"That"s terrible Danny, and you had several bags full of dead ones?"
Danny produced the specimen for her to see. The creature was tiny, about five centimetres long, but it already had perfectly formed fangs in its tiny mouth. Sam was called and came over to take a look.
"It"s not like any snake I"ve ever seen before, can I have this one to examine?"
Danny said he could have as many as he liked and left them to it.
"Interesting," Sam said, taking a closer look, "they don"t usually develop fangs until much later, and these two little b.u.mps just behind the head, most odd. I"m going to check on the computer to see if there are any records for these guys."
He left the room and Kay just sat down pondering what this could mean. So far, Sam didn"t know about the incident in the lake, she hadn"t gotten around to telling him.
Some time later, Sam reappeared and said, "Come and look at this love."
She rose and followed him into the study.
"I can"t find any data that specifically matches our little friend here, but I did find this."
He motioned her to come and see the computer screen. On it was displayed an old maritime drawing of a sea serpent.
"What"s the significance of this Sam?" She asked.
"It"s the wings, just behind the head."
He pointed to the tiny new comer and specifically to the two tiny b.u.mps behind the head.
"There are no other snakes that have these, they are unique."
Kay pondered even more, was it possible that they had a serpent in the lake? The earlier decision to leave the creature in the lake alone, had just been reversed.
"Now we have to know." She said.
"Have to know what?" Sam asked.
Kay told him about the incident in the lake that afternoon.
"There has to be a connection," Sam said, "perhaps the creature in the lake is the mother."
"I hope not," Kay answered, "the one in the lake was big enough to b.u.mp the sub and move it sideways, and there are hundreds of these little ones."
The next day, Kay called Eric and Bill together. "I"m sorry guys, but we need to know if the thing in the lake is the parent of these little snakes, you"ll have to go down again and see if you can get a better look at whatever it is down there."
Eric and Bill were none too happy with the idea of coming face to face with a big version of these snakes, but there was little choice, so they reluctantly agreed to go. Roland had heard the conversation and suggested they try to keep the "thing" away from the Bicrylic sections of the sub which were the weakest.
"We"ll try Roly," Eric said, "but that thing was fast."
They set off towards the lake with Eric at the controls; finding the opening was easy.
"Listen Eric, lets keep the lights to a minimum and approach very slowly. If we just set her down on the bottom near the opening, we may catch it off guard and get a better look at it."
Eric agreed, saying, "You"re not just a pretty face are you!"
He did as Bill had suggested, and approached the opening very slowly and with the lights off. The Kerasub made no discernible noise so they thought they were in with a good chance of sneaking up on the beastie. The sub came to rest on the lake floor, and the guys sat motionless waiting to see if "Nessy" would show.
Speaking in whispers Bill said, "Now we"ll see how good the air filtration is."
Eric just nodded without taking his eyes off the opening. It seemed like forever, but eventually Eric saw some movement.
"There," he said, pointing.
Bill looked and could clearly see light reflecting from two large eyes. Slowly, the creature emerged from the opening and looked around. At first they could only see the head, but as the animal cautiously moved further out, the wings came into view.
"A snake with wings?" Eric whispered, very quietly.
Bill just shrugged his shoulders.
Slowly the creature moved towards the sub; Eric and Bill froze. The creature seemed to stop and sniff the vessel, but showed little interest in it and slid by. Bill watched intently as it did so and estimated its length to be three times that of the sub. When it was clear, Eric powered up the lights to see into the opening; for a split second, they saw another pair of eyes in there, then they were gone. Eric hit the height lever and the sub shot up rapidly. It took little time to return to base.
Eric and Bill reported their findings to Kay back at base.
"This is not good," she said, "there are a pair of them and they"re breading."
"And they"re big!" Bill added, "About ten meters I"d say."
"But why have we not seen the parents out of the water if the babies come out to feed?" Kay asked, puzzled.
Roland volunteered an answer, "Perhaps they know they"d be spotted."
"But that would imply intelligence Roly..." Eric stopped short as he contemplated what he had just said. "This just keeps getting worse doesn"t it," he said, they had to agree with him.
"Now we really have a dilemma," She said. "If these things are poisonous, hostile and breading like rabbits, what are we going to do about it?"
No one volunteered an answer for that one.
"We don"t know for certain that they"re hostile Kay," Bill said, "so far, we"ve killed them!"
"Yes, and what parent wouldn"t want to protect its young," She countered.
"There"s another possibility," Bill added, "the opening may lead to a colony of them, we don"t know that there are only two."
"That"s it," Kay said, "I"m going home, with any luck, Sam will have something good to say. Good night guys."
Sam had been working on the snake, performing an autopsy. When Kay arrived home she was in a state. "Oh my," Sam said, "that bad eh. Well, I hate to do this to you, but these little guys are lethal. One bite from an adult would kill a man in a few minutes, but a bite from one of the babies would just be rather painful."
"That"s all I needed to know," she said, "we"ll have to warn everyone about this, and pray that these critters don"t turn nasty, I"m off to bed, today is now officially over!"
"Yes, boss," Sam smiled back at her, and followed her up stairs.
The next morning, Danny went to work as usual. There was little to make him think that today would not be just like any other day, but he was wrong. On reaching the farm, he found no sign of Seth, he called out several times but got no reply. Danny knew by instinct that something was wrong, that sixth sense the berries had given him told him so; it also told him Seth was in danger.
Danny ran to the field where the snakes had been found, it seemed the logical place to find trouble. It was over a mile so it took him a couple of minutes.
On arriving, he again called out, but got no reply. He couldn"t see Seth anywhere, but that sixth sense told him that Seth was not far away. He headed directly for the section of the field where the damaged crops were, and there, he found Seth lying on the ground covered with little snakes. He had been severely bitten and was barely conscious.
"Da..." He tried to speak, on seeing Danny, but couldn"t get the words out. Danny didn"t stop to think, he just ploughed into the little snakes scattering them in all directions. He was bitten several times, but ignored the pain and carried on uncovering Seth. He got the last of them off Seth, and bent down to help him up. He had Seth half way to his feet when Seth struggled and tried to point. Danny turned and saw the serpent moving towards them at high speed, its wings flapping like a bird, helping to keep its head up. It stopped just yards away and rose up like a Cobra, it"s wings now extended in threat. Danny didn"t wait for the impending strike, but leapt into the air right over the serpent"s head, some three meters in height. He landed firmly on his feet on the far side of the beast, which turned to face him. "Good" he said to himself, "now you"re not thinking about Seth!" The serpent struck at him, but Danny was also very fast and was able to dodge the incoming head. He struck it a blow as it went past, and the serpent reeled from the force of it, but quickly recovered and prepared to strike again. Danny waited for the strike to come. It did, and this time he jumped out of the way and landed a blow just behind the serpent"s head with all his might. The serpent was stunned and fell to the ground. Danny looked to Seth and said, "Sorry Seth..." Then he bent down and snapped the serpent"s back like a twig.
Seth was still motionless on the ground as Danny went over to him to help him up. He was unable to walk so Danny hoisted him over his shoulder and turned to take a last look at the defeated foe. To his horror, he saw hundreds of tiny snakes crawling all over the adult eating away at the flesh. "Yuk," He said, and turned towards the farm.
The walk to the farm would be tough. Seth was heavy for Danny and he had to stop several times to rest. Through out all this, Seth had been unable to talk or move much. The amount of toxin in his body was substantial, and Danny was well aware that he had to get Seth to Sam for treatment, and quickly, but carrying Seth was very difficult for him. Eventually, Danny decided to put Seth down and run for help. He did so and said, "I"m going for help, I"ll be as fast as I can."
Seth managed a nod, and Danny set off at full speed.
Carrying Seth and fighting the serpent had tired him considerably, but Danny was no fool and prayed, "Please Lord help me to get to Sam quickly."
The Lord answered the young man"s prayer, and Danny fairly flew on reinvigorated legs and feet. If anything, he was even faster than he had been before, he tore into the settlement calling Sam"s name loudly. Fortunately, Sam was at home and so heard Danny coming some way off. He rushed out to meet him calling, "What"s wrong, what"s wrong?"
Danny reached him and said, "Sam, come quick, Gareth has been attacked by the baby snakes and badly bitten, he"s paralysed and can"t speak."
Sam rushed into the house to fetch his bag and together they took off for the farm. Jake and Zeek saw them running like fury, and realising something was wrong, gave chase. They caught the others up and were told about Gareth. Jake and Zeek rushed on ahead in case the babies decided to have another go at Gareth. Sam and the now slower Danny followed on as fast as they could.
When Jake and Zeek reached Gareth, he was hardly breathing and had turned a deathly pale colour. Jake knelt down by him to comfort him whilst Zeek went into the field where the attack had taken place. On reaching it, he found the half eaten carca.s.s of the adult serpent, but no trace of the babies. He had a good look around to make sure they were gone, and headed back to where Gareth was.
Sam and Danny had arrived by the time Zeek got back, and Sam was leaning over Gareth, but his face said it all. He stood up and turned to the other three.
"He"s not going to make it, I can"t do anything for him."
"What about the berries?" Danny asked, desperately.
"He doesn"t want to take them," Sam said, "at least, that"s what he told us when we visited him the other day."
It went quiet for a few seconds and Danny spoke up again.
"Sam, you took an oath..."
It was all he needed to say.
Sam looked at him with a look that said both, yes, you"re right, and thank you. Sam fished around in his medical bag and pulled out a syringe and a small bottle.
"Gareth, I"ve got some anti-toxin to give you, it"s worth a try."
Gareth nodded and Sam administered the berry juice. When it was done, Jake and Zeek carried Gareth back to the farmhouse, where they helped Sam put him to bed, then they left, to report what had happened, to Kay and the rest of the Edenite community. Sam and Danny stayed at the farm to make sure Gareth was all right.
Kay listened patiently, tears welling up in her eyes. "And Sam says he"ll be all right?" she asked.
"Actually, Sam didn"t say anything, but we a.s.sume the berries will do their stuff and he"ll be all right in no time."
"I"m going to pay him a visit," she said, leaving straightaway. Kay walked quickly to the farm, and was glad to see Gareth sitting up in bed though still very groggy. Sam took her to one side and said, "I gave him an injection of berry juice and told him it was anti-toxin. He doesn"t know!"
"OK," she said, "I"ll be careful."
Kay went over to Gareth and sat by him on the bed.
"Sam tells me you"ve had a narrow escape, can you tell me what happened?"
Gareth was sipping some hot sweet tea that Danny had made for him.
"I"m alive thanks to this young fellah," he said, patting Danny on the shoulder. "He fought the serpent and killed it. I"ve never seen anything like it, it struck at him, but he moved like lightning and hit it. And when it struck again, he jumped right over its head and stunned it with a rabbit punch. Then he snapped its back like it was a dry twig...Incredible."
Gareth"s voice trailed off and his eyes closed for a few seconds.
"Thank you for telling me that," Kay said, "but how did you get into trouble in the first place?"
Gareth opened his eyes and said, "They were waiting for me. I went to the field to check the crop. I didn"t put any more spray down after seeing so many of them dead. They left a path for me to walk through, and then closed in on me from all sides. I didn"t have a chance, there were hundreds of them." His eyes closed again and Sam came over.
"I really think we should let him rest now. The anti-toxin will take some time to work."
Kay and Danny left the farm together, leaving Sam behind to care for Gareth. "So, you fought the serpent and beat it?"
"It wasn"t difficult," Danny said, quite humbly. "The serpent was fast, but I was faster. I"ve been practicing my jumping on the way to the farm each day, so I was ready for it."
Kay smiled at him in a motherly way and said, "Well, young man, you saved Gareth"s life at the risk of your own, I"m proud of you, and I"m sure everyone else will be too."
"Do you have to tell them?" Danny asked.
"I think we should Danny, it"ll be a lesson for all the other kids, and a great encouragement for the older ones. Folk have been worried about these snakes for some time, and the fact that you, a teenager killed an adult will rea.s.sure them."
It went quiet for a while until Danny asked, "What are we going to do about the rest of them, there were hundreds?"
Kay looked at him a little worried. "I don"t know Danny, right now, I just don"t know what to do."
The following day a meeting was held in the centre of Eden. "It"s obvious that these snakes are intelligent," Kay said, "they set a trap for Gareth and deliberately attacked him. The thing now is, do we attack them and try to get rid of them, or do we wait and see what they do next?"
The peace loving folk of Eden came down in favour of waiting to see if the snakes would come back, and Kay was happy to go along with them; the thought of attacking these creatures was abhorrent to her. "Nonetheless," she said, "I think we should investigate the opening in the lake further and determine if there is a colony of these things down there."
The meeting broke up in agreement, with Eric and Bill commissioned to do the survey the following day.
The next day, Eric and Bill reported for duty. Roly told them that he had strengthened the weaker parts of the sub still further, and that it was unlikely that any creature in the water would be able to damage it.
"Remember guys, the thing can"t see you, you"re behind Bicrylic."
Both Eric and Bill had forgotten about Bicrylic"s one-way visibility, and somehow, it made them feel better. They entered the sub and closed the hatches.
"Oh look," Bill said, "Roly"s installed a radio." He picked the mic up and was about to speak when Roland beat him to it.
"Come in fish supper, this is dry land calling."
"Watch it Roly," Eric answered, "Or I"ll land this thing on top of your house."