The End

Moe stumbled pressing his hands against his throat. He felt cold and yet his skin burned in the sunlight. What is happening? he thought as he tried to shade himself from the sun. What was that thing that bit me? the sunlight was unbearable. He craned to his left where he could hear incessant tapping of water that sounded like a hammer on an anvil. A cave? he thought, That should cool me down.

He dragged himself through the savannah– the grass blades ripped his skin like a razor slicing through a piece of paper, Ugh. he moaned in unbearable pain as his skin began to blister under the sun. The tapping grew closer and the mouth of the cave grew larger. He struggled and finally made it across the savannah living a trail behind. He looked up at the sun with a rage twisted face and entered through the mouth into the dark cave.

“Ahhh.” he sighed loudly. The darkness of the cave cooled his skin and soothed the blisters, “I should rest here for some time.” Moe thought loudly. He took off his blood-stained shirt and used it as a pillow to support his neck. The bleeding had stopped and he felt his throat with his icy fingers, “What the hell was that?” he sighed and lay flat on the rocky floor of the cave and fell asleep.

Moe groggily opened his eyes and found his stomach growl in hunger. He looked out– towards the mouth of the cave and found a silver-lit sky. “I must have slept for 12 hours.” he got to his feet and stretched. He wore the bloodstained shirt picked up his messenger bag and walked out. A gentle breeze and a thick dense forest welcomed him. Moe looked around trying to recognize the place, “I’m pretty sure it was a grassland.” he talked to himself. Traveling alone as a messenger was a lonely profession and he had learned to talk to himself.

He looked up in the sky and found a shattered moon larger than he could remember, “What is going on here?” He looked around the forest. Creatures, stranger than he could imagine, prowled through the darkness. The air felt heavy even though the breeze was cool. Amongst the towering trees, he found stone structures as tall as the trees covered with vines, moss, and mushrooms.

His stomach growled against he started towards a voice that come from a distance, “Where did the stone structures come from? They look a lot like building– massive buildings.”

Moe found walking through the dense trees difficult– he had been used to running through the savannah delivering messages. He had been in a forest before but it was nothing like this. This was thick, not a single square inch of the ground was visible. The trees towered so high that he couldn’t even see the top. The air blew but it wasn’t soothing or nourishing. “The air feels– suffocating!” he said out loud.

A four-legged animal that looked as if a cat had mated with a dog followed at his heels, making a sound that Moe didn’t quite like. “Go away,” he told the animal who continued to follow him.

The sound that he had been following grew louder and he finally saw fire flickering and casting a light that struggled to pierce the darkness of the forest, “Hello!” he called out and ran towards the source.

“What the fuck!” he said to himself when he saw a group of apes was dancing around the fire chewing onto a piece of meat that they were roasting. They turned around and looked at him with fear first and then with awe.

An ape walked up to him and offered him a hand and pulled him towards the dancing group. The ape offered Moe a piece of meat and a bone glass filled with a liquid that smelled weird, “Well I’m hungry.”

The ape made noises that Moe later realized was a language, “Holy fuck.” he said with wide eyes, “Apes can talk?”

The ape continued to speak– moving across the fire– as if telling an important event that had occurred, “Yeah I don’t know what you are saying.” the ape looked at his companion and said something and one of them broke free from the group and returned a few moments later with a leather-bound tome tucked under the arms and offered him, “Okay. If this is in your language I’m going to be pissed.”

Moe opened the tome and saw a beautiful drawing of savannahs – a pride of lions resting in the open field. “It is a beautiful drawing.” The ape took the tome and flipped quickly and the drawings came to life. The pride of lion walked around the savannah, hunting. The image changed and tall buildings took the place of long blades of grass. The buildings grew taller, the sky grew darker and ominous. Smoke veiled the concrete forest casting an orange glow.

“What is going on?” Moe said when he saw the terrible paintings of war, death, and famine. The tall buildings stood broken and smoking. Humans lay broken either dead or too tired to carry on. Trees slowly grew– covering the concrete jungle into a dense, green thicket. The moon in the sky grew larger and larger and larger before it shattered into pieces– hurling burning debris at last embers of humanity.

“No.” Moe said in shock, “No. It can’t be.”

The ape handed him the book and joined his group again, “I slept only for a few hours. It cannot be.” he flipped through the book again, “World, as I know, cannot end.” he flipped one more time, “I slept through the apocalypse?” he looked up at the apes who looked at him with warmth and offered him a glass of golden liquid that reminded him of beer.