The Cold War

Three weeks.

It had been three weeks since the first of the bombs had been dropped. Three weeks since the beginning of the Penguin-Polar Bear War. As each earth-shattering explosion rocked the fallout shelter, Ellie’s wizened beak twitched with fear. The two children at her side wrapped their flippers around her torso. She knew she must keep them occupied, to ease the fear in their hearts. She must tell them a story. The only story she knew. The story of how history repeated itself with world-ending consequences.

In the year 2033, international tensions were at their breaking point. Around the world, small conflicts escalated into all-out war. America was backed into a corner by the rest of the world, and President Heidi Jefferson, our first and last female President, was forced to activate the Nuclear Football and begin the end of the world. Nuclear decay and widespread destruction destroyed the world. What few survivors remained were unable to regrow and repopulate the Earth. It seemed that the Earth had been forged into a lifeless rock by its former inhabitants. However, three groups persevered through the nuclear winter. The Polar Bears of the Arctic, the Penguins of Antarctica, and the fish that inhabited the surrounding frigid waters were the only creatures unaffected by World War III.

Left alone for hundreds of years, both Polar Bears and Penguins began learning exponentially. By Polar Year 625, the Penguins had developed both a written and spoken language. By Polar Year 834, the Polar Bears unearthed the first remnant of human technology, a 2005 Jeep Wrangler. By Polar Year 923, both Polar Bears and Penguins had begun repopulating the rest of the planet. Thanks to human technology, the Polar Bears were able to develop primitive boats, engineered by the brightest Beargineers. The educated Penguins had retrofitted leftover submarines to be Penguin-Capable. Both species had also developed fish farms, to more efficiently harvest their one and only food source. As they congregated farther from their homelands, they began utilizing radio technology left over from their human benefactors to communicate over long distances.

In Polar Year 1213, Penguin Outpost #23, located in present day Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, began picking up strange radio signals, which turned out to be broadcasts from Polar Bear Outpost #14, located in present day Maryland. By Polar Year 1221, the Polar President and the Penguin Council of Elders arranged to meet. By Polar Year 1277, the Polar Bears universally adopted the language of the Penguins. The two species came to the decision that they would split the Earth in half, based on Human maps and charts that had been discovered throughout the years.

Everything was peaceful until the Polar Bears, who ate vastly more fish than the Penguins, over-populated their half of the world. The first conflict would occur during Polar Year 1342, when the Polar Bears, who were running desperately short on food, decided to attack a Penguin fishery in present day Indonesia. The Penguins retaliated by sending submarines to present day Great Britain and block the ports, eventually taking the country for themselves. Both species knew that war was eminent, and began developing weapons and formulating attack strategies. The Polar Bears were ruthless and attacked hard, but easily fell for traps and were often out-strategized. The Penguins were master strategists, but, due to miscommunication and dispute in the chain of command, often failed to deal the finishing blow.

After 30 years of war, the Polar Bears were all but beaten. They had little food, were slowly being pushed back despite their aggressive pushes foreword. They were forced to unleash weapons which they had no understanding of. The weapons were large missiles which they had salvaged from left-over nuclear silos in the United States. They coordinated a strike which would destroy all of the Penguin’s fisheries, some of their own (to keep the Penguins from profiting from their spoils of war), and the Penguin capital city. The Penguins intercepted the Polar Bear’s attack broadcast and decided to use their own nuclear weapons, which they had been researching in Great Britain. The Penguins pleaded with the Polar Bears to call off their nuclear strike, but the Polar Bears were unyielding. The Polar Bears initiated their nuclear strike, and the Penguins were forced to enact Operation Tuna, which would target 38 Class Eight Polar Bear outposts, along with their capital city of Beartimore. Both species began their attack and sealed each others fate, and the fate of life on Earth.

Ellie’s voice trailed off as she looked down at the two young penguins, who were sound asleep. She herself realized she had not slept in a long time. The explosions had decreased in magnitude, and reached an uneventful finale. The bombings were done. Ellie could finally sleep. As she closed her eyes, she could only laugh bitterly at the irony of the situation. There was an old Human saying she knew that said “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” She could not think of a greater example of this insight. A single tear rolled down her beak as she drifted to sleep, knowing she was most likely one of the last living things on Earth.