“When we were getting ready to leave the house, I got flustered because everyone was panicked and running off in different directions. I got scared, and when you ran out the door first, we got separated. I was scared and didn’t know what to do.”
Here’s something to take note of in her story so far: She never once mentioned a number of people, and when she said “WE got separated,” she gave two different stories that have two different meanings. Jack heard “We got separated,” meaning Jack and I got separated from her. Bob heard “We got separated” as ‘we’ being Sara and her husband getting separated from the group. That one quick phrase immediately sat right with both people she was performing for.
“What about the fire alarm? And what you said? About Jeffrey being the man they were looking for…”
Now this should be good. I thought.
Once again, her eyes flickered like the processor of some supercomputer calculating millions of possibilities. She already knew that I knew the truth, and she didn’t have to come up with anything fancy for Bob because he wasn’t there, and she probably didn’t tell him any of this. The amount of time it took her to respond was awe-inspiring.
“I was going to throw the alarm out the front door to help give us some time, but the button got stuck, and I couldn’t turn it off. I heard the front door break open, and I hid. I screamed that the man they were looking for was outside, and I pointed out front.”
Jack nodded in the understanding way of a daughter telling her father about an accident that wasn’t her fault.
“Those men got in the house, and they dragged us outside.”
That time she said ‘they dragged US outside,’ but she glossed over the us so quickly it was almost subliminal. She also changed the direction of the story to her being captured. Jack has forgotten everything she said up until this point because his humanity was feeling her pain of capture.
Fucking brilliant.
“I saw him…I saw Axel.” Jack gasped at her words, and I almost forgot that I was supposed to react as well. “He slapped me in the face,” She started tearing up. Her performance was exquisite. “He said he was going to kill me if I didn’t do what he wanted…He kept smiling at me, and groping my body. I was scared.” Jack’s body was tense with rage right now, but Sara wasn’t finished. “He dragged me inside the house by my hair and threw me on the ground…He pulled his pants down and tried climbing on top of me. I reached out and tried to push him back, but he kept coming at me… So, I used both hands, and just clawed at his face as hard as I could. There was blood everywhere, and he screamed. I kicked and kicked as hard as I could. Once I got to my feet, I ran out the front door. I couldn’t see because I was crying…and the dark…I was just too scared to think. When I stopped running I was all alone. I didn’t know where anyone was.” She sobbed heavily and Jack immediately scooped her up and cradled her like a nurturer naturally would.
“Well, he’s coming for you now,” Jack said. She looked up with red rimmed eyes and a terrified expression twisted onto her lovely face. “Jeffrey and I overheard some of his men saying there was a woman here who scratched up Axel’s face.” He turned to me. “They had to have been talking about Sara.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell Jack that overhearing that story was the only reason I actually wanted to come to the zoo. I wanted to kill Sara. My mind, however had…changed on the subject.
“We should get out of here,” Bob said. “Now.”
“It’ll take time to get everyone out of here,” I said.
If Sara’s brain was a supercomputer, like mine, capable of crunching millions of scenarios together in seconds to come up with the perfect reaction to any given situation, then Bob’s brain was more like an old accounting calculator from the seventies. I could see his brain cranking away, trying to find a way to save his own skin. My guess is that he would try to sneak out with all the supplies he could carry.
“I should go check on the supplies and see what we have,” he said.
I wanted to laugh.
“Good idea,” I said with a nod. “Jack, could you go with him and see what we’ll need if we have to move everything.”
“That won’t be necessary,” He protested.
“Nonsense,” Jack said keenly aware of Bob’s intentions. “We’ll go take a quick look.”
“Bob, is there anyplace here with a good vantage point? Some place that gives a good view of the surrounding area?”
“There’s an observation deck over the elephants,” He said with a sad nod.
At that point, there was a powerful scratching at the door. Jack cracked the bathroom door open, and Rex came bounding in making a beeline to Sara. She bent over and squealed his name in that high pitched voice that everyone talks to dogs in.
“REXY!” She said, scooping him up in her arms. He painted a clear coat of slobber across most of her face as he excitedly and repeatedly kissed her.
“Rexy?” I asked.
“Yeah. Like, Sexy Rexy!”
“He doesn’t like that,” I said.
“Sure he does.” She held him up to her face. “Isn’t that right, Sexy Rexy? You love being a sexy sexy Rexy, don’t you? Don’t you?!”
If her face was crack, Rex was trying to overdose right now. His whole body rocked in her arms as he lunged towards her face with each literal tongue lashing he gave her. I don’t know why I enjoyed that moment so much. It almost caught me off guard.
“Looks like someone missed you,” Jack said with a solid laugh.
“Well, I missed him too,” she said, giving him a squeeze.
“I’m glad to see that you’re safe.”
“Thanks, Jack. I’m glad we found each other again.” She touched his cheek.
“Come on, Bob,” Jack said, slapping the sickly looking Bob on the back. “Let’s go look at your supplies.”
Once they left, she put Rex down on the ground and wiped her face clean. “So, now what?” she asked in her true cold voice. “Should we take off now?”
Her instincts were spot on, but there was something burning in the back of my brain that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
“We may not have a choice,” I said. “Let’s go to the observation deck.”
I started to leave, but Sara grabbed my hand and pulled me to her. She kissed me again. Each kiss was like an explosion to my senses. Her lips were soft and delicious, and her hair smelled like fresh cut flowers. Her skin was hot against my own, and she was pressed against me tightly enough that I could feel her heart beating into my sternum. It wasn’t until she pulled away from me slightly that I felt the cold steel of my gun that I had just gotten back sliding along the side of my face. She smiled at me and then stuck the gun back into the back of her pants.
Her message was clear.
She was telling me that I wasn’t in control of her, but also that she wasn’t a threat to me. She could have pulled the trigger and been out of the zoo before anyone was able to discover what happened, but she didn’t. She also got the gun away from me without me knowing, but she made sure I knew that she took it.
“You’re amazing,” I said with a smile.
“I know,” She winked. “Sorry I almost got you killed.”
“I’m sorry I almost blew your brains out in that stall.”
“You wouldn’t have,” she said.
“It’s the only reason I came to the zoo.”
“I heard the cheetah exhibit is the best in the country,” she said grinning from ear to ear.
“Well, now I have another reason to be here.” I said caressing her face as though we weren’t just talking about killing each other.
“I hope we make it out of this,” she whispered. “I want more time to study you.”
“I just want to see you naked again,” I said as we walked out of the bathroom.
“Maybe if you’re lucky.”
Chapter 39
Rex had an extra pep in his step while we made our way to the elephant exhibit. He bounded around
closed hot dog carts and sprinted towards every new person we came in contact with. Each and every person that he ran to laughed when they saw him, and not a single person didn’t bend over to touch him lovingly. The way people looked at him was…interesting.
Studying people and their emotions has been something that I was always good at. There used to be a theory that said if you practice anything for ten thousand hours, you will become an expert. Well, seeing as how I’ve been alive roughly fourteen thousand days, quick math will tell you that I’ve been studying humans and their emotions approximately three hundred and thirty-six thousand hours.
I feel like I’ve become an expert.
However, since the zombies became the dominant species of the planet, people’s emotions have been undergoing dramatic changes. Normally, people passing a dog on the streets would smile, maybe ask the owner a question about the breed, and move on. Most people wouldn’t even acknowledge the dog’s existence, they would continue down the sidewalk with their face and thumbs buried deep into a phone. Now, people are nearly in tears when they feel Rex’s fur beneath their fingers. If I were to take a guess at exactly what was going on, I would imagine that seeing a dog acting so happy and carefree reminds people of what life was like before the zombies. Most probably never even thought that they would see another dog again. Since a majority of American households include at least one pet, there was a pretty good chance that most of these people lost a pet of their own.
Learning these subtle differences will allow me to survive in this new world. Humans are evolving emotionally, and I have to keep up.
I looked over at Sara, and she had matched everyone else’s expressions perfectly. Not only did she already look like a human, but she looked like she had already adapted to the new way of life.
“Was there even a boyfriend at the CVS? Or was that story total bullshit?” I asked as we passed under the large faux African entrance sign to the elephant exhibit.
“Well…” She began. “I did have a boyfriend at one point, and I have been to a CVS at some point in my life…Jack did find me at a Circle K close to a burning CVS, so that part of the story was true.”
“So, what was your story.”
Sara let out a lovely sigh. “I was sitting at the house of this…older man who takes care of me…”
“Sugar daddy, I got it.”
“Kind of.” She smiled. “He got bit while trying to lock the front gates.”
“How old are we talking?”
“What does that matter?” she asked looking indignantly at me.
“I just want to know your type.”
“He was in his late seventies.”
“Got it,” I said smiling.
“And rich,” She added.
“Oh, that went without saying.”
“Anyway…He got bit and came back inside. It was a pretty big home, so I thought I might be okay if I just kept him locked in another part of the house.”
“Solid plan.”
“That’s what I thought… However, there was a staff of about fifteen people working and living on the grounds. The house was a fortress, and they wanted it for themselves.”
“A staff of fifteen?! How big was this house?”
“Pretty big. But the staff killed Phillip, and then came after me.”
“Why did they come after you?”
“I may have been responsible for a few deportations of family members.”
“You’re a cold bitch,” I laughed.
“Well, that maid should have never tried to warn Phillip against putting me in his will.”
We walked in silence for a moment before I blurted out?
“You had sex with a man in his seventies?!”
“No!” she answered, punching me in the arm much harder than her slight frame would suggest she was capable of. “I kept putting it off. I told him I had dyspareunia.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s a condition that makes sex painful.”
“Do you have it?”
“What do you think?”
“It wasn’t painful for me.” I said, adding a twinkle to my eye.
“A girl doesn’t make it this far in life without learning a trick or two.”
Sara and I walked over a small wooden bridge, and when we reached the top, the view was breathtaking. We looked out over a small version of Africa. There were elephants, giraffe, and zebras all in the same enormous exhibit along with a few other small animals and birds that I couldn’t easily recognize. Rex came zipping up to us with the excitement of a thousand dogs. His tongue could no longer be contained by his mouth, and his tail was just a blur.
“I guess he’s never seen animals like this before,” I said.
“You never took him to Africa?”
“I couldn’t get him his passport in time.”
We walked to the large fence that overlooked the exhibit, and Rex squeezed himself through the bars and jumped into the murky waters that separated the gate to the African shore.
“Rex!” I shouted with a small trace of panic creeping into my voice. I ran along the fence looking for a way to get in before the dog found a way to get himself killed by anything in the exhibit. About half way around the fence, I saw a gate with a a sign that said “Staff only.” I ran straight for the door, and by the time I got my hand on the knob, I heard Sara laugh behind me. I spun around to see why she was laughing, and what I saw almost made my jaw hit the floor.
Rex had already pulled himself from the water that surrounded the land separating the animals from the surrounding walls, and he was running between the legs of full grown elephants. The elephants didn’t even seem to mind. At one point, Rex had jumped up onto a rock to get a better view of this massive mammal, and the elephant reached out with its trunk, and fucking stroked the side of his face!
I shit you not, this elephant actually pet the dog. Rex closed his eyes and enjoyed the attention for all of about thirty seconds before leaping from the rock and onto the back of the playful pachyderm.
The small dog ran in tiny circles on the thick grey skin of his new playmate before seeing something that seemed to be even more interesting. He leapt off the back of the elephant, and ran to a baby elephant that seemed equally as interested in playing. The two ducked and bobbed their heads and took turns chasing after each other. To be honest, I never knew baby elephants could run. But, this little guy was running as fast as his stubby legs could carry him.
The running and playing got the attention of a tower of giraffes.
Did you know that a group of giraffes is called a tower? It’s one of those tidbits I remembered from watching Animal Planet at three in the morning.
I continued to watch Rex playing with his new chubby chum, and as I watched, something stirred deep inside me. It was hard to identify, but it was like a pressure pushing on my chest from the inside. Rex ran a large circle around the baby elephant, and little Dumbo fell onto his side physically spent. Rex barked repeatedly at the face of the exhausted elephant, trying his best to get him to stir. The energetic pup did a large lap around the immediate area, running between the legs of startled giraffes who jumped excitedly. He ended his run by climbing onto the side of his new companion and curling up into a small coil and passing out.
I couldn’t tell by the distance, but I know that routine almost always is accompanied by a squeaky fart.
“That’s funny,” Sara said eyeballing me.
“What is?”
“I’ve studied you pretty closely during the time we were together, and I’ve never seen that.”
“Seen what?” I asked honestly. Before she could answer, a gruff voice from behind us put an end to the conversation.
“Remarkable,” the man’s voice said.
We turned around to find a very friendly looking man in his fifties wearing khaki cargo shorts and a matching vest.
“I’ve been taking care of those animals for twenty years, and when… everything changed…” he made a swimming moti
on with his hands to signify the world around him. “they somehow knew. It’s almost as if they knew the world was changed forever. This relatively small exhibit is their world, so it’s strange that they would react differently when the outside world would fall apart. This…” he said putting a great deal of emphasis on the word ‘this.’ “Is the first time in many months that they actually looked even remotely alive, let alone playful.” He approached us and stuck out a calloused and well worn hand. “I’m Brian Pierce. I’m one of the zoologists here at the zoo. I take care of all of the animals in the African exhibit. That’s an interesting breed you have there. Is he a Jack Russell mix?”
“I really don’t know,” I said. “He was a rescue.”
“I see. He looks like he’s definitely got some Jack in him. His legs are a little too long for him to be pure bred. Maybe a Jack Russell and…“ He put a finger on his lips as his brow pressed forward in thought, “King Charles spaniel mix.” He nodded at his assessment. “Yeah, that looks about right. Come on, let’s get him out of there.”
The Inhuman Chronicles (Book 1): Inhuman Page 27