The World's Last Breaths: Final Winter, Animal Kingdom, and The Peeling

by Iain Rob Wright

  “They’ve gotten smart,” said Joe. “There were spiders and scorpions in one of the offices. They attacked Grace in a group, working together.”

  “This is not good. Arachnida have been affected.”

  Joe rubbed Grace’s forehead and brushed her damp hair out of her face. “Let’s worry about that later. We need to help her.”

  “There’s little that we can do,” Mason explained. “Get some soap and clean the wound, then elevate her leg. With rest, she should hopefully be okay. There’s adrenaline in the lab if she has an allergic reaction, but that doesn’t seem to be the case fortunately.”

  “Why did she pass out then?”

  “Shock perhaps. Maybe it’s blood-loss from that cut on her arm. How did she get that?”

  “I don’t know. She wouldn’t tell me.” Joe examined the gash on Grace’s arm. It had started to dry, but the surrounding area was caked in dark brown blood. It needed stitches.

  Danny came up and held Joe’s hand. “Is Grace going to be okay, Dad?”

  “She’s fine, Danny. Will be much better after a sleep.”

  “You promise?”

  “Of course. You remember when Macho Man got bitten by Jake the Snake’s python, don’t you? He got better.”

  Danny smiled up at him. “Okay.”

  Bill returned with a bottle of hand soap and started rubbing it on Grace’s bite. The flesh was red and swollen. Joe gathered some cushions and piled them beneath her ankle. She was still unconscious, but seemed peaceful, as though trapped in a gentle dream.

  “I’m sure she’ll be fine,” said Bill.

  “I hope so.” Joe looked around the room and saw that both Victor and Randall were missing. Shirley was still napping at the back of the room, obviously uninterested in recent events. “Where are Randall and Victor?”

  Bill shrugged.

  “I’m here and Victor is in the hallway,” said Randall, entering the room. “Is that alright with you?”

  Joe turned around. “Fine. Just like to know that everyone is safe and accounted for.”

  Mason stepped in front of Joe and addressed Randall. “And what is Victor doing in the hallway exactly? Looking for more endangered animals to hack to pieces?”

  “We already discussed that, Mr Mason. It was agreed that Victor’s actions were in the best interests of the group.”

  Mason took offence to the man’s statement and told him so. “Actually it was not agreed, Mr Randall. It was a decision that you seemed to make all on your own.”

  “Yeah,” Bill added. “What gives you the right to make decisions for the rest of us?”

  Randall placed his palms together in front of himself as if to implore their mercy. “Now let’s be reasonable, my friends. In the current circumstances things need to happen with a certain amount of…urgency. There is not always time to consult one another and hold a team meeting. Shirley, Victor, and I did what we thought was best. If it wasn’t a popular decision then I apologise, but it has happened now so let’s move on.”

  Joe sighed. “Just don’t make decisions behind our backs again, okay?”

  Randall rolled his eyes, but nodded in agreement. A moment later, he seemed to finally notice that Grace was lying unconscious on the table. He raised a coarse black eyebrow at the others curiously.

  “A scorpion bit her,” Joe explained. “Hopefully she’ll sleep it off.”

  “A scorpion? Things keep getting better and better. I assume the danger has been dealt with?”

  “Dealt with, as in the room they were in is locked up and secure.”

  Randall sighed. “Another room that’s off limits? We’ll have nowhere left soon.”

  “Joe said the scorpions were working as a team,” said Bill.

  “I guess we can safely assume that is true,” Randall agreed, “but how on earth did scorpions get on the second floor?”

  Joe shrugged. “I really have no idea, but if they keep staging attacks we’ll end up trapped and cornered before long.”

  Randall walked over to the room’s window and looked out through one of the gaps in the barricade. “Then we need to hit back. I think it’s time that we attack them.”

  “How?” asked Joe. “What the hell can we do?”

  Randall turned away from the window and faced the room like some pudgy statesman. “I don’t know yet, but I’m guessing there’s someone that may have a few ideas.”

  Joe folded his arms. “Victor?”

  Bill huffed air through his nostrils. “That guy’s a psychopath, but I hate to admit that might be a good thing right now.”

  “Didn’t expect to see you on that man’s side,” said Joe.

  “I’m not, but if he enjoys killing animals as much as he seems to then he’s probably our biggest asset right now.”

  “Aye, that I am, pal. That I am.”

  Joe rolled his eyes. “You can’t mention anyone around here without them suddenly popping up from somewhere.”

  “Then perhaps you shouldn’t talk behind people’s backs, pal.”

  “That’s not what we were doing.”

  “No? Did I not hear the word psychopath being bandied about?” Victor glared at Bill who seemed to shrink away. “Don’t worry yourselves. I’ve been called worse.”

  “So, Victor,” said Randall, “if you heard our conversation, then perhaps you might have some advice for us.”

  “You mean about your little counter-strike? Aye, I could think of a thing or two. We need to get that big bastard ape. He’s their general.”

  “Really,” said Joe. “You think they have a leader?”

  “Aye. You’ve all seen the way he hangs back while others attack us in groups. He’s been sending in wave after wave. First, the infantry downstairs – the monkeys – and then the bloody SAS lemurs that came through the windows.”

  “And the scorpions that got Grace,” added Bill.

  Victor nodded and looked at Grace, unconscious on the table. “We’re at war people. Under siege. The only way we can end it is to take the heart out of their army.” He looked around the room, making eye contact with each of them. “We have to kill that bloody silverback.”

  18

  It was exciting, teasing and toying with the humans. The first few attacks so far had succeeded only in spreading fear – but that was the point. While he could storm their tower right now and tear them all to pieces, Nero wanted the humans to experience the feeling of being trapped – caged. Like all of the animals in this zoo, the humans would know what it was to be completely at the mercy of a heartless master. It was too much fun to let this end too quickly, but eventually he would become bored. Then Nero would strike his final blow and seek out more humans to extinguish. Very soon it would be mankind that was endangered.

  It was almost dark again, Joe noticed. They had been making preparations all day, thinking up ways to strike back at the animals. They had collected anything that could be thrown as a projectile: paperweights, PC monitors, text books (after persuading Mason that they were necessary for the sacrifice), and other assorted junk. Victor had also filled some glass beakers with the sulphuric acid from the lab and then wrapped them up in paper towels. A canister of petrol that Bill had brought up from the warehouse would also allow them to set light to toilet rolls (of which they had many) and hurl them from the windows. It wasn’t much, but hopefully it would show that they intended to put up a fight.

  Everybody carried a weapon. After what had happened to Grace it was clear that an attack could come at any time. Joe held one of the litter pickers in his hand as he went up to check on Grace. She had recently awoken but was not yet fully coherent, drifting in and out of lucidity for the last few hours.

  “Grace, are you awake?”

  Her eyelids fluttered. “J-Joe?”

  “Yeah, it’s me. How you feeling?”

  “Like,” she swallowed – the sound was dry and rasping. “I got stung by a scorpion.”

  Joe laughed. “That must be the fever talking. Scorpions attac
king people is insane.”

  Grace smiled weakly. “How is Danny?”

  “Don’t worry about anyone else. We’re all fine. You should try and go back to sleep.”

  Grace nodded and rolled onto her side. As she did so she pulled her arm up against her waist. Joe noticed her deep wound again. It was healing well but he still wanted to know what had caused it.

  “Grace? Will you tell me how you hurt your arm?”

  She breathed heavily and Joe thought she may have already fallen asleep, but then she spoke softly. “I need my pills.”

  “Pills? What pills? Grace?”

  She was gone, pulled into a fevered slumber that could not be disturbed. Joe thought about what she had meant.

  Pills? What pills does she need?

  “How she doing?” Bill asked.

  “She’s a bit out of it, but I think she’s okay. At least I hope so.”

  “I don’t think scorpion stings are lethal.”

  Joe nodded and took a seat on some cushions beside Bill on the floor. He folded his long legs underneath him. “Mason said the same. Doesn’t mean it does you any good.”

  “She’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”

  Joe sighed. “To be honest, it’s not the scorpion bite that worries me.”

  “Oh? Then what?”

  “She has a horrible cut on her arm and she won’t explain how she got it. In fact the last time I asked she just told me that she ‘needed her pills’.”

  “Her pills?”

  “Yeah. What you think she meant?”

  “Painkillers perhaps? Who knows, but it’s probably nothing. We can find out as soon as she’s herself again.”

  Joe lay back against the cushions and stretched out his legs. “I suppose so.” He decided to change the subject; thinking about Grace just upset him. “You think we can actually fight back tomorrow?”

  Bill shrugged. “Bunch of farm animals and monkeys? How hard can it be?”

  “Something tells me it’s not going to be so easy. I don’t know what’s happened to them all, but I don’t think they’re normal anymore. They’re smarter. Maybe a virus has affected their brains or something?”

  “They’re demons.” Shirley walked over and sat in front of Bill and Joe. “Sent to put an end to our sin.”

  Bill sighed. “Again with the sin? What are you harping on about now, woman?”

  Shirley seemed oblivious to the comment and carried on her ranting. “I once met an Irishman who told me all about the Lord. He told me that God’s patience is thin and that all of us are on the cusp of his vengeance.”

  “And what does that mean?” Joe asked.

  “It means that enough is enough. All the fucking and fighting in this world has to stop and He has ways of making us realise that.”

  “Ways?”

  “Yes! The Irishman told me that God can destroy us on a whim. He flooded the earth once and now he is completing what he began back then.”

  Bill laughed. “You’re talking about Noah and his ark?”

  “No, I am talking about what is happening now. We’re being wiped out. By God and his vengeance. Our sin has become too much for Him to tolerate any longer. He has unleashed a plague of beasts upon the Earth.”

  Joe wanted to argue. The woman was so full of bile that it would be nice to shut her up. For some reason, though, he couldn’t find the words to disagree. God was as good a reason as any for all of this. Joe did have a question however: “Who was this Irishman that knew so much. Did he have a name?”

  Shirley looked at Joe and seemed to hear something other than her own voice for the first time. “Not one that he gave me. He was a traveller. At first I thought he was just a drunken rogue, but he knew things – intimate things – about me. Things no one could ever know. He told me that once he was an angel, but that he now lived amongst humans. I learned about Heaven and Hell from this man. He showed me the light.”

  “And why did this ex-angel…” Joe put a hand to his head and chuckled. “I can’t believe these words are coming out of my mouth: why did this ex-angel decide to share all of this knowledge with you?”

  “Because he needed beer money.”

  Bill and Joe spluttered and laughed in unison. Joe had to stifle himself to keep from waking up Danny. “Beer money? Okay, Shirley, wherever you’re keeping the wacky-backy, let us in on it.”

  Shirley’s face contorted into craggy lines of anger. “Fools,” she spat. “If you choose not to heed my warnings then on your head be it.”

  “What warnings?” Bill asked. “All you’ve done is spout fairy tales.”

  “My warning is this: get your affairs in order, people, because we’ll all be in Hell soon – and some of us deserve worse fates than others.”

  Shirley stomped away and Joe shook his head in disbelief. “That woman is a Grade A wacko!”

  “Tell me about it,” said Bill. “You think she was delusional before everything happened, or if it was this shit that made her lose it?”

  “She was probably already losing the cheese off her cracker and this just helped her along her way.”

  “Still, makes you wonder if any of what she said is true.”

  Joe frowned at Bill. “You mean about God punishing us all and that we’re all going to Hell? No, I don’t believe it. It’s insane.”

  “It is insane, but then so is all of the animals turning on us.”

  “You’re right,” said Joe. “Maybe we are all going to Hell.”

  “Or perhaps we’re already there,” said Bill.

  19

  It was almost time, Randall decided. The sun was rising and it would not be long before there was daylight. Everyone else was still asleep but Randall was wide awake and staring out of the seminar room window, surveying what would soon become his battlefield. The orange light of dawn cast over everything and gave the landscape an ethereal glow, like some consecrated ground due to be made holy. To be blessed with the sacred blood of battle.

  Victor, no doubt, had more tactical knowledge than anybody else, but the man was not a leader. Randall would be the one to organise and lead the group. Under his order they would prosper. He would enable them to regain some semblance of order from this suddenly mad world – and then they would thank him for it.

  Legends are forged in the fires of battle.

  Randall looked outside at the enemy’s army. It had grown overnight to contain an all manner of species, many of which he still could not name, despite his recent research. He theorised that the animals which escaped first had set about freeing the others, liberating the entire zoo in some sort of prisoner of war escapade. Randall estimated at least five hundred animals were now amassed outside the building – and standing amidst them all was a towering giant: the silverback.

  My counterpart. The Napoleon to my Nelson.

  Randall went over to a collection of nearby desks. Victor had stacked them full of projectiles in order of priority. The gas bombs were to be used first to create disarray in the ranks and to force the animals into another attack. Then the PC monitors and other assorted heavy objects would be used as ballast to deter any animals that tried to scale the building’s walls. Acid bombs would be used to attack anything that managed to get through the windows. After that, it would be hand to hand combat.

  Hopefully it won’t reach a skirmish. We don’t have the numbers for it.

  Randall turned around and saw that Victor was awake, lying beneath a table and staring at him.

  “Morning, Victor.”

  Victor smirked. “Seems like I catch you wandering around on your own quite a lot, pal.”

  “I just like to keep on top of things. Someone has to.”

  “Aye, and that someone is you, is it?”

  Randall lifted his head high, eyeballs pointed downwards. “Unless there’s someone else that wants the job.”

  Victor sniffed back a nose full of phlegm and swallowed it. “Not that I can see.”

  “So I have your support?”

  V
ictor remained quiet for a moment, then: “Aye, for now.”

  “Wonderful.” Randall clapped his hands together. “Then I can rely on you to help me lead the assault.”

  “No way I’m gonna miss out on all the fun. We’ll need to be ready soon.”

  “Agreed. Could you be so kind as to wake everyone in thirty minutes? We’ll commence the attack in ninety. They will not take this building from us.”

  “Roger that.” Victor started to climb out from under the table.

  Randall left the other man to it. There was something he wanted to check on first. If he was about to lead an attack then he wanted all the facts at his disposal. He left the room and crossed the corridor outside, entering what he now thought of as his office – despite another man’s name on the door. Inside, Randall unlocked the filing cabinet and finished off the pack of biscuits he’d started on the day before.

  He switched on his Blackberry.

 

  RE: Emergency Communication

  This is a Government message to all cellular devices. Emergency Rescue Operations are firmly established at the following locations: Aberdeen, Bristol, Leicester, Nottingham, Torquay, Warwick. If you are able to, head to these areas. Avoid contact with all animals.

  Randall studied the message and considered its meaning. Several of the earlier locations had been omitted – perhaps abandoned – but the remaining ones were now being described as ‘firmly established’.

  But he wasn’t about to trust his future to the hands of the Government. He now had clear proof that a battle against the animals could be won. He would win today’s battle and secure everyone’s future at the zoo. By the time the Government rolled around, he would be the respected saviour of the group.

  Randall turned off the phone and locked it back inside the cabinet.

  It was then that he felt the tremors.

  “What was that?”

  He hurried back into the corridor and re-entered the seminar room just as another tremor hit. Everyone inside the room had woken up now – with the exception of Grace who was still unconscious – and looked as confused as he was. Joe stood in front of him, holding his little boy in his gigantic arms. Randall asked what was going on.