the next room.
As Sam scoops up the furry woman she struggles for just a moment, making small, terrified mewling sounds, then suddenly melts into Sam's arms. A wave of intensely erotic energy flows through him. the sudden desire for - well - snuggly time is almost overwhelming. His groin starts to ache and he belatedly realizes that he is sporting a bulge in the front of his pants to rival that made by the Whammo air gun in the back. Fortunately, Sam is able to control his desires.
Unfortunately, he notices that both Mitts and Marda are staring at him.
In point of fact Mitts isn't staring at Sam, Mitts is staring at the woman and having a milder version of the same problem that Sam is having.
Marda stands transfixed at Sam's, uh, condition. "Tata, are you
all right? Do you need ice for that?"
He nods his head at Sam and his rescuee. "Hurry up, they can't be far now."
Sam seems to ignore everything around him and has a purpose to get this girl(?) out of here and to someplace safe(?). He moves back into the hallway while hugging the catlady so tight it seems he is trying to meld her to his body by sheer strength.
Marda chirps, "OK, but we're probably gonna hafta turn something off upstairs," and attempts to activate the device.
"Upstairs?!" repeats Mitts with a horrified gurgle. "Oh, shiiiit...."
There is a sound something like a cross between the Pillsbury doughboy being hit by a semi and that hideous whistling sound that live shrimp make when you toss them in boiling water, and a large hole of some sort appears on the ceiling. The hole is about 3 feet in diameter, dead black where it isn't shot through with purple lightning, and seems to be dripping fluid of some sort - possibly blood - from around the edges. It emits a weird keening noise. As everyone watches, momentarily stunned that something has actually happened, the hole shrinks to about 1 foot in diameter, winks in and out of existence a couple of times, then steadies and expands back to three feet again.
"NOW!!!" growls Mitts. With a sound like forge bellows being pumped full, he takes in a deep breath, propels himself forward by pushing off the wall, and stumbles towards Marda. He slams his furry arms around the little girl, lifts her up with a half-groan, half-yelp, and attempts to shove her through the portal.
Sams gets the idea from Mitts and attempts to do the same thing with the furry kitten. If he is successful, Mr. Dart will try to propel himself through the hole as well. As he stretches his arms upward he feels like he wet his pants or something.
With a tremendous heave (or as tremendous as someone in Mitts' condition can achieve) Marda is scooped up and hefted through the hole in the ceiling at speed. Simultaneously, Sam shoves his bundle of furry joy through the hole. Both disappear in a flash of actinic light like the world's biggest flashbulb going off.
Unfortunately Mitts and Sam manage to crash into one another while performing this maneuver, and instead of making it through the hole in the ceiling they both hit the floor instead. Staring up from their vantage point a problem becomes immediately apparent. Without the gizmo that Marda was holding, the hole in the ceiling is now fluctuating wildly. Undoubtedly it will close in mere seconds.
Sam stomps his feet in fustration. He seems about to use Mr. Misty as a step ladder but thinks better of it. Tata yells up at the black hole, "Hey can you drop us down a ladder or lower that stinking hole a few meters for crying out loud?" Finally he looks up at the gentle giant and says, "Hey Mitts....got any bright ideas?"
Mitts gives a horrified glance at the vanishing warp hole, another at the far end of the corridor from which the guards should arrive, and finally looks back at Sam. With a grunt of exertion that melts into a howl of pain and anguish, he throws himself onto the American, grabs him bodily much in the same way he's seized Marda moments ago, and lifts him towards the black wavering edges of the hole. Still howling, he half pushes, half throws Sam into the warp.
As he oozes through the pseudo-viscous layers of the warp and falls "up", then "down", Sam feels the hairy, twisted paws of the yeti let go of him... but not of the Whammo ping-pong ball gun, which Mitts pulls back.
Being tossed through the hole is a lot like being tossed through the
world's biggest puddle of warm snot. As he is flung through by Mitts,
Sam desperately twists in a last minute attempt to hang onto the gun.
He seems to hang, suspended in goo, for an eternity before both he and
the gun fall a good seven feet to land with a resounding *THUD* on a carpeted
floor. Momentarily dazed, Sam watches with fascination as the hole
above him disappears with a noise like a straw slurping the last bits of
a milkshake out of the bottom of a cup. Rolling his head slightly from
side to side, he is surprised to note that the surroundings are familiar
- he appears to be in a hotel room, very much like his hotel room at Cesar's...
except not trashed.
To Be Continued...