5/2 15:17

The sky hung dark, and the air felt damp against the skin. A sign reading "Meuse River Spotted Alligator Wildlife Reserve" hung on a stretch of wire fencing that ran for hundreds of meters, several sections of it collapsed onto the ground. Inside the reserve, a large group of alligators had gathered in the marsh grass a hundred or two hundred meters back from the water. At the slightest ripple in the river, their heads snapped up high, plainly on guard against something.

Inside the reserve stood a cream-colored metal-sheeted office, but for some reason one of its walls had been punched clean through, as if some tremendous force had slammed straight into it; the wall, built of nothing but thin aluminum sheeting, had crumpled as flimsily as a soda can, one more blow enough to cave it in entirely. The trail of destruction ran straight through to the door of a smaller inner room.

Kevin came out of the little room carrying a big-caliber hunting rifle, looking thoroughly imposing, while Hugo stood flipping busily through a notebook.

"So where's the reserve's warden?" Kevin looked around, holding the unloaded rifle.

"The work log stops a few days ago — it says he was heading out to patrol the reserve's perimeter, but it looks like he cleared out early, and there's no sign of his car outside."

"What do you figure it is? Some kind of super-alligator?"

"Doesn't matter what it is at this point. Maybe it really is some once-in-a-lifetime giant fat alligator. Right now all I care about is how to keep the body count down."

"It does matter — at least we need to know if this gun can kill it."

"No chance. This thing only fires tranquilizer darts — dosage strong enough to put a full-grown elephant to sleep in about eight seconds, and keep it under for half an hour."

"Well, that's something, I guess."

"I saw in the access log here that a research team was still up at the headwaters two weeks ago."

"And?"

"I'm guessing maybe the warden ran up there to warn them."

"You can guess that, but I'll bet you they're all eaten by now, warden included." Kevin lit a cigarette and started smoking. "We heading upstream?"

"I don't want to risk it. We're going to the recreation center — I'll give the Sheriff the rundown, and whether he signs off on it or not, we're going to the state government to ask for militia backup."

"Good idea. Let's do it."