Inevitability, part 2
Inevitability pt. 2
As he slept, the rain picked up. The flashes of lightning, which at first were sporadic, now were striking somewhere every few seconds. The thunder, originally only a muted roar, now drowned out all other nearby sounds. The Fur slept through the din, unaware of what the world outside the cave. A few hours later, when dawn broke, a faint, light rain still fell. The storm would soon be over. The birds living in the forest, ignorant and uncaring to what had happened, began to sing. Deep in the forest, a dead tree, still standing, even years after a beetle infestation had killed it, was about to fall. The rotted pine collapsed into the detritus on the forest floor with a loud snap as branches broke, and then a crash as the tree fell seconds later. Gravity, and the gnawing insects, had finally succeeded in bringing the ancient tree down. The birds, startled by the sudden crash of the falling tree, became silent.
Inside the cave, the Fur slept on. After a few minutes more of sleep, he was brought to a state of semi-consciousness when he felt something nudging him on his left side sat upright. He opened his eyes, and there, standing above him was a human. From his point of view lying on the ground, the human stood about six and a half feet tall. The human was male, and upon seeing the Fur's eyes open, said, "Good, you are alive; saved me from the trouble of burying you." The Fur, nervous but not at all surprised at seeing a human, quickly sat up and pulled himself to his feet. Extending his right paw in what he knew to be a human gesture of greeting, said, "Yeah, I'm alive; dead tired, but alive. Why'd you have to kick me? You could've just said something to wake me up." To which the human replied "I tried, but you were sleeping so soundly that you did not hear me." The Fur, upon seeing that the human was not going to shake his paw, let his right arm drop to his side. "Okay, that explains how you woke me up, but I would still like to know why. My name is John, by the way." The human waited, as if contemplating the question, before he answered. "I was once called Markos; you may call me that if you wish. And as for why I woke you; it would not have been right of me to leave you here, what with all that has been happening of late." A brief pause, and then the human spoke again. "But maybe I was wrong to wake you, maybe you like to hide in the woods and sleep in caves without any real supplies," he said, while pointing towards John's small backpack. The Fur, defensively, and with a hint of rage, said, "Hey, I didn't choose to come out here. There was a terrorist attack on the city; it's not safe there anymore, so I fled out here, where it's safe. And what do you mean 'with all that has been happening of late'?"
Markos grinned and said "You don't watch the human news networks much, do you?" "Of course not," John shouted. "It's just human bigots trying to lobby the rest of the human population to destroy Furs like me, why would I watch something like that?!" "Now just calm down, John, I only asked because so far only the human networks are reporting the epidemic and the recent attacks." "What are you talking about?" "Never mind then, you will know soon enough. Now, are you going to be leaving with me, or do you plan on staying here?" John immediately replied "I've never trusted you humans, and you're no exception. I'll be leaving, just not with you, and don't you try to follow me." No expression formed on the big man's face, yet he seemed sad, somehow. Markos then said "Whatever, then. Just know that unless the plague can be stopped, in three months all the registered humans on the planet will be evacuated, as well as any Furs who can prove they are not infected. After that, a Fleet cleanup squad will arrive and destroy the infection. Should they fail, the planet, and everything on it, will be glassed."
"That's ridiculous! You humans are stupid, but not stupid enough to destroy an inhabited planet just to stop some disease!" argued John. "Oh?" Markos asked. "What is one planet out of the millions under human control, out of the untold billions of planets in the Galaxy?" And with that, Markos produced a small box from a pocket in his shirt, tossed it at John, walked to the edge of the cave, leapt off the small cliff, and disappeared into the forest.
As the tossed box flew though the air, John reached for it, and missed. It bounced off his paw and landed on the floor of the cave. It was about noon, or so John thought, and he had not eaten anything for almost a whole day. He reached for the box, and said to himself "That Markos was crazy, but I really hope there is some food in this box." As he held the box in his paw, he noticed that it was more of a cube than a box, and that it was covered in human writing. "Damn, I wish I could still remember how to read this stuff." At the sound of his voice, a character on the cube began to glow. Surprised, he dropped the cube. "Shit, what the hell have those humans been up to?" he whispered. Touching the glowing character, the cube began to hum. Seconds after the humming began, it stopped. The cube made a hissing noise as the top face of the cube split into four equilateral triangles. The triangle sections slowly rose, and then when they were vertical, they fell backwards to make a right angle with the rest of the cube. With the cube now open, John cautiously picked up the cube and turned it upside down, letting the contents fall out. Among the items was what appeared to be a candy bar. Grabbing it, John noticed it was covered with the human characters. As he watched, the symbols flashed and changed into characters from the written language of the Furs. He read what it said. 'Survival Bar-Guaranteed to contain the fats, protein, sugars, carbohydrates, and vitamins necessary to sustain life in any carbon based life form for 7 Galactic Standard Days. Water not included.' After reading it, John tore off the wrapper and ate the bar, and washed it down with water from the full canteen in his backpack.
To be continued...