Annaliese thought about it. “Maybe.”
The battle inside the primate habitat continued. Lily continued to swipe and claw at anyone that got too near but, for the most part, Brick was the one keeping them at bay. He stood tall in front of Lily and bludgeoned the skull of any infected person that came within range. A couple already lay dead, their brains spilling out onto the grass like glistening pools of lumpy soup.
But Brick was coming off badly, too. A jagged wound had been opened beneath the fur of his left shoulder, torn open by vicious teeth. Annaliese held her breath as an infected girl, in a torn cocktail dress and broken stilettos, leapt up onto the male orang-utan’s back and began chomping at his neck.
Brick wailed. He managed to drag the infected woman off his back and slam her to the floor like a rag doll. Her dress rode up, exposing her lack of underwear. Brick raised the bloody rock in his hand and brought it down so hard that it spilt the woman’s face clean in two.
There were only three infected people left now, the one’s most injured from their fall over the barriers and therefore the slowest to join the attack. One sported a broken femur that stuck out like a spear. Another had two snapped arms that hung limply at his sides. Brick wasted no time in engaging them.
He smashed in the skull of the nearest one and then tossed the man with the broken femur to the ground. Finally he leapt at the infected man with two broken arms and pinned him to the ground. He clutched at the man’s head and began wrenching and pulling. In an unbelievable display of strength, Brick pulled the infected man’s head clear from his shoulders, yanking and twisting it until it snapped free of the spine. Then the mighty orang-utan tossed the head aside like a punctured football.
The chaos that had filled the zoo finally ceased. A quiet stillness gradually grew and expanded. Annaliese stood by and stared into the enclosure with a mixture of both awe and horror spiralling through her guts. She felt sick.
Lily began to make a sobbing noise as Brick fell to the floor, panting and wheezing. Blood spilled from his various wounds and, now that the fight was over, his body had finally given in. Lily cradled him in her arms and stroked at his face. His mighty chest heaved up and down in great gasps of air. From the nearby mangrove tree, Lily’s infant made frightened squeals.
Annaliese knew that Brick was dying. He had only minutes left as blood leaked from a severed artery in his neck. As a vet, she couldn’t help but be fascinated by what she had just witnessed. Brick had protected Lily and her infant bravely, like any human father would. Now that he was mortally wounded, Lily held him in her long arms like a loving partner. Her pained hoots and wails made her grief plain to see.
I guess tragedy isn’t exclusive to the human race.
The infant orang-utan began to climb down the tree, hanging from a branch and then swinging to a lower one, before dropping the last few feet to the ground. Lily craned her neck and hooted at her baby. It sounded like a warning to be cautious, but the infant started towards its mother anyway, bounding along on its tiny fists.
Annaliese was the first to notice the danger, even before Lily did. “Look out,” she cried, trying to communicate across species. But it was no good.
It was too late.
The infected man with the broken femur was still moving, crawling along on his belly. He lay right in the path of the approaching infant. By the time the baby orang-utan realised the danger it was already beyond escape. The infected man reached up and caught a hold of the squealing infant, pinning it down and sinking his teeth into its belly.
The baby ape squealed in terror and agony.