Melody moved in a lethargic fashion. She acknowledged Jim’s words with a nod or shake of her head, but didn’t speak a word. Even when they stood in front of the pandas, her favorites, Melody seemed unenthusiastic.
“Are you feeling ok? You love the pandas.”
She turned at his voice but didn’t respond to his question. Beads of sweat rolled down Melody’s face and her eyes appeared glassy. Without speaking, she turned from the pandas and walk toward the cheetah conservation area. Big Jim watched as she plowed into some guy who staggered passed them on the path which led to the cheetahs. Neither seemed to acknowledge each other as they collided and continued on.
“Sorry, sir.” Jim called out, but the guy didn’t look back at them or acknowledge his words. Strange behavior.
Big Jim finally caught up to Melody in front of the cat’s house. After drifting through the morning, she now raced toward some unseen target. He couldn’t figure out what was going on with her.
“Melody, you practically knocked that guy over… There’s people climbing into the cheetah area!”
Six people climbed over the fence and charged at the cheetahs mouth first. They snapped and ran straight toward the big cats. The cheetahs responded with sharp teeth and claws that ripped into the flesh of the attackers. These crazy people didn’t slow their approach and continued their onslaught on the animals. Big Jim couldn’t believe what he saw happening before him.
“Melody, are you seeing this?”
As he turned back to the last place she had been standing, Melody stood doubled over puking on the ground. Her puke looked more like blood than anything she had eaten during their morning meal. Before he had time to register what was happening and move to help her, Melody leaped onto an older gentleman and ripped his throat out with her teeth.
“What the hell?”
The older lady who had stood with the man moments before, let out a long scream. A teenage girl tackled her from behind and ripped her throat out to reward her efforts.
Big Jim froze as he surveyed the horror unfolding before him. From his peripheral vision, a large man lumbered toward him with his mouth snapping in the breeze. With a fist the size of a canned ham, Jim Struck the man square in his face. An unnatural crack resulted, which flattened the approaching hulk. Not knowing what to do, Big Jim turned away and ran.
CHAPTER THREEDay Two
JAMES RICHARDS’ HEAD throbbed, and his muscles ached. He laid on a hard surface and tried to clear the fog from his brain. Did he drink too much last night? Jim didn’t drink beyond his body’s capacity to handle the alcohol because he knew the problems associated with being intoxicated. Why couldn’t he cut through the cloud of confusion? While he tried to decipher the puzzle, a voice spoke.
“The big guy is coming around.”
“Thank goodness. We can use another set of hands. I thought his injuries might be too severe.” Another voice responded to the first.
An injury? That would explain the headache and the sore muscles. What type of injury? Big Jim hadn’t taken part in any missions for years now. It must be because of something else. An accident maybe?
The fog cleared and everything rushed back into Jim’s mind. Melody, a strict vegetarian, ripped the throat out of a stranger with her teeth. Mass hysteria as others joined in on her newfound hobby of cannibalism. All the running. Jim trying to save a woman and then a child. Wait, the child.
In Jim’s mind, he exploded to his feet. To an outside observer, he looked like a large grizzly bear trying to get his feet under him as the tranquilizer dart wore off. The results were blinding dizziness, buckling knees, and the urge to hurl. Jim’s butt crashed back down onto the hard bed he had been resting on.
“Easy, big guy. You hit your head pretty hard. You’re safe now. Take it easy.” A woman with curly gray hair and a kind face spoke to him. Her gray eyes complemented her hair color, and Jim wondered if the color was natural. He struggled to focus on his present situation.
“My name is Mary, and I was an emergency room nurse at George Washington University Hospital. You may have a concussion and you need to lay back down and get some rest.”
A fine mist still obscured the edges of Jim’s brain, so he took a moment to process what the woman said to him. The room didn’t look like a hospital ward, but a cheap office space in a large warehouse building. He sat on the edge of a makeshift bed made with a thin mattress on top of a pile of wooden pallets. Mary wore dirty scrubs and Jim noticed the bags under her compassionate eyes.
“I’m Jim Richards. Where are we? What happened to the girl?”
“Hello Jim. We’re safe in an abandoned warehouse on the Virginia side of the Potomac. Those monsters won’t be able to reach us here. They brought you in alone. Sorry, there wasn’t any girl with you.”
Deep down, he knew the fall had been the child’s doom, but one can always hope for a different outcome. Big Jim never spent a lot of time in DC, but he tried to recall the map of the area. He knew the protocols that the government would execute, and Jim needed to figure out if they really were safe.
“How far are we from DC?”
“Oh, Jim. No need to worry. We’re safe here from those monsters. Plus, they have a small armed group inside the warehouse. Nothing to worry about. Just rest.”
“No, you don’t understand the containment protocols. They will attempt to contain the threat and that’s bad depending on where we are. We need to move.”
Big Jim rose from the bed
