Animal Kingdom

by Iain Rob Wright

  Randall switched off the Blackberry and placed it back inside the cabinet. He locked it up and pocketed the key. Outside the room he bumped unexpectedly into Victor. The man had cleaned himself up and was now wearing a baggy, brown jump suit that looked as though it was designed for the zoo’s maintenance staff.

  “New outfit?”

  “Aye, I found it in the warehouse. My other clothes were a wee bit…sticky.”

  “Indeed. What are you up to now?”

  Victor shrugged. “Just checking the building’s security, making sure none of the furry bastards can get in at us.”

  Randall patted the man on his shoulder and moved past. “Keep up the good work.”

  As Randall walked back down the corridor, Victor shouted after him. “And what exactly have you been up to, pal?”

  Randall stopped and turned around. He thought about the message on his phone before answering. “Me? Nothing, Victor. Nothing at all.”

  The less you know the better, my friend. Until I decide otherwise.

  Victor scrutinised Randall for a few minutes, eventually cracking a crooked-tooth smile. “Well, let me know if you need help with whatever it is that you’re not doing. I’m very good with secrets.”

  Victor sauntered off, leaving Randall alone to consider his comments. Good to know, my friend. Good to know.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Joe awoke to screaming. He knew who it was as soon as he saw that Grace was missing from her bed.

  Danny woke up too. “What’s happening, Dad?”

  “I don’t know. Stay here while I find out.”

  Danny looked worried, but nodded. Joe patted him on the back, kissed his forehead. Then scrambled over to Bill who had been woken too. “Bill, watch Danny while I go find out what’s going on. I think it’s Grace.”

  Bill nodded enthusiastically. “Of course, go!”

  Joe entered the corridor, wanting to rush, but trying not to until he knew the situation better. But another scream sounded and Joe couldn’t help but pick up speed.

  The noise continued, coming from one of the offices on the right. Joe pinpointed it to a room marked JEFFREY CARLSON, HEAD VET. He opened the door and pushed himself inside. Grace stood in the middle of the room, shrieking, and clutching at her face. Joe examined the floor in front of her and saw the reason why.

  “What the fuck!”

  She flinched at the sound of Joe’s voice and looked at him. Her eyes were wide. “What do I do?”

  Joe peered down at the creatures by her feet – massive, hairy spiders and armour-plated scorpions. The zoo’s entire creepy crawly menagerie was surrounding Grace in a tightening semi-circle of hissing, spitting menace. He looked up and saw them on the ceiling above her as well.

  Joe stretched his arms out towards her. “Grace, very slowly…come here.”

  Grace shook her head. “I can’t. They’ll get me.”

  As if to agree with her, dozens of tarantulas rose up on their hind legs and hissed. A cloud of bristly, brown hairs filled the air around them. Grace let out another scream.

  “You have to move now, Grace! They’re getting closer.”

  Grace stopped screaming, attempting to get herself under control, almost hyperventilating in the process. Joe held his breath, waiting for her to do something. It was a relief when she finally managed to take a step backwards.

  “That’s it. Really slowly.”

  Grace took another step, but several of the tarantulas sped around and blocked her path. They stood between her and Joe, palps twitching.

  How the hell did it know to do that? Spiders can’t behave like that, can they?

  “Stay still, Grace. I need to think a second.”

  The creatures moved towards her. She shrieked again, but managed to get it under control before it took hold. Joe glanced around the room for something to help, but it was just an ordinary office and most the furniture had been taken out. There was nothing he could use.

  So he did the only thing he could think of.

  Joe lifted his size-eleven trainer and brought it down on top of the tarantula. It hissed and squirmed beneath his heel, but he kept the pressure on, feeling its spindly legs snapping with each twist of his ankle. He lifted his foot again and expected to see a sickly mush, but it was just the same spider – crumpled and broken, but the same.

  “Grace, come on!”

  Grace saw the opportunity, found enough courage to make a run for it, and took several lunging steps towards him. She threw herself into his arms, and for a few moments, Joe just held her, glad that she was safe. Then he realised they weren’t out of the woods yet.“We need to get out of here,” he said, grabbing Grace by the arm. She winced and Joe saw why. “Hey, what happened to your wrist?”

  Grace eyed the thick gash on the back of her forearm, then looked down at the army of approaching arachnids. “Now’s not the time.”

  Joe leapt to the door and held it open. Grace ran through, followed by a scuttling line of thrashing scorpions and stalking spiders. Joe slammed the door shut, catching a jet black scorpion against the frame, crushing it to a viscous pulp. “Are you…okay?” he asked between panting breaths.

  Grace nodded, but tears had finally released themselves and were gliding down her cheeks. “I’m fine.”

  “So, are you going to tell me what happened?”

  Grace stared at the floor. “I….I woke up and I was cold, so I was looking for some blankets. Those things just came out of nowhere. I still don’t know how they got inside.”

  “Okay,” said Joe, “but how did you hurt your arm? It looks really bad.”

  Grace held up the puckered wound and examined it. Blood was still coursing from the cut, but had started to slow down. “I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe one of those things got me.”

  Joe wasn’t buying it. Something about the way she wouldn’t look him in the eye told him that other things were going on. He shook his head. “They wouldn’t be able to do that type of damage. That’s a cut not a bite.”

  Grace’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t know then. Does it matter?”

  “It does to me, but let’s just get it patched up for now.”

  Grace tensed up, the features of her face contorting under a sudden rigor.

  “You okay?”

  Grace stopped breathing, bent over, slumped against the wall. Her leg shot out to the side. Joe’s eyes stretched wide. A bright yellow scorpion was deeply embedded in her calf by its stinger. She screamed.

  Joe reached down and grabbed the vile creature. The feel of its brittle exoskeleton was repulsive as he flung it against the wall. It shattered upon impact. But what damage has it done already?

  He turned to Grace.

  Just in time to catch her fall.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Joe rushed into the seminar room with an unconscious Grace in his arms. He prayed it was just shock and not some sort of poison from the scorpion.

  Mason stood up from one of the desks. “What’s happened?”

  Joe lay Grace down on top of the nearest table. “She got bitten by a scorpion.”

  Mason went pale, all colour flushing from his cheeks. “What did it look like?”

  Joe shook his head. “I don’t know. It was small and yellow.”

  Mason held his head in his hands before staring hard at Joe. “Leiurus quinquestriatus.”

  “In English?”

  “Deathstalker Scorpion, also known as the Israeli Desert Scorpion. Its venom is amongst the worst of all species.”

  “Why the hell would you have those things around?” asked Bill, rushing over to help.

  Mason shrugged. He looked so tired that even that simple movement seemed like an ordeal. “They were kept in the World of Venom. How they got over here, I don’t know.”

  “They’ve gotten smart,” said Joe. “There were spiders and scorpions in one of the offices. They attacked Grace in a group, working together.”

  Mason scratched at his chin. “This is not good. Arachn
ida have been affected.”

  Joe rubbed Grace’s forehead. “Let’s worry about that later. We need to help her.”

  “There’s little that we can do,” Mason explained. “Get some soap and clean the wound, then elevate her leg. With rest, she should hopefully be okay. There’s adrenaline in the lab if she has an allergic reaction, but that doesn’t seem to be the case, fortunately.”

  Joe dabbed at her moist forehead with his shirt sleeve. “Why did she pass out then?”

  “Shock perhaps. Maybe it’s blood-loss from that cut on her arm. How did she get that?”

  “I don’t know how she did it. She wouldn’t tell me.” Joe examined the gash on Grace’s arm. It had started to dry, but the surrounding area was caked in dark brown blood. It needed stitches.

  Danny came up and held Joe’s hand. “Is Grace going to be okay, Dad?”

  “She’s fine, Danny. Will be much better after a sleep.”

  “You promise?”

  “Of course. You remember when Macho Man got bitten by Jake the Snake’s python, don’t you? He got better.”

  Danny smiled up at him. “Okay.”

  Bill returned with a bottle of hand soap and started rubbing it on Grace’s bite. The flesh was red and swollen. Joe gathered some cushions and piled them beneath her ankle. She was still unconscious, but seemed peaceful as though trapped in a gentle dream.

  “I’m sure she’ll be fine,” said Bill.

  “I hope so. She’s a good person. Helped me with Danny a lot.” Joe looked around the room and saw that both Victor and Randall were missing. Shirley was still sleeping at the back of the room, obviously uninterested in the recent events. “Where are Randall and Victor?”

  Bill shrugged.

  “I’m here, and Victor is in the hallway,” said Randall, entering the room. “Is that alright with you?”

  Joe turned around. “Fine. Just like to know everyone is safe and accounted for.”

  Mason stepped in front of Joe and addressed Randall. “And what is Victor doing in the hallway exactly? Looking for more endangered animals to hack to pieces?”

  “We already discussed that,” Randall replied. “It was agreed that Victor’s actions were in our best interests.”

  Joe took offence to the man’s statement and told him so. “Actually it was not agreed. It was a decision that you seemed to make all on your own.”

  “Yeah,” Bill added. “What gives you the right to make decisions for the rest of us?”

  Randall placed his palms together in front of himself as if to implore their mercy. “Now let’s be reasonable, my friends. In the current circumstances, things need to happen with a certain amount of…urgency. There is not always time to consult one another and hold a team meeting. Shirley, Victor, and I did what we thought was best. If it wasn’t a popular decision then I apologise, but it has happened now, so let’s move on.”

  Joe sighed. “Just don’t make decisions behind our backs again, okay?”

  Randall rolled his eyes, but nodded in agreement. A moment later, he seemed to finally notice that Grace was lying unconscious on the table. He raised a coarse, black eyebrow at the others.

  “A scorpion bit her,” Joe explained. “Hopefully she’ll sleep it off.”

  Randall scrunched his brow. “Scorpions? Things keep getting more and more insane around here. I take it the danger has been dealt with?”

  “Dealt with, as in the room they are in is now locked up.”

  Randall shook his head. “Another room that’s off limits? We’ll have nowhere left soon.”

  “Joe said they were working as a team,” said Bill.

  “I guess we can safely assume that is true,” Randall agreed. “How on Earth did scorpions get on the second floor?”

  Joe shrugged. “I really have no idea, but if they keep staging attacks then we’ll end up trapped and cornered.”

  “Then we need to hit back.” Randall walked over to the room’s window and looked out through one of the gaps in the barricade. “It’s time that we attack them.”

  “How?” asked Joe. “What the hell can we do?”

  Randall turned away from the window and faced the room like some wannabe statesman. “I don’t know yet, but I’m guessing there’s someone that may have a few ideas.”

  Joe folded his arms. “Victor?”

  Bill shrugged his shoulders at Joe. “The guy’s a psychopath, but that’s probably a good thing right now.”

  “Didn’t expect to see you on the man’s side.”

  “I’m not, but if he enjoys killing animals as much as he seems to then he’s probably our biggest asset right now.”

  “Aye, that I am, pal. That I am.”

  Joe couldn’t believe it. “You can’t mention anyone around here without them suddenly turning up from somewhere.”

  “Then perhaps you shouldn’t talk behind people’s backs.”

  “That’s not what we were doing.”

  “No? Did I not hear the word psychopath being bandied about?” Victor glared at Bill who seemed to shrink away. Then he shifted his expression into a smile and laughed. “Don’t worry yourself, lad. I’ve been called worse.”

  “So, Victor,” said Randall, “if you heard our conversation, then perhaps you have some advice for us.”

  Victor smirked. “You mean about your little counter-strike? Aye, I could think of a thing or two. We need to get that big bastard ape. He’s the general.”

  “Really,” said Joe. “You think they have a leader?”

  “Aye. You’ve all seen the way he hangs back while others attack us in groups. He’s been sending in wave after wave. First, the infantry downstairs – the monkeys – and then the bloody SAS lemurs that came through the windows.”

  “And the scorpions that got Grace,” added Bill.

  Victor nodded and looked at Grace, unconscious on the table. “We’re at war people. Under siege. The only way we can end it is to take the heart out of their army.” He looked around the room, making eye contact with each of them. “We have to get the silverback.”

  Chapter Twenty

  It was almost dark again, Joe noticed. They had been making preparations all day, thinking up ways to strike back at the animals. They’d collected anything that could be thrown as a projectile: paperweights, PC monitors, text books (after persuading Mason), and other assorted junk. Victor had also filled some glass beakers with the acid they had found earlier and then wrapped them in paper towels. A canister of petrol that Bill had brought up from the warehouse would also allow them to set light to toilet rolls (of which they had many) and hurl them from the windows. It wasn’t much, but hopefully it would show that they meant business.

  Everyone carried a weapon now. After what happened to Grace it was clear that an attack could come at any time. Joe held one of the litter pickers in his hand, right now, as he went up to Grace. She had awoken but was not yet fully coherent, drifting in and out of lucidity for the last few hours.

  “Grace, are you awake?”

  Her eyelids fluttered. “J-Joe?”

  “Yeah, it’s me. How you feeling?”

  “Like,” she swallowed. The sound was dry and rasping. “I got stung by a scorpion.”

  Joe laughed. “That must be the fever talking. Scorpions attacking people is insane.”

  Grace smiled weakly. “How is Danny?”

  “Don’t you worry about anyone else, you hear? We’re all fine. You should try and go back to sleep.”

  Grace nodded and rolled onto her side. As she did so she pulled her arm up against her waist. Joe noticed her cut again. It was healing well, but he still wanted to know what had caused it.

  “Grace? Will you tell me how you hurt your arm?”

  Grace was breathing heavily and Joe thought she may have already been asleep, but a moment later she started speaking softly. “I need my…pills.”

  “Pills? What pills? Grace?”

  She was gone, pulled into a fevered slumber that could not be disturbed. Joe t
hought about what she had meant.

  Pills? What pills does she need?

  “How she doing?” Bill asked.

  “She’s a bit out of it, but I think she’s okay. At least I hope so.”

  “I don’t think scorpion stings are lethal.”

  Joe nodded and took a seat on some cushions beside Bill. “Mason said the same. Doesn’t mean it does you any good though.”

  “She’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”

  Joe sighed. “To be honest, it’s not the scorpion bite that worries me.”

  “Oh?” said Bill. “Then what?”

  “She has a horrible cut on her arm and she won’t explain how she got it. In fact the last time I asked she just told me that she ‘needed her pills.’”

  “Her pills?”

  “Yeah. What you think she meant?”

  “Painkillers perhaps? Who knows, but it’s probably nothing. We can find out as soon as she’s herself again.”

  Joe lay back against the cushions and stretched out his legs. “I suppose.” He decided to change the subject. Thinking about Grace upset him. “You think we can actually fight back tomorrow?”

  Bill shrugged. “Bunch of farm animals and monkeys? How hard can it be?”

  “Something tells me it’s not going to be so easy. I don’t know what’s happened to them all, but I don’t think they’re normal animals anymore. They’re smarter. Maybe a virus has affected their brains or something?”

  “They’re demons.” Shirley walked over and sat in front of Bill and Joe. “Sent to put an end to our sin.”

  Bill sighed. “Again with the sin? What are you harping on about now, woman?”

  Shirley seemed oblivious to the comment and carried on her ranting. “I once met an Irishman that told me all about the Lord. He told me that God’s patience is thin, and that all of us are on the cusp of his vengeance.”

  “And what does that mean?” Joe asked.

  “It means that enough is enough. All the fucking and fighting in this world has to stop and He has ways.”