CHAPTER TWELVE
Rhyming Arsenal of Death
I.
The Frooginites were everywhere. A bunch of them turned and looked as us. We all held still.
“THERE IT IS. THE DISEASED ONE!”
I assume they were talking about me. “Let’s go!” I yelled to my platoon and we dashed back towards the trail in the other direction. The Frooginites began to open fire. Laser beams flew by us at warp speed, pounding the ground around us and burning holes right through the trees.
“What is all this!?” I heard Radar start to cry from somewhere behind me.
“Everyone keep moving! Don’t look back!” I shouted, keeping my eyes forward. We needed to get back to the I.P.S. as quick as possible.
Scout!
“What is it?”
Something’s wrong with D.R. Fritz. It’s like he was reprogrammed. Whoever messed with him before blast off must have programmed a new mission to start at a certain point during the journey.
“What’s wrong with him?” I was breathing hard, trying to keep a good pace as the lasers were just barely missing my head.
He’s heading back to the shuttle. I can’t stop him. If he makes it there, he might take off without you.
“Crap!” I yelled. “Everyone hurry up! We don’t have much time!”
We finally hit the dusty, red path. I vaguely remembered what direction we came from, so I was crossing my fingers and hoping I was right. Otherwise we were screwed.
The Frooginites were hot on our tails. I turned around every few seconds and saw they were chasing after us, still firing their lasers. Luckily for us, they seemed to be bad shots. Nothing had made contact with any of us yet. I saw Chuck, every so often, aim his laser phaser back and fire off a couple beams.
We eventually hit the first base that Chuck and I had investigated. We ran through the center of it and saw the remains of the two Frooginites that I had awesomely killed earlier, still steaming by the black slab in the center. I stopped for a second and aimed my gun at the light bulbs on the slab. Now that I knew they were possibly a power supply for the portals, I fired on them and shattered the bulbs.
“Keep moving!” I yelled, latching back onto Mandy’s hand. We took off down the path that would lead to the shuttle. I glanced behind me to make sure everyone was still with me. They were. Chuck was right behind Mandy and I. Farrow was huffing up a storm right behind him, and Blorf and Radar were the caboose.
Radar seemed to keep running out of breath and slowed down a little bit.
“C’mon, Radar! Pick up the pace!” I shouted over the sound of the Frooginite laser barrage.
“Don’t tell me what to do, nerd!” he barely managed to yell back.
“Wait!” Blorf called out. I came to an abrupt stop and looked. Blorf was trotting off into the woods.
“Where are you going?” I said.
“Just wait a minute!” he said again.
“Everyone take cover!” I shouted as we all jumped behind the giant trees. A line of Frooginites came rushing up the path behind us. Chuck and I leaned out from behind the trees and opened fire on them. I took one or two out, and so did Chuck, but the line of them seemed to be never ending.
I searched the woods to my right, looking for Blorf. I saw him come rushing out of a dark green grass hut or something. It seemed to blend in perfectly to the atmosphere of the forest. It must have been his house or something. He had another ‘sphere spear’ in his grip. The ball-like top was glowing purple again. Were those things weapons or something?
Chuck and I ducked back behind the trees as the Frooginites kept coming. Blorf hopped out onto the trail and pointed his glass spear towards them, purple end first. He began to take laser after laser to his body as his spear illuminated quickly and then with a large and loud boom, a blasting wave of purple energy flew out and knocked over all of the Frooginites in sight.
They all hit the ground and didn’t get back up. The woods became quiet again and the current threat was over. Chuck, Mandy and I came out from behind the giant tree. I saw Farrow and Radar do the same from another moss covered tree base.
We all looked at Blorf, who wobbled upright for a minute before falling backwards and slamming into the dirt.
Chuck and I rushed to his side. He was bleeding out from countless, smoking laser impressions. “Are you okay, man?” I asked, knowing he wasn’t going to make it. The damage to his scaly body was just too much.
“Of course not,” Blorf coughed. “I’m dying. I’m dying pretty bad.”
“I can see that. What can I do?”
“I said I’m dying, man. There’s nothing you can do.”
“There has to be something?”
“There’s not! Don’t make me mad, Scout. I don’t want my last moment here to be me being pissed off.”
“Ok,” I said. I didn’t know what else to say. Mandy, Farrow and Radar gathered around to show their sympathy. Chuck and I awkwardly kneeled over the dying alien. “Thanks for everything you did for us, Blorf. You really helped us out.”
“I know,” he said. He lifted his arm, the one that wasn’t hanging on by tendons, and handed me his sphere spear. “I want you to have this. It’s to show you my appreciation for standing up to the Frooginites, who treat my kind like were nothing, and for busting me out of that holding cell.”
“You got it,” I said, grabbing the spear.
“Now if you’ll excuse me…” Blorf muttered as he exhaled for the last time. His body lay there motionless. Blorf was dead.
I stood up, gripping the sphere spear in one hand, and my laser phaser in the other - my rhyming arsenal of death – and then lead the way as we quickly continued down the path.
II.
Fritz is in the shuttle, Scout! How close are you?
“Pretty close, Professor,” I responded. I knew where we were because I saw the blood and guts-covered red flower where Chuck had murdered Hoogort.
“It’s just around this corner!” I called back to everyone. We all picked up speed and turned the corner to the clearing in the woods and immediately heard the loud, thumping sound of the shuttles roaring engine.
“No!” I called out, seeing D.R. Fritz sitting in the cockpit.
“We’re supposed to ride on that thing?” Radar complained as we all came to a stop in front of the shuttle.
“Scout…” Mandy was worried. So was I. I looked at Chuck and we both shared the same thoughts – what on Earth do we do now?
I can’t override him!
The ground began to shake, forcing all of us to try and keep our balance. Farrow looked on at the I.P.S. “It’s magnificent!” He was admiring our only way off of Bethani.
“What do we do if it leaves?” I asked him, a hint of massive concern coming through in my voice.
He just shook his head without saying anything. We were doomed...
The I.P.S. jolted violently and then started to roll towards us.
“Duck!” I yelled. We all jumped out of the way of the shuttle, which was heading right in our direction. It passed by us, picking up speed, and started to rip down the trees as it slowly lifted off the ground.
I wanted to cry as I watched our only means of intergalactic transportation lift away into the sky. The nuclear thrusters exploded and a massive fireball came rushing back in our direction. We all shielded our eyes and felt the heat on our faces. When I moved my hand and looked again, the canopy of the forest was on fire and the I.P.S. was blasting fast out of Bethani’s atmosphere. It disappeared through the thick clouds and out into space.
I wanted to cry so badly, but tried to hold it together so I didn’t embarrass myself in front of Mandy. She crawled through the dirt and sat by me, grabbing a hold of my arm. I sat there in shambles. I was completely drained of energy. Chuck and I traveled 6,500 light years to save three peoples’ lives, but instead, we failed. Now four high school freshmen and some weird acquaintance of Nog’s were stranded on another planet.
“Professor…” I said.
Scout? Did you make it back to the shuttle?
“No. Fritz took off. We failed.”
There was silence on Nog’s end of my head. He didn’t know what to say or what to do.
Suddenly, the piercing sound of a laser beam sliced through the air and hit Radar in the leg.
He screamed and tried to stand up, but fell back over. The rest of us stood up quickly and looked around. There were three Frooginites dashing towards us.
Chuck and I stood up fast and started to fire at them. “Someone get Radar and head that way!” I instructed, seeing the path head in the other direction across the clearing. Farrow tried to pick Radar up, who was screaming and crying like a little girl. Chuck and I did our best to hold off the beasts, but their firepower was too much.
“Run!” I yelled. I grabbed Mandy by the hand again, and followed Chuck towards the path. Farrow was having a hard time with Radar. He couldn’t quite hold him up right.
A green beam of laser burned through Farrows’ lab coat and out the other side, just missing his groin. “Whoa!” Farrow cried, dropping Radar and galloping away in fear that his parts were just almost blown off.
“Don’t leave me!” Radar called from the ground, reaching out for Farrow who was hopping in our direction. Chuck and I stopped and fired a couple more shots at the Frooginites. Two of our lasers hit one of their heads at the same time and blew it completely off. The body hit the ground and the beast’s guns hit the dirt.
“Scout!” Chuck said, getting an idea. “What if we grab their teleporting gun and blast ourselves out of here?”
Chuck was a genius! But not really...
“They look like they’re all programmed to teleport things to Bethani, not Earth. But you’re definitely onto something!” I said, reaching into my backpack and pulling out Nog’s nameless vanishing device. “He said this will teleport any otherworldly beings back to their planet of origin. Technically were otherworldly here, right?”
“You guys are right! That should work, in theory,” Farrow added, holding on tight to his groin.
“Alright, everyone gather around!” I said, prepping the device.
“What about Radar?” Mandy asked. We all looked at him and he was on the ground in pain, reaching out for us, still crying like a baby.
“I’ll get him,” I volunteered, as the two remaining Frooginites were closing in. “Chuck, hold this.” I handed the vanishing device over to Chuck and jogged towards Radar. The Frooginites didn’t waste any time firing on me. I hit the deck hard, dropping out of the way of the oncoming death beams.
I looked up and saw the Frooginites were standing right over top of Radar.
“Scout! Help me!” he called out frantically. I couldn’t get any closer. Behind them, coming up from the path, was another troop of Frooginites. They were charging into the clearing fast, aiming their guns.
“Scout, come on! We gotta go!” Chuck shouted. I tried to stand up again to head for Radar but I pretty much became a target. All the Frooginites were firing at me.
“Scout, don’t leave me!” Radar yelled one more time before the Frooginites started to club him repeatedly with their guns. I did what I had to do – ran back to my group fast.
I ripped the vanishing device from Chuck’s hand and hovered my finger over the red button. I glanced back one last time as Chuck, Mandy and Farrow hurried me to press the button. Radar was eating dirt. The Frooginites were bashing all up on him. The army of aliens behind the beating was getting closer, spraying lasers in every direction.
“You’re a dead man, Scout! You’re dead!” I heard Radar scream one last time as I made the inevitable decision to press the button. Everything got real bright and I couldn’t see anything. The world around us was spinning like mad, and I remember seeing glimpses of space, dizzying spirals of light and flashing lights peppering my vision before everything went black and quiet…