Fell That Tree
"Private!" Hunter grunted and frowned at the boulder before her.
A mop of black hair and baby blue eyes peeked from the top. "What?"
"I can't climb up. This boulder is impossible. How did you even get up there?"
He merely grinned down at her. "Do you want my help now?"
Hunter rolled her eyes and held both hands up. "Please?" Private smiled and reached down to grab her hand before helping her up.
"You're welcome."
"Whatever." She mumbled as she settled down beside him, dangling her legs over the edge. "What's so cool about this place anyway?"
"Nothing really. I just like hanging around here." A reminiscent look passed his face and Hunter watched him with a raised brow.
"And?" She pressed with a smile and gently nudged him. "What are you not telling me?"
Private sighed and stared ahead, leaning on his hands. "Skipper and I used to come here." He nodded forward and looked at his friend. "When we were younger."
"How about now?"
"He has been busy. But I don't mind. We still get to hang out, even if it's not like back then." The boy simply said, sending a soothing yet uncomfortable silence to land between them. Hunter swung her feet back and forth, humming for a while, before she sighed and placed a hand on Private's shoulder.
"We should probably get back." She got to her feet and held out a hand to him. He took it and got to his feet. "They're probably looking for us." Private giggled and Hunter lightly shoved him. "What?"
"You said 'probably' twice. Miss Know-It-All lacking words?" He teased with a grin and poked her.
She rolled her eyes playfully and shoved him again. "Whatever. Whee!" She jumped down from the boulder," oof!", wiped her hands and got up as Private landed beside her on his feet. She frowned at him. "Show-off."
He shrugged and walked off, stopping only to find a pine cone. "Found a pine cone." The girl ran up to him, grabbed the pine cone and examined it.
"Cool..." She turned to him with a grin and tossed the pine cone up and down. "I say, the first person who reaches the camp AND gets the most pine cones, wins." Private grinned, grabbed the pine cone and ran off.
"You're on!"
"Private! No fair!"
Skipper paced before the board the group had set up. The evidences were pinned to it, with drawings, notes and pictures included.
"What do we have so far, Kowalski?"
The man didn't move from his position in front of the board, adding notes to the clipboard in hand. "A man in a black leather jacket approximately broke into the station less than an hour ago, stole the Key deer and the snub-nosed snake and dashed off. It's a theory, but I don't think one guy could have run off with a deer AND the snake."
"So, he had an accomplice?"
"Precisely. Maybe a couple, maybe more. We don't know." Skipper paused as Marlene got up and frowned at Kowalski.
"But Rico found footprints outside."
"Oh right." The scientist looked up at the board before him and plucked a picture off it. "Three, no, two pairs of boots. Hiking boots." Skipper walked up to him and studied the picture himself. "These people came prepared."
"For what?"
Kowalski sighed and let his hands hang by his side as he faced the man. "For once, I don't know."
Skipper shook his head and slapped the picture on the other's chest. "You will know." He patted him. "You're Kowalski. You've got a PhD in what? Botany?"
"Chemical Ecology..." He spoke in a dreary tone.
Skipper waved him away. "Same thing."
"Not really..."
"The thing is, you can do this."
Kowalski sighed and raised the clipboard, murmuring under his breath. "But can you?" Skipper paused in mid turn and turned back to Kowalski with a raised brow.
"What was that, Kowalski?" The scientist was already back to the board, frowning at a certain piece of evidence and its picture.
"The bullet just doesn't match up."
"No," Skipper frowned but he dismissed the earlier statement and turned to the bullet too, "it doesn't. What would a gun holding, jacket wearing man do with a Key deer and a snake?"
"Wait," Kowalski blinked and stared at Skipper in shock, "did you just say Key deer?"
"...I was so first." Hunter stood her ground with a pout on her face and arms crossed.
Private shook his head. "No way. I was first."
"I," Hunter punctuated the word as she jumped before Private, smirking at the height difference that allowed her to look down on him, "was first."
"It was me, Hunter."
"I touched the tree first!"
"No, I did."
"Nuh-uh! I did."
"No, I did."
"No," a twig snapped somewhere near them and the two's eyes widened.
"Did you hear that?" Private whispered to Hunter, who frowned.
"Why are you whispering?"
"Why are you whispering?" Private shook his head and covered her mouth. "Enough." Hunter rolled her eyes as if to say, 'you started this'. "I think it came from over there." The boy dropped his hand and crouched forward. Hunter rolled her eyes again before following him, leaving their discarded pine cone pile.
They had been walking for a while though it felt like hours to Hunter due to the extremely slow pace they were at. The girl was about to tap Private and ask him something when he pulled her down and covered her mouth again to prevent the squeak of surprise coming out of her mouth. He placed a finger from the other hand over his mouth and pointed around the tree they were hiding behind. Hunter furrowed her brows at the gesture, but froze when a chilling and unfamiliar voice spoke.
"Surround the place." The unmistakable sound of a gun being reloaded echoed. "Make sure to the screams to a minimum. We don't need them, to know what we're doing here."
"What are we doing again, boss?" Another voice asked, along with one more.
"Yeah, and what will you do, boss?"
"How many times do I have to go over this?" The first voice sighed as the two kids looked at each other. "You're supposed to keep the kids in the cage, along with the other counselors and owners, or whoever decides to be at a lousy, dumb camp. I'll go have a meeting with that Jacobs guy."
"Hunter, this is bad. We," Private started and turned back to Hunter, "Hunter? Where did you,"
"It's not a lousy, dumb camp!" Private's jaw dropped in horror when he realized where the voice was coming from. "It's a camp made for the rights of kids and the wildlife that resides here! This is place of recreation and or paradise! It's not lousy, and it's not dumb, you dummy!"
"Hunter!" Private glared at the girl as he got to his feet. "What are you doing?"
"They just called the camp lousy! I'm going to show you lousy, mister." The girl raised a fist threateningly and marched forward. Private pulled her back just as one of the three men pointed at them and smacked the heads of the ones beside him.
"Don't just stand there, you fools! Get them!"
The two looked at each other before running off.
"...you can't be serious." Skipper stared at Kowalski, completely deadpanned. "Another, endangered species?"
"Skipper," Kowalski chuckled, "you're like a magnet for miracles! Not that miracles are real, nor is luck, it's just-"
Skipper shook his head and crossed his arms. "I just found another endangered species? And it's now in the hands of a possibly dangerous group of criminals who might want me out of the game?" The excitement from earlier on died. "This is not a miracle. I'm a walking disaster. What else is going to go wrong?" Marlene lightly thwacked the back of his head and frowned at him.
"Don't be so pessimistic, Skippy. You'll get those animals back. You just have to believe in yourself."
"You sound like Private." He sighed and shook his head again. "And where would I find those animals, Marlene? We don't even know why this is happening or who is doing this. It's hopeless!"
"Stop being so negative, Skipper! Can't you see what you've done?"
"What I've done is brought utter shame to my dad!" He sighed when he saw the surprised look on Marlene's face and looked down. "I'm a disgrace to the family...I promised that I would keep this on, but the place is falling apart. And it's all my fault...I never should've," he sighed deeply, "never should've promised something I couldn't keep."
"Just have faith, Skipper." She softly told him, a hand placed on the side of his face gently. "I'll be back later with Private. I hope you can figure something out by then." She hesitated for a bit before leaning in to kiss his cheek. She quickly backed away with her head down and murmured a 'Good luck' before walking out the door.
Skipper blinked after her with a hand lingering on his reddening cheek. The clearing of a throat brought his attention to the other two occupants of the room, both of which were staring at him.
"Um..." He pulled at his collar and licked his lips, not meeting their eyes. "I believe, we," the man struggled to find words.
"Need to investigate further?" Kowalski supplied and Skipper nodded awkwardly.
"Rico," he grabbed his hat and placed it on his head, "lead the way. Where did you find those prints?"
Rico raised a brow at him, looked at Kowalski who was trying his best not to smirk, and shrugged before doing as he was told.
"This is bad!" Hunter shouted over to Private as the two ran from the men. "Very bad!"
"Nobody asked you to go all 'don't mess with me'!" He shouted back and ducked under a log as Hunter jumped over it.
"Nobody asked your opinion either, smart guy!"
"Hey," the two rushed past Marlene, "guys? Guys, where are you going in such a rush?"
"No time, Marlene! We're being chased by bad guys!" Hunter called over her shoulder before stopping short. Private did the same as the two looked back. Marlene stared back at them wide eyed, with one man keeping her hands behind her back while the other covered her mouth. "Whale blubber!" Hunter stomped a foot and frowned. "This wasn't supposed to happen!"
"Well," the man covering Marlene's mouth sneered at her, "it just did. Now, be good little kiddos and, yeow!" He shook his hand as Marlene snorted and snapped her teeth at him.
"You should clean your hands. And get yours off me!" She squashed the foot of the one holding her and elbowed him when he let go of her. She made her way to the two kids, keeping them behind her. "You people have got to be out of your minds to do this to us." The two men got up and glared at her.
"You're so dead, Missy." He reached for something in his jacket, but a pine cone hit his hand. "Hey!" Another fell on his head.
Hunter threw another pine cone and then another. "Nobody talks to Marlene like that! Take that!" Private and Marlene looked at each other before grabbing a handful of the pine cones the two had left behind and started throwing them. "And that!" The men's cries of pain and the small objects rained upon them. They started backing away, before taking off into a run. "Oh yeah!" Hunter threw down the pine cone in hand. "The pine cones win! High five, guys!" She held up both hands to her friends, but they were already talking to each other.
"Who are those people?"
"Marlene," Private looked about nervously, "those men are planning to take over the camp."
"What?"
Hunter, forgetting their lack of participation in her celebratory 'party', nodded.
"Yep. We need to stop them. We need Skipper." Marlene crossed her arms and frowned at the girl.
"Now you like him? Just a few hours ago, you told him he was awful."
"I didn't say I didn't like him or that he was awful. I just said he could lose his job." The girl paused and tapped her lip. "Now that I think of it, it does kinda sound negative."
Marlene rolled her eyes, grabbed her hand and started pulling her away. "Let's go. We," the trio stopped as they met with the sight of Skipper, Kowalski and Rico, staring back at them.
"Skipper." The bravado Marlene had almost fell away, but she held it up as her fingers dug into the shoulders of the kids before her.
"Marlene, are you alright?" Skipper frowned at her for a while and she gave him a weak smile, unable to form the words to inform him of recent events.
"We just got hustled by a couple of gunmen." Hunter stated quietly as she stared at her sneakers.
"What?" Skipper's eyes went over them quickly, scanning for any sign of harm.
"Well," Hunter mused, "I think they had guns. I didn't see any."
"I did." All eyes turned to Private, who played with the hem of his shirt before looking up. "The third guy was holding one. I think he's the leader." Kowalski stepped forward and whipped out a Zip lock bag, containing the golden piece of metal.
"They wouldn't happen to have been fitted with this, would they?"
"Actually..." The boy frowned as he observed the object in the bag. "Wait, where did you get this? I thought guns weren't allowed here?"
"Answer the question, Private."
Private nodded and the grim look returned to Skipper's face.
"What are they doing here?" The man asked and Hunter huffed.
"I think the question should be, 'what are you doing here?'. Shouldn't we be going after the bad guys? Like, right now?"
Rico shook his head and crossed his arms. "No 'we'. Tu dang'ru."
"What are you talking about? There is no way I'm waiting around for a bunch of fools to take over my camp!" She stood on a conveniently placed flat rock before him and poked him in the chest. "And you're not going to stop me." Rico raised a brow, looked over at Skipper who seemed to be thinking over something before nodding and glancing at Marlene. "Hey!" Hunter protested when Rico hoisted Hunter over one shoulder then made his way to Marlene. "Agh...I so hate this..."
The lady shook her head and backed away. "Whoa there, cowboy. I can totally-eek! Rico," Marlene slammed her fists into Rico's back, "put me down! Put me down!"
He turned to Skipper, who nodded in the direction they came from. "Bring them back. Then go follow those tracks while we deal with this. As for you," he turned to Private, who gulped, "I think you know what I'm going to say."
"Yes sir." The boy nodded and followed Rico. Hunter huffed again and glared at her friend.
"Coward."
I am serious about the ending of this. Should be in the next chapter.
XD Funny thing, I had a complete different idea for this...but it came out like this. I think I'll just do another story with that idea. ;)