Fictitious 52 #9

So, some administrative tasks.

1. I will be posting last week's story today, as you can see.

2. I will be posting this week's story tomorrow.

3. For missing last week (by choice, by the way) I will be posting a penalty story Monday.

With that out of the way, my next short story isn't quite the usual thing. It doesn't really end so much. And there's a reason for that. This story is the prologue for what I intend to be the first major game I design. So it's kind of narrated and kind of unresolved.

Anyways, enjoy:

 It wasn't always that we, humans, were the dominant creature on the planet. Of this fact we are all well aware. However, when we think of those that came before our primitive ancestors, we think only so far back. When the earth was cool. When life, as we know it, was able to form in the great oceans of the world.

There is a great difference between “life” and “life as we know it.”

---

“Where did these things come from,” Captain Lister wondered, briefly before raising his firearm and letting loose on the advancing horde. The effort was useless, as it had been all day. They continued pressing forward, drawing ever nearer to the barricade the Guard had managed to set up when the creatures first started to appear.

Of course, the answer to the question, in the most immediate sense, was an obvious one. The ground. They'd come up from below the earth roughly seventeen hours ago. Walking masses of rock, metal and magma. Fire and lightning. All manner of inorganic matter and energy given life. All across the planet they appeared, in or around the cities. Not just major cities, all of the cities. Urban areas around the globe were instantly under siege. The entire world was plunged into war with an enemy no one knew how to stop

The less immediate version, however, is what is on Lister's mind. “From under the ground” doesn't help anyone. They'd tried enlisting the fire department to blast them with their hoses, and while it extinguished the flames of some of the things, it didn't stop them. Bullets were completely ineffective and heavy artillery could slow them through the sheer force of the explosion, but it did no actual damage. There was a chance that if they could figure out the origins of these things, they could piece together a way to beat them back. Unfortunately, there is no time for hypotheticals, if they can't defeat them, then they have to at least hold them back.

---

Ultimately, their resistance is futile. Facing an army of seemingly invincible foot soldiers, it is only a matter of time before they are overrun. Before they're all overrun. The creatures are not interested in ruling over anyone, their goal is extermination, wiping out every human they find. They start in the urban centers before moving on to the suburbs, and then even some rural neighborhoods.

Still, they are not entirely ubiquitous. This invasion, or, rather, reclamation, is not instantaneous. And a quirk is noticed. They do not show any interest in undeveloped areas. Even the less heavily populated places are not molested for some time. Humanity isn't doomed, but it's no longer in charge. And it may never be again.

---

“Hurry,” Miles Reese shouts as his family piles into the minivan with their next door neighbors. The kids, his two daughters and son, pile into the back seat. Leila, his wife, however, stops before getting in.

She looks into his eyes, taking his hand in hers. “Come with us,” she says.

“I'll be right behind you guys. Don't worry. We're just trying to make sure everyone gets out alright.”

“What if something happens?”

“They're not headed this way yet, we have at least a couple of hours to get some things packed up and out of here, but we shouldn't waste it. It won't take long for us to get out”

She sighs. She nods. “Alright.”

There's a quick peck shared between the two and Leila takes her seat in the van.

“See you in a bit, baby,” he says as he slides the door shut.

Miles watches as his family drives off to safety before turning to set to his administrative tasks.

“Okay,” he says to the group of twenty or so standing in the middle of the small neighborhood's main street. “Pack what what we'll need, not what we'll want, everyone. We have some time and some space, but it's not infinite, so be choosey. Food that'll spoil is probably a bad idea, boxes and cans are best. Also, we could use some weapons.”

“Why? The military couldn't fight those things, how can we?”

“Not why we need them. The world's going to hell, we're not going to be able to just run to the super market for food anymore. We're going to need things to hunt with. Any survival books, or books on agriculture, those would be good too.”

There's nodding among the group and then they set to work, combing their homes and the unlocked homes of their friends and neighbors for anything they can use in this new reality they're facing.

Once they have finished loading the remaining cars with all they can, they will flee. There's a campground in the nearby wilderness. They can hide there. They will hide there. And they will continue to do so for decades. Centuries, in fact. They won't live the lives they once knew, but they will live. Their homes, like so many others will be overrun, but the invaders will not remain. They will retreat back to the cities and leave them in relative peace.

In hundreds, if not thousands, of communities around the world the same scene plays out. The lucky ones escape, the unlucky ones do not. But in this way mankind will continue.

And maybe, one day, they will find a way to take the world back.

((Believe it or not, this turns out to be a fantasy game, not sci-fi. Well, it's a bit of both, but leans far more fantasy.))