Abe and Ray flew us to Zambia, the team had been beside ourselves since Chloe had thrown herself from the plane to stop Anissa from shooting the police officers who were after us. When we get the boys and I are all too happy to be back in Africa. Jackson and I are walking down the dirt road almost dancing ahead of the group.

"You two are crazy!" Jamie calls out to us.

Jackson shakes his head as the two of us stop, "Nope, just nice to be back home, or at least close to it."

"I'm a little envious of Chloe right now. Nice air-conditioned cell." Jamie wipes some sweat off her brow.

"My guy out here in Zambia is the real deal." Ray notes as he glances up to the sky. "He'll have the intel on leopard sightings, and he'll outfit the lot of of. This is rough bush.. But if we're going after Leopards we'll need more than a tranq gun." Ray gestures to the tranq gun in Abe's hand.

"Thanks Ray."

"You got it."

We walk a little further down the road and come to an outpost. Jackson and Abe go in, while the rest of us stay outside, "Oh my God!"

"Jackson? What is it?"

I walk up to the door and step inside, as I hear Jackson protest, "You might not want to."

When I walk in I see that the men working at the outpost had been attacked. "Oh, My God."

Mitch walks in behind me, "Well, that explains why they didn't answer our radio call."

Ray walks in behind Mitch and I, with Jamie, sighing loudly, "Damn it. This is my guy." He walks over to a man's body. "Man with the plan. Looks like he put up a good fight though."

I look around, "Who would of this?"

Jackson shakes his head, "Not who, what. Those are claw markers." Jackson points to a wound on one of the men. "Leopards."

I shake my head, "This was a slaughter. They weren't even feeding."

"It's strange."

Mitch clears his throat, "Yeah, but strange is good. Strange tells us we're on the right track."

Abe turns on the radio in the outpost. "You guys."

We all stop and listen to the new story, "This is happening on every continent, every major city. This is not a coincidence."

"What would you have us do? Shoot all the zoo animals? What about farm animals? Pets? My point is, this is a virus, and it's spreading fast."

"There is no evidence of a virus."

Mitch sighs, "At least they're starting to pay attention."

Jackson shakes his head, "Which means it's getting worse."

"All the more reason for us to get moving."

I sigh, "There's a car outside, we might find some keys on those bodies over there."

Jamie looks at me a little concerned. "Are you serious?"

"Hey, it's better than walking."

She nods and shrugs her shoulders as Abe, Jackson, and Ray looks over the bodies. Ray sighs, "they used all our ammo in the fight. Now, all we got is this tranq gun."

Abe nods, "All right, let's do what we came here to do."

Mitch nods, "I'll find out what's happening."

"These leopards we're after, you think they started mutating before the other animals?" Ray questions.

I nod, "According to our research, yes."

"I buy that."

"Africa is the birthplace of civilization. Every great evolutionary leap started here."

As we drive down the road we are stopped by a few cars full of people and their things. Abe gets out of the car and speaks to them. The rest of us get out when they start to move on.

Mitch looks up to Abe. "So let me guess, Chui means leopards?"

Abe nods, "He said that we should turn back. He said that last night, leopards came into their farm and dragged away 12 people."

I nod, "Where is their farm?"

"Hand me that map." I hand Abe the map and he lays it out on the hood, as the group gathers around, "All right, so this is where he said their farm is. This is where the leopards attacked a few days ago."

"And this is where the airport is."

"Totally random."

"Yeah, you'd think they'd move in a clear direction."

Ray shakes his head, "Yeah, unless random is part of their plan. When an army wants to take an area, they attack in a haphazard fashion. Causes fear. Rumors of their next attack frightens people enough for them to leave even before the army arrives."

I look over to Ray, "Why are you telling us this? Are leopards using military strategy? It's possible."

"They're working as a group. Means they're thinking as a group. Well, glad we don't have any real guns then."

"If the attacks are random, how are we gonna know where to look for them? I have a feeling the leopards are going to find us." I look around the group as they nod.

The group gets back into the truck and drive down the road further. When we get to a group of trees Jackson looks up, "What is that hanging in that tree?"

Abe pulls over and the group gets out of the car. We look up in the trees and see dozens of dead bodies. I place my hands over my mouth, "Leopards?"

Abe nods and kneels at the base of the tree. "Judging from these prints, I'd say a group of about eight or so."

Ray looks on in awe, "I've never seen animals do anything like this to humans."

Jackson sighs, "We have."

Abe stands "Hey, these prints can't be more than a few hours old. That means we're getting closer to the leopards. Their den may be around here."

"Closer? You wanna get closer? That suddenly sounds like a really bad idea." Ray looks at all of us like we're crazy, and to some extent we kind of are.

"We want to find the cure, right? Let's go find those leopards."

We drive for a little while longer before stopping and sitting up camp for the night. We found three tents in the back of the truck and started setting up as Jackson and Abe sprayed some deterrent around the camp.

"You know, that scent's gonna scare away the very leopards you're trying to catch," Ray calls out to Jackson and Abe.

"There's lots of dangerous animals out here, not just leopards. Better to be safe."

Jamie and I are trying to set up the tent we are gonna use, but Jamie isn't too good at it, "Didn't your father ever take you camping?"

"I grew up on a farm. Why would I go camping? What about you?"

"Grow up in the city, never had a reason either. Jackson has taken me a few times but he and Abe always set up everything, they never let me do anything."

"Never thought we'd be in a situation where you'd need to be a pro at it." Jackson jokes.

Jamie looks over to Mitch, "What about you Mitch? Even been camping?"

"No, Nobody ever took me camping. Would you want to be stuck in a tent with moody teenage Mitch?"

Jamie chuckles and nods, "Fair enough."

"Hey, no offense but I would've had this thing up about 20 minutes ago." Ray walks over to Jamie and I.

The two of us step away, "It's all yours."

"Excuse me." He steps by us and starts to put up the tent. "All right, there you go."

"Thank you."

Ray nods, "Maybe you can help me with something now. See, all this doesn't make sense to me. Assuming your plan works, assuming you actually catch a live leopard, you shake up a cocktail of their stem cells and a chunk of the Mother Cell you got tucked away in your handy little man bag there. Then what? Hmm? Poof? All the animals are cured?"

"That's a little reductive, but, yeah, that is the hope." Mitch nods as he starts the fire. "Once we administer the cure."

"See, that's my point. How do you suppose you're gonna administer the cure, huh? What, a garden hose? We are talking about every critter in the world, right?"

"Well, what we do here is we take things one step at a time. So first we need to find a cure, then, we'll worry about how to deliver it."

I sit up the fire and sigh, "I use to love the sounds of nature. But this is not how the bush should sound. Before, it was something beautiful. Now, it's something entirely different." Abe and Jackson walk over and sit with us, Jackson sits next to me and Abe next to Jackson, "Hey, Abe, what were those farm kids were singing today?"

"It's a very old song. I used to sing it with my brothers."

Mitch looks over to Abe, "I didn't know you had brothers."

"Not anymore."

"I used to sing Clem to sleep when she was a baby. Oh, my darling Oh, my darling Oh, my darling Clementine"

Abe chuckles, "If the ububa leaves don't keep the animals away, I'm sure your singing will."

Jamie stands and looks around, "I'm just gonna go pee. Can I have the tranq gun?"

"Okay, just be careful." Mitch hands it to her. "There's only a few rounds left."

I shake my head and stand, "Here, let me go with you. I'll hold the gun."

"Okay."

Jamie and I walk about 20-30 feet away from the boys and Jamie walks about 10-15 feet away from me. When we get back we crawl into our tests and try to sleep. Jamie and I are sharing a tent. Jackson and Abe are sharing one, and Mitch and Ray are sharing another. I wake up a few hours later and see that the fire is still lit, so I step out of my tent, seeing Jackson sitting near the fire.

"It's not your watch for another hour."

"Couldn't sleep." Jackson stares into the fire.

"I'm sure she's fine, Jackson. And when we return home with the cure, we'll set everything straight. We'll be heroes." I sit next to him.

"I never cared to be a hero. I just wanted a quiet, simple life. Which is what we had."

I nod, "Yeah, we did."

"So how in the hell did we let all this happen to us?"

'We were asked to help save the world, what were we supposed to say? No?"

"I know, I just want our quiet life back."

"We'll get it back. We'll find the cure for the animals and then we can go back home and we can start working on our pride."

Jackson smiles and nods as he looks over to me. "Yeah, we can."

As Jackson and I snuggle near the fire we hear something off in the forest. When we turn we see something dart by. Quietly and quickly we wake the group. Abe steps out of the tent. "What is it?"

"We just saw something zip by."

Ray stands and looks around, "Throw me that box of tranq darts, will you? If it is a leopard, I can handle it."

Abe protests as Ray steps away like he is leaving the group, "Ray, you stay here. We're safer together."

"I got this." Ray steps into the forest and disappears. It takes what feels like hours for him to return, "Nothing there. Looks like we live to die another day."

As he says this a leopard jumps out of the jungle and takes him down. Quickly dragging Ray off into the tree line, "RAY!"

"Oh, My God!"

"Oh, my God!"

The group looks around and notices that we are surrounded by leopards. "Look out!"

As we look around we all grab a large stick and lit the end on fire. Using them to fend off the leopards. Jackson steps away and looks over to Jamie's pack. "Jamie, those glow sticks you have."

"What?"

"Your glow sticks. Bring them here."

I turn and see a leopard behind Mitch, "Mitch, behind you."

Mitch turns and swings the stick at the leopard and it backs away. There is another on the other side of him, but Abe throws his stick at him, hitting the leopard on the side. Once he does, they all leave. Jackson looks around, "Come on, let's go."

"Go? Go where?"

"I tagged one of the leopards with a glow stick. We can track it. Where are the keys?"

I sigh, "Jackson, Ray had the tranq gun. We don't have any weapons. We need a plan."

"We have a plan, okay? This is it. We follow the leopards. That's our best chance. What else you wanna do? Stay here and wait for them to come back?"