Joe watched in a daze – still winded by his impact with the floor – as Grace swung her broom handle like a baseball bat. It smashed across Shirley’s face with a resounding crack! The woman shrieked out like one of the animals outside as blood began pouring from her face. The blow had shattered her glasses and sent the jagged shards into her eyes.
“I’m blind,” Shirley cried out as she staggered around in wild panic. “Help me, I’m blind.”
“Get your fucking God to help you,” Grace spat.
Joe got to his feet gingerly, going up to them both. Danny’s cheek was bright red, but he was not crying. “Go find the petrol,” he told Grace. “I’ll deal with Randall.”
Grace glanced down at Randall, who was still clutching at his groin and moaning. “Is he worth it?”
Joe didn’t blink. “He killed Bill.”
Grace nodded and then kissed him on the cheek. She took Danny away and left Joe alone.
Randall had cottoned on to the situation and took one of his hands away from his groin and held it up in front of him. “Now, Joe, let’s be civilised.”
Joe spat. It hit Randall on the chin. “You killed Bill. You killed Mason. And I’m figuring you would have killed me and Danny, too. Why exactly? Just so you could get Grace to yourself?”
“Of course not. I wanted to save Grace and Danny from all this. I would have taken them somewhere safe.”
Joe laughed so hard it hurt the soft flesh of his pallet. “You mean the safe place that you hid from us all? And what about me? Where did I come in your grand plan?”
Randall wouldn’t look him in the eye.
Joe nodded. “I see. Well, I’d say that in your case, your punishment should fit the crime.”
Randall eyes went wide. “Don’t kill me!”
Joe smiled. “Course not. That wouldn’t be suitable.” Randall seemed relieved, but Joe had more to say. “You killed two people, so simply killing you wouldn’t add up. No, I need to do something worse than just kill you.”
Randall started scooting backwards on his bum, obviously searching for his knife but finding it nowhere; it had been lost in the scuffle. He stared up at Joe anxiously. “W-what are you going to do to me?”
“This!” Joe leapt forward and grabbed Randall by his legs.
“What are you doing? Get off me, right this instant.”
Joe was beyond hearing Randall’s pleas. He almost took pleasure as he gripped the man’s left ankle tightly and started to twist. “My son would call this an ankle lock,” he said, and then yanked as hard as he could.
Randall wailed as the delicate bones in his ankle snapped. Joe thought about breaking the other leg as well, but decided that one was enough. He turned and walked away. “Now, don’t you go following us, you hear!”
“Joe, please don’t leave me here. JOE!”
Joe carried on walking.
“You’re a murderer. A murderer, you hear me? You’re no better than anybody else.”
Joe shouted back a reply over his shoulder. “Least I’ve given you a fighting chance. However slim that may be.”
He re-joined Grace and Danny in the corner of the warehouse, pleased to see that they had found both a can of petrol and some matches.
“Is that screaming I can hear?” asked Grace.
Joe nodded. “Randall had a little accident, but he’s in no immediate danger. Let’s get out of here.”
Joe took the can of petrol from Grace and she picked up her mop handle again. Then they all headed back through the warehouse, being sure to avoid the aisle that contained Randall. Joe didn’t want to hear any more begging from the worthless human being.
They reached the warehouse shutter and prepared to step outside again....
But the animals had arrived. They had been attracted, no doubt, by the recent commotion and Randall’s relentless screaming. So far it was only a small group of chimps and a few wolves, but Joe knew there would be more coming.
A lot more.
34
Joe grabbed the petrol can from Grace and thrust it at the nearest chimps. The liquid sprung from the nozzle and doused the animals head to toe. Without even having to be asked, Grace struck a match and tossed it.
Two chimps went up straight away. Two-legged infernos, their wild screeching pierced the air in spikes of pain. It still left about eight more, though.
“This isn’t going to work,” said Grace, backing into the warehouse.
Joe grabbed Danny by the hand and followed after her.
The chimps glared at them as they continued backing away, but made no attempts to follow. They seemed to be communicating amongst themselves, arms moving frantically in some sort of monkey sign language. Joe didn’t dare take his eyes away from them, feeling that as soon as he did they would attack.
“Should we go back upstairs?” asked Grace.
Joe shook his head. “It’s too late for that. We need to find a way to lose them.”
“I don’t think that’s going to be easy.”
The chimps seemed to reach an agreement amongst themselves and rushed into the warehouse, hopping and rolling playfully as if the whole thing was just a game. Perhaps to them it was.
“RUN!” Joe screamed at Grace and pushed her into action. Danny ran alongside them as Joe continued to hold his hand. Behind them, the chimps whooped and hollered. They ducked behind a crate of fertilising materials. Grace was already panting with exhaustion.
Joe glanced around the crate and saw that the chimps had spread out and were in the midst of a chaotic wrecking spree, ripping and tearing everything in their sight.
“What’s the plan?” Grace asked. “More petrol?”
Joe looked at the petrol can in his hand and thought about it before shaking his head. “Can’t risk trapping ourselves inside. We need to keep the exit clear.”
“What then?”
Joe shrugged. “Pray for a miracle?”
“Miracles are beyond you,” said a voice Joe recognised.
He looked up to see Shirley heading towards them. Both of her eyes had been reduced to blood soaked rags, the woman quite obviously blind.
“Shirley,” he hissed. “Be quiet.”
Shirley turned in the direction of his voice and snarled. “You cannot silence the righteous. The end times are upon us and your punishment is nigh. Your son will burn in Hell for man’s crimes.”
In different circumstances, Joe would have knocked the woman’s block off, but right now all he wanted was for her to be quiet. She was going to alert the crazed chimps to their location.
But it was already too late.
The group of chimps descended on Shirley like rugby players attacking a loose ball. They knocked her to the ground under the weight of their writhing bodies. Unbelievably, the woman did not cry, but instead seemed indignant at their lack of manners.
“Release me, you foul beasts of Satan. I am not one of the forsaken and I demand that you remove yourselves from my body.”
One of the chimps sank its human-like teeth into Shirley’s shoulder and her mad vitriol turned to screaming. The noise seemed to excite the animals even more and, within seconds, half-a-dozen of them were tearing strips of fatty flesh from Shirley’s struggling body. Her screams grew louder as one of her ears peeled away from her head like foil off a yoghurt pot.
Joe slunk away from the scene, thankful that the chimps were too occupied to notice him. He turned to Grace. “Let’s make a run for it.”
The three of them crept around the opposite side of the warehouse as quickly and as quietly as they could. The sound of blood-hungry monkeys ripping apart human flesh was sickening, but it meant they were all grouped together over Shirley’s body. There was a chance to get out without being seen.
Joe stopped near the warehouse’s shutter. Grace raised her eyebrows at him. “Why’d you stop?”
“Randall. I left him lying in the spot we just passed. He’s gone.”
Grace grabbed Joe’s arm and pulled. “Let’s worry about t
hat later. We need to get out of here.”
As one, they ran out through the shutter and back into the cold air of the loading area. They were immediately set upon by three wolves.
Joe pushed Danny out of the way just as one of the large lupines snapped at his face. Joe swivelled and kicked the animal hard in the ribs. It yelped and fell to the ground. Joe was surprised that it did not get up again.
Must have broken a few ribs.
Grace swung the mop handle that she had thankfully kept in her possession and struck another wolf. It rolled across the floor, growling in pain, before springing back to its feet. Grace swung again but missed.
The wolf lunged. Its jaws clamped down on her wrist. She screamed and shook her arm left to right, but the animal kept a tight hold, biting down harder.
“Joe, help me!”
Joe saw a third and final wolf making a beeline for his son. “Danny,” he shouted. “Come here.”
Danny ran toward his father, the huge animal bounding after him. Joe ran towards him, but didn’t make it in time.
The wolf pounced on Danny, driving his frail body down to the ground, knocking the air from his lungs and ravaging him.
Joe screamed so hard he felt something in his throat tear loose. With every strand of muscle fibre in his body, Joe barrelled towards his son. Danny’s screams made him move even faster.
Joe kicked out at the wolf, so violently that both feet left the floor. His right foot struck the animal in the side of the head. The impact threw both it and Joe into a tumble. Pain struck Joe’s leg like a fast-moving toxin and he knew that he had broken a toe.
The wolf lay dead, bleeding from its misshapen skull as it lay prone on the sidewalk.
Joe crawled over to Danny. Tears streamed from his eyes. “Danny! Danny!”
His son began to move.
Thank God!
Joe examined Danny and saw that he was uninjured. The wolf’s teeth and claws had caused a huge amount of damage, but it was absorbed by his son’s Undertaker backpack. It was ripped and torn to shreds.
“Is it gone, Dad?”
“Yeah,” said Joe, stroking his son on the back of his head. “You’re safe now.”
Grace screamed out from behind him. Joe suddenly realised that she needed his help too.
Joe got to his feet. Almost fell down again as pain shot through his toes like an injection of fire. He gritted his teeth and fought through it. Grace was on her back now, her wrist still trapped inside the remaining wolf’s mouth.
Joe’s first intention was to kick the wolf as he had the others, but that wasn’t possible with his injury. He would need to try something else. He looked around for ideas, but the loading bay was empty.
Except for the petrol can.
Joe grabbed the canister and quickly hobbled to the wolf. It was ripping and tearing at Grace’s arm, oblivious to anything else – even Joe pouring petrol onto the animal’s hind quarters. But the petrol would be useless on its own.
The matches. Where are the matches?
Joe scanned the pavement, looking for the small square box that Grace had been carrying earlier. He could not see it.
Then he heard someone strike a match.
Joe looked down to see that with her spare arm – the one that wasn’t stuck in the wolf’s mouth – Grace had pulled a match from the box that lay beside her. The phosphorous ignited and the flame immediately caught against the animal’s dusty, petrol-soaked fur. The wolf went up like a torch, finally releasing its grip on Grace’s arm. It leapt back in agony as the fire consumed it whole, blackening its skin and melting away any flesh too fatty to burn.
Joe pulled Grace away from the flames. She was wailing and blood covered her body from head to toe, adding to the caked-on layers of her previous injuries. He held her tightly in his arms and rocked her back and forth. Danny ran over and joined them both, turning the hug into a huddle. Joe loved them both so much, but he was starting to think that he would not be able to protect them.
Despite that, he couldn’t help but tell them: “It will be okay. Everything is going to be okay.”
35
Randall somehow managed to hop himself up the staircase to the warehouse’s upper walkway. He had watched the entire thing play out. He’d seen Shirley get ripped apart by a gang of goddamn chimpanzees. It was enough to send a lesser man insane. He also witnessed Joe’s escape and it pissed him off something rotten.
That traitor doesn’t deserve to be walking around like a free man.
Randall looked down at his ankle, twisted and hanging in an unnatural direction. “I hope you get ripped to shreds, you monster.”
Randall held onto the safety railing and hopped his way along. If he could make it back to Victor, the two of them could hole up somewhere in the building and re-establish their safety. Then they could think of a new solution to get out of this godforsaken zoo.
That’s if Victor is even still alive.
And that he forgives us for running out on him.
I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. I’m sure I can charm some haggis-eating Scotsman into believing whatever story I choose to provide him.
Doing his best to ignore the agony of his broken ankle, Randall hopped along the walkway and into the hallway, looking down one last time at Shirley’s bloody corpse and the chimpanzees that surrounded it.
The corridor was unmoving, devoid of the chaos and noise that existed almost everywhere else. If not for the barricade at the far end, it would be nothing more than a normal office hallway. Randall felt like he was dreaming.
Or maybe that’s just shock from all the pain.
The day had begun with such promise. There had been order and a sense of discipline. He had been in control of things. Since then, however, he had murdered two people, been thrown down a flight of stairs, and had his ankle snapped like a twig by a lumbering fool. Things had gotten away from him, and that was unforgivable.
But all great leaders face adversity. It is how they recover from it that defines them.
Randall continued his limping hop down the corridor, heading for the seminar room where he hoped to find Victor. As he got closer, he could hear the battle outside continuing – angry trumpeting of stampeding elephants and the bloodthirsty hoots of an army of monkeys.
Dirty, disgusting creatures.
The door to the seminar room was closed and Randall wasted no time in opening it, balancing on one leg as he pushed. Inside he faced madness. Monkeys leapt about everywhere, tipping over bookcases and tearing the contents to shreds. Tables and chairs were overturned and the large window at the far wall was completely broken, letting cold wind gust in from outside. Randall watched with terror as more animals flooded inside, clawing their way through the window one after the other.
Victor was alive, sprawled on his stomach and crawling toward Randall by his fingertips. The Scotsman was covered in his own blood and gashes lined his body like canyons of flesh. The monkeys tore at his back with their claws, biting into him as though he were a fine meal served to them for lunch. Randall could not believe that Victor was not screaming.
But he was pleading. “Help me.”
Randall stood motionless in the doorway. “It’s too late, my friend. I’m sorry.”
Victor glared at him, but stopped crawling as more monkeys piled onto his back and began ripping at a new patch of flesh. “I’ll see you in Hell, pal. Then it will be you who’s begging for help, I promise ya.”
Randall watched for a few seconds longer while a particularly vicious little critter tore out Victor’s throat with its needle-like teeth. Then he jumped back and closed the door behind him. Instantly, bodies began to hit the other side of the wood. The monkeys were done with Victor.
And now they want me.
Randall looked up and down the corridor and tried to rationalise a plan of action. With his ankle the way it was, he could not outrun the monkeys if they broke through. He had to hide.
And I know just where.
Randall hopped further down the corridor and headed for the office he had made his own. The filing cabinet inside was stocked with supplies and weapons.
Not to mention my phone. Maybe I can call for help. The Army isn’t that far away.
Randall flopped against the office door, almost too exhausted to stay upright. He managed to retrieve the key from his pocket and unlock the office, hurrying inside as soon as he was able. The door would need barricading, perhaps with the room’s large desk, but right now Randall just needed a minute’s rest. His asthma was taking a firm hold of his lungs and he needed to sit and use his inhaler.
The swivel chair almost tipped over as he fell into it, but thankfully it steadied after rocking back and forth a couple of times. Randall managed to let out a slow, gentle breath and felt a little more in control.
Just one breath at a time. In out, in out.
It was several minutes before his breathing returned to normal. Once it did, he could finally think again. He was safe for the time being and had no reason to rush a decision. He would just bunker down until the time was right to act.
And when I do, there is going to be hell to pay for certain people.
He stood up and hopped over to the window. Between the gaps in the barricade, he could see the animals outside. The silverback was still amongst them. The giant gorilla was celebrating, waving its arms in the air like a crazed lunatic. Randall’s eyes narrowed at the beast.
Our war isn’t over yet, my savage foe. The leader of the biggest army isn’t always the one that wins.
Randall was feeling good. The pain in his ankle was fading to a dreary buzzing and the room was secure enough to give him time to plan. And time was all he needed with an intellect like his.
I’ll figure something out. I always do. I just need time to think.
But Randall was distracted from his thoughts a moment later.
By the smell of smoke.
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The World's Last Breaths: Final Winter, Animal Kingdom, and The Peeling Page 18
