32. Hard Landing

Occasional overhanging incandescant light bulbs lit up sections of the cold dark corridor, with long stretches of darkness in between. The air was musky, filled with a faint but lingering stentch of nothingness. Inmates peered out from their unlit cell rooms, trying to get a glimpse of the new-comers. Chained and bounded by the steel chains and handcuffs, the battered and bruised Ah-mo and Ah-moe, still dizzy from the spinning and wrestling, trodded unsteadily on the damp path. Following the half-dressed guard, they walked through the narrow corridor along the prison cells as the clattering of the chains on the floor echoed through the quiet, dark building.

All was quiet until...

"Oei! 死Ah-mo! 不要踏我的脚leh!" Ah-moe whispered.

No reply.

"死Ah-mo! 不要踏我的脚hor!"Ah-moe repeated.

"不管你er! 好踏er..." Ah-mo jeered in reply.

Alex stopped and turned around, and walked up close to them, staring at both the stunned Ah-moe and Ah-mo with his unnerving eyes. For ten whole seconds, no one moved, except for the visible trembling of Ah-moe and Ah-mo. They didn't want another match anytime soon, if at all. Though they could regenerate, being hit was still uncomfortable, or painful to some extent. Breathing down their heads, his large eyes seemed to look deep into them, instilling fear in both of them.

Then he suddenly grabbed both of them by their necks with one hand each, lifting them off the ground, in a choke-hold manner. As Ah-mo and Ah-moe gasped for air, Alex smashed Ah-mo into a lever switch in the wall, sending electric currents thought him - thus short circuiting the door control switch - making the adjacent prison cell door slide open. Without a word, Alex threw the struggling duo in.

With all their arms and legs tangled from the chains, Ah-mo and Ah-moe fell awkwardly into a mess. And before they could react from the fall, they saw Alex raise the shotgun and discharged one round into the ceiling, causing quite some debris to fall.

As Ah-mo and Ah-moe admired the "destructive magic" of the shotgun, they saw Alex raising the shotgun and aiming it at them.

"Ahhhh......"

And loud echoes of shots rang throughout the jailhouse.

33. The First Night

"Aiyah... ... Aiyah... ..."

"很痛ah... ... 死liao... 死liao... ..."

.
.
.

"Oei! 死Ah-mo不要吵lah!"

"Jed. 对hor."

They had not been hit. Instead, the each of the chains that originally bound them to each other have been shattered. He had not intended to shoot them after all.

"还好er..."

"我厉害er! 他打不到我er!" Ah-mo added.

The cold prison door slamed home, locking the two in the cold hard prison cell for the night. And then Ah-mo remembered.

"死Ah-moe! 要打我ah? 打不到er! Humph! 你笨er!"

"死Ah-mo! 我故意的hor! Erm... 要distract那个guard mah... KHOOR HEEW... KHOOR HEEW..."

"Jed... 死Ah-moe..."

After such a long day, even though he had to endure the thunderous snoring, the relatively young Plutonian also drifted off to dreamland on the icy floor soon after.

(Footnote: Ah-moe had a reputation for being the loudest snorer known. His home on Pluto was specially designed to be soundproof, by the request of nearby houses. His snores were real, although it sounded as if it was faked and unnatural. No one could explain such a phenomenom yet. But in this case, it's hard to discern if it's real.)

34. Just Checking

Halfway through the night, where all was quiet, except Ah-moe who was awaken by mosquito stings...

Ah-moe tossed and turned, but still couldn't get back to sleep again.

"Oei! Ah-mo! 你睡着liao没有?" Ah-moe whispered.

No answer by the sound asleep Ah-mo.

"Oei! 你睡着liao没有??" Ah-moe whispered slightly louder.

No answer.

"Ah-mo! 我是你爸爸hor! 你要回答我hor!" Ah-moe demanded again.

Sick of no answers, Ah-moe smacked Ah-mo on his butt, waking him with a shock.

"Jed.. 什么? ..." Ah-mo sat up and asked sleepily.

"我问你：你睡着liao没有?"

"睡着liao lah!" Ah-mo replied and fell back onto the floor.

"Oei! 不要骗我hor! 睡着liao 不会讲话的hor!"

"Ok lah! 还没有睡着lah! 可以睡liao没有?"

"死Ah-mo! 要骗我ah? 还好我聪明er..."

"Ok lah... 你叫我起来做什么?" Ah-mo sat up, now fully awake.

"问你问题mah..." Ah-moe responded and fell back to sleep, satisfied that he had outsmarted Ah-mo again.

...

35. Morning Call

The alarm bell rang through the prison as the clock struck 6. All the prison doors automatically unlocked and slid open. Guards on each level blew sharp whistles while the prisoners scuttled out of their cells. Most of them still very groggy as they were greatly disturbed by Ah-moe's loud snoring through the night...

"Warrau... 吵死人... 不管er! 再睡er... KHOOR HEEW..." Ah-moe mumbled and fell back to sleep.

Ah-mo, accustomed to the roaring loud snoring by Ah-moe, didn't even notice the ringing.

Outside Ah-mo and Ah-moe's cell stood a large person dressed in a black long jacket, complete with sunglasses and dark polished shoes, seemingly carrying nothing.

"Hello! Good morning ah! Still asleep? Need me to wake you two up right?" He whispered.

Ah-moe and Ah-mo woke up with a start. That familiar voice.

It was Alex again. Only in a completely different appearance.

"I think you do..." as he brandished a whip from his jacket, and a wide, evil smile on his face.

The next minute, Ah-moe and Ah-mo were running around the prison main square, with Alex on a slight jog just several meters behind, lashing out whips on the floor just behind the two.

"Ah-mo! 小心不要跌倒hor!" Ah-moe bellowed between gasps.

"不会 er! 我聪明... Aiyah!"

Ah-mo tripped and fell on Ah-moe, and they both tumbled onto the floor as the crackling whip came crashing down on their butts.

"AIYAH!!!"

36. SFI Breakfast

Ah-moe and Ah-mo limped to the cookhouse clutching their sore behinds, with Alex strolling casually behind.

The cookhouse, like the prison, was a run-down piece of shelter. The moist tiled floor was filled with rows of tables and chairs, all stained and yellowed over the years. Old dirty fans spun lazily as the canteen bustled with activity -- a row of inmates holding big metal trays queueing for food; groups eating breakfast and chatting animatedly with one another; a row of food servers behind a counter, busy serving out scoops of food to the queue of inmates.

"Pleeak!"

A ladle-ful of blob was scooped onto Ah-mo's metal tray.

"Jed. 什么东西来的? 很难看leh!" Ah-mo protested.

"对er! 看起来真的很难看er! 你们会不会煮的?" Ah-moe demanded.

"We are called 'The S.F.I.' -- Sickening, Foul and Inedible, some people say... But seriously, I think they are still being kind... We would never, ever eat the food we cook..." the chef replied, seeing their questioning look on their faces.

Before Ah-mo or Ah-moe could ask him to speak in proper language, the whip came crashing down on the butts of Ah-mo and Ah-moe.

"Don't talk! Hurry up! Others are waiting!" Alex ordered.

...

37. Breakfast Woes

So Ah-mo and Ah-moe winced in pain as they sat at the end of the long table, as far away from the rest as they could. They were quite sure that these "creatures" were insane.

Staring at the glob of pale baige-ish blob of "food", both of them squirmed in disgust. It was a far cry from all the good food they eat on Pluto. There, Plutonians grew various huge fruit-like vegetables which were all tasty, filling and energy efficient. One best thing about food there was it could be completely digested - no wastage in terms of human wastes. Imagine in Earth's terms, that you have an entire farm of vegetables, each of which can grow up to half a metre high, and half a metre wide all round, yet contains the freshness and sweetness of fruits, like mangosteens. Food there was simply marvelous and plentiful.

So now, they really couldn't bear to eat such "rubbish".

But seeing everyone else busy stuffing the food down their throats, Ah-mo thought that it may just taste edible. He stared at his metal trays before him -- and caught sight of something beside that glob of "food". There was a purple, plastic thing with a curved end by the side of the tray.

"这个硬硬er! 我先吃er!" Ah-mo mumbled as he swallowed the purple spoon.

"Jed. 不好吃的..."

In the meanwhile, Ah-moe looked at the gooey, slimy blob of food - the "food" that all the other inmates were stuffing down their throats with a strained look on their faces - and he decided to give it a pass.

While Ah-mo was busy eating the spoon (with his head tilted high), Ah-moe quietly poured all his contents into Ah-mo's plate. Pretending to have gulped down the food, he said to Ah-mo,"Eh! Ah-mo.. 这个很难吃er! 我吃完了er!", trying hard to suppress his gloating over his success in making Ah-mo consume his portion for him.

"Harh! 不管你er! 一定是骗我的!" and he slurped it all down.

"好吃mah! 很好吃er!" Ah-mo declared, just to spite Ah-moe.

But the mind-boggling thing was that by his strong belief that Ah-moe was tricking him, Ah-mo had somehow wired himself to believe that the food was really good. Thus beginning Ah-mo's rather wierd liking for, let's say, unusual food.

In the meantime, Ah-moe was fuming mad at himself... He had just let Ah-mo take advantage of him, on his own will... He hated to think he was being outsmarted by Ah-mo.

38. A Trip To The Barber

After breakfast, Ah-mo was escorted to the jail barbers' ... Ah-moe, of course, did not have to, since he was already more bald than the rest of the inmates. His head was completely void of any signs of hair.

As they entered the brightly lit cell, they could see an old man dressed in a sloppy old slinglet, sitting on the chair, head nodding away. As they entered, the barber stood up, gave a big stretch and motioned Ah-mo to the chair.

The sleepy barber couldn't be bothered who was sent there. He whipped out his trusty electronic hair shaver and started to push it along Ah-mo's head.

"Kng! Kng! Kng! ..." The teeth of the shaver ground with Ah-mo's hair, and was completely worn out in the matter of seconds.

"Huh?" The barber couldn't believe his eyes. Undefeated, he whipped out his spare shaver and repeated the process.

Another spoilt in seconds.

By this time, the barber was fully awake. In fact, he was angry that he had wasted two expensive shavers. He was determined that he wasn't going to be beaten. He stomped out of the cell, and returned promptly with a whole set of equipment in a big toolbox.

...

Terrifying sounds of metal grinding reverberated through the dark corridors, followed swiftly by blood curling screams of "ARGH!!!" and the frequent clanking of metal on the floor, both echoing through the corridor in the early morning.

39. The Barber Suicides

The floor was littered with discarded equipment: five large pruning scissors, four broken handsaws, three saws completely blunted, one de-teethed chainsaw, one empty blow torch, three large, emptied toolboxes... But the one Ah-mo hair he was working on was showed only small scratches.

The frustrated barber then took out his final piece of equipment from his toolbox - laser beam generator. The laser beam is similar to those used to cut through the thickest of the strongest materials, including diamonds and gems.

As the beam was fired onto Ah-mo's hair, it glowed red hot, but yet showed no other signs of breaking. And still nothing after a whole minute. Neither was there any change after 5 minutes. Nor 10 minutes.

Just after 20 minutes, when the barber was about to give up all hope, the hair finally broke, and fell to the ground with a "bonk". As the barber celebrated victory, running all around the cell screaming and shouting yelps of joy and power, he suddenly caught sight of something...

Another hair was growing well in place of the cut hair. In fact, it has already reached half the height of the remaining two.

"ARGH!!!ARRGGGHHHH!!!AARRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!" And the barber ran out screaming, pulling chunks of whatever remaining hair he had from his scalp...

(Footnotes: No humans were killed in the making of this story. The prison guards somehow managed to stop the barber from leaping off the top of the sentry tower.)

40. Heat Wave

In the meanwhile, on the parade square...

Ah-moe was lined up with the rest of the inmates, marching around the square with the instructors barking instructions that simply bewildered Ah-moe. Everything seemed wrong to him, as he tried to make sense of the situation. He was confused... All the instructions sounded so similar, but they all required him to perform different actions. What was the point of this odd exercise anyway?

"Ke-ka-nan-bu-SENG!"

As the whole marching line stopped and turned to the right, Ah-moe almost crashed into the person in front of him. Again. As Ah-moe quickly turned to follow the rest, he started wondering: Why was he here again?

"Ke-ki-ri-bu-SENG!"

As they all turned to the left, Ah-moe was still lost in his thoughts, and continued marching straight on.

"Oei! Turn left!" the instructor bellowed.

No response. Ah-moe kept on walking.

"Ah-moe!!!"

And Ah-moe walked straight into the wall of the nearby barracks and fell to the floor, lying spread-eagled.

He laid dazed, as the guards went to call for the paramedics. Then he realised what was wrong. There was this huge orb of fire in the sky! It was making everything so bright and so hot, and making him wet all over with some sticky liquid thing. As he started to curse that darn sky-object, everything started becoming blur... Sounds became slowed and dulled... Then darkness quickly set in...

Before the splash of cold water hit him, Ah-moe was already snoring loudly in deep sleep.

41. The Slumbering Terror

Just as Ah-moe was being stretchered away to the medical centre, Ah-mo was marched into the parade square by two guards. These guards, however, were quite cautious with Ah-mo, proding him along with their batons as they kept a distance from him. They had just sent the maniacal barber onto the ambulance rather forcefully, and had no idea what Ah-mo had done in there. They couldn't punish him though, as he was caught sleeping when they stormed in after tackling down the barber.

They knew they had to be careful. As new prison wardens, they didn't know what criminals they housed here. They have heard of all kinds of weird people in here - psychopaths, murderers and all kinds of dangerous criminals. As they considered the possibility of Ah-mo being some kind of dangerous-mental-terrorist-who-can-terrorise-people-even-in-their-sleep, the bright glare of the afternoon sun greeted them. They have arrived at the parade grounds.

Quite relieved to be done with Ah-mo, the two left Ah-mo to the marching instructor and scuttled off quickly. They wouldn't want to be another victim of Ah-mo.

As Ah-mo gave a big wide grin at the grim-faced instructor, the rest of the inmates who were having a break from marching watched in anticipation. Was Ah-mo going to be another Ah-moe?

42. Ah-moe the Hypnotist

Meanwhile, at the nearby prison infirmary, sick bay wing...

"Oei! This 'sick' guy very noisy ah? Come here to sleep one ah?" one of the prison medics complained.

"Bo bian* leh! See..." another replied with a shrug, as he grabbed Ah-moe by the shoulders and shook him hard for the dozenth time. Snores continued while he shook with all his might, and Ah-moe showed no signs of waking. When the medic stopped, Ah-moe fell back to sleep on the bed again.

Slaming the door of the sick bay, the medics stationed themselves outside the sick bay. The loud snoring sounds through the door were still very much audible, though it was no longer as loud and irritating. Since they could not go anywhere else, they had no choice but to endure the snores. With nothing to do, they picked up their comics to read. And slowly, they grew oblivious of the snoring sounds filtering through the door.

Like hypnotism, their body rhythms slowly adapted to the continuous and monotonous snoring, and they turned drowsy too. Slowly, Ah-moe's snores lulled them into a sleep-like trance...

As the two finally fell into sleep, one of them incidentally had his elbow resting directly on the "Intercom" button...

(Footnote: Bo bian is a common Hokkien phrase meaning "Can't be helped")

43. Sabo!

"Knock it down! All of you! 30 more push-ups!" the instructor bellowed.

"Warrau! That new inmate Ah-mo worse than Ah-moe one... very jialat leh... sabo us all... " one of the inmates complained.

Ah-mo stood there watching all of them do the push-ups, straining their muscles and with sweat dripping all over them. "Why are they listening to that angry person?" he wondered as some of them collapsed onto the floor exhausted.

"Oei! Hoo Ah-mo! Now you want to march or not?!?" the instructor shouted again.

"Jed... 听不懂 er! 不管你 er!"

"Oei! You talk back some more ah? Everyone, 10 more push-ups! And Ah-mo don't want to do, so everyone have to do 10 more for him!"

Murmers of "harh?" and "warrau!"...

"Ah-mo! Now you want to listen to instructions or not? The rules say I cannot whack you here, or else ah I..." the instructor bellowed as he broke the baton in his hand.

Ah-mo turned around and walked off. "不好玩的!"

...

44. Morning Break

When they all finally completed their marching drills that morning, all the prisoners had arms swollen from all that push-ups, and all of them were staring at the weird new companion of theirs. The three-haired idiot that made them take all that punishment. They silently swore that they'll make him pay for that. But not just yet. Everyone is dead tired now.

They filed back to a holding barracks for a short break, waiting for lunch in about half an hour's time. As they slumped down on the rows of chairs and benches, taking a quick nap before lunch, Ah-mo looked around the room. He wasn't tired -- and was still wondering why did they had to listen to someone shouting...

Nothing much in the room, except for a few ceiling fans. A big whiteboard in front of the room. Dirty-white walls surrounded the room, with two guards guarding the only entrance of the room. Nothing to eat. Nothing to do. Ah-mo gave a big yawn, and decided to sleep for a while too.

45. Sneaky-mo

Evening time.

Ah-mo woke up hungry, and was bewildered to find everyone slumped to the ground. All of them sleeping, in all kinds of odd positions. Many were sprawled on top of others. Some were lying on the floor, some on the benches. Some of them were even slumped over the benches, in an awkward inverted U shape.

After busying himself with trying all the sleeping positions, Ah-mo decided that none were comfortable. And we haven't even had lunch, Ah-mo thought angrily.

Hungry, Ah-mo decided to go to the cookhouse himself. The others will come when they are hungry, he thought. Picking himself up, he started to walk towards the exit.

Then he stopped. He could still vaguely see the two sentries standing guard outside.

Hoping to not be discovered, Ah-mo quickly smashed himself flat to the wall. Just too hard. And head-first to the wall. Ah-mo winced in discomfort and crept slowly along the wall towards the exit. Near the exit, he peered out cautiously. The two guards outside were standing with their arms folded, but nodding away, barely awake.

"好er! 自己出去liao er!" Ah-mo whispered to himself, as he crept slowly through the exit.

Just as he was almost free, a pair of hands came behind him and caught him by the collar...

46. Freedom

As Ah-mo passed through the doorway, one of the guards, startled by Ah-mo's movement, woke up enough to make out the escaping figure. Without warning, he threw his hands onto Ah-mo and jerked him backwards, sending Ah-mo flying to the ground on his back.

"Hey! What were you trying to do ah? You stinking criminal..." The guard said as he whipped out his handcuffs. Grabbing Ah-mo by the wrists from behind, he continued,"Wait till I send you to the ..."

Ah-mo waited for the inevitable clinking of the handcuffs on his hands.

1 second.

2 seconds.

3 seconds.

Nothing.

Ah-mo turned his head slowly around, only to find the guard slumped to the ground, just starting to snore loudly.

Ah-mo jumped up and ran.

...

47. Commando-mo

Having escaped from the clutches of the guard, Ah-mo ran as quick as he could away from the area. He glanced around -- the cookhouse is waiting for him across the wide parade square. Not wanting to risk being seen, Ah-mo threw himself to the floor and started to crawl across the parade square. He has heard many tales of how Ah-moe used to quietly sneak away after causing trouble when he was young. Now it's his turn.

Almost halfway through the parade square, Ah-mo felt tired. Seeing the distance that lay in front of him, he decided it was enough. He was going to run across the square instead.

He turned around and crawled back to where he started, before turning around to start running.

Halfway again, he decided it was too far to run.

...

48. Half-Awake

Nearby, in the medical bay...

Ah-moe didn't want to wake up. Sleeping was more fun than following those stupid instructions. What's the point of walking around that useless square? Neither did he want to sleep anymore. So he decided.

Only half of him was going to wake up.

Opening one of his eyes, he used one hand to push himself off the bed. Hopping around the bay on one leg, Ah-moe peered around the bay...

All unconscious. Even the medics.

Thinking it could be poison attack, Ah-moe crouched down low and sprung into the air, through the bay doors which swung open quickly. Ah-moe stood up slowly, all poised for battle. Growlingly, he gave a battle cry and charged forward. Straight into the transparent glass doors on the entrance of the medical wing.

(Footnote: The glass doors of the medical wing is reinforced by strong fibres to prevent cracking or shattering under normal circumstances. It is also locked from the inside with a toggle switch to prevent unauthorised access to the medical facility and the equipment).

49. Food for Thought

Fans swayed from side to side as they spun lazily on the ceilings of the cookhouse.

Ah-mo finally strolled to the cookhouse after half an hour, proud of himself that he crossed the dangerous square in one complete attempt. Looking at the bright sun outside, hanging high in the sky he was puzzled... not night time yet. People here have a weird tradition of sleeping!

Angry and hungry, Ah-mo stormed into the open kitchen. "我自己找东西吃er!"

...

Nearby, a lone figure was frantically kicking at the sliding doors of the medical building. Finally, the hinges of the sliding doors of the medical wing gave way and smashed to the ground with a bang. Peering around, he scratched his bald head. Where was everybody? Are they all like the rest of the people around, sleeping like a log?

Suddenly, a bright flash of light.

The wide glass panels cracked and shattered, sending a rain of glass shards exploding into the room. At the same time, a strong gush of hot air through the broken door knocked Ah-moe off his balance, sending him flying onto the floor. Sheilding his eyes from the flare, he peered to see the cookhouse bursting in flames and a rather familar figure running out from the blazing inferno shouting,"不是我er! 一定是别人er!"...

50. Tackle!

Ah-moe raced out of the medical facility like a mad dog after the frantically running AH-mo, who just ran past the medical wing. Running as fast as he could, Ah-moe drew close and pounced on the oncoming Ah-mo, knocking him flat onto the ground.

"死Ah-mo!"

"死Ah-moe! 你追我做什么??"

“你跑mah! 你跑, 我就追lor!"

"Jed! 很好玩, 是不是?!"

"对er!"

.
.
.

As they stopped and stared into the vast open sky above them, it made them realise how small they really are in comparison to the entire universe. And this is not where they rightfully belong. They need to get out. Peering at the rare clouds in the dull sky of evening time, Ah-moe couldn't stand it any longer. He needed to get out. To retrieve his "real" identity.

51. The Plan

Grabbing Ah-mo by the wrist, Ah-moe ran towards the edge of the walls they were confined in - the inner walls. Circular in nature, this continuous wall enveloped the entire prison campus, forming an dominating sense of security to the inmates.

Ah-moe jumped. And promptly forgot he's no longer in Pluto. Smashing back to the ground just he jumped half a dozen inches above the ground, he looked up in despair. How was he going to clear this inpenetratable wall?

Taking out a stack of paper and pencil, he sometimes started drawing elaborate drawings, sometimes stopped to ponder about it again. All while walking at the same time. He sees it as handwriting; some people may see it as abstract art; most people, however see it was meaningless doodles.

Then, he had a pleasant surprise - a big rectangular hole in the defensive walls.

Tearing up his "carefully prepared" notes into small pieces, he threw the pieces of paper into the air and he ran ecstastically towards the black "hole"...

52. Draw Lots!

As he got closer, he realised that it wasn't a hole after all. It was a large black metal door, looking strong and impeding. In front of it however, were two guards slumped onto the floor. One was drooling disgustingly on the ground, while the other was mumbling some unitelligible nonsense.

Ah-moe stopped in his tracks with another exaggerated pose. Pausing for a few seconds for dramatic effect, he stood there with his hand stroking the top of his empty head, thinking hard. Suddenly, he threw his right hand into the air in an exaggerated manner, with his index finger pointing to the sky, as he declared, "Ah-mo! 我有plan liao er!"

"我把你丢过去then你帮我开门!"

"Jed! 我丢你lah!"

"Oei! 我是你爸... Okay lah. 我很fair的! 来draw lots er!" Ah-moe said, as he picked up two blades of grass.

"来! 我很好的. 我让你先选!"

As Ah-mo pulled out one of them, Ah-moe took the other and compared it to Ah-mo's. Then he declared,"Okay! 短的要被丢!"

"Jed! Not fair的leh! 再来er!"

"来lah! 我厉害的!"

...

"Okay! 这次长的要被丢!"

"Jed!"

...

"Okay hor! 最后 一次liao hor!" Ah-moe said impatiently.

"Okay lah! 这次你先拿er! And then 不可以看hor!"

As Ah-mo took the remaining one, Ah-moe with his eyes still closed, declared,"名字没有 'e' 的要被丢!"

"Jed! Harh?"

"你名字有没有'e'? 没有hor? 很fair hor! And 我没有偷看hor!"

53. Up and Over

After smashing into the wall dozens of times, Ah-mo finally was thrown high enough to clear the walls.

Ah-mo sailed through the air with a wide grin on his face, the rushing air ruffling his cheeks.

"我会飞er!"

...

"Bonk!" as Ah-mo hit the ground.

Silence.

"Aye Ah-mo! 快一点leh..."

No sound.

"Ah-mo! 快一点..."

Still no sound.

"Ah-mo! 我要生气了ah... 把你的secret讲出来hor..."

Not a whisper.

...

The sound of the keys turning, the lock falling open with a click, the iron door started opening noisily. A figure standing at the door grinned, marvelling at his intelligence. Running his hand through his sweaty head, he grinned hugely. So keys work in the same way as on Pluto! He was right to pick up that key from the sleeping guard.

Ah-moe had figured after half an hour of story telling that Ah-mo wasn't going to open the door for him afterall. Ah-mo was probably long gone by now, feasting some where he thought. Cursing under his breathe, Ah-moe kicked the partially-open door. The door swung forcefully outwards, and almost in the same instance, quickly rebounded back towards Ah-moe, slamming directly onto his face.

Unwilling to be outsmarted, Ah-moe tried again with a stronger kick. The door came back faster than the previous attempt, knocking the air out of him. A slight muffled sound was heard behind the door.

"Jed!" He tried again...

And again...

When he finally got fed up and squeezed his way through the partially open door, he saw something directly behind the door. A large figure lurked in the shadows, its disformed limbs stretching out towards him...

54. The Monster

Ah-moe covered his mouth to muffle his own screams as he ran away from the door. After a while, he slowly crept back to the door to take another peek. It was still there!

After several times of running away, Ah-moe found the courage to look at the monster a while more. And suddenly found that figure looked very odd.

Two long thick antenna, fully clothed, with something shoe-like at the end of them, were swaying wildly. The main body was short and stubby, with two arms were flailing around just above ground level. The arms were attached to the main body at a very low position, only about 20 cm off the ground. This creature had a weird head attached at the end of the body, directly below the flailing arms. It had a rather pointy and soft forehead, and lots of mud covering its face. It had three very short and stiff looking, black coloured legs anchoring it to the ground.

As the mud slowly dripped off, Ah-moe noticed that this creature's face was totally unlike any he had seen before. The mouth came first on the face, followed by an upturned nose, and then a pair of red-angry eyes staring at him below the nose. The gaping mouth was stuffed of mud. That was what was making the muffled noise.

Then suddenly he realised.

"Ah-mo!"

55. In the Mud

Ah-mo was certainly not on talking terms with his father. He was fuming and had every right to be. Ah-moe had just rattled out his secret, without him being able to do anything about it. To add insult to injury, he had driven the iron door into him at least a dozen times, nearly flattening his nose.

The esctasy of his flight over the wall was short lived as he crashed face first into the muddied ground, flipping backwards slightly before his 3 hair hit the ground hard, trapping him in an upturned position. Now, despite Ah-moe's pushing and shoving, he still wasn't getting any where.

...

Out in the distance, several dark forms stirred. Sniffing the air around them, they sensed something was amiss. Tugging themselves free from the sleeping guard who was restraining them, they bounded towards the two men in the distance.

...

"Aye 笨Ah-moe! 好了没有?" Ah-mo drummed his upturned fingers impatiently on the floor.

"死Ah-mo! 不要吵lah! 早知道不要帮你er"

56. Out of the Mud

Without warning, they struck. The four ferocious police dogs pounced on Ah-mo, sinking their teeth into each of Ah-mo's limbs. The sheer force of the dogs caused Ah-mo to tumble over, out of the mud, snapping his neck, and crashing into the dazed and sweaty Ah-moe.

"Ow..." Ah-mo grumbled as a spasm of pain shot through his senses. Having a less complex system of nerves, Plutonians felt a lesser degree of pain that we humans would feel. Breaking a neck for us humans would probably be fatal. To him, it was more like a cracking of a hard knuckle.

"Ah-mo! 不要紧! 我来帮你! Yah..." Ah-moe screamed as he untangled himself from the mess, sinking his teeth into the tails of the police dogs.

1... 2... 3... 4... Ah-moe counted as he bit into each of the dog's tail in a flurry of motion. One by one the dogs released their grip on Ah-mo and scampered off into the distance. One more to go Ah-moe thought to himself and chewed on the last tail.

His front teeth all broke as he clamped down on the black shaft. As he eyed the solid tail, he noticed 2 more black shafts were slowly rising up from the butt of the dog. He looked around and saw 2 identical shafts stuck to the ground. It was then that he realised...

"笨Ah-moe! 哈哈哈哈! 你没有用er!" Ah-mo squealed in laughter.