“I heard you and me have something in common,” Nick said to her softly. “I lost my family, too. At least your man did his job and protected you, though. I let my family down.”
Lily’s breath was audible as it escaped through her deep nostrils. It was almost like she knew what he was talking about but didn’t like the subject. The smell of her being so close was intoxicating. It was an unpleasant smell yet, in some ways, comforting. It was the smell of a creature uninterested in personal hygiene or any of the numerous other stresses that mankind placed upon itself. It was a reminder of what man really was deep down: just an ape – egotistical and self-involved, but really nothing more than an ape.
Maybe we would all be happier if we just accepted that.
“I’m sorry for your loss, Lily,” he said.
At the sound of her name, Lily hooted again. Then she took off into the night as quickly as she had arrived. Nick missed her already as she leapt into the treeline and disappeared. Now that she was gone, his thoughts would resume their torment of him. He had sought out solitude – needed it, in fact – but now that he had it, he was afraid. His memories had talons and they were poised to rip him apart.
He was almost glad when he heard someone cry out in the night, but quickly realised what it meant. The scream had been short, abrupt, but unmistakable. It was a scream of sudden terror, and it had come from a man.
Who was that? I thought everybody was back at the restaurant.
Nick slid down from the top of the roof, via the drainpipe, and landed back on the pavement. He winced as a shooting pain went from his ankles to his knees, but managed to walk it off within a couple of steps. When the pain went away, he picked up speed and started jogging in the direction he thought he’d heard the scream. He estimated it was about half way between the orang-utan enclosure and the restaurant, near to where the midway games were.
It took him a few minutes to get there, but when he arrived he quickly found out who had been screaming.
What the…?
His first thought was that an infected person had found their way past the fences, but when he saw the knife jutting out of Dave’s chest, he knew that an old-fashioned murder had just been committed.
Someone’s stabbed him.
Shawcross! That bastard.
It had to be Shawcross. He had tried to stab Dave earlier, unsuccessfully. He obviously decided to have another go.
He’ll pay for this, that rat.
Annaliese came running out of the darkness. “We heard screaming,” she said and skidded to a stop when she saw what had happened.
“Shawcross did it,” Nick said, shaking his head and clenching his fists in anger.
How could he kill Dave over such a minor disagreement?
Annaliese was shaking her head. The rest of the group appeared behind her, Shawcross included. “Shawcross is with us,” she said.
Nick shook his head. “That’s impossible. Dave was just this minute killed. I heard him scream. The blood is still coming out of him.”
“He was on his way to see you,” said Jan. “He said he didn’t want to hold grudges and that we all needed to work together even in spite of personality differences.”
Beside Jan, Renee nodded in confirmation.
“It’s true,” Eve said. “Dave asked me if I knew where you’d gone. Said he wanted to apologise for being so overbearing. He said it was just his way of dealing with how scared he was, but that he was realising it wasn’t helping anybody.”
Nick shook his head. “That doesn’t sound like Dave.”
“No shit,” said Eve. “Surprised me, too. But I guess we don’t know each other well enough to predict how we’re going to react to things. He seemed pretty genuine.”
“He was glaring at me all night. Didn’t seem regretful at all.”
Eve shrugged.
“It’s a tragedy that you took his approach as a threat rather than the apology it was meant to be,” said Shawcross. The man almost sounded smug. “Seems as though you may have gotten the wrong end of the stick.”