Bye Bye Humans

Prologue

"Run! Everybody, run!" The screams were deafening. Blood curdling. The calm, warm breeze was in direct contrast to the chaos ensuing all around.

In every corner of the Cleveland Metroparks zoo, screams were erupting. A man, torn to shreds moments earlier by a lion, lay bleeding on the cement, a stupid expression on his face as he silently submitted to the large jaws of the giant cat. He was in complete surrender to his fate, and found a last few moments of inner peace as he accepted it. Spider monkeys lept from building tops onto human heads, tearing at their faces, pulling tiny handfuls of hair out as they streaked violently. He smiled, letting himself find it funny looking.

All around the zoo, hell was breaking loose. People have been pretty much using that phrase without license before this moment. With the absence of an actual hell to actually break loose, nothing besides this has ever come close to warranting the proper use of that phrase.

The funny thing is, this all started as just a normal Monday. Ironic, how that works. One moment, things are just fine. Next thing you know, shit starts to happen. Families had brought their kids to the zoo, schools were taking educational field trips to learn about the animals in captivity. It all seemed so mundane, so normal and safe, until the animals seemed to have all gotten free in one moment. Lisa Brighten, a conservationist with a soft spot for mother nature, had been there. She was protesting against the zoo as she had done every monday for the last 3 years. She was a bit of a loner in life, as her military family had all but disowned her for being the "liberal" that she was, and friends were hard to come by due to her "unique philosophy and world views" as her therapist had so gently put it.

Alone she stood, just her and her sign, trying to convince the world that it was cruel to keep such majestic beings in prison, when they have committed no crimes. Lisa envisioned a world where the humans had their place, and these majestic animals had theirs. For the last three years she had waged her war with her signs and pamphlets, but this Monday was different. She could feel it immediately. She had known something was off about the day from the moment she woke up. Normally, she awoke to the beautiful songs of the birds fluttering near her bird feeder. But not today. In place of the joyous song of her beloved feathered friends, there was nothing more than disconcerting silence.

She thought about this as she held her sign, standing near the monkey exhibit. She really wasn't on her game today. Normally, the zoo would have kicked her out by now, claiming that her chants of protest were disruptive to the general vibe of tranquility and ignorance to the will of the captives.

She watched absent mindedly as a small child dropped her ice cream on the ground. Lisa could barely hear the little girl's cries, the sound seemed as though they were muffled. Something was definitely wrong. She could feel it.

A frisbee flew through the air in slow motion, just missing her face by a hair. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion.

Maybe I'm having a stroke? Lisa Brighten thought to herself. The way everything sounded muffled to her was starting to frighten her. She was so unsettled that she decided to pack it up for the day. She was on her way to her car when the dull, muffled noise of the zoo was replaced by the crisp, blood curdling scream of a woman, followed by more voices, all panicked.

"Oh my God!"

"Run!"

People were screaming loudly. Lisa turned around and her jaw dropped. People were stampeding towards her, tripping and trampling over one another. Fuck whoever I just stepped on. Let them die, I'm getting out of here. They seemed to be running from something, but she couldn't tell what. A man in the stampeding crowd went down with a blood curdling scream. Something terrible was definitely happening.

Lisa just stood there, watching as people began to fall quicker and quicker. The stampede was nearly 50 feet away from her when she noticed the spider monkeys. They were leaping from trees and rooftops, landing on people's heads and tearing at their faces. One woman was carrying her little boy, who looked to be about 5 years old, when one of the monkeys landed on her shoulders. She stumbled, dropping the child to the ground as she fell.

"Run Tiki," she told her son as a full grown lion pounced on her. Her life ended in a slow release of terrifyingly primal screams of agony.

Lisa reacted without thought. She was unaware of the thunderous sound of military helicopters approaching as she ran towards the stampeding crowd of humans and swooped the crying child up into her arms.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you," she told the little boy. She turned around, hugging the child tight against her breasts and making shhh sounds as she ran towards the main gates and the parking lots.

She had just passed the gates and ran into the parking lot when the sound of gunshots, automatic fire judging by the quick, loud ratatattat, rang out in the air with a deafening tone. The screaming people behind her began to scream even louder.

When she finally reached her car, she allowed herself to stop for a moment and turn around. What she saw terrified her. She watched as her entire life flashed before her eyes, lasting only as long as the moment that the military choppers fired a string of missiles into the zoo, ending the horrifying nightmare once and for all.