Terror at the Zoo (12 page)

Mrs. Streater let Prince in and fed him.

“Are you coming to bed or not?” Mr. Streater rubbed one bare foot on top of the other.

“I’m going to listen to the messages. Just in case there’s something from the kids that we need to know.”

Mr. Streater leaned against the refrigerator and yawned.

She pushed the button to play back messages and began to jot down names and telephone numbers. One message was Mrs. Streater herself, saying that she and Mr. Streater
were in the Portland airport and didn’t know when they would get home. There were several “bleeps” on the machine after that, indicating that someone had called but left no message.

“All those calls were probably us, too,” Mr. Streater said.

The next message on the machine was from Mrs. Streater’s father. He said, “Hello, it’s me. Esther and I are on our way to the hospital.”

Mr. Streater snapped to attention. Mrs. Streater reached for him and clutched his pajama sleeve while they listened to the rest of the message.

When they heard, “I’ll call you tomorrow, after you get home from the zoo,” Mr. Streater said, “I don’t like this. I don’t like this one bit.”

Mrs. Streater turned off the answering machine without listening to the rest of the messages. “Where are the kids?” she said. “Even Corey would know better than to stay at the zoo alone.”

“Let’s not panic. Maybe someone from the zoological society stayed with them.”

“But wouldn’t they call and tell us that?”

“Maybe they did. Let’s listen to the rest of the messages.”

They turned the machine back on and played the rest of the messages. There was nothing from Ellen, Corey, or anyone from the zoological society.

Mr. Streater said, “Let’s call Mrs. Caruthers.”

Mrs. Streater looked up her number and dialed it. After six rings, a sleepy male voice said, “Hello?”

“I’m sorry to disturb you so late at night,” Mrs. Streater
said, “but I need to speak with Mrs. Caruthers. It’s urgent.”

“She isn’t here. This is her son.”

“Do you know anything about the children who were going to camp overnight at the zoo? This is their mother and we had plane trouble and didn’t get home on time. We have a note saying that the children went to the zoo.”

“That’s right; the kids are at the zoo.”

“Do you know where? If we go there now, do you know where we can find them?”

“You can’t get in now. All the gates are locked at night.”

“Are you certain that’s where the children are?”

“Positive. Ma called a little while ago and she said the kids got there a half an hour late. She was glad she didn’t have to wait any longer than that because . . .”

“Do you expect her home soon?” Mrs. Streater didn’t mean to be rude and interrupt, but she was anxious about Ellen and Corey.

“She won’t be home until morning.”

“Oh,” Mrs. Streater said. “She stayed, then?”

“She said she couldn’t leave, not when . . .”

“How kind of her!”

The voice at the other end stifled a yawn.

“Thank you so much,” Mrs. Streater said. “I’m sorry I woke you up. We’ll go to the zoo first thing in the morning to bring the kids home.”

She hung up, turned to Mr. Streater, and said, “Mrs. Caruthers stayed at the zoo. Wasn’t that nice of her?”

“She probably didn’t have any choice. Corey probably refused to leave.”

“We must do something special, to thank her. Maybe we could send flowers.”

“Well, let’s wait until daylight to order them,” Mr. Streater said, as he returned to the bedroom.

“As long as I’m up, I’m going to call the hospital,” Mrs. Streater said. “Maybe someone can tell us how Mother is.” Just as she reached for the telephone, it rang.

“This is Jeff Caruthers. You called for my mother a few minutes ago. I was kind of fuzzy minded on the phone but after you hung up, I realized exactly what you had said. Aren’t you at the zoo now?”

“No. That’s why I called you. Our plane was late and we just got home.”

“Ma said the kids came to the zoo alone and met you there a few minutes later. She said she left as soon as you arrived.”

“She isn’t with them? She didn’t stay at the zoo?”

“Ma’s at the hospital. My sister’s having a baby.”

“Then who’s with Ellen and Corey?”

“I don’t know. Ma thought you were.”

Mrs. Streater’s hand shook as she hung up the phone and called the police.

“I need help,” she said. “I think my children are alone at the Woodland Park Zoo.”

“S
TOP
yelling,” the man said, as his arm tightened on Ellen’s shoulder.

She tried not to cry but the pain from his hand on her shoulder was excruciating. Blinking back tears, she glared up into his angry eyes.

“Some people heard me,” she lied. “Their car slowed down and I saw them point at me. They’ve gone for help.”

“You’re bluffing.” The man’s other hand gripped the back of Corey’s shirt. “Even if you aren’t, no one can get in here. I should have got rid of you kids as soon as I found you,” he growled. “I should have tied you up, too. Or locked you in the snake house.”

Too? thought Ellen. Who else is tied up?

“I had the baby monkey,” Corey whimpered. “I was taking it back to its mother but he grabbed me and made me lose it.” The man yanked Corey’s shirt and Corey gulped, to keep from crying.

“Stand still and be quiet,” the man said. “I need to think.”

A twig snapped. Ellen jumped. Beside her, she felt the man stiffen. Was the baby monkey following them? She peered into the darkness and she knew the man and Corey were doing the same. A large shape moved toward them from Ellen’s right and Ellen realized it was an elephant.

They are such big, strong animals, she thought. If only I had their strength. If only they could help us.

And then she thought, maybe they can. The trainer had told her that elephants have the reasoning ability of a third grader. He said some elephants understood thirty different commands. If the elephants were that smart, maybe she should try to talk to them. Maybe they would get her message.

She tried to block everything else out of her mind, the way she did when she sent her thoughts to Prince. It wasn’t easy to do when she was so frightened but her weeks of practice helped.

She concentrated only on the large, dark shape that ambled toward her through the trees.
Friend elephant. Help us. We are your friends and we’re in danger. Please help us.

The elephant stopped. It stood quietly for a moment while Ellen silently repeated her urgent plea.
Friend elephant: help us.
The elephant moved its trunk back and forth, sniffing.

Ellen heard movement from her left now. Another elephant?

The first elephant lifted its trunk and trumpeted. The
loud, sudden noise sent chills down Ellen’s arms. Was it answering her? Or did it trumpet because it somehow sensed her fear and Corey’s? Maybe it just wanted to warn the other elephants that there were strangers in the Elephant Forest.

Farther back in the forest, a second elephant answered.

“We’re going to have an earthquake!” Corey cried. “A BIG earthquake.”

“What are you talking about?” the man said.

Ellen wondered the same thing.

“Listen to them,” Corey said. “The elephants do that when they’re scared. They can sense earthquakes before people can. Before the last big earthquake in San Francisco, all the elephants in the San Francisco Zoo trumpeted, just that way, to warn the other elephants that they were in danger. The keeper at the San Francisco Zoo said they wished they had listened to the elephants and left town before the earthquake hit.”

For a moment, Ellen believed him and wondered how he knew what had happened in San Francisco. Then she realized it was another of Corey’s tall tales. He was trying to frighten the man. Perhaps if the man got scared enough, he would run away, to try to save himself from disaster.

“Corey’s right,” Ellen said. “We read about it in
Junior Geographic
magazine. The elephants started trumpeting about ten minutes before the earthquake began.”

“One man who was visiting the zoo that day got a broken leg during the earthquake when a tree fell on him,” Corey said. His words spilled out like water from a pitcher, flowing faster and faster, the way he always
talked when he got into one of his stories. “Afterward, he said if he had known that the elephants were trying to warn him, he would have run far away from the zoo and gone somewhere safe to hide, like a basement. Instead, his leg was crushed under the tree and he was almost trampled when the elephants stampeded.”

The first elephant stepped closer. Its trunk reached toward them, as if wanting to touch or smell them. The man leaned backward.

Ellen tuned out Corey’s voice. She focused all of her energy on sending her thoughts to the elephant.
Good elephant, help us! We need you. The man is evil. Please help us escape.

The elephant trumpeted again; other elephants replied. There were more of them now and they all seemed close.

Behind her, on the other side of the fence, Ellen heard another car go past. In front of her, and from both sides, she heard movement. Although Ellen could make out only three distinct shapes, she knew that there were several more elephants nearby.

They trumpeted again. And again. The sound filled the night. It bounced back from the paths, from the trees, from the stars.

If the security guard was anywhere on the zoo grounds, Ellen thought, surely he would come to investigate. He would hear the elephants and come to see what was wrong. Even the cars whizzing past on Aurora Avenue would hear this much noise. Maybe someone would wonder what was wrong and call the police.

Keep calling, good elephants. Bring help.

There was another loud eruption from the elephant
chorus. A tingle of excitement prickled Ellen’s skin. She was sure the elephants recognized that she and Corey were in danger and they were responding in the only way they could. Would their cries for help work? Would someone hear them and come?

“An earthquake’s coming,” Corey repeated. “The elephants know that an earthquake’s coming.”

“Let’s get out of here,” the man said.

“You’ll get away faster if you go alone,” Ellen said.

The man grabbed Corey’s arm in one hand and Ellen’s arm in the other. He started away from the fence, pulling them with him. “We’re staying together,” he said, “until I collect my ransom. Now, move it.”

The elephants kept calling. It was a steady clamor with first one and then another sounding the alarm.

The man moved around the first elephant, keeping lots of space between it and them. Even in the dim light, Ellen could see that it was watching them. Its huge ears were spread wide and its trunk was raised in the air. Just as they passed it, the elephant let out a mighty blast.

The man began to run. Ellen and Corey stumbled along beside him.

The clouds lifted and the full moon once again shed its eerie light. The second elephant approached from their left and the man swerved away from it. Propelled by the man’s hands on their arms, Corey and Ellen crashed through the woods while the elephants continued their uproar.

They zigzagged through the elephant obstacle course, making wide swings around each elephant that they saw. Once, the man didn’t see an elephant approaching from
the side and it reached out its trunk and touched the back of his neck.

The man cried out and then ran even faster. Ellen held her right arm in front of her face, trying to shield herself from scratchy branches that they passed.

They came to the edge of the forest and started across the clearing toward the gully.

The man stopped. Just ahead, Ellen saw a huge elephant blocking their way. It was Hugo, the enormous elephant that they had helped wash. The trainer had said Hugo was ten feet tall and weighed more than six tons. Looming before them in the dim light, he looked even bigger than that.

Behind Hugo, Ellen saw the gully that led out of the Elephant Forest. They could not get out unless Hugo moved.

The man walked to his right, shoving Ellen and Corey in that direction. Hugo turned that way, too. The man moved the other way. Hugo did the same. His ears fanned out to full size.

“Damn elephant,” muttered the man.

Ellen looked up, directly toward the small eyes of the enormous old elephant.
Help us, Hugo
, she pleaded silently.
We’re your friends and we need help.

The elephant swayed slightly from side to side as his upraised trunk fanned the air. His big ears framed his face like giant bookends; his long ivory tusks gleamed in the moonlight.

The man let go of Corey and Ellen. He withdrew the knife from his jacket pocket.

“No,” Ellen said. “You can’t.”

Hugo lifted his trunk higher and gave a tremendous bellow.

“The earthquake is starting!” Corey yelled.

“Oh,” the man said. He sounded breathless now, and not as menacing as before. In the pale moonlight, the whites of his eyes were wide with horror. “Oh,” he repeated.

“Earthquake! Earthquake!” shouted Corey.

“RUN!” Ellen screamed as she bolted away from the man. “Corey! This way!”