The Secret Zoo (8 page)

N
oah knew he couldn't hold his breath a second longer. At that moment, two penguins bit into his jacket collar and dragged him to the surface. He gasped for air and struggled to tread water. His drenched running shoes felt like ten-pound weights strapped to his feet.

Penguins were still diving off the ice. They swam around him, swirling the water with the powerful strokes of their flippers. They looked like wild black-and-white torpedoes with wings.

Terrified, Noah struggled to think of Megan. He imagined her face and her smile. Megan needed him. As
penguin-made waves splashed Noah's face, he forced himself to be brave. He was growing colder every moment. He needed to get out of the water, but the bank was too steep. His only hope was to swim around the icy island and find a spot with a more gradual incline.

He took a deep breath and plunged forward, swimming alongside the penguins with a sloppy breaststroke. To his right, he could see through the glass wall of the aquarium into the room that he'd stood in so often. How weird to be inside looking out!

He surfaced for air and swam toward the corner, where there was no glass—only steel and concrete. All the corners had been built this way to support the huge aquarium. They were the only spots that blocked the visitors' view. At each corner, the bottom half of the icy island stopped short of the wall, while the top half stretched completely across the channel, creating a fully submerged tunnel that connected two sides of the square aquarium.

A second before reaching the corner, Noah dunked his head and swam into the shadowy tunnel, kicking and paddling and doing his best to ignore the penguins bumping against him. He turned his body with the turn of the corner and then swam out into the other side of the aquarium, where he thrashed his way to the surface and gasped for air.

It took all of his strength just to tread water. He was
freezing, and the stuffing in his jacket felt like lead. The penguins continued to torpedo around him. One jumped over his head, and another squeezed through his legs.

Swimming in the crowd was Podgy, looking even bigger in the water than on the ground. Floating with his head and back above the surface, he seemed lazy and unconcerned. He circled the boy so closely that his flipper swept against him.

Almost choking, Noah managed to say, “What…do you…want from me?”

Podgy swam behind Noah, plunged through his legs, and bolted up with Noah situated across his wide back.

“What are you doing?” Noah squealed. He instinctively wrapped his arms around Podgy's fat body and grabbed two handfuls of blubber on the penguin's neck. “I don't…trust you! I can't—”

Podgy lurched forward. Noah lay with his stomach flat against the bird's feathered back. As water spilled off his cheeks, the scout wrestled himself into a stable position. The wet penguin was so slippery! All of a sudden, Podgy plunged. Noah barely had time to inhale and hold his breath. In seconds, penguin and boy were speeding through the water several feet below the surface. Noah's legs dangled behind Podgy's rear, and he fought the overwhelming urge just to let go.

They traveled into the tunnel at the second corner
of the aquarium. Darkness enveloped them. A moment later, they burst out on the other side, and Podgy sailed into the air in a graceful arc. Noah took a deep breath before they splashed back down.

Podgy swerved to avoid the slower penguins, and Noah ducked to keep from striking his head against the birds above them. The big penguin swiftly covered the length of the third wall, rounded the next corner, and emerged on the fourth and final side of the aquarium. The penguin porpoised into the air, and again Noah inhaled and held his breath.

This time, Podgy dived to the bottom of the tank. He traveled so close to the floor that Noah's toes skipped off the concrete. The penguins ahead dodged to either side of the aquarium to open a path.

When Podgy and Noah swam into the fourth corner, Podgy jolted and Noah nearly slid off his back. Though it was dark, he could faintly make out a big hole in the side of the ice island, but not an ordinary big hole. It was a cave—a hidden cave! Podgy tucked his flippers against his sides and headed straight toward it. Noah shut his eyes and squeezed the penguin tightly. The two of them slipped inside the cave and left the world that Noah knew behind.

“R
iiichiiieee!
” Ella barely had time to scream before the floor stopped falling. She was somewhere in the middle of “
iiieee!”
when they hit something with a solid
thump
! The impact sent the two scouts tumbling, and Ella wound up with her face pressed into the ground. She raised her head and spat out a mouthful of sand.

“Richie!” she called out. “You okay?”

Richie lay beside her in a contorted position. He looked as if he were trying to massage his back with his own feet.

“Sort of,” he said.

They found themselves in a dirt tunnel that was just wide enough to hold their bodies. Illuminated by
overhead lights set in the walls, the tunnel continued straight for about thirty yards and branched at least a dozen times. Some of the branches were on the left; others, on the right. The adjoining crawlways were generally circular, and their diameters varied: one foot, two feet, three feet. They were capable of holding animals of different sizes. The scouts seemed to be in a central tunnel, a place where other, similar passages connected. It ended at what appeared to be a curtain—a velvet curtain with thick folds.

“Uh…Ella?” Richie said.

“Yeah?”

“Why is a curtain hanging there…in the ground?”

“Beats me,” Ella answered.

The ground was crowded with prairie dogs. The skittish animals were running back and forth, diving in and out of the passageways, and acting half crazed as they jumped and bumped into one another. They yipped, squealed, and made an enormous fuss.

A noise erupted behind them, and the scouts peered over their shoulders. The platform that had lowered them into the ground was rising on top of a pole. The pole rotated and threaded the platform back into place, filling the tunnels with dust and cutting them off from the world above.

Richie coughed and muttered, “It's a machine. But how?”

“I don't know,” Ella said. “But there's only one way to go now.”

The two scouts commenced crawling down the main tunnel, their backs occasionally scraping the low ceiling. Prairie dogs ran beneath them and circled their arms. Ella watched one crash into the rump of a wider prairie dog and then tumble down. It stood up, angrily shook off the dirt, and scampered away.

“Where are they going?” Richie asked.

“I don't know. Back and forth.”

“Back and forth to where?”

“I don't know that either. But if we keep crawling, I bet we'll find out.”

As they crawled past the mouth of a connecting tunnel, they saw it was covered with a velvet curtain similar to the one ahead of them. Second and third tunnels weren't. Ella didn't understand. And judging by Richie's breathy “Huh?” he didn't either.

They twisted and wriggled through the prairie dogs. One ran beneath Ella, brushing its short, pointy tail across her face. Ella hollered, and the prairie dog yipped, as if to say, “Sorry!” or maybe, “Deal with it!” Then it scurried down the tunnel, wagging its furry fanny.

“These gophers have some nerve,” Ella exclaimed.

A prairie dog sprang from a hole and ran across her hands, yipping all the way.

“What am I? Invisible?” she said.

As they neared the curtain, they saw it was red with tassels. It completely covered the passage.

“Follow me,” Ella said.

They pushed through, one at a time. On the other side of the curtain, the tunnel widened to twice its size. A few yards ahead, the cave came to an end, and sunlight poured in.

“The sun?” Ella furrowed her brow. “We're in a cave. How can it…?” Her voice trailed off.

“How can it be sunny?” Richie finished her question. “It's the middle of the night!”

They stood up and dusted off their pants.

“Are we…Inside?”

“I think so,” Richie said.

They stood in awe. Prairie dogs still raced around them. Richie straightened his giant eyeglasses and headed for the exit.

“C'mon,” he said in a deep voice. “Let's find our friends.”

Ella hurried to catch him. Together they stepped outside—outside into the Inside.

W
ater rushed against Noah's face and pulled back his hair. His feet repeatedly slapped the walls and ceiling of the tunnel. Each time Podgy rounded a bend, Noah worried that he'd slip off the penguin's back and drown. He couldn't figure out where he was. Inside the block of ice? In the ground? Who had built this secret tunnel? And why?

Something brushed against his face. It was soft and smooth, like velvet. Just as Noah realized that he was about to run out of breath again, a spot of light appeared in the distance. Podgy worked his flippers harder than ever to gain speed. As they swam forward, the light grew continuously until Noah realized it was an opening in
the ceiling of the cave. A beam of light streamed through the hole.

Podgy porpoised through the opening in a glistening arc of rainbow colors as water sprinkled around him in the sunlight. He landed belly first on a sheet of ice and skidded forward at full speed. Screaming, Noah rode atop Podgy as if he were on a toboggan that had veered out of control. Fifty feet ahead, they slid to a stop.

Noah lay still for several seconds, too stunned to speak. He wiped the icy water off his brow and looked around. Wherever he was, the place looked like the North Pole. They'd stopped in the middle of a frozen lake surrounded by snow-peaked mountains. Penguins were scattered everywhere. Noah saw them on the mountainsides—black freckles dotting the white hillside. The sky was blue and cloudless.

“Where am I?” Noah gasped.

Podgy couldn't answer, of course, but that was okay, because Noah figured it out himself. He was in Arctic Town—the real Arctic Town.

Podgy flapped his flippers briefly and waddled off in a rush. He looked like a normal penguin, not one that could shuttle a boy to a snowy fairyland. Rubbing his arms, Noah scurried up beside him.

“You
are
on my side.” Noah surveyed the incredible snowy landscape and added, “Podgy, I'm freezing.”

Another penguin, almost as large as Podgy, dashed between the two of them and dived into the ice hole that they'd just sailed out of.

“Where's he going?” Noah asked. “Not the zoo! Why would he—? Wait a minute! That's your replacement? He's taking your place…at the zoo…so nobody will notice that a penguin is missing!”

Podgy kept waddling forward.

“This explains the part in Megan's journal about seeing three bears instead of two. The third bear was Blizzard's replacement. They didn't change places fast enough, so they both were in the zoo at the same time!”

Podgy waved his flippers as if to indicate that Noah was on to something.

“Holy smokes! What is this place?”

Suddenly little tremors shook the ice. In the distance, something was charging toward them. Noah couldn't make out what it was.

“Uh…Podgy?” he mumbled. “Is that something we should be worried about?”

As the figure drew near, the ice downright quaked. When it finally shot into view, Noah discovered what it was. A polar bear.

“Blizzard!” Noah hollered with delight. He turned to Podgy and explained, “Blizzard and I—we've met.”

Blizzard threw his snout toward the sky and roared. He
slowed down, but his footfalls continued to shake the ice and rock Podgy about. The king-size polar bear stopped in front of Noah and let out a friendly grunt. Noah reached out and stroked his fur as if he were a harmless pet. Blizzard nudged his snout against the boy's arm.

“I made it, Blizzard!”

Blizzard slowly lowered his stomach to the ground. His intention was clear: he wanted Noah to climb on his back. When Noah didn't move, the bear swung his big snout around and nudged the boy's rear end, bringing him closer.

“First Podgy, and now you?” Noah said. He grabbed two handfuls of fur, climbed up Blizzard's side, and mounted him like a horse. “Giddyup!”

Blizzard swiftly rose to his feet and pitched his weight forward. Noah felt the bear's massive muscles working beneath him.

“Heigh-ho! Blizzard away!”

Though Noah had said this as a joke, the bear broke into a serious run. With each lunge forward, Noah bounced up and down and sideways. Podgy scurried after them, trying to run but succeeding only in waddling quickly. With his flippers stretched out to his sides, he looked like a miniature airplane tooling down the runway.

Noah cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, “C'mon, Podgy!”

The penguin raced after them, but he couldn't keep up.

“Blizzard,” Noah said, “I need to get out of this cold!”

Blizzard growled and picked up speed. Noah glanced over his shoulder. Poor Podgy had shrunk into a black dot on the ice. Noah felt sorry for him—sorry that he'd been born a fat bird who couldn't fly.

Blizzard raced forward. A snowy shoreline appeared ahead, populated by a crowd of at least fifty penguins. When Blizzard approached, the birds were standing idle. Seconds later, Noah witnessed something remarkable. The penguins divided themselves into two equal groups, creating a narrow aisle between them. Then one small penguin waddled to the end of the aisle. He looked toward the sky, and the other penguins looked toward him. Suddenly he charged down the path. When he neared the edge of the crowd, the other penguins chased after him. Together the penguins raced across the ice.

“What's that?” Noah muttered. “A game?”

The small penguin jumped and flapped his flippers. Noah's eyes widened. His jaw dropped. The penguin started to fly! Not very high—perhaps five feet above the ice—but he was unmistakably airborne.

“No way!” Noah called from his bear-top view.

The bird struggled to stay in the air. As he beat his flippers, his body jerked…rose…dipped; jerked…rose…and dipped. He was sloppy and uncoordinated, but he
managed to stay up. The other penguins leaped into the air, only to crash down to the ice, somersault, and tumble over one another.

“It's a flight school!” Noah said. “The penguins are learning to fly!”

Within seconds, all the penguins had crashed and turned into a mound of rolling blubber and flailing flippers. Only the small penguin managed to stay in the air for a while. He sailed as high as ten feet before he, too, crashed to the ice.

“No way!”

Blizzard slowed down at the shore of the frozen lake and stomped onto the frosty white land. He and Noah were surrounded on all sides by snow-covered hills and distant ice-capped mountains.

“Where are we going, Bliz? I need to—”

Noah's eyes focused on the details of the bright white landscape, and he found his answer. To the right, a huge igloo that had blended in with the snow became visible. At one end it had an arched opening, which Noah figured must be the doorway. Blizzard padded to the igloo, and Noah hunched down so they both could fit through the archway.

The igloo was warm. A colorful Oriental rug lay on the floor. A bundle of warm, dry clothing and a pile of blankets were heaped in the middle. Noah kicked up his legs
and slid down Blizzard's side. Shivering, he walked to the bundle and found a note pinned to the blanket on top.

“The City of Species?” Noah said. “What's that?”

He disregarded the note for the time being and reached for what was urgent: the bundle of warm, dry clothes. He picked up a fresh towel, big enough to cover a lion, and stripped off his wet jacket and shirt, shivering madly. When he undid the button on his pants, he looked at Blizzard and said, “Do you mind? I know you're a bear and everything, but still…”

Blizzard rolled his head to one side and gazed out the arched doorway.

“Thanks,” Noah said.

He worked the towel over his body, rubbing vehemently. Once he was dry, he pulled two heavy blankets from the pile, dropped down on the rug, and dived between the folds of the covers.

“I'm so
c-c-cooo-ld-d
,” he moaned.

Under the weight of the blankets, Noah was soon warmed by the heat of his own body.

Blizzard came near. At eye level, Noah had a clear view of his paws. They were big enough to stomp out a campfire, and his claws were sharp enough to slice a water-melon. The bear dropped his body and nudged in beside Noah.

Not a moment later, Podgy waddled through the entrance to the igloo.

“Hey,
P-P-Podgy
,” Noah mumbled. “
N-n-nice
that you
c-c-could
make it.”

Podgy aimed straight for the bundle. He snatched a blanket with his bill, turned around, walked on top of Noah, and dropped the cover evenly across his shoulders.

“
Th-th-thanks
, Podge!”

Noah nestled so close to Blizzard that his knees slipped into the bear's furry blubber. The great animal gently laid his head across Noah's body and wrapped him in his long neck. Noah could hear Blizzard breathing; he could even feel the bursts of warm air across his back. The chill continued to ease out of his body.

Noah realized how exhausted he was. It was the middle of the night at home—wherever that was. A quick nap would help him in his next adventure. He closed his eyes and dozed off, letting himself slip into dreamland.

In his mind, he found a memory of his sister and held it. He pictured Megan's face and her smile. Love for her filled his heart as he fell asleep in the warmth of his strange and wonderful new friends.