'IB' - Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

Dib stared at Zim wide-eyed in panic as he approached him slowly, backing up a few clumsy steps before bumping into the fence behind him. He looked over his shoulder and eye it, dreading the fact that he had to climb the damned thing if he wanted to avoid the same fate his teacher had met.

After glancing back at Zim another time, seeing that he was getting closer to him quicker than he thought, he turned and faced the fence and backed up a few steps. He drew a shaky breath before running at it and making a leap as he got close to the fence, grunting as he hit it and started his desperate climb.

A screech of obvious rage exploded from the hobbling being that was trailing far behind his escaping form. “IB!!!!” The name practically pierced through the air as wild eyes, even through those contacts, locked onto him frighteningly and his arms outstretched in a dire want to rip the other from the rusty chained fence.

The screech shook the boy, causing his grip to slip a bit through his damp palms. Once he had collected himself, he continued his precarious balance on the rusty fence with a mind set on living. He felt a bit safer once he reached the top, seeing the deranged alien still far behind, and seriously doubting he could even manage to find his way halfway up the fence.

Zim growled and grabbed ahold of the chain fence once he had reached it, looking as if he were trapped now. There was no possible way he could coordinate his body into climbing over a fence. Instead, he gripped hard onto it and began to rattle it hard with insane screams of frustration.

Dib hurled himself over the top once he had reached it, which resulted in a rather violent drop on the grass below him. He managed to catch himself from falling on his face with his hands, inhaling sharply from the impact. He groaned at the slight pain his his legs, standing now to look over at Zim who was throwing quite the fit now that he had made it to the other side.

Zim paused his violent yanking on the fence to stare blankly at the other on the opposite side. It was a fairly calm moment for the behavior the other had been exhibiting only moments before. Yet, as quickly as the peace came, it was gone again. Zim suddenly threw himself on the chained fence on the other side, shoving his arms through the chains and clawing at him.

Dib jumped backwards a few inches as Zim began his violent behaviours again, still staring at him though with a slight smirk now as if to silently taunt him. Of course, he was only feeling bold because of the fence between them. After a few moments of staring, Dib’s smile darkened to a look of fear as he started to back away steadily. He soon found himself spinning on his heel to take off in the other direction.

Zim screamed gargled words as the other began to run from him. He gripped the wired fence tightly once more as he began to yank it violently so it wobbled back and forth. "IB!!!!"

Dib kept his focus ahead, ignoring the screams as he sped across the schoolyard and towards the congested sidewalks bustling with life. He took a sharp left once he had reached it, pushing past several people as he rushed towards his father’s lab. There, he hoped his father would be available in his busy schedule to help him unlike everyone else.

Zim could still be heard screaming even at a distance. He was furious that his IB kept getting away from him every time. One day, he would not be so lucky, and then the disturbed alien would finally get him.

Due to the speed he was running at, Dib arrived in front of his father’s colossal laboratory in a rather short span of time. He didn’t bother trying to go through the front entrance since he knew there would be people there to stop him. Instead, he headed towards the back where he was usually able to get in with ease. But of course today, two guards stood in front of the back door, each holding a large spear with an electric spark on the end.

Dib stopped abruptly as he caught sight of them, cursing to himself in frustration. After a moment, he approached them shakily which received a judgmental glare from the guard on the right.

“I.. I have to go see my father. There’s an a-alien trying to kill me and-” Dib started before he was interrupted.

The other guard standing opposite of the main guard rolled his eyes at this. "Not this bit again... look kid, if you keep coming around here we're going to call the police!"

Dib’s expression turned to one of panic now as he shook his head several times in protest, screaming loudly now. “He’s my father! I need him!”

The guard held his elongated taser prod closer in a subtle threat. "Hey hey! Get out of here before we call the crazy crew to come pick you up!" He shouted sternly. "Now scram!"

Dib’s hands rose to grip his hair, closing his eyes and gritting his teeth in annoyance and frustrated. His eyes shot open again moments later as his paranoia was roused again the longer he stood out here where he felt rather exposed. “Please... Let me see my dad..”

"Professor Membrane is a very busy man!" The guard grunted at him, uncaring of his problems. "You can deal with your insanity somewhere else that won't disturb his very important work, little boy!"

Distressed, Dib jumped at the guard now and pointed to his cheeks which bared rather fresh scars from the night before. “Zim did this to me and he is on his way here NOW! I’m NOT CRAZY!!!” He screamed in agony.

The man prodded him once with the taser as he shouted. "I'm calling the police!" He threatened him as he glared at him.

Dib yelped at the sudden zap he received, causing him to stumble backward. He looked back up to the guards with a rather annoyed expression as he recovered, flipping them a rude gesture as he turned and ran down the sidewalk again. He finally settled on the direction of his own home after a moment of debate on where to run next.

The guard shook his head a bit with a sigh. "Crazy kid..." He muttered.

Even as he ran people were giving him more wary stares than usual. He'd been behaving in an even stranger manner and it was beginning to make the neighborhood humans nervous. They felt as if he could snap at any point and start shooting up homes.

As he ran, Dib took these stares into acknowledgement. He wished that people could understand that he didn’t mean to hurt anyone; that he only wanted to prove that there really was a psychotic Irken out for his blood.

And yet, the harder he tried to prove it, the further away from his initial goal he got. People hurried to the other side of the street to avoid walking on the same sidewalk as him, and mothers took their children in their arms and briskly walked them back inside when he was passing.

Dib slowed his pace as people started to actually avoid him now, feeling a whole new wave of emotions which brought with them their own amount of stress. He returned everyone’s stares with his own, though this one seemed more pathetic in contrast to the judgmental glares he was receiving.

They shunned him quickly in favor of their own normal and sane lives. The only person who seemed to still acknowledge his existence was the deranged Irken who only wanted to kill him.

When his house came closer into view, it became aware that his front door was ripped open from its hinges. It just barely hung there in the door frame, creaking eerily to alert him that he had an unwelcomed guest.

Dib approached the house slowly, his eyes darting towards the damaged as he got closer to it. The wood had been deeply gouged with what seemed to be a set of sharp claws, which of course had to have been Zim’s. He gazed into the house now, which seemed to be unusually dark and eerie now.

There was no one visible in the living room or the mouth of the kitchen. The wall adjacent to the stairs had long gauges across them, as if someone had been trying to catch their balance on them.

Dib spotted the marks on the wall, approaching it slowly and outstretching a hand to rest it upon the marks. The touch sent shivers down his spine, his paranoia rising again as he glanced slowly up the stairs.

The claw marks could have come from nowhere else but the lunatic aliens’ that was currently very much bent on destroying him. Up the stairs, and little ways away from the end of the stairs, there was sounds like slow creaking from the floor sinking in slightly with someone's step.

Dib’s ears seemed to perk at the creaks, leaning forward in an attempt to hear the sounds a bit better as they continued. His instincts screamed at him to run as well as every other bit of sense in his body, but he ignored it. His left foot rose and rest on the stair in front of him, pausing for a moment before continuing his slow trek up the stairs.

The creaking continued to sound through the silent house, making an eerie sound echo throughout the empty hall. There was small sounds periodically, like nails scraping the wall or gurgles of words.

Dib paused at the top step to listen more closely to the sounds, which seemed to be a bit more audible now, and found that they were emanating from Gaz’s room. On a normal day, Dib wouldn’t dare enter his little sister’s room, but he didn’t seemed too worried about her now as he approached the doorway, hesitantly peeking inside.

The room was a total nightmarish wreck. The shelves had been yanked down and the toy security system she had was on the floor as well. The heads had been torn off and the stuffing had been mercilessly yanked out along with the robotic wiring that gave them their murderous abilities. Long, deep claw marks had been gouged into the walls as well as her comforter.

Dib squinted, attempting to see through the thick darkness that plagued the wrecked room. With no sign of Zim, Dib continued forward and reached for the lightswitch, which of course provided no light when flicked on due to the busted lightbulb, leaving Dib in a thick darkness as he proceeded with high caution.

There was an eerie silence in that room, which was even creepier with the mess that had been made. Gaz was sure to blow her top later at the condition her room was in, but that didn't seem to matter at the moment. There was a sound, like a lamp falling to the ground and shattering to a million pieces on the hard wood, followed by a loud screech.

Dib’s body seized and his eyes widened, jumping forward a bit before spinning around to face the direction of the startling sounds. He panted a little, staring in distress through the darkness in search for the other soul who inhabited the room. “Z-Zim...” He whispered.

There was quiet that followed for a short few seconds before there was signs of life again. Zim screamed loudly as he jumped up from the space between the wall and the bed and sprang full on toward Dib in a surprise attack. "IB!!!"

Dib’s eyes widened further as the other sprang at him so quickly. For a split second, he caught a glimpse of Zim’s insane expression which seemed to freeze him in place before being impacted so violently by him.

Zim screeched loudly as he fell to the floor with the one he had attacked. "IB!! KILLS!!" He shouted as he gripped his collar and shook him wildly. "IB!!" He screamed, shaking him so hard that the back of his head continuously slammed into the hard floor.

Loud squeals of pain sounded from Dib as his head collided with the hard floor repeatedly which created harsh doses of pain with each impact. His body seized as the cries had died down to small whimpers as the throbbing-pain became unbearable.

Zim bared his teeth to him a moment before pausing. The corners of his mouth twitched before they curled up into that horrid grin of his. He leaned himself down as far as there was space between them. Soon his face was hovering just above Dib's with that terrible look of insanity. "GONNA GET YOU.."

Dib leaned his head back as a response to the other being so close, though he was mostly worried about those razor sharp teeth. He froze , petrified by the idea of him being shredded to pieces at any moment now. He didn’t dare even breathe too deeply with the fear of setting Zim off.

Zim parted his mouth a moment to flick out that serpent of a tongue. It swatted the other on the cheek, as if it were an intimidating motion. Perhaps it was just another strange tick of his insanity, however.

Dib’s mouth gaped slightly at this, taking in a shallow breath before exhaling in a small whimper. His quivering hands managed to move under Zim’s shirt, grabbing bits of skin and pinching at them harshly with means to distract him.

Zim seemed numb to the pain now though, just as he had been the day before when he had sporked himself in the hand. "IB..." He hissed out in a weak breath against his dampened cheek.

The boy’s distress grew the longer Zim was over him like this. He screamed loudly and thrashed under the Irken, pulling his legs under him and kicking outward. This seemed to work well, sending the Irken off of him. “ENOUGH!!”

Zim screeched as he he thrown back onto the ripped mattress of Gaz's bed. He thrashed a bit with the blankets there before ripping them open and reappearing. He hissed and stood on all fours like an enraged cat ready to attack.

Dib sprang up a bit too quickly which caused the back of his head to throb mercilessly. He grit his teeth and closed an eye at the sharp pain, pausing there a moment as the panging lessened. He groaned and opened his eye, backing up slowly from Zim before stumbling upon a shelf that had been dislodged from the wall. He managed to keep his balance through, which spared him even more pain.

“Z-Zim...” He began with a grim tone, looking up at the other as he came to a pause. “I’m.. Sorry..”

Zim growled a bit, cocking his head slightly to the side and pulling it up a bit as he watched him. The slight movement almost made it looked like he was... confused.

Dib raised a brow slightly, recognizing the change in Zim. He repeated his words a bit louder and clearer now. “I’m sorry...”

Zim parted his mouth again in rage. "RAAAAAHHH!!" He roared in pure outrage, as if he had offended him in someway. "AWAY!!! IB!!!"

The screamed seemed to cause some sort of odd reaction in Dib’s mind as he jumped over the shredded bed. He landed behind the Irken and grabbed him in a sort of choke hold. Without a second thought, he reached for the cleaver he had been carrying with him all and pressed the blade right under Zim’s chin.

Zim gurgled heavily as he grabbed at his throat, tears burning down his cheeks once more as he convulsed. "I..IB...!!I..!" He choked, unable to get much out in his death grip. He swiped at the hand trying to plunge the knife into him, his shell of a body defending to stay alive.

Dib fought successfully in keeping the blade away from his own body, managing to bring it against Zim’s cheek instead and slide it down the flesh to create a deep cut. The wound drew the Irken’s foreign, translucent-pink blood.

Zim squealed like a dying animal, collapsing back and rolling off the bed. He dragged himself across the floor as if the other had cut off a limb rather than cut him. "IB!! IB!!"

Dib watched him through strained eyes, almost feeling a sense of guilt as the other reacted so violently to the attack.  He just sat and watched him now, his fingers running along the blood-stained blade of the cleaver in his hand.

Zim's distressed wails could be heard from a mile away, and seemed to circle in the house as he sang in woe with the horrid screams. There was no way to escape him or his insanity; it was simply to follow him around wherever he tried to hide.

Each shriek caused Dib to shiver and wince as the pained sounds burned deeper into his mind. In all his life, he had never imagined he would hear something as terrible as those screams Zim gave and he knew they would haunt him forever.

Zim's wails grew louder and closer the longer he stood in the same spot. On inspection of the creaking near the stairs, the Irken could be seen trying to physically drag himself down the dips leading downward with a screech.

As the sounds seemed to descend, Dib pulled himself from his trance and hopped off the bed, clumsily walking into the hallway and towards the stairs to see Zim crawl down the stairs. He looked almost like an injured zombie illustrated in terrible horror movies; but this was real which only seemed to intensify the horrific scene.

Zim stared up at him like a possessed demon, parting his jaws and breathing heavily. He soon couldn't coordinate himself any longer and tumbled the rest of the way down those hard stairs. He crumpled on the last step as he hit it with a sickening CRACK sound.

Dib’s hands clung to his ears at the crack, which had actually made him feel physically sick to his stomach. After steadying himself, he looked down at the lifeless Irken at the bottom of the stairs, hesitantly starting down after him to get a closer look.

Zim didn't even do so much as twitch. It looked as if he had really injured himself in that nasty series of falls to where he rested now. At the moment, he seemed as if he had died again, just as he had appeared when he had passed out the night before. However, he continued to breathe shallowly and unnaturally.

Upon observing this, Dib took the chance to flee the scene once again. He wasn’t going for help now though.

His destination; Zim’s base.