Children's Draft

Chapter 12 (Part One)

(Clayton's PoV)

    The other guy had gotten really close to our side of the barricade. Logan, Daniel, Trevor, and I all fired our guns, but we were unsure if it was even one of our bullets that killed him.

    "Too close," Daniel said breathlessly.

    The four of us retreated farther behind the barricade for some space.

    Daniel eyed his gun in disgust. "I hate this thing. I know it's for my own protection, but still..."

    Logan slumped down beside a large rock. His eyes glanced to the side and he immediately shot upright and let out a small scream.

    Trevor laughed. "You sure you're a bass?"

    Logan continued to babble as he pointed to the rock. From behind it, a large snake emerged followed by three slightly shorter ones. I had seen garter snakes before, but these were nothing like those. These ones were thicker, and were grey-ish in color with brown triangles running down their back. There were also black lines on the side of their head. I had never even seen snakes like these at the zoo.

    Logan continued to wail.

    "Do you think I could kill them?" Trevor speculated.

    Daniel's frantic sarcasm caused his voice to go up an octave or so. "With your aim, I'm sure that'll go wonderfully."

    "What's going on?" We heard a voice.

    Justin.

    His eyes widened as he came upon our scene.

    The mom snake--at least I think it was a mom. I wasn't sure about the sex, but I sure as hell wasn't about to check--curled up around her babies. A thought occurred to me that likely wouldn't have if it weren't for the berry incident last month. "Guys, what if they're poisonous?"

    "Actually," Justin cut in. "The proper term is venomous. Poison is ingested, while venom is injected."

    I sighed through my teeth. "Justin, I cannot express how much I am not in the mood for a vocabulary lesson right now."

    "But I was going to say it is venomous," Justin explained. "It's a Deinagkristroden."

    "No wonder it's pissed off," I muttered. "It's got a stupid name."

    "Well that's its scientific name," Justin went on. "It's more commonly known as the Taiwanese famous hundred pacer."

    "That's racist," I pointed out. "You're calling it Taiwanese when we are obviously in China. Not all Asians look the same, you know."

    Justin put his head in his hands momentarily. "It's not...it's native...never mind."

    I turned to Logan and grabbed his wrist. "Stop flailing around," I chided. "Maybe if we stay still it won't see us. You know how to hold a position. You're in show choir," I reminded him. "Like during a competition last year the lights went out at the end of our opener and we had to-"

    But apparently Justin had something more important to say.

    "Forget the Taiwanese part. It's called the hundred pacer because its venom--which is a potent hemotoxin--is so strong it is said that its victims will only be able to walk 100 paces after being bitten before dying."

    And with that Logan's whimpering escalated again.

    "But you should still be quiet and still," Justin advised. "It's more afraid of us and if you don't move, it will think it has a chance to escape."