She went to the zoo with her parents.
It was a special opening day, with an exciting new exhibit. This would be the first time that any of these creatures were put on view. It was the first of the zoological gardens anywhere to be granted permission to show them publically. Of course, nearly everybody had seen pictures of them, along with some videos that gave an idea of how they lived in their old environment. As the family worked its way slowly around the park, the girl became impatient. Her father smiled and explained that it was just good management to save the best until last. The special, new enclosure that had been built for them was situated at the very back of the grounds.
At last they came to it. The ground cover and the trees that had been planted were all very peculiar. They had been told that there were two of them. One of each gender. A strange little shelter had been built for them. At first they could see nothing. Then, they emerged.
The girl just stared for the longest time, watching the strange way they moved about. One of them came right up close to the metal netting and looked directly at her. She was frightened by the weird look of the thing, but stood her ground. It was the eyes that held her. Such peculiar eyes and so very sad.
She asked, “Will they be alright?”
“We hope so. They’re not sure how they’ll adapt to this environment.”
“Are there many of them?”
“No. Not many. The Elders haven’t given out many details yet. Only a few were saved. These are the lucky ones.”
“What are we going to call them?”
“Well, it seems that some of their records did survive the global nuclear annihilation, so they’ll probably be called what they used to call themselves… humans.”
