Hollow Ch 11

A/N: why do you guys keep reading this? Haha, but seriously thanks for reading.

"I spy with my little eye something green."

"That is a stupid observation."

"No Zim, now you guess what I am looking at."

"Which one is green again?"

"…the color of your skin."

"Oh then you observe the color of my skin. Game over, victory for Zim."

Dib rolled his eyeballs letting out a long sigh. Why had he suggested playing I spy with a crazed alien?

"If I understand the rules of this…game, then it is my turn correct?" Zim asked. He was walking a few steps ahead of Dib.

"Yes." Dib clarified. "Go."

"I spy with my superior eye-" Dib scoffed at this. "something redish"

"Radish?"

"No red-ish" Zim said breaking up the two words.

"Um…is it your uniform?" Dib asked, trying to find something red.

"No." Zim smiled.

"Can you be more specific on what red-ish means?"

"I believe you hyoomans call it magenta." Zim nodded his head once as if backing up his own statement.

"Uh is it your freaky buggy eyes?" Dib smirked.

"First of all they are not insect eyes and second; no." Zim snapped.

"I don't see anything else here that is red-ish!" Dib groaned. "Just tell me!"

"Okay." Zim pointed to the ground. "It is that rock over there."

Dib paused. "…I hate you so much sometimes."

"Was that not an acceptable object to observe?" Zim asked.

"Well, no the rock was fine. But the rock color is grey." Dib said slowly.

"Bah, you hyoomans and your weird color perception. That is obviously a red-ish rock. Just like your coat or that tree over there." Zim motioned towards the forest.

"You're insane." Dib mumbled again wondering why he asked to play a game.

"Well think of a better game to pass the time with. This one is boring Zim." The alien yawned to prove his point.

"Okay how about-" Dib started however, Zim suddenly froze, his antennae perking up and his face whipping back towards Dib.

"I think I hear one of your earth land vehicles." Zim said.

And not even five seconds later, a pair of headlights peered over the crest of the hill not too far away from where they were walking.

"Hey it's a truck!" Dib started going towards the edge of the road and motioned for Zim to follow. "Maybe they can give us a ride."

Before Zim could answer, Dib ran (or rather limped) out into the street, his one arm waving while the other was grasping his wound.

"Hey! Hey! Stop!" Dib yelled.

The truck flashed its headlights in recognition. Dib smiled to himself, happy not to have to walk all the way home.

He expected the truck to slow down; however the flashing lights just came closer. Dib stopped waving, his hand limply hanging in midair. Suddenly standing in the road in front of a speeding truck didn't sound like such a good plan.

The truck started to honk instead of flashing its lights. It didn't reduce speed at all. Dib started to back up slowly.

Something wrapped around his feet and the next thing he knew he was staring at the sky…and his head hurt! Two of Zim's spider legs appeared in his vision and slinked away towards the side of the road.

Dib groaned. What had he tripped over? He looked down at his feet and saw nothing but the speeding truck coming right. at. him. But amazingly, that wasn't what Dib was worried about.

Did Zim just…trip him?

He looked towards the side of the road where Zim was.

The alien was gone.

Dib suddenly became very aware of the honking truck. He tried to sit up but the pain from his wound came back in full force and he faltered.

Dib looked up once more towards the truck that was only a few feet away.

Zim had tripped him…and left him to die.

Suddenly the truck stopped honking and slowed to a sudden halt. Dib sucked in a breath and sat up on his elbows. Oh thank God they stopped!

But that was not the case. Dib heard a few muffled screams come from the truck. It suddenly lurched forward, swerving rapidly. Something was clinging onto the hood of the truck.

"What the-" Dib's words were muffled as the car sped past him. He watched as the rusty blue pickup truck drove a few feet and then turned…and fell into a ditch on the side of the road.

Dib looked at the truck awestruck as two young men (probably around 20 years old) scrambled out of the right car door screaming like chickens with their heads cut off.

Spider legs flew out from the open door and latched onto the guys' feet. They fell hard onto the ground, screeching loudly.

Zim slunk out of the car door, eyes narrowed into slits and antennae slicked back. He growled something and the two men stopped screaming.

Zim brought his other two legs out from the truck and raised them high above the two men. They cringed visibly.

"Wait!" Dib yelled hoarsely. "Zim wait! Don't hurt them!"

Zim glared at the young paranormal investigator. Even from this distance his eyes seemed dark and threatening. He snapped something at the men and started to slink towards Dib.

In no time, Zim was glaring down at him, the spider legs evenly spread out around them. Zim reached a claw hand down at Dib.

Dib panicked, not knowing what Zim was doing. "Don't hurt me." He peeped.

Zim paused, bringing his hand back. "What are you talking about? I'm helping you stand up."

Dib opened his eyes, which he had unintentionally closed. Zim stared back at him with a confused look on his face, his antennae now positioned more comfortably on his head.

"-Are you kidding me!?" Dib blurted out. Ignoring the massive amount of pain he was in, the paranormal investigator swatted Zim's hand away and forced himself up on his feet.

"What?" Zim asked, sheathing his spider legs. He gestured towards the two men. "I got us a ride."

"You-you got us a ride!?" Dib yelled.

Zim lifted an antenna in a confused look. "Yes. Was that not clear?"

Dib groaned and rubbed his temples. He was getting a headache although he was unsure whether it was from Zim's nonsense or the fact that he had just fallen so hard onto concrete. "So let me get this straight, you tripped me…"

"For bait." Zim made a go on gesture with his hand.

"For bait? Why?" Dib said trying not to punch the alien in the face.

"Well, they would be more focused on you than Zim. So they wouldn't notice as I jumped from the trees over there." Zim pointed. "To their truck. Then at the right moment I jump out and make them loose control and drive into a hole." Zim made it sound as if he thought the plan was the best plan in the world.

"And we didn't just let them pull over and give us a ride because…?"

"Oh, well they didn't seem like they were going to stop." Zim sneered. "Those two don't exactly seem like the brightest earthlings and probably would have just run you over."

Dib punched him in the arm. Zim yelped.

"So what are we going to do with these two?" Dib asked, satisfied after successfully inflicting harm on the irken. "They know you're an alien."

Zim rubbed at his arm and looked as if he was going to start sulking. "Eh, I don't know. I have two extra squids at my base. They can drive us there and I can switch their brains."

Dib blinked. "…No way am I allowing you to do that!"

Zim scoffed. "Then what do you expect Zim to do hyooman? I suppose I can whip their pathetic memories of the incident. Would that suffice?"

"Mmm, it's better." Dib hesitated. "Maybe I can-"

Too late; Zim had already turned around and was approaching the men. They flinched and started to back up towards the truck as Zim once again retracted his mechanical legs.

Dib sighed and decided to follow. He walked up a bit to the side of Zim who had now began to bark orders at the poor people.

"You are going to drive Zim and this big head boy to the local town. If you try to resist I will have to inflict horrible amounts of pain into your pathetic hyooman bodies." Zim was saying.

Dib just rolled his eyes and glanced over at the two cowering men. He almost felt sorry for them. But, they HAD almost run him over. So he didn't feel so bad.

Dib climbed into the small back seats of the pickup truck, raising his nose up at the smell. It smelt like a raccoon had died in there! And Dib should know…they had a family of raccoons get trapped in their attic once. It wasn't very pleasant.

And if it was that bad for Dib, it was at least ten times worse for Zim. The irken barely put one foot in the truck before backing away, coughing harshly and flattening his antennae onto his scalp.

Dib smiled at this. "What's the matter space boy? Is your 'superior' smelling betraying you?"

Zim waved his hand in dismissal. "Nonsense. Zim is fine." However, he still had a look of disgust plastered obviously on his face.

The two men eventually got into the truck. They were wearing trucker hats, ripped denim jeans, and flannel shirts. One had a beard while the other had more of a goatee. They were obviously from out of town.

Zim finally got into the truck, still looking rather uncomfortable by the whole thing. Zim never seemed like the type of person-er, alien, to be that comfortable with cars in the first place. Add stench to a car and that was the type of thing he probably tried to avoid at all costs.

However, Dib was happy to get a ride. His side was throbbing with a sharp pain despite the cloth. He was also feeling a bit light headed from all the blood he had lost. As soon as he sat on the leather seats in the back of the pickup truck, he felt his eyes grow heavy from exhaustion.

Zim growled a few more commands at the two men and raised his spider legs to intimidate them. However, the use of the spider legs seemed to wear him out. He seemed less angry and more tired than before. Zim probably was more than ready to be done with this experience.

Dib studied the invader for a few more seconds before slipping into a slight daze. The car was now moving and making him drowsy. He yawned and closed his eyes. A nap couldn't hurt.

"Wake me when we get there." Dib drawled out. Zim muttered something that sounded like an insult but Dib just ignored him and drifted slowly out of consciousness.