Zoo (29 page)

Kale studies my face. He
tucks a piece of loose hair behind my ear and then leans toward me
for a kiss. I’m careful when I touch my mouth to his, because of
his swollen lip. His touch is so warm and comforting that it calms
my battered nerves for a brief instant. He’s there for me in
exactly the way I need him at exactly the right time. -
Was that a line from a movie?

After we part, Kale jumps and swings up onto
the horse. He positions himself so that there’s room for me behind
him, and then he reaches down to take my outstretched hand. He says
as he pulls me up to sit behind him, “You know, you really do look
like a princess in that dress.”

That
dress
puffs out all around me as I
position myself behind him. “Thanks, but I hate it,” I tell him as
I try to tame it. Unfortunately, my efforts don’t help. Kale kicks
the horse into action. We head into the forest, away from the path
he wanted to take. We head for our camp.

***

I can tell we are getting closer. I spot one
of Victoria’s snares that we must have missed when picking them all
up. It actually has a little, brown rabbit trapped inside of it,
and I find myself tugging on Kale’s shirt to stop. “Stop. Just for
a second. Let’s slow down and walk from here. I don’t want to scare
her if she’s still there.” I use Victoria as an excuse to save the
little bunny. I hop down and side step my way over to the snare. I
kick the cage over and hurry back to Kale’s side, as the poor
animal hops away.

Kale leads the horse along by his mane as we
walk side-by-side. The war is still raging all around us. Guns are
firing in the distance, and every once in a while a scream makes
its way through the tangle of the trees. We walk with soft steps,
but the crunch of the leaves and pine needles underfoot sounds like
more gunfire to my paranoid ears.

We’ve made it to the
campsite or what’s left of the campsite. It’s been torn to shreds.
The disassembled walls of the lean-to are broken and scattered
around the area, the rabbit pelt actually has a muddy footprint on
it, and two of our water bottles are now empty and smashed beyond
repair.
Is it bad that my first thought
is; who the hell messed up the walls of our lean-to? It took us for
freakin’ ever to build that thing.

But of course, I quickly grow in concern for
my friend who is nowhere in sight.

Kale bends over, rummaging through the hole
in the ground where we hid our things. “Food’s here, but the
backpack and gun are gone.” He looks up at me with a grim
expression. Then he stands and kicks a pile of dirt around, as if
searching for clues.

I notice for the first time how filthy he
is. His once white shirt is now brown and he has dried blood on his
pant leg. Then I look down at myself. I’m still wearing this
ridiculous dress. I hardly noticed it at all, except when getting
up onto the horse. Now it feels like it weighs a thousand pounds. I
want it off. “Unlace this thing for me, please,” I request. I turn
my back toward Kale and motion to the string keeping me captive
inside the gown.

“
Um. I don’t want to point
out the obvious, but I don’t think it’s the best idea to have you
running around here naked. Especially when there’s a battle being
fought—not that I wouldn’t enjoy seeing that . . . ” I crane my
head around to look at Kale. He’s looking at me like I’ve lost my
mind.

An explosion rips through the forest,
sending some nearby trees up in flames. That was too close for
comfort. We both duck and pull ourselves in closer to the overhang
that hid us once before. As we wait for the blast to settle, our
horse freaks out and tears off deeper into the forest.

So much for our ride.

“
Damn it,” Kale states the
obvious.

I return my focus to my dress, since we can
actually do something about it. “That sucks, but look, I have like
five layers of crap under this dress. I can assure you, I won’t be
naked. I’m very sorry to disappoint you about that. Now that the
horse is M.I.A. I’m going to have to run, and it’s not going to
happen in a dress like this.” I fluff the skirts out to emphasize
my point. I add, “I need it off. Please just untie it so we can
keep going.”

Kale concedes and tugs on the ribbon that
laces up the corset. It slowly starts to loosen. My rib cage
expands back into its natural state, and my hidden things begin to
shift. “Whoa, wait!” I warn Kale.

“
What’s wrong?” He
asks.

“
I forgot about this
stuff. Don’t want the gun to fall and go off.” I pull it and the
book out of the bust of my dress and lay them by my feet, while
Kale continues to work on the dress. As he works his fingers
through the lacing and helps me to step out of my dress, I sadly
realize that this could have been an exciting experience for the
two of us. But this is neither a romantic nor an intimate
moment.

I quickly take the string from the corset
and run it between two pages in the middle of my book. I have to
keep this book. Cat went through the trouble of giving it to me not
once, but twice. I force the string up next to the binding and then
tie a knot in to loose ends. Then, I sling it over my shoulder like
a purse. It hangs down and rests against the top of my butt.

Boom!

Another missile or whatever strikes the
overhang further down, a mere 50 feet from us. It sprays rocks and
dirt into the air and into our eyes. We struggle to breathe and see
as we try to escape our current location. I close my eyes and hold
tight to Kale’s hand, while feeling in front of me with my free
hand. Damn, there are a lot of trees here, and I’m pretty sure that
we’ve run smack into at least half of them. I also think I coughed
up a lung a few feet back.

As the air starts to clear, I see that the
trees are becoming more spread out and provide less coverage. We
duck behind a thick oak tree just before we reach the edge of the
forest. As we peek around the trunk, a Keeper appears out of thin
air. He’s wearing a white suit and holding some kind of metallic
gun. He’s heading straight for us.

Kale points his gun at the Keeper, who
raises his hands. “I’m on your side, look.” The Keeper takes his
glove off and shows us a silver star tattoo that lies between his
thumb and index finger.

“
Kansas told you about
those, remember?” I remind him that the Keeper is safe.

The friendly Keeper says, “Just trying to do
something about those Nazis and Vikings. They’re screwing
everything up.” His headpiece only shows a strip where his eyes are
located, but I can tell he looks frustrated by that small hint.

Kale lowers his gun to let him pass and get
on with his urgent business, since it will most likely help us as
well. The Keeper nods his thanks and then takes off running inside
the tree line. Several minutes later one of the Nazi tanks
explodes. It takes out several people that were too close by. I
turn my head from the sight, but it’s too late. The image is
already burned into my brain. I’m just thankful I wasn’t any closer
to the carnage.

“
Emma, come on. We need to
go.” Kale touches my shoulder and breaks my morbid
thoughts.

“
Yeah. Yeah, I know, but I
want to pass by Kansas’ house. Victoria might be there. I’m sure
that’s where she is. That’s where you told her to go, right? Where
else would she be?”

“
Sure. We have to pass by
there anyway. We need the cover.” He takes my hand again.
“Ready?”

I nod.

“
Let’s go!”

RUNNING IN YOUR UNDERWEAR IS ALWAYS THE BEST
WAY TO RUN

I realize that I don’t have the luxury of a
bra the second we start running for Kansas’ house. Well, at least I
have these bloomer-pant things that were under the petticoat I took
off. So, I’m running through the middle of a battle, trying to be
inconspicuous in a beige cotton chemise and ballooning bloomers
with a book slapping me in the butt. Fortunately, I don’t have time
to be embarrassed, and Kale is too consumed with our safety to make
fun of me—if he’s even noticed.

Pop!
Kale’s gun fires, causing me to turn my attention to where he
is still aiming. A man with an arrow strung up in a bow is
staggering backward. He collapses to the ground while clutching at
his shooting arm. He is dressed like one of the King’s
men.

My breaths are coming quicker as the reality
of the delicate state of our lives is becoming more apparent. That
bowman could’ve killed one of us. We don’t have time to stop and
cry about it, so we keep running. We keep our eyes peeled and our
ears open, and really just pray to God we make it to that house in
one piece.

We run and run.

Above us, the dome cracks again and shards
of glass, bigger than I thought possible, rain down. A piece about
the size of a car stabs the earth a few feet from us. I have to
stifle a scream and force myself to keep running. I notice that the
Keepers on flying vehicles don’t even swerve out of the way of the
falling debris. The glass simply bounces off some kind of force
field that surrounds their machines. How can any of us win against
that?

There’s too much going on
around us.
Too much!!!
I need to focus. My legs are burning like I can’t even
explain, but it’s amazing what the power of adrenaline can do. It
feels like we have super-speed.

As we approach the house, I call out ahead,
“Kansas! Kansas, it’s us! Emma and Kale!” Nothing happens, so we
climb the front steps. “Kansas!” I call out again.

The front door creaks open, but no one comes
out. Assuming it’s an invitation indoors, Kale and I duck in, guns
leading the way—just in case.

“
Get down!” a man yells
from inside.

Kale and I throw ourselves to the floor in
the front entryway of the home. A forty-something, African American
man is standing beside us, aiming a rifle out of the window much
like Kansas had the first time we encountered her. He fires,
reloads, and fires again. “Damn Nazis,” he grumbles. Then he turns
his attention to us as we crawl over to the sofa where Victoria is
casually reclining. The man shouts over to Kansas, who is sitting
by a side window, “You know these two, Kansas?” He’s definitely not
from the south, that much I can tell by his accent.

“
Yeah!” she answers.
“They’re the ones I was telling you about.”

A man from another part of the house says,
“Thought you ran ‘em off?”

Kale says, “Look we’re not staying. I can
see you’re all busy and don’t have time to babysit us in the middle
of all this. We just came for Victoria.”

Victoria drops her feet to the ground and
leans toward us. “I’m not running around out there. Kansas said
this is the safest place. The ‘good’ Keepers put a force field
around the house that deflects ammunition. They told us to stay
here until it gets close to the end,” she says.

I crawl closer to her, but realize crawling
isn’t really necessary since the house is mostly protected. After
walking over to Victoria and sitting a little too close to her, I
lower my voice so no one but she can hear. “I met someone who’s
going to get us out of here. He’s going to send us back to our
time. You can go home,” I whisper.

Her answer is not what I was prepared to
hear. “I can’t go home. Maw and Paw died when we did remember?
There’s no one to go back to and don’t forget I’m pregnant. I don’t
know what people think about babies out of wedlock where you’re
from, but it’s not acceptable where I’m from. I can’t go back.”

I never considered her not wanting to
return. She was always so upset about being here, but I suppose
everyone is. I wonder if I would want to stay if my parents had
died along with me. “But where will you go?” I ask her, concerned
for her out in this future world alone and pregnant.

“
They have help for us
when we get out. Kansas said that I’ll have a home and money. They
implanted an identity chip in my finger a little while ago. My new
name is Willa Nile. Good name, right?” When I don’t respond, she
adds, “I’ll be fine. I swear. I want this.” She’s very convincing,
determined eyes and all.

I look over to Kale, who is antsy to get
moving, but I’m exhausted. I want to rest. I want to sit here and
not get up again until this is all over. I know we don’t have the
luxury of time, so I force myself to my feet. “Sorry to have
bothered y’all. What’s the best way to the Safe Zone?”

Kansas looks out of the home’s window that’s
facing the direction we need to head. She turns back toward us.
“Straight through the middle of it.” My stomach drops as I glance
out the window.

The middle-aged man by the front window
says, “You want to give them the suits? We’ve got extra since
Robert and Becky died.”

“
Good idea.” Kansas leaves
her post at the window and heads over to the door under the stairs.
She pulls it open. Her feet thump on the steps, as she descends one
at a time all the way to the bottom. A few minutes pass, and then
she thumps her way back up into the living room. She’s carrying two
white Keeper suits.

Wow!
How did she get those?

“
Wow!” I say out loud this
time.

Kale accepts his suit as Kansas hands one to
him first. “Where did you get these?” he asks the question I am
dying to know.

Kansas hands me one as she answers him, “I
told you. Some of the Keepers are in on it. They needed a place
here to organize and plan, and we needed a way to get around this
place safely to help them. Most of the Keepers running around here
don’t have working suits right now. We’ve made sure they had some
glitches with them as well as their flyers. But here, these two
work just fine.” She’s so blasé about the whole thing that it makes
me wonder what else she’s hiding down in that basement.