Where Did Everyone Go? — Short Story #3
Another day goes by with only a few people and vehicles on the roads. Where is everyone? And what happened suddenly? That is the pressing question.
Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I live near the ocean and I’m half-brown and half-black in color. Both my ears are black and my tail is all brown. We are a group of four who own this area. We don’t allow other dogs to enter our territory. We usually get scraps of meat from the nearby butcher shop. We have to fight with the rowdy cats who roam around in the same area for a meager piece of meat. There’s also a food cart nearby and we lick the leftover food from the discarded plates. Also, there’s an overflowing dustbin near the statue where the cows usually go. We get plenty there. So overall, life was good.
Then it happened all at once and the people stopped coming to the streets. The butcher shop was closed, the food cart was missing and the dustbin was surprisingly empty. Also, a few people who roamed were wearing something over their nose and mouth which scared me and my friends. In the initial days, we barked at them assuming we were encountering the bad guys. Since everyone we saw was wearing that thing, we went back to our usual selves. Something terrible must have happened among people.
The other day, we were talking about what could have happened. One of the guys said the cats must have finally succeeded in their plan of killing the people and taking over the world. He was always scared of the cats since he had a bad experience with them. One day while fighting for the last piece of meat, one of the cats attacked him and it left a deep wound on his face. The scar remains till now. We sympathized with him and silently nodded. We didn’t want to trigger him with our thoughts over that idea. One other guy, who is the smartest of us, told us that since people were covering their nose and mouth, they must be preventing something from entering through the open parts, which if happens might be killing people. We didn’t voice our opinions on that because we were pretty shocked by the idea of something killing people.
So, these days it is hard to get food. We share among ourselves what we find. Although, every day a group of people comes with a truck full of food for us. We are already starving when the truck arrives, so we rush to greet the good humans with food. They provide food for the cats too. So, either the cats have not taken over the world, or humans are too good. The cows, crows, and pigeons come too. Good people, they are. After we have our stomachs full, the good humans pet us, get on the truck, and leave.
They do this in other areas too. The other night, during our usual community howling, one of the guys from the nearby area told us that the humans were feeding them also. We were very much pleased that during these times when food is scarcely available, some humans come to the streets with trucks solely to feed us.
So, life goes on like this every day. The shops are closed and the streets are empty. It means we need not be careful always while crossing the roads afraid of getting run over. Accidents are also fewer these days. I would not say that life is better, but just that life is different.
The beach which was previously bustling with people, children, food stalls, and boats is empty. We lie down on the sand in the evenings and talk about our life events that had happened before all the calm took over. Interestingly, the other day, we saw some turtles coming up from the ocean and laying their eggs buried in the sand. After a few days, little turtles came out of the eggs and went running into the ocean. It was amazing to watch and we were discussing amongst ourselves if this ever happened previously or we’re noticing only now because of all the emptiness on the beach. Whatever may be the reason, we were happy to see all the little ones hatching and running with their tiny shells to start their lives.
We do miss people and hope that whatever is killing them is losing the fight against humans. But for now, the moon has come and the chill breeze is making me sleepy. I will close my eyes for sometime before starting the howling with the guys.
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