Ghost Leopard (A Zoe & Zak Adventure #1) (6 page)

To be fair, I could have stopped him, but once you’re in a situation like that, you just kind of keep going. You always hear, if your friend jumped off a cliff, would you? Well, the truth is, it’s not that easy to decide. Not when a guy in shiny leather boots is looking for you. We climbed into the padded trunk and lay down. It was surprisingly roomy in there. I noticed there wasn’t a latch, so I wasn’t worried about getting locked in. Plus, the holes that were drilled into the lid spelling out Frank Berger’s name let a little bit of light and air in too. There was a second crossbow hanging inside of the trunk and some blankets and a tin box on one end. I couldn’t figure out exactly what the trunk was for, but I was starting to think that climbing into it hadn’t been such a bad idea. Maybe it was a better hiding place than under the bed. After all, the guy had already looked in the trunk. What was he going to do, check it again? As it turned out, Rhino Butt looking back into the trunk would have probably been preferable to what did happen.
 

“Get it out of here,” Rhino Butt said.

“Do you wish to put the bow inside?” a man’s scratchy voice asked.

“I think I’ll keep it out,” Rhino Butt said. “We may need it.”

The drilled holes provided just enough light for me to see the mildly concerned look on Zak's face. I was more scared than Zak, that was for sure. Probably because I was more sane. We listened to soft footsteps approaching and then felt a jolt as the rear of the trunk was roughly lifted, followed by the front. I hoped that they were just moving it to the side of the room or something, but no such luck. Instead, I heard the front door close with a soft click behind us as we were carried away.

To say that I freaked, wouldn’t quite get the picture across. I didn’t just freak. I really freaked right out. And I’m not saying this just to be dramatic. I’m saying it because it’s true. But, because I’m a calm, practical person, I did all my freaking in my head. I jumped around, and spun, and screamed at the top of my lungs, and all that from the comfort of my padded trunk. After all, what was I going to do? Beat up Zak? Kick and try and get out? I had to admit they were appealing options, but I thought we might still get out of the situation without being seen. After all, nobody knew we were in there. I wasn’t quite ready to give up, just yet. As it was though, the situation only got worse, the longer we waited. The changing patterns of light coming in through the drilled holes told me we were being carried farther and farther away. But it was like the farther away we were carried, the more I hung onto my hope that we would be able to get out of the trunk unseen. I guess that’s one of my faults. Sometimes, when I least expect it, I can be a real optimist.
 

I kept bashing into Zak while we were carried out of the hotel and then I think we were put into the back of a truck or something. You would think that would have been a good time to get out, but we could hear the men just outside, obviously sitting there talking. It went on like that. It never seemed to be the right time to make a move. First we were in the back of a truck. I could tell by the heat and smell of exhaust and the honking horns. Then we were some place a little quieter, and then, I kid you not, we were loaded onto an airplane. I didn’t know it was an airplane right away, but then I heard the propellors start up, and the plane shook, and soon we were taxiing down the runway. Now you might guess that at this point my freak-o-meter had just about blown off the scale and you’d be right. My optimism had run dry. I was pretty sure it was time to give ourselves up. So we were hiding in a trunk. Big deal. But, in no time, we were airborne and it suddenly seemed like a very bad idea to jump out of the trunk in the back of a plane. What if they decided to throw us out the door or something?

Of course it also occurred to me that might be the idea all along. Maybe they planned to hook a parachute onto the trunk and dump it out the door at ten thousand feet. Or worse, throw the trunk out with no parachute at all. All kinds of crazy things like that went through my mind, and the whole time Zak just lay there, quietly eating his sunflower seeds. I can still hear him chewing them, then spitting them out. True, he couldn’t really talk, because we heard a lot of voices outside the trunk, but was the constant chewing and spitting really necessary? It went on like that for about two hours: maybe half an hour of driving and at least an hour and a half of flying. I had to pee, I was angry, I was hungry, I was thirsty, and I couldn’t even believe any of it was happening. What was I going to tell my mom, Anu the rent-a-nanny, anyone? The whole situation was insane. Mostly though, I was mad. I was mad at Zak for getting us into the whole thing.

Just when I was about ready to leap out of the metal box and throw myself at the mercy of whoever had snatched us, I felt the plane began to descend. My ears popped and I knew we were landing. I glanced at Zak and I think he was thinking the same thing I was. This had gone on for far too long, but we had a chance. At least we were almost back on the ground. Once we landed, we were going to have to seize the moment and get out of there. Finally, the plane touched down with a thump, one wheel setting down way before the other, and we taxied to a stop. It wasn’t a regular airport, I knew that right away, because as soon as I heard the propellors spin down, everybody just got out. There was no waiting around for the jetway to be connected or anything.
 

“Get the trunk,” Rhino Butt said, over the creak of the propellors.

I assumed he was talking to whoever had been carrying us around, because once again we got lifted, first by the rear of the trunk and then by the front. That none of them had bothered to check why a supposedly empty trunk weighed as much as it did with us in it, I don’t know. I guess we weren’t really that heavy: not by adult standards. Besides, I suppose the guys carrying us didn’t know what was inside the trunk anyhow. We were carried down a staircase and put down on the ground. It was dark out there and only a very little bit of light came in through the holes in the lid.
 

“Wait with it,” I heard Rhino Butt say. “I’ll be right back.”

I heard the first big, juicy drops of rain hit the lid of the trunk, but I also heard footsteps. It sounded like whoever had been carrying us was stepping away. We lay there waiting for a while like that; me having to go to the bathroom and Zak still chewing on his sunflower seeds. I have to say, I was even madder than before. The driving raindrops were as loud as rocks falling from above. To make matters worse, Zak was still smiling. I saw his grin from the blue night light on his watch which he kept pressing. It was like the whole thing was a big game to him. He spit out a sunflower seed and I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Would you cut it out?” I hissed.

“Cut what out?”

“The
seeds
. Stop chewing the seeds. We need a plan.”

The rain was coming down harder now.

“The plan is that we get out.”

“You heard him. They’re watching us.”

“You want to stay? Stay,” Zak said. “I’m getting out.”

“Let’s go then.”

“Wait a second.”

Zak rummaged around on his side of the trunk. He was arranging something, but I couldn’t tell what. We had put the blankets underneath us for some cushioning, but there wasn’t much in the trunk besides the crossbow and the small metal box. I was quickly figuring out that Zak wasn’t the kind of guy to think about stuff too much before he did it. Or to offer any warning. No count down from three or any of that. He simply lay flat on his back and pushed up with both hands. I hated what he was doing because we had no idea what was out there, but I also knew that we had no choice. We had done nothing for long enough. I pushed my hands into the lid too, if only to prevent Zak from dropping it.
 

A little more light entered the trunk as we slid the lid slowly back. It was a weak yellow light, probably from a street lamp, because it was night now. A waft of fresh humid air immediately blew in. The next thing I felt was a giant raindrop breaking on my cheek. The fresh air felt great, but I wasn’t sure about anything else. I didn’t know where the men who were watching the trunk were. All I could see was a thick mist in the night sky.

“Let’s do it,” Zak said quietly under his breath.

Zak jumped up and I followed right behind him. The first thing I saw was the tail of the big orange airplane. Then, turning to my left, I saw the two men under the cover of an old building’s eave. The men weren’t tall, but they looked strong. Put it this way, I wouldn’t have wanted to fight them, even if I was grown up, which I wasn’t. I couldn’t make out much more from my quick glance though. The men paced silently, their eyes downcast.

I immediately pulled Zak back down into the trunk. The lid was still balanced off the end of it, meaning that so far we had avoided making too much noise.

“We crawl,” I whispered.

Zak nodded and we climbed back out of the trunk and began to belly crawl slowly across the tarmac using the trunk as cover. The rough pavement was warm and wet, little rainbows of oil visible in the street light. We got about five feet when I thought that we should have slid the lid shut again on the trunk, but it was too late now. I ignored the oily little rainbows and concentrated on getting away as silently as possible. Shuffling forward on my belly, I risked a glance back. So far, so good. The men were still pacing at the side of the building. There was high grass just a few feet from us now and as we got closer, I heard what sounded like the bustle of the street. There were horns honking and Hindi music playing. I saw a chain-link fence about a hundred feet away and what looked like a couple of cows on the other side of it. We were both in the tall grass, light from a street lamp somewhere above casting its pale glow.

Zak stared over at me with this inquisitive expression on his face. “What’s that on your hand?” he asked.

I looked down at my hand immediately expecting the worst, some kind of gross bug, or a big gaping cut or something, but I didn’t see anything at all.

“What?” I whispered.

“That,” Zak said, pointing at the right side of my hand.

I couldn’t help but sigh. Really? Was this the time he chose to notice it? The thing is, I have a birthmark. There are five brown spots in a rough oval on the side of my right hand. Kind of weird maybe, but nothing to interrupt our getaway for.
 

“It’s nothing, it’s just a birthmark,” I said.

“It’s cool.”

“Never mind,” I said, casting a glance behind us. “We need to get out of here.”
 

“Let’s run,” Zak said.

“Crawl.”

“Run.”

Zak and I compromised by getting up on two legs and running through the tall grass in a crouched position like we were getting out of a helicopter. That’s when I heard the first man scream behind me. I glanced back in spite of myself and saw that he was looking into the trunk. The man picked something up and stared. It was Zak's bag of sunflower seeds. I felt a little stab of anger that Zak had left it there. Wasn’t it enough that he had gotten us into this mess? Did he really need to advertise our presence with his litter? A moment later the second man came running toward the trunk. They weren’t stupid, that was for sure. I think it took about two seconds for them to spot us in the grass. They started to run after us. I pulled Zak up by the arm. If we were going to run, we’d have to run all out now. The fence was still a long way away and I didn’t know what we were going to do when we hit it. Climb over? I could already see the barbed wire at the top and the men were gaining on us. Whoever they were, they were fast.

That’s when I heard the roar. I can’t put it any other way. It sounded like it might have been a car engine, or a plane taking off, but I’m pretty sure it was an animal roar. Looking back on it now, it kind of makes sense, but then, at the time, I didn’t know what to think. It was like the field of tall grass had come alive and something huge was rushing toward us. I didn’t actually see what it was, all I saw was the tall grass moving around it and that it was coming straight for us. There was an incredible rush of wind, and the low persistent sound of animal panting, and whatever it was, was almost on top of us.
 

“Duck,” I screamed.

Both Zak and I hit the dirt, the invisible thing, whatever it was, leaping above our heads. I tasted the moist dirt in my mouth. I had actually dug my teeth into the ground. I was just glad I hadn’t bitten into a rock. Rock salad is not a favorite of mine. I glanced behind me again and could only see that the two men had stopped running toward us and were instead running away in fear.

“What was that?” Zak said.

“How should I know?”

“I’m not sure you should. I’m just asking in case you do.”

How could he be so calm at a moment like this? “Get up, Zak!” I screamed.

“You sure that’s a good idea?”

“Get up and run!”

The low animal panting still hung in the air. I yanked up on Zak’s T-shirt and we continued to sprint for the fence. When we finally hit the chain link, we got back down on our bellies to slide underneath. We weren’t the first ones to do it. The earth was dug out from under the fence as though it was a popular route. Zak and I squirmed underneath the chain link, the spectral panting still ringing in our ears. And then, when we got back on our feet on the other side of the fence, we were in different world.

On the other side of that airport fence was a place I couldn’t have imagined existed just the day before. I had read about India, but so far all I’d really seen of it was the auto-rickshaw ride from the airport. For the rest of the time, I’d been either in the hotel or in that stupid trunk. Now I was on the street in the real India and I couldn’t help but notice how totally different it was from America. For one thing we were on a city street, but it was crazy crowded — crowded like I had never seen before. There were people absolutely everywhere, and not just people, there were cows too. India has this thing about cows being sacred and there were a lot of them everywhere.