"Something's not right," Bill said and crossed himself. "Did you see how those cats attacked? It was more than instinct. They were angry."
"Like they were peeved we hemmed them up in a glass pen and they were getting back at us?" Gibson put into words what all three of them had witnessed. The viciousness of the attacks was more than just animals acting out their nature. There was something more to it. A hate gleamed in the cats' eyes, if that were possible.
Deep down Gibson realized they were attributing human emotions to animals.
"Yeah, something like that," Bill nodded. "So, we gonna do this or what?"
They hadn't heard any movement for about ten minutes, but that didn't mean the cats weren't waiting for them.
Again, Gibson found himself thinking the cats would react like humans and he tried to remember that they were animals. He was smarter than they were. He suddenly remembered Mary's cell phone. "Hey, Mar, toss me your cell, I'm gonna call Tammy, see where the cavalry's at."
A few minutes later, Gibson gripped the cell so tightly its casing cracked. "Tammy? What's going on?"
"Something's trying to get in through the windows!"
"Tammy? TAMMY?"
Mary and Bill cringed at the loudness of Gibson's voice in the small space, but they held their peace.
At first, the rumbling was barely sensed, but as it grew, the shelves began to vibrate and they became aware of the sound. "What the..." Bill trailed off as a substantial explosion rocked the room. They were thrown violently to the floor of the freezer.
The lights went out.
National Zoo Washington D.C.
The rodents poured from the breached pipe like water from a faucet. There's so many of them. Curt didn't recall seeing this many in the exhibit.
Instantly Ronnie was engulfed with a horde of prairie dogs. It looked like he was wearing a fur coat, but the fur was moving and turning red. The poor kid didn't even get a chance to cry out. As soon as he'd opened his mouth one of the smaller prairie dogs squirmed in and clawed its way down his throat.
Jody screamed as Ronnie's stomach was ripped open by more prairie dogs and his guts streamed out. He somehow still maintained his feet and stuttered, stepping away from them. Prairie dogs jostled for position as they clawed their way out of his stomach. A few hung from Ronnie's intestines like gruesome streamers in a hellish parade.
Tucker screamed as three more dogs scampered up his pant leg. Knowing it was too late for Ronnie, Curt rushed over to Tucker, grabbed two of the creatures from his back and flung them viciously. A third turned from the boy and latched onto Curt's hand. White-hot agony tore up his arm as the creature gnawed right to the bone. Curt could actually feel the thing's teeth scrape across the bones. He whipped his hand savagely, but the thing maintained its grip. In a panic, Curt started beating his hand on the table. Finally, he was able to use his other hand to crush the dog with a napkin dispenser.
Jody had found a broom and was trying her best to beat the dogs off while standing on a table with Elisa. Curt started kicking the mass of dogs on the floor. It was a deadly fur carpet. The bulk of the animals were distracted by Ronnie whose struggles had ceased. His movements were merely the result of the frenzied dogs as they fought for supremacy amongst his remains. Curt sucked in a breath as he saw the boy drug through the kitchen door, disappearing through its opening. The door swung back and caught the boy's feet, propping the door slightly opened.
Something long and dark slithered through the opening. It moved too fast for Curt to get a good look. The thing disappeared beneath one of the tables. Jody yelled at him, "Mr. Monroe! Do something," she pleaded as she smashed another prairie dog with the now shattered end of the broom.
Curt scanned the seating area for some type of weapon. His eyes came to rest on an aerosol can of cleaner one of the tables. He rushed over and grabbed the can. At the same time he dug into his pocket and retrieved his lighter. He hadn't smoked in three months, but carried his lighter "just in case". He couldn't have imagined it would come in this handy, but for once, was grateful for his addiction.
Curt held the can out in front of him and raised the lighter before it. He'd only seen this done on TV and in movies, and he hoped like hell it would work. He flicked the lighter and depressed the button on the can. Curt shouted when the jet of flame leapt from the can. He swept the floor in front of him, hoping for a kill.
Rodents scattered before the flame. They squealed, dying a fiery death. Curt jumped on the table and shouted, Curt was loath to head into the kitchen, but going out front into the open would be sure suicide. The kitchen seemed to be more controllable.
"Girls! Head towards the kitchen!" The rodents were more dangerous, now that they were ablaze. Darting fireballs. Still, it was killing them. He bore down on the remaining rodents with his impromptu blowtorch and they scattered. He was about to follow the girls through the doorway when something reared up from beneath the table directly in his path.
"Fuck me."
The Komodo dragon started towards him. Its razor sharp claws clattered on the linoleum as it tried to gain purchase on the slick floor. Curt jumped to the next table, barely maintaining his balance as the lizard crashed into the legs of the table. The table gave way under Curt's weight and the assault of the dragon.
The Komodo rushed him and Curt cried out in agony as its serrated teeth tore through the flesh of his thigh. The lizard thrashed its massive head from side to side. Curt pummeled its head in a desperate attempt to make the thing let go, but it was no use, it had a solid grip on his thigh.
Jody suddenly appeared by his side. In Curt's delirious pain he mistook her for an angel come to take his soul. She raised something above her head and brought it down the lizard's back. The thing let go of Curt and attempted to face its new enemy Although mortally injured, the lizard was no less dangerous. It threw its body around and swung its tail in a vicious arc to get at Jody. Tucker rushed from the kitchen and deftly plunged a two-prong cooking fork through the thing's head. It stopped thrashing abruptly.
"Come on," Jody urged as she tried to get an arm underneath Curt.
"Lot of help I've been, huh?" Curt giggled and coughed. Bright red blood spattered the front of Jody's blouse. Jody cringed as she saw he had nearly bitten his tongue in half. Elisa held Tucker, she shushed him when he sobbed. "What are we going to do now?" she asked.
"Can you stand, Mr. Monroe?" Jody asked.
Curt didn't answer. His eyes rolled back in his head and he lost track of time.
"He's out," Jody stated. "We can't move him like this, he's lost a lot of blood." She looked around. A thought occurred to her. "Stay with him, I'll be right back," she ordered and headed for the kitchen.
Maynard Tower 55th Floor 200 Madison Ave, NYC The door opened in front of Tammy without warning and she fell into Maynard's arms..
He instinctively caught her, then abruptly dropped her as he realized he'd done this. She tumbled to the floor. The roar was so loud she could feel it in her bones. There was nothing else in her existence but the roar. It was all she knew; even her vision seemed to be fluttering.
She watched in muted fascination, as Maynard somehow remained standing amidst the shuddering of the building. A phone to his ear, Maynard was shouting into the mouthpiece, somehow it was louder than the growing roar of the airplane engines.
"Robert! Prepare the helicopter!" he ordered tersely.
Tammy blanched as she realized the man was cutting and running. The window shutters which had failed to activate in her office had also failed in Maynard's office. Tammy watched in muted fascination as the airliner passed by. Its wings mere inches from the edge of the building. The fuselage was covered with the remains of hundreds of birds. The plane crashed into the adjacent building and blew the windows inward with the concussive blast. She screamed as the lethal shards cut Maynard in half. His upper half was pinned to the wall behind her. His legs remained standing as if they didn't know there wasn't a torso attached to them any longer. His crotch darkened as what remained of his bladder let loose and his legs finally crumpled. Tammy stared, mutely fascinated by how little blood Maynard left behind.
The heat of the blast struck her full on. She rolled over onto her back and screamed with pain and terror. She gazed up at Maynard and he spread his arms. He was a parody of a crucifix, without the cross and the lower half of his body. "Tammy," he wheezed. "I can't feel my legs."
His statement caused a case of giggles to erupt from deep within Tammy's gut. "Well, of course you can't feel your legs! They're right there!" she screamed. In what remained of her rational mind she realized that she was in shock.
Maynard watched her get to her feet and walk over to his desk.
Tammy glanced back and noticed his eyes glazed over in death. She shuddered and quickly turned away from the gruesome sight, she remembered the phone still clutched in his lifeless hands. She didn't relish the idea of touching him, but the need for the phone outweighed her squeamishness. It was a chore to pry his fingers from the phone, but she did, and as she raised it to her ear she prayed there was still someone on the line.
"Hello?" She grimaced slightly at the roaring in her head. She knew her voice was coming out normally, but she couldn't hear herself speak. She could feel the vibration of someone's voice against her left ear, but could not discern actual words. Frustrated, she switched the phone to her right ear. She saw the blood on the earpiece and shuddered, wondering if it was hers or Maynard's. "Hello?" she said once more.
"Mr. Maynard?" A man's voice replied.
"Robert?" she asked, not waiting for a response, "Do not leave under any circumstances. Mr. Maynard is hurt..."
"I'll be right down-,"
"No! Stay right where you are, Robert. We'll come up to you. DO NOT LEAVE," she repeated and terminated the call before Robert asked to speak to Maynard.
She walked over to Maynard's security board. There were many buttons on the panel, none of them labeled. In desperation, she pressed them all, one by one; hoping one of them would open the doors in the outer office. Below, on the 13th floor, the doors to the bear's habitat slid open. Tammy had unwittingly freed them.
After pressing all of the buttons, Tammy left the office. She let out a hopeless cry as she saw the doors to the office were still hidden behind the steel shutters.
She slipped to her knees and noticed from the corner of her eye, a light blinking. It was her cell, flashing in synch with her ringer. Between the wind rushing through the broken windows and the damage to her ear, she hadn't heard it. She crawled to the phone, flipped it open and croaked, "Hello?"
As if from a great distance she heard Gibson's voice asking if she was all right. She grimaced, glanced down at her ruined, blood-spattered clothes and quipped, "All things considered, I'm just peachy! Now get your butt up here and rescue me...what? That was a friggin' plane crashing into the other building. Yes! I said, 'A plane'...no, I'm fine, just a few scratches, nothing major...get up to me and we'll head for the roof...Mr. Maynard's helicopter pilot is waiting...great, can't wait." Tammy terminated the call and lay down on the floor. The TV in Maynard's office caught her eye. The contraption was actually more like a TV on steroids. It consisted of eight plasma screens, 26' each, configured to form one gigantic viewing surface if one so chose. Wearily, she gained her footing and stumbled over to it. It didn't appear to have sustained any damage from the imploded windows. A thin layer of dust covered the screens. She shivered as she recalled stories that the dust on 9/11 had actually been vaporized people.
She pressed the power button and the screens purred to life. She stepped back and noticed that each quadrant showed a different news channel, each with its own talking head. She'd seen Maynard touch the screens before to change the channels so she knew how that worked. It was called a Smart Screen, if she recalled correctly. Straining, she reached up and managed to reach a finger to the upper right screen. After a brief animation that box expanded and the image on it filled all of the screens. It was now one giant T.V.
"This appears to be happening all over, Dick," the newswoman was saying to someone off screen. "Animals are attacking without provocation...even pets are turning on their owners...Oh my god," the woman raised a hand to her ear and adjusted her earpiece. "This just in," she started haltingly. "There are reports of planes...passenger airliners...crashing nationwide. Dick? Are you hearing this?"
The woman seemed to completely forget she was still live. She shuffled the papers in front of her, glanced down at them, decided they were worthless and tossed them aside. She stared down at the monitor on her desk. Someone from the network had the sense to switch from the stunned news anchor to a "We'll be right back" scrolling message.
Tammy double tapped the center screen and another news anchor sprung to life.
"Yes, Mike, that's correct," the man was saying. "This seems to be happening everywhere. Every state in the Union, all of our sister networks, our affiliates, they're all reporting the same thing: complete chaos. In Los Angeles there are early reports of massive rioting and mob violence. The National Guard is being mobilized as we speak. Homeland Security has raised the Terror Alert Level. Truth is, nobody knows just what the heck is going on. We've been getting reports of planes crashing, the cause? No one really knows. Preliminary reports from eyewitnesses are saying that birds seemed to have rammed themselves into planes attempting to land at JFK, BWI, and a host of other major airports. Again, all of this is very preliminary and unconfirmed..."
The image of the fourth corner, the lower left hand of the screen caught her attention. She tapped on that one and brought it to full screen.
"What you're seeing here happened just a few moments ago," a male voice intoned. "This is real folks, no camera tricks...I must warn our viewers with small children this footage is quite graphic..."
Tammy brought a hand to her mouth as she watched the carnage on the screen in disbelief. The view was from a news helicopter as it hovered over a mall parking lot in California where coyotes, bobcats, foxes, and what looked like mountain lions, were attacking people. Deer stampeded about the parking lot goring anyone unlucky enough to be out in the open.
Cars traversed the packed lot trying to get away. In the confusion, there were already multiple pileups, further congesting the lot.
The cameraman zoomed in on a car. The man inside the car appeared to be attempting to start it. A big horned ram rushed the driver's side. Tammy jumped as the ram rocketed through the driver's side window at full speed. Blood shot against the passenger side window in a splash. It looked like a water balloon, filled with blood had exploded in the car. The cameraman zoomed in tight in time to catch the ram go for the guy's throat with its massive horns.
"My god, what's happening?" Tammy whispered.
She tried another channel. Another and another. The scenes were all similar. The world had gone crazy. Britain, France, China, and Russia. The carnage was global. Where the animals weren't attacking, the people were rioting and killing each other. Tammy watched the riots in LA back in 1992 and more recently, the ones in Louisiana, but those didn't hold a candle to what she was seeing now.
Screams and crashes drifted up from street level. Tammy left the TV and ventured a look out the window to the streets below. What she saw took her breath away.
New York City was in flames.
National Zoo Washington D.C.
Jody tried not to look at Ronnie as she stepped him. A few of the remaining rodents glanced up at her but continued feeding on the boy. She saw exposed bone through his torn clothing and quickly looked away, feeling her dinner lurch in her throat. She knew the dogs wouldn't be occupied with Ronnie much longer. Jody hurried past making her way to the back entrance of the restaurant.
Earlier in the day she'd noticed many of the zoo employees used golf carts to get around the park. One of them, loaded with boxes of restaurant supplies had almost run her over that morning.
Cautiously, she opened the back door and peered into the small alley behind the restaurant. Relief hissed out of her like air from a tire as she spied a cart, empty, a few feet away.
Jody hurried back through the kitchen .The prairie dogs were gone. She cast her glance around the kitchen searching for them, but they were nowhere to be found. Not wanting to tempt fortune, she wasted no more time wondering where they had gone.
"Elisa, grab his arm," Jody ordered as she grabbed Curt's right arm underneath his armpit. "We're going outside and taking one of the golf carts."
"But-,"
"Shut up and just do as I say," Jody snapped, then softened, "Hey, we're going to be fine. Help me. Tucker? Stick close to us. If something happens, no matter what, just run...run for your life."
The girls struggled beneath Curt's awkward weight. The blood on the floor didn't help. By the time they'd made it to the kitchen door both girls were dripping with sweat and breathing heavily.
As they struggled to get Curt through the door, his head smacked against the door jam. He groaned and mumbled something. "Sorry, Mr. Monroe," Elisa muttered. Tucker let out a small cry as he saw Ronnie's ravaged body.
"Don't look at him," Jody comforted. "Just keep walking to the back door. See it? There, yeah that's it. Don't go outside, just wait there by the door, ok, buddy?"
Jody didn't like how quiet it was. The silence unnerved her as surely as a commotion would have. Their heavy breathing was ominous in the stifling silence. On the floor, Ronnie's feces were seeping from his split stomach, and Elisa tried to breathe through her mouth. The stench was terrible and it was all Jody could manage not to hurl.
Finally, they made it to the doorway and gently laid Curt on the tile allowing them to catch their breath. Jody pushed the door open slightly and took a look outside. The coast was clear.
At least there wasn't a horde of animals waiting on the threshold. The absence of the animals started to bother her. Where had they all gone? She noticed the sounds of the animals attempting to break free of their cages had also ceased.
When they were sufficiently rested, Jody stepped outside and walked warily over to the cart. A sudden thought struck her, she had no idea how a golf cart worked. Did she need a key to start it? She vaguely recalled golf carts were electric and ran off batteries. What if the battery on this one was drained? What if...
She forced herself to stop thinking negatively and looked over the cart carefully. It was painted a dull green and had a small, empty bed in the back. The big, knobbed tires were caked with dried mud and vegetation. It looked like it had recently been on an off road joy ride.
Jody circled the cart, familiarizing herself with it. She noticed a sticker on the side of the chassis: Club Car XRT 1500 4X4. Most of that meant nothing to her, but 4X4? She knew what that was and was surprised that golf cars were made with four-wheel drive. Jody had to admit the cart was not like the kind she'd seen on TV at the Master's or someplace like that. She thought the thing looked ready to do battle with nature and cringed at the phrase.
Satisfied, Jody slipped into the driver's seat and took a look at the steering wheel where she thought the ignition would be. The first thing she noticed was the gas gauge. So, it didn't have a battery. Good. The gauge read full. Good. There was not however, a key. Bad.
She glanced around the seats and in the back of the cart. No keys. As she searched, her eyes came to rest on a pair of boots to the right of the cart near one of the dumpsters. Jody slid from behind the wheel of the cart and approached the body.
The dumpsters were enclosed by a wire fence. There were dozens of broken down boxes leaning against the dumpster. Some of the boxes had fallen and covered the body from the waist up. The man must have been on his way to drop off the boxes when he was attacked.
For the second time in minutes, Jody found herself dizzy with nausea. She wasn't certain, but she thought the torso was missing. It was hard to tell for sure with the boxes covering what would be the top half of the body. The angle was wrong and the shadows were getting deep in the alley, obscuring her view. Steeling her nerve, Jody quickly knelt down and held her breath as a swarm of flies erupted from the body. She squeezed her eyes shut and endured the rush of flies, cringing as a few buzzed past her face.
There was a bulge in the guy's left pocket. Jody patted the pocket and heard the jingle of keys. From behind her came Elisa's tense voice, "Jody? What are you doing out there, come on, hurry up..."
"Just a sec," Jody called out softly. She rubbed her hands on her shorts and took another deep breath. Quickly she reached into the pant's pocket and felt the cold keys. She pulled and as she did, the ring snagged on the inside fabric of the pocket, she screamed as the body followed her tug. The boxes fell away, further exposing the body.
Jody was still screaming when Elisa rushed up behind her and encircled her in her arms. "Shhh, it's ok, it's ok," she soothed her terrified friend. Elisa quickly averted her eyes from the gruesome sight, but not before she glimpsed the body before them with crystal clarity. The man's waist was gnawed in half and the gristly spine ended at a yellow tip.
Maynard Tower 1st Floor Promenade 200 Madison Ave, NYC Gibson pushed the end button on the phone and turned to look at Bill and Mary. He said, "Tammy said a plane just crashed into another building."
"What? Jesus!" Bill said.
"We're under attack," Mary stated.
"That doesn't explain the animals," Gibson pointed out.
A sobering silence fell over the group. Gibson had a point. Whatever was happening, the animals were a part of it, he could feel it.
"Let's do this, we need to get to Tammy and then to the roof, she said Maynard's pilot is waiting," he said. He slowly depressed the door handle and it swung open. He stepped from the freezer. The warm air of the kitchen was a relief after the iciness of the freezer. The kitchen was empty. He waited a few more seconds. When nothing happened he ventured over to the short order window and glanced into the restaurant. It was deserted except for the bodies littering the tables and floor. There was no sign of the cats.
He motioned for Bill and Mary to come out of the freezer.
"How's it look?" Bill whispered.
"I don't see anything moving. Listen, you guys don't have to come with me."
"Tammy needs our help," Mary stated. "You need our help."
"Thanks. Bill?"
"I ain't got any other plans, count me in," the chef grinned.