Nick was completely blown away. It was Burt Owen, the legendary wizard responsible for creating the most outlandish special effects in so many horror and science fiction movies. He was right up there with make-up artists Stan Winston, Dick Smith, and Rob Bottin.
Gabe was also a big fan.
The special effects on the last two films that Nick had taken Gabe to see had been by Burt Owen whose team had created the gigantic insects in the films The Next World and Battleground Earth, and for which he was being nominated for Oscars in the Special Make-Up category.
Owen introduced himself and talked a little about how the industry had changed through the years from time-lapse photography and using stop-motion miniatures, evolving into the technologies of computer generated imagery and the artistry of building full-size animatronics that actors could actually interact with, instead of performing to projections on a blue screen.
“Have you all been to Sea Monster Cove?” Owen asked.
“We went there yesterday,” Nick said. He glanced around and saw most of the group nodding their heads.
“Then I’m sure you saw this little beauty,” Owen said. He placed his hand on the sauropod’s shoulder and gave it a loving pat like it was his pet and was real. He looked up at the dinosaur’s head at the end of the long neck, five feet above his own.
“What, you’re saying those things are all robots?” Shane said.
“Heavens no,” Owen laughed. “Before this facility was even built, Carter Wilde asked if I would be interested in creating models for his bioengineering team. Most of the creatures you have seen so far were designed by my company and are just a blueprint for the real ones.”
Owen called one of his technicians over to assist him. The man had shoulder length hair and wore a tie dye T-shirt and jeans. He went over to a table and grabbed a control box with a long cable attached to a receptacle under the sauropod’s belly. He pushed a button and began maneuvering a series of toggle switches.
Everyone in the tour group was startled when the dinosaur swiveled its head on its long neck and took a step forward, swishing its long tail across the floor and nearly sweeping Owen off his feet.
“Careful there, Ray,” Owen said to the technician.
“Sorry about that, Burt. The controls are a little twitchy.” The operator kept manipulating the levers.
The sauropod opened its mouth and bellowed.
Nick couldn’t believe how real it seemed. The facial expressions it made, the detailed craftsmanship of every aspect of its body, the fluid movements of the neck and legs, even that realistic roar it made.
“How many of these zoo creatures have you made?” Nick asked.
“A few.”
“So how do we tell the fakes from the real ones?” Shane asked.
Owen gave Shane a snide look and grinned. “You can’t.”
13
BIPED HABITAT
The tour group broke for lunch and returned to the hotel. Again, the restaurant was set up buffet-style like breakfast. This time the cuisine was Mexican.
Nick had a couple of soft tacos and a plate of rice and beans. He was pleased to find cold bottled beers in a tub of ice at the end of the line and grabbed himself a Modelo.
There was a basket of tortilla chips and a bowl of salsa waiting for them at their table. Meg had the chili relleno casserole; Gabe a big plate of enchiladas and chicken quesadillas.
Bob, Rhonda, and Shane had sat at a separate table so that the two families could share some quality time together with their sons.
Nick was glad Gabe was having a good time and that Shane’s sour disposition hadn’t rubbed off on his boy. Gabe was excited that he could meet Burt Owen and talked a lot about the animatronics workshop. Now that he’d had a behind-the-scenes experience and seen how some of the special effects make-up was done, he was even more enthusiastic about the movie magic responsible for creating the monsters for the big screen.
After washing down his meal with the last of his beer, Nick had to admit that lunch hadn’t been half bad. He was feeling so good, he planned to give the meal a favorable review.
Once everyone had been given the opportunity to go to the restroom, they assembled out by the pool.
Christine escorted the group down a wide walkway between the Bioengineering Laboratory and Animatronics Workshop Complex and the Aviary to another orbicular building almost flush with the sloping wall of the dome.
Nick gazed up at the name over the entrance—BIPED HABITAT—as they stepped inside.
A long hallway stretched to the center of the building and opened up into a large circular atrium with a skylight high above. The light shining down was the only illumination in the room. Nick glanced around and saw that the curved wall surrounding them was made of opaque glass.
Christine waited for everyone to gather around. “Welcome to Biped Habitat. As suggested by the name, this facility houses our two-legged cryptids.”
“You actually caught a sasquatch?” Shane asked.
“In a matter of speaking, yes.”
“This I have to see,” Nick said to Meg. This time Nick and Meg were directly behind Christine. Bob, Rhonda, Shane, and Gabe were following just ahead of the tour group.
Nick noticed as they walked, lights would start to come on, illuminating the space on the other side of the glass wall that a moment ago appeared to be a solid mass. It reminded Nick of whenever he would go into the grocery store and went down the aisles with the upright refrigeration units, which would be dark inside to conserve energy then would light up as soon as a person approached and opened the door to take something out.
“There are five separate habitats in this building,” Christine said. “Each habitat measures twenty feet on the front glass then extends back for sixty feet in a pie wedge floor plan to an eighty-foot back wall and are individually regulated with the proper climate control suited for each species.”
Everyone bunched together so they could all see inside the first habitat. A small area of redwoods and sequoia pines stretched up to the ceiling and reminded Nick of the Pacific Northwest. A fine mist drifted down from the ceiling simulating fog. Shrubs and ferns were positioned around the trees. There were a few boulders but Nick could tell they weren’t real and made of Fiberglas.
On the back wall was a giant mural of a majestic mountain range, crags and peaks jutting onto a canvas of sky blue and fluffy white clouds.
Meg tapped Nick on the arm. “There’s something just behind that tree by the big rock.”
Nick watched as the creature lumbered out from behind the trees.
“Oh my God!” a woman gasped. Other people shared her same reaction.
The bigfoot was eight feet tall, stocky, with dark-gray fur covering most of its body, its broad shoulders massive like a suited-up NFL lineman. Its brawny arms were husky like its thickset legs. A full mane of hair covered the top of its head and both sides of its cheekbones, forming a short beard under its chin. The humanoid face looked to have a permanent scowl with its furrowed brow, large deep-set eyes, and thin-lipped mouth.
Each hand was unbelievably huge. Nick could see the bigfoot easily palming a heavy medicine ball like he often saw basketball players do on the court.
The bigfoot glared back at everyone through the glass.
“Is it me, or does he looked pissed,” Nick whispered to Meg.
“Certainly not glad to see us,” Meg replied.
Another bigfoot ventured from behind a tree trunk, squatted in front of a bush and began picking berries off of the branches.
“Of course I’m sure you all recognize these creatures as the North American bigfoot, often called sasquatch. Each one of these creatures stands eight feet tall and weighs roughly 600 pounds.”
“Did Jack and Miguel capture them?” Gabe asked.
“Not exactly. They were able to bring back a hair follicle they found in the forest. These bigfoot were bioengineered by Dr. McCabe.”
“So they’re not real?” Shane said.
“Sure they are,” Christine responded. “Each one of these creature’s DNA has been exactly coded to that fiber of hair. Believe me, they’re the real deal. Shall we continue?”
The next habitat resembled a snowcapped mountain ridge with a large cave carved in the side of the rock. A fan was blowing snowflakes about the enclosure.
Nick noticed a thermometer fastened to the glass. The temperature was twenty degrees Fahrenheit.
Once everyone had moved into position and had a good view, Christine began by saying, “Here we have the legendary abominable snowman from the Himalayan region of Nepal. Often referred to as yeti.”
Nick watched two yetis come out of the cave. They were not at all what he expected and looked nothing like the abominable snowman at the Matterhorn bobsled ride at Disneyland or the carnivorous ice creature from Star Wars.
They had long whitish fur and were extremely muscular, not as stocky as the bigfoot but slightly taller, and were identical in every way. Each yeti had narrow set eyes, a feline nose, pointy flesh toned ears, and a mouth that was constantly snarling, like the creature was ready to rip off somebody’s head.
A couple of parents had pulled their children back away from the glass. Nick couldn’t really blame them. These things were scary.
“Just to put everyone’s minds at rest, only one of these yetis is real. The other one is an animatronic.”
“Thank God,” a woman said with relief and smiled sheepishly down at her young daughter.
“Oh yeah, which one?” a man blurted from the group. “They look the same to me.”
Christine grinned at the man and gave him a playful shrug.
Burt Owen hadn’t been exaggerating when he said that no one would be able to distinguish a bioengineered creature from an animatronic.
“This way,” Christine said and everyone milled in front of the next exhibit. The habitat was a desert scene of sand and cacti. The overhead lights had been dimmed to simulate nightfall.
The red mercury ball on the temperature gauge was at 87 degrees.
“How many of you have ever heard of a chupacabra?” Christine asked the group.
Only three people raised their hands.
“Aren’t they those creepy things that go around sucking other animal’s blood?” Shane said.
“That’s right. Normally found in Latin America and southern U.S. states like Texas and New Mexico. Chupacabra is Spanish for goatsucker as it drinks the blood of small livestock. Some say they’re nothing more than mangy coyotes that feed on weak animals. But one thing is definitely true...” Christine paused, waiting for someone to take the bait.
Nick went in hook, line, and sinker. “What’s that?”
“Chupacabras are vampires. They can hypnotize a prey by staring into its eyes, actually causing paralysis.”
“Yeah, right!” Shane said. He pressed his face up to the glass and cupped his hands on either side of his head. “You sure they’re in there? I don’t see anything.”
Christine looked over at a newly installed dimmer light switch on the wall that still needed some touchup paint around the plate.
“I should warn you, chupacabras can be a little frightening,” Christine said. She waited as the parents prepared to shield their children’s eyes if need be.
Christine turned the knob all the way and the entire habitat lit up.
Four hideous creatures were hunched over a goat lying on its side, kicking its hooves in the sand. The chupacabras snapped their heads up as soon as the lights came on. Their grotesque faces were smeared with blood. Each one slurped a long serpentine tongue back into its mouth. They were gaunt and stood about four feet tall and looked like giant skinned rats without any ears.
A little girl screamed.
Nick turned and saw it was the same girl that had been frightened by the giant bats in the Aviary. If the ahools didn’t give her nightmares, the chupacabras certainly would.
“That is so disgusting,” a woman said.
Christine quickly reached for the light switch. The habitat went pitch black.
“I am sorry,” she apologized to everyone. “I forgot it was their feeding time.”
“But that goat was alive,” Meg said. “That’s animal cruelty.”
“I assure you our zookeepers treat all feeder animals humanely. If I can direct everyone’s attention to the back of the habitat.”
A light came on and a door opened up on the desert mural on the back wall of the sun setting on the horizon. A person stepped out.
It was the zookeeper, Cam, the sauropod wrangler from Sea Monster Cove.
He entered the small patch of light and disappeared into the dark enclosure. A couple of seconds later, he reappeared and was carrying the goat in his arms. He placed the goat on the ground in front of the open doorway, shooed it inside, and closed the door.
“See, the goat wasn’t harmed. Think of it as donating at the Red Cross,” Christine said and laughed. No one seemed to appreciate the joke.
Nick and Meg exchanged looks and followed Christine to the next habitat, which lit up as soon as they triggered the sensor. The landscaping inside the enclosure looked incomplete, like the installation crew had been interrupted halfway through and never came back to finish the job.
One side was a jungle setting with thick trunk trees with plenty of extended branches and tall grass. A ten-foot square section of flooring was covered with thick green mats that gymnasts might use for tumbling.
The other side of the large room was a playground with monkey bars, a dome-shape climbing structure, and hanging ropes. Three giant tractor tires were inside a large sandbox.
Four enormous chimpanzees that looked like they were pumped up on steroids were inside the enclosure. They loped about the habitat like a bunch of hairy bodybuilders eager to show off their stuff.
“These magnificent creatures are bili apes and are from the Democratic Republic of Congo.”
“My God, they’re the size of gorillas,” Bob said.
“Some scientists believe they are a hybrid between chimp and gorilla.” Christine said. “They’re sometimes called the giant lion-eating chimp.”
“I can believe it,” Nick said, imagining these four slaughtering a lion. He’d heard news report stories about people being viciously attacked by pet chimpanzees and how they would go for soft spots of the body like the face and the genitals and brutally mutilate their prey.
“These particular bili apes are six feet tall, weigh close to 400 pounds, and are incredibly strong. Their muscle tissue is so dense, they’re immune to both poison and tranquilizer darts.”
“You make them sound unstoppable,” Bob said.
“See those tractor tires? Each one of those weighs 1,500 pounds.” Christine took a laser pen out of her pocket and shone the red beam through the glass. It only took a moment before a bili ape spotted the red dot on the floor and began following it over to one of the tractor tires. Christine shone the red dot inside the rubber housing.
The bili ape reached down, fit its fat fingers inside the rubber tread, and stood the huge tractor tire on end as though it was merely lifting a sheet of plywood that had fallen flat on the ground.
“Certainly wouldn’t want one of those bad boys mad at me,” Bob said.
“You can say that again,” Nick agreed.
“Certainly wouldn’t want—”
“Shut it,” Nick said, cutting off his friend.
Nick watched a bili ape swing across the room on a rope and crash into the wall with such force it should have been knocked out cold. The big ape wasn’t fazed in the least and scampered off like it was the funniest thing.
Another bili ape scampered up the metal framework of the monkey bars. It stood on the dome and roared, pounding its chest like King Kong standing on top of the Empire State Building. A smaller primate might have pulled it off as a cute display. Seeing the bili ape do it sent chills down Nick’s spine. These were extremely dangerous animals.
“We have one more
exhibit,” Christine said.
“I don’t think I’m going to be able to sleep tonight knowing these things are here,” Meg said, as they walked behind the tour guide.
“Just think if they were to get out,” Nick replied.
“Don’t even kid around.”
The next habitat had a jungle theme with a bamboo forest, large ferns, and dense broadleaf plants. Nick stared through the glass expecting to see something lurking behind the vegetation but saw nothing. “What are we looking for?” he finally asked.
“Somewhere behind those bushes is a Chinese wildman, the Asian version of our bigfoot, but much larger.”
“How much bigger?” Bob asked.
“This creature stands about twelve feet tall and weighs over a thousand pounds.”
“Holy shit, really?” Bob hadn’t intended to swear and quickly apologized.
“And what’s it called?” Nick asked.
“A yeren,” Christine said.
“Wait a minute, I think I see something,” Shane said.
Everyone watched as the plants parted and out stepped...
Professor Howard in her lab coat, taking a pleasant stroll through the jungle.
“Oh my God, what is she doing in there?” Meg asked.
Before Christine could answer, a giant ape stepped out of the brush and stood directly behind the woman. It was more than twice her height and had long orangey-brown hair over most of its body except for its black-skinned face and chest. It looked like an orangutan on growth hormones.
Some of the people were yelling and pounding on the glass to warn the professor.
She smiled back and waved.
The yeren reached down and placed a fur-covered hand on Professor Howard’s shoulder. Its arm was as long as the woman was tall.
Professor Howard glanced up and patted the yeren’s monstrous hand.
Nick grinned at Meg. “Jack Tremens better watch out. I think that big boy has a bit of a crush on the professor.”
14
ESCAPE ARTIST
Cryptid Zoo Page 7