They'll Destroy the World

Theme:
Tragedy and destruction, though universal, still cannot be understood by anyone. 
Elements:
imagery (fading sun), diction (feline descriptions of human attributes), foreshadowing (most of the rest {made it home})

Sasha yawned. 

The day was young, clear, and calm.  Blue sky, warm sun.  Perfect for getting some sunning in before fall hit hard. 

It seemed everyone and everything was simply interested in enjoying the day.  Those weird people-bird-fly things that had this annoying tendency to fly over and be incredibly noisy seemed to have desisted for now.  All was well. 

Samson walked in, fluffy tail waving in the air.  “Hey there, Sasha.  How’s it going-” 

Sasha pounced on him, claws almost retracted.  They tumbled happily for a while. 

The happy littermates barely noticed when the faraway-voice-people-speak-through made the noise it often made when it wanted attention.  That had always confused Sasha; if she’d ever sounded like that, they would have put her in the people-ground-transport-nest to hunt the mice that sometimes hid there and ignored her for the rest of the day.  She had to be very polite if she wanted to get petted, scratched, or held on a lap.  But no, the obnoxious voice-sender got picked up and held and talked to for hours on end, no matter what the people she owned had been doing before. 

At the tone of the person’s voice -she vaguely noticed that it was Lily, the second oldest of the people-kittens in their family- both cats ceased play-fighting and looked at her.  Something was wrong. 

Very wrong. 

Lily quickly put the voice-sender back where it had been before it made that obnoxious noise and walked over to the glowing-box-people-stare-at-for-hours.  Sasha had noticed on occasion that it looked like there might be people walking around in it, but they didn’t smell like people, or react to anything outside the glowing-box-thing, so it was hard to tell. 

It wasn’t people this time, though. 

Sasha and Sam stared for several blink-times, trying to decipher what was happening in the glowing-box-world.  It was all so chaotic. 

As far as they could tell, there were several of the taller people-dens that usually came grouped together so closely that there was no room for anything else in between. 

It took a while to piece together the scene unfolding through the screaming sounds that the box was making -at least, they hoped it was the box, though some inner voice told them it was people, somewhere, terrified. 

Two tall, grayish people-dens seemed to be the focus of -whatever it was that the glowing-box was trying to tell Lily. 

One of them appeared to be on fire. 

Lily was talking loudly into the voice-sender, waving her hands around madly.  Her voice was high-pitched and scared-sounding.  She talked far faster than any person normally did. 

Sasha didn’t know most of the words.  She focused on the box instead. 

“What the German Shepherd is that?” 

Sasha’s response to her brother’s query, laden as it was with the epitome of feline obscenity -whatever her response would have been- died on her lips as fire burst out of the other tall den.  She thought there might have been a bird flying into it right before… 

Standing in the middle of the room, Lily grabbed the voice-sender and started screaming into it, her voice high-pitched, panicky.  At one point she dropped the voice-sender. 

It took her four tries to pick it up again. 

Sasha wondered what the person listening to Lily’s voice thought of it.  It didn’t seem like anyone would be able to make out what she was saying. 

It took her a while to realize that there was no response from the other side. 

Stressed out by all of the noise and chaos in the living room, Sasha walked over to the door.  There was nothing she could do about -whatever it was happening in the glow-box or on the other side of the voice-sender. 

Lily didn’t move, even when Sasha yowled to go out.  Exasperated, she decided to go upstairs and lie in the sun for a few hours.   

Maybe when the other people got back, one of them would be more… normal.  At least, normal for them.  People were so strange sometimes. 

But there was no sun. 

Somehow, it had vanished in the smoke from the towering dens. 

Night had actually fallen by the time the rest of the family got home.  Or, at least, most of the rest of Sasha and Sammy’s family. 

The people-mover arrived, as usual.  Sasha barely even noticed. 

Until the screaming. 

Sasha caught a few names, that of the oldest of her people, and two of the youngest. 

Over and over again, quieter every time. 

Sasha walked down the stairs, trying to discern the reason for the commotion.  It presented itself, surprisingly not as the four humans standing in the hallway. 

It presented itself as the fact that there should have been three more. 

The mother, whispering her mate’s name over and over again.  The oldest of the people-kittens, Joseph, who held his sister tightly, stroking her hair just like the people sometimes did with Sammy and Sasha.  Lily, who had stayed home with the youngest of the people-kittens, Daisy.  That tiny girl, who liked to get down on all fours and chase the cats in their own way. 

That left the father, whom Sasha liked even though he never paid any attention to her.  It was nice to get some peace and quiet once in a while. 

But the two youngest-

People seemed to usually have one kitten at a time, for whatever reason.  But this time, there were two.  A boy and a girl.  Thomas and Rose.  They were so playful, always chasing each other and the cats, making those people-happy noises… 

Something told Sasha that they would never be doing any of that.  Ever again. 

She managed to pick out more of the people’s words than usual.  It was as if they had somehow gotten much simpler. 

“The one day we went to visit-” 

“They said it was an accident.  Dad’s boss told him he should stay in the tower, and the twins wanted to look out the top, but then-” 

“I heard it was terrorists.  They hijacked some planes-” 

“I should have told them to come down.  I should have said something-” 

“Why on earth would anyone do something like that?” 

That last one from Sammy, who stood next to her. 

Sasha shrugged.  “Who knows why people do anything.  They’re crazy.” 

“Crazy indeed.” 

“They’ll destroy the world.” 

Or they might, one day, save it.