InsaneJournal

Chapter Seven – In which Zim is not-so-stealthy

From his spot on the ground, Zim groaned miserably and spat out a lump or two of dirt, rubble, and Tallests knew what else. Sure, he’d narrowly avoided certain death (this time via exploding) once again, but now his mouth was all gritty and he had an impressive array of bumps, bruises, and other such wounds from both the scuffle with the droid’s pilot and the explosion’s resulting shrapnel.

All in all, he wasn’t feeling too great.

But, at least he was alive. (Now that’s positive thinking, kids!)

Getting to his feet shakily, the Irken brushed at his uniform – a useless gesture, really, seeing as it was now thoroughly soaked with two different kinds of blood, caked with dirt, and had a good amount of rips of varying sizes and shapes. And his boots were all scuffed up! Zim pouted a bit, but refused to dwell on it – there were other, more important things. Like figuring out where the heck Dib was.

Antennae perked as something came to mind. “It’s Saturday!” Zim exclaimed, seemingly out of nowhere until he continued. “That’s the Dib-human’s grocery day!”

Silence.

Then… “Why do I know that?” he asked himself hesitantly, somewhat creeped out. Certainly he and the Dib didn’t stalk each other that much.

His data drives figured that now would be a splendid time to mention that since Dib generally did his grocery shopping in the morning, he would’ve been at the Smiff’s closest to his house when the Krakemeth race began their invasion.

…Okay, maybe they did stalk each other that much.

Sighing and shrugging, Zim derailed that particular train of thought, instead focusing on the quickest way to the store – it was only slightly farther than the Dib’s neighborhood, he knew, so it wouldn’t take long to get there, even on foot.

He’d just have to be careful.

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Now that Zim thought about it, carrying the deceased Krakemeth’s plasma gun along with him had been the greatest idea he’d had all day.

No, scratch that – it was probably the greatest idea he’d had in weeks.

Not long after he’d departed on his epic journey to the store in order to save a human he absolutely detested, and quite soon after he’d told himself he’d have to be careful, the Irken had run across a wide street without looking both ways. He then realized that he’d just garnered the full attention of a group of Krakemeth warrior droids prowling nearby.

It wasn’t the smartest thing he’d ever done, but at least it wasn’t the stupidest. At that point, he’d at least acquired a weapon that wouldn’t be mentally exhausting to protect himself with.

Unfortunately, he was about as efficient with a plasma pistol as he was with his PAK legs.

He’d spent a good five minutes just running from the droids and screaming at the top of his Irken equivalent of lungs before he even had the presence of mind to start shooting at them. Even then, he missed pretty much every shot; when you’re terrible at aiming, you can be pretty darn sure that you won’t be much better when you’re aiming over your shoulder.

But, regardless of Zim’s ability to aim, one could always – always – count on his ability to cause senseless destruction in the most unbelievable of ways.

Not two blocks from the Smiff’s store, one of Zim’s shots blasted the top off of a crooked lamppost, which buried itself into a nearby power conduit, which promptly exploded, which in turn caused the nearby cars (and remains of cars) to catch on fire and also explode, taking each of the pursuing droids along with them.

He wasn’t exactly sure how it happened, but at this point – just a block from his destination – Zim didn’t really care. He was just glad it had happened, because it made things a heck of a lot easier.

When the store finally came into view, the Irken almost turned back. That tiny portion of his PAK – that one small rational center – was screaming at him to just forget it, and the rest of his PAK screamed along with it. Loudly. And damn him and his innate sense of self-preservation, he almost listened.

But…he couldn’t just forget about it – this was the Dib. This was his enemy! His pride was at stake here! A little bit of fire and structural instability weren’t going to scare the almighty ZIM away – it wasn’t like the whole building was on fire! Just…a large portion of it.

With one quick glance at his surroundings for potential threats, and one slight moment of hesitation, Zim sprinted the remaining distance, heading around to the side of the store – from what he could tell, it would be impossible to enter from the front. It was likely that the blaze had originated there initially, considering the state of the entrance hall (or lack thereof).

He was nearing a side exit when he caught sight of the droid; it was facing away from him, patrolling near the far end of the store, but the only thing that mattered was the former fact. The creature inside couldn’t see Zim, and that was simply perfect. The Irken shoved at the door, which remained stubbornly closed. He then kicked at it in frustration, which only succeeded in making his foot hurt.

Grimacing, Zim hastily shifted his weight to his less injured foot and glared at the offending door, as though the sheer force of his hatred would be able to knock it down (which it didn’t, in case you were wondering). Spotting a flash of light against glass out of the corner of his eye, he turned to find that the droid had done just the same – his gaze met and locked with that of the Krakemeth within. It seemed surprised, but that didn’t keep it from starting towards the unexpected target.

Said unexpected target hastily shoved at the door again before noting the small ‘pull’ sign on the door handle (which was somewhat hot, Zim observed as he promptly yanked the door open to dash inside).

It was also somewhat hot inside, a fact the Irken couldn’t really dwell on when the warrior droid smashed through a nearby portion of wall, sending him off-balance and stumbling into a large barrel of what was apparently pinto beans if the sign was of any indication (though they were clearly not pinto beans). At the very least, though, the ‘pinto beans’ kept the Krakemeth from seeing him.

Hopefully this one didn’t have access to bioscanners.

When no strange shuddering feeling came, Zim just about sighed in relief; the droid was meandering away, an action he could barely hear over the roar of the spreading fire and the ‘pinto beans’ he’d been submerged in up to his antennae. Dragging himself out when he assumed it was safe, the Irken gasped for breath, only to get a lovely lungful of smoky air.

Oh, right - fire, he remembered as he struggled not to cough. His PAK filters were quick to kick in, a thin atmospheric bubble flickering around his head before fading away, seeming to not even exist. Its effects were immediate and obvious, however, and Zim took a refreshing breath of clean air before setting off, venturing deeper into the ruined heart of the grocery store and keeping a wary eye out for the solitary droid.