Angie and her group approached it from the bottom, plodding through the rain toward the lion exhibit. Angie was relieved to find it empty, but realized it only meant the lions could be anywhere. She held up her arms for everyone to stop. They did. Park stopped next to her and looked up. Angie followed his gaze.
The top of the hill was lined with Keepers. They stood inside all the different exhibits, separated by the fences. They stood on the rocks and ledges, all with rifles. Rain pelted down, running into Angie's eyes as she scanned the hill. Her gaze reached the center and stopped.
At the center of the Keepers, standing atop the highest point of the hill, was Gregory.
* * *
Maylee sat on a stone inside an exhibit meant for a puma. She was gagged and her hands were tied behind her back with a strip of cloth. She pulled and tugged, making little progress. Dalton was a few feet to her left. He was also gagged, tied and struggling. Maylee's bat was a few feet to her right. She desperately wanted to free her hands, grab it and smack the hell out of the Keepers lined up all around her. She knew she'd get shot full of darts within seconds of starting, but she didn't care.
Gregory stood in front of her, his back to her. He looked down at something Maylee couldn't see. The one called Lee had been right. Gregory was very interested in meeting the daughter and son of the woman causing him so much trouble. He ordered them tied and kept close to him. Maylee was certain he intended to use them as a bargaining tool. She was determined not to let him.
Lori sat across the way from Maylee. She was also gagged and had her hands tied behind her back. Maylee stopped struggling, staring at her. She looked exactly like Ella. The hair was different, the clothes were different, but otherwise exactly the same. She felt like she knew her and didn't all at the same time. They hadn’t had time to speak when Maylee and Dalton were brought to Gregory.
Lori caught Maylee's eyes and gave her a questioning look. Maylee knew what she was asking. Lori wondered if she was the one who had texted days ago. The one who had found Ella's phone. The one who had later found Ella.
Maylee nodded.
Lori nodded back and looked to Maylee's bat. Specifically, she looked at the word Ella written across it. She looked back at Maylee, with a questioning look so desperate it made Maylee want to cry.
Maylee paused, not wanting to do it, then shook her head.
Lori's eyes went wet and bloodshot. She blinked and looked down. Rain fell all around them but Maylee could see tears.
She heard footsteps coming and looked their way. Gregory was walking toward them. He smiled down at the three of them. Maylee saw the murderous look Lori gave him and concurred.
“Well, well,” said Gregory, smiling through the rain. Maylee pulled at the strip of cloth holding her wrists so hard she felt her circulation being cut off.
Then she felt the cloth tear. A tiny bit, but it sent a thrill of hope through her.
“It looks like your mother has arrived,” said Gregory to Maylee. She pulled at the cloth furiously, again feeling it tear a tiny bit.
“Let's all go say hello,” said Gregory.
* * *
The crowd behind Angie muttered and looked around. Angie and Park kept their focus on the top of the hill. Where Gregory had been. A few moments ago, he had stepped out of view. The crowd behind Angie grew louder when he returned, looking down at them. Angie held up her hand for the group to be quiet. They were. Rain pounded down around them.
“Ms. Land,” shouted Gregory, loud enough to be heard over the rain. “So nice to finally meet you.”
“Give us the girl,” yelled Angie, spitting out rain as she tilted her head back to aim her voice at Gregory. “Then feed these people and let them go!”
The crowd behind her murmured their assent.
“They were being fed!” yelled Gregory. “At designated times and in designated amounts!”
“You can't treat these people like animals! You can't keep them locked in here against their will!” yelled Angie.
“I can if I know what's best for them!” yelled Gregory. “You think you would be a better leader than I am?”
“I am not their leader!” yelled Angie. “We are just scared hungry people who want food and freedom!”
Gregory laughed. “You organize a mob against me, bring them to this place and say you are not their leader? Have you seen what's going on outside? People need to be kept in line! They need control! Otherwise you have chaos! Those people behind you would storm this hill like animals and kill me if you weren't holding them back! Now explain to me again how you are not their leader!”
Angie stared at him through the rain. The people behind her muttered, sounding very angry. “He's just trying to confuse the issue,” she said to them. Then she raised her voice and yelled back at Gregory. “Just give us the girl and some food!”
“Step down and I will feed you!”
“Step down? What the hell are you talking about?”
“Step down and accept my rule!” yelled Gregory.
“Your rule? This is a fucking zoo! You have lost your mind!”
Park, who was silent and glaring this whole time, finally spoke up. He yelled up the hill at Gregory. “Give me my fucking daughter!”
“Your daughter?” yelled Gregory. “You mean the one I've been raising all these years? The one I've been providing for? Just like I've provided for all my citizens here? You think you can just show up now and act like you have any say in what I do with my child? With my people?”
“They are not your people!” yelled Angie.
* * *
Maylee stood a few feet behind Gregory, struggling with her bonds. Two Keepers stood to either side of her, hands on her shoulders and gripping tight. Dalton stood just in front of her, also struggling with his bonds. Two Keepers held him in place. She heard Mom's voice coming from the bottom of the hill. She heard Gregory shouting down at her. She desperately wanted to break free and run to Mom. She felt the cloth binding her wrists ripping, but not enough. She bit into her gag and pulled.
Next to her, Lori struggled with her bonds as well. She looked so much like Ella, Maylee couldn't look at her very long. It was disorienting. Maylee thought she heard groans somewhere behind her but there was too much other noise to be sure.
Gregory turned back to the Keepers holding her and Dalton and nodded. The Keepers walked them forward, toward Gregory and the edge of the hill. As she passed close to Lori, Maylee heard Lori's bonds rip.
* * *
The crowd behind Angie was angry. Park was angry. Angie didn't know how much longer she could control them. She hated thinking about it in those terms.
Gregory had his back to the crowd, motioning to the Keepers behind him. He turned back.
“Listen!” yelled Angie up at him.
“No, you listen!” said Gregory, and pulled a bound and gagged Maylee into view.
“Maylee!” yelled Angie, shock jolting through her. Gregory reached back and pulled Dalton, also bound and gagged, into view.
“How in the hell,” said Park.
Angie pushed down her shock and rage, nearly shaking in the pounding rain. “If you hurt them when you were kidnapping them, I swear to god I'll...”
“Kidnapping?” said Gregory, laughing. “They came to me! Lee found them not a hundred feet from where I'm standing! Do you see, everyone down there? Do you see what a good job Ms. Land does of controlling her own?”
“You son of a whore-sucking bitch!” screamed Angie. “Let them go!” Through her rage, Angie thought she heard moans coming from somewhere. She couldn't be sure, and she was too angry to focus.
“Oh I will,” said Gregory. “Just as soon as...”
He fell silent as another young girl ran out onto the ledge. She looked just like Ella. Angie knew immediately who it was. The girl was pulling torn cloth from her wrists. She wrenched a gag free from her mouth.
“Lori!” yelled Park.
“Dad!” yelled Lori, screaming down through the rain.
“Gregory shot Mom! He killed her!”
“I had to!” yelled Gregory, looking furious that Lori had gotten free. “She was bitten! She was sick!”
“She wasn't! She was fine!” yelled Lori.
* * *
Mom looks like something is wrong. She stares blankly at the road as she steers the car.
“Are you okay, Mom?” says Lori.
“No,” says Mom.
She is silent for a moment, driving. “It's your stepfather, Lori. He scares me.”
Lori says nothing. She just watches Mom drive and listens.
“He's getting paranoid. Paranoid and jealous. He thinks I'm having affairs on him. He threatens to stop letting me leave the house. He's threatened to hurt me, Lori. To hurt you and your sister.”
* * *
“She told me he was scaring her!” Lori yelled down the hill. “She said he would hurt her and then he did! He killed her!”
The crowd was silent. Gregory was silent. Rain pounded down. Angie was sure she heard groans, coming from all sides.
Gregory spoke at a normal level, but his voice carried down the hill. “You ungrateful little bitch.”
Then he pulled a revolver from his coat pocket and shot her. Lori jerked as the bullet rammed into her back and burst out her chest, just below her collar bone. She coughed, blood spraying out into the rain, and crumpled to the rocks.
“No!” yelled Park.
The crowd around Angie erupted and stormed the hill.
* * *
The gunshot startled Maylee so much she jerked her hands free of the cloth without noticing it rip. It took her several seconds to realize she was free. She saw Lori jerk and crumple. She heard Park yell and the crowd roar. All around her the Keepers snapped into position, kneeling with rifles aimed at the crowd below.
She shook herself from her stupor and ran to Dalton. She wrenched the cloth from his wrists and pulled the gag from his mouth.
“Hurry!” she yelled, pulling Dalton with her as she ran back to where her bat was propped against a rock. Her plan was to get the bat, then run along one of the two walkways that led down the hill. To get to Mom. Her brain screamed at her to save Lori, but a sick heaviness in her heart told her Lori was gone. Both sisters were lost.
She ran to her bat, bent down to grab it, and stood, ready to run. She stopped, staring.
A massive group of corpses stumbled toward them. Too many to get past. They groaned and jerked through the rain. Keepers, their backs to Maylee and Dalton, were firing frantically. The corpses closed on them, biting and tearing. Keepers screamed. An old man with long gouges down his face bit into a young female Keeper's face. She screamed and bucked as bright red blood shot out into the rain. Another Keeper was down on his knees, fighting weakly as two fat men bit into the top of his head.
Maylee turned back the way they had come. The Keepers on the hill, still oblivious to the corpses coming up behind, were firing down the hill. Maylee knew she and Dalton would be pelted with darts almost instantly.
She turned back, gripping her bat and staring grimly through the rain. “Get behind me, Dalton,” she said.
* * *
Angie climbed over one of the glass fences and dropped into an exhibit. Darts flew all around her, thudding into people as they raced past her. She looked around for Park. He was off to her right, climbing over a different fence, heading in the best straight line he could manage to where Lori had fallen. Angie looked up to the top of the hill. She saw Maylee and Dalton were free. She saw Maylee backing up, brandishing her bat at an approaching mob of corpses.
“Maylee! Dalton!” she yelled, barely noticing as a dart whipped past her cheek and thudded into the torso of a man climbing over the fence behind her. The man slumped forward onto the glass. Angie turned to help but Maylee was screaming above. She turned back and raced across the exhibit, dodging darts as best she could.
She was heading for the far fence when a shape leapt into view, landing in front of her. She stopped, staring. A snow leopard crouched in front of her, snarling and scraping its claws in the dirt. She heard screeching birds overhead and a hundred different growls and roars all around. First the commotion had attracted the corpses, now it was attracting the animals.
“Shit shit shit,” said Angie, slipping her almost-forgotten rifle from her shoulder. The leopard crept forward, snarling.
It leapt just as she brought the rifle up. The leopard was headed straight for her face. She dropped to her knees, moving the barrel up to keep it leveled at the leopard's chest. She fired and the dart thudded into the leopard's chest as it passed, snarling, over her head. She turned and watched the leopard fall onto a woman running up from behind. The woman screamed and fell to the ground as the leopard tore and bit into her. Red blood shot out across the roaring cat's coat. The cat pulled a hunk off the woman and chewed, moving more sluggishly as the dart took effect. Angie stood, backed away slowly, then turned and ran.
A mob of birds swooped from the sky, descending on a group of people struggling with a few Keepers who had run down the hill. The birds pecked and clawed. The people screamed and gurgled in their own blood. Two angry chimpanzees climbed into another exhibit, descending on a family of four who had been rushing up the hill. The chimpanzees grabbed the husband and pulled his arms backward until Angie heard a sharp “pop.” The man screamed. His wife screamed as a chimpanzee picked up a rock and hurled it at her head. The rock crushed her skull, sending her bloody and twitching into the dirt. Angie didn't want to see what happened to the kids. She ran, willing herself not to watch.
* * *
Park ran across an exhibit, desperate to get to Lori. He'd seen what happened. He knew she was probably already dead. He didn't care. He had to get to her.
Darts flew around him, thudding into other people as they rushed up the hill. He heard animals screeching and growling. He ignored it all. He kept his eyes on where he'd seen Lori fall.
In an exhibit next to him, a young man screamed as snakes crawled up his legs, biting as they went. In another, an older woman shrieked as a group of spider monkeys dug and clawed at her eyes. Blood and pulp ran down her cheeks.
A baboon rushed at Park from out of the rain. It beat at the ground and grunted in fury.
“Best get out of my way, monkey,” said Park, stomping at it through the rain.
The baboon kept charging. Park ducked aside at the last moment, watching it pass him. He unshouldered his rifle and fired. The dart thudded into the baboon's back. It spun, howling in rage. It charged at Park. Park fired again. A second dart thudded into the baboon's stomach. It crumpled, clutching its torso and slowing.
Park snorted at it and turned back toward the top of the hill. He ran on, ignoring the screams and the flying darts.
* * *
“Watch out!” screamed Maylee as a fat woman with one eye torn and bloody staggered toward Dalton. Maylee rushed over, slamming the bat into the woman's mouth. The woman's jaw shattered and she fell back, gurgling on her own teeth and bone. Maylee screamed and slammed her bat across the woman's temple. The woman's head collapsed inward and she fell.
Maylee spun on the group of corpses. The group had closed around her and Dalton. Most were attacking the screaming Keepers to either side. Maylee kept her back close to Dalton, watching for any that came too close. She'd already taken out six or seven. She wondered how long she could keep it up.
A loud honking roar blared out through the rain and over the chaos. It took Maylee a second to recognize it.
“Oh shit,” she said, grabbing Dalton and pulling him out of the path as an elephant burst through the mob of corpses, running for the Keepers who were shooting down the hill. It snorted and blew through its trunk. Corpses broke and splattered underneath its pounding feet.
The elephant raced by. Maylee stopped as a corpse drew near. It was a young man with a green T-shirt stained dark with blood. His eyes oozed with pus and his tongue was swollen and black. He hissed and reached for Maylee. Maylee swung her b
at upward, cracking him under the chin and sending his head snapping back. She heard his neck break as she brought the bat up and back down, slamming into his skull. His head split and he fell.
Maylee turned, looking and pulling Dalton close to her. The elephant trampled corpses as it struggled to get to the Keepers. The Keepers turned to look and screamed, several losing their balance and toppling down the hill.
“Maylee!” came Mom's voice from farther down the hill.
“Mom!” yelled both Maylee and Dalton in near unison. Maylee pulled Dalton behind the elephant and down the hill, avoiding the corpses and frantic Keepers as best she could.
* * *
Angie climbed into another exhibit, running as soon as she hit the ground. She'd heard Maylee and Dalton. She'd called out to them and they had responded. People screamed around her. She heard corpses groan from the top of the hill. Animals screeched and growled. Rain fell, so hard it was almost blinding. She raced through it.
She stopped when a man stepped into view. Angie's first thought was that it was a corpse. Then she saw the Keeper uniform. Then she recognized the wearer.
“Bitch,” said Lee, stomping toward her through the rain. “You ruined everything! We had a place of safety and order here!” He stopped several feet from her and slipped the rifle from his shoulder.
Ashton Memorial Page 33
