Author's note: I wrote this a while ago. Not finished, though. Pretty
much it's what happened during and a little before WTM from the Blackburns'
perspective. Not much to say about it other than that.
OTHER SECRETS
DarkHououmon
The apartment room was dark. It looked deserted. No lights were on. The TV was off. It was nothing but total silence. The wind blew through the small crack in a slightly open window. The window looked like it hadn't been cleaned in ages. The couch, right in the center of the living room, had a couple of springs sticking out. The TV was huge, however. It looked like a 40 inch. It was doubtful it was that big, but the owner keeps bragging that that's how big it is.
The carpet, torn in several places, was layered all across the apartment room. The kitchen was a bit dusty, but not too bad. The refrigerator was ebony black, and the door was open. A seat was pulled to the side, and a figure sat in it. The figure had a glass in his hands, and poured something orange in it. It was orange juice. He lifted it up, and took a sip. He then took out the newspaper, and unfolded it. Pushing the glass to the side, he started reading the paper.
"Let's see if there's anything good..." He murmured. He turned the pages from one side to another. His eyes zimmed through all the material. He wasn't too interested in sports. But one sport he was interested in: poaching. He thought he'd be good at it, so he wanted to try out. He'd been training for a couple of years now. He also had found a wife who had a similar interest. She was a few years younger than him. He was 38. His wife was round 34.
He continued to look through the paper when something caught his eye. He peered at what looked like a tidbit of information. It didn't seem very important because it only had about a paragraph's worth of information. But it appeared to be enough.
"Next Friday, a Solar Eclipse shall occur directly over Tembo Valley. During this time, a thousand elephants shall gather under the light and darkness of this eclipse..."
He didn't bother reading the rest. This was all the information he needed. He put the paper down and got out of his chair. He quickly ran to the bedroom, where his wife was still sleeping. He gently shook her by the shoulder. "Wake up." He said. But his wife wouldn't budge. She groaned, and turned to the other side.
The man was getting a little frustrated. He shook her again, this time a little harder. The woman groaned angrily, and slowly opened her eyes. She blew a bit of dark blue hair from her face, and said, "What is it?"
She slowly got up, and pulled the covers off of her. She turned and glanced at the digital clock. It read 6:30 AM. She glared harshly at her husband, and pointed a scolding finger at him. "Do you know what time it is?!" The man nodded, and backed away. "Yes, it's time to go."
The woman appeared surprised. She looked at him curiously. "What do you mean?"
"I just read about an eclipse. I think we should attend it."
He turned to walk away. He was about to leave the bedroom when he felt his wife grab his arm. He turned around to face her. She was even more confused that ever. He pulled his arm out of her grip and was heading towards the living room. He had already dressed, and he took out his shoes, and started to put them on. His wife came in, dressed herself, and sat down by him on the dusky brown couch.
"Why are you so interested in this solar eclipse?" She didn't seem to understand. "We've seen them before. Nothing special." Her husband looked at her, with an almost evil smile. "Yes, but this one is different."
"How?"
"We're gonna make a lot of money from this one..." His voice was a low hiss. The woman gasped slightly, and slowly ran her fingers through her hair. She couldn't understand what he was talking about. How could one make money from a solar eclipse? They're old news. "How? How can we make money off of it?" She inquired, getting a little frustrated.
"It'll occur in Tembo Valley. A thousand elephants will gather there." He finished tying his shoes. "I think this is a perfect opportunity to make some fast money."
He then ran to the closet and pulled out his rifle. The woman sighed.
"You can't do it alone, you know..."
"Oh really?"
The woman nodded. He put the rifle away as she continued, "You're gonna need some help. You know elephants. They'll defend a family member. If there really are a thousand elephants, don't you think that it's gonna take a lot more poachers to take them down?"
The man blinked. He knew his wife was correct. But what could he do? He never gathered poachers before. He didn't know which ones to trust, and which he couldn't. He could always try calling Kip and Biederman, but those two idiots can't even catch a 12 year-old they keep mentioning. How could he trust them? Well, there was one person he could trust at least. Olaf.
Olaf and him had been friends throughout the years. He had many connections with a large, no gigantic, group of poachers. A poacher's guild he calls it. He can hire his friend and his comrades to help him take down the poachers. It was worth the risk.
"I can get my friend Olaf to help me." He said. "He has a poacher's guild."
The wife nodded in agreement. She was also familiar with Olaf and the guild. There was about 500 poacher members there. It was half the number of elephants, but still enough. A poacher for two elephants. She began thinking more, and then smiled evilly. "Perhaps we could try something else..."
She walked up to her husband and whispered into his ear what her plan was. He listened intently, and his eyes widened in slight fear but also delight. "That's cruel!" He shouted as his wife finished. He then added, "I like it."
She got out her shoes, and started to put them on. They had a long trip ahead of them. Olaf was in Africa, so they had to go there to find him. The man got out a lot of maps and books on Africa so they could easily locate Tembo Valley. They could station there a few days earlier so they would be prepared. They had to get other things done as quickly as possible. The more help, the better.
"You ready to go, Bree?" The man asked about an hour later. He held his keys in his hand.
"Yes, Sloan." She replied as she got her gun out as well. They walked out of their apartment and locked the door. They walked out to their van. They hadn't bothered buying a car. Too expensive to have 2 vehicles. They began driving down towards the airport. They knew they would have to rent a van in Africa. They could not take their own van with them.
On the way there, they turned on the radio. The news instantly came on.
"...in other news, Nigel Thornberry will be doing an episode on gazelles...."
Sloan instantly turned it off. He had heard enough. Bree turned to him, pretty shocked at his sudden behavior. Why did he do that? "Sloan? Why did you do that?"
The man didn't seem to hear her. He had his eyes locked on the road, but his mind seemed somewhere else. It was as though he was in a different world. He didn't look at his wife at all, but he did murmuer an answer, "No reason." But he did do it for a reason. Nigel Thornberry, of all the people! He growled under his breath. How he despised that man...
He never told Bree anything about Nigel. She knew him from the nature show that comes on every night. It was how they learned about the animals. They needed all the knowledge possible so they could take down the animals. But there was more to Nigel than just that.
Sloan cursed inside his mind. He hid his anger from Bree. 'I never
told her that Nigel is....' His mind wandered off, and they had arrived
at the airport.
Sloan and Bree walked into the airport. The airport was small compared to other ones they've been to. But there wasn't much of a size difference. They knew they couldn't bring weapons along to Africa. Sloan had to leave his rifle behind. Bree warned him that if they found them with a weapon of any sort, they wouldn't be able to get on the airplane.
"Stupid rules..." The man cursed under his breath. His wife shushed him as a security guard walked past them. The guard stopped in his tracks, and looked at the Blackburns. The man was larger than Sloan and more heavily built. He looked at them with an angry eye. The couple backed away timidly.
The man opened his mouth and spoke, "You have a problem with our rules?"
Sloan quickly shook his head. "N-No, sir. Not at all!" His bluff sounded convincing to him, and apparently it worked. The guard studied the two for a few more moments, and then went about his business. The guard walked over to examine some of the baggage that was going to be put on the plane.
"That was close..." Bree wiped some sweat form her forehead. She gave her husband a stern look. "Way to go, Einstein. One more move like that and we could wind up never going to Africa at all."
"Yeah, well, it ain't my fault that these stupid airports don't let you carry a weapon...." He noticed the guard looking back at them. "....for protection of course. You know terrorists. They could strike at any moment." He added in quickly, giving a nervous smile to the guard.
The guard shook his head. "What an idiot..." He then put two fingers in his mouth, and blew hard. "Here boy!" He shouted. The Blackburns had to cover their ears because the whistling sound was quite loud. The next thing they knew they heard the sound of barking.
Out of one of the doors, a heavily built pitbull came running out. It was a black and white male pitbull. He seemed like he was only 1 year old, and he wore some kind of outfit. On it printed the words "Drug-Sniffing Dog". The guard grabbed a hold of the collar around the dog, and pointed at the baggage. "Sniff 'em out, boy!"
Sloan and Bree paled at the sight of the dog. They looked at each other nervously, and quickly made a break for it towards the counter to purchase their tickets. 'The sooner I get away from that dog, the better.' Sloan thought as he reached into his pocket to pull out some cash.
"Where are you going?" The lady asked as she prepared to get their tickets.
"Africa." Sloan said. He pointed at his wife. "We're both going. 2 tickets please."
"Where in Africa?"
"Uhh...Serengeti." Sloan thought quickly, and he pulled out his wallet.
"That'll be $982, please."
Disgruntled, but nodding his head, Sloan pulled out 9 hundred dollar
bills, 8 ten dollar bills, and 2 1 dollar bills. He handed it to the lady,
and she handed them 2 tickets for Serengeti, Africa.
4 hrs later...
The Blackburns had been flying for many hours know. The trip was painfully slow. Sloan had even fallen asleep once or twice. But he never could stay asleep long enough. It was either because of Bree nudging him, or that loud music someone was playing right behind him. They had their headphones on, but the music was so blasting loud that Sloan could hear it just fine, with or without the headphones on.
"God, can't you turn that thing off?!" Sloan had turned around and started yelling at the person listening to music. It was a teenager, around 16 years old. She had blonde hair and green eyes. She wore an orange cut-off shirt and a green plad jacket. She moved her headphones away, and narrowed her eyes.
"Yeah right. If you don't want to hear my music, why don't you move over there?" She pointed at another seat in the plane. But the springs were showing and it looked like there was a cobweb on it. Sloan stared at it with disgust. 'Don't they ever clean airplanes nowadays?'
Sloan growled, "Why don't you move over there?" His voice was so dark, that the blonde teenager shuddered a little. She reached for the power button on her CD player.
"All right! All right! I'll turn my music off. Sheesh..." She pressed the button and the music died down. Sloan sighed with relief, and resumed his position in the chair.
"Man what a freak..." The teenager muttered almost happily behind up. The man's face turned red, and he whipped around.
"What did you say?!"
The teenager looked up in slight fear at the man's sudden outburst. Bree, sitting next to him, grabbed him by the shoulder. "Now, now, Sloan, watch that temper of yours." Bree gave the teenager a scolding look, and then returned her gaze to Sloan. "You don't want us thrown off the plane, now do you?"
The poacher sighed, and shook his head. He forgot all about the annoying teenager and sat back down. He felt that it wasn't worth his time to deal with the annoying blonde girl anyway. He stretched out his arms and legs, and yawned.
"Well, well Deborah, having a lovely time?"
The voice! It was so familiar! Sloan's eyes snapped open in shock, and anger. 'No...not here....anywhere but here! It can't be!' Sloan's face turned slight red in anger. He slowly turned his head around. There, standing next to the teenager was Nigel. There was no mistaken him. He was holding a bag of kippers in his hands. Some of the passengers were covering their noses as the disgusting smell seeped through the bag.
Sloan quickly turned around, and tried to make himself shorter. Bree noticed Sloan's behavior, and placed her hand on his shoulder. "Sloan?" The man turned his head towards her, his brow hardened with anger. Bree was taken aback by this. "What's wrong?"
Sloan growled under his breath. He opened his mouth to say the name, but couldn't bring himself to do it. So instead, he lifted up a hand, and gestured his thumb to the seat behind them. Bree turned and looked behind them. "Oh my....It's Nigel." Bree put her hands to her mouth. Now they really had to be on their guard. If Nigel discovered what they were, they'd be sent to prison for sure!
Bree understood Sloan's hatred towards the man. She hated him too with
a passion. But her husband's actions still baffled her. 'There's another
reason for him hating Nigel...I just know it.' But Sloan wasn't so
willing to give it up. So she decided to drop it...for now.
5 hrs later....
They had finally arrived in Africa. The plane landed at an airport somewhere in the Serengeti. Sloan and Bree got up from their seats and walked out of the plane and entered the airport. After their business was done, Sloan quickly grabbed a phone book. He skimmed the pages for Olaf's phone number.
He found the number, and dialed it. As he was doing this, Bree said, "I have to go to the bathroom. I'll be back in a few minutes." Sloan nodded and Bree walked off. Sloan finished dialing and he heard a click. Then he heard Olaf's voice on the other end of the line.
"Hello?"
"Hello, Olaf. It's me, Sloan Blackburn."
"Oh, hi, Sloan! Hey, long time no see!" Olaf sounded happy. He hadn't talked to Sloan in quite some time.
"Yeah...listen I....uh....need some help." Sloan sweated a little. He had never really asked for help before.
"Hmm? What is it?"
Sloan was about to answer when he saw Nigel again. He growled lowly, but softly so Olaf couldn't tell his anger. Nigel hadn't spotted him yet, but Sloan knew very well he couldn't let the man find out about his plans. He backed off a little, and whispered into the phone.
"Sorry, but I can't tell you just yet. Just meet me in Tembo Valley around 9 tonight." Sloan quickly put the phone back on the reciever before Olaf could say anything.
Sloan started walked towards the bathrooms to wait for Bree when he suddenly bumped into someone. He backed away, and brushed himself off. He glared at the man he ran into, and once he saw who it was, he gritted his teeth.
Nigel looked equally shocked to see Sloan. He stared into Sloan's eyes, and a look of fear was in his own blue eyes. Sloan's glare seemed to bore through the naturalist's heart.
"Y-You..?" Nigel said, voice laced with fear.
Sloan chuckled, and took a step forward. Nigel took a step back.
"Well," Sloan said darkly, "It's been a long time, hasn't it....big
brother...?"
End of chapter one. ; Yeah.....I decided to add in a little twist and make Nigel and Sloan brothers.