Serendipity (Karlnapity Fantasy AU)

Chapter 30

Quackity was awakened from his stupor by the noise and vibration that went through the ship. With a bang he fell to the side, still managing to keep his head off the hard floor with his hands. Almost simultaneously with the bang, the monitors placed on the walls began to flicker wildly. With a groan, he sat up, held a hand in front of his eyes, and watched as the flickering subsided and a person appeared on the monitors in front of him instead.

With a mixture of shock and confusion, Quackity stared at the person who was on the monitor. They looked more like a demon, based on their green skin color and the blank stare they gave in Quackity's direction. Cautiously, the Duck Hybrid raised a hand and waved at the person. No response. A few seconds passed before the hybrid dared to address the person on the monitor.

"Hello?" his voice echoed through the room and he was startled as the person came to life as if a switch had been flipped.
"Another person?" the person spoke through the speakers at the corners of the room. He watched as they seemed to be scanning him and blinked in confusion.

"You're not like the others," came through the speakers.
"Yeah, not surprising," Quackity muttered, looking down at his wings peeking out from under his shirt. The hybrid figured that no more words would sound through the speakers and instead the monitors flickered wildly a few times.

"Do you know what happened out there?", Quackity dared to ask. For a few moments it seemed as if the person froze in their movement, and then, after a few seconds, a shiver ran through them.

"I'm Slime! I'm your personal computer! How can I help you today?" it blared through the speakers, way too high-pitched. The Duck Hybrid winced, confused at the computer's sudden statement. Then he repeated his question a little louder, a little more urgently because the alarm was piercing through the dense walls.

"We are experiencing technical difficulties. It seems that the test subject K.J. has broken out. He's on his way over here with another person," they rattled off emotionlessly, followed by flickering lights.

"What?" whispered Quackity and he was aware that this computer could only be talking about Karl. He hoped that it really was Karl and that they still had a chance to get out. Sometimes you can't do anything else than just hope that everything will be okay. And he did just that.

~~~

George hated being unathletic at such moments. By now he had managed to wake Karl up without damaging his brain in the process and was dragging him along behind him while his lungs burned from running. His back and shoulders ached from carrying the unconscious Karl before.

He was sure that Karl had no idea where they were running from, because all he could hear from him, between the penetrating alarm, was gibberish and a mixture of coughing and gasping for air.

They were on Quackity's floor, whose room was on the completely opposite side from where the stairs were. Karl was still holding on to George for support, but his gaze was directed straight ahead and no longer at the floor. They walked further down the hall, George could already see the door to the room behind which his Avian Friend was.

"Where's Quackity?" a question beside him made him stop short just a few steps in front of the door. Karl stared up at him, eyes glazed as if he would drop dead at any moment, but the grip on his arm was strong and firm.

"What?"

"Where's Quackity. I know he's here.", Karl gasped, his face grimacing at the second part of the sentence. He was still in pain.
"Since when do you remember?", George wanted to pierce him with more questions, but the brown-haired just shook his head frantically as if he was about to collapse.

George then ran the last few steps to the door with Karl in his arms, stumbling bravely alongside. Next to the door was a pad with several symbols on it. Since Dream used the same sequence of symbols for almost everything on this ship, which was one of his weaknesses, George had quickly memorized them.

He typed the characters almost automatically and the door flew open with a beep. At the other end of the room, Quackity sat on the floor, full of bruises, but with a completely different facial expression than he had expected. There was newly kindled hope in his gaze, and at the sight of Karl, hope flamed into joy and relief.

~~~