Mason slid his chair back and stood up. “Of course. I apologise for the delay. I should be able to find a first aid kit in one of the labs.”
“Labs?”
“Yes. We are in the zoo’s research wing, after all. There are several laboratories for testing and examinations, as well as a veterinary surgery that is used to treat the animals. Unfortunately, none of the vets are here today.”
Grace laughed. “Think we’ll have to play doctors and nurses ourselves then.”
Mason smiled back, but the gesture was strained. “Quite.”
Joe watched Mason walk away and hugged his son around the shoulders with his uninjured arm. “I’m gonna be okay, buddy. Just a few scratches.”
Danny didn’t lift his head from his arms and Joe wondered whether he was sobbing. “How can you look after me,” his son mumbled, “if you can’t look after yourself?”
It hurt Joe to hear his son had such little faith in him, but it was probably warranted given the circumstances. Joe continued patting Danny on the back as he spoke. “Even heroes get hurt, buddy. How about when the Warrior had a curse put on him by Papa Shango? Or when Macho Man got bitten by a snake?”
Danny lifted his head slightly, then put it back down again. “Or like when The Model blinded Jake the Snake with his cologne?”
“Exactly,” said Joe. “They all got hurt, but it didn’t stop them, did it? I’m still fighting, and I’m still going to protect you.”
Finally, Danny looked up. He gave a cheery smile but his young face didn’t wear it correctly amongst the tears.
“Don’t cry, Danny,” said Grace. “Your dad is a hero. He’s been saving people all day. Nothing will happen to you with him around. He’s too big and strong.”
Danny giggled. “Do you like my dad?”
Grace blushed.
Joe saved her the agony of answering. “Danny! Don’t ask people questions like that.”
“Sorry, Dad.”
Joe tussled his hair. “Okay. No problem, buddy.”
At that moment, the door swung open and Victor stepped through. He was no longer covered by blood except for the staining on his clothes. Everyone in the room was quiet, but he didn’t seem to notice their reaction. “All done down there,” he chirped. “Those hairy bastards shouldn’t be able to get through any time soon.”
Joe suddenly felt increasingly protective of his son in Victor’s presence, but tried not to show it. “Great!” he said. “We all owe you one.”
“How did you get the blood off you?” asked Bill, eyeing the man’s multiple scratches.
Victor grinned, teeth showing like rows of daggers. “Magic!”
Bill frowned. “Huh?”
“I grabbed a fire extinguisher off the wall and sprayed myself clean. Stung like buggery, but luckily it was just scratches and nothing nasty.”
“Same here,” said Joe, examining his own shallow wounds.
Before anybody said anything else, Mason entered the room.
“Couldn’t find a first aid kit?” Joe enquired when he noticed the man wasn’t carrying anything.
Mason shook his head and seemed lost for a moment. “Huh? Oh, yes. I mean, no. I got distracted. I…I think you should all come and see this.”
Joe stood up. Whatever Mason had seen was not going to be good news.
Chapter Nine
“What are they doing?” Joe looked around at the rows of cages that lined the laboratory on all sides. “They’ve gone insane!”
“No shit,” said Victor. “Was that not clear to you, pal?”
Joe ignored the comment, mainly because he was so horrified by what he was seeing. Dozens of small animals, trapped within cages, were hurling themselves against the steel bars, screeching furiously as they bled and bruised. The noise was deafening, made worse by the incessant clanging of the bars being struck by frantic bodies. Worst of all was the smell of shit hanging in the air like a wet blanket.
“What are they doing, Dad?” Danny asked.
“I don’t know.” Joe studied the various species of frenzied rodents and small mammals. “I think you better go back to the other room with Grace while we figure this out.”
Grace obliged without complaint and took Danny’s hand, leading him back out of the room. Joe stepped further inside and joined up with the other men, who were already deep in conversation around an aluminium operating table in the centre of the room.
Bill was talking the loudest. “They’re gonna smash their own skulls in just to get at us!”
“I know,” said Mason, cringing as the intense racket grew even louder. “In fact I think some of the smaller animals are already dead.”
Sure enough, Joe spotted a couple of dead rabbits in a nearby cage, skulls smashed in and leaking pink and grey sticky fluid. He swallowed, trying to stem the bile rising in his stomach. “What could cause them to act like this?”
Mason shrugged. “There is nothing in recorded science that could override an animal’s instinct to survive – at least not on a mass scale. Even rabid dogs wouldn’t smash their own skulls in a blind rage.”
“Obviously something has caused this,” Randall said. “You obviously just lack the required knowledge to explain it.”
“I agree,” Mason admitted. “I lack any knowledge of what could cause this.”
Randall seemed smug. Joe felt like punching him.
“But so would any other person in my field,” Mason added. “This defies explanation. I don’t know of any virus or biological condition that would present in this way. Even rabies would not present on such a wide scale.”
Bill sighed. “I think what caused this is irrelevant now. What we need to think about is how to defend ourselves. What do we know about this thing, so far?”
The group thought for a few moments. Then Victor said, “We know that they’re after us. Those wee monkeys downstairs were single-minded in taking chunks out of my arse. Nay else mattered to them. Like they were possessed or something.”
“Yes,” said Mason. “It’s quite clear from what we are seeing in this very room that the animal’s instincts are being entirely over-ridden by the desire to attack us; even at the expense of their own well-being. Whether or not they are ‘possessed’ is a different conversation altogether though. What else do we know?”
“They’re working together,” said Randall. “I saw them from the window in the seminar room. They were moving in groups, searching for people. Even animals that would usually attack each other like wolves and those brown, spotty cats were working together.”
Mason rubbed both hands against his pale face. “Lynx. The zoo has eight Canadian Lynxes. They would have been the cats you saw – and you’re right, the wolves should have attacked them. It is most disturbing. It appears that the laws of nature no longer exist. The animal kingdom has lost its natural instincts and replaced them with one prime directive: extinguish all human life. We are now at the bottom of the food chain, hunted by all other species.”
“Not quite.” Bill was standing over by the cages. “Look.”
Joe and the others moved closer to the cages and saw what Bill was pointing at.
Mason leaned forward and examined closer. “The birds!”
Joe nodded. “The birds aren’t affected.”
The two plump, brightly-coloured macaws were extremely agitated, but it was clear that they were not suffering from the same malady as the other animals. They were just normal, frightened birds.
Victor spoke up. “So whatever’s happening isn’t affecting the birds? Grand! That makes my day a whole lot better.”
“Sarcasm aside,” said Mason, “this bodes well for us. If this phenomena had affected avian species then we would surely have been doomed. There are hundreds of thousands of birds in the UK alone and there would be no way to defend against them. This is very good news.”
Joe agreed. He didn’t like the thought of being in a real life version of The Birds. “I wonder if any other species are unaffected.” he said.
“I suppose time will tell,” said Mason. “For now, we should close this room off. Just in case the animals get free.”
“Fuck that,” Victor said. “Let’s euthanize the bastards.”
“We will do no such thing! Many of these animals are endangered species.”
“So what! They’ve gone feral.”
“I will not allow it!”
Victor pushed Mason aside and pulled out ‘Martha’, shocking those that had not yet seen her.
“Victor!” It was Randall speaking.
Victor spun around. “What?”
Randall went and placed a hand on the man’s shoulder. “We are all going to have to work together now, so if our good friend, Mason, wants to leave these animals…intact, then I believe it would be best to do so – in the interest of cooperation. We should not be brandishing knives.”
That’s weird, Joe thought. Maybe Randall’s not a complete git after all.
Victor’s face scrunched up. “If these things spring loose,” he said, “you’ll wish different.”
“Perhaps,” said Randall, “but for now these animals seem secure enough not to concern us. Put the knife away, my friend.”
After a brief hesitation, Victor finally returned Martha to her hidden sheath behind his back. He glared at Mason. “These things get free and it’ll be on your head.”
Mason nodded and Victor stomped away, joined by Bill and Randall. Joe waited behind. “We should go too,” he said to Mason, eying up the creatures rampaging inside their cages. “Maybe they’ll calm down if they can’t see us.”
“I hope so. They only started acting up once I entered the room. They were silent prior to that.” Mason clicked his fingers. “I almost forgot again. I need to get you a first aid kit.”
Joe laughed. “My arm will be hanging off by the time I get a bandage.”
Mason allowed himself to smile and walked across the room towards the far wall. Sitting atop a filing cabinet was a bright green box. Mason reached out for it.
Then recoiled and hissed.
Joe rushed towards him. “What is it? What happened?”
Mason clutched his hand against his chest. “Something just bit me!”
Joe skidded to a halt on the floor tiles. “Shit! What was it? What bit you?”
Mason’s hand had started to bleed from two round puncture wounds. Red globules dripped onto the ground. “I don’t know. Be careful.”
Being careful was not advice Joe needed. He trod carefully towards the filing cabinet, ready to bolt at the first sign of danger. As he got closer, he could make out a delicate scratching sound from behind the first aid kit. Something was definitely there.
But what?
Joe looked around for a weapon – something that would put some distance between him and whatever hidden creature had bitten Mason.
“Over there.” Mason pointed. “There’s a set of steel tongs for holding hot materials.”
Joe saw the implement and grabbed it off the nearby table. The long metal rod felt good in his hands, empowering him enough that some of his nerves faded away. He crept towards the filing cabinet. Positive that the scratching sound was becoming louder.
“What should I do?”
Mason came up beside Joe, still clutching his wounded hand against his chest. “I don’t know. Just be ready. Whatever it is was small and quick. You may only get one chance.”
“What happened to your views about euthanasia?”
“The bugger bit me.”
“Fair enough.” Joe prepared to attack. He held out the tongs in front of him and aimed them towards the first aid kit. “Ready?”
Mason nodded. “Ready.”
Joe prodded the first aid kit and knocked it onto the floor.
Yikes!
There, amongst a stack of papers and a pencil pot, was a snarling brown ferret the size of an obese housecat.
Joe swung for the bleachers.
“Damn it!”
A miss.
The ferret leapt towards Joe, claws outstretched and ready to draw blood. Joe spun around and managed to sidestep. Mason ran in the other direction. Joe readied himself for another swing. “A bloody ferret? Seriously?”
“They were going to add them to the petting zoo,” said Mason. “They had one up here to assess its temperament.”
Joe swung the metal tongs again – missed – struck the hard tile of the floor, sending a tingling sensation from his wrist to his elbow. “I think its temperament is grumpy.”
The elongated animal lunged at Joe again. This time it managed to get a bite-hold on his lower leg, thick incisors burying deep into the fatty flesh of his calf. He hollered in pain, poked at the rodent with the tongs, tried to grip and twist the animal’s elongated body away from him.
“Jesus, this thing won’t give in.” Joe felt needle-like fangs burrowing deeper into his skin, scraping against bone.
He screamed louder.
Mason rushed forward and tried to kick the rat away, but the man’s complete lack of athletic prowess was evident. His kick missed completely and he stumbled onto his knees in a tangle of his own cumbersome limbs.
With the thrashing rodent continuing to take a chunk out of his calf, Joe looked for an urgent solution. Attached to one of the desks was a gas valve, leading to a Bunson Burner. He hobbled over to it.
The burner turned on easily enough – Joe’s memories of high school physics helped him through. The sudden flame licked about two-inches into the air. He turned the inlet valve and sent the flame another inch higher. Without hesitation, Joe pushed the tongs into the flame, heating the tips. The ferret continued to rip and tear at his flesh, but he had to bear it for just a few seconds longer. If this was going to work, he needed to wait.
The acrid smell of burning dust filled the air. The metal tongs began to turn red.
Joe waited a few more, unbearable seconds, until he could take the dizzying pain no longer, then he pulled the tongs away and carefully lined up the molten pincers on either side of the ferret’s thrashing head.
He clamped the tongs shut.
The animal immediately released its grip on Joe’s leg and screeched in a pitch so hellish that it hurt his ears. The noise sharpened as the tongs tightened. Eventually, the ferret’s squeals weakened into breathless whimpers, fading away to total silence. The furry body went limp. Joe released the tongs, letting them, and the ferret, fall to the floor.
“It’s dead,” said Mason. “But you probably already new that.”
Joe panted, struggled to get his words out. “Can I please…get…that first aid kit now?”
Joe’s body collapsed onto the floor, spilling fresh blood onto the tiles.
Chapter Ten
“It’s time to start planning, my friends.” Randall had perched himself down on the edge of a desk as he addressed those present in the room. “It took me a little time,” he said. “I’ll admit that now. But I’ve finally come to understand the situation we are in. It will take organisation and planning to survive. We all need to be moving in the same direction, scribbling on the same page.”
Cosby folded his arms. “What do you suggest?”
“That we act now rather than later. We need to find food, blankets, water. The building needs to be secured – at least our part of it. A strategy has to be in place if we are to get through this together. We don’t know how long rescue might take.”
“Where do we start?” asked the brunette girl, Grace. She was young and attractive, if a little plain. Randall noticed that her fingernails were chipped. It made her look cheap – and so did the many faint scars that lined her arms.
One of those self-harming misfits by the looks of things.
Randall grinned at the girl. He intended to look charming. “We start in order of priority, my dear. We need to secure this floor as much as possible, windows as well as doors. Then we need to find food and water. Once we’ve got those we can concentrate on settling in and waiting for help. I think we should split i
nto two teams.” Everyone seemed to be in agreement, so he continued. “Victor, you take Bill and Shirley. I’ll take Grace and Mr. Mason. That is, whenever he returns from whatever it is that he’s doing.”
“What about Joe?” Grace asked.
Randall thought about it for a moment before answering her. “I was assuming that he could actually look after his son for once. I know he seems to prefer that you look after him, my dear, but right now the group needs you.”
Grace looked down at the little boy asleep in her arms. “I’ll just look after him until his dad gets back, then.”
“Where is the big lummox anyway?” Victor asked.
Cosby answered. “He stayed behind in the lab with Mason. I think they’re bandaging his wounds up.”
Randall sighed. “Let’s hope he hurries up and makes some use of himself.”
“I think Joe has proven himself on a number of occasions.”
Victor sniggered. “Sounds like you wanna bum the guy? Big dumb blonds your type?”
“Screw you!”
“You wish, poofter.”
Randall put a stop to things before they could go any further. Childishness was not of benefit right now. “Gentlemen, please remember that you will be working together. Try to behave like adults.”
Victor put his hands up, a wide grin on his broad, cat-like face. “I’m just fooling around. He knows I don’t mean it.”
Cosby glared at the other man. “Yeah right.”
Randall waved a hand dismissively. “Okay, you two take Shirley and begin checking for any areas that need securing. It wouldn’t hurt to seek out weapons too. See what you can find.”
Victor nodded and took off immediately. After a short while, Shirley and Bill followed after him. That left Randall and Grace alone.
Along with the brat, of course. Where the hell is his deadbeat father gotten to? Maybe those animals have escaped their cages and torn him apart. One can only hope...
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