The Zookeeper 3: The Future

Ch. 15: Wild Fire

"Hey, dad." Luz said, breaking his train of thought.

"Yes, Luz?" He replied.

"You were... quite aggressive earlier."

"You saw that, did you?" Nathan said, rubbing his neck a bit. "Over the years, I've learn that a more....aggressive approach can help get the point across better. It's not always pretty but sometimes, it's needed. This place is dangerous and you need to be aggressive to survive."

"I can guess that but I never thought you'd....kill him." Luz said, a bit sadden to think her father has been killing people in order to keep the jungle safe.

That's a line Luz didn't want to cross in order to protect animals and their home. She knows she almost went that far before and it scared her.

"Sometimes, sacrifices must be made for the greater good." Nathan said with a sigh, "Trust me, Luz, I don't want you to see that side of me, but what I'm doing here, I have no choice sometimes."

"Dad, there's always a choice. Even if it's not permanent, there is always a better choice. Like how I chose to have the woman you worked with arrested instead of killed." Luz said to him.

"Don't know if you noticed Luz, but there aren't any police here." Nathan said.

"I know but that doesn't mean you have to become an animal while staying here. No offense." Luz said, quickly apologizing to all the animals around.

"Luz, this is a different place than what you're used to."

"I know but still, you have to be better than them at least." Luz said to him.

Nathan wanted to, but that's not how things work here.

"Get some rest, Luz. You and Amity can stay for the rest of the evening. If you want to leave tomorrow, I won't stop you." Nathan said before heading to his bedding chamber.

Amity walked up to Luz.

"Well... your dad is nice at least."

"Yeah.....but he was a lot nicer before." Luz said sadly, frowning at her retreating father. "He's changed so much since being here."

"I'm not surprised." Amity said, "He's fighting a war all by himself."

"Well, he's not exactly alone. He's with all of these friendly animals." Ghost pointed out.

"Yes, but I meant he was alone without humans that aren't trying to hurt something important." Amity said.

Luz didn't have a reply to that, at least not a vocal reply.

'What about your family? Weren't we important? To him?' Luz thought.

Amity helped move Luz to a place for her to rest.

"Come on, we should rest. We'll figure out what we do next in the morning." Amity said to Luz, following a panther she thinks is leading them.

'This is actually terrifying.' Amity thought.

Even if all of the animals were Nathan's allies, it was still scary to be around to many predators in one place.

'I wish there was at least some giraffes around.' Amity thought.

Sadly, it was the Amazon, not the Savannah.

"This way. Master has a spare hut." The tiger said as Ghost translated for Amity.

'I'm not going to ask why.' Amity thought.

Inside of the hut, there was makeshift bed with another room to bath in. Nothing much but it was better than nothing at all.

"Come on, let's go to sleep." Amity said.

"Yes, a good night's rest will do us all some good, mother." Ghost said as she jumped into the bed, making a spot so she could be comfortable.

They lie down and begin to rest. Elsewhere, the developers return, this time, ready to drive Nathan out.

"Throw them!" The leader said.

Two pulled out glass bottles with rags in them. They light the rags and threw them into the woods.

"Are you sure about this, sir?" One worker asked.

"Yes! I'm sure! We're gonna smoke them out with a controlled fire and then we build on the ashes." The boss said, though he didn't care if they died or not.

The fire began to spread and the smoke rose. Little did they know what they've done, a fire on the largest forest in the world is bound to draw attention. The animals near the area, they caught the sight of the smoke and could smell it. They began to panic as they began running away from the area and signaling any others nearby to run away.