Take the Fight From the Kid

It took an hour or so for Zacky to calm down Frank. The poor Iero boy wouldn’t stop crying but he had no way to tell his friend was the problem was as his hands curved around his stomach as if he were attempting to cocoon himself for comfort. All Zacky could do was to rub Frank’s back and wait for him to calm down, which he did eventually. All it took in the end, rather than drugs and words of advice, was two homemade cookies courtesy of Jasey: when he’d been on the run and in isolation he’d been living on very simple foods, mainly soups, so chocolate did wonders for his spirits. As the short, mute boy nibbled away on the oatmeal cookies, Zacky found himself growing bored of the same white walls. With this thought lingering in his mind, he made his way down to Gerard’s office to pester the poor man.

Now, Gerard hadn’t been in work for the days when Frank was locked away as it’d been his time of and he’d been with Mikey. When he was with Mikey the two had been scheming and thought they’d found a way to supplant Frank’s nervous nature with an inquisitive one instead. It seemed plausible to the brothers – distract him from the confusion in his heart with confusion in his head. In his office, Gerard switched on the computer and found a site for the local zoo. He figured it’d be a safe place to take them as everything vaguely dangerous was locked away in a cage and at this time of the year it’d be fairly quiet. Logging into his email, he quickly sent a note to the head of the institute asking for permission to take four of the patients on his ward out to the zoo to try treating them by sense therapy. The views and sounds and smells had been thought to help. For Zacky, it’d be the first time he’d see a zoo. In his head, Gerard had settled on the four he was going to take out: Frank, Gerard, Cassie and Bryony. Cass was the youngest to be going; the girl was schizophrenic despite the fact she was only six which was rare but not impossible. The other girl, Bryony, was eight but had murdered both of her parents due to a mental breakdown. The trip to the zoo, to be fair, was going to be brutal as these kids were hard to control.

A few minutes after the email had been sent, Zacky nervously pushed open the door to Gerard’s office. It made no noise, so the grown man jumped slightly when he noticed Zacky stood in front of his desk.

“Dude I’m bored and Frank needs something to do or he’ll go mad. Got any decent games?” Zacky whined like a teenage girl causing Gerard to roll his eyes before propping his elbows up on the desk.

“No, but I’ve arranged a day trip out for you two and two of the girls. Have you both got some kind of coat? If not go and ask Jase for one then get your shoes on. Meet me at the nurse’s station in ten.” Gerard briefly explained for rising from his desk and escorting Zacky out of his room. The teen bounded down the corridor, assumedly to find Frank, while Gerard went in the opposite direction to hunt down the two girls.

The two girls were kept in high security, a place where Gerard seldom visited so he found it surprising where the yellow and white walls morphed into metal walls and occasionally white padded ones. The doors to the girl’s rooms required an eight digit code, a swipe card and a fingerprint scan. Once it was unlocked, he stared inside the blank room to see the girls sat in opposite corners of the room in straight jackets. Stronger than he looked, Gerard managed to pick up one girl in either hand and haul them out of the room. The girls kicked and screamed until he set her down around the corner from the ward.

“Hush now. You’re being allowed out the go to the zoo for the day. You’re allowed out of the jackets but you must remain tethered to me at all times.” Gerard sharply explained, slipping them out of the jackets while simultaneously handcuffing a child to either of his wrists. The chain was long enough so he could still carry out any tasks but not long enough for the kids to get more than two feet away from him. He handed them each a pair of white plimsolls barking at them to put them on. He wasn’t usually so harsh with the kids but hey, the guy was nervous. Hell, he had a murderer chained to his left arm! Who wouldn’t be nervous under those circumstances?

******TIME LAPSE BIATCHES******

When they reached the zoo, Gerard realised how truly naïve he’d been. Yes – his plan had worked, the kids were all in higher spirits but eh, maybe a bit too high. Zacky was running around the entrance, enchanted by the different experiences and sensations. Frank stood still as always, yet his eyes darted around the landscape as if he had taken something besides his medications. The two girls tugged Gerard’s arms in both direction making him feel like a rag doll yet the new, almost happy expressions, that all four kids were wearing made it feel worthwhile.

After paying the ridiculous entrance fees, Gerard walked along with the kids to see the savannah animals. All in all, it was a very strange experience. Zacky stood staring a lion in the eyes before flinging his head back and letting out a thunderous roar – to which the lion returned making the two girls jump. Zacky laughed manically before skipping along to look in the next cage. Frank lingered a moment, pressing his hand up against the cage and pitying the animals and how they were locked away. Unknown were the rules of the zoo in Frank’s mind, so he figured he’d let them out on his way out. Everyone deserved freedom.

As they traipsed around the enclosures the younger kids complained of their feet aching but Zacky continued to skip along, peering into every cage and yelling profanities at the animals causing civilians to cover the ears of their children and hurry them out of the zoo. Gerard tried to convince the kid to slow down and stay a bit quiet but all he received was a shake of the head and a cheeky grin. Frank stood near Gerard’s side, although he was reluctant to be anywhere near the crazy girls chained to the psychiatrist who had found him. The mute twiddled his fingers as he grew tired of looking at the same old animals; what different did the colour make? A bird is still a bird no matter if it’s pink or green or yellow! Frank snickered to himself at that before he noticed Zacky had started to climb up the mesh of the cage. Desperately, he tugged upon Gerard’s sleeve and pointed up at the black haired monstrosity climbing over the top of the cage. The man let out cross between a wail and a shout which all in all sounded a little like a dog after it’s had its foot trodden upon.

Before Gerard could even get near the enclosure, Zacky had dropped down into the cage and was running after a particularly small bird that looked like it was wearing a tuxedo. Frank walked over the sign and tried to read it.

“Pen…. gwines? … Pen..goons? Oh right, Pengwins!” Frank stumbled over his words until he could pronounce the name of the bird. No one was paying attention to that though as Gerard had ran over to the nearest keeper (the two girls being dragged behind him) and was starting to plead that they got Zacky the hell out of that cage. The keeper didn’t look impressed by Gerard’s skills of looking after the kids but strolled over to the cage, heaved the door open and dragged Zacky out by the back of his white shirt.

In all the commotion, Gerard had failed to notice that he’d lost another one of the kids; this time, Frank. In all fairness it is fairly easy to loose the kid who never makes any sound besides sneezing. The mute kid had taken the chance to go let the lions have the freedom that the magnificent beasts deserved. The lock wasn’t that hard to undo, even for a kid as weak as Frank. It was a simple bolt and thumb lock. Frank carefully unlocked the door and hurried away as he saw the cautious beasts creeping towards the open door.

By this point, Gerard had noticed Frank was gone and headed down to the savannah enclosure as Frank had seemed fascinated by it. Yet, when he saw a huge male lion sauntering out of an open cage he took a few fearful steps backwards before realising this was probably the work of one Frank Iero. When he noticed the mess of the boy’s hair, he grabbed Frank by the arm and hurried out of the zoo with all four kids in tow.

“Eh, maybe it’d be best not to mention this to Jase…”