The Takers: Book One of the Oz Chronicles (20 page)

Roy galloped into the arena on Mr. Mobley's back carrying a sack and holding a loaded crossbow. He fired an arrow at one of the advancing Délons, striking it in the mouth. It continued toward us undaunted. Roy dropped the sack to the ground and our weapons spilled out. Wes, Miles, and Pepper grabbed the crossbows. I picked up J.J. and ran to Ajax's side. With a quick, unthinking thrust, I drove the sword through the Délon's head. The creature flailed about and a putrid gas emanated from the open wound. Ajax rolled off the Délon.

Hollis looked up at me. "Interesting."

"You said that already." I pulled the sword out of the Délon's head and wielded it in front of me. The four Délons advancing toward us had become eight.

Wes, Miles, and Pepper readied their crossbows. They fired in unison. The arrows flew true and struck three of the Délons, but they had no effect. Reya gathered all the arrows and waited to hand them out as needed.

"Fall back," I said. "We have to get to the zoo."

I turned to Hollis. "C'mon, Doc. Time to go."

He stood and for the first time showed some concern, when he took in the carnage on the field behind him. "Oh my."

Wes, Miles, Reya, and Pepper wasted no time in falling back. They quickly backed toward the loading dock, their weapons loaded and ready to fire. Pepper made a small detour to retrieve his mini flamethrower and then fell back in line.

"Go with them," I said to Hollis. I turned to Kimball. "Kimball, wagon." He started for the loading dock, but stopped. He barked once. The puppies yelped and chased after him.

Roy fired another arrow from horseback, but something spooked Mr. Mobley, and the arrow flew far off target. The Tiger horse reared and bounded toward the scene of the massacre.

"Roy!" I shouted.

He had no control over Mr. Mobley. The horse approached the virtual sea of Délons with Roy frantically trying to reload his crossbow.

"Roy," Reya yelled. I turned to see Pepper and Miles dragging her to the loading dock.

I stepped forward. I had to help him. I had to. The fire was in my gut to race after him, but… I hesitated because helping him meant most certainly that I would die, and that terrified me.

The first Délon seized upon Mr. Mobley and drove him to the ground. Roy tumbled to the artificial turf, still holding tightly to his crossbow. With cat-like reflexes, he jumped to his feet and fired an arrow into another approaching Délon. The creature went down, but another one emerged and leapt for Roy. He dropped the crossbow and pulled an arrow from his quiver. The Délon grabbed his arm. Roy stabbed the creature in its dead eye with the arrow, and then reached for his knife, but before he could pull it free another Délon was on top of him.

"Roy!" I shouted again. Finally, I shook the paralyzing fear and headed for him, but Ajax stepped in front of me.

He pushed me back. "Go zoo now," he signed.

I tried to run around him, but he pushed me to the ground. "Get out of my way! Roy's in trouble!" I didn't shout. I screamed.

"Go zoo now," he signed. The hair on his shoulders and back flared. He meant business.

Roy shouted. "C'mon you ugly mothers! C'mon." He had broken away from the two that had hold of him and was holding his knife.

"Yes," I said standing, relieved.

He hooted and raised the knife in victory. Another Délon blindsided him from behind and shoved him to the ground. "Roy!" This time I was determined to get to him. Ajax had other plans. He roared and displayed his fangs. The eight Délons were just ten yards away. I felt a hand on my shoulder. Startled I turned to see Wes staring at me.

"There's nothin' we can do. Let's go."

I didn't want to believe it. I could do something. I could save him. I was the leader. It was my job. Without being aware of it, I started to cry. I'd failed. I let Roy down when he needed me. I let my cowardice prevent me from sacrificing myself for him. I was no warrior. I was a scared little kid who had no business on the battlefield.

Ajax pushed me back again. I looked at him with all the hate I could muster, and he understood. He knew exactly how I felt.

Wes yanked me back. "Now!" He was as steadfast as Ajax.

I surrendered and followed Ajax and Wes to the loading dock, listening to Roy's pleas for help as we went.

It was a solemn trip to the zoo. I sat in the back of the wagon trying to come to grips with what I had done, or not done as the case may be. I didn't want to talk to anyone. I wanted to stew in self-pity and crawl under a rock.

Reya rode atop Chubby next to the wagon. She alternated between fits of blinding tears and looks of rage directed at me. She had witnessed the whole thing, and she knew I was a fraud. No words were spoken between us, but we shared an understanding that she would not let my cowardice go unpunished. Someday, somehow, she would pay me back, and I couldn't blame her.

For some reason, the Délons did not follow us out of the arena. I'm not sure if they could have overtaken us, but they didn't even try. It was as if they understood we had a rendezvous with the Takers, and they didn't want to interfere. It was even more of a reason to think we were being set up, but we were in too deep to turn back now. We had to follow through.

We had sent Pepper and Miles to scout out the road ahead. They came back and reported it was clear sailing. Pepper saw me sulking and maneuvered his mount next to the wagon on the opposite side of Reya.

He showed all the tact of a man who hurt other people for a living, "Get over it, kid. I lost a lot of men back there and you don't see me crying about it."

Reya fumed. "That was my brother."

Pepper stuttered. "Oh, well… Sorry…"

"This little twerp just let him die." I didn't look at her, but I knew she was referring to me. She kicked her horse and road ahead of the caravan.

Pepper waited until she was out of earshot. "Don't let her get to you, kid. She'll calm down after some time has passed."

"She's right." There was no other way I could've said it. "I let him die."

Pepper shifted in his saddle. He looked at me with a genuine look of compassion that I did not think he was capable of. "Show me a hero, and I will write you a tragedy." He winked at me. "F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote that." I gave him a strange look. "What'd you think, I was some dumb jock who never went to my English Lit class?"

"I'm no hero," I said.

"An old coach once told me that brave men overcome fear while fear overcomes cowards, and no man always overcomes." He smiled. "Fear has to win out every now and then, kid. It's how the world works." He leaned forward in his saddle. "It's even beaten me a few times." He looked at his watch. "Now, take the next five minutes or so to feel sorry for yourself and then snap out of it because things aren't going to get any easier." He moved his horse to the front of the caravan.

He was right. I couldn't afford to go into the zoo feeling the way I did. It wouldn't do me, and more importantly, any of the others any good. I closed my eyes tight and buried my morose feelings deep inside. I stood and took the horses' reins from Lou. She smiled, relieved that I was back, for the time being anyway.

We pulled up in front of the zoo's entrance. Ajax was eager to enter, but I urged more vigilance. Remembering my conversation with Wes about what had become of the zoo animals, we had no idea what was waiting for us on the other side of the gates. An abundance of caution was called for. Everyone armed themselves, and formed a tight-knit group. We all entered the zoo with Ajax and Kimball leading the way.

Some of us were more surprised than others when we were greeted by a large African elephant on the other side of the entrance in the Flamingo Plaza. It plodded toward us with a strange curiosity, glaring at us, inspecting us. Ajax approached it and to my amazement began signing to the hulking gray beast. He was trying to talk to the elephant. What's more amazing is that the elephant understood what Ajax was saying. It nodded its massive head, raised its trunk, bellowed a trumpet-like blast, and stepped back to let us pass.

The pink flamingos bobbed their heads from their habitat and watched us with a great deal of interest as we journeyed farther in. Unlike every other town and community we had traveled through over the last couple of days, the zoo was alive. The animals had not only survived, they had thrived. There was no explaining it. They had no food, no caretakers, but they were definitely flourishing within the confines of the zoo. Some of the animals had escaped their habitats and were roaming about the grounds with little or no fear of us as we traversed from one exhibit to the other. A male lion crossed our path outside the Masai Mara habitat, but he only gave us a passing glance before moving toward a grazing zebra. Once he was in striking distance of the black and white feast, he simply lay down and yawned. He had no interest in eating the zebra. It was a little disconcerting to see such peace among species that did not usually live in harmony with each other.

Ajax led us through the zoo like he had lived there his entire life. He knew exactly where he was going. I even thought I detected looks from the other animals that suggested they had been expecting the great ape. A black rhino nodded in recognition at our presence, a giraffe seemed to point us out to another giraffe as we approached. They both bowed their heads as we passed. It was as if they had been waiting for us.

Outside the Ford African Rain Forest, gathered around a massive bronze statue of Willie B., the late legendary silverback of Zoo Atlanta, were 23 gorillas of various sizes and ages. Ajax loomed toward them stoically. We stood back and watched as a larger, more powerfully built silverback than Ajax met him in front of the group of apes. The two circled each other. The other gorillas screamed and hooted. It looked as if the two silverbacks would tear into each other at any moment. Instead, they stopped, grunted, and embraced each other in a bear hug that few bears could survive. In an extraordinary scene of joy, the other apes converged on the two silverbacks and emitted deafening sounds of happiness. It was a reunion unlike any I had every seen. Yet, could it have been a reunion? Ajax had been in Dr. Fine's care since he was an infant. How could it be that these gorillas knew him?

Just when I thought I could not be more confused by the gorillas' behavior, something even more astonishing happened. The silverback that first greeted Ajax began to sign to him. Ajax signed back. They were having a conversation. Some of the other gorillas signed, as well and joined in on the conversation. A group of gorillas with no known exposure to American Sign Language were using it like they had been using it their whole lives.

Lou put her hand on my shoulder. "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

I nodded.

"What's going on?" Pepper asked.

"I have no idea," I said.

"What are they saying?" Hollis stepped up to the front.

Lou scanned the group. "I don't know exactly. They're all signing at once. Something about a theater."

Over to our left was the Elder's Tree Theater. "They must mean that one," I said. I broke from the group with Pepper and Miles in tow. We advanced on the small open-air theater with caution. Once we reached the perimeter, we could see a group of orangutans sitting on the stage surrounding a massive white-haired animal with its back to us. It wasn't until it turned that I realized what it was. It was a Taker.

"What the hell?" Pepper said.

Furious, I ran back to the others. "C'mon, we're leaving." Lou, Wes, and the others gave me a look like I had lost my mind. "Ajax sold us out."

"What are you talking about?" Lou asked.

I grabbed her by the arm and dragged her to the theater. "See."

The Taker was chattering its teeth now. The sound sent a chill down my spine. Lou's chin dropped. She became visibly shaken. "What…"

"Looks like our gorilla friend was in charge of dinner," I said.

I felt a hot rush of wind on my back. I turned to find Ajax and the other silverback looking back at me. Wes and the others kept their distance.

Ajax started to sign. Lou interpreted. "Not take. Keep."

"What?" The white Taker stood and circled the stage. It sniffed the air. It was becoming more and more excited with each passing moment.

Lou said with a thinly veiled sense of horror, "That's a Keeper?"

The orangutans began to scream and dart back and forth as the white monster's unrest grew.

I looked at Ajax. "What are we supposed to do?"

"Keeper protect baby," Lou said as Ajax signed. "Keeper save Storyteller."

Pepper chimed in. "Something don't smell right. I wouldn't trust that thing with the baby."

The other silverback rushed Pepper and roared. Pepper cowered back.

I studied Ajax. He had saved my life. He knew more about what was going on than the rest of us. It seemed to be absolute folly not to trust him now, but hearing that familiar chatter coming from the Keeper, I could not help but have reservations. My mind flashed back to Mrs. Chalmers walking down the stairs of the attic, giving her baby one last look before she entered the hallway and gave herself to the Takers. "He's your responsibility now," she said. I thought about Stevie Spangler's thrashing legs dangling from the Taker's mouth. The monster had consumed him in front of my eyes, swallowing him whole. The Keeper on the stage matched that Taker in size and ferocity. The only difference was the coloring.

I took a deep breath. "Stay here," I said to Lou. Before she could ask where I was going, I entered the theater. I slowly walked up the outer aisle. I hung on loosely to J.J. My legs ached. My chest hurt from the pounding of my heart. The Keeper locked me in an eye-to-eye stare as I approached. Its short fleshy snout raised, its massive nostrils flaring, it sniffed the air getting a bead on my scent. The orangutans moved to the front of the stage. They bounced and wailed, trying to discourage me from coming any closer. Ajax knuckle-walked down the middle aisle with the other silverback behind him. They both hoot-growled, and the orangutans calmed in response. They moved to the rear of the stage.

I stood at the base of the stage and looked up at the massive creature. It did not have the greasy coating the Takers had. Its hair looked soft and silky. Ajax moved beside me and signed something to the Keeper. It breathed in deeply through its nose and let out a short guttural chuckle.