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Pandemic

            Thousands of years ago, before the second age, there was a big valley where 4 different animal fraternities: Carnivores, Omnivores, Herbivores, and Scavengers, lived in peace and harmony. Water, food, shelter, and resources were shared between the four when needed, even though their differences were evident. This calm remained for centuries until the arrival of a big black bear from the north. This bear came unexpectedly during sunset to the fraternity of his alike. Being part of the carnivore family the group of animals welcomed him with dignity. Yet something unusual was going on with this bear; he had trouble breathing and was weak. The eagle and the tiger took the bear to a room to take care of him. He spent the night inside the room, and also the day… and the second night, and also the second day. After two days of no sign of the bear the tiger and the eagle found him dead.

            The fraternity panicked. This was the first time an animal has died on their care. What happened? Was it a disease? Maybe. The next day the tiger and the eagle started feeling week and short of breathe. Just like the bear, both die two days later. This diseases spread to the meat-eater in the wind, and the meat-eaters at land. The meat-eaters in the wind always traveled to the different fraternities, which caused the spread of the unknown disease to all the animals in the valley. From disease it came death. Without yet knowing why, every animal started to die.  The 4 kings of each fraternity called a council. The lion, the Kodiak bear, the elephant, and the condor met to discuss the problem. They arrived to no solution.

            Death continued to take the animals of each fraternity. The corpses left to rot and decay was absorbed by the soil, causing the spread of the disease as well. After a couple of days the animals started to die from the food they ate and the water they drank. Famine started. The valley’s vegetation was no longer pure; it was infested with an unknown disease. The resources that kept the living animals alive were beginning to be useless and infected. It was everywhere, the air, the land, and the water, and inside almost all the living things.

            The war came. They started to fight between the fraternities for the few clean resources left. The number of animals decreased faster since they started killing each other and the disease was still going on. At the end of the war the lion stood still, looking at the ruins of what the animals called home and the aftermath of the disaster. His legs were weak, his breathing short, he couldn’t support his own weight and he began to felt dizzy of the smell of hundreds of thousands of animal´s corpses. His family, his friends, and all the known animals to him, were dead. “A rest will do well to me right now” Said the lion, and he took his last breath…

Silvia Carrillo Olvera