Outbreak: The Hunger (24 page)

As she gets into the suit, I run back into the office and grab the coat rack.  It is six feet tall and made of oak, a nice hardwood.  I break off the little knobs used to hang the coats, leaving sharpened spikes on all of them.  I then pick it up and smash the base on the floor until it breaks off.  I now have a makeshift spear.  It’s not much, but it’s more protection than I had forty-five seconds ago.

I pick Fi up in the suit and am surprised at how light it is.  The weight isn’t a problem, but it is very bulky.

“No matter what happens, Fi,” I say as I walk to the front door, “don’t get out of the suit.  Stay inside.”

“Okay, Daddy,” the muffled voice says.  Then she adds, “I’m scared.”

“Me too, sweetie, but we’re almost out of here.  They haven’t attacked us yet, so maybe they won’t again this time.”  I really want to believe that.

“Maybe they don’t want us to leave,” Fi says softly.

I stop for a second to think about that.  All day these animals have been demonstrating extreme aggression and elevated intelligence.  Could they possibly be that smart?  Do they actually have a plan?  Is that why they took the children? Because they had plans for them?  They did seem to be targeting the injured, but earlier in the day, they seemed to be attacking and killing anyone, healthy or not.  Nothing is making sense.

I finally answer, “They may not want us to leave, sweetie, but we have to try.”  Her silence speaks volumes.

I carry Fi to the front door and look out.  Some of the animals are beginning to gather in the front.  I can’t tell if they are trying to block our path to the car or if they are just curious to see how stupid we are.  It’s probably both.

I open the front door and forget about the little bell hooked up to it.  I can’t help but think the tiny ‘dinging’ sounds like a dinner bell for these animals.  I shake the thought from my head.

I can't get through the door carrying Fi in that suit and my spear.  I walk through the door first, holding up the spear, and then guide Fi out.  As soon as she clears the door, I swoop her up.  More animals are gathering around. 

To the right of us stand three deer, a llama, and a cow.  They watch us as I slowly walk down the handicapped ramp.  Behind them, four lemurs and two ostriches join the group.  None of the animals seem to notice each other, as they were all focused on us.

I then feel something brush by my legs.  I freeze as I feel the fur of some animal glide past me.  I realize I am holding my breath.  I slowly exhale.  It is a wolf, another goddamn wolf.  It came through the back door, the one that opens up into the zoo.  This is too much.  Why are these fucking animals toying with us?  The wolf walks five feet past me and then stops to face me.  There is something in its mouth.  I squint to try to make it out and realize it is the big floppy hat that Julie wore earlier today.  It drops the hat on the ground and I notice dried blood all around the wolf’s mouth.

This wolf is fucking taunting me.

Anger wells inside of me.  I want to run over and kick that son of a bitch wolf so hard that its ribs shatter.  I want to see it die slowly, and then I feel the weight of the coat rack in my right hand.  I set Fi down and, without hesitating or giving that fucking wolf any idea of what I am about to do, run forward and impale it onto the jagged tip of the spear.  It lets out a tiny whimper as I force it to the ground.  I twist the spear harder into the wolf’s body.  I can’t see clear enough to know exactly where I’ve hit the wolf, but I know I’ve impaled it. 

I pulled the spear out of the wolf completely, and without hesitating, rammed it toward its head as hard as I can.  I feel the hard wood connect as its skull shatters from the force.

The wolf is dead.  I stand there, staring at it, feeling a small victory and a little justice for Julie.  Deep down, I know I will never get over what I did to Julie, no matter how many animals I kill.

More and more animals are gathering and I am preparing for an attack.  I look over my shoulder and see that some of the animals have filled the gift shop.  I don’t get the feeling we are about to be overrun by these beasts.  In fact, I don’t think they care one bit that I just killed one of their own right in front of them. 

“They’re blocking the way behind us,” I say.  “They are making sure we don’t try to go back into the gift shop and back into the zoo.”

“What, Daddy?” Fi screams in a muffled shout.

“Nothing, sweetie” I say, gathering her into my arms. “Just talking to myself.
” 
I have no intention of going back into the zoo, because forward is our only way out.

Kicking the dead wolf aside, I notice four donkeys, two African lions, six goats, and three pot-bellied pigs gathered to our left.  In another five minutes, we’re going to have every fucking animal from the zoo here.

I continue to walk slowly in the direction of the car.  The animals are just sitting there, watching as I carry Fi inside the bulky foam suit in one arm and the coat rack-spear in my other.  I  think about the ending to Alfred Hitchcock’s
The Birds
. All those birds, thousands and thousands, just sitting around, watching Rod Taylor walking to his car.  After a night of brutal attacks, they’d all just decided to let him go.  The parallel here is uncanny. 

Except this isn’t a movie.  There is no director sitting off to the side ready to yell “Cut!” when I get to the car.

We are thirty feet away from my vehicle.  The animals are moving with us, but never get closer than ten feet.  A horrible thought runs through my head.

Did I have my car keys? 

Between jumping off the train, running away, and fighting these animals, I have no idea if I still have my keys on me.  There is no way to check unless I either put down my only weapon or my only daughter.   

I lower myself onto one knee and place the rack-spear on the ground.  As I stand, one the African tigers begins circling us. 

I reach into my pocket for my keys.  Relief washes over me as I felt the cool metal. 

I lowered myself back down and reach for the spear. 

Nothing.

I search frantically with my free hand, never taking my eyes off the animals or the tiger.  It’s gone.  I look down quickly. I may not be able to see details anymore, but I sure as hell could still see the outline of a six-foot bloody spear.

It isn’t there.

“The lion,” I hiss through clenched teeth.  Scanning around, looking for the lion, I see it sitting ten feet away.  It is staring at me and has its front paw resting on the spear.

We’re twenty-five feet from the car and without a weapon, but I have the car keys.  I’ll take that as a small victory.  I turn away from the lion and move closer to the car, taking bigger steps.  I’m getting fed up playing this game. 
If you want us, come and get us, but I’m done pussy-footing around
.

As we get within ten feet of the car, I put Fi down next to me.  I pull out my keys and pushed the button to unlock the doors.  The “beep beep” noise slices through the eerie silence and all the animals jump to their feet all at once. 

My heart is racing the closer we get.  As Fi lumbers towards the car, I realized I would have to take her out of the suit in order to get her into the back seat.  That is going to take time, too much time.  My K-bar combat knife is still stuck in Julie’s chest underneath a picnic table, but I remember that I left  another knife in the trunk, my eight-inch Gerber Mark II.  I’m not crazy enough to try  and fight off any of the animals, but the knife is sharp enough to slice right down the back of the foam suit.

I feel hope as I put the plan together in my head.  I want to avoid any confrontation.  They aren’t attacking us, even though I’ve killed the wolf.  I plan on just getting the knife, cutting Fi out of the foam suit, throwing her in the back seat, and getting the hell out.  Simple plan, right?

-----

With the press of a button, I place Fi against the front passenger door and tell her to keep all her extremities inside the protective suit.  I’m scared to leave her alone while I get the Gerber knife out of the trunk, but I have no other choice.  By using both hands, I could get into the trunk, find the knife, and get to Fi faster than with one hand.

Attacks were happening all over the zoo at this point.  The monkeys and lemurs were out of their cages jumping on anyone close by.  They were ripping flesh from bone like they were peeling a grape.  The zoo was a chorus of screams and cries.

The bears had gotten out of their display cage.  One disappeared into the woods while the other remained at the zoo and looked to be relaxing after having mauled a family of five.  The parents were dead and the three young children all had broken bones to prevent them from running off. The youngest, a five-year-old boy, was slowing sinking into shock; his fibula, the bone right underneath the kneecap, had shredded his flesh and the jagged edges were exposed.

By far, the worst attacks had come from the larger cats.  African lions, Bengal tigers, cougars, bobcats, leopards, and jaguars, had all become killing machines, wandering around killing anyone, regardless of age.

The entire attack had taken less than an hour.  From the time Madison was bitten by the goat, until the moment the iguanas slipped away into the woods, a total of fifty-four minutes had passed.  In fifty-four minutes, the zoo had become a slaughtering ground and not one human being remained breathing.

In about eight hours’ time, those bodies, at least the ones that weren’t completely devoured or torn apart, would again begin to breathe.  They would breathe with a new kind of life inside them, a life full of hunger that yearned and ached to propagate itself.

I make my way to the trunk, keeping what is left of my eyesight on Fi.  I slide my hand into my front pocket to get my car keys.  The animals seem to be interested in Fi, but keep their distance.  An ostrich appears to be the most interested in Fi and her protective cocoon. 

I pull out my keychain, being careful not to hit the “open doors” or “panic” buttons, but just as they clear my pocket, the keys jingle together. A dog in the front immediately stands and cocks its head as the keys dance together.  My effort to silence them was useless. The damage is done.  All the animals around us seem even more interested in what we are doing. 

My heart starts to race.  I can almost feel a beam of hope shining on Fi and me.  When the chips are this stacked up against you, any small victory becomes something you cling to with everything you got.

I find the knife quickly.  It is right where I stashed it under my dirty work coats.  Considering the higher level of intelligence these animals have been displaying, I tuck the knife into my waistband and hide it under my shirt.  When I turn, I could feel hundreds of beady eyes boring into me.  One of the lemurs slowly approaches me.  It looks like a harmless little runt, but I’ve seen what these animals, big and small alike, are capable of.  Ten feet to my left, I can vaguely make out the tiger standing there.  I look at the cat as I kick the lemur away.

The tiger doesn’t move.  I can’t see its eyes, but I am sure it is staring right at me. 

I shut the trunk, trying not to make too much noise.  I know by now that I couldn’t spook these animals.  They weren’t normal anymore.  Their intelligence, strength, aggression, and motor skills have been elevated.  They are in complete control of their behaviors and actions. What scares me is that their plan could change at any moment.

The trunk closes with a dull “thud.”  The animals appear to be getting closer to us.  Fi has hardly moved an inch.

“Are you okay, sweetie?” I whisper loudly to her.

“Yes, Daddy, but this suit is getting really hot.”

“Well, we’re gonna get you out of it now.  I need you to stand perfectly still.  I’m going to cut you out.”

“Daddy…” she starts to protest.

“It’s okay, sweetie,” I say, trying to calm her down.  “I’ll have you out of the suit in no time.”  I take the knife out and drop the sheath to the ground.  The eight animals closest to us creep a little closer to see what I am doing.

I slip the knife into the suit right around Fi’s lower back.  It is like putting a hot knife into butter.  I pull the foam away the knife effortlessly glides through it.  In six seconds, I have made a slit from her lower back up to the base of her neck.

The animals are all coming in for a closer look.  A horrible thought raced through my mind. What if they are all just waiting for me to get her out of the protective suit?  What if they attack her as soon as she is free from the foam?  What if they want to eat the coconut meat, but don’t want to crack the hard shell themselves?  It is too late to second-guess my plan.  We are out of time, and trying to figure out what these animals are planning is completely counter-productive.

I slip my hands into the seam I’ve just made with the knife and spread open the foam suit.  I can feel Fi’s body heat escape through the opening I have just made.  Poor girl is burning up in there.  I fold the suit over and expose her to the outside air.  She takes a big gulp of fresh air and coughs a little bit, but then smiles when she sees me standing next to her.

“Okay, sweetie,” I say quietly as I open the rear passenger door.  “As soon as I open the door, I want you to jump in.  We need to get the hell out of here fast.”  She is looking behind me at the animals.