“Okay, Thomas, just drink this,” Dr. Mavis instructed holding a spoon full of a clear liquid to Tom’s beak. Tom—too weak to object—obeyed. As soon as the liquid hit his taste buds, he gagged and Mavis held his beak shut to make him swallow.

    “I’m sorry, Thomas. I know it doesn’t taste like a red herring, but it’s important that anda take it so it keeps up your metabolism,” Mavis explained.

    Tom nodded in understanding and took a sip of water, forcing himself to keep it down.

    “Dr. Mavis?” he called weakly. Mavis took him sejak the flipper and leaned in closer.

    “I’m here, boy. What do anda need?”

    “Am I gonna die?” Tom asked. Mavis remained silent for a moment, thinking about his answer.

    “Not if I can help it, son,” he replied. “Now rest. You’re going to need plenty of it.”

    Tom was too tired to argue. He took a deep staggered breath and let sleep find him. Mavis sighed silently to himself. The determination to heal Tom was eating him from the inside out.

    “Is there anything I can do, Dr. Mavis?”

    Mavis turned at the sound of Kari’s voice. The darkness under her eyes indicated that she hadn’t slept very well last night, if at all. He forced a smile.

    “You can go get some rest. anda look terrible,” he berkata with a slight laugh.

    “Gee, thanks,” Kari replied sarcastically. “I want to, but I just can’t sleep. I guess I’m just afraid that seterusnya time I wake up, he’ll be…” Her voice trailed off, unable to say the word that became trapped in her beak. Mavis eyed her sympathetically and wrapped a flipper around her, pulling her into an embrace.

    “It’s alright, darling. I’m so close to getting this to work,” he told her, though he was unsure himself of if he was telling the truth atau not.

    “Promise?” Kari said, breaking the silence. “Promise anda won’t let him die?”

    Mavis was silent for a moment. He couldn’t be sure that he could keep that promise, no matter how much he wanted to. He pulled her in tighter to himself, as if that could somehow reveal the answer to him. Stroking her back comfortingly, he said, “I promise, Kari.”

    Kari held him tighter and buried her face into his chest. Right now, her greatest challenge was not crying. She wanted to so badly, but just couldn’t bring herself to do it for Tom’s sake.

    “Cross your heart?” Kari asked.

    Mavis looked down at Kari burying her face into his chest feathers. In that instance, it was as if his task to heal Tom wasn’t just a job atau an obligation he had to fulfill. It was lebih than that. It was lebih of a destiny atau a mission. Something that had to be succeeded above all else. He couldn’t fail. He was going to heal Tom if it was the last thing he ever did in his life.

    “Cross my heart, Kari,” Mavis berkata softly.

♦ ♦ ♦

    A week had passed and Tom’s condition had only improved slightly. His fever broke a couple of days before and he was better able to keep his energy. His pain and fatigue had eased on him, but it still slowed him down. Though, he, Johnson, and Rico had made good friends. Manfredi was still recovering from his incident with the leopard seal, so he wasn’t up for doing much. But he still enjoyed conversing with his brothers, Tom, and Kari when things were calm.

    “So, they just put anda through all those tests? They didn’t care about what it was doing to you?” Kari asked. She was sitting on the foot end of Thomas’s bed. The subject of exactly where Manfredi, Johnson, and Rico had come from had been brought up about ten minit lalu when Rico accidentally regurgitated a pipe wrench. Obviously, soalan were asked, and there wasn’t much hiding it any longer. Luckily, only Manfredi, Johnson, Rico, Kari, and Thomas was present when it had occurred. Johnson and Rico sat at the foot end of Manfredi’s bed, which was the seterusnya over from Tom’s.

    “Not a rat’s ass,” Johnson replied, resulting in Rico elbowing him in the stomach for swearing in front of the younger penguins, let alone a female. “Sorry,” he berkata in response to Rico’s gesture.

    “How did anda escape?” Thomas asked before he took a long swig of water.

    Manfredi and Johnson turned to Rico and smiled.

    “We were in the back of a van,” Manfredi started, “we had the perfect plan of letting Rico, here, pick the lock and we sprinted. Little guy saved our lives.”

    “What’s a ‘van’?” Tom asked.

    “Oh, it’s just a big thing that humans use to get around. I guess they’re too lazy to walk atau slide around like we do,” Johnson answered.

    “Wow…That’s amazing. anda weren’t scared?” Kari asked.

    “Not really. We were either going to get out of that place atau die trying,” Johnson answered.

    “Guess I can’t blame you,” Kari replied, “I wouldn’t have wanted to be there either. But how exactly did Rico obtain the ability to store things in his gut? It still doesn’t make sense.”

    “We don’t know, really,” Manfredi answered. “We only found out that he even had the gift because we witnessed him menelan a switchblade. That’s when we got that insane idea to escape. It was full-proof from the beginning. We didn’t really have any doubts that it would fail.”

    “Wow, that’s amazing,” Tom replied in astonishment. “What about all of the other penguins left there? They’re still being put through that torture?” he asked sinking back into his pillow.

    Manfredi, Johnson, and Rico exchanged a glance as a pang of guilt shot through each of them. Since they’d escaped, it never really occurred to them that they’d left all those other penguins there to suffer without sending help for them. They could hardly fathom their selfishness. Then again, what could they have done?

    “Sorry, Tom. There would’ve been nothing we could do, anyway. The humans can’t be trusted—not that they’d be able to understand us, anyway—and other penguins wouldn’t be Brave enough atau strong enough to overcome them. Even if we somehow made Friends with a leopard seal, atau even a polar bear, they wouldn’t stand a chance against the humans. When it comes to that place, it’s every penguin for himself,” Manfredi explained.

    “What do humans look like?” Kari inquired.

    “Well,” Johnson started, “they’re kind of like really small polar bears, but with only a tuft of bulu on their heads and their faces are flatter. They wear these cloth things on their bodies and have yellow teeth and dull claws. They also suck on this brown stick things that give them the ability to blow smoke.”

    “Whoa…It sounds kind of scary,” Kari replied shifting in her position uncomfortably.

    “It was at first, but after being there for a while, anda kinda get used to it,” Johnson said. “But…You can’t tell anyone any of this, okay? Neither of you.”

    “Alright…Can we ask why?” Tom inquired.

    Johnson looked down into his flippers as he answered. “It’s just that…We’re just trying to be normal. If everyone knows that we used to be specimens in drug-testing…Nobody will see us as ourselves. We’ll be freaks.” He hesitated for a moment. “You guys don’t think we’re freaks, do you?”

    Tom and Kari exchanged a glance and shook their heads.

    “No. anda guys seem normal to me,” Kari answered with a shrug.

    “Yeah. I see no reason to think of anda as a freak,” Thomas chimed in.

    Manfredi, Johnson, and Rico exchanged a glance and smiled.

    “Thanks. anda guys are awesome,” Manfredi berkata with a grateful smile.

    Tom held his beak higher. “I know I am.”

    Kari laughed and punched his leg. The others exchanged another glance, this one a little lebih in the sense that they were thinking the same thing.

    “Hey, um…You two aren’t, uh…” Johnson started, but was unsure of how to finish it.

    “Aren’t what?” Kari asked.

    Johnson laughed. “Never mind. So, when’s lunch around here?”

♦ ♦ ♦

    After lunch, Manfredi eventually dozed off from fatigue, Kari had to return home, and Tom’s parents came to the office. Johnson and Rico watched in silence as Tom’s parents sat at either sides of his katil and showered him with concern.

    “Mavis says you’re already improving,” Jacqueline berkata with a smile.

    “Only slightly…” Tom muttered under his breath.

    “So? At least that’s something,” Tom’s father pointed out.

    “The treatment isn’t painful, is it?” Jacqueline asked.

    “No, not really. The medicine doesn’t taste very good, and the exercises make me tired, but otherwise, I’m fine. And Dr. Mavis doesn’t work me to the point of pain, anyway,” Tom answered.

    “Oh, don’t worry, baby. This will all be over before anda know it,” Jacqueline encouraged.

    “Sure it will…” Tom replied with a roll of his eyes. “I’m four years old. There’s no way I can survive this. I’m not strong enough.”

    “Don’t anda dare say such a thing, son,” Adam scolded. “You will get through this.”

    Tom was silent for a moment.

    “Why didn’t anda ever tell me?” he asked finally.

    Adam and Jacqueline exchanged a glance.

    “I just didn’t want anyone to worry,” Adam admitted looking down at himself.

    “I had a right to know, Dad,” Tom argued.

    “I know, Thomas. I’m sorry,” Adam berkata with a regretful expression.

    Johnson and Rico exchanged a glance. They’d never had the comfort of a parent. It was impossible not to feel a pang of jealousy. But they didn’t resent Thomas for having something that they wish they did. If anything, they felt happy for him. Besides, they had each other, and that was enough for them.

    Before anything further could be said, a pop was heard in the distance.

    “What was that?” Jacqueline inquired.

    “I don’t know. anda stay here with Tom and the others. I’ll go check it out,” Adam told them getting to his feet and leaving Mavis’s office.

    After a few moments of silence, Jacqueline turned back to Tom. “As your father was saying, you—”

    She was interrupted when an explosion was heard in the near distance, causing the office to shake violently and throwing Jacqueline to the floor.

    “Mom!” Tom cried throwing the covers off of himself and leaping to the floor. Johnson scrambled to the door and looked out only to be thrown back into the kabin sejak a shockwave from another blast.

    Rico rushed to Johnson’s side and pulled him to his feet, though he faltered dangerously. Manfredi was awake now and was gripping his side as he dropped to the floor. Johnson and Rico helped him to keep his balance. A split-second later, Mavis burst through the front entrance.

    “Boys! I don’t know what’s going on but we have to get out now!” he berkata in a panic.

    “But what about my parents?!” Tom berkata nudging his unconscious mother.

    “I’m sorry, Thomas, but they’ll only slow us down! Come on!” Mavis berkata scooping up Tom in his flippers and ushering the other boys to the back exit.

    When they broke into the outside, everything was chaos. Penguins were running around in a panic and snow was flying everywhere from the explosions. Mavis darted to the left, keeping the boys close to him. Manfredi started to feel faint because the stitches in his abdomen had started to reopen and Johnson still faltered from the shockwave. Tom’s adrenaline began to rise and his vision started to fade in and out.

    A blast from nearby threw them off of their feet and Tom was thrown from Mavis’s grasp. He bounced off of a nearby house and landed into the snow seterusnya to it.

    There were unknown hostiles entering the village on both sides, and they weren’t looking for a peace agreement. Screams filled the air from all around as masked enemies charged through and unleashed hell in the village.

    Through his fading consciousness, Tom could make out bits and pieces of what was going on around him. From behind him, he could hear Manfredi and Johnson arguing, though about what he was unsure. Continuous blasts were heard in the near distance along with lebih screams of terror. Finally, everything fell silent and black.

♦ ♦ ♦

    His senses started to come back slowly, starting with the sound of the wind whispering in his ear. Just the wind. That was the only sound in the air. He opened his eyes to see that he was in the same place he was when he blacked out. Slowly pushing himself up, snow fell off of his body and onto the ground beneath him. He squinted through his blurred vision to see the village in ruins. Places here and there in the snow were stained red. He didn’t need nor want to think about what it was.

    He jumped when he heard a crunch behind him and turned to see a penguin standing a few feet away, examining him. He was holding something long and slim across his chest. After studying him for a moment, he turned to his left and called, “Hey, this one’s alive!”

    The sound of another pair of feet crunching against the snow approached until another bird came around the corner, also carrying a long, slim object across her chest. Whoever it was, though, she was not a penguin. Her body was shaped differently and she had a purple stripe wrapping around her beak.

    “He’s very small. He could be useful,” berkata the bird. She had some sort of accent to her voice. “We’ll take him with us. What’s your name, penguin?”

    Thomas gulped and remained silent. He didn’t know who they were atau what they wanted, but he did know that he didn’t want any part of it.

    “What the matter, kid? Can’t anda speak?” asked the penguin.

    Tom hesitated. “W-Who are you?” he stuttered. “What happened to everyone?”

    The penguin and the female bird exchanged a glance.

    “He didn’t hear what you-know-who said?” the female asked the penguin under her breath. The penguin answered with a shrug.

    “Listen, kid. I’m afraid you’re one of the few that survived this whole thing,” the female said. “It appears that a group of adversaries attacked this village with intentions of leaving it a ghost town. And well, they succeeded. They’re all dead.”

    The penguin leaned in closer to her and whispered. “But we were—” The female shut him up sejak nudging him with her long, slim object and giving him a hard glare.

    Tom was speechless. She didn’t even beat around the bush. She’d telah diberi it to him straight. All of his Friends and family were dead. He had nowhere to go. He looked down.

    “Thomas,” he berkata softly. “Thomas McGrath.”

    The female sighed and threw the slim object over her shoulder, revealing that it was strapped to her body across her abdomen. She strode ke hadapan and picked him up, dusting off some of the snow that had collected on his head.

    “Sorry, kid. You’re with us, now.” She held him close to her body and wrapped part of her vest around him to try to keep him warm.

    The penguin and the female took him through the village and Thomas caught glimpses of dead penguins and lebih red-stained snow. He tried to shut them out sejak closing his eyes and burying his face into the female’s chest feathers, but the imej were burned into the back of his retinas. And they would remain there for the rest of his life.

    As they moved through the village, Tom could feel the earth starting to weigh down on him. He wasn’t sure of it was his illness atau if it was the fact that he’d Lost everything. He’d Lost his family. He’d Lost his friends. He’d Lost his whole life. His hati, tengah-tengah wrenched in his chest and it was as if he could feel a piece of himself dying inside. The only thing he could bring himself to hope was that it was quick, and that they were all in a better place.

    After about ten minit of endless walking, they passed the town to where a bunch of other birds were. Most were penguins, but there were others that looked similar to the female that had found Thomas. Here and there, Thomas saw small black things with handles at the front and ski-like things on the bottom. There was a red rectangle with a white menyeberang, cross offset to the left cutting all the way through it painted into the front of each one. The penguin got on one and the female got on behind.

    “What is this thing?” Thomas asked.

    “It’s called a snowmobile. It’s efficient for fast travel across snow,” the female answered.

    “Can I ask…What kind of bird are you?” Thomas asked hesitantly, not wanting to offend her.

    The female laughed slightly. “I have a feeling you’re going to be full of questions. No worries. They will all be answered soon enough,” she assured him. “And honey, I’m a puffin.”