Part 1
I’ve never really been that good of a person growing up. I’ve always skipped school, had horrendous grades, and I always had a general disregard for rules. To put it lightly, I was not going to be nominated for ‘Most Likely to Succeed’ anytime soon. My friend Molly was the exact opposite however. She was bright, always tried in her classes, and had way better marks than me. I had to admit, I was pretty jealous. But she wasn’t the kind of person to gloat and tease me for not having as good of grades as her. She sorta saw me as someone lost in their own teenage hubris and tried her best to keep me in line with varying results. At times, we were mistaken as brother and sister or boyfriend and girlfriend. And I was teased for a whole month for that. I surprisingly felt a little bad about my kind of crowd mixing in with the wrong people, but reassurance from Molly made me forget about it.
One thing about me that Molly knew very well was that I liked to explore abandoned places. No matter how illegal it was, I still found myself exploring every nook and cranny of any place I could find. Unfortunately, I was running out of places that were suitably ‘creepy’ for my taste. Now when I say creepy, I mean just the occasional urban legend surrounding the place that would ultimately be disproven very quickly. The only things that I found interesting about the places I went to were the gang markings that must’ve been a decade old and the occasional crackhead that couldn’t be bothered to even acknowledge my existence. Either way, my town doesn’t have much to offer when it comes to exploration.
Something that piqued my interest was the local zoo. It wasn’t abandoned whatsoever, hell, it was the exact opposite during its opening hours. Hundreds of people bustle in and see the animals every day because it’s the one of the only things to do in this town. I have to admit, it is pretty entertaining to see the animals every once in a while. But the reason why I saw this location as perfect was the fact that the place wasn’t completely empty aside from the animals. There’s this group of animal rights activists that try to break in and “release the animals from their torturous confinement”. Almost everyone hates this group and they’ve made more than one attempt to release them from their cages. One time they released them during the day and it caused quite a scene. Everyone had to leave early so that the animals could be put back into their zones and cages. With all of this said and done, I decided it would be quite the experience to maybe catch one of these attempts and see it for myself.
At school, I told Molly my plan and she laughed at my idea. She said that although it would be funny to see them in the act, I did have a chance of being caught by one of those lunatics and who knows what they’ll do to me. I told her that I’ve been doing this for a few years so I don’t think those idiots would know that I was ever there. I then asked if she could join me for the venture later tonight. She, of course, declined but I insisted. She said that she wasn’t experienced at all in whatever I do and that she doesn’t want to risk herself getting caught. I told her that even someone like her could do it and that two is better than one. She finally changed her mind when I told her that I’ll cover our butts when we get caught and tell them that it was my idea. She reluctantly agreed and she said she needed some rush in her life at some point anyway.
…
Later that night, We met up at a safe distance from the zoo’s entrance. We wanted to see the activists going in ourselves just so that we weren’t there for nothing. We waited in the dark for so long that I had thought they weren’t coming after all. The only light that illuminated the place was a lone street light that lit up the bold lettering on the sign up front that read, “Forest Ridge Public Zoo”. We decided to sneak around the side of the park property and see if we can find a ladder on the back of one of the shops that built their back walls bulging out of the side of the wall. As we rounded the corner, I shined my flashlight to the white backs of the buildings that lined up against the wall. That’s when I noticed a hanging ladder made of thick, white laced rope that was tightened by several knots.
“I guess they beat us to the punch. I didn’t even see them, did you?” I whispered to Molly.
“No, I couldn’t see much. It’s really dark out here. Either way, you wanna go first?” Molly offered.
I scrambled up the ladder and Molly soon followed. We overlooked the main entrance to the zoo and saw a little light flicker its way in different directions. I ducked under the ledge on the roof and quietly told Molly to do the same.
“Did you see that?” I said in a hushed voice.
“I think so. Who was that?” Molly whispered with a hint of worry in her voice.
“Calm down. I think that was a security guard. We need to get down to the main floor and see where these people went.” I whispered with a hint of worry in myself. We were both in new territory and I didn’t know the repercussions for getting caught.
I peeked over the ledge and only saw the faint shadows of the exhibits and no sign of life anywhere.
“The coast is clear. Follow me.” I whispered as I made my way to the rooftop door that led into the store below. I tried the knob but it wouldn’t budge. I’ve run into this situation many times before, so I pulled out my trusty screwdriver and my set of bobby pins. I inserted the bobby pins into the lock and felt the pressure of the springs in the door knob release. I carefully pushed up the springs into the cylinder and felt the oh so satisfying click of the dead bolt being released from the rusty strike plate. I signaled Molly that the way was clear and I carefully opened the door that led to the dark, concrete staircase that sent a pit of dread into both of us.
“We need to be careful down there. Not only do we need to avoid those activists, but we also can’t wake up the animals.” I whispered clearly and seriously.
“Okay.” Molly whispered back with some uneasiness in her voice.
We both crept down the stairs and took great care in not making any noise on the way down. As we were entering the last section of the staircase, we were met with a tight, pitch black hallway with a checkered pattern tile floor. I took out two pocket flashlights and handed one of them to Molly. I clicked the button on the light and a beam of light shone the ground below me.
“We can try the side door. Over here.” Molly whispers, pointing to the far left of the gift shop.
“Nice catch.” I whispered back. We made our way over to the side door and tried to quietly open the door only to be stopped by some boxes from the outside
“Damn. The boxes are in the way.” I hushed in frustration.
“Try and push them from the inside.” Molly suggested.
“No. I can’t risk the noise. We’ll need to go out the front.”
As we snuck to the front of the store, we heard footsteps coming to the store and we quickly split up into the aisles of the gift store. I turned my flashlight off and hid behind a shelf that had a bunch of stuffed animals on the shelves. As I sat there crouched behind the shelf, I saw a beam of light scan over my head. I heard footsteps slowly approaching my shelf and I quickly switched spots and dove into another aisle. I peeked over and I saw a black figure with a cap on. The figure shone a light onto my previous spot and I could just see the outline of the bold lettering on his jacket reading: SECURITY. I stayed quiet for what seemed like hours. That is until I heard the sound of the door opening and closing, and the footsteps fading away. I breathed a sigh of relief and slowly peeked out from my hiding spot. I looked at the window and saw nothing but the glare of the glass pane window.