She snatched it up and headed out the office. She took the padlock in her one hand and prodded the key into its base with her other. It slid in perfectly.
When the cage unlocked, she took a deep breath. Was she really about to do this?
Yes. Absolutely.
With her mind made up, Annaliese slid inside the cage and entered the small paddock. Set into the concrete wall was a four foot hole. It led out to the mangrove enclosure.
She crawled through it and went outside.
The smell of death hung around the enclosure, but so did the natural musk of the orang-utans. It was a strange mixture, one which she put out of her mind as she crept towards the Mangrove tree ahead.
Lily was still sitting in the same position, leaning back against the base of the tree and staring down at the ground. When Annaliese got closer, Lily turned her head and snorted, and for a second the whole thing seemed like a really bad idea. The last time humans had been in this enclosure there had been bloodshed. Annaliese wondered if Lily could distinguish the difference between her and the infected people that had attacked her mate and infant.
If not then I’ve made a horrible mistake.
Despite her fears, Annaliese kept moving forwards towards Lily. The animal eyeballed her suspiciously.
“Hey, there,” she said softly. “I’m not here to hurt you. I just want to make sure you’re okay.”
She was now within a few feet of the orang-utan and nothing had happened so far. The atmosphere was tense, but the primate seemed to tolerate her proximity.
“There you go,” she said, reaching out her hand. “It’s okay, Lily.”
Unbelievably, Annaliese found herself within a single foot of the great ape now and was beginning to bend her knees and sit down.
Letting out another billowing snort from her nostrils, Lily extended one of her long arms. Her huge fist struck Annaliese and made her cry out. But she quickly realised that the orang-utan was not seeking to hurt her. She was just being curious. Lily’s fingers caressed the fabric of Annaliese’s shirt.
“I’m usually a little cleaner than this,” she explained without knowing why. She sat down on the ground beside the animal.
Lily stared at Annaliese and hooted. It was a curious sound, but not aggressive in the least. Annaliese shuffled up next to the animal so that their shoulders were touching.
Is this actually happening? she asked herself. Amidst all the horror and bloodshed, there was still joy to found in life. There were still connections to be made between kindred spirits. Nature was still beautiful, even if man had become so terribly ugly. In that moment, she remembered why she had become a vet.
To help amazing creatures like this.
Lily’s hand moved further up Annaliese’s shirt, rough fingers probing at her face and fondling her hair. The gentleness of the gesture made her close her eyes. It wasn’t long before she felt sleepy in Lily’s protective arms.
Before Annaliese passed out, she thought she could hear an alarm going off somewhere in the distance. But she felt too safe to worry.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Annaliese awoke with an aching jaw. It quickly became apparent why, when she realised that she was lying face down on the ground. She was shivering because of the cold, but she was also very cosy beneath a soft woollen blanket. Despite its softness, the blanket smelt musky and foul. She threw it aside and looked around. The sun was beginning to rise.
She leapt to her feet in shock.
Oh, wow! I’m in the orang-utan enclosure. Did that really happen last night?
She turned a circle on the spot. A mound in the centre of the enclosure was covered with a blanket the same as the one that had been covering her. She knew that Brick’s body lay underneath it, along with the infant.
Did Lily cover us all up with the blankets?