My heart was beating fast, I was scared, my hand holding the knife was shaking. Meeting other people was always a bad thing, thieves, cannibals, slavers, they were part of the local fauna of the new world and we ... we were nothing more than prey, scared, praying to anyone that our destiny is not to fall into the hands of those beasts.

Oswald was motionless, aiming his rifle into the darkness. Mario threw himself against the nearest wall for cover and, knife in hand, prepared to ambush whoever he approached. "Show your fucking face! Before you end up with a hole in your chest!" the panther screamed again.

"Stop! Please don't shoot! We have a child!" a trembling voice answered.

"I don't believe shit! I'm going to shoot and blow your head off!" roared Oswald.

"No! Please! We are unarmed!"

Oswald snorted, "Step forward! Slowly!"

From the shadows, a tall tiger, quite mature, aged, with a tired face. The man had one arm much thinner than the other, the skin stuck to the bones as if it had been drained. It was true, he was not armed, he was only dressed in a bag and furs. Behind him appeared a woman, similar to him but with a slightly duller coat, holding a small tiger in her hands. The child had been unlucky, her jaw was very small compared to the rest of her head, leaving half of her mouth exposed, with her tongue hanging to one side.

My brother gave a sigh and lowered the gun, at that moment I realized, his legs were shaking and his tail was shaking violently. We had never had to shoot anyone, but I knew that Oswald was tormented by the idea of having to do it, it was an internal fragility that forced him to see all people as part of the same family, survivors.

I sighed and lowered my weapon, my wolf brother growled and sat down next to his backpack, still holding his knife firmly. Did he feel threatened by these people or did he just want to fight? Oswald stayed chatting with strangers. I approached the hole in the wall through which we had entered. Outside it was still raining, we did well to go in, the rain was black as oil, it hit the ground, formed small puddles, and killed any small plant that it reached, although strangely, the undergrowth resisted.

The storm stopped us for an hour and a half, after that the rain subsided although the sky was still gray and thunder could be heard in the distance. There was a soft wind that raised some dust contaminated by the rain, those small dust particles were lethal, and if you don't cover your snout well you end up breathing that crap and after two days you are coughing non-stop, a week later your gums bleed, your teeth fall out and you can't keep any food in your stomach. Some are lucky and survive, like Mario.

We took our things and said goodbye to strangers, we never presented, neither do they. Before we left, Mario marked the place on the map in case we needed shelter. The road to the west continued, a little muddier now.

After a few kilometers, we began to see patches of fresh grass, some stained but alive. There were also tracks of splitmaws, a large misshapen paw with three thick toes, heavy enough to mark the ground.

Oswald immediately ordered us to draw our spears and be vigilant, we had not seen any creatures yet but we were in his territory, we were not safe. The splitmaw were dangerous creatures, but they never attacked groups bigger than themselves, it was a simple process that their heads made, we are more, we can win.

Half an hour later, we saw the first shell tree, at its feet were dozens of small plants and grown grass. The whole area was a canvas of greens, grays, and yellows, my boots no longer made noise when walking and little by little they got wet with the dew. Near the tree shells were huge caterpillars, forty centimeters long and as wide as my head, are they edible? I remember old Abigail telling us that when she was little, they ate worms in the bunkers to survive, in the post-war years, when the surface air was still poisonous. Quintana told us that Abigail's generation rushed up and that is why there were so many deformations, he said that no one bothered to listen to the scientists and that we should still be underground. Underground, eating worms.

We stopped on a small hill with a lonely tree. As Oswald looked around the area, I sat down to rest, that abundant natural mattress felt cool and comfortable. Mario picked up a shell and began to investigate it, it was rigid, light, and by the sound it made when hitting it, it seemed hollow, but when the wolf split it in two he showed me that the bark was porous, it was also wet. "I'm going to save a whole plate for Professor Quintana, I'm sure he will be interested in studying it more closely," said my brother. His tail was wagging happily, I'm sure in his head he was already imagining a thousand ways to use that discarded piece of bark.

When Oswald came back, he sat down next to me and gave a sigh, "Good news and bad news. I didn't see any danger nearby but I didn't see any prey either, just those fucking worms," said the panther as he ran his hand over his head, pushing his hair back. "Maybe we should grill one, it sure is a very soft and juicy meat!" Mario said as he continued to observe the bark. "No, we're not going to risk getting intoxicated from eating anything," Oswald growled, adjusting the butterflies on his prosthesis so he could support his head and be more comfortable. "Don't be such a coward, not everything around us kills, what do you think, Maxi?" asked the wolf, looking at me. I thought for a moment the idea of biting one of those caterpillars and made a gesture of disgust, shaking my head with my tongue out, "That's two against one. Besides, this is not a democracy, I am the leader of the group and if I say no, it's no, "Oswald made it clear.

The panther lit another cigarette and took out his canteen, "This is a good place to camp but we still have a few hours of daylight left. We'll take one more look in case we find anything edible, we'll come back here and pitch the tent," said Oswald, explaining his plan.

We left our backpacks on the hill, Oswald took to the north and we to the west, Oswald and I have always insisted that I can go alone but Mario has always told us that it is stupid, he has had very strong fights with the panther on the subject, how is a mute supposed to ask for help if he encounters some danger? Once the wolf came to steal and hide Oswald's prosthesis for three days until he forced him to promise that he would never send me to explore alone. The world was a dangerous place, Mario was very clear about it and left nothing to chance, on the other hand, for Oswald everything was a test and risk was something common, expected, longed for.

We walked for twenty minutes among the open trees and the worms that fed on them. In front of us, there was a great depression in the ground, descending into a great valley, with a dense green forest like those old parks of antiquity, and at the opposite end of us, a shining lagoon with a huge plane buried in its bank. The sheen of the water was reflected in my eyes like the gaze of a child in front of a plate of meat.

“Now that is a strange image,” said my brother, and he was right, normally those old planes end scrapped by the people to build a refuge and get some old technology, a working radio is like a treasure and comfy seats in good condition were a luxury.

 I pointed with my hand, telling the wolf that we should continue and find someplace where we can go down to the valley, but he just shook his head, “Why does that plane look so… intact? Think about it, it must be a dangerous place,” explained Mario. I just rolled my eyes like ‘really dude?’ you are a fucking sexy guy but you can’t live just like there were dead everywhere! “We should go back to the camp, this is a good catch but let’s tell Oswald about it so we can go back tomorrow,” ordered the lupine, I just grunted while I was still looking at the valley, then turned to my brother.

My next step was a reminder about how wrong was the idea of approaching an earth ravine. The floor disintegrated under my feet, the last thing I could see was my brother's face of horror and his hand reaching for mine. My fall was short, I got stuck between the branches of a nearby tree, about fifteen meters from where we were. I felt the creaking of the branches that held me weakly. What had I brought? The knife, the canteen, did I bring the rope? No ... Mario was going to kill me if my stupidity didn't do it first. I took a deep breath and stayed still.

"Maxi! Don't move! I'm going there!" I heard him yell at Mario. His rope fell beside me and a second later I saw the wolf slowly coming down. "Don't move little brother, I'm with you," he repeated to me again. When he came down to me, he wrapped the rope around one of his hands and stretched out his other hand trying to reach me, it wasn't enough. "Maxi, wait, I'm going to have to swing, when I get closer stretch your hand and I'll grab you," Mario explained, he was scared, it's the first time I saw him like this, I nodded and tried to stay calm.

Mario settled down, flexing his legs against the ravine wall, and threw himself against me, I stretched out my hand and the branch that was holding me broke, my fingers caressed the palm of the wolf that could not close, "MAXI NOOO !!"

The image of my brother disappeared into the distance as my back hit and broke several branches. I fell into the valley.