Zaphod's Escape

4 - The Drop

     Zaphod felt giddy. Yes, what a show Death would devise. He jumped up and down clapping twice before containing his excitement. He walked around Death, who began to survey the crowd  for those more susceptible to fear. Zaphod almost tripped over his own feet. His balance had been off lately, as much as his missing memories. What had been done to him? Or rather, what had he done to himself?

     Death still had time paused. Except for Marvin and Zaphod, all other living creatures were immobile, literally frozen in time. Zaphod was able to simply walk right through the Monks guarding Darwin's Watch and pluck it right from its velvet pillow. He carried the watch over to Marvin and fastened it to his metal bicep. He keyed in the coordinates to Sirius and the date and time he thought would give Marvin the best chance at finding his past self.

     Marvin himself could not be immobilized by Death's pull on time. However, Death could only manipulate the fabric of time for mere moments. Usually this type of time-freeze was part of its process collecting the souls of the living. Death would take these last moments and prepare those for the afterlife, whichever path they were assigned. Death had been thoroughly trained by the Great Death on how to handle those matters delicately. Death himself cherished those frozen moments before the release. With each soul it helped cross the threshold of life, it felt an overwhelming sense of sympathy for their plight as a living creature. He empathized with the suffering they had endured for the essence of All That Never Was. That was why Death had agreed to help Zaphod find his memories and carry out his unknown master plan.

      Marvin though, did not hold any soul or essence inside himself. He was actually just as invisible to Death as Death was invisable to him. This made Marvin even more depressed while observing Zaphod's one sided interactions with the entity. More depressed than the despair he felt when Zaphod had explained what he and his otherworldly friend were going to do.

     "Why should he see me? What good would I be to him? I'm nothing but nuts and bolts."

     "Marvin? Marvin! Snap out of it. I'm about to switch on your thrusters, you ready?"

     Marvin sighed. "It's not like I have a choice."

     "Good!"

     As Zaphod began to feel motion return in the others around him, he punched Marvin's newly installed gamma thrusters into overdrive. A huge plume of smoke began to accumulate underneath Marvin as he shot up into the sky and over the brick walls surrounding the the crowd and essentially the entire University grounds.

     The rest of those present began moving more freely as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred, which in reality, it hadn't. Lu-Tze was still in mid sentence and continued on with his speech, until a few of the other Monks began to panic in confusion at the sudden smoke and the vision of Marvin's backside plummeting through the sky.

     Just as Zaphod had hoped, everyone was busy looking up at the bot instead of down at the watch. But for seconds only.

     It was Lu-Tze who first noticed the device was missing. He was just about to call for the Safeguard when Death swooped in and landed right in front of Lu. He pointed at the Monk and telepathically sent the message to stand down and then twirled himself around with his cape flowing behind him. He faced the crowd. He raised his arms to both sides and hovered off the stage, floating towards the audience. The young wizards and witches shrunk back, knowing their magic would have no effect on it.

     Death sent out another message to the crowd. Which one of you is coming with me? They all gasped and began to disperse, not knowing that Death was a caring soul and could never intentionally hurt a living creature. But the fear of death was too overwhelming for even the most novice student.  Even the Monks knelt down and began to chant prayers to their various gods.

     Zaphod watched as Marvin cleared the walls and shot higher and higher into the sky and farther towards the edge of Discworld. He flew up and up and over  for far longer than he would have liked. But he finally made it to the edge. He kicked off his thrusters and began his free fall.

     Zaphod watched through a pair of binospectacles as Marvin disappeared over the edge of Discworld. I'll see you next week little buddy, in Magrathea.

     If Marvin were susceptible to fear, now would have been the time he'd succumb to it. He imagined all the events during his artificial life that could have been flashing before his eyes; his first space walk, his first trip to Andromeda, or the first time his circuits were cleaned.

     But instead he saw nothing worthy of mentioning. As he was free falling over the edge of Discworld, he thought of Zaphod being left behind. The Paranoid Android began to wonder if his friend's plan would actually work right as the very fabric of space and time proceeded to rip open below him. It was ready to devour him whole.

     Marvin could only count down the seconds to his supposed end. While cursing ever knowing Zaphod, he dropped into oblivion and thought; I still don't see the point.