The Others…a ‘lost’ story…unedited…

I’m not that guy. Never have been. Some people are doomsday preppers, storing food in jars in an underground bunker, hoarding ammunition, and living by the creed of ‘one shot, one kill.’ I couldn’t hit Texas with a nuclear weapon if I were standing in Texas using said nuclear weapon.

I don’t live my life in such a way that the government puts me on watchlists, or considers me a threat to democracy anywhere. I’m a boring middle-aged man. I stay home, scrub my dirty dishes in hot water, dish washing liquid, and bleach, and sometimes watch too much Netflix and Amazon Prime.

In the hours where I’m not consumed with an overwhelming desire to distract myself from reality, you can find me reading, or writing, or playing with my puppy. Sometimes, I take trips. For example, my last trip consisted of me buying a ‘travel pass’ from Amtrak and riding the train from Hattiesburg, Mississippi to Juanita, Colorado. 

I didn’t know anyone in Juanita, Colorado so I got back on the train and came back home. As a matter of fact, I don’t know many people anymore. Most of those I knew resisted and were killed during what I called ‘in-fighting.’

Others called it a civil war, or ‘the fight to settle the past.’ It was stupid, and I wanted no part of it. Who cares who was right? In the end it didn’t matter. When people showed up at my house, I asked them to leave. They refused. 

That was their right, so I left. Now, I have no home, but I have a few clothes, a first aid kit, a pry bar, a Ka-Bar knife (for opening cans of food or what have you), and an old atlas my dad sat with for hours. 

Home is wherever I drop my head for a few hours. Right now, it’s the back of this burned out van on Main Street in some dumpy town called Righteous. Down the block, I hear the guttural noises of ‘The Others’. They showed up during the in-fighting. 

No one knew what they were, but everyone feared them. Someone said they’re science experiments the government unleashed upon us to kill the remainder of those they despised and blamed for the ailments of the country. 

The Others are as black as night, have rows upon rows of bloody teeth, can remain silent and are known for ambushing their prey. Another piece of information concerning The Others is this: They only hunt at night. 

One scientist, I can’t remember her name, postulated The Others ‘are reptiles and they engage in ecdysis. It was on television one night, and she held up what she claimed was the skin of one of them. I remember it, because my initial thought was ‘gross.’ 

The scientist no longer lives. The Others swarmed the station and killed her. I remember her screams as they tore into her. It wasn’t pretty. See, The Others are attracted to heat, unlike reptiles we once had, these don’t adapt to the environment and because of this, our scientific method falls apart-but at the same time lends credence to the thoughts The Others are manufactured in a lab somewhere. Another fact that furthers the argument is the fact that The Others are humanoid, meaning they walk on two legs instead of four, but at the same time they’re single sexed, have a three-chambered heart, and are carnivores. 

I get comfortable in the back of the van. The cool metal will distort their senses to identify heat, so I’m safe for now. I had no intention of coming out here to this town, but I had no choice in the end.

“All hands on deck for the final push,” the Commander had said. So, here I am. There’s one trait humanity possesses that The Others don’t. Our desire to survive is stronger than their hatred, our refusal to die off sums up our defiance in the face of overwhelming odds. 

“You want it, we want to give it to you,” became our motto. 

Over the past few months, humanity has pushed back against The Others. Nothing of our old ways of living exists anymore. Food is short, our numbers are down to less than a million world wide, and no help is coming. 

America, the beloved experiment that had gone so wrong, stood on the precipice of collapse, led to this moment by the most foul, corrupt, and apathetic group of reptilian like humans ever.  

They betrayed us without a second’s hesitation. The nukes landed in major cities all over the country, saturating the atmosphere with radiation. Millions died in the initial blast, hundreds of millions died in the fallout, and the government pointed their blood stained fingers at those they hated and said, “They did it.”

Prior to these events, several other countries were in line to ‘inherit’ America, because the powers that be were so far in debt to these countries we had no choice but to become part of their ‘nation.’