“Thundera
Was Dying”
By
RD Rivero
Thundera
was dying. For a long time a hot wind
from the sun had blown across the land.
Only then did the wind begin to blow stronger, hotter. The constant wail echoed through the
cavernous ruins of the abandoned cities.
Steaming hot clouds, rolling, curling in the air in dense formations of
demonic character spread through the air.
The air. The choking air, the
fuming air, unbreathable, unbearable.
Little life survived, only the Thunderians had managed to keep on.
Tygra
and Cheetara hid their faces behind their hands while the sand blew around
them, above them. Their clothes fretted
violently and slapped their bodies in painful sounds. Something got caught in her eyes and she
stopped, he held her close to himself, he drew her close with his arms wrapped
around her. He bowed his head onto her
shoulder.
“How
long do you think we have left, Tygra?”
she asked her tiger.
“Four
weeks, four days,” he told her. “Four
hours.” He left that last one to
himself.
“Will
it happen quickly?”
He
kissed her cheek. “Quickly.”
The
wind grew stronger still. A blood-red
sun, thoroughly, profusely, grossly distorted in massive heaves of flamed
plumes loomed over the jagged outline of distant gray mountains. Night -- the hot, hot night -- was soon near
and before them, amidst the throws of elongated shadows, the sun set behind the
scorched peaks while flares flickered and licked the air.
Years
before millions of Thunderians had left in spaceships to the safety of other
planets, colonies and yet other systems unexplored and unknown. Only a few had chosen to remain behind, that
could not leave for Thundera was home.
At
last Tygra and Cheetara returned to their house, the steel house the tiger had
designed to withstand the brutal environment.
The outer door slid open with an audible his and the two entered into
the dark, small room. While the front
door swung back closed the inner door softly rolled away to reveal the
otherwise calm, otherwise cozy interior.
The
living room was shaped like the inside of an igloo, albeit in vast
proportions. The slate floor was shiny
and reflected the light emitted from the small kitchen. The dining hall itself was low and flat, the
walls were covered in an orange -- a light orange, yellow -- clay dotted with
the spare streaks of a while, chalky substance.
The fixtures, the cupboards, the floor, the ceiling, down to the
furniture was gray and beige and every other shade in between.
The
stove glowed red, water boiled in large sauce pans, the table was set and ready. Wileykat had prepared dinner. The adults brushed off the sand that had
collected in their fur and, stripped naked, the two sat at the table while he
served the meal.
The
kitten was fourteen and a quiet boy.
Last year he could have taken long walks at night but that was not
possible anymore. He knew everything was
ending. He would dream of great fires
and when dawn arrived he saw that his visions were coming true.
The
three sat at the table eating. There was
no conversation, there was only silence, the kind of silence that could shatter
nerves as surely as a jackhammer could.
With
a soft chime the phone caught the collective attention. “I’ll get it,” Wileykat said. He ran to screen and turned it on thankful
that something had distracted him from the reality of the situation. A young face came into view from a sudden
storm of blue snow.
It
was Wileykit.
“Hi,
Kat,” she said. Something about her
smile was infectious no matter what the condition. “Can you come over? Panthro just came home with a bunch of old
shows. He found them at the museum. You know the old shows, the ones kids used to
watch.”
Wileykat
was happy. When he was with his twin
sister he felt like an adult. “Somehow,
I’ll protect her, when the day comes, I will protect her,” he thought to
himself.
He
ran back to the two at the table. The
pottery dinnerware steamed, the cups were nearly empty of water, utensils
clamored in the course of use.
“Wileykit
wants me to go over to Panthro’s,” he said to Cheetara. “Panthro found some old shows and she wants
to know if I could go watch them with her.”
“I
think we can manage it, Wileykit, the wind seems to have died down, a little.”
“I’ll
get the vehicle running,” Tygra said from the kitchen. He was already up and had even managed to put
most of his clothes back on.
Tygra
and Wileykat walked down below a set of stairs into the garage. The lights suddenly turned on, rather
flickered on, the illumination never rose beyond the level of a faint
glow. The tiger had his hand on the
boy’s shoulder, pressed firmly. He gave
him one last hug before they boarded the vehicle.
“I
love you, Kat,” he said under his breath.
Outside
the night had grown black and the wind was still strong. The temperature was a constant one hundred
and fifteen degrees. When Tygra and
Wileykat left Cheetara walked into the bedroom to look at herself in the
mirror. In the oval looking-glass she
saw herself basked in the eerie blue light of the chamber. She wanted to cry but there were no
tears. She was still young, strong and
beautiful. What a waste, she thought,
what a waste.
Years
before, when everyone was leaving, she had thought about going too. Then she remembered what she told little
Liono. “I can’t go. How can I leave Thundera? I can remember what winter was. I can remember what snow was. The cold mornings.” The boy said nothing and walked away to
Jagga’s side. Walked away, blasted away
forever.
From
then on the sun had grown hotter and redder.
The ice caps had melted. The seas
rose. Most of the major cities were
under water, under boiling, bubbling water until it all evaporated and was lost
to space.
The
vehicle approached minutes later. Her
tiger came to her and together the two spoke quietly though outside the
torrential winds echoed loudly: “The
sun, Cheetara, the sun. It’s only a
matter of hours.”
Wileykat
and Wileykit were having a wonderful time.
In the dark basement of Panthro’s warehouse, the two watched the old
shows and laughed until the tears ran down their faces. The twins sat on the couch hand in hand, arm
in arm. They enjoyed themselves
completely. It was not very often that
they visited each other. She was always the
more outgoing, the more active. Panthro
was more to her tastes while he preferred Tygra’s mellow tranquillity.
That
night the hot wind blew stronger than ever before and even the house
shook. Tygra opened his eyes. He touched a wall but when he did he pulled
back quickly. He had burned his
fingertips. Out a nearby window he saw
that the darkened sky had turned yellow.
He turned to Cheetara, he kissed her tenderly.
Back
to Fanfic
Archive