I woke up to the sound of Skags rustle through stuff. I got out of my bed and looked at the door, realizing Skags had got into my pack where I had put the sample of the xeno plant. I ran out callin his name “Skags, Skags spit that out boy.”  It was no use. He always ate table scraps and just swallowed the plant piece right up.

His eyes glazed over and I grabbed him and held on and said “No Skags, no boy not you.” He angled his head in the plant's direction. I sat there just holding him, I had to look into exterminating this thing. I picked up Skags and put him in a cage, he just stood there, I shook my head and left. 

I got on the computer to see what other people were doing. Apparently nothing was working. Other farmers had lost animals and were upset.  City folk had growen paranoid over the missing people and blamed the plants. I don’t blame them, I mean we are just monkeys. Our physiology did not differ from any other animal really, we just had a bigger brain. People had tried all sorts of pesticides and cleaners those didn’t work. Then people tried fire, with flamethrowers and torches. All that had done was brown them temporarily. People even tried explosives, including C4 with no luck. People even tried shooting it with a military grade M4 Carbine with no luck either. It’s almost like the only thing you could do was get it sample, like it was lettin us get it. Disheartened by the lack of info on how to kill it, I shut down my computer. I knew my pig had tried to leave at night so I went a took a nap till the sun went down to see what Skags would do. 

Waking up before sundown I saw him there still staring in the direction of the plant. He didn’t move at all, I put a bowl of water and food in front of him. He didn’t touch the food ro water even though he normally laps up water all day. All night he didn’t touch the food or water and he just stood there staring in the direction of the plant. I tried getting his attention with some of his favorite toys and I even opened a brand new bone for him with no luck. Morning came, and I just decided to head to bed to take a nap before my chores.

After a few hours I went out to do my chores, when I got back Skags was looking sickly. He started whimpering and whining; it was terrible to here. It seemed as though he wanted to be let out. To be let go and to head to the plant. I looked at him and remembered all of our good times together. After about an hour, I decided it would be best if I let him go. The second I opened the cage, he bolted out of the cage and through the dog door. I knew I would never catch up with him. So I just headed to the TV to clear my mind. There was continuing stories about missing people with tracks that headed to the plants. 

Then I heard a tornado siren, and the TV made an announcement. “Emergency, put on a gas mask if you can find them the plants are emitting pollen and we do not know what it will do.” I ran to my closet and put on a gas mask and looked outside, seeing the pollen coming. It was like a yellow mist. I thought it was time to prepare my bunker, and I immediately grabbed some essentials and headed downstairs to my basement to open my secret bunker I had installed. I got inside and closed the doors. A HVAC system kicked in and sucked out all the air then blew me off before letting me in the next set of doors. 

Once I got in, I booted up my PC and started watching the news. Videos and reports started popping up of people without gas masks just heading into the yellow mist towards the plants. There was panic on a global scale and no one knew what was next. This looked like the end for us. I personally had enough supplies for three months before I would have to head out and search for supplies. I wondered how much longer the internet would stay up.  I missed Skags but knew I had to go on. The winds should blow away the yellow mist hopefully.

I checked later on in the day and all the reports talked about people and animals going missing. The winds had done little to clear the air and from what the reports said even a little will make you wander off into the yellow.

The next day was the same, still a thick yellow mist.

            Same thing the next day

And the next 

And 

So 

On

And

So 

Forth 

I bunkered down for the long haul with a journal and wrote out my life story. Thinking maybe someone would read it. I really wish I had Skags with me though…