It was truly a miracle that the concept of NAMES had actually survived the Anthro Apocalypse. The number of former animals had of course vastly out numbered the former humans. And those numbers had dropped with the death and destruction that had followed. However, inexperience with new instincts, mixed with resistance to mate with something that had once been simply an animal, and the results were even more chaotic. And one more nail in the coffin to the cultural identity of humanity.
The word 'animal' and 'human' became part of history and nothing else.
Though there was now no way to tell who was descended how much from those who had been human and who had been animals, and such things wouldn't have mattered anyway, the group had been very concise on making sure there would have been no way to tell the two apart anyway.
Given the group's original goal and purpose, it was chilling to think how many species had gone extinct, not even existing as hybrids. Wars had been fought. Wars of extermination to eliminate rivals had happened.
And the ocean... only the brave or the foolish dared cross it knowing what lay underneath, and would not hesitate to sink any ship and consume the crew on board. Those who could fly across had an advantage in both conflict and in economics such as they existed now.
Insects and fish had been affected by the virus as much as animals on land, worms underground... the original group's insanity had left no alternative and spared none save microbes and near microscopic (if so, that would have truly spelled the death of the planet). Thinking going vegan was purely a matter of choice and will power regardless of biology, even if they had thought to simply make every humanoid on the planet into a vegetarian based digestive track, to feed hordes of human sized creatures would have been nothing short of insanity.
In general, the social animals had done a better job of surviving, and avoiding extinction now that all creatures existed purely on equal footing.
While all former humans were greatly overwhelmed by their instincts (while the former animals still followed them just now with human intelligence to make them more cunning and effective), those transformed into insects hybrids had in particular been driven purely by their new instincts, Serve The Colony, Pollenate and Gather For the Hive... non-social insect species were among the first to be driven extinct... Those that hadn't... were respected and feared but generally tolerated.
After all, SOMETHING still had to pollenate the flowers, and even given human ability for intelligence and communicate verbally, the insect mind was still something very different from the average vertebrate, often acting more like a single creature than individuals.
So Lina allowed the bees who had come for the flowers to do their business and pollenate the flowers and be on their way. They didn't even seem to notice her or any of the slaves unless she got in their way. She didn't exist in their context as something that mattered to the hive unless she got in their way.
Bees could still only use its stinger once before dying, but that sting would be the last thing Lina would ever feel.
Horses did of course end up flesh for the Predators the same as any Prey... but they still had greater uses as workers... it wasn't like the Predators were going to farm the land to feed their Prey themselves after all. And as such, lived as long they could still contribute to the farming more than they ate once they were capable of doing labor. This labor left no real time for education or thinking, which was just the way the Predators liked it. The Predators actually trusted their Horse Slaves more than their normal Prey who might be left with time to think between multiplying and being fed. Thankfully procedures like lobotomy had long since been lost.
Lina was a chestnut brown mare with a black mane and tail, all her life she'd worked the fields to feed the Cattle, Sheep, and other Prey... their territory currently under the Dominion of the Snakes, with the Alligators having lost the territory shortly before Lina had been born.
And since the day she was born, she was of course naked. Nudity itself wasn't something she minded in of itself, modesty and shame had been something else that had gone the way of the dodo before she had ever been born. She honestly wondered how the Clan Chiefs kept from cooking themselves to death in the heavy massive layers of clothes they wore to show their station within their Species. And of course scared others of their Species might realize their leaders were no different than themselves if they didn't have on those endless layers of cloth. It was one of the precious moments of mental defiance she had.
Lina felt no true malice towards her masters, after all, they needed to eat, same as them. Not to say she LIKED IT when her grandfather had gotten too old and tired to do his quota, and been made into food and glue, hide, not a part of them was left to bury by the time craftsmen were done. Not that a mark grave was hope Lina ever dreamed of. Even a surname was forbidden.
The bees done for the day, flew off back to their hive, and Lina resumed that part of her duties (lucky she was allowed something of a break simply due to needing SOMEONE to keep an eye on the bees during their necessary visits).