The Wild Side of Us

Chapter 4 - Welcome to My Other Job

On the outskirts of town, a collection of abandoned buildings sat across from the trailer park. Most of them were old businesses that didn't get very far, or old research labs that either didn't get enough funding or an experiment went terribly wrong. For a city being so close to the sea, we get a lot of tourists, but this city also attracts the government. Government's plans that'll eventually fail but they decide to pursue it anyway, I should say.

Back to the topic at hand, I meet up with my other coworkers in one of these buildings. The abandoned brewery, to be specific. I remember this place when I was a kid, The Pink Shark. My mom bought a whiskey bottle from there once, and no matter how hard she tried she could never get drunk off of it. She swore the brewery mixed a package of Kool-Aid and charged extra for it. 

I turned off my TV and the pot cooking my noodles, grabbed my keys, and locked the door as I headed out. For once, I left my leather jacket at home, so it was just my tank top and leggings. I had a feeling my job tonight will be easy, so there was no hassle in changing into spyware after getting comfortable. 

The sky darkened as the sun set beyond my vision. Small stars slowly appeared in the dark blue sky, reminding me I was still on the planet we call Earth. I breathed heavily, jogging my way to the brewery. I didn't remember the weather forecast warning me of the chilly night it was going to be, but it was manageable. I'll be sweating up a storm in no time.

After a couple minutes of running, I pulled the heavy, falling doors open and waltzed inside The Pink Shark. Cockroaches scurried past me or into the corners once I stepped foot inside. This place was abandoned so quickly, most of the brewing machines were left here to rot. Empty bottles and cigarette boxes littered the concrete floor, stains covered the concrete walls. The windows were broken, so I had to watch my step for broken shards of glass. I also had to watch for sticky residues. People liked to do... that sort of stuff where privacy is a definite answer.

"I'm here," I called out into the darkness. My voice echoed, and my tail twitched. I didn't hear anything else - was I too early?

Suddenly, something jumped down in front of me. My tails and ears puffed up, and I unsheathed my claws. Growling, I prepared to strike, but I calmed down once the little bit of light I had shone on the figure.

"Scaredy cat," said the figure. The figure was one of my coworkers, or as I like to say, Bobo my friend. Bobo was a monkey (we aren't sure which type, we just know he's one of those small, brown ones), so he was very acrobatic. He was around the same height as me, had tanned skin, and blue eyes. His short hair was the same light brown as his tail. He was dressed in the usual all black instead of a jumpsuit or weird jacket with jeans. However, everywhere we went he carried a giant bag with him that seemed to have everything inside of it. 

"Shut it," I replied to him, stroking my tail to calm it down. "What's our mission tonight?"

"Nothing too hard, nothing too easy." He reached into his bag and pulled out three photos of a two-story house, each photo showing a different angle of the house. "The family who lives here are snobs that think they rule the world. While they have the same amount of money as any other herbivore, they waste a lot of money on expensive products and shit on everyone that isn't rich. Who knows the amount of debt they're in. But what we do know is that they are holding some goodies in that house. Whether they're guarded or not is unknown, but I doubt they're smart enough to hire some guards or security system. If they just so happen to have either of those, you know what to do."

I inspected the pictures. The house was well kept, with the painting on each wall looking as fresh as the day it was painted. I looked closely at the bottom of the roof. There appeared to be no security cameras or systems installed, and if these pictures were taken so cleanly, then I doubted they have any guards.