Pets & Strays: Hope's Journey

Chapter 16 - The Queen of Rats

A man in his mileage walked out of a small, wooden house, wearing only a coverall and a pair of flip-flops. And on his hand was a metal mug with steaming hot coffee.

He proceeded to walk further out of the house and wandered around what looked like a junk shop. His black eyes looked all around him, scanning and inspecting the stacks of rusted, hollow cars placed by the wired fence around his house.

Inside these rusted, hollow cars were a pair of yellowish-brown eyes staring at him. The eyes that belonged to Keys. He was laying prone inside the car, next to him was Nova, asleep, but not comfortably so.

Keys was watching the man, acting as a lookout while Nova still slept. Then he shifted his focus to Nova, checking up on her. Her head was tilting slightly, her eyes were stirring, and she was making soft groans and mumbles.

Then Nova jolted awake. She looked around, like everything around her had changed. She hoped it would change into the warm home of the Coulsons. With her mother, her protector and uncle figure, and her favorite playmate. But all she could see were the rust of an empty car, and Keys, staying by her side and gazing down at her. "Bad dream?" Keys said.

Nova raised her unhappy head. "Not really," she replied. "I miss them. My mom. My uncle. My best friend... I want to go home." her voice cracked and her eyes were welling up.

Keys said, "I think I know how I can help you get home."

Nova sniffled and looked upon Keys. "You do?" she said.

"Yeah. Though I think it's going to take a lot of convincing."

"Hey!" Keys and Nova darted their hands at the same time. The junk shop's proprietor had spotted them. "Get the hell outta there, you damn scurvy—"

"Time to go!" Keys said, bolting out of the car. Nova followed him as he slithered under a loose wire fence.

Keys and Nova relaxed after escaping the junk shop and transitioned to walking on the sidewalk. "That was a close call," he said, "are you okay, Nova?"

"I'm fine," Nova replied, "you said you know who can help me get home?"

"As I recall, yes, I did. It's not far. Well, a few blocks from here is still pretty far, but close enough, I guess."

"Is he a human?"

"No. No, he's not a human. And he is a she."

"Oh," Nova said, her eyes half-widening from surprising realization.

"Yeah. But before we give her a royal visit we should get some breakfast first. I'm betting you're hungry."

Nova looked down at her belly making a grumbling noise.

They walked into a corner of the sidewalk. They saw a meat delivery truck delivering fresh meat to a small-time restaurant. 'Him again." Keys said.

"Who's he?" Nova asked.

"The well-known enemy of the four-legged world."

Nova chuckled.

"What?"

"You said a  movie line."

"What's a movie line?"

"You haven't seen a movie before?"

"No. And I don't think we have the time to have that discussion. That truck won't be there all day." he locked his eyes on a dangling string of sausages in the truck. He leaned closer to Nova and said, "You see those sausages? Those tasty, juicy, strings of meat?"

Nova saw it too, and she could feel every description of the sausages that made her mouth water a bit. "Yeah," she said.

"That's our target. We have to get that before Old Frankie gets it."