Zoo (23 page)

We keep walking, looking for the others. I
smile as I think about what Victoria just said. I can still hear
Kale chipping away at the ax he’s making . . . for me.

“
Did he tell you he loves
me?” I ask her, wanting to know everything he may have divulged to
her.

“
He didn’t have to. It’s
written all over his face, and more importantly it’s in his
actions.”

“
You know, one time back
in our old enclosure, I was really upset one day. I started crying
in front of the public, which as you know, is enough to warrant
punishment. The park was really crowded that day.” I absently twist
pieces of my hair as I recount the past event. “I was lying on the
ground with my eyes shut and a dark shadow fell over me. It stayed
until I finally passed out from exhaustion. Do you think that was
him, protecting me from getting into trouble with the Keepers?” I
ask her the question that I already know the answer to.

“
Do
you
think it was Kale?” She turns
the question back on me.

“
I do.”

We walk a little further. A twig snaps in
the distance. We freeze. “Did you hear that?” I whisper to
Victoria.

“
Yes,” she whispers
back.

Then we hear something rustling the leaves.
It’s coming from the same direction. “We should go,” I tell
Victoria.

“
No. I know what that
sound is. Come on.” She stomps off toward the noise.

One of the snares has a fat jackrabbit
trapped inside. It’s furiously trying to escape. I stare at the
adorable animal as Victoria bends down and wrestles it out from
under the trap. She holds it by its ears and cheers for the prize
that will be our dinner. But I want to barf.

Look at its sweet little nose. Aw . . . I
can’t eat him.

Then the little devil starts flailing and
whipping his body around in circles. He tries to scratch Victoria
with his sharp back feet. “Watch out!” I warn her.

One of its claws rips the
material down the front of her cotton dress.
That rabbit really shouldn’t have done that.
Victoria snaps its neck in the blink of an eye.
Its head flops over. She smiles, and once again holds it by the
ears to carry it back to camp. I try not to look at it as we walk
side-by-side.

The sun is setting as we weave our way
through the many trees. A breeze sweeps my hair back from my
shoulders. With it brings the scent of pine and dead bunny. I
listen to the larger quiet of the forest and the smaller crush of
our feet against the earth. We get closer to Kale with every step.
I pick up my pace so that I can see his brown eyes and his kind
face.

But, our little area is
empty.
Where is he?
I poke my head into the lean-to, “Kale?” Empty. “Kale,” I
call out. “Kale!” Still nothing.
Where is
he? I can’t lose him now.
“Kale!”

FALSE ALARM

Kale runs through a break in the trees
panting. “What is it? Are you okay?” He’s carrying his new ax with
a firm grip on the rudimentary handle.

“
Where were you?” I
screech at him. I’m frantic and frozen with the fear that’s still
coursing through my body.

“
I was testing this out,”
he holds up his ax with a lopsided smile plastered across his
adorable face. “I wanted to see if it would cut through a tree, but
I didn’t want to do it right here—in case it did work and sent the
tree crashing down on you two or our shelter.”

I was going to say,
well leave a note next time
, but that’s obviously not going to happen. So I hug him
instead. His embrace is just as comforting and consuming as his
kiss.

“
So, did it work?” I
finally ask.

“
Well, I got about halfway
through a tree when I heard you yelling. So yeah, I guess it
does.”

We walk together toward Victoria, who is
already skinning the poor rabbit with a sharp rock she found. It’s
a tedious job. I avoid looking as much as I can, but Kale is
impressed. “Hey, you caught dinner.”

Victoria looks up from her work. “Sure did.
Fat sucker too,” she says, pleased with her catch.

We sit down together. Kale starts a small
fire with a match that Kansas gave us. I cozy up next to him and
enjoy the peaceful evening. I even smile a little.

While Victoria cooks, we make plans for our
future here. Kale has grand plans for the cabin he wants to build,
complete with three small rooms—one for us, one for Victoria and
her baby, and one for cooking and living. Victoria makes jokes
about cutting up her dress and making curtains for our dream home.
None of us talk about the possibility of ambush or starvation. We
are all trying to be as positive as we can be. We need to make the
most of what we have here and now. Of course, I still want to go
home, but right now I’m okay. I’m alive.

We enjoy our dinner, and I am pleasantly
surprised that it actually tastes amazing. This is most probably
because I haven’t had meat in a very, very long time. There is even
enough rabbit left over for breakfast in the morning, which we hide
down in our food hole. I was against the idea at first, but
Victoria seems to think the temperature in the ground will keep it
cool enough. If I get food poisoning, I know who to blame.

Before bedtime, Kale makes plans to leave
first thing in the morning for a water haul. Victoria is set to
take the dreaded middle shift. That means that Kale has the first
shift, and I have the last shift. So the middle shift is the only
time for Kale and I to rest beside one another. We can neither fall
asleep together nor wake up together. Bummer.

And how many hours is that from now? Too
many.

I want to stay up with Kale, but it’s not a
smart thing to do here. Who knows if something will happen, and we
won’t be able to sleep again for days. Reluctantly, I follow
Victoria to the hut, but first stop to kiss Kale goodnight. His
lips are soft and press against mine in hope of a tomorrow, neither
a better nor a worse tomorrow—just a tomorrow.

***

I rouse when Kale wakes Victoria from her
slumber to keep watch. He gives her his hand to help her up and
then slips in beside me. He drapes his arm over me and pulls me
close. He kisses my shoulder.

And before I know it, Victoria is waking me
up for my turn and shoving the gun in my hand. I watch her as she
lies next to Kale, and I’m happy to see that she’s lying
head-to-toe beside him. I wander over to where our small fire was
earlier. I sit with my back to the hut, the gun resting in my
lap.

There is no wind to swish the trees or
foraging animals to scurry over the fallen leaves. All is quiet . .
. too quiet. I wrap my arms around myself and sing some stupid pop
song in my head that I haven’t thought about since I was in my old
life. I haven’t thought about popular music at all since I’ve been
here. Auntie Josephine’s opera and lullabies were the only bits of
music that I had heard in a long time. And even that seems like
forever ago. I miss her.

After sitting for probably an hour, I hear
it. I stop singing in my head and listen more closely. It’s the
howls and cries from last night. They are far away at first and
several minutes apart. Slowly, they get closer and closer to our
camp. They pick up in frequency. I can hear at least three distinct
calls.

And then they stop. It’s
eerily silent again. I look around in the dim light and see only
the dark outline of tree trunks. There’s rustling behind me, above
the overhang. I jump to my feet and spin around. It’s so dark that
I can hardly see a thing. The moon’s waning light barely trickles
in through the trees. Dawn is quickly approaching, but the new sun
hasn’t quite made its way into the forest.
So, I’m screwed.
I squint my eyes,
but it doesn’t help. I hold the gun out in front of me. It’s
shaking, but I can’t steady my nervous hands. Adrenaline is pumping
through my body at a rapid pace, and my breathing is starting to
become shallow.

A twig snaps off to my
left, so I turn that way.
I can’t
see!

Then, I hear someone jump
off the overhang behind me. There’s a blacker than night shadow
with reflective stripes of white and gold.
CANNIBAL!!!
Holy shit! It’s a
freaking cannibal. How many of them are here?

I don’t wait to find out. I fire the gun. It
kicks back and I nearly fall over.

There’s a lot of movement around me, and
Victoria is screaming. I don’t know which way to look.

“
Kale?” I call to
him.

There’s a scuffle by the hut, a howl from
the forest, and then nothing.

The sun finally clears the plateau above the
valley floor. It starts to find its way through the trees, bringing
light to our camp. Kale is the only person I can see. He’s on his
hands and knees. I rush to his side and see a pool of blood under
him.

“
Oh no! No!” I shot
him.

WORSE DAY EVER!

Kale falls back against the cliffside dazed,
while I frantically search his body for a bullet wound. Victoria
hikes up her long skirt and crawls over from the lean-to crying.
Her hysteria rattles me even more. I can’t seem to calm my jittery
hands as they pull at Kale’s shirt. We are both a mess of raw
emotions.

“
I think I shot him,” I’m
crying now too. “There’s blood everywhere.”

He grabs my hand as I try to push him over
and examine his back. “I’m okay. I’m okay.” He attempts to reassure
me.

I don’t believe him though. There’s blood
everywhere. How can he be okay? “But you’re bleeding. You’re not
okay. You’re just in shock,” I argue with him.

“
That’s not my blood.” He
eases back into a more comfortable seated position. “I did take a
pretty good blow to the head though. Everything’s spinning.” He
groans and leans his head back against the wall.

I look over to Victoria who’s frozen.
“Victoria, go get Kale some water,” I tell her. She jumps up,
relieved to have something to do.

“
Are you okay? How bad is
it?” I ask him.

“
I’ll be fine in a few
minutes,” he says. “I have to be. I need to go and get the water. I
don’t think those cannibal guys will be coming back anytime soon,
since you shot one of them. They know we have a gun now. They
obviously don’t, because we probably wouldn’t be alive if they did.
I really think now is the best time to go.”

“
You can’t be serious. You
are not going. I’ll go,” I say to him, as if he’s insane for even
considering it.

He takes a deep breath and climbs to his
feet just as Victoria hands him a plastic bottle. There’s only
about two sips left. “That’s the last of the water,” she
confesses.

“
See? I’m going. Now. The
sooner I go, the better. They won’t be coming back now. And look,
I’m fine.” He does seem okay, but I’m still worried about him. He
climbs to his feet and strides over to the backpack, where he loads
it with the empty pot and three water bottles. He picks up the gun
that I dropped on the ground. “Be careful with this,” he tells
Victoria as he hands her the gun.

“
We will,” she answers
him.

He comes to stand before
me. “We’ll move to another location as soon as I get back. You two
can work on taking the walls apart.” Kale motions toward the
lean-to. “Now, are
you
okay?” He cradles my face in his hands and waits for me to
answer.

“
I’m fine. Just shaken up.
I shot someone. Didn’t I?” The reality of my actions suddenly
weighs heavily on me. Did I take a life? There’s no dead body here,
but who’s to say they will heal from such an injury? The Keepers
aren’t going to patch us up here.

“
You shot someone that was
probably going to eat us. You protected us. I’m proud of you.” He
kisses my nose. “I’ll see you soon, Princess. Oh and I love
you.”

“
I love you
too.”

He kisses my mouth and leaves me with the
promise to return. I touch my bottom lip and let my fingers linger
there as he walks away.

***

There’s not much to do while Kale is gone.
The lean-to came apart in about 10 minutes, and we covered the pool
of blood with dirt in about two seconds. There’s nothing to build
since Kale took the ax for protection and nothing to cook since the
traps are empty. We gather them up, as we go along. We need to take
them with us when we move locations later today.

After we eat the leftover rabbit, Victoria
messes with the pelt she kept from the poor, dead animal. She
thinks if we get enough of them, we can make a nice blanket or
coats that will be useful—if there is a winter here.

I sit next to the disassembled lean-to and
watch her while she works. I’m not really sure what she’s doing
since her back is to me, but her movements are deliberate and
practiced. I’m starting to really appreciate her being here with
us. I could never have killed and skinned a rabbit, even if I was
starving. No way.

I’m finally able to relax since the
morning’s crazy events. I even drift in and out of sleep; confident
Victoria will warn me should something suspicious occur. The
temperature is pleasant, and there’s a nice breeze. In my drowsy
state, I find myself wishing I had somewhere to bathe. I must reek.
I lower my head down to take a whiff of my armpit.

Ouch!
Someone grabs me by my hair and yanks me to my feet. I look
over to Victoria, who’s being restrained as well. A man in a brown
peasant top and brown leather pants is holding her tight. He has a
sword at his waist and our gun in his hand.