E.M. Chapter five: "Camel Dung" or "The Backup Plan"

Several hours and a milkshake or two later we arrived at the zoo. We got out stretching our legs as it had been a long ride. To our surprise there was no one at the ticket counter.

"How are we supposed to get in if we can’t buy tickets?" Katy asked.

I surveyed a near by sign, "Ilga! Look! It says the zoo closes at six!" I exclaimed pointing to the sign. I looked at the sky overhead, "And it’s nearly eight now!"

Katy rolled her eyes, "Yep, that’s what the car clock said when we got out." She agreed.

"Right, so that means we’ll have to get some explosives and blast our way in!" I exclaimed. I proceeded to list all the different kinds of explosives I knew and the various ways they could be located.

As I was busy ranting about flammables, Katy was carefully taking account of the things around us.

"Rachel."

"What?" I asked, coming out of my rant.

"I think I found a way in." Katy said and proceeded to carefully climb the fence using the various boxes and buildings around. She was soon on the other side.

"You’re no fun at all." I complained before following her route over.

We crept quietly through the abandoned zoo, past cages of elephants and monkeys and the occasional polar bear. The only sound to be heard was that of our theme song which Katy and I hummed throughout our sneakiness.

"There!" I exclaimed, "Camels!"

Katy looked and sure enough there were two camels in a cage. We started snooping around for a way in and were soon watching our steps for camel droppings.

"Alright, here’s the plan: You go up and catch one and I’ll watch." I whispered to Katy.

"That’s your plan?" Katy asked skeptically.

"Well…. Yes, but I made a back up one in case you didn’t agree." I admitted.

"Okay, what’s the backup?"

"Well, see, I brought this rope and I figured we could make a big lasso out of it and run up to it and catch it over it’s neck." I explained pulling a rope from who knows where.

Katy shrugged, "That might work, but why not just throw it at him like a regular lasso?"

"Because, unless you’ve been holding out on me nobody here knows how to do that." I explained while carefully knotting the rope.

"Good point."

We silently finished preparing and with a wild war cry started after the beast. We ran after it for what seemed like a very long time and soon were tired out.

"That didn’t work." I complained.

"No, it didn’t." Katy agreed.

We sat down on a clear spot of grass to think while the camels glared at us from across the pen.

"I know!" I exclaimed suddenly. Before Katy could question my judgement I quickly jumped to work. Shortly I returned to my comrade and admired my trap. The rope had been slung over a branch in front of the camels’ food with the long end draped down to us.

"Wow, that’s actually not a bad idea." Katy commented, looking over my hastily put together plan.

I shrugged, "Well, you know what they say."

Katy looked at me curiously, "What do they say?"

"Um… Evil Masterminds are masterminds. Thus the name." I said hastily.

"Right." Katy said, still suspicious.

"Yeah, well… We’ve got to hide for this to work. They won’t walk into my trap if they know we’re still here." I told my sidekick.

Katy nodded and soon we found ourselves hid behind the watering bucket. We waited there for a very long time. Forever came and went and soon it was dark out, the only light coming from the stars pinpointed in the sky.

Just as we were about to give up, one of the camels came wandering over. We watched in suspense as it came closer and closer to our trap. We barely dared to exhale as it looked at the loop of rope before us and then—It walked right by.

I glared at the camel for a moment before running out of hiding and jumping onto it, barely able to grab the rope loop as I did so. Katy watched in amusement as I struggled to slip the loop over it’s neck before falling off.

Satisfied I stood, brushing the hair from my pants and barely noticing the odor that now lurked over me.

"We’ve got ourselves a camel." I declared.

"Actually, we don’t have it yet. We still have to get it to your house."

"Oh, yeah."

It took us another couple of minutes of chasing the camel around before we got a good grip on the rope and then we had a hard time trying to pull it out of the cage. We struggled together and slowly were able to get it closer and closer to the fence where we had been able to force the gate open upon entering.

We finally did manage to get it all the way out to the Rachelmobile and some people driving by gave us some odd looks. We just smiled innocently back because no one would suspect a couple of smiling teenage girls and a camel on a rope in a zoo parking lot of anything.

I opened the back of my car and we attempted the hardest part of the challenge thus far, getting the camel in. I had folded down the backseat but that barely seemed to help at all.