RedShoyru767 spent the whole week under the quilt on his bed, coming out occasionally
just for snacks and food to give him strength. He couldn't believe how life
was treating him either. Goldy gone and they had to spend a whole three weeks
in the RPS room with nothing on his mind to do but draw and sit about on the
cushions. Felicity was well enough again to join the gang and with a pot on
her arm lay peacefully in bed. Few bandages remained on her head and legs. Gerald
didn't hang around the room now that he was sure the pets would stay there.
Linda healed Voltager's burns, and she was recovered. Now that there were two
more weeks to go, they had to spend that time thinking about what to do next
and just how to do it.
"I wish our friend Gelert2020202000 would show up with Jackie some time soon,"
Red mumbled, sadly. "I don't know where they've got to. They might be looking
for us."
"Who's Jackie?" Shoyru spun round quickly in his bed. There was a bag of ice
cubes on his head to cool his shooting temperature right down. Voltager had
had her head buried in her pillow and emerged from a flood of tears minutes
later.
"Our owner, jlcchaolover3," Red told him. "The problem is she's not as adventurous
as us and she doesn't go out hiking or anything. She just stays around our house,
giving us a few things, taking us out for battles etc. But she never actually
ventures from the home area, and she simply stays in the parts of Neopia near
the shops and all that."
"Wouldn't she be worried, if you got lost or anything?"
"Well," continued Red, heightening his voice a little, "she does in fact.
She always makes us stick in a pair so that we could stand chance of attack.
But this time, we left her. She might be lost right now, for all we know, trying
to look for us in case anything happened. But I kept telling her! 'No, Jackie,
no! It's dangerous--you could get hurt. Besides which, you can't even fly. Leave
this to all the Shoyries for Coltzan's sake. Please, no!' Anyway, she'll be
looking for us, probably. "
"Hang on!" Shoyru suddenly sat up. "If she was so worried about it then why
didn't you just stay there with her in the first place? Then she wouldn't need
to worry about you!" He stopped dead. The cold bag fell off his head and a splitting
pain seared through his stomach. His head swayed and fell back onto the pillow.
"Oh help! Owwww!"
"What's the matter?" asked Voltager hurriedly. Shoyru didn't answer; it was
as if he didn't even hear her. He stood up on one foot and made an attempt to
walk towards her but instead he swayed again, nearly butting into her and falling
headfirst onto the pillow again. He closed his eyes.
Felicity was still fast asleep, but Voltager sparked a jolt quickly from her
hands to wake her up. Felicity awoke, shuddering.
"Uh....what?"
"Shoyru's collapsed, Felicity," Voltager squealed at her. "You're the right
one to..."
"Get the nurse, and hurry," she replied quickly, before Voltager could even
wave her arms. "You never know what might happen with Shoyru. Anyway, I can't
do anything. My arm's killing me."
She sunk back into her pillows and dropped back off to sleep.
"OK, Felicity, I'll handle this," said Voltager, more patiently. She stood
Shoyru up and with her back to his, grabbed both arms with hers and dragged
him into the emergency room.
"Nurse!" she called, trying not to send any more jolts.
No answer. Voltager's tears suddenly welled into action again and the next
cry was broken.
"LINDA!"
At once Linda came charging down a spiral of stairs with Gerald at her heel.
"What is it dear?" she asked. Voltager's voice was high and uncontrolled,
and her mouth was drying up so she could hardly speak.
"Something's going on with him again," she panicked. The Gelert turned round
and bellowed up the stairs in a high voice.
"Geraldine dear! Can you come down for a minute?"
A higher voice replied. It was somewhat shaky.
"Coming!"
Thumps of little paws pounded down the stairs and burst into the emergency
room in a hurry. The noises finished when Geraldine stopped in front of the
pets.
"You're..." started Voltager, anxiously.
"Y...Yes, I am," Geraldine quavered, thankful now that she had managed to
compose herself.
"A...and how about your friend? Is he OK?"
"Not likely, at the moment," Voltager said sadly. She held up Shoyru's limp
body to Geraldine.
Geraldine gave a slight whimper.
"I...I'm ever so sorry I couldn't diagnose it," she cried, running into her
mother by mistake.
"Now don't be silly dear," said the mother. "I can find out what this Shoyru
has got that's infected him. I think I know what it is, already. No, I can't
tell you now," she added sharply as Voltager tried to ask. "Shoyru can't be
round when I tell you. It's very dangerous."
Voltager looked perplexed.
"What's so dangerous about Shoyru knowing what he has?" she said, starting
to shudder.
"We don't know," she said, gravely. "All we know is that if he ever hears
the name of his illness while he has it, he'll, well, rumours had it that a
rare illness such as this one can be so deadly, even by word of mouth, so he
probably won't make it."
A look of horror spread over Voltager's confused face and made it want to
cry.
"But, but HOW?"
"That's exactly what everyone wants to know," the mother said, more solemn
than ever. "That's one of the reasons why this illness is so rare. It only happens
once or twice in a millennium, it's not contagious and it usually starts by
food poisoning..."
"That's exactly what Shoyru did," Voltager piped in, before she could stop
herself. "He took a drink off the pavement and..."
"And that's what gave him the disease," finished the nurse, a tear rolling
down her cheek. She shook the tear off and pulled herself together. "Right dear,
bring your friends with you. Leave your Shoyru friend here with Geraldine, and
we'll go upstairs and discuss this so that Shoyru isn't listening."
"How can he be?" started Voltager again. "He's conc..."
"He won't be for long, now please get your friends dear, and hurry up to Ward
693 on Floor 9. Use the lift over there," she said, pointing to a largish, glass-door
lift further along a corridor. "It's quicker. Get them up and out of bed. This
is important."
***
"Red! Felicity! Kacheek!" Voltager called shrilly into the RPU. "Come out
here for a minute!"
RedShoyru767 stumbled into a corner of the room at the sound of her shrill
voice.
"Owww, my head," he moaned. Then he straightened. "Sorry Voltager?"
"Get out here everyone and quickly!" she screamed. "This is important!"
Felicity was just waking up again when she heard Voltager's desperate cry.
"My arm's still killing me," she complained. "Give it a little while before
doing anything else..."
"NOW!"
"Keep it down, please Voltager," Kacheek complained in a squeak, "it's bad
enough trying to think with all that racket let alone sleep. Now, where was
I...."
"GET OUT NOW, EVERYONE, PLEASE, OR I'LL GET THE NURSE!"
"All right, keep your tar on!" Red said restrained, head aching, bringing
Kacheek by his paw and Felicity by her wing so as not to strain her arms. Once
they were out of the RPU, Voltager, choking, bundled them into the lift and
shut the doors. She flew and reached up with a trembling paw and pressed a number
'9' on the control panel.
The whole lift began to shudder, and then it climbed upwards, humming as it
went.
"Just where are we going?" said Kacheek in another loud squeak. "Why have
we left Shoyru, and where's the nurse?"
Voltager stopped dead, her heart suddenly skipped a beat in fright and she
turned around to Kacheek. Then she slapped her forehead with her hand.
"Holy macaroni!" she cried, flinging herself into the doors of the lift, back
first. The hum of the lift suddenly got louder, and then went along as normal.
"I forgot her!"
"Uh huh," Red said in a worry, thinking deeply. "What do we do now?"
"What we don't do is panic," Felicity told him. "She must've gone up the stairs
to meet us at the top. It'll be okay. A few more seconds should do it."
Seconds later, the lift's humming decreased slightly, bit-by-bit, but it made
an abrupt, clanking noise and came to a halt.
Voltager stared through the glass into Floor No. 8. Then she hovered about
a metre off the lift floor and what she saw surprised her, the carpet on Floor
No. 9.
They were trapped between two floors.
To be continued... | 
