“No. Gun.”
“You have no gun?”
“No, Echo, I said son—never mind.”
“Are you okay Brother Scotty?” Shaking his head with amusement, Scotty realized Echo could frustrate the heck out of him. But—time to get their fly on!
“I’m fine, little dude. Midnight; and you’re sure where to go?” Rainbows flashed their aura as Echo ran out to the terrace with Barney, trailing tentacles of light.
“Trust me, my Brother.”
###
At half past midnight they were on University Blvd., heading inland. They passed over the Sarasota border to Bradenton five minutes ago and Scotty had no idea where they were. This move made him nervous. Abby and Jose would kill him if they knew he went off the island. Clouds covered the sky, no stars, no moon. The further east they drove, the more the traffic thinned.
“You sure about this, Echo?”
“Yes, Brother, the Womb is never wrong.” Oh, yeah, the great mysterious Womb. Scotty decided to let that pass. He contemplated the plan. Echo claimed she knew where the dogs were being housed. Once they located the spot, they planned to reconnoiter, then heal any dogs that needed medical care. They aimed to tip off the cops about the location, letting the experts take it from there.
The newspaper said tourists stumbled over the dumpsite. Over two hundred dogs, in various stages of decay, lay discarded. All of the fighters’ skulls were bashed in by baseball bats and something heavier. It only took one blow with the heavy weapon, multiples with the bat. The small dogs ranged from six pounds to fifteen. They were training bait; ripped to shreds. The authorities reluctantly admitted many of the bait dogs had been reported stolen over the last two years.
Scotty figured the live dogs couldn’t be far away from the dumpsite. An hour later they turned off the main road onto a gravel road that led to an empty field. Scotty hadn’t seen a house in about twenty minutes.
“Stop here, Brother.” The aura swirled in his mind as they got out of the Jeep with a flashlight. Covering the lens, he turned it on and knelt down, examining the trampled grass and abundance of tire tracks. He surveyed the field, locating an opening on the far end. As they crossed the field, the dark silence penetrated, setting off his chattering nerves and fluttering heart as he tried to remember what he knew about Florida snakes and their hunting habits. He picked up Echo, depositing her on his shoulder as he stepped into the woods on the far side of the field. He could clearly make out a well-traveled path that led deeper into the woods.
“You sure we’re in the right spot, girl?”
“Yes, my Brother.” They walked another twenty minutes before they heard the sounds. Barking dogs. They crept through the woods, trying to be silent while sweat rolled down Scotty’s face, attracting bugs that deviled him unmercifully.
Suddenly, they found themselves on the edge of an open clearing. Creeping closer, they could see a shed that housed the dogs, a spotlight fastened to a tree lit up the tableau focused around a bench underneath. To their consternation; a cluster of men milled around the bench. As they watched, one of the men dragged a bloody pit bull from the shed, the dog clearly on his last legs. In one practiced motion the dog was lifted onto the bench while another man swung a giant sledgehammer over his head and down on the dying pit bull’s head with a sickening crunch. Rivulets of blood spattered the jeans of the jostling men. The dog was slung into a waiting wheelbarrow filled with other dead dogs. They heard a guttural cry from the wheel barrel, the victim not yet dead.
Echo’s golden aura darkened, grinding with tumult, as Scotty’s stomach turned with revulsion. Tears flowed from his eyes as he berated himself for not arriving sooner. They froze at the sound of a round being chambered into a shotgun from behind them.
“Anything I can do to help ya, boy?” Scotty found himself looking down the barrel of a rifle held by one of the fattest black men he’d ever seen.
“Brother Scotty, this is not a good human.”
“You’re probably right, Echo.”
“What’d you say, boy? Get your ass up and start walkin’. Yo, Red; got some company.” The man with the rifle lifted his foot, giving Scotty a rough shove. As he fell to his knees, Echo scrambled around to face the man, her stance ready to fight. Unexpectedly, the obese man’s hand shot out, grabbing Echo by her antlers, upending her. He threw her over his back and booted Scotty over to the gathered men where he heard the sound of other weapons being cocked.
“Well, looky—”
“Hey—”
“—just a kid—”
“Quiet.” A black man, about thirty years old (kind of hard to tell with the glare of the spotlight), with dyed red hair stepped forward. He set the sledgehammer down on the ground. Silence settled on the group as Red stepped forward, flexing his rippling muscles. An atmosphere of barely controlled violence clung to him like stink on a skunk. In the background the soft whining and whimpers from the shed signaled the dog’s sensitivity to the charged atmosphere around the killing bench.
“What the hell you got there, Ton?”
“Don’t rightly know.” Ton slapped Echo down on the bench, her golden fur soaking up the blood from the dog they just butchered. Red looked over to Scotty, eyeing him up and down.
“Well, if you don’t look like a pretty boy. I think we might have some plans for you. Keys?” He stuck his hand out to Scotty. Scotty looked at Red’s hand, struggling to control his adrenaline and interpret the question.
“Car keys, hand them over.” Scotty quickly pulled his keys from his pocket. Red snatched them up, signaling to his men. Scotty felt a punch to his kidneys, the man swearing and holding his hand.
“What the fuc—” Scotty felt his shirt being ripped from his back, his tail unfurling and his wings shake out.
“Holy mother; bring him to the bench.” The men hung back, whispers floating all around him. Red looked from Scotty to Echo.
“What do we have here, boy? Kid; you gonna answer me?” Scotty’s knees shook. He needed to sit before he collapsed. He peeked at Echo from the corner of his eye. She just lay there in the dog blood, one of the men holding onto her antlers, the baseball bat in his hand.
“Boss, how bout we use the animal for bait. Why waste ‘em?”
“Hold on, Trolley. I need some info first. Anybody know you’re out here, kid?”
“No.” Too late, Scotty realized he should probably lie.
“What’s with the wings and tail; you some kind a freak?” Scotty said nothing.
“Trolley, why don’t you give his pet there a taste a that bat?” Before Scotty could say a word the bat came down across Echo’s round abdomen, splitting it open, her golden blood spattering the bench.
“Nooo.” Scotty broke away, running to Echo. His tail rose high in the air, extruding its healing membrane. “You stupid fools; you don’t know what you’ve done.” Pressure and the smell of sulfur accompanied Scotty’s tail as it healed Echo, knitting her torn flesh and splintered bones together. The ground began to tremble. The men stood frozen, unable to process what was happening before their eyes. Scotty scooped up a dazed Echo, the ground now rumbling and heaving. He ran to the shed, hunkering down on the ground as the earth near the bench split open leaving a perfectly round hole from which a snake-like monstrosity emerged, shooting up in the night to hang threateningly over the men that cringed like cowards against the wheelbarrow containing the tragic evidence of their greed and brutality.
The monstrosity from the hole undulated and hung poised in the air as if playing with the men, gently swaying as it considered its first victim. Everything happened in a split second. The head of the snake-like thing split open, extruding a thick pulsating membrane, similar to the one that resided in Scotty and Echo’s tail. It sprayed the men with a stream of black goop then dashed into the shed as the goop ate away at the men. Scotty got a big whiff of sulfur from the shed as the membranous snake emerged. It hung in the air, as if debating what to do with them. Slowly, it lowered until it fluttered massively in fro
nt of Scotty’s face. It moved imperceptibly as if it could smell him. Scotty felt chilled in the humid stinking air, afraid to breathe. It suddenly dipped down, wrapping itself tightly around Echo, drawing her up in the air away from Scotty.
“No. You can’t have her. Please.” Scotty stood, reaching high into the air. “Please, please, don’t take her.” Tears dropped from his eyes, desperation clear in his cracking voice. The undulating membrane paused, let Echo drop to Scotty’s begging arms and vanished, withdrawing inside the hole, the ground collapsing behind it, shattered dogs and all.
“Echo, Echo, come on girl, wake up.” Scotty held her close, tears dropping down on her face. He felt the aura before her eyes opened. His tears increased. “I love you, girl, don’t you dare leave me.”
“I would never leave you, Brother.” Echo’s face looked up at his, her expression solemn and earnest. “We are married. You accepted the diamonds. I will make sure we are always together.” Scotty hugged her, feeling her tiny body shudder in his arms.
“We better get out of here, pronto.” They cautiously peered into the shed, seeing rows and rows of healthy gleaming dogs, mostly pit bulls with a few toy size dogs, set to be used as bait. The cages were covered by dried and fresh blood.
“They’re all healed already. From the Womb; it came to save us. It must have known about the evil humans and knew we would need help.”
“That was the Womb?”
“Not exactly; merely a manifestation of an arm of the Womb. It came to help us from the Hive.”
“The hive in Sussex? You must be kidding.”
“No, Brother Scotty. I do not know of kidding. I will be happy to have you instruct me to kidding so we can do it together. Now we must go to alert the authorities before more evil men come.”
“My keys, we have to get the keys for the truck.” They rushed out to the disaster site, leaving the barking dogs behind them.
Six skeletons lay on the ground in disarray, the bones dry and dissected. The wheelbarrow containing the murdered dogs, turned over on its side, the carcasses gone. Scotty moved frantically through the bones, kicking them with his feet searching for his keys. Sweating, he looked at Echo, seeing her bend over in the dirt to rise with his keys in her hand.
“Good girl. Let’s go.” Grabbing his ruined shirt, Scotty picked her up, balancing her on his hip and ran for the woods. The sounds of barking dogs faded as they arrived at the clearing, sprinting across the field to the Jeep. Clambering in, they backed out to race home, stopping briefly at a convenience store so Scotty could give the location to the attendant, instructing him to call the cops. Running out the door, Scotty ran back down the road to where he left Echo with the Jeep and hurried home.
Sneaking carefully into the house, they raced up to Scotty’s bedroom, hoping to avoid waking anyone. It was a comfort to find Barney silently waiting behind the bedroom door, just as they left him, the anxiety plainly set in his eyes.
As they all settled down in bed, Scotty sent his mind out to reach Echo.
“We did good, girl. How did the Womb find us there?”
“The Womb knows all. As long as we are on earth it can find us. It can reach out as far as it needs.”
“The thing, was that the Womb, that monster? Explain it to me.”
“No, Brother. It was just an extension of the Womb. The Womb is what you call the Father. You know of it but not all.” Scotty buried himself in the bedcovers, trying to find a comfortable spot for his wings as exhaustion beg for sleep.
“Someday, will you please tell me what is going on, Echo …?” He yawned, his voice trailed off, deeply asleep as Echo answered Scotty’s already slumbering brain.
###
“Why, we are here to exterminate Homo sapiens, of course.” Echo rolled over, slipped her arm around Barney, and easily fell asleep.
THE END
Introduction to
Species Intervention #6609
Book 3
Armageddon Cometh
Synopsis for Armageddon Cometh:
Under the guidance of Netty, Abby concocts her plans to abduct the wildlife at the Big Cat Sanctuary in Sarasota. She enlists the help of the handsome Italian yacht captain, Cobby and his son Kane, forcing her to expose the changes to her body, including her hidden wings. Hiding her plans from Jose, he departs on his own mission to find his adopted mother and sisters, leaving Abby to draw closer to the charming and capable Captain Cobby.
Young Scotty embarks on a romance with a young rich local girl named Chloe who suffers from the mysterious death of her mother and the constant absences of her father.
Life moves expeditiously toward the climax at Chloe’s father’s mansion on Bird Key as strange connections and revealed identities collide with political intrigue and murder, leaving Chloe and Jose traumatized. Joining them in the frantic dash to a yacht moored on the key enabling them to make their escape, wildlife and all, to Tampa Bay, is Kenya, a sassy and striking young pregnant black girl; and Peter, their trusted attorney that falls victim to Armoni and Ginger Mae’s plot, leaving him dangerously scarred and emotionally ruined. During their escape to Tampa Bay ahead of the cops and devastation from the sky, it becomes clear that Scotty might be the mysterious One, as foretold by Caesar, the iconic Siberian tiger that attaches himself to Echo and Scotty.
Bonus Chapters 1–3
Chapter 1
The pounding on Scotty’s door came late in the morning.
“Scotty, get out here right now. Scotty.”
“Alright, alright.” Going to the door, he found Abby and Jose glaring at him.
“What the hell did you do?” Jose stood with his hands on his hips, rocking back on his heels, his face purple. Abby’s hands held him back but she didn’t look much happier.
“What’s the fuss? Hey, can you let the dogs out? I’ll be down in a few minutes.” He rubbed his eyes, half asleep.
“I’m not kidding, Scotty. You’ve got five minutes.” They turned on their heels, chasing the dogs down the staircase.
Scotty hurried down the stairs, rubbing his sleepy eyes and yawning. Stealing a quick peek out the terrace doors, he could feel the day already felt like a roaster in the making. He glanced around for Echo, seeing Abby and Jose at the kitchen table, scouring the newspaper. Jose picked up the front page, smacking it down in Scotty’s direction with such force it fell to the floor. Picking it up, he scanned the headline.
Oh, boy. How in the world did it hit the paper so fast? They must have bumped another story. Scanning the facts, the paper reported the dogs they saved were taken to the local shelter. Dognapping victims were being advised to stop by to examine the dogs. Human bones taken to coroner, weapons in abandon vehicles, fighting apparatus, unexplained crime scene, copious amounts of animal blood, authorities stumped, etc., etc. …
Yeah, Scotty thought as he put the paper down. They knew all the facts except who done it and why. Not surprised, he felt no guilt. No way could either he or Echo allow the dogfighting to continue. It’s a way of life with those ignorant hillbilly assholes. They don’t change. No second chances for them. They didn’t give the dogs any second chances. No, all they got was bashed in skulls with a baseball bat and sledge hammer, or chewed to death as prey objects by the fighting dogs. Tears came to his eyes as he thought about the innocence of the tragic pets stolen from their suburban lawns and their loving homes, not understanding why they were being torn apart. The kind of man that can do this to an animal is on par with a pedophile. They both prey on the innocent for their own gratification, dispose of the evidence through merciless torture and murder. They’re both predators, their predilection hard wired into their brains. The only difference is that pedophiles know what they do is wrong. The other bastards think they have a God given right. Well, where the hell is God when the agony and suffering goes down? The scum in the woods sure won’t be touching another helpless dog again and he was not sorry.
“Where were you last night?” Jose looked steamed. Glancing at Abby
for help, he knew he was on his own, her face reflecting worry.
“There’s no sense denying it Scotty, the skeletons tell the story. You can’t just go around killing people. Was Echo with you?” Turning to Abby, Scotty hung his head. He felt an aura caress his mind as Echo spoke up.
“Brother Scotty did not kill anyone.” Jose stood up, disappointment on his face.
“Echo, please don’t tell me it was you.”
“It was not me, Brother Jose. But they needed to die. They were very evil.”
“Then who was it. How did they die?” Jose sat down, his posture seething with disbelief.
“It was the Womb.”
“You saw the Womb? Come on, cut the crap.”
“I did, Jose. I saw it.” Jose took a deep breath, a grenade ready to explode. His fingers drummed impatiently on the table, the tempo escalating.
“I can’t deal with this right now. Can you please keep an eye on him? I’m not in the mood for fairy tales.” Jose abruptly rose up from the table stalking out of the room. Scotty scratched his head, ready to condemn Jose’s overreaction.
“What’s with him?”
“I don’t know, just stress. Promise me you’ll stay around the house? Stay out of trouble?”
“Yeah, I’m going back to bed if you don’t mind. I have plans later with Echo and the dogs, if that’s okay?” Scotty sounded contrite, looking to placate Abby. Why blow up on her anyway? He knew he could always count on his sister to be in his corner first, ask questions later.
“Don’t leave the island.” She put her hand on his. “You know we have to talk about this sometime.”
“Yeah, just later, please Ab.” She patted his hand again.
“Okay, go back to bed, kiddo.” Abby smiled, getting up to give him a quick hug. “I understand. I know how much creatures mean to you. Don’t take to heart what Jose says. He’s just trying to keep us on the down low and out of the public eye. I’ll calm him down. He just isn’t as nutty crazy as you are about creatures, so he doesn’t get it.”
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