Image by kevindean via Flickr

“Ladies and Gentlemen, the rare animals exhibit will be closing shortly. Please proceed to the nearest exit.”

Marvin and Arnold sat smoking their cigarettes, watching the final trickles of humanity depart the exhibit.

“Glad it’s finally closin’ time.” Marvin heaved his bulk off the stone wall and gestured to his co-worker. “Come on, let’s get her done.”

They did a quick round of rock, paper, scissors that left Arnold exclaiming over his long run of bad luck.

Marvin moved to the meat locker where they kept the food for the Tasmanian Tiger, the last of its kind. “Hey, Arnold! Did you put Taz’s dinner in the refrigerator to thaw like I asked you last night?”

Arnold skulked over, a sheepish look on his face. “Uh, I musta forgot. Sorry.”

“Well what are you going to feed ol’ Taz then?” He thumbed over his shoulder to the door that led to Taz’s cage.

“I suppose I could just give it to him frozen. He could gnaw on it, probably have it all eaten by morning and no one would know.

“Geesh, you’re are one dumb son-of-a-bitch, Arnold, you know that?” No wild animal’s gonna gnaw on a hunk of frozen meat.

“I’ll bet the Siberian Tiger would,” Arnold said, his brow furrowed in concentration.

“Yeah well this is a Tasmanian Tiger, moron, from way far south, below Australia even, where it’s really, really hot.” Marvin waddled to the freezer and pulled out a rump roast. “A roast like this would feed a whole family for a coupla days, you know that?”

Arnold took the roast from Marvin’s hands. “Let’s just see if he eats it.” He moved to the door then turned back to Marvin. “You got my back?”

Marvin felt for the pistol he kept in the waistband of his pants. They weren’t allowed tranq guns because they weren’t vets but if they followed the tedious protocol of luring the animals to their special feeding cages first, they’d miss the basketball game. “Yeah, yeah, right behind you. Let’s get her done.” They’d never even had a close call in three years, but that didn’t mean Marvin was stupid enough to leave Black Bessie behind.

The two men unlatched the door and peeked inside but Taz was no where to be seen.

“Guess Taz is lazin’ over by the pond, eh?” Arnold said, his voice shaking.

“Probably. Go on then. I’ll be right behind you.

They walked in, Arnold holding the roast. “Where’s the dish, Marvin?”

“Hang on, I see it over there.” Marvin walked ten feet to the right to retrieve the dish and Arnold followed.

They both heard the door that separated the zoo keepers area from the tiger’s area close with a loud bang. Taz rested against the door, trapping them inside with him.

Between clenched teeth, Marvin muttered, “Give him the roast now only throw it over to the side.”

Arnold nodded and hurled the roast behind Taz about five feet from the door.

“You moron. Is that as far as you could throw it?” Marvin pulled out his pistol. The men watched as Taz rose from his resting position then trotted over to check out the roast. He sniffed it a few times then grabbed it in his mighty jaws and slung it back at the men. Marvin and Arnold had almost reached the door when Taz let out a mighty roar, his yellow eyes narrowed and drool beginning to drip from the sides of his muzzle.

“What do we do now,” Arnold whispered.

Marvin brandished the pistol.

“No! You can’t. It’s the last of it’s kind. Tell you what though. You give me the gun and I’ll lure him away so you can slip out.” Arnold beckoned for the pistol with his hand.

“Uh sure thing, Arnold, if you’re sure you know what you’re doing.” Marvin handed the gun to Arnold and tried not to smile.

Arnold moved two steps toward the door, but Taz moved also. Arnold took three more steps, nearly even with the door, placing himself between Marvin and Taz, but again Taz matched his movements. He turned his body to gauge Marvin’s progress then back to Taz to gauge his.

Hand shaking he raised the pistol and shot Marvin then darted through the door. Taz ran over to Marvin’s body and delivered a death bite to the neck then dragged the portly body away.

Shaking his head, Arnold uttered, “Last of his kind or last of my kind. A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.”

Once the coast was clear he unlatched the door, snuck back in Taz’s cage and retrieved the roast. He and Nelly would have their own feast…after the roast thawed, of course.

**********

Author’s notes:
When I wrote the piece, I did not know there already was such a thing as a Tasmanian Tiger.   (I knew there really was a Tasmanian Devil, however.)  I intended it to be a very large tiger, like the Siberian tiger pictured,  very deadly but very fictional.  Clicking on the link that WordPress so helpfully provided, I do see that the more delicately proportioned Tasmanian Tiger is, sadly, now extinct.  It was also not a cat but a marsupial.  I encourage you to read the Wiki info on this interesting animal and to click on the film clips embedded within the Wiki article to see some of the last live footage of this animal.  It’s both beautiful and heartbreaking to watch.

I do and did know, however, that it’s colder in Tasmania, not hotter, by the way.

Image via Wikipedia

This one, believe it or not, goes with the two science fiction shorts I did called “Above” and “The Race“. Different narrator, different setting, same post-apocalyptic world.

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I missed the bees the most when we went on lock down. Oh, they weren’t real bees, of course. The elders forbid those because no one could survive their stings. Good thing they weren’t usually able to fly to our altitude. Occasionally we’d hear a tale of a child in some obscure sector who dangled a lure off the airship. When he reeled it in, he got the shock of his life, literally, as in anaphylactic shock. Mother said those were only urban legends though.

Our bees were carefully designed robots whose sole purpose was to pollinate the hydroponic flowers grown in the elite sector seven. I lived in neighboring sector six, not nearly so elite nor as pretty but we were fortunate enough to capture the wonky bee for the occasional entertainment. They were kind of cute but annoying after a while because they buzzed nonstop. The Code required us to surrender any rogue bees within forty-eight hours but we found it easier to simply stomp them and toss them overboard. The robotics shop in sector five needed the work. We did what we could to help them out, Code be damned.

I found one outside my cabin one day and at first thought it a new model. The colors were all wrong and it was much larger than the ones sector five usually cranked out. Space here was a luxury. Small was prized; large was cursed. This applied to robots, machinery, food and people. If a woman weighed more than fifty kilos or a man more than seventy-five kilos, they’d be thrown in the brig and “downsized” then put on reduced rations for the next six months.

The bee I caught was at least fifty percent larger than normal. I ran in my cabin and found a small box with which to capture it. Sluggish and flightless, it didn’t resist me, not unusual since they’d programmed the bees to return to the hive with three short blasts of a whistle. I sealed the top with a thin sheet of clear plexiglass then knocked on Melita’s door.

“Ruey, what’s up, girl? It’s kind of early ain’t it?”

“I caught a bee only it must be a new model or something. Look.”

Melita rolled her eyes but leaned over to look inside the small box I held. Two parallel grooves chiseled themselves in her forehead. “That don’t look like no bee I’ve ever seen. Look how big it is.”

“I know! Must be a new model or something. Maybe they need fewer of them if they’re larger?” I shook the box and the bee inside buzzed in response. “Hmm, that’s odd. Did you hear that noise it made?”

Melita perched her hands on her hips. “It buzzed. It’s what they’re programmed to do.”

“Yeah, but this one wasn’t buzzing when I caught it. Now it is.”

“You must have jiggled the gears when you shook it then.” She leaned in closer to have another look. The bee flew up and into the plexiglass cover. Melita jumped back with a gasp. It rammed the lid in silence then repeated, buzzing after each collision.

“See? Don’t you think that’s weird? Can I borrow your tweezers? I want to have a closer look.”

With a sigh, Melita turned and retrieved the tool I needed. “Maybe you should just turn it over to the Enforcers and let them deal with it, Ruey. If it’s a new model they’re testing out, they might come looking for it.”

Tweezers in hand, my attention on the bee, I shook my head. “Let’s see what makes you tick, little guy.”

I seized the bee by its back leg and withdrew it for a closer look then caught my breath. “It shouldn’t have a stinger should it?” My hand began to tremble. Melita’s face grew ashen.

“No. Why would it need one? Do you think it’s a real bee?” She backed up a few steps.

Wide-eyed, I shrugged. “I don’t see how one could get up this high. That’s what they always told us.”

The bee twitched and buzzed and wiggled free of my tweezers. Melita screamed and ran inside her cabin. The bee followed her.

“Melita! Stop!”

She slammed the door before I could get any more words out. I tried to open it but she’d locked it. “Melita! The bee! It followed–”

Melita’s terrified shriek cut me off. I heard her yelling, “Get away! Get away!” Her screams pitched to blood-curdling.

“Melita! Open the door!”

“I can’t!”

I could hear her panicked footfall inside her small cabin and a whooshing sound. Another shriek attracted two Enforcers who eyed me suspiciously before pounding on her door.

“It’s a bee. A real bee. Trapped inside…”

The Enforcer with blond hair pulled out a whistle and blew four times. A loud thud came the answering response as he found a master key and unlocked the door.

Inside Melita lay crumpled in a heap on the floor, her face and arms ballooned to twice their normal size. The other Enforcer withdrew from his rucksack a small mesh cage. He slipped on a pair of heavy gloves then pushed past his fellow officer.

A whistle between his lips, he blew one long blast followed by two short ones. The bee buzzed in response then flew inside the mesh cage. He turned to his companion and said, “Go tell Captain we can lift the lock down. The prototype has been secured. I’ll take care of wrapping up the experiment.”

I gaped at the emotionless face of the man holding the bee cage as the blond man trotted off. “Prototype? Experiment? What the–”

“You will come with me. I have something I need to show you.” He snapped a pair of restraints around my wrists before I could even register his actions.  He shoved me inside Melita’s cabin, shutting and locking the door behind him.

“But, but Melita…” That was all I got out before I felt a sting on my neck.

The man held the now empty mesh cage in front of my face and grinned as he shook it, whistle in his mouth. He blew once then two more times in quick succession.