Canid Undead: A Dog's Story

28 - The Zoo

During Token and Tom's shift (Merli and Kyan before them), the others peacefully sleeping, their sides rising and falling -

- Token had heard a ruckus. Those who were sleeping, almost like a wave, awoke from their slumbers. Tom, alerted, briefly alarmed the others.

Deadheads sped towards the group, several other undead animals among them lazily, slowly moving towards them. One or two crawled while two more limped.

In the shadows of the trees, their cover almost fully masked by the night, the silhouettes and the outlines of cats and dogs caught Token's attention. As the group picked up their pace, sprinting wildly, Tom could smell the same cat he met in that hole...

Merli climbed up a thick, clearly ancient tree as quick as lightning. Kyan followed up the tree, using her wings to help her glide fast just above the tree's bark, where it was close enough to graze her paws' fur. Tom and Token, just behind them, proceeded to scurry up a different tree, just inches away from the others. Juno, just behind Tom and Token, hesitated for a moment, trying to decide for a brief second which tree he should go up, and how he would go up it. He chose the one Kyan was in. He struggled to climb, his claws unhooking themselves from the wedges in the bark. Kyan grabbed hold onto his scruff tightly, yanking him up with both her and Merli.

A Feral snapped its jaws onto the tip of Juno's tail, but only managing to rip off some of his fur, the deadhead left at the bottom of the tree with the cat's fur in its mouth. Due to the sticky, putrid blood that covered this beast's snout, teeth and face, the fur stuck to the Feral's face. The Feral angrily hisses and yowls, clawing at the tree's bark, glowering up at Juno and Kyan. Its teeth were bared, its eyes dead and soulless as it stared straight up and into the two's eyes.

They proceed to leap from tree to tree and escape through the forest via tree-hopping. Tom glanced behind him as he leapt from tree to tree. No longer could he see the pack of animals that'd lingered menacingly in the shadows moments before.

Eventually, the group arrived at the road that they were following. Cutting through the forest, traveling deeper and deeper, they soon reached a marker. The sun rose, daylight breaking through. The sunshine warmed the group's pelts.

"...some territory line that keeps being refreshed." Kyan noted this, her nose touching the grass as she sniffed, inhaling the scent. Tom could tell that though they'd reached the marker of Fellinground's (or what they hoped to be Fellinground's) territory, that Fellinground was very far from this point. He and the others acknowledged the fact.

They walked in slow strides, passing a small town, where they saw what they hoped to be the zoo in the distance (from where they stood, it appeared as a small dot, as far away as it was). Kyan continued to keep an eye on the human's pelt (the edges covered in stains unbeknownst to the group, scratches, and scuffs), deciding where to go next. Aside from the indecipherable "map", she seemed troubled.

How different it would be if Zeck were here. Juno was here, yes, but it wasn't enough.

How selfish of me.

Tom pointed out the zoo ahead, to the left. Kyan caught this, breaking off from her dwindling thoughts.

Juno asked, "Will it take less time that way?"

"No, still the long route," Kyan sighed, exuding her frustration.

The thought of Zeck lingered. She shook it off, like she would a flea.

We have to pass through here to get to Fellinground.

As they ventured closer and closer to the zoo, Kyan noticed how the environment had gradually started to become more forest-like (more like a jungle, almost), wilderness and vines and trees growing at a rapid pace. The trees were getting progressively, freakishly bigger. The vines were thick and strong, like rope, they observed. She and the group approached the zoo warily.