The World's Last Breaths: Final Winter, Animal Kingdom, and The Peeling Read online

  Joe sighed.

  “What did you see from the window?” Grace asked.

  All of the anger in Bill’s face drained away momentarily, anxiety replacing it. “I think it will be better if you look for yourself.”

  Joe nodded and Bill led the way as everyone followed over to the window. It was covered by a cheap venetian blind filmed in a layer of grey dust. Bill pulled at a drawstring beside the window and the shutters turned, casting dim shafts of light through the gaps. It was getting dark outside.

  Joe walked up to the window and looked outside. He wished he hadn’t. Gathered on the zoo’s pathways was probably every animal in the park. They loitered in tightly-ordered columns, like a well-trained army from the nineteenth-century. Each species was grouped individually: A pack of Timber Wolves sat on their haunches in a rigid, three-by-three square; five giraffes stood together like the dots on a dice – four corners and a centre; a mother orangutang crouched in front of her three adolescent offspring; the zoo’s pair of Komodo dragons flicked their tongues back and forth beside a small group of blood-soaked Meerkats, who themselves were stood next to a growling panther. The entire scene was an exercise in the impossible and there, amongst the entire battalion, standing almost exactly in the centre, was a lone silverback gorilla. Its massive size and strength was apparent even at a distance.

  Their leader?

  Grace had come to stand beside Joe and was now looking intently at the scene below. “What do you think they’re doing?”

  Joe could think of only one reason: “They’re preparing for war.”

  “Impossible,” said Mason, taking in the view himself. “Animals lack the necessary level of rational thought to behave that way. They behave on instinct not forethought. They cannot plan, they cannot strategise.”

  “I think the rules have changed,” Joe said.

  “If the animals are planning then we need to do the same,” said Randall. “We need weapons.”

  “I agree,” said Grace, “but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We can’t be certain that they’re assembling to get inside here. They could be preparing to leave the zoo.”

  Shirley cackled, getting everyone’s attention whether she intended to or not. “They will not leave. Not while the damned and the sinful still fester among us.”

  Joe sighed and rubbed at his eyes. He was getting tired of a lot of things today but Shirley’s preaching was high on the list. “What is happening has nothing to do with God. Even if it did, who are you to act like an authority? Who are you to label any of us as damned?”

  “I’m not,” said Shirley. “The Bible is our authority and it is He who condemns the damned. A man should not lie with another man.”

  Bill almost jumped in the air. “Not you too? What the hell did I do to deserve this? If it isn’t Victor one minute, it’s her the next. I can’t be doing with any more of this shit.”

  Bill stomped away, but a smash against the window made him stop and turn back around. “The hell was that?”

  Joe didn’t know. Through the window he could still see all of the animals lined up in formation. Only one of them had moved – the silverback gorilla. It now stared straight up at Joe as if offering some unspoken challenge. There was something in its hand. A large stone.

  Joe managed to duck to the floor just as the window shattered into a thousand jagged pieces. “He’s throwing rocks!”

  Grace leapt to the floor beside Joe, pulling Danny down with her. “Who is? Who’s throwing rocks?”

  Everybody hit the ground as another boulder flew through the broken window.

  Joe scooted up against the wall. “The motherfucking gorilla, that’s who. He’s lobbing rocks like a Russian shot putter.”

  “Don’t swear, Dad.”

  “Sorry, Danny. I’m just excited.”

  Grace stared at Joe, wide-eyed, brow-wrinkled. “Guess that answers our question about whether they know we’re in here or not.”

  “Sure does, but as long as they don’t get in I can live with a little bit of stone throwing.”

  “Joe!” Mason was calling him and pointing to something on the floor. The object was mottled grey with darker patches in several places.

  A human head. Stripped of all flesh.

  “I think it’s more than just stones,” said Mason.

  Joe got up into a crouch and hurried his son and Grace away from the window. “Let’s get out of here, everybody.”

  No one argued and the group hurried out of the office, regrouping in the corridor. They gathered into a disorganised huddle and Randall took the lead. “We need to find weapons,” he said. “I think it’s pretty obvious that they’re not going to stop until they find a way in here. They’ll climb the bloody walls if they can. We need to be ready when that happens.”

  “What weapons, though?” asked Bill. “It’s not like we have guns and stuff.”

  “We don’t need guns,” said Victor. “We can improvise. Anything heavy or sharp will do. Plus we can set traps.”

  “Like in Home Alone.” Danny smiled and seemed happy with his contribution.

  “Yeah,” said Victor. “Just like in Home Alone, little man.”

  Danny giggled. All things considered, he seemed to be holding up better than any of the adults.

  Joe had a thought. “Hey, Mason, doesn’t the zoo have tranquilliser guns? You see them all the time on television.”

  Mason frowned. “There are dart guns in the Ranger’s station, of course, but I’m afraid that’s at the other end of the zoo. There’s another one inside a locked cabinet in the elephant enclosure, but again we’d have no chance of getting there. In the case of a severe emergency such as this, the local police force is trained to deal with escaped animals with lethal force. Our protocol would simply be to call them – which I have tried already.

  “So there’s nothing at all here to help us?” asked Bill, seemingly close to an emotional breakdown. He was rubbing at his forehead with both hands.

  “There are drugs in the various laboratories,” Mason added, “but the only way to administer them is by injection or oral ingestion. Does anyone want to get close enough to that gorilla to stick a syringe in him? I don’t.”

  Joe showed his disappointment. “Okay, well then do you have any other suggestions for what we could use as weapons?”

  Mason thought about it. “There will probably be certain items in the warehouse area. There’s brooms, mop handles, et cetera. We could also look for the litter pickers that the Janitors use. They’re long metal sticks with sharp spikes on the end.”

  “Like a spear,” said Victor. “Bill should know how to use one of those.”

  Bill ignored the racist remark and Joe admired the man’s self-control. Despite Victor being such an asshole, it was good news about the litter spikes. “That sounds like the best thing we have.”

  “Let’s get going then,” Randall urged.

  “Should we split up or--”

  The sibilant shattering sounds of more objects being thrown through the window of the nearby office alerted them all. It sounded like several things in quick succession.

  “Do we ignore that?” said Grace. “Or do we look?”

  Multiple rage-filled screeches sent Joe over to the door. Looking inside the office was probably a stupid thing to do, but he needed to know what they were up against. They couldn’t afford to ignore a single thing.

  Carefully, Joe cracked open the door and looked inside the room. There was movement inside. Lots of it.

  You got to be kidding me?

  White and black lemurs leapt about everywhere, flying in through the broken window, one after another. The small, bushy-tailed primates spotted Joe and immediately rushed towards him.

  Joe slammed the door and pulled up the handle to engage the catch. When he turned back towards the group he didn’t quite know how to explain it, other than saying: “We’re under siege.”

  11

  “They’re coming in through the window,” Joe told them.<
br />
  Randall shook his head in obvious confusion. “What are?”

  “A bunch of those little monkeys – lemurs, I think. The ones with the ringed bushy tails and little hands? They’ve gotten into the office.”

  As if to validate his claims, several bodies hit the other side of the door. Sharp fingernails began to scratch at the wood.

  Grace looked worried. “Do you think they will get through?”

  Joe watched as the door handle rattled and then began to turn. He lunged for it and pushed it back up again. “Pretty sure, yeah.”

  “We need to jam the door,” said Victor. “Somebody find something we can use to wedge the handle.”

  Grace stared at him like a deer in headlights. “Like what?”

  “I don’t know, woman, but the longer you stand there having a stroke, the longer it will take you to find something. Now get moving, you daft bint.”

  Grace rushed off. Joe hoped she found something soon because his fingers were already beginning to ache from clutching the door handle so tightly. The force on the other side was getting stronger and his grip was getting weaker. It was almost as if the diminutive creatures on the other side were infused with the strength of animals three-times their size. Joe didn’t want to think about what that could mean. “I don’t know how much longer I can hold this…”

  “Just hold in there, pal.” Victor tried to get a hold on the handle too, but there was no room for the both of them. Joe thought about changing with Victor, but the brief moment his hand would be off the handle could be all the lemurs needed to get the door open.

  Grace reappeared in the corridor, holding a mop and bucket.

  Victor laughed. “Clean up on aisle six, love? How’s that going to help?”

  Grace didn’t say anything. She yanked the mop from the bucket and ran at Joe and Victor. For a second Joe thought she was about to brain one of them, but instead she shoved the wooden pole up against the door.

  Joe realised what she was doing and watched in admiration as Grace threaded the pole behind the handle, twisting it so that both ends wedged against the door’s frame on the left and right. Hesitantly, Joe released his grip on the door handle. It moved slightly, and for a split-second it looked like the plan might fail, but then the handle caught against the pole.

  It held.

  Joe shook his crippled hand, trying to get some feeling back into it. The knuckles ached as he flexed them. “Good thinking. I don’t think I could have held on much longer.”

  Danny put his arm around her. “You’re smart and pretty like Miss Elizabeth.”

  Grace raised her eyebrows at Joe.

  Joe laughed. “She was a very famous lady in wrestling. It’s a big compliment in Danny’s world.”

  Grace knelt down and gave Danny a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you!”

  Danny rubbed at the spot where she had kissed him and pulled a face. “Keep your lips to yourself, lady.”

  Joe was surprised to see everyone laugh at this, even Victor and Randall – although something about Randall’s expression seemed a little forced.

  The banging and scratching on the office door suddenly stopped.

  “Perhaps they’re giving up,” Grace suggested.

  Joe nodded. “Perhaps. Or maybe they’re moving on to plan B.”

  “Plan B?” said Grace.

  Joe nodded. “Something tells me that things are just getting started.”

  “All the more reason to commence with our own plans,” Randall said. “We need to get moving, my friends. The quicker we can hunker down, the safer we’ll be.”

  Everyone agreed. They had to do something proactive instead of waiting for the next attack. Joe had to keep his son safe no matter what. “I’ll go look for the litter pickers in the warehouse,” he said. “Grace, will you and Danny come with me?”

  “Of course. I think I may have even seen where they were earlier.”

  “Excellent,” said Randall. “I, and the rest of us, will gather supplies into the seminar room.”

  With the lack of any argument the group got moving. Joe, Grace, and Danny re-entered the supervisor walkway of the warehouse. Joe leaned over the safety rail and looked down over the various pallets on the floor below. “It’s a bit of a maze down there.”

  “I know, but I think I saw the litter pickers over by the delivery shutter on the far wall.”

  Joe took his son by the hand. “Let’s go down and get them then. Danny you stick close to Daddy, okay?”

  Danny nodded and squeezed Joe’s hand tight.

  From the bottom of the steel staircase the warehouse seemed even more like a maze. Joe examined the first stack of pallets in front of him. It was full of cleaning products and housekeeping chemicals. It wasn’t what he was looking for right now but Joe made a mental note of the various bleaches and the FLAMMABLE signs that adorned their bottles.

  Grace stood behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Anything?”

  “I don’t think so. Let’s keep going.”

  The three of them moved on through the warehouse, cataloguing useful items, such as a pallet of canned cafeteria food and a small supply of petrol, while disregarding un-useful items like a crate of plastic animal souvenirs, although Joe did allow Danny to take a Rhinoceros from the pile.

  Grace pointed. “I think they’re over there.”

  Joe looked across the warehouse and saw a collection of metal rods stacked up against a steel shutter door. He walked over and grabbed one of them. After examining it he saw that it was indeed a spike-tipped litter picker. “Great,” he said, thumbing the sharp point. “These will come in handy.”

  “How many are there?” Grace asked. “There’re seven of us.”

  Joe sighed. “Only three, but it’s a start.”

  “Sure is. Hopefully we won’t need any of them.”

  Joe handed one of the spikes to her. “Better to be safe than sorry.”

  Grace looked at the tip of the spike in her hand and suddenly began to well up with tears. She wiped at her cheeks with her free hand. “I’m sorry. I just can’t believe what’s happening.”

  Joe put down the other two litter pickers and put his arm around her. “It’s okay. We’ll be fine. Whatever has caused this may well end soon. We don’t know what’s going to happen yet.”

  Grace squeezed into him, pulling Danny into the hug as well. “I’m so frightened. Things haven’t even sunk in yet and I already feel like I’m going to have a breakdown. I saw people die today and I’m scared. Not just of the animals either.”

  Danny started crying also and Joe felt himself wanting to do the same. He couldn’t allow himself to, though, because he needed to be strong for his son – maybe for Grace, too. “I’ll look after you both,” he said, hoping he was strong enough for it to be the truth. “We just need to stick together until all this is over.”

  Grace pulled away and looked at Joe. Her eyes were red. “What if it’s never over?”

  Joe thought about it and didn’t like what came. If the situation went on permanently then what hope was there?

  “I don’t know,” he eventually said. “We just have to be ready – ready for whatever comes. Right now that means arming ourselves to the teeth.”

  Grace laughed and wiped at her face. “I guess we better keep searching then.”

  Joe grabbed the litter pickers back up and held them out like spears. “And if you see anything with fur, stab it!”

  “Don’t worry,” said Grace. “I’ve given up being an animal lover. Time to bring out my inner-caveman.”

  A deep bass-filled bellow shook the warehouse and the three of them spun around with a start.

  Standing twelve-feet away, poking out from behind a stack of spare plastic seating was an alligator. It was stretching its head into the air and raising itself up as if to show as much of its body as possible. After one more almighty bellow the creature lowered back down and stared at them with its ancient eyes. Then it hissed.

  Grace moved up agai
nst Joe so that they were touching. “This thing doesn’t have any fur, should I still stab it?”

  Joe nodded. “I think it qualifies as something we should stab, yes.”

  The alligator came at them without warning, surprisingly quick for such a heavy animal. Its head swished back and forth as it approached them, jaws open, ready to taste human flesh.

  “Get upstairs,” said Joe. “I’ll deal with this.”

  Grace shook her head. “No way. We should all just run for it.”

  “We can’t abandon these supplies. We’ve got no chance without them. Plus we need to find out where this thing got inside, or else we’ll have the whole zoo in here before long.”

  Grace hesitated, but as the alligator got closer she was forced into action. She ran, taking Danny with her and leaving Joe alone.

  Joe sprinted away, too, but further into the warehouse instead of towards the stairs. “Come get me, you sad-excuse for a crocodile.”

  The animal followed Joe. He could hear it hissing and grunting behind him. He had no idea what he planned to do, but he was confident of outrunning the creature that was built more for water than for land.

  Can’t outrun it forever, though.

  Joe stopped and spun around, litter spike in hand. The alligator was gone from sight, but still somewhere close by if the sound of its angered grunting was anything to go by.

  “Hey there, alligator, where ya hiding?”

  As if in answer to his question, the alligator lunged out from behind some boxes, taking Joe by surprise. The giant lizard crashed down on top of him, as heavy as a car. All of the wind was crushed out of Joe’s lungs and stars clouded his vision. The only sense still operating coherently was his smell, which was picking up the fetid smell of half-consumed flesh coming from the creature’s mouth.

  Joe thought fast as the alligator wrestled to keep him pinned, trying to position itself well enough to get a clear bite at him. Thoughts of evenings alone, watching the Discovery Channel, suddenly entered Joe’s mind and spurned him into action. In a bear hug, he wrapped his arms around the alligator’s jaws, clamping them shut. Joe remembered that the muscles used to snap an alligator’s jaws closed were exceptionally strong, but the ones that opened them were very weak. Joe held on for dear life, keeping the deadly maw closed.