when the world went quiet

Duke was starting to think there was no end to the world. Perhaps, he thought- as he padded along at a brisk pace past another tree and another tree and then yet another tree- the world simply went on forever. But just in case it didn’t, he changed directions. He didn’t want to fall off the edge after all. Rose would not have liked that. She would have done that thing, where her eyes widened and lips trembled. Like that time he’d wandered too far off his leash and then had to be brought back by another friendly human who’d known her. She’d looked like that for the whole day after he’d come home, no matter how much he’d tried to bring her her favorite slippers. It had made Duke feel sad.

She’d looked a lot like that at the end.

But Duke didn’t like thinking about that. He stopped, sniffing around the leaf carpeted forest floor trying to catch the scent of something appetizing to distract him. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much. So, with a sad lonely bark that had no reply, he started off again.

It had been a while since he’d seen a human. He remembered in the old place he’d lived in with Rose- there he went again, thinking about Rose- he could have hardly gone a few steps without seeing one. They’d all been very nice back then he thought. Nice and gullible. Always stopping to rub his head or crouching to talk to him like they talked to their pups. Sometimes they gave him food that didn’t taste very good. But ever since the world had gone quiet- Duke couldn’t remember how long it had been- the humans had been much fewer in numbers. Less nice too. Whenever he did see one, they ignored him. Or sometimes ran away. Most of the time they didn’t seem to notice him at all. Duke could smell a miserable emotion off of them, but he didn’t know what they were miserable about. The world had never seemed so bright and cheerful as it did now. Ever since it had gone quiet.

Sometimes, when he’d get past a few forests, chasing rabbits back and forth, he’d wind up back in the homes Rose, and the other humans, used to live in. The ground was firmer there under his paws, and he’d wander through the dull colorless landscape made up of tall blocks of grey reaching to the sky that were now crumbling downwards in decay and free of any activity. No one lived here anymore it seemed. Everything was abandoned, with green climbing all over it nicely.

He was happy at least, that Rose wouldn’t need to scold him about running around anymore. He hadn’t seen those moving metal contraptions human travelled in, in a very long time. Everything was very quiet. He did like it, but it made him feel lonely too. There used to be other dogs where Rose had lived. Sometimes she’d take him out to the park where there were even more, and they’d all been oh so kind to him. Not to mention it was very hard to play fetch by himself. He’d tried in vain. There was no one to look at the very sophisticated collection of sticks he’d amassed either. His ears drooped, and he settled down on the middle of the street sadly. This was why he didn’t like thinking about Rose. He hoped she was okay. But he couldn’t be sure. She’d sent him away, crying one day, and then he’d been locked up in a cage, with a lot of other dogs, all of whom also fretted over their Roses that they’d left behind. There had been a little human pup who’d come to give them food and pat their heads through the bars. Sometimes there was an older human with him too and their voices would float over Duke as he nibbled on the food they’d pushed through.

“Do we really have to leave?”

“Their evacuating the whole city Noah- people are… people are getting sick.”

There was quiet for a moment.

“They said everyone’s going to die.”

“Who said that.”

“Everyone’s saying that! They said we’re all going to get sick and die!”

“We won’t Noah. That’s why we’re evacuating. So, we can be safe. Okay?”

The next day nobody came. Duke’s stomach growled the entire today in complaint, but he tried to be brave for Rose. It wouldn’t do for him to whine over a missed meal. It was a few more miserable days before a raggedy poodle found a gap in the cage they could wiggle out of.

He’d been walking since then. His coat smelled strange, and there was an irritating itch behind his ear. He sniffed around a bush, snapping his jaw at a small furry animal hidden within before it scurried off.

“Oi, you! Shoo!” Duke started at the voice, seeing a woman approaching him on quickened steps looking angry as she waved a long stick in the air at him energetically. Duke perked up, feeling his tag start to wag. Fetch! The human wanted to play fetch with him!

He bounded up happily only to be swatted back. He tried once more but was again, kept at bay with angry shouting. Duke padded away to a safe distance in confusion. This wasn’t usually how fetch went.

“It’s hard enough to find something to eat without having competition.” the woman said angrily, pocking round in the bush for a few frustrated seconds before groaning and moving on to the next. Duke didn’t think it was a very productive way of hunting, if that was what she was doing.

“Mom!” A voice rang out in the woods, high-pitched and feminine. “Something’s caught in the snare!”

The woman nearly broke her neck at the speed at which it twisted before she hurried into the overgrowth. Duke followed her curiously. Perhaps she would have had a problem with it if she’d noticed.

“Good job Brenda.” She said excitedly, nearly running up to the small girl standing in the center of the clearly holding up a bound up rabbit. The small Brenda, beamed, showing off her catch proudly, not unlike Duke used to show Rose his own. He wondered if the woman was Brenda’s Rose. She certainly acted like it, pulling her tightly into a hug, chattering happily at a speed Duke couldn’t bother to differentiate from noise.

“Mom.” Brenda’s eyes landed on him, widening. Duke sat down obediently. Rose had loved that. Always looked very proud of how the other humans would gush over him and his ability to sit down. For some reason they found it impressive. Duke wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t that hard. They did it themselves all the time.

“Oh.” The woman unfortunately took note of him as well and raised her stick again, but Brenda quickly grabbed it out of the way.

“Don’t, mom!”

“Brenda-”

“Doesn’t he look like Zeus, mom?” Brenda gushed, coming up to scratch him behind the ear. Duke stood attentively still, hardly believing his luck. He hadn’t had a scratch behind the ear in a very long time and he’d forgotten how nice it felt.

“Brenda.” She looked exasperated as Brenda sat down cross-legged in front of him using both hands to scratch now. Duke happily lolled his tongue, panting. “We need to get going.”

“Can’t we take him mom?” She said suddenly. “Take him with us?”

“Don’t be ridiculous Brenda, we can hardly feed ourselves.”

“He could be our guard dog!”

“He’s a golden retriever sweetheart, not a rottweiler.”

“Mom.” She whined, drawing it out very long. She pouted her lips, which must have been very beneficial to her argument, because the woman rolled her eyes and sighed, but didn’t reply again.

“We’re not keeping him.” She said sternly as Brenda got up and encouragingly made a gesture with her hand over and over until Duke took a step to follow her. “When he decides to run off, and he will do that, we’ll let him go.”

“We’ll see.” Brenda said sing-songy, happily walking backwards to watch him padding after her. She reminded him a lot of Rose now that he thought about it.

They talked as he followed them, but he didn’t bother to pay attention. The sounds they made never made much sense to him anyways, besides for a few key ones. Occasionally he would stop to sniff at something or another and Brenda would stop too, calling him an unfamiliar name until he responded by moving again. He brought Brenda a stick, and she was more than happy to toss it far for him, allowing him to rush through the greenery, before bringing it back. They had fun like that a few times, before she accidentally threw it into a stream.

A day before the first snowfall of the winter Brenda and the woman started to cough. A few days later the world went silent again.

Duke set off in search of the end of the world once more. Sometimes he thought about Brenda, but he didn’t like thinking about Brenda because it made him sad, so instead he thought about how beautiful the world had gotten since it went quiet; colorful and vibrant and big. Much bigger than he’d ever thought possible.

He never saw humans anymore.