Bugged

“Oh, look at that snow tiger!” The teacher, Miss Lynn, smiled and pointed into one of the zoo exhibits.

The class crowded around the thick glass wall as the animal stood up and met their stares.

“That’s actually a Bengal tiger.” Marvin, one of my classmates, sighed. “There really is no such thing as a ‘snow tiger.’

“Oh...nice!” Miss Lynn waved at the tiger, then looked over to the sign that was to my left.

“Her name’s Sasha.” I blurted, then tried not to feel embarrassed under some of my classmates’ stares. “It says it right there, so…” I mumbled, voice quieting. I mentally face palmed.

“That’s darn right.” A woman holding a shovel seemed to appear from behind me, speaking in the southern accent I could never perfect. The class turned to her and she smiled, continuing. “This adorable Bengal’s name is Sasha. Saved her from animal poachers up the coast.”

“Why didn’t you just let her go...back wherever she lived?” Harvey’s voice came from the back of the class.

“Well…” The woman motioned to the tiger. “Y’all may not see it right this moment, but her right rear leg never fully healed properly from the injuries she picked up somewhere during being in custody of the poachers.”

A couple of other girls in the class made sympathetic noises.

I studied the tiger, watching it as it sniffed the air. Its muzzle twitched as it looked down at me.

It’s lips suddenly raised in a snarl, gaze now on a classmate next to me. Tana smiled and waved back at it.

The wolves in the exhibit behind us began to howl.

A monkey somewhere to my right screeched.

The roar of a lion from my left.

Sasha let out a whine, low and pitched.

Then things changed. The air seemed to be heavier around us, the animals sounding agitated and distressed. Everyone around me stilled.

The speakers at the top of every exhibit began to scream, the high pitched noise causing me to immediately cringe and cover my ears. Eyes wide, I looked to my other classmates. They were all still facing the woman. The woman was still facing them.

But they were all frozen.

I lowered my hands from my ears and took a step forward. “Clarissa?” I tapped the classmate’s shoulder. “Is this a joke?” I attempted a smile, but the noise in my ears made that near impossible. “Guys?” I felt more than heard the panic that had edged into my voice.

Jenney, another classmate, gasped from behind me. I hadn’t even realized she was there. “Ohmy- God!” She began to pace around, smiling. “I love these reality shows!”

Suddenly feeling unsafe, I walked to the back of the class and looked around. The wolves in the other exhibit were walking around, one of them pawing at the glass that separated them from us. Nobody reacted.

If this was a reality show...I shook my head. Something about this felt real. People don’t just...freeze. I told myself that. Over and over.

Jenney continued talking. “They’re waiting for us to freak out or something, right? So that there’ll be more views?”

Marvin’s hand twitched. Clarissa shifted from one foot to the next. The woman’s smile disappeared. The people around us began to move.

Then everyone unpaused for real.

And Jenney was too busy laughing to see the shovel coming down directly at her face. It hit her and she screamed a terrible gurgling sound. I heard her skull crack as the shovel, still held by the woman, came down on her again.

I stared in shock as blood began to pool onto the ground from underneath her now fallen body. It- She twitched, mouth opening in a silent scream as the shovel came down on her face for the last time. Jenney stilled, but I looked away before I could see the damage.

Everyone - my classmates, teacher, and that woman with a shovel, looked over to me. Why wasn’t Miss Lynn helping? Why wasn’t anyone reacting to what just happened? Something told me that it had something to do with the suddenly vacant look in their eyes.

Horror coursed through me as a woman raised the shovel, taking a step towards me.

I heard the sound of the spade hit cement as I turned and ran, stomach twisting as I saw other zoo visitors begin to pursue other people, running at them like...zombies. I almost laughed as someone tackled another to the ground, grabbing their arm and turning it the wrong way. This was so not a reality show.

No. This was real life. I choked on a sudden sob and forced myself to run faster. Faster. The footsteps behind me were fewer than a second ago, but they were speeding up.

My gaze snagged on a boy about my age, with brownish golden hair and hazel eyes. Eyes that were definitely not vacant, trained on a woman crawling on the ground a few feet away from him, an empty wheelchair behind her. She was more dragging herself with her arms than crawling, I amended.

I grabbed one of his arms , which caused me to slow my pace. A tear rolled down one of his cheeks as he looked over to me, eyes widened in fear. “Run!” I shouted in his face. “RUN!”

He snapped out of it after a second and nodded.

We began running and I only had the feeling of sudden danger before the shovel landed on the ground next to me, missing me by a mere half inch.

“Run faster!” He now yelled, speeding up his pace.

Already out of breath and tired, I wanted to stop. Stop and hope this is a dream. That i’ll wake up in my bedroom, learning that I missed the field trip. I’d be sad, but oh well, at least I got to skip a day of school.

Someone’s scream got cut off as a heavy thud sounded from behind us. There was sound of glass breaking, a fence clattering to the ground, pure chaos.

There was no choice but to run. Run faster.