Outbreak: The Hunger (6 page)

They’d parked the car next to the field.  Jason had just been about to get out when Sean asked: 
What are you doing?

I’m getting out of the fucking car so we can get these animals,
Jason replied.  Sean’s arm had tightened around Jason’s. 

What?  Look at them, they’re dead,
Sean had practically whined.

Are you fucking crazy?Those animals are nuts and pumped full of some kind of chemical.  How do you know they’re dead?

Just look at them.  None of them are breathing.

Jason had hesitated before saying,
Stay there a second.

He’d opened his door wide enough to get his arm through, then reached down and picked up a rock before tossing it into the field with the animals. It made a squishy, dull thud noise as it hit a dog and then bounced and hit a rabbit.

Sean and Jason had watched to see if any of the animals would move.  They hadn’t.  They’d then looked at each other and, without saying a word, both decided to get their gear on, grab the cages, and collect the animals. 
Man,
Sean had said, breaking the silence.
I kinda wish we had one of those flamethrowers.

Jason had looked at him incredulously
. What?
Sean had then asked.
These animals are freaking me the hell out.

Let’s not forget that these animals are the victims.  They may be violent now, but they need our help more than ever.  Let’s go collect them and take them over to that shelter.

Then what do we do?

“We go see Janet and get you checked out.” Janet was a third-year medical student that was also a member of Animal Rights First.  She was a great doctor who loved animals, and best of all, wouldn’t report Sean’s wounds to the police.

They’d gotten out of the car and had gone to the trunk to get the protective gear on.  The whole time, they didn’t take their eyes off the animals in the field.
By the way,
Jason had then asked.
How’re you feeling?
 

Ya know something,
Sean had then replied,
it doesn’t hurt at all.  The only time it hurt was when the damn monkey was actually biting me, but like ten minutes later, it didn’t hurt at all.
 

They’d finished putting on their gear.  They were both wearing the suits that attack dog trainers wear.  They’d had thick pieces of rubber-covered foam protecting them from head to toe.  Only their hands had been exposed.  The protection the suit offered was too bulky for the work they needed to do.  So after throwing a bunch of cages into the field, they’d walked toward the animals slowly.  The field, it turned out, was actually a large piece of untouched land that the city hadn’t yet developed.  It was full of rocks, sand, wild flowers, and weeds.  Jason had felt like an idiot for thinking it was part of a ranch.

They’d walked about twenty feet into the field before coming upon the first animal: a typical, run-of-the-mill house cat.  It looked dead.  Its eyes had been closed and hadn’t looked like it was breathing.  Sean and Jason had looked at each other before Sean nodded,prodding Jason on to take this first animal.  Jason had been sweating like a fat man at a physical in that rubber protective suit.  He’d swallowed hard and knelt down next to the cat,squinting while trying to see if the cat was breathing.  Its chest hadn't move.  He wasn’t sure what would have been creepier:  if the cat and all the other animals were playing dead, or if they actually were dead.  If they were dead, what the fuck had killed them?  Whatever it was, was it contagious? Jason had arranged the cage next to the cat before opening the door.  He’d touched the cat quickly to see if it would react.  When it hadn’t, he’d scooped it up and threw it into the cage.   He’d slammed the door, looked up at Sean, and then said:
You can breathe now, Sean.Man, they sure look and act fucking dead.  You got the next one.I’m taking this one back to the truck.

About six feet away from the cat, Jason had picked up a monkey: the same kind that had attacked Sean in the lab.  He’d kicked it with his padded foot, thinking how fucked up this all was. Its eyes had then bolted opened as it jumped up and wrapped its arms around Sean’s forearm.  The monkey tore apart the protective padding on the sleeve and bit into his hand.  Sean had screamed, but couldn’t shake the monkey off of his arm.  It sunk its teeth deeper into Sean’s forearm and began to tear away chunks of his flesh. 

Jason had ran over with a tree branch cocked back like a baseball bat. 
Hold the fucker away from your body,
he’d yelled.  Sean had thrust his arm away from his body and Jason had swung hard, connecting with the monkey’s ribcage.  They’d both heard the unmistakable crack of breaking ribs, but the monkey hadn’t loosen its grip  one bit.  A few feet away was a tree.  Sean had run over to it and started smacking the monkey against it.  The first few smacks struck the monkey in the broken ribs, but again, it hadn’t  seemed to notice.  Sean had then twisted his arm and started beating the monkey on the head.  After a few hard knocks, he’d heard a large crack and looked to see that he had split the animal’s head open.  Jason had run over, grabbed the monkey, and threw it to the ground. 

Jesus Christ,
Sean had gasped, wincing through his teeth.
That mother fucker was fast.

Let me see how bad it is,
Jason had replied.

No way, dude. There’s no way in hell I’m taking off any of this gear until we are outta this field.  Besides, the pain is already going away.

Going away,
Jason had answered. 
How’s that even possible?  That fucker was on your arm not five-seconds ago.  Is it numb?  Is that why you don’t feel anything?

No,
Sean had answered. 
It’s not numb at all.  There’s just no pain.

Jason had managed to force a smile onto his face.  He hadn’t wanted to scare Sean, but that just wasn’t normal.  He should’ve be in excruciating pain.  Just another fucked up piece of the puzzle. 
Well, good,
he’d said.
Let’s finish up here so we can get you to Janet.

They’d both turned to collect more animals and noticed that the spot where they’d flung the monkey was empty.  All that remained was a bloody wet spot.  The monkey was gone.  They’d just looked at each other and went to work.

One by one, they’d placed the unconscious/dead animals into the cages.  There were no other incidents with another animal suddenly regaining consciousness.  By the time they finished rounding up the animals, they counted twenty-two in total, and the sun had risen.  They decided not to postpone the ordeal any longer and went straight to the animal rescue in Hyde Park.  Jason had already had his story in place: they’d received the animals from a veterinarian’s office that was closing and had vowed to find homes for them all  Sean had liked the story, It was short, with little details to get confused.

-----

The train jerks as it pulls away from the platform, jarring Jason back to reality.  He again looks over at Julie and wonders why she is on this train.  He is here because this is the last place he knows Sean visited.  They were talking on the phone when the line went dead.  Now Sean is missing. 
This has been a really fucked up couple of days
, Jason thinks.

5

The kids are all giggling and excited as the train pulls away from the platform.  Parents are smiling, talking on cell phones, and engaged in conversations with their kids.  Fi sits close to me, looking around.  We know every square inch of both the train and the path.  The total ride spans about fifteen to twenty miles.  After leaving the platform, the train passes by some large pens holding long horns, ostriches, and donkeys.  After those animals, the trees begin to get thicker and we pass by the parking lot into a more remote and isolated area.  A slight decline in the tracks reveal that the path was cut through a wall of rock.  It’s a very beautiful and serene ride and it’s easy to forget you’re in Texas.  The train will take a rather sharp turn to the left to reveal the large, sprawling, green hills of the Hill Country in the following moments.

Fi loves looking around at the high rock walls, all the different kinds of wild flowers, and the old trees.  There are also little wooden cutout displays of gnomes having afternoon tea, ladybugs playing checkers, and leftover scenes from Thanksgiving and Christmas that have since become another part of the ride.

“Look,” I say, pointing to the parking lot as we slowly start to build up speed.  “Van you see our car?”

“Yeah, Daddy.
” 
I know she isn’t even looking.  She is looking at the fake fossils that were placed alongside the tracks and hung up on the trees by the zoo staff. 

The zoo staff
, I think.  I hadn’t realized it until this moment, but there are usually around fifteen volunteers working at the zoo.  They feed the animals, clean the cages, maintain the grounds, and do all the things required to keep the zoo open.  Today, not including the volunteer driving the train, I’ve seen four,  maybe five volunteers. 
Just another mystery to add to this fucked up day
.

As the train passes the parking lot and further away from the more populated zoo grounds, I turn  to notice the floppy-hatted girl feverishly texting away on her phone.  I don’t know what it is about her, but I feel there is a story to her. 

“Look, Daddy,” Fi says as she grabs my arm.  I knew exactly what she is pointing at.  A split second later, we drive past a fake coyote skull hanging on a tree.  Fi looks at me with a big smile on her face, as if she’s just seen it for the first time.  “I love that thing, Daddy.  What’s it called again?”

“It’s called a fos . . .” I notice something off to the left, out of the corner of my eye.  My eyes grow wide when I am able to focus on the image about fifteen feet to the left of where we are.  “Come here, sweetie,” I say to Fi as I hug her close, making sure her head is pressed against my chest.  She doesn’t need to see what I am looking at.

Off to the left, in a little clearing, are about eight to ten animals.  I assume they are laying down, just as I assume they are real.  What I am looking at are the missing tigers, the bear, and the monkeys , but they all look dead.  The other parents on the train aren’t as quick, and their kids start noticing the animals.

“Look at all the animals over there, Mommy,” one little boy says.  “Why are they all asleep?”  His mom just stares, thinking what every other parent must be: 
What the hell are tigers, a bear, and some monkeys doing all the way out here?  Are they dead?

When Fi hears the other kids asking questions, she looks up just in time to see the train passing the animals.  “Is that a new display, Daddy?” she asks.  “Why is it so far away that we can’t see it better?”

A new display?  That must be it.  Austin is full of local artists and maybe one of them donated their time and skills to creating a realistic animal scene for the train ride.  Maybe it’s just a coincidence that the artist re-created the exact animals that were missing from their cages and displays.

Artist my ass
. 
Those animals sure looked real
. 

“Daddy,” Fi says. “Are those animals injured?”

“No, sweetie.  They probably got out of their cages when the volunteers were cleaning them.  Then when the volunteers found them they shot them with a dart to make them fall asleep.” 

What bullshit
.  Those animals were real, and they looked dead.

About ten feet in front of us there is a small clearing, and if you look back at the right moment, you’d be able to see that clearing with all the animals littered about.  I turn to Fi and, ask her what she wants to do after we leave the zoo to preoccupy her.  It’s my last chance to see into that clearing.  Talking to Fi, I let my eyes drift to the clearing.  A split second later, we are past it, but it’s too late.  All the hair stands on my arms.  I could have sworn that the dead animals were all gone.  That was impossible.  I would have seen at least one or two volunteers dragging the bodies away.

Adrenaline starts pumping through my veins as panic kicks in.  I look down at Fi and am positive that we aren’t safe.  I don’t know what the threat is, but I know there is one.  I want to get off this train and out of the zoo, but now we are stuck and there’s an awful lot of weird shit going on.  I turn around to look at the floppy-hatted girl.  She is staring right at me, her cell phone five inches from her ear.  She was making a phone call when she saw the exact same thing. The apparently-dead animals that, moments ago, were strewn all over the clearing, are now gone.

6

I’m glad Fi and I are facing backwards.  I can hear the other parents behind us talking and wondering what exactly they saw in that clearing.  I can tell that most of the families didn’t walk around the zoo before the train ride.  They probably arrived ten minutes to eleven o’clock and came straight to the train depot.  They didn’t know all the weird shit that was going on all morning long.  The aggressive animals, the abduction of a zoo volunteer by the military, and all the missing animals.  They only saw the one isolated incident of the animals lying dead-like out in that field.

The train continues.

The sun is strong and bright now.  Much hotter out today than the news said it would be.  Sunlight really isn’t my friend anymore, not after my eye surgery.  Even though I only had a corneal graft to treat keratoconus in my left eye, the procedure made both eyes extremely sensitive to light.