Order of Magnitude

VIII. The Best Laid Plans

     "What's next?" Jacques asked the new additions to the tank, excited for the first time in days.      "How are you getting us out of here?"

      "Well, this is glass," Travis answered with a slight tap on the wall. "That's a good thing. We planned for a few different types of containment you guys could be in, and glass was the easiest to get you out of."

      "Trust me, we tried to break the glass our first day in," Jacques said. "It's tougher than it looks."

      "Have a little faith," Miller smiled. "We didn't come all the way out here for nothing."

      Jean and the others climbed to the top of the tank. Jacques watched with rapt curiosity from below. "There's no way that lid is coming off," he remarked. "It's way too heavy for a handful of parvs to move."

      "Don't worry, we thought of that too," Travis confided. "We thought of everything."

      Jacques heard a sudden noise from below the table. It was crisp pop. The scientist heard it too. He looked up from his desk and at the tank. With a quizzical expression, he stood up and walked toward the prisoners.

      "Something's wrong," Jacques exclaimed. "He's figured us out!"

      "Calm down," Miller whispered. "This is all part of the plan."

      Sure enough, as the scientist bent over to examine the source of the popping sound, Jean's group of parvs leapt off of the glass tank and onto the giant's back, ropes in hand. Each rope was still attached to the top of the tank, and at the other end was another hook. Suddenly, the plan made complete sense to the imprisoned leader. Since they couldn't move the tank on their own, they were going to get the giant human to move it for them. Jacques smiled and nodded his head. Not bad, he thought with admiration.

      It only took a moment for things to go terribly wrong. One of the hooks dug too deep. Instead of attaching to the lab coat, a careless parv accidentally pierced the scientist's skin. He let out a bestial howl, and writhed in pain. In his frantic spasms, he started pulling the tank closer to the edge of the table.

      "Looks like this is it, guys," Miller shouted to the group. "Do your best to get ready. This is going to hurt."

      The scientist twisted and turned, trying to find the source of pain. Before he knew what was happening, he heard a loud crash come from behind him. He spun around and saw the glass tank shattered on the ground and the parvs scattered everywhere. A gasp escaped his lips as he tried to collect as many of the subjects as he could.

      That's when the lights went out.

      "Let's get out of here," Jean shouted over the chaos on the ground level. He had his brother right next to him, and didn't want to lose sight of him ever again.

      "Where do we go?" Miller asked.

      "This way," Jacques said, and started running in the dark. "There's a parv hole on the east wall."

      Another voice called out, close to the group. "Do you have him? Is he here?" It was Turner. "Jean, Miller, anybody."

      "We got him!" Miller shouted. "We're heading to the east wall."

      "Alright, hurry up; go, go, go!"

      The large collection of parvs moved through the darkness, doing their best to avoid obstacles, and most of all, the stumbling giant towering above them. After a run that stretched on for an eternity, they came to the wall, and felt their way around until they found the large hole. One by one, they filed inside, with Turner guiding the parvs through as best as he could.

      "Is that you, Turner?" Scarlet asked.

      "Yeah, this way," he replied. "Get inside, quickly." When there were no more parvs left, Turner headed through the hole to join the group. Almost immediately, the lights outside turned back on, illuminating their safe haven.

      The whole place was filled with dead parvs.

      "What the heck is this?" Miller asked.

      "I don't know," Jacques replied. "It looks like they've been here for a while." He pointed to different corpses that were rotten and skeletal, and to a few more that were missing their skulls.

      "Looks like they were gassed," Turner explained. "As part of some sort of pest control."

      "Pest control?" Jacques muttered angrily. "We ain't the pests here."

      "What about the ones missing their heads?" Scarlet asked. "Never seen gas do that."

      "No idea," Turner replied.

      "Probably something these scientists did to them," Jacques offered.

      "Is everybody here?" Jean asked suddenly.

      "Let's take a look," Turner said, and did a quick count of the living parvs in the room. "Crap, it looks like we're missing two. Who's not accounted for?"

      "Travis is missing," Miller called out. "And so is..."

      "Thom," Turner gasped. "He was right next to me, what happened to him? After the coast is clear, we'll go out and try to find them. Hopefully, they're hiding somewhere-"

      "Look!" Miller cried, and pointed outside of the hole. The others saw it too. The scientist was bearing down on them, a flashlight in one hand and some sort of device in the other.

      "We have to get out of here," Jacques demanded. "We'll be caught for sure if we don't."

      "Where do we go?" Scarlet asked. "We're trapped in here."

      The scientist got to his hands and knees, and peeked inside the parv hole. It was too dark inside for him to make anything out, so he fumbled for his flashlight. Inches in front of his face, shrouded in the shadows was Jean, a scowl on his lips as he aimed the match launcher right at the human's face.

      "I found something," Turner shouted excitedly. "Look, a tunnel."

      Jean sighed, and lowered his weapon. He ran to join the others who were gathered around a hatch in the ground.

      "Where does it go?" Miller wondered.

      "Who cares, it's a way out," Jacques answered.

     "What about the others?" Scarlet inquired, her eyebrow cocked.

      "We'll come back for them when we can," the leader shot a look at the dead parvs strewn about. "But if we don't go now this whole rescue will be moot."

      There was a moment of contemplative silence. The group didn't want to leave anybody behind, but they certainly didn't want to end up captured or killed, either. "Okay, in we go," Turner decided, and led the parvs through the opened hatch and into the unknown.