by Al K. Line
"Whoa there Mr. Talks to the Animals, let's take it one step at a time. First," she ticked off on her fingers, "we don't know if any more are alive. Second, how can we feed them? And, um, third what about bloody lions?" Ven had forgotten about them until that very moment, so scoured the area, worried a giant cat would attack at any second.
"Well, yeah, there is that I suppose. But let's have a look round and see what the score is, okay? I bet things like lions are long gone, on the hunt for food. Plus it depends what enclosures were opened after the botnet hit. I bet some animals were kept contained and others weren't."
Ven couldn't deny the idea had a certain appeal, getting back to a simple life and doing something positive might be exactly what they all needed.
After a bit more conversation Ven convinced Kyle to drive back to the entry to the safari park and to park up somewhere a little bit safer. Somewhere that didn't have long grass with huge animals roaming about in it.
By the time they parked up for a second time everyone was awake on the bus, and the last thing on their mind for a while were the joys of watching giraffes in the faux wild English countryside.
Mandy and Al were a total and utter mess — debilitated both mentally and physically. Both were covered in bruises, cuts, gouges, rips and tears to the skin. Al was wild-eyed and so physically drained he could hardly walk. Mandy, along with the physical wounds that were obvious, had to try to find it within her to relax and remember that she was now safe — safer, at least.
Ven went into action, taking care of Mandy first and talking to the woman for the first time properly. The day before had been nothing more than an escape and then her and Al had been glued together like twins until they fell asleep.
Here There be Lions
While Al and Mandy stirred, before they were awake properly, Kyle decided to take Bos Bos off for a bit of a look around the many buildings dotted about the entrance to the safari park. Trusty mace back in his possession he felt whole again. It was so much a part of him now it felt like an extension of his own limbs.
"Don't go too far," warned Ven. "And don't go into loads of buildings, not without back-up. Don't forget there would have been hordes of people here the day the infection began, so you can guarantee that most would have been turned."
"Yeah, and probably eaten by now," said Kyle. "By the lions. Rooooooooaaaar." Kyle flung his arms wide, trying to be dramatic and spooky. Ven just rolled her eyes.
"Just be careful, I thought I had lost you yesterday, so don't do anything stupid."
"Look after him Bos Bos. Do a good job and you might get a nice treat later for being such a good boy. You were so brave yesterday, coming to tell me all about Kyle and Al's capture. Who's a clever doggie?"
Wag, wag. Bos Bos stood as tall as he could on his stubby legs, pleased with the praise, knowing he had been very heroic, hoping the rewards would continue for some time to come.
"Won't be long, promise. I just need to do something kinda normal, you know? Toodle-oo." Kyle and Bos Bos strode off purposefully.
"Normal," muttered Ven under her breath. "Don't call parking up in a lion infested safari park the day after you got kidnapped by zombie slavers exactly normal." She shook her head, then headed back to the bus to dress and feed Tomas, then help sort out Al and Mandy. Maybe try to get to know their new house-mate too.
Kyle felt alive in a way he hadn't for some time. Sure, kidnapped by slavers kind of brings you back to reality with a harsh bump, but he realized just how much he missed the simple pleasure of being in the company of animals. Animals that weren't going to rip your face off and eat your brains, excluding lions and tigers of course. He didn't really believe such animals would still be around, but he kept his wits about him and felt comforted that Bos Bos was tagging along too.
They checked the buildings near the entrance that were staggered around the parking areas, then the visitor information center. There was also a large restaurant and a gift shop, both devoid of the living, in utter chaos, stinking with the minimal remains of what had obviously been food for zombies, and hopefully not for any dangerous animals.
There was no food to be found, no infected either, so he began to relax a little. He hunted around for anything of use or interest. Nothing.
"C'mon Bos Bos, let's do the walk, shall we," said Kyle, staring at a large colorful map. It showed a circular walk around various penned off areas that meandered for approximately half a mile — there to teach children about the tamer animals the park had, and a way for people to burn off a few calories after buying snacks or eating in the restaurant.
It got very exciting, very quickly.
"No way dude, check it out," he said to Bos Bos, brushing his now quite long hair back from his face, rubbing his hands together eagerly.
The first few large cordoned off areas were for birds, the next for things like rabbits, then it gradually got more exotic, showcasing smaller creatures from around the world that were of no danger to humans, and ending with larger creatures like emus. The anticipation of discovering what would still be alive was tickling Kyle's inquisitive mind. He was itching to see if the animals could survive unattended for all these months.
"Look, chicke—"
"Woof, woof," interrupted Bos Bos, as he leapt the fence, somehow miraculously able to overcome an obstacle he normally just sat staring at until picked up, and ran into a large grassy field full of multiple chicken coops. Chickens of all types, plus a number of rabbits, pheasant and grouse. There was even a peacock. All animals that had obviously broken their way out of their enclosures, or flew in and couldn't find a way out.
"Bos Bos, come here. Now. You naughty boy."
Bos Bos skulked back to the fence, still in the enclosure, with a rather rare Scots Dumpy, a chicken that was now one bird rarer than before.
"Fine," sighed Kyle, "but that's your breakfast, and you can pluck it yourself." Kyle hopped the fence and smiled the smile of a man that knew he was in for a very hearty breakfast. Where there were chickens there were eggs, and with his newfound survival skills, honed over the last few months, he had no problem dispatching a few birds between gathering up pocketfuls of eggs. They were all fresh, the pecked at shells of previous lays an indication that the birds were not getting the attention they needed.
Kyle found a small basket discarded beside one of the coops, laying next to a skeleton picked clean by the birds. He dumped the eggs and birds in the basket and walked back to the fence. "Right then you," he said, pointing at Bos Bos, bird still in mouth, tail wagging furiously, "let's get you back on the right side of the fence." He picked up Bos Bos, now lighter than he had ever been in his life, and dumped him back onto the path. He hopped back over and joined him. "No nicking any more animals, alright?" Bos Bos was too happy to do his sad puppy eye look, he had chicken!
"Next," shouted Kyle, and off they went, following the path around the penned grassy spaces, keen to find out what they could discover.
It went quite well.
###
An hour later Ven, Al and Mandy, even Tomas, were rather surprised to see a somewhat disheveled and dirty Kyle walking toward them pushing a wheelbarrow. Bos Bos was leading the way, chicken in mouth, feathers trailing in the breeze, others stuck to his chops, glued there with drool. He was using up huge reserves of willpower to not eat his chicken straight away, but felt that it may get him bonus points if he delivered it back whole. He might even get it cooked.
Mmm, chicken.
Bos Bos scampered joyously and proud over to Ven, dropped the chicken at her feet, sat down and stared at her insistently. All with great dignity, it goes without saying.
"Um, thanks Bos Bos, been hunting have you? Good boy." She looked at Kyle and his wheelbarrow quizzically, while Bos Bos nudged the chicken closer to Ven with his nose.
Where was the barbecue? He couldn't smell any smoke.
"Morning all. Morning Al, morning Mandy," beamed Kyle, pride shining off his sweaty face. "How are you two doing? Al, gotta say
it, you look awful. Mandy, I hope that we can do all we can to help you. You are very welcome here with us you know."
"Thank you Kyle, I appreciate that immensely. And I want to say thank you properly for rescuing me yesterday. Well, um, trying to rescue me. You know what I mean." She smiled shyly, flustered and not sure quite what to say, but pleased that she was finally free of the slavers, however it had come about.
"And I am wanting to say thank you too," said Al. "To Mandy for being a very nice lady." Al beamed at her, his pain and exhaustion forgotten. Ven and Kyle just stared at each other open-mouthed. Ven gave Kyle a wink and nodded her head in the direction of them both.
"Um, yeah, well, no problem. But for now, let's get down to business. Ta-da," said Kyle, pulling his coat off the top of the wheelbarrow, revealing its contents.
"Kyle, I am being a very happy man now. You are knowing that I am loving the chicken and I am loving the pheasant, and I am definitely loving eating of the eggs. I am not doing eating of the green things, but they do look like they would be very healthy to give you the vitamins. Mandy, do you like the green things?"
"Vegetables Al, they are called vegetables. Actually there are lettuce and zucchini by the looks of it, and yes, I love them."
Al looked suitably chastised and said sheepishly, "I will be eating the vegetables now, I am thinking, if Mandy says they are good for you."
"What!" exclaimed Ven. "I have been trying to get you to eat veggies for months now." Al just stared at her blankly as if he had never heard such nonsense in all his life. "Anyway, Kyle, that is so cool. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to this. Let's cook."
So they did. And Bos Bos ate a whole chicken, and he was happy. Al ate a chicken, a pheasant, six eggs, half a lettuce and about a millimeter of zucchini. Everyone else just ate a sensible amount that wouldn't distend their stomachs like they were a zombie.
"I am thinking that maybe I should only eat the salad after my real food," said Al.
"Why?" asked Mandy.
"It is feeling like it is taking up the space in my belly," said Al, patting his expanded waistline. "And it needs the real food inside it first, then salad last if there is room."
"Al," said Ven, "vegetables are real food you know, they do need to be eaten too." Al just looked at her, unable to comprehend quite what she was talking about.
Must be the shock of yesterday and the zombie slavers, thought Al. Sure that leaves and plants really didn't count as actual food.
Recovery
Al waited on Mandy hand and foot for what seemed like him to be weeks and weeks but was actually two days and one night. Even though he really needed tending himself as numerous old wounds flared up — the bullet wound to the shoulder, various cuts, stabbings and near misses he had picked up over the months, he would only allow himself to be cared for once he knew Mandy had been looked after first. There was certainly no doubt that she had a lot of physical trauma, things were done to her that she would never quite recover from. The emotional pain and hurt was a lot more severe.
Never mind the zombie apocalypse, coming face to face with the darker side of humanity held the most terror. The men had abused her physically, treated her like nothing but a piece of meat that could be discarded once past its best, yet it was their complete indifference to her pain, her suffering, and the fact that humans could act in such ways that really affected Mandy the deepest.
They actually laughed at her after they did the things they did to her — or tried to.
They laughed.
And now they were dead.
She was glad. She hoped they suffered.
Ven got to know her quite well that first day, as did they all after she told of her capture. But Ven bonded with her in a different and more intimate kind of way. Mandy told her things that had happened that she didn't tell the men, and Ven helped her to get properly clean and to dress more intimate wounds. They talked about the consequences of her treatment at the hands of the slavers. Mandy broke down often that first morning as Ven helped her into clean clothes after going over every inch of her body to treat wounds and bandage where possible.
Ven listened with growing horror to the stories of abuse, and Mandy found it impossible to tell of a lot of what had happened. She could only bring herself to give short snippets of information, but was glad of the female company. She told of the horror she felt, worse than that of the actions of the men, when the female slavers seemed so happy to see her tortured and abused in such a way. She simply couldn't believe that other women would actually goad men into attempted rape. Things like that didn't happen did they? Or so she thought.
Both of them discussed this — the simple truth that a breakdown of society brought out the worst in both men and women. Those that were bad became really bad, those that were good became as good as they could be. There was also the very real possibility that the women slavers acted as they did to protect themselves, but it was certainly no excuse for their actions.
After Mandy was cleaned and feeling a lot better Al stuck to her like a limpet. Mandy seemed to genuinely enjoy his company.
Al was like a headless chicken, running around all in a tizzy, pestering Kyle and then Ven on how to make soup, how to choose the right spoon for soup, what bowl to use for soup, should he put salad on the soup or on a different plate, and how did you make salad anyway. He wanted to know the best way to wash her without touching anything he shouldn't be touching, much as he really wanted to touch all the wobbly bits. Never mind that she had been cleaned properly by Ven, Al wanted to make sure her wounds were treated by him. Mandy was what you would call curvaceous. Not plump, quite tall and shapely, but very well proportioned and her large breasts made Al turn into a a gibbering wreck whenever he lost his concentration and his eyes wandered downward. He seemed to spend an awful lot of time addressing cleavage rather than Mandy's face. Ven and Kyle were expecting Mandy to recoil after her horrors, and for Al to get a sharp slap across the face, but there was something between them that seemed genuinely emotional, although after her ordeal it was hard to really tell if Mandy knew what was going on and realized Al was becoming kind of fixated on her lovely curves.
The affection Al felt for Mandy became more and more apparent. It was there in his every word, every action, and, well, he wouldn't shut up about her.
"Are you thinking Mandy is alright with her sleeping for so long? Is Mandy going to be liking the tomato soup? Do you think I should take another cheese sandwich to Mandy? Isn't Mandy being a very nice lady? Do all women have the nice curvy bits like Mandy does?" And on and on it went, minute after minute, hour after hour.
When Kyle caught Al fondling a cabbage in his large hands, a distant look on his face and smiling contentedly, Kyle assumed it would just be a matter of time before he got a smack across the head and Mandy told him exactly where he could put his huge hands, and it wouldn't be where Al wanted to put them. But that didn't seem to be the case. She seemed to connect to the big guy and treated him with respect, ignoring his rather outlandish and stuttering behavior whenever he was in her company.
Mandy said little the first night of her rescue to anyone but Al, she was weak and she was a mental and physical wreck. The morning after her rescue she was a lot better, especially after some food and a little bit of 'normality'. If you can call living on a bus in a safari park with a tubby dog, a giant with autism, a computer nerd and the woman that caused the zombie apocalypse 'normal'. But food, the ability to relax and revel in her freedom, plus the conversation, allowed her to come back to her senses. She emerged from a state of shock, showing how resilient she was, but her abused body was obviously going to take quite some time to heal.
Will You be My Girlfriend?
"Kyle, Kyle," whispered Al, uncharacteristically succinct.
"What?"
"Ssh," said Al, putting a finger to his lips. "You will be coming outside for the talking with me?"
"What's wrong with here?" asked Kyle, waving a hand around at the w
arm interior.
"It is being the private thing," said Al. "I am not wanting anyone else to be hearing."
Everyone heard his conspiratorial whisper. Al's version of being quiet was akin to normal conversation for everyone else.
"Fine," muttered Kyle, pulling on his DCs and grabbing a coat on the way out.
They sat on a picnic bench, Al offering a pork pie to Kyle, who refused, as they settled down for a good 'ole man to man talk.
"You will be thinking Mandy would like to be being a girl. No, um, a friend of mine. Wait..." Al couldn't get his words out at all, they were more mixed up than normal, even though they were there in the right order when he spoke them in his head. "My girlfriend, will Mandy be my girlfriend?" he blurted out faster than Kyle had ever heard him speak in the past.
"Oh!" Kyle was taken aback by the question, he hadn't really thought about it. Mandy had just been saved from the slave trade, he wasn't so sure she had that kind of thing on her mind. And Al was certainly not your average kind of guy either. "Al, honestly I don't know dude. It's very soon after everything that has happened for Mandy, and um, I don't even know if she thinks of you in that way. Do you?"
"I am not knowing, no. But I am liking Mandy very much. Actually I am feeling funny in my belly and it is not for the food. It is for Mandy I am feeling this, and it is very new for me. It is the love, right?"
"Could be, could be," mused Kyle. "Tell you what, why don't you just see how it goes for a few more days, maybe a week, and then ask her how she feels?"
"Ask her!" recoiled Al. He looked terrified. More scared than he was about clowns.
