My Mistake
By NWRaptor
"This such a mass of bullshit" Cheryl thought to herself as she gazed at the text on her computer screen. "Whoever writes these stories doesn't know the first thing about snakes and their feeding habits. Rule 1 - a constrictor kills before it eats. Rule 2 - the prey goes down head-first. If a snake started at the back end, the prey were to revive, it could turn around and cause fatal damage to the snake which would now be totally helpless. Your not going to train a snake to do it either. They run on instinct. All these authors are doing is trying to attract readers."
Cheryl had a Masters degree in Herpetology and had been researching large constrictors for five years. She had been present when the only documented case of human predation by a constrictor was discovered. Her photos could be found on several internet sites. "One case doesn't make a fact" she had said when she was questioned about man-eating snakes, although secretly she was not surprised. Granted, reports of human prey were few and far between but then how many such incidents were witnessed and of those, how many ever got reported? Coming across this particular snake had been a simple accident; it was simply too full to move out of the way and so had been seen and captured.
"I'd bet a month's pay that that particular snake was no stranger to human prey" she thought. "A full-grown adult human is a big animal, and too smart to get let a big python near them. The snake would be the dead one in such a case. No, he had to have ambushed this guy."
Her thoughts turned to the pythons at the zoo. She was a consultant to the reptile house staff and spent considerable time assisting them with acclimating new additions to captivity. They were especially reluctant to feed upon arrival, often having to be force-fed for months until they got used to their new surroundings and were hungry enough to let their basic instinct overcome their fear. Then they would feed on the rabbits and other small animals provided. Until then, these little creatures hopped about with impunity, often stepping on the snakes.
She was working with a particularly large specimen right now. Georgi-Porgi (GP for short) was a 25 foot Reticulated Python. He had arrived two months ago, but still hadn't acclimated, or maybe he'd acclimated too well. He seemed comfortable with his new surroundings, but would not eat unless one of the keepers fed him by hand and then only very little. Because of his size, this was a three-man job; one feeder and two observers. GP was too big to take chances with. He had never shown any signs of aggression towards the keepers, but no one was taking any chances. If he got his coils around you, you'd be dead unless there was help nearby.
Still, Cheryl couldn't be sure what was wrong with GP. She'd observed him closely for hours on end, selected his diet, scheduled feedings, even fed him twice herself. Just no change! "I wonder if there's something about his surroundings that we're not seeing" she thought to herself. I think I'll have him transferred to a holding pen so I can examine the enclosure from end to end tomorrow after closing."
She wrote out the order and dropped it in the head keeper's in-box on her way home. The next day, the job was dutifully scheduled and the keeper assigned the task was told to mark it completed and put it in her in-box when he was done.
Cheryl arrived at 5 pm right after the gates closed. Checking her in-box, she
found the completed order. GP was now in holding pen 3 and the enclosure was
ready for inspection. Taking her keys, she headed for the reptile house to complete
her other duties. It was after 10 pm when she reached GP's enclosure.
The rest of the staff had cleaned up and were gone, but the lights had been
left on for her. Securing the door to the reptile house behind her, she walked
down the hall and stopped before the access door to GP's enclosure. "Hmmm,
just to be sure....." she thought, she retraced her steps and peered
into the holding pens. Yep, she could see part of a big snake in pen 3. "OK,
no sense taking chances since I'm all alone tonight." She said.
Back at GP's enclosure, she unlocked the door and walked into the warm, moist environment. The door closed behind her, but remained unlocked. "Now, what am I looking for?" she asked herself. "What would make GP reluctant to eat ? Could there be another food source here that I don't know about?" She was thinking about the rats that were attracted to the zoo. They could not be totally exterminated, but their numbers were kept very low by an aggressive pest management program. "Maybe they've found a way into the enclosure. That'll be my first search."
Crawling around lifting and peering under brush and rocks, even man-made ones, was hot dirty work. The 80 degree 80% relative humidity environment made it even more miserable. "I'm roasting in here" she said. "There's virtually no air moving. What the hell, there's no one around anyway, I'm getting outta these clothes."
Standing up, she pulled her T shirt over her head, exposing her lovely breasts. The sudden cooling made her nipples stand erect. Smiling to herself, she wiggled out of her shorts and panties and picking up her sandals, tucked everything under a fern. Buck naked, she resumed her search.
As she was looking under a plant in one corner of the enclosure, she though she heard something move. Frozen, she strained to catch the sounds. Yes, there was something ahead. Flashlight in hand, she crawled forward slowly on her belly. Sounds again, closer this time. Yes there was definitely something else in here. "I'll bet GP has known about this for awhile" she thought, "Clever little devil."
Something moved in front of her. Snapping on her light, she caught a large rat full in the beam of light. "So there you are!" she said. The stunned rat froze in the pool of white light, unsure of its next move. It never got another chance.
Something huge flashed across the light beam. There was a sudden "squeak" and the rat was gone. Cheryl blinked in amazement. There in her light beam was a large scaled body. Playing the beam to the left along the body revealed a large shovel-shaped head. The rat's tail was still twitching in the jaws as it slid out of sight. The broad head turned to face into the light.
"GP!" Cheryl gasped. "And hunting! But how.....you're supposed to be in a holding pen. I saw you there." Then she remembered - she had seen a snake in pen 3, but had only assumed it was GP. "I really should have been more careful" she thought to herself. GP moved closer, his eyes locked on her. Suddenly her own vulnerability became apparent.
She started to back away, but rammed her butt against a rock. Before she could
turn around, GP lunged. She felt the cold body gliding quickly under her belly
and sensed even before she felt the first coil drop over her rump, driving her
to the floor. Rolling over, she soon had a second coil over her thighs, then
a third and a fourth. GP had a good grip on her now as she struggled to rise
and escape. A fifth coil hit her in the back and knocked her down again, before
wrapping around her chest. Her breasts flattened against her chest. Looking
up, she saw GP's big head rear up over the coils and look at her. His
eyes were like big black pools, tempting her to dive in. Despite herself, she
found she couldn't avoid those eyes. She could see her own reflection
in them. Her naked body glistened in the reflection from the lighting. Then
she felt the first constriction.
It was sharp and sudden, driving the air from her lungs. It was also relentless. Her guts were squeezed by the coil around her belly. Her legs were helplessly pinned. Her arms were free, but she had no weapon. She had lost the flashlight with the first touch. She was lying on her back in the coils of this python. She stopped fighting for a moment and watched as GP opened his mouth and began to dislocate his jaws. "Apparently the rats aren't numerous enough" she said, "so you're really going to try to eat little old me?"
Another round of constrictions made her dizzy from lack of air. She could feel consciousness slipping away. She tried to picture herself being eaten. "At least it won't be feet-first and alive like those stupid stories" she said. "He'll take me head-first, or at least try. It really doesn't matter if he's successful or not, cause I'll be dead by then."
Her body relaxed completely as consciousness slid away. GP sensed the change, and continued to squeeze for another ten minutes, until there were no longer any life signs from the prey. Loosening his coils, he moved to her head and began to feed. It took two hours for him to swallow the young researcher. It was a struggle to get his gullet to slide over her firm rump, but once that was done, her long legs just slipped down easily. At last her small feet disappeared down the gullet and the huge mouth closed. Cheryl was now reduced to a large bulge slowly moving down GP's body. Once in his stomach, the powerful digestive juices began to strip the protein-rich flesh from her body layer by layer.
The next day, the Supervisor was surprised to find that his newest python
was not in her cage. The door was locked, but the snake was gone. He was about
to raise the alarm when the keeper from last night appeared and reminded him
that he had left orders to move her to holding pen 3.
"No," the Supervisor replied, "It was GP that Cheryl wanted
moved, not the new one."
"Sorry, my mistake. Guess I mis-read it. I'll go do it now before Cheryl gets in. Please don't tell her, she'd be really pissed." he shrugged. He couldn't understand why the head keeper suddenly had such a terrified look on his face as he turned and ran out of the room, down the hall towards GP's enclosure. "Oh well, no skin off my nose" the young keeper thought as he picked up his gear and returned to work.
By NWRaptor