The Inheritence

Sci-fi is not my usual genre. I started out with the intention of writing a horror story, but it's not horror. This was based off of a dream where I was the main character. In the dream, I never found out why I was suddenly terrified and felt the need to

It was a hot summer day when the first wave hit. We were completely surprised. We thought it was just a blackout at first, but nothing worked. Everything failed. Not even batteries worked. Cars wouldn't run. Planes fell from the sky.

Some people stayed in their homes. Some went to the local shelters and were turned away. People died by the hundreds at the hospitals. That's where I was when it happened. I had just finished mopping the floor and was getting bags to empty the trash cans when the lights went out. I stayed in my closet waiting for the emergency lights to flicker into life.

Instead of seeing lights, I heard calls for help. A few at first, and then more and more. I could tell that people were dying. Life sustaining machines had stopped sustaining life. I opened the closet door just enough to slide out. I quietly headed toward the exit to the dumpsters. There was still enough light out here to see fairly well. They had opened all curtains and blinds to let in as much sunshine as possible. A few people saw me and seemed to realize that I was leaving and called to me for help, but I pretended not to hear or see them and kept moving.

I thought about going home, but there was nothing for me there. No family to comfort; no cat to feed. I don't know why, but I started heading out of the city. I felt like the city was the last place I should be. A few others had the same idea. We walked the same paths without speaking to one another. We walked with an urgency, like we were eager to be any place else.

We walked in silence out of guilt. We knew that we were leaving the others to die on their own. Somehow we just knew. None of us were the stand up and fight types, and in truth, we didn't feel guilty for that. We were okay with our cowardice and with fleeing from unseen threats. What weighed on our minds was the fact that we told no one. We warned not a single person on our way out.

I've asked myself why a dozen times. I'm sure we all have. I think I have figured out the answer. There was something lurking out there waiting to pounce. It didn't seem to notice a few stragglers running away, but if there had been more of us, it would have taken notice, and it would have come after us.

For three days we walked. Nonstop. We didn't stop for sleep, and we barely stopped long enough to grab food and water. We walked until we got to the hills. Once we were on the top of the first big hill, we all just stopped and sat down. The sense of urgency was gone. We felt safe. No, not safe, not exactly. What we felt was invisible. We didn't know what was coming, but we knew that we were no longer in its sights. Like so many others, I just sat down and felt myself start to fall asleep almost immediately.

Before I could sleep, the second wave hit. The lurking beast attacked. But it was no animal that filled the skies that day. Too many ships to count flew in over the city. The city was flattened within minutes. It was completely destroyed. No buildings remained standing and everything burned for weeks.

When the fires stopped and the smoke cleared, there was no semblance of a city having ever been there. A few of us ventured in close to the rubble and found nothing. There was no life. Any bodily remains had been charred beyond identification. We walked through the wasteland that had been our home and recognized nothing.

We met others who had been nearer when the attack came. They said that the ships destroyed the city with ease. The fires were set afterwards. They targeted schools, libraries, and museums. They burned any place the housed Humanity's knowledge and history. The ships were never seen again after that.

Whoever they were, they went away as quickly as they had come. They took no spoils of war, no captives with them. They hadn't come for our resources or our riches like in the movies. They were neither hunters nor gatherers. They were destroyers.

Their solitary goal seemed to be to wipe out Humanity. They would have succeeded completely if not for one thing. They underestimated our weakness. They had not expected any of us to be so cowardly and run for cover on that first day. We were weak; we were cowards; we were frightened little mice, but we had survived. We were meek, and we had inherited the Earth.