The Great Escape

  He waited, seeing if she would catch her mistake, his ebony body looped in coils in the corner. The UVB light irradiated his smooth scales and the stiff, plastic plants in his enclosure cast sharp shadows across the sand, reminding him of his prior home. His tongue winked in and out, tasting the air, his slitted golden eyes watching.

  The young zookeeper hunched next to the back of the king cobra’s exhibit, her fingers tapping wildly on her cell phone, a tear from her nose hitting the screen. Her blond hair clung to her moisture-streaked face, and she sniffled. “Text me back, text me back, please Cody.” No blinking three dots appeared on her screen. “I said I was sorry,” she sobbed. She rubbed her nose with her beige sleeve, then grabbed a broom. She moaned as she shuffled down the narrow-lit corridor behind the cages in the reptile house then slipped out the door, leaving it slightly ajar.

  The cobra reared his head, his hood fanning outward. He swayed like a stalk of wheat as excitement lit up his neurons. His snout touched the corner of his cage then pushed at the framed screen. Instead of meeting the usual resistance, the screen popped up and the lid lock vibrated. The snake oozed his ten-foot body through the small opening, undulating his girth to fit. He fell onto a shelf holding empty dishes.

  The large reptile paused. Hunger knotted his stomach as he forgot to swallow the cooling rabbit in his exhibit before he left. He must eat but he did not want to go back to his old drab prison. He wiggled along the shelf, pausing to check each enclosure. The cover lock to the iguana lay open.

  The cobra wiggled part of his body inside the enclosure. A large, mottled green lizard eyed him, expanding its throat latch, then hissed. How silly of it, thought the snake as it struck the two-foot beast with his fangs. Normally, he would wait until his meal stopped jerking, to avoid injury, but he was in a hurry and swallowed the wiggling reptile whole. As he choked down his meal, his tail slapped one of the dishes on the shelf and it clattered to the floor.

  The snake stiffened, raising its head, feeling the vibrations of someone coming. He jerked out of the enclosure, dropped to the floor, then slithered behind a stack of buckets near the door.

  The zookeeper reappeared, her hazel eyes darting across the room. She picked up the steel bowl and tapped her hand with it. Her gaze rested on the iguana enclosure. She snapped the latch shut and swore softly. “Where are you, Horace?” As she walked down the hallway, scanning the other exhibits, the king darted from the room.

  The cobra slithered violently across the waxed floor of the hall. He picked up his pace as he heard the woman shriek. She must have found him missing. He learned he elicited that response from humans with any interactions. Hitting a wall of glass, the cobra reared upward, his nose tapping the panes. The morning rays glittered on his belly, warming his blood, and his slitted pupils spied another human approaching.

  The king coiled down and vibrated along the wall, tapping the glass wall, looking for an escape. He paused when a faded wooden door etched with painted lizards, swung in next to him. A bearded zookeeper swathed in beige carrying a package thumped into the hall. The cobra jammed his his bulk behind the hinged wood panel. He saw the young zookeeper stride up to the man.

  “How’s it going this morning? I have the new shipment of crickets.” The man held the box out to the other zookeeper

  “Going good. Same old.” She smiled and grabbed the box. Her body tensed as she spotted the open doorway.

  The king could sense the woman’s fear, smell her sweat, feel the rise in her body temperature. If either of them spotted him, he would be imprisoned again.

  “What’s Montgomery doing? What’s that in his water?” The man walked to the alligator exhibit and peered in.

  The woman’s pupils grew large and dark. “What do you mean?” The box shook from her trembling fingers as she joined the man and looked in the water.

  The crickets rustled and the cobra’s mouth water. The lizard was not enough to quell his appetite, but his desire for freedom stomped his hunger. The snake quietly slithered out the door and disappeared under the bronze statue of a leatherback sea turtle, its worn shell glowing. He wondered if they had spotted him until he heard the door shut behind him. He coiled up to think, unsure where to go.

  This environment tasted very different from his last two. Odors from multiple prey assaulted him and his stomach groaned. A cool breeze chilled his scales and vibrations resonating from around him reached his ear bones. Shrieks pierced the air and two gray, lumpy legs darkened his view. An iridescent blue head topped with a curly feather and two black, beady eyes appeared. The bird chuckled at him then pecked him with its beak.

  The cobra hissed and struck. The peacock tumbled backward. It flapped its wings and burst into the air. The snake realized its error. He had created a disturbance and many humans would mob him, like they did when he angrily struck the inside glass of his enclosure. Panicked, he flowed from under the turtle.

  The earth trembled as the cobra raced across a walkway. He wiggled into a flower bed as a large mass rolled in front of the reptile house, belching hot, toxic fumes. The king watched as four humans jumped out, holding sacks and sticks with nooses. He flatted his body onto the moist earth. He recognized the poles. Those were the ones that snatched him from his homeland. He would be returned to the glass box.

  `The beige group yapped heatedly, their arms gesturing. They didn’t look in the cobra’s direction but strode into the building, closing the door behind them. The king heard the click of a lock. He stretched out his tubular body and silently wormed a path through the bed, keeping his head low. Fear propelled him forward and when he reached tempting warm asphalt paths, he scurried across, not pausing to soak in the sun’s rays. The noise of his surroundings grew quieter as he reached a wooded area, then fencing, which he crawled through. As his fear broke and tumbled away, the snake surveyed his new surroundings. The looming trees, the openings with toasty light, the pebbles embedded in the earth, tickling his belly. A hush blanketed the area. The king slithered up to a large rock heated by sunshine and unable to resist, he coiled on it. The beams stirred his blood, and his breakfast began to digest. He could stay here a while, he thought. He really could.

  The cobra slipped in and out of the zoo the next few days under the cover of darkness, and the animal population of the zoo dropped by three, including an obnoxious peacock that tasted quite delicious. Then the king expanded his hunting grounds into the surrounding forest which seemed to have no end. The reptile would never know how popular he had become on social media, #savethe snake, #savetheking, and he wouldn’t have really cared. He was once again free, hunting live prey, enjoying life on his terms. Perhaps one day he would run into another cobra, and they could start a family, perhaps.