The Last Elephant Read online

  Colt pulled on his sneakers. He wasn’t supposed to go near the other animals, but it was Lucy’s germs all over him, so visiting her didn’t count. His mother had said it could take twenty-four hours for the RatVax to work – if it was going to work – but Colt reckoned the sick elephant might like some company.

  And does she have water? he wondered.

  Captain Noah’s motorhome was part of Circus City, a moving caravan park that travelled with the Big Top. Colt felt a bit lost. He made his way through rows and rows of motor homes, caravans and trailers, then cut through a narrow gap between two huge trucks.

  ‘Hey, judo boy!’

  He stopped and looked behind him. Nobody was there.

  ‘Up here,’ said the voice.

  Colt looked up. A pair of little grass-stained feet dangled over the edge of one of the trucks. The top half of a small Asian face – just the eyes, eyebrows and a dangle of black hair – was visible above the feet.

  ‘Hi,’ Colt said. ‘What are you doing up there?’

  ‘Minding my own business,’ said the girl.

  But she wasn’t, really – she had called out to him.

  ‘Why did you call me judo boy?’ he asked.

  ‘Because of what you did to Mr Busby.’

  ‘Who’s Mr Busby?’

  ‘The circus foreman you sent flying,’ the girl said. ‘Are you a black belt?’

  Colt stared up at her – at the parts of her that he could see. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

  The girl’s feet, legs and face disappeared. Colt stepped backwards and watched her walking along the top of the truck about four metres above him. She was dressed like a dancer – in a purple leotard with cut-off denim shorts worn over them.

  In three quick jumps – the first off the truck’s trailer, the second off its cabin, and the third off its bull-bar – the girl reached the ground. And somehow, in the middle of every jump, there had been a somersault.

  ‘Pretty good,’ said Colt.

  She dipped him a ballerina-like curtsy. ‘I learned to do that when I was six.’

  Colt studied her. She was hardly bigger than a six-year-old. ‘How are old are you now?’

  ‘Eleven next birthday. I’m small for my age.’ She looked at his T-shirt. ‘How old are you, World’s Best Pop?’

  ‘Thirteen. And my name’s Colt.’

  ‘Like a boy horse,’ she said.

  He was surprised she knew that. Most kids didn’t know anything about animals. ‘My mum’s got a thing about horses,’ he said. ‘What’s your name?’

  ‘Birdy. I’m one of the Flying Flynns.’ She turned a slow cartwheel, talking as she went. ‘My mum and dad used to be in the Cirque du Soleil.’

  Colt had seen it on HV. The Cirque du Soleil only had human acts. The Lost World Circus was better – it had human acts and animal acts, though the animals only got to walk around the circus ring and pose for holopics. ‘Do you live here?’

  ‘Well, I’m part of the circus, if that’s what you mean,’ Birdy said. ‘But we go to a new place every week.’

  ‘It must be pretty cool.’

  ‘Sometimes more than one place a week.’

  ‘Wow!’

  Birdy did a handstand against the side of the truck and looked at him upside-down. ‘Hey, why don’t you ask your mum to be the circus vet? Then you and I could hang out together.’

  Colt grinned. He’d been thinking about that himself. Well, about asking his mother to become Captain Noah’s vet. ‘How do you know about my mum?’ he asked.

  ‘I was there on Saturday night when Captain Noah got you into the ring to meet Lucy,’ Birdy said. She flipped back onto her feet. ‘Hey, how scary was that ghost rat!’

  ‘Pretty scary,’ he said.

  ‘Is it true that one bit you?’

  ‘Yeah. But I don’t really remember. Look’ – he showed her his thumb – ‘I’ve got a scar.’

  Birdy studied it, frowning. ‘Mum said you must have rat magic.’

  ‘What’s rat magic?’

  ‘It’s like a fairytale from where she grew up. There was this kid who hung out with rats and could do all this amazing, superhero-stuff – like how you did that judo throw on Mr Busby.’

  Finally Colt worked out who Mr Busby was. The man with the animal tattoos. ‘I didn’t throw anyone,’ he said. ‘I don’t know judo. I just grabbed his arm and he must have tripped.’

  Birdy did a ballerina spin. ‘Yeah, right. And flew round and round you like a human aeroplane!’

  Colt waited until she stopped spinning. ‘Well, that makes about as much sense as rat magic,’ he said.

  Birdy walked with him down to see Lucy. On the way, she told him about the history of Captain Noah’s Lost World Circus.

  ‘Before the rat flu epidemic, Captain Noah ran a zoo,’ she said ‘He was very rich and owned an island. When rat flu swept across the world and started killing everything, Captain Noah made his island a rat flu-free-zone. Nobody was allowed to visit, and nobody was allowed to leave there if they wanted to come back.’

  ‘Did other people live there?’ Colt asked.

  ‘Lots,’ Birdy said. ‘They were called zookeepers and looked after the animals. Captain Noah said they could leave if they wanted, but they couldn’t come back in case they brought the virus with them.’

  ‘So did any leave?’

  ‘All of them went except Mr Busby. Even Captain Noah’s wife went. In the end, it was just Captain Noah and Mr Busby and a whole lot of animals to look after.’

  ‘How did they feed them?’ asked Colt.

  ‘They had a kids’ zoo, too, not just Lost World Animals. There were sheep and cows and chickens and rabbits and stuff,’ Birdy explained. ‘So there was food for the big cats and Tasmanian devils and eagles. And there were lots of gardens and trees to grow stuff for the animals that ate plants.’

  ‘It must have been a heap of work for just two people,’ Colt said.

  Birdy nodded. ‘Captain Noah really loves animals. Mr Busby does too – did you see all his tattoos?’

  It was Colt’s turn to nod.

  ‘They’re all Lost World animals that are gone forever,’ Birdy said. ‘You know, that have become extinct?’

  Colt vaguely remembered seeing a wildebeest tattoo, and one of a black and white bear-thing. It made him feel guilty about what he’d done to Mr Busby the other night. ‘Did I really pick him up and throw him?’ he asked.

  ‘He went nearly three metres!’ Birdy studied Colt closely for a moment, as if he was some kind of freak. ‘Are you sure you don’t know judo?’

  ‘I told you I don’t,’ he answered gruffly. ‘So then what happened to Captain Noah’s zoo?’

  ‘After a few months, someone invented RatVax,’ she said. ‘Governments around the world used it to save the farm animals that weren’t already dead so there wouldn’t be a worldwide food shortage.’

  Colt already knew most of this from his mother. He knew other things, too – like who’d developed RatVax, and where rat flu came from in the first place. But he wasn’t supposed to talk about them, so he let Birdy continue.

  ‘There wasn’t enough RatVax for zoos or people’s pets,’ she went on, ‘so all the animals in every zoo in the world except Captain Noah’s caught rat flu and died. All the wild animals and birds died, too, and so did everyone’s pets.’

  ‘Mum had a dog when she was little,’ said Colt.

  ‘My mum had cats,’ Birdy said wistfully. ‘Little ones – about fifty times smaller than Puss.’

  Colt wondered what Puss was, but decided not to ask. Birdy’s shoulders were slumped, she was looking down at the ground. For a few moments they both walked in silence.

  ‘Finally,’ Birdy said softly, wiping her eyes, ‘after all the pets and everything were dead, there was enough RatVax for animals that weren’t just GovFarm animals, and Captain Noah bought some.’

  ‘How could he afford it?’ Colt asked. ‘It’s really expensive.’

  �
��Captain Noah and Mr Busby came up with a plan,’ Birdy said. ‘They would sell the island and use the money to buy a year’s supply of RatVax shots for all the animals, then they would move to the mainland and start up a travelling circus.’

  ‘The Lost World Circus,’ Colt said.

  ‘And the money people pay to come and see us,’ explained Birdy, turning three perfect cartwheels, ‘is enough to buy our animals the six-weekly booster shots that keep them alive.

  ‘Plus,’ she added, turning one more cartwheel, ‘there’s a bit of money left over for Captain Noah’s number two plan.’

  ‘What’s his number two plan?’ Colt asked.

  ‘One day he wants to buy an abandoned farm where there are lots of trees and stuff, and start a breeding program so there’ll be wild animals in the world again.’

  ‘Cool!’ said Colt.

  Birdy’s fourth cartwheel had taken her ahead of him, out onto the open grassland beyond the last of the circus vehicles. Now she could see something that he couldn’t. Something that was making her eyes bulge like grapes.

  ‘Rat poo!’ she cried.

  Two men in orange uniforms were hammering iron posts into the ground. They had made a big circle around Lucy and the tree. A third man was stringing black-and-orange tape between the posts, as if it was a crime scene. Another uniformed figure leaned against the door of an orange van, speaking into a wrist-phone. On the side of the van was a picture of a huge white rat with a red X painted across it, and below it was written:

  DEPARTMENT OF RAT FLU ERADICATION

  ‘Rat cops!’ Colt gasped. He was shocked but not really surprised that they had found out about Lucy’s condition. His mother said the rat cops had spies and informers everywhere. There was a toll-free number you could phone to let them know about an animal that looked sick, and you got a $500 reward if it proved to be rat flu.

  ‘Go and get Captain Noah, Birdy.’

  ‘Do you know where he is?’ she asked.

  ‘He and Mum are giving the other animals their shots.’

  Birdy went darting away, no cartwheels or ballerina moves this time, and Colt walked down to see what was going on. It didn’t look good.

  ‘That’s close enough!’ called the officer by the van. She ended her phone call. ‘This is a quarantine area.’

  Colt stopped as he’d been told. You didn’t mess with rat cops. ‘She’s had her shots,’ he said, pointing at Lucy.

  The woman in orange came striding towards him. She wore a can of rat spray on one hip, and a nasty-looking stun gun on the other. Her DigiBadge identified her as Officer Katt, Eradication Corps.

  ‘Are you part of the circus, Snowy?’ she asked him.

  ‘My mum’s the vet,’ he said. It wasn’t strictly true, but today she was working for Captain Noah, so it wasn’t really a lie. ‘She reckons Lucy’s going to get better.’

  That wasn’t strictly true, either. But Kristin dealt with rat cops quite often, and she reckoned most of them didn’t know anything about veterinary science. They just liked ordering people around.

  And killing animals that didn’t need to be killed.

  ‘Let us be the judge of that,’ Officer Katt said. ‘Why don’t you run along now, Snowy. We’ve got work to do.’

  Colt stood his ground. ‘She’s the last elephant in the world,’ he said.

  ‘I know that,’ said the grim-faced DoRFE officer. ‘But my job is to stamp out rat flu before it spreads to humans.’

  Everyone was terrified of that happening. If the virus made that jump – like swine flu had – it could spell the end of mankind. But killing infected animals wouldn’t stop that happening. The only way to stamp out rat flu altogether was to get rid of all the rats – a job the rat cops were supposed to be doing. But rats were breeding faster than they were being killed. They had become the world’s greatest survivors – along with the deadly disease they carried.

  But Colt knew Officer Katt wouldn’t listen to reason. ‘Will you kill her?’ he asked.

  ‘I don’t know,’ the rat cop said, turning to look at Lucy. The poor elephant was hanging her head and swaying back and forth. Foamy liquid dribbled from her mouth and trunk. ‘We’ll take a blood sample and see what the lab tests say.’

  Colt knew what the laboratory tests would say. But the rat cops would have to get a blood sample first.

  And that was gonna be interesting, he thought.

  Colt was disappointed. The rat cops had no intention of taking the blood sample themselves.

  ‘We’ve called our vet,’ Officer Katt told Captain Noah.

  He and Kristin had just arrived, with Birdy running ahead of them.

  ‘I wouldn’t advise your vet to go near the elephant,’ Captain Noah warned. ‘She’s been a bit unpredictable today.’

  ‘Second-stage rat flu,’ the rat cop said knowledgeably. She drummed her fingertips on the worn wooden grip of her stun gun. ‘We might have to quieten her down a bit, so our guy can get in and do his job.’

  ‘I can’t allow that,’ said Colt’s mother. ‘If you stun her in her current state, she might have a heart attack.’

  Officer Katt frowned at her. ‘And who might you be?’

  ‘Kristin Lawless. I’m a vet here. That elephant is my patient, Officer Katt, and I can’t allow you or anyone else to endanger her life.’

  Go Mum! thought Colt.

  ‘As I see it, she has rat flu,’ the rat cop said in a steely voice, ‘and that makes her my responsibility, Mrs . . .?’

  ‘Lawless,’ Kristin reminded her.

  ‘I’m sure you are well aware of the law, Mrs Lawless,’ Officer Katt said, and smiled at her own joke. ‘In cases of rat flu – even suspected rat flu – DoRFE has the power to act in any way it sees fit.’

  Colt’s mother looked as if she was about to say some very nasty things about the Department of Rat Flu Eradication, but Captain Noah spoke first.

  ‘I beg you, madam, to please do everything in your power to spare this magnificent creature,’ he said. ‘She’s the last of her kind. Haven’t we all lost enough animal species already?’

  Rather than answering, the rat cop glanced over her shoulder. A small orange station wagon with the familiar rat logo on its door was coming along the gravel lane that ran behind the showgrounds. It turned in through an open gate and came bumping across the grass towards them.

  ‘Let’s see what our vet has to say,’ Officer Katt said.

  The DoRFE vet took one look at Lucy and made his diagnosis. ‘Rat flu,’ he said. ‘There’s no doubt about it.’

  It was a death sentence.

  Colt saw Captain Noah’s shoulders sag. He saw his mother bite her lower lip, and Birdy wipe her eyes. Then he had an idea.

  ‘But she’s getting better,’ he said.

  Everyone looked at him. Eight pairs of eyes. Eight and a half pairs if you counted Lucy, who seemed to be giving him a sideways look.

  ‘It’s true,’ he said. ‘She’s breathing better and she isn’t psycho anymore. I’ll show you.’ Before anyone could stop him, Colt slipped under the black-and-orange tape and walked towards Lucy.

  ‘Stop!’ cried Officer Katt. ‘That’s a quarantined area. You can’t go in there!’

  Colt kept walking. Sometimes you had to mess with rat cops.

  ‘Hey, Luce,’ he said calmly, walking right up to her. He lowered his voice. ‘Behave yourself, okay? Your life depends on it.’

  His life depended on it, too. He remembered what had nearly happened to his mother.

  But it was okay. Lucy gave him a deep rumble and did her slimy, sniffy thing all over his face, hair and chest. Too bad about Captain Noah’s nice clean T-shirt, Colt thought.

  He looked back over his shoulder. Everyone was still behind the tape. All four rat cops had their stun guns drawn and were waving at him to come back. Colt ignored them. He locked eyes with the DoRFE vet.

  ‘It’s perfectly safe,’ he called. ‘You can come and take a blood sample. She won’t hurt you.’
/>   The vet shook his head. His face had turned pale. ‘There’s no need for a sample,’ he said. ‘I can see from here that she’s got rat flu.’

  Kristin caught Colt’s eye and give him a little nod. She must have understood what he was trying to do – buying Lucy a bit more time to live.

  ‘Of course, you can’t be absolutely sure it’s rat flu,’ she said to the other vet. ‘It could be elephant distemper. The symptoms are the same.’

  The DoRFE vet was quite a lot younger than Kristin. Suddenly he seemed unsure of himself. ‘I’ve never heard of elephant distemper,’ he said.

  ‘I’m not surprised,’ said Kristin. ‘You were probably still at school the last time there was a case of it. Do you know much about elephants?’

  He shrugged. ‘No more than anyone else, I guess.’

  ‘They can be cranky. Especially if they’ve got elephant distemper. I’ll take the blood sample, if you like.’

  The young vet was only too happy to let Kristin do his job for him. Colt held Lucy’s trunk and talked softly to her, while his mother crept up behind and filled a big syringe with her blood. She hurried back to the tape barrier and gave it to the DoRFE vet.

  ‘See what your lab tests come up with,’ she said. ‘I’ll bet you it’s elephant distemper.’

  ‘Is there any such thing as elephant distemper?’ Colt asked his mother as the two orange vehicles drove away.

  They were standing with Captain Noah and Birdy just outside the taped-off area. A small crowd of circus visitors were using their wrist-phones to take holopics of Lucy, so Colt kept his voice low.

  ‘I made it up,’ Kristin whispered. There was a guilty look on her face. ‘But it will buy us a bit of time.’

  ‘To do what, exactly?’ asked Captain Noah.

  She pointed at Lucy’s fan club. ‘To get the public on side,’ she said. ‘The only thing that will save Lucy once those lab results come back is people power.’

  ‘What’s people power?’ Birdy asked.