Shelter by Melanie Jackson

Melanie Jackson author of twenty plus books is ecstatically happy to be married to the editor of DRR. She also loves gardening and volunteering at the local animal shelter.

Jack flinched as Robert broke the lock and pulled the metal-clad door open. Jack was kind of timid and it was his first raid, so Lisa cut him some slack. Since the arrests last month, it was getting harder to find people who were willing to go on actual rescues. People stand in the parking lot and hold signs and chant, but when it came down to actually doing something, well, there weren't that many dedicated followers anymore.

Lisa didn't understand this. How could anyone hear about the experiments going on this lab and not be so outraged that they would do anything-anything-- to prevent it? Maybe if they had been able to get a camera inside there would have been more volunteers, but Mickey had up and disappeared. A lot of people had no imagination. You had to show them or they just didn't get it. Or didn't believe. Maybe that meant they were good people and couldn't imagine anything really bad. Maybe they were just cowards.

Robert turned and clicked the flashlight twice at the giant oleanders. That was a signal to Ralph and Christie that they were inside and to move the vans closer.

Jack hesitated as Robert slipped into the lab, but for just a second. Maybe he found it worrisome that there didn't seem to be any kind of alarm …. Come to think of it, that was weird. These places almost always had an alarm. But Robert had said that his contact was sure that there was none because they turned loose some kind of especially vicious watchdog at night. Some watchdog! If there was one, he had to be deaf and nose-dead. Maybe it couldn't smell them above the stink of shit and ammonia.

Lisa closed the heavy door almost all the way but didn't let it latch, just in case they had to get out fast. Shit happened. All over. Once they were inside, everyone turned on their flashlights and started to look around. The place looked pretty much like every lab they raided, which was to say cleaner than a puppy mill but a long way from where you'd want to go for medical treatment-- unless you wanted to end up with two heads.

The bandaged animals were acting peculiar, cowering in their cages and making no noise at all. That might be because they were debarked. A lot of places did that-cut the vocal chords and pulled the animals teeth so they couldn't bite.

Robert was shining his light around, looking for security cameras, but not finding any. This should have reassured Lisa, but it didn't. Every other lab she had been in had had some kind of cameras. Maybe because this was just some sort of intake area and the security was all in where the butchers were doing their work?

"Jack, go left. Lisa, go straight. No one gets left behind." That was Robert 's credo. He wasn't whispering, but his voice was hushed below its usual boom and neither of them answered Robert's back as it made a sharp left and disappeared. Lisa went slow, counting the animals and hoping they had enough carriers. There were six dogs, four cats, three monkeys, dozens of rats… and an empty kennel that could have held a horse.

"Hey! Come on, boy. It's alright," Robert gasped. Something heavy fell.

"Shit." Lisa spun around and began backtracking. Before she made it to the junction Jack began to scream, a sound like someone yelling in a bucket. She snapped her flashlight in Jack's direction and found him. Part of him. And a lot of blood. And something the size of a horse but with much bigger teeth and claws.

"Robert!" she screamed as she ran for the door, glad it was unlatched.

At least they knew what had happened to Mickey. Robert would be disappointed, but this time someone was getting left behind.