by M. R. Holman
horrible building this was to be taking shelter in. The door was made of glass. In fact, the entire front wall of the building was made of glass. If the lions didn’t know how to break through the glass the people certainly would. He decided that his only choice now was to find an interior room and try to barricade himself inside of it.
He turned from the door to see a counter with a hall leading off from one side across the room. He took two or three steps toward the hall before he tripped over a velvet rope and hit the floor face first. His shotgun was flung from the strap around his shoulder and went off with an ear ringing BANG when it collided with the marble floor. The shotgun fired a wad of pellets directly at the front windows of the building…
But the sound of shattering glass never came. Through his ringing ears he heard the pellets bouncing off the walls and onto the floor. Dizzy, and watching the blood pour from his nose and mouth onto the marble floor, Traveler realized he was inside a bank.
Traveler rested his throbbing face against the cool marble for a moment before trying to press himself up from the floor. About halfway up his trembling arms failed him and he collapsed back onto the floor in a coughing fit. The running had irritated his asthma. From his curled position on the ground, clutching his chest, Traveler saw four lions eyeing him hungrily through the giant window of bullet proof glass.
He stayed on the floor for a few moments, curled in a ball, trying to catch his breath and relax his lungs in hopes of willing them to end the coughing fit. This process was made all the more difficult when being stared at by a small pride of lions. Traveler briefly thought of how absurd the situation was. It was like a reverse-zoo. He was the attraction. The lions were impolite zoo-goers. Their noses were pressed right up against the glass. One of the female lions was even standing on her hind legs with her forepaws against the window.
Traveler straightened his body and rolled onto his stomach before pressing himself up from the ground with shuddering arms and picking up his shotgun. Although continuing into the bank to hide was in his best interest, Traveler walked to the glass in spite of himself. The lions were beautiful and terrifying. He was transfixed by the lioness which had her paws pressed against the glass. She was taller than him on her hind legs. She was massive. They all were massive.
The lioness was making a rumbling noise somewhere between a purr and a growl. It was the kind of sound that stirs the innate senses and emotions that all humans possess but rarely have experienced since becoming civilized. The sound was like venom dripping into his veins, leaving his body paralyzed and his mind vacant of anything but fear.
Traveler’s feet felt light as though they were willing him to run but he was rooted to the spot staring at the lioness’ black claws flexed against the window. The giant chain leash was dangling between the lioness’ forelegs down to the ground. Traveler looked from the chain to the collar around its neck, and finally to the beast’s face. When they made eye contact the lioness roared, he was sure, just as loudly as the gunshot that had happened moments before.
The roar caught Traveler off guard and he stumbled backwards over the velvet rope again. At least this time he didn’t land on his face...
He sat there on his aching tailbone, clutching his shotgun as tightly as he could in his shaking hands. He closed his eyes and took shallow breaths in an effort to stave off the coughs which were threatening to overcome him once again.
When he opened his eyes the scene had changed. There were now four people accompanying the lions. How could he have forgotten the people? The three women each walked to a lioness and took its chain in their hands. The man accompanying them, however, did not pick up the chain of the male lion. He stood to the right of the rest of the group and glared at Traveler through the front door.
They were an interesting group, to say the least. Even without the lions they would have been an interesting group. They did not have shirts on, for one thing. They wore bulletproof vests in place of them. Two of the women were tall and muscular, one with short blond hair and the other with long, curly dark hair. They were much bigger than Traveler and looked to be more physically fit than he had ever been in his entire life.
The last woman was rather frail. She looked quite out of place amongst the group. Traveler could not imagine her being able to control a lion when it looked as if a strong gust of wind could blow her away at any moment. Her bulletproof vest did not fit snugly against her body as the others did and she looked much younger, probably around Traveler’s age. Even from where Traveler was standing he could see the green glints of her vibrant eyes.
The man accompanying them was not physically large, but he had this presence about him which made up for his unimpressive stature. He possessed a domineering aura which clearly singled him out as the alpha male of their group. His arms were heavily scarred, as was his face. One of his eyes appeared to be glass. Earning dominance amongst lions must not be easy. He had a whip in his right hand which trailed along the ground behind him and out of view behind the door.
For a moment they all just stood there staring at Traveler. He was, after all, the main attraction of this strange zoo they had created. Then the man walked deliberately to the door and tried to open it. Traveler, who was still sitting upright on the ground, sprang to his feet as the man on the other side of the glass began to rattle the locked door and grunt in frustration.
It really was locked well. Traveler let out a wheezy sigh of relief. The lions however were becoming upset due to their leader’s anger and began to roar. The man’s arm became a blur as he cracked the whip in his hand, instantly silencing the lions as they lowered their heads in submission. The man’s attention snapped back to Traveler as soon as he had silenced his pride. Traveler had to endure a few seconds of the man’s intense gaze before he spoke.
“I thought you must have done yourself in when I heard the gunshot,” the man said with a surprisingly gentle but authoritative voice. “I’m glad you haven’t. It would have been quite unnecessary as we mean you no injury if you cooperate with us.”
He paused for a moment as though waiting for Traveler to reply. When he didn’t, the man continued, “I am called Circus, and this is my pride,” he said gesturing to the group of lions and women by his side. “We require your firearms. Give us your guns and we will be on our way”, Circus said with a smile which reached neither his real nor fake eye.
Traveler had trouble taking all of this in. He was still dizzy from the coughing fit and from falling directly on his face. Even so, giving up his only means of protection to some guy called “Circus” who had just set a pride of lions on him did not seem like a good idea.
Traveler wiped the blood from his face. A fresh drop slipped from the end of his nose to the barrel of the shotgun in his hand. He watched as his blood trickled to the end of the barrel and came to rest around the bead.
What a shitty way to start a vacation…
He decided that he did not want to lose any more blood, or anything else, to this group and shook his head. The way he saw it, as long as he stayed in this locked bank, behind this bullet proof glass, he was going to be alright. These goons couldn’t wait here forever.
“We could wait here forever, you know,” chuckled Circus, as though he had just read Traveler’s mind. “I’ve encountered people like you. You know how to survive out in the wild but you’re young and you’ve never killed a man. You’ve avoided it, probably costing you food and shelter in the past. I don’t think you are going to start now. You made that clear when you ran instead of shot. Is this accurate, my boy?”
Traveler did not answer him. It was eerily accurate but he could not let them know that. He could not let them break him.
“You still with us, kid?” asked Circus after a few silent moments. “You can either cooperate with us, or you can stick around inside this bank until you get nice and delirious with hunger and thirst. By then I suppose my pride will be hungry too.” This time there was a genuine smile on Circus’ face. He sunk his gnarled fingers into
the mane of the male lion and patted it on the head.
Traveler thought vaguely of how his best case scenario that day had been finding expired canned food, or roasting and eating an opossum or some other creature before sleeping in an abandoned house or on the cold hard ground. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to just give away his only hope of survival and bow to death…
But he had survived this nightmare for his whole life, and he had wandered for four years. Now that he had an actual purpose he could not just give up…. He turned from the pride and began to walk toward the interior of the bank.
“NO!” cried Circus in exasperation. “Look at me.” Traveler had turned around and looked back at him without even realizing what he was doing. The authority in Circus’ voice was astonishingly persuasive. “Come to the door, open it, and give me your guns,” he said while gazing piercingly into Traveler’s eyes.
“This is easy,” said Circus with the air of one trying to explain a simple concept to a simple person.
When Traveler broke eye contact with Circus, the scene around him had changed. The pride was smaller. The frail woman and her not-so-frail lion were gone. How could he have overlooked the possibility that there could be another entrance
