Day Sleeper
by Creppy
1800 words

It is early morning on High Street. The Day Sleeper is on his way home to eat and rest after a long night at the shop. He rolls up his sleeves. A large wall to his right separates him from the city Zoo. He can hear the animals behind the wall, a screech from a pterodactyl makes him look up. He knows they clip the beast's wings, but he always looks up anyway. The animal noises calm him. He passes a sign that was not here yesterday morning. It reads "Help Wanted. Zoology PhD or Bio-Diversity Engineering degrees required." He sighs.
He would like to work with animals, like his grandparents did. His mother once told him that both her parents had degrees in biology during the great bio-expansion. They died in a freak accident, burned to death by giant salamanders they had created for a research company. The company was experimenting with mythical creatures. The salamander was long thought to represent the element of fire so it was thought they could produce real creatures to inspire loyalty to products and brands.
It isn't the large creatures, like the flaming salamanders or the pterodactyls that cause all the problems, though many are blamed for the mass extinctions of much of earth's wildlife that has occurred in the last fifty years. It's the small creatures that have caused the most deaths. Especially of humans, many died from diseases, many more were left incapacitated. Including the Day Sleeper's parents who, having spent most of their savings surviving in a world out of control with viruses and strange creatures, left him with little. He did not own a home or a car, but he was able to maintain an apartment and some savings. He has his grandparents books on genetics and zoology, and he enjoys reading them.
A small convoy of trucks passes. He sees a circus logo plastered across the side of a truck. He turns around and follows them around the corner. They pull into a service road used by the Zoo. He wants to follow but knows he has to spray down before it is too late.
He gets back to High Street and hurries into a residential area. Crowded apartments line one side of the road and a high iron gate separates the houses from the road on the other side. The Day Sleeper slips through the fence behind some bushes where a bar is partially missing. He moves through the backyards and between two houses to get to the curb. He is lucky. Garbage day is today for the houses closer to High Street. He rifles through one garbage bag. Nothing. From the next, he picks out a spray can and reads the label. "Ultra-Violet protection, spray all body areas that will be exposed to the sun." He sprays his face, hands and arms. He keeps looking through the same bag and pulls out another can. He reads this label. "Anti-virus spray for July 8th, 2196. Protection from Bolivian Flu, Cranksten-Levy identity theft, All known micro-engineered, air-born organisms..." The list goes on and on. The great bio-expansion created many wonderful medicines and benefits to mankind, but the price were the nature hackers, people who, in basement bio-labs created micro and macro organisms that nature never intended. If not for the spray he thinks all of society would have perished in the sick years. He sprays it all around himself.
The spray has stabilized things somewhat, for those that can afford the spray. But the Day Sleeper knows if he can get a can even a day late he is mostly protected. He understands the idea of incubation period from his grandparents books. And most viruses, even man-made ones take a little time to become lethal. That did not save him when he contracted he Day Sleeper condition, it was quick. No one knows where it came from, but most suspect some large companies contracted the virus. Everyone knew that good people were needed to work third shift, to watch the machines. In this day you either made machines, watched machines or made machines that made machines, and machines run day and night, so someone created a genetic virus that essentially created a sub-class of humans that were nocturnal. Alert folks to watch and fix machines while most people slept. Some people contracted the condition on purpose, kids mostly, people that wanted to up at night. The Day Sleeper felt that he could have contracted much worse.
He crosses back through the fence and down the apartment lined street to his own efficiency. It is meager. One room with a fold up bed and a curtain to close off the bathroom. He keeps a little table and some shelves for his books. He found a discarded TV in the garbage one morning and brought that home. There were still some broadcast channels. As he eats he flips through the channels on the television. He catches a news story on the Zoo.
"Come and see the nearly authentic Harvey the Hippo. With the exception of human feet and pink skin he is a real Hippopotamus. The only existing hippo in the world and one of the last surviving big mammals. While many claim he is engineered from scratch, Harvey's official papers claim that he was born naturally to genetically-modified parents." The Day Sleeper rushes through his food now and heads out the door. Sleep can wait, he will see some animals today, even if he can't afford the Zoo or the circus.
It is still early and he sees only a few other Day Sleepers on their way home. He moves back toward the city center and back up High Street. He sneaks down the service road into the Zoo. This is it. His only chance to see Harvey or any animal up close. He spotted the circus vehicles in the distance. Then he sees them. Large creatures in the trucks, some are walking about on leashes, others in cages. They are only 30 yards away now. He does not know what kinds of creatures they all are but is happy to see them anyway. He can smell them and hear their snorts and grunts. He is simply elated as he tries to move closer without being seen. A tall man with a curled mustache and dark skin is wheeling a cart around with hay and large eggs. He talks to each animal as he passes by. His accent is foreign but the Day Sleeper can not tell from where.
He moves closer. He can feel his heart beating. He hides behind a stack of hay and sees a big pink form not 20 feet away. Harvey the Hippo for sure, he thinks. He backs into what feels like dozens of spikes. A scream fills his ears as a giant gray beast backs away from him and bumps Harvey's truck cage. The Day Sleeper whirls around and sees the beast is leashed and can't get closer to him.
Harvey turns fast, spots the Day Sleeper and snorts. He rams the bars in front of him and they bend. He lets out a deep roar. The Day Sleeper decides to run for it, Harvey does not seem to be a friendly hippo. He hears another crash and the mustached man starts trying to soothe Harvey. Another deep roar as the Day Sleeper reaches the top of the service road. He peeks back.
Harvey is chasing him. The giant pink form is moving quick up the road, the mustached man in tow. He panics and runs for the city. Can this really be happening? He runs hard checking back every few seconds. He hears the beast a few times as he moves as far away from the Zoo as he can.
After an hour on the move, he hears Harvey again. The roars always seem closer than they should. Is he able to track me? He is exhausted now and needs to just rest a minute. The world is starting to wake up, stores are opening. Good, he thinks, maybe Harvey will just find someone else to bite or eat or do whatever it is he will do upon actually getting near him. The Day Sleeper does not want to find out. He slips into an abandoned car maintenance garage. He is able to crawl into the front service area through some broken glass. There is a front desk and a couch and an all glass front facing the street. He sits down on the couch to rest for just a minute. His eyes feel so heavy. He falls asleep as a Day Sleeper should.
He wakes suddenly to the sound of snorting, he knows it's Harvey. "Dammit." He says it before he even thinks. The hippo comes crashing through the glass.
All he sees is pink and all he hears is the deep roar. He moves to cover his face with his arms when the roar stops. Then the hippo just stops. Hanging in mid-air the hippo starts to convulse as if electrocuted. The Day Sleeper slides over and looks around behind the beast. The electrocuter is a little tyrannosaurus like creature with a human head, who has his two little hands on Harvey's hide. His body is a dark brown with flashes of black lines pulsing throughout like cracks in dry clay. The electro-beast is held out by a much larger tyrannosaurus beast with very large arms and a true tyrannosaurus like head. They seem to be controlling whatever is making Harvey freeze and convulse. They both look at the Day Sleeper and screech. He takes the hint and slides away from Harvey. All three move slowly back. The two tyrannosaurus beasts guide the floating Harvey over to a waiting truck. The mustached man watches intensely, while occasionally glancing over at the Day Sleeper.
"Is this a dream? I was asleep." The Day Sleeper says. Harvey tumbles into the truck. The tyrannosaurus' slump over and the mustached man guides them into the truck as well.
"No, Day Sleeper. You are awake. I'm afraid Harvey has a bit of a temper, and a nose for tracking. I would like to keep this very quiet." He looks around. the area was still quiet. "We drug him for the shows, you see, and if people found out about his temper. This would be bad. Maybe there is something I can do for you."
"Well." The Day Sleeper thinks a minute. "I've always wanted to work with animals."
The mustached man looks at the Day Sleeper and smiles. "You know, the Zoo manager was telling me how they could use someone to clean up at night, might be good for a Day Sleeper like you."