John van Dijk - THE ZOO

Per returned momentarily carrying a glass of amber colored liquid. Seating himself beside Sam on the couch, he closed her trembling hand about the glass.

"Drink this down." he insisted.

Sam complied without any sort of argument. Her hand shaking radically, she drank the entire contents down in one, long swallow. Immediately, she started to cough as her throat reacted to the strong, burning rye whiskey. But almost at once her body was imbued with a glowing warmth that radiated throughout. Gratefully, the constant shivering checked, Sam sat up straighter.

"Please continue." she said to Per.

"Eons ago, my entire race was swept by a catastrophic virus. Because it was airborne it traveled swiftly through our population in epidemic proportions. We could not find a cure. We were desperate. About the same time as the deadly outbreak occurred, the planet Earth had been discovered. After several vanguard expeditions, it was determined to be a completely sterile environment.

Ultimately, the decision was made to attempt an experiment of major proportions.

We would endeavor to construct an entirely new race. Call it a zoo, if you like.

Into this new creation we would add our finest genetic qualities." Here Per halted for a minute, giving all that he had disclosed to Sam a bit of time to sink in.

"You are telling me that we - my civilization - has been nothing more than a .......

fucking zoo!’ She exclaimed in disbelief.

Per said nothing, he simply nodded in agreement. Sam turned to stare out the window as the thoughts tumbled through her mind. She moved her lips as if to say more, but nothing came out. Her face was in shadow from the quickly retreating light. Per slowly got to his feet and went about the room turning on a couple of low table lamps. The glow from them helped push back the developing gloom.

"What happened to your society? Was a cure for the virus found?" She finally queried.

Per rejoined her on the sofa. "No, never." He said heavily. "It’s effects were devastating. By the end it had wiped out one quarter of our population. But the virus eventually slowed down and then, in time, it stopped altogether. However, by the time the deadly virus had ceased, the new race on planet Earth was evolving nicely. So the decision was made to leave it untouched - not to interfere in any way."

"You have been watching us?" Sam asked incredulously.

"Monitoring." Corrected Per, taking hold of both Sam’s shoulders.

"Closely monitoring."

Happy crept stealthily towards the house. His rheumy old eyes were stinging from the heavy wind, making them squint and water. He paused behind a thick forsythia bush in order to look the house over thoroughly before going on any further.

Most of the house, which stood silent and dark, was rapidly disappearing into the gathering dusk. Cautiously, he scuttled over the lawn and around the porch to the front of the house. Happy braced himself against the driving wind, leaning into it, all the while keeping a tight grasp on his Winchester.

When he reached the shelter of the house Happy crept around the corner of the porch, crouched way down low, until he was beneath the only room that had a yellow light spilling out of it’s windows.

Ever so slowly and biting down sharply on his lower lip so as not to groan out loud, he stood up.

Jesus Jumping Up, I’m too old for this shit, he decided.

Trying not to make any noise, Happy stepped over the low lying Juniper bushes and carefully peered through the bottom left hand pane of the window. Slowly, he straightened up until he could see well into the room.

Sammy was sitting on a couch in front of the fireplace down at the other end of the parlor. That Per fellow was close beside her. Happy strained to see what was going on. As he watched, he could see Per’s hands holding tightly onto Sammy’s shoulders. Son of a bitch, he mumbled.

Once again, down as low to the ground as his old, arthritic body could get, Happy moved silently to the window closer to the couple, the one just behind them. From this new vantage point Happy had a clear view of Per. Not to mention a clear shot.

A true son of Maine, Happy had been handling guns all of his life. He’d hunted moose; deer; rabbit; the occasional bear, and plenty of Japs during W.W.II. But never before had he taken such careful aim with more purpose.

Hell, he was pretty sure he’d never hunted alien before.

"Closely monitoring?" Sam echoed his words in a parrot-like fashion.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means just what it says." Per said shortly. "We have been here since the very beginning of the evolution of the human race. As your creators it was our job to observe the experiment first hand."

"How have we been monitored?" Sam asked.

"By various means." Per replied plainly.

Sam stood and poked a moment at the fire, tossing another log on. The fire crackled loudly. Then she went purposefully to her bag and rummaged around inside. Turning toward Per, she held out her hand.

"What is this?" She asked, indicating the miniature disc that had fallen out of Happy’s eye.

Per was taken by surprise. He took it out of Sam’s hand and held it up to a light to peer through it. "This is a contact lens camera. It was implanted into a human retina. With the help of this device, we have been able to literally see what the human is looking at. Where did you get it?"

Sam ignored his question. "So, it is a type of monitoring tool." She said slowly.

"Do we all have these implants?"

"No, only the people who have been picked up and examined were given these." He paused for a moment, "You have one, Samantha."

Sam instinctively probed both of her eyes with her fingertips. "But I can’t feel anything."

"You wouldn’t." Said Per frankly.

She started to pace back and forth. Her mind was churning.

"Let me see if I’ve got this all straight." She fumbled on top of the desk for her Marlboros and lighter. Her hand was shaking so much she could barely light the damn thing. "Okay now," she continued, blowing out a gray plume of smoke, "you are telling me that the entire human race has been nothing more than an experiment? An experiment that has been taking place for these past millions of years on a planet that has been nothing more than, essentially, a gigantic zoo?"

Sam stopped pacing, whirled around and stared hard at Per. "Guess that sort of makes you the zoo keeper, doesn’t it?" This was all so ludicrous that she grinned despite herself.

The incoming shotgun blast blew a hole the approximate size of a Susan B.

Anthony silver dollar right through the back of Per’s head. The bullet kept right on coming out the front, eventually lodging itself into the knotty pine of the mantle piece a few feet away.

Screaming, her ears still ringing from the deafening blast, Sam lunged forward to seize Per as he slumped forward and started to slip to the floor. She collapsed onto the floor under his weight and frantically struggled to get out from under him. She heard the crunch of glass and looked up to see Happy climbing through the shattered window. It took her a moment longer to register the sight of the gun in his right hand.

"You okay, Sammy?" Anxiously, Happy pulled her onto her feet and tried to steer her towards a chair. But Sam violently shook his hand from her and rushed back to sink to the floor beside an inert Per.

"My God, Happy," she groaned, "what have you done? Jesus, help me roll him over."

Happy scurried to help her, all the while trying to explain, "I was saving you, Sammy. Saving you from that ........ thing there." He pointed to Per. "No telling what he would have done to you if I hadn’t been here." He finished lamely. This sure wasn’t going the way he’d planned.