Animal Kingdom Read Free Page B

if his father gets eaten by a lion. Little bit of therapy and he’ll be fine.
    Joe swallowed.
    He watched the ensuing chaos and finally lost all feeling – from each of his fingertips to all ten of his toes. He could no longer think in a straight line, the adrenaline dissipating through his body sending him into a dazed void of inaction. One-by-one, the members of the group were taken down by the lions, bitten and mauled like ragdolls. It would not be long until Joe’s turn was next, the three or four people in front of him his only protection. He stared the male lion in its amber-flecked eyes and was met with a rumbling growl from its gore-encrusted mouth.
    The people in front of Joe fell quickly, kicking out and fighting with every ounce of spirit they had left, but dying anyway, right at his feet. He stood motionless and unable to help them – a helpless voyeur of their human tragedy.
    One by one, people screamed and then went silent.
    Eventually, Joe’s turn to join them arrived. The lions snarled. The lions pounced.
    Unseen hands pulled Joe backwards. He fell hard onto his side, the impact stealing his breath away. It was a full moment later, when the vision-stars cleared, that he found himself lying in a cramped corridor. Other people piled in through a nearby door, pushing and heaving through the narrow gap, while further beyond there came cries of agony from those unlucky enough not to make it through.
    A hand grabbed Joe around the shoulder. When he looked up, he saw that it belonged to the grey-haired curator. Joe got to his feet with difficulty, still struggling for breath. “Where’s…my…son?”
    “ Over there.” The curator pointed to a bench against the wall. Danny sat there, safe, yet clearly scared if the sickly pallor of his usually rosy cheeks was anything to go by. Joe’s lungs deflated as the stress and terror finally fled the rigid fibres of his body. His son was unharmed. He could relax.
    “ We have to get that door locked back up,” the curator asserted. “I’m sorry I didn’t realise it locked behind me while you were out there.”
    “ Forget about it,” Joe said. “There’re people still out there though. We have to help them.”
    “ We cannot. You’ve already helped as many as you can, and if we don’t get that door secured, right now, then none of us will be safe.”
    Joe knew the logic was correct, but it didn’t make the decision any easier. He thought about Danny’s safety and made up his mind. “Okay. Let’s get it closed.”
    Joe and the curator rushed over to the thick wooden door and pushed against it, shoving back the half-score of desperate people behind it. There were agonised pleas for help, begging that the door not be closed, but there was no hope in saving them all – or any of them now. In fact, most were already half torn apart, limb hanging from limb, leaving ragged stumps behind. Even those still mobile were bleeding and shocked, wandering around like shell-shocked teenagers on the beaches of Omaha. Except for one man further back who was still managing to put up a fight.
    The guy from earlier, Joe noticed. The one from the patio.
    The Black man with the grey sideburns had blocked Joe’s way earlier. Now he was trying his best to fight the lions and help those under attack. The man wielded a fire extinguisher and was spraying foam into the faces of the lions, forcing them to back away, disorientated.
    “ He’s trying to save everyone,” said Joe, and for a moment he thought the man might just do it.
    But then the male lion took him down, blindsiding him as he concentrated on one of the lionesses. Joe heard the man cry out as he hit the deck hard. If it wasn’t for the extinguisher in his hands, blocking the lethal bite of the lion, the guy would already be dead. Joe looked around and noticed the three lionesses were still disorientated, pawing at their faces as they tried to clear the foam from their airways.
    Just the male left. I can help this