Slowly, my eyelids opened, revealing the darkness around me...
—It's too dark.
However, a statue standing in the center of the area stood out, surrounded by a faint glow that gave it a majestic aura.
—The founder...
It was the statue of the zoo's founder again... but her face had been ripped away. Only a huge hole remained where her face should have been, exposing the hollow interior of the statue. She was clutching her stomach while holding a flashlight in her other hand.
—The flashlight... it's real.
I quickly took the flashlight from the statue and examined it.
—Perfect. It works perfectly. This will help a lot.
The moment I put the flashlight away, the radio turned on. A signal...
—Zzz
—Can you hel... me...? P...?
—Zzzzz
The female voice sounded again...
—Ser...
My lips tried to pronounce something but stopped. Whose voice is that? I didn't know the answer... I felt lost, as though something were missing...
—It's better not to think about that right now.
I tied the flashlight to my jacket so I wouldn't always have to carry it in one hand. I turned it on and illuminated the area. What I found was a small pond and a huge flamingo sign nearby, though there was no trace of those animals—
—The fewer problems, the better.
How the hell did I get here if I was with the bears?
—It seems I'm in the flamingo enclosure.
The questions just kept piling up one after another in this damned hell. But although darkness surrounded the enclosure, the flashlight allowed me to withstand it.
—A door?
The exit was finally visible. But setting aside the strange calm, I found it curious that all the enclosures were contained within buildings, surrounded by walls. In a way it was creepy, as though people were being forced to lock themselves inside with the animals.
As soon as I reached the exit, my calm vanished. The door was stuck. It wouldn't open. Behind me, I heard something.
A squawk.
Then a harsh, rapid clattering.
My hands gripped the doorknob desperately. I knew perfectly well it couldn't be opened, but my hands ignored reason. They kept turning the knob, desperately trying to get out. My fate was sealed. I slowly turned around so as not to alert whatever was behind me. A sudden movement could trigger my death.
The squawk came again along with the clattering, this time with more fury. It was followed by a dry roar. I readied my weapon and pointed the flashlight directly toward the lake where the sound seemed to originate. Then I saw it clearly.
It wasn't a normal animal. It looked nothing like any of the zoo animals I had encountered. As if it didn't belong to this world at all. It was something entirely different.
It stood in the lake on bird-like legs. The dark, filthy water complemented the monster's appearance. It possessed an enormous beak marked with what looked like wounds and completely black feathers, some stained with blood. It was as if several birds had been grotesquely fused together into a mass of mismatched features and limbs. Its taxonomy was amorphous; its traits didn't seem capable of functioning together. Its face was disturbing, its eyes possessing human pupils fixed on me. Facial features far too human...
No matter how many times it happened, the same feeling returned. Sweat, rapid breathing, and a racing heartbeat put me on edge. Despite the passing seconds, the animal didn't attack. It seemed to be observing me. It remained motionless for several seconds that felt like entire hours before letting out a squawk. It began opening and closing its beak rapidly, producing a clattering sound. All the while, its gaze remained fixed on my flesh. My instincts screamed that the monster wanted to devour me.
However, it only seemed to be judging me...
At least, until it roared.
A deafening, macabre roar. My ears couldn't endure the pain. I had to leave myself defenseless just to protect myself from the sound. When it finished, the bird vomited organs from inside itself...
Chunks of flesh accompanied the blood-covered organs and black, putrid secretions. Bile and saliva came with them.
The monster roared again and hurled itself at the statue, destroying it instantly before leaving the lake and approaching me.
By the time I understood the situation, the beast was only a few meters away, standing atop the statue's remains. Panic surged through my entire body. With only one hand, I fired. The trembling prevented me from aiming properly, but I hit it twice. That was enough to throw it off balance and knock it down temporarily.
But that monster was still alive.
—Open, damn door!
With a kick, I forced the exit open and slammed it shut once I was safely outside the enclosure. However, the monster's relentless impacts threatened to break it down, so I braced myself against the door. Eventually the attacks stopped, and a faint whisper came from inside.
—DID... YOU... FORGET... HER?
It was chilling.
My body froze completely for several seconds because of that whisper. Fortunately, I managed to block the door with several nearby rocks.
—...
—I need to get out of here quickly.
Once again, I was alive. I counted my remaining bullets.
Only three.
—I'd better use them wisely.
Fortunately, thanks to the map, I was able to orient myself and determine that I was now in the northwest zone. It was shaped like a roundabout. The eagle enclosure sat in the center, surrounded by others such as the flamingos, giraffes, bears, elephants, tigers, and scorpions.
—It looks like the eagle enclosure is inaccessible.
Several cracks surrounded it, preventing access.
—Not that I was planning to risk my life there anyway.
A piece of paper lay on the ground with something written in red. It looked like blood.
"According to the analyses, the em-…-… is in perfect condition."
I kept the note because of a strange feeling of familiarity and melancholy.
I took the eastern path toward the scorpions, the zoo entrance. As I passed the tiger enclosure entrance, a grotesque scene presented itself.
Several animal skulls had been piled into small mountains. At the top of them, the corpses of cubs served as the cherry on this macabre cake... and right in front of the entrance, blocking it, I saw a silhouette hidden by the zoo's darkness.
When my flashlight illuminated the figure, I realized it was a tiger's head with a metal rod driven through its skull. The rod had a sharp tip protruding from beneath the animal's head.
The bones of the spine dangled below it while dried blood covered it entirely. The skin seemed cut, hanging loosely... it could barely remain attached. It had already begun to peel away.
—What is that?
I noticed a piece of paper sticking out of its mouth. However, when I opened the tiger's jaws, the hanging skin detached and fell to the ground, leaving only the severed head and its flesh ravaged by time, exposing parts of the skull that had been eaten away...
Inside the mouth were two magazines and a sheet of paper.
—Bullets...
Two magazines full of ammunition, along with a paper containing something written...
—This is...
It was disturbing that someone had done this, but thanks to it I now had resources to survive. The paper's contents were deeply unsettling.
"Attack at public school."
—What is this?
"In the city of Huaquillas, an attack caused the explosion of an entire classroom full of students, resulting in the destruction of the classroom and xxx-...."
—It's a newspaper...
The rest was illegible.
I continued on my way, though I realized something. I couldn't expect to find more bullets in the future. I needed another weapon for emergencies.
—The rod will do.
I pulled the rod from the tiger's head. It was metal and had a sharp point. Perfect. It wasn't very long, but it was long enough to attack from some distance.
—Zzzz
—Se...
—My name is S-...
—It's a pleasure to meet-
The radio emitted static and then the voice returned...
—Who are you?
!!!
—Shit...
I had heard a grotesque squawk followed by a clattering sound.
—It's back...
There was no way to fight it. The bullets had done nothing in the flamingo enclosure. I wasn't going to stay and die.
—The scorpions.
After quickening my pace, I reached the scorpion enclosure, the place where the entrance—or exit—was located... that squawking and clattering were growing closer and closer...
Death was stalking me.
Without waiting any longer, I entered the scorpion enclosure. The atmosphere was oppressive... Even with the flashlight, I could barely see. Darkness enveloped the entire area, and the floor was littered with torn-apart scorpion bodies.
Their limbs were scattered everywhere. With every step, the crunch of crushed appendages echoed through the room.
The area curved around the entrance in a shape similar to the letter C, only reversed. At least, that's how it appeared on the map.
—The zoo entrance should be farther ahead.
With each step, the number of dead scorpions increased. More and more bodies piled up until I found the entrance—and with it, a wall built specifically to block it.
—Damn it!
—Open up, open up for fuck's sake! I don't want to die here!
My screams achieved nothing.
Then I remembered.
—The aquarium is my only option now...
I stood up to explore the enclosure before heading there. On either side of the entrance were two piles of crushed and stacked bodies, forming what looked like some kind of macabre altar...
—That's...
At the top of one pile rested a fragment of some sort of research document.
"We are investigating the LongDeath phenomenon. It appears when people are on the verge of death. Some documented cases include a father and daughter who experienced the phenomenon jointly and simultaneously. Another, more extraordinary case occurred on a massive scale involving an entire class of students. We conducted analyses and interviews with one of the survivors to document everything. This phenomenon appears to have no origin. We know nothing about it."
—LongDeath?
—That's... interesting...
On the other pile rested a photograph.
—A couple...
The photograph showed a couple in the scorpion enclosure, the very one I was standing in. Both of their faces were completely unrecognizable, as though the photo had been burned and damaged in the process.
—There's something written on the back.
"A beautiful memory."
For some reason, my mind could only think about the voice I had been hearing through the radio... but my brief moment of calm and peace was interrupted by the sound of clattering and a grotesque roar...
Disturbingly close.
When I turned around to flee, my body froze. The beast had arrived, and with it, death soon followed.
The creature immediately used its beak to knock me down and began tearing my body apart.
The pain was unbearable. Every time the creature approached to devour one of my organs, I felt myself slipping further into unconsciousness.
Until I couldn't take it anymore.
The last thing I saw was the beast staring at me with a...
Smile...
...