Several different species of apes sat in a corner, keeping their distance from the tiger, lion, leopard and other cats on the other side of the enormous room. The apes were chatting in the animal language that had come to them somehow over the last year. Stones precious only to humans were scattered about, and provided a freaky, unnatural light. A few other animals were hanging around the apes, but mostly just observing with great interest. A beaver was chewing something at the side wall of the ship. “Wait,” the chimpanzee said. “So you’re saying this whole flood started because of the humans?” The orangutan nodded. “Yeah, I heard them talking.” “But I thought they were saving us,” a lemur squeaked. The orangutan snorted. “Yeah, from themselves. They ticked off God because they were thieves and too violent and …” “Violence isn’t all bad,” a gibbon interjected. “Right,” the orangutan agreed, “But their violence is mostly without purpose and they steal from others who deserve it.” “Sometimes you need to do that for territory rights,” a gorilla said in a deep voice. “True, but they also don’t take care of their poor and handicapped,” the orangutan finished. “What’s handicapped?” the gibbon asked. “You know,” the chimpanzee answered. “Like when you are born without legs or arms.” “What’s wrong with that?” a python asked. It had been observing quietly from the floor. “Oh, well, um,” the chimpanzee stuttered. “He also meant blind animals,” a rhesus monkey said, trying to bail out his friend. “Hey,” a star-nosed mole squeaked. “I’m blind. What’s wrong with that?” “Oh, er, nothing,” the rhesus replied. The mole sniffed. “Eyes don’t do any good when you spend your life burrowing. I use my tentacles to see.” It wriggled the two dozen tentacles on its nose. “How about penguins? They’re disabled,” the rhesus monkey said. The chimpanzee scratched his forehead. “How’s that?” “They have wings,” the rhesus monkey said. “But they can’t fly. So they have a disability.” Silence as they all considered this. A coyote broke the silence. “If you don’t have thumbs, are you considered handicapped?” The apes all looked down at their thumbs. “Not handicapped, thumb-capped,” a weasel joked. One of the creatures behind them snickered. “Anyway,” the orangutan said, trying to get the discussion back on track. “Disabled can be many different things. The humans weren’t treating theirs well, and they made God angry, so He told these humans to make this ship, collect two each of us non-humans, and then the world was flooded.” The room gasped. “Every other creature was killed.” The room gasped again. “Including my brother and my other brother and my other brother and my sister and other sister and other sister?” a meerkat piped up in an anguished tone. The little mongoose’s eyes were large behind its black mask. “Yes, all gone,” the orangutan said with pity in its voice. “And they killed the handicapped humans, too?” the gibbon said. The orangutan nodded. “Yes, it doesn’t make much sense, but the handicapped were drowned, too.” “But why punish us animals for something humans did?” the chimpanzee asked. “And even punish their own human babies,” the orangutan said. The gibbon nodded. “Yeah, and how come fish and dolphins and sharks get off free? This flood just expands their territory. And I know the flies cheated,” he growled. “I’ve seen more than two of them.” The rhesus monkey waggled a finger. “You know, on that note this might be a good opportunity to wipe out mosquitoes.” They all perked up at that. “All good questions,” the orangutan said. “And then there’s the fact they isolated us from our females so we don’t procreate while we are on this ship.” “I miss my lady,” the silverback gorilla said mournfully. “Not me,” a praying mantis said, perching on a nearby wall watching with bulging eyes. The chimp gave the mantis a look. “Why don’t you miss her?” The mantis looked a bit sheepish even though the sheep were on another level of the ship. “Well, yes, I love her. I want to have babies with her.” The chimp looked confused, “And …? “You know, uh, after we mate, she, um, well, she bites my head off.” “Oohh!!” the room chorused. “I mean, yeah, it’s wonderful up until then.” “Um, yeah, that’s gross, but how come the humans on this ship didn’t have to separate their males from their females?” the gibbon asked, frowning. “And how come they got to bring their children? There are eight of these humans, but only two each of the rest of us?” the chimpanzee said with anger. “This is all their fault and they have it better than us.” The gibbon’s lips twisted. “Wait a minute, wait a minute, every future gibbon will be descent of mine? Adam and Eve of the humans?” “Looks like it,” the orangutan nodded. “That’s a lot of in-breeding. The kids will have to mate with their brothers and sisters.” The orangutan shrugged. “That’s probably why humans are screwed up,” the chimpanzee said with a monkey smile. Before anything else was said, a raven appeared. They all looked at it. “Good news,” it cawed. “Really?” the orangutan said. “We could use some good news.” “I was out flying, and I saw something wonderful.” “And that was?” “Land! I saw land! I think the flood is finally over!” There was an eruption of cheers. “Yay, we can get off this boat!” the gibbon declared. “But what’s it going to be like out there?” the chimpanzee asked. “We had one hundred days of flooding. Did trees survive?” “And what will we eat?” the weasel asked. “If we eat meat, we will destroy the entire animal species of whatever we eat.” “I remember hearing the humans talking about this,” the orangutan said. “They are going to leave the remaining food out from the ship for us until we can repopulate. Somehow their God keeps it fresh.” “Blech, I don’t like fresh,” a hyena said. “Give me stinky, rotted meat any time.” The orangutan nodded. “I think you’ll get what you’ve been able to exist on here. And then …” “I think the cats have been cheating,” the rhesus monkey interrupted, gesturing to the tigers and lions and leopards on the other side of the room. The orangutan looked up. “What do you mean?” The rhesus monkey’s eyes were wide. “I think they’ve been secretly hunting.” “Hunting?” the orangutan asked. “Yeah, they’re sneaky. I think they got the unicorn and its …” Before he could continue, the beaver eating near the wood wall interrupted. “Hey guys, I think we have a problem.” Everyone looked at him. Now they could see he’d been gnawing on the gopher-wood sealed with pitch that made up the wall. “You’ve been eating our wall?” the chimpanzee asked. “Well, yeah, um, just snacking” the beaver stuttered. “But we have a problem. A serious one.” “What’s that?” the orangutan asked. “The wood. I think termites. They somehow have infested the entire wood of the ship. There aren’t just a male and female. Either they massively bred or their entire population all sneaked onto the ship. The wood is very corroded.” “So what’s the problem?” the chimp asked. Suddenly a cracking sound came from the wall. They all jumped. That’s when the wall collapsed and a massive flood of water cascaded in. “God help us,” the raven cried. Then there was a flash of lightning. About the author:
After suffering a spinal injury, author Norm Cowie started writing dystopian short stories featuring the theme of disability. Prior to his injury, he had written a dozen novels, and is an award-winning business columnist. Some of his other disability short stories have or will soon be published in the magazines Amazing Stories, Bewildering Stories, The Globe Review and Altered Reality. His website is: www.normcowie.com
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
