Extinction of an Era

by Derek Anderson

The Aftermath

The ash and dust had finally been swept out of the sky. It was a slow process, but it had finally cleared after a four decades of my life. I was born in the darkness, and had never experienced a world with a bright sun and without ash. 
Born a Diprotodon, my species survived “the end” as the olden stories referenced it. My grandparents told us a story that the sky once fell and broke the planet, blocking out the sun and wiping out almost everything that lived. There were once beasts so massive, it made our kind look pathetic and small. Creatures with teeth larger than my legs and tails bigger than my body. It sounded outlandish and absurd, like anal sex. And they had been young when they saw these monumentally sized beasts, so I was a skeptic, along with the rest of my generation. Nobody thought dinosaurs were once a reality. They couldn’t be. 
I suppose that was probably why I was so surprised when I stumbled upon the last dinosaur. From there on out, my life completely changed.

Red

I met Red by accident. He surely felt just as surprised as I did when I bumped into his camouflaged body. I was walking back to the local watering hole, where my family was nesting, when a herd of Irish Elk sprinted by. They were always so careless and never looked where they ran. I dove out of the way into the vegetation and rolled down a small hill. I saw a mountainous rock at the end of hill and braced myself for impact. To by surprise, when I struck it, it moved and rustled back and forth, gasping for breath. No rock I had ever run across had gasped for breath, so I investigated. 

To my surprise, I had uncovered the last dinosaur. His name was Red, and he was a Triceratops (he would later explain). 

The goliath beast got to his feet, shaking off the dirt, leaves and stones off of his old body. He was covered in scars and was clearly way past his prime. His tremendous horns, which I had at first mistaken as tree branches, were shaken clean and made visible. They were dented and chipped. I had stumbled upon history. Truth would be uncovered along with the awakening of Red. 

The Triceratops spun and stared at me with scrunched eyes. They were completely white. It was evident he was blind, or at least partially blind. His beak-like mouth came close to my face, sniffing and searching for the thing that disturbed his slumber and ruined his cover. Frightened and confused, I was frozen in place.

He lowered his head as if ready to defend himself from an attacker. His front leg had a piece of it missing and his left side had extreme scars raking down his ribcage. Even more threatened and afraid than before, I was still frozen, but managed to ask the obvious. 

“What are you?”

The dinosaur stopped and raised his head. He must have sensed my innocent intentions. He flopped back to the ground. I could tell he was tired just from getting to feet. This creature was old and had seen a lot. 

“I can tell you’re young, alone and mean no harm,” croaked the Triceratops. “So I’m going to tell you a story. I’m the last dinosaur the world will ever see.”

History Relearned

My feet finally thawed from the ground and my fear dissipated. I was only left with confusion. Did he say dinosaur? Those were just old folktales told by my grandparents. There wasn’t a single cent of truth to them. Or at least I thought so until that very moment. There was a real dinosaur lying right in front of me. 

“My name is Red, and I’m a Triceratops,” said the dino after I finally plopped down nearby. I also introduced myself, my species and explained my life a little to give him a sense of where he was. He had already known though.

“I’ve seen the end of the world, yet it keeps turning,” Red said. “I’m old and broken now, pieces have been bitten off of me, bones have been snapped, my vision is almost gone. I’m through. I’ve been waiting for death to take me, and it just hasn’t. Maybe I need to tell you my story first. But before I do, tell me what you know about ‘the end.’”

So I explained to him that I know a stone fell from the sky and broke the planet. The sun was blocked out by ash and dust and many things perished, including the dinosaurs. I also told him my grandparents were always spouting off about it. They always talked about how they saw the dinosaurs before their inevitable doom, survived through the famine that grabbed the living world by the throat and even prospered through the lack of light in the world. It was a vague understanding, but still something. I told Red I was a skeptic, and had always thought the world to be dark until recently, when the ash started to clear away. Even so, I couldn’t help but wonder if it was just a new change for the planet altogether, and if the sun had ever shone this brightly before. Red assured me there was a time before the darkness. 

“The world was once a peaceful place. Before the flash, we all coexisted. The dinosaurs roamed the earth, along with the flyers and the mammals, the reptiles and the fish. We all survived off of one another, whether it meant killing each other for food or not,” explained the old timer. “I only eat plants, so I survived off of the flora the planet provided me. It was an easy life. It was, at least until the flash.”

The Flash

“It was like a lightning bolt, but big enough to fill the sky completely. Many went blind that were too close to ground zero. I later found out this the meteor breaking the planet’s atmosphere. At the time, however, I was just as puzzled as the next creature,” recalled Red. He took a second and shut his failing eyes. He took a deep breath and picked up where he had left off.

“At that time, I had left my nesting area to find the closest watering hole. The flash lit up the sky and then, to the north, I saw the massive meteor, flaming and coming in fast. About a hundred miles north I watched it crash mercilessly into the earth. The ground shook and the world cried out in pain, spitting dirt and ash into the sky. A wall of darkness rushed forth at tremendous speeds, whipping across the land. Before it completely enveloped me, I looked up at the blue sky and the white clouds. This was the last time I saw the sun.”

Red trailed off again. I was hooked. This encounter itself was so random. I suppose I was still trying to get a grip that I had come across the last dinosaur that all this information was too much. I began asking questions regarding the apocalypse and how it all happened. I couldn’t believe my grandparents were telling the truth. They weren’t crazy after all. Words spilled out of my mouth like a waterfall, questions splashing onto the old man’s body, practically drowning him. He silenced me quickly. 

“I have little time to answer questions. Let me talk first. I am tired enough as it is,” he murmured. “Now, where was I?”

I reminded him he had just mentioned the impact of the meteor. I thought that was it. It was simple really. Giant rock smashes into earth, blocks sun, kills everything it hit, game over. Apparently, I was wrong with such assumptions.

Anarchy in the Dark

“It wasn’t until a few days after ‘the flash’ that things got horrible,” remarked Red in a grave tone. “Yes, the impact wiped out everything within a 5 mile radius of where it hit, but that clearly isn’t everything. The meteor was massive, but not massive enough to cause the extinction of all the dinosaurs in one fell swoop. It was the anarchy that followed the hit. The fear and confusion was our biggest threat.”

“The sun was gone, and it wasn’t coming back. At least not to our knowledge. We were still confused with what caused the meteor in the first place. Some species thought it was other species attempting to lay siege and wipe out the other. Not everyone got along to begin with, so some saw it as an unexplainable attack from their mortal enemies. Other’s just saw it for what it was. I, myself, did not have many enemies, and saw the meteor as the end. I suppose I was wrong as well, considering we’re talking right now.”

Red rolled onto his side against a large tree. He was exhausted from speaking; I could tell he hadn’t spoken this much in years. He probably had realized he was near his end, even if the world wasn’t ending yet. His eyelids fluttered and he took another deep breath, wheezing with his exhale. 

“With terror of each other, and no light in the sky, we lost control. There was no sense of time and the plants started to whither and die. The herbivores, like myself, were starving fast. Some, disgustingly, resorted to eating the meat of the dead. Too weak to hunt the living, the herbivores slowly died. No one could walk through the forests without stumbling across a carcass. The world stunk of death.”

“The carnivores also struggled to find living prey. They ate the dead as well, and eventually turned on one another to feed their painful hunger. With the destruction of food, light, time, trust and morals, the world of the dinosaurs lit up like an out of control fire. Consuming ourselves, we were forced to be individuals. No such things as herds existed anymore. No alliances, no protection. We we’re truly out for only ourselves.”

“It wasn’t until then, I decided to move south and west to the coast. I needed to be away from the chaos of ground zero.”

Extinction

“To my despair, things were the same further away from ground zero, if not worse, due to the lack of explanation. It was pure anarchy. The sky was black, but the landscapes burned with fire and insanity. Forests were reduced to ash and species of dinosaurs ripped at their friend’s throats. Nothing was in the realm of sane. We had lost control of the world and ourselves. Without food, we were doomed,” struggled Red. He was fading quickly. I wasn’t sure whether to tell him to stop or to hurry up. Instead, I did nothing and waited. After five minutes or so, he spoke more.

“I continued my way west until I got here, where I fought off attacks from both herbivores and carnivores. I’ve fought against mammals and flyers from all over. To me knowledge, I’m now the only dinosaur left in the world. It’s been years since I’ve talked to one.” 

He paused and cracked open an eye, staring intently at me. “But your species, along with the other mammals have all made it through. You struggled on scraps and sips and made it through. The world is now reborn. I overheard an Elk saying they were surprised that the sky was blue. This is a new era. Although I have seen the end, I suppose I was wrong all along. It never fully ended, only I did.”

Red stopped talking at that point. My questions bubbled to the surface once more, but I bit my tongue. The old Triceratops had only a few more breaths left in him. I thought deeply. I stared at the old dinosaur’s scars and how beaten down he was. The things he must have seen, the things he must have endured. I wanted to know everything. But in all honesty, I could only ask one question before he passed. 

We sat in silence for a few minutes. The sun leaked through the leaves of the trees and touched Red’s wrinkled and broken face. His eyes fluttered open for a second and smile broke across his face.

“The sun…” he mumbled. “I never thought I’d see you again, old friend.”

As the warm rays soaked Red’s body, I realized I just needed to tell his story to everyone. No questions were needed. This was it. He looked at me once more and then closed his partially blind eyes for the last time. 

“You are a complete stranger, but I’ve entrusted my very abridged life with you. I don’t know why, but I feel a little lighter,” Red croaked. “You’re about to witness history. The last dinosaur is going to die. I never thought I would see extinction.”

With that, extinction came to be. The last dinosaur was dead, and I was the last to witness him.

The Aftermath Part 2

I covered Red like he had been covered when I first bumped into him at the start of the day. The sun had set and the moon was high in the sky when I returned home. The moon cut through the ash and dirt and shone brightly with the stars accompanying it. What now?

I ran to my grandparents’ bed in the brush. They were asleep under the moonlight, smiles on their faces. They hadn’t seen all of what Red spoke of, but saw enough. I had quite the story to tell them when they woke up. They’re smiles were even bigger when they awoke.

I suppose it never truly is “the end".