Dragonslayer

Lieutenant Jeff Harris put down his donut and licked the raspberry jelly off his finger. He flipped on his light bar and hit the siren to clear some of the early morning traffic out of his way, then he did a U-turn on the four lane highway.

"10-4, dispatch, I’m headed that way now." Jeff mumbled into the two-way radio.

"Be advised, Lieutenant, we have reports of some kind of wild animal in the area." A monotone voice crackled over the radio.

Jeff frowned.

"Did you say wild animal?"

"10-4, officer Harris, some kind of large lizard."

The squad car pulled to a stop on the side of the freeway. A tall, heavy-set, officer got out and made his way to the accident. He paced around the mess of wrenched steel.

A large 18 wheeler was overturned across three lanes of traffic, cars were backed up out of sight.

"Dispatch," Jeff spoke into his radio, "We’re gunna need an ambulance and towing rig that is capable of moving a semi. Get me some more men down here too, we‘ve got rush hour traffic to redirect in a few minutes."

Jeff started talking to the motorists near the collision. The people all said that the semi lost control after hitting a piece of metal in the road, it then crashed into the concrete highway divider.

While Jeff was interviewing witnesses, a teenage boy on a moped wheeled up and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Yes, young man?" Jeff said, irritated because of the interruption.

"I think the driver is waking up."

Jeff pushed though the crowd and made his way to the front of the semi. He crouched down and peered in through the shattered windshield. Inside the driver’s eyes flickered as he regained consciousness.

"Easy buddy," Jeff said, "help is on the way."

The driver tried to speak, but his words were inaudible.

"Don’t try to talk-" Jeff started but was cut off, a medic pushed him aside.

"How long has he been here?" The medic asked, looking at the driver but talking to Jeff.

"Ten minutes, maybe fifteen," Jeff answered, stepping back as two more medics arrived with a stretcher.

The medics carefully moved the driver onto the wooden stretcher. The driver winced in pain as they repositioned him on the hard surface. They picked him up and started to carry him to ambulance. When they were passing Jeff, the driver grabbed hold of his shirt. Jeff looked down in alarm.

"Don’t open the trailer." the man hissed, his voice barely a whisper. "If you let it out, you’ll be sorry." The medics loosed his grip on Jeff and quickly loaded him into the ambulance. Seconds later the ambulance sped off.

"Officer Harris," a young, dark haired, rookie cop said, "There is something here you should see."

Jeff turned to face him.

"Yes?"

They walked around behind the trailer of the semi. The large doors at the rear of the trailer were open, it was completely empty.

"I wonder why he said not to open the trailer." Jeff said, examining the bare interior.

He now noticed deep scratches in the solid steel.

"What can scratch steel that deeply?" The rookie cop asked, feeling one of the scratches.

"I’m not sure this is steel," Jeff said, looking closely, " It seems to be some other alloy, probably stronger.