Animal Kingdom by Iain Rob Wright

– the impact of every stair rattling the bones in his ankles. Despite his haste, it still felt like an eternity to reach the bottom. When he did, Bill hurtling into the back of him, Joe wished he hadn’t.
    The monkeys were inside.
    Victor noticed Joe and Bill’s presence and spun around to face them, his back against the door. Thick scratches and ragged bite-marks covered his body. “Give me a bloody hand!” he shouted.
    Joe and Bill rushed forward down the corridor, gripping the edge of one of the tables that Victor had abandoned half way down. It was heavy, and Joe wondered how on Earth the Scotsman had manoeuvred two at once. They slid the table towards the far door, which was now being forced open by two-dozen sets of razor-tipped paws. Victor was pushing back as hard as he could, trying to force it shut, but there were four monkeys already inside the entranceway and they were all lunging for him. They bit and clawed at his tattooed arms and legs, shrieking in ecstasy as they drew fresh blood from his wounds. Victor fought to ignore the pain as he concentrated on keeping the door closed.
    Joe’s eyes stretched wide. The situation would not quite compute in his brain, but he knew that he needed to act right now, before Victor’s body gave out to the relentless mauling by the three monkeys.
    Joe prepared himself for battle. “Time to lay the smack down on your monkey asses.” He sprinted towards Victor.
     
     
    Chapter Seven
     
    Randall didn’t know who the hell they thought they were. Talking to me like that. I could buy and sell the lot of them, yet they speak as though I’m no one. He took a tug on his inhaler, enjoying the feeling of loosening lung tissue. When all this is over, they will pay.
    Randall had been sitting and watching from his position away from the group for ten minutes now, looking out of the window that ran the entire length of the wall beside him. The view outside was unusual to say the least, but it lent credence to what the others had all been saying. Things were bad.
    The number of dead bodies scattered outside on the zoo’s various pathways must have numbered fifty or more. There were slimy morsels of flesh littering the area like grizzly lawn ornaments, and even severed limbs. The corpses all wore grim expressions of agony, as though their final thoughts had been frozen onto their torn faces forever. It was all very interesting. It was obvious that something quite fundamental in the universe had changed, gone off kilter. Only those willing to adapt would be able to cope with whatever lay ahead. Randall planned on being one of those people.
    The animals outside milled about the zoo with purpose and determination that should have been alien to lesser species. Grouping together in what seemed to be a search and destroy mission, sniffing out all corners for people that still lived. But there were no people left that Randall could see and the search seemed to be coming to an end. He watched a threesome of raggedy hyenas congregate next to a pack of what looked like wild, oversized housecats . There were many other creatures that he could not name along with the more obvious species like camels, zebras, and various species of deer. Animals had never been of much interest to Randall, and collecting them all together in a park, so that little brats could poke and prod at them, seemed ridiculous to him .
    Better to just put them down than enslave them. Especially the dangerous ones. People must be mad to keep a bunch of lions around. Just look at the situation it caused today.
    Randall lent over on his chair, tilting towards the nearest bookcase. He plucked a hardback book from the shelf and dropped his chair back onto four legs. There was nothing about this situation that Randall liked. He decided the best thing to do while he was stuck here was to learn a bit about the animals. Maybe then he could do something useful if they attacked again. He turned the first page of the book in front of