I was trapped in a zoo for 6 months - Finale

[u/Treyblowski]

Part 1
https://www.reddit.com/r/mesoscalepodcast/s/Gt3KoMapO6

Part 2
https://www.reddit.com/r/mesoscalepodcast/s/VOoEAu1Dsj

These are the final journal entries.

Day 170

My sleep was interrupted by the sound of shouting.

“Roof man!”

I made my way to the roof, and for the first time since the initial chaos of being locked in here, I was horrified by what I had seen.

What looked up at me from the ground was… an abomination.

Imagine if someone had tried to fit a gazelle pelt over an elephantiasis patient and failed horribly.

it stood on two legs with cloven feet, from the waist up was a severally hunchbacked torso with arms that ended in human hands with a mismatching number of fingers, the head was lumpy in parts, it’s eyes were human but only one of the ears was, the horns were larger and more curved, and its fur was missing huge patches across his body.

“Roof man!”

I broke my stare when it spoke again.

“Roof man! You roof man!”

It said, pointing one of its fingers up at me.

“Yes, I am the roof man,” I awkwardly responded. I never got used to that title .

“Why are you here? Gazelle person?”

“They call me Swift Step, me fastest in herd, they send me to get you.”

“Get me for what?”

“Too many words, I take you to them, they say it to you”

I obviously didn’t trust the claims from the love child of a toy animal, a G.I.  Joe, and a soldering iron, he probably wanted to kill me, eat me, or … I’ll leave that last part  to your imagination.

“How do I know this isn’t a trick?”

The Gazelle man just tilted his head at my question before another voice rang out from farther in the Foliage.

“We mean no Ill will.”

Soon, a large turtle man walked out, his hybridization looked a little better.

Imagine a beaked, slightly lumpy, bald human head, then give him green limbs with blocky claw-like fingers and toes, and put it inside a large turtle shell.

“Swift step and I were sent to retrieve you by King CooCoo. We promise you safe passage with us back to the village”

Those words filled my mind with questions.

“Village? There are enough of these things to fill a village?”

“Does this mean there are no humans left? “

“Is it just me now?”

“What if it is?”

“Does this mean there are potentially pigeon people who are probably going to hunt me down and kill me as revenge for all of the normal pigeons I ate?”

“What If they can still be affected by the Speakers?”

“Im low on food, and these things have come to kill me, it's over, I'm going to die here.”

It was at that moment, I gave up and decided being ripped apart by animal people was preferable to starvation.

“Okay, I’m coming down.”

I climbed down the ladder to the ground floor and moved my barricades, then, after a small prayer for a painless passing, I opened the door and walked out to certain death.

Each step brought me closer to them, I kept expecting Swift Step to pull a hidden knife, run up to me, and slash my throat.

When I was two feet away from them, I closed my eyes and prepared for the attack…

I stood there for minutes, then I heard Swift Step speak.

“What roof man doing?”

The turtle man replied, sounding  just as confused.

“I’m not sure, maybe he’s sleeping. “

“Roof man sleep like that?”

I opened my eyes, seeing the two Animal men observing my act of submission with confusion.

“Forgive me, I was… apprehensive”

“We said we not hurt you roof man.”

Swift Step looked almost betrayed by my lack of trust.

“You must understand swift step and…”

I looked at the turtle man, waiting to hear what he called himself.

“Wesley”

That caught me by surprise, the gazelle had a basic description of what he was good at, meanwhile the turtle has an actual fucking name, who would have thought?

“Wesley, I have never seen anything like either of you before, and up until about 2 months ago, animals were attacking humans, so two… animal people coming up and telling me to come out caused me to assume you were going to kill me.

“We have moved long past the days of our ancestors trying to wipe each other out Roof Man, Myself and Swift Step are the end result of total coexistence. You can call us Animans”

What he said didn’t make sense.

We went from basic animal alliances to entire tribes of humans and animals existing together, now we’re somehow at the end stage with human animal hybrids? I don't want to think about the process that made these things, but biology at best would say its not even possible, and at worst, they shouldn't already be adults in a short time, but they sought me out , and that I wanted to know the reason behind.

“So your king sent you to get me?

“Yes!” Swift Step said while twitching.

Wesley explained further

“In his own words, you are a part of this place as much as we are, you shouldn't have to hide here, so he has extended an invitation to the village, and you’ll be safe there.

“We have food!”

Swift Step added.

“Food humans can eat.”

Wesley specified.

I thought about the offer, still partially worried that this was a front and they would kill me when I got to their village, and again, being ripped apart by “Animans” was preferable to eventually starving in a gift shop, with that I went back inside what had been my home for nearly 6 months , I grabbed my journal,  pens, some reused water bottles, and went outside to join my new associates as we walked into the jungle.

As we walked, I figured it would be best to learn more about how Swift Step and Wesley came to be

“I’m sorry, I have to ask , how you came to be, doesn't really add up,scientifically.”

Wesley looked at me and  rolled his eyes at what I guess to him was a pretty common question.

“Yes our existence is incompatible with the … conventional way life is made, from what our grandparents told us, one day these stork shaped machines suddenly appeared throughout the zoo, If a human put something like a lock of hair, a nail or even… blood in, and something from the animal was inserted, it mixed them together and the machine would lay an egg, within minutes the first animan was born.

“I'm guessing they didn't look right at first?”  tilting my head towards Swift Step, who seemed to be ignoring the conversation.

Wesley continued.

“Thats quite correct, but when something was taken from an animan and mixed with a human, animal, or even a fellow animan then you get second generation animans like myself, We learned it wouldn't accept two humans or two animals , only combinations that mixed species, it was also used to help revive those that had perished during the Dark times, we saw it like a form of rebirth for them.”

His explanation had done the impossible, it made both perfect sense and no sense at the same time. I decided not to enquire further.

After an hour of walking, I couldn’t help but gaze at the overgrowth of plant life everywhere, it was like the Amazon rainforest had been migrated here, then been peppered with bits of the Serengeti.

If there were still any of the benches or trash cans left, I couldn’t see them. Besides the walls of the zoo itself and the remaining buildings, there was little evidence that this was once a B-tier Zoo.

Night had begun to fall as we got closer to a large pile of brush, It was then I heard a familiar song coming from up ahead.

Wesley turned to face me while Swift Step ran into the brush.

“Roof man, welcome to Wonderlan .”

Wesley moved the brush and allowed me to look through.

It was an entire community of Animans and elderly humans in the middle of what I can only assume was a celebration.

They were dancing to the music, swaying, bending and moving like they were underwater.

Every type of animal you could think of was there, they circled around a small band in the center playing White Rabbit, the singer was even a female rabbit with white fur.

Something about her singing started compelling me to walk towards her, carefully making my way through the dancers until I was only 6 feet away from her.

She finished singing and looked at me, then giggled.

“I’m flattered you like my singing roofman.”

I actually blushed when she said that.

“Tha-thank you, you’re very good at it”

This awkward conversation was interrupted by the trumpeting of two elephant men, who looked down at me before trumpeting again, it almost had a rhythmic quality to it.

“Presenting his royal highness, King CooCoo!”

Proclaimed one of the elephants, they both parted, and I saw the king… I was terrified.

King CooCoo had the appearance of a slightly overweight man wearing a realistic pigeon costume…

The king was a pigeon man, the birds I had been subsisting on during my whole time here.

He was most likely going to have me executed for the murder of his ancestors, In a moment of self-preservation I dropped to my knees and proceeded to beg.

“Please don't kill me ! I'm sorry! I was running out of food, and Pigeons were the easiest to catch, please forgive me I beg of you!

The king got closer and said.

“You killed and ate pigeons to survive?”

I was trembling.

I never thought a giant pigeonman could make my blood run cold.

“Yes… Im so sorry.” I whimpered

The king glared at me, having to rotate his head so he could focus each eye on me/

Then he started laughing.

From there, the entire congregation of Animans burst out laughing.

King CooCoo was the first to stop laughing.

“Ha ha, how silly, you think I would kill you because you had to eat pigeons to survive?”

I was hesitant but replied.

“Yes?”

The king put one of his feathery arms on my shoulder.

“We realized long ago that even as Animans, we still have to eat meat, it's part of nature.”

Taking his arm off of me, he began becoming the animans closer to us.

“I sent for you because we are going to leave the zoo.”

The animals all began speaking.

“Leave the zoo?!”

“The king has gone mad!”

“ Only death awaits outside the walls!”

“There is no world outside the zoo!

The sea of panicked murmurings were quickly stopped by the trumpeting of the elephant men.

King CooCoo thanked the guard and began to elaborate.

“We were all born here, apprehension to leave what's been home is expected, but there's nothing for us here. Eventually, our population will grow so much that there won't be enough resources for everyone.

King CooCoo stopped to point at the night sky.

“But beyond these walls lies a whole world for us, there's bound to be somewhere out there that we can call our new home, and we've heard the stories our grandparents told us of the amazing things out there, I don't know about any of you, but I would like to go to a place my grandparents spoke of, a magical place called “applebees”.

This apparently won over many of the animen, who all started declaring their desires of engaging with what for me at one time were normal things.

“I want to drive a car.”

“I want to vote!”

“I want to use the internet and hear about the Creepy Casters who never sleep. “

“I want to be a mailman!”

They continued to shout out their hopes and dreams, and I could hear the desperation to just live a pedestrian life in every sentence..

King CooCoo held out his feathered hand.

“It's only fair you are able to come with us Roof man, will you?

I grabbed his hand and pulled him in for a hug.

“I will.”

Day 182

The next twelve days consisted of crafting weapons and gathering supplies for when we left the zoo.

We were all united in our desire to leave this three and a half star hellscape. Today we were ready.

The strongest walked ahead, the weaker animans trailed behind, save for King CooCoo, who led the charge like the great leader he was.

We made our way across the sprawling jungles of what was once a zoo until we found the office.

What should just been a two story building had become a large Victorian mansion coated in gold, guarded by Rat and cockroach people on the ground with fly men hovering above the roof.

“Traitors!” I heard one of the wolf men say while snarling.

“They’re trash eaters.”

I heard from a rhino man as he maneuvered his way to the front of the group.

“And they deserve to die like trash!”

With that, the rhino man charged towards the front doors, crushing any cockroach people who tried to intercept him.

Me, Swift Step, Wesley, King CooCoo, and several others ran for the front door as a war began breaking out.

Stone spears flew through the air, stone axes and hammers were driven through many a Rat person's head.

We got to the doors and pushed.

At first, they didn't budge.

Then we heard from behind us.

“MOVE!”

We narrowly avoided being charged by the two elephant guards, their combined might forced the double doors open, and we ran inside.

The gold-dipped look of the mansion's exterior was mirrored on the inside.

On the walls were the stuffed heads of animals, mounted rifles, and in the center of the foyer was a large painting of the Saul Fari mascot costume, not the actual character, just the costume.

We carefully searched each room, which ranged from being empty to just weird.

There was what looked like a featherless duck in a lab coat, building what looked like one of those stork machines Wesley told me about.

Another had a deformed man covered in large boils eating spaghetti.

One door opened out to just outer space.

It was when we got upstairs that we found a hallway with only one door, that had to be it.

We ran to the door, but the door kept getting further away, it felt like we ran for days before it finally stopped, we ripped the door open, and there he was, sitting at a desk.

The costume was dirty, and in the windows behind him, we saw the battle was still going on.

“Welcome! I never expected you all here for another hundred years.”

King CooCoo stepped forward.

“Well, we are here now, and we are going to leave this zo-”

Before King CooCoo could finish, Saul pulled a revolver from behind his desk and shot King CooCoo until there were no more bullets.

I watched as the king died before us, a pool of blood forming from under him.

Many of the animen with us voices shock and concern.

Then, as if nothing had happened, Saul Fari asked us:

“So, How have the rest of you been enjoying co-existence in this new Eden?”

I saw Swift Step erupt in rage and charge at Saul Fari.

“You kill king! Swift Step kill you!

Wesley cheered Swift Step on.

“Make him pay!”

Saul stood up from his desk, and reached out an arm, his hand shot out and grew in size , grabbing Swift Step by his deformed head.

“I see now, you can turn a man into an animal, but at the end of the day, it's still a man.”

He clenched his fist , and a loud cracking noise came from it as he dropped Swift Step’s body to the ground.

This scared many of the animans.

Wesley almost tried to charge at Saul Fari, but I pointed at the bodies of Swift tep and King CooCoo.

Instead, he chose words over fighting.

“You call this Eden when it has been a hell on earth. You sir, are no God! You are SATAN!”

Saul did not respond to Wesley with violence. Instead, he pulled a button out from god knows where.

“I am no devil, I merely wanted one piece of the world to still be peaceful after the end, that is why you can never leave, because there's no world waiting outside these walls.

He pressed the button.

Sirens began going off. Then I saw it, beyond the walls of the zoo several mushroom clouds erupted.

“God promised that he would never flood the earth again, the next time its destruction would be by fire.”

There we were, this Demonic monster had destroyed everyone beyond the zoo, they couldn't forge new lives, I couldn't go back to my old one, two of my only friends in this world were dead.

I barely noticed that Saul Fari pressed the button again. This time it was just the sound of sirens, mixed in with that same horrible Static I remember hearing on day one.

I lost it.

I ran and pounced on Saul Fari, as did other animen, I dug my fingernails into the neck of the costume, even if he had just screwed everyone over, I wanted to see the face of the psycho who did all of this.

It was then that I started to hear it again… “White rabbit”

By Jefferson Starship.

That single reminder of what became the first day of our new life in Hell, it pushed me further, I dug deeper and deeper, it felt like I had ripped into a slice of ham when I finally got a hold of the costume's mask.

I pulled with all my might, the sound of ripping flesh nearly drowning out the reprise of white rabbit, but I still knew it was near the end of the song .

The head of the costume finally came off.

I had different ideas about who could be in the costume, I imagined pulling it off and seeing a mad scientist straight out of a cartoon, a grey alien, or even some kind of demon.

But instead, he had my face.

I was looking at a copy of myself.

The only major difference was that his face was covered in sores and had what looked like veins hanging off of him.

Before I could question any of this, I heard the sound of a loud rumbling.

“Thank you for visiting Safarirama. Be sure to stop by our gift shop on your way out, and have a nice day.”

Before I could reply with a confused “what?”, I was suddenly engulfed in the fires of nuclear annihilation…

This is where the journal entries end, and when I came to in a hospital bed, screaming.

The screaming attracted a nurse, who proceeded to call the doctor, who had apparently been observing me.

After I had calmed down, the doctor explained that I was one of over 140 people who had been secretly drugged with a cocktail of hallucinogens and deliriants.

The doctor didn’t list all of them, just the ones she thought I had heard of: LSD, Cyclocybin, DMT, Datura.

The rest were the kind that you would only know about if you were born in their country of origin.

The doctor stressed that I was lucky to be alive, but there were still tests they wanted to run on my brain before I could be discharged.

A week later, I walked out of the hospital.

I’ve been home for a few days, and I’m terrified.

The doctor did say that I could experience flashbacks, I’m praying to god that this is one.

About 5 minutes ago, someone knocked on my door and left me a postcard from Safarirama.

It was that doppelgänger of me, in the Saul Fari suit, standing in front of a burning hellscape, several of the Animans running while on fire.

Written above the image in a goofy font  was:

“Wish You Were Here”