20500 words BIBI by Mike Resnick and Susan Shwartz _Her childrens cries woke her from her safe nest. She stretched easing the aches in herbones. In the quiet dawn she ventured to the lake for water. She saw less of her enemies spoor than ever before. Almost nothing was freshly dead though a few circling birds warnedher: soon._ Not my children _she wailed silently. They were fevered and ill and even dying.But where were they No one crouched beside the lake. No one edged through the bush seekingher. She had to find them soon before she was a mother without children._ _The land was dry and brown as it had always been but there were differences. The footpathswere missing the birds no longer fled in fear of her the few antelope she saw were smallerand quicker than any she could remember. She felt uneasy walking in the open with no trees toclimb should she come across those fearsome doglike creatures that could swallow her in threebites. She gripped her club which was really nothing more than an old femur bone. She hadwatched a great cat bring down an antelope and waited patiently for it to fill its belly thenfought the birds for the spoils and came