Chapter 13
"A Tiger By the Tail, Part 1"
With Daphne by my side, we headed towards the north of Discovery Island, trying to find more clues in whether or not Reverend Kane had his influence here in addition to River Country. Unlike River Country, the brush and overgrown weeds dominated much of the island and thus, we had to cut our way through.
"Everybody stay alert," I said to my team as I macheted through some more brush. "We don't know what to expect here."
Just then, I cut through some more brush and eventually, we found ourselves a clearing. But, much to our surprise, we were greeted supposedly by some signs warning people to not advance further on the island.
"I'd turn back if I were you," Daphne said, but unlike a famous character in "The Wizard of Oz," she didn't turn tail and run. "Who would put these signs here?"
"These must have been here since the island was closed off," remarked an FBI agent.
Daphne then looked down and saw a footprint right by one of her lilac boots. Bending down, she took a closer look at it.
"What is it, Daph?" I asked.
"Seems to me like these footprints are fresh," Daphne whispered, suddenly noticing a trail that led deep into more brush. "Freddie?"
Heeding Daphne's call, I came over and studied the footprints. They all looked too familiar, but we couldn't jump to any conclusions in the matter.
"Get these footprints analyzed," I ordered to the technician assigned to our group. "Let's go forward, guys."
And so we once again proceeded through the brush, cutting through whatever was in our way. As we cut through, more and more of the footprints were found. Now it was becoming more and more obvious that someone was here. Suddenly, we found what appeared to be several muddy patches where the footprints disappeared.
"We've got to cross it," I said, knowing that the only way to press forward was to go through the mud. "Daphne, I'm sorry about your shoes."
Taking a gulp, Daphne didn't like the prospect of ruining her wardrobe, especially after having her ribs broken.
"It's…fine," she said nervously, much more nervous of what was beyond the muddy brush. "I've had worse."
Taking a deep breath, I stepped into the mud and braved the mud that was now coming onto my shoes. Once I cleared the mud path, I cut some more of the brush and found another clearing.
…
Emerging from the clearing, I looked down and saw that the footprints weren't as recognizable as before. But, they all still had the same shape. I couldn't…no, it couldn't be. Could it?
Stepping into the clearing, we looked up and saw what appeared to be an abandoned bird sanctuary, judged from the abandoned bird perches that stood and floating softly in the wind.
"These used to be bird sanctuaries," Daphne remarked, trying to get the image of her muddied boots out of her mind. "From the looks of it, this particular one used to hold cranes."
"How'd you know that?"
"It says so right here," Daphne said, gesturing us to look at the small sign that hung on the fence of the sanctuary. "This used to be called Crane's Roost."
Then came an added bonus: right next to the Crane's Roost was apparently a wooden bridge. This must have led to the western part of the island. But, that was already covered.
"Let's head this way," I said, directing the group to a more northerly direction, but Daphne was starting to get a suspicion that something was up. "I sense something."
"Daphne, let's go further," I further said. "What do you think is over there?"
Suddenly, we heard what appeared to be a low growling sound in the bushes and the two agents with us immediately drew their guns. The growling continued to be heard for several more minutes and right away, I began to get a hunch we needed to leave.
"What is that?!" shrieked Daphne, jumping in fear. "Fred, what is that?!"
"Something tells me we'd better fall back," I whispered. "Whoever we are looking for…clearly doesn't want us here."
The growling continued and just through one of the brushes, a single glowing eye pointed at us before disappearing into the brush.
"I agree with you, Fred," Daphne said. "If there is someone out there, I don't want to be in rougher shape than I already am in."
"All right, let's fall back."
Acting on my orders, my team moved back towards the island's entrance. Then, we suddenly heard a bloodcurdling scream. It was our group's technician!
"Come on!" I yelled and we all ran and saw what appeared to be a shocking sight: it was a tiger, a bengal tiger attacking our screaming technician.
Taking the machete, I ran towards the beast and swung it at the tiger in an effort to scare it away, but it didn't work. The tiger turned to me and I swung it across the beast's face, just below it's eye. Drawing their guns, the two other agents opened fire on the tiger and it ran off, bleeding slightly from the cut I made with the machete.
The tiger had done serious damage to our technician as his arm was bleeding profusely and we had to get him off the island as quickly as possible.
"Give me the radio!" I cried to one of the agents, snatching the radio from his pocket, much to his annoyance. Taking the radio, I spoke into it. "Guys, get whatever evidence you can find and get back to the dock: there's a tiger on the loose!"
But the message came too late as I heard screams over the radio and they weren't any ordinary screams.
"Fred, that's Shaggy, Scooby and Velma!" Daphne cried.
Without anymore thoughts, I charged towards the source of the screams with the radio close to me as Daphne followed.
Could it be the same tiger that had just attacked us or could it be something else? And what about those footprints? They looked familiar but we needed more evidence to confirm…if we could get it.
But first, I needed to help Shaggy, Scooby and Velma.
…
…
