The Ark stood massive and solidly supported in the valley. An impossible array of creatures was situated in the area, waiting their processing to gain entrance to the ark that would provide their specie’s survival. The rain had started, and hours went by with increasing concern whelming in the expectant crowd.
The Processor was a portly gentleman, standing near the access to the Ark, and was quite busy with operational issues required for the orderly loading of the quests. As he surveyed the crowd, he vibrantly shook his clipboard to fling water off a large pad of attached sheets of paper and continued to call out instructions to the surrounding crowd. As the rain increased, he exhibited an increased urgency in addressing the crowd.
“Okay, okay, rain’s coming down strong. We’ll have to hurry up a bit. You all know the procedure; assemble in two lanes and head towards the gangway. We’ve had some difficulty so I, again, demand that we have no shrieks, bleats, barks, whinnies, or loud thumping, I want everyone to get to their stalls as quickly as possible. Also, I don’t want anyone marking territory or relieving themselves – you can hold it ‘till you reach your designated location on the ship. And above all, until situated, No Mating! This is, after all, not a Carnival Cruise! As stated in the Guide, that is a primary duty once we reach our destination, but Not Now! Basically, it slows down our getting situated on the Ark and, to everyone else, looks stupid. You got that? It looks Stupid! Okay, we’re going to continue by loading gazelles, giraffes, and gorillas. We have a difficulty with the gibbons. Moses has determined that, according to the current taxonomy, gibbons are a subspecies and, therefore, constitute double booking. Gibbons are therefore placed on a ‘stand-by’ status. If there is room at the end, they will be assigned stalls. Indeed, there is also some question about whether we’ll get any unicorns onboard (because of their naturally silly behavior) which might open up some spare quarters. And we’ve been alerted to the ponies that have tried to take unicorn places by plastering sharpened branches on their foreheads. We’ve got them under watch and so they should not be a problem.”
For the most part, a surprisingly quiescent file of animals steadily strode, crawled, waddled, hopped, galloped or ran up the gangway to take their place in the Ark. Rain was pouring so heavily that it was difficult to see the surroundings to this massive boarding. The Processor was attentive to the orderly surge, making sure that the two-by-two arrangement detailed in the Guide was followed. Any prospective passenger coming up as a one-by-one single was ordered off the gangway and to head back down to the surrounding thong of creatures, and any three-by-three or more-by-more attempted entries were broken up and pared down to simple pairs despite any and all riotous complaints.
Hawks, hedgehogs, horses; kangaroos, king penguins, krill; scorpions, snakes, sponges; wasps, weasels, and wolves were all loaded into their stalls in the Ark. The weasels were tossed out as they were not a recognized species and were replaced by some queer snakes that were of a questionable species to begin with. More space was also provided to other overbooked species after the Unicorns would not come down from prancing around the higher hill areas and get their asses into the Ark. The arrangement of creature placement was practical. Submarine creatures were selected and attached by tow lines to the back of the boat (although none of them would be threatened by the Flood, they were still freaked out by the Saving Land-Based Life concept as detailed in the Guide). Amphibians and land creatures were placed accordingly, basically separating those who would naturally tend to eat the other. They could continue to play the food-chain game once the journey was completed.