The Adventures of Steve and Terry: The Zombie Chronicles (12 page)

“Coooolll,” Steve said, again
getting close to the bars.

The lion paced back and forth
right at the bars, looking at Steve with cloudy eyes. Steve leaned in closer
when the lion suddenly stuck its paw through the bars and swiped at the man.
Steve leapt back with another scream and shot the lion in the face with his
shotgun.

The shot blasted flesh from the
dead lions face and the thing fell back with a roar, but it didn’t put it down.
All three lions paced back and forth. Suddenly they all attacked the bars.
Steve jumped back with another scream. Zombie-
lions
were definitely
scarier than normal zombies.

Steve suddenly realized he was
alone and started to look for Terry. He saw the man walking toward him from a
ways off, but he wasn’t alone. He was hunched over as something small held his
hand and shuffled along on three limbs beside him. Steve had a terrifying idea
he knew what that little something was.

As Terry reached Steve the man
pumped his shotgun and leveled it at the chimp. Terry quickly put himself
between them.

“Hey! Cool down man!” Terry said.

“Move aside Terry! I gotta put that
thing down.”

“It’s just a chimp man!”

“Yeah, right now it is. But
haven’t you seen Planet of the Apes man? All they’re doing is waiting for the
right time, then they take over the world. Zombie effing apocalypse seems like
the right effing time man. I’m not gonna let ’em do it!”

“Hey. Hey!” Terry said, pushing
the shotgun aside. “It’s one chimp, just one, not an army. It’s sad and alone
and all it wants is to—”

Terry was cut off as the chimp
jumped on his back with a shriek. It clawed at him and shrieked, trying to bite
him. Terry spun around trying to get the thing off of him. “Shoot it! Shoot
it!” he screamed.

Terry spun and stumbled backward,
hitting the bars of the lion’s cage. The lions latched onto the chimp and Terry
pulled away. The chimp screamed as the lions ripped it apart through the bars.
And just for good measure Steve shot it.

“And
that
is why we don’t
pick up random chimps. They are vicious, dangerous, and they have a plan for
world domination man!”

“That’s absurd,” Terry insisted.

“Oh, you mean kinda like a zombie
apocalypse?”

Terry thought about it for a
minute. “Okay, point taken.”

The two proceeded deeper into the
zoo. Every animal they came across was either dead or zombified, with the
majority being the latter. Steve still treated the zoo like he was a child. He
oohed and awed at the zombie creatures as they slammed into the bars, just as
if they weren’t trying their damnedest to eat him.

They left the main part of the zoo
and proceeded into the employee areas. They needed to find a place to bed down
for the night. They found an employee break room with vending machines. They
smashed the glass and feasted on candy bars and soda. The employee lounge had a
few couches and they both laid out with their guns close by.

“Terry?” Steve asked right before
they fell asleep.

“Yeah, Steve?”

“Isn’t the zoo awesome?”

Terry suddenly sat up on his couch
to look at the man through the dark. “Are you kidding?”

“What? All the animals are really
cool.”

“They’re effing zombies. Every one
of those creatures was slamming into the bars to try and eat you.”

“True, but it was still a
spectacle. That’s what the zoo is, a spectacle, man.”

“I think you’re thinking about the
circus.”

“Is that the one where an elephant
stands on a ball?” Steve asked.

“Yeah.”

“Oh, right. Well still, it was
cool to see the animals in their natural environment.”

“Do you even know what that means,
‘natural environment’?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“’Cause you know a cage in the
middle of the city isn’t their natural environment, right?”

“But it is the natural environment
of a zombie.”

Terry was about to say something,
but stopped. “Okay, that one kinda makes sense.”

“Ha ha ha!” Steve exclaimed
triumphantly.

“You’re still an idiot.”

“Whatever, man,” Steve said with a
smile.

“Just try and get to sleep,” Terry
said, lying back down.

“Terry?”

“What?!” Steve just started to
giggle uncontrollably. At first Terry was going to ask what the hell was going
on, but then he smelled it. “Ugh. Ugh! Did something die inside of you?”

Steve was laughing so hard he
couldn’t breathe. Finally he sucked in a ragged breath. “Night, Terry.”

“I often wonder how you’ve made it
this far.”

Steve just continued to giggle.
The next morning they woke late and continued to explore. They found a control
room, with cameras showing the whole park and surprisingly they were still on.
It also had controls for all the cages in the park.

“They must have some sort of
backup power for this place,” Terry said.

Steve suddenly tapped Terry on the
shoulder and pointed to a monitor. A group of survivors were on the screen.
They looked like a hard lot, made up of mostly men in biker leathers.

“Should we go say hi?” Steve
asked.

“Are you kidding? They look like
they’d shoot us just as soon as look at us.”

“Fine, you stay here.
I’ll
say hi.”

“Be careful, man.”

Ian and his group made their way
into the zoo. They called themselves the Banditos, and considered themselves
one tough bunch. Hardened survivors, they took what they wanted, when they
wanted. As of now, they were running low on food and had seen lights at the zoo
last night. Lights meant people; people meant resources they could take. His
group of eight were fanned out, weapons at the ready.

They all stopped in their tracks
and leveled their guns as a balding, overweight man rounded a corner. He was
whistling casually and didn’t seem the least bit surprised to see them. He was
armed, with a shotgun resting on one shoulder and a pistol in his belt. He
walked right into the middle of the group, completely at ease.

“Howdy,” the man said. “Name’s
Steve. Who are you all?”

Was this guy for real? Ian set the
tip of his shotgun against the man’s chest. “Don’t . . . move,” he said in his
most threatening voice.

“Oookay,” Steve said, seeming not
the least bit scared.

Ian motioned to one of the men
next to Steve. “Sal, take his weapons.” Sal, a lean, rough looking man with a
shaved head, relieved Steve of his weapons. “You alone here?” Ian asked.

“Do I look alone?” Steve asked
brazenly.

The group all looked at each
other, then back at Steve. “Uh, yeah.”

Steve suddenly looked around
himself. “Hey, I guess you’re right.”

Ian grabbed Steve by his shirt and
pulled him in close. “You getting smart with us?”

“Nobody’s ever accused me of
that
before.”

“I say shoot him,” Monica said.

Steve looked over at the woman and
her revealing leather outfit. He suddenly smiled. “Why, hello there.”

Monica shook her head, not sure
what to make of that. “You got any food?” Ian asked.

Steve thought about it for a
minute, then his face lit up. “I have candy.”

“Are you playing games with us?”
Ian asked angrily.

“Hey, have you seen the gators?”
Steve asked excitedly. “This way!” He broke free of Ian’s grip, pushed through
the group and ran off.

“Well, don’t just stand there,
follow him!” Ian roared.

The group took off after him. He
wasn’t hard to catch. He was stopped near an enclosure that looked down on a
filthy pond. They surrounded him, guns leveled.

“Right down there,” Steve said,
leaning over the railing.

Travis, a tattooed, ex-con got
curious and leaned over the railing as well. Suddenly a massive alligator broke
the surface in a spray of water, latched onto a screaming Travis’s torso, and
pulled him over. Steve blew out an appreciative whistle as the rest of the
group rushed to the edge, but it was too late, Travis was gone.

“Holy shit!” Sal exclaimed.

“Do you think he planned that?”
Tyler asked, a former drug runner.

“Let’s ask him,” Ian suggested.
But when they turned back around, Steve was nowhere to be seen. “This guy is
good. He’s not the same weak pushovers we’ve been dealing with. He has a plan,
and he’s obviously well trained.”

“What do you suggest, boss?” Anne
asked, an amateur hitman before the outbreak.

“We find him and kill him. But be
careful, everything tells me this guy is dangerous.”

The group split up into pairs,
searching for the pudgy man. Anne and Ron worked their way cautiously forward.
Ron was a former mob enforcer and built like a brick house. Anne carried a 9mm
pistol while Ron had the MP5 he had used in the mob. They were nearing the ape
enclosures. Ron suddenly spotted movement above the cage. He tapped Anne on the
shoulder and pointed. Both leveled their guns and approached slowly. They were
shocked when Steve just showed up, standing on top of the cage.

“I thought
normal
chimps
were bad,” the man called down to them. “But the zombie chimps in here are
horrible.” The man smiled like they were old friends and disappeared.

Ron motioned for Anne to go around
the cage. Ron let his MP5 hang by the sling and started to climb the cage. He
heard a screech from inside the cage and pressed his face against the bars to
see what made it. Suddenly, a troop of zombie chimps charged from behind trees
and attacked. They grabbed the man with incredible strength. He tried to pull
away, but it was too late. He was quite literally, ripped apart.

Anne had circled the enclosure to
see an open, employee only, door. She entered to find a dark corridor. As she
got further in she could hear chimp shrieks and what sounded like a man
screaming bloody murder. Anne tensed, trying to peer through the darkness. A
light suddenly clicked on, on the other side of the corridor, temporarily
blinding the woman.

“Be careful,” she heard Steve say
in a loud whisper. “Apparently, the door to the chimp enclosure is open.”

Anne looked to her side to see an
open door. She spun to run, but several hairy arms grabbed onto her and pulled
her into the darkness with a scream.

Jay and Tyler were near the lion
cages. Jay was a former marine and biker. He found he really enjoyed killing,
even before the whole apocalypse thing happened. They reached the lion’s cage
to find some sort of furry animal in front of the bars, ripped to pieces. Tyler
just caught a glimpse of a man running into a side door near the cage.

“Over there, man,” he said to Jay.

They ran to the door to find a
long corridor. Jay pulled out a flashlight and clicked it on. He led the way.
They found another door with a small glass opening that was slightly open. Jay
tapped Tyler on the shoulder and motioned to it. They kicked the door open and
burst into the room. They found an open cage door. The door behind them
suddenly slammed shut. They spun to see Steve standing on the other side of the
door. Jay rushed to the door and kicked it. The kicked thudded dully, sounding
throughout the room, but the door didn’t budge.

“Careful,” Steve called through
the door. “The lions are just in there,” he said, pointing.

Both men spun when they heard
growls. They saw three zombified lions, one male and two female, slowly enter
the caged area. Both men leveled their pistols and unloaded on the lions, but
to little effect. The lions roared and charged. The last thing either man heard
was their own screams.

Monica and Sal heard the screams and
approached cautiously. They saw the pudgy man tear-assing away from the lion
enclosure.

“Lookout!” he yelled at them as he
ran. “The lions are loose!” And then he was gone.

For a moment they stood in stunned
silence, but then gave chase. They only caught glimpses of him, as he rounded a
corner, or as a door he had run through closed. They seemed not to be gaining
at all, but then, they rounded a corner and he was just standing there. Both
leveled their guns. Monica looked around quickly to see they were in some sort
of arena or someplace where they held shows.

Sal made sure he had a round in
the chamber and then aimed for the pudgy man’s head. “Say goodbye.”

“Are you going somewhere?” the man
asked.

“Dumb a—”

A flock of brightly colored birds
were suddenly released from a cage. Steve ducked and the birds flew over his
head, striking Sal and Monica. They screamed as the zombie birds pecked and
scratched at them. Steve military crawled under the two, pulling his guns from
Sal’s grasp as he did.

“Thanks for holding my guns for
me,” Steve said as he ran away. “Sorry things didn’t work out between us,
pretty lady with the big boobs.”