Cryptid Zoo

by Gerry Griffiths

  The bear got on top of its fallen adversary. It mauled the other beast with its teeth and claws and didn’t stop until the giant ground sloth ceased moving and was dead.

  “Now’s as good a time as any,” Ivan said. He readied his assault rifle and ran toward the bear, which at the moment was ripping through the belly section of its victim.

  The security guard was right beside him and aimed his weapon.

  “Fire!” Ivan squeezed the trigger and unleashed a quick burst of bullets. It was difficult to tell in the dark but he believed many of them hit some part of the bear by the way it reacted and yowled with pain.

  The man next to him had emptied his clip and was grappling for a fresh magazine from his belt.

  That’s when the bear retaliated and charged.

  Ivan was surprised a 4000-pound bear could move so fast and yelled, “Run!” to the other man but by then it was too late.

  Having fired off every round in his clip and no time to reload, there was nothing Ivan could do to save the man, who was dead with one swipe of the bear’s powerful paw.

  Ivan bolted down the pathway.

  Bergman’s bear lumbered after him.

  Veering off the flagstone path, Ivan dashed across the artificial turf and up the hill, hoping the bear would be exhausted from battling the giant ground sloth.

  But the bear didn’t show any signs of slowing down. On the contrary, it seemed drawn by a new scent as it bounded up the hill.

  Ivan reached the top and dashed by the Sea Monster Cove sign. He looked over his shoulder and saw the bear come up over the crest.

  With nowhere else to go, Ivan headed down the bleachers. He jumped from one row down to the next, praying he didn’t trip and fall.

  He heard a loud roar.

  Then the aluminum bleachers shook as the bear lumbered down.

  Ivan was almost to the bottom when he realized if he was to escape the bear it meant diving into the cove and possibly jumping into the open jaws of the cadborosurus.

  He didn’t know what would be worse: being savagely eaten by a bear or swallowed up by a sea serpent.

  Then the bear made the decision for him.

  Ivan heard a thunderous crash and looked up. The bear was tumbling down the bleachers. Ivan frantically tried to get out of its way. He scooted under the bench seat just as the bear bounced over him and crashed down into the water.

  Ivan stood and watched the bear swim over to the beach. He could also see the shape of the sea serpent cruising underwater around the other side of the small island.

  A mokele-mbemebe ambled out of the cave.

  The bear shook its wet coat and advanced on the small brontosaurus. It rose on its hind legs, took a couple of awkward steps, and came down on the sauropod’s back, biting into its slim neck. The bear shook its head in an attempt to tear away the flesh but its teeth seemed to be caught on something.

  Finally, after a frantic struggle, it was able to pull free.

  Ivan could see blood dripping out of the bear’s mouth. He quickly realized the blood wasn’t the sauropod’s when he saw the metal glinting from the animatronic’s ravaged neck. The sharp edges must have cut into the bear’s gums and tongue causing them to bleed.

  Enraged, the bear backhanded the sauropod, knocking it over onto its side. The legs moved robotically in the sand for a moment then went still.

  Taking the opportunity to reload his weapon, Ivan dug out a fresh clip from his ammo belt.

  He ejected the empty magazine and was about to insert the new one when the giant sea serpent raised its head out of the water. He watched breathlessly as the enormous creature swung its long neck over the sand and clamped its sharp teeth on the nape of the bear’s neck, but when it tried to drag the two-ton carnivore into the water, the bear reached up and clawed at the sea serpent’s face, its sharp nails raking the thick skin and gouging out an eye.

  The cadborosaurus let out a pitiful wail, released the bear, and dove back down into the murky water.

  Ivan couldn’t believe what he had just seen.

  It was like something out of a science fiction movie.

  The giant bear charged across the sandy beach and up the steep slope on the opposite shore, tearing out enormous chunks of turf as it climbed to the top.

  Ivan slapped in a new magazine and ran back up the bleachers.

  Reaching the crest, he saw the giant bear smash its way through the front doors of the aquarium and enter the building. He bolted down the hill hoping he might trap the animal and prevent any further destruction.

  When he reached the front entrance, he could hear the bear bellowing inside. Ivan stepped over the broken glass and twisted metal and headed down the dark hall. He edged around a corner with his weapon ready.

  Bergman’s bear was salivating, standing on its hind legs, facing the glass front of the aquarium as it watched the magnificent selection of fish swimming around the coral reef centerpiece. Thick drool hung from the corner of its mouth.

  Ivan had the perfect shot.

  He raised his sub machinegun and pulled the trigger—at the same instance the bear caught his scent and spun around—and only grazed the bear’s shoulder, forty rounds pummeling the glass.

  Ivan watched in horror as spider cracks spread wildly from the indentations made by the bullets. He turned and ran for his life as the giant bear roared and the thick glass of the 900,000-gallon aquarium burst apart like a rupturing dam.

  31

  MASS EXODUS

  Nick, Meg, and Gabe gathered with the remaining thirty people clustered in the hotel lobby while Miguel took a moment to speak with the two security guards that had stayed behind to help round everyone up.

  Nick did a quick sweep of the faces around him then turned to Meg. “I still don’t see Shane. You don’t think he ran out with the others?”

  “If he did, the poor boy is probably dead,” Meg whispered so Gabe wouldn’t hear.

  “Jesus, what are we going to tell Bob and Rhonda? We were supposed to be watching out for him.”

  “How do we know Bob even survived the heart attack?”

  “Aren’t you little Miss Doom and Gloom,” Nick said.

  “I think under the circumstances...”

  “We can’t stay here,” Miguel shouted. “Our only chance of survival is finding a way out of the dome and getting to the buses.”

  “That’s suicide,” a man in a bloody shirt said.

  “We’ll never make it,” a woman joined in.

  “Has anyone had any firearm training?” Miguel asked.

  Most of the adults in the group shook their heads.

  Nick raised his hand. “I’ve been to the range.” He’d gone with Bob when his friend had first purchased a handgun for home protection and talked Nick into tagging along. Between them, they had fired nearly fifty rounds but then the gunpowder had gummed up the cylinder to the point that it wouldn’t close up so they were forced to call it a day. Nick never went again. For all he knew, that same gun was still sitting in Bob’s nightstand and had never been cleaned.

  Miguel turned to one of the security guards. “Karl, let him have your Glock and give him some pointers.” Miguel looked at Nick. “Remember, safety on at all times unless you have to fire.”

  Karl handed Nick the pistol and explained how to operate the weapon.

  “Please be careful,” Meg said once the condensed training was over. She draped an arm around Gabe’s shoulder.

  Nick could tell his son was withdrawn and was going into shock.

  “Don’t worry, Gabe. We’re going to get out of this place,” Nick promised, holding the handgun down by his side.

  “We should head for the main entrance,” Miguel said. “I want everyone to stay together. Whatever you do, don’t fall behind.”

  Everyone nodded complacently.

  Miguel and the two security guards went out first, followed by the group of employees and their families and hustled down the wide pathway.

  They hadn’t traveled
more than fifty feet when Nick heard a tremendous rumble and saw a torrential surge of floodwater rushing down at them.

  Everyone was swept off their feet by the fast moving two-foot high deluge.

  Nick grabbed Meg who was holding onto Gabe’s hand. As he tried to pull them up he saw hundreds of silver fish floating by, thrashing in the fast-moving water. A sand shark brushed against him with its rough skin and left an abrasion on his forearm.

  He had to push Meg out of the way of a large bluefin tuna flopping past.

  Nick heard a woman scream and turned just in time to see a tiger shark slide into her and clamp its jaws around her legs, dragging her with it through the rushing water.

  The floodwater became shallower as it spread about the dome, the sodden grounds teeming with floundering fish that looked as though they had washed up on a beach after a tsunami.

  “My God, Nick,” Meg said, on her feet and completely drenched. “What caused the Tank to burst?”

  But before Nick could answer, a humongous shape bounded over the swampy grounds, splashing its way between the two rows of cryptid statues, its wide girth brushing against the towering sculptures, toppling some of them over to crash down like felled trees.

  It was Bergman’s bear leaving a path of destruction in its wake.

  The bear smashed through the main entrance gate allowing a portal of natural sunlight to filter in.

  “Everyone, follow me!” Miguel yelled, sloshing toward the main pathway.

  A gust of wind blew into the dome, ripping the tarpaulins off the statues of the spine-chilling monsters that still remained on their pedestals.

  They had only passed the first set of statues when Miguel raised his arm and everyone came to an abrupt halt.

  “Oh my God!” a woman yelled.

  Nick saw a fifteen-foot Buru with something dangling out of its mouth, step out from behind a pedestal. He spotted another monitor lizard, creeping across the mushy ground, swishing its tail.

  A terrible smell permeated the air.

  Nick put his hand over his nose and mouth. He counted six corpses with huge bite wounds on various parts of their bodies, lying near the flagstone path. Their flesh was slowly rotting from the bacteria left on their skin by the Burus’ saliva.

  “Good God, Nick. Is that Christine, our tour guide?” Meg gasped, pointing to the dead woman in the polo shirt, raw patches of skin sloughing off her arms.

  Nick couldn’t swear to it, but he was pretty sure it was.

  Miguel and the security guards directed everyone to sidestep past the deteriorating corpses.

  Suddenly a man screamed from the group.

  Nick turned around and saw what appeared to be a red spear protruding out the man’s chest. Then he saw the wings spread open and realized it was a long-beaked kongamato that had impaled the man; only it wasn’t strong enough to lift its speared prey off the ground.

  He knew he couldn’t do anything to save the man but he could prevent the giant bird from attacking someone else. He walked up, thumbed off the safety, and shot the cryptid in the head. Its wings folded and it slumped to the ground next to the dead man.

  “Look out!” another man yelled.

  Nick turned and saw a giant thunderbird swoop down and snatch the man up in its talons and airlift him over the main pathway and out the gaping hole at the main entrance.

  Miguel and another security guard fired their guns as more cryptids appeared out of the gloom, stampeding their way to freedom.

  Nick grabbed Meg and Gabe and they ducked as two giant bats flew right over their heads followed by other winged creatures.

  “Hurry!” Miguel shouted.

  The brute strength of Bergman’s bear was evident when they finally reached the main gate, which had been smashed apart like a bulldozer had driven through.

  Nick shielded his eyes from the bright sunlight as they ran out. It was so good to finally be out of the dome.

  “Over here!” a voice called out.

  It was the driver, Sam Kerry, standing next to his black charter bus, waving everyone over.

  The group—Nick counted maybe fifteen people excluding Meg and Gabe that had survived—funneled into the opened door of the bus.

  He saw Miguel and the two security guards run back into the dome.

  Nick was one of the last ones about to board. He heard footsteps behind him and turned.

  A man with a blood-smeared shirt was hobbling toward Nick with his arms outstretched. “Help me,” he begged.

  But before Nick could do anything, a giant Mongolian death worm burst out of the ground and pulled the man back into its hole.

  Nick froze, like his feet were trapped in ice.

  “Nick!” Meg yelled from the bottom of the bus steps. “Get in here!”

  The big diesel engine started up with a rumbling roar.

  Nick snapped out of it, turned...

  Only to be confronted by a giant bili ape. It stood ten feet away and was blocking his way to the bus. The four hundred pound chimpanzee screeched, displaying its pink gums and vicious teeth.

  Nick brought the Glock up to arm’s length and commenced firing, keeping his finger twitching on the trigger, one round after the other, watching as the powerful slugs punched holes in the giant lion-eating chimp’s chest.

  The burly primate staggered and fell to the ground.

  Sam was steering the bus in a wide turn.

  Nick ran up and jumped inside as the door closed behind him.

  He glanced through Sam’s side window and caught a glimpse of the dome’s blue roof as they drove through the trees.

  Meg and Gabe were sitting together in the front seat behind Sam.

  Nick sat in the seat across the aisle. He gazed over at Gabe who had his head rested on Meg’s shoulder. His son looked catatonic.

  “My God, Nick,” Meg said, tears in her eyes. “Look what that place did to our boy. He’s a mess. We’re going to sue that bastard for everything he has.”

  But Nick knew this wasn’t the time to tell her that suing Carter Wilde was never going to happen as he and every other employee of Wilde Enterprises that had been chosen to bring their families to Cryptid Zoo had signed a waiver of liability agreement.

  He reached across the aisle and took Meg’s hand.

  “Let’s be thankful we made it out of there alive and worry about that later.”

  32

  DISAPPEARING ACT

  Jack stood by while Nora beckoned the yeren to follow her. She’d been concerned for its safety and thought it best that it stayed inside the building. As a large section of glass was missing from its own habitat, she coaxed the Chinese ape-man into the bigfoot’s enclosure as it had a natural setting with trees and ferns and wasn’t that much different to the jungle that it was accustomed to.

  Cam and Tilly gathered up bundles of fruit and brought them over so the yeren would have something to eat. The big ape sat on the floor with bunches of bananas on its lap. It stripped off a banana and shoved it into its mouth, skin and all, and slowly mashed it into pulp with its enormous teeth.

  Confident that the big ape would adapt to its new surroundings, Nora backed out of the enclosure and pushed the door closed.

  “You know you can’t lock it in,” Cam said.

  “I know,” Nora replied. “But as long as it’s content, it won’t have any reason to leave the habitat. Isn’t that right, Lennie?”

  The yeren grunted and pushed another banana between its lips.

  “Unbelievable. I think it knows its name,” Tilly said.

  “I promised Burt Owen that I’d come back for him,” Jack said.

  Nora looked away from the yeren and faced Jack. “Then we’ll need to swing by the lab.”

  “Why? I don’t think any of your staff are in there.”

  “You don’t know?” Cam said to Jack.

  “Know what?”

  “The lab technicians and Burt’s crew are all dead.”

  “What? But how?”

  “A
gas leak. We think it was caused by the explosion in the tunnel.”

  “We were down there when it happened,” Tilly said.

  “My God,” Jack said and looked at Nora. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Which is why we need to get to the lab.” Nora walked off and headed down the corridor to the exit door.

  Jack, Cam, and Tilly rushed after her.

  When they stepped outside, everyone was surprised to find everywhere sopping wet.

  “What the hell, did we have a flood?” Cam said.

  They ran across the boggy ground and entered the next building.

  Jack turned on his flashlight and shined the beam down the hallway.

  Burt Owen stepped into the light. “So, you made it back.”

  “Told you I would,” Jack replied.

  Jack heard footsteps coming from the other direction. He looked over his shoulder and saw Miguel running towards him, carrying his own flashlight.

  “It’s a frigging zoo out there,” Miguel said, stopping to catch his breath.

  “Well, yeah, we all know that,” Jack replied with a grin.

  “No, I mean it’s insane. Bergman’s bear destroyed the aquarium.”

  “That explains all the water.”

  “It also busted out of the dome. These things are running loose everywhere.”

  “You mean they’ve gotten out?”

  “That’s what I’m saying.”

  “Holy shit,” Jack said. He turned and saw Nora rushing toward the laboratory. “Hey, wait up!”

  Nora had her access card out and was trying to swipe the lock but it wouldn’t disengage.

  “You better stand back and let me open it,” Miguel said.

  Jack pulled Nora away from the door.

  Miguel drew his Desert Eagle .357 magnum and fired one shot, blowing apart the locking mechanism. He kicked in the door.

  Nora rushed in and scurried past the workstations to the back of the room, Jack and the others close behind.

  When she opened the door to the nursery, Jack knew something was wrong right away even without looking inside.

  It was absolute quiet.

  “Oh my God,” Nora screamed. “They’re all gone.”