| |
Knowing there were people looking after Chance, I was able to get a good night's sleep. I showered, put on clean clothes, and made my way to the cafeteria. I fixed a mug of Earl Grey tea and carried it with me to the medical unit.
"Good morning, Everly," Dr. Wainwright said. "I figured I'd see you early this morning."
"Can I see Chance now?"
"Right this way," he said, leading me into a small room.
Chance was sitting up in bed. I walked up and kissed him. I felt his forehead with the back of my hand. "His fever's down. That's good."
"Glad you concur with the findings of thousands of dollars’ worth of medical equipment," Dr. Wainwright said.
"When can he get out of here?"
"I'm guessing he'd like to have a shower and some clean clothes. Why don't you take him back to your room and then take him to the cafeteria for a good breakfast?”
"Sounds like a plan," I said.
He handed Chance a plastic bag with a tube of something inside. "Put this salve on the wounds every morning after you shower. The wounds have already started to heal. If you have any problems, call me."
"Does he need a prescription for antibiotics?" I asked. You're usually told to complete the full course of antibiotics once you start them. One of the biggest concerns with any wild animal bite is infection.
"No. Just the salve. I gave him a mega dose of antibiotics in the IV."
"OK, Doc. Thanks."
We walked out with Chance's arm around my shoulder and found Cassie on her way to see Jared. "Glad you're doing OK, Chance. I'm going to find out when Jared can get out of here. We're going to the pens later to check out the cherufe and the dingonek. Everyone involved in the hunt wants to see the cryptids before we leave."
"Great. Text us the time," I said. "We're going to get breakfast."
When Chance walked out of the shower, I could see that he was really doing better. I walked up and wrapped my arms around his plastic wrapped torso. "I'm glad you're feeling better. Are you hungry?"
"Starving."
Once we were seated in the cafeteria with our breakfast in front of us, I reached across the table for his hand.
"I'm fine," Babe. I'm feeling much better." He gave my hand a squeeze. "I heard the hunt secured all the known escaped cryptids except the Waheela."
"Yeah. Cassie and I decided that was probably OK. Besides bigfoot, it’s the cryptid that's the best fit for this environment."
"You're right. I hadn't thought of that. I'm anxious to get a look at the cherufe."
"Me too. Now that this is finished, maybe we can get back to talking about the cryptid museum and what our future is going to look like. I've been thinking a lot about that."
"Good because I've got a great idea."
"Really? Do tell."
"Jared and I talked about it. The government is still going to need a cryptid hunting group they can call on if there are reports of cryptids harming people. If we structure our business right, we can position ourselves to take that work as well as guiding our own cryptid hunts and running the museum."
"That sounds good. I've been thinking maybe we could use Dr. Bellamy's money to fund a research arm of the business. We could even keep her cabin as a research station and use it for hunts too."
"That's a great idea. See, it's all starting to come together."
"Hi, Chance. How are you?" Rene asked as he set his coffee down at our table.
"I'm feeling a lot better. Thanks."
"Do you mind if we join you after we get some food?"
"That'd be great."
We ate breakfast amid a flurry of talk about cryptid hunting and speculation on what any of us would do that could compare to facing the dingonek.
We refilled our drinks and the discussion continued as the members of hunt team two joined us with tales of taking down the thunderbird and the cherufe. Everyone was excited to have a look at the cryptids that were now safely secured in appropriate habitats at the lab.
"Time for the tour," I said, as everyone's phone message alarms sounded at the same time. We all made our way to the entrance to the animal enclosures where Jared and Cassie were waiting along with BITES' veterinarian, Dr. Jill Hilton. Dr. Hilton and her staff would be caring for and securing the cryptids that were currently at the lab including those we just recaptured.
Dr. Hilton was new to the job, the previous vet having been part of those involved in experimenting on the cryptids. I couldn't imagine where they found a cryptid vet. I'm thinking if you're a normal vet and expect to work on schnauzers and shitzus, how would you react to thunderbirds and dingoneks.
"I'm Dr. Hilton. I'm new here, but I just want to thank you all for helping recapture the animals that escaped. You've given me a chance to work with animals that, until a few months ago, I didn't even know existed. I trained as a large animal vet but didn't expect patients as large as some of these."
She led us through thick-walled corridors with windows that allowed us to see the animals. As we walked, Cassie took over as tour guide.
"Is that a man-sized armadillo?" I asked.
"Yes. It’s a complicated story, but something in a GMO crop caused a recessive gene responsible for gigantism to reignite. Dr. Hilton can provide a more detailed explanation if anyone's interested. When the creature turned to look at us, it's eyes glowed purple.
The chupacabra were some of the smaller animals we saw but also some of the most frightening. I can't really explain it, but they look evil. They remind me of paintings I've seen of Cerberus, the hound of hell from Greek mythology, but with only one head.
I enjoyed seeing the thunderbird. I'd read a book about their discovery that was written by Cassie's former BLM partner. It was awesome to get to see it for real. After seeing it, I was sure the feather we had at home was from a thunderbird.
"I have to thank you all for retrieving these next two. I'm told that we aren't quite sure how they ended up here to begin with, but they are definitely unique creatures."
First was the dingonek. It was large and still appeared to be angry about being held captive. I noticed Jared rubbing his bandaged arm as he looked at the tusks. Up close, I could see that it had scales which reflected the light. I couldn't decide if it was ugly or beautiful, but I knew for certain it was dangerous.
The next animal on our tour was the cherufe. I'd never heard of this cryptid until we found a mention of it in Uncle Harry's journal. It's thought to be native to Chile. There are conflicting legends that describe it as humanoid, reptilian, or dragon. The legends of the indigenous people of the area said that the creature was a snake. Looking at it, I thought perhaps they were all correct. Like the dingonek, the cherufe had scales. The front part of its body was more humanoid like with two arms. The lower part of the body was snakelike tapering to a point. We watched as it pulled itself around the enclosure.
"That's how we tracked it," Henry said. "It makes a really distinctive trail."
“I don’t know about this one,” Cassie said.
“It wasn’t on the list, but it certainly isn’t native to this area or this millennium,” Chance said.
“It’s some type of saber-toothed cat, maybe a smilodon,” Dr. Hilton said, “but we’re still running tests.”
After the tour, we met in the conference room for a wrap up meeting. Mr. Meecham, the Director of Bites, joined us via video feed.
"Hello, everyone. First let me ask, how are Jared and Chance doing?"
They both answered that they were fine.
"I want to thank all of you for helping us with this cleanup effort. There are no guarantees but, based on the records we've found, it seems all the escaped animals have been located with the exception of the waheela. You all should be very pleased with your results."