Chapter 2:

Paranormal?

Hours went by as we explored the abandoned zoo. And each time, nothing. We get nothing but our own voices, static and other nightly sounds. There were some moments where we thought we heard or saw something, but as always, we had no proof of it. This is one of our hardest lockdowns as of yet.

Dan and I got tired getting nothing so many times that we decided to just relax a bit at base camp. Lori was practically asleep when we got there; she was slumped over the laptop with her headphones still on.

I put on flipper on her shoulder and she instantly turned to look at me. "I'll take it from here, Lori. Go and have a few winks. You need it," I told her. She simply nodded, took the headphones off and entered the tent we had set up for anyone who wanted to take a short nap.

So, I sat in the chair and put the headphones on, ready to listen to any audio captured by the other static night vision cameras we set up at the different habitats. Dan decided to watch all the video we got so far on his camera to see if we missed anything.

"You know Dan," I started. "The rumors of this place doesn't seem to be all that true, don't you think?"

"You mean about the hauntings?" I nodded. "Well, I don't know what to say for that, but if they are true, we should have seen something by now."

As if on queue, a scream was heard from the distance. We jumped out of their feathers and turned around to look for its source. "What in Antarctica's name was that!" I exclaimed. I gestured to Dan to get the camera ready and follow me.

"Uh, we'll be back in a bit Lori," Dan said to the tent before pursuing me after I ran off to the lemur habitat. "Wait for me Zack!" Dan called out.

We arrived just outside the habitat, only to find no one there. "Maybe it came from inside," I suggested. We then entered through the collapse in the brick wall that faced towards the chimpanzee habitat. We searched through the place, and as thought, there was no sign of anybody being around.

"Hey, what's this?" Dan asked himself when he searched in the habitat's...fruit bar? He bent down and picked up a piece of paper. On it was a picture of a half-shaded, flat-headed penguin and a coloured-in otter. Both looked sad, the otter had tears in her eyes and there was a small picture of a broken heart next to the two.

"What is it Dan? What did you find?" I asked him. He passed me the piece of paper and I studied it a bit. Both were coloured or shaded in lightly, suggesting they are not completely solid. Pictures of ghosts perhaps? "Where'd this come from?" I asked him.

"Right here." He pointed to an area of the floor he stood on. I looked over and noticed something shiny in the darkness of the table. I took Dan's camera and shone the light upon it, revealing a small pool of...fresh blood.

"Gah! What the fish!" I yelped, nearly dropping the camera. "Why the fish is there fresh blood here?!" I asked Dan. I then noticed there wasn't just the pool of blood, but a trail of bloody, bird-like footprints heading in the direction of...

Another scream echoed the zoo, this time a rather familiar, female one. "LORI!"

I shoved the camera into Dan's flippers before dashing back to base camp. I ran as fast as my tiny penguin legs could, crude thoughts running through my mind as I turned the corner to the penguin habitat. I was shocked to see what I find.

The spotlights were smashed, the static night vision camera had toppled over, the tent was all torn up and laptop screen was cracked. What was worse was that Lori was nowhere in sight.

"Lori!" I called out, trying to see if she was still nearby. I couldn't even explain it. Poltergeist? Mugs? Rabid dogs? I searched through my mind for any possible explanation for the carnage that just occurred. I didn't want to think that she was gone.

She was my fiancé-to-be.

I went straight for the laptop. Cracked or not, I went ahead and replayed the live footage from the night vision camera to try and figure out what might have done this and where Lori may be. I squinted my eyes as I tried to read the time signature to rewind it to just a few minutes before we came.

When I played it, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but when I got to about four minutes before we came, I could barely see through the cracks of the screen what seemed to be a misty figure moving past the camera. Then, the sound of a zipper being opened sounded at the same time I saw the zipper on the tent open in the video. I was taken aback.

"What the heck?" I asked myself, nervously watching the cracked screen as another misty figure passed by in front of the camera. Then, I saw Lori...float out the tent! A yelp was then heard as she fell to the ground halfway out the tent.

"AAAHHH!" she screamed, telling me that I reached the part where I noticed her do so. She then stumbled to get up and made a run for the Kangaroo habitat. I also noticed that the two figures were...punching each other?

Moving clouds of mist zoomed past the camera as sounds of punching echoed through. In a blink of an eye, the place got thrashed as the two continued their brawl. The camera then toppled over, which was when the small sound of pitter patter caused the two forms to flee in different directions; one of them straight to where Lori was headed.

I watched as I came into view, but even though my foot was blocking the camera, the small glint of something shiny under the table caught my eye. Nervously, I slowly looked under the table, ignoring my inner voice telling me not to.

"Gah!" I fell back on the chair, shocked at the discovery of the shiny object.

It was a fruit knife, blood outlining the sharp edge and painting the wooden handle with its crimson red. I looked like it came from that habitat I was at before; the lemur habitat.

"Wh...wh..." I mumbled as I tried piecing the puzzle together, only to find that I was missing a few pieces. Then, the approaching sound of pitter patter startled me as I looked to my right.

"Zack...what...hap..." I gave a sigh of relief when I noticed it was Dan, camera still in flipper. "Whoa...Did a tornado pass through our camp?" he joked seriously.

"I don't know, but Lori's missing, and I think she went to the Kangaroo habitat," I answered, still in shock from finding that bloodied knife.

"What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I did!" I instantly replied. "And I think it wanted to hurt Lori!" Dan gave me a look; a look of fear.

"R-really? How do you know it wanted to hurt her?" he asked. I looked back towards where the knife was, telling him to see for himself. He stepped slowly towards the table and looked under.

"Holy salmon..." he said, the camera slipping out his flippers and onto the floor. He just stared at the knife like how I did.

I turned to look at him, seeing the fear in his eyes. "Dan," I said, catching his attention. "We need to find Lori."

A/N: I decided to make a slight pairing here just to make things more interesting. So, hope you all enjoyed and yes, I didn't put in an author's note at the first part, so thanks to the reviewers! R&R!