The Secret Zoo Page 2

  The friends reached Giraffic Jam, the giraffe exhibit at the Clarksville Zoo. The building was several stories tall, covered with ivy, and capped with a dome roof. Noah checked the front door—locked—and then used his magic key to get inside. The scouts came out of their camouflage as they charged up a short flight of stairs and then stepped onto a wooden deck. More than ten feet off the ground, this deck circled the inside of the building, providing a place for visitors to feed the giraffes. Not a single animal was in sight.

  “Where are the giraffes?” Richie asked.

  Megan pointed to a large square opening in the ground—the passage that led to the Secret Giraffic Jam. In the hole, which was normally covered by a movable platform, a steep ramp disappeared into darkness. “And why is that open?”

  “Hold on, guys,” Noah said as he slowed to a stop. “I don’t like the looks of this.”

  The scouts stood still and glanced around the exhibit. A small waterfall provided the only movement and sound.

  “What do we do?” Megan asked.

  “I say we dump the tarantulas and get the heck out of here!” Richie said.

  Noah shook his head and stared at the dark, open passage. “No way. Something’s wrong, and we need to find out what it is.”

  “He’s right,” Ella said.

  She walked across the deck, crawled over the railing, and jump-dropped to the grass. Her friends followed in exact fashion, careful not to tip their bags. They ran across the exhibit and took the ramp into the ground, which led to a section of the Grottoes, a magical system of tunnels that connected to the Secret Zoo and distant exhibits of the Clarksville Zoo. The familiar tunnel had four passages, each covered with a velvet curtain, and the scouts took the one marked THE SECRET GIRAFFIC JAM.

  As Noah stepped into the sector, moist air struck him. The Secret Giraffic Jam was dark, and not because it was night in the Secret Zoo—a thick fog was blocking the light, which normally came from fixtures mounted to the walls.

  “What’s going on?” Ella asked.

  Noah had no idea. He’d never seen fog as thick as this in the Secret Zoo. The web of winding walkways that stretched skyward—the prominent characteristic of the Secret Giraffic Jam—was barely visible. In fact, Noah could hardly see more than thirty feet in any direction.

  The better part of Noah wanted to turn and run. But he forced himself to touch the transmit button on his headset and say, “Hello? Anyone there?”

  The scouts listened and waited.

  “Sam?” Noah added. “Solana?”

  Seconds passed. Noah felt the cool fog invading his lungs with each inward breath.

  “No one’s here,” Megan said. “The City of Species?”

  “Maybe,” Noah said. “The radio waves can’t reach the city because it’s beyond another portal. Should we keep going?”

  “No,” Megan said. “We need to get home. Mom and Dad will be—”

  To their left, a branch suddenly broke. And then several more. Noah heard fallen leaves being trampled.

  “Sam?” Ella said, her voice sounding hopeful.

  In the place they were looking, the fog began to swirl and break apart. Five giraffes slowly appeared, and it took only a few seconds for Noah to realize something was different about them. Their muscles bulged, their horns were longer, and patches of their fur had fallen out. Their eyes were tinted red, as if something wicked was growing inside them, and Noah realized that something was. DeGraff’s magic. The scouts had seen it before: the sasquatches, the animals in Creepy Critters, Charlie Red—all had been changed by the Shadowist. The giraffes stopped in front of the scouts, and as they lowered their long necks, Noah held his arms out to his sides and forced his friends to take a step back.

  A giraffe moved its head forward, stopping just inches from Noah’s face. Its ears were crooked and bent, its nostrils crusted with snot. Its long tongue slipped out and lapped the air, just missing Noah, who winced at the creature’s rancid breath.

  The other giraffes began to lean in, looking ready to chomp and bite.

  “Guys…” Noah half whispered. “Turn and run. Take out the portal by tearing down the curtain. But first, follow my lead.”

  “Your lead?” Richie asked. “What are—”

  Noah suddenly swung his arm, slamming his book bag against the giraffe’s head. The Velcro straps popped open and tarantulas poured out. Some tumbled to the ground, but others caught onto the giraffe and started crawling along its fur. The giraffe whipped its long neck, flinging the spiders everywhere.

  “Now!” Noah hollered.

  His friends attacked and their book bags connected. Tarantulas flew in all directions, like confetti from a nightmare.

  Noah turned and practically dove through the portal, his friends following. “The curtain—grab and pull!” he said, recalling how much force it had taken to break the curtain rings in the portal beneath Gator Falls.

  The scouts grabbed the curtain and pulled. Nothing happened. Noah looked up. Six rings were all that kept it up.

  “Harder!”

  His friends planted their heels and leaned back, their hands gripping the velvet. The giraffes—or the things that had once been giraffes—closed in.

  The rings rattled and moved, but they didn’t snap free. Noah turned, hoisted part of the curtain over his shoulder, and plowed forward. Nothing.

  “Forget it!” Noah said. “Run!”

  As the scouts took off in the Grottoes, the giraffes followed, their heads nearly dragging along the ceiling. The scouts charged up the ramp. In Giraffic Jam, they climbed onto the deck and ran across the winding platform, a place the giraffes couldn’t follow. They soon pushed through the exit of the building and came to a quick halt just a few feet down the outdoor sidewalk. Three people were standing in their path—security guards from the zoo.

  “It’s us,” Ella said, knowing that everyone at the Clarksville Zoo recognized the scouts.

  The guards stayed quiet. A burly man with round cheeks rolled a toothpick across his lips and then slowly chewed on one end. He ran his fingers through his messy hair and scratched his chin.

  “You need to close Giraffic Jam!” Megan said. “The giraffes are under DeGraff’s spell! You need—”

  “And we found tarantulas in our school!” Ella cut in. “They were—”

  “The portal!” Richie interrupted. “We had to—”

  “Slow down!” the guard with the toothpick said. “One at a time!”

  Megan told the guards everything: the tarantulas, their school, what had just happened in Giraffic Jam. The guards listened, but in a disinterested way. The big guard continued to roll the toothpick across his lips.

  “That it?” a guard asked when Megan was finished.

  Megan nodded.

  The guards glanced at one another. Then the big guard took a step forward and a slant of moonlight fell across his face, revealing a long cut on his cheek, a near-open wound with a wet scab. Noah suddenly realized the man’s hair was messy because clumps had fallen out. The guard unholstered his baton and let it dangle by his leg. He smiled, and Noah flinched at what he saw. A few of his teeth were pointed. Fangs.

  DeGraff had gotten to the guards with his magic.

  “Don’t,” Noah said. “Leave us…leave us alone.” He glanced around. The dark zoo landscape was creepier than ever—full of hiding places and dead ends. How many other guards and animals had DeGraff infected?

  “What do we do with them?” one of the guards asked.

  In answer, the guard smacked his baton against his open palm. Noah looked back and thought about the monstrous giraffes in the exhibit. There was no place for the scouts to run and hide.

  Hide. An idea struck him.

  “Guys,” he whispered to his friends, “ghost it. Now.”

  The scouts acted at once, each unzipping a pocket on their Specter pants. Chameleons crawled onto their bodies, quickly blending them into their surroundings.

  “Get ’em!” a guard hollered.

  The men charged, batons swinging, but the scouts had already ducked out of the way. They ran across the lawn, landing on their toes to minimize their footprints in the grass—a Specter trick.

  “Which way did they go?” a guard called out.

  “I don’t know!” a second guard answered.

  Though the scouts couldn’t see one another, they had no problem moving in a pack. Noah could tell where his friends were by their breathing, their body heat, and their quiet steps. They ran to the far side of a souvenir shop, stopped running, and listened. Noah peered around the edge of the building. Giraffic Jam was at least a hundred feet away now, partly hidden by a few tall trees and bushes that hadn’t yet lost their leaves. The guards were still standing on the sidewalk, glancing in all directions, their batons held out to their sides. For a quick moment, they looked like the bumbling Keystone Cops Noah had seen in old black-and-white movies. One of the guards seemed to see something—movement in the distance. Then he hollered, “This way!” and the guards ran off, disappearing behind the zoo carousel.

  “They’re gone,” Richie said, and when Noah heard his voice, he realized his friend was standing right beside him.

  “There might be more,” said Megan. “They’re not—”

  A long, slow growl came from behind the scouts. Noah didn’t move. He smelled the breath of an animal—a warm cloud drifting over the scouts. The animal’s breath had a familiar odor, and when Noah placed it, he turned around to see a massive polar bear with a blocky head and paws the size of catcher’s mitts.

  “Blizzard?” Noah said, his voice a half question of surprise. He didn’t know if Blizzard had come from the Secret Zoo or his exhibit.

  “He’s ok
ay!” Ella said, and Noah saw the bear’s fur being pressed down as Ella stroked his side. “DeGraff’s magic—it hasn’t gotten to him.”

  “But it might,” Noah said. “We have to get him out of here.”

  “How?” Richie asked.

  “We’ll ghost him,” Noah said. “And I know a place he can hide.”

  When no one opposed this idea, Blizzard growled and lowered his stomach to the ground. His intention for the scouts was obvious: Get on. Megan claimed the front spot just behind Blizzard’s neck, and then Ella and Richie climbed on. Noah took the final seat.

  “Okay,” Noah said, “ghost him.”

  The scouts opened the left pockets on their Specter pants, calling dozens of chameleons to crawl onto Blizzard. Parts of the big bear seemed to turn invisible—his head, his legs, areas along his massive sides. Within seconds, he was as hidden as the scouts.

  “Go!” Noah called out as he swatted Blizzard’s hind leg.

  The polar bear rose and then charged across the lawn. He ran up a flight of stairs and slowed down as he emerged on a different side of the zoo.

  “My house!” Noah said. “Get us out of here!”

  Blizzard swung his long neck to look both ways, and then turned onto a concrete path—a path, Noah knew, that offered a quick route to a private exit along one wall of the zoo. They passed PizZOOria and Creepy Critters, buildings whose features were seemingly wiped out by the darkness. Noah bounced around as Blizzard’s hefty paws thudded along.

  Blizzard cut onto the grass to take a shortcut and veered around a fountain with a bronze statue of a porpoising penguin. He trampled through the crinkly remains of a summer flower bed, then lengthened his strides, the scouts clinging to one another to keep from falling off.

  The exit appeared—a weighty wrought-iron gate with statues of small birds seemingly perched across the top. Blizzard headed straight for it and didn’t bother to slow down. The gate broke off its hinges and flew like a giant Frisbee before landing in a grassy ditch.

  “Stay close to the wall!” Noah called out to Blizzard.

  Blizzard grunted to show he understood. Then he ran along the perimeter of the zoo behind the wooded backyards of Noah’s neighbors. Noah glanced over his shoulder. It looked like they weren’t being followed, but he couldn’t tell what might be hiding in the shadows.

  Chapter 3

  A Previous Portal

  As the scouts led Blizzard across Noah’s backyard, a private place surrounded by tall trees, they opened the right pockets in their Specter pants and came out of their camouflage like figures from a fog. Blizzard made his way past Fort Scout, branches snapping beneath his paws, and then kicked through a windblown pile of fallen leaves. A shed sat in the back corner of Noah’s yard, partly concealed by overgrown shrubs and the low limbs of a few trees. Noah walked to it and quietly opened the double doors. The space was crowded with tools, boxes, and ceramic pots. The scouts went inside and pushed things around to make room. Then they stepped back into the yard. Blizzard, knowing what to do, walked into the shed, the floor creaking and groaning beneath his weight. Then he found enough space to turn around and face the front.

  “This is all we got,” Noah said. He reached in and patted Blizzard’s head.

  “Guys…what’s going on?” Richie asked.

  “Let’s check from Fort Scout.” Noah briefly turned his attention back to Blizzard, saying, “Bliz, you’ll be safe here until we can figure things out. We have to go right now, but we’ll check on you.”

  The big bear lowered his head and grunted.

  Noah touched Blizzard a final time and then closed the shed doors. The friends headed across the yard and climbed into their tree fort. Megan found the binoculars and looked out across the Clarksville Zoo.

  “See anything?” Noah asked.

  Instead of answering, Megan handed over the binoculars. Noah positioned the lenses before his eyes and stared out. Most of the lights at the zoo were still off. Noah could see some things—the silhouettes of Metr-APE-olis, the Wotter Park, and the Forest of Flight—but it was too dark to make out much detail. He tried to locate the animals and couldn’t. Then he gave the binoculars to Ella, who took a turn looking before handing them over to Richie.

  Noah tried to figure out what was going on. He thought of the fog, the giraffes, and the way the scouts couldn’t contact the Descenders with their headsets. “DeGraff is taking over the zoos—the Clarksville Zoo and the Secret Zoo.”

  The scouts traded uneasy glances, and it was clear to Noah that they agreed.

  Noah headed for the spiral staircase, saying, “Let’s talk inside.”

  They made their way out of the tree fort and into the house. Noah checked the clock—they still had a half hour before his parents got home. In the living room, they dropped onto the couch and chairs, exhausted. Megan said, “What do we do?”

  Noah thought about the Descenders, the Specters, Mr. Darby, their animal friends. No one was here to help.

  “Should we tell our parents?” Megan asked. “The police?”

  Noah wondered what it would mean to expose the Secret Zoo. And the magic—it would no longer be safe. “I don’t know. Maybe we should—”

  He glanced up the staircase to his bedroom. He’d heard something—a board creaking.

  “I heard it, too,” Richie said, having noticed Noah’s interest.

  Noah glanced at Ella and Megan. He could tell by their wide eyes that they’d heard the same thing. Another board creaked, louder this time.

  “Someone’s up there,” Ella said.

  Megan suddenly jumped to her feet and headed for the staircase with quick, cautious strides.

  “Meg, wait!” Noah whispered. But he was already off the couch and following his sister, along with Ella and Richie.

  As the four of them slowly headed up the staircase, something clunked in Noah’s room. The scouts paused, traded worried looks, then finished making their way up the stairs. They gathered around Noah’s open bedroom door and listened. Another board creaked, and Noah realized the sounds were coming from his walk-in closet. He instantly recalled what had happened in there just days ago: the portal, Charlie Red, the monkeys. Noah had been attacked.

  The room was quiet and dark. As the scouts cautiously stepped inside, they saw a silhouette near the closet doorway. A man—a lanky man whose hair was standing straight up. Ella gasped and grabbed Noah’s arm. The man walked over to Noah’s desk and turned on the lamp, revealing that he was actually a teenage boy. He had a crooked Mohawk and round goggles with tinted lenses and a wide rubber strap. He wore filthy blue overalls and a T-shirt that had once been white. The scouts had met him before.

  “Zak?” Noah said. Zak belonged to the Teknikals, a group of geniuses who built machines from mechanics and magic. “What are you… How did you…”

  “Your parents home?” Zak asked.

  Noah shook his head.

  “Don’t freak, bro,” Zak said. “At least not until you see who I brought with me.”

  More noises came from Noah’s closet. Then an old man with a long gray beard and a flowing velvet jacket stepped out into the room. Mr. Darby. He stood up straight and nodded at the scouts as he used his palm to sweep dust off his jacket.

  The closet floorboards creaked again. Then a young teenager stepped out. He wore a black leather jacket, and his long bangs dangled in his eyes. Sam, the leader of the Descenders who safeguarded the perimeter of the Clarksville Zoo.

  Sam said, “Noah, what’s the best way out of here?”

  “Out of where?”

  “Your house,” Sam said, as if this should have been obvious. “This is your house, right?”

  Noah nodded.

  “Then how do you get out of it?” He looked around again, and then motioned at the window. “This?”

  Noah shook his head and pointed to the hallway. “The front door is downstairs.”

  As Sam headed that way, he said, “I’ll dispatch the troops. We’ll set up a perimeter and bring down the gateways at the zoo.”

  “All of them,” Mr. Darby said. “Block all access to our world.”

  “What?” Noah said. “Close the portals? What are you talking about?”