Cherry Meets the Wild Thornberrys

chapter 17

Meanwhile, at Bree and Sloan's camp...

There were a few missing from the campground that were not there last night.

"Oh, no, Darwin, wake up, we have to look for Donnie and Simon." Eliza woke up the chimp.

"The eclipse is in a few hours." Feliicty added.

"Oh, but Donnie's always missing," Darwin whined that he was woken up so early. "And I was dreaming about shepherd's pie."

"What's going on?" Akito asked as he suddenly woke up.

"Donnie and Simon are missing..." Felicity said as she was already awake, due to usually only sleeping two hours at night.

"What?! Oh, no, quick, let's find them." Mo said.

"Bree? Sloan?" Vincent gently pounded on the door. "Have you seen Donnie or Simon? They're--"

Suddenly, Donnie got the door open while Simon clung to the doorway.

"Boys, Sloan told you to stay out of there!" Felicity scolded.

"Come on, we have to show you something..." Simon told his sister.

The group followed the little boys inside, but still called for Bree and Sloan, but couldn't seem to find them anywhere.

"Hello! Bree? Sloan? Is anybody in here?!" Mo called out before the door closed behind her and the kids.

When it was all dark, they could see monitors on animals in the wild all together.

"What is all this?" Eliza wondered.

"Surveillance cameras..." Akito already knew.

"I don't like this place," Darwin frowned. "We've got Donnie and Simon, now let's go."

Estelle's ear twitched a little and she turned her head. "What's that?"

"What is it, Estelle?" Felicity asked.

Eliza heard a noise too, it sounded like animals.

"We hear it too." Akito said.

"Something's in there..." Vincent crawled to a door and he was able to remove it.

They all looked and saw a cage filled with familiar looking creatures. A cheetah cub and a few Pokemon.

"Tally?" Eliza wondered if that could be the same cheetah cub.

Tally looked to her after she had said his name.

"Larvitar? Vulpix? Teddyursa? Misdreavus?" Akito, Estelle, Vincent, and Felicity wondered if they were seeing things.

Akito opened the door and once he did, they were all tackled by the cheetah cub and Pokemon who then called their names, warmly embracing them.

"Guys, we have to get out of here!" Vulpix urged.

"What?" Vincent asked his Pokemon.

"What do you mean?" Estelle added as she cuddled her Teddyursa.

The door then mysteriously opened.

"Hello, kids..." Sloan smiled wickedly to them.

"Sloan? This cheetah cub? And my children and niece's Pokemon, where... Where did you get them?" Mo asked him.

"I picked them up on the Savanna." Sloan smiled evilly.

"You bought them?" Felicity asked.

"No," Sloan chuckled. "I picked them up... Right off the ground."

"I told Sloan he shouldn't cut that rope ladder." Bree said as she came up next to her husband."

This caused for all of them to gasp and glare at Sloan.

"It was you!" Estelle glared at him.

"Yes," Sloan took out his knife from his boot pocket. "Thank you so much for returning my knife to me."

"Oh, kitten..." Bree mocked a motherly tone to Tally as she pet the top of his head. "You didn't drink all your milk. How are you ever going to grow big enough to make me a coat?" she then picked up the cub, avoiding his claws and fangs.

"Take your hands off of him!" Mo glared as she took the cheetah cub away from the evil woman and gave him back to Eliza.

Eliza held Tally close then, both of them glaring to Bree and Sloan now.

Bree grabbed Mo by the wrist, narrowing her eyes. "I always knew you were trouble..."

Mo's eyes widened and she then narrowed her eyes back. "You made me and Angel run away..." she realized. "Your mother was paying attention to you all the time after you were born and you made us run away!"

"Ahh... So you finally recognize me, street urchin." Bree smiled evilly.

"I knew there was something familiar about you, Angel could tell there was something wrong with you after you were born!" Mo narrowed her eyes back.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Bree said.

"I'm afraid you'll all miss the solar eclipse..." Sloan smirked darkly. "You can catch it on the Poaching Channel."

Estelle gasped and narrowed her eyes as he said that. "You built that fence!"

"Yes, now Eliza and Estelle, here's a question for your nature loving father and your famous detective father, how many volts of electricity does it take to kill a heard of elephants? Hmm?" Sloan asked with an evil smirk.

Estelle and Eliza recoiled in slight horror of that graphic question. Simon narrowed his eyes from outside the window and started to run off to find his parents.

Meanwhile, as Atticus drove, Debbie was telling Boko all she had been through and made Eliza, Estelle, and Felicity sound like the bad guys for running away from boarding school. Boko told Atticus to stop in his native language.

"What?" Debbie asked. "You say something, Boko?"

"He said 'stop, he thinks he saw something'." Atticus translated.

"What is it?" Debbie wondered, stopping her sob story.

Boko got out of the Congo-Com and went back a little, finding something indeed. He found a sleep mask that belonged to Sarah Wellington that Darwin had brought with him. He then looked into the bushes. "Debbie!" he called to the American girl.

Debbie came to his side as he looked through tall blades of grass. "I don't see anything..."

Boko pointed to show familiar footprints. "Brat sister and friends?" he asked her.

"Oh, brother." Atticus groaned for Debbie for think her sister was a brat.

Boko showed he had also found a hair sample.

"Wow, you're good..." Debbie smiled. "Maybe we can make it to Timbo Valley before lunchtime."

"Timbo Valley?" Boko asked.

"Yeah, you know it?" Debbie asked once they got back on the trail.

"Well, let's just hope they're alright." Atticus said.

"Yeah..." Debbie agreed as they went along.