“This place is creepy,” Sarah said.
“You have no idea,” Leeanne said.
She walked to a smaller side section of the barn and shoved a pair of hanging barn doors open. She walked in and threw another switch. A green glow filled the room. I walked over and looked inside.
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Standing in the middle of an area sixty feet square and twenty feet high, was a gigantic tank. The sides stretched up 14 feet. The glow was from lights mounted at the top of the tank, shooting down through murky green water. I stepped up the glass.
“Don’t get too close,” Leeanne said.
A huge dark shape slammed itself into the glass. I jumped. The shape turned for another pass, a long tail, and a row of pearly white teeth, encased in a leathery body.
“There’s an alligator in there,” I said.
“More than one,” Leeanne said.
“Why?” I asked.
“You don’t want to know,” she said.
“Tell me,” I said.
“See that lift over there?” she asked.
She pointed to an elevator platform, at one corner of the tank. It had a full cage around it.
“Yeah,” I said.
“After fights, the winners drag the bodies onto there and take them up. They feed them to the gators,” she said. “It’s how they’ve covered this up for years.”
“So, these gators live in here, all the time?” I said. “I thought they needed land.”
“Floating island at the top of the tank,” Leeanne said. “Sun lamps come on eight hours a day and the tank heater is powered by that.”
She pointed to a big transformer, with a cable leading up the side of the tank. I touched the glass, it was warm. The gator came around again.
“Wow,” I said.
“This is the second tank,” she said. “Legend has it, one fighter escaped by hitting the last one with a pick axe left in the barn, shattered the whole thing. She got away while they were catching the gators.”
“Well, at least she got out,” I said.
“Almost, they caught her next day, and fed her to the gators,” Leeanne said.
“Alive.”
I shuddered. Every time I thought I’d heard the worst of these people, I learned something new. At the top of the tank, one of the huge creatures jumped and slapped its massive tail against the fence that encircled the top of the tank, causing water to slop over the edge and sheet down over the glass.
“Here,” Leeanne said.
She handed me the pistol.
“Keep this on Hal,” she said. “If his mother tries anything, shoot him in the head.”
I hesitated. '
“Oh, come on, that guard,” she said. “I know you can do it. Never mind.”
She handed the pistol to Sarah.
“Do I have to wait until she tries something?” she asked.
Sarah found a stool and sat, with her back to the wall, miming putting bullets in Hal’s head.
“If I don’t get to shoot you, I’m going to be real disappointed,” Sarah said.
“Another hour and a half,” Leeanne said. “I think I’m going crazy.”
There was the sound of tires on gravel. I went to the front door of the barn. It was Fred and Ben. They got out, looking around.