Some humans in general can really suck sometimes, folks who shouldn’t even be in charge of themselves take it upon themselves to care for another living creature. Often with disastrous results, destroyed property, ruined reputations and animals either dead or thrown out like trash. Some more exotic than others in a land far from their native habitat and their presence wreaks havoc on the environment. Ending up with things like giant anacondas roaming the woods, sewer gators, large assorted cats eating the neighbor’s dog and gold fish growing big enough for rednecks to wanna go after them like catfish. So when one or more jackasses decide to throw away their no longer wanted sea and aqua fluffs, instead of throwing them in the trash, they’re either flushed or tossed into the nearest body of water. Y’know, to give them a fighting chance, but when that body is the town’s local water reservoir…
Sheriff Brody was not a morning person and her morning so far was off to god awful start. Turning on her kitchen faucet the water came out brown and absolutely reeked like week old shit and dead bodies. Testing the bathroom shower got the same results and flushing the toilet, well there was no flushing the toilet, it just filled back up with reeking brown sludge. Then her work phone went off.
“Aw fuck me.” Grumbling as she picked it up. “Somebody better be dead, Andy… Yeah, it’s all brown… How many calls?.. Sheeee-iiittt! The whole town? So that means all the coffee joints are…?.. Dammit all to hell! Why today?!.. Yeah, thanks.” Hanging up. “Happy fuckin’ birthday, Janice.”
Meeting up with the local boys down at power and water maintenance plant went on an investigative tour of the facility. Every single filter and drainage checkpoint was clogged to capacity with the same foul sludge stinking up the whole facility. The source of the problem was discovered when they checked the reservoir, a man made lake that was supposed to be free of any animals or fish. Now it was crammed with sea and aqua-fluffs with a few herds of marsh fluffies building nests on the shore. But the worst part was the above ground intake pipe, completely dammed up with a pile of assorted dead water fluffs.
-P-p-pwease hewp muh… muh’s beh-bestest babbeh- Pleaded a half dead bowl fluff caught in the end of the fluff dam, all her foals were dead.
“I swear to god I’m gonna shoot somebody over this.”
Then something truly disturbing caught Sheriff Brody’s eye, on the shoreline a very pregnant looking pink and yellow maned aqua-fluff wept over the starved, dead body of her mate. With tears flowing she took some small nearby rocks in her mouth and began to chew. With each bite her teeth broke into uneven jagged points as blood started to flow from the gum line and spat the mess out. After a moment of hesitation she closed her eyes and bit into her mates supple green fluff.
-Huu… Showwy shpeshaw fwen- The mare mumbled through a mouthful -Mummah wuv ou… Nu wan ou to be nummies huu huuuuuu…-
After a few more bites she opened her eyes to look to the sky and saw Sheriff Brody looking down at her, already a faint yellow swirl starting to develop in her pupils. Drawing her sidearm she put one bullet in the fluffy’s head.
“This is why we should have put a fence up around the lake. But nooooo, the mayor had so veto that brilliant idea.” Digging out her phone. “Costs too much. Fucking idiot…”
Earlier that morning…
Life in the water used to be so good the heavily pregnant pink and teal maned sea fluff thought to herself, before there were so many other fluffies. Now she was just hungry all the time with the worstest tummy hurties, no matter how much she and her special friend searched. The earthy bottom once full of long wide grassy nummies and yummy little fishies was now brown, lifeless and covered in a thick layer of poopies. Even the grass on the shore was gone and what little there was was too far from the water to crawl to it before she would go forever sleepies from no water to breath. Even the ones who could would get tired and stuck in the mud and would either starve or get eaten by whatever happened to be passing by like those red yelping doggy monsters. Worst of all, she had to be extra careful of other fluffies these days, even ones she once called friend. Swimming to the surface she saw one of her former friends, a pink and yellow maned mare who became a soon mummah the same time as she did. She was on the shore sobbing over her special friend who went forever sleepies, refusing to eat until he could find something for her first. Then she watched in disbelief as her friend took a bite out of her former mate. Her heart sank at the site, other fluffies had gotten so hungry they had nummed other fluffies before but when one nummed their special friend, they’d go crazy. You could see it in their eyes and they acted strangely too, not acting like themselves anymore. There was some human woman walking up to her as she took another sorrowful bite and then the woman used some strange loud thing that made her friend’s head pop like a bubble. She dove back down almost to the yucky bottom and stayed there until her special friend returned with a small tree branch with a few meager leaves on it.
A few hours later every member of the SkettiLand Trappers crew was pulling up to the reservoir. Jake’s truck was pulling a dumpster trailer, Earl’s van had a modified wood-chipper and Jr and Mark’s pulled a couple of flat-bottom fishing boats.
“Christ it stinks.” Marc groaned waiving a hand over his face. “Smells worse than the Dunktown job.” UN-hitching his boat. “No wonder the mayor declared a state of emergency.”
“Man, Sheriff Brody wasn’t kidding when she showed up at my place.” Jake laughed sarcastically. “Raided my shower after stealing most my coffee.”
“I gotcha beat.” Earl grinned. “Mayor Phillips and his wife paid me a visit this morning. Wanted me to save him from my sister. Threatened to arrest his ass for… I dunno criminal negligence or miss use of government funds or something.”
“Bullshit.” Mark laughed. “Why would the mayor go to your house?”
“Because like the rest of us here, we all live outside of town and have private wells so Phillips and his wife wanted to bum my shower as well.”
“But why your house and not one of the dozen other farms out here?” Mark asked.
“Cause half the shady shit that goes down in this town, Earl’s got a hand in most of it AND he keeps getting away with all of it and the mayor’s got his hand in the other half.” Jake laughed. “Now let’s get to work. Mark you’re on trawling duty with Shannon.”
“NNNNOPE!” Mark exclaimed. “I am not almost drowning in fluffy shit water for a third time. I’m staying on shore manning the wood chipper.” Taking a pitchfork from his truck.
Jake helped Earl move the wood chipper to the shoreline and unfolded a winched slide chute. Bill And Shannon climbed into the first boat and revved the engine, the motor blades shredded every fluffy underneath leaving a red wake in the murky brown water. The wood chipper roared to life as Mark started scooping up bodies from the fluff dam and chucked the bodies into the chipper. Jr. and Candace got in the second boat just as Shannon cast out her net then Mark drove them back to shore handing the tow line to Jake. Hooking up the line the winch groaned in protest as the line dredged the net from the water, packed with assorted sea and aqua fluffs. Some of the aqua fluffs had drowned in the net already as they didn’t have gills like the sea fluffs and the starving school of fluffs had already started to eat them. The net was opened and spooled out of the way dragging the sea fluffs to the lip of the chipper chute and pushed in by the ones behind them. The net was only half cleared when the winch gave out and Jake looked at Earl with a “WTF?” type look.
“Th’fuck you want? I built this thing with an hours notice!” Raising his arms in exasperation. “Tsk…Uhh… Oh! HEY! JR! I’m borrowing the winch from your truck!”
JR was mid-cast as Earl yelled at him and in that moment of distraction he lost his balance.
“You doin’ wha-whoa-AAAAAAAAAAHH!” SPLASH!
“And that’s why I stayed on shore!” Mark shouted.
Splashing and flailing about Jr desperately grabbed for the boat, slipped back in then flung his whole arm over the side and hauled himself back in the boat.
“Christ, bro you reek!”
“Something’s biting me!” Lifting his leg from the water.
Clinging to his pant leg a blue and green maned sea fluff held on tight by his teeth looking at Jr. with hungry, yellow swirled eyes. Jr reached over grabbing the fluff by the throat and squeezed so hard his head popped clean off.
“They’re going cannibal! Should just them eat each other.” Prying the mouth free from his pant leg. “Hey. What’s Earl doing to my truck?”
Several used up rolls of paper towels, wet wipes and a a quick hosing off from an emergency stash of clean water later they were back in business. Hours of dredging the reservoir later the sixty thousand gallon dumpster had been filled with the slurry of hundreds of sea fluffs. A replacement had been called in when the other was half filled then Earl made a call and two garbage trucks rolled up soon after and a truck full of even bigger nets.
“Enjoying this new pull you have with the mayor?” Mark asked as he and Jr unloaded the net.
“Yeah, what else did you wring outta him?”
“Well we finally got that street patrol contract..Aaaaand a few other things I’ll talk about later.” Putting a finger to his lips.
The new net was dragged across the dam and tied to a city tow truck the other end to Jake’s truck. Starting off slow the two vehicles attached by a thousand feet of netting and a mile long path ahead they were forced to stop after a few hundred feet. The nets were already full. Truck and equipment were moved to follow the nets, sea fluffs were thrown into the back of the garbage trucks. Once the catch bins were full the massive scoop shoved the pile of wiggling, crying vermin into the trash compacter. Blood would gush from every possible hole and gap and it filled the catch bin till it was overflowing.
Down below the pink mare and her blue unicorn mate tried their best to escape the net but were caught up with the other hundreds of fluffs. Eventually the net stopped and every fluffy who could made a break for it but the ones pressed against the net itself were caught up in the trolling nets and dragged to the shore, including the mare’s special friend.
-Speshaw fwend hewp!- Called the blue stallion, face pressed to the net.
Desperate to pull her mate free she latched her teeth onto one of his fore-fins and pulled with everything she had but was instead pulled closer to the shore. Stubbornly holding on, soon her bloated belly was dragging on the ground then lifted into the air by the shore and her mate’s fin tore off. Falling back into the water she spun uncontrollably as she was bumped and pushed out of the way by the fluffies still caught in the net. Breaking the surface again her last look at her mate was of him being thrown into the back of the garbage truck as the scoop came down. The tidal wave of blood the came gushing out the truck she dove back down, eyes shut, she just swam down until she plowed face first into the shit layered bottom. Choking and gagging on the cloud of filth she just kicked up, the net lurched forward revealing a small gap under it and she went for it when the net lurched again. Trying not to breath in the cloud of extra shitty water and under the net, it was a tight squeeze and for a moment she thought she might pop her babies out right there. Desperate, frantic and in a blind panic, she just swam as far and as fast as she could away from the carnage behind her.
They had to call in two more garbage trucks before they finally cleared the reservoir, now all that was left were the intake pipes. They were underwater and packed tight with dead fluffies, Earl had cobbled together an submersible drone earlier and tossed it into the murky water. What they discovered was kinda strange, all the bodies were facing the same direction.
“Alright Genius, how we gonna do this? Nobodies gonna wanna swim in that, scuba gear or not.” Mark chided at Earl while looking over his shoulder at the controller screen.
Earl looked up back at him a mile wide smile poking out from the sides of his mustache.
“Fluffies go boom.” Pressing a button on the controls.
The drone dove at the clog then detonated sending a plume of water fifteen feet in the air causing everyone but Earl to take a few startled steps back. Fetching another drone from his van he tossed it in the water and synced it to the controls.
The little mare was paralyzed with fear, the loudest boom ever just shook all the water and was pushed almost all the way back to the net. Moments later the currant changed and she was sucked right back to where she started but continued to gently pull her forward. Tired, hungry and scared witless she felt a familiar twinge in her tummy, her babies where coming soon, she needed a safe place to hide. She was delighted to spot the tunnels, the tunnels with the small pool inside mares would go in to have their babies and when the where strong enough to fight the currant they would swim out. She let the currant carry her into the tunnel, a funny thing she had never seen before swam around her making a strange buzzing noise as it moved.
“Well looks like one or two managed to slip the net.” Earl sighed. “Seems to be headed to the first retaining pool in the facility. We’ll get her when we go in to clean out the pool.” Steering the drone back to the surface.
On one side of the damn there was a staircase that lead into the water purifying facility. When the crew stepped inside it was a buzz with activity, dozens of facility workers cracking open over clogged filter doors. Now, if you weren’t used to the kind of smells the SkettiLand trappers dealt with regularly when it hits you, you’re gonna vomit. And that’s what every other crew facility worker did when a filter chamber door was opened and the thick brown glop oozed to the floor. The retaining pool was the only place big enough for a fluffy of any size to fit as the first stage of the filtering process. So they didn’t have to worry about going any deeper into the machinery than that so armed with pole nets, trash bins and more drones they headed for the pool. The pool was a forty foot squared pool of blood and fluffy body parts, blown to bits from Earl’s antics.
The nesty pool wasn’t how the mare remembered, boo-boo juice and bad poopies and worst of all bits and pieces of other fluffies floated everywhere. It was so thick it was making it hard for her to make good breathies with the dirty water clogging her gills. Everything was hard to see clearly but something in the deathly stillness of gently drifting bits of gore was moving. Something long and big. Something broke the surface, more nets scooping out several fluffies worth of random body parts at a time. Making sure to keep low near the bottom something else dove into the water, it was that thing that swam around her outside the nesty pool. It was dragging a very big, grey, strand of sketties down to the bottom of the pool and started sucking up the poopies resting at the bottom. It was coming straight for her with two claw-like arms outstretched, frozen with fear she floated there then something struck, biting the skettie line and dragging the thing away with it.
Earl lightly smacked the side of the controller when the camera feed went blank before he went into the diagnostics menu. No signal found. Annoyed, he set the controller down and started to pull in the vacuum hose, feeling like it was caught on something big and heavy. Dropping to one knee he reached for the drone with his left hand when it finally breached the surface. The water surface erupted as something bit Earl’s arm up to the elbow, pulling him in. Thankfully Jr. and Mark were next to him and barely managed to grab a leg each as his torso vanished into the water. Pulling with all their might they barely managed to pull him out and he had a seven foot alligator clamped down on his arm. Everyone was screaming during this tug of war then the gator started trying to spin followed by a loud boom and the back of the gators head blew open. Flopping to the grated walkway Earl continued to shout in pain holding to spot where his prosthetic and stump met. All his fingers had been blown off and smoke wafted from a hole in the remaining palm.
“FFFFFUCK! I felt the recoil in my bones! I should’a went with four-ten and not the double ought buck shot!” Disengaging the arm and letting it fall. “I just built that hand too!”
“Dude, you put a shotgun in your arm?” Mark asked fishing the gator out the water.
“Think there’s anymore in there?” Shannon asked taking a step back from the edge.
“Only one way to find out.” Earl said getting up and heading out.
Returning a few minutes later with his clunky spare arm and new bomb.
“Where do you keep getting those?” Bill asked.
“That’s a question best left unanswered.” Jake responded.
“Anybody who don’t wanna die from the shock wave better get out now.” Tossing the bomb in the water and walking out.
It was just too much, too much all at once in one day for the little sea-mare. With the strange thing chasing her, the giant monster that ate it then all the splashing and the boom, it was too overwhelming. Then she felt that all too familiar pain in her special place and that involuntary urge to push.
-Nuuuu, not hewe babbehs! Dis am bad nesty wawa! Need stay inside mummah jus… a widdew… wongerrrrrEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! huff huff! SCREEEEEEEEEE!-
But there was no stopping nature and being the mummah to several litters before she knew when the babbehs wanted out, they were coming out. Her only hope now was to get them out as fast as she could and get away with as many as she could, so she started pushing harder. With one mighty, panic induced push she felt three rapid pops from her special place then two more with the next and her tummy finally stopped pushing. Exhausted, but determined to survive she slowly turned around to see her new babbehs, she couldn’t carry all of them but she could try. One was a little blue colt just like her special friend, she gingerly took him by the nape in her mouth and scooped the rest in her fore-fins but they constantly wiggled trying to get to her milky places. Two slipped from her fins and would normally followed their noses to her teats but where nose blind in the filthy water and swam in circles cheeping in distress. Then something dropped into the water sinking down to the bottom, a bunch of long round thing with a blinking red light. Whatever could it be?
BOOM!
As the SkettiLand trapper crew marched out the building after their final clean up in the retaining pool a small convoy of trucked pulled in hauling spools of chain-link fencing and barb-wire. It had been a long day and the town was far from saved, emergency water was trucked in by the tanker and anybody with a private well offered to fill any container they were brought. The treatment plant will take an entire week to clean out and until then the state of emergency was still in affect.
