The Inhuman Chronicles (Book 1): Inhuman

by Feren, Todd C.

  “If we are going to do this, we should start now,” Brian said. “We can start by closing off the gates in the tunnels that lead to the sections where we are going to release the animals. Also, we should back the truck up to the loading bay of the lion exhibit.”

  “I’ll go get the truck,” Bob said. I was about to insist that someone go with him, because I was sure he was still trying to escape on his own, when Jack jumped in.

  “Great! I’ll go with you.”

  I could see the disappointed look on Bob’s face, and it brought me a great deal of joy.

  “Just show me on the map which gates to close, and I’ll do that,” I said to Brian. “Then, we need to find out who we have here who is able to stand and fight with us, and where we can safely hide everyone who can’t.

  “You realize this plan is suicidal?” Bob asked me.

  I grabbed a Sharpie off of the desk in front of me and shoved it in my mouth like a cigar before saying something that I’ve always wanted to say.

  “I love it when a plan comes together!”

  Chapter 42

  Closing the gates in the tunnels took all of about twenty minutes. Going through all of the survivors to find the eleven men willing to fight took almost half an hour and was incredibly disappointing. Of the men we got to fight, four of them were over sixty. Three didn’t speak English, and one of those three was sixteen. Then there was Joey. The morbidly obese security guard with the cheery disposition was approximately five feet seven inches tall and had to be pushing three hundred and fifty pounds. I doubt he would be much help in a fire fight unless I used him as a shield.

  Two of the other guys were almost as heavy as Joey, but they at least looked like the weekend warrior type. You know, the middle aged guys who go rock climbing or mountain biking on the weekend to prove that they are still young, only they blow out their knees and back within the first hour of their adventure. Lastly, there was Jimmy, the spindly kid we met at the front gate with Joey. I would eat shit if he was a day over seventeen or had kissed a woman he wasn’t related to. The fact of the matter was he was a kid, and if inexperience had a poster child, Jimmy was it. Jack stopped him from pointing the gun at his own head three times while he was examining the piece we gave him.

  “Have you ever fired a gun?” Jack asked.

  “No, sir,” he answered with a tremor in his voice.

  “Are you sure you want to stay up here and fight?”

  “I have to, sir,” the boy said.

  “You don’t have to,” Jack said. “You can go down and hide with your family.”

  “They’re all dead,” he said, taking his eyes away from the big man.

  “I’m sorry to hear that, Jimmy. I really am.”

  “It’s okay… They died in the beginning. Nothing more can happen to them now.”

  “I guess that’s true. But you have a better chance of surviving down there.”

  “I don’t want to survive,” Jimmy said flatly. “I want to live. I want everyone down there who has been so good to me to live. If I have to die to make their chance of survival just a little bit better, then I’ll die for them.”

  I listened to his words, and he might as well have been speaking French. I could understand the words he was saying, but their meaning was completely lost. I literally could not understand the idea of dying to save others. It’s not in my nature.

  Sorry.

  I was fascinated by his words though. It was like something someone in a movie says, so that the audience feels like this is a true hero. Or something someone like me would say to make people think I was a hero. Either way, his words made me take notice of him. Rex seemed intrigued as well. He ran up to the boy and pawed at his tennis shoe until he gave him a good solid scratch behind the ears.

  I noticed the kid’s posture changed when he pet the dog. The tension released, and a small smile broke through his somber features.

  Rex had that ability. There was something about that dog that I had grown to appreciate. I don’t know if every dog has the ability to read people and know exactly what they need at any given time, or if Rex was some sort of alien dog sent here to scout the earth for an eventual take over. Then the zombies attacked, and he got stranded here.

  Okay, I was fairly certain he wasn’t an alien, but we live in a world with creatures from a horror film walking around. Would you really be so surprised if some sci-fi showed up? Maybe an angel or two?

  Jack spent the better part of two hours showing everyone how to use their guns. He showed them how to shoot, reload, and clear a jam if one occurs. It’s sad when I consider myself one of the knowledgable ones.

  Brian came running up to me, and after spending a few moments catching his breath, he informed me that the truck full of lions was backed up to the main entrance, blocking anyone who might try to enter.

  “I’m really not for this idea,” he said. “But I can’t let my animals die in the captivity of those men out there. It’s better they have a fighting chance.”

  “That’s all I want for them too,” I said.

  But I also want the sight of lions, tigers, and cheetahs to scare Axel’s men shitless. I thought. The truth was, if more than half of them run off in a panic, we may have a fighting chance. If a lion gets hungry and snacks on a meth head or two, even better.

  “Are you ready to release the others into the tunnel?” he asked.

  “Sure, why not,” I said, feeling my butthole tighten nervously.

  “I already called the tigers,” Jack chortled, nearly running in place.

  “Okay, I’ll do the cheetahs,” I said.

  “Cheetahs and panthers,” Brian added. Before I could tell him to bite my ass, he started explaining. “The exhibits entrance to the tunnel are side by side. They have to go out through the same exit point.”

  “Is that safe?” I asked, feeling my butthole tighten even more and taking some of my underwear with it.

  “We’ve never mixed the cheetahs and panthers… There might be some tension, but they should be fine.”

  “Great,” I said sarcastically. “Bob, you come with me so we can open the doors together.” Bob looked at me with a rage I’ve never seen in the pathetic monster. Jack handed each of us radios, and then looked at me.

  “Joey and Jimmy are going to jam up the back side entrance with the Jeeps. Do you want to take a look when they’re done?”

  “Sure. IF I don’t get killed in the middle of a cheetah panther fight, I’ll get right on that.”

  As we all took off towards the tunnels, Rex barked and tried to follow.

  “No way, Rex,” I said, pushing him back with my foot. “You’re snack sized to these cats. You go find Sara.” He looked at my quizzically for a second, and then bounded off, presumably to find Sara like I told him to.

  “He’s a good listener,” Brian said, turning back towards our destination.

  “Yeah,” I said casually. “When he’s not being an asshole.”

  Chapter 43

  Bob and I entered the tunnel and shut the gate behind us. Ahead of us was an expanse of grey tunnel that was only about fifty yards long and ended with a solid grey wall with red double doors. There were about five other doors in that stretch of hallway, but only two of them housed the beasts we were looking to free.

  “I’ll open the cheetahs’ door, and you open the panthers’,” I said to Bob.

  “Then what?” he asked with nervousness dripping from each word.

  “My thought is to open the exit door first. Then we open the habitat doors all the way, trapping us between the door and the wall as they pass by. Once they make it out, we can sneak out the way we came.”

  “We could probably just sneak out right now,” Bob said. “Only the two of us. We’d have a much better chance of getting by the guys out there. We stay quiet, we stay low, and before you know it this whole place is behind us. Let them figure out how to survive.”

  Bob’s words made sense to me. It was self preservation, plain and simple
. But coming from him, it just sounded wrong.

  “We can’t do that, Bob…” I began. But before I could continue my train of thought, I heard a pinging sound like metal striking something hard. It was loud. Very loud. That sound was accompanied by two things: the sudden metallic smell of blood filling my nostrils and a very sharp pain at the base of my skull. The tunnel I was looking down began to close up as darkness crept in from all sides. I was confused and had no idea what was happening as the ground came closer and closer to my face.

  Then…total darkness.

  What the hell happened? I thought. I was very aware of the darkness. This wasn’t like ordinary sleep where It feels like time travel. It was just darkness.

  A tiny pin prick of light appeared in the distance. It was pale blue and growing closer. As the light grew closer, it also grew brighter. By the time it reached me, I was almost blinded by its brilliance.

  I peered through my fingers at the glowing figure that stood before me. It was the blue fairy. Her skin still looked like aged wood, and her expression was still cold. She turned her head to one side, and her wooden neck cracked open from the gesture.

  She didn’t seem to mind. She felt no pain, or at least she didn’t show it.

  She moved closer to me, and I could feel the heat of her presence wafting over me. She brought her face even with mine, and then literally cracked her lips apart. The air that escaped from them was hot and humid, and I could even taste the foul atmosphere that came out of her new opening. She moved closer still until her wooden lips pressed firmly against mine. I wanted to vomit, but I didn’t have the ability to do so. As I was being kissed by this wooden fairy, I could hear a sound that sounded vaguely like a snore.

  Then, the darkness began to fade away. Consciousness was returning, yet the heat of her kiss and the snoring sound still persisted.

  When my eyes opened, I saw quite possibly one of the worst things I could have imagined ever waking up to.

  The light brown eyes of an adult cheetah were just inches from mine. His mouth, full of razor sharp teeth, was gently pressed against my mouth which hung open in shock. Luckily, my brain didn’t allow my body to flail around in panic mode. I just laid there motionless and listened to the gentle purring of the cheetah that was curiously tasting my lips with his tongue.

  I rolled my eyes to the side and saw a fire extinguisher on the ground next to me. Bob must have hit me with it before he released the big cats and ran out the door to save himself.

  Well, I thought. In this world you’re bound to die getting eaten by something. I slowly reached my hands up to the face of my new found furry friend, and rubbed his cheeks gently, so he didn’t think I was trying to fight him. He closed his eyes while I rubbed his face and he purred even louder. At least one of us was enjoying this. The world class killer cat was enjoying the face rub so much that he decided to stretch out on the ground next to me.

  I don’t know if you’ve ever gotten close enough to a killing machine like this in your life, but it was not an enjoyable situation. As the cheetah relaxed even more, I decided that this was my opportunity to try and stand up. That thought vanished into thin air when the animal let out a guttural, throaty rumble when I began to move.

  “Got it,” I said softly. “I’ll just wait here ‘til you’re ready.”

  “YOU GUYS READY WITH THE DOORS?!” Jack squawked through my radio.

  The cheetah jumped up at the sound and let out a hiss that almost made me piss my pants. He no longer looked at me as a curious object that silently allowed him to molest my face. Now I was an angry sounding flesh bag that he could shred to ribbons if he so desired.

  I slowly reached for the radio and turned the volume to zero. Then I moved slower than I ever had before and reached for the red fire extinguisher that Bob had so graciously left me. I thought I still saw some of my own blood and hair stuck to the outside of the canister.

  The cheetah rumbled and struck at the air as my fingers grasped the hose of the extinguisher. I slid it into my hands and gently pulled out the safety pin.

  One of two things will happen here. I thought as I placed my hand on the handle. Either the sound of this thing going off will scare the cheetah away from me, or encourage him to rip my throat out.

  I squeezed. The explosive force of the CO2 blasting out of the nozzle made the cheetah leap about seven feet into the air. I used that time to leap to my feet. I quickly fell back against the wall dizzy from my head wound. As I fell back, I squeezed the handle again, and I saw the hallway full of big cats was in panic mode.

  Fuck! He let them all out!

  The door at the end of the hall was closed.

  I picked up the walkie talkie and called to Jack being careful to keep my tone non threatening for the cats.

  “Jack, I have to get to the door to open it. Give me a second.”

  “WE’LL RELEASE ON YOUR ‘GO!’” he screamed back. I adjusted the volume again while cursing Jack under my breath, then I slid along the wall towards the end of the tunnel. The cheetahs actually seemed kind of calm considering the scene that just played out. However, it was the panthers at the end of the hall by the exit that really scared me. They paced back and forth like they couldn’t wait for me to get to them.

  Goddamn, Bob! I thought. Please let us both survive, so that I get a chance to see you again.

  The closer I got to the exit and the panthers, the more anxious the panthers and I both got. They were anxious because they wanted to kill me, and I was anxious because they wanted to fucking kill me!

  I got about ten yards from the door before one of the panthers decided to test out the waters and step towards me. So I blasted him in the face with the CO2. The sound of the freezing white snow escaping the nozzle caused every cat in that tunnel to hiss and start moving towards me. I squeezed the handle again and cleared a path to the door. I slammed the door open and stepped outside.

  “GO!” I screamed into the radio as five cheetahs and two panthers came running out after me. I turned the nozzle on them, and they ran past me into the woods beyond. Hopefully they are suitably pissed off enough to do some damage on some of Axel’s men. Before I closed the door behind me, I could hear the distant roar of lions as Brian released them.

  I really wish I could have seen the look on the faces of those men getting ready to attack us as goddamned lions came running into the woods. I could make out the faint screams of men followed by gunshots as I walked down the hall. I just hoped that one of those screams wasn’t Bob. I wanted to make sure we meet again. Unlike my threat of killing Sara when I found her, Bob had no chance. I don’t care how good of a kisser he is, he’s dead.

  Chapter 44

  I made it back to the surface, and my head was still swimming. It turns out my skull wasn’t designed to be hit with a fire extinguisher. I took my hand off of the door that led outside, and I immediately saw Jack running towards me. It might have been the slight concussion, but for a second I thought I was about to be hit by a truck.

  “You ready?” he shouted into my throbbing head.

  “Yes,” I said, putting my hand on him for support.

  “What happened? There’s blood on your shirt.”

  “Bob,” was all the response I needed.

  “What’s with the fire extinguisher?”

  “It was the only way to keep the cats away.”

  “What about your gun?”

  I reached back into the back of my pants and felt the grip of my gun firmly wedged right where I’ve kept it this whole time. I looked at Jack and said the only thing that seemed appropriate.

  “Shut up.”

  Rex took that moment to come whipping around the corner towards me in a furry fury. He jumped up towards me and his front paws caught me square in the nuts. As I bent over in pain and expelled every bit of air from my mouth, he used that opportunity to lick my face and actually get his tongue in my mouth.

  I gently pushed him away before realizing he shouldn’t be here. He was locked up w
ith the others in the offices below the lion’s exhibit.

  “What are you doing here?!” I asked through gritted teeth.

  “Wasn’t he locked up with the others?” Jack asked.

  “Yeah,” I said standing up and trying to breathe normally. “Shit! I’ll be right back!”

  I scooped up Rex and started to sprint towards the lion exhibit. I would be lying if I told you the thought of hiding and waiting for a good opportunity to escape didn’t cross my mind, but for some reason I kept running until I made it to the door that led to the lion exhibit. I pounded on it until I could hear someone on the other side.