This World Is Mad

Ending is beginning.

It was late April when the stars fell to the Earth. Most people sat on their back porch and watched, thinking it was a meteor shower and enjoying the beautiful skies. They didn’t expect that the stars would kill them.

Stars landed everywhere—great, black globes of celestial matter. When they broke open, a putrid fume and acidic red liquid leaked from the cracks. The creature that emerged was skinned with a rough, grey hide. Their skeleton, instead of being positioned inside of the body, seemed to surround it, running over their silvery skin with thick black bones.

The creature stood nearly eight feet high when it uncurled itself from the volcanic rock, its gangly limbs hanging limply at its sides. It was a slim, willowy creature with no distinguishable toes on its long, flat feet. The most disconcerting attribute was the clippers they had instead of hands. These appendages closely resembled the claws you would see on a crab. But theirs were longer, thinner, and completely straight with a sharpened edge on the inner sides of each of the two halves.

Its head was a relatively normal shape and size for its extreme height. It was only slightly pointed on the lower side and perfectly round on the top with no trace of hair anywhere. The face held no distinctive characteristic that would help in discerning one from another. It only held luminous, lemon-shaped, black eyes that watched you from every angle.

It moved with a certain grace that suggested that the being floated more than walked. It climbed out of the crater the star had created as people frozen on the streets stared in shock and horror. The creature turned its head toward the nearest human who stood a mere two yards away, cowering on the ground.

The creature moved swiftly to the man, pulling him off the ground with his clipper and holding the man to its eye level, choking the man. The man grabbed at the creature’s arm, trying to hoist himself above the claw to get air. The creature made a sound deep in its throat that sounded a cross between a robotic chirp and a metallic click. If the man had any air in his lungs to scream, he would have.

Without any warming, the creature chopped the man’s head from his shoulders in one rapidly violent twitch of his clipper. Then, with the precision of a thoroughly skilled surgeon, the creature pulled the spinal column from the man’s body. A mouth of tiny, black razor teeth appeared on the creature’s face as it lifted the disembodied spine to his mouth and sucked the spinal fluid from it.

The people near by were set into frenzy, running and screaming. Several brave souls tried to fend off the creature but failed miserably resulting in their own quick demise. The creatures seemed to be invincible—completely unbothered by bullets or projectiles. It just continued to advance on the people who remained in the streets fighting.

It was a matter of days later that a significant portion of the world’s population had been murdered by these beings, leaving total chaos and utter destruction.

The sun was just peeking over the horizon and Lia was already awake and moving. She moved across the room with a practiced silence, careful of where her boots touched the floor.  She lifted several of the slats in the blinds, watching the dismal city below. Seeing nothing of potential danger, she slung her pack over her shoulder, deciding to go scouting. Lia double checked that the blade she had attached to her belt was secure before she closed the door behind her, slowly descending the stairs.

She was especially careful leaving the apartment that she once shared with her brother who had long been gone. She made certain that she stuck to the shadows to avoid detection by Blades. All she needed was to find some food for the next couple days.

It had been weeks since she had seen another person, but she knew they were out there. But, as she and her brother—Will—had learned, the more humans are in one particular space, the easier Blades could find them and kill them.

Part of her felt complete relief that she was alone, another part—a more human, vulnerable part—felt cold and alone. She let out a low sigh, knowing that if she wanted any chance of survival that she needed to remain alone.

But what was the point of survival if you were alone?

The thought seeped into her mind for only a moment before she shook it off, forcing herself to focus on the task at hand. She had to find food; her supply back in the apartment was low.

Lia carefully rounded a corner and crossed a street to a grocery store she hadn’t raided yet. She had just entered the large, grey building when she saw movement. She quickly ducked behind one of the cash registers, listening for any sounds. She could barely make out the soft squeak of rubber souls on the tiled floor. She let out a low breath—no Blades.

She slowly stood, hand hovering above the blade at her left hip, and moved in the opposite direction of the whispering.

There was a loud groan just as Lia had made it to the far isle.

“God damn, Benny,” it was a male voice. As per age, Lia had absolutely no clue. His whispers were so loud in the store that Lia could hear every word as if he were speaking right in front of her.

“Sorry, Keaton,” this boy sounded younger to Lia. “I thought I saw someone.”

“Blades?” the first boy’s voice was tense.

“No, it looked like a girl,” the younger boy said.

Lia mentally groaned as she kept moving toward the back of the store, always watching where she was going.

“Jen?” the older boy’s voice took on a hopeful undertow, like this was something he really wanted but didn’t dare allow himself to wish for something that might not exist.

“No, this girl was blonde and skinnier,” the younger boy said.

Lia cursed to herself. They had seen her. People never spotted her. She and Will had practiced for hours being silent and being invisible in the building in which they once shared a room and in which now Lia was the only resident.

“I don’t see anyone Ben,” the first boy said. “Are you sure you aren’t seeing things?”

“Keaton, I swear I saw her!”

“Okay, whatever,” he dismissed it.

Lia smiled to herself; she’d remained hidden. That was the absolute last thing she needed—someone finding her.

“Come on, we need to get back. Meghan probably has Porter tied up and attempting to make her move on him,” by the laugh in his voice it was evident that he knew the other two well. The younger boy also laughed as Lia heard the door close softly behind them.

Lia took her time finding her food, grabbing a large sum of water and granola bars. She found a box of crackers that didn’t look completely destroyed and stuck it in her backpack.

She quickly searched for medication—ibuprofen would be ideal, but anything would work. She wandered for a few minutes before she found the pharmacy closer to the front of the to the store. By the looks of it, people had looted it pretty well. She was able to find some stuff that would work, but not as well, she thought, than what she had been looking for.

Lia quickly raced home as the sun slunk below the horizon, providing more shadows to hide her movements and creating potential disaster. This was an almost daily routine for her—far too often for her enjoyment.

There wasn’t much to do here, so she spent most of her time wandering through the rooms of people who used to be her neighbors.  She’d find books to read or pictures to look at and spend the day trying to get to know that person. She didn’t like to spend too much time conscious in her own apartment—it reminded her too much of Will. As soon as she dropped her food in her room, she was back out, heading to one of the lower floors in the building.