Cage The Dead (13 page)

 
Maybe they were Kristen’s?
Gaia thought as she held up and pair and held them up to her. “Yep, gotta be Kristen’s!”

She was never happier to know that the two of them were of similar builds.

She opened a window, lit a cigarette and lay on the bed next, testing its firmness.

A few minutes later, she found the master bathroom, turned the water on, and was delighted to both see and feel hot water that gushed forth from the spout. She quickly undressed and found a reflection of someone alien in nature staring back at her from the mirror that hung from the back of the bathroom door.

She stared at the image of a woman that had been to hell and back in the last few days. She assessed her image, seeing dirt and dried blood in her hair. She peeled back the bandage that covered her wounded forehead, which had closed up nicely. Her eyes were bloodshot, bags under her eyes, and her face was spotted with soot and dirt.

She felt her nipples harden as a breeze came in from the window and she spun and strode right into the shower, no longer wishing to gaze upon this image of herself.

The heat of the water gave her respite from the horrors of the last few days as she allowed that warmth to wash away the dirt, the gore and the bitterness of her recent past.

She allowed herself the time to recall images of Adam, and basked in the love that they had shared over the past years as the water afforded her a much needed tranquility.

Thoughts of beaches and family gatherings entered her consciousness, along with vacations they’d shared. One particular vacation came to mind, last year, when they had gone to the islands, where the two of them had spent the first day and night in the hotel room, in the Jacuzzi, making love all day and night, ordering in room service and having bottles of wine sent up to the room.

She distinctly remembered the incredible sex they had that day, the two of them both unable to be sated. It ranged from animalistic to tender throughout the day and into the night.

Gaia felt herself moisten as she recalled that day’s events and for the first time in many days, she allowed herself to be free. Her hand slid down and between her legs and she allowed the heat of the water to beat on her, her fingers slipping in and out of her in rhythm with the water pulsating over her.

She was lost in the moment as all troubles and future obstacles disappeared under both the sensation of the hot water splashing against her skin and the movement of her own hand as her fingers continued to move in and out of her. Gaia’s left hand travelled up and found her breast and the hardened nipple that sat atop it. She pulled at it, that one first, then back and forth, slowly and softly, and then harder as the seconds passed.

She remembered what Adam felt like inside of her, driving her rhythm faster and faster until she moaned as an intense climax assailed her senses, causing her to shudder. Her legs became like rubber suddenly under the immeasurable heights of ecstasy that enveloped her. She released her nipple, having to quickly brace herself against the wall as her fingers finished their magical journey. She stood and let the water continue to cascade over her back and neck for the next few minutes as several more climaxes followed.

Several moments later, the harsh realism that she would never again feel Adam’s touch, in any sense, devastated her, and she wept sorrowfully in that unpleasant knowledge.

 Gaia was unaware of anything else or how long she had been standing in the shower until she found herself shivering under the suddenly cold water that spilled over her, waking her from her emotional reverie.

She turned the knob as the water ceased its flow in response.

And again, she wept.

***

She had been lying on the bed for a long time after her shower, feeling happy and sad, horny and then horrified. She would masturbate and then fall asleep under a mountain of grief that seemed to follow. This sequence went on for some time until she finally decided to get up and do something else.

With a cloth robe now covering her bare skin, and a dirty pile of clothing in her arms, Gaia finally made her way out of the bedroom and into the hall, searching for a washer and dryer.

After a brief trek through the upstairs hall, she found a stacked washer and dryer set in a closet, which seemed out of place for the age of the house and the state in which everything else was left. She could only guess that the caretakers of the house had asked Kristen for this, but who knew? In a closet on the opposite side of the hall, she found towels, detergent, fabric softener and clean sheets.

She tossed her clothes into the washer, poured in some laundry detergent and watched the hypnotic cycle of spinning clothing until her heavy eyelids got the best of her.

She opened her eyes again as the washer stopped, the sound of the cycle coming to a halt waking her from her brief slumber. She stood and moved the clothes to the dryer and went back into the bedroom.

She found a pair of jeans and a tee shirt, though none of the bras did her any justice, finding them a bit tight, she eventually found a tube top and decided to use that for the time being until her own ‘delicates’ were dry.

She made her way downstairs and saw Solomon and Justin playing together, along with Maye. They had pushed the furniture against the wall and the trio was chasing each other around the spacious living room.

“What’s going on here?”

“We’re just playing, Miss Gaia. That okay?”

“Sure thing, little man. I’m going to see what I can make you for dinner.”

Gaia quickly found and removed the first thing she saw in the freezer, a roast. She removed it and placed it in the sink and began to run hot water over it. Next, she scoured the cabinets, and found a crockpot under the sink. She thawed the meat in the microwave for a few more minutes and then tossed it in the crockpot. She found a few cans of gravy and mixed that in with some spices, placed the lid on and took everyone out onto the porch.

She lowered the shades out there to mask their presence from whatever was out there, and was happy to see both Maye and Solomon eating from the plants that lined the walls of the spacious area. It seemed to Gaia to be just as Nick had said, some kind of altered greenroom, as there were more plants back here than furniture. Only a patio table and chairs, along with two lounges were in the center of the potted foliage.

It wasn’t long after Solomon had his fill that he went back into the living room. He began to jump up and down on top of one of the four sofas until the springs gave way, popping through the underside fabric, as Gaia watched him through the windowpane.

Justin stared at Solomon’s display while he shoveled mixed nuts into his mouth and subsequently spit them out in a burst of laughter.

Solomon beat his chest, seeming to Gaia as if he was asserting his dominance of the home. Gaia stood and made her way back into the kitchen, allowing them all to have their fun, which was few and far between these days.

She opened the freezer and saw a few packages of chicken and other meats that she could thaw and cook for him. Inside the refrigerator were some lunch bags, no doubt left by the crew. There were also a good deal of mixed vegetables, beans and soup cans in the cabinets that she could eat, being a non-meat eater herself.

And there were plenty of fruits and nuts for Solomon to eat, in the basement and in the food storage shed. Both he and Maye would have plenty to eat for a while at least, until she figured out how they were going to get out of here and on the road. She wanted to see her family, but had the sinking feeling that she might not want to see them, if they were…not alive. She hadn’t even given that much thought in the past few days and felt guilty about that.

She would also have to figure out if the roads were even safe to travel, or if they were clogged with broken down vehicles and other wreckage, making it impossible to travel.

Right now, she would take care of the four of them, wait out the zombies that were inside the zoo, hope that the big cats would find other ground on which to hunt and then they could think about leaving.

But then who would care for the remaining animals?

It was quite the decision she would have to make. And she didn’t even know how many animals were still alive.

For today, they would stay put. Tomorrow, they would explore the grounds more closely. Gaia ran back upstairs into the bedroom, and opened the drawer in which she had placed the gun. She stared at it and wondered how many more zombies she would have to kill, and how many animals she might need to put down, in order to keep them safe.

Gaia removed the warm clothes from the dryer, folded them and placed them neatly on the dresser top. Those garments were now thought of as something far more than simply work clothes, and when she donned them, they would now symbolize a side of her that would do whatever it took to keep them safe.

“Whatever it takes,” she whispered in agreement with that straightforward pledge.

Chapter 11

Gaia awoke the next morning to the wonderful sounds of laughter. Justin had decided to sleep on the floor beside her, and she could not argue as he awoke frightened in the middle of the night. But now, he played with Maye, who screeched and chattered away, which woke Gaia. But she was not upset or angry at the interruption of her slumber. Instead, she was enchanted by the simplistic happiness in that very moment experienced by the boy. It was so innocent that it seemed such a contrast to the world in which they now lived. It gave Gaia hope that the future was not so bleak after all.

She rolled out of bed and quietly put on her work ensemble. She removed the gun from the drawer and holstered it in the small of her back and then retrieved the other pistol case that she had carefully hidden in the back of the closet, removed the gun, along with an extra magazine.

“Where you goin’?” Justin asked.

“I wanna get some more food from the storage shed, and I want to see if there are any animals still out there that need my help,” Gaia answered a bit sharply. “You can stay here with Maye and Solomon, okay?”

“I wanna come with you,” he answered, tossing the blanket off and getting to his feet. “And Solomon wants to come too.”

“Oh yeah? He said so, did he?” Justin laughed at that comment, knowing she was joking with him. It seemed to give him comfort, which in turn, made Gaia feel better about what she had to do.

“I’m going to have to show you how to use a gun, Justin. Are you ready?” the boy nodded. “You will need to be able to defend yourself. Let’s go outside and see what we can find.” The two of them went downstairs leaving Maye to her exploration inside the bedroom. Solomon was sitting quietly when they came downstairs. She brought a handful of peanuts and dumped them into a plastic bowl and bent low to Solomon.

“You stay here and eat,” she signaled to him, the gorilla signing back the motion for ‘eating’. Then he signed ‘yes’ to her. After that, Gaia waved Justin to follow her.

The two of them went outside and left Solomon alone, wandering out toward the barn. Gaia removed the binoculars and scanned the area and saw nothing out of the ordinary. As a matter of fact, she saw no signs of movement anywhere.

She took solace in that fact and brought Justin over to the barn, and showed him how to hold the pistol, how to aim it, and how to fire it. She oversaw him as Justin fired a few practice shots into the charred remains of the barn so that he could get the feel for the kick and the weight of the weapon. Most importantly, she made sure he understood where the safety was and how to make sure he knew how to put the gun in both the safe and ready positions.

Gaia nodded at him and grinned as he hit the last mark solidly, a stray piece of wood that hung all by itself.

“That was well done, little man,” Gaia congratulated him. “Safety on? I think you might be okay now. We don’t have a lot of ammunition to use, so tell me truthfully whether or not you can handle it, okay?”

“I can, Miss Gaia. I promise,” he said, as deadly serious as she had ever seen the young man. She nodded with tight lips, hoping that she was making the right choice here.

“All right, get Solomon and we’ll take him for a walk while we look for any animals or people that might still be alive out here.” The two of them quickly fetched Solomon, who gladly followed them outside as Gaia began her rounds, going systematically around the outskirts of the zoo, looking into each pen, enclosure and even the reptile house and aviary to see if anything yet lived.

It appeared that every place that Gaia visited was either empty, or the remains of whatever was in the pen, was still there. It turned her stomach, broke her heart and made her lose hope that she could remain in the zoo all at the same time. And most, if not all the enclosures that she inspected, were unlocked.

Someone had set the animals loose. But who? Who would have let them free during this chaos? It’s reckless!

She made her way all the way around the zoo, passing the front and seeing some zombies still lingering in the parking lot.

She continued around and found a trio of zombies wading in the waters of the petting zoo, stuck in the man-made pond where the ducks and goats watered themselves.

She wandered over to them and she and Justin fired their pistols at them, taking down those three as they tried to clumsily escape the water to get at them, some falling with a splash.

“Remember, aim for the head, boy,” Gaia said sternly, and he did just that. They only needed four shots to take them down. It did manage to get Solomon a bit riled up though and Gaia needed another few minutes to calm him.

They continued along and Justin called Gaia over to see a section of the fencing where zombie hands poked through, trying to get to them.

“It’s okay, buddy. They won’t get in. Trust me,” she said as they continued along.

As they made their way around to the back of the zoo, Gaia leaned over the hyena and wolf pits and saw remains of flesh, body parts and gore down there among the dirt and grass.

“I guess we’re gonna have to let you guys run free, too, aren’t we?” Gaia whispered. “If I am ever going to leave this place in good conscience, you will all need to be set free.” She went over in her head all of the other animals had been freed already, their gates having been unlocked, except for the bears that had somehow gotten free early on. That, she assumed, was just a coincidence.

Suddenly out of the corner of her eye, she saw Solomon react to something. He swung his arm in a wide arc as a figure sprinted toward the boy. He swatted aside what she recognized now as a zombie, Solomon breaking its bones under the brutal swing, but the creature slowly and stubbornly got to its feet.

“There,” Gaia said to Solomon, “put it in there.” She gestured to the pits behind them, as Justin stood with arms at his side, seemingly in shock at having realized that the zombie would have gotten to him if Solomon hadn’t reacted.

The massive gorilla grabbed the zombie creature by its arm—an arm that appeared to have once belonged to a young woman, and one that Gaia did not recognize— and swung it around.

Gaia gestured to him and Solomon tossed the zombie into the wolf pen below.

Howls and snarling ensued.

“Justin! Are you all right, hon?!” she asked, though his eyes stared off into space. He was clearly somewhere else in that moment. She shook him gently and asked him again, this time more forcefully. He nodded and swallowed. Then Justin walked right up to Solomon and hugged him, tears in his eyes. Gaia stared at Solomon and signed ‘he thanks you’ to the gorilla, who signaled back ‘yes’ that he apparently understood what she meant.

That was when Gaia also noted that Solomon seemed more aware of things. It was as if his intellect or ability to reason was markedly greater. He also seemed to be a bit larger than she’d remembered, standing before him and taking his hand. Her’s disappeared in Solomon’s grasp, her tiny hand engulfed by his own. Gaia also hugged Solomon and kissed him on his cheek, something she had done often in the past to reward him for doing well.

He is definitely a size larger. But how did this happen? So many questions to go along with everything else that’s changed in this shit world.

They continued along their circuitous path around the outside edges of the zoo’s borders. Gaia found one pen that was unmolested. The hippopotami were basking in the sun and the water inside their pen and nothing had seemed to have disturbed their habitat, and the enclosure was still intact, though upon closer inspection, their gate was unlocked. She was relieved to at least see some semblance of animal life inside the zoo that had remained intact, other than the hyenas and wolves.

The next enclosure was slightly ajar, too, though its inhabitants remained. In the rear corner of the zoo, she found a family of otters that were still in their pen, where a stream ran tirelessly along its outer edge. It was the very same stream that ran along the borders of the cat pens, along with the hippo pen to the west, as well as the reindeer enclosure to the east.

But Gaia did not have to adjust or alter anything inside this habitat as the otters had plenty of food to eat on their own. They could remain indefinitely inside their lodgings, which was how it was intended when it was built. Kristen had spared no expense to make alterations to the animal habitats, and Gaia was thankful for that now more than ever.

They continued along and Gaia found a gap in the deer pen, along with an open door to the front of the enclosure. Gaia saw some movement to the far outer edge of the enclosure and placed the binoculars over her eyes.

She struggled for what little food she had in her stomach to stay down at what she witnessed next. Inside were half a dozen zombies feasting on one of the deer that they’d trapped inside the enclosure.

This made her very angry.

“Wait here,” Gaia said to Justin, who was hovering beside the silent gorilla, still shaken from what happened not ten minutes prior. She entered by herself, removed her machete and her gun along the way.

As she neared the feasting undead, she shot one in the back of the head, a man not all that long ago, wearing tee shirt and jeans, that she watched with satisfaction as it fell over silently. Two others stopped their feasting long enough to see her, probably kids from the same school trip as Justin she guessed, and she shot both of them, holding her ground some ten paces away at this point, as they fell over, dead once again.

A fourth zombie now raced toward Gaia, one that wore zookeeper garb, and one whom she recognized as one of the ladies who worked in the reptile house. Jill was her name. Again, she callously put a slug right between its eyes as it closed, falling over lifelessly right in front of her feet.

Another zombie set upright, an unknown woman some three days ago, and she shot that one in the knee, causing it to fall over right in front of the other zombie who lay dead before her. She methodically placed the blade of the machete through the back of its skull multiple times until it stopped twitching. Gaia stood on its head and yanked the machete out of the living dead’s skull, pulling some hair and gore along with it. She wiped it on the ground before her.

Then she stood before the last one, deer guts and gore covering its face. She raised the machete and then recognized a certain piece of jewelry in the zombie’s ear, a golden hoop, and remnants of a mane of long hair, which gave her pause.

It was at one time, a longhaired fellow, with hoop earrings and a tee shirt that she also recognized, which read ‘
keep calm and support animal rights’
. It was a nutty animal rights activist who, just about every other day, came into the zoo and who often had to be forcefully removed. She could not recall his name but did recollect that she’d personally had more than a dozen run-ins with the man.

It is ironic that in his death, he sat on his knees before one of the most beautiful creatures on god’s green earth, shoving the deer’s entrails into his mouth—
its
mouth, rather
, she corrected. She sighed, aimed the gun at its face as it finally recognized her standing there, stood, and then fell over, landing right beside the deer carcass as Gaia planted a slug in its brain.

As it fell, she watched as a rather large set of keys fell out of its pocket, which came to rest right beside his hand—a hand that was tightly curled around a piece of deer meat.

“So, it was
you
who let all the animals out of their enclosures, eh?” she asked the undead creature as she knelt beside it and retrieved the keys, holding them up and inspecting them. “Son of a bitch.”

At least they only got one of the deer.

Gaia stormed back out of the reindeer pen and met up with Justin and Solomon, leading them back around and finishing their trek around the zoo. Then she began to make her way toward the vet lab, meaning to check on the backup generators to see what was there.

“Are we staying here, Miss Gaia?” Justin asked from behind her.

“For now, yes,” Gaia responded. “Until I can figure out our next move. I still have hyenas and wolves, hippos and otters that need tending.”

“Can’t they take care of themselves?” Justin asked, matching stride with her and staring up into her eyes.

“I suppose they all could, little man. But I need to come up with a solid plan to make sure they’re taken care of, before I can act on getting us out of here,” she said. “I suppose they would be fine on their own, so, that could be something to consider,” she added, voicing her own thoughts. “What do
you
think?

“I dunno,” he shrugged. “All I know is that my mom is dead, and so are all of my friends,” Justin added bluntly.