When my hiccuping sobs finally die down to dry coughs, I wipe my eyes. I begin to notice a sharp pang in my stomach, and I decide to finally go in search of food.

I swing down the tree, dropping to the floor. I pick a direction and walk, not caring where I end up. As I get hungrier, I move faster, until I am sprinting past leaves and bushes, turning plants and birds into blurs.

After a while, I smell the stench of rotting food. I slow down and peer down at once might have been a fish-type creature, but with fins in the oddest places and a skeleton as big as my torso. I then know that the only creature I've seen capable of catching, killing, and eating this is that panther. With this realization, I start up a sprint again, running as far away as I can. When I judge I am a safe distance away, I stop and climb a tree in search of food.

On the way up, I see thick, dark green moss growing abundantly, and small buds on each one. As I near the top, the buds seem to be bigger, until I reach the highest branches and see bright yellow fruit hanging from a patch of it. I climb over to it and pull it off its stem, realizing how oddly heavy it is.

I weigh it in my palm, feeling the perfect roundness and considerable size of the fruit, along with the soft, smooth outside. I bite into it without thinking, and suddenly my eyes start watering. I cough, and then I manage to swallow the extremely sour fruit. I eye the neon yellow sphere again, this time taking a tentative bite. I swallow and take another taste, and another, until it feels familiar to me and I am munching down the fruit happily.

When I finish the large fruit, I sit back and wonder where I could find meat. My mind goes back to the monkeys, but I am repulsed at eating such delicate creatures. I briefly consider the idea of eating a panther, but as I remember the claws and teeth I dismiss it.

I am still sitting here an hour later when I hear a voice.

"Hey."

I fall out of the tree with shock and wind up laying on the ground. I squint my eyes up at a figure standing above me. Its skin is different from mine; this creature doesn't have skin, but more like many gray plates over its body, like a rhinoceros.

I stand up, and realize the figure is shorter than me when it speaks again.

"Lucas?"

I freeze when it says my name. Then I recognize the voice of my little brother.

"Drake?"

I crush him in a hug, and he hugs me back tightly.

"I can't believe you're alive," he says.

"Me neither. How did you make it through the fire!?"

"I didn't burn. Ash and smoke and fire touched me, but I didn't burn. Mom did. I couldn't save her. I let her die!" He began crying, and I needed to remind myself that he was only nine.

I pat his back awkwardly, holding back my own tears. I sit him on the ground and promise to be right back. I climb quickly to the patch of fruit I was at before, and pick up one. I swing back down and hand it to him.

He makes a face at the offering. "I don't like fruit," he reminds me.

I feel us falling back into the familiarity of being brothers. "What have you been eating?" I question him.

He smiles wryly. "Really wanna know?" he asks.

"Yes."

"Those big cats."

"The huge black panthers?" I gape at him

"Yep, they live in packs," he says nonchalantly, trying not to grin.

"But how? They're enormous!"

"Well, um... I kind of found out they like to fight, so I hit one with a stone and it got mad and tried to hurt another one. The other panthers turned on it and killed it. Then I ate it."

"Gross," I say.

"Well, it's better than eating fruit."

"Nope," I say, taking a big bite of fruit.

"Well, I'm hungry. I know where a pack of them are... Come on!"

We climb another tree, and stand looking down on the five gigantic panthers, asleep.

"They look so passive," I say.

"Not for long," my brother responds with a grin. "Watch this." He holds up a rock he found, and prepares to throw it. It leaves his hand, and flies accurately through the air. I hear the sickening thud as it lands squarely on the back of the panther in the middle.

Snarling, the panther wakes up and lashes out at his companion sitting next to him. The other wakes up with a start, and immediately throws herself at the first panther. I see their claws come out, and the other three panthers wake to the sound of flesh ripping. The two panthers roll over each other, teeth bared and claws slashing violently.

I stare at the scene, aghast. "How can you make them do this?" I ask my brother incredulously.

He watches the action unfolding below us unemotionally. "We need food."

I look at my brother more closely. This is not the little nine-year-old I once knew.

Below us, I hear a pitiful whine. The female manages to pin the panther my brother had hit with the rock, and she rips into his shoulder with her enlarged canines. He bares his teeth weakly, but the other panthers decide to help the female once they know she will win.

"Food soon," my brother promises.

I try to turn away as the female strikes the last blow, but something compels me to watch. As the dying panther's eyes close, I see the black pupils shine amber, then fade to black.

Its body twitches, then lies still, covered in ripped grass from the battle. The other panthers slink away, running as a pack away from the scene of crime.

My brother practically pushes me out of the tree trying to swing to the floor. "Come on!"

I follow much more slowly, not wanting to advance at the repulsive sight. "Drake, it may not be safe yet. Wait a minute so we know the other ones are gone!"

"Come on! Why're you so worried? I've done this before; you haven't. Trust me, it's fine now."

I follow him cautiously. Once I am on the ground, I walk slowly to the carcass. "Ew."

Drake rolls his eyes. "How else are we going to get meat?"

"I still don't feel safe."

"It's FINE. Stop being so uptight!"

I breathe, and force myself to relax. We'll be fine. He's done this before. He knows what he's doing. Besides, why would the other panthers come back?

Drake circles the dead panther cautiously, not wanting to touch the still sharp claws. He slowly reaches out a foot and kicks it. "Yep, it's dead for good." He steps closer, and touches the long tail of the giant cat.

I swallow a lump in my throat. "It's so pretty. How can you kill it like that?"

"I don't want to kill it. But we have to kill them, or lack of food will kill us. Or they will kill us. I'm sure they wouldn't be reluctant to eat you!"

I'm suddenly aware of a prickling sensation at the back of my neck. "Do you hear anything?"

"No. Stop being so paranoid."

I wet my dry lips and step closer. "How do you eat this?"

"Well, the first time I had a fire... Can you make one?"

"Yes. Let me go find some wood; I'll be right back."

"Great."

I walk through the incredibly tall trees, careful to look out for any panthers. I stoop to pick up a branch, and that's when I see it.

It's huge. The only thought running through my head is thought of fleeing. But something keeps me rooted there.

The biggest panther. I hadn't noticed its size before when she was killing the other, but now I am so close, I see the muscles rippling beneath her glossy black coat. Her tail lashes back and forth, as if she were considering how to eat me.

One look, and I know she is invincible. There is no way I can kill it; the only option is to run.

So I do.

The branch I am holding drops to the floor as I run with superhuman speed, back to my brother. "RUN!" I yell frantically at my brother.

He looks up from the dead panther, startled. "Wh-"

"RUN!" I shove him forwards, away from the direction of the panther. "It'll be here in a second!"

"What ar-" his sentence is cut off as the panther barrels out from the underbrush and slams into him, claws extended.

He yells from shock, but I am thankful of his rhino-like armor. I run towards him and the panther, desperate to intercept.

Before I can do anything, razor-sharp claws rip through the plates, shredding his side. He coughs, and blood spatters the grass from his gaping wound.

"Drake!"

He falls to the floor, eyes closing. He looks to the sky as he shudders with his last breath. I throw myself at his body, shielding him from the panther.

"No," I let tears fall, landing gently on his chest and ascending to the grass. I want to stay and cry, but first the panther must be killed.

I throw myself at it, pummeling with closed fists at her horrible black eyes. "You killed my brother!"

She snarls as I leap onto her back. I dig my fingers into her fur, hanging on and ripping out fur. She circles, lashing her tail at me as I try to gouge out its flesh with my mottled hands. Her canines snap dangerously close to my face as I try to figure out how to kill it.

Death is a suitable punishment for what she did to my brother. I owe this to him, the boy who survived the apocalypse with me, the boy who only had nine years of life.

It needs to die.

Spontaneously, I launch from her back into the nearest tree, traveling upwards as easily as running. I see it come after me, claws shredding the bark as she climbs.

As she easily gains on me, I realize my mistake. I am not faster.

I cannot win.

But I can try. It jumps onto my back, knocking me out of the tree, and I fall. She lithely pounces on my, pinning my chest to the grass with claws the size of steak knives.

As the claws bite into my skin, I feel my blood run in rivulets off my chest. I stretch my hand out, touching my brother's small fingers. Sorry. I didn't do enough. I lost. I failed. This is my fault. I look into the panther's eyes, gleaming green as the sun begins to set. The needle-sharp claws sink deeper, knifing through layers of my skin, exposing gleaming red rivers that overflow around the pitch-black paw, staining it with my blood. I realize something as I die.

We were never meant to survive the apocalypse.

The apocalypse wasn't the end of the world, it was the start of a new one. To cleanse the earth of humans. And I am not meant to be part of this.

It was always supposed to end this way.

The claws rip through what remains of my body, ending the life that was not supposed to exist.

The sharp red pain fades to black, and black waves sweep my consciousness from the shore in a painful jerk, ripping my soul from my body. I go in an instant, leaving the body behind, nothing but an empty shell to show for the life that survived.

The forest is a lush green, large leaves deceptively calm, masking the violence that occurred under them. Nothing seems to be changed, because from this far away the bleeding bodies of two young boys are invisible. It is as it should be; the start of a new world, without humans, clean and unbroken.