ZooFall

by Lawrence Ambrose

"I don't know. Less than a day?"

  Diana hadn't been sure why they'd landed, but then communication between her and her lupine friend lacked a lot of details. Penny picked up a bone near the fire and chewed off the few remaining scraps of meat. She tossed the bone aside and found another.

  "I'm starving!" she said.

  Zurzay offered a series of motions that Diana took to mean he was going hunting and to wait here. She waved goodbye as he leaped into flight. Penny accepted her offer for some jerky and protein bars with a small frown and a wrinkled nose.

  Diana walked along the shore, noting the tangle of footprints while washing down a couple of protein bars and some dried meat with swigs from her canteen. Was it her imagination, or was she seeing too many footprints for the estimated dozen or so remaining pack members? Not that they'd performed an exact "baboon census," but she was fairly sure the original pack hadn't numbered more than twenty-five, and they'd killed...she paused to run through the battles...something like ten to twelve? She and Penny had killed four, and Zurzay some fuzzy number between two and six. Plus, Sonja and her children looked to have killed four or more. But to her eye, the footprints and four fires seemed excessive for a mere dozen Nazrene.

  Just as troubling was the speed at which the creatures were traveling, assuming Penny's estimate of a day was roughly accurate. She and Zurzay had been flying for at least three hours while Penny sprinted along inexhaustibly below, and yet they hadn't been gaining on the Nazrene. Which meant that this "reconnaissance" mission might continue for days or more before the simian-creatures settled down somewhere.

  Zurzay returned an hour and six protein bars later – measured by Penny's consumption – with a bloody mess that Diana eventually recognized as roughly half of a cow. Not much of a challenge to him or any of the killer zoo beasts, she imagined. Zurzay slapped it down on the beach and buried his head in its gaping chest cavity, soon joined by Penny. Dead-tired of jerky and candy bars, and realizing that fresh meat eventually would be a necessity, Diana sliced off a juicy section of hindquarters. Reviving one of the fires with fire-starter paste and an igniter from her pack, she skewered the beef with one of the discarded stakes and held it over the flames. The sweet smell started her digestive juices roiling. Nothing like riding on a winged wolf and facing death every waking moment to work up an appetite.

  The steak was every bit as good as it smelled. Diana doubted she'd ever eaten that much meat – the equivalent of a two-pound steak, at least – in one sitting in her life. With the last bite trudging down her throat, sleepiness engulfed her. She lay back on the sand, thinking to close her eyes for a few minutes, but when she opened them again it was late-afternoon. Penny was stretched out beside her, and the wolf had taken up residence in a nearby tree, clearly more vigilant than they were.

  Penny cocked open one eye when Diana sat up.

  "I know you could probably run all night," Diana said, "but I'm about done for today. I vote we spend the night here."

  "Vote? Does that mean I get to vote, too?"

  "No. It's not that kind of vote." The girl was so adorable and pretty smiling up at her that Diana almost forgot she was a monster and reached out to smooth a bang of blond hair from her eyes. Penny grinned and held her hand for a moment. "We should make some kind of insulated place to sleep. It's going to get cool tonight –mid or low forties, I'd guess – and I don't want to risk a fire at night."

  They scooped out a small bed in the sand up from the lake, deep enough that they could lay some branches and leaves across it and still squeeze underneath. It probably wouldn't be a comfortable sleep, but they'd get through the night a bit warmer, Diana thought. Unable to resist the lure of a bath, Diana found a private enclave a ways down the shore, stripped, and waded out into the water. Nearly June, the lake might've been in the low-seventies in the sunlit shallows near the shore. She stayed in relatively warm, waist-high water. Though bone-tired, a few strokes relaxed her tense muscles and revived her sore body.

  Diana glimpsed a large grey shape emerge from the shadows of a nearby drop-off, approaching her along the lake bed. At first, she thought it might be a big Muskie or even a sturgeon – water refraction and imagination could easily transform them into monsters – but when she saw the globe-sized head and the iridescent blue eyes and the deep sea predator's oversized fangs she knew this truly was a monster.

  "Aacck!"

  Diana jammed her feet into the muddy bottom and shoved herself backward, her cry sounding like a startled bird. She desperately struggled to find her footing and back out of the shallow water, but she seemed to be moving in slow-motion as the thing's claw-filled hands stretched for her.

  A shadow blotted out the sun and she heard a familiar whoosh of air. The creature reversed course and lunged back toward the depths, but then Zurzay hit the water with talons extended and pinned the creature to the bottom.

  The water exploded upward as Diana stumbled back onto shore. Zurzay had to extend his wings to keep from being knocked on his back. He crouched down and unleashed one of his prodigious leaps, dragging the creature clear of the water. Whatever monster of the deep she'd imagined was put to shame by the reality of the grey-white man-shaped creature with the bulging muscles and claws of a deep-sea gargoyle and the huge head featuring gill-slits that would've made the Creature from the Black Lagoon proud.

  On the beach, the lake monster, looking every bit as big and strong as the winged-wolf, tore free of the talons lanced into its back and was turning its own teeth and claws against the winged-wolf. Penny came running with her AR leveled. Diana waved her back.

  "Don't fire! You could hit Zurzay!"

  The water-monster flipped Zurzay on his back. Zurzay held him off with his feet, sinking their talons into the creature's chest. Diana snatched the Glock from the gun belt hanging with her clothes on a nearby tree and closed in on them. This would need to be settled up close and personal.

  The creature saw Diana coming and tore free from Zurzay's grip – or the wolf released it – and leaped back into the water. Diana aimed her pistol at the point where it had disappeared, but the creature didn't resurface.

  "God." Diana released her breath in a gust of air. "These things are even in the lakes now."

  Zurzay sat up and inspected his wounds. Diana made out a few bloody lines through the fur on his lower legs and forearms and a torn patch of red on his chest. She walked up to him.

  "You okay?"

  The wolf rumbled something that sounded dismissive.

  "Thank you for saving me – again," she said. "I owe you big-time."

  Their eyes locked for a few moments. Then the wolf commenced to lick his wounds, showing remarkable flexibility in lifting his legs, and where his head couldn't reach his frog-length tongue did. Watching him, Diana considered what it would be like to continue their pursuit without him. On foot, it might take days or weeks for her to catch up to the Nazrene – not even thinking about how long it would take to get back to Glenwald. Days of travel through woods filled with hostile creatures. On the way here, a pack of wolf-like creatures had been pacing Penny. They might've been actual wolves – there were plenty of those in northern Minnesota – but they seemed too large, and their shape and fur didn't match up well with the local denizens. Diana had called a warning down to her, and Penny had responded by popping off a few rounds at her escorts, which sent them loping away in the opposite direction.

  "Should we go back?" Diana asked her hairy companion, pointing northwest.

  Zurzay stopped licking a wound on his forearm and eyed her. With slow emphasis, the wolf pivoted and pointed southeast again.

  "You sure about that?" Diana heard the disappointment in her voice. Part of her – not a small part – had been hoping he'd call off the chase. She couldn't understand his motivation when even she was forcing herself to pursue the Jensens out of a sense of duty. Did he have a grudge against the baboons? Was it just loyalty to her? Myth had said loyalty was in their nature.

  Zurzay resumed cl
eaning his wounds by way of an answer. Diana noticed Penny intently studying her body, her eyes narrowed in appraisal, and she abruptly remembered that she wasn't wearing any clothes.

  "You look..."

  "Edible?"

  The girl scowled. "I was going to say beautiful."

  Diana felt her face burning and strode over to her clothes, hastily pulling them on over her still-damp body.

  Later, snuggled under the branches and leaves – the moon casting Zurzay's shadow from a nearby tree reassuringly over the beach like Gotham City's batman projection – Diana soon learned that lying next to Penny was like lying beside a small furnace. Someday, she promised herself, she'd take the girl's temperature and see just how high it was. For now, she drifted off to sleep grateful for the warmth.

  MIDWAY THROUGH the second day of abduction, they encountered another cylinder. The baboons seemed happy, Laurie thought, rummaging around inside the landing craft and emerging with boxes and tools. She and her family was happy as well for a break from the nauseating and body-battering of riding on the creatures' backs – like the most jarring carnival ride she'd ever experienced, except it went on and on for hours. Though after the riding stopped and they settled in for the night...other equally nauseous activities began. They had the first night out, but for some reason – taking pity on her and her family or perhaps concerned they might not survive further abuse so soon? – the Nazrene leader and his fellows had halted sexual overtures after encountering groans and minor resistance. Laurie had a feeling that small act of mercy wouldn't be repeated after they'd settled down today.

  Her mom had managed to communicate and convince the Nazrene leader, which Laurie had taken to calling "Gash" because of a scar creasing the top of his forehead, to let them ride on the baboons' backs rather than being carried "like a sack of shit," as Donny had put it. That one change, Laurie thought, probably saved their lives. While riding on one of the loping creature's backs was far from pleasant, it spread out the battering effect on their bodies. Her mom had even convinced the leader to have Donny carried in a Nazrene's arms, and now, for the first time since they'd been taken, her younger brother had returned to the land of the living – mumbling a snarky comment or two and even eating a little.

  Another small blessing was that baboons cooked their meat, which meant their food was edible, if often more raw than she and her family liked. Laurie's tackle box continued to perform service as a water purifier, and so far none of them had gotten sick. "Gash" had even directed two of his minions to hollow out part of a thick limb and carve a stopper for its top to carry purified water for them. The Nazrene could create small items out of wood or rock with amazing speed with their powerful but nimble fingers. Watching them, Laurie wondered how long it would be before they figured out to use guns or designed more sophisticated weapons like bows instead of their fire-hardened and sharpened spears.

  But for now, she told herself, they were no match for people with high-powered rifles.

  More good news – the baboons appeared to be setting up an actual camp in the woods near the meadow where the landing craft had set down. Not only would a break from travel be welcome, but the longer they stayed in one place the better the chances of her father and the others catching up with them.

  Would there be others? Laurie was sure Myth would join her dad, but not so sure about Diana and her "adoptee," as Donny called Penny. That was a lot to ask of someone who barely even knew them.

  "I think they'll come together," said her mom in response to Laurie's speculations as they huddled together in the shade watching the Nazrene set up camp. "Diana is not the kind of person who would sit something like this out. Especially if your father asks her."

  Laurie joined her brother in giving their mom a curious look.

  "You think Dad has some special hold over Diana?" Laurie asked.

  "Call it woman's intuition." Sonja's smile was tight. "Or a wife's intuition."

  Donny made a snorting sound. "For the record, I think Diana's hot. Way too hot to be alone for long if there are other dude survivors."

  That drew sour looks from his mom and sister.

  "What I don't get is why they took me," Donny lamented. "I may not look all macho, but I don't look like a girl, either."

  Laurie remembered both her mom and dad hinting on multiple occasions that he might consider cutting his long blond hair. She didn't like to admit it but she was a bit embarrassed by the comments circulating at school about him looking like a girl or a "faggot" with his long hair and pretty features. Too bad he didn't take their suggestions. Or maybe not. Laurie had a jarring thought. Maybe they would've just killed him if he'd looked like a regular guy?

  "Though the one that's carrying me around is probably gay," Donny said with a soft snicker. "I notice he won't let anyone else near me."

  "That's true." Sonja stared at the baboon in question reflectively. "Same with the leader and Laurie and the one who's been carrying me. They seem to have staked claims on us in order of hierarchy. The one who fought 'Gash' might be second in command."

  "And the one who seems to like Donny is a friend of Gash."

  "I call him 'Blockhead,'" said Donny. "'Cause he looks like someone cast his head from a block of concrete."

  That drew a rare laugh from the women. That sound drew, in turn, a cool-eyed gaze from the leader and his apparent second-in-command, the Nazrene the leader had bested in their brief battle. The three lowered their eyes and shifted in the patch of grass they were sitting in.

  "It's like they never heard someone laugh before," Donny murmured.

  Laurie scowled. "Or they don't like us being happy."

  "Not a lot of risk in that," said their mom, "under these circumstances."

  They fell silent for a few minutes as the baboons started numerous fires. Part of the group jogged off after a brief exchange with their leader. Laurie guessed they were going hunting. While the leader and his apparent friend, "Blockhead," resumed working on the fires, the second-in-command's gaze remained fixed on Sonja.

  "That ape can't seem to stop staring at you, Mom," Donny whispered. "What's wrong with these freaks? Can't they see we're not monkeys? You'd think we'd look ugly to them."

  "They sure look ugly to me," Laurie muttered.

  "Maybe they're just desperate? All of them seem to be male, far as I can tell."

  "Look," said Sonja, "we just have to live through this. It doesn't matter what they do to our bodies. It doesn't change anything. We're still the same people. Don't forget that."

  "Gee, that makes me feel so much better, Mom," said Donny.

  Sonja leaned over and placed her hands on his shoulders. "What I'm saying is they're basically just smart animals. They don't have morality. They don't have religion or answer to any higher power."

  "I don't know. They looked kinda religious when they burned and ate their dead."

  "Not to mention gross," said Laurie.

  "My point" – Sonja spoke more quickly as the second-in-command headed toward them –"is they have no power over us except as animals using brute force. They can hurt us on the outside but they can't touch who we are on the inside –"

  The Nazrene snatched Sonja off the ground and hoisted her away without ceremony or even a glance at his family. Donny made a feeble effort to stand, which Laurie stilled with a hand on his arm. They both watched in simmering silence as the co-leader dragged their mother off into the trees.

  "I will kill him for this," Donny hissed out.

  "You might have to stand in line." Laurie worked hard to rein in her own fury, which was threatening to propel her after them. "It's like she said, Donny. They can only hurt us on the outside."

  "Oh, bull. You can't tell me it doesn't hurt on the inside to be some fucking baboon's love-slave!"

  What Laurie had always found both annoying and yet funny about her irascible brother was his undying commitment to always make over-the-top provocative proclamations. It was impossible to get too angry with him when you coul
dn't take him too seriously. But now, he wasn't being over-the-top. Now, despite his gross and disgusting way of saying it, his words rang true.

  "There will come a time when they'll regret taking us." Laurie's voice was low and hard, and caused her brother to sit up and stare at her with something akin to fear. "Trust me on that, Donny."

  Chapter 10

  DIANA AWOKE AT WHAT she unaffectionately called the "butt crack of dawn": the sun casting an orange glow over the eastern horizon – barely light, but enough to inspire the birds and frogs into chirping and croaking as if eager to get on with the day. Stretching her sore joints, Diana did not share their exuberance.

  Peeking out from beneath her bed cover of branches, Diana spotted Penny and Zurzay down shore feasting on what appeared to be a new carcass. Raw meat in the morning. Her stomach performed a small flip-flop. What she'd give for a cup of coffee and a bagel. Or maybe some scrambled eggs with bacon. Pancakes.

  Toilet paper. That occurred to her as she squirmed out from under the branches and made her way to the nearest cover of trees. Afterward, she purified some water with iodine and chlorine tablets and contented herself with a protein bar and water breakfast.

  "Anytime you're ready," Diana said, pointing southeast.

  There was an art to riding on a winged-wolf, she thought, when they were airborne a few minutes later. First, Zurzay only tolerated her gripping certain places on his shoulders and sides. Not that he would toss her off if she grabbed on somewhere else, but he let her know his displeasure with a croaking growl. Second, his body was always flexing and shifting, especially when he changed direction, which she sensed he did as gradually and gently as possible, but a sudden gust of air or body adjustment caused frequent turbulence that knocked breath the from her lungs or compressed her ribcage. That alone took a toll on her body. Not that she was complaining, since he was doing all the hard work and they were flying maybe seven or eight times faster than she could've walked.

  "Potty breaks" could be awkward as well. Zurzay had no problem with letting fly in the air – though she'd noticed that he preferred the ground for more serious evacuations – but that wasn't an option for her. After some miscommunication, Zurzay learned that a double tap on his shoulder signaled her need.