Zoo (14 page)

She quips, “I don’t need you telling me what
to do. We need to eat. So I’m taking this here food. And what about
them? They’re doing the same thing.”

James tries as well, “Get up, Victoria. We
don’t want to get caught stealing.”

The door to the cabin
creaks open. A weathered man in his sixties, wearing animal skins,
emerges with his bow leading the way. He sinks his first arrow
straight into Chao’s chest without any warning. The small man
stumbles into Phyllis before crumpling to the ground at her feet.
She immediately drops the meat that she’s gathered and runs into
the forest alone. As she goes, she chants, “No. No. No. No.” I wish
I could tell her she’s not going to find
Disney World
in there, but she’s
gone is a flash.

The old man turns his attention to Victoria,
who is frozen with fear. “Get yerself out of my garden, girl,” he
growls.

“
But I’m so hungry,” she
complains as she clutches to the vegetables while backing away from
the garden.

She’s such an idiot. She’s going to get us
killed like Chao. Poor Chao. Oh no, I think I’m hyperventilating. I
just saw someone get killed. Another someone. I can’t be here. I
can’t! But I can’t run off and abandon them like Phyllis did.

A very stern warning draws my attention back
to the unfortunate events that are unfolding before me. “You get
yerself outta there, or I’ll shoot ya just like the Chinaman.”
Well, that was a very un-P.C. thing to say. The crude man takes
aim, his bow ready to fire at Victoria’s chest. Somehow I figure
he’s not really into being politically correct, and I’m not going
to be the one to correct him. He’s got crazy eyes. I take a small
step back.

Always the hero, Kale rushes the mountain
man, slamming him into the doorframe. His bow and arrow fall to the
wooden floor of the porch. Kale snatches them up. He shifts around
to face the wobbly man with his stolen weapon. My enclosure-mate
lifts the bow and readies the arrow like he’s done it a hundred
times before. He holds his aim on the man as he takes a few steps
back. Both men are breathing heavily from the scuffle. Kale knows
he needs to regain his composure to keep his mind focused and his
hands steady.

Off to the side of us, two large men come
pounding out of the forest, both holding their own bows. They’re
wearing the same type of clothing as the older man, but are much
younger. They each have their game slung over their shoulders, a
rabbit and two birds. One of them shouts, “Paw, what’s going
on?”

The older man points at us. “They’re
stealing our food.”

One of his sons says, “That so?”

Kale shifts his aim over to the two men and
then back to the their father. He starts backing off the porch and
down to where the three of us are now gathered. “Look, we don’t
want any trouble. We’re new here. We don’t know the rules.”

The older mountain man spits on the porch,
leaving a string of blood trailing down his graying beard. Kale
must have hit him harder than I thought. The angry man says,
“Rules. Ain’t no rules here, boy.” Then he nods his head to his
sons, motioning for them to get us.

We all start backing up in unison as the two
young men drop their dinner on the ground and prepare to fire on
us. Victoria holds tight to her bounty and runs off into the woods,
leaving the three of us alone.

Kale moves in front of James and me, still
aiming his arrow from the older man to his sons. He yells at the
boys, “I’ll shoot him!”

“
I bet I’m a better shot
than you are!” one of the boys yells in return.

Kale hollers to us, “Get down!” when the
hunter lets his arrow fly. We all hit the pine needle covered
ground at the same time as the arrow flies overhead. “Now go!”

Kale fires off an arrow as James and I run
for our lives. I push my legs as fast as they will carry me,
concentrating on the expansion and contraction of my muscles. I run
and run and run.

My feet hit the ground hard without the
cushion of athletic shoes, and I can hear James’ boots pounding
away near me. Then I realize I don’t hear a third set of feet. I
slow down and look behind me. “Kale?” I don’t see him. I spin
around and around, searching the dense forest. James stops next to
me. “Kale! Kale!” I scream.

I don’t hear anything except for our loud
breathing. “No,” I whisper.

“
Baby, we’ll be fine.”
James reassures me.

I don’t like being
called
Baby
. I am
not a
baby
.

“
Kale!” I yell
again.

After two, full, agonizing minutes, Kale
responds to my calls. “Over here!” It’s a faint answer to my
panicked cries. It’s coming from over there, to the left.

I set off without
consulting James. He follows close behind though, letting me lead
the way. I see Victoria first. Kale’s pulling her along by the arm
while she struggles to keep hold of her bounty. He’s angry. She’s
aggravated. I’m annoyed. And James
is—a—pussy
; according to the
colorful greeting Kale just gave.

TROUBLE IN PARADISE

We’ve all stopped in the
middle of the forest in a sort of face-off. The tension of new
companions, clashing personalities, whatever is going on between
Victoria and James, whatever is going on between Kale and James,
and me and all three of them has all come to a head. And the
sad
or
bad thing
is, we’ve only been together for a few hours.

I decide to target Victoria. I didn’t like
how she laughed at me earlier when I stubbed my toe. Plus, she’s a
moron for doing what she did back there. “What the hell were you
thinking? We have no idea what to expect in this place. It’s not
like the enclosures we just left. Obviously. You’re going to get us
killed! What’s wrong with you?” I throw my arms out wide as I get
in Victoria’s face. I’m a good five inches taller than the petite
girl, so I use my height to intimidate her.

Victoria backs up a few steps and says, “We
need food. And I was hungry.” She turns to Kale and gives him a
sad, puppy-dog face.

“
Don’t look at him. Look
at me.” I demand. “You can’t do that again. You saw what they did
to Chao. That could have been you. Seriously. Okay? And don’t rely
on a guy to take care of you so much.” There are moments when you
need someone else’s help and comfort, but so far she hasn’t been
able to do anything on her own besides almost getting us
killed.

“
Okay,” she
concedes.

While I was scolding Victoria, James and
Kale were having disagreements of their own. I must have missed it
if there were words exchanged. They’ve already turned to throwing
punches at each other. James’ nose is spouting crimson all over
Kale’s shoulder as he tries to pin James in some kind of wrestling
hold.

“
Stop it! Stop it!” I
shout at them.

Kale gets distracted by my rants and backs
away from James. Assuming James is backing down as well, he leaves
himself unguarded as he turns to look at me. Unfortunately, James
wants revenge for his busted-up nose. His fist connects with Kale’s
lip. It splits instantly. Kale very calmly licks his wound and
spits on the ground. Then he lunges forward and body checks James,
slamming him hard into a tree trunk. James expels a lungful of air
and wheezes over Kale’s shoulder, while he tries to regain his
footing. James may have height on Kale, but Kale has way more
muscle and power. It’s really not a fair fight in my opinion.

Victoria is shrieking behind me as I rush
forward. I try to pull Kale off of James by the neck of his shirt.
He doesn’t budge an inch, and instead, he pulls me down with them
as they tumble to the ground. Pine needles are flying up around us
as I try to separate the two angry guys. “Stop! Stop!” I keep
shouting. But I know they don’t hear me because they’re too caught
up in ripping each other to shreds.

Somehow, I get an elbow to the stomach
before I’m able to scramble off Kale’s back. The hit knocks the
breath out of me, and I roll off onto the ground gasping. Kale
immediately freezes and turns his attention to me. His face falls
when he sees me clutching my abdomen. He shoves James out of the
way, who flops to the side and hits his head on the base of the
tree.

Kale is at my side in an instant. He pushes
my hair out of my face and touches my hands where they cover my
aching stomach. He looks into my eyes and says, “I’m so sorry,
Emma. Are you okay?” I notice he has tiny flecks of green in his
dark brown eyes.

I answer him as I move my hands out from
under his, “I think so. It just stunned me for a second. I’ll be
fine.” James is headed this way. He doesn’t look happy to see Kale
touching me so intimately. I clear my throat and ask Kale to help
me up, so I can ward off any additional conflict.

Kale lifts me easily off the ground and onto
my feet. I double over, feeling like I might vomit. The unpleasant
sensation hits me immediately upon standing. James approaches
cautiously and removes a few pine needles from my hair, as my head
hangs forward. He says, “Your hair is a mess. There, that’s the
last one.” He holds my arm to steady me and to move me away from
Kale, but I don’t want to be coddled. Their male egos are
suffocating me, and since the woozy feeling has passed, I step away
from both guys. Everyone needs to cool it—including me.

“
Enough fighting. I can
only assume we’re going to have plenty of that in our futures as it
is. So, we need to stick together and find somewhere to camp for
the night. Any ideas?” I ask, looking from Kale to James. I don’t
bother with Victoria because anything she has to say will be
useless.

James reluctantly says, while pinching the
bridge of his nose, “Well, all we’ve seen so far in the woods was
that cabin. We could keep walking or just huddle up around here for
the night. It seems quiet here. They don’t seem to have followed us
this far. Plus, we don’t know what we’ll find if we keep
going.”

“
I agree. I think we
should stay here.” I look over to Kale for his response.

“
Yeah. Fine. The three of
us will have to take turns keeping watch. I’ll go first when it’s
time,” he offers.

“
But what about water?”
Victoria whines.

“
We’ll have to do without
until tomorrow. It’s getting dark already,” James tells
her.

Victoria argues, “But James, you know I need
water because of…”

James cuts her off before she can finish.
“Victoria. Tomorrow.”

Victoria backs down. She’s doing a good job
of concealing whatever emotions she’s feeling, because her face is
as blank as it could be. I watch her as she unfolds the top layer
of her dress and pulls out the stolen carrots. She proudly pets
them and attempts to wipe off the loose dirt.

We each receive a carrot for dinner and eat
in silence. None of us have anything to say to the other. I think
we all noticed that these carrots weren’t from a garden like the
one we left. Nothing grew back after they were picked. No wonder
those men were so furious.

As I take a bite, I can’t help but think of
Chao’s dead body lying on the porch of that cabin. I also wonder
what happened to Phyllis. I hope she made it to somewhere safe.

Sleeping arrangements prove to be awkward
and precarious. We have no shelter or weapons other than the bow
and a few sticks Kale picked up to use as arrows, so we stay close
together. Victoria lies next to the base of a tree, curled into a
little ball. I lie next to her and James is next to me.

The only guy that’s ever slept next to me is
Kale, and it was totally not in a romantic context. Even though
this is not a romantic setting, it feels different with James so
close to me. I can sense the heat coming off of his still body. We
haven’t touched since our brief kiss, and I’m already putting
pressure on myself to meet some unspoken expectations I’ve
convinced myself that he has. The way he embraced me and tried to
kiss me makes me think he’s very experienced with women.

Dilemma . . . I want to get to know him
better, but it’s not like we can go on an actual date or anything.
I don’t know where to go from here.

James’ hand slides over to touch mine as we
lay side-by-side, gazing up into the trees. I can’t help but wonder
what he’s thinking. A few feet from where we lie, Kale is sitting
with his back to us. He refuses to acknowledge James’ presence
since their disagreement. The muscles in his back are still firm
with anger, as is his jaw.

What could’ve started such a violent
argument?

***

“
Umpf,” James
moans.

I roll over to face him and see Kale
standing above us. Kale shoves James with his bare foot again.
“Your turn to keep watch. Get up.”

James slowly sits up and wipes the sleep
from his eyes. He takes the bow and arrow from Kale after climbing
to his feet. Then he sits in Kale’s lonely place to keep watch over
us while we sleep a little longer.

I feel Kale’s warm breath on my neck as he
slides down next to me. He doesn’t touch me, but I find myself
wanting that nearness that we shared the night after our
punishment. I didn’t know that I missed it until now. I almost
scoot closer, but stop myself when I realize James is only a few
feet from us.

The pull towards him is difficult to fight
though, like a caterpillar fighting the embrace of its cocoon. But
his warmth is enough to quickly ease me back into a heavy
sleep.

Then the screaming starts.

A NEW DAY, A NEW DAWN

We all startle awake—this includes James,
who fell asleep on his watch. We stand in a circle with our backs
facing in, each of us looking for the source of the horror-filled
screams. James has the bow ready to fire. He whips it around,
searching to place his aim.