The day "they" arrived

The day they arrived, wars still raged all over the world with men and women killing brothers and sisters. People scrolled through social media like zombies shuffling through crowds and in their homes all but oblivious to the world and those around them. Corporations and governments around the world ripped off, used and abused those that they said they were there for and did it with a smile while most just didn’t even raise an eyebrow.

The day "they" arrived shocked the world as it went against what we were being told for years. All the cat videos, shooting at each other over things like imaginary lines on a globe or the color of one's skin or what deity they worshipped stopped within the first hour. We all sat or stood where ever we were, breathes caught in our throats wondering what they would do.

For a moment every person on the planet was connected and not by the devices we have become slaves to, not by beliefs or hatred. We were all in awe over the answer to an age old question finally being answered, we are not alone. Now the next question that most people had was the important one, and something we wish we never got the answer to.

They did not come in peace, and we didn't stand a chance.  They tore through the worlds collective once proud military powers as if they were nothing. They didn’t care who or what they were targeting and the technology they possessed was one that seemed like it was out of a science fiction novel. They were able to phase in and out of our existence as easy as we breathe and used that to get so many of us with almost no resistance. The only thing anyone had going for them was that they could be hurt, but not without a lot of sacrifice.

They moved from one side of the planet to the other with ease. Everything the human race was once so proud of crumbled like ash statues. Most countries fell in mere hours but with a weird twist of fate, those that allowed their citizens to own firearms were able to put up a fight all be it a next to futile one. After one day the human race was brought next to extinction. 

They didn’t kill everyone, but they didn’t leave either once they were done committing genocide. What was once over 7 billion people had been brought down to mere thousands and that was only the best guess that most people could make as there was no longer anyone to maintain the communications networks that we were all plugged into. There was the occasional radio signal here and there but they never lasted long.

          *Crunch, crunch, ting, crack*, the ground beneath his feet goes as he walks the empty street. The city used to be filled with children laughing and business booming with customers, now sat almost empty a shell of its former self. The buildings stare down at the empty streets with broken windows and large holes where walls used to be. This city used to be like any other, like many others around the world before they arrived.

          He stops to listen to his surroundings, hoping that they weren’t around, hoping that he could get through another day. He doesn't hear anything that would indicate that "they" were near. Clutching the small object in his hand he starts walking again down the desolate street, turning his hand palm up. He opens his fingers and lets a small chain slip through and stares down at a heart shaped locket that he had found scavenging houses near his the day after they swept through.

          The pictures in it were long gone before he had stumbled upon it, they were faded and looked burned making it hard for him to know how old this was. But it’s what he found in it other than the pictures that had made him keep walking, keep hiding, keep living. "Never lose hope" was written on a small yellowing piece of paper that had struck something in him and gave him strength to keep moving though he didn't know why. He places the locket into a pocket and keeps walking, the floor crunching beneath his feet and mutters to himself, "These past 2 weeks have been hell".