Nowhere to Go

From the cover of the bushes he watched. His muscles were tense, his eyes fixed on the little bobbing bundle of fur directly in front of him. He would have to be fast. It was a quick little bastard, and this was not the first time they had danced. He could feel the breeze across his back, it was beginning to shift. He had to act fast. He began to creep forward, slowly, silently. Just as the rabbit lifted its head to look around it got an eye full of open coyote mouth. "Victory!" thought the very satisfied coyote as he began to chomp his dinner. Little did the coyote know that just previously, nature had taken its course and the rabbit had engaged in its natural adaptation to ensure the survival of his species. The end result; the rabbit had died feeling satisfied just as the coyote felt satisfied with him in his stomach.

Long had the coyote dominated his environment. The humans, feeling threatened by the presence of wolves, had either killed them all or driven them into the deeps of the wilderness, leaving his territory unchallenged. He was fast, smart, a good tracker, and a deadly hunter. The coyote chuckled, still feeling pleasantly full from his meal earlier. There was no one to challenge his dominance, no predator for him. He was master; and that was how he liked it.

As he mused on his hunting superiority, the coyote wandered through the tracks of land that made up his territory. Lost in thought, he was startled when he realized he’d wandered into an open area and encountered a creature he’d never seen before. It was large, much larger than he’d ever seen before. It did not move. It smelled like nothing he could recognize; no blood, no fur, no musk or scent warning him away. The creature was bright yellow, with oval, black feet. Two small, round, white eyes gazed nowhere, their pupils glazed over and indistinguishable. The next morning as the coyote watched, a human walked over to the creature and climbed in, bringing it to life. The air was filled with a nearly unendurable noise, and the coyote ran from the strange monster.

Over the next several months, the coyote’s territory began to change drastically. The yellow monster flattened everything in its path and dug new holes. Tall structures like caves began appearing, and the humans grew ever more plentiful. The noise and the humans began frightening away the smaller, more timid animals. Game was no longer plentiful, and the coyote had to work much harder to feed himself. He grew thin and ragged-looking. Not so long ago, he had been proud of his size and the gloss of his fur. Now, he thought to himself, the humans that once had taped a documentary of him—the pride of the coyote race—would not recognize his emaciated form.

No longer able to find the furry little bunnies that he so enjoyed, the coyote began to turn to other little bundles of fur to survive. The humans were distressed and outraged when they began to find only shreds of fur and a few bones where their cats had been the day before. Now when the saw him, they ran for strange-looking sticks that exploded and sent hard little pellets at him. As time went on and he continued to raid the neighborhood for unlucky pets, the humans started sending out their males to catch him. But the coyote was too quick and wily to be caught.

A life of hiding and hunger began to weigh heavily on the poor animal. He became dejected and disillusioned. “What’s the point?” he thought. Everywhere he turned, everywhere he hid, the humans were always there, chasing him. He could not get a moment’s peace. His lust for life faded to nothing, not even a spark. How much longer could he survive like this, a mere shadow of his former self?

A new day dawned, more depressing than the last. The humans had learned to keep their pets indoors or behind fences, and the coyote had not had food in several days. He no longer felt the need or desire to continue on. His only desire was to stop his suffering. “I just want it to end,” thought the coyote. With his tail between his legs, he trudged toward the human caves. After a short distance, he came upon one of their paths; a huge thing, with brightly colored creatures the humans sat in and rode up and down at high speeds. He watched the creatures zip past him, thinking longingly of the time before the humans came, and jumped.

Inside the creature the humans called a car, the human woman slammed on the brakes. Those inside felt a thump and then two bumps as the car rolled over something. “Mom, I think we hit an animal!” called the smaller human male. Climbing out of the car, the boy looked to see a small, ragged creature lying by the side of the road.

He would have sworn it was smiling.