Garylead Noseless and Faceless into the Park’s brown expanse and felt his feet sinking a full inch down into the soft soil. Within minutes of clambering through the forest of dead treesGary felt completely lost. Through the denuded branches he could see the tall buildings of the city around him in every direction but north, the rude geometry of the empty city like abstract mountain ranges pinning him in. He felt alone but not unwatched-the mysterious benefactor waited for him somewhere beyond the next hummock of earth.
Since he’d eaten he was thinking more clearly. He’d shaken off the half-trance that had lain over him like a shroud ever since he recovered his strength at the bottom of the Virgin megastore and now he had time to ponder just where he was headed. Someone, some anonymous creature had come to him in his moment of greatest peril and taught him how to open himself, how to connect with the nervous systems of countless dead men. From that connection he had drawn the strength to keep himself animate even after being shot in the head. In exchange for this knowledge the unknown benefactor had summonedGary to his presence and without a thoughtGary had set off to comply. Now that he could think a little more clearly, however, he wondered what he was marching toward. It couldn’t be a living person-no one living could have access to the network of death,Gary was sure of it, and anyway why would anyone living want to help a monster likeGary to survive?
Yet if the benefactor was dead then what could he possibly want fromGary? Even if the other had somehow maintained his intellect asGary had, he would still share the biology and psychology of all the dead. The dead only had one desire, the need for sustenance. It seemed absurd butGary was convinced that he was walking to the place where he would be eaten. Fast food delivery, right to your door.
If it was true, if he had been spared only to be turned into a meal for some dead man even smarter than himself, Gary still couldn’t stop. He kept yanking his feet out of the mire and taking another step. Behind him Noseless and Faceless kept pace without a word of complaint or question.
Garyhad his own agenda. He wanted to find Ayaan again and show her exactly how he felt. She hadn't given him a fucking chance. Still. He had to know, first. He had questions that needed answers. Revenge had to wait.
The sun had moved higher in the sky by the time they saw the first break in the monotony of mud and violated trees. The Zoo came up on their right, its buildings still standing though they were half buried in thick silt. Grateful for any break in the visual cipher of what the Park had becomeGary waved his companions on and hurried into the low maze of the Zoo’s sunken exhibits.
There were no animals in the cages, of course-the dead would have made short work of them. Here and there a scrap of fur had caught in the mesh of a habitat or the elaborate filigree on a wrought iron fence but that was all. Similarly the explanatory plaques and interactive displays were buried or carried away by some long past torrent of mud. Only the barriers remained visible, a collection of untenanted cages that cut the afternoon light into long strips.Gary lead his companions down long curving lanes between what had once been enclosures for baboons and red pandas and now were merely channels of mud.
Wanting to see something he brought them to a building ornamented with the sculpted heads of elephants and giraffes. Cheerfully whimsical in another day the reliefs had become hideous gargoyles now, emblems of bestial violence.Gary ignored the cold feeling the place gave him and touched the weathered brass hand pulls on the doors of the building.