Chapter 17
The Unearthly Zoo
Regan closed her eyes tightly.
A few seconds went by.
Then a few more. Confused but relieved, Regan opened her eyes.
The bird was gone! In its place was a small, cuddly-looking alien creature with big blue eyes. “What in the world . . .” she began.
As she watched, wide-eyed, the creature vanished, only to be replaced by an animal that looked something like a kangaroo with the face of a lion.
“Holograms,” whispered Ryan. Although the animals looked every bit as real as his sister did, they weren’t. None of them. They were just three-dimensional movies.
He quickly got to his feet and helped Regan up off the ground. “Are you okay?” he asked.
She ignored his question. “You saved my life,” she whispered, her eyes wide. “And you risked your own life to do it. I really owe you one.”
“Nah,” said Ryan, feeling awkward at his sister’s heartfelt appreciation. “I just haven’t tackled you in a while and thought this would be a good excuse. I only saved you from a hologram,” he finished modestly.
“You didn’t know that at the time, so I’m afraid you’re stuck being a hero,” she insisting in a tone that made it clear that this was the final word on the subject.
As they talked, perfect three-dimensional holograms of different animals continued to appear before them. The images changed every few seconds and they had yet to start repeating. The animals appeared directly in front of a large, arch-shaped building.
“A zoo?” guessed Regan after watching several more animal holograms appear.
“That would make sense,” said Ryan. “But inside this single building? The cages would have to be awfully small.”
“Even if it is—or was—a zoo,” said Regan, “it’s not as though any animals are still going to be alive in there. This city has been abandoned for a long, long time.”
They had been in the city all day and had yet to find the slightest hint that the city had ever been inhabited.
“Let’s check it out anyway,” suggested Ryan.
They entered to find that the building contained absolutely nothing but dozens of oval doorways, spaced evenly around the walls. Above each doorway a different animal hologram appeared every few seconds, just as they had outside. This time the holograms above each doorway seemed to have a theme; winter animals, or desert animals, and each of the groupings had subtle similarities that made the kids think they came from the same planet.
Regan gestured to one of the doorways. It was clear they could pass through the opening but they couldn’t see what was on the other side. “Should we go through one of them?”
Ryan considered. “Okay, but I’ll go first,” he said protectively. He walked through a doorway with his sister close behind.
They had expected to see cages. What they saw was a vast forest of trees with greenish bark and round, orange leaves. A forest that was far, far larger than the entire building they were in! Maybe even larger than the entire city.
“These crazy aliens,” quipped Regan. “They really do wonderful things with living space. I’d love to have them design a closet for me—with a thousand times more room inside than the entire house that it’s in.”
“Ah, I think they could even do better than that,” whispered Ryan in a trance. He pointed upward.
Upward to the sky and the clouds. They were outside!
Incredible! And even more incredible was the fact that they could see two huge orbs hanging in the sky, visible even during the day.
Moons. And there were two of them.
They looked once again at the bizarre orange trees and gulped. They were definitely outside all right.
And they were just as definitely no longer on Earth.