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Claire stopped by the rusted gate and looked at the sign that must once have been colorful. Now it was faded, scratched, and barely readable.
Some of the letters had been torn away, as if someone had once tried to rip them off.
Claire sighed softly.
“Great.” she muttered. “Perfect place for a night walk.”
Behind her came the familiar sound of a pistol being chambered.
Leon stepped out of the shadow of a streetlamp that flickered as if it were fighting for its life.
“Considering our standards…” he said calmly. “This is actually one of the nicer places.”
Claire glanced at him from the side.
“Seriously?”
Leon shrugged.
Claire snorted quietly.
The zoo gate stood open. One side hung from a single hinge, and the metal creaked with every gust of wind.
They stepped inside.
The path was overgrown with grass and weeds. The cages on both sides were either empty or destroyed. In some places the metal bars were bent like soft clay.
Claire stopped by a zoo map.
“If the information from the radio is true…” she said. “The laboratory has to be somewhere beneath this complex.”
Leon’s gaze moved over the empty enclosures.
They kept walking.
Their footsteps echoed dully against the concrete. Somewhere in the distance metal struck metal, as if something had moved a rusted cage.
Claire instinctively raised her weapon.
“You hear that?”
“Yes.”
Leon looked around slowly.
“But it doesn’t sound like a zombie.”
Claire looked at him.
“That’s not comforting at all.”
They passed an old crocodile enclosure. The water was black and motionless like tar.
Claire instinctively quickened her pace.
“I don’t like this place.”
“Neither do I.” Leon said.
And that was when the ground trembled.
Not violently.
But enough to make them both stop.
Claire frowned.
“Tell me that was just a truck.”
Leon slowly shook his head.
“There’s no road for trucks here.”
Again.
The tremor.
This time a little stronger.
And then something moved in the darkness behind the fence.
Claire aimed her flashlight in that direction.
At first she saw only the metal mesh.
Then a shadow.
An enormous shadow.
Something shifted slowly behind the fence, so large it blocked half the light.
Claire held her breath.
“Leon…”
“I see it.”
The shadow stopped.
For a moment there was absolute silence.
And then the fence exploded.
Metal bars were ripped out of the ground like toothpicks.
The creature slid out of the darkness.
Claire stepped back instinctively.
“Oh my God.”
The lizard was the size of a bus.
Its body was covered in thick, dark-green scales that gleamed in the flashlight like wet stone. Its back was deformed by strange growths, as if something were trying to break through the skin.
One eye looked normal.
The other glowed with a cloudy, milky light.
It opened its jaws.
Rows of teeth looked like knives.
Leon raised his pistol.
“Claire.”
“I know.”
The creature moved.
It was surprisingly fast.
Leon fired first.
The sound of the shot echoed across the entire zoo.
The bullet struck a scale and… bounced off.
Claire blinked.
“Seriously?”
Leon fired again.
The same result.
The lizard growled with a low, vibrating sound and lunged toward them.
“Run!” Leon shouted.
They ran.
The path between the enclosures was narrow, overgrown, and filled with fallen signs.
Behind them something heavy slammed against the concrete.
Then another.
And another.
Claire turned while running and fired several times. The bullets once again bounced off the armor.
“Leon!” she shouted. “It’s doing nothing!”
“I noticed!”
They jumped over a rusted gate and burst into what used to be the reptile section.
The buildings were low and concrete, with cracked windows.
Leon stopped by a door.
“Inside!”
They rushed in.
The door slammed shut behind them. For a moment it was quiet. Claire leaned against the wall, trying to catch her breath.
“Tell me…” she began. “That you have a brilliant plan.”
Leon looked at his magazine.
“I have… seven bullets.”
Claire looked at her pistol.
“I have five.”
Silence fell.
From outside came a low, heavy sound.
As if something were scraping against the building walls.
Leon looked at her.
“So together that’s twelve.”
Claire crossed her arms.
“For a bus-sized lizard.”
“Yes.”
Something struck the wall.
The concrete shuddered.
Dust drifted from the ceiling.
Claire looked toward the door.
“I don’t think we can stay here long.”
Leon slowly nodded.
“Neither do I.”
They moved deeper inside.
The rooms looked like old terrariums. The glass was cracked, and plaques with animal names hung from a single nail.
Claire stopped at one of them.
“Komodo dragon.”
Leon looked at her.
“Don’t tell me…”
Claire pointed through the window toward the enclosure outside.
A massive destroyed fence.
Bent steel bars.
Leon sighed.
“Great.”
Outside a powerful crash sounded.
Something slammed into the door.
The metal groaned.
Claire looked at Leon.
“How much time?”
Leon chambered his weapon.
“Not much.”
Another impact.
This time the door bent inward.
Claire scanned the room frantically.
“There has to be some exit.”
Leon pointed toward a corridor.
“There.”
They ran.
The corridor was long and dark. The lights had stopped working long ago, and the only illumination was their flashlight.
Behind them the door exploded. Metal flew into the air. The roar of the lizard filled the entire building.
Claire didn’t turn around.
“Leon…”
“I know.”
A turn.
Another.
And suddenly the corridor ended.
A dead wall.
Claire stopped abruptly.
“No.”
Leon looked left.
Right.
Nothing.
Behind them the heavy footsteps were getting closer and closer.
Claire looked at him.
“This really is a dead end.”
Leon breathed slowly.
Then he looked at the ceiling.
“Not quite.”
Claire looked up.
A metal ventilation grate.
“Seriously?”
“Better than nothing.”
The footsteps were already very close.
Leon fired twice at the grate.
The metal fell away.
“Claire, first.”
“Leon—”
“Claire.”
She didn’t argue.
She climbed onto his shoulders and pulled herself into the shaft.
“Your turn.”
Leon had just grabbed the edge of the vent when something slammed into the wall behind him.
He turned.
The lizard stood at the end of the corridor.
Its eyes glowed in the darkness.
Leon jumped into the shaft. Claire helped pull him up.
A few seconds later enormous jaws snapped shut exactly where he had been a moment before.
For a moment they both lay in silence inside the narrow ventilation tunnel.
Claire exhaled.
“That was… close.”
Leon looked at her.
“A little.”
Below them something struck the wall.
Then another hit. The metal of the vent shook. Claire looked down through the grate. The lizard was circling beneath them.
“She knows we’re here.”
Leon grimaced.
“Yes.”
They crawled slowly through the tunnel.
The metal creaked with every movement.
Claire suddenly stopped.
“Leon.”
“What?”
“Do you hear that?”
From ahead came a strange sound.
As if something were scratching at the metal.
Leon slowly aimed the flashlight forward.
The beam illuminated something in the tunnel.
Small eyes.
Several.
Then more.
Claire froze.
“Leon…”
“Yes?”
“Those aren’t rats.”
The shadows moved.
Smaller lizards emerged from the darkness.
Dozens.
Mutated.
Their bodies were deformed, but their teeth looked just as sharp as the huge one’s.
Leon quickly counted his bullets.
Five.
Claire had four.
Claire looked at him.
“Tell me you have a plan.”
Leon sighed.
“I have an idea.”
The lizards began slowly creeping closer through the tunnel.
From below came a tremendous crash.
The giant lizard had started slamming into the building’s structure.
The metal vent shook even harder.
Claire swallowed.
“Leon…”
Leon looked ahead.
Then behind.
Then back at Claire.
“If this collapses…”
At that moment the floor of the vent cracked with a loud snap.
The metal beneath them gave way.
Claire felt the structure beginning to collapse.
Leon grabbed her hand at the exact moment the tunnel crashed downward.
And from the darkness below them came the furious roar of the enormous lizard.