This World

I stood facing the door. They were breaking in. They were absolutely breaking in. There was no way in Hell that a thin wooden door would keep them out for more than a few extra seconds.

My mind raced. Where could I go? What could I do? Nothing. I was done. This was the end. In a few moment

s the angry horde would burst through that door and tear me limb from limb. There was nothing to do but silently wait and accept my impending death.

A small smile crept onto my lips. I found it humorous that it had taken them this long to begin bashing down the door. How long had I been hiding here now, in this house? Three days? Yes, three days. Three entire days that I’ve been trapped here, hiding from them.

They found me after just the first day. I had been so careful, so very careful not to be seen. But as I was closing the blinds on a second floor window, one of them had seen me. It cocked it’s head upward and stared at me from the sidewalk.

For a long moment neither of us moved. Neither of us made a sound. I began to slowly close the window blinds, desperately hoping that it had not noticed me, that it would forget what it had seen and leave me alone. And that’s when it began screaming. It stood on the sidewalk outside and screamed, screamed at the top of its lungs.

I finished closing the blinds as quickly as I could and raced downstairs. The thing outside continued to scream for what seemed like an eternity. Others would now come. They always did. For some reason, the screams of one of them always seemed to draw more, like moths to a lightbulb.

It was at this moment I realized that I was doomed. I always had been. The world was dominated by them. They were everywhere. I had no place in this world. Even if I hadn’t been noticed after the first day, how long could I have lasted in here? There was a moderate amount of food in the house when I arrived, but I had eaten over half of the supply in these three days.

I came to this house three days ago under the cover of night, in order to seek shelter from them. At that time, none of them were aware of my presence in this area and I intended to keep it that way. I approached the house as quietly as I could. The front door would almost assuredly be locked, so I decided to go around back.

I climbed over the backyard fence and quietly stepped up to the sliding door. When I tried opening the door I was pleased to find that it was unlocked. I slid the door open all the way and stepped inside the house, being sure to lock the door as I closed it. I looked around. It was a nice house. Spacious and modern. For the first time in a very long time, I began to relax. I felt safe. I felt that I didn't have to constantly look behind my back. I could finally relax. There was just one problem.

I wasn’t alone.

I had scarcely been in the house for a minute when I heard them. They were upstairs, moving around loudly. The minuscule amount of noise I made while entering must have alerted them. I realized that there must be an entire family of them here. After all, this was a large house. When there’s nobody around for them to prey on they must simply stand around, with no purpose, no reason in life. But now that I was here they were awake. They were angry. They were coming.

In total there were 4 of them in the house. Two adults and two children. And those bastards are fast. The adult male came at me quicker than I’ve ever seen one of them move. I barely managed to fight it off and kill it. I then turned to the female and two children. They had to go as well. They would not let me be. They would surely alert more of them to my presence, and I could not allow that.

After I finished them off I noticed that I had been injured during the fight. My arm was badly broken in two places. In addition, I had smacked my head against the corner of a table during the struggle, and was bleeding profusely from my temple. However, I had no time to worry about my injuries. I needed to fortify this house. I needed to keep myself safe from them.

I gathered up all of the food that was in the house, and separated it into distinct piles. Different types of food were placed into different piles, and then those piles were grouped together into meals. I knew that it was important to pace my food intake in order to last as long as possible in my new-found shelter.

It was on the morning of the next day that I was spotted as I was closing blinds on the second floor. The horrible screams of the thing that saw me quickly summoned more of them to my location. Soon dozens of them were gathered outside the house. All bloodthirsty. All eager to see me dead.

For two days, two long days they stood outside, trapping me inside my own fort. I could hear them shrieking. The sounds they made were horrible and completely unintelligible. From their throats came guttural hissings that quickly and sporadically changed pitch and volume.

Then came the wailing. Oh god, the wailing. I could not tell how they were making the noise, but every few hours a sound so disturbing and ear piercing would come from outside that I would be forced to place my hands over my ears, or else be driven insane. It was a high, screeching sound that regularly rose and fell in tone. Each time the wailing ended I prayed that it would not ever return. Yet each time the wailing did return after no more than a few hours rest.

One time I parted the blinds on the second story window in order to see how many of them were outside. I counted approximately two dozen in total. Most were standing still next to cars parked in the street. Some were walking back and forth. The way that they walked was so strange, so robotic. It looked as if walking was a task they did automatically, with no intelligent thought applied at all.

It was at the end of the third day that they began beating down the door. A simple wooden door with a metal lock, nothing more. It was made to keep out unwanted guests, just as the front door of any house is made to do. But even with the furniture that I had stacked against it, I knew that it would not hold for long against that many of them so ferociously attempting to gain entry. Soon the wood would splinter and the horde of them would pour in and destroy me.

I briefly attempted to chuckle, but only a soft moan escaped my lips. I seemed incapable of making any other noise. I somehow found humor in this situation. It had taken them two days to realize they could beat down the door.

“Stupid bastards” I thought to myself.

I looked down at my left arm, which was broken in two places. A shard of white bone was jutting out from my flesh, just above my elbow. I stared at the wound for several moments, wondering why I felt no pain from such an injury.

I must’ve hit my head harder than I thought.

Indeed, my entire brain was fuzzy. Reality seemed to be like a movie reel that had been damaged. Still recognizable, but not clear. I lifted my hand to my temple and brought it back with black, half dried blood covering my fingers.

I thought back to my life before they had shown up, but I was disturbed to realize I could not remember anything. How badly was my head injured? I thought harder, but could not remember any of my friends, or family. What had happened to my loved ones?

As the door began to splinter, I decided it was not worth worrying about. My friends and family were, in all likelihood, part of them. They did not matter anymore. They would not recognize me. They would no longer be capable of communicating with me. All they wanted to do was kill me.

Crack

The door finally gave way and collapsed. They poured in like ants into an anthill, easily knocking aside the barricades I had placed to protect myself. The horrible wailing began again, this time more deafening than before. I placed my hands over my ears in a feeble attempt to block out the living hell I was in.

The thing leading the charge appeared to be carrying something in its hands. It was a long black object that seemed vaguely familiar.

I was not afraid. I would not give them that. They could take my life from me, but I swore to myself that I would not fear them.

I did not belong to this world. This world belonged to them. They ruled it with absolute certainty. All I wanted was to be left alone, to exist in peace. But they would not allow that. They were determined to end me, and there was nothing I could do to stop them.

--

The lieutenant puked when he saw the inside of the house. One of the team members had shot it in the head as soon as they entered. Its brains were scattered across the floor of the living room. He noticed that its arm was broken in two places with bone sticking out, and its skull had previously been caved in.

The most disturbing aspect, however, was what it had done to the house’s inhabitants. It hadn’t just killed them, it had separated their bodies into unique piles. Guts in one pile, brains in another, limbs in yet another. It was as if it had been carefully saving the parts, planning its meals. A bloody baseball bat laid next to the kitchen table, and one corner of the table was covered in blood.

The lieutenant made a hand motion to the officers outside, and the wailing of the sirens ceased. The house was secure.

For two days they had been outside the house, waiting to kill it. For two days the disease is airborne, and after that can only be spread through body fluids. It was fortunate that one of the neighbors had noticed it in the window, or else it could have remained there for an indefinite period of time.

This was the fourth case this month. Nobody knew how the disease initially started, or where it came from. The only thing humanity was concerned with was how to stop it from spreading. Several vaccines had been developed, but none were successful. World governments assured the public that everything was under control, that the disease was not a serious threat. But that was a lie.

The truth was that the disease was beginning to spread out of control. Special response teams had been created to deal with each case, but they were becoming overworked. Killing each infected individual was becoming infeasible. Sooner or later, there would be a full scale outbreak. Time was running out.

The lieutenant looked back to the thing laying dead and bloody on the floor. It was a stranger in this world. It did not belong here.

But for how long? How long until humanity surrendered control of this world? How long until the war was lost? How long until the planet was dominated by them?

It was only a matter of time. The inevitable could be delayed, but not prevented. Soon, humanity would fall. Soon our unquestioned reign of this world would come to an end.

Soon, this world will belong to them.