Chapter 11: The Face of Danger

The lionesses were sitting in the tall grasses and huddling around a kill, and Simba sat on his rock and watched with a look of grim amusement on his face. It was just a few hours ago when Taku made a grand speech about the evils of carnivores, and the homily was enough to make even him feel guilty to be alive. As they ate, he wondered if they were repulsed by what they were doing, if their meal would come back up on them out of horror and disgust. It didn't, and if they were horrified and disgusted, they didn't show it. He grew bored and let his head land on his paws, getting a last nap in before the funeral and the announcement of his abdication.

When he awoke, the lionesses had drifted back into the trees. Nala lay in the tall grasses, staring dully at the blades she twiddled between her toes. She was lost in thought. Her head occasionally twitched toward Simba, as if she wanted to say something, but she thought secondly of it and turned away.

But Simba knew something was on her mind, and he hoped he could gentle it out of her. With a pained whimper and a feeble attempt at a smile, he lifted himself off his rock and trundled down to the grass. As he drew closer, he kept eyeing her not-yet-swollen belly, thinking it would be soon before she came to term and testify to what he did.

And with a sigh, he went back on his haunches and said: "I'm sorry..."

For a moment, they looked at each other. Then a hint of a smile went up her muzzle, and she turned her head away. "I kinda egged you on..."

Simba remembered the come-hither look she gave him that night, and he gave a rueful chuckle. "Look, I know you said you weren't going to marry me...but I really wish you'd give me a chance. I just wanted to protect my people...and I didn't know what else to do."

All was silent again. Something occurred to her, and she turned to face him. "What do you mean, 'did'?"

"I can't do this anymore," he said in a quaky voice. "I'm not cut out to be king."

She paused to read his face. She didn't like what she saw, but she didn't dislike it, either. "Where are we going to go?"

"Back to Hakuna Matata. It'll be a nice place to raise a family."

"Simba, we can't. If we share it with Timon and his family, it's going to be awkward. And what about Sakora? You killed his favorite son; he's not just going to let that go."

"OK, we'll find somewhere else to live."

"Simba, there's nowhere to go," she said. "We can't go back to the Pride Lands, and we can't stay out here. If we move into Bara's country, the leopard tribes are going to take it back."

"So what are you saying? We're going to split up?"

"That's not what I want."

"Then what do you want?"

But he was met with no reply. She gave him another agonized stare, then turned away.

There was a pause, and Timon cleared his throat. He was standing in Pumbaa's mane, holding onto the warthog's ears like a pair of reins. "Kid, if ya really wanna get outta here, we'll go with ya. But I think I know what she wants."

Nala glared at him. "Timon, you don't know what I want."

"I know more than ya think, lady. You've got a family on the way. You can't go back home, and people out here wanna kill you. You know you're not gonna last very long unless Simba acts like a king. But you're afraid to admit it, because you'd be turning your back on everything you've ever learned. Plus, you and Sarabi sat by and let the Pride Lands go to hell, and you don't like it that Simba's been the hero. You keep thinking' your way is the right way, and you're waitin' for it all to work out. But deep inside, ya really want Simba to be your hero. You want him to take down the monsters out here, just so ya can live in peace. Isn't that it?"

Nala didn't even try to look him in the eye.

"There, ya see?" Timon showed a grin. "A little meerkat logic and—" There was an angry snort from the warthog beneath him. "Oh, yeah, heh...actually, I got all that from Pumbaa."

"Look, guys, it doesn't matter," Simba said. "I'm stepping down. We all know I'm in over my head. The best thing I can do is keep you all safe. Now let's bury my mother and get out of here—"

Something snapped in the shrubs.

Everyone turned to the treeline at once, growing still and silent. Simba narrowed his eyes and stared at the silhouettes. He rose onto all fours and slunk into the trees, paws falling silently on the cooling grass. He wove around a trunk and saw the tip of an ear sticking out over the shrub—a big triangular ear, with two notches in its side.

"I know you're there," Simba said. "Come out."

A soulful and sassy voice said, "Take it easy, honey. We're not here to make trouble."

"HYENAS!" Max said. "HYENAS!"

And on cue, the hyenas came out of the shadows. Shenzi was trying to hold up her smile, and Banzai didn't even try to make one. Ed's tongue lolled out of his mouth as he giggled and babbled.

"Well, well, well, good to see you," Shenzi said. "Hey, Simba! Congrats on the promotion. We'd bow before ya and all, but...y'know…back problems."

"It doesn't matter," Simba said softly. "I'm stepping down."

"Wait a minute. You're just quittin'?" Shenzi said. "I thought you just couldn't wait to be king. Or was that a bunch of song and dance?"

"Obviously."

"Well, that's too bad. See, we know what's goin' down out here, and we wanna help. But since you're not a king anymore…"

"Yeah. Why would you want to help me?"

"Well, for one thing, you let us go. You coulda killed us like ya did with your uncle."

Simba gave a start. "You know about that?"

"Oh, yeah. Zazu told us everything—about how you broke the law and handed your uncle over to us. (It did seem kinda convenient that he landed right in our lap, but hey! Ya don't turn down free food...)"

Everyone's faces warped in disgust and disdain, but Simba gave a start. "Wait a minute...you know where Zazu is?"

"Yep. And we're gonna tell ya where he is, what's goin' down out here, everything ya wanna know—if you agree to our terms."

"Kid!" Timon hissed. "This is not the time to be steppin' down. You've gotta throw your weight around!"

"We heard that," Shenzi said. "Y'know, for the brains of this operation, you're not exactly subtle."

"It doesn't matter," Simba said. "I told you, I'm done. I'm in over my head. My mom died trying to save me. My own people—"

"Oh, we know all about that. You had a run-in with Taku, and he said he was gonna get rid of all the carnivores. Then you had a run-in with Bara, and he turned ya into a piece of meat."

Simba flinched in surprise. "How did you know?"

"First of all, we're well acquainted with Bara's handiwork. Second of all, Taku's not the only one on a carnivore cleansing. He's tryin' to start the Great Carnivore War—the war where everyone gets in, and no one gets out alive. All the carnivores out here are bein' forced into it by a guy named Dark Horizon."

Simba stared open-mouthed at her, then twisted his face into a cynical smirk. "You're making this up."

"Oh, ho, no—we're not. We'll tell you who he is. But like I said: We're gonna want somethin' in return."

"Like what?"

"Dark Horizon's an independent contractor. He gives info to whoever will pay him the most. He said he was gonna give us your old home, and then he tried to bump us off. Well, we're not gonna let 'im get away with it. We're gettin' your old home, and you're gonna get a straight shot at Dark Horizon. Give us your old home, and we'll tell you what you wanna know."

Timon wagged his head and his paws. "Whoa, whoa, whoa…no. First of all, I'm not givin' it to you as a matter of principle. Second of all, my colony's movin' there."

"Tell 'em to relocate, honey. You give us the jungle, and we'll tell ya who Dark Horizon is. Otherwise, the war's gonna go on forever."

Timon turned to Simba. "Kid, you can't let her take it. It's extortion!"

"No, it's business," Shenzi said. "So how about it, Simba? Do we have a deal?"

"Kid, don't do it!" Max said. "They're squeezin' you dry!"

"He's right, honey," Madge said. "You can't trust them."

Simba bowed his head and blinked his tears away. "I don't have a choice. I have to give it to them."

With a heavy breath, Nala stared desperately at Simba. "No, you don't…"

"What do you mean?"

She turned to the hyenas and gave them a bitter glare, then bolted at them and slammed Shenzi against a tree.

"Nala!" Simba said. "What are you doing?"

"What I should've done a long time ago," she said. "You were right. About everything. These people don't care about the Circle of Life. If they're not going to care, we have to make them."

"That's not what my father would've wanted—"

"I DON'T CARE!" she said. "You're alive, Simba. He's not. And if he stood up to his brother, he would still be alive. And what about us? We have a family on the way. I'm about to have children. If I don't stand up for them, no one will!"

"Nala—"

She ignored him and spun to Shenzi. The hyena kept gasping and writhing beneath her paw. "You know what happened to Simba," Nala said. "You know what Bara did to his enemies. Suppose I roar and Sakora hears it. When he gets ahold of you, you're going to wish you were dead."

"You're bluffing," Shenzi hissed. "You get him out here, he's gonna kill you, too."

"We're already dead. If we're going down, we're taking you down with us. But if you help me stop this war, you'll get to keep breathing. Who's Dark Horizon?"

Shenzi kept gulping and wincing, her mouth flickering between a smile and a frown.

"WHO IS HE?!"

The hyena wriggled and grunted.

"You're not going to talk?" Nala said. "Fine!"

And she drew in a deep breath and started to roar—

"NO, NO! WAIT! WAIT! WAIT!"

Shenzi gasped and whipped her head away, gulping for breath, and through a raspy wheeze she screamed two words:

"BLOND MEERKAT!"

And all the world fell silent and still.

Simba went back on his hind paws as he and Nala shared looks of astonishment. Madge gasped and held her paws to her mouth, and Max spun around and went wide-eyed, gritting his teeth in anguish. "Oh, no," he muttered. "Oh, no…"

"What'd he look like?" Madge said weakly.

Shenzi gulped another breath. "Tall...missing a toe...looks like he's been hittin' the gym lately..."

Madge gasped again and held her paws over her mouth, and Max let all the wind out of his lungs and slumped against the rock as he muttered one name:

"Johnny..."

Face wide with alarm, Nala turned to the meerkats. "You know him?"

"We did," Max said in a wounded tone. "Johnny was part of our colony before Timon was born. He was one of our sentries before Iron Joe took over. When he applied for the job, we all thought he just wanted to get out in the sun, so we gave it to 'im. But whenever he said 'Hyenas!' we all hid, and he'd take all the food we were eating. One day, we caught on, and I arrested him and put him in solitary. But then Timon's dad died, and all the attention was on me. Johnny knew I caused the cave-in; he said if I didn't let 'im go, he'd tell everyone what I did. I let him go to cover myself. But I couldn't live with myself, knowin' what I did. So I told everyone what happened, and then I went after Johnny. By then, he was gone. I wasn't even lookin' for two minutes, and he'd already disappeared."

"And he's been Dark Horizon ever since," Nala said. "But what does he want?"

Without warning, Simba let out a gasp. "Oh, no…"

"What?" Timon said. "Kid, you know somethin'?"

"He wants it, Timon! He wants our old home!"

"How do you know?"

"Remember what Amani said before she died? Bara's contact saw me at Hakuna Matata. Johnny was there!"

"Wait a minute, Kid, did you actually see the guy?"

Simba's face fell. "Well…not exactly..."


SIX MONTHS AGO...

"Ah, this is the life," Pumbaa said as he and Simba loafed in the hot tub. "Hakuna Matata."

"Yep," Simba chuckled. "Hakuna Matata plus infinity."

"Hakuna Matata times infinity."

"No, no, no—Hakuna Matata to the power of infinity."

Pumbaa grinned at him. "You win." And the two let out a sigh and laid their heads back, feeling the bubbles prickle and pop against their skin.

"So like I was sayin'," the warthog said, "they take the dung, and…"

He rambled on, and Simba glanced away. In the dirt were pairs of tracks.

"Hey, Pumbaa?" Simba's voice trailed off. "Do you know where Timon is?"

The warthog opened his eyes and glanced around. "No, why?"

Simba tilted his head. "There's some footprints in the dirt over there. They look like a meerkat's. And...I think there's a toe missing."

Pumbaa looked unfazed. "Timon's been walkin' funny ever since he got those shin splints. It's probably him."

Simba wasn't convinced. He got another look at the tracks, and he felt even more uneasy. Someone else is here…I'm sure of it.

But without warning, he shrugged and turned back to Pumbaa. "Well, if we've got company, no big deal. We've got plenty of room. Hakuna Matata, right?"

"That's our boy!" the warthog said. "So you see, that's why they call it a dung beetle."

"Ew, you don't say," Simba said. "And yet, still so tasty…"


Simba felt queasy as he stared out at the gathering. "I could've stopped him," he said. "I could've done something!"

"Kid, it wasn't your fault," Max said. "Johnny's smart. There's no way he was gonna show his face unless he made a stupid mistake. And even if ya caught him (and I don't think ya would've), he wouldn't have confessed. The guy was a psycho back then, and obviously he's an even bigger psycho now."

"Yeah, and at least we know what he's doin'," Timon said. "He saw the place and wanted it, just like everyone else out here. He's trying to keep them all at war so he can take it over."

"But how are we going to find him?" Nala said. "He's a meerkat. There's a million places for him to hide."

"We might be able to narrow it down," Shenzi said. "There's someone in the Pridelanders who works for him. An eagle named Ngozi."

Rafiki nodded gravely. "I know Ngozi. So does Zazu."

"Zazu's not going to help us until he comes back." Simba spun to Shenzi and said, "Where is he?"

"He's workin' with Bara's pride on some kind of mission," she said. "They didn't tell us what it was. (Probably figured we'd try and botch it.)"

"Simba, what are we going to do?" Nala said. "We're not going up against Sakora or Taku anymore. We're going up against a meerkat. It could be years before we catch up to him."

" 'We'?"

"We've got a family on the way, and people out here are dying. We've got to put an end to this now."

"Well, it's about time," Max said as he clapped his paws. "What about you, Simba? Does this mean you're still the king?"

Simba let out a sigh, and a smile started to lift his whiskers. "I think I have to be," he said, and a flicker of conviction in his voice grew into a flame. "And I still want to be."

With his head rising high, he leapt onto his rock and swung to the rest of the group. All eyes and smiles were aimed at him.

"We've got a new mission," Simba said. "We're bringing Johnny to justice. That means whoever he's been in contact with could be an ally. If anyone comes up to us—Sakora, Taku, anyone who's been strung along by Dark Horizon—we have to call a truce. We don't attack, we don't threaten, and if we're attacked, we fight to wound."

"What about Sakora?" Nala said. "You brought his son to justice. The only thing he'll want is you, dead. We have to go on the offensive."

"She's right," Sarafina said. "These people won't listen. Violence is the only thing they understand."

"Maybe not," Simba said. "Bara's pride reached out to me for help. Sakora's pride might reach out, too. If we can tell them they're being played, we might get them to back off."

"What if they don't?"

"Then we'll fight. But we can't fight every war that comes our way. That's what Johnny wants us to do, and the only way we're going to stop the wars is if we catch him. This is priority one: We've got to find Johnny...now."


The blond meerkat folded his muscular arms over his chest. "You've gotta be kiddin' me."

"I'm not," Ngozi said. "The hyenas told him everything they know."

"He got them to confess?"

"No. Nala did. Apparently, Simba got her pregnant, and now she's all 'Oh, Simba, think of the children!'"

The meerkat rolled his eyes and leaned against the tree. A stray drop of blood trickled out of his mouth, and he wiped it away with a paw. "It took her long enough to get her head screwed on."

The eagle ignored it and wagged his head. "Johnny, we have got to abort."

"No. I've been tryin' to get this place for six months, and I'm not givin' it up because you're losin' your nerve."

"Then what are we going to do?"

"We're gonna get outta here and let this thing play out. Sakora and his pride are on the warpath, and Zira's marching with them. Simba's gonna be dead before sunrise."

"And what if you're wrong? We can't stay here!"

"Then what do you suggest?"

The eagle paused to think. "You're going to get the women out of Site Eta, right?"

Johnny nodded.

"I'll fly you out to Site Eta, you rescue them, and I'll take you all anywhere you want to go. Once I confirm Simba's dead, I'll take you all back here, and you all can turn this place into The Hot Zone."

Johnny cocked an eyebrow. "Well, now you're talkin' my language. I'm curious, though: Why the change of heart? First you were all, 'Oh, it's the end of the world!' and now it's, 'You can count on me.'"

The bird shrugged. "Well, we're in this together, right?"

"Well, yeah. And you have been a nice guy and all..." There was a pause, and a smirk went up the meerkat's muzzle. "Or maybe ya wanna get me a thousand feet into the air and throw me off your back."

Ngozi went still, and his face went wide with alarm.

Johnny smiled back at him and nodded in confirmation. "What do ya think I am, stupid? You wanted this place and you weren't going to share."

Ngozi wagged his wide-eyed head. "I don't know what you're talking about—"

"That's funny. 'Cause three of your goons showed up here an hour ago and offered me a ride out to Site Eta. The last thing one of 'em said before I put 'em all outta their misery was that if I took 'em down, I oughta take you down with 'em."

Ngozi didn't even try to lie. He lost the innocent look of horror and smiled grimly at the meerkat. "I invite you to try."

Johnny snickered at him. "You really think you can take me?"

"You're a little rat," the eagle said. "You're easy prey. Unlike those three goons I sent, I know what I'm dealing with. You had a nice little operation going, but now I'm taking over. I'm going to enjoy the fruits of my labor...and I'm going to do it without you."

And without warning, he flared his wings and hurtled at Johnny.

The meerkat tumbled away as Ngozi swooped back. The eagle screeched in fury and reached a taloned paw for Johnny's neck, but Johnny snatched the bird's foot and snapped it at the joint. Ngozi screeched in agony and dropped to the ground as the meerkat leapt into the air and jerked a sharp stick out of the grass, and he plunged the tip into Ngozi's chest and pinned him to the forest floor.

The bird fluttered and writhed in the grass. Blood trailed out of the wound and stained his creamy breast, and a whisper of a wheeze fell out of his bill.

"So what were ya sayin' a little while ago," Johnny said, "about how ya know who you're dealin' with?"

Ngozi whimpered and gulped for breath, and two lines of blood oozed out of his bill. "Go to hell..."

The meerkat smiled smugly at him, then flexed his thick leg and slammed his paw into the ground.

There was a snap and a final wheeze, and the eagle went limp and dull-eyed. With a huff, Johnny wiped a trail of blood off his face and marched for the shadows, leaving Ngozi's body to bleed out behind him.