The Last Squeak!
by
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Jan reset Erame to the kill position, Chris turned the unit on, then they walked slowly forward. The range of the mobile Erame unit was just under 50 feet. Beyond that kill distance, Erame would make the rats run. As Chris and Jan walked forward, flashlights shining ahead of them, they suddenly saw small dark shapes scampering across the sand on either side of the jetty. Chris had been right to figure the rats would escape to the sand if he and Jan did not kill those inland from the water line. They increased their speed, walking as fast as they dared, so Erame would kill as many rats as it could. They continued to see rats escaping to the right and left across the sand, until the kill-range of Erame reached the sea. From that point onward, they didn't see anything until they had gone two or three hundred feet beyond the water's edge, when their flashlights began to pick out dim shapes scampering before them and a chorus of soft squeaks. They stopped and reset Erame to the "run" setting. As Chris and Jan continued to walk toward the jetty tip, the number of rats increased dramatically until it seemed the huge boulders were sinister monsters, rippling their furry hides. It was awesome to Chris and Jan as they watched the ever increasing rat pack scampering desperately before them and, in spite of steady nerves and great courage, somehow frightening and unnerving, emotions that seemed to well up from some primitive and superstitious place deep within them. They clenched their jaws and kept going. The claws of the terrorized rats made a scraping sound on the rocks as more and more rats joined the scurrying pack, a sound that became louder and louder. Chris and Jan failed to identify the claw-sound for sometime until almost together it dawned on them what it was. To the rasping, scratching claw-sound was added the rising volume of frightened squeaks in the silence. The number of rats running before Chris and Jan proved conclusively that Erame was doing its job, and since they were approaching the half-way point, Chris stopped. Jan reset Erame to kill, then they moved slowly on again. Almost instantly the loud rasp of claws and squeaks stopped. Continuing on across the rocks, Chris and Jan soon came to scores of dead brown rats. They stopped and shined their flashlights on the rats. The felt a repellent loathing as they stared at the big, ugly brown rats. There were so many of the repulsive brutes they had to kick them aside to clear a path through them. They both felt a sense of the supernatural, the magical, and yes, of sorcery and witchcraft that Erame's silent sound waves could be so deadly! The darkness helped to hide, but at the same time, to enhance the obscene, bloody carnage that had happened so swiftly. There was an impression of death, of evil, of something unclean and sickening about the furry bodies lying in every conceivable contorted position of sudden, bloody death. Their stomachs churning sourly, Chris and Jan continued on to the jetty's tip, Erame's deadly sound waves killing any other rats still on the rocks. At the tip, Chris shrugged out of Erame's carrying straps, then he and Jan sat down on a flat rock with tired sighs of relief. Jan quickly poured some coffee and, as they sipped it, they tried to forget their bloody work that night. They could see a few rats lying around the tip, but not as many as they had expected. Evidently, Erame had killed most of the rats back at the half-way point, where they had reset the unit to kill.
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About the Book
The Last Squeak! is a brilliant satire, satirizing the incredible depth and magnitude of the maniacal acts fanatical Animal Rights Whackos commit to protect animals from extermination--especially one of mankind's most destructive and murderous animals in all the history of the world--the rat. In The Last Squeak!, Christian Zee, the main character, does as he was bidden to do: "Build a better rat (mouse) trap and the world will beat a path to your door!" It does! Location: Long Beach, Seal Beach, and Huntington Beach, Southern California. Christian Zee: Invents the Electronic Rat and Mice Exterminator (ERAME) which exterminates rats and mice all over the world with sound wave vibrations. Molly Hart: A young drifter, lives in Seal Beach, California, with her meal ticket, her boy friend, picks an old newspaper out of a trashcan. She reads a short piece about rats becoming scarce. She's bored! On impulse, she begins a search to find out why rats are becoming scarce. From that bored, idle curiosity, Molly tracks down Christian Zee and his Electronic Rat and Mice Exterminator. It is the beginning of The War of the Rats, which Molly starts with a motley mob of Animal Rights whackos to save rats and mice so that CHILDREN CAN EXPERIENCE RATS! Eddy Bent: A young reporter working for the local paper in Long Beach. He interviews Molly and becomes involved in her War of the Rats. Karl Roach: A local businessman who joins the-kill-all-of-the-rats-army! He organizes a big party on the Queen Mary to celebrate the extermination of rats and mice in Los Angeles country. The last two rats in Los Angeles County will be killed with an ERAME unit to symbolize the last of the rats and mice in the county. Christian Zee will bring the ERAME unit. Eddy Bent is invited to the party. Molly steals the rat cage in front of everyone in the big room on the Queen Mary and jumps off of the ship. Her Rat Pack friends pick her up in a boat and race away. Eddy goes to his car to go home. Molly is waiting for him in his car. She tells him that she and her Rat Pack are going to take over a surplus Navy aircraft carrier to advertise her Save the Rats and Mice Crusade, and she wants Eddy to go with her as a reporter so that she can get her stunt in his newspaper. Reluctantly, Eddy agrees.
About the Author
Robert James Warner was born and raised in Long Beach, California. He went to the local schools. He was drafted in to the Navy on March 9, 1944, during the World War II as soon as he finished his last semester in High School. He was discharged from the Navy on June 16, 1946. Mr. Warner went back to school at Long Beach City College, on the G.I. Bill, taking Mechanical Engineering before he switched to journalism. After about a year and a half at City College, he quit. Mr. Warner had always been interested in writing, but he had huge handicaps to overcome: he couldn't spell (he still can't); and grammar was then and is now a mystery to him. Mr. Warner first began to write when he was about twenty. During the next few years, he wrote some songs, poetry, and short stories, but his output was quite low. From 1947, after Mr. Warner left City College, to 1950, he had a number of different inconsequential jobs--the longest, at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach where he worked in the blueprint department for eight months until he quit and loafed awhile. In 1950, he enlisted in the Active Naval Reserve as a Weekend Warrior, so that he could learn seamanship and get paid doing it. He has had a life long love affair with boats (building his own) and fishing. About three months later, the Korean War started and Mr. Warner was called back to active duty in the Navy Aircorp for a year. He was discharged in August 1951, serving on three aircraft carriers, operating off of Korea in the China Sea, bombing and strafing the communists! After Korea, Mr. Warner went back to City College for awhile, then got a job on a freighter as a deckhand. He then made two trips to the Hawaiian Islands, about thirty days round trip, hauling bulk sugar for C&H Sugar in Crocket California on the Sacramento River. Leaving the ship in Crocket, he went to Santa Rosa, California, where he washed dishes in a few restaurants and got a poem published in the local newspaper--a big day in his life. Next, he went to Yosemite and washed some more dishes before going home. Mr. Warner has cleaned chicken dung from under the pens; he owned and operated his own auto wrecking yard; owned his own 2nd Store; was half owner of a Yacht Landing; speculated in Real Estate; and worked at some other odd jobs, going to work for the Long Beach Fire Department in 1953 for the next twenty-six years, retiring in October, 1979. Mr. Warner got married in 1961, had his son in 1963, and got divorced in 1973. In 1974, Mr. Warner and his son, Jeff, drove to Alaska during the summer. On his return, Mr. Warner wrote his first novel. Since 1974, Mr. Warner has written 31 novels, about 125 short stories, 2 Civil War history books, and 2 poetry collections.