Chapter Eight
After Cindry had finally woken up from her trancquilizer-induced sleep and been put in a dry body suit, enveloped in warm blankets and provided with tea and some food, Dr. Jill Nebra had taken a blood sample from her niece, and was busy measuring the grimstone count. ‘It’s no wonder Cindry’s eyes became green. She’s been dipped in grimstone for days. She always had a high percentage of grimstone in her bloodstream but now she has three times that ammount.’
‘How is that even possible?’ Violet could not wrap her head around it – an expression which here means ‘comprehend the mad science she had been confronted with in the Great Unknown’ – ‘You remember how I said that the stasis machines were developed with the help of grimstone? Well, the machines can also be used to infuse a person with grimstone while they are under stasis. The near-absence of life in the body as it lies under stasis makes it easier for the grimstone particles to attach themselves to the muscle tissue, as well as the inner organs, and the brain.’
‘So she is technically a living grimstone now?’ Violet asked Jill, and looked at the opposed direction of the laboratory. Cindry was sitting next to Nemo, drinking tea. Somehow, Nemo had managed to put a smile on Cindry’s face, and she even laughed. ‘Yes, much like Nemo.’ Jill said. ‘Look at this.’ Jill stepped away from the microscope, and Violet took a look.
‘See the green dots flowing? Those are, technically, the white blood cells of Cindry and Nemo’s bodies. The grimstone has infiltrated their composition. Now, their bodies have nigh-immunity to external agents. I’ve experimented on a sample of Nemo’s blood before. The grimstone destroyed a rather large ammount of the viruses I used. Nemo and Cindry are invulnerable to most common diseases.’
‘Grimstone…Where did you say they discovered it again?’ Violet asked. The substance fascinated and terrified her at the same time. ‘In a crater, in Syberia. We don’t know where it came from, and I don’t know the name to the strange elements it contains.’
‘That’s terrifying.’ Violet said. ‘To infuse people with a strange element for the sake of experiment…Science gains no benefit from this.’
‘Not this way, it doesn’t.’ Jill said. ‘I don’t defend or condone the use of grimstone, but such power should never fall in the ends of those like Dominique and Vladimir. It’s just too much power. And power corrupts.’ Violet frowned.
At this point, the doors of the laboratory opened, and Isadora Quagmire entered. ‘Dominique has dismissed me. Violet, we should be returning to Dread Down now.’ Violet did not like the notion. ‘Why can’t I stay? I don’t want to leave Cindry alone like this. I owe it to her and to Klaus.’ Isadora showed a sad smile. ‘Cindry is not exactly alone, Violet. She has her brother and aunt about her. And I was ordered to take you back to Dread Down. It would seem suspicious if you lingered here any longer. Dominique knows about your talents, and she doesn’t trust you one bit.’
‘And she trusts you?’ Violet asked. ‘I wouldn’t say she trusts me. She doesn’t consider me a threat, that’s all. I don’t have a practical skill like yours. My only skill is to write couplets, and I don’t think I can even do that anymore.’ Violet looked at Jill for guidance, while Isadora went to speak with Nemo. The scientist was the only ally the resistance had among the Unknown Agents. ‘You should go with Isadora, Violet. I’ll take care of Cindry here.’
‘Fine, then. I’ll go.’ Violet headed outside, and Isadora followed her. The two then took the same elevator down to Dread Down. When the doors opened, Violet saw everyone waiting just outside. ‘They’re here!’ Hector said as he was the first to see Violet and Isadora walk out of the elevator.
‘What happened? How is Cindry?’ Desmond asked. ‘She is…well.’ Was all Violet could bring herself to say. ‘Dominique told me to tell everyone here that they will soon enact a demonstration of the Weapon’s power to all of us.’ Isadora Quagmire said, not liking one bit having to act as Dominique’s message pidgeon. Violet Baudelaire said nothing. The prospect frightened her, as did everything about Grimstone and the terrible duo. For some time Violet and her siblings had known someone was behind the unfortunate events wrought upon them in recent times, but knowing who those people were and the motive behind it all was not comforting.
Violet told Klaus about Cindry, and what she saw up in the Bleak Bridge in the upper layers of the Great Unknown. Upon hearing Dr. Lugae’s name, Desmond whimpered. ‘What is it?’ Klaus asked. ‘Do you know who he is?’ Desmond straightened his glasses, nervous, with sweat dripping down his face. ‘Yes. He was a famous doctor and scientist, who had enrolled in V.F.D. But he was never a true volunteer. The fact that this man is with Dominique and Vladimir in their quest for world domination frightens me.’
‘We must stop them, then.’ Lars Gabriel said. Some of the other volunteers supported him, shouting and raising their fists in the air. ‘Some of the dwellers of Dread Down have already taken some crates of weapons from the Weaponry. The keycard the Nebra woman gave us was good.’ When the volunteers entered the bar of Dread Down, they could see several crates of weapons and firearms, and ammo. ‘So, this is it, then?’ Audrey Addams asked. ‘War?’
‘We’ve been fighting a war already, Audrey.’ Desmond replied to his fiancée’s concerns. ‘We are fighting fire with fire. I’m smart enough to know that can’t end well.’
‘Be that as it may,’ Desmond Fulfillment said, ‘we are out of other options. We’re stranded, imprisoned, and some of us have been made to actually work for the Unknown Agents. If we suceed in stopping them from activating this weapon of theirs, we can take control of this vessel, and secure possession of all remaining pieces of Grimstone, we can ensure that they won’t be able to do any more damage.’
It all sounded pleasant. The volunteers winning and taking over the Great Unknown, and bringing a swift justice upon the Unknown Agents and their cohorts. Yet the Baudelaires knew better. They knew better than to expect that the volunteers would succeed, and they knew better than to expect a complete victory, or a happy ending to their series of misadventures. Violet, Klaus, Sunny and Beatrice knew better, as I do, and as I am sure that you, my dear reader, does as well.
Later that night, the volunteers began planning their escape of the Great Unknown. They would make use of the weapons Jill Nebra had provided them access to, but they would try their best to shed no blood at all. ‘We must not kill any man who is willing to surrender himself.’ Desmond had said. ‘We must not kill, unless it’s the absolute last resort.’ The volunteers wished they could get themselves out of that situation without any violence at all, of course. But their enemies weren’t bound by any codes or restrictions. The only thing separating them from death was whatever their enemies planned for them. The Baudelaire orphans, or at least, the elder three, had already been unfortunate enough to kill someone themselves, albeit accidentally, the murder of Dewey Denouement still haunted them as did all the questionable things they had to do in order to survive.
While the adult volunteers planned their course of action in the Dread Down bar, the young ones stayed outside. Normally, the Baudelaires would object to being treated as children. But it was agreed that the young ones would not partake in the violence that would soon follow, at least not actively. Isadora, Duncan and Quigley Quagmire kept the Baudelaires company, as well as Augusten Burton, who hadn’t talked properly to Violet that night. He avoided looking at her, as Quigley and Violet were sitting closely, and holding hands. Violet, however, was too distraught with the bloody prospect of the prisoners’ riot to notice Augusten’s brooding, or how eagerly Quigley looked at her.
‘Are you afraid?’ Isadora asked the Baudelaires, not one of them in particular, but all of them, at once. ‘Aren’t you?’ Was Klaus’ nervous reply. Isadora smiled calmly at him. ‘I’ve been terrified for too long. Now, we found each other again, Klaus. And we have the help of Dr. Nebra, and Nemo as well. We’ve been waiting for a time to strike for some time, and now the time has presented itself.’
‘We understand how suspicious you must be of Nemo, Dr. Nebra, and any help they might provide.’ Duncan said. ‘We were too, until we befriended Nemo. Dr. Nebra is a good woman as well. She doesn’t like being here any more than we do.’ That much was plain to see. Jill Nebra lived in fear of her sister and brother-in-law, and the terrible officers of the Unknown Agents, despite being one herself. There once was a time when Jill was as bent on world domination as her sister, but Jill had seen the truth of it. The
terrible truth that everyone else refused to see. Grimstone was an unstable, unpredictable substance at best, and using it was a risk without full knowledge of it’s properties and effects.
‘With those two for parents, I’m not surprised Nemo wants out.’ Quigley Quagmire said. Violet looked at him, admiring his messy hair, and how his muscles had developed after his time shoveling coal into burning furnaces down in the Great Gaol. Violet blushed, and looked away, her eyes meeting Augusten’s. She then looked at the heights of Dread Down. Walls of metal, clouds of white steam, and the bright blue light at the top. ‘It looks like a fake sky.’ Violet said. ‘Yeah.’ Quigley agreed.
After that, it was time for supper, and the volunteers had reconvened. They had received word from Jill Nebra. The following day was the day of the placing of the Grimstone Gear in the Power Pedestal, and the volunteer leaders were invited. It was decided that a team of volunteers would use the keycard to the Weaponry and carry down crates of weapons and ammo to Dread Down, while the leaders would watch the ceremony. As soon as the leaders were escorted down, they would strike and take over the Great Unknown by force. That night, the Baudelaires went to sleep with a very bad feeling that most of them wouldn’t make it out of the Great Unknown alive. They were right.
Chapter Nine
When I look back into my past, and the tragedies that befell me in my existance, I often look back on the morning of
that day, the day the sea took away everything I loved. Had I known, when I woke up on my room at the top of the house and looked at the ocean through my window that soon there would be nothing left of that house but a few planks of driftwood floating away as the tides carried them, I would probably have managed to save
him. Now, I have nothing but memories and the fortune, inherited from a cousin, the fortune that I never asked for. Jerome, if you are reading this, contact me at once, at the last address I gave you in my penultimate letter. I fear for you, for Emma, and for all of us. I am now leaving for the east, to pursue the survivors of the events described in this book. Please, Jerome, wherever you are, reveal yourself to me, my dear cousin. Violet, Klaus, Sunny and Beatrice Baudelaire awoke that morning with a bitter taste in their mouths. After they brushed their teeth, the bitter taste remained, however, as they dreaded what the day would bring them. Because that was their last day in the Great Unknown, but they had no way of knowing that.
At breakfast, they voiced their concerns to the ever easy-going Desmond Fulfillment. ‘I know you have worries, Baudelaires. I have, as well. We fear the activation of the Weapon as any sane man would. But we are going to prevent it. We mean to disengage the Weapon, and dismantle it, with Dr. Nebra’s help. The others, Dominique, Vladimir, the Lugaes, and Esmé and the rest are to be taken hostage. Hans Thomas, Lars’ brother, suggested putting all of them in stasis, so they can be brought to justice.’
‘Stasis is too good for them.’ Said a man the Baudelaires did not know, one of the other dwellers of Dread Down. ‘I say we have them shoveling coal down in the Great Gaol for all they did to us!’ Many other men supported him with shouts and whistles. ‘Ignore him.’ Desmond whispered to the Baudelaires. ‘Many men and women down here have lost friends and loved ones to the Unknown Agents.’
‘They’re as bloodthirsty as our enemies.’ Audrey Addams said, appearing next to Desmond. Audrey had
many reservations about her fiancé’s plan to overthrow Dominique and Vladimir and take control of the Great Unknown, and had been very vocal about it. ‘Now now Audrey. This is different. We’re volunteers. We’re fighting to end this oppression, and to save the world from this peril.’
‘And what will we do with the Great Unknown in our power? How long before one of us becomes corrupted and tries to take it all for him or herself?’ Audrey asked Desmond, with her hands on her stomach. ‘Desmond, I’ll support you in anything, but not in this…I…I am expecting.’
‘Expecting?’ Desmond repeated. It took him a moment to realize what Audrey meant, and a large smile appeared on his face. ‘Is it true? Am I truly going to have a child?’ Audrey nodded, with a faint smile. ‘Everyone!’ Desmond shouted, grabbing everyone’s attention. ‘I’m going to be a father again!’ He shouted, and everyone cheered. The barman even offered rounds of beer and cigars. ‘Congratulations, Desmond.’ Violet Baudelaire told the man. ‘I hope your child has a bright future ahead of him, or her.’ Klaus said. ‘A bright future outside of here.’ Desmond said. ‘I want my child to grow and see the sun, the grass, the sky. I want my child to live without fear. I want my child to be
free!’
‘Audrey, my love, thank you for this gift.’ Desmond kissed her, and Audrey smiled. ‘Even now…That I told you…You still want to fight?’ Audrey obviously had hoped the news of a new son or daughter would appease Desmond for a while and that he would call off the attack. ‘Now more than ever, darling.’ Desmond told her. ‘I want our child to grow up and live in a free world.’ Audrey teared up. Desmond hugged her, but Audrey broke free from his embrace and ran off. ‘She’ll thank me later.’ He said.
After breakfast, a group of Unknown soldiers appeared, coming down from Bleak Bridge, escorting Jill Nebra, her long cascading blonde hair flowing as she walked towards the Dread Down bar, where the volunteers hung. ‘My sister and her consort invite the following to the Activation of the Weapon ceremony.’ Jill withdrew a long sheet of paper and rolled it down. ‘Desmond Fulfillment. Victoria Fulfillment. Ferdinand Fulfillment. Klaus Baudelaire. Violet Baudelaire. Sunny Baudelaire. Beatrice Baudelaire. Isadora Quagmire. Duncan Quagmire. Quigley Quagmire.’ Jill read the names, and each volunteer whose name was said then went to her side. The group of volunteers was then escorted by the guards into the large elevator. Jill Nebra said nothing, and neither did anyone else. Their plan was already in motion, as the elevator went up, and the volunteers who remained at Dread Down broke into the Weaponry using the keycard Dr. Nebra had given them.
When the elevator doors opened, Dominique and Vladimir were waiting for them with a number of guards behind them, as well as Esmé Squalor, Felix Casanova, Fiona and Fernald, and even Carmelita, Natalie and Nathan Finch. Cindry and Nemo were notably absent. ‘Welcome to Bleak Bridge. We’ll begin the Activation process soon enough. Do follow us, if you will.’ Dominique said, signaling the volunteers to follow her and the others. After walking down the long green hallway, they arrived at the largest set of doors they had encountered aboard the Great Unknown. The door was sealed with a Vernacular Fastening Device. Dominique approached the keypad and entered the three required passwords. With a hiss, the doors opened, and the group entered.
Not many people were allowed into that place, so it’s natural that I have only so much information on it. What I do know is that it was the largest chamber in the entirety of the Great Unknown. A large round metallic structure was at the center of the chamber, as if descending from the ceilings far above. The emerald shape of a question mark was visible on it, as well as the metallic gears visible through said emerald transparent material. A staircase led to the round platform right beneath it, and the large group of villains and volunteers arrived at what was known as the Power Pedestal in the Charging Chamber of the Great Unknown.
Chapter Ten
At the Power Pedestal, no others than Nemo Vladmiroff and Cindry Fulfillment stood with their backs turned to them, probably eyeing the impressive emerald question mark and the gears behind it. Several emerald lines strayed from the question mark into transparent cables that powered what was probably the Weapon. With Cindry and Nemo was no other than Dr. Lugae, the dreaded Unknown scientist. ‘Ah, so it is time.’ He said, as he saw Dominique rise from the staircase, with Vladimir close behind her. ‘Yes. Finally.’ Vladimir said with his husky, unsettling voice. ‘I’ll never understand why those two are so important.’ Fernald was heard, whispering to Fiona. Dominique turned to look at him. ‘That goes to show how ignorant you are, Hooky.’ Dominique laughed. ‘Dr. Lugae here will explain it all. After he is done with the exposition, we’ll resume our evil plan.’
‘Grimstone is a powerful substance, but it’s power is attained only under certain conditions. We found out after many years of research that Grimstone reacts to humans. It was then that we decided to infuse humans with it. Many test subjects were created, but failed. ‘Dr. Lugae coughed. ‘We discovered that Grimstone rejects some people, and fuses well with others. Then, we manipulated some events and bloodlines so that the perfect test subjects would arise. The Nebra and Fulfillment families all have outstanding qualities that complemented each other. Knowing this, I instructed Dominique to bear a child with a man of the Fulfillment family, and that she did. We needed two perfect subjects, and we already had Nemo here, in stasis, waiting for the moment that he would be needed.’ Dr. Lugae smiled grimly. ‘We manipulated bloodlines for this moment. And in that, we have suceeded. Now for the Activation.’
Nemo and Cindry were staring into each other’s eyes. ‘Do as you were told, Cindry.’ Dr. Lugae said. ‘Insert your hand into the Power Pedestal. Nemo, you, as well.’ Dr. Lugae approached the emerald question mark. Right where the question mark dot would be, was a hole big enough for a small round object to go in. Producing the Grimstone Gear from his doctor’s coat, the dreaded Dr. Lugae placed it inside the cavity. A mechanical noise was heard, and the Grimstone Gear began turning. The grimstone crystal it contained started to glow slowly, and then it was shining.
Nemo had already placed his hand in the Power Pedestal, and withdrawn it. He was bleeding. ‘Do it now, silly girl!’ Dominique shouted. ‘Do it now!’ Vladimir ordered. Cindry was terrified. ‘Don’t do it, Cindry!’ Klaus shouted, but a guard hit him, knocking him to the ground. ‘Klaus!’ Violet shouted. ‘I-I-I…I won’t do it!’ Cindry shouted back at Dominique. ‘Do it now of your own free will or we will force you to do it!’ Vladimir shouted. ‘Cindry!’ Jill dashed towards Cindry, but a guard grabbed her and rapidly subdued her. ‘Jill…’
‘Do it!’ Vladimir produced a gun, and pointed it at Desmond Fulfillment. ‘No!’ Cindry shouted. The emerald question mark shape was now blindingly bright. ‘The charging gauge is at sixty-four percent now…I-I never thought it would be this fast!’ Luccia Lugae screamed. ‘The girl must place her hand inside the Power Pedestal now! If not, the process will be incomplete!’ Dr. Lugae shouted. ‘Something’s wrong…’ Jill Nebra said, beholding the emerald wires and cables become flowing streams of energy. Bolts of electricity sparked all around the enormous round chamber. The platform they were on was now shaking. ‘Do it!’ Vladimir shouted to Cindry. ‘Or I’ll kill your father!’
Chapter Eleven
‘Cindry! Don’t do it!’ Desmond Fulfillment shouted to his daughter. He was shocked, as was everyone else. Something had quickly gone wrong, quicker than anyone dared imagine, quicker than the worst case scenario. ‘What’s happening?’ Dominique Fulfillment shouted at her consort, Vladimir Ivankov. ‘I don’t know…But that stupid girl…’
‘I won’t do it!’ Cindry shouted. She took Nemo’s hand and ran. Desmond Fulfillment ran towards his daughter. Then, a stampede was heard.
Gunfire. Desmond Fulfillment fell to his knees, and then, on the floor, just as he was about to embrace Cindry. ‘No! Dad! Daaaad!’ Cindry cried. ‘Desmond!’ the Baudelaires shouted. Then, everything went to hell. The lights went red. An alarm began to sound. ‘Weapon System Override. Self-Destruction Process Initiated. Begin Evacuation.’ The cold inflation of the robotic voice left no doubts. The guards began to run for their lives as the doors behind the group opened. The chamber was lit with red and green as the Grimstone shone, and the bolts of electricity cracked and sparked.
‘Noo! Our Weapon! You ruined it!’ Dominique Fulfillment shouted. ‘Let’s get out of here, Vladimir. Leave these vermin to their deaths!’ Dominique and Vladimir dashed out of the room faster than anyone else, not once bothering to even look at Nemo. Violet Baudelaire was the only one to see the shock in Nemo’s expression. A single tear ran down the young man’s cheek as he saw his parents leave him for dead. ‘C-Cindry…’ Desmond was bleeding from the mouth now. Jill Nebra was tending to his wound. ‘We can take him to the infirmary…’ She suggested, but Desmond grabbed her arm. ‘No…I’m as good as dead…’ He said. ‘J-Jill. Save my daughter. Save Nemo…the Baudelaires…my…s-si-siblings…E-everyone.’
‘Dad! Don’t die!’ Cindry hugged her father, crying. ‘I’m so proud of you, Cindry.’
‘I thought you weren’t…B-because of all the dishes I broke at school…and at home.’ Cindry said, tears streaming down from her now-green eyes. ‘Get out of here. Take Audrey with you. You’re…going to have…a baby brother…’ Desmond was crying as well. He used all the strength he had to approach Cindry’s face and plant a kiss on her forehead. ‘I love you…Tell Audrey…I love her…Tell your brother…I love him already…A-and…always…will…’ After that, Desmond Fulfillment said nothing else. Jill Nebra closed his eyes. Everyone was crying. All the villains and the guards had ran off for their lives, but someone had lingered. The last person they expected. She came to his side, kneeling beside him. No one dared say a word. Esmé Squalor lowered her head and kissed Desmond on the forehead. ‘Long ago…He was a friend to me.’ Esmé said. ‘If I had known…’ Esmé began to speak, but stopped. She looked at all the volunteers in their eyes. Saying nothing else, Esmé ran out of the charging chamber. When she was near the door, she looked back, taking one last moment to look at Violet, Klaus, Sunny and Beatrice Baudelaire. Then, Esmé Squalor disappeared from their lives.
No one said a word until Jill Nebra broke the silence. Her glasses were stained with the salt from her tears. ‘The Evacuation procedure…We should get everyone into an escape pod. I took the time to configurate every stasis chamber. There’s no more time to waste. Let’s go.’ The group of volunteers then got out of the Charging Chamber, as the ceiling began to crumble.
Chapter Twelve
‘
Evacuation Procedure Initiated. Please Proceed To The Nearest Escape Pod Available. Entering Safety Stasis Is Recommended. Time Remaining: Twenty Minutes To Total Annihilation.’
The computer voice was heard as the group of volunteers ran towards the Escape Pods. The Great Unknown was severely damaged. They had to avoid several rooms which had exploded, or that were flooded or burning. Escapees from Dread Down ran everywhere aimlessly, engaging in shooting combats with remaining Unknown Agent guards. Dead bodies piled up everywhere, and the Baudelaires were terrified. Victoria and Ferdinand Fulfillment had just lost a brother, Cindry had lost her father, Nemo his parents. And there was no way of getting to Dread Down. ‘The elevators have stopped.’ Jill said. ‘There are escape pods in Dread Down. Your friends will escape.’
‘What about Audrey? She’s pregnant with my brother’s child!’ Victoria was crying non-stop since Desmond’s death, but now her eyes were dry, as she was physically unable to produce more tears. Given that everyone else was crying as well, there was nothing reprehensible about it. ‘I’m afraid Audrey is on her own now. We can’t reach Dread Down, and she can’t reach Bleak Bridge. The only systems working properly on this vessel are now the Self-Destruction System and the Escape Pods. Everything else is overriden, or broken, or both.’ Jill didn’t beat around the bush – an expression which here means ‘try to hide the awful truth’ – with them, they did have to give her that. She might look like a younger, more beautiful version of her sister, but the similarities ended there.
‘Time Remaining: Eighteen Minutes and Thirty Seconds to Total Annihilation.’ The merciless computer voice announced. ‘Let’s go!’ Jill shouted at them. There was no more time to waste. After a few twists and turns, they started to hear shooting. ‘Oh no…Not this way!’ Jill shouted, but it was too late. A full shoot-out was breaking loose between Unknown Agents and Dread Down escapees. How they managed to escape was anyone’s guess, but it was a fact that the volunteers had to crouch to avoid being shot. Unfortunately, Ferdinand Fulfillment crouched a moment too late. Blood came gushing from the wound that the bullet that got him opened. ‘No! Ferdinand!’ Victoria screamed. Ferdinand dropped, and a moment later, he was dead. There were no final words from him, unlike his brother. ‘Noooo!’ Victoria screamed. Cindry cried even harder. Klaus, Violet, Sunny and Beatrice Baudelaire were speechless. They had known the Fulfillments for a long time, and now two of them were dead.
‘Everyone! This way!’ Jill opened a door that was jammed, and they had to slither in, as one would do if caught in a burning building. ‘We can all cry later!’
After a while crouched in the darkness of that corridor, it was safe to stand and run again. ‘Run! It’s this way!’ Jill led the way. After more twists and turns, avoiding rooms that were on fire, they arrived at the Outer Escape Pod Hangar. It was a large, curve structure on the outer shell of the Great Unknown, where the Escape Pods – in reality, small submarines – were launched. Several raised metallic walkways, staircases and platforms led to each Escape Pod, and as they arrived, the whole place was partially on fire and partially crumbling, and wholly dangerous. ‘Look out!’ Jill Nebra shouted out. A set of walkways and stairs was crumbling, and about to hit them. Violet took Sunny with her, and Klaus, as they jumped to a lower platform. Unfortunately, Victoria Fulfillment was not so quick to get out from under the falling debris, as it took down an entire portion of the platforms down into the burning inferno that had become of the lowest sections of the Hangar. ‘Aunt Victoria!’ Cindry was heard crying out. She and Nemo were following Jill Nebra and Beatrice into an Escape Pode when the staircase under them crumbled, and they fell to a lower platform, landing safely. ‘Cindry! Nemo!’ Jill shouted. ‘Get out of here! I’ll find you! I’ll find you all!’ Jill said as she took Beatrice Baudelaire with her into the Escape Pod. Jill’s and Cindry’s escape pods were then launched, effectively separating them.
Quigley, Isadora and Duncan were separated from them, and dodge the falling debris, barely escaping and entering an escape pod, which launched soon after.
Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire escaped the Great Unknown on an escape pod different than of their friends. And just like that, our noble group of volunteers was separated. On one escape pod, Jill Nebra with Beatrice Baudelaire. On another, the newly acquainted half-siblings, Nemo Vladimiroff and Cindry Fulfillment.
Chapter Thirteen
Aboard the escape pods, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire were desperate. They had recently seen friends die, and had seen friends separated from them by the cruelty of life. They were unsure what to do or say or think, when a voice was heard aboard their escape pod. ‘Baudelaires?! Are you there?’ Jill Nebra’s voice was heard.
The static noises made it heard to comprehend Jill, but Violet fiddled with a few buttons of the pod’s control room, which she had found by herself. When the three siblings had entered, they soon found four empty stasis chambers. They were configurated to keep someone in stasis for two years, but they were not particularly eager to go under just like that. Jill Nebra’s voice was a welcome relief; they had no clue what to do.
Earlier, they had seen from afar as the Escape Pod took them away from the Great Unknown as the great vessel imploded and exploded with a green fireball which disappeared as soon as it appeared, as they were underwater. On the radar screen, the large question mark disappeared, but several other smaller objects were distancing themselves from the collapse of the Great Unknown. ‘Some of them survived.’ The Baudelaires repeated it to each other. ‘They all survived.’ ‘Dominique and Vladimir died.’ Were the things they told each other for comfort, as the recordings prove. So, naturally, when Jill Nebra’s voice was heard, the Baudelaires breathed in relief.
‘Is Beatrice okay?’ Violet asked. ‘I promised Kit Snicket I’d take care of her daughter, and I’d rather not fail.’ Violet spoke into the microphone. ‘Beatrice is fine. She is sound asleep. She was so exhausted…’ Jill said. ‘Violet. I already spoke to Nemo, and to Quigley. By now they are already under stasis. Now, you must put your brother and your sister to sleep. And you must go to sleep yourself. What happened today…We must disappear.’
‘What?’
‘We must disappear. In two years, we will awaken from stasis, and then, we will meet again. I’ve instructed your friends, the Quagmires, and my niece and nephew, of where they must go when they awaken. Their escape pods have set courses which they will follow. For now, though, we must disappear. My sister and brother-in-law will not rest until each and every last one of us is dead. That is, when they find out we didn’t die.’
‘So they don’t know we’re alive?’ Klaus asked.
‘No. I also managed to contact Lars Gabriel. He succesfully escaped with Audrey Addams, his brother, Charles and a man named Hector.’ Hearing those names made that way a little less dreadful. ‘What about Esmé Squalor? Her cohorts?’ Sunny asked. ‘I don’t know. I’m sorry.’
‘Jill, tell us what to do.’
Jill Nebra told Violet exactly what to do. Violet tied up her hair as she configured the stasis chambers, and set the course to the location that Jill told her. After that, Klaus put Sunny in one of them and kissed her sister goodnight. Violet closed the lid and pressed a button, and Sunny fell asleep. Then, it was Klaus’ turn. Violet kissed her brother goodnight and pressed a button, sending him into his sleep. After it was done, Violet send a last word to Jill Nebra and entered her own stasis chamber.