Twenty thousand dollars. That was all it took to buy Ridgewood Valley Zoological Park. In hindsight, Jason should've perhaps been more careful, since most credible zoos were not for sale and were funded by hefty donations and even city founding. However, he just wanted out of the life of an office drone and into something more fulfilling.

  The gates of the zoo creaked open as Jason strolled in. The first thing he noticed was that the place was filled with cobwebs and graffiti. A rusted cotton candy cart was covered in cobwebs while a brick wall behind him had "Dead Zoo" spray painted on it. He looked around at the chain link fencing that held in nothing, or at least mostly nothing. There was the "Gray Wolf" exhibit. Jason walked up to the exhibit and read the sign.

  "Ancestor to the dog. Loves belly rubs and ear scratches," the sign read. Jason scowled then looked into the exhibit. Well, technically it was the same species, as in Canis lupus. Canis lupus familiaris, though. A white husky was relaxing in the exhibit and looked at Jason. It rolled over and started panting. Jason opened the exhibit gate and the husky trotted out. He looked at the collar, which the previous owner seemingly didn't care enough to remove, and saw that its name was "Winter". He crouched down to her level and petted her. Her tongue lolled out and she whined in that annoying yet endearing way that huskies do.

  He stood up and walked around some more. There were some other "exhibits", mostly just animals labeled to sound more exotic such as calling some chickens Jungle Peafowl and a cat lounging under a sign for the African Wildcat. Jason sighed and facepalmed. Everywhere he looked, signs were giving incorrect information and he was sure that the tiger in the enclosure was a cardboard cutout.

  When he finally reached the admin center, he saw a room with only a single computer, a swivel chair, and a teenage boy staring at his phone. Jason cleared his throat, and the teenager panicked, dropping his phone before putting it away. The teen jumped up and saluted. Jason suppressed a laugh. "At ease. You aren't in the military."

  The teen dropped his arm. "Sorry about that, sir. I'm just used to the previous owner. Name's Devon Williams." He extended his hand.

  Jason shook his hand. "Jason Briggs. Good to meet with you." He dropped the handshake. "Now onto important business, what do you do here?"

  Devon pointed outside. "I'm the zookeeper, of course. I make sure the animals are well-fed and the plants are watered."

  Jason picked up a potted fern that was completely wilted and brown. "I'm not sure what you mean by watering, because I think this fern is dead."

  Devon swore under his breath. "Sorry, sir. I was just watering them with Beast." He pulled out a neon green can and held it out to Jason.

  Jason looked at the can and then at Devon. "You watered the plants with an energy drink! How stupid are you?"

  "Plants love electrolytes!" Devon shouted back.

  "My only employee is an idiot," Jason murmured as he sat down at the computer. He turned it on and put in the credentials written on a sticky note in the corner of the screen. The computer took a while to load up the main screen, which made sense considering the computer was clearly about twenty years old and even used an old bulky monitor. Everything seemed standard for an old Windows XP setup, back when that company wasn't obsessed with AI and actually made somewhat decent products. There was the start screen and standard desktop icons. But there was also an icon for a program that seemed off: Zoo Tycoon. He played the sequel to the original game as a child, but the icon did not resemble either game's logo. Instead, the icon showed a zoo entrance with a statue of a man in a top hat with a lion, tiger, and bear by his feet. He double-clicked the icon, and it opened a menu.

  Jason looked through the options and froze for a bit. Fossil Lab spoke to him. He didn't quite believe it'd really do anything crazy, but perhaps it'd allow him to provide some information on dinosaurs to children since they love dinosaurs. He clicked on Finances to get a view of how things were going.

  Jason saw the finances and grimaced. The previous owner took out a loan he clearly couldn't pay back and there was not really any money coming in. Also, Devon seemed to be part-time and paid at minimum wage, though considering his performance, it was probably the right decision. Jason also saw that the screen had a huge red letters "Bankrupt!" across the top and he could refresh the screen. He clicked refresh.

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  The ground started rumbling. Jason and Devon ran outside and saw the animals run towards the admin center. Winter started howling while Devon picked up the cat and started petting it. Dust rolled up from the ground as the chain link fences disappeared along with the cart and the spray painted wall. "What the hell is going on?" Jason asked as the zoo reset.

  Once the rumbling stopped, Jason and Devon looked around to see a blank slate. Jason's tablet got a ping. He pulled it out and saw the same Zoo Tycoon app as before, but now on his tablet. He opened it and read the message.

  Jason shivered. Devon picked up his can of Beast and drank some of it. "I swear, boss, I never saw this before. I think we just got hit by an earthquake."

  Jason scowled. "Yeah, sure. A localized earthquake that perfectly erased every trace of the zoo and installed an app on my tablet." He then looked back at the tablet. "I guess this app must be affecting the real world. It's probably a bit dangerous, but it is contained within about 100 acres, so not that dangerous." He clicked around the app and pressed the Progress button.

  Jason turned to face Devon and asked, "Did the old zoo even have a bathroom? I didn't see one."

  Devon nervously chuckled. He scratched the back of his neck. "Funny story, boss. Let's just say the old boss didn't want to spend the money on 'useless amenities' and never got around to building one." Jason's face fell and he walked to the brick wall delineating the zoo and hit his head lightly against it.

  He pulled up his phone and looked up the zoo reviews on Yelp. I swear the wolf seems a bit too tame. I drank some water from one of the water fountains and got cholera. There's no bathrooms in this place! I had to take my five-year-old to a gas station! The reviews kept going. Each one was worse, or just funnier, than the last. One of them even mentioned that the temporary gorilla exhibit was literally just a guy in a gorilla suit. Jason even looked back at the admin office, which still remained even with no path leading to it, and saw the gorilla suit hanging on a coat rack.

  He shook his head and opened the construction menu.

  He clicked on Guest Facilities and it opened up a new menu.

  He clicked on Paths and then the option for a brick path. The screen changed to show a grid overlay of the zoo. He dragged the paths to create a central plaza before branching out, already planning future exhibits. He then clicked confirm.

  Paths rose up out of the ground in the same shape he drew it in. Devon stumbled and spilled his energy drink as Winter trotted over to lap it up. And before he lost track, Jason switched to the Finance menu.

  Jason put down an ATM at the entrance before flipping to Bathrooms and placing down a small bathroom.

  The money was trending downwards, but you had to spend money to make money. As the small bathroom rose up in the corner, he moved onto the animals. He switched to the Habitat Animals menu.

  Jason squinted. "These aren't very impressive animals. Also, I don't think zoos normally buy or sell animals." Then again, everything about this zoo seemed strange and fantastical. The only question was, which animals he was going to put in first.