I had no sense of how long they dragged me along. My legs ached until every step felt like a test, and my throat was so dry that each swallow of saliva rasped like grit.
Every time we passed a stagnant pool, I fought the urge to hurl myself into it and gulp the black, foul water. I forced myself to stay alert, to stop my body from betraying me.
I am not an animal. I am a human being with intelligence and awareness who once lived in an age of advanced science.
I repeated that thought like a mantra, looping it in my head to keep my mind clear, to analyze the situation as we moved.
Here and there along the route I saw people hiding behind mounds of rubble. All of them moved on all fours and wore no clothing. Some gnawed at the flesh of others. Some hunched over and slurped filthy water. Language had left them; their voices had fallen to animal cries. They fled in terror when they saw the beasts that held me captive.
The half-human, half-beast creatures no longer seemed interested in hunting. They must have felt they had taken enough trophies for the day.y.
Aside from me, the group carried two other humans. They were slung along like cargo, already dead, limp and lifeless.
I should have felt grateful to still be able to drag myself along on my own two feet.
They chattered among themselves, laughing and discussing the spoils of the day and what would be served at dinner. I could not help overhearing, though I wished I could block out the words.
I lowered my head and pressed my pale lips together, staring at the wrists bound by rough rope as the black panther dragged me forward
We walked until the ashen sky bled slow veins of blood-orange, and finally torches winked in the distance.
It was a camp, a ragged settlement of many species gathered together, from dogs and cats to birds. From what I knew of animal behavior, most species live in herds by kin, yet this place was a chaotic mix. If these creatures had evolved and were forming a civilization, I suspected this camp held those who had been cast out from their packs.
Like the slums of human society, I thought.
So no species escapes that fate, it seems.
Knowledge is war.
When Duncan the panther dragged me into the village, every eye fell on me. They looked at my clothing, at the way I walked upright, and turned their attention inward, curious and hungry.
"Duncan, what is that?" A girl with ears like his ran up to his side, worry in her voice. She held a baby that looked the same.
Duncan jerked the rope and I staggered, nearly losing my balance. He glanced at me and curled his lip with disdain. "Looks like a forgotten pet, kind of special. I'll sell it to the slavers."
I felt a shiver run up my arm and dug my fingernails into my palm to stop from trembling. The meaning behind his words was clear enough.
If humans once hunted rare animals to mount or keep as pets, then when the tables turned the same would be done to us. Or we would become curiosities for circus entertainment.
The thought sickened me. I felt like vomiting.
Was this nature's punishment for humankind?
If so, perhaps it was not undeserved.
As a scientist I could not claim innocence. I had used white mice in experiments. My work had produced discoveries that damaged nature.
Maybe this was my karmic reckoning.
Duncan pushed me into a crude cage woven from branches and bound with rope. Around me were others locked in similar pens. Some crawled up and reached their soiled hands toward me through the slats, long, broken nails caked with mud. Their stench was animal foul. Their mouths made dull, repetitive noises and their eyes stared emptily.
I shrank away, curling inward, pulling my knees to my chest. Night fell and mist crept over my skin. The midday heat that had burned me was gone. The cold now bit through bone. It was clear the planet's atmosphere had been altered.
Unlike the cramped pens reeking of waste, farther from the cages the beastfolk gathered around a bright fire and talked loudly. I glimpsed a human body tied to a post with its head gone.
The image turned my stomach. I doubled over and heaved, though nothing came out. It was absurd and awful. People could calmly butcher a pig or a rabbit, but when the victim was a fellow human the disgust was unbearable.
I swallowed the bile and forced myself to look up. I had to gather information about these creatures' way of life and their knowledge.
They had guns yet no electricity and no modern equipment. It seemed they had learned to use the ruins left behind by humans but had not reached the level of rebuilding advanced technology.
Their civilization was nascent. I estimated it had formed within a few hundred years.
With my knowledge I could escape from here.
But where could I go if I did?
This world no longer belonged to humans. The beasts likely held dominion over the earth. No matter where I fled, I would fall into their hands again. Worse...
I glanced at the other humans in adjacent cages, reaching for me with hungry hands.
Worse, I might be torn apart by my own kind.
Was there any human left who still retained awareness in this world?
I did not know. Everything was blurred. My thoughts felt clouded.
Having woken after such a long time, and after the chase, my metabolism raced. My stomach was empty. My throat was raw and cracked until my lips bled.
Hungry and freezing. I did not know if I would survive until morning.
And if I did live, how long could I keep my sanity in this mad world?
I hugged myself tighter, both to warm my body and to console the loneliness that was eating me from the inside.
At twenty-five, when I learned I had stage three cancer, I had been terrified. I had refused my parents' advice to pursue treatment with low chances of success and instead chose to trust the science I served.
Now that faith was devouring me. I did not know how I would die, whether by the jaws of my fellow humans, at the hands of the beasts, or by metastasis tearing me apart from within.
I had abandoned my family to enter a perpetual sleep. I was not sure I deserved to be remembered.
If only I had faced the disease with courage and spent more time with them, would things have been different?
Amid the cries of my kind and the distant revelry of the beasts, my sobs were swallowed whole, to the point that I could no longer even hear myself.
***