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“I think it’s near your area.”
Cody muttered about man crushes and smart-mouthed employees as he dragged another tub away from the wall. His eyes were on the trail in the dust beneath his knees as the plastic bottom of the tub scraped along the dusty wood floorboards. It looked like the trail might have angled toward the wall right around where he was kneeling. A sassy comeback came to him at that moment, and he was about to turn his head and say something when movement in the heavy shadows at the base of the wall stopped the words in his throat. A dark, mottled shape rose up, coming out of the darkness and swinging toward him. Instinctively, Cody put up a hand and cried out as he fell backward. But it was too late, and something long and strong wrapped around his arm, holding him tight. His cry turned into something closer to a scream. He could feel the pressure of it all along his arm as a narrow, pointed face looked up and flicked a tongue at him.
“Snake!” Jugs shouted. “Oh, sweet Baby Jesus and the Spice Girls, that’s a goddamn python!”
“Get it off me!” Cody shout-screamed. “It’s squeezing my arm. It’s got my arm.”
“I can’t even see the end of it yet,” Jugs shouted back. “It’s a big fucker.”
“What the hell is going on—?” Devin had crawled halfway through the attic door and froze. “Jesus Christ, what the fuck?”
Cody was on his butt, scooting back from the wall, the snake still wrapped around his arm and squeezing him even harder. His fingers tingled, and a zap of pain shot into his shoulder. Scenarios flashed through his mind, each one more awful. Everything from the snake biting him on the face and leaving fang punctures to doctors having to amputate his arm to get the thing off him.
His scooting brought him up against something tall and solid that brought him to a stop. Looking up, he found it was Jugs, on his knees and leaning in over him. Jugs’s eyes were wide behind the plastic glasses as he reached for the snake. Cody, gasping for breath and heart slamming, pumping what felt like gallons of adrenaline through his system, watched as Jugs distracted the snake with one gloved hand and reached around with the other to grab it behind the head. Then Devin was there, eyes just as wide as Jugs’s as he took hold of the back half of the snake. Between the two of them, they unwrapped it from Cody’s arm.
When the last of the snake’s long, strong body was pulled away, Cody crab walked toward the attic door.
“Now what?” Devin asked, barely managing to keep hold of the squirming tail end.
“Cody, take it from him,” Jugs said.
“Fuck that,” Cody shot back.
“Cody Duran Bower, get your ass over here and take the snake from our client’s hands.” Jugs’s voice was low and even, the tone of a parent nearing the end of his patience with a bratty child.
“Duran?” Devin furrowed his brow and looked at Cody, nearly losing his grip on the snake.
“Not important,” Cody snapped.
He shook more feeling back into his right arm and, cursing snakes and his rotten luck, got up on his knees and approached Devin. With slow and careful timing, Devin handed off the tail end of the snake and moved out of the way.
“I can’t believe there was a fucking python in my house,” Devin said. “My wife’s going to make us move when she hears about it.”
“Now what?” Jugs asked over the long, wriggling length of slimy scales.
“Let’s get it out to the truck and try to stuff it inside one of the carriers.”
It took some vigilant maneuvers, but they finally got it out of the attic and down the stairs to the front door. Devin followed them outside to the truck, grabbing one of the larger carriers and opening the door. Cody looked at the space inside the carrier, took stock of the feet of snake he and Jugs held, and shook his head.
“That’s not going to work. We need a big bag or something.”
“Garbage bag?” Devin asked.
“That’ll tear,” Jugs said.
“What about an old baseball duffle bag? I’ve got one in the basement I’ve been meaning to throw out.”
“Seriously?” Cody said. “You’ll just give it to us?”
“Yeah. Hold on.”
Devin ran back to the house and Cody looked across the writhing and twisting length of snake at Jugs.
“Nice day out.”
“Fuck you, Bonker.”
“Hey, it’s not my fault this turned into an episode of Reptile Rescue.”
