Matt, his crew and the Galahktikah charged into a pace no one should ever be. Especially anyone like Peter Axon.
Snakes of all sizes, shapes and colors began raining down on the scientists. They were blanketed in a thick covering of pythons, rattlers, cobras and the like. Everyone ran back into the boat's underground compartment. Nothing showed up on the scans, nothing unusual anyway.
"Peter, are you okay?" Lindsay asked her colleague before he passed out.
"Get him on the couch," Matt ordered, wiping spots of blood off his arm.
Cooper and Anton picked Peter up and put his limp body on the small couch in the room. Lindsay put a cloth on his forehead- he had a large bite on this left temple.
"Shit shit shit shit shit..." Cooper muttered. He and Anton grabbed the bottles of disinfectant, putting it heavily on everyone's cuts in an attempt to dispel any poison before it got into their bloodstream.
Matt had three bites on his right arm, on his left. Anton had a bite oh his shoulder that had gone right through his shirt, which was now slightly bloodstained. Cooper had a bite on his chin and one on his right ankle, and Peter had the one on his temple and two on his arm. Lindsay, having worn a sweatshirt and pants, didn't suffer any bites. When everybody was taken care of, they hauled ass and left for shore. 
"Ugh..." Peter groaned. He raised his head off of the couch arm. He saw a light blue wall beside him and a large bay window, where Lindsay and Matt were sitting, a couple of feet from the end of the couch. Cooper was across the room, sitting in a lounge chair. Anton was nowhere to be seen.
"Nice to see you, too, Pete," Matt said jokingly from where he was sitting.
"Where am I?"
"We're in doctor's office. You got a pretty bad cut on your temple, and we had to have it looked at," Cooper informed his friend.
Peter groaned again and closed his eyes. He had an enormous headache and was sore all over. It wasn't a pleasant feeling.
Anton and a doctor came out of the office that was, to Peter, above his head. He had a bloodstain on the front of his shirt that Peter didnt remember him having last time he saw him.
"You're all free to go," the man told them all.
Matt and Lindsay came over to where Peter was to help him go to the van. Once inside, he sat unmoving for a while, trying to remember what had happened to him. He decided to put that off for now and just worry about staying conscious.
Matt, Lindsay, Cooper and Anton went into the lab slowly. They were all tired and sore after their 'adventures' with the snakes. They had left Peter in the van, who had fallen asleep, obviously just as much if not more tired than the rest of the team.
Everyone went to the conference room, Cooper bringing some large jars containing the corpses of some of the snakes that had fallen on the boat. Some had come down dead, others had been killed by each other or the humans. They had managed to catch a few before they all disappeared into the water. Their boat was probably still covered with some snakes, but they hadn't been worrying about that at the time. They decided to leave the live ones in the terrariums.
"Coop, is there anything unusual about the snakes?" Matt inquired.
"Nothing that I can find. They're completely normal, inside and out," the zoologist replied.
"Cause of death?"
"Some of them were... strangled to death, some died on impact with the boat deck, others, I couldn't find any reasonable explanation."
Peter walked slowly into the conference room, sleepily. At first, Anton thought he was sleepwalking, but he said something when he came in, and it made too much sense for him to be asleep.
"Maybe it was a hoax. Maybe someone in a plane or balloon dropped the snakes from above us. Maybe it's just one of those things that can't be explained," he muttered.
"I think Peter's right about that," Lindsay sided with him.
"I've been doing some research about things falling from the sky like that. In 1877, snakes fell literally in the thousands over the southern part of Memphis, Tennessee. Witnesses say they ranged from a foot to 18 inches long and were presumably swept into the air by a hurricane," he said while ruffling through some papers at his seat. "A lot of weird things have fallen from the sky."
Everyone looked at him, expecting him to say more. When he was silent, Matt spoke.
"We're going out again tomorrow. Pete, do you feel up to coming?"
"I'll have to see tomorrow, now won't I?" he replied to the Case Manager.
"Good. I hope you decide to come. Cooper, you're in charge of snake control, and please do better than last time. Lindsay, I want you to assist Axon with the video and audio feeds. Anton, standby for emergency medical treatment. I'll be the skipper," he said happily.
Everyone groaned, knowing he liked doing childish things sometimes. But that was also what made him such a good boss and friend.
"Get some sleep, everyone. We've got a long day ahead of us." |
