The Modern Ark

Not many people came to Dubbo Plains Zoo nowadays.

Lieutenant Noah Graves had done so once as a child. Back in 2003. A world where tiberium had arrived, and a three year war had just concluded. A world where most of its people thought little of the latter, and regarded the former as a scientific curiosity that would be dealt with in due time. It had been summer, he'd come with his family, he'd drank milkshakes, consumed ice-creams, and looked at animals ranging from kangaroos to elephants. It had been a world where children could be children, where the only lifeforms on planet Earth actually originated from planet Earth, and words like "Nod" and "tiberium" were stuff he heard on the news occasionally while playing his Gameboy or doing homework.

That had been over thirty years ago. Over the last thirty years, he'd seen Australia and the rest of the world turn into a toxic wasteland. Over the last thirty years, he'd seen how the Australian Army had followed the same path of every remaining nation on Earth, and be incorporated into the Global Defence Initiative. Five years ago, he'd seen that the Brotherhood of Nod wasn't as dead as everyone claimed, and had launched the world into a new war – the Second Tiberium War, as people now called it. One year ago, after Nod was supposed to have been defeated (again), he'd witnessed Central Australia be turned into a tiberium-hellscape as Nod destroyed a tiberium research facility. In the 20th century, the deserts of Australia had been used to test nuclear weapons, leaving a legacy of irradiated landscapes, and poisoned humans who'd got too close. In the 21st century, he'd seen what tiberium could do as both a weapon and as the catalyst for the most severe mass extinction Earth had seen since the K-T event. In the 22nd century…he took a sip from his hip flask. He had no idea what the 22nd century would be like. Chances were there might not be any humans around in the 22nd century to call it that.

But he was at the zoo now. Again. Thirty years ago he'd come as a visitor. Now, he was commanding troopers overseeing zoo handlers pack animals from all corners of the world into trucks that would take them east. Same direction that everyone in Dubbo and New South Wales was heading. The direction that the jeep rolling up to the zoo entrance most certainly wasn't heading.

"The heck?"

The words were to himself. A few troopers glanced his way, but he gave them a signal to keep on helping the zoo staff. He was way too far down the pecking order to have anything larger than a pair of squads helping up, as the bulk of GDI's forces in the area were focused on getting the people to coastal havens such as Sydney and Melbourne. So why a jeep that had a major walk out was here was anyone's guess.

"Lieutenant Graves?"

Noah saluted as the major walked forward. Her chest was covered in the same body armour that every other trooper was wearing. The name tag on said armour read "Trinh." Vietnamese, by the looks of things, but her English was perfect – it had been the world's lingua franca before the coming of tiberium, and now, as the civilized world banded together under GDI, that remained true.

She returned the salute Noah stood in place uneasily. This was a zoo, not a firebase. Why Trinh was here, he-

"Wondering why I'm here?"

He nodded – he hadn't heard of telepathy, but after all that had happened over the past five years, who was he to claim what was impossible?

"Well, relax. I'm just overseeing the movement of civilians to the coast." She nodded to a crate that contained a rhino that was being loaded onto a truck. "And other…assets."

Noah shrugged. "Just stationed here ma'am. The zoo staff have it handled."

"Hmm. Well, once everyone in this part of the country is on the coast, maybe we can have a zoo set up."

"I'm pretty sure Sydney and Melbourne have zoos."

"Quite right." She sighed, taking off her cap, brushing away some sweat. "Well, it's a brave new world. Or rather twenty percent of a brave new world."

"Why twenty?"

"That's the projection of how much of the Earth's surface will be unscarred by tiberium by the end of the decade. It's the reason why Sydney and Melbourne will be in the blue, and places like Dubbo…not so much."

Noah didn't say anything. GDI's administrative hub was in London, and its military hub was in Washington. Both were hemispheres away. He'd noted that Trinh hadn't made any mention of Canberra. He could only suppose that the city would be left behind for tiberium to collect. Taking another sip from his water flask, he reflected that tiberium almost felt like an animal at times, rather than the plant/mineral hybrid it supposedly was. It wasn't literally an animal, but still, it was as if it was chasing them at times. Constantly driving humanity into enclaves, like wolves circling sheep. Not that there were that many sheep these days, and chances were that wolves were extinct. Like uncounted species on this planet.

"Well," Trinh said, putting back her cap on. "Keep at it Lieutenant."

He nodded, and watched her head back to the jeep. He had a suspicion as to why Major Trinh had visited – evacuations were terrible. People never wanted to move, even with the lion at the door, and it didn't help that a year on since the tiberium lab incident last year, not many people in Australia were glad to see GDI. For many, better to side with the devil they knew rather than the devil they didn't, but only five years ago, GDI had been the proverbial angel.

"Sir?"

He looked at the trooper before him – Private Bennett. His helmet was off, he was sweating like a pig, and he was looking worried.

"What?"

He handed Noah a clipboard – a long list of animals was on it, along with various ticks and crosses next to them. Right now, there were more crosses than ticks.

"What am I looking at?"

"There's not enough vehicles for all the zoo animals Sir. Either we requisition some more, or we have to start picking and choosing."

"Christ." Noah wiped away some of his own sweat. "Christ on a bike."

"Sir?"

"I'm allowed to swear." He turned his back to the trooper, going over the contents of the list. Animals from Africa to Asia, many of them big, many of them endangered, many of them vying for space. He heard a rumble of thunder in the distance – a few minutes ago, he would have welcomed the rain. Now…he rubbed his eyes. When things went wrong (and he'd worked long enough in GDI to know that things would inevitably go wrong, thanks to that bastard Murphy), rain never helped. He looked back at Bennett.

"Do the staff know about this?"

"They're the ones who asked me to pass it on."

"And they want me to solve the problem."

"That, or…" Bennett trailed off.

"Or what?"

"Or we just leave them behind and get on with things."

"We leave them here, they'll die."

"And?" Bennett asked. "They…" He bit his lip. "Permission to speak freely Sir?"

"Granted."

"This is a waste of time. I know, it sucks that tiberium is killing the Earth, but if we're riding out the flood, I'd rather have two pairs of as many humans as possible rather than two pairs of pachyderms taking up more room."

"Duly noted." Noah took out a pocket notebook, wrote something down, and handed it to Bennett. "Get Major Trinh and deliver this note to her."

Bennett looked at it and scowled, but nonetheless made a non-committal "yes Sir" and walked off. Thunder rolled again, and Noah began to feel the first drops of rain.

Start of a global flood? Apocalypse now and all that?

Likely not. Just a thunderstorm. One that was far too rare in, well, the entire world come to think of it. But as he looked at a truck roll off, carrying giraffes and zebras, he was briefly reminded of the analogy. The ark. The flood. Tiberium had been here for far longer than forty days and forty nights, and hadn't been as devastating as the Biblical account went, but still, there'd at least been an Earth for life to return to in that story. An Earth somehow spared the effects of inundation and salt, but hey, who was he to argue? And besides, maybe they were still in the ark building phase. Arks set up all over the world, for all forms of life, to ride out a flood that would never end, and would likely kill them.

Once, it had been said that zoos were the modern ark, as humanity took up more and more of the Earth's surface. Now, Noah had no doubt that was the case.

"Sir?"

He saw Bennett running up to him.

"Private?"

"Trinh's denied your request. She wants you to use what you have, then get a move on."

Noah remained silent, but nodded. Nodding in turn, Bennett walked away, leaving Noah to sigh, and look at a pair of lions in a cage. Lions that might well have to be left behind.

The modern ark indeed, he reflected. It was already sinking.

And how long could humanity keep its neck above the water?

A/N

There was a magazine article I saw awhile ago titled "the modern ark," referring to zoos, and the idea of them being 'arks' as natural habitat is lost due to a variety of reasons. To be frank, it's a sobering prospect. One that I don't really have the skill to do proper justice, but playing around in the Tiberium setting gives me a bit more leeway. So, anyway, drabbled this up.