The wild wasn't what it turned out to be.

Nothing like Marty's mural, or what the penguins had said. Even, they were wrong about Antarctica.

The three Zoosters slowed down to a stop before proceeding, making sure that Alex nor Ayana followed behind, panting as they walked.

Marty led in front, the sun catching a glimpse of the scrapes Ayana made with her claws.

Alex pushed past a clump of leaves, accidentally clasping his claws on two leaves.

He flashed his head back and forth, then desperately tried to fling the leaves away, as Ayana slowly walked past the swarm of leaves herself.

She watched Alex pant as he clawed a nearby tree, leaving distinct claw marks that ran deep into the wood. After a moment, the lion hits his head against the tree when he rushed to escape.

Ayana rushed over to the lion struggling with his claws, and just before she reached him, Alex tumbled in a downward spiral.

The leopard didn't have the energy to find a new path and began to slowly follow the lion down the hill.

At first, was the grass. It didn't hurt much, just the fact they were plummeting onto it was a reason enough to say ow.

Then, the rocks. Ayana used her claws to scour through the sharp, and jagged edges that pricked her feet and stabbed her best friend in the back.

After that, the flowers. The lovely field of pink and white made a soft landing for the pair. Ayana rolled on her side as Alex sighed every time the grace of the flowers caresses his fur.

Finally, the cacti. Immediate screams were heard when the feline pair even made contact with the prickly, jagged spikes of the green plants.

Alex, who stood in an awkward position due to the cactus on his back, waits up for the female that was pulling out the small needles from her skin.

"You, ok?"

The lion swerves around in an attempt to get the cactus off his back.

Then, he plunged down the cliff with Ayana following suit, landing in the water below. Thankfully, the cactus on Alex's back made him glide smoothly down the stream. Ayana latched her arms around Alex's middle, hanging on as water doused her a good portion of her fur.

The pair didn't even notice the sign, mostly because it was turned to face the other direction, that had the words, "TURN BACK!" and "Predator Side 3 Miles", written on it with a hand sign pointing to the right in the right direction.

(A/N: A-ha! See what I did there?!)

Of course, it didn't say anything about the large waterfall.

Both of them screamed their hearts out falling from such a height.

Later, Alex finally got the cactus off. He and Ayana moped off past a sign that read FOOSA TERRITORY 1 MILE, with a little triangle pointing in the direction and another sign underneath that read BEWARE FOOSA, with a painted drawing of what a fossa would look like.

The fossa immediately saw them and poked their heads from behind the rock where the cactus lied, and various bushes.

Marty, Gloria, and Melman trudged through the jungle where rays of sunlight peeked through the thick leaves of the trees. The Zoosters had their heads hung low, guilty, and miserable about what happened to their friends.

A small hummingbird flew by to a flower with pink and orange colors in a pleasing design. The small bird tried to feed on it, but the jaws of the plant snapped shut, resulting in the Zoosters to gasp at the sight.

Gawking at the carnivorous flower, the animals urged themselves away. Melman, however, leaned in with a horrified look on his face, followed with a scream as the flower had a burp escape its "mouth".

Alex scowled as he sharpens the edge of a sturdy stick with his claw, the dark and moody clouds hung low above him, lurking past the steep sides of the jagged, rocky walls of the fossa side of the island.

The lion brings up the pointy stick, then blows off the leftover shaving before he tossed it onto the pile of other sticks.

The Zoosters stayed on their trail through the jungle.

The cutest little mouse walked from behind leaves, giving the three herbivores a shred of hope. Unfortunately, a snake slithered from the other side and wrapped its scaly body around the rodent, and rolled away, causing the bush to twitch.

Not too long, the little mouse took a sigh of relief and delighted the three creatures to discover that he was okay. So, a hawk decided to swoop down and still that small joy, along with the mouse.

A baby duck waddled near, instantly grabbing their attention. Without hesitation, Marty uses his teeth to bring them over to a pond.

The gang swooned at the sight of the duckling paddling...just for it to be swallowed up entirely by an enormous crocodile.

The Zoosters eyes widened like dish plates, their jaws loosened so gravity could allow them to hang. They all twitched slightly, and in a split second, their heads hung low again.

Alex and Ayana finished their hut, making it look like the pens they had back at the zoo.

Alex curled into himself simply like he did back in his crate, eyebrows forming a crease in between. He didn't bother to comb out his frizzled mane, nor look back to Ayana when she spoke.

"Alex?"

The lion turns his head slightly, his eyes narrowed.

"Aren't you afraid?"

Ayana steps forward, slowly closing the gap between her friend. "No."

"Well, you should be!" Alex snapped, now facing Ayana entirely. "I'm Alex, Alex the monster!" His anger turns to sadness and he turns back around. "A monster no-one wants."

"I want you."

Alex's eyes softened and his heart skipped a beat.

"And we're both monsters," Ayana added quickly, flicking her tail. "But, being lonely will make things worse: the voice you speak will become alien to you because it begins to sound nothing like the one you used to know and...plenty of other stuff."

"Yeah, you seemed pretty lonely when you first arrived, and you were pretty...wild back then too."

"...I always was when I lost Levi."

There's that name again. Maurice spoke about it earlier. So Levi isn't some nobody? Were he and Ayana in a relationship before she came to the zoo? But didn't she bring him up until now? Is that why she wants to go to Africa so badly?

"Who's Levi?" Alex asked.

"Oh! Um-" Ayana brightened at that. The topic was scarcely familiar, enough to carry out a small conversation. Or an entire college course. But it was a story that will take time to finish. So she started with the beginning.

"He's my brother," Ayana answered.

Alex softened up again. "Oh..."

"After i was born, I always had a rock with Levi and mine's picture painted on it. The purpose of it was to use it when I couldn't find him, so I wouldn't feel so alone and I'll be able to have something to cling onto. I lost it the day I lost him." Her voice broke and her eyes grew misty.

Ayana lowered her head, refraining from making contact with Alex. "I miss him, but, I'm glad I met you guys. And I wouldn't trade y'all for anything."

Alex felt a smile looming around the edges of his black lips. "I'm glad I met you too."

"I guess you could say I'm not..." Ayana slowly starts smirking. "...lion."

There’s a pause of silence, and then Alex starts chuckling, accidentally confirming what Marty told her last night.

He thinks she's funny. Why? He's the funny one. Not to mention, the socialable, loveable, loyal and confident lion that reminds her of a celebrity.

Alex smirked. "You've been saving that one, haven't you?"

Ayana grins. "Just waiting for the right moment."

-/-

Marty, Melman, and Gloria were close to the beach. Ironically, they made it back to where this eventful day had begun: the bright and beautiful clearing was now an empty, wide opening of bittersweet memories.

They stopped for a moment, with Marty being the first. They all look at the clearing with dreadful looks.

"What have I done? This is a nightmare! And it's all my fault. Now, because of me, we've lost Alex and Ayana."

"Well, what are we going to do?" Melman asks, frantic.

"We'll find a way to help them. That's what we'll do." Gloria tells them.

"Oh! OK." Melman remarked, sarcasm sharpening his tone.

"Come on, we are New Yorkers, right?" Gloria asks, now standing in between the two animals.

"Yeah."

"We're tough. We're gritty."

"Yeah!"

"We're adaptable!"

"Yeah!!"

"And we are not going to lay down like a bunch of Melmans!"

"No, we're not." The said giraffe agreed before the distant sound of a horn sounded. Then, he mistakes the noise to have come from the female hippo.

"Oh. Gloria."

"That was not me, OK? That was the boat." Her eyes widened. "The boat!"

"The boat? The boat's come back for us! Come on, guys, we got to flag it down." Marty urged as they ran onto the beach.

Immediately after on the sand, the Zoosters saw the boat was just only miles away from the beach.

"There it is!" Marty yells.

"Hey, over here!" Melman cried out.

"Over here!" Gloria shouted.

"Over here! Over here! Yo! Yo! Yo!" Marty screams, flipping in the air.

"Melman, give me a lift. Hurry up! Lift me up!" Gloria yelled as she leaped on Melman's heads and the giraffe lifted her with a struggle.

"Help! Help! Help!" Marty called as used his right hoof to hang off Melman's neck.

"Oh, my neck. My neck. My neck. You guys. Over here!" Melman called out through the strain in his neck.

"Over here! Melman! Steady. This way!" Gloria urged.

"Over here!" Marty called.

"You have no idea how much this hurts," Melman commented as they continued calling.

"Hey, boat! We're over here!" Marty shouted.

Gloria then fell on Melman, and the female hippo immediately hopped onto her feet.

"Look! It's turning! It's coming back! It's coming back! It's coming back!" Gloria cheered, holding onto Melman right before the three joined together in a group, side-hug.

"Yes! This way! Come on! Come on, baby! WHOO!! Yes, you guys!" Melman cheered, for the first time after the lemur party did he feel relaxed and happy.

Marty looks back at the jungle and trots on his hooves, turning back to his jovial friends. "You guys flag down that boat. I’ll go get Ayana and Alex."

"Whoa! Hold on there." Gloria tells him as she stopped his racing hooves by yanking his tail. "You cannot go back there by yourself."

"Aw, come on. I know Alex. He hears we're rescued, he'll snap right out of it." Marty explained.

"The people are coming. They can help us."

"Melman's right. The people will know what to do. Now, come on. We got to flag down that boat." Gloria instructed.

As soon as they turned back, the boat was just a few inches away from the shoreline. Gloria widened her brown eyes at how close it was getting, slowly backing away while Marty takes the advantage to run back into the jungle.

The boat was way past the shoreline, screeching into a stop, planting the curved edge on Melman's nose at the bridge of his snout.

The booming horn released, pushing back the trees but unable to knock them down.

Then the anchor dropped.

And the penguins slid down the chain and flipped off into the stand.

"Now, this is more like it." Skipper smirks, nodding in approval.

"You?! Oh, ma... Where are the people?" Gloria asks in frustration, baffled from seeing the penguins.

"We killed them and ate their livers."

Pause.

"Got you, didn't I? Just kidding, doll, the people are fine. They're on a slow lifeboat to China. Hey, I know you two. Where's that psychotic lion, the sleepy leopard, and our monochromatic friend?"

"Marty? He's right..." She turns back and realized Marty was gone. "Where did he go? He was right behind us." Gloria groaned. "He went back for Alex and Ayana. He's going to get himself killed!"

"Well, boys, our monochromatic friend in danger. Looks like we have a job to do." Skipper directs Private, and he pulls out a red crayon and notepad to jot down his words.

"Captain's Log: Embarking into hostile environment. Kowalski! We'll need to win the hearts and the minds of the natives. Rico! We'll need special tactical equipment. We're gonna face extreme peril. Private probably won't survive."

Private's crayon tip breaks off and he looks up in shock.

Marty shakes a cactus that got stuck off his but, struggling for a bit before it ricochets off a rock.

"Alex! Come out, Alex! The boat's here! We can go home!" He calls out, looking around the predator territory, unaware of the fossa lurking close by.

Alex tussled in sleep, he woke up to his name being chanted. His paw was used to cover the bright light, which was revealed to be the flashing of cameras from zoo patrons.

Well, if you could call them that.

The crowd of humans was walking steaks due to his hunger hallucination.

With the little sanity he had left during so, he shakes Ayana awake...but she didn't punch the air, neither did she attack the nearest thing in sight.

Immediately, she followed Alex's motion, her crazed look returning as well. The name of Alex's name being chanted and the steak-humans standing was enough for her claws to lengthened.

Alex stuck out his tongue in hunger.

"Alex! Ayana!" Marty yelled into the enclosure of spikes and stones the lion made for himself.

The ocean blue and dark brown eyes went back to normal. Not "wild" at the moment, but only disheveled.

"Marty?"

"Martimer?"

"Snap out of it, you two. The boat came back. We can get out of here. We can go back to civilization, and everything will be just like it used to be."

"Stay back. Please. I'm a monster."

"Marty, please leave."

"Alex, you're no monster. You're my friend. We're a team. You and me, remember?"

Ayana and Alex abruptly lunged towards him, roaring predatorily, but caught themselves on the fence they made. "We don't want to hurt you."

Alex and Ayana ran off and skulked back into their cave.

"Alex. Ayana. I ain't leaving without you two."

Alex hid his face in his hands as Ayana curls into herself. Marty, sitting on a rock, thought of something that just might work.

"Alex? Ayana? I'm thinking of a song. It's a wonderful song. I'm sure you're familiar with it."

So Marty begins to sing.

"Start spreadin' the news, I'm leavin' today, We are a great big part of it."

His face fell when neither didn't budge.

"Come on, you know the words. Two little words. Please don't make me sing this by myself. You really don't want to hear me sing this by myself."

Their eyes turned back to normal.

The Fossa appeared, creeping out of the shadows, and started stalking towards Marty, giggling crazily.

"Uh, guys, could you come out here for a minute? Hey, Ayana, Alex, a little help?" Marty called out, turning around, only to find them closing in on him from all directions. A fossa leaps out, to which he kicks away and screams. "Help me! Alex! Ayana! Help!"

From his shrill screams, the leopardess, and lion's and eyes returned to pinpricks.

-/-

Marty dashed through the jungle floor on his hooves, as the fossa tried to nip at them. "Help me! Anybody, help me! Somebody! Ah! Help!" He screamed.

Then Marty was surrounded, so he fought them the best as he could before the swarm of carnivores pinned her to the ground.

A wild yell was heard.

Their heads swung around, ironically, to see Melman swinging on a vine and he grabs the zebra away from their clutches.

"Melman?" Marty gasped.

"That's right, baby." He replied confidently before they slam into a rock where Gloria waited for them.

"Run!" Gloria instructed, bringing them onto their feet.

"What's the plan?" Marty asks.

"This is the plan," Gloria answered.

"Fossa hungry." One fossa spoke.

"Fossa eat." Another adds.

"This is the plan?!"

Skipper appeared, narrowing his eyes at the carnivores with a flare gun, and held a flare as he raised his flipper.

"Fossa halt."

The gang glanced back, noticing the fossa have stopped. Then the penguin shot the flare in the sky, causing the lion-like creatures to gaze upon the bright colors in contentment.

"Fossa aaahh. Fossa ooh. Fossa aaahh."

After being distracted, placed a pole in the ground and puts the steering wheel from the ship through it. They lay down a plate with Private on it, whipped cream his head, and placed a cherry on top.

"Come and get it!" Private announced.

"

Fossa." Their attention snaps to Private, and they get that hungry look in their eyes again.

The other penguins spin the wheel, so when they charged at the young penguin, they would get knocked out by the wheel.

The rest tried to attack the gang, in which they responded by Marty fighting them off, and Gloria using Melman's head as a mallet to play whack-a-mole with the carnivore heads.

"There's too many of them, Skipper," Private announced, dodging an upcoming fossa attack in worry.

"It's been a real pleasure serving with you boys." Skipper tells his teammates, karate-chopping another fossa.

Ferocious roars broke out. On a rocky ledge perched Alex and Ayana, roaring with all their might.

"Ayana? Alex?" Marty asks with hope moments before punching a fossa that he held.

"That's our kill! Ours." Alex growled, making the others tremble in worry.

The pair jumped down and stalked, all on fours growling and snarling at the fossa to back off.

"Alex hungry. Alex eat."

"Ayana kill."

Their claws sprawled beneath, growling in low tones.

Immediately, they made their way to Marty. Ayana scampering to the zebra's back, gripping her paws on his shoulder blades, positioning him.

Alex walks closer, Ayana increases her grip.

Alex growls lowly as his muzzle is only 2 inches away from Marty's snout and with that, zebra knots his eyes shut, awaiting the certain doom that would befall him.

"Psst."

Marty opens an eye.

"It's showtime."

A smile stretches out on the zebra's face, his ears perking up as Ayana lets go of her grip on his shoulders and slump her arms around his neck.

"Thanks for not giving up on us, Marty."

"Man, you two almost gave me a heart attack. You can't just come sneak up on me. Just because you're a lion and leopard..." Ayana covers his snout with her paws while Alex shushed him, only his mumbled words of "let go of me, let go of me" made her stop.

"We got a plan," Ayana explained. "Totally full proof. Trust us, Martimer."

"We're getting out of here. Guys, just go with me on this. Like I said, it's showtime." Alex tells them.

Out of nowhere, Alex scooped Marty in his arms before doing the same with Gloria, and Melman while Ayana promptly got beside him as he roared.

"Our! Our kill!" He roared. "They're ours mine!" Alex declared, roaring at the fossa.

"It's the king of the beasts! Oh, no!" Gloria wailed.

"Don't eat me, Mr. Lion!" Marty begged.

"He's scary!" Melman shouted.

"Fear me! Savagery beyond comprehension!" Alex growled, stepping up forward to the fossa, making them step back.

"I am far too young to die!" Marty yells.

"You're a monster! A monster, I say!" Melman added.