“The
Last Thunderian”
By
RD Rivero
“We
have to hurry. In another hour the last
ship will leave Thundera.” Tygra stood
before the large bed that was both bare and uncovered. The whole room was basked in the dim light of
the very early morning, of the almost dawn.
A large green suitcase rested on the mattress opened, filled with
clothes and other sundry items. He
stopped what he was doing. He looked
toward the back of the bedroom where a female figure stood before the windows.
“Tygra,”
Cheetara said, “I can’t believe this is happening. Everyone is leaving. Can’t the scientists be wrong?” From on high, from the vista of the
skyscraper she had clear and unobstructed views of the world below. She saw the tall spaceship, brown and yellow,
pointed straight up into the air. Black
markings on the side of its length were illegible at her expansive distance.
Tygra
walked to her. He held her gently, he
took her chin into his palm and lifted her head to face him. He kissed her and hugged her real tight. He sighed at last and said: “The air from inside the domes is leaking out
into space. In a few days we won’t be
able to breathe.”
“I
don’t want to go. I just can’t leave,
Tygra,” she said with a sad look in her watery eyes. She ran her hands and fingers through his
stripped fur and soft mane.
“That’s
crazy,” the tiger said. Silence and she
almost hoped that the pause would last forever.
“Look up through the dome and what do you see?”
“Stars,”
she answered. Cheetara had turned her
body but still leaned on him.
“One
of those stars, that one over there, is a planet. Third Earth.
Do you see it?”
“Yes,”
she said reluctantly.
“That’s
where we’re going, to a new life on that planet.”
She
gazed up at that faraway dot of light.
She frowned. She turned to him
and said: “All right, you win,” but an
idea had already taken hold of her, a decision had just been made in the
unanimity of her mind.
She
helped him back the rest of mementos into the luggage: photographs, important documents, books,
films. All that ever meant anything to
them they managed to stowe neatly if not tightly into the green suitcase. In no time the two took the elevator down and
outside in the then bright sun light they mingled into the larger crowd that
had formed outside the spaceship.
Armed
guards herded the weary Thunderians into ordered lines. Porters began to collect the luggage of the
eagerly awaiting refugees. There was a
slight scuffle caused by nothing more than a misunderstanding between the
police and several groups of families nearby.
Up until that point she had held his hand but in the chaos the commotion
had caused she had found that it was easy for her to slip away and run toward
the forest behind the city.
She
was very careful and did not simply dodge out of the area right away. Rather she slowly walked away from
Tygra. Although he had turned his head
back to look for her, when he did so she had not been too far from him. Her heart beat quickly in anxiety and for a
while, for a few tense moments while Tygra only seemed to get smaller and
smaller and finally slipped indistinguishably into the mass of Thunderians, she
thought about giving in, she thought about going on with what everyone else,
with what her tiger had planned.
When
Tygra had disappeared entirely she realized then that she was no longer even in
the limits of the large crowd that had dwindled while the people had boarded
the spaceship. In her mind she saw that
he had entered and had been seated somewhere within the vast interior. In her best laid plans he would not have
noticed she was not there until the spaceship was taking off and it would too
late to do anything about it.
Cheetara
raced from the city to the highest point in the forest that surrounded the
capitol. She watched from a hill as the
last spaceship lifted into the air with a series of great explosions. Below the city was silent. Above the stars twinkled through the thinning
air of the planet.
“I
couldn’t leave. I just couldn’t leave,”
she thought sadly. “Now I will be the
last to see my world.”
She
felt tired from the climb. She sat down
on the ground, buried her head in her hands and began to shake with tears. “Good-bye, Tygra,” she whispered. Nothing answered her but the breeze and a few
birds. While Cheetara listened to those
birds she dreamt of past times. She
recalled the kittens and their last birthday party, Panthro and little baby
Liono. Somehow, while those images raced
through her head, the city below looked alien and lonely.
She
stayed up on that hill for hours until the day faded to night and the thin air
grew deep and cool. Cheetara walked back
to her home. “How odd, the street lamps
are still on, but there’s no one left to walk beneath them.” She shivered but not from the cold. “I am the only one left. I am the only one left!” She cried and her words bounced between the
buildings and rolled back to her. The
echo repeated and repeated and repeated until at length the sound meshed into
silence.
Her
life changed completely over the next few days.
When she felt hungry she would just walk into any house. She would turn on a switch and a warm meal
would be served by the automatic kitchen.
She chose the biggest homes to sleep in.
During the day she would watch films all alone in the theaters and at
night she would walk around the empty city.
The
animals had sensed that there were no Thunderians left around. The wild creatures had quickly returned and
reclaimed the last lost traces of that dead civilization. One day Cheetara walked through the downtown
area. There she saw a wild horse. The horse grazed on the short blades of stiff
grass that had grown between the stones of the street. She also heard the barking of dogs that had
formed into dangerous packs. All the
while the air became thinner and thinner.
In
the morning an electrical failure caused the city to lose power. The great buildings remained without
lights. No films, no automatic kitchens
worked. She was left with nothing to do
but go into the forest. The Thunderians
had first come from the wilderness, after all, so many millions of years
before. She took all the food she could
carry and then she began the climb. Soon
she reached that height from which she had seen the last spaceship rise.
“I
wonder how long the buildings will last,” she thought. Then she wondered about Third Earth, about
Tygra and how lonely and how sad he must be feeling. Would he try to come back for her? Could he come back for her? She cried angry at herself for having run
away. She saw again, in her mind,
Tygra’s image fading into obscurity while she backed out of the crowd of
refugees.
That
night she found it difficult to breathe.
She lay down low beneath the roots of a tree and ate a few bites from
the food. She looked up, she saw that
planet her beloved tiger had pointed to.
The bright spot shimmered in the thin air, the cold air.
“Maybe
Tygra’s thinking of me now,” she imagined out loud to herself.
She
recalled that expression of absolute love on his face whenever he spoke to
her. She could almost see him right
there, right there next to her, on the ground, on his side next. Eyes met, hand in hand, he held her while he
softly, gently caressed her. She missed
his warm arms around her, the feel of his body on her, the hugs, the kisses and
she knew then she would never have that again but it soothed her to think
anyone could adore her so much. So
much. So much.
Cheetara
felt content at the thought and at the memory.
Breathing had become more and more difficult. Tired, she fell into a peaceful sleep while
the last air on Thundera fled into space.
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