Communications were lost throughout a small country in Central America on the first day, spanning to all of Central America by the second. It wasn't until most of the world had simply vanished before someone saw what was occurring. Every night, beastly shadowed creatures were ravaged the world. These creatures resembled the creatures found on the Nazca lines but, far more horrifying. Like flattened skeletons of some marmot shrouded by a thin translucent purple smoke, long and sharpened claws extended from their completely black bodies. No definition existed between each section, the beasts almost existed completely with only two dimensions.
These beasts, with no designated name, were not harming any infrastructure, utilities, wildlife, or anything of the sort but, were seen streaming through a home in the minutes before the first morning rays touched the landscape. This home showed no signs of a struggle, no signs of a human massacre, just an empty shell as if the occupants had left on a vacation... and left their dinners on the table.
It took another night or two before it was realized that these creatures only attacked during the hours of darkness. During this time, defensive lines by desperate countries simply vanished along the front they were meant to protect. It wasn't until a single soldier ignored the regulations of only red lights during the night that they found a weakness. One soldier that survived the swarm.
According to his report, his white light had disintegrated the creature. It was difficult to get this information though, and it cost the human race several hours. Why, you ask? Because of the horrifyingly human like scream that the creature had produced upon its death. The soldier had become disturbed because of it, never having heard anything like it outside of terribly made American horror films.
Another night passed before the remaining nations could use this to their advantage, and several million people vanished without a trace, once again. But, with this knowledge backing them, militaries began pushing back the creatures' advances. Where they drew the line with their flood lights, no creatures were found within their perimeter.
Reconstruction cities were created along this march of light. Cities cased in domes lined with bright white lights to protect them.
But all good things must come to an end.
Initial reports indicated a drastic increase in the amount of creatures seen each following night. An advance that reached back to the Central American foundations was slowed to a stop within three nights before being crushed completely. The last report of any stable government to be recorded was as follows...
"Never before have I seen the night sky shrouded in such a way that the full moon did not even penetrate. They are using their fallen comrades' dust remains as shields and advanced dozens of feet within each minute. Even with instantaneous death upon contact with our lights, their numbers are too vast. God save us all."
It was a bit unorthodox but no leader was concerned when it came through. Domed cities started falling one by one. Eventually, only one city remained, untouched and near Ground Zero. A handful of people, compared the to previous billions inhabiting the planet, remained. None of them knew of the fate outside their city except for one.
Their Mayor was a secretive individual. What the public did not need to know, he did not tell them. Especially the secret he had been keeping. Not long after the final report, the swarm came to his city. He was woken up by the city guard with some very strange news, the creatures had left a note at their front gate after losing several hundred of their own. It was scribbled, and difficult to read but the message was eventually deciphered, "Bring it back."
The Mayor remained confused about this throughout the following day but, decided to take a chance and meet with these creatures in person.
The following night, he went outside of the city, much against the advice of the guards on shift at the time. He stayed in the light, not wanting to risk TOO much at the time and called out, "I know you're out there, please, let me talk to you! Show me you are here and willing to talk and I'll come out to you."
Almost on cue, the forest in front of him swished with the sounds of moving brush. Tree branches swayed in the windless night and the Mayor took this as a sign of peace. Mustering his courage he stepped forward, outside of the protection of the lights.
Instantly he saw one before him, standing nearly 12 feet tall, its red eyes staring directly into his own.
The Mayor stammered to speak but the creature cut him off, "Bring it back." Its voice was deep and seemed to drag the vowels slightly.
"Bring what back?" the Mayor forced out. He had intended to ask this immediately, using the initiative in an attempt to gain some sort of edge against them.
The creature replied quickly and loudly, "BRING IT BACK!"
The Mayor fell backwards, surprised by the strength this creature showed in speech alone. It took all of his consciousness to ask again, "I don't know what you're talking about! Bring WHAT back?!"
"If you will not bring it back, then you are of no use to us!" The creature swung down with its large claws and the Mayor rolled inelegantly to the side, avoiding the attack.
As the creature reeled back to begin a full on assault on the defenseless human, he stopped at the sound of the Mayor's voice.
"Yes! We will bring it back! It will require time but we will bring it back!"
To any adult human being with exposure to politicians, it would have been obvious this was a desperate attempt to save his own skin but this was an animal. This creature only understood that he would comply to its demands.
Its voice rumbled with warning, "You will have time, bring it back."
And with that, it was gone.
Several years later, a young boy was out an about in the city. Night had fallen outside but, it was bright inside, what did he care about the rotation of the Earth? It was bright and he was energetic, maybe tonight he'd even walk outside around the dome. He'd been planning on doing this for several days but hadn't found an opening in the guard pattern until the night before. Around 10pm every day, the guards on the front gate would be gone, briefing their replacements in the barracks instead of at their stations like they were instructed. This laziness gave the boy an opening and tonight, tonight he finally decided to abuse it.
He couldn't remember life before the dome and the tales of the outside world's dangers intrigued him more than they frightened him. He wanted to see one of these creatures with his own eyes. Pictures didn't exist of them, due to their weakness to bright white light but, he had read descriptions almost his entire life.
He slipped outside around 10:05pm. Just on schedule, the pair of guards had slipped away and he had slipped passed their position.
It was several hours before anything of interest occurred. While he was severally astounded by the forest in front of him, marveling in its beauty, he remained determined to see one of the creatures.
He had given up hope before his chance finally arrived. Near the front gate, plotting his infiltration back into the dome, he heard the gate open. Frightened that he had been discovered, he hid around a corner, still bathed in light but covered from view. His heart was pounded fiercely and his breathes were fast and shallow.
But after a moment, he calmed, no yells for his name, no guards pulling him from his hiding spot, just a voice... "I'm back with another update my friends!"
He knew he should have ignored it and waited for the gate to close again but he couldn't help himself. He peaked slowly around the corner and saw their city leader, the Mayor. What was HE doing out here at this hour, the boy wondered.
He watched, intensely focused on the Mayor's every sway, facial expression and breath, waiting for some sign of what their leader was up to. It finally came after what, the boy determined to be, a strong wind through the woodline. His own inexperience with the woods did not allow him to notice the limited area that was affected by his theory, let alone be curious as to why only such a small area had shaken.
After the noise had passed, the Mayor strolled out into the forest. Intense curiosity boiled inside of the boy and, without thought (as typical of boys his age), he followed the Mayor as quietly as he could manage.
What he saw would change the course of mankind. His eyes fell on one of the creatures TALKING to the Mayor! He had never heard of such a thing. No story, text, or other source of information had said anything about intelligence, let alone speech. His wonder focused his attention, taking in every word.
The creature spoke first, "Why have you not brought it back?"
"We need more time."
"And more time you shall have but our patience is growing thin."
"I'm sorry, as I've said before but, we need more time."
"More time to bring it back."
"Yes, of course."
The boy spoke his thoughts, immediately clapping his hands over his mouth in shame, "Bring what back?"
The creature growled and pounced upon the boy, dragging him into the clearing that made up their meeting area.
It spoke loudly and with an obvious saturation of rage, "What do you MEAN bring what back?! Have you not been working on bringing it back for hundreds, if not THOUSANDS of nights? WHAT is the MEANING OF THIS?!"
The Mayor froze, unable to speak. His world was collapsing around him. He had kept the secret of his meetings with these beasts for years. No one in the public knew of them and the guards were threatened with death if they even implied knowledge of the Mayor's activities. All of his work was unraveling before his eyes and his mind could not come up with a reply.
So, the creature spoke again, "If you cannot explain, then your time is up. Tomorrow night, if you have not brought it back, then we shall move on to someone who can!"
The creature vanished and both boy and man stood quietly for a moment. The Mayor moved first, glaring intensely at the child. Rage could be seen in his eyes, rage no being had ever felt before in the history of mankind. This boy had just condemned humanity.
The boy curled back in response, scared of the authority of adults as a whole. He knew that, as an adult, the Mayor could basically say whatever he pleased and the boy would have to listen. He stayed silent though, waiting for the orders to come out.
"Leave."
The boy was confused for a moment. Leave? What did he mean?
"Get away from here. Save yourself. Run. NOW!"
He was in trouble and the boy knew it. He didn't understand the order but, he listened anyway. He sprinted, full speed, into the forest. Branches of small bushes and trees scraped at his flesh but, he did not care. The fear of punishment from an adult coursed through him and he would do whatever he could to avoid it.
After an hour or so, he finally stopped. The sprint had turned into a run and the run a jog before finally collapsing into a slow walk. He was tired, it was late. He needed sleep so, sleep he got. He passed out for most of the following day. He woke only a few hours before the night was to come again. As soon as he woke, he traveled further from the city.
The last city, the last bastion of human civilization, was based in a large valley. It was thought that the landscape would allow further protection from the creatures. By night, the boy had reached the outside of the valley. Hungry and tired from another few hours of travel.
He didn't know how to solve the issue of food but, he did know that he could sit down and rest for a moment. It was during this sit that he saw the fall of humanity. A night he would never forget, though the rest of the world would. From his side of the valley, he could see the swarm gathering. Their bright red eyes were visible even from several miles. The horde descended upon the dome, the city, his home. He could see the rapid advance slow significantly when it reached the edge of the dome's light barrier but it pressed onward. The dome's outward facing lights began to vanish, one row after another, as the creatures used the dust remaining from their fallen comrades to blanket it in a opaque film. Once completed, he saw a small flash of light from what he knew to be the front gate. The door was ripped off of the wall, revealing the light from inside. Again, many of the creatures disintegrated but, the horde was too massive to even feel the loss of the hundreds from the front gate. After a matter of minutes, even the light from inside the gate had disappeared.
The boy stood, unable to comprehend what was happening. He knew that the creatures died from light, that they had whiped out humanity (save for their city) and that they were ruthless killers but, he never had thought for a moment that their dome would be breached. He knew that the city would fall, and all those he knew and loved would be gone by morning. Instead of crying in mourning though, he knew he had to leave. The swarm was starting to spread back into the forest, the last light of humanity snuffed out of existance, and he would could be found.
He left the valley then, thinking he would never return.
Another group of months passed by for him. He had managed, barely, to survive the first few weeks. He rediscovered how to create fire, how to hunt, cook, and live in the wilderness. It took time also to learn that the creatures seemed to be patrolling the villages and cities he would come across in his travels. It was not long until, after a close call or two, that he decided to stay away from developed areas. But today would be different. His latest prey had scampered into a village, according to the tracks he was following, and he was running low on supplies. He knew there were several hours before night would come again so he decided to take the risk of going into the forest of urban development. Clay, brick, and basic wood houses lined the roads. It was the same as he'd been seeing recently from the distances of high ground during his travels.
Despite his generous amount of time before night, he moved quickly. He wanted to get in and then out again before night. The creatures would likely be coming out of his ears in place like this. He saw the wounded quadraped ahead of him, limping around a corner. His chase had lasted fifty three minutes to the T (counting the exact seconds and minutes of each day was a habit he developed a week or two ago) and would likely last another five before he could put the animal down and start carrying it out of the village to be gutted and cooked. But, as he was rounding the last corner in his chase, something stopped him. A noise, off down the street in the opposite way of his meal. He glanced quickly down the road and saw nothing, though he continued to hear it.
His curiousity, the same curiousity that had cost humanity its last stronghold, peaked again. He had been training to keep it under control, but the temptation of this noise was too great. The noise seemed, familiar in some way.
He forgot about his prey and cautiously moved towards the noise, a few run ins with wild predators had made him paranoid about new experiences. His bow, stolen from a city he visited early in his adventure, was cocked and ready, arrow in place.
That's when he saw her. A young girl, not possibly over the age of six, was kneeling in the middle of an alleyway, sobbing. Her back was turned to him so he could not see her face but, the idea of another human being still alive caused him to drop his bow and rush over to her.
He proclaimed loudly, and repeatedly, "Hey! Hey you!" in attempts to get attention but, she would not turn to face him. Finally, as he got close to her, he reached out and place his hand on her shoulder.
His mind burned and body froze in response. Images began flashing before his eyes.
There was a little girl. She had pet rabbit who she obviously doted on. One day, she was walking around with it in her hands and decided to let it run around freely. Whilst in the midst of this romp, the little rabbit was mauled by a feral dog.
The girl screamed loudly, surprising the mutt and causing it to retreat, knowing that humans are very dangerous critters. The girl, too young to understand, cradled the rabbit in her arms, attempting to rouse it.
She eventually understood her loved pet was gone but continued to cry. She didn't understand what death was and sobbed over and over again, "Bring it back."
The boy's hand broke from her shoulder, his mind overcome with grief. Memories of his own began coming to surface. Memories of all those he had lost that night blinded him from the situation he was in. It forced him to his knees and into tears. Loudly he cried, finally responding to their deaths, finally mourning what had happened to them. He sobbed and sobbed until exhaustion took him. He woke to find himself shrouded in darkness.
Fear brought him straight to his feet, forgetting the little girl and almost causing him to fall over her as he got up. For, she was still there. Still cradling the dead rabbit in her hands and crying.
He felt sorry for her but, they needed to move. He knew the creatures were roaming the city by now and their lives depended on their silence and haste. He, hesitantly, placed his hand on her shoulder again, worried that he might be overcome once more. When nothing happened, he leaned down to her and whispered, "I'm sorry but, we must go."
"NO!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. "NO! I WANT HER BACK!"
He placed a hand over her mouth but, the sound came through crystal clear. His mind filled it under "Strange but not important right now." and tried again, "We're going to die if we don't move, come on!"
Once again she screamed, "NO!"
This time the boy noticed another peculiar event. While the words she said were in English, her mouth was clearly moving differently. Like she was saying different words than he was hearing.
Again, he shrugged it off before continuing his attempts, "Your rabbit is dead, we must leave." His voice was becoming more stressed as he heard the noises of creatures, seemingly far away at the time, on the move.
"Dead?" The girl turned her head away from her late but thuroughly loved friend.
"Yes, dead. Dead, finished, gone. Not coming back."
She buried her face into the rabbit again, "NO! SHE MUST COME BACK!"
Frustration coursed through him and instinct began to tell him to leave her behind. She was lost and he was running out of time to leave himself but, her stubbornness, that would cost her her life, infuriated him. He became blinded by rage and started yelling himself, "SHE WON'T EVER COME BACK, DON'T YOU GET IT? sHE'S GONE!"
The girl's wailing became louder, along with the sounds of the creatures in the city. They were getting closer.
Suddenly, the boy calmed. He saw the love she felt, and would later say that he felt it himself. His heart broke into several dozen pieces and he placed his arm around her, forgetting about the threat to his own life.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled but, she's gone now. She's moved onto a better place. A place where she can be free to run around in fields of grass. She's playing right now, though she can't be happy."
"What?" her face was quizzical, trying to understand where the boy was going with his point.
"She's sad, sad that you are sad. She wants you to be happy, to move on. She'll see you again one day but, until then, she would want you to live with a smile on your face." He could see them now, barreling down the alleyway towards them. Their screams seemed quiet, though he knew they were likely louder than his own words of comfort to the girl under his arm.
The girl looked back down at her lost pet, "Really?"
"Of course. I mean, if you were to move on to such a place, with no way of coming back. Would you want your Mom and Dad to cry? You'd want them to be happy right? Happy that you are in a happier place."
The girl whispered after a short moment of silence, "Yes..." She swallowed, suppressing her depression. "Goodbye Rosa, I'll miss you." She put the rabbit's corpse on the ground and curled into the boy's chest.
He closed his eyes, the closest creature leaping towards them, to maul them, kill them, eat them, or whatever else they did. He did not care. This little girl was now at peace, and because of her, he had finally pushed away the guilt he felt for his own family's death. He felt her hiccups of tears shake through his own body as she finished crying, her slowing heartbeat, and the warmth of thanks emenating from her skin. She loved him for what he had done for her. He braced himself for death but it did not come.
Several moments passed before he dared open his eyes. When he did, it was daylight again. The girl was still curled up below him but he saw people. People were walking around on the roads, conversations could be heard echoing down the ramshackle corridor.
You see, everyone had come back at that moment. Everyone returned to the location that they had been taken. For the creatures weren't killing them, in a sense. Really, they were closing them from the rest of the world. Like Occum's Razor, they were being eliminated as possible solutions to their problem.
No one could remember being taken, though the war was still fresh on their memories and no one would believe the boy's story (especially the parents who were violently scared for their boy's safety after discovering him missing). It didn't matter though. All that mattered was that the creatures never showed themselves again.
No one would ever discover what caused the attacks, or where they had gone but, it was over. The world would recover.
As for the little girl, she kept in contact with the boy. She is now a teenager and he is now in college. Those two would remember their moments together. Oddly though, she would never admit to seeing the creatures, no matter what the world would say. She claimed to have never seen a single one.
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