Free Animal Kingdom by Iain Rob Wright Page A

next to Grace and smiled. “I guess we should get started then, sweetheart?”
    Grace frowned at him and Randall made a mental note: She doesn’t like ‘sweetheart’. Don’t use it again. He smiled. “I thought we could check each room for a water cooler. Office buildings always have them, do you agree?”
    Grace nodded. “Okay. Should I bring Danny with us or find Joe first?”
    Randall thought about it. Guess it couldn’t hurt to come across as child-friendly. “Yes,” he said. “We can take the little chap along. Perhaps we’ll bump into his father along the way.”
    Grace seemed confused. “ Your attitude has changed.”
    “ I think the stress of this situation affected me worse than I first realised. I’m prone to making harsh judgements. A defence mechanism, I guess.”
    Grace’s demeanour softened. She nodded. “Okay. Let’s get going then.”
    “ Great!” Randall stood up and offered a hand. “Wake the young man and we’ll make a start.”
    Grace rubbed Danny’s shoulders above his Undertaker backpack. “Time to wake up, honey.”
    The boy stirred slowly. Too slowly, and Randall became impatient. “Come on now, lad. We’re going to go and find your father.”
    The boy opened his eyes and looked around in a daze. “Where’s Dad?”
    “ We’re going to find him now,” Grace answered.
    The boy nodded and finally woke up fully. Randall forced himself to smile. “That’s a good lad. You hold on to Grace’s hand now, you hear?”
    The three of them headed for the door and stepped out into the corridor. Randall couldn’t be certain, but he thought he could still hear the riotous shrieking of the monkeys downstairs. Not to mention the rattling cages in the lab ahead. He wondered if Joe and Mason were still in there.
    “ We should check the lab,” said Grace, obviously wondering the same thing. “They’re probably still in there.”
    Randall nodded. He put a hand out in front of Grace and the boy to stop them. “I’ll go, but you stay here, just in case there’s any danger.”
    The boy whimpered and Grace stroked his head. “Daddy is okay, honey. We just need to check that there’s nothing a little boy like you shouldn’t see.”
    “ I’m not little. I’m big and strong like the British Bulldog.”
    Randall didn’t have time for this. “Wait here. I’ll be right back.”
    He padded along the blue carpet and headed for the door. When he got there, Randall placed a hand around the long silver handle. Thoughts filled his mind about what he might find inside. His earlier notion of the animals escaping their cages now seemed quite plausible. The image of Joe and Mason ripped to shreds and lying in a pool of their own blood filled his mind, and he almost turned back. But he had to do this or else he’d lose face in front of the girl. Slowly, Randall pushed down the handle.
    When the door opened, the hinges squeaked. Randall hoped it wouldn’t alert anything dangerous to his presence. There was chaos inside the room. Randall immediately saw trails of blood – and what seemed to be a dead rat. Amongst it all was Mason, kneeling over the body of Joe.
    Is he dead? What the hell happened in here?
    Randall was just about to burst into the room and offer his help, but reconsidered. Instead he closed the door quietly and turned back into the corridor. There, Grace waited for him, expectantly.
    “ Well?” she asked him.
    Randall shook his head. “No one in there. They must have gone somewhere else.”
    Grace bit at her lower lip nervously. The gesture spoke of vulnerability and made her more attractive. “Why would they do that?”
    Randall shrugged. “I guess we’ll know when we find them.”
    Grace still seemed unsettled. “Okay. We should probably keep on then.”
    “ Yes,” said Randall. “Let’s go see what else we can find.”
     
     
    Chapter Eleven
     
    The pinprick of light gradually widened until Joe’s vision fully returned. He found himself staring at the ceiling.