REMAINS
The world was ending, so I don’t really blame everyone
for leaving with the Space Squids when they came to Earth and offered a new
planet to live on. They’ll probably just destroy that one too. It’s whatever,
people fucking suck anyway. By what I could tell, the Space Squids weren’t so
special, either, with their weird, soft bodies, tentacles, and strange pointy
heads.
Yeah, I said tentacles. I don’t call ‘em Space Squids
for fun. Besides the fact that they didn’t live in water, that’s pretty much
what they were.
They did moisturize . . . a lot. Like all the time. It
was kind of obscene, but that’s a story for a different time.
Like I was saying, the Space Squids, yeah, assholes.
That’s what they were. Just as bad as all the humans they took. Maybe they ate
everyone . . . well, one could only hope, but considering the fact that they
left the ‘trash’ humans behind and they wanted to only take productive,
non-criminal folks, I assume they weren’t planning to eat them. Unless us ‘trash’
humans taste bad. I’ll just keep thinking they ate everyone and be happy with
the fact that they didn’t want my kind to go.
I still don’t see how I fit in with the others they
left behind—The Remains the Squiddies called us. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad
they didn’t throw me into the volcanoes like they did the leaders and
politicians of the world. Oh, they made sure that shit was broadcasted on live
television. You ask me, some of those fuckers got out too easily and quickly
for the things they got away with.
What was I saying? Oh, yeah. Those Squiddies left me
behind, saying murderers weren’t welcome on their planet. Blah, blah. Yeah,
I’ve killed, but I’m no murderer. I deal out justice. I take out the ‘trash’
that they accused me of being. I tried to clean up the world and rid it of the
people who were making it a bad place to live. Taking out people who destroyed
nature for the hell of it, who killed for the enjoyment of it, who took
pleasure from the touch of a child, and those who deemed themselves better than
others, making sure the lives of those they found to be lesser than them was
full of hardship, grief, and sorrow.
I’m not sure how many I had the pleasure of disposing
of, but I know I didn’t stop after everyone left. I didn’t even have to do as
much research once they were gone, so really, they did me a favor. They
made my job easier.
***
Thomas looked around at his captors. Their hair in
mudded clumps. Their round cherubic faces, holding expressions of anything but
innocence. No, all of the children that surrounded him looked upon him like a
wolf eyeing a rabbit it wished to have for dinner.
“You tell your lies. You act as if you were doing this
world a favor, killing people you decided weren’t good enough to live.
Who were you to judge when you killed our parents?” one of the oldest males visible
within the group said, surprising Thomas for he’d not expected such
feral-looking children to be able to speak so well.
“Well, I . . . uh, shit. I didn’t know there were
children still left here. At least none old enough to have been around for the Great
Departure. I thought they all went with the Squiddies. Who in their right mind
would’ve kept their children here?”
“People who didn’t want to be separated from their
families. People who knew that once the majority left, the planet would begin
to heal. People who didn’t trust the aliens, and so they didn’t go, even if
they were accepted to go to the new world,” said another of the eldest as she
stepped forward.
A girl and boy, who looked so similar there was no
mistaking that they were brother and sister, came closer to Thomas. They appeared
to be about seven, meaning they were born sometime around The Great Departure,
Thomas noted.
“We were five when you killed our father,” the little
girl said.
“He was all we had. Our mom didn’t make it through
having us,” the boy continued where his sister left off.
“We saw you. We watched from the brush. We saw what
you did.” The girl grabbed her brother’s hand and squeezed.
“We watched as you broke his legs, making escape impossible.
We listened as you listed his supposed crimes. We choked back our sobs, our
cries, as you drew your knife across our father’s throat.” The boy straightened
his posture, standing as tall as he could.
“Then, you left him there to rot. You walked away from
him like he was nothing. What you did was wasteful. You kill but for what
reason? There’s no purpose in what you do.” The girl had begun to tremble, but
not in fear or grief. The girl’s body shook with rage, if Thomas was correct in
his thinking.
“I would’ve never killed him or any of your parents
had I known they’d had children that had no one else to care for them. Know
this to be the truth. Know this, as I only wish to end the suffering, hate,
greed, and filthiness in this world. Know that I only wish to make things
better. I never meant to cause harm. I only wished to deal out justice.” Thomas
wiggled his arms, struggling against the ropes that bound him.
“Justice! Justice! There’s no need for justice in a
lawless land, sir. You have no authority. You are far worse than any criminal
you believe you’ve dealt your justice to. For you think you are better
than they were.” A girl, older than the rest, Thomas had not seen until that
moment, walked over to him, clutching a knife in her dirt-covered hand.
“Now, just wait a second. What is it you’re planning
on doing with that knife? How do you figure killing me makes you any better? It
certainly won’t bring your folks back. Not that it appears you need them. The
lot of you seemed to be doing just fine without them. Y’all have got to be some
of the plumpest people I’ve seen in a while.”
“We do well with the gardens, and we have an excellent
group of hunters. You met Ellie and Niro. They’re our absolute best. You’d
agree, I’m certain, that they’d need to be top-notch to track and capture you.
You who prides yourself on tracking and hunting people down. I assume as you’ve
been up to these tricks since before the ‘Great Departure’, as you put it.” The
teenage girl tapped him on the tip of his nose with her knife.
“Oh.” Thomas let his gaze focus more on the
surrounding area. His eyes took a second to adjust to the darker places where
they weren’t completely consumed by the shadows. Mounds of off-white caught his
attention, and he stared at them until the bones, skulls, and other human
remains became clear. “Oh! You little shits are cannibals!”
“Only when we have to be. We get more meat from a deer
than we do most humans. So, unless we absolutely need the meat, we usually
leave people alone, but when little Josiah and Penelope here saw you . . . when
they recognized you for who you were, well, we couldn’t pass that up.”
Thomas struggled more with his bindings, not even
bothering to hide his movements as he’d been doing. He squirmed. His shoulders
jerking, and his body bucking, but he couldn’t get free. If anything, the ropes
only became tighter on his wrists and around his waist.
“Now, Thomas—it is Thomas, right?” the elder girl with
the knife said. When he didn’t answer, she continued, “What you don’t seem to
get is, the more you fight your restraints, the more Little William back there
will twist. And while we’ve yet to see it happen, you’d have a better chance
getting loose after your hands pop off your wrists—well, like I said, we
haven’t seen it yet, but I suppose it’s possible. That is, given you don’t pass
out from the pressure on your abdomen first. So, by all means, keep trying to
free yourself.”
A sinister smile spread across her face as several of
the other worked to control fits of laughter.
“Quiet!” a male voice behind Thomas yelled.
“Charlotte! Why must you play with your food? It doesn’t need to know why it’s
dying. Just kill it and be done with your theatrics. I thought we were good for
meat, anyway, so why the need to butcher more?”
“You’re probably right, Jonathan. We shouldn’t play
with our food . . . but did you look to see who this is before you spoke?” the
knife-wielding girl, Charlotte, said before turning away.
A tall man in his early twenties walked in front of
Thomas. “Is this who I think it is?” He bent down, getting face to face with
Thomas. “Why, yes. Yes, it is.”
“I assume I killed one of your parents too?” Thomas
asked.
“Ah, but you killed both. My father before the aliens
took everyone away, and then my mother two years after she’d decided to stay on
this planet with the Remains. We were going to go, but when our group was
called to board, she changed her mind because she had a bad feeling. I don’t
know what happened to those who left, but I know what happened to my mom. And I
remember what you told me when you dispatched her,” Jonathan said.
“But dear Thomas here just told us that he never would’ve
killed someone had he knew they had kids to take care of. Didn’t you, friend?”
Charlotte chortled, but Thomas was unable to see her past Jonathan’s tall frame.
“I wouldn’t have. I certainly wouldn’t have spoken to
a child I was leaving an orphan,” he protested, knowing all too well the lies
that left his mouth.
He remembered Jonathan. The boy was fifteen, maybe sixteen,
when Thomas killed his mother. He’d followed her from a rundown pharmacy, where
he’d seen her take dozens of prescription bottles. It was only later that he’d
found they were only antibiotics.
“Don’t follow in her footsteps, boy, or I’ll come back
for you.” Jonathan’s words echoed the ones that ran through Thomas’ mind. The
young man’s voice bringing him back to the present. “Yeah, I see it in your
face. You remember. What you might not know is, the antibiotics that you killed
my mom for taking, they were for my little sister. She was four. She’d gotten a
cut on her foot, and it was infected. Without my mom, without those antibiotics
. . . well, it got worse. Gangrene set in. By the time I found help, even the
amputation of her leg didn’t save her. I had to watch her die, all because you
thought my mom was a fucking junkie.”
“I didn’t know.” Thomas tried to look disgusted with
himself, but somewhere along the way, he’d lost his morals, his reasoning, and
he’d began killing people for the enjoyment of it. The one kid was right about
it being a lawless land, and Thomas had taken advantage of that, but he’d felt
far from guilty about it. He’d felt powerful . . . well, until a group of
filthy, parentless kids captured him and tied him up. He met the eyes of the one
named Jonathan and said, “If you feel inclined to kill me for my crimes, might
I have a request granted?”
Jonathan smirked. “Well, that would depend on what it
is? If it’s a request not to eat you, as much as I’d rather not, we don’t waste
what can sustain us. Had we still had pigs, you’d go to them, but the entire
drove became diseased a while back and died. So, that request will be denied,
but you can ask, and I’ll consider anything else.”
“Jonathan!” Charlotte screeched.
“He shouldn’t be given the dignity of a request,” the young
boy sibling said.
“He didn’t give our father or your mother or any of
the others’ parents time to speak, let alone a request,” his sister sounded,
barely letting her brother’s words end.
A mass of murmurs and angry words flew about the night
air. Thomas stopped himself from smiling for the commotion he’d caused. The
ropes twisted more, tightening further at his wrists and around his lower chest.
“Silence!” Jonathan bellowed. “I said the man could
ask. Now, let’s let him say his, and we will decide if it will be granted.
Thomas, what is it you want?”
Thomas cleared his throat, struggling to breathe with
the tightened ropes around him. He wondered if Little William was trying to
hurry the job along without the others knowing. “Would it be too much to ask
for the ropes to be taken off? I know that most, if not all, of you feel I did
your folks wrong, but I ask for just that bit of dignity and compassion.”
Jonathan took a second, giving a brief hmm. As
he opened his mouth to say his answer, a mass scream sounded, and Thomas was
overwhelmed by bodies hitting him from every direction.
“I’d say that’s a no, Thomas,” Jonathan shouted.
Thomas barely made out the words over the cries of the
kids and the ripping sounds from his clothing being torn off him. They were scratching
and clawing at his flesh, and it only dawned on him when he felt their teeth
biting into his flesh and breaking the skin, they’d planned on starting their
feast while his heart was still beating.
“Yep! Definitely a no!” Jonathan’s words sounded so
far away. A moment later, his face hovered over Thomas’. “Come on guys, at
least make sure it’s dead first. We’re not complete animals.”
Thomas got a brief glimpse of the hammer before it
smashed into his face, ending the searing pain he felt as his flesh was ripped
from his body.
