"They took him away!" Gretta whispered, watching the fiasco unfold outside and gulping.
"All right!" The cobra suddenly raised her voice. The general panic was put on hold. "Let'sssss get our sssshit together people. We owe that man our entire exisssstance and we're going to get him back. But firssssst, we need to keep ourssssselvvessss intelligent and human."
The cobra took a nervous breath and brought up the remote.
"Gretta," The snake whispered gently. The crocodile fought breaking into tears and nodded, paying attention. "Have ssssomebody bigger get the ssssssmallesssst of usssss and lock them in the office upstairsssss. Try to stay away from the windows and clossssse all the blindsssss."
The crocodile nodded nervously and went for Fred. They quickly exchanged instructions and went to work, scrambling to get the boa constrictor and his monitor lover round up the smaller creatures and clear them out. As this was happening, the larger reptiles stayed put and correctly guessed they were the front line."
The cobra turned and nodded. "Good." She pointed at the others. "Way to think proactively."
The snake quickly went through the remote's menus and took a sigh of relief as she noted the various functions and processes. The complexity was astounding, but her highly intelligent and logical mind could make sense of it. Quantum probability, he had explained. Can't change inanimate things. Limited range. She backed away from the front windows as Gretta and Fred returned clearly shaken.
"Sssstay calm." The snake reassured the remaining lizards. "We have thisss." She raised the remote. "We can do what we have to do to protect oursssselvvvesssss. Todd made sssssure of thissss. Okay?"
"Names." The male iguana called out. "Just for now so we know who's who."
"For giving orders." The female agreed.
The cobra quickly nodded. "Fine. I call Boss."
"All right, Boss. Gretta and Fred, obviously." Fred piped up, speaking for Gretta.
"John and Jane." The male iguana pointed between them.
The boa looked at his lover and shrugged.
"Snake and... uh... Sexy." The monitor blurted. The boa facepalmed and shook his head.
"Tiny." The Komodo elicited a laugh despite the danger lurking outside."
"Chick." Another voice piped up. A second female monitor lizard of nearly seven feet joined the others. They all nodded.
"Okay. Ssssso we've got all our heavy guysssss down here, right? Who'ssss watching the upstairssss?"
"Uh... the frilled lizard girl. She's about man size." Chick shrugged. "They were getting everything stowed away like you wanted, ma'am."
"Good enough. Good enough." The cobra took a deep breath. "Can we check the exit doorssss? Make sure they're ssssecured? Ssssomebody still have the keysss?"
"I can do that nice and quick." Chick nodded. Gretta threw her the keys across the hall and the speedy lizard went to work with urgency.
"Okay." Sexy leaned back against the wall. "Can we all agree that Boss is the most valuable here? You know how to run that thing and you're our brains. Yeah?"
There was a rush of agreement.
"You get your scaly ass to the back room." John pointed sharply. "We escort whoever comes in."
"Okay." Boss nodded. "Fine. Makessss ssssensssee."
"And not a moment too soon." Jane pointed. "Men coming."
Indeed, there was an entourage of suited executive types being escorted by police and the game keepers. The cobra lady was already on her way to the old janitor's office with the iguanas.
"Show time." Gretta snarled.
"Hey, can that thing cure bullet wounds?" Fred called back.
"Yesssss!" Boss called sharply.
"Oh! Okay!" Fred nodded in relief. Gretta just started at him oddly as the humans approached the door.