Hello again dear readers! I'm happy to bring to you all the newest chapter of The Door! As always, feel free to leave a review!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Door (Chapter 13)

by

Elite Shade

 

 

 

 

 

 

"So, is this an alien invasion?! Are these huemans dangerous?! What our findings about this newly discovered species of predator, may in fact shock you! MORE on this upcoming story, at 11! As always, I am Chet McSprinter, signing off." The male antelope with the coiffed hairpiece smiled smugly as he stood there in front of the very hospital that all of the humans had been taken to for treatment and observation.

"I tell ya, Joey, sometimes it amazes me how easy this job is," he said, loosening his tie, and fixing his toupe.

"Uh, Chet?" The woodchuck cameraman started. He was wearing jeans and a black t-shirt, a red ball cap on backwards as he held the camera.

"I mean honestly, any idiot can just make up a story, make it sound threatening, and all the idiotic sheep watching at home are all good and ready to start grabbing some torches and pitchforks!"

"Seriously, Chet!"

"I haven't been this excited for a story since the Nighthowlers, you know, back when everyone thought that it was just a genetic thing with the predators. Now those were some seriously awesome ratings! And with a little luck, and a lot of overreaction from those mindless cattle that are our beloved viewers, we'll blow those numbers outta the water," he said, pulling his toupe off altogether, revealing his bad comb over, so that he could dab at his forehead with a cloth.

"CHET!"

"What Joey?"

"We're still live!"

Chet just stared into the camera for a few moments before he exhaled a breath he hadn't realized that he had been holding.

"I... am going to be receiving a lot of angry letters for that," he said, lamely.

 

Back at Judy's home...

 

Nick was currently on the floor laughing at what he had just seen on the local news. Judy had been furious during the initial report, but couldn't stifle a giggle at his apparent implosion.

"Well he deserves it! Eli is just the sweetest boy I have ever met," she said indignantly. After their day out, they had returned home where Nick and Judy had played Eli's new board game with him, with Nick winning. Shortly after dinner, which Nick stayed to help prepare, Eli asked to go to his room for a little while. When Judy had checked on him, she had found him soundly asleep.

"Easy there, Carrots, that guy just alienated most, if not all of his fan base, spectacularly if I might add," Nick said after getting his laughter under control.

Judy sighed, her ears drooping. "That's true, but still, that doesn't change the fact that all those mammals were staring at Eli today, not to mention those jerks you chased off. I hope things will calm down soon, he's been through enough already."

Nick walked over to the rabbit and pulled her into a hug, surprising her a little.

"Remember how the other officers used to stare at me, and the things that they used to say behind my back, as well as to my face? Or how about when you first joined the force, hmm? People will talk, sure, and stare, but with you looking out for him, and me having both of your backs, Eli's going to be just fine," Nick said reassuringly. Judy smiled up at him and hugged him back. "Besides, you two are walking around holding hands, with you acting so protective of him, and with him being a little over five feet tall..." Nick trailed off.

Then, Judy broke out into a giggling fit. "What's so funny now?" Nick asked, puzzled.

"Speaking of stares and whispers, remember when we went to go celebrate you graduating from the academy?"

"Oh geeze. Yeah, yeah I do."

"And we went out to that restaurant and posed for a picture, and how at that exact moment a few dozen of my brothers and sisters just so happened to stop at that very place, and walked in to see you with your arm around my waist?" Judy remembered the looks of shock on their faces, followed almost immediately by them pulling out their phones to begin texting.

"Yes, and I remember how several of your brothers started eyeing me after that, as well as getting tackled by a bunch of your nephews and nieces, calling me 'Uncle Nick'," he said, smiling at how Judy seemed to be perking up at the memory.

"The great Officer Wilde, scared of a few little kits."

"My count was in the triple digits. At that point, that's not a few, that's an army," he defended, until he noticed Judy heading upstairs. "You going to check on Eli again?"

"Yeah, I can't help it sometimes," she said, feeling that same warm feeling she had been noticing lately. Quietly, she crept up to Eli's door, which was already open a crack. Looking in, she saw Eli shifting about in his bed, a look of worry on his face. Then she saw his purple stuffed gorilla, lying on the floor next to his bed. Silently, she tip-toed over to the plush, and grabbed it. As she was reaching up to tuck the toy into Eli's arms, he shifted again, and reached towards her in his sleep. Judy was quickly pulled into a hug, the gorilla now sitting there on the edge of the bed.

Sighing, Judy carefully tried to squirm her way out of Eli's sleeping embrace, until she heard him start to whimper, and pull her closer. Looking up, she saw some wet patches underneath Eli's eyes. Without even thinking, she started to audibly hum a lullaby that her mother hand sang to her many times when she was a kit. Eli stopped whimpering, and slowly a smile appeared on his face. Once she was sure that he was sleeping soundly, and she felt his grip loosen, she rapidly extricated herself, and returned Eli's gorilla to him. As Eli snuggled up with his stuffed friend, Judy resumed humming as she pulled his covers back over him, tucking them in.

"Sleep tight Eli," she whispered, standing on her tip toes to gently kiss his forehead. She walked out of the room, quietly closing the door behind her, to see Nick standing there, staring at his phone.

"Nice job fluff," was all he said, with a smirk.

"So you saw all that?"

"Only starting when he thought you were his stuffed animal and pulled you close," he said, showing her his phone, and the video he took of her trying to get out of Eli's arms, including everything that had happened from that point on. "Like I said, Carrots, with you looking out for him, he's going to be just fine."

 

Meanwhile...

 

Barry had finally met with little Sarah, and spoken with her at great length, after Russell had finally calmed down enough for the doctors to examine him. While that was going on, Barry had asked Sarah about where she had come from. Her answer had been some place that she called "Nawwins", but he suspected that her lisp, while admittedly cute, was probably making her mispronounce the real name. They had spoken for a little while after that, before Russell was finally finished being examined. From what he had gotten out of the three-yeah-old, she had come from a broken home.

While talking, Sarah had described her mother as always drinking, and getting mad at everything. Sometimes when she got mad, she would hit her, or in some cases make her sleep outside. As far as Sarah knew, she didn't have a father. But she did say that there were a lot of grown males who would show up around the house to see her mother. They always brought them money so that they could eat, but before they would give it to them, they would take her mother upstairs for a while. After they would leave, Sarah's mother would start crying, and then start drinking again. Shortly afterwards, she would then start hitting Sarah again.

 

This last time had been the worst. One of the men had taken an interest in little Sarah, and asked her if she would like to come upstairs for some candy. Hearing him ask this, her mother first started hitting the man with a fireplace poker, until he left. But then, her mother had gotten very angry with her about it happening in the first place... and had been the one to break the toddler's arm with the poker, before throwing her into the backyard to sleep outside as a punishment. As Sarah had laid there, trying not to cry too loudly out of fear of what her mother would have done to her if she had heard her, Sarah had crawled under the house to try and find some warmth. That was until she had seen some light, and moved towards it, finding herself next to some trash cans, being found by Mr. Otterton.

Barry sighed, knowing full well what it was that the child had described. Thankfully, she was too young to understand what was going on, or even what had almost had happened to her. While he had been learning all of this, Mr. and Mrs. Otterton had been there as well, tearing up at Sarah's sad story. As he reflected this, he remembered the beaver nurse, Robbie, telling him about some of what he had learned about the first human, Eli. A thought struck him.

Eli was brought in bloodied, with signs of past physical abuse. The second human was a homeless male in his early twenties, beaten to a pulp, and who Robbie described as being genuinely surprised at the generosity of others. Then there was Sarah, and of course Russell, who was already showing some very classic signs of severe neglect. And now there was the human woman who was brought in, who had been found, tied to a cinderblock in the river. An early X-ray had shown that her ribs had been broken previously.

Have they all been abused? The only problem with that theory being that Russell had not shown any signs of past physical abuse, although he would know more when he spoke with him shortly.

But there's more than one kind of abuse. Barry thought to himself.

 

Elsewhere...

 

"Testing. This is Doctor Edwin Shellison," the armadillo scientist said to the webcam.

"After several different tests on the data, I have concluded, without a doubt, that the arrival of these otherworldly mammals calling themselves "Humans", coincide precisely with a surge in power, in the transformers nearest to their points of arrival. It is still unknown exactly what is causing the actual surges themselves. From what I, as well as my colleagues, have gathered, the generators are all working just fine, and are showing no signs of any irregularity. This must mean that the excess power causing the surges is coming from somewhere else," he said, before letting out a frustrated sigh.

"So far, the only thing linking these humans are the power surges. I may need to interview each one if I'm going to find out any other common factors that may be present." Edwin smiled at the thought.

"Of course, what scientist wouldn't jump at the chance to meet an extraterrestrial life form? Maybe they'll be able to share with me, and my colleagues, but hopefully me, technological and scientific knowledge that shall advance our own in great and powerful strides! Perhaps that could make up for the rather mundane information that has already been collected on their species physiology," he said, leaning back in his computer chair, lost in thought about the possibilities.

 

Back at the precinct...

 

"Seriously! What's he like?" Benjamin Clawhauser frantically asked officer Rams, practically clinging to his arm over his desk.

"Good afternoon to you too, Ben," Arnie said, plucking the chubby cheetah off of him.

"And I assume that you are not referring to Chaz?" he asked, sipping his cup of coffee.

"That human you two have been assigned to guard! Is he nice? Judy's told me a lot of nice things about Eli, although I haven't met him yet, and I'm just dying to meet one!" Benjamin's excitement was making the words just rush out of his mouth. Arnie chuckled and patted him on the back.

"I'm sure that you'll get the chance to meet one in person soon enough, Ben. Anyways, Baily, yes he is in fact a nice guy. A little down on his luck though. But thankfully, we're going to see about setting him up with a job and a place to stay, once he's all healed up first."

"Wow, really? That's very nice of you Arnie!" Clawhauser gushed. "What kinda job is it?"

Arnie paused, before mumbling to himself.

"I'm sorry?"

"I set him up with a job with my aunt... over in Tundra Town." The rhino looked away and mumbled something to himself again.

"Huh? What was that last bit?"

Arnie sighed. "It's a job... mostly as a stock boy... working as a cashier... and a part-time fortune teller," he trailed off on the last bit, hoping that Clawhauser missed it. He didn't.

"He's psychic?! OOOOOH! I have GOT to meet him! OH! I'll go ask him about some lottery numbers!"

"Calm down Ben! I did not say that he was psychic! I just happened to notice that he likes to use those fortune telling cards, the Tarot cards, and thought that he might like working for my aunt, who runs one of those new age shops! That's all," he explained, once again. Ben had not been the only cop on the force who had asked about the human he found seeing the future.

All thanks to Chaz's big muzzle, he thought wryly.

"O. M. GOSH! That was soo nice of you Arnie! I'm sure he'll probably really enjoy that job then! And just in case, I may ask him about some lucky numbers."

Arnie sighed and rubbed his temple, smiling a little regardless. He looked out the glass front doors of the precinct, and was a little shocked at how quickly it had gotten dark. Checking his watch, Arnie realized that he was late to relieve Chaz of his shift with Baily.

"Whoa! Gotta go! See you later Ben!" He called as he started to make his way to the parking lot.

"Bye!" The cheetah called back.

 

Back at the hospital...

 

"Sorry Chaz! I honestly didn't think to check the time... Chaz?" Arnie started apologizing as soon as he entered Baily's room. He noticed that Sophia was once more sitting on the side of the bed, chatting up Baily.

"You just missed him," the lioness said. "He said he was going to find a vending machine in this place that sold a Sir Finewedge, no matter what."

"We were given specific instructions, and he goes to blow it off, hunting for some chocolate bar with peanuts!" Arnie resumed massaging his temples.

For some reason, the sight of this accompanying Arnie's complaint in regards to his partner was enough to send Baily and Sophia into a fit of giggles.

"And just what is so funny?" He asked the two of them.

"On his way out, he said that with his luck, after staying here all day as well as part of your shift diligently guarding me, you would pick the exact moment to show up and assume that he's been slacking off all day," Baily explained before he and Sophia started laughing hard. Baily smiled even though it still hurt a bit to laugh, he just couldn't help it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that, dear readers, was chapter 13! Please feel free to leave a review!