Zoo

by Tara Elizabeth

  Kale and I navigate the never-ending tunnel as quickly as possible, while it comes down around us. We have to climb over fallen stones and duck our heads under some that are moments away from crashing down. There’s another boom followed by a high-pitched screech. Then, the ground shakes all around us. We struggle to stay standing.

  “What was that?” I say as more of a statement than an actual question, because of course, Kale doesn’t know anymore than I do what those vibrations were.

  We turn a corner and are slapped in the face by the brightest light ever. The tunnel just stops, and we’re suddenly standing in the open. We’re exposed before we know it. “Get down. Over here.” Kale pulls me behind some bushes as we take in the chaos around us.

  “Look.” I point to the sky. There’s a huge crack running up the side of the dome. It looks like a cartoon bolt of lightning. As the crack gets closer to the ground, near the drop-off point and the Safe Zone, it widens. People are swarming the side of the valley, fighting their way up. There are Keepers in white suits shooting at anyone they can, ending their dreams of escape. To the side of us, at the base of the mountains, are two tanks with black swastikas painted on the sides. They are firing into the crowds with their own agenda in mind. Screams are carried across the valley floor. They violate my ears. It’s horrible.

  “Where’s the horse?” I search for signs of the magical beast that will whisk us away, but there are too many things distracting me from seeing what’s right in front of me. This is evidently a reoccurring problem in my life.

  Kale points to the right. “Come on, Princess. Let me steal you away on my mighty steed.” He offers a small chuckle as he tries to take our minds off the horrors around us for just a second.

  Now I can see the strong, brown horse. It’s hidden behind a clump of rocks and ferns. His ears flick back and forth, listening to all the frightening sounds. As we approach, he rears back, afraid of what we will do to him. I slide my hand up his smooth coat. I comfort him before we make him race through a war zone.

  Before we mount the horse with no saddle, I pull James’ gun from my bust and hand it to Kale. “No, I’ve got this one. You need to hold onto it just in case something happens to me. I know it makes you uncomfortable, but you have to Emma. At least put it back in your dress,” he says.

  I comply, but have nothing to say about it. He’s right after all. And it did save us once before.

  Kale points to the area of the valley where most of the people of Asian descent live. “Maybe we can go to the Red Temple and then across—over there—to climb the side of the valley.” He points off in the distance where there are fewer people getting massacred.

  “But we need to be way over there. At the Safe Zone. Oh no . . . ” I cover my mouth.

  “What?” Kale looks at me. I can tell that he’s concerned by the way his brow furrows—it’s a look that I’ve seen too often since we’ve been in this super-enclosure.

  I lower my hands. “Victoria. Do you think she’s still in the woods?”

  One of the Nazi tanks fires something really loud and really big. It hits one of the abandoned homes and sends wood and insulation up into the air. I’m relieved to see that it’s not the house Kansas lives in.

  “We have to go. That’s the best way,” Kale says again.

  “Kale, I can’t go without Victoria. We have to find her. Please. We have to.”

  “We don’t even know if she’s still there. When I got back to camp, she told me what happened. I left her with the gun and told her to go to Kansas if she got worried we wouldn’t make it back. She’s probably not even there anymore.” He’s trying to convince himself that going on without checking on her is okay, but I can see in his face that he’s changing his mind.

  “We have to check,” I say one more time.

  Kale studies my face. He tucks a piece of loose hair behind my ear and then leans toward me for a kiss. I’m careful when I touch my mouth to his, because of his swollen lip. His touch is so warm and comforting that it calms my battered nerves for a brief instant. He’s there for me in exactly the way I need him at exactly the right time. - Was that a line from a movie?

  After we part, Kale jumps and swings up onto the horse. He positions himself so that there’s room for me behind him, and then he reaches down to take my outstretched hand. He says as he pulls me up to sit behind him, “You know, you really do look like a princess in that dress.”

  That dress puffs out all around me as I position myself behind him. “Thanks, but I hate it,” I tell him as I try to tame it. Unfortunately, my efforts don’t help. Kale kicks the horse into action. We head into the forest, away from the path he wanted to take. We head for our camp.

  ***

  I can tell we are getting closer. I spot one of Victoria’s snares that we must have missed when picking them all up. It actually has a little, brown rabbit trapped inside of it, and I find myself tugging on Kale’s shirt to stop. “Stop. Just for a second. Let’s slow down and walk from here. I don’t want to scare her if she’s still there.” I use Victoria as an excuse to save the little bunny. I hop down and side step my way over to the snare. I kick the cage over and hurry back to Kale’s side, as the poor animal hops away.

  Kale leads the horse along by his mane as we walk side-by-side. The war is still raging all around us. Guns are firing in the distance, and every once in a while a scream makes its way through the tangle of the trees. We walk with soft steps, but the crunch of the leaves and pine needles underfoot sounds like more gunfire to my paranoid ears.

  We’ve made it to the campsite or what’s left of the campsite. It’s been torn to shreds. The disassembled walls of the lean-to are broken and scattered around the area, the rabbit pelt actually has a muddy footprint on it, and two of our water bottles are now empty and smashed beyond repair. Is it bad that my first thought is; who the hell messed up the walls of our lean-to? It took us for freakin’ ever to build that thing.

  But of course, I quickly grow in concern for my friend who is nowhere in sight.

  Kale bends over, rummaging through the hole in the ground where we hid our things. “Food’s here, but the backpack and gun are gone.” He looks up at me with a grim expression. Then he stands and kicks a pile of dirt around, as if searching for clues.

  I notice for the first time how filthy he is. His once white shirt is now brown and he has dried blood on his pant leg. Then I look down at myself. I’m still wearing this ridiculous dress. I hardly noticed it at all, except when getting up onto the horse. Now it feels like it weighs a thousand pounds. I want it off. “Unlace this thing for me, please,” I request. I turn my back toward Kale and motion to the string keeping me captive inside the gown.

  “Um. I don’t want to point out the obvious, but I don’t think it’s the best idea to have you running around here naked. Especially when there’s a battle being fought—not that I wouldn’t enjoy seeing that . . . ” I crane my head around to look at Kale. He’s looking at me like I’ve lost my mind.

  An explosion rips through the forest, sending some nearby trees up in flames. That was too close for comfort. We both duck and pull ourselves in closer to the overhang that hid us once before. As we wait for the blast to settle, our horse freaks out and tears off deeper into the forest.

  So much for our ride.

  “Damn it,” Kale states the obvious.

  I return my focus to my dress, since we can actually do something about it. “That sucks, but look, I have like five layers of crap under this dress. I can assure you, I won’t be naked. I’m very sorry to disappoint you about that. Now that the horse is M.I.A. I’m going to have to run, and it’s not going to happen in a dress like this.” I fluff the skirts out to emphasize my point. I add, “I need it off. Please just untie it so we can keep going.”

  Kale concedes and tugs on the ribbon that laces up the corset. It slowly starts to loosen. My rib cage expands back into its natural state, and my hidden things begin to shift. “Whoa, wait!” I warn Kale.

/>   “What’s wrong?” He asks.

  “I forgot about this stuff. Don’t want the gun to fall and go off.” I pull it and the book out of the bust of my dress and lay them by my feet, while Kale continues to work on the dress. As he works his fingers through the lacing and helps me to step out of my dress, I sadly realize that this could have been an exciting experience for the two of us. But this is neither a romantic nor an intimate moment.

  I quickly take the string from the corset and run it between two pages in the middle of my book. I have to keep this book. Cat went through the trouble of giving it to me not once, but twice. I force the string up next to the binding and then tie a knot in to loose ends. Then, I sling it over my shoulder like a purse. It hangs down and rests against the top of my butt.

  Boom!

  Another missile or whatever strikes the overhang further down, a mere 50 feet from us. It sprays rocks and dirt into the air and into our eyes. We struggle to breathe and see as we try to escape our current location. I close my eyes and hold tight to Kale’s hand, while feeling in front of me with my free hand. Damn, there are a lot of trees here, and I’m pretty sure that we’ve run smack into at least half of them. I also think I coughed up a lung a few feet back.

  As the air starts to clear, I see that the trees are becoming more spread out and provide less coverage. We duck behind a thick oak tree just before we reach the edge of the forest. As we peek around the trunk, a Keeper appears out of thin air. He’s wearing a white suit and holding some kind of metallic gun. He’s heading straight for us.

  Kale points his gun at the Keeper, who raises his hands. “I’m on your side, look.” The Keeper takes his glove off and shows us a silver star tattoo that lies between his thumb and index finger.

  “Kansas told you about those, remember?” I remind him that the Keeper is safe.

  The friendly Keeper says, “Just trying to do something about those Nazis and Vikings. They’re screwing everything up.” His headpiece only shows a strip where his eyes are located, but I can tell he looks frustrated by that small hint.

  Kale lowers his gun to let him pass and get on with his urgent business, since it will most likely help us as well. The Keeper nods his thanks and then takes off running inside the tree line. Several minutes later one of the Nazi tanks explodes. It takes out several people that were too close by. I turn my head from the sight, but it’s too late. The image is already burned into my brain. I’m just thankful I wasn’t any closer to the carnage.

  “Emma, come on. We need to go.” Kale touches my shoulder and breaks my morbid thoughts.

  “Yeah. Yeah, I know, but I want to pass by Kansas’ house. Victoria might be there. I’m sure that’s where she is. That’s where you told her to go, right? Where else would she be?”

  “Sure. We have to pass by there anyway. We need the cover.” He takes my hand again. “Ready?”

  I nod.

  “Let’s go!”

  RUNNING IN YOUR UNDERWEAR IS ALWAYS THE BEST WAY TO RUN

  I realize that I don’t have the luxury of a bra the second we start running for Kansas’ house. Well, at least I have these bloomer-pant things that were under the petticoat I took off. So, I’m running through the middle of a battle, trying to be inconspicuous in a beige cotton chemise and ballooning bloomers with a book slapping me in the butt. Fortunately, I don’t have time to be embarrassed, and Kale is too consumed with our safety to make fun of me—if he’s even noticed.

  Pop! Kale’s gun fires, causing me to turn my attention to where he is still aiming. A man with an arrow strung up in a bow is staggering backward. He collapses to the ground while clutching at his shooting arm. He is dressed like one of the King’s men.

  My breaths are coming quicker as the reality of the delicate state of our lives is becoming more apparent. That bowman could’ve killed one of us. We don’t have time to stop and cry about it, so we keep running. We keep our eyes peeled and our ears open, and really just pray to God we make it to that house in one piece.

  We run and run.

  Above us, the dome cracks again and shards of glass, bigger than I thought possible, rain down. A piece about the size of a car stabs the earth a few feet from us. I have to stifle a scream and force myself to keep running. I notice that the Keepers on flying vehicles don’t even swerve out of the way of the falling debris. The glass simply bounces off some kind of force field that surrounds their machines. How can any of us win against that?

  There’s too much going on around us. Too much!!! I need to focus. My legs are burning like I can’t even explain, but it’s amazing what the power of adrenaline can do. It feels like we have super-speed.

  As we approach the house, I call out ahead, “Kansas! Kansas, it’s us! Emma and Kale!” Nothing happens, so we climb the front steps. “Kansas!” I call out again.

  The front door creaks open, but no one comes out. Assuming it’s an invitation indoors, Kale and I duck in, guns leading the way—just in case.

  “Get down!” a man yells from inside.

  Kale and I throw ourselves to the floor in the front entryway of the home. A forty-something, African American man is standing beside us, aiming a rifle out of the window much like Kansas had the first time we encountered her. He fires, reloads, and fires again. “Damn Nazis,” he grumbles. Then he turns his attention to us as we crawl over to the sofa where Victoria is casually reclining. The man shouts over to Kansas, who is sitting by a side window, “You know these two, Kansas?” He’s definitely not from the south, that much I can tell by his accent.

  “Yeah!” she answers. “They’re the ones I was telling you about.”

  A man from another part of the house says, “Thought you ran ‘em off?”

  Kale says, “Look we’re not staying. I can see you’re all busy and don’t have time to babysit us in the middle of all this. We just came for Victoria.”

  Victoria drops her feet to the ground and leans toward us. “I’m not running around out there. Kansas said this is the safest place. The ‘good’ Keepers put a force field around the house that deflects ammunition. They told us to stay here until it gets close to the end,” she says.

  I crawl closer to her, but realize crawling isn’t really necessary since the house is mostly protected. After walking over to Victoria and sitting a little too close to her, I lower my voice so no one but she can hear. “I met someone who’s going to get us out of here. He’s going to send us back to our time. You can go home,” I whisper.

  Her answer is not what I was prepared to hear. “I can’t go home. Maw and Paw died when we did remember? There’s no one to go back to and don’t forget I’m pregnant. I don’t know what people think about babies out of wedlock where you’re from, but it’s not acceptable where I’m from. I can’t go back.”

  I never considered her not wanting to return. She was always so upset about being here, but I suppose everyone is. I wonder if I would want to stay if my parents had died along with me. “But where will you go?” I ask her, concerned for her out in this future world alone and pregnant.

  “They have help for us when we get out. Kansas said that I’ll have a home and money. They implanted an identity chip in my finger a little while ago. My new name is Willa Nile. Good name, right?” When I don’t respond, she adds, “I’ll be fine. I swear. I want this.” She’s very convincing, determined eyes and all.

  I look over to Kale, who is antsy to get moving, but I’m exhausted. I want to rest. I want to sit here and not get up again until this is all over. I know we don’t have the luxury of time, so I force myself to my feet. “Sorry to have bothered y’all. What’s the best way to the Safe Zone?”

  Kansas looks out of the home’s window that’s facing the direction we need to head. She turns back toward us. “Straight through the middle of it.” My stomach drops as I glance out the window.

  The middle-aged man by the front window says, “You want to give them the suits? We’ve got extra since Robert and Becky died.”

  “Good idea.�
� Kansas leaves her post at the window and heads over to the door under the stairs. She pulls it open. Her feet thump on the steps, as she descends one at a time all the way to the bottom. A few minutes pass, and then she thumps her way back up into the living room. She’s carrying two white Keeper suits.

  Wow! How did she get those?

  “Wow!” I say out loud this time.

  Kale accepts his suit as Kansas hands one to him first. “Where did you get these?” he asks the question I am dying to know.

  Kansas hands me one as she answers him, “I told you. Some of the Keepers are in on it. They needed a place here to organize and plan, and we needed a way to get around this place safely to help them. Most of the Keepers running around here don’t have working suits right now. We’ve made sure they had some glitches with them as well as their flyers. But here, these two work just fine.” She’s so blasé about the whole thing that it makes me wonder what else she’s hiding down in that basement.

  Whatever, I have better things to worry over right now than what secrets Kansas is keeping. I pull the Keeper’s white suit over my Victorian undergarments and novel that’s still strapped to my back. The suit will help protect me from assailants and embarrassment. Kale pulls his coveralls on as well, and we thank them for the generous gift.

  As we prepare to continue on our journey to freedom, I gather Victoria up in my arms and wish her luck. I will miss my little, crafty friend. Kale leaves her with well wishes, and we say our goodbyes to Kansas one last time before sneaking out the back door. She smiles as she watches us leave.

  Unfortunately, we now have huge targets painted on, well, our whole bodies. Everyone except the “bad” Keepers will want us dead.

  BULLETS FLYING EVERYWHERE

  The second we leave the protection of Kansas’ house, a man in a cowboy hat and blue jeans jumps out from behind a fallen air-train (as I’ve finally decided to call them). It’s not the same cowboy as before, but he looks just as crazy. Behind him, I can see people huddled up inside the futuristic vehicle. The watchers are now inside our hell with us. A week ago this would have given me satisfaction, but now in the middle of this rebellion, I feel sorry for them. No one should be here in this mess, and I mean no one.