Taterskin & The Eco Defenders: Book 2, Chapter 52
Book 2 ("Tell It to Future Generations"), Chapter 52 of 56
CHAPTER 52
At dawn the next day, our onslaught began. Tubthumper, her brother Chumbawumba, and Ocero led the way, ramming into the fence, knocking it down. The rest of us rushed in right behind them, breaching the defenses (Rovette stayed back with the pups and Marmalade, watching and serving as a sentinel).
While most in the camp were only then waking up, wondering what all the racket was, the rest of us barged into the hut where Ravelle was being held.
On hearing the commotion outside, both of Ravelle’s guards instantly yanked him off his cot and shoved him out the back door. We hadn’t realized the hut even had a back door. Scarlet hadn’t seen anybody use it, or she would’ve told us of its existence. So we turned right around and went out the front door, split into two groups, and ran around to the back of the hut, one group going around the right side of the hut and the other in the opposite direction.
In a not-so-instant replay of what had happened when he was first captured, Ravelle was handcuffed, and he had a guard on each side of him.
Rory and Stripes voiced their anger over this with the most menacing roars I had ever heard. I growled myself. All of us were loudly expressing our feelings, in fact. The captor with the pistol aimed it at Ravelle’s head. This caused us to cease our threats and quiet down.
“I have six bullets in this gun. The first one will be for your friend. It will be the last thing that goes through his mind. The next four will be for the four of you closest to me. I will save the last bullet for myself, because I know you will trample me and rip me to shreds and ribbons once I’m out of ammo.”
“Hey, what about me?” his fellow captor said.
“What about you?” he replied. “You’ll have to take care of yourself.”
The guard with the gun had not noticed Needlenose Gene, the Giant Anteater, walking slowly up to the group. Even when he did, and saw that the Anteater had approached within a couple of feet of him, he was more nervous about Stripes and Rory, who were doing nothing to disguise the hatred in their eyes, and the New Amazons clutching spears with their arms flung back, as well as the Terena warriors with their arrows at the ready, than he was about the awkward-looking beast in front of him.
Besides, Gene was feigning interest in the ants running here and there over the ground, pretending to have no real interest in the affair with Ravelle.
Suddenly, though, Gene took a quick step toward Ravelle and the two goons and, in a lightning-fast motion, stuck out his two-foot-long tongue, wrapped it around the pistol, and flung it in a wide arc behind himself, into the jungle. The path the gun described through the air reminded me of Michael Jordan skying for a dunk.
Now weaponless, the man turned to run, but was struck down by his former comrade. “Take that, you backstabber!” he said.
The few other men in the small compound had been surrounded by members of our team and had quickly surrendered. We rounded them up and gave them an ultimatum. They would be allowed to leave, but only if they didn’t interfere with our operation to shut down the mine.
They readily agreed. But we didn’t trust them to simply go away without raising an alarm or re-joining their comrades and fellow conspirators at the mine site.
“A Poison Dart Frog will ride along with each of you, on your back,” Albert told them. “You are to go to the west edge of the pit and watch our handiwork. If you don’t go there, you will be bitten by the Amphibian froggybacking on you. Also if, on the way, you alert anybody about what has happened here, and that we are on the way to shut down the mine, you will in that case also be bitten by the poisonous Frog. In fact, if you attempt to stop us or in any way hinder our efforts, you will be bitten.
On the other hand, if you stay back, stay away from the action, and don’t work against us in any way, the Frogs will jump off your back when all is over, and you will then be able to leave. Understand?”
They said they did. We believed them. They had been giving us their rapt attention.
“And one more thing,” Albert said. “Once we have shut down the mine and you get away from here, you are to tell everybody exactly what happened, and let them know the same thing will happen to anyone anywhere within the Basin who harms humankind, animalkind, or the earth. Is that clear?”
We knew it was clear to them, of course. And even if we told them not to tell about the events of the day, they would still do it. It’s not something they could just ‘bottle up.’
Many — perhaps most — people would not at first believe it. After all, a bunch of talking animals and Indians and ‘New Amazons’ taking down a large mining operation? Who could imagine such a thing?
We could. We did. And we would soon be a more formidable foe to the forces of ecological mayhem than ever before. Why? Not only had we gained in numbers (with hundreds of millions of animals on our side as well as the Terena warriors and the New Amazons), but the giganticizing of Drako and Rinky had given Alexis an idea.
Taterskin & The Eco Defenders (in paperback, kindle, or hardcover) is available here.