The New Exhibit

Karla awoke to the soft sounds of her mother in the kitchen. The smells that greeted her made her mouth water. Mommy must be making something nummy. Her stomach grumbled in agreement. Karla yawned wide, stretching long and lean, enjoying the feeling as she relaxed again and snuggled into the blanket.

Suddenly, it struck her—they were going to the zoo today! Although her fifth birthday had been last week, her parents had waited until today to take her to her favourite place because the zoo was opening a much-anticipated exhibit that Karla couldn’t wait to see. All feelings of relaxed lassitude evaporated as Karla sprang from the bed and ran down the hall to the kitchen.

“Mommy, Mommy! We’re going to the zoo today!” Karla exclaimed as soon as she entered the kitchen at full tilt.

“Slow down, dear,” replied her mother. “Yes, we are going today. I take it you are a little excited?” she continued, smiling lovingly at her daughter.

Karla bounced in place, her joy barely contained.

“I’ve been waiting fooorrrreeeevvverrr!” Karla said in a dramatic overstatement.

Her mother chuckled, “We’ve only planned this trip over the last few weeks—I don’t think that constitutes forever, Karla.”

“Well, it felt like forever,” said Karla with the naivete of a five-year-old. “Can we go now?”

“No, sweetie. We will eat breakfast, and then, as soon as Daddy gets up and is ready, we will go to the zoo. It will be a while before we leave.”

“But I want to go now,” Karla said peevishly.

“Patience, Karla. Cranky daughters are not allowed on trips to the zoo. Besides, the zoo isn’t even open yet. By the time we eat breakfast, get ready and ride the Skylink elevair across the city, the animals will barely have woken up.”

Karla sighed but resigned herself to the interminable wait ahead of her. She moved to her place at the table, and her mother placed a plate before her. Since today was her pseudo birthday, Karla was allowed to eat whatever she wanted. She placed her order with her mother last night as she was tucked into bed. She looked at the

cubes of synth food before her. One cube, the yellow one, was eggs. There were two reddish-brown of bacon and two others that were sausage. Karla sniffed deeply, enjoying the rich aroma that filled her nostrils. This was going to be scrumpdillyicious! She descended on the plate of food with gusto and ate every last bit. She licked her lips when she finished, not wanting to miss any crumbs.

“All done, Mommy.”

Her mother turned and smiled approvingly when she saw Karla had eaten all her food. Her gaze moved to a point beyond Karla’s shoulder and her features softened with love as her husband padded into the kitchen, rubbing his eyes.

Karla whirled in her seat, “Daddy! Good morning. How are you? I ate all my breakfast. We’re going to the zoo today. I can’t wait. I am so excited. Aren’t you excited, Daddy?”

Her father staggered back a step, holding his forearms in front of his face as if warding off a barrage of bullets.

Laughing, he straightened up, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, sweetheart! Slow down; Daddy’s just woken up. I’ve got to get my ears on straight before I can handle all that information.”

He walked up and lifted Karla, holding her snugly to his chest. He put his face in the crook of her neck and made growling noises as she shrieked and giggled, trying to ward off his fake attack.

Still holding Karla, he walked over to his wife and brought her into the embrace for a three-way hug.

“So, are my two beautiful ladies ready for a big day of adventure?”

Karla nearly burst their eardrums with her enthusiastic “YES!”

“Okay, I guess I better go get ready then.” He set Karla down and ruffled the top of her head affectionately.

“You’d better get ready too, little one. I don’t think the zoo will let you wear your PJs.”

Karla raced to her room to change into the outfit she and her mom had chosen the night before.

***

Faline, as her captors had named her, woke with a start to unfamiliar surroundings. Immediately, her heart started to jackhammer in her chest as she took in the tall concrete walls surrounding her and felt the scratchy straw beneath her. She had fallen asleep in a corner, scared and trying to find the most protection she could. Others of her kind were stirring around her, some sitting groggily on the straw, others pacing around the room. Her head hurt. Maybe it was from the drugs she’d been injected with that had sedated her for the trip here. Her mouth had a bad taste, and it felt full of fuzz. She looked around the room for a water source and saw a trough against the far wall. A few others were already there, slurping noisily, obviously just as thirsty as she felt.

She was in a bare but roomy space. There were two large windows along one wall. She stood on shaky legs and paced to the window nearest her. She tried to peer through the window but saw only blackness. There was a big, solid door between the two windows that she vaguely remembered being shoved through when she arrived. She remembered nothing else of her trip here—she had no memory from the time she saw her captors stalking her and felt the sharp sting of the dart they’d fired into her leg as she’d tried to race away in terror.

Turning away from the dark window, she peered around. There were about twenty others in the room with her. Some lay on the floor, their backs turned to the rest of the room, their body language one of dejection and defeat. Others sat and looked around with an air of disbelief that they probably all shared. A few, like her, were carefully stalking around the enclosure, taking a measure of their prison. Across from her was a tall gate made with metal bars. The morning sun streamed through, warming their area and easing the morning chill that permeated everything.

Still feeling like she was learning to walk, Faline slowly approached the trough, her thirst and aching head making water a top priority. There were three spouts at equal intervals along the trough. Freshwater burbled out of the top of each spout and fell to the bottom, where it drained away. Waiting for a well-muscled male to finish ahead of her, Faline stepped up when the spout was free and drank and drank. The water was cool and refreshing and felt like the first normal thing in her life since she’d been trapped. Feeling like she might be sick if she drank anymore, Faline finally moved away and made room for the next in line.

A few minutes later, noises came from behind the door at the back of their cell, warning them that something was happening. Everyone moved away from the door, watching it with trepidation. The door slid open within moments, revealing a large, square metallic contraption on treads. It had a piece jutting from the top lined with things that looked like weapons pointed out in a complete three-sixty radius around. Faline did not want to see if those things could hurt her. The contraption whirred out into the center of the room. A light beam suddenly emitted from it. The red light landed on the nearest captive and quickly scanned head to foot and back up. The scan seemed not to affect the subject. The red light immediately went to the next closest, scanned and then moved on. It went over Faline and she felt nothing as the light covered her body. When it scanned the last of the captives, one that hadn’t risen from her spot on the ground, the machine suddenly came to life again. It moved over to the prone figure, grabbed a limp forearm with a long metal clamp that shot out of another part of its structure and started dragging her toward the door. Faline realized with shock that the older female was dead! A whimper of distress slipped from her at the callous way it was handling the body. She stared until it disappeared into the darkness beyond the door.

No sooner had the first device left when a new trolley rolled through the doorway. It moved in a short circuit around the room, dropping off cubes of something at regular intervals. Any captives in its path hurriedly scrambled to get out of its way. When done, it quietly rolled out of the room. The door closed behind it with a solid clang.

No one moved for a few seconds, but then some of her fellow captives gingerly moved towards the blocks. One nudged it. Nothing happened. A braver one sniffed at a cube, slightly wrinkled her nose, but then tentatively took a bite out of it. All the others waited to see what happened. She appeared as if she did not enjoy the flavour; nonetheless, she continued chewing and swallowing the mouthful, then took another bite. That seemed to signal the rest of them, and there was a mad scramble until all had grabbed a cube, retreating to their spots around the room to consume the strange substance.

***

Karla bounced in her seat, her energy and excitement uncontainable. She loved going to the zoo and seeing all the strange and exotic creatures brought in from all over. Many she had seen from holographs, but it wasn’t the same as seeing them in their cages, moving around and doing whatever it was they were supposed to do.

Her mother sat on one side of her, reading from her tablet. Her dad was on the other side, trying to catch up on some sleep. He’d been working a lot lately and was tired most of the time. Karla knew he was because her mommy made her be quiet at home when he had a nap. Karla hated naps. She was glad she was old enough now not to need them. She turned again to stare out the window at the scenery zipping past.

They were surrounded by tall, dark buildings that reached so high into the sky she could barely see their tops. There was plenty of greenery since it was the law that every building had to have plants and trees built onto every level surface. Some high-rises even went so far as to have magnificent waterfalls cascading down the outside of the building for several stories before plunging into a reservoir at the bottom where it would be purified and then sucked back up hundreds of meters to repeat the cycle. The Skylink elevair barely jostled the riders as it floated, magnetically suspended above the track that wove through the big city. Karla couldn’t wait.

Her mother folded her tablet and slipped it into her purse. She smiled at Karla and said, “The next stop is ours; you’d better wake Daddy.”

Karla did so, and moments later, the three moved off the Skylink and walked several blocks until they reached the zoo. Karla stared up in wonder, even though she’d been here many times before. The sheer height and magnitude of the giant walls and gates surrounding the zoo were always a little intimidating. The entrance to the zoo was a much more scaled-down, normal-sized gate.

Her mother went to the agent in the booth, held up her tablet with their tickets, and said, “Voré family of three for our nine o’clock time slot.”

The agent scanned her tablet, then the gate slid open, and they went through.

The noises and smells assaulted Karla’s senses in the best way possible. She breathed deeply, smelling the treats made by the kiosk vendors, the salty smell of the outdoor aquarium and the earthier smell of the creatures and their wastes. The multitude of noises from the animals in their pens mixed with the sounds of other patrons cheerfully chattering and squealing with excitement as they set out to find their favourite creatures.

“Where should we start?” asked her dad.

Of course, it was a moot question; they had listened to Karla clamour to see the new exhibit since it was first announced.

Karla laughed in delight, “You know, Daddy!”

“First things first,” said her mother, “we need to get you a balloon.”

The balloon had become a tradition for them when they visited the zoo. Not only did Karla love selecting a big floating balloon of her choice, but it also gave her parents peace of mind if she wandered out of sight. The distinctive balloon would immediately tell them where she was in a crowd.

Karla’s eyes gleamed excitedly as she stared at the balloon above her head. Her mother was tying the other end around her wrist. After a previous balloon had slipped from Karla’s hand within moments of buying it, they had always tied it securely to prevent future accidents. Today’s balloon was a bright, shiny pink to match her outfit, featuring an image of one of the new creatures in the exhibit. Karla was mesmerized as she waited patiently for her mom to finish. Then they were off!

***

Faline and the other captives had choked down the unappetizing food cubes. When done, Faline still felt hungry. She would kill for something fresh and familiar right now! Her stomach grumbled in sympathy. Faline was sticking to herself for now, still so upset and disoriented she didn’t feel like being with the others. Not everyone felt that way; some quietly stood in small groups, occasionally reaching out to touch one another in a comforting gesture. Faline stayed near the place she’d woken up as if being dumped there drugged and unconscious somehow made it ‘her’ spot.

From outside, new sounds could be heard. They drifted through the bars of the big gate, becoming louder and more frequent until they blended into a cacophony. Strange, unfamiliar sounds—she wondered if they were friend or foe. As the daylight filled their cavern, so did the noise from beyond their room. Despite herself, Faline became curious and edged closer to the large gate.

Without warning, there was a loud clang, and the barred gate slowly started to slide to one side, hidden gears making a steady clunking sound. The gaping maw grew larger until the door was completely hidden in a secret pocket in the wall. Faline moved to the side and pressed her back to the wall, watching apprehensively, waiting for some new danger to come running through the opening. The other inhabitants had frozen in place, too—all waiting to see what this latest development would bring. The fear in the room was palpable. Outside the opening was a massive wall a few feet out that blocked the entire view of the outside world. Faline could see space to go to the left once past the gate, but she couldn’t see anything else. They would have to leave the relative safety of their room if they were to explore what was out there.

When nothing happened for several moments, the tension began to ease from Faline’s body. She still didn’t feel brave enough to approach the opening but didn’t sense imminent danger. A few braver ones started hesitantly toward the opening, creeping along the wall and cautiously peering outside. Faline had taken a step in that direction, but when a tidal wave of noise erupted from outside, she paused, frozen in fear. There were shrieks and grunts and howls and growls. What was that?

The ones that had gone to the opening stared, stunned at the sight beyond her view. They weren’t running back into their building, but she could see it on their faces—they were terrified. When nothing attacked them, Faline couldn’t stop herself; she crept to the doorway and poked her head around the corner. More loud noises erupted when she came into view, and she would have scrambled backwards if she hadn’t been shocked into a paralysis that glued her feet to the ground.

The path outside their barred door led to a large open space surrounded by high, smooth walls—an expanse of water, like a moat, wrapped around the bottom of the wall. The open area in the middle contained various stone and wooden structures. Faline stared at them, her shock making her brain slow to understand what that reminded her of. Then, finally, it clicked. It looked like the many primate enclosures she’d seen either in person or from the media. There were rope bridges, tunnels, hills and wooden climbing structures—all designed to stimulate and exercise the apes held within. But that wasn’t what left her standing there in stunned horror. She didn’t even feel the tears rolling down her cheeks as she stared up at the ring of furred faces staring down at her—wolves, bears, foxes, lynx, tigers and more. Dozens of creatures dressed as if in some bizarre play—they wore all the accoutrements that humans would wear: belts, purses, jewelry, hats, jackets. Yet it was definitely animals—carnivores, to be exact—peering intently down at her and her companions, pointing and jabbering in a discordant racket of growls, snarls, purrs, barks and whines. Faline couldn’t breathe; the edges of her vision began to go fuzzy. As she slowly slumped to the ground, she fixated on one thing—the little panther, dressed in a pink frock, holding a balloon and pointing at her.