Once Human
Once Human
We were once human. Now I’m not so sure. We were once alive. Now we are only half-dead. We were once tangible beings. Now I have no idea of…
Science Fiction
We were once human. Now I’m not so sure. We were once alive. Now we are only half-dead. We were once tangible beings. Now I have no idea of our essence.
I wake up inside a tube with a strange blue liquid up to my knees next to my lover. Inside his own separate tube, he doesn’t move.
Panicking, I call out but nothing comes from my mouth. We are alone in a massive chamber high above an endless pit.
There’s a latch to get out of the human-sized tube. I reach and get out fast like light. Climbing and struggling, I fall down on grated flooring. It doesn’t cut my bare feet. Only bra and panties I wear and I see my hands now transparent.
My lover awakes suddenly. He looks around petrified as I call out to him but again no sound comes out.
There is a strange sense in which I now have the power of telekinesis and telepathy. I know I have it, but can’t explain it. I just know. It is a sixth sense; an instinct suddenly.
“It’s OK.”
“Wh-where are we,” he asks me.
“I don’t know.”
“Why, Why can’t I see your lower half?” I look down and half of my body is gone. Then I rise.
“I don’t know. You can open the latch at the top.” He sees it and gets out quickly shivering and stark naked. I get him a towel and he covers himself.
We embrace and slink to the floor as I hold him and he cries.
I hush his sobs and whisper, “We’ll figure it out. We always have.”
“This is different.” Tears stream down his swollen eyes. “Way different. My body feels… strange. I can’t explain it. And now we talk with our minds. It’s surreal.”
“Do you remember what happened?”
“I can’t.”
“Neither can I. But…”
“What,” he asks curiously.
“There was-” And then an alarm sounds and the gates of the room fly open two on either side. It wails insistent on danger as two creatures like purple wolves with giant spikes erupting from their backs come crawling on the railway and growl like lions.
“I saw them. In my dreams,” I say hopelessly.
We get up. My lover is wounded by the trauma. He can’t stand on his own. The monsters are hungry as they close in. We’re cornered.
Then a voice comes into my mind. “We will lead you. Hurry now.” It is the two leopard-like creatures.
One speaks, “Hurry, we must be swift! This way!”
They scamper away as we follow them worried and confused by the warning shouts.
As we journey through robotic corridors and strange new tunnels an army of alien creatures spot us, but the monsters attack them. They fling themselves, clawing and biting the four-legged aliens ripping them to shreds.
“Hurry, this way, this way!” the leader of the pack says.
They lead us to a pod, but more awful aliens with rhino heads and spider legs attack. But the wolves ward them off and kill them quickly.
The one leopard goes to the door and types on the keypad with his snout. The door opens horizontally as we all gather in and it shuts behind us. Descending down the elevator into another deck of the massive ship, we see the floating city now.
It opens and more aliens come to meet us but they are pushed back. We are protected by these bizarre allies who we do not know.
We hurry faster and faster without pause. We head toward double doors and pass out into an open airway where flying ships and terrible things head off and enter the expansive room. We fly across the floor heading straight for the doors.
We are seen and fired upon by ray guns. Hails of fire are thrown at us. I stop the blows with my mind. A forcefield of protection shields us from the fire as we jump inside a pod.
The door closes and a voice suggests we strap in as the pod is about to eject from the main spaceship.
I look down at my hands and wonder at these strange new abilities.
They are a gift but also a curse. My lover and I strap ourselves as the wolves sit still on their bottoms ready for impact. The ship counts down and shoots us out violently into outer space.
Into the unknown, we go with our unknown friends and our unknown situation.
Life by the Antlers Series
Edit descriptionmedium.com
Wandering Traveler
Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost — J.R.R. Tolkienmedium.com
Buy Me a Coffee. I take mine black. https://www.buymeacoffee.com/aaronmichaelthomas