Feeding Ground

Lie To Me

Joseph was driving through the countryside terrain, which began to look familiar to Molly; her skin felt hot and itchy, and her pulse pounded. She fidgeted and bounced around in her seat. She would rather be anywhere, but here, though it was necessary, Dan was still out there somewhere.

Joseph seemed to have noticed her behavior. He glanced at her. "Are you alright?" He asked.

"We are getting close to where it happened. I'm just getting nervous, is all."

"Are you going to be able to handle this?" Joseph asked sympathetically.

"Yes, I have to. I don't want to hide from my problems anymore."

They pulled into the trailer park, and Joseph stopped the vehicle, and he and Molly stepped out. Joseph took two tranquilizer guns out of the trunk and handed one to Molly.

"Just like I showed you," he said to Molly. "It has a range of 15 yards, so you should be perfectly safe." He picked up the car phone and dialed it. "We are here. Ok, see you soon."

Molly looked around with sadness, remembering. This was supposed to have been a new start for her and Dan; instead, it had turned into an entirely new set of problems. A few minutes later, a large black Dodge diesel truck, pulling a large black and silver enclosed trailer behind it, made its way towards them, slowing down as it crossed the speedbumps. The truck rumbled to a stop, and Luigi and six other men stepped out.

"Molly, come over and take a look at this." Joseph showed Molly that the truck was equipped with three cages in the back. "The plan is to tranquilize the creatures and place them in these steel cages for transport."

"I understand the need for it, I just dislike seeing animals in cages." Molly said, looking at the cages sadly.

"It is for our protection and theirs, so they don't injure themselves, our us if they wake up during the journey."

Molly walked up the ramp into the trailer and looked at the cages more closely. The bars were set close together; Molly could not slip her hand through the spaces between them. The floor of each pen was piled with burlap sacks full of grass; Molly assumed this would be their bedding.

Behind them, brakes squeaked, and a car door slammed. Molly came out to see a paunchy balding man with a red face and an irate expression, who had just stepped out of the car. Joseph quickly snatched the tranquilizer gun out of Molly's hand and turned to quickly put it, and the one he was holding, in the truck, whose driver door was still open. Molly watched him, impressed by the speed and grace with which he moved. Joseph shut the truck door and turned to face the interloper.

The red-faced man who had just arrived looked around at all of them, then since Luigi was the closest, he spoke to him.

"What are you all doing? Are you packing up Pete's trailer? He is behind in his rent; I hope he isn't planning on skipping out on what he owes me! Is he here?! Pete! Where you at?!" The man looked around and started to walk towards Pete's trailer.

Molly noticed people were beginning to peep out of their windows in the closely neighboring trailers. Since Pete had been Dan's friend, she decided she should speak to the man.

'He looks angry already; I hope he doesn't get angrier when he finds out that Dan and I have been staying here.' she thought.

Luigi's expression was unreadable as he listened to the man's ongoing tirade. Molly walked over and stuck her hand out to the balding newcomer. "Hi, I'm Molly. Are you the park manager?"