Zoo

by Tara Elizabeth

  “I’m sorry that bastard attacked you.”

  “Me too.” I’m really starting to like her.

  We work the rest of the morning in total silence until Victoria’s stomach starts to growl. A coy smile plays across her lips as she glances at me. “Do you think it’s okay to eat something?” she asks sheepishly.

  “Sure. Kale should be back soon. I’m sure he won’t mind.” I notice that the sun is directly overhead. Kale should have been back by now. My stomach feels tight with nerves. I hope he’s okay.

  We sit down, and I roll back the rock covering our hidden food. We decide to split a banana and each take two crackers. This meal is hardly enough to fill our empty stomachs, but enough for now. This leaves an apple and a few more crackers for Kale.

  I wonder how long we should wait before we go looking for him. My foot twitches as we eat and wait. I listen for signs of Kale and rumblings of trouble. Twitch. Shake. Fidget. More twitching. I scratch my ankle. I take note of how dirty my hands still are and how I didn’t even notice when I was holding my food.

  Across from me, Victoria glances down in our food hole. “When he gets back, I’ll hunt. There’s hardly anything left.” She rolls the rock back over the top, pushing it into the correct position.

  “Kale said he would do it,” I tell her, suddenly needing him to do everything he said he would do. Like return!

  “I said I would do what?” a voice from behind me says.

  A LIFETIME OF WAITING

  I spring up from the ground, bound over to Kale, and wrap my arms around him. “I was worried. I thought you would’ve been back sooner. What happened?” I ask as I clutch his shoulders.

  Whoa, calm down, I scold myself. I release my hold on him and regain my composure. I step back, embarrassed. Geez Emma! Being a little dramatic, aren’t we?

  “I stole a pot from behind that house that was all burned up. It weighed a freakin’ ton when I filled it up with water. Wasn’t sure if I was going to make it back with it . . . but here it is.” He lowers the shiny metal pot to the ground slowly.

  Then, he takes the bag off his back and lowers it to the ground as well. He unzips the top and hands us each a full bottle of clear liquid. I take small sips. “Thank you,” I say, acknowledging the demanding task Kale just endured—and will have to endure every other day until we finally escape.

  “Did you run into anyone?” Victoria asks nonchalantly. She’s probably probing to find out if he crossed paths with James.

  “No, just the people at the well. That professor guy was there again. I traded him two matches for a handful of dry beans.” He unzips the smaller pocket on the front of the backpack to show us.

  “Oh. Good,” Victoria says as she draws in the dirt with a twig. “I can use those in a stew or we can eat them on their own.”

  “We’re almost done with the shelter, if you can believe it.” I point to the three walls we constructed over the course of the morning. “We just need a roof, and we’ll have a lean-to. If we needed to move, we could break it down and take it with us.”

  “Sounds good. Let me grab something to eat, and then I’ll help out with the roof. I’m starving.” He pushes the rock out of the way and tosses the beans in the hole. After he digs around in the hole, he pulls out his lunch of the apple and two crackers. He leans back against a massive rock that’s part of the overhang. “So what was it you were saying I would do, Emma?” he asks.

  I blush. “Oh. I was just telling Victoria that you offered to hunt when you got back. She said she would do it, but I thought you wanted to go.”

  “I don’t really think it’s safe for you to go roaming the woods by yourself, Victoria. Anyone could snatch you and we’d never know it,” he says to her, and I agree.

  “Well, I can give you a few snares to put out if you want. They’re easy enough to make, and we got all the fixins right here.” Her twang has kicked up a notch since we’ve been out here in her element. It makes her more likable, and that makes me smile.

  “Let’s try the snares first. It’s safer than having one of us off wandering around out there for long periods of time,” Kale decides.

  I agree with him, so Victoria works on a couple of snares while Kale and I piece together a roof for our little shack. It comes together quickly. We all work on putting the four large surfaces up against the overhang. Kale holds the walls up while Victoria and I tie them together.

  The roof is the last piece of the puzzle. Kale lifts it above his shoulders and slides it across the top of the walls. Victoria isn’t tall enough to reach, so I have to fasten the walls to the roof. Finally, it’s finished. We all step back to have a look at our creation.

  And I laugh hysterically. “It looks like crap,” I struggle to say through my hysteria.

  There are gaps all over it, and the whole thing is leaning too much to the left. This is nothing like my beautiful bamboo hut from our last enclosure.

  Victoria giggles a little.

  But not Kale. He stands with his arms crossed over his chest and his brow furrowed. “It’ll do for now, but I promise to find something better for you soon.” Then he quickly corrects himself and says, “Better for all of us, I mean.”

  I try to act as if I just heard the second half of his statement.

  ***

  After we all throw some branches and leaves on the lean-to for camouflage, Kale accompanies Victoria around the forest to place her snares in the appropriate places. They stay close-by and are only gone for about 15 minutes or so, but again, it feels like forever. I hide inside the small lean-to when a flying, glass train passes by. It leaves quickly when they realize there’s nothing entertaining to see.

  I peer outside to make sure it’s gone and then gather up pine needles to put on the floor of our hut. It spreads out nicely and makes the hard ground a little softer and less dusty. The job keeps me busy for a while. I’m thankful to have something to do.

  Sunlight trickles in through the gaps in the branches, but I can tell dusk is swiftly approaching. Outside, I hear the snaps of twigs and the crunch of leaves. I peek through a hole in the wall to confirm that it is in fact Kale and Victoria. Once I know it’s safe, I leave the shelter to join them in what is becoming our living area.

  “How did it go?” I ask them.

  Victoria answers with a smirk, like she knows something that I don’t. “It was insightful.” Kale glares at her and she stammers, “I mean, good. Good. We got all the snares set out. Should catch something in at least one of ‘em.”

  “Well that’s good . . . ” The words die on my tongue as we are interrupted by weird cries, like a Howler monkey would make. It sounds like pure evil.

  Victoria rushes past me and ducks inside the hut. I quickly follow her. We huddle up next to one another, which is exactly the opposite of what Kansas told us to do. Run. We should run. But Kale isn’t far behind me. He squats in the small entrance, holding the gun and searching for the maker—or worse—makers of the sounds.

  Victoria chants to herself, “Please be an animal. Please be an animal.”

  Again, the howls echo through the forest. There’s no way of telling how far or close they are. I’m shivering and sweating at the same time. My tiny, pregnant friend is clawing at my arm for strength. I give it to her, for her sake and mine. I pat her hand and say, “Shh. It’s going to be okay. No one knows we’re here, and Kale has a gun. It’s okay.” Victoria’s breathing slows down, but she doesn’t loosen her grip on me.

  “Kale, shouldn’t we run and hide?” I ask him.

  “We could, but I can’t tell where that’s coming from. We could run straight to them,” he whispers.

  We wait in silence for a long time. Nothing ever happens, except for more cries. Kale turns to us. “I’ll take first watch. It seems like it’s dying down a bit, so try and get some sleep. I’ll be right here the whole time.” He tries to reassure us, but that has got to be the creepiest sound I’ve ever heard. I really don’t want to find out what was making it, becau
se it wasn’t a monkey or a bird. I’m sure we’d all like to believe it was though.

  I curl up behind Victoria, and as silly as it sounds, we spoon. We’re both terrified, though I’m trying not to show just how much. We need each other’s closeness to get through the night.

  I hope we wake up tomorrow.

  I’M ALIVE! NO ONE ATE ME LAST NIGHT!

  “Rise ‘n’ shine,” Victoria chirps from outside. She’s always so happy in the morning. I like it. “Got some eggs cookin’. That mama bird was pretty angry with me, but I shooed her off.” I can imagine her standing on her back porch, with a white apron tied around her tiny waist, ringing the dinner bell.

  The familiar aroma of eggs is wafting in through the gaps in our lean-to. I’m so tired from taking the middle shift last night that the cooked meal is not enough to tempt me. We’re going to have to take turns with that one. I don’t move to get up. I decide to lie in a few minutes longer.

  As my head clears and I become more aware of the new day, I realize that Kale has his arm slung over me. This is certainly enough reason to get me up. He’s still asleep, so I try to wiggle out of his embrace before he wakes up. I’m not successful in my mission. His arm flops to the ground, and he jolts awake much like yesterday. He quickly realizes everything is okay and relaxes back to the ground.

  “Victoria cooked some eggs,” I say as I duck out of the doorway without looking back.

  “Sleep good?” she giggles.

  “Shut up.” I walk past her into the woods.

  When I return, she and Kale are sitting around a small fire eating. A smooth flat rock is set off to the side with my portion of the eggs. It’s not much, but more than I thought it would be.

  “What kind of bird are these from?” I ask, curious as to how a bird in the forest could produce enough eggs to feed three people.

  She answers me after she finishes chewing. “I don’t know. Never seen a bird like that before. About the size of a chicken, but it was brown with some blue feathers on the wings. It hopped away before I had a chance to shoot it.”

  I sniff the eggs before I take my first bite. “Are you sure these are okay to eat?” They smell normal, and Victoria’s not foaming at the mouth yet or anything. I had to ask the question.

  “I’m alive, aren’t I?” Victoria says flatly. I shrug and fill my mouth with the warm, fluffy goodness.

  ***

  We spend the early morning trying to figure out where to get an ax. Kale wants one so he can chop down some trees in order to build us an actual home—even though we may have to abandon it should trouble arise. So, the obvious question is; why are we doing this? We need something to keep us busy, and we need to come to terms with the fact that we are stuck here until we find a way to escape. We need to grow food, weave baskets, or something, so we can make trades for weapons to defend our home and ourselves.

  We quickly realize there’s no way we have enough goods to trade for an ax. Kale suggests making one. We search the rocky overhang for the perfect stones—one for the ax-head itself and one to smash against it to for sculpting.

  Kale finds a basalt stone he’s satisfied with to work as the ax-head. He works for hours, wetting the ax-head and slamming a hammerstone hard against its surface. It pecks away tiny flakes at a time. The sound is irritating and constant. Just as I’m about to lose it, he stops for a break. His muscles are aching from the repetitive action. I toss a branch the length of my forearm—maybe a little longer—over to him. “Here,” I call as it sails through the air.

  He isn’t able to lift his heavy, aching arms quick enough. The branch smacks him in the face. “Ouch!”

  I run over to him and brush my thumb over the scratch on his cheek. “I’m so sorry. Are you okay? I was just trying to give you the handle I found for the ax. Oh my goodness.” I inspect his face again. It’s not a bad scratch, but I feel awful.

  He grabs my hand and holds it in his. “Calm down, Princess. I’m okay. I just couldn’t raise my arms up that fast. They’re killing me. Between this and carrying that pot of water yesterday, I think I might actually be dying.” He laughs as he looks into my worried eyes.

  He lowers our joined hands, but continues searching my face for something as I search his. And then I see him. He was there all along. How could I have immersed myself in everything James and blinded myself to all things Kale. How could I have missed something so obvious? Well, maybe I didn’t miss it entirely. I just wasn’t ready for it. It sucks to be hardheaded sometimes, so focused on the wrong things.

  I lean closer to him and his expression changes. He becomes thoughtful and surprised and overjoyed. He sees that something in me has changed. He sees that I see him now.

  And when he kisses me, I kiss him back.

  Kale holds my face in his strong hands. I wrap my arms under his, pulling him down closer to me by his shoulders. I am elated, courageous, determined, and hopeful again. I’m so many things that I wasn’t without him, just two seconds ago—things that I’ve been trying to pretend to be. I lost them somewhere back in the first enclosure.

  I can feel his soul through his lips. It’s telling me a story of agony over how long it’s waited for this moment and how it never wants it to end.

  But the moment must end, as all things do…

  GIRL, INTERRUPTED

  Victoria clears her throat behind us. It breaks the spell we’re under, causing Kale and I to reluctantly part. It’s physically painful to release my hold and step away from him. I feel like he’s part of me now, though I don’t even know what that really means. But I do know that I like it. And I have to mentally slap myself, because this is something I could have been experiencing months ago if I hadn’t convinced myself that James had potential.

  Maybe we could’ve even been happy and settled like Janice and Greg—accepted our lives here like they did. They had each other, and that’s all that mattered to them. No, Kale and I are nothing like them. We will never accept this fate, to live here until the end of our days. Never.

  Behind us, Victoria is smiling and excitedly bouncing up and down. She squeals, “Yay! ‘Bout time you took care of that.” Then her face turns very serious and she adds, “Now, this is very important . . . ” She puts her hands on her hips and tilts her head. “What’s fer lunch?”

  We all laugh.

  ***

  After we eat an almost non-existent lunch, Kale returns to his ax. Victoria and I take the gun with us, as we go to check the animal traps. I didn’t want to stick around and be so close to that deafening noise. Therefore, I was more than happy to escort Victoria on her hunting trip.

  Victoria barely waits until we’re out of earshot. “So? ” She raises her eyebrows.

  “So, what?” I ask even though I know exactly what she’s referring to.

  “Are you in love with him?”

  “I am,” I blurt out in a half whisper. Holy crap. I cover my mouth, shocked by my admission. “I mean, I think so.” I try to correct myself, because it’s completely insane that only a few days ago I had an annoying-companion type relationship with him. I mean, I thought everything he was doing was because of the Keepers, for goodness sakes. I didn’t know that it was really for me. Now that the curtains have parted and I see what could be, my emotions are just tumbling around without rhyme or reason. Is that how love is? Is it always so sudden? My head is telling me to be smart, but my heart is dumb. And I’m happy about that.

  “He’s loved you for a long time. Everything he does is for you. Like that ax he’s slaving away makin’. It’s to build you a cabin. Not me. Not him. You.” She picks up her long skirt to step over a fallen tree. “There’s one.” She points to the empty snare at the end of a collapsed pine tree.

  We keep walking, looking for the others. I smile as I think about what Victoria just said. I can still hear Kale chipping away at the ax he’s making . . . for me.

  “Did he tell you he loves me?” I ask her, wanting to know everything he may have divulged to her.

 
; “He didn’t have to. It’s written all over his face, and more importantly it’s in his actions.”

  “You know, one time back in our old enclosure, I was really upset one day. I started crying in front of the public, which as you know, is enough to warrant punishment. The park was really crowded that day.” I absently twist pieces of my hair as I recount the past event. “I was lying on the ground with my eyes shut and a dark shadow fell over me. It stayed until I finally passed out from exhaustion. Do you think that was him, protecting me from getting into trouble with the Keepers?” I ask her the question that I already know the answer to.

  “Do you think it was Kale?” She turns the question back on me.

  “I do.”

  We walk a little further. A twig snaps in the distance. We freeze. “Did you hear that?” I whisper to Victoria.

  “Yes,” she whispers back.

  Then we hear something rustling the leaves. It’s coming from the same direction. “We should go,” I tell Victoria.

  “No. I know what that sound is. Come on.” She stomps off toward the noise.

  One of the snares has a fat jackrabbit trapped inside. It’s furiously trying to escape. I stare at the adorable animal as Victoria bends down and wrestles it out from under the trap. She holds it by its ears and cheers for the prize that will be our dinner. But I want to barf.

  Look at its sweet little nose. Aw . . . I can’t eat him.

  Then the little devil starts flailing and whipping his body around in circles. He tries to scratch Victoria with his sharp back feet. “Watch out!” I warn her.

  One of its claws rips the material down the front of her cotton dress. That rabbit really shouldn’t have done that. Victoria snaps its neck in the blink of an eye. Its head flops over. She smiles, and once again holds it by the ears to carry it back to camp. I try not to look at it as we walk side-by-side.