Ashton Memorial (41 page)

“I agree sir,” said Lee's voice. “She came to the
Bites the other day and nearly started a riot. If I had realized
how truly dangerous she was I would have put her down on the
spot.”

“Don't be too hard on
yourself, Lee. These times have been trying on us all.”

Lori rolled her eyes again, pulling on the
ropes. She felt another little shift. Tiny, barely any movement at
all. But it was miles to Lori.

“But it gets worse, I'm
afraid,” Gregory continued. “This woman has infiltrated our
buildings and stolen our equipment. She has access to our weapons
and our maps. Which means that my attempt to call on the animals to
defend us has had a tragic side effect. She knows where I am, or
will very soon. She intends to steal my daughter from me. She
broadcast her intent over the entire zoo. Using my equipment, Lee.
Our equipment.”

“I heard, sir,” said Lee's
voice. “It's a terrible thing. The Keepers will fight to the last
to defend you and your daughter, sir.”

“I know Lee, I know. But
first things first. We must move. She knows where I am. She knows
where the food is. We must consolidate our power somewhere else.
Somewhere she isn't expecting.”

“Sir, if I may make a
suggestion. We should retake the Communications Office. We could
command the whole zoo from there.”

“No, Lee, no,” said
Gregory, shaking his head at the microphone. Lori pulled at the
ropes. She heard rain pounding outside. Gregory drummed his fingers
on the desk. “There's no point in that, I'm afraid. We don't know
how many of her people are there. We can't risk good Keeper lives
on what may be an ambush. Second, it is only a matter of time
before the power goes out. The world has ended, Lee. Soon the
outside resources will fail. All of our cameras and communicators
will be useless. We will have to work on a more basic
level.”

“What do you suggest,
sir?”

Gregory leaned forward, speaking lower than
before. Lori could still make out what he was saying. She didn't
care anymore. Gregory had lost his mind. Everyone had. She had to
get out. She had to get free. The ropes wouldn't give anymore than
they had already. She felt like crying. The rain outside pounded
and Gregory's low voice muttered into the microphone. She hated
him. She hated everything but Ella. She had to get out. She had
to.

* * *

Lee lowered the communicator and looked
around the kitchen. His heart felt large with pride. With purpose.
The other Keepers looked back to him. Some looked confused. Lee
knew they would come to understand.

Gregory's voice came back
over the communicator. “I know I can count on you, Lee.”

Lee raised the communicator
back to his lips. “Thank you sir. I won't let you down.”

A click came from the communicator,
signaling Gregory had switched off his end. Lee hooked the
communicator to his belt. He surveyed the Keepers.

“You heard him. We have
work to do. Which means we'll have to step things up here.” He
turned to the Keepers he'd already given the
K
. Blood smeared on their arms from
where they’d wiped away the trickles. He indicated roughly half of
them. “You guys, come over here.”

He led the group to the
nearest stainless steel counter in the kitchen. He slid open a
drawer, revealing dozens of steak knives like the one he was using.
“Everyone take one,” he said. Each of the Keepers reached into the
drawer and pulled out a knife.

Lee nodded to each of them
holding a blade. Rain pounded outside. “Alright.” He nodded at the
others, the ones waiting in line to receive their
K
. “Give them all the
mark. Be careful. Be neat. An injury would just make it harder for
them to fulfill their duties. And that's one less Keeper to help
you. Understand?”

The others nodded.

“And if any refuse,
well...” Lee trailed off. The others nodded. “Just make sure to put
a dart in their head afterwards. To be sure.”

They all nodded a third time. The young man
with fat cheeks swallowed again. Lee noticed he did that a lot. He
worried about the young man's resolve.

“To work,
Keepers.”

They all left Lee there and moved to the
Keepers line. Lee watched them get started. They had Keepers
rolling up their sleeves and were carving in no time. Lee felt
proud.

When he was satisfied in
their work, he grabbed a handful of knives from the drawer. He
moved back to the second half of the
K
Keepers. “The rest of you,” he
said. “Come with me.”

He led them across the darkened kitchen, out
into the eating area. There was slightly more light here. Outside
the room’s large windows, all was gray. Rain pounded down on the
glass.

He reached the front doors
and turned to face the Keepers. He handed each one a knife.
“Alright,” he said, turning back to the door. “Follow my
lead.”

He opened the door and stepped outside into
the pounding rain. It pelted his head and shoulders, soaking him in
seconds. He ignored it. Today was a glorious day.

Many people huddled outside, waiting for
feeding time. They looked at Lee and the others, all hunched
shoulders and hungry eyes.

Lee smiled, holding the
knife down at his side. “Who here would like some food?”

* * *

Angie lowered her rifle, watching the corpse
of a small old woman fall. The dart embedded in her forehead bobbed
up and down as she slumped. Angie shouldered the rifle and wiped
rain from her face. It was immediately soaked again.

Angie looked around, willing herself to go
slowly. The rain had picked up and it was harder to see. She stared
at the large figure in the area up ahead. She felt ridiculous, but
she had to make sure it wasn't moving. It was still.

“Okay,” she said, nodding.
She walked forward. Park grunted behind her, pushing the
wheelbarrow.

They walked slowly and the
shape resolved into a large stone statue. A rich man looked proud
and serene with bushes surrounding him.
Richard Ashton IV
, said a plaque
underneath the statue.
Founder of Ashton
Memorial Zoo
.

“Here,” she said. Park set
the wheelbarrow down.

“Fuck about time,” he said.
“Fucker was filling up with water.”

“I could have pushed for
awhile.”

“I didn't say that,” said
Park, smirking. “I just wanted to bitch a little.”

Angie nodded, looking
around. No corpses or crazed animals in sight. “Okay,” she said.
“Here goes nothing.”

She took the communicator from her pocket
and held it to her mouth. She clicked the button. Her voice boomed
from speakers all over the zoo.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” she
said. “My name is Angela Land. If you are trapped in this zoo, or
if you just want to free this place from the madness that has
overtaken it, please join me. Together we can make the Keepers give
us food. Together we can force the madman who has taken over to
step down. We have weapons but I pray we won't need them. Our
numbers should be enough. We are waiting by the statue of Richard
Ashton. Join us. Thank you.”

She lowered the communicator and switched it
off, feeling ridiculous.

“You know you just told the
crazies where we are, too,” said Park.

“I know,” said Angie. “I
don't know how else to do this. We just have to risk
it.”

They waited, staring silently into the
pounding rain. Five minutes later the first people appeared. They
were scared, confused, and alive. They looked at Angie
questioningly. She nodded and motioned them to the wheelbarrow.

* * *

Lori sat motionless as Gregory opened the
door and stepped out of the room. She stared at the floor, making
her face as blank as possible. She wanted to look defeated,
helpless. She wanted him to think nothing of leaving her alone. She
wanted him to think he'd won. He told Lee where they were moving
to. Right in front of her. She wanted him to think there was no
point in hiding information.

He shut the door behind him, leaving Lori
alone. Lori grabbed the ropes on her legs with both hands, pulling
as hard as she could. She kept glancing at her broken phone across
the room. The more she stared at it, the more repairable it looked.
She could see how the battery fit back in, how the keyboard could
be snapped into place. If she could just get a message to Ella. If
she could just tell her where they were going. It was possible she
was being ridiculous. She knew it. But she had to try.

She pulled, feeling hope when her leg
shifted slightly. She'd heard that woman the night before. Her
father was with her. Her real father, not the bearded monster who
kept smiling at her. She hadn't heard from her real father in
years. Ella hated him for it. Lori was indifferent about him, but
at the moment he was preferable to Gregory.

Her leg shifted again and she risked a small
hop. The chair inched closer to the corner. To the phone. She was
crazy. She knew it. But she had to keep going. She'd heard the
woman over the speakers. She'd heard her dad. They said they were
coming for her. They said nothing about Ella. That meant Ella was
with them. It had to.

That, or...

She forced that line of thinking to stop.
She pulled at the ropes and hopped again. The chair slid forward,
then tipped. For a moment her chest pounded and she teetered, then
she fell forward. She put up her palms to brace herself.

She hit the floor hard. Her palms smacked
against the floor and the chair cracked against her legs. It hurt.
It hurt a lot. But more importantly, it was loud.

“What's that?” came
Gregory's voice from outside the door. Not right by the door, but
close enough.

Panting against the cold floor, Lori reached
for the ruins of her phone. Her shoulders and legs hurt. Her palms
were raw and sharp pains shot up her wrists. She ignored it as her
fingers closed on the mass of plastic and metal that had been her
phone.

She pulled the mass to her, working as
quickly as she could. She heard Gregory approaching. She had
seconds, if she was lucky.

Her hands shaking, she snapped the battery
into the back of the phone and pressed the keypad into place. For a
moment she stared at the dead phone, feeling heartbroken and so
very very stupid.

Mom looks like something is wrong. She
stares blankly at the road as she steers the car.

“Are you okay, Mom?” says
Lori.

“No,” says Mom.

Then the screen lit up.

Her heart leapt as the phone booted to a
start in her hands. Gregory was close. She heard his footsteps
right outside the door. She heard him fishing around in his
pockets, looking for his keycard.

As quickly as her shaking fingers could
manage, she typed a text message.

The sound of Gregory digging through his
pockets stopped. Lori pressed send and watched as the message was
delivered.

The lock clicked open. Lori slammed her
phone back onto the floor, shattering it. She flung the pieces away
from her as the door opened. He couldn't know what she'd done. He
had to think his plans were still secret.

She forced herself to cry as the door swung
fully open and Gregory stepped inside. His feet walked over to
where she lay on the floor.

“What are you doing, Lori?”
He said. His voice was cold, annoyed.

“You broke my phone!”
yelled Lori. She wanted to sound like a child having a
tantrum.

He reached down and pulled her to her feet.
A little roughly. It scared Lori.

“Grow up, Lori,” said
Gregory, reaching down to pull the broken chair out of the ropes.
He left the ropes on her legs. He pulled the wood free and tossed
it aside. The rope was looser, but not loose enough to fight. Or
loose enough to run.

He sighed and shook his
head at her. “Well, I hope you're happy you broke your chair.
You've got quite a walk ahead of you and you could have used the
rest.”

Lori glared at him, glad at how wet and red
her eyes were. She wanted him to think she was weak. Helpless.

He shook his head. “You're
in danger, Lori. You have to be more careful. You're the daughter
of the ruler of Ashton Memorial. Try to start acting like
it.”

He left her standing there, shaken and
bewildered. She watched as he prepared to leave.

Eighteen

Angie held up her hand, motioning for the
others behind her to stop. They did. They'd amassed a good-sized
group by now. All the weapons Angie and Park collected from the
shed were spoken for. The wheelbarrow was abandoned, and Park stood
next to her, rifle ready.

The Zoo Bites stood at the bottom of the
hill.

“We're hungry,” said someone behind her.

“I know,” said Angie. “We
all are. But we can't risk just rushing it. Who knows how the crazy
zookeepers would react?”

“They better react by
giving us food,” said someone else behind her. Angie heard the
clank of tools being brandished.

“The weapons are for defense against corpses or
animals,” said Angie. “Not people.” She took the communicator from
her pocket and made sure it was set to broadcast.

“Keepers aren't people,”
muttered someone behind her.

Angie ignored that and clicked the communicator on.
She held it to her mouth. “Attention people in the Zoo Bites.” Her
voice echoed around. “My name is Angela Land. I have a group of
hungry people here with me. We just want food. Please step aside
and let us have it. I promise we won't take more than we need.”