"John, what are you doing here?" The head ICU nurse called, as the trio approached where she was setting, near the road and away from the train tracks, giant cat snuggled up to her with it's head in her lap and loud purring clearly audible. "I thought you were supposed to be dealing with kids, not cats."
"The kids are on spring break this week so I offered to help out with this." John told her."I hope it wasn't too hard to get the cat off the tracks."
"I grabbed Dr. Stevens' dinner. A good thing he always brings tuna." Amanda said with a laugh. "Did someone figure out where this cat actually came from? Because with the color, I'm wondering if someone tried to dye its fur."
"It's an exotic cat. We think it might have been in transit from a wildlife group and got loose." Edie told her. She wasn't entirely sure what would be best to tell the woman about the situation. Normally, the MIB would automatically cover up anything alien related, but if she was convinced this was just a funny looking earth cat, was that the best approach?
"Well, she's definitely friendly." Amanda said. "I wish some of the ferals I've had to handle were more like her. I don't think she's hurt or anything either, thank goodness. Her fur's still kind of damp. She apparently got into water somewhere at some point, and she had a ton of plants caught in her fur. I tried to get as much out as I could. I didn't want her to eat something that I didn't know what it might be."
"Eating strange plants, not a good idea." Zara said. "We really appreciate your getting her off the tracks and somewhere safe."
"I was glad to do it. I hate to think of what the transit authorities might have done other wise. Do you need any more help with her?"
"I think we have it." John said. "And I think I see Mr. Singh pulling up too."
"Wonderful! I have one nurse out on maternity leave and another in a cast, so they definitely need me in there. Bye, sweetie! Be good for these people!" She gave the large cat a pat on the head before turning and hurrying towards the cab.
"I hope she actually will be good. I didn't think to grab any fish." Edie said with a shake of her head. She probably could lift the cat, of course but….
"Here." Zara dug in the bag she had thought to grab on her way out along with the human suit and pulled out a role of medical tape. She pulled a long piece off and dangled it just in front of the cat, who leaped forward to bat at it.
"I'll get the back door, if you can guide the cat." Edie told her.
They had just secured the cat in the back of the containment vehicle when the communicator in the front beeped.
"Worm?" Edie knew the worms had names and she probably should make some attempt to learn them, but Jay had never called them anything else, and they apparently answered to that just fine.
"Hi, Edie! Mrs. Redgick got hold of Lyndon. He wants to talk to you." The worm told her. "I'll transfer the call."
"I understand that you're dealing with a Thurigian spotted cat on the loose for some reason." Lyndon said as soon as the call was transferred. "How is that situation? I've talked to the wildlife group it belongs to, and they can send people down if you need them, but they're at least a few hours away."
"The cat is safely off of the tracks and in the back of the containment van. I would say to have them send someone to pick it up from headquarters, but I don't think having unnecessary people heading into town right now is a good idea, and we don't have the personnel to spare to return the cat ourselves at the moment. We'll find somewhere for it to stay at headquarters until things are under control." Edie told him. "Did the group sy how in the world it got loose to begin with? And if they're based up state how in the world it ended up down here?"
"They had arranged to do a presentation at several libraries in the city. They were bringing mainly earth birds and small mammals, but the cat was due for vaccinations so they brought it along for a visit to Zeeltor."
"They didn't know that the city is crazy and Zeeltor is currently poisoned?" Edie asked. "How did they miss…."
"Apparently television isn't a big thing with them." Lyndon told her. "And I'm afraid that I was focusing on contacting resident aliens in the city. It didn't occur to me that there might be aliens outside the area that could be heading in. I'm correcting that now. My cousin's already started making calls, and I'll be calling too as soon as I finish this."
"Okay, so they didn't know there was a problem and were heading for the city. How did the cat get out?"
"The library they were supposed to do the presentation at this afternoon called them and let them know that due to the current problems, which thank heavens seem to be being blamed on rowdy teenagers, or possibly a movie crew getting out of control, that the presentation would need to be rescheduled. There were two vans, one with the cat and the other with the animals for the human presentations. According to the person I talked to, they were separated when they turned around to head back. He thought the other van was somewhere behind him, but when they reached the sanctuary, there was no sign of it, and they haven't been able to raise the driver."
Okay. So they had a missing vehicle and a missing alien driver. Not good. "We'll handle it, Lyndon." Edie said as she ended the conversation. Not that she had a clue on how in the world she was going to handle it, but they were the only ones on the scene so they would have to figure it out somehow.
"I don't like that missing driver." Zara said. "Some sort of accident?"
"Maybe. Something had to have happened. The nurse said the cat's fur was damp and there were plants in it. I'm guessing whatever happened, happened off the road some place, but as for where….." Edie replied.
"How fast are those cats?" John asked. "Human speed over uneven ground is four miles an hour without injury. How would that translate to a cat?" And how did he know what human speed over uneven ground was to begin with? Had he picked up something besides the trash during math class one day?
"Short bursts of speed, no more than five minutes or so," Zara read from the entry on Thurigian spotted cats on her device. "but I imagine if there was some sort of accident, the cat probably hid for at least a little while afterwards."
"Okay." John said. "We're probably looking for some place within four miles or so. Some place with water and plants."
"And some place where a possible accident might not be spotted immediately. A park, maybe?" Edie said.
"We passed a couple on our way here that looked like they might be big enough to have a place where an accident might not be spotted right away." John said. "I think we should probably at least try to check them out."
"We definitely should. If there was some sort of accident bad enough that the cat got loose and the driver didn't try to stop it, they may need medical attention." Zara said. She just hoped if the driver was injured that she had enough supplies handy to tend them.
"Okay, let's head for the first park and hope we can find something." Edie said. She wasn't sure what in the world she was going to do if they couldn't figure a way to locate the driver and hopefully the van. The resources that would be needed for a full scale search just weren't there, and with a possibly injured alien involved, trying to bring in human resources to help with a search would be more than a bit risky.
"There! Turn there!" John called a bit later as he spotted something.
"Is that the park?" Zara asked as she turned the containment van in response.
"It's connected to it, and there's a cemetery. If the driver decided to pull off the road for some reason, a cemetery would probably be a better place to do it as far as privacy goes, especially with an alien cat in the back." John said.
"Tracks. Those look like tracks." Edie said as she looked out of the window, searching the ground in front of them as Zara steered the van down the road leading to the cemetery.
"Let's hope the right tracks." Zara responded.
"Wait, pull over. If they are the right tracks, we probably shouldn't go over them and mess them up, right?" John said
"Probably not. I just hope that no one decides to drop in on this cemetery today." Edie motioned for Zara to pull over to the side of the road. The cat should be fine in the back for a bit while they did at least cursory search.
"Are those paw prints?" Edie said as they reached the gate of the cemetery.
"Definitely paw prints. It looks like the cat was heading into the cemetery." Zara said.
"It was probably running scared." John said as he searched the ground. "More tracks from a vehicle and a lot of scuff marks. It looks like there was some sort of struggle."
"Someone attacked the van driver?" But Edie thought that was definitely what it looked like to her too, that there had been some sort of struggle. And the van wasn't anywhere to be found when it had been there earlier. Not good. Definitely not good.
"Blood." Zara pointed to an area on the ground where the grass seemed to have been flattened, and where smears of greenish fluid were clearly visible
"But they obviously got back up, probably after five or ten minutes." John studied the area and then looked around. Finding someone. Why did he suddenly have the feeling that finding someone was something that he should know how to do? "Cemetery. If the driver was attacked and hurt, maybe knocked out, the first thing they would think of doing would be to try to find that cat." And there were marks that he thought were footprints, although he didn't like how the prints looked like how whoever had made them was staggering, barely staying on their feet. He turned and started to follow the tracks automatically, with Zara and Edie following behind him.
They crossed a stream and then the back of the cemetery following the tracks. Zara and Edie exchanged looks as they followed John. Somehow he obviously knew what he was doing, following the tracks like it was second nature. Something was definitely up with that. Before they could speculate, they heard noise up ahead.
"Hey!" Zara shouted. "Stop! Stop moving! We're coming to help you! Stay where you are for goodness sakes!"
"Oh, thank heavens." An older man staggered out of the edge of the trees, his human suit obviously ripped at the head, and his forehead stained green with blood. He shook his head for moment as she spotted Edie. That suit looked more gray than black but…. Maybe he had been hit in the head a bit harder than he thought he had. "You're MIB?"
"We're filling in while the MIB's out sick. What happened?" Edie said as they hurried over. "Are you from the wildlife center, the one who was transporting a Thurigian spotted cat?"
The man nodded as Zara ran her scanner over him and then tilted his head up slightly. "Lila. The cat's name is Lila. I wanted to let her stretch her legs after being in the van for the entire way down, and then having to turn around and go right back. Five or ten minutes and we would have been back on the road again, but no sooner had I stopped than someone jumped me and drug me out of the van. No idea who. I tried to fight them. I'm pretty sure they were wanting to steal Lila. I tried to fight them but…. And then somehow Lila got loose and I tried to find her but…."
"You're definitely concussed." Zara said. "We need to get him back to headquarters. Pretty sure the concussion's mild, but I want a better scanner to confirm that. And thet head wound's going to need irrigated and closed."
"Okay. Just lean on the two of us. And don't worry about the cat. She's tucked in the back of a containment van, hopefully napping." Edie said before turning to John. "You got us here. I hope you can get us back."
"Back definitely." Although now that he had time to think about it, John had no clue how in the world he had known how to follow the tracks to find the missing man. But….. No, he shook his head. He could think about that later. Right now there was someone who needed help. "Just follow me. Back in the van in a little bit."