Pigeon

The hard sun beat down on a desolate cityscape as I settled myself on a thin, black telephone wire. The afternoon- wait, no. The morning sun? I couldn’t tell. Here in this apocalyptic utopia, the sun was always here. I had lost count of the days and nights I spent in this place. I did know, however, that it had been a year since the tidal tilt.

I ruffled my feathers and settled down on the warm wire. Pigeons and rats were the only ones (except for a few humans) that had survived when the Earth stopped rotating on its axis, and I, thankfully, am a pigeon. I still remembered that day like it was an hour ago. The inhabitants of Earth were thrown around in the still-rotating atmosphere. I shook myself, trying to rid of the memories that were growing louder in my head. I closed my small beady eyes, and suddenly, I was being tossed around in the swirling gale, my wings frantically beating just to keep myself aloft. I saw my family slammed against a wall as my small pigeon body tumbled in the growing funnel of wind. I remembered seeing a brick fly towards me, then everything was dark. Since then, the cities had been leveled, and the continents had come together.

I snapped out of my daze and clacked my beak impatiently. I sighed, and took to the sky, leaving the telephone wire bouncing in my wake. As I soared above my city home, I tried to look for water. Water was a dying resource, and I was always thirsty. I was nervous, I never knew when the water would run out, but I did know that day was coming. 

I flapped my wings and soared along an updraft, trying to block the distant, but ever-painful memories out; the squawks and screams of birds and humans alike, the eerie silence of the aftermath, the winds swirling, enclosing me. I clucked, annoyed at myself. 

It does not do you any good to dwell on the past, my uncle had said to me. He told me that he got that quote from his grandpa, and then his grandpa. My 5th great grandpa was, apparently, a weird one. Now that I thought about it, Grandpa Dodo had went missing about a century back. I wonder what happened to him. 

As I flew, I spotted a few leftover crumbs on an old hotdog stand. I glided down, my wings flapping noisily as I curled my talons around the heated metal stand. I started to peck, my beak hitting the stand with a loud clunk. Eventually, I found a year old hot dog bun just waiting to be eaten. It tasted a little funny, but hey, any food is good food. 

As I hopped around the sun heated street, searching for any sort of food-like objects, I heard something I hadn’t heard in a while. Human voices.

When I neared the alleyway where the voices were heard, I saw two humans walk through the bright alley. I accidentally looked towards the sun, temporarily blinding me, and I stumbled. When my vision cleared, the humans were in front of me, cooing things I couldn’t understand, the girl’s dirty blonde hair falling in her face. I tilted my head warily, and stepped back, just in case. Then, an idea popped into my admittedly small brain.

Ask them for food. I clucked the pigeon word for food at them. The boy was saying something to the girl

A few hours later, I had followed them around, hoping for more food scraps, but they didn’t give me any. Actually, they seemed pretty annoyed that I was following them, but I’m a pigeon. I do what I want. To be honest, I was already liking these humans. I had figured out that they were looking for water as well, and the few human words I could understand were dark side, and water. 

Suddenly, it clicked. There was water on the dark side of the mega-continent! I would finally be able to not have to worry about water, and I could leave that wretched city of bad dreams and memories behind me. I couldn’t wait. 

Maybe I can find another pigeon on the dark side, I thought hopefully.

A few months after, I was on the move with the human family. I didn’t know their names, but they gave me scraps and I liked them. After the alleyway incident, I met more humans, traveling with the teenagers that found me. There were two big ones; I guessed they were the parents. There was also the two medium sized humans, those were the ones who I looked after. I guessed that the boy was just tagging along, since he didn’t look like anyone else. Then there was the annoying small one. She was a nuisance. I had, however, named my favorite humans (the teenagers); there was Eli, the tall, lean, asian-looking boy, and Aubrey, the blonde girl that always wore a t-shirt and shorts.

We were always on the go, whether it was because we thought people would follow us, or that we just wanted to cover more ground. Every morning, the humans would roll up their pyramid-shaped cloth houses, cook breakfast, and leave. During these rush sessions, Aubrey and Eli would feed me scraps of sandwiches, sausages, and cheese. I didn’t like one of the humans, but the teenagers were nice, and I liked them. I even found a stash of water bottles for them, but the water didn’t last long. I noticed that the family of humans were dangerously thirsty, while I wasn’t. Apparently, humans don’t do well with thirst and hunger.

As I flew overhead, watching Aubrey and Eli carefully, I spotted a mouse scurrying through the dry, dead wheat field of a lumpy, dusty hill, about a few human feet away (Eli’s feet to be exact, he had big shoes). I spiraled down towards the skinny brown mouse, my salmon coloured talons outstretched. Then, a thought struck me. 

What am I doing! I don’t know how to hunt! I cleared my head, but it was too late. I tumbled into the ground, skidding and sliding through the dust, and landing with a ‘graceful’ faceplant. I cursed in pigeon, and looked up at the mouse a few steps away from me. It gave me a judgemental stare, then ran off. I sighed in disappointment. Then, I got up, and waddled off, a slight limp in my step. As I walked on the cracked earth, I heard the distant noise of wing flaps. I turned around, confused. As I looked for the unmistakable shape of a flying bird, I was crashed into, and I rolled, aware of a heavy weight on my back. As I came to a halt, I was beak-to-beak with an ugly looking hawk, scraggly and thin. I heard its’ rasping voice in my ear hole, and I froze. 

“Whaddya think you’re doin’? Stealing my prey, huh?” I started to try and break free of the hawks’ sharp claws. I couldn’t move, it was pinning me down, and I had nowhere to hide or run. I then did the only thing I could do next. Fight. 

I scratched it’s fluffy down underbelly, and the hawk screeched in pain. I wiggled free, and started to fly, aware that the hawk was following close behind. I flapped my wings desperately, trying to gain speed. The hawk was closing in, I could feel its’ wingbeats right behind me. 

Suddenly, I saw everything go dark. Not ‘unconscious’ sort of dark, a… night sort-of-dark. It was then that I realised I was on the dark side. 

I whipped around, and saw that the hawk had retreated, most likely scared of the night. I sighed in relief, and felt a rush of cold air on my tail feathers. As I waited for the humans to arrive, I took in my surroundings, my amber eyes adjusting to the dark. The dark side was chilly, and just like the light, completely barren of life, but a welcome change. 

A few minutes later, I heard whoops and laughter of the humans. I alighted on Eli’s sweatshirt covered shoulder, tired of flying. Aubrey patted my feathery head, and the bigger humans were talking amongst each other, one having the annoying small human on their shoulders. I felt a wave of sorrow wash over me as I remembered my family, and how my parents used to do that with my siblings and I. 

I remembered a warm sunny day in that old city, with my parents and six siblings. My youngest sister was complaining that she couldn’t see anything at her height, and my dad had just swung her up onto his shoulder blades, nestled in between his broad wings. Me and my two brothers and two other sisters had gotten jealous, and soon, we were all on each other’s backs, screeching with laughter. 

My mom always loved traveling, I thought. This is probably the farthest away from the city anyone’s ever gone in my family. Another pang of sadness stabbed my gut, and I wobbled on E’s shoulder, but steadied myself.

I have a new family now. I comforted myself with that knowledge. I knew that they would never replace my family, but I thought of the humans as a sort of extension to my previous family. 

The bitter memories are still in the back of my head to this day, but instead of pushing them down and hiding them, I acknowledge them, and try to move on. The storms will push and pull, but I’ll be there to face them.