“How about that?” said Clark, pointing to a nearby vehicle.
Annaliese recognised the large flatbed truck as being Bradley’s. He had used the sturdy vehicle to ferry animal feed and other materials between the exhibits. It was parked next to a small warehouse that sat beside the office block. But the truck wasn’t what Clark was pointing at. It was what was in the flatbed that was important.
Shawcross clicked his fingers. “Perfect. Just what we need. It’s going to be heavy, though, so could I have a volunteer to help me, please?”
Mike volunteered and he and Shawcross headed over to the truck. The stack of breeze blocks on the flatbed offered the perfect solution for putting through a window and Annaliese let out an exhausted sigh at the thought of getting inside the offices and finally getting to sit still.
Shawcross dragged one of the blocks to the edge of the truck and Mike put his hands under it. Together they managed to shuffle with it over to the front of the building.
“We could use a third pair of hands for this,” said Shawcross.
Annaliese hurried up to the two men and placed her hands underneath the breeze block. The cement was cold to the touch and gritty.
“After three,” Shawcross said. “We all shove it towards this window here.
“One…two…
“Three!”
They heaved the block up into the air and watched it tumble towards the double-paned window. The glass cracked and then gave way. The way the panes were tempered led to them falling out of the frame in a few solid sheets rather than shattering into many shards. It worked out well, because once the window pane had fallen, the aluminium frame was clear and safe to climb over.
“Come on,” said Mike. “Let’s get inside.”
The group formed a line and began to funnel through the open window. Shawcross went first, feeling it his duty to lead the way. Annaliese was the last to go inside. She wouldn’t have felt right leaving people outside where she couldn’t see them. For some reason she felt responsible for them. She didn’t want to see anybody else get hurt.
The room they had entered into was a typical office, with cluttered desks and coffee-stained keyboards. Annaliese picked up a photo frame from the nearest desk and examined it. There was a woman in the photo with two young boys. Annaliese wondered if they were all okay.
She glanced at a clock on the wall.
“Hey, I just had a thought,” said Annaliese. “If everything is okay elsewhere then people should start arriving for work soon. It’s gone eight.”
Mike shrugged. “I really hope so. I’ll give a kiss to the first person I see, but…”
Annaliese nodded. “I know, it’s a pretty big hope.”
“I just think that there’s no way that this thing isn’t happening elsewhere.”
“We should find a television. Then we’ll know.”
Shawcross opened up the door that led into the outdoor corridor. He raised a hand to keep everyone back while he checked that the coast was clear. After a few seconds, he beckoned to them all and the group got moving.
The hallways were unlit and eerie. Whenever Annaliese had visited the building previously, the various corridors and offices had always been bustling. It wasn’t that the zoo employed a lot of people, particularly; it was more that the corridors were narrow and the rooms small.