Chapter 1 - The Viper in the Leaves
The massive coiled nightmare beneath the autumn leaves was an Eastern Diamondback rattlesnake.
But it was entirely the wrong color.
Instead of the typical brown and tan camouflage, its scales were a sleek and unnatural ash-gray.
It was thick as a man’s forearm and its triangular head was pulled back like the hammer of a gun.
The little girl was still screaming with her face pressed inches from the dirt.
The mother was still frantically pulling at Brutus’s hind legs while crying hysterically.
But Brutus did not break his stance or look away from the threat.
He stared down the lethal predator while keeping his eighty-pound body perfectly positioned between the snake and the child.
The rattlesnake struck with blinding and terrifying speed.
It launched itself like a coiled spring aiming directly for the little girl's exposed face.
Brutus moved faster than my eyes could process.
He snapped his jaws forward and caught the massive snake mid-air.
The impact sent both animals tumbling violently into the muddy woodchips.
The crowd around the playground erupted into absolute chaos.
People were screaming wildly while grabbing their children and running toward the parking lot.
The father with the concealed handgun finally lowered his weapon as his face went pale with shock.
I threw myself toward my dog and ignored my own safety.
Brutus had the snake pinned by the neck and was shaking it with bone-breaking force.
But I saw the terrifying flash of the snake's fangs sink deep into the thick muscle of Brutus's left shoulder.
My heart shattered into a million pieces as the snake finally went limp in his jaws.
I screamed the release command while grabbing his heavy collar and pulling him backward.
He dropped the dead reptile and panted heavily with his eyes still locked on the threat.
The little girl's mother scooped her crying child into her arms and sobbed uncontrollably.
She looked at me with wide and terrified eyes but was completely speechless.
I didn't care about the mother or the panicked crowd anymore.
I dropped to my knees and desperately inspected the two bleeding puncture wounds on my partner's shoulder.
The venom was already taking a devastating effect on his nervous system.
Brutus whined softly as his massive legs began to tremble uncontrollably.
I scooped his eighty-pound frame into my arms and sprinted toward my police cruiser.
I knew I had less than twenty minutes to save his life.
But as I loaded him into the backseat I noticed something glinting in the mud where the snake had died.
It was a tiny metallic tag bolted directly into the snake's tail.
I reached down and wiped the mud away from the cold metal surface.
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The tag did not belong to any wildlife conservation department.
It was stamped with a military barcode and the logo of a private defense contractor I had not seen since my deployment in Afghanistan.
