A Day at the Zoo

Going to the old spooky abandoned zoo did not, in fact, make him feel better. It did not give him a happy, childlike sense of wonder, or the hope associated with his youth. It only reminded him more of the fact that he was a man now, even if he did not feel like one. If you could even call a 20-year old a man.

He kicked a soda can across the pavement, which rolled away into the bushes. Something rustled between the dry leaves. A soft moaning told him it wasn’t a bird. He swallowed. He’d seen too many horrors already. Frozen, he watched the thing crawl out of the shadows, a mockery of a human shape, naked and sweating, moving seductively, yet horribly frightening. More groans emerged around him, and he knew they’d found him. He shuffled backwards until he was cornered against a large stone statue. He felt the thing’s… thing press against his back. In a blind panic, he started climbing the man of stone, **** to get away from the monsters.

When he reached the face, panting, he was shocked to find a familiar face leering at him. It didn’t make sense. Who would portray Porky as a muscular god?

Unless…

Too late he realized the statue had put a giant hand around his leg, to hold him upside down and shake him around. It was playing with him.

He had almost lost consciousness from the torment, when he saw a ball of lightning in the corner of his eye. It hit the statue right in its ugly head, loosening its grip and pushing it over. Lucas dropped to the ground with it, and scrambled to get up. The monsters around him dropped one by one, each obliterated by lightning blasts. A guy about his age wearing a baseball cap came into view. He held two fingers to both sides of his head, and looked at each of his targets in turn, the lightning blasting out the top of his head.

The statue too now stood up, raising a stone fist to pummel the newcomer into the ground. Baseball guy grimaced, clearly straining, before releasing a green orb from his chest, launching it into the statue. For a few seconds it staggered back, green energy spreading across its stone surface before bursting into a thousand pieces.

“You okay?” The guy asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“I’m Ness. What’s your name?”

“Lucas. Thanks for rescuing me.”

“We’re not safe yet, Lucas.”

Ness pointed towards the dust cloud the statue had left behind. Through the rubble, a large robot carrying Porky’s old and frail body.

“Not this guy again,” Ness grunted.

“You know him too?” Lucas asked.

“Yeah, guess you’re no friend of him either.”

“Not really. What’s that… thing you do?”

“Psionics?” Ness grinned. “Why you asking? Don’t you have it too?”

“No, what do you mean?”

“Hah, liar.” Ness laughed. “Now let me take this guy on. I’ve been waiting a long time for this.”

As Ness destroyed the mech with his psionics, Lucas wondered what the guy meant. He’d never seen anything like it, goes did Ness assume he could do the same things as him? As far as he knew, he just got in the way. He just tried to keep an eye out for any more of the weird creatures. So far, apart from the killer robot, the coast seemed clear, until he noticed an odd vehicle hidden behind a rock. It was yellow and pink, with a big grappling claw on the top. To his surprise, a young woman was sitting in the back, gagged and chained, with smeared makeup and a bored look on her face. When she saw him, her eyes went wide, and she started making shooing movements with her fingers. Her eyes flit between him and the top of the rock, not telling him to go investigate, but very much urging him to run away.

He quickly turned to warn Ness, but he was already aware. A dark arrow emitting a loud whizzing noise shot from up high down to him, which he evaded like he’d practiced it daily. Two other shots similarly missed their mark. The figure on the rock shrugged, switched targets and now aimed it right at Lucas, bellowing a hideous laugh. Before it could hit him however, he was pushed out of the way by Ness. Scrambling to his feet, he turned to see Ness turned to a trophy. His eyes sought those of the chained woman, who wildly gestured in the other direction.

He ran, hearing the horrible laugh chasing him.