Ashton Memorial (32 page)

She ran until the roof above her ended and
she stumbled out into the main room. A huge glass wall was to her
right, the primate exhibit behind it. She didn't have time to look,
but she knew the room was full of faux-trees and ledges, with ropes
and sticks and various things for the apes to play on. Dalton had
loved this exhibit once.

Dalton screamed above her. Angie whirled
around and looked up. Dalton was on the overlook that hung out over
the viewing area. His back was to a small wall that kept guests
from falling. He was kicking at corpses that groaned and grabbed at
him.

“Dalton!” Angie yelled. A
flash of light blinded her for a moment, then was gone. Angie
blinked in confusion, straining to see Dalton. A light hung in the
ceiling just above him, glaring in Angie's eyes as he
moved.

He didn't hear her, straining and kicking at
the corpses. The corpses seemed to be farther back than before.

“Dalton!” Angie yelled
again, squinting through the glare. It wasn't as bright as the
first flash, but she desperately wished she could get a better
view.

He spun around and looked
down. “Mom! I'm stuck!”

Angie, terrified she was
being ridiculous, terrified she was making a huge mistake, held her
arms out and up. “Hurry, baby! Jump!”

Dalton looked back at the
corpses drawing closer behind him, then back down at her.
“What?”

“I'm sorry honey,” said
Angie. She squinted in the glare of the light above Dalton. His
silhouette was fuzzy against it. “There's no other way,” she said.
“Jump!”

Dalton looked back, then down at her. He
looked scared. It broke Angie's heart. She almost stopped, almost
reconsidered.

Then the corpses drew up right behind
him.

“Hurry!” she yelled.
“Jump!”

Dalton took a quick glance back over his
shoulder. The corpses leaned in to bite. Dalton screamed, climbed
over the wall, and jumped.

For a panicked second, Angie stared into the
light, trying to position herself to catch her falling son. It
seemed like forever.

Then he was in her arms and she was
straining to slow him down. Her back ached and she almost fell
forward, but he settled and she straightened.

For a moment they stood clutching each
other. Dalton clung to her like a baby. He was heavy but Angie
couldn't bring herself to put him down.

“You okay?” she
said.

“I think so.”

“Okay, we gotta...” then a
muffled “whump” came from Angie's left. It startled her so much she
stumbled to the right, almost dropping Dalton. He jumped from her
arms and landed awkwardly, bent over and looking around.

Angie backed away from the source of the
sound, first only seeing a dark shape against the glass. Then her
panicked mind settled and the shape resolved into a chimpanzee. It
glared at her through the glass and pounded a hairy fist against
the barrier. It screeched at her. The sound was muffled by the
thick glass but still very audible. Angie remembered how a young
Dalton would bang on the glass and the chimpanzees wouldn't be able
to hear it. She wondered how loud the chimpanzee must be screeching
for the sound to come through.

“Crap,” said Dalton. He ran
back over to her.

“It’s okay,” said Angie,
forcing herself to calm down but not taking her eyes off the
chimpanzee. “The glass is too thick.”

A blur of movement caught Angie's eye. A
second chimpanzee was running across the exhibit, toward them. It
frothed and banged its arms angrily on the ground. It reached the
glass and pounded at it, screeching. It seemed to aggravate the
first chimpanzee further. They both screeched and pounded.
Frustrated, the second chimpanzee ran over to a large tire swing
hanging from one of the faux-trees. It grabbed the tire and,
screeching in rage, ripped the tire from the rope that held it. The
thick rope frayed and snapped away from the tire as the chimpanzee
ran back to the glass, carrying the tire with it. Screeching in
anger, it flung the huge tire at the glass.

Dalton jumped back and Angie flinched as the
tire slammed into the glass. The noise reverberated around the
exhibit. The chimpanzees bellowed in rage and pounded on the glass.
Moans came from both ends of the hallway.

“Crap,” said
Dalton.

“It's the noise,” said
Angie. “It's attracting them.”

“Think we can get the
monkeys to stop?”

“Doubtful,” said Angie,
picking up the arrow from where she had dropped it. “Just stay
close to me.”

Dalton did as corpses emerged from both ends
of the hall. They staggered toward Angie and Dalton, working their
dead jaws and groaning.

One corpse, a middle-aged man in a torn suit
with a deep gouge running down one cheek, drew close and reached
for them. Angie grunted and slammed the point of the arrow into the
corpse's face. The corpse groaned and fell back.

“Duck!” she yelled to
Dalton as she whipped around, swinging the arrow around behind her.
The arrow slammed across the heads of the corpses approaching from
behind, knocking them back.

The chimpanzees behind the glass were
furious. The two that had already appeared were pounding on the
glass, the sound echoing around them. A third chimpanzee appeared,
slamming its massive arms into its chest and shrieking. It tore a
branch from a tree and ran to the glass. It whacked the branch
against the glass, pounding again and again until the branch broke.
The first two chimpanzees' hands grew bloody as they pounded. One
started biting at the glass, so hard its teeth chipped.

“Mom,” said Dalton, looking
at them.

“They can't get through,”
said Angie, hoping it was true. Chimpanzees were strong and she'd
never seen any this enraged. But the glass was thick. She hoped it
was thick enough. “The only way they could get out is through that
door with the red light.” She nodded toward the door, set far back
behind the chimpanzees, as she swung at a corpse that had come too
close.

Dalton screamed and Angie whirled to look. A
corpse, a young woman with large chunks of skin peeled from her
arms, had grabbed hold of his neck. She hissed and pulled him
toward her. Angie screamed and slammed the arrow into the woman's
face. The woman fell back and Angie slammed the wood downward onto
her skull. The woman jerked and fell, still.

The chimpanzees howled and pounded. The
corpses groaned all around Angie and Dalton. Angie bellowed back at
them, feeling her sanity slipping. She swung and slammed the arrow
back and forth, round and round. She lost track of how many corpses
there were. She lost track of how many she'd hit. She was conscious
of two things, the corpses she needed to put down and the need to
avoid hitting Dalton. She pounded and pounded, one corpse after
another falling as she did.

Finally, there was only one left still
moving. It was an older man with no nose and dirt clumped against
his face. A worm crawled out of the hole where his nose would be
and inched along his face. He growled and came at Angie. Angie
swung the arrow around and downward, snapping the man's neck. The
man stumbled to one side, head bobbing limply. Angie brought the
arrow up and slammed downward, knocking the man's head into his
shoulder. The head caved in and thick black muck spilled out of his
ears. He fell, still.

Angie panted. She held Dalton close to her
side.

She heard pounding behind her and turned to
face to glass. A chimpanzee was inches from her, pounding on the
glass with bloody hands. It snarled and hissed and bit.

Angie flipped it off,
panting. “Eat it, asshole.”

Then she patted Dalton on the head. Dalton
said nothing, looking around at the still corpses and at the
furious chimpanzees.

“Okay, honey,” she said.
“Let's go. The exit's this way.”

Thirteen

“Guess we're sleeping
here,” said Maylee, looking around. She stood in a narrow alcove of
concrete and plaster. The ceiling was low and claustrophobic. She
felt a little trapped, but reminded herself they'd had to climb a
ladder to get here. And from what she had seen, fresh corpses could
navigate stairs if given time, but she'd never seen any manage a
ladder. It bothered her that she was becoming an expert on what
walking corpses could and couldn't do.

“We'll swing it,” said
Park, leaning against a wall of the alcove. “It's cold and the
floor is nice and hard. And don't forget fucking damp. What's not
to love?”

Maylee smirked and looked behind her. Ella
was standing outside of the alcove, looking down with her back to
Maylee. Climbing up here had been Ella's idea. She knew of all
sorts of hidden areas that the zookeepers used for storage and
shortcuts. This alcove, set high up along one of the fake-rock
walls, was one of them. The ladder was almost impossible to see
from the regular zoo walkways, but Ella had gone straight to
it.

Maylee walked out to where Ella stood. The
rain was a light, cold mist. It stung her face but Maylee was glad
to be out of the dim alcove.

Ella was looking down at a bear exhibit. A
bear paced angrily next to a large pool of water, one the bears
would normally play and swim in. A beach ball bobbed in the water.
A dead bear, head smashed and bloody, lay next to the pool.

“I saw him do that,” said
Ella.

“What?” said
Maylee.

“Geoff,” said Ella. “I
mean, that bear. I saw him pounding his head against the wall. I
guess he did it too many times.”

Maylee nodded, not knowing what else to do.
She stared down at the bear with Ella for a moment, then walked
slowly back into the alcove. Park was still leaning against the
wall, looking down. He saw Maylee approach and gave her a quick
nod. Maylee nodded back. She sat cross-legged on the cold floor and
set her bat next to her.

Ella slowly walked inside
and sat next to Maylee. She sighed. “I can't believe we're still
not there.”

“It's a big zoo,” said
Maylee. “Plus, dead people are everywhere.”

Ella frowned. “Plus you've
got me for a guide.” She stared silently at the floor for a moment.
“People think I'm stupid. Weird and stupid.”

“Hey!” said Maylee, kicking
Ella's foot then resuming a cross-legged position. “I don't think
that.”

Park, who'd been watching
this whole time, came over and sat next to Ella. “Listen, Ella,” he
said. “Everything's gonna be okay.” He reached out to put a hand on
her shoulder. She pulled away.

“Not now,” she
said.

Park stared at her for a
second, then stood angrily. “When, goddammit, Ella?
When?”

“I don't know,” said Ella,
standing and pacing.

“Well give me a fucking
time frame, Ella. I'm your fucking father and I haven't seen you
for years!”

Ella whirled on him, a fury
in her eyes Maylee hadn't seen from her before. “Big damn whup,
Dad! I'm so sorry your stupid little plan isn't working out for
you. You think you can just show up after years and be some sort of
stupid scroungy hero? Where were you when Mom died? Where were you
when Stepdad stole Lori? Where were you when dead people started
eating everything? Where were you ever?”

Park stared at Ella for several seconds. Maylee
tried to read his face. He looked angry, embarrassed, sad, and
several other things all at once. Maylee wished she had sat
somewhere farther away.

Park sniffed and stepped
closer to Ella. “You guys. Your mother, your sister, you. You guys
left
me
.”

Ella stared back, then
shook her head. “Shit, Dad. I'm fifteen years old and
I
know how childish that
sounds.”

She spun and stomped out of the alcove. Park
watched her go, then looked down at Maylee. Maylee looked back, no
earthly idea what to say.

“The fuck you looking at?”
said Park.

Maylee shrugged, stood and walked away.

* * *

Angie grabbed another handful of paper
towels from the dispenser. She walked to the center of the bathroom
and knelt, spreading the towels out as neatly as she could in the
rapidly-fading light. Dalton stood a few feet away, looking around
the bathroom. The public restroom at a zoo was not Angie's first
choice for sleeping, but it had only one door and one window. The
window was high up the wall and narrow, making it unlikely that
anyone, or anything, could climb through. And the door was locked
thanks to a plunger Angie found and shoved through the vertical
handle.

“We should get there
tomorrow, sweetheart,” said Angie. She spread the paper towels out
until they formed a thin layer against the floor of the bathroom.
It would have to do. “I'm so sorry this is taking so
long.”

Dalton came over and sat on
the makeshift bed Angie made. Angie sat next to him. Dalton stared
up at the frosted window high on the wall. “Do you think Maylee's
okay?” he said.

“I'm sure she is,” said
Angie. She desperately hoped it was true. She reminded herself that
Maylee had Park with her. And for all of Park's issues, he could
handle himself. Then she reminded herself that Maylee had gotten
Dalton through that first night. The first night of the end of the
world, Maylee had kept herself and Dalton safe. It made Angie
proud, but it was too scary to think about for very long. Maylee
was only fourteen.