A New World

Death. There’s not much life in this world anymore. I struggle to keep the life in this cave I reside in to stay. This world has hardly any food or water left, it's like one big desert. Life is dying every single hour. I haven’t seen any humans in a little over 9 years, just animals. Animals have slowly evolved into new creatures. Some would say the world was taken over by aliens, but I know the truth, I was there.

Where I live, there are panthers, desert animals that have not yet evolved, and monkeys. The panthers haven’t evolved much. They have black hair like horses, on the paw pads are tiny spiky hairs that help the panthers hold it’s prey, and have a strong grip to climb steep places and walls. The panthers' ears are pointier and their thick, black whiskers are half their body size. Males have longer ears than females. On the end of their tail, they have a sharp diamond-shaped tip that helps them defend themselves. The panthers are gentle creatures if you don't tick them off or get in their way while they hunt. If you're in front of a panther and they growl to warn you, either back away slowly or kneel to the ground. If you happen to have something on you they want, don't hesitate to hand it over to them, especially if they're starving. As for the monkeys, there are two different types; spider monkeys and baboons.

Baboons are taller and stronger than humans. They no longer have fur, their skin is black and slick like silk, their fingers are long and sharp, on both hands and feet and their tails are almost as long as their bodies. They have a small round face with a colorful nose on their forehead (all you can see is two holes) their eyes are black and soulless, their ears are large and pointy, and their mouths are still huge, full of large sharper teeth as ever. Baboons are very aggressive creatures and will kill anything in sight. They're also cannibals, so you don't EVER want to cross them. If they see you one, run for it otherwise you're dead. If you can find out what its weak point is, then use it to your advantage, they aren't that smart. They do get smarter every day, but I don't think they will ever reach human intelligence.

Now, my favorite monkey, the spider monkey. Spider monkeys have fine hair like a horse in the front and thick hair like a cat on their backside. Spider monkeys have 3 nostrils and four eyes (the two top eyes are much like a chameleon's eyes that can look in different directions. Their skin can change into different colors in different moods. Tan when they're calm, red with (their thick hair spikes up and hardens like a porcupine's quills when they're being defensive), green when sick, and black when they're afraid. When they are babies they are 1.2 ft. tall. Their ears are almost as big as their head, their snake eyes a little smaller than their ears, they have 4 nostrils, a 2-foot long tail, four fingers on each hand and foot, sharp tiny teeth, and a snake tongue. Their fingertips are suction cups. Adults are larger than baboons, but I've never seen an adult spider monkey so I don't know how big they are.

Forgive me, I have not introduced myself yet. I don't like my real name known so just call me Cyra. I have light brown skin, light blue eyes, long black hair with a thick white stripe on the left side, 5'6" tall, and I am 17 years old. At least, that's how old I look. I do not remember my age for it was decades ago since I last thought about my birthday. It is because of the blood that flows through me that my growth is slower than my years of age. If people found out about me they'd say I was immortal, but that's not the case. I am part Native American, elf, but mostly Atlantean. I hunt, help grow life, and protect. That's all I am now since the world got destroyed by those filthy beings everyone called humans.

I suppose you're wondering how this Earth died, well, I'll sum it up for you. Factories, smoke, pollution, garbage, fire, diseases, and radiation. A few countries had lost sight and no longer saw eye to eye, so the nuclear war had struck and almost killed everyone. The only countries that weren't in the war had barely survived, but due to the damage that was done, the world had died faster than before. Since the lack of trees, the weather had struck everyone harder than ever when the war began. This, also, killed the world faster and swallowed continents. Homes were no longer an option to live in due to the frequent change in weather. Bunkers, earth homes, small strong buildings, and caves had become the best options left. The home I now reside in is a large cave.

I wasn't always alone, I used to share this cave with a boy. His name was Jake, he was 3 quarters elf and 1 quarter human, we grew up together other than the fact that he's 6 years older than me, but we both look the same age, possibly a year or 2 apart at most. Jake had dirty dishwater blonde hair with blonde streaks, dark mystical eyes, tan, and 5'10" tall. He's gentle and fun, the joker type likes playing games, basketball, sometimes hunting and fishing, but most of all, he loves learning about the creatures of the world. He loves archery, but he's also got a temper even over the tiniest things. His friends and I were always the only ones that could ever calm him down, one look at us and he's back to normal because he knows that we're always there to help him out. When we were younger, he and his friends would always make mischief in the village. They would always make fun of the girls for being so girly and trying to be perfect all the time, they never allowed the girls in their fun. They wanted nothing to do with them, even when the adults told the boys to take care of them when all the adults had to leave or to talk to them. Until the day Jake and I met, then everything changed. I was the only girl they allowed and we would always do mischief together. They considered me as one of them. But, that was a long time ago. Jake and I had lived together up until he disappeared 9 years ago, looking for other survivors. His last words still echo through my mind, "I promise, I'll come back as soon as I find survivors. Wait for me"

Ever since he left, I've been taking care of the cave's life it held. Every chance I get, I try planting life outside, but something would always happen. Baboons attack, storms stir up, there's always something. Luckily, I was able to plant a few trees outside and I've been taking care of them ever since. I have also managed to maintain a small garden of vegetables and fruits, but sometimes I have to hunt if there's not enough good substance in the garden. Sometimes I have to kill animals for clothing, every time I do I feel guilty. But if you wanna survive you gotta do what you gotta do. Especially during winter when everything is dead. Once, I killed a dying panther that could not be saved for its pelt, claws, and teeth. But what I found was truly amazing. When I cremated the body, its ashes still helped grow life outside and that's when grass and new flowers bloomed. I found it hard to believe at first since the only reason they evolved was because of the world-changing. Life has been hard living out here, but it's livable. Life was returning until winter hit.

March 7, 2200, it's a hot day today. The winter's been tough, ash finally stopped falling from the sky. Snow no longer exists since the destruction a century ago. I've been doing the usual, hunting for food, looking for water, trying not to get killed. The day's almost over, but I feel the uneasiness of eyes watching me. I went outside and looked around, nothing. The few trees I managed to plant stood dead from the harsh winter. I saw nothing and heard little noises that were indescribable. I sighed with uneasiness and looked up. The sun was covered by grey ash clouds that were starting to clear up. I went back inside my home and checked on my dinner. I made a luck catch today, though I still feel guilty for killing animals no matter how many times I pray for them. I sighed again, turning the rat one more time before serving myself. The rats are as large as newborn human babies and tasted like roasted chicken.

As I finished my dinner, I looked outside one more time to make sure I was alone, that's when the uneasy feeling returned. I returned inside the cave, grabbing my harpoon gun and staying up all night on guard. Before I knew it, dawn came. I stood up, stretched, and about to put my harpoon gun away when I heard a noise. I looked around on guard once again, but nothing happened for 5 minutes. I backed up slowly, turning around when I was greeted by an upside-down baboon hanging on the ceiling right in front of me. It screamed and pounced on me, making me let go of the harpoon gun. The harpoon gun flew 10 feet away from me, out of reach. The baboon tried and tried to dig its claws into my neck, but I kept holding it off. I used all my strength to push the baboon as far away from me as I could. Suddenly, a noise fired and the baboon screamed in pain, falling over beside me. I grabbed my knife out of my black leather boot, kneeling in front of a baboon, but far enough where it wouldn't get me. "I'm sorry, but you attacked first" I put the poor creature out of its misery and took the harpoon and knife out of the baboon, setting them both down.

I caught my breath and stood up. When I turned around, facing right at the entrance of the cave, survivors and someone was holding the harpoon gun. My eyes were open wide in surprise, "Jake..." was all I could whisper. He smiled, coming further into giving me a huge hug, "Thank god you're alright!" I cried.

I smiled and looked at the survivors that had joined him, "You were right, you really did find survivors and come back"

He let me go, "I told you to wait, didn't I? Not get killed" We laughed together. I studied the survivors; a short hair blonde woman, 6'0", black eyes, red lips, and wore a sneering look. A black muscular guy, bald growing a black mustache, has a goatee, 6'3", chocolate brown eyes, seemed friendly. Young black boy, a bandage around his eyes, 3'5", skinny, seems kind of frightened. Light brown teenage girl, albino eyes, medium straight white hair, 5'4", seemed gentle and protective of the young boy. 2 tall muscular men, one with short red hair, dark gray eyes, mustache and growing a beard, 6'0", no expression, and the other has spiky short dark brown hair, muscular, light blue eyes, has a soul patch goatee, and a 3D mechanical tattoo that looks like the skin is tearing off and his mechanical lower left arm is showing, seemed to know a lot about technology. And an old, fat man with hardly any gray hairs left, between very dark gray eyes, large stern nose, cubed chin, 5'8", has a mean, cruel, snobby, selfish look.

Jake introduced all of us, "Everyone meet Cyra. Cyra, this is Dr. Sandra, Mathias, his son and older daughter Michael and Kyra, John, Dan, and Larry."

I waved friendly and said "Hi everyone, nice to meet ya-"

"Just what exactly are we doing here in the open?! C'mon, let's all get inside the cave and figure something out" Larry snapped. He marched inside.

I sighed, a little frustrated already, but agreed "C'mon, we don't know who else will be waiting for us out here" Jake and I stood guard while everyone got inside.

Once everyone was in we both walked inside, I made sure I knew where everyone was. Larry was looking around the place unsatisfied "You call this place home? I call it a death trap. You could get killed by anything if you were cornered!" John and Dan sat down.

John replied "Man Larry, shut up. It's safer than where we were"

"Oh yeah? Well, at least our place was secure!" Dan replied,

"Secure?! We would've died if Jake didn't find us!"

"Shut up geek! You don't even know what you're up against"

"Oh, yea! And you do?!" They were about to fight until I ran between them, trying to break them up.

"Calm down you two!" I said quietly without trying to yell, "You can't make any noise otherwise you'll attract more baboons! We're all safe here if we work together and for YOUR information Larry. Jake and I know what's going on more than you. Anyone could tell what was going on the way the world is."

"She's right" Sandra stepped in, "If we don't help the planet, we'll all die. Now, can we get some food? I'm starving" The children, Mathias, John, and Dan all agreed. I thanked Sandra and thought in my head. Jake noticed and came up to me,

"What's up? We gotta go hunting"

"That's the thing. There's not much to eat here. All I've been able to hunt for is rats, otherwise, I've been eating fruits and vegetables for the past 3 years."

"Don't worry, everything will be fine." I smiled and hugged him again.

"I'm glad you're back" He ruffled my hair

"You already said that. C'mon, before it gets dark"

Jake and I grabbed our weapons, ready to head out when John and Dan called out to us. Dan asked, "Can we come along?"

"We could help with the hunt," John said. I shook my head "I dunno"

"Cyra, this would be good for them to get a good idea of the whole layout of the land," Jake said convincingly.

I sighed, "Come on, don't make too much noise and don't get killed" John and Dan grabbed some weapons and we left.

Jake was right, we did make a good catch today. After we returned we prepared the meal, cooked it, and we all ate. By the end of the day, most of the ash disappeared and the night was warm. For quite a few days, I've gotten to know everyone, they all seem pretty cool and have wonderful ideas and curiosity of what the world was like before all this. I don't like Larry and don't trust Sandra though, something's off about her, and Larry's so bossy. The children are wonderful, Kyra takes care of her little brother helping him get around. I never thought I'd meet an albino girl, she's the first I've met and is pretty cool. Michael, I feel bad for him. Someone got chemicals in his eyes and no one knows who, I'd like to see if he's alright, but they won't let me check him out because I'm not a doctor. I sighed, defeated, and walked away. I heard someone following me and I turned around to find Kyra. "Hey Kyra, what is it?"

"Could you really help Miky?" She asked with hope in her eyes. I gave her a small smile.

"If I knew what I was dealing with, it's possible. Do you think you could tell me what Sandra thinks or what she's done?" I wanted to know everything I could learn so I could discuss it with her. Kyra shook her head,

"Sorry, when Sandra checks upon him, she asks us to leave. Says they can't be disturbed while she works"

"That's interesting" I mumbled.

"Can I ask you a question?" I nodded,

"Of course"

"How would you be able to help Miky? Sandra says the medicine he needs might no longer exist" I looked around to make sure no one was around before asking her to follow me. I took her to my small, secret garden full of herbs and berries. Her jaw dropped in awe. She ran and knelt in front of the plants. "These would help my little brother?" She asked. I nodded,

"It's possible, but only if I knew what I was dealing with." She hopped up in excitement.

"I'll go ask dad if ya can look at him!" Before she could run off, I had to stop her.

"Before you go, I need you to promise me something. Promise me you won't tell anyone of this place. Can you promise me that?" She looked confused, not fully understanding.

"Why not?"

"Because if the rest of the group found out about this, I don't know what would happen. When the time comes, I will tell them, but for now. It'll be our little secret, ok?" I booped her nose and she smiled.

"Not even Jake?" I giggled.

"Not even Jake. I want it to be a bit of a surprise"

"Ok"

Once we returned, Kyra raced over to her brother excitedly. Mathias noticed and came over to me. "She seems very excited. This is the most excited I've seen her since their mother" I looked at Mathias, curious to know.

"What happened to their mother?" Mathias's eyes were filled with a heavy heart.

"She passed away 2 years ago. We were under attack by these- monsters. That was when Jake was bringing us back. The love of my life, Cassie, went back to save Michael. That's also when Michael had his accident. Cass was barely holding on to life when we found her. Sandra and another woman, Sarah I think, took Cass and Michael to the side to look them over. We weren't looking as we were trying to defend them and ourselves from whatever was attacking. They were so fast and it was so dark. Next thing we know, Sandra was carrying Michael and we were running, leaving Sarah and Cass behind. Sandra said they died by the monsters, but I could've sworn I heard Sarah's voice as we were leaving. I thought I heard him screaming, 'Please, don't leave us. Come back. It was unclear though, I was trying to calm down Kyra at the time." He tried to hold his tears back, but they wouldn't obey. I laid my hand on his shoulder and hugged him. He returned the gesture, hugging back tightly.

"Are you ok, dad?" We looked to see Michael ask with Kyra watching us. Mathias knelt and hugged his children.

"It's ok, children. I'm ok"

Spring is in 5 days and the baboons should leave by then. It gets way too hot so they need to find a cooler place. Today, I want to talk to everybody, but I can't seem to find Sandra. She's been acting strange lately, she gets up in the middle of the night and leaves the cave. I wonder how she leaves and returns without getting attacked once. I called out to her many times, but she doesn't answer. As I was telling everyone there was a meeting about to commence, I looked over and saw Mathias looking for something. I went to ask, "What are you looking for?"

"I'm trying to find Sandra. She's supposed to check Michael's eyes today" He replied.

"She's a doctor?" He nodded,

"Yeah, that's what she said anyway."

"Hmm... We should look for her together. I think she's more than she's letting on" We both walked around outside looking for her, but no sign on her. We went back inside and looked around the cave. Mathias seemed puzzled by what I said earlier and asked,

"What do you mean you think she's more than she's letting on?"

"I think she's a scientist"

"A what?"

"A scientist. Someone who studies the world, space, animals, plants, things like that. Scientists are one of the reasons why the Earth's destroyed" After saying that a small monkey noise came from a small tunnel. Mathias and I stayed quiet, then a small, baby spider monkey came out of the small tunnel. It was my friend Blarp, "Blarp! What are you doing here silly monkey?" Blarp hopped onto me and pointed at the small tunnel speaking in his monkey language.

"What is that?" Mathias asked.

"This is my friend Blarp, he's a spider monkey. Apparently, this tunnel leads to outside"

"That could be how that baboon attacked you before we got here"

"But it doesn't make any sense, this hole wasn't here before you guys arrived" After I said that we heard voices deep within the cave. Mathias and I followed the sounds and checked around a corner where the voices were loudest and were light. We took a peek and Sandra and Larry were there. By the 2 bickerings was a cage that had a baboon in it sleeping. We were curious to see what she was doing with a baboon. We watched them closely and she told Larry she was trying to figure out why they were so aggressive. A smile came across my face "I knew it. She was a scientist" I whispered.

She told Larry "Don't worry, it won't hurt us"

"How can you be so sure?!" Larry asked.

"Because I tranquilized it with this" Sandra held up a tranquilizer dart. From the looks of it, the tranquilizer was meant for elephants. How did she get ahold of one of those? I thought. She opened the cage and it woke up immediately attacking Larry instantly killing him, stabbing him over and over with its vicious claws. Sandra gasped and made a run for it.

We ran back to the others and told them what happened. We all agreed that if Sandra came back she would be punished for experimenting and murdering Larry. For the rest of the days, the baboons left us alone to find a cooler place. I talked to Mathias about letting me check Michael's eyes and he agreed to it. Jake helped and found out Michael's right eye was good as new, but the left eye still needed bandaging. That's when I knew I had to talk to the group. I talked to the group about healing the world and they liked the idea. Spring was finally here and we brought out plants that grew in the cave and seeds planting them in the ground, but we didn't have enough water. We searched and searched, but found nothing. Michael and Kyra yelled from inside the cave and found water deeper within the cave right underneath us. It was like an indoor mini pool.

We all gathered water and watered the seeds and plants. Within days they started to grow and multiply across the world. Animals were becoming more populated and the world was almost healed. Jake, the group, and I journeyed across the world where there was no life. We met other survivors and they followed our example of a new and better world. There were people like Sandra, but that didn't stop us from our quest to healing the world. It's been 3 years since we got our example out to those people who wanted to save this world. This world needs more people like us to help it heal and become a better place. Pollution, experiments, and explosions destroyed this world. Now, it's our time to fix it and do what is right. This is the new world. This is Earth.