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The Two Originals

Surviving the final invasion

By Kiesha HaughtonPublished 3 years ago Updated about a year ago 10 min read
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The Two Originals
Photo by Noah Silliman on Unsplash

It was six in the evening when I finally began drifting off to sleep. For three and a half years we’ve been on the run hiding in abandoned vehicles, buildings, caves, or any makeshift shelter we could find. It’s just the two of us left, and the exhaustion is overpowering. I can’t even remember the last time I had a full night’s rest, let alone a tasty warm meal. Stale bread and lukewarm water are all that’s sustained us for the last few months, and I can’t bring myself to look in a mirror for fear of what I might see. If my godson’s appearance is any indication, I must look dreadful.

We’ve been taking turns sleeping in shifts. The sun was setting, and I needed to be alert for later tonight. As I curled up under the worn and dirty sleeping bag, I asked myself for the thousandth time, how much longer can you survive this way? Sleep gives no respite. Closing my eyes causes a movie reel of horrors to go into instant replay, and I’ve been only averaging about three hours of uninterrupted sleep.

Still, the weariness caused a deep sleep to come over me. Immediately I was transported back to the beginning of this nightmare. The birds were chirping outside my window and the hustle and bustle of passing cars gave no indication of what was about to happen. It was a late Friday afternoon, and I just got off a business call discussing a new project with my team when my best friend Naomi called me. “Did you see what’s happening on the news,” she frantically asked me. I told her I hadn’t, and asked what was going on. She preceded to tell me that the government made an emergency announcement that we were under attack. They said a biological or chemical agent had been released in five major cities, and people are dying on the streets. An investigation is underway on who is behind the attack, and people are instructed to stay indoors.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. My mind immediately went to my family and friends. I knew people in almost every city mentioned. I quickly hung up from her and began calling everyone I knew that could be affected. I couldn’t reach anyone; all the lines were busy. Frustrated I turned on the news hoping to see what was happening on the ground. What I saw broke my heart. Aerial footage showed bodies everywhere. Whatever it was, the devastation was widespread and deadly.

An announcement from the Executive Office interrupted the news to allow the President to inform the country we’re at war. The President was still speaking when everything went blank. Suddenly, none of my electrical devices worked. I ran out to start my car and found that it wouldn’t turn on. A few of my neighbors also came out to see if others were experiencing the same outages. One neighbor said he thinks we were hit with an electromagnetic pulse. Hearing that caused my heart to drop to my stomach, as I wondered how I would communicate with, and physically get to my family and friends.

Suddenly, I remembered my road bike. Rushing back in the house, I picked-up my emergency backpack, grabbed some toiletries, my mask, saddled up my bike, and began making my way to my cousin Simon’s house. He lives about 10 miles away from me, and I wanted to reach his house before it got much later.

It was a grueling uphill ride, and the main roads were parking lots. People were standing by their cars confused as to why they stopped working. I could see arguments breaking out as fear and frustration turned to anger and rage. I heard a gunshot and immediately knew I needed to get off the main roads as quickly as possible.

It was almost completely dark by the time I made it to my cousin’s house. There were no streetlights, house lights, or car headlights. It was as if we were transported back to a time before electricity. Luckily my cousin and his family were home. I told him what I found out before the electricity went out, and said we should try and make it to Naomi’s place in the morning. I knew it would be important to get as far away from the city as possible, and her country home would be a perfect hideout.

We barely slept that night. We could hear what sounded like explosions in the distance, and I was in constant prayer with every waking moment. The morning could not come fast enough. My cousin, his wife, my godson, and I put on our masks, our backpacks, and saddled up our road bikes. At dawn we set out.

We made it to my best friend’s house in good time considering the breaks we needed for my nine-year-old godson. It was good to have at least this small unit of friends and family together. The next few days were harrowing. One of Naomi’s neighbors had a ham radio and shared the reports he was hearing of an invasion. The military was putting up a good fight, but no one knew how long it would last. Then news came in that our military was getting support from a new foreign ally.

Over the next few days, we found the ally was instrumental in defending our country from the invasion. Everyone was ecstatic. We didn’t know who they were, but they seemed to be far more advanced. Their advanced technology was being used to rebuild the electrical grid and the damaged infrastructure. Within a month we were back online.

Reports on the death toll from the invasion began coming in, and they were in the millions. Everyone either knew or knew of someone who lost a loved one. It was devastating, but slowly things were getting back to a new kind of normal. That’s when the L-SARS viral outbreak happened. People started to get sick. At first it was a sore throat, rash, and a searing headache, then psychotic breaks began occurring. Many who were infected engaged in random violence.

I started hearing multiple stories of people being assaulted or killed by strangers for no reason. Then the cases started hitting closer to home. One of my friends told me that her son stabbed his brother. A neighbor shot his wife and kids, and then himself. I personally saw a man running around stabbing people in a grocery store, before the cops finally shot him. No one was safe, and it seemed to be airborne.

We were still staying with Naomi, when we received the news that a cure was available to the public. Our new ally had been working with our scientists and helped them develop a nasal spray vaccine. Everyone was relieved. Shipments were systematically sent out to every state. Instead of waiting in long lines to be treated, the military was dispatched to administer the treatment to people directly in their homes.

I was out fishing with my godson when they came to Naomi’s house. I forgot we received a notice for our vaccine appointment that Sunday, and my godson refused to go home until he caught at least one fish he could brag about. It was late when we made it back to the house, and discovered we missed our appointment. The administering medic told Naomi that they wouldn’t be able to return for a few weeks due to their busy schedule, so we needed to continue practicing safety precautions.

The first week after Naomi, Simon, and their spouses received the vaccine we started to notice slight differences. It started with their cuts and bruises healing quicker than normal. Then their bodies seemed to be growing stronger. Sometimes during conversations, they would stop mid-sentence and stare off into the distance, as if they were hearing something inaudible to me. We no longer laughed and joked around the dinner table, and a strange coldness began settling in. Affection became nonexistent, and over the next few days, my godson let me know he no longer wanted to be left alone in the room with his parents. When I tried to talk about what I was observing, they refused to believe there were any changes.

A couple of days before the medic was to return, I noticed their skin began taking on a grayish hue, and an L shaped rash appeared on their foreheads. When I pointed it out to Naomi, she almost attacked me. The coldness was now blatant hostility. Later that day my godson’s terrified scream, brought me running to see my cousin Simon chasing him around the house with a machete, while his mother let out a sinister laugh. I had to yell a rebuke at him to get him to stop, but the wicked smile he gave me caused my blood to curdle. After observing the four of them huddling and whispering, while glancing at my godson and me, I knew we had to make an escape.

The sound of sobbing jolted me awake and back to the present. As my eyes adjusted to the dark, I saw my godson huddled by the window of the abandoned shack we took shelter in, holding an opened heart-shaped locket in his hands under the moonbeam. Instinctively I knew it held the pictures of his parents, and my heart broke for him. Our escape was not easy, and it was hard on him, but we got out just in time. The transformations we witnessed became more disturbing as did the violent tendencies. It was as if the same psychotic occurrences from L-SARS were magnified in those who took the vaccine. Not only did the vaccinated become violent, but they were also stronger, quicker, and more calculatingly vicious. We observed them transform into a hybrid of what was formerly human. To evade them we mostly traveled during the day, and hid out at night, since nighttime was when they were most active.

Since we’ve been on the run, I’ve seen them do horrific things to those of us who refused to be vaccinated. We would warn people whenever we could, because it didn’t matter how old the person was, their murderous cruelty was unimaginable. Now that a death decree was declared on all who refused the vaccination, there are hardly any original humans left. In fact, I can’t remember the last time we reached an original community.

We finally made it to the mountains last week. We’ve been searching for the last hidden original community we heard about, but have not been successful. What's worse is that I haven’t been able to shake the feeling that we’re being watched.

A snapped twig, brought my attention to high alert. I quietly called my godson to my side, as I edged towards the escape route I planned out earlier. Just then, an evil cackle echoed through the shack. A bright light lit up the makeshift shelter, as the roof was ripped off. We were surrounded. They must have been tracking us for some time. I wrapped my arms around my godson and prayed that I would go first, so I wouldn’t see anything bad happen to him.

Just as all hope was lost, a deafening boom shook the ground and entire area. Everyone looked up to see the sky ripple and then tear open. I couldn’t pull my eyes from the magnificent scene above me, and vaguely heard the horrified screams of our attackers in the background, as they turned on each other while scrambling for cover. I looked at my godson and we both couldn’t stop grinning. Suddenly blinding lights were all around us. In a blink our tired, aching, emaciated bodies were transformed into radiant light, as we rose to the glorious expanse above. No longer did the horrors we previously experienced seem to matter or even come to mind. We’re saved, and eternity is just beginning!

science fiction
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About the Creator

Kiesha Haughton

Hi, my name is Kiesha Haughton, owner of a natural and organic hair and skincare company called Bantu Village. I also run a nonprofit organization called Abeja International Development, Inc., but in my downtime I love to write. Enjoy!

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