A last breath of life

The jungle was extremely silent, the singing of the birds was no longer present, and the rivers were not flowing anymore. Among the dry vegetation, there were some huge Mangroves that could be seen from anywhere. Within the silence of the jungle, the loud sound of cracking branches rumbled. There was an elephant looking for something to eat, he grabbed a bunch of bananas, the only fruit that he had seen in a long time. While he was enjoying this delicacy, an old and damaged Mangrove fall down on his rear legs, crushing them and disabling his ability to move. Crawling for days, searching not only for more food, but also for help, he gave up since his search gave no results. There was not a single soul on the jungle, he was alone…or not? Some branches above the defeated elephant began to move, it made a noise similar to the cracking of branches, but this time it was different. A hope showed up, it was a colobus monkey.

“Hey you little boy, do you need a massage?”, said the monkey.

“Ugh, I need help” said the defeated elephant with a low voice.

“Oh, but what happened to you chubby?”

“A Mangrove…it…crushed my…legs”

“I can’t help you boy, you’re to heavy for me, but hold on, I will search for help” said the monkey while leaving the area.

“Noo! You will not find…anyone” said the elephant, but the monkey didn’t heard him.

After several hours, the monkey didn’t find help at all, but he did find something. It was an immense crater and everything around it was just dry land. The mountain where he lived, the lake where his friends the fish lived, was gone. It was so horrible that image for his eyes, that he lost any hope for finding help and returned to the elephant. Crying he told him what he saw, but the elephant didn't looked surprised.

“Don´t you...know?” said the elephant.

“No… W-w-what happened?” stuttered the monkey.

“A meteorite...it impacted Earth”

“What?! When?”

“A few days before…can't remember...exactly...but we’re the...only ones...left...”

These were the last words of the exhausted elephant, he passed away. The monkey was still in shock, he couldn’t believe what he just heard and saw. Days, weeks, months passed, and the monkey was still alone, surviving on the devastated jungle. One day he finally decided that it was time, time to end his martyrdom, his pain, time to end it all. He was just about to jump to his death, but suddenly, he heard some branches cracking...

Author's Notes/Comments: 

By: Diego Estrada and Félix Saldaña

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