Zoo (28 page)

“
Don’t move James,” I warn
him as I shift my attention back to Kale. “Edward, do you have the
keys?”

The elderly man hobbles over toward Kale,
keys jangling in his arthritic hands. “Yes, M’Lady. They’re here,”
he answers. Edward reaches up to unlock the metal cuffs around
Kale’s wrists. The key clinks against the hard surface as it tries
to find the keyhole. I have to control myself not to swoop in and
do it myself.

James is trying to buy himself time by
distracting Edward. He warns him, “I’m going to report you to the
King, Cat! He’ll have your head for this.”

Edward stops for a second to address James.
He very calmly says, “Hmm. Yes, I was counting on it. But don’t
think for a moment that he’ll spare you, good friend.” He turns
back to the lock and continues working.

Finally, Edward manages to free Kale, who
crashes to the ground, clutching his freshly wounded side. I drop
down next to him, trying to comfort him, but I also need to make
sure he’s able to walk out of here with me. “Are you okay?” I touch
the side of his face softly as he slowly nods. When he looks into
my eyes, the whole world stops. I can see our whole lives ahead of
us—the children we will have and the love we will share. My eyes
start to tear up, so I focus my attention back on getting out of
here, because none of that will happen if we don’t make it to the
well. “Do you think you can walk?” I wrap my hands around one of
his arms as I prepare to lift him.

But Kale shakes me off. “Yeah. Just give me
a second.” He grabs the baseball bat that rolled over beside him
and uses it as leverage as he climbs to his feet. By the way that
he’s standing, all twisted and bent at the waist, he looks like a
hunched old man. I wish I could take his pain away.

I start for the cell door, but Kale isn’t
following me. He’s walking over to James, who’s still slumped in
the far corner. The fallen cowboy has tied his shirt around his
thigh to help stop the bleeding.

Kale stops in front of James and says, “I
owe you a few whacks with this bat.” Kale lifts the bat high over
his head and brings it down fast, aiming for James’ head. James
shrinks away and closes his eyes tight, ready for the impact. Kale
stops short, before the weapon makes contact. Instead of hitting
him, he taps his adversary on the cheek. James peeks at Kale to see
why he’s still conscious. “I’m going to leave you in this cell for
the King to find. He can deal with you. That is, if you don’t bleed
to death before then, hombre.”

Kale turns back to me and says, “Lets go.”
With renewed energy, he grabs my free hand and tugs me out of the
cell.

Edward locks up the cell behind us as I
force the gun—that I shot James with—onto Kale. “Here take this,” I
say as I shove the weapon into his hand. Kale has no qualms about
accepting the gun. He carries it in his right hand as we all hurry
down the corridor lined with cells.

The cells end, and the
space opens up with the stairwell on the right. Kale pauses at the
base of the stone steps and looks up. I don’t let him linger there
long. There’s nothing for us up there. This time
I
take the lead and pull
him along to the far side of the dungeon.

“
Which way is the tunnel?”
I whisper back to Edward, as we approach the end of the cavernous
room.

“
Just to the left now.
It’s behind those wooden stocks. Yes. There.” He points to a large
wooden structure with holes cut out for prisoners’ heads and hands
to poke through.
Looks like
fun.

Kale and I each put a shoulder against it
and push. Our feet slip on the slimy floor as we struggle to move
the stocks. The large structure doesn’t budge, so we ram our
shoulders against it, over and over, until it finally gives and
starts to slide out of the way.

It’s here! The way out!

A tunnel disappears into the darkness before
us. Just as I’m about to step into the abyss, Kale asks, “How did
you know this was here? Did he tell you?” He tilts his head to the
left to motion toward Edward.

SURPRISE! IT’S A BOY!

I don’t know how much to tell Kale just now.
We are in the process of escaping, and the news Kai shared with me
is quite shocking. I look over to Edward for help, but he’s backing
away from us. He bows and says, “I must go, M’Lady. The King will
be looking for me soon.”

“
You’re not coming with
us? What about Josephine?” I ask.

He walks back toward us and reaches for my
hands. He holds them in his while he pats their tops. “My place is
here. I don’t think the Keepers will be able to fix me after what’s
about to happen. It’s time . . . It’s my time . . . And as for
Josephine, well, I love her too much for her to see me like this.
For her to see the man called Cat.”

“
I . . . Thank you so much
for all your help. I’m so happy that I got to meet you, but won’t
you reconsider? Please?” I plead with him.

“
No, Miss Emma. But thank
you for being concerned about me. No one has cared about me in a
long time. Oh . . . “ he reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls
out a weathered book, “you almost forgot this. Take good care of
it.”

He hands me the book that
has my name etched in gold on the spine,
Emma
, and then leans over to kiss my
cheek. When he pulls away, he says, “And take care of each other.
Kai told me what a happy life you had together. A good long life.”
He drops my hands, reaches up, and takes a torch from the wall. He
hands it to me before leaving the two of us alone in the dungeon at
the cusp of freedom.

I tuck the book into my cleavage along with
the other gun. There’s not really enough room for both of them, but
I’m able to readjust things to make them fit. Kale looks at me
curiously, for more than just the odd place for storing the
keepsake.

“
Who’s Kai? What was he
talking about? What did he mean by, ‘we
had
a happy life together’?” Kale
questions me.

“
Come on, I’ll tell you as
we walk.” I lead the way into the tunnel, holding the torch out in
front of me. I can hear rats squeaking and scurrying about the
deeper into the tunnel we go. There’s something wet and furry
growing on the walls. Creepy doesn’t describe this place well
enough.

Behind me, Kale is getting impatient. He
questions me again, “So? Are you going to tell me what’s going
on?”

My foot gets stuck in a
crack, and I stumble into the slippery wall. Kale reaches out to
right me, and then we once again press forward.
How do I start this conversation? Um . . . Um . .
.

“
Well, that was
Edward.”

“
I thought his name was
Cat.”

“
That’s what they call him
here. Do you remember Auntie Josephine?”

“
Yeah. Why?” he
asks.

“
That was her husband or
enclosure-mate or whatever. She told me he killed himself, but the
Keepers patched him up and brought him here. And he keeps trying to
take himself out, and they keep bringing him back. So the King
named him Cat. Nine lives and all that.”

I can hear the confusion in his voice when
he asks, “So he just decided to help you out of the blue—just like
that?”

“
Well, not really.” I step
around a big black heap of something that smells really bad. “Watch
your step.”

“
So what then?” he
pushes.

“
When the Keepers did
their rounds yesterday, one named Kai came into my room. He told me
that there’s a rebellion against the zoos. Some of the Keepers are
in on it—like Kansas mentioned to you. He said that today is the
day they are going to act. They’re going to break the dome. He
wants us to go to the well in the Safe Zone and swim down.
Apparently, there’s a button or something that will let us into
another room. He’s going to send us back to our old lives.” Whew!
Deep breath.

“
And you believed this
guy? I mean, why don’t we just escape with everyone else? No. We’re
not going on a suicide mission so we can drown in the bottom of a
well.”

I abruptly stop in the dark tunnel and turn
toward Kale. His handsome face flickers in the torchlight. His eyes
are lost, but mine are sure. “He wouldn’t have lied to me,” I
declare.

“
And how do you know that?
He’s a Keeper for goodness sake.”

“
He’s also our
descendant,” I divulge to him in a whisper.

“
Our what?”

“
It was that guy who
watched us in our first enclosure. Remember, you said he looked
familiar to you? Well, that’s why you recognized him, but couldn’t
place him. I didn’t tell you, but I recognized him too. It’s
because we could see ourselves in him.”

“
So, that means that you
and I . . . That we . . . ” Kale fumbles for the right
words.

“
Yes.”

We both inhale in preparation to expel a
whole slew of questions, concerns, and plans for the future, but
are interrupted by a thundering boom. And one more that follows.
The tunnel groans and releases dust that falls from the ceiling
onto our heads. Rocks start to come loose from the walls and tumble
to the floor.

“
That must be it. They’re
trying to crack the dome. We have to get out of here before the
tunnel collapses. Can you run?” I frantically pull him along behind
me not waiting for an answer.

THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL, FOLLOWED
BY A BUNCH OF BATTLE CRAZED NAZIS

Kale and I navigate the never-ending tunnel
as quickly as possible, while it comes down around us. We have to
climb over fallen stones and duck our heads under some that are
moments away from crashing down. There’s another boom followed by a
high-pitched screech. Then, the ground shakes all around us. We
struggle to stay standing.

“
What was that?” I say as
more of a statement than an actual question, because of course,
Kale doesn’t know anymore than I do what those vibrations
were.

We turn a corner and are slapped in the face
by the brightest light ever. The tunnel just stops, and we’re
suddenly standing in the open. We’re exposed before we know it.
“Get down. Over here.” Kale pulls me behind some bushes as we take
in the chaos around us.

“
Look.” I point to the
sky. There’s a huge crack running up the side of the dome. It looks
like a cartoon bolt of lightning. As the crack gets closer to the
ground, near the drop-off point and the Safe Zone, it widens.
People are swarming the side of the valley, fighting their way up.
There are Keepers in white suits shooting at anyone they can,
ending their dreams of escape. To the side of us, at the base of
the mountains, are two tanks with black swastikas painted on the
sides. They are firing into the crowds with their own agenda in
mind. Screams are carried across the valley floor. They violate my
ears. It’s horrible.

“
Where’s the horse?” I
search for signs of the magical beast that will whisk us away, but
there are too many things distracting me from seeing what’s right
in front of me. This is evidently a reoccurring problem in my
life.

Kale points to the right. “Come on,
Princess. Let me steal you away on my mighty steed.” He offers a
small chuckle as he tries to take our minds off the horrors around
us for just a second.

Now I can see the strong, brown horse. It’s
hidden behind a clump of rocks and ferns. His ears flick back and
forth, listening to all the frightening sounds. As we approach, he
rears back, afraid of what we will do to him. I slide my hand up
his smooth coat. I comfort him before we make him race through a
war zone.

Before we mount the horse with no saddle, I
pull James’ gun from my bust and hand it to Kale. “No, I’ve got
this one. You need to hold onto it just in case something happens
to me. I know it makes you uncomfortable, but you have to Emma. At
least put it back in your dress,” he says.

I comply, but have nothing to say about it.
He’s right after all. And it did save us once before.

Kale points to the area of the valley where
most of the people of Asian descent live. “Maybe we can go to the
Red Temple and then across—over there—to climb the side of the
valley.” He points off in the distance where there are fewer people
getting massacred.

“
But we need to be way
over there. At the Safe Zone. Oh no . . . ” I cover my
mouth.

“
What?” Kale looks at me.
I can tell that he’s concerned by the way his brow furrows—it’s a
look that I’ve seen too often since we’ve been in this
super-enclosure.

I lower my hands. “Victoria. Do you think
she’s still in the woods?”

One of the Nazi tanks fires something really
loud and really big. It hits one of the abandoned homes and sends
wood and insulation up into the air. I’m relieved to see that it’s
not the house Kansas lives in.

“
We have to go. That’s the
best way,” Kale says again.

“
Kale, I can’t go without
Victoria. We have to find her. Please. We have to.”

“
We don’t even know if
she’s still there. When I got back to camp, she told me what
happened. I left her with the gun and told her to go to Kansas if
she got worried we wouldn’t make it back. She’s probably not even
there anymore.” He’s trying to convince himself that going on
without checking on her is okay, but I can see in his face that
he’s changing his mind.

“
We have to check,” I say
one more time.