Shawcross went bright red. “You’ve been giving our supplies away to a goddamn monkey?”
“No,” Annaliese said calmly. “I’ve been giving a few supplies to an intelligent primate; a Sumatran Orang-utan to be precise. One of very few left alive – even before the world went to shit. She has as much right to survive as the rest of us.”
“Nonsense! You’re a thief.”
“Hey!” Mike shouted. “Let’s take it down a notch with the witch hunt, yeah? Annaliese is a vet and took an oath to help animals in need”
“Actually, vets don’t take an oath,” Annaliese whispered to him. “But thanks.”
“Furthermore,” Mike continued. “Annaliese is pretty much the only person who can help any of us if we get sick or injured, so I’d say that we best be nice to her, or else we’re all screwed.”
Shawcross folded his arms. “So we should just let her do whatever the hell she likes, regardless of the rest of us?”
“Hell yes, because, may I remind you, we were all stuck in a kitchen when she found us. Without her we might still be stuck there or, most likely, dead. She risked her life for us on more than one occasion, so how dare you attack her like this.”
“I don’t mind feeding the monkey,” said Cassie.
Mike shrugged. “Me either. I couldn’t watch it suffer and starve.”
“She’s an ape,” Annaliese corrected. “But I’m glad you don’t mind feeding her because I would carry on doing it anyway.”
“I mind,” said Michelle. “What if we end up starving? It’s just an animal. We’re people.”
“Exactly,” said Shawcross. “We’ll be using animals for meat soon enough, so what’s the point in feeding them?”
Annaliese shook her head. This was pointless. If they were happy letting a rare species die then why even bother wasting the breath to argue. If that was how they felt then the world would eventually become a bleak and meaningless landscape, devoid of any beauty. Annaliese would rather die than live in a world like that. She turned around to leave the group, not wanting to discuss it further.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” Shawcross shouted after her.
“To find your thief,” she said. “Then maybe you’ll stop blaming an innocent animal.”
“If I find out that you’re behind this, Anna…”
“You’ll what?” Mike finished for him. Then he turned around and followed after her. The feeling of having someone on her side, ready to fight for her, was unfamiliar. It warmed her belly. It’d been a long time since somebody had supported her like that. She just hoped that Mike wouldn’t go down in flames by trying to protect her. She would rather him save his own life than risk it by trying to save hers.
Why am I worrying about life and death? I should listen to Mike and concentrate on living.
“So, you’re really sure that Lily didn’t take the supplies?” Mike asked as he caught up with her by the Magic Carpet carousel.
“Yes. She’s been taking the scraps I’ve been leaving her and can probably live off some of the local vegetation, too. There’s no way she could have carried off all the supplies we left, anyway; not in a single night. No, whoever is responsible for the missing supplies is much more calculating than an orang-utan.”
“You’re right. Whoever is taking the extra food is making a conscious decision to screw the rest of us over.”
Annaliese went and took a seat on one of the park benches. In front of them was the cable car station. Far off, the sun had begun to dip beneath the horizon. Evening would be upon them soon.
Another night in the dark with nothing to do but think.
“You know what’s crazy?” Annaliese said.
Mike sat down beside her, put his hand on her knee. “What?”
“That people scare me more than the undead do.”
“The undead? Are we actually calling them that now?”