Zoo (22 page)

“
We’re almost done with
the shelter, if you can believe it.” I point to the three walls we
constructed over the course of the morning. “We just need a roof,
and we’ll have a lean-to. If we needed to move, we could break it
down and take it with us.”

“
Sounds good. Let me grab
something to eat, and then I’ll help out with the roof. I’m
starving.” He pushes the rock out of the way and tosses the beans
in the hole. After he digs around in the hole, he pulls out his
lunch of the apple and two crackers. He leans back against a
massive rock that’s part of the overhang. “So what was it you were
saying I would do, Emma?” he asks.

I blush. “Oh. I was just telling Victoria
that you offered to hunt when you got back. She said she would do
it, but I thought you wanted to go.”

“
I don’t really think it’s
safe for you to go roaming the woods by yourself, Victoria. Anyone
could snatch you and we’d never know it,” he says to her, and I
agree.

“
Well, I can give you a
few snares to put out if you want. They’re easy enough to make, and
we got all the fixins right here.” Her twang has kicked up a notch
since we’ve been out here in her element. It makes her more
likable, and that makes me smile.

“
Let’s try the snares
first. It’s safer than having one of us off wandering around out
there for long periods of time,” Kale decides.

I agree with him, so Victoria works on a
couple of snares while Kale and I piece together a roof for our
little shack. It comes together quickly. We all work on putting the
four large surfaces up against the overhang. Kale holds the walls
up while Victoria and I tie them together.

The roof is the last piece of the puzzle.
Kale lifts it above his shoulders and slides it across the top of
the walls. Victoria isn’t tall enough to reach, so I have to fasten
the walls to the roof. Finally, it’s finished. We all step back to
have a look at our creation.

And I laugh hysterically. “It looks like
crap,” I struggle to say through my hysteria.

There are gaps all over it, and the whole
thing is leaning too much to the left. This is nothing like my
beautiful bamboo hut from our last enclosure.

Victoria giggles a little.

But not Kale. He stands with his arms
crossed over his chest and his brow furrowed. “It’ll do for now,
but I promise to find something better for you soon.” Then he
quickly corrects himself and says, “Better for all of us, I
mean.”

I try to act as if I just heard the second
half of his statement.

***

After we all throw some branches and leaves
on the lean-to for camouflage, Kale accompanies Victoria around the
forest to place her snares in the appropriate places. They stay
close-by and are only gone for about 15 minutes or so, but again,
it feels like forever. I hide inside the small lean-to when a
flying, glass train passes by. It leaves quickly when they realize
there’s nothing entertaining to see.

I peer outside to make sure it’s gone and
then gather up pine needles to put on the floor of our hut. It
spreads out nicely and makes the hard ground a little softer and
less dusty. The job keeps me busy for a while. I’m thankful to have
something to do.

Sunlight trickles in through the gaps in the
branches, but I can tell dusk is swiftly approaching. Outside, I
hear the snaps of twigs and the crunch of leaves. I peek through a
hole in the wall to confirm that it is in fact Kale and Victoria.
Once I know it’s safe, I leave the shelter to join them in what is
becoming our living area.

“
How did it go?” I ask
them.

Victoria answers with a smirk, like she
knows something that I don’t. “It was insightful.” Kale glares at
her and she stammers, “I mean, good. Good. We got all the snares
set out. Should catch something in at least one of ‘em.”

“
Well that’s good . . . ”
The words die on my tongue as we are interrupted by weird cries,
like a Howler monkey would make. It sounds like pure
evil.

Victoria rushes past me
and ducks inside the hut. I quickly follow her. We huddle up next
to one another, which is exactly the opposite of what Kansas told
us to do. Run. We
should
run. But Kale isn’t far behind me. He squats in
the small entrance, holding the gun and searching for the maker—or
worse—makers of the sounds.

Victoria chants to herself, “Please be an
animal. Please be an animal.”

Again, the howls echo through the forest.
There’s no way of telling how far or close they are. I’m shivering
and sweating at the same time. My tiny, pregnant friend is clawing
at my arm for strength. I give it to her, for her sake and mine. I
pat her hand and say, “Shh. It’s going to be okay. No one knows
we’re here, and Kale has a gun. It’s okay.” Victoria’s breathing
slows down, but she doesn’t loosen her grip on me.

“
Kale, shouldn’t we run
and hide?” I ask him.

“
We could, but I can’t
tell where that’s coming from. We could run straight to them,” he
whispers.

We wait in silence for a long time. Nothing
ever happens, except for more cries. Kale turns to us. “I’ll take
first watch. It seems like it’s dying down a bit, so try and get
some sleep. I’ll be right here the whole time.” He tries to
reassure us, but that has got to be the creepiest sound I’ve ever
heard. I really don’t want to find out what was making it, because
it wasn’t a monkey or a bird. I’m sure we’d all like to believe it
was though.

I curl up behind Victoria, and as silly as
it sounds, we spoon. We’re both terrified, though I’m trying not to
show just how much. We need each other’s closeness to get through
the night.

I hope we wake up tomorrow.

I’M ALIVE! NO ONE ATE ME LAST NIGHT!

“
Rise ‘n’ shine,” Victoria
chirps from outside. She’s always so happy in the morning. I like
it. “Got some eggs cookin’. That mama bird was pretty angry with
me, but I shooed her off.” I can imagine her standing on her back
porch, with a white apron tied around her tiny waist, ringing the
dinner bell.

The familiar aroma of eggs is wafting in
through the gaps in our lean-to. I’m so tired from taking the
middle shift last night that the cooked meal is not enough to tempt
me. We’re going to have to take turns with that one. I don’t move
to get up. I decide to lie in a few minutes longer.

As my head clears and I
become more aware of the new day, I realize that Kale has his arm
slung over me. This
is
certainly enough reason to get me up. He’s still asleep, so I
try to wiggle out of his embrace before he wakes up. I’m not
successful in my mission. His arm flops to the ground, and he jolts
awake much like yesterday. He quickly realizes everything is okay
and relaxes back to the ground.

“
Victoria cooked some
eggs,” I say as I duck out of the doorway without looking
back.

“
Sleep good?” she
giggles.

“
Shut up.” I walk past her
into the woods.

When I return, she and Kale are sitting
around a small fire eating. A smooth flat rock is set off to the
side with my portion of the eggs. It’s not much, but more than I
thought it would be.

“
What kind of bird are
these from?” I ask, curious as to how a bird in the forest could
produce enough eggs to feed three people.

She answers me after she finishes chewing.
“I don’t know. Never seen a bird like that before. About the size
of a chicken, but it was brown with some blue feathers on the
wings. It hopped away before I had a chance to shoot it.”

I sniff the eggs before I take my first
bite. “Are you sure these are okay to eat?” They smell normal, and
Victoria’s not foaming at the mouth yet or anything. I had to ask
the question.

“
I’m alive, aren’t I?”
Victoria says flatly. I shrug and fill my mouth with the warm,
fluffy goodness.

***

We spend the early morning
trying to figure out where to get an ax. Kale wants one so he can
chop down some trees in order to build us an actual home—even
though we may have to abandon it should trouble arise. So, the
obvious question is;
why are we doing
this?
We need something to keep us busy,
and we need to come to terms with the fact that we are stuck here
until we find a way to escape. We need to grow food, weave baskets,
or something, so we can make trades for weapons to defend our home
and ourselves.

We quickly realize there’s no way we have
enough goods to trade for an ax. Kale suggests making one. We
search the rocky overhang for the perfect stones—one for the
ax-head itself and one to smash against it to for sculpting.

Kale finds a basalt stone he’s satisfied
with to work as the ax-head. He works for hours, wetting the
ax-head and slamming a hammerstone hard against its surface. It
pecks away tiny flakes at a time. The sound is irritating and
constant. Just as I’m about to lose it, he stops for a break. His
muscles are aching from the repetitive action. I toss a branch the
length of my forearm—maybe a little longer—over to him. “Here,” I
call as it sails through the air.

He isn’t able to lift his heavy, aching arms
quick enough. The branch smacks him in the face. “Ouch!”

I run over to him and brush my thumb over
the scratch on his cheek. “I’m so sorry. Are you okay? I was just
trying to give you the handle I found for the ax. Oh my goodness.”
I inspect his face again. It’s not a bad scratch, but I feel
awful.

He grabs my hand and holds it in his. “Calm
down, Princess. I’m okay. I just couldn’t raise my arms up that
fast. They’re killing me. Between this and carrying that pot of
water yesterday, I think I might actually be dying.” He laughs as
he looks into my worried eyes.

He lowers our joined
hands, but continues searching my face for something as I search
his. And then I see
him
.
He
was
there all along. How could I have immersed myself in everything
James and blinded myself to all things Kale. How could I have
missed something so obvious? Well, maybe I didn’t miss it entirely.
I just wasn’t ready for it. It sucks to be hardheaded sometimes, so
focused on the wrong things.

I lean closer to him and his expression
changes. He becomes thoughtful and surprised and overjoyed. He sees
that something in me has changed. He sees that I see him now.

And when he kisses me, I kiss him back.

Kale holds my face in his strong hands. I
wrap my arms under his, pulling him down closer to me by his
shoulders. I am elated, courageous, determined, and hopeful again.
I’m so many things that I wasn’t without him, just two seconds
ago—things that I’ve been trying to pretend to be. I lost them
somewhere back in the first enclosure.

I can feel his soul through his lips. It’s
telling me a story of agony over how long it’s waited for this
moment and how it never wants it to end.

But the moment must end, as all things
do…

GIRL, INTERRUPTED

Victoria clears her throat behind us. It
breaks the spell we’re under, causing Kale and I to reluctantly
part. It’s physically painful to release my hold and step away from
him. I feel like he’s part of me now, though I don’t even know what
that really means. But I do know that I like it. And I have to
mentally slap myself, because this is something I could have been
experiencing months ago if I hadn’t convinced myself that James had
potential.

Maybe we could’ve even been happy and
settled like Janice and Greg—accepted our lives here like they did.
They had each other, and that’s all that mattered to them. No, Kale
and I are nothing like them. We will never accept this fate, to
live here until the end of our days. Never.

Behind us, Victoria is smiling and excitedly
bouncing up and down. She squeals, “Yay! ‘Bout time you took care
of that.” Then her face turns very serious and she adds, “Now, this
is very important . . . ” She puts her hands on her hips and tilts
her head. “What’s fer lunch?”

We all laugh.

***

After we eat an almost non-existent lunch,
Kale returns to his ax. Victoria and I take the gun with us, as we
go to check the animal traps. I didn’t want to stick around and be
so close to that deafening noise. Therefore, I was more than happy
to escort Victoria on her hunting trip.

Victoria barely waits
until we’re out of earshot. “
So?
” She raises her eyebrows.

“
So
, what?” I ask even though I know exactly what she’s
referring to.

“
Are you in love with
him?”

“
I am,” I blurt out in a
half whisper. Holy crap
.
I cover my mouth, shocked by my admission. “I
mean, I think so.” I try to correct myself, because it’s completely
insane that only a few days ago I had an annoying-companion type
relationship with him. I mean, I thought everything he was doing
was because of the Keepers, for goodness sakes. I didn’t know that
it was really for me. Now that the curtains have parted and I see
what could be, my emotions are just tumbling around without rhyme
or reason. Is that how love is? Is it always so sudden? My head is
telling me to be smart, but my heart is dumb. And I’m happy about
that.

“
He’s loved you for a long
time. Everything he does is for you. Like that ax he’s slaving away
makin’. It’s to build
you
a cabin. Not me. Not him. You.” She picks up her
long skirt to step over a fallen tree. “There’s one.” She points to
the empty snare at the end of a collapsed pine tree.