Shelves after shelves were aligned, and from a table adjacent to the window was the silhouette of a black-furred quadruped.
Zed stood on the table and brought a few other books from the shelves such as instruction manuals on how to operate a bow, a compilation of maps, and an almanac. But first, he perused on the journal. It had been close to five hundred years, and most things in the world had degraded but not the journal and books that had been safely kept from the library.
As a cat, Zed would not know the significance of a library to a society of humans, and what it meant to be a nexus of knowledge. The only thing he knew though was this place was a place of learning.
"Dr. Janus Vein?" He read the name of the author of the journal thick with his cat accent. "I have stood witness to the fall of humanity, and I am slated to believe that I was the last of them."
Frowning, Zed flipped the pages of the journal. There was regret in his eyes and unacceptance. "This could not be..." He ignored the important knowledge that Dr. Janus Vein had accumulated both knowledge in skill as Zed focussed on trying to see information that would contradict the presumptuous words of the doctor that he was the last of humanity.
Zed was however gravely disappointed as he reached the last page.
"Thus, the extinction-level event was never prevented, not to mention curbed. As a species, humanity had prospered in unity and fallen from disunity. Our tragic ending... It was meant to become a cautionary tale to the other intelligent species of the universe.
Sincerely, Dr. Janus Vein, The Last Witness."
The author had written his last, and Zed only felt dread at the fact that he wouldn't find a precious person for him anymore.
For some time, he had been stubborn to the point of delusion. He thought he had traveled the world already, and was still could not find anything. Though in fact, he only had traveled north, it was a fact that he was worn out and on the verge of giving up. But just like every time he had hit rock bottom and was on the verge of giving up he would always find himself standing back up again, with even a grander delusion that out there... a human was waiting for him... that a special person out there was waiting for him.
He was more miserable than a dog, he realized.
"Meow..."
And as always, the cat moved on with stubborn persistence. He read the journal from the beginning, the knowledge of the English language flowed in his brain and carefully read the material at his paws. Days gone by. Though he now possessed a life force so strong, that he'd no longer worry of any hurt, he was still prone to hunger not of the stomach but of the mind.
While studying the journal, Zed continued his routine of supply runs to gather food for himself. He was lucky since he found several cans of tuna last Monday.
When Zed had finished reading the journal of Dr. Janus Vein, he was hit by the cruel truth of the avoided and only possibility... All of humanity had truly gone extinct. It had been almost 500 years! Zed had been roaming the earth in search of something that would not exist anymore for 500 years!
The cat walked back and forth, his paws hitting the wooden table with anxiety. He didn't want it to end like this. he was not bad luck at all. He would prove it by finding a new human. But how? If all of humanity had perished, then what meaning would there be in proving the myth wrong?
He cycled through the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and... ultimately acceptance...
The lonely figure of the black-furred quadruped sat by the window watching over the lumbering undead below him. "I guessed it was time for me to move on." He concluded. He had been mourning for 500 years pushing forward against the horde of the rotten and trying his best to search for something that did not exist. He was not wrong though to claim to have travelled the world.
Zed had been in what was left of China, Russia, and Europe, he crossed the frozen sea from the Pacific and traveled westward. He didn't pay much attention to other things except his own survival and his attempts to gather information from other beats like him.
"One last trip..." He decided.
But this time, he would not focus on simply searching for a human. Though he knew they were all gone, it wouldn't hurt to truly make sure... He convinced himself. He would also try to pay attention to other things as A-Dolph had been doing. He was just a cat. He could be petty, and simple-minded most oftentimes, but he could also change. The mutation he had gone through unbeknownst to him had elevated his existence and in tandem, had become a complete evolution, a result of 500 years of wandering.
Zed read through the materials on how to operate a boat.
"Hmmm..."
When he was finished, and learned the knowledge for boat operation, he impatiently began his journey in search of a boat. he avoided the more dangerous undead and tracked the most lackluster undead herd to use them as his cover. It didn't take him much longer to find a yacht he could use.
Not like most animals was Zed. In all of what was left of Earth, there were two different mutations that had occurred to all of Earth's life forms. This was something Zed learned from A-Dolph as a freebie for being his first customer in the eastern parts. The dolphin was quite knowledgeable in all kinds of things.
The first was the result of the Touch of Radiation Sickness. Unlike the humans, whatever the sickness was had a different effect on the denizens of the animal kingdom in that it had given them immunity to most sicknesses, increased their lifespan by decades, and had become more sentient thus gaining sapience. As a result, a few members of the animal kingdom had formed a coalition
Zed would not know any of this. Considering that the first sapient beasts he met were a bear from Russia who only wanted to murder, a dog from Europe who was stubbornly guarding the door of his master's house, a herd of weird-looking deers, and a merchant dolphin, Zed really had no healthy reference as to what a coalition was.
Except for the information he gathered from A-Dolph, he was as good as heading to unknown lands.
He was reminded of the AviaNest. They were a coalition, he thought. Then he was reminded of the situation from further west and south. He believed the places were formerly the lands of America in the west, and then there was Indonesia in the south.
The cat deliberated on where to go first. In the west, he heard from A-Dolph, that a gang of raccoons was trying to take control of firearms. Zed at least knew what was a firearm. He watched them bang bang on the TV a lot back in the day. The West was pretty much embroiled in war as all sorts of groups were vying for dominance. Meanwhile, the South had it better since there was more order to it, except there were warlords everywhere trying to claim sovereignty of sorts.
This was where the second kind of mutation would come in. According to A-Dolph, there were mutation strains that could spark a certain degree of evolution that elevated the existence of an individual. As a result, such individuals would then again have supernatural abilities. For A-Dolph, it was his Telepathy.
All kinds of beasts had sprung up across the globe with supernatural abilities. They were called Champions of the realm!
"Hmmm... I think I knew where I should go...."
Zed started the yacht with already a destination in mind. He would have to meet the leader of AviaNest. This was actually his ultimate goal. He wanted to confront the leader of the Nest, the Owlking, about humanity's extinction. Sadly. He didn't have information on where was the AviaNest.
He recalled his conversation with A-Dolph before the latter's hasty departure. The AviaNest was the closest to rebuilding a civilization according to him, and their methods were mysterious. A-Dolph was able to only make a transaction with them because the Owlking came at him personally.
It would be better if Zed knew where AviaNest's base of operations was so that he could converse with this Owlking, but he had to settle with the information he had. That was why after so much deliberation, he decided to go south and see what was formerly known as Indonesia had become.
There, he would continue his investigation of humanity's traces, and search for information about the Owlking.
"Meow..."
A lone cat pushed the lever of the yacht down, and with a careful eye, he had set his bearings to south.