ELEVEN
The inside of the building was surprisingly bright after such a dull exterior and everything looked smooth and new. There were quite a lot of people wandering around, mostly families by what they could see. Stepping further inside they noticed the woman behind the desk to the side of the small corridor that led into the main building. From the small queue of people they figured that must be where they paid to get in.
After Troy had paid for the four of them they eagerly went forward into a large hall that had an incredibly high ceiling that seemed to glow with a soft light. On the far side they could see two glass lifts that appeared to be unattached to anything and yet they moved up to the top level and back down again as if they were.
‘Why don’t we start at the top and make our way down?’ Troy suggested, unable to take his eyes off of the lifts.
Ziggy was looking at them with less enthusiasm but they all agreed and so made their way through the other zoo visitors to the other side where the lifts were. Troy couldn’t help trying to get a closer look but was warned by an attendant not to get too close so had to be content with watching them while they waited in line.
As they stepped inside the lift car Troy made sure he was at the side so he could see out the glass wall without being obscured by the adults. The glass, he noted, looked quite thin in places but when he put his hand on it and gave it a push while no one was looking he could feel how strong it was. Not wanting to draw attention to them by giving the wall a good kick just to check its strength he contented himself with looking at each floor as they glided upwards.
He noted each floor seemed to have a theme and when they got off the lift at the top he noticed that this topmost floor had all the flying creatures and birds. Right in front of them was a glass enclosure that had a large tree in the centre and when the children looked closer they could see that it was actually made of metal. The trunk and branches were made up of large plates of interconnecting metal while each individual leaf contained tiny sections of metal and the whole tree moved and swayed as if stirred by a gentle breeze.
The light glittered and glowed off the leaves as it moved, casting tiny beams of light around the enclosure making it look almost magical. In amongst the branches and in the foliage that surrounded the tree on the ground there were dozens of small birds and butterflies.
Lena gasped in astonishment as one of the birds landed on a perch close to where she stood and she could see the intricate metalwork of each individual feather while tiny glass eyes watched the observers on the other side of the barrier.
‘Wow!’ she breathed in awe as it took wing and flew to the top of the tree.
They stood for a few moments more as the birds of all different colours flew amongst the just as brightly coloured butterflies before slowly moving away to the other exhibits on this floor.
Ziggy particularly liked the Meruvian Firewyrms that looked like tiny wingless dragons with long bodies that undulated as they flew making it look as if they swam through the air. Their enclosure was made to look like a small rocky desert that was their natural habitat and they would dive into the sand to burrow underneath before bursting out of the sand further along to play in the air again. Tiny red bodies reflecting the light with a shimmer of scarlet gold.
Lena was similarly intrigued by the mechanical peacock that merely stood with its rainbow coloured tail feathers fanned out in a semi-circle behind it. It turned from side to side, letting the light ripple over its feathers in a hypnotic wave. The pattern of the colours on its tail making it look as if dozens of eyes were watching the crowd as they watched it. Lena laughed in delight when the eyes all blinked in a wave from one side of the tail to the other It took Troy a while to persuade her to move away to look at the other exhibits.
There were strange hairless creatures that looked like winged cats; furry bat-like things that had every individual hair made from whisper thin wire and an enormous full-sized Griffin that had a plaque explaining the mythology that had created it.
The Griffin had Orla mesmerised and she was practically pressed against the glass from head to toe. It was magnificent to look at, Troy had to agree. The golden hide of its lion body complimented perfectly the scarlet and purple of its bird parts. The wings, when it unfolded them were the scarlet and purple on top with pale gold undersides fading to almost white at the tips. Its beak shone as if it was made from gold and as Troy looked closer he was pretty sure it was.
Using the escalator this time they moved their way through the level below that housed all kinds of weird and wonderful insects and reptiles, much to Lena’s horror. Spiders with long, segmented legs moved purposefully up walls or along branches; snakes slithered through undergrowth and over rocks while strange bulbous things with a single eye on an antennae that waved on top of their round bodies blinked curiously at the people.
Orla was particularly interested in these unusual looking creatures and had great fun blinking back at them. It amused the surrounding people when more of the little mechanical creatures crowded on the other side of the glass from her and all started blinking rapidly which caused Orla to giggle. They were so taken with her that they followed her as far as they could in their enclosure and Troy couldn’t help wondering if that was normal for mechanical things to do but promptly forgot about it when he came across a huge mechanical Sceptiman Salamander.
The huge lizard was made up of intricate interlacing metal segments that seemed to undulate and move almost like a real lizard. The startling blue and yellow colouring made it one of the brightest creations on this level and even its forked tongue that flicked out of its mouth every now and then was a vivid blue. It wasn’t as big as the griffin but was still huge and moved surprisingly fast as it ran around the perimeter of its enclosure, disappearing into the undergrowth just to appear a moment later. It stopped every now and then to stare at the people then would start its circuit again.
The next two levels were all the other kind of animals that either lived on the ground or burrowed underneath it. Some of the stranger ones were from planets none of them had ever heard of while others were just the commonest types that were found everywhere. But all of them were made with such great skill that they marvelled at each one.
They particularly liked the enclosure that had dozens of long-bodied furry creatures that ran about on four legs, always seeming to be in a hurry. They would dash about making high-pitched squeaking noises, grab a stick or something else they found lying about and carry it around for a while before dropping it and picking something else up. The flurry of activity as the pale furred creatures ran around for no apparent reason had a lot of the crowd entertained.
Lena had found another creature she loved. This time it was a large cat with the blackest fur they had ever seen but it wasn’t its sleek black coat that had them staring. It was the creature’s eyes that were large and round, seeming to be every colour of the rainbow that slowly whirled in a blaze of jewel colours. It lay on a rock with its head on its paws just watching everyone, its eyes almost hypnotising as the colours changed and spun in a lazy circle.
Back on the Ground Level Troy and Ziggy decided to go to the side that had a sign saying ‘Monster Section’ while Lena took Orla to the other side that had a small petting zoo. Promising to not take too long the boys hurried excitedly to find out what monsters they could see.
It wasn’t as busy in here as it was in the other areas. The lighting was a bit more subdued giving it a more atmospheric look with the brighter lit enclosures running around the walls of this large room.
They stopped at the first window and couldn’t help smiling at the first monster there. It was round like a ball but had half-a-dozen tentacles sprouting from the top of its head with an eye at the end of each. The eyes all blinked at different times giving it an oddly surprised look that the boys found very amusing.
Moving on to the next window they couldn’t at first see anything then suddenly something flew at the window, veering away at the last min
ute to perch on a nearby branch. Ziggy shrieked in surprise and jumped back while Troy could feel his heart hammering at the fright he had got. Ziggy stepped back beside Troy and they looked at the creature that stood watching them balefully.
It had leathery looking wings like a bat and looked very similar in other ways but its mouth had very sharp protruding teeth that reflected the light off of their silvery surfaces. Troy looked closer at its wings.
‘I wonder how they made the wings?’ he mused, stepping closer to the glass but jumping back when it flew at the glass making a loud chittering noise.
‘Freaky little thing,’ Ziggy commented while they moved along to the next window.
They moved along the perimeter of the room stopping at each window, laughing and joking at each exhibit. There was only a couple of more times when they got a fright – when a large worm-like creature suddenly slithered up over the window and again when a swarm of what looked like winged scorpions flew at the window hitting it with loud metallic bangs.
It wasn’t until they had only a few windows left that Troy noticed the other two boys that were in the monster room with them. By this time there were only a handful of other people there too so it wasn’t difficult to see that the boys were more interested in him and Ziggy than they were in the monsters.
Ziggy hadn’t noticed them so Troy didn’t say anything, just kept an eye on their unwanted observers. He wasn’t really worried as much as he would have been if they had been adults. With adults there was always the possibility of them being law enforcement officers, something they most definitely did not want.
Looking at the two boys on the other side of the room he couldn’t help noticing that there clothes seemed to be mostly too big while the taller of the two was wearing a sweater that was obviously too small. They looked well fed if a little on the scruffy side so Troy wasn’t sure if they were street kids or not.
‘They’ve been watching us for a while now,’ Ziggy said quietly.
‘What?’ Troy said stupidly, looking back at his friend.
‘Those boys,’ Ziggy explained quietly, ‘they’ve been here a while. I think they’re following us.’
Troy smiled at himself for thinking his friend would never have noticed something so obvious and said, ‘Yeah, I noticed them too. I think I saw them when we were at that café too!’
‘What should we do?’ Ziggy asked as he pretended to look at the monster on the other side of the glass.
Troy shrugged, ‘Nothing. We just need to wait and see what they will do. I don’t think we need to worry about them calling the police or anything like that – they don’t look as if they would want to get involved with the police either.’
Ziggy looked at him seriously for a moment and said, ‘That’s not really comforting!’
Troy sniggered quietly at the look of disgust on his friend’s face but then a voice behind him made him stop and turn around.
The two boys that had been following them stood behind them with an expectant look on their faces. Troy couldn’t help noticing that they looked alike with the same shade of brown hair and eyes.
‘I said,’ the taller of the two spoke more firmly, ‘Who are you?’
Troy glanced at Ziggy and then back to the two boys in front of them. ‘We’re just visitors here, we’ll be leaving soon.’
The boy who had spoken scowled and stepped a little closer, ‘You didn’t answer my question.’
Troy looked up at the taller boy and said firmly, ‘No, I didn’t. But then you never introduced yourselves either.’
Troy expected the other boy to get angry but he grinned suddenly and stepped back to stand beside his companion. Flinging an arm over the smaller boy’s shoulder he said, ‘This here is my brother Stint and I’m Pierre. We live here on the Station with some friends. We noticed you and your other two friends and were just curious – you don’t seem to be with any grown-ups.’
He stood watching Troy and Ziggy with an expectant look, waiting for them to speak. Troy looked to Ziggy who just shrugged so he turned back to Pierre and introduced himself and Ziggy but said nothing about being on their own.
‘Who are the girls that are with you?’ Pierre asked.
‘That would be Lena and Orla,’ Troy explained, ‘They went to the petting zoo section to have a look.’
Pierre nodded and studied them for a moment but didn’t ask any more questions. Looking around at the exhibits he gestured at them with his hand.
‘They’re really something aren’t they?’ Pierre commented, ‘I’ve always wanted to see how they were made but it’s a secret apparently! No one is allowed to see how they are constructed!’.
‘It would certainly be interesting to see them being made,’ he agreed.
At that moment Ziggy gasped so loudly Troy turned automatically to his friend who had suddenly gone pale.
“Ziggy,” Troy said, grabbing his arm, “What is it?”
Ziggy turned with a fearful look on his face and said, “I just saw Bill and Bob! They’re here!”
“That’s impossible!” Troy laughed, “They would be back on Goramir.”
“What if they were with Calhoun?” Ziggy persisted.
“Yeah, but …” Troy stopped. He couldn’t say it was impossible and he couldn’t say that Calhoun was definitely destroyed.
Moving quickly to the room exit he cautiously looked out into the main hallway. At first he couldn’t see anything in the crowd of people and he almost turned away. Then he saw two tall thin figures, surprisingly pale, looking around searching for something.
Troy felt frozen with uncertainty. He couldn’t believe they were here even though he was looking right at them. Before he could disappear back into the room one of them turned in his direction and he felt a jolt of fear when their eyes met.
“Wow, They’re freaky looking!” Stint said behind him as Pierre nodded in agreement.
Troy hurriedly moved back into the room to where Ziggy was standing looking worried. He looked around the room but couldn’t see any other way out.
Turning to Stint and Pierre he asked, “Do you know of any other way out? Can you help us?”
Pierre looked to his brother and nodded. Stint grinned at Troy and Ziggy then pulled something out of his pocket and threw it at the window of the exhibit in front of them. It stuck to the glass with a sticky thump against the glass.
‘I would duck if I was you,’ Stint suggested.
Looking at the blob on the glass Troy could see it was beginning to smoke and then the glass exploded inwards, showering the robot inside with shards of glass. An alarm sounded immediately and Troy and Ziggy looked in horror at the other two boys who were grinning in satisfaction.
‘Come with us,’ Pierre was saying as he started to back away towards an emergency exit that was hidden in the narrow space between two exhibits.
Troy hesitated for a moment but heard running feet behind that spurred him into action. Without even looking to see if it was Bill and Bob or security guards that were coming for them he grabbed Ziggy’s arm and ran after their new friends.
Space Rats Page 11