Queen Of The Beasts

16| We Visit The Kids

"Samuel Nakikus," Connor said.

I slouched into my bean bag and swallowed another pain killer before Emi could swat it out of my hand. She glared at me from where she sat on my bed.

"Who is this person? " Matt asked, as he sat in mediation pose on my red room rug.

"The zoo's head scientists, " Flora said, from my chair.

"Correct." Connor snapped his fingers and picked up a piece of paper. He pinned it on my wall and pointed at it with a red marker. The paper had the picture of an older man. He had coffee coloured skin, and stark blonde hair. Wrinkles under his eyes, and rimless glasses. "He's the guy we need. "

"He'd never listen to us, " Emi groaned.

Connor smirked. "He wouldn't listen to a bunch of teenagers but he would listen to Warren Kearney's son. "

"Who? " Emi asked.

"Matthew Kearney."

All eyes turned to Matt. He grinned and stretched. "Yeah, that might work. Paps always like to show off his money. Investing in everything and everyone. " He shuddered at the end and I cringed in my drugged-out state. Matt looked like he lived in a dump and his best friends were rats, but he was the son of a billionaire, tell me I'm not the only one who thought that was ridiculous.

Emi threw a suspicious glance at Connor. "Where did you get this info, anyway? "

"The internet, " Connor sighed, "why is that so simple? Damn it. "

"But are we actually sure that the zoo did this to them, to the wolf, and deer, the snake and now the dinosaur. "

Connor glanced at me. "Any updates on the animals? "

My brain was still muddled but I was okay enough to not spout nonsense every five seconds. The pounding headaches were just annoying and I had took more than one paracetamol that morning for it.

"The national research and science people took them... They're fine... " They looked at me expectantly. My eyes fluttered close.

"Dude! " Emi hollered and threw a pillow at me.

I blinked awake and licked my lips. "Um, yes Mr wolf is fine, he has a nice owner now. They called me, the deer is also fine, but they had to cut his heads off. And the snake is now a free woman! "

They exchanged glances. I pulled on my warm blanket and curled up on the bean bag. "She's eating peanuts, don't worry. "

"What about the... The kids? " Connor held my gaze as if he was worried I'd have a breakdown.

I broke eye contact, and stared at Samuel Nakikus's picture instead. Something about the scientists, made my skin crawl. Maybe it was just my mind, trying to fit every scientists into someone evil enough to destroy lives. Samuel Nakikus just fit it perfectly.

"I don't know, " I admitted. "They didn't mention them. But they said I could visit when I'd like. "

The atmosphere was tense. Seeing those kids was a hard one for us. We could take down snakes and dinosaurs, and save people from crumbling buildings and wild animals but seeing helpless little babies, broke something in me and I suspected my friends felt the same.

"Okay then, " Connor sighed, "tomorrow we're going to RAS, and then back to the zoo, we all good? "

"Yeah, " Emi said. I sighed and nodded.

"'Course, " Flora agreed. And Matt gave a thumbs up over his head.

➷

The RAS base was huge, maybe two stadiums huge. The security guard had to pat us down and push us through several scans before he deemed us safe. They finally let us in and a female scientist met us by the entrance. She wore a lab coat over a shirt that said, best mom ever in bold. She did have a motherly aura about her and her messy bun told me, her kids were most likely young and annoying.