BEGINNINGS
6 - The Snake and the Mongoose
By the time Pet was thirteen, she had shown excellent tracking skills as well as the ability to fight and usually overcome many dangerous animals with Muldoon's assistance behind a rifle. She also had her godfather to thank for some of her knowledge in tracking, hunting and aiming skills with a rifle and pistol.
It surprised everyone how resilient she was, mostly in part to her naturally thick skin and endurance. It took quite a lot of persuasion on Muldoon's part to convince Hammond to allow Pet to tag along when tracking and tagging animals for the zoo, given the wealthy man's growing fondness and concern for the hybrid. After Hammond saw for himself the potential the hybrid had after joining an animal tagging excursion, he finally agreed. Once Lockwood saw what she was capable of, he was overly ecstatic to have her join the employee roster at Animal Kingdom.
With that, she began wearing a more traditional safari attire consisting of khaki shorts and a white tank top worn beneath a khaki button-down shirt. Even Lockwood contributed to her makeshift 'uniform' by having custom hiking boots made for her raptor-like feet.
Around and around it spun as the sounds of sizzling came from a slice of pizza rotating in a black microwave. Its delicious aroma was filling every corner of the game warden office. Muldoon looked from his newspaper to see Pet still hadn't moved from the front of the microwave viewing pane.
He spoke. "The bloody thing won't cook any faster with you gawking at it."
The hybrid gave a sideways stare from her current, bent over position. She snorted as she curled her upper lip to bare her sharp-angled teeth. "And your nagging won't make me sit down either."
The game warden sucked on the toothpick that protruded from his tense mouth and continued to read his newspaper. "We do have work to do, just to let you know."
"When I'm done with lunch."
The man flipped a page. "Eat it on the way."
"Remember the last time we worked before I got to eat?" She shot another sideways glance at her best friend and guardian. The man met her gaze and scowled in warning. "That's what I thought." Pet went back to staring at the sizzling pizza; her nose nearly pressed up against the glass.
Seated off to the side was another game warden, a black man, who was second in seniority beneath Muldoon. He never looked away from his filling out paperwork when he spoke up. "Here we go again."
Pet hissed. "Hush it, Jophrey. No comments from the peanut gallery."
The man, Jophrey, chuckled to himself.
Muldoon walked over to the hybrid with the newspaper rolled up in hand and smacked her on the back of the head with it. "It's done. Grab it and let's go."
Pet stood upright and snorted at the game warden in annoyance. She loathed his occasional hitting her with his newspapers. "That's it." She ran over in the direction the man walked in and jumped onto his back, hooking her sickle raptor claws in his belt. He hated it when she did that as it tended to ruin his belts.
"Pet, you brat, get off me!" He continued to swat her on the head with the newspaper even more.
"Stop hitting me with that damn paper!" Pet snapped. Frantically, she tried to grab at his swinging hand as he turned his back towards a wall and slammed her into it. She felt the air get knocked out of her lungs and wheezed, "Not cool..." It took her a couple of moments to regain composure, but this time she managed to grab the newspaper from the man. She then proceeded to hit him with it in return. "You like that?"
Muldoon slammed the hybrid into the wall again, the girl wrapping her arms around his chest to hang on. Again, she was slammed into the wall, this time harder. He could feel her grip on him loosen and reacted quickly to the advantage. He grabbed her feet to pry her sickle claws from his belt and then reached for her arms wrapped around his chest and shoulders. With a harsh tug, he jerked the hybrid off his back and pinned her to the floor.
Pet winced in slight pain and breathlessly stated, "You bastard."
"Don't ever do that again." Muldoon glared at her in warning, and she could see the seriousness in the man's eyes. She weakly snorted a bark in response.
Hammond's voice then echoed through the warden shack. "Will you two stop messing around and explain to me why I don't have an Egyptian Saw-scaled Viper on display yet?"
Muldoon gave Pet a final stare and got to his feet to respond. "We were about to head out, sir." He looked at Pet, still sprawled out on the floor in a daze from being knocked around and tackled.
Hammond shook his head. "Looked to me like a child's game." The game warden glanced down at the hybrid attempting to get up and outstretched a hand towards her for assistance. She studied it for a moment, half expecting him to pull another stunt on her and after deeming him sincere in gesture, accepted it. "Get to work. I want that snake before dark." Hammond turned and left the warden office as Pet shot a clawed middle finger in the air in his wake.
Muldoon swatted the hybrid's hand and grabbed up his rifle he had leaned against his desk. The hybrid, however, went to the microwave first before she retrieved her gun and popped open the door. "Ah hell…I burned it again." She picked up the pizza by the crust with her claws and frowned.
Jophrey closed the folder of paperwork and slid it off to the side. "What else is new? You're the only person I know who can burn water."
Pet growled to herself. "Why do I have to go? Why can't Jophrey go instead?"
Jophrey answered. "Because I have to help tag two new crocodiles being delivered to the zoo today."
Muldoon slid a spare loaded rifle magazine into a pouch clipped to his belt. He looked over to the hybrid to check on her status as she slung her rifle over her shoulder. "Ready?"
She grabbed a soda out of the fridge and nodded. "I am now."
"Good."
The two left the warden shack and proceeded to where an army green nineteen-eighty Jeep Wrangler was parked nearby. They loaded into the vehicle and drove away, out into the hot Africa sun. An hour later they were parked off a dirt road and gathering their equipment they would need for handling a very deadly snake.
"Remember what I told you, Pet," Muldoon stated.
The hybrid grabbed a beige drawstring bag out of the back end of the Jeep and hoisted a snake hook over her shoulder. "This isn't my first-time snake hunting or capturing, Robert. I know what to do." She grabbed her last bite of pizza to stuff into her mouth and turned to leave.
He gave her a disapproving glare as she started to run the snake hook through the knee-high grass and shrubbery in a side-to-side manner. Muldoon sighed and gathered his things and followed suit twelve feet from the side, away from his partner.
Nearly two hours later, the African sun was still as hot as it had been earlier that day as not a word was said between Pet and Muldoon.
Pet leaned her snake hook against her. She reached for her canteen she had clipped to her belt and uncapped it. "Feel the burn…it means it's working." Muldoon eyed her and shook his head.
The hybrid took a deep swig of water and poured a little in her hand to blot on her face. Pet recapped her canteen and shoved it back into its belt pouch. Muldoon just resumed his combing through the tall grass with his snake hook. Pet continued to do the same.
Muldoon took a step forward when a sizzling sound got his attention. He froze and slowly brought his hook to where a partial sun-scorched bush grew. Ever so slowly, he lifted a limb as the distinct sound became louder and faster. There, coiled beneath the branches was an Egyptian Saw-scaled Viper, its various shades of brown scales glistening in the visible sun.
Pet heard the sound and stood motionless. Muldoon didn't say anything, but there was a look in his eyes that gripped the girl with fear. Her eyes fell to the bush that sat less than two feet away from his left leg and shook her head. He slowly lowered the bush's low hanging branches when the source of the sizzling struck out from under it and at his exposed leg.
Pet saw the event take place and screamed, "Robert!" The hybrid dropped her stuff where she stood and raced to where the man was. The snake recoiled and prepared to strike back at the man grabbing at the severely painful and now bleeding bite. Pet leaped over the bush and landed between the snake and her friend to see the snake poised for another strike. "Move it, Rob, get out of here!"
Muldoon unfastened his belt and acted quickly to form a tourniquet six inches above the bite on his calf muscle. He groaned behind clenched teeth, "Bloody hell that fucking hurt." The snake struck out at Pet, but she avoided it and swung a clawed hand at the snake's head to knock it over. The snake hissed again and recoiled itself. Muldoon crawled backward to a safe distance and dug around in his pockets for his pocket knife. "Shit. Shit!" He remembered his knife was in the Jeep's center console. "Pet, I need my knife!" His panicked mind thought about going to the Jeep, but it was a quarter mile away in the distance. "Pet!"
Muldoon watched the snake continue to strike out at the girl the more she tried to back away. Muldoon tightened the belt around his leg and watched the blood from the bite run onto his boot. He hoped he would be able to bleed some of the venom out as he grabbed at the sore and swollen area.
Again, Pet swiped at the snake and let out a growl like screech when she dodged another attack. Muldoon could feel the heat from the African sun become hotter as he started to feel lightheaded. He tried to sit up but found himself feeling even sicker when attempting to move. He could still see Pet, though, swiping at the snake each time it tried to attack her. It was like the famous battle between a snake and a mongoose. The hybrid gathered a handful of dirt and tossed it at the snake when it struck at her once more. This time, Pet didn't swipe at it to knock it down but instead grabbed it by its head. She then used her raptor-like inner toe to pin down the snake's lower body. The hybrid dug her sickle claw into the snake's vulnerable belly scales and then bit into its neck. She could feel its signature saw like scales dig into her hands and lips, but didn't let it stop her from biting at it again. The hybrid continued to gnaw away chunks of the snake's neck until the head, and the body were separate from each other. She paused, taking in the fresh taste of blood from her kill.
Pet wiped the blood away from her mouth and smirked at the head still in her hand. "You done goofed." She paused and shot a terrified look over her shoulder. "Robert!" She then dashed to where he laid, huddled up in a ball and tightly gripping his leg. "Come on, Robby, you with me?"
"What took you so long?" His voice was barely a whisper. Pet looked at the bloody mess on his leg and whimpered.
She nodded her head to herself in knowing what she needed to do. "We need to drain it."
"It's too late…You should have done that immediately after it happened."
She shook her head. "No, no it's only been a couple of minutes." Pet could tell the belt was on so tight that the man's leg was becoming discolored from lack of blood flow. "Do you trust me?"
Muldoon met her gaze and saw blood coming from her mouth. "What?"
"Do you trust me? It will hurt like hell, but it's the only way." The man didn't answer. "Damn it Robert, do you trust me?"
The man choked out, "Yes, yes I trust you."
The hybrid grabbed one of the man's hands and their gazes locked onto one another. He could barely make out her large raptor-like foot as he felt pressure from a sharp claw just above the bite. "One…" Robert tightly gripped the girl's hand. "Two…"
"Three!" A sharp pain tore through his leg, and he yelled out in pain. A moment later he felt the hybrid start to suck on the now claw slashed, snake bite. After a couple of seconds, he saw her spit a mouth full of blood out only to resume sucking out the remaining poison from the bite.
Pet could feel the man wince in pain and worked fast to drain what she could. She spit out another mouthful of bitter tasting blood. "Breathe, relax…I'm almost done." She took another bite and sucked out more of the venom. She continued to do this for several minutes and after bleeding out what she could of the bite she stopped. She wiped at her mouth and grabbed her canteen to pour water on the raw wound. "You still with me?"
"Go to hell."
The hybrid cocked an eyebrow and grabbed the man up from the ground. "Don't worry I got you." She shouldered most of his weight and glanced around to find where the Jeep was. She frowned at how far away it seemed to be. "Are you feeling ok?"
"How would you feel if you got bit by a snake only to have your leg damn near eaten off by a human raptor hybrid?"
Pet adjusted her grip on the man. "I don't know. Let me go get bit and gnaw my leg off."
"Smart ass."
Pet heard an almost laugh come from the man and was relieved to know he seemed like he would be okay. Not long into their trek, Muldoon nearly collapsed. Pet knew what she needed to do. "Okay, looks like the fireman carry for you."
"You can't carry me." Muldoon found otherwise and was extremely surprised by it.
When she got to the Jeep, she assisted him into the back seat. She felt very out of breath and fatigued all over. He was much heavier than she thought he'd be. "Prop your leg up, so the blood doesn't rush so much to your heart. I'll be back."
She handed the man her canteen and jogged back in the direction she came from. Less than ten minutes later she was back at the Jeep and panting for air after having run around to gather the abandoned equipment. She jumped into the driver's seat and got the keys out of the center console.
Meanwhile, Muldoon had started to slowly undo the tourniquet from his leg so as not to cause a sudden rush of blood to his heart. He hoarsely spoke. "I guess you're going to tell me you know how to drive, too?"
Pet pressed the clutch all the way down and started the ignition. "Are you going to tell me I can't do that, either?" With a bloody clawed hand, she threw the Jeep into first gear and took off.
"Since when?"
She shot him a smile over her shoulder. "Jophrey taught me. Remember the week you were gone to that conference with Hammond and Lockwood? Yeah…I wasn't just sitting on my hands or cleaning the guns."
Robert chuckled and tried not to focus on the pain surging in his leg. "That's my Pet." The rush of air over his fevered body felt good. "What would I do without you?"
"Probably be dead or dying, especially now."
Pet grabbed the radio and called over for medical assistance. Almost thirty minutes later, she pulled up to the back entrance of the zoo's emergency clinic section located near the veterinary building. It was there that she and Muldoon were greeted by a team of standby emergency medical technicians.
Hammond followed the bustling med team to the Jeep and scowled at the situation. "What happened?" He watched as Muldoon was placed on a collapsible canvas gurney and wheeled inside for emergency care until an ambulance from the city could arrive.
Pet replied. "He was bitten by a snake. An Egyptian Saw-scaled Viper to be exact."
Hammond's face went to a twisted sort of smile. "You got the specimen, I hope."
The hybrid stared at the man in disbelief. Was he that selfish to not care about anyone else, but himself? Muldoon had just been bitten and possibly could've been in a much worse condition than now, and all the wealthy man could care about was a damn snake? Pet went to the Jeep to retrieve the beige sack out of the passenger seat floorboard and handed it to the man.
He noticed there was a fair amount of blood coming from the bag and scoffed. "I wanted it alive."
Pet gave him a snarled glare. "I would rather kill something I can go back out and replace then lose someone I can't." The hybrid walked towards the clinic door. "Besides, you never specified you wanted it alive or dead." She swung the door open and smirked over her shoulder. "You just said you wanted the snake before dark."
Hammond opened the bag to see the ravaged snake's body and its clouded, lifeless eyes look up at him. He closed the bag and gritted his teeth in anger.
