BEARPOCALYPSE

BUILDING MACHINES AND WHAT THEY DO: Charming children's book, or chilling tome foretelling the Apocalypse?

At the humble age of 5, I received the aforementioned book for Christmas. In my youth, I saw it only as a cute story designed to teach kids about construction equipment. Coming back to it in my adulthood, a much more sinister narrative reveals itself.

You will note that the book's illustrations are mostly realistic save for one bizarre turn from reality: the complete lack of human beings. Other animals such as birds and dolphins are present, but humanity is nowhere to be found. In our place, as if it were the most normal thing in the world, are cartoon bears.

The titular building machines are suggestive of late 20th/early 21st century manufacture. They are almost exactly as they were presumably left. Whatever caused humanity to disappear, it must have happened quickly.

TO BE CONTINUED...