Chapter 33: Beware of Good Dog
Around lunchtime, Mr.Litwak and Stefanie left the pet shop to get some food, flicking off the main light switch and flipping over the 'Open' sign of the shop to the 'Closed' side ...leaving a still despondent Felix alone with the other animals.
The corgi watched as a parrot named Beat flew around joyfully and opened up the crates and cages that contained the other animals- as the bird always did when the owner of the pet shop left. As long as they were all back and locked up in their places before Mr.Litwak got back, the oblivious man never knew of the animals' excursions inside his shop while he was absent.
Once all the respected animals were allowed out, they all made their way towards the back of the petshop were the small, dimly lit break room was. The creatures always gathered there when they could; it was like a well-needed break for themselves.
Mopping along inside the break room himself, Felix numbly saw on a large shelf, Mr.Litwak's two-channeled, tiny box tv was still turned on. The tv brightly lit up the dingy little room a little more as the twelve o'clock news came on, scrolling random headlines at the bottom of the screen.
Ignoring it, the downhearted corgi looked around the rest of the room and unsurprising saw nothing really looked much different than yesterday. The break room still had its usual shambles and cluttery mess- although today, Felix could admit, it looked a little worse for the wear.
Stacks upon stacks of unfinished paperwork that Mr.Litwak was notorious for always having around were scattered all over on a desk that was already on the small size. Sharpies and rolls of tape were strewn all over the desk as well, making the poor, flimsy desk that much smaller. A tall retro 80s lamp, usually standing right beside the desk, was pushed over to one side. It's brightly colored shade was slightly askew and shining the lamp's bright light on the old, worn out copier 'ole man Litwak swore he'd replace soon enough.
But upon taking in the unorganized mess, Felix' eyes caught something in the copier's paper tray- a type of paper he had never seen before. It was bright neon orange and was in larger squares than normal paper was...
Shaking Felix from his curiosity, Skrillex the rabbit came bouncing in abruptly- hopping right atop the copier. As Beat landed on the lampshade and successfully shooed the hare away, Skrillex clumsily knocked off some the pieces of bright orange paper onto the ground as he scrambled off the copier.
As Felix tiptoed over and peered closer at a piece of the thick, huge paper, he was shocked to read the words 'LOST! $100 dollar reward' written in bold print with a black sharpie...
And his stomach and heart flipped-flopped in unison when he saw a huge picture of happy-looking Ralph glued right in the middle of the paper.
"Man, did you see all the customers we had this morning?" Gene suddenly asked Mary enthusiastically as they filed in the room as well- causing the gulping corgi to shake more. "There were at least thirty!"
"More like twice that many!" the maltese countered happily, pausing in walking to scratch behind her white-furred ears.
Beside them, Bob smirked as they all lumbered into the small break room.
"It doesn't matter how many exactly there were," he laughed out. "The point is there was a lot!"
"I wondered what lead to so many people coming in today," Glen wondered out loud as he slowly trudged behind the pack. "Why do you think there were so many people today, Felix?"
But the corgi didn't -couldn't- answer. He was too busy disheartedly staring down at the picture of Ralph, a similar twist forming in his small corgi stomach.
He was so deep in gut-wrenching thought that Felix hadn't even realized that Gene had scampered across the room to where he stood - or that the pug was peering disgustedly down at the same picture he was.
"Oh, I think we all know why we had so many customers today," Gene snorted as if it was all too obvious, turning around to face the others and sat his pug bottom down with emphasis. "It's because a certain ugly, so-call 'guard dog' wasn't out front scaring people away today as usual!"
His large orange ears twitching, Felix bit his lip. Hard.
Say somethin', Felix! the corgi's mind immediately began to push him, egging him to do something- to say something. Defend Ralph like you should've done earlier!!!
But the corgi couldn't force himself to even open his mouth, his mind unable to successfully convince him to stand up for the runaway mastiff. All he could do was miserably eye down at the poster, his gut kicking him even more.
He found himself quickly shocked, though, when Mary gasped in response to the pug's accusation.
"Gene!" she hissed, her furry, angry face illuminated even more so by the glow of the old tv as she narrowed her eyes at the pug spoken to. "Ralph has only been gone for a few hours! Show some respect!"
Rolling his eyes at her reprimanding, Gene huffed- then allowed his face to soften into a look of bliss.
"Right. He's gone," he sighed almost dreamfully. "Hopefully gone for go-"
"Hey, what's going on on the news?" Bob interrupted as he stared up at the TV, a news story just beginning to play out- with a picture of their pet shop as the cover story.
Every animals' eyes dragged up towards the news story, where a professional newscaster sat behind a desk. Even Felix forced his eyes away from being glued to the photo of Ralph. Sighing, he weaved his way through the crowd of animals to peer up at the box tv himself.
"...Most of our viewers will likely recall that several months ago, a masked man broke into a local pet shop entitled 'Mr. Litwak's One-Stop Petshop'", the newscaster began, her face stoic and serious as she held some papers in her hands. "He was immediately attacked by the shop's fierce, outside guard dog named Ralph and was lead to a hospital with the need of several stitches on his right leg..."
"Hey! I remember that!" Bob barked out happily as he long wagged his tail in remembrance.
"Well, no duh!" Glen snipped back by his feet, the turtle finally in the room. "That's probably because it happened here, moron!"
"Shh!" Felix hissed as politely as he could, his large blue eyes still staring up at the tv with a growing feeling of nostalgia...and anxiety.
"...one of the worse in the state, with a grand total of 25 stitches needed on his right shin and calf," the newscaster continued. "Afterwards, the masked man was hauled off to jail on a count of attempted burglary and theft..."
"Wow, I forgot the robber had to get that many stitches on his leg," Mary awed out loud. "Ralph can really pack quite the bite."
"Could," Gene snuggly reminded her- his face still filled with glee. "He could pack quite the punch."
"SHH!" The corgi in front of them growled once more, slightly louder -and harsher- than last time as his ears flattened up against his head.
"...it's been discovered that the man behind bars has been proven guilty of extreme cases of animal abuse in the past, with several serious accounts of animals cruelty charged against him." The woman reporting the story paused when a picture of the man was shown on screen. "And now a current, on-going investigation is being held to see if the man is a suspect of owning an animal experiment laboratory that was in operation not too far south of the town of Arcadia, in the town of..."
"WHAT?!" Deanna/Dina suddenly cried as she sunk down lower into her place, allowing none to hear what the newscaster was saying next. "That's INSANE!"
"...where, coincidentally, the source of where the mutated scorpions seem to be streaming from...," the newscaster continued pointedly, just audible to Felix' ears over the surrounding animals' whispering.
Bob suddenly shuttered out loud as a new thought occurred to him.
"Wait...if that horrible man did own that kind of place...is-is that why he broke into our pet shop in the first place?" He gulped out to the others. "To get more animals... to experiment on? To abuse?!"
A collective gasped was past around the room as the disturbing revelation was made, each animals' eyes wide and deeply, deeply afraid.
"That, that means-" Glen broke off as he shot all four legs deep inside his shell in fright.
"...He might have used us for some wacko animal experiment, had he gotten a hold of any of us!" Gene finished for the turtle as a cold chill of pure shock ran up his spine. "He could've used us as some freak experiments! Us as toys for abuse!!"
Although such a horrid thought forced its way into his own mind, Felix scooted closer to the TV to hear better.
"Everyone PLEASE be quiet!" He begged in his southern accent, silencing everyone for the time being.
"...the horrible animal abuse facility was shut down since the man was placed into custody," the newswoman happily stated- although some strange weariness was win her voice still. "And the facility has currently been renovated into an animal hospital/animal adoptive services center for homeless animals..."
"That's good, at least," Mary said as a breath she didn't realize she was holding escaped her lips. "The horrible laboratory was shut down..."
"...however," the young newswoman continued dramatically, her voice noticeably darker than before, "it has been reported that there may be some suspects still on loose in connection with the man behind bars- and the shutdown, horrendous experimental lab. As you viewers know, a number of break-ins have taken place the past few days from all over Arcadia and the neighboring towns- all unusually seeming to be targeting various animal-related places. Each break-in is being investigated carefully- and, according to Officer Croft, the leader of Arcadia's finest K-9 officers of Hero's Duty, each break-in could potentially be linked to the possible, on-the-run co-owners of the once-active animal lab..."
"Wait...break-ins are happening again?!" Mary whined out in panic- before her eyes widened to the size of saucers as a sudden, traumatizing thought occurred to her.
"What if - what if they break in here?!" she cried, causing another gasp to spread like wildfire around the room, every pet wide-eyed with pure panic.
"Guys, guys! Please!" Felix tried in vain to get his friends to calm down enough so he could hear the rest of the story. "That won't-"
"And if they do break in here," a voice interrupted, "we won't- we won't-"
"...we won't have Ralph here to protect us now..." Gene ironically finished for them, staring straight ahead in sudden horror.
Before he could even use his calming tone and voice to calm everyone down, Felix watched in horror as the shocking revelation had already sent out. A panic-stricken wave of loud, horrified shrieks began ringing between the animals, their bodies shaking in paralyzing fear- and causing a rippling effect on each other.
Mary nearly fainted on Skrillex, unable to process the sickening thought of being used as an animal experiment. In response, Skrillex hopped sporadically- and crashed into the lamp, causing it to fall over and making some of the smaller animals in its a path scramble out of the way.
Glen completely disappeared from total sight as he drew back into his shell- which got step on by a clumsy, shaking Lucy. As it slipped from underneath her paw, the shell somehow ricocheted off the floor and up onto the desk. Multiple stacks of papers were knocked over at the force of the turtle's shell, causing papers to fly around and do flips and turns as they sailed through the air- making the scene that much more chaotic.
"WOULD EVERYONE PLEASE SHUT THEIR SNOUTS!" An angry, irritated southern voice exclaimed through the madness, making everyone freeze in their spot.
Now silent and still, the group of on-edge animals turned to stare at a furious Felix. They'd never heard the good dog yell before- or seen him quite this angry before, shaking slightly in his spot as his ears stood straight up...yet, somehow, he still was found to be adorable even with his scowling face.
Thankful to gain everyone's attention, the corgi took a calming breath and closed his eyes as a few stray papers continued to fall around him.
"Please...everyone. There's no need to panic," he told the group, his voice now calmer and soft- instantly causing the desired effect of peace to spread among the other animals. "There's not a break-in happenin' now, so please, just-"
He was cut off when an ill-timed, forceful click was heard from the front door... causing every animal -including a startled Felix himself- to turn their heads slowly towards the sound and freeze in pure panic.
