Rescue Mission, Part 2

“Where the hell are they?” barked Lithuania, pacing incessantly back and forth where her sisters had disappeared.

Marco stared into the distance, where the bunker was supposed to be. “If they don’t come soon…” he said.

Lithuania nodded. “I know.” She turned to face Marco. “Marco, I’m worried. What if they teleported straight into a trap?”

Marco said nothing. The air around them was growing cooler, and as Marco looked up at the sky with its swirling black clouds, he sensed change in the air. “What do you think is going to happen?” he said.

Lithuania followed his eyes to the sky, noticed he wasn’t staring at anything in particular, and sat down on a fallen tree trunk. “To who?”

“The world, I guess,” said Marco, taking a seat next to Lithuania. “Did you ever dream you’d live through something like this? AssMachenstan returning… Us slipping into parallel worlds… You and your sisters having magical powers…”

Lithuania shook her head. “To think that when we came to LusciousLocks… we were soldiers. Nothing more. And now I’m finding out AssMachenstan wants us—us in particular. That LusciousLocks is teeming with magic… That mom is still alive, somewhere, contacting Latvia through that book…”

“A lot has happened to you and your sisters,” nodded Marco, looking back up at the sky.

Lithuania shivered. The temperature was dropping. Marco placed his hand on her back and rubbed, gently up and down. “Damn it I feel so useless right now,” said Lithuania, staring off into the distance. Marco grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her close. She rested her head on his shoulder, distractedly, letting the warmth of his body seep into hers. She couldn’t take her mind off her sisters.

“Give it five more minutes,” Marco said. “If they don’t show up, we head on in.”

Lithuania tried to clear her mind. Tried to take those five minutes and just exist, in the moment. But the preoccupation was just too high. She was the one trained for battle, not her sisters. She should be in there, not them. They were civilians. Mere civilians.

“Do you hear that?” said Marco, sitting straight.

Lithuania held her breath. Yes, she heard it. A dull droning sound, that seemed to be originating in the corners of her mind. “Where’s it coming from?”

Marco jumped to his feet, his rifle at the ready. “Everywhere.” The droning grew louder, shriller—like an enormous speaker about to blow. And then a giant cracking, splitting sound rent the air, and the world around Marco and Lithuania shifted. Behind them was the same forest they had just walked through, except everything was at odd angles, as if reflected off the surface of a broken mirror.

 And within one of those fractured angles was the mist lady.

“Marco, why hello,” said Delilah, almost sweetly. She was tilted at a 35 degree angle in relation to Marco and Lithuania, but didn’t seem to notice. “So we meet again.”

“What the hell is happening,” said Lithuania to Marco, trying not to let the warped reality around her make her dizzy.

Delilah snapped, and suddenly Lithuania felt Marco go rigid. She looked, frightened, into his eyes, and noticed they had glazed over with a dark sort of mist. “We are aligning now Marco. It’s time.”

Lithuania looked from Delilah, to Marco, and back to Delilah, confused. “Marco!” she yelled, shaking his shoulder. “Snap out of it!” He looked at her, blankly, raised his weapon, and slammed her head with the butt of his rifle. She collapsed to the floor, senseless.

“Excellent,” said Delilah, smiling. “Now take her to your Delilah. If your world is like half the others, then she’s been deceived into believing she’s already captured this Starr sister. Now go.”

Marco nodded, picked up Lithuania’s body and walked straight towards the AssMachenstani bunker. 

The Break Out

It was cold and dark. That was the first thing winfry noticed after coming to. And second, there was something hanging from his chest. Instinctively he eyed, with his hands, the object, objects! They were like two tender bags of jam; they were bre!.. And then it came back to him – the trade route, the switch and the capture. At least the librem’s magic still held. Did he still have – yes. Praise the stars, he still had it tucked, as pocket journal, under his or rather Latvia’s left breast. So the guards must at least have a hint of decency; they would have checked everywhere else. He slipped out the librem and it returned to its normal leather bond state.

He walked to the bars of his cell and wrote “open.” Nothing. “The door unlocked.” Still nothing. “A key appeared.” Nope. “Why aren’t you working?” And then in running-out-of-ink light writing came “I’m sorry. But the path between us is rather tight right here and these weak scribbles are all that can squeeze through. You’ll have to use somethingS else to get out.”

But at this point, winfry didn’t think twice about the enigmatic message. But the absence of sarcasm did worry him. Whatever was making the “path” “tight” must be serious. So why was the “S” capitalized? If winfry could figure that out, he would be able to get out. Or at least that’s what he thought the librem was saying. So winfry slipped the book back to its hiding spot and began to think.

By now, his eyes had properly dilated and he distinguished a mound in the cell across from his. Was it moving? It was. It was getting up. It was “Estonia!”

“Ugh. Whad?”

“Estonia, they left us together. We can come up with a plan to escape.”

“Estonia?? What? … Oh! This isn’t Estonia this is”

“Felix. Yeah I should have known. This is winfry by the way. It’s just so surreal, isn’t.”

“Yeah,” grunted Felix still goggling his, or rather Estonia’s, breasts. “It’s like in that kids book ‘Trapped in a Betsy Doll's Body.’ Did they have that one in Nilbmah? You know the one with the girl hiding in the stall of the boy’s bathroom on the cover?”

“Oh man,” winfry chuckled, “we did have that one, in level three. That sure does bring back memories.”

And for a few blissful minutes they reminisced, before the jolt of reality struck in again.

“We have to get out of here, get isa and get back to the others.”

“Of course. But they haven’t given us much to work with.”

“Yeah, well, at least we're together. And at least they don’t know who we are.”

“True. And women get away with everything so we should be set.”

“But that’s it! I’ve got it.”

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The quilaire is Estonia’s. Give it to her now.

The tiny spoon glowed bright blue, warming Estonia’s touch, then returned to normal. It had glowed for only an instant, but both sisters were left with a strange sense of happiness—that cuddly breed of happiness, the kind you were lead to believe was felt after intercourse.

____________________________________


Finally the guard came in with something that looked like a sorry excuse for soup. winfry started moaning and clutching his stomach. The guard didn’t look up and simply proceeded to slide the soup to Felix.

But as the guard came to winfry’s cell, he continued to moan but his hands moved up to his chest. Before the guard could look away, winfry’s chest was bare. The guard spun backward only to get roped by Felix’s jury-rigged lasso made from strips of Estonia’s dress. With a jerk, Felix slammed the guard into the bars and smashed his head with a high-heel. Just as quickly, he snatched up the keys and they were out.

____________________________________


“She’s so close.”

Latvia bit her lip, thinking hesitantly of Lithuania. “Alright. Let’s go get her.”

They could only hope that isa still had her quilaire, and that its power combined with that of Estonia’s quilaire would be enough to get everyone out.

With the layout fresh in Estonia's head, they made quick progress. There were almost at the man-hole that would lead them to isa’s cell when they heard scurrying from the down the hall. But before they could double back, two blurs smashed into them.

When Estonia got up she swore. “Not more dooplegangers!”