Chapter 13:
The walk over to the metal gates of the zoo was extremely easy. The stone wall holding up the metal gate offered them some cover but since there was no one around it necessity was called into question. The gates were wide open, welcoming them, but the eerie quiet was warning them to stay away.
Sakura looked around the corner first. There was no one in sight and the door to the main building was closed. She gestured for the others to follow and they hurried over to the main entrance. She turned the knob and Naruto dashed inside. Sakura and Shikamaru looked around before entering after him.
The building was dark and quiet. The only source of light was emanating from the animal habitats behind glass. The lights above them weren't lit, leaving their path condemned to shadow.
They walked slowly down the hall, peering at the habitats lining the walls. Several were empty.
"Before only a couple of these enclosures were empty," whispered Sakura. "Now more than half of them are."
"Yeah," breathed Naruto. "What happened to all the animals?"
They followed the hall to the door leading to the outdoor exhibits. Sakura looked out the rectangular window before opening the door. They walked down the wooden path and across a small footbridge. They entered another building, walked through, and went back outside.
"I haven't seen any workers," said Naruto. "Or that zookeeper guy. Shouldn't he be here?"
"Unless he got infected, too. Same for the workers."
Naruto looked around at all the animal enclosures, hoping someone would be able to take care of all these trapped creatures. If no one was around to take care of them, the animals would surely starve. Perhaps Sayo would be able to do it. She helped the zookeeper take care of the animals before. Even if something had happened to the zookeeper and his fellow workers, she should be able to take over for them and fulfill all their regular duties. She loved the animals.
"Do you know where his office is?" asked Shikamaru.
"I'm not sure," said Naruto. "A lot of these places were off limits. It could be behind any of those doors marked 'private' or in that small building there." He pointed to what looked like a shed in the distance.
Shikamaru shrugged. "Have to start somewhere. Let's go to that one and look around."
They all went to the small building Naruto pointed out. It was a concession stand with a locked icebox and cold grill. The interior was clean, leading them to believe no one had used this station for the past couple of days. Hard to get customers when the majority of the population were suffering from a mysterious infection.
Shikamaru told them to branch out from there and look behind any door that was off limits to the public. They would cover more ground if they split up.
They all went in a different direction, unsure of what they were looking for. Most of the doors were locked, but a few were open. Either these doors didn't lock or someone left in a hurry before they had a chance to lock it. If that was the case, the group automatically assumed it was on account of the infection. Perhaps the workers were starting to show signs and attacked their colleagues. Or perhaps the ones who were supposed to lock up were the ones infected and never got around to it before going berserk.
Most of the open offices were littered with papers and keys. They had pictures of different animals on the walls and labeled with their given names. Some rooms had charts mounted on the wall with feeding and cleaning schedules. Some charts had things marked off where others didn't. The zoo must have had a system the young ninja knew little about. Very few of this made any sense to them.
Sakura noticed a sign-in sheet pinned to the wall of the office she was in. Most of the names on the sheet were the zookeeper's along with several coworkers, but there was one name that stuck out to her. Two days ago, Sayo had signed her name on the sheet indicating that she had gone into one of the enclosures for some reason.
Sakura moved the papers pinned above the sign-in sheet aside so she could read what this chart was for.
It wasn't for going into an enclosure as she suspected. It was for entering one of the labs.
Sakura looked from the sign-in sheet to the four walls of the office. There were two doors, one of which brought her inside. Where did the second door lead to? Sakura opened the door expecting to find a laboratory, but it was just a file room filled with filing cabinets.
Now this sheet seemed out of place. Why would they have a sign-in sheet for a laboratory visit if the laboratory wasn't located in this building? It didn't make sense. Either someone misplaced the sheet or something else was going on.
In the next building, Shikamaru was snooping around a small office with very little in it. There was only one desk and no chairs. Hooks lined the wall in front of him but held nothing. On the walls were maps and pictures of the animals in captivity. There was a door right in front of the one he had just entered from. Curious, Shikamaru opened it. This door held to a narrow hallway with more hooks on the walls but these hooks held different sized lab coats.
He saw another door straight ahead from where he stood. Next to the door was a sign-in sheet with numerous names on it. Two days ago, Sayo had written her name on the sign-in sheet.
Shikamaru tried to open the door but this one was locked. It was time to use some of his ninja skills to open it. He looked at the handle of the door, hoping to pick the lock, but there was no keyhole to pick. Only a narrow slit just above the handle no larger than the side of a card. A keycard? He hadn't run into too many of those before. This zoo was using technology the Leaf Village scarcely required. Thankfully he had seen these before on other missions so he was able to recognize it on sight.
Unfortunately, he also knew that this would be harder to get around. He couldn't use tools to pick it and he didn't want to break the door down. Not just because they were supposed to be sneaking around or even because the door was probably reinforced and would be difficult to break down, but he was worried about triggering an alarm.
Although, a keycard was only required to grant access. It wasn't needed if someone on the inside wanted to leave.
Shikamaru knelt on the floor and summoned his shadow. It quivered and stretched under the door. On the other side, it rose off the ground and reached up to grab the handle. Shikamaru watched the handle rattle and turn. With his shadow acting as a hand, it managed to open the door for him. Shikamaru quickly grabbed the handle on his side before the door could swing shut and let his shadow slither back into place.
He slipped inside the dark room, closing the door gently behind himself. He flipped the light switch on the wall and the lights above him flickered on.
It was a lab. It wasn't very extensive but it had all the usual tools. Plenty of tables, filing cabinets and so much more.
He picked up different files and opened them. He looked at different charts, reading their secrets. He opened a filing cabinet and studies the labels inside. These were of the different animals. Each drawer was labeled for the particular habitat they lived in and the kind of animal the files inside held. He had opened the drawer labeled 'mammals'. There were other drawers that said 'tropical' above the word 'mammals' and other drawers on adjacent cabinets labeled 'reptiles'. He wasn't sure which 'mammal' drawer he had opened, but he wasn't interested at the moment, certain he would find out once he read the files.
"Hyena?" Shikamaru said, pulling out one of the folders. The folder was about a captive hyena named 'Spotty'. It was male and brought in from the wild roughly five years ago according to its chart. It had a brief history underneath the name and how the workers went about introducing it to its new life in captivity. It was quarantined for several weeks then introduced to the female in captivity in small doses before finally allowing him to be in the same enclosure. The male showed aggressive behavior in the beginning but soon got used to the workers and enjoys being with others of its kind. However, it still shows aggressive behavior towards humans if one comes into its cage. It is now accustomed to visitors so there is no need to remove it from its enclosure.
From what Shikamaru read, it seemed that the Hyena was used to having people looking at it from a distance, such as any visiting child or any zoogoer. However, it was only aggressive if a human got too close to it. In its cage. It was territorial. Shikamaru assumed any animal ripped from the wild would be, especially towards humans.
According to the animal's history, humans rescued it from the wild because it wasn't thriving. It didn't have a pack and was wandering on its own when poachers attacked it. It was rescued just in time and brought to the zoo where it would be safe. The hyena even put on some weight in captivity, but healthy weight. It was underfed in the wild because it couldn't hunt very well on its own. It seemed to Shikamaru that the humans who brought it to the zoo saved its life and had done a good thing, but the animal didn't seem to know that. It must have thought after being attacked by humans that all humans were dangerous. It was also away from home and probably scared. At least, in the beginning. Now it was comfortable living here as long as humans didn't get too close.
On the next page was the animal's health charts. The hyena was in pretty good health and had regular checkups. It was recently seen last month for a blood test and everything was normal. It wasn't due for another test for six months.
Shikamaru put the folder back and looked at several others. They all followed the same set-up. The animal's name, its history, its health and all its checkups. The monkeys, the bears, the crocodiles, the lynx, the water buffalo, the wolves. Everything fell into place and nothing was out of the ordinary.
Shikamaru put everything back and closed the filing cabinet. He wandered around to see if there was anything left over from past exams. The test tubes were clean and stacked neatly on shelves. Eyedroppers were recently washed and put away. Shikamaru couldn't find any containers with blood in them. Once this lab tested something, they cleaned up and disposed of anything that wasn't needed. This lab was doing what it was supposed to be doing. They didn't keep anything after it was tested and recorded the results.
Anything cooked up in this lab was no longer here, if it was at all. The only other place to search was the animal hospital. The zoo vet probably had a lot of occupied test tubes he could look at. It was the only other place that made sense to search.
Shikamaru left the lab exactly as he found it and made sure the door was sealed behind him after he left.
When he arrived at the animal hospital, he was pleased to see Sakura and Naruto there as well.
"Find anything?" he asked.
"I don't get what we're looking for," complained Naruto.
"I question the system of this place," said Sakura. "I just found a chart in a different building that didn't seem to belong there."
"How do you mean?"
"It was a sign-in sheet for a lab but the lab wasn't in that building."
"It's possible that they have several sign-in sheets to make sure no one over medicates the animals or over feeds them," said Shikamaru. "The charts must be there for everyone to look at so they know who's doing what."
"I suppose so."
Curious, Shikamaru asked, "What was the chart about?"
"It was a sign-in sheet for one of the labs, like I said."
"Did the sheet have a space for the reason someone would be going there?"
Sakura turned around. "As a matter of fact, it did. The reason I remember is because Sayo had signed her name to it so it stuck out to me."
"Sayo's name?" said Shikamaru. "I just came from the lab and her name was on that sign-in sheet, too. What was her reason for going to the lab?"
"Something about a sample for an animal named Spotty."
"Spotty? The hyena?"
"You know what this is about?"
Shikamaru had to ask one more question. "How long ago did she do this? When did she sign her name?"
"Two days ago, according to the sheet."
This was troubling. "Sayo had no business to be doing anything with that hyena two days ago. I saw its chart and it had everything taken care of a month ago and didn't need anything else for six months."
"Then why would she be there? Why would she be doing anything with that animal?"
"Nothing good, that's for sure. It's certainly suspicious."
"Even if it is, it doesn't mean she did anything wrong," Naruto said from the other side of the room. "I'm telling you, she had nothing to do with this."
"The clues are all pointing to her, Naruto. She has to be involved somehow."
"You're wrong. I know Sayo wouldn't do this."
"You've known her for, what, a day? And you think you know what she's all about?" Sakura put her hands on her hips. "Naruto, she…"
"She didn't do it. I know it. Someone in her position… she wouldn't. Even if she could, she wouldn't."
Naruto would not waver. In his heart he knew someone like Sayo would not do this. He believed in her even if no one else did.
"Besides," Naruto added, "why would she sign her name on anything? She doesn't work here, so she doesn't have to. Everything she does is on a whim. Putting her name on those sign-in sheets doesn't make sense to me."
Sakura realized Naruto had a point. "You're right. Someone as free-spirited as her… Why would she do that? Her family also doesn't know she comes here all the time, do they? I thought she said something about them not knowing what she does in her free time. The brothers used to go then stopped but Sayo continued to come here."
"If that's the case, signing her name on anything won't matter much," said Shikamaru. "If her family doesn't come here, it's unlikely for anyone of them to see the sign-in sheets. Even if they did, the sheets aren't available to the public. They wouldn't see them anyway."
"Good point. So there's no risk if she does or doesn't."
"So then why would she?"
Shikamaru shrugged again. "You said she does things on a whim. Maybe she just felt like it one day. Who knows?"
Sakura sighed. "Someone as unpredictable as her is going to be hard to read. Just when you think you have her figured out, she does something else."
"If that's the case, then the things that point her towards being the culprit could all be wrong. It could mean nothing at all," said Naruto. "What's suspicious behavior to you is normal behavior to her and the other people who live here and are used to it. Right?"
Sakura nodded. "I see your point. Even if she looks good for this, we could have it wrong. If she's outlandish to begin with, how would we know if it's strange behavior for her or not? We're too focused on her. Even if the pieces fit, we could be missing the bigger picture. We have to widen our search."
Shikamaru nodded his head. "We'll ignore Sayo for now. Even if what we find points to her, we'll see if it fits with anybody else. I don't want to miss who the real culprit is any more than you do."
Naruto was pleased to hear this. Finally, they were looking elsewhere.
"Did you guys find anything here?" Shikamaru asked.
"There are some missing needles and glass tubes." Sakura pointed to a shelf with several missing items. The medical cabinet behind her held several glass tubes used for storing blood, but not every slot was filled. Some were missing.
"I just came from the lab and I saw several test tubes and things in there that had been washed," said Shikamaru. "I think whatever's missing here could have been sent to the lab already and haven't come back yet."
"True." As someone in the medical field, Sakura knew it wasn't uncommon to be missing a few things here and there. Not every last thing could be accounted for, especially on a busy day. If something had been sent to the lab for testing, it could account for the missing supplies. They simply hadn't come back yet.
"Do we move on?" Naruto asked.
"We have to check on the others and make sure nothing has taken place with the warehouse while we were searching," said Shikamaru, convinced they weren't going to find anything here.
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