Many scientists had predicted that humans would provoke their own extinction. They also said that global warming would trigger other tragedies. Skeptical politicians ignored all warnings and did nothing to prevent the fast approaching Armageddon.
Other contributing factors were: Overpopulation, nuclear wars, and pandemics. The unnecessary exploitation of energetics forced a harmful climate change. Then, a few nations trying to control what was left of the world initiated wars launching attacks with biological warfare and other weapons of mass destruction. The increasing madness had devastating consequences for Mother Nature.
Sadly, (or gladly) humans were the only species disappearing from our planet.
The human race turned out to be a resilient kind of animal; they could be compared to cockroaches. Nuclear wars were not destructive enough to exterminate humans. Pandemics further decimated humankind, but neither of those completely eliminated the global population. It had to be a combination of all catastrophes known to man.
The animal kingdom realized that humans were the culprit of such bizarre phenomenon. Therefore, they turned against humans. Mankind had always underestimated animals, but the equilibrium of nature invariably succeeds. Sometimes, certain species had to perish in order for others to survive.
All animals in the world began to grow in physical size, and their brain capacity increased too. Rats grew to double their size every hundred years. Human flesh became part of the animal diet. Animals had found a logical solution, ‘kill and feed’. Get rid of the enemy by consuming it.
The total eradication of humans from the face of the earth appeared impossible at first.
We knew that if unattended, a house could be devoured by an infestation of rats, cockroaches, and termites in less than fifty years. Humans not only had left their houses unattended but the entire world. They had totally cooperated to their own destruction. They had complete knowledge of that possibility five hundred years before. All powerful nations were blaming each other. And kept generating new wars that accelerated their deserving fate.
They had reached their final goal. They fused the past with the present and canceled the future.
*****
Lucius Night and Katana Luna were the last survivors, they were the last vestige of humankind. And there was no one left to cheer for their success. Adam and Eve didn’t have such an impossible task.
When population began to decline, life expectancy for humans had been from a hundred and fifty to two hundred years. Many illnesses had been eradicated. Alcohol, tobacco, sugar, and animal fat were rarely consumed. That period had been the peak of human excellence. Body and mind at their best. Then things rapidly deteriorated.
Lucius Night had a superior mind than most scientists from the twentieth-first century. Katana Luna had a JCN chip implanted before she was born. They were human computers. They were taller and stronger than their human counterparts from five centuries before. But they were still vulnerable to the rest of the animal kingdom, where a rat was as big as a cat. From year to year the size increase could not be noticeable but in five hundred years the difference was humongous.
Having a common enemy, animals had become allies among themselves to fight against humans. The animal kingdom had significantly reduced killing each other; half of them had adopted a semi-vegetarian diet. The other half was consuming human flesh, which seemed to be addicting, judging from the amounts they were ingesting. And the supply seemed unlimited.
The animal kingdom had indeed become the King. It appeared that history could repeat itself.
Lucius and Katana didn’t know they were the only humans left. They had not seen other people for a long time. The last time Lucius saw his parents was soon after his mom had delivered Katana Luna. Many months had passed since their parents had left the cave. And there was no need to pretend they were still alive.
Lucius knew there was a slim chance for him and her sister to survive. He had promised himself to never give up for Katana's sake. The main purpose in Lucius' life was to protect his little sister.
It was hard to guess Lucius Night’s age due to the change in human life expectancy. Whatever his age was he was far more intelligent and stronger than he appeared.
Every single day was going to be a struggle to remain alive. Indeed, Adam and Eve didn’t have such an impossible task.
Just like Adam and Eve, Lucius and Katana were responsible for the future of mankind. Adam and Eve did their best, but they did not succeed. From the story of the Tree of Knowledge, it all went down in a disastrous decline. But their decline had lasted thousands of years. If Lucius and Katana were pretending to avoid the complete eradication of human life, first and foremost they had to implant one thing into the minds of future generations: They had to respect their home. Humankind was one People, and Planet Earth was their only home. They had to take care of it constantly, mainly by leaving it alone.
God had never intervened since Adam and Eve, and Lucius and Katana were not expecting His help.
God had probably left already. After all, there was nothing to supervise anymore.
If there was anything certain in the Bible, it had to be Armageddon. The end of times scenario had been worse than anyone could have predicted. But since humans began to disappear, the planet’s landscape had improved greatly. The big metropolises like New York, Tokyo, and Rio de Janeiro became the most beautiful jungles in the world. The deserts began to shrink as soon as humans started to vanish. The same way humans had underestimated animals, they had also underestimated Mother Nature's healing powers. All damage done by humans had started to reverse after the first signs of human extinction. Nature was finally getting rid of a grave illness: humanoid overcrowding.
Lucius and Katana had only two weapons to defend themselves. Katana Luna had the paralyzing waver. A handgun designed to send airwaves in all directions, capable of paralyzing all animals in a radius of a hundred feet; the effect could last from two to six hours, depending on the animal size. It was a non-lethal weapon. Lucius had the invisible laser-blazer. An accurate ray-seeking weapon powerful enough to disintegrate a whale in a fraction of a second.
Most of their knowledge had been implanted or absorbed during their twelve-month gestational period. Knowledge especially prepared by their parents, knowing in advance that a human extinction was approaching. They had specific training in survival skills. Their food source and diet were contained mainly in pills rich in artificial nutrients and proteins, including water. Each pill had a slow energy release that lasted a week. They had a little over a thousand units to last about five hundred weeks or approximately ten years.
Communication between Katana and Lucius had been telepathic for the most part. Katana wasn’t able to talk yet, and this was a concern for Lucius, since he began to talk at a younger age. But he thought it was because he was the only person who could talk to her. After all, he spoke to her very little and rarely using complete sentences. Katana used hand signals. She loved to hear her name spoken by Lucius and every time she wanted Lucius to pronounce her name she would tap her right temple with her right hand. In those instances, Lucius would begin to sing . . .
"Katana Luna, Katana Luna, my sweet moon
Brighter than the sun
Stronger than a monsoon
Katana Luna, Katana Luna,
I'd go insane without you . . ."
And every time Lucius finished singing, Katana would end up with a big smile on her face, and Lucius with tears in his eyes, for that was the song her mom used to sing to make her fall asleep.
*****
The place chosen by Lucius' parents for a shelter was a cave on a mountain range less than a mile from the ocean. The animal invasion to the cities was an amazing collaborative operation in which several animal species had participated. With no apparent leader, the animals had to be communicating telepathically or in another mysterious way.
During the day, diverse animals, including former house pets organized the attack. Dogs, cats, mice, spiders, ants, cockroaches, birds and snakes had been avid participants. The size of dogs and cats had increased so much that they could not be kept in homes. Around that time, Lucius' dad had to get rid of his dog because he suspected the dog had attempted to eat Lucius. The dog had been named Kepler after the planet humans had been trying unsuccessfully to colonize for centuries.
Domestic animals didn't exist anymore. House pests could only be controlled by professional exterminators. Weapons were created especially to get rid of these pests. At night, another kind of animals emerged, including rats, bats, wolves, and coyotes. But it was insanely dangerous, day and night.
The military began to help, but soon, they were ordered to withdraw because they were causing more damage than help. Besides, American people were well armed, but they were overwhelmed by the enormous amount of attackers.
Due to the constant contact with such horrific carnage, people began to lose their sensitivity at the sight of human loss. Even if their own children were devoured in front of their eyes they had to continue the struggle to take care of themselves, there was no time for crying. They had to be in constant flight.
Other tragedies began to occur, with toxic waste new viruses appeared, causing pandemics of such virulence and infectiousness that decimated human population even furthermore. To fight for their survival they had to abandon their jobs and as a consequence famine showed up, and it was unmerciful.
Of all possible extinction causes only pandemics were selective enough to eliminate humans since wildlife was left relatively unscathed.
Communities were evolving in isolated tribes, people fled in search of natural shelters, caves in mountains, open fields and deserts, forests, and underground tunnels. But there was no escape and no solution; animals were bigger and more dangerous outside city limits. You could be eaten by a thousand ants, or by a single bear.
Lucius rarely dared to venture outside the cave to hunt for food. He evaluated the risk of leaving Katana Luna in the cave or taking her with him, and most of the time he preferred to leave her behind. Sometimes he would return with fish or birds, the only kind of animals that Lucius considered safe for human consumption, and Katana’s favorite food.
One day when Lucius came back, he found two paralyzed wolves in the cave. After he took them outside and shot them with the DD (disintegrating device) gun, he decided never to leave Katana alone again. If she had been asleep, there wouldn’t have been any traces of her left. That night, he was convinced that if that would have been the case; he’d kill himself for sure. The reason Katana had chosen the paralyzing gun was that she was against any animal killings unless it was done for human feeding. An extreme stance, considering the current situation. She certainly was the last pacifist amidst the turmoil of the final Armageddon.
The results were catastrophic. Nearly eight billion people perished in the last five hundred years. And all the world contained began to thrive without humans. The apocalyptic images had been erased. Earth’s heart was beating at a lower speed, the world was happy. Nature didn’t need men. The world had no use for mankind.
*****
From the beginning, one of Katana’s dearest passions had been contemplating lunar eclipses. Only two things were important in her life, Lucius was definitely the number one. Lunar eclipses would have to be second place for sure. If it was up to her, she would never miss any of those celestial events. She would sit for hours, ignoring all risks and hazards. She would remain captivated in delight, hypnotized by the phenomenon and oblivious to any external actions. In remarked contrast, during those moments, Lucius had to remain on constant alert, ready to defuse any dangers that might appear. Moments like that would have made God reconsider His hope for mankind. Brotherly love of such high purity could not be ignored by any god in any Universe.
The first lunar eclipse Katana had experienced was in the peaceful darkness of the backyard in their humble house, while mother sang her favorite lullaby and rocked her in her arms.
"Katana Luna, Katana Luna, my sweet moon
Brighter than the sun
Stronger than a monsoon
Katana Luna, Katana Luna,
I'd go insane without you . . ."
The worse day in Lucius’ life had been the day Katana was attacked by a cat twice her weight. Lucius neglected his attention from her for a few minutes while hunting for birds. Lucius killed the aggressor, but only after the cat had badly scratched Katana’s leg. Katana was able to shoot her gun while the cat was mid-flight aiming in her direction, but couldn’t avoid the cat from landing on her leg. She was a brave girl, without a doubt.
That day was the second time Lucius has seen her cry. The day he found the two wolves inside the cave was the first.
Several nights later, Lucius had a dream with his dad in which dad advised him to search for the “crystal wall”, and to be ready for departure. Once in a while, he would dream with Dad, and invariably he would give him some kind of guidance. He would always recount all those dreams to his sister, and their happiness would last for days.
Lucius found the dream hard to interpret, nevertheless, the following day they would search for that mysterious crystal wall.
The last few days he had noticed a little change in the sky. The clouds were not clear, they had a blurry look, wavy and foggy. As if you were looking through a crystal glass.
The following day, Lucius took Katana along and began to search for the crystal wall. For the first time, he was dubious about the purpose of his dream. He had never doubted his dad’s advice. Still, he was uncertain about the “wall” or what to do if he'd find it. Lucius also couldn’t figure out what his dad meant by ‘departure’. He felt excited, but he knew they would encounter high risks and unwanted danger.
Early in the morning, they began to climb the mountain’s peak above the cave. Katana’s injured leg had not completely healed yet, her leg was still bandaged, but Lucius knew she was strong enough for the task. With weapons in hand, they began the trek. Climbing the mountain was not an easy task, but Lucius was glad they were well-rested and full of energy. Katana was hiking a few feet ahead of Lucius, that way; Lucius thought, he could catch her if she slipped.
And she did when a menacing yellow spider crossed her path. The spider was half her size; it seemed that the arachnid could be able to not just kill her but to eat her. Swift and hostile, the spider stunned Katana and made her lose her balance. Lucius, fearless and ferocious, shot the spider while catching Katana in his arms.
After walking for two days, Lucius considered returning to the cave, when he literally crashed into the wall a few yards past of what appeared to be the end of the luscious vegetation and thick forest. He never thought the world could have an edge or an end.
Beyond the glass wall, he could see the sky all around him, even below his feet. It seemed so odd and bizarre.
It appeared to him that the fifteenth century explorers were right . . . The Earth was flat after all. His inquisitive mind couldn’t find a logical explanation. And as he tried to find the purpose of the wall, he hit it with a rock as hard as he could, but he couldn’t even scratch it. He wondered if the wall was enclosing the space outside, or if they were in some kind of a cage. Seeing the enormous void of space in the exterior, he guessed the second part was right.
They kept exploring what appeared to be a new world within the old world. It seemed like a dream. The place could definitively be described as utopian . . . or dystopian.
Changes in the surroundings included the animals, he thought they looked smaller. Or was it that he and Katana were growing bigger? In the end, he concluded that all animals were returning back to their normal size. They seemed less ferocious too. They also began to appear in pairs. It was probably the mating season. But it couldn’t be mating season for all species at the same time. Lucius had also noticed that lately the animals had gone back to their herbivorous diet. But since humans had disappeared there was no other choice. He figured.
And when they ventured into the ocean waters, they noticed that the water tasted less salty. Things were surely changing. He then recalled the time he saw a pod of gigantic whales that caused a huge tsunami and pushed the sea water close to their cave, almost a mile away and a hundred feet above sea level. But that was a long time ago. The ocean now looked more like a lake. It was serene and placid, and as beautiful as ever.
For the next three days, he carried Katana on his shoulders along the glass wall. One night, something strange happened; the night seemed longer, way too long. It seemed that their internal clock malfunctioned because they woke up and it was still dark. Katana and Lucius went back to sleep three times before the sun reappeared.
Then, something even stranger occurred; two moons appeared on the horizon. It was a beautiful moon rise. It was peculiar and freakish, but extremely beautiful.
Unbeknownst to them, they had arrived at their destination . . . "The New World”. A world so big, it would take seven days to go around its own axis. A day on this planet was equal to seven days on Earth. And the crystal walls surrounding Katana and Lucius’ world was, in fact, a spaceship created by their father. It also functioned as an ark to transport animals to the new world, an empty world . . . until now.
“Look Katana, look!” Lucius screamed in excitement “Look Katana, two moons! Katana Luna Luna!” and he repeated 'Luna' for he knew 'Luna' meant 'moon'.
And he proclaimed, “This is the real beginning of Eternity. This is our new home Katana."
Edmundo Barraza
Lancaster, Ca. Nov-28-2015
