WINTER OPERATION

BY THE YOUNG AND FREE DRAGON

Juliet

When we made love you used to cry

Say; "I love you like

The stars above

I love you 'till I die"

There's a place

For us

(You know; the movie song)

When you gonna realize?

It was just the time was wrong

Juliet

-Romeo and Juliet by Dire Straits

CHAPTER TWO: SOMETHING FRESH

Higher and Higher

We're gonna take it down to the wire

Make it out of the fire

Higher and Higher

-Bling (Confession of a King) by the Killers

Skipper took the notion of the phase out as a result of the bump on the head. Somehow he could accept that. He could remember that he'd never have let it be until he knew the truth when things had been different. But that seemed to have been a long time ago. Marlene continued to give him a concerned look as he sat, staring at something invisible.

Marlene knew something had come back to Skipper, but she knew prying at it wouldn't work. Skipper was complexed in all his straight-forwardness. It was strange but true. But now that she'd given him the meds and taken him back to the HQ, she wasn't sure what to do now. Except look around. She got up and began. The head quarters had decayed in the few years it had been. The concrete walls were chipping and cracked and covered with yellow-brown stains. The bunks which had once been beds were empty of pillows except one, where the cotton was torn and frayed, and the feathers inside spread about and around. She went back into Kowalski's lab. Test tubes and beakers were smashed and lying in the floor. Burns from whatever Kowalski had been making still resided on the floor from the liquid that had once been in the tubes, and she still detected an acrid smell even after all this time.

And yet it couldn't have rotted away like this. Maybe one or two might have fallen but not this many. Someone had cleared it out. The papers were a mess on the floor and on the counters. Some had dots of reddish black, possibly blood. She picked up a couple and began examining them. Formulas, not much else. She set them down on the counter, and noticed a smear of probably blood on the edge of the counter. She got a chill at the thought of it. A vision flashed into her head, some unknown attacker smashing Kowalski's head against the counter. Kowalski falling to the ground in a whirl of papers, blood pooling beneath his head and his eyes empty as they stared at the ceiling.

But there were no other signs of blood or what looked like it, so that at least cound not have happened. She walked out and over to their TV. The screen was cracked and burns from probably sparks were apparent on the wiring and set. The floor in front of the TV had a spatter of blood and few dots following the streaks. It was strange and disturbing. Private used to sit here. She didn't even let a vision of little Private's death enter her head.

She continued to pace about but saw nothing more that brought horror or interest except a long strand of blonde hair. It looked much like that of Rico's doll. It was old and dirty but still seemed to hold the warmth of Rico's love for the doll. It was sweet in a sad way. She sat back down at the table and looked into Skipper's face, though he didn't meet her eyes.

"I was transferred," She began tapping on finger silently on the table. "I don't know that you remember it but that's what happened. I was sent back to Hoboken, which was losing money because several animals had died from bird flu-like symptoms. Weather or not that is the case was unclear, but that looks to be what happened here, accounting for the dead birds. But it may have been something else; I don't know anything about bird flu except that it is deadly.

"Life seems to have gone on here for awhile, but I found a news clipping when I was being shipped to a different zoo that said this one was closing. I traveled to that zoo but managed to escape before being taken in. I hitched a ride which stopped in front of the zoo briefly so I don't know much about Now York. It might be dead out there."

"Did any other animals get shipped out when you did?" He asked, still not meeting her face.

"One," she said solemnly. "Julien."

Skipper looked up at her and then his eyes fell. The old lemur with the stubbornness of an ass but the love of the kindest soul. He secretly liked to think that Julien was his friend as well as the friend of others. He was thunder-struck at this though. He'd never wanted Julien's friendship, nor had he ever desired contact of any kind with him. But he felt alone without Julien's constant nagging and antics, even if they would drive him insane.

But his thoughts died in a moment. He was a little ashamed to say, Julien wasn't a high interest for him at the moment. His team was. But he would bite for the possible friend.

"Where'd he go?"

"I don't know," She said quietly and he could feel her eyes lower from him and down to her paws. "I hope he's okay."

"Ring-tail is fine…" Skipper said though he wasn't sure why he used that term. He usually saved it when he was speaking directly to the lemur. "I'm sure he is."

"No one seems to be." Marlene said, her paws tightening to fists.

Skipper knew she was right. No one was. No matter where they were, it didn't seem like anyone in the world could be safe, or happy. Suddenly his stomach turned, in a horror of sadness.

"We're Maurice and Mort deported with him?" He asked silently.

"Maurice was." Marlene's voice was strong but he could tell it was straining to stay that way.

And in his own mind he was crying. Mort didn't seem capable of surviving without Julien. He had to have someone to hold on to, and Julien's hostility to him seemed to draw comfort for Mort. The poor thing might have never recovered. Despite his wish for his memory, he did not want to remember Mort's face as Julien was taken away.

It seemed that the humans often times had no soul. And yet they called themselves a high and mighty species. And they cared nothing for the others on the planet. But that was a thought for another day. Irrelevant to what was at hand. What was at hand? All he knew was that his team was gone and he was sitting in his HQ with an old friend in an abandoned zoo. There was no sense of place to be or warmth or coziness. In fact he had no idea what to do.

Kowalski option-… The thought died before it could complete itself. He wasn't sure weather he'd said it aloud, and didn't care. But Marlene was holding his flipper again so either he'd said it or his eyes showed the pain or his grimace said his sorrow. The once great leader was helpless.

Twisted thoughts churned about Skipper's brain but the storm outside blocked him from being able to analyze them fully. Nothing new of course. The only true thing was that Skipper woke up cold. The sound of Marlene snoring was the thing of nightmares but in a way, it was sort of cute. Skipper was surprised at this thought but he remembered Kowalski's analysis of panic, fear, and hopelessness.

According to him it was normal to have these thoughts while in any of those emotions that the brain often reverted back to whatever seemed to make sense to it during a time of crisis, which was often friends, love interests, or sex. He blushed at the thought. Friends. Definitely. He slipped out of the bunk where he'd been sleeping and sat beside Marlene. She always slept facing the wall but she always made a half smile when she snored.

It's not so bad. He thought. Not at all. And he decided that for a moment, he would let his frayed mind wander about its thoughts and interests, for his sake at least. And so he observed Marlene with a lightly glinted eye; that showed some sort of minor interest. Marlene. A friendly, kind, loving otter that could break a bone when she needed to and embrace the loved.

Every creature had some sort of lust, weather that was to be near or in bed with the person of desire. Humans, it seemed were the least controlled though. Skipper was surprised at how his thoughts wondered, and how a good few were negative to humans. But once again, he knew what his small inner lust was to do. Just touch Marlene's shoulder, stroke the soft silky hair in the loving way that he might Kitka's. He reached forward and touched her shoulder gently. He felt highly embarrassed but he felt drawn to Marlene and so did as he wanted to, weather that was right or wrong.

His flipper moved across the for once, stopping at the elbow. She was warm and he felt cozy, so near to her. He lifted his flipper and continued the strokes, which sent warmth through his body and made him feel like he had a friend who returned his love.

He wondered where Mrs. Kitka was at this moment. The female had seemed so fresh in the love nature to him as he had spent time with her but she obliviously wasn't. Her nest reminded him of that. This disturbed him a little because his innocent view of everyone's actions but his own often got the better of him. He wanted to rationalize that maybe she'd never loved before but that was useless. He shivered a little as he continued to stroke Marlene's fur, now insecure. He wanted to see the falcon again, even after the whole thing with Fred, but his natural thoughts of everyone he loved in any manner to be naïve and innocent would kill that desire.

He lifted his hand away from Marlene. No this was enough. He was beginning to draw himself deeper into thought, and that would lead to confusion. He stood up and walked away wishing to stay but the cold weather drew him out to sit in, to make him feel blue as he now wanted to feel. To remind him of his situation and the bad things in life. He didn't want to feel happy, only bitter sorrow for perhaps himself, he never really thought of it that way. In any case, he no longer wanted to be near the otter, or thoughts of Mrs. Kitka.

Marlene's eyes opened slowly and she looked down at her paws without moving. One was behind her head and the other pressed to her chest. She looked up at the wall she was facing. She had felt a presence as she'd awoken but it didn't really matter did it? Skipper of course, just going outside to sit, and think. And die inside. He was killing himself with sorrow, she knew. She just wished she could help him forget it. Well at least take his mind off it momentarily. She had no way of doing this though; all his thoughts were focused on the situation.

Well maybe not all. She remembered Kowalski's study about panic, fear, and hopelessness. The brain often wanted to focus on matters of love, friends, and sex. Not that she saw herself as any of these except the second to Skipper. She was rather iffy of the other two. She did understand that sometimes the mind wandered and it was impossible to stop it from going to such places. She remembered this of her own, but that was a matter for another day. What was important was to help Skipper. And what could she do? Serve herself up on a silver platter. No way. She had dignity.

She didn't like any idea what so ever of even entraining any interest Skipper might have in her. She was unsure of this whole thing that the zoo had sworn was there. Her and Skipper, her and Skipper. It was the same drone everyday among gossip (not that she did this) and it was very annoying. She avoided all thoughts of Skipper and herself as a couple and killed them if they arouse.

But once again, the mind wanted to return to such things when under stress and pressure, and God knew she'd had that ever since she'd returned to the zoo. But it would be impossible to tell Skipper what lay in secret in the otter habitat. Skipper was known to everyone for acting rash and if he had any sort of interest in her it would most likely be upset by this. At this moment she wished Kitka were here to distract Skipper so she could tell him.

Not that she expected him to hurt her secret, but he might force away her help. Because of her child. The small otter was a bundle of joy and brought meaning to her life. She didn't know how to tell anyone but herself that she had had a mate. Private understood love but everyone was so protective of him, any hint at such things would cause an explosion (of the penguins).

But why wouldn't he act rationally? The father was long gone and the poor thing had no one to father it. Actually Private would make a better father, but she didn't like the idea of a child being hers and Private's. Once again that brought Skipper to her mind. Maybe she was in love with the penguin. But that didn't matter.

She got out of the bunk and went outside. It didn't matter at all. This was irrelevant to Skipper's problem and she missed everyone too. Nothing about a simple crush could matter when it went up against saving friends.