THEY CAME PART 5
The only thing that kept me from screaming was not wanting to attract more of these things to where we were. The mutilated flesh of its face seeped blue liquid all over the concrete. The smell was worse. It was almost a mixture of old fish and vomit. I turned to retch.
Doug placed his hand on my shoulder. “We need to move. Come on.”
The small group they rescued were quickly absorbed into their own. The child stayed with the woman who originally held her. Bright blue eyes glistened with tears. We all made our way around the building again but quickly left it behind.
Now we were surrounded by trees. It wasn’t a forest. There wasn’t a real forest anywhere close to this city. No, it was just a gathering of trees between streets. We crossed many of those streets. Doug must have been the leader because he was always the one to look for any alien activity before the rest crossed.
I knew the area we were in. It led to a sunken garden of sorts. Maybe that was where we were going. There were plenty of places to hide in that place, but not enough for a huge resistance. My heart sank at the thought of them not having the numbers I needed to save my family.
To my surprise, we passed up the gardens. Instead, the entire group moved in single file down a small utility street surrounded by trees. On each side, where the trees stopped, cliffs of about five feet formed before ending as well. We moved silently. There was no way we were going where I now suspected we were.
As the small paved road ended, another larger one crossed in front of it. On the other side was the city zoo. My wide eyes found Doug’s face. He quirked a half smile and nodded. My jaw dropped. We were going into the zoo. THE ZOO!
Just as before, Doug looked to make sure it was clear and safe to cross. They moved in pairs toward the entrance and hid inside until everyone was there. Doug brought out a single key, no key chain to jingle, just one key. It fit into a lock to release one section of large and heavy fencing. Two men had to open it just enough for each person to slip through. When we were all on the other side, they closed it again, and Doug secured the lock.
I looked around, and my heart sank again. This time, it was for the animals that were no longer there. What fate had befallen them? Were they alive somewhere or all dead? Just then, a huge bear and lion walked around the corner. I stumbled backward into Doug, who held me firm.
The animals approached slowly. My heart rate kicked up to overdrive. Luckily, I wasn’t the only one scared to death at this. The other new people were being held in place as well by more of the original resistance group.
The bear came straight for me. I struggled in Doug’s grip. The lion went to the closest new person near me. A wet nose came within inches of my shirt, huffing and sniffing me. It traveled down to me feet, then back up to my hair as if looking for something. Seeming to not find what it wanted, the bear moved on to the next person it clearly didn’t know. Doug finally released me.
In as calm a manner as I could muster, I whispered, “What the actual hell was that about? I thought you were feeding me to him.”
Doug laughed. “Nah. We only feed them the aliens.” He nodded to a pair of burly men that I hadn’t noticed before. They came through the gates on their own but carried all the aliens they had killed to save these people. Bags were wrapped around any wound so blood wouldn’t drip. They placed the aliens on the ground with space between them and took off the bags.
Doug produced a small silver whistle and blew into it. No sound came from it, but from around every corner, more animals ran towards us. There were hyenas and more lions, tigers, and things I didn’t know the names of. Hey, I was no zoologist. The bear and lion lead the other to the bodies. It was as if they delegated who ate which one. Finally, the bear and lion shared one together. I had to turn away and cover my ears. Sounds of wild animals eating bodies are not on the top of my list to remember.
A hand grasped mine. Doug pulled on it to lead me away. The whole group went with us and left the animals to eat in peace. When we were far enough away, Doug spoke again. “We have to make sure you are fully human.” He pointed back towards the animals. “They can tell. And since we feed them the aliens, they now have a taste for them. No pure human will ever be harmed by them.”
“Pure human?” What could he mean by that?
“Yes, pure. We found out that the aliens are breeding with some of the lesser humans to produce a mix. They can easily infiltrate camps to see if there are any resistance there.” He continued to walk ahead of me, still holding my hand. I yanked it out.
“That’s disgusting. There is no way they are doing that. They don’t need to. All their strength and weapons and armor… they could just take whatever information they needed with their mind crap.”
He smiled back at me. “And yet, we are still here.” He continued on, letting me trail behind him and think about what he said.
How would you know who was an alien outside of here? Not everyone had a bear or lion to sniff them out. This was absurd. Getting to my sister and brother-in-law was going to be a lot harder than I thought if this was true.
