Well here it is! The sequel to Caged.

Thanks so much for all the reviews for Caged - I'm hoping that this will be better written.

I don't own them (sighs) but OC's are mine.

Enjoy!

"What the heck is this thing?" Officer Deforest sat at the back of his red semi truck, starring at the "thing" that he'd dragged to the back and covered partially with a tarp. Lance, his 100 pound German Sheppard, sat beside him, his brown eyes watchful of the creature they'd uncovered, and yet relaxed that whatever it was, wasn't moving.

"You have any idea boy?" Deforest rubbed Lance behind the ears, his fingers ticking the soft fur behind the pointed tan ears.

Lance flicked his ear in the direction of his master, but otherwise remained still. Lance was a K9 dog and one of the best on the force. Any other dog would have been going nuts at the sight of a strange new animal, but Lance just sat still and alert, ready to protect his partner at any costs.

"Hey Alex!" a voice called out. Lance instantly went rigid as Alex jumped to his feet, quickly covering the strange creature completely with the tarp.

His boss, Chief Stands, waddled over to the pair, his own K9 down firm at his heel. His belly fat swung each way as he made he walked, his bushy eyebrows raised and his dark brown eyes filled with unusual laughter for the chief of police.

"Evening sir," Alex dipped his head in greeting. Beside him, Lance gave a faint wag of his tail at the black Lab, Bush, as Stands side. Bush barely wagged his tail back before regaining his usual solid position.

"Find anything interesting?" Strands chuckled.

Alex tensed. "Besides dead bodies?" he responded, his heart racing under his bulletproof vest.

Strands laughed again, slapping Alex on the shoulder. "Good man. I suppose you can take the rest of this month off…you haven't taken any of your vacation days off yet from last year."

Alex started to protest. "But sir – I'm happy doing my jobs. I don't need any days off. At least not yet."

"Take that dog out for a break." Strands pointed a finger at Lance. "That dog is one of the hardest workers on the force; he deserves a break, as do you." It wasn't a suggestion by the tone of his voice.

"Yes sir." Alex let his shoulder's slump as he watched his boss walk away. He already knew what he would do. He would take Lance, and the strange creature, up to the farm that he'd inherited from his great aunt, and spend a few weeks there. He was renting the place off to an older friend, Buck, who raised horses.

Lance let out a sharp, single bark as the 'thing' under the tarp stirred slightly. Alex watched, holding his breath, and holding it until whatever it was stopped moving. With a deep breath, he closed the fender of the truck and opened the backseat of his truck. "Up." He gave a signal to his dog.

With another sharp bark and a wag of his bushy tail, Lance bounded into the truck. He twisted around and gave Alex his toothy grin, tongue hanging out. Alex chuckled and closed the door before hopping into the driver's seat. With a quick check to make sure the back of the truck was secure and Lance was down, Alex started the engine and pulled out of the parking lot of the ruins.

As he drove and hummed to the country station, Alex thought of what he was going to do with the strange creature in the back of his truck. Sneaking it into his house would be no problem, as he lived alone on the far side of town, but what was he going to do with it?

While dragging it, Alex saw that it had three fingers on each hand and two toes on each foot. The legs were much longer than the body, making it appear that it walked upright like a human and used his arms like a human.

He also remembered the horrible task he'd had off un-strapping it from the metal lab table. The leather restraints were so tight, dried blood clinging to the wrists and leather. The probes attached all over the body, especially the plastron, were tough to pull off the turtle's leathery grayish/green skin.

The turtle's face had what looked like a specially designed muzzle on it, keeping his wide beak efficiently sealed shut. He'd taken that off and left it; being an animal person he believed there were other ways to keeping an animal silent that trapping its jaws shut, so that it struggled to no avail.

He'd went ahead and tied the creature's wrists together in front of the body. He wasn't sure when it would wake up and when it did, he really didn't want to be the one to stand between it and freedom. And by the cuts and marks on the body, Alex had no problem believing it would attack a human out of sheer terror, just because of what the scientists had done to it.

Even though he had no clue as to what it was, he still felt sorry for it. The thing had been through so much torture and pain…it wasn't fair to it.

Alex knew that if it had been turned in, it would have been killed and dissected within the day. The thing was half dead and scientists wouldn't spend time and money helping heal something that would just latter be cut open.

They needed the insides more than the out.

His cell phone started ringing a tune by Carrie Underwood. He pressed a small button on his ear phone.

"Hello?"

"Alex?" a male voice asked.

"Hey Bruce." Alex relaxed at the voice of his old friend.

"What's happening?"

"Nothing much." Alex let his gaze drift the rearview mirror where the creature was tied down and covered. "You used to be a vet right?"

"I studied reptiles. Why?"

"I have…something." Alex said uneasily. "I'm not sure what it is but…can you just come down and look?"

"Sure." Bruce said easily. "Where is it that you are again?"

"Well me and Lance are heading on vacation and we're spending some time up at my aunt's place. Buck went to visit some friends anyway so the place will be mine."

"He still have those horses?"

"Five." Alex chuckled. "Lady, Diablo, Sasha, Dutchess, and Nacho."

Bruce laughed through the phone. "I remember Diablo, that brute nearly threw me off."

"He did." Alex chuckled.

Bruce just laughed again. "So where is it that you're by? Give me the neighbor's house name or something?"

"Forest and we're by the Jones old place." Alex said.

"Jones eh?"

"Yeah."

"K .See you then."

Alex hung up, knowing that they would be there later tomorrow afternoon. Even after saying the name, he'd wondered if his middle school friend, Casey, still remembered him.

Hope that will do you over until Chapter 2.

REVIEW PLEASE!