Chapter 10
Sam and Dean pulled up in their Impala to the darkened gates of the Singleshot Zoo and scoped it out. Nothing looked immediately threatened, but there was a lot of zoo behind those gates. Donning their guns and flashlights, the brothers made their way into the zoo's innards.
The zoo was empty, which was pretty much expected, even though there was one small car left alone in the parking lot. Probably just a late-night employee trying to take care of all the day's chores. They came to the main plaza of the zoo where it split in several different directions, depending on what features one wanted to see. "You head to the reptiles, I'll go to the large cats." Dean instructed. The two paths travelled parallel to each other, but a bit apart. That way they could cover more ground, while still being within earshot and reasonable running distance from one another in the happenstance that something went down.
"Okay." Sam affirmed with a nod of his head and they broke off in separate directions. The brothers took their paths, both initially finding nothing but sleeping animals and quiet evening noises.
Dean walked by the panthers and the lions, taking a few moments to locate the gates to the enclosures without actually having to make his way into them. Both enclosures were still locked shut. He was starting to wonder if this was too much of a long shot. What criminal hits the same place two nights in a row?
Sam walked up to the glass door that led into the indoor reptilian exhibit, since the outdoor ones all seemed undisturbed and secure. He rapidly picked the lock and made his way in. Goosebumps quickly covered his arms. It seemed everyone kept the air-conditioning on high, even at night. It made since during the day since the sun heated the Montana air up to what seemed like boiling temperatures, but at night the open land became as cold as any other northern state bordering Canada. Sam was glad he had worn layers and his coat when he was outside. Inside, he wished he had brought a parka.
The exhibit had every kind of snake and salamander one could imagine, most now active since they were nocturnal. However, despite Dean's apparent certainty that something was going to be here tonight, every terrarium seemed untouched. Finishing the dark and freezing building up, Sam made his way back out into the cold-but-ever-so-slightly-warmer outdoors. The way he felt, he was just happy that there wasn't any snow.
Dean approached the tiger enclosure with his flashlight scanning every wall in search for a gate. As his flaslight zipped across the walkway that went in front of the exhibit, he noticed a pile of women's clothing lying on the ground. As much as he wished it was just a hot lady deciding to streak in the cold Montana night air, he knew what had happened. Or, he at least half-knew. That weird thing from the video, the blur, had gotten someone.
He carefully approached the pile of clothes and inspected it. There was a handbag on the ground. Knowing that it was taboo to do so for a man, he rummaged through the lady's belongings until he finally located amongst all the other essentials (lip stick, tampons, a mirror, car keys, pepper spray, hair ties, money, credit cards, gum, nail polish, tissues, and other things Dean wasn't even sure what to call) a driver's license. It read 'Melanie Gruber' and displayed a portrait of the woman Dean, known to her as Agent Brink, had interviewed just earlier. Cursing under his breath, he stood back up and carefully approached the tigers' enclosure.
Despite the cold, though not freezing weather, Dean was sweating. One could count the number of times Dean approached a pen possibly occupied by tigers on one hand by simply making a fist. Not much scared Dean a whole lot, but the idea of a tiger pouncing him in the dark wasn't a pleasant one.
When he got into the enclosure, which was torn open by the same claw marks as the night before, he found nothing. No tigers. No victims. No culprit. Just himself standing in the middle of a tiger den. As he turned to exit, he heard the distinct rumble of a tiger's guttural growl coming from the direction of the broken-open gate. Dean stopped and watched intensely as an orange and black cat made its way threateningly into the enclosure, its red eyes locked on his greens.
"Easy there, buddy." Dean said as he bent over and placed his hands out in a non-threatening manner. He slowly tried to position himself so that he could get around the tiger if he needed to run, which he figured, would definitely be a need given the luck of the Winchesters.
As he awaited the pounce of the tiger, it never came. The tiger simply stared at him, not pouncing, but not letting him through the gate either. "I'm just gonna' squeeze by you." Dean whispered as he cautiously approached the tiger, each step he took was as if he was barefoot on a floor full of tacks facing skyward. The last thing he wanted to do was make any unnecessary noise that might spur the tiger into action.
As Dean got what the tiger considered too close, it let out a loud roar, revealing large, sharp incisors and a maw full of other deadly whites. Dean could practically see his crushed neck in between those jaws. He froze in place. "Okay, okay. So you don't like me moving. I get it, I get it." He tried to calm the tiger. "I'm not moving." Dean froze. As his attention was fixed on the tiger, he didn't notice the threat coming from behind until it was already too late.