Subject: ((Unnecessary bonus story?))
Author:
Posted on: 2020-09-12 13:44:35 UTC

((Because my brain just won't let me leave Alfajiri stuck like that!))

Wilma clamped her hands over her ears and growled. "WHAT is that NOISE!?" she demanded. "And HOW am I supposed to RELAX!?"

Laquisha paused in scrubbing her teeth for a moment and listened. A dull, muffled grinding sound was repeating over and over. "Yeah, what is that?" she asked, although it didn't really sound like it, since her mouth was dripping toothpaste.

"Is the air conditioner breaking?!" Wilma asked, hopping down.

"We have an air conditioner?" asked Numbuh 3721.

"Don't start that again," threatened Wilma.

Numbuh 3721 cupped a hand to each ear and began turning all around the room. As her search began to narrow, she said, "It's coming from . . ." she pointed. "There!"

The girls clustered around the spot on the wall and pressed their ears against it, Laquisha smearing toothpaste on the generic surface. The grinding sound was growing to a low, crunching rumble.

"Okay, what is that?" asked Wilma.

"Considering we're in Headquarters," Numbuh 3721 said, thumb thoughtfully on her chin, "it could be . . ."

Wilma and Laquisha stared at her, then looked at each other, then back to her. "What?" Wilma asked.

Numbuh 3721 finished, "Just about anything."

The other two rolled their eyes.

"Gee, thanks,” said Wilma. “We'd better go get someone.”

"Someone?" asked Numbuh 3721.

Laquisha grunted through her toothbrush, eyes wide and staring at the wall.

"The Nursery staff? Duh."

"You don't think we can handle this ourselves?"

Laquisha grunted louder, gesturing with her free hand at the cracks that were appearing in the wall, and glaring with wild eyes at her friends.

"We don't even know what 'this' is! How can you assume we can handle it?"

"We don't need any help from adults. They're just going to get in the way, and . . . and spill coffee everywhere or something!"

Laquisha finally spit her toothpaste onto the floor and yelled, "HOMYGOD you guys SOMETHING'S COMING OUT!"

The arguers snapped their heads to the wall, just in time to see a set of predator’s canines bite through.

“Holy crap!” Laquisha yelled. “Actual monster!”

Numbuh 3721 entered a stereotypical kung foo stance. “Kids Next Door, battle stations!”

“We needs weapons!” Wilma was scurrying frantically around the room. “Baseball bats, bike chains, we have to have something!”

But by then the hole had widened enough for the familiar-looking head of a half-grown hyena to push all the way through. “Hey! I found people! You guys, where’s Ilcharheen? Have you seen her?”

The three girls stared, wide-eyed. “Uh, Alfajiri,” Laquisha stammered. “Hi?”

Alfajiri snapped at the hole a bit more, trying to make room for his legs. In between bites, he explained, “I was walking with Ilcharheen (crunch) in the classroom hallway, and everything got (crunch) real quiet, and this weird smell I didn’t know was in the air! (crunch, crunch) And then a door slammed on me, and someone (crunch) was talking to Ilcharheen, and she never let me out. I’m worried something happened to her!” He finally got all his legs and his back hump through the hole. “Why are you guys just staring like that? We need to go find help!”

“Yeeeaaah,” said Numbuh 3721.

“It’s just, you made it awkward?” said Laquisha.

“Because you just tunneled into the girls’ dorm rooms,” finished Wilma.

Alfajiri looked around for the first time, taking in the very obvious bedroom furniture. “Oh,” he said. He blinked. “Oops?” He sniffed. “Oh, toothpaste!” He started lapping it up.

—doctorlit

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