A thundering sound filled the air as Jonathan and I ran through the forest; weaving around trees and leaping over shrubbery. Our packs, which were just drawstring bags, shifted with each step we took, throwing our balance off just a bit. The rifles on our backs didn’t help either, the stock hitting the back of our heads from time to time. But hey, it’s a small price to pay if it means having something to protect you from the post-apocalyptic wasteland.
“It’s just up ahead!” I yelled behind me, Jonathan in tow. He was huffing and puffing from all the running. I knew he had more weight in his pack than I did, but you’d think that after more than a year of hunting down Hoppers, he’d be able to run long distances pretty easily. The booming sound in the distance became louder as we closed in on it. We finally broke through the dense forest and into an open area, where the Hopper sat.
What is a Hopper? To be honest, I have no clue. It’s not like the classic spinning saucer UFOs you see in movies and video games, and it’s not like those walking alien ships from War of the Worlds either. It’s not super complex, or simple.
It’s split into two separate parts: the base, and the cabin. Inside that cabin is a Slither, which pilots the Hopper. The base is about three feet tall and wide, and about seven feet long. On either end are octagons, with long plates of some kind of metal stretching between them, kind of like an octangular prism, if that makes sense. The cabin.. I’ll explain later. Don’t worry I got a good reason why.
Nothing too fancy about it, even for a seemingly advanced species like the Slithers. Now that you got that down, let’s get into what makes these Hoppers so special.
The pod made a whirring, almost buzzing noise. Like magic, it levitated into the air, traveling a solid distance of about three feet both upwards and forwards, before crashing back down to the earth, making that ominous thundering sound.
“Alright, same plan as always,” I stated, pulling a pair of earplugs out of my pocket. Yeah, it looks badass when the main character in a movie shoots a gun without ear protection, but this is reality, and I need all my senses to survive. I fit the squishy orange pieces into my ears, letting them fill up the space in my canals. “Watch my back,” I finish, as I ran towards the Hopper at an angle. The moment I moved in front of it, the light around the Hopper warbled, and the cabin came into view.
Remember when I said I would explain the cabin later? The reason why is because, well, it’s invisible.
Honest to God, (if God hasn’t fully given up on us) I would love to know whose brilliant idea it was to create a cloaking system that makes something completely invisible, but once it’s spotted from a certain angle, the system just falls apart. Jonathan and I theorized that there was probably some sort of grand reason for this, but as of now, we’ve whittled it down to a bug in their systems or something like that.
The cabin is much bigger than the base, about ten feet taller, consisting of large metallic plates, configured in some sort of shape I can’t name. In the front of it were two locking mechanisms that held what seemed to be a door or entrance shut. Did the Slithers really seal their own kind into these ships until they finally died? If they didn’t decimate nearly all life on Earth, I’d probably feel sorry for the poor guys.
The Hopper raised into the air once more, and I could see Jonathan's feet running around the other side of the ship, that was the signal to fire, just as planned. I raised my gun, aligned the sights to line up with one of the locks holding the door shut, and pulled the trigger.
-POW-
The bullet smashed through the locking mechanism, and it fell clean off. The piece of metal hit the ground with a thud. A hydraulic sound echoed from inside the chamber, and the door jarred out at an angle. I aimed again, shooting the other one out.
-POW-
I missed. I shoot again.
-POW-
Hydraulics sounded as the Hopper dropped to the ground for the last time. Smoke billowed out of the cabin as the doors slid outward, like a drawbridge, only stopping before it was about a foot or two off the ground. I and Jonathan jumped in, pointing our guns inside of the Hopper. However, all that lay in it was a crumpled-up, rotting carcass of what used to be a Slither.
“Damn,” I groaned, while Jonathan remained quiet, poking at the corpse with the muzzle of his gun to test if it was actually dead. Spoiler alert: it was. “When are we ever gonna get a living one?”
“Why would you want to find a living one?” Jonathan asked, looking at me. “Did you not SEE what these things were capable of when they first invaded?”
“Yeah, but are these things as capable as them?” I fired back, “Even so, ” I continued, jabbing my finger into Jonathan's chest. “Wouldn’t you want to kill the things that took away your parents? Your friends? Your girlfriend?” I asked. Jonathan’s jaw tightened.
“Of course I would,” Jonathan protested, smacking my hand away from him. “But that was then. This is now,” Jonathan slung his gun over his back. “Trust me, I hate these things as much as you do, but we can’t keep living in the past. We have to move on, and live with what we got,” Damn, really blew me out of the water with that point. Jonathan jumped off the Hopper’s door, landing in the grass.
“Sun’s gonna be down in a little bit, let’s get some more supplies from that run-down Q-Mart we found yesterday,” Jonathan said, picking up his stuff from where he dropped it.
“Sure,” I said. “Let’s go.”
The place was utterly destroyed. Glass was shattered, some shelves had fallen over, spiderwebs were everywhere, shrubbery and vines had taken over a majority of the place, and for some reason, a Buick was hanging from the ceiling by vines and other vegetation. It would’ve almost been comedic if the door slid open and made a happy “ding” sound as we walked in.
The place was nearly pitch dark, the only light coming in being some random holes in the ceiling, the entryway, and the broken windows next to the said entryway.
“Backup generators must’ve gone out,” Jonathan theorized.
“No shit, Sherlock,” I joked as I went down on a knee and opened up my pack, pulling out two Mag-Lites for me and Jonathan. “Aim for the canned foods, nuts and grains, and other non-perishables,” I clicked the flashlights on and off to test them before handing one to him.
“I’ll look for medical supplies, rendezvous here in ten minutes?” I asked, before going off in a direction. Jonathan nodded as he went another way, grabbing a black plastic handbasket from the floor. “Keep your head on a swivel!” I called out as I started walking off in the opposite direction, “There might be some Kreel taking refuge here!”
What’s a Kreel? Don’t worry, we didn’t get ripped to shreds by some other alien species if that’s what you're thinking. After the Invasion, nearly all the Slithers left the planet, except for a handful of Hopper's, and the Kreel. From what we know, the Kreel are smaller, feral versions of the Slithers; devoid of reason, and attacking anything that’s not their kind. I don’t blame them really, getting booted out by your own kind hurts, Slither or human.
Part of me wishes that there was somebody still here taking refuge in the store. Not for the possible confirmation that Jonathan and I may actually not be the last people on Earth, but just in case the dude knew where the pharmacy aisle was. I almost laugh picturing a dude huddled around a homemade campfire made out of store materials, still wearing the signature employee vest. That actually may not be a bad idea: setting up base in a run-down store. Food, meds, weapons, and other necessities; besides fortifying the place and dealing with the Buick, it’s possible. I’ll have to run the idea by Jonathan.
Going across an action alley, which is just a space between store sections, I could see a splotch of daylight from across the store; it was an open door that led to the back area of the store, which going further led to what looked like shipping docks.
“Another entry point,” I noted, “Might have to board that up eventually if we ever set up shop,” The more entry points a place has, the more likely someone or something can get in.
Looking up at the various information signs that hung from the ceiling, some were either hanging on one or two cables, I scanned the contents for anything related to medication. One sign, which was hanging from a single cable and was slowly spinning, finally spun into view, reading off “Pharmacy,”
“Ah, there you are,” I muttered as I walked down the aisle.
The shelves were nearly barren, presumably from people who stole supplies years ago during the invasion. However, I was able to find some gauze, band-aids, kiddie vitamins, and a single bottle of hydrogen peroxide.
“Wait.. does peroxide have an expiration date?” I thought of until I heard a piercing yell echo from the other side of the store: Jonathan.
I took off running, racing past a sports aisle, which luckily enough, a stand full of wooden baseball bats sat at an end cap. I grab a Slugger off mid-sprint, almost taking down the entire stand. Running down several food aisles, I finally spotted Jonathan on the floor down towards the end of an aisle, writhing and screaming. A gelatinous mass squirmed on top of him, wrapping its tentacles around Jonathan’s body, restricting his limbs. One of its tentacles formed into a point, and all the color on Jonathan’s face disappeared. Yep, that’s a Kreel.
“HEY!” I yelled out, running at the Kreel at full speed, and swinging the Slugger as hard as I could. It connected with the alien, sending it straight into a wall. Bat in hand, I stepped over Jonathan to keep him behind me. The Kreel screeched as it crawled into the bathrooms, vanishing.
“Thanks,” Jonathan said, wheezing, and pulling himself up from the ground. “I didn’t know something else liked Campbell’s soup as much as I did,” I reached out my hand to pull him up. “Why didn’t you use your gun?”
“Didn’t want to accidentally shoot you,” I replied, partially lying. I actually forgot I had a gun on my back. Turning my eyes to the aisle we were in, cans of food were scattered everywhere. “What were you trying to get anyway? Campbell soup?” Jonathan turned his head, looking at a pile of cans on the floor. He went over, reached his hand into the mess, and pulled out a single can of soup.
CAMPBELL’S CHUNKY HEARTY PIZZA
WITH SAUSAGE & PEPPERONI
“You.. risked yourself getting killed.. for pizza soup?” I asked, raising a brow.
“Dude, have you ever tried this stuff?” Jonathan asked, excitement in his eyes. “It’s like heaven in a can!” I gave him a look, dumbfounded. I finally shook my head, swinging the bat against my shoulder.
“Your next-level stupid, you know that?”
“Can you slow down? I’m carrying everything!” Jonathan called out, straining with his pack, which was nearly overflowing with canned foods.
“Aw c’mon, I'm carrying more weight than you!” I argued, carrying my nearly-full bag on my back, with another plastic bag full of meds in my hand, making my forearms burn. I kept the bat, just in case we run into more Kreel again. I had it sitting between my back and my bag, the bag keeping it pressed down. My forearm strength finally reached its limit holding onto the bag, so I switched hands.
The sun was starting to set in the distance, meaning we only had about an hour to get back to base before nightfall. I was starting to regret taking a different path home, but it was still worth it; we needed to get a better lay of the land anyway. I was lost in thought until I almost slipped on something super slickery.
“WHOAH!” I yelped, regaining my balance on the ground. The grass on the ground was wet but oily wet. It was running downhill somewhere.
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“Hey, hold on a minute, I wanna check this out,” I said, putting down my pack. The land seemed to be cut off, as the edge of the creek was down about three feet from the elevation of the path we were taking.
It was about a foot wide, and it ran, not with water, but with some sort of red substance. My first thought was blood, obviously, but it was brighter than that, and it smelled more sour rather than metallic. It reeked, but it wasn’t unbearable, just enough to make your face scrunch up. I pulled the Slugger off my back and touched the surface of the substance with the end of it. Nothing; at least it’s not acidic.
“Put your hand in it,” I heard Jonathan dare from above me. “No balls,” He finished before I could protest. Shit, now I can’t back out of this. I stared at him for a moment before sighing.
“Alright, you win this one,” I say, before hesitantly dipping my hand into the semi-transparent liquid. It was slightly viscous. Even weirder than that, it was neither hot nor cold, like the temperature of the liquid was matching my exact body heat. I raised a brow, lifting my hand out of it, but to my surprise, it was bone dry.
“Hey... ” I started, “..let’s bag some of this stuff. Throw me a baggie or something we can hold it in,” Jonathan gave me an odd look, before taking off his pack and pulling out a Ziploc bag.
“You think this connects to the Slithers?” He asked as he balled up the Ziploc and tossed it down. I almost dropped it trying to catch it.
“I dunno. Maybe... I’m not entirely sure,” I responded honestly. My eyes followed the creek's path, seeing where it flowed. “Don’t you find it weird that from wherever it’s coming from, it’s going uphill as well?” I asked, pointing at a patch of land that was connected to the trail Jonathan was standing on.
“Huh?” Jonathan asked, looking behind him, to see another dip on the other side of the pathway. Red liquid ran up the side of the hill, over the path, and down the other side of the hill connecting to the creek. “I.. don't think that’s how water works..” Jonathan muttered.
“I don’t think that’s how gravity works,” I said, dipping the Ziploc into the red water and scooping some of it up, “It’s alien, like the Slithers..” I zipped the bag shut and stood up.
“I thought most of the Slithers left after the Invasion,” Jonathan pointed out, “Aren’t the only ones left behind the Hoppers and the Kreels?” he asked.
He brings up a good point. When they first came, there were massive warships, alien fighter aircraft, drones, Hoppers, all that stuff; but after they left, the Hoppers and the Kreel remained. We figured that since the Slithers are more technologically advanced, they must’ve figured out antigravity, and used the technology to leave Earth once they were done decimating us. That being said, in a sense, Hoppers are essentially footsoldiers compared to the massive war-mongering ships that eradicated nearly all life on Earth years ago.
Call it a conspiracy theory if you want, but with the Kreel, I think that the Slithers left them behind because they’re rabid. Think about it: a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and if you’re a world-conquering race of aliens, you have to cut out the weakest. The same goes for the remaining Hoppers that didn’t have the power to leave Earth after the Invasion. Out of a battalion of millions, a couple being left behind means nothing.
The Slithers that remain in the Hoppers roam the Earth, and the Kreel run wild, both left behind by their people to die. Unless...
“Maybe they’re trying to thrive here, create ecosystems,” I theorized. “It’s only been a couple of years, it’s possible they’re trying to survive here on Earth,” Jonathan shuddered.
“Jesus, that gives me the creeps..” he muttered. I walked back over to the ledge and tossed the bag next to Jonathan’s feet.
“Same here, but if that is the case, then they’re just trying to survive, like us,” I finished, grabbing onto the ledge and digging my feet into the dirt wall for leverage. Jonathan got on a knee and pulled me up from the hill. We both stood up, getting our bearings.
“Still, I don’t care,” Jonathan remarked, “They killed my family,” I feel that. I look over at the horizon, the Sun about halfway over it.
“Base?” Jonathan asked. I nodded.
“Base,” I repeated.
It sat at an angle, the front of it pointing a little bit into the air while the back was a little buried into the base of a hill. “Base” was an old transit bus that somehow made it out in the middle of nowhere sometime during the Invasion. It was covered in vines, vegetation, and dirt, but if you squinted, you could probably still see “Bravo City Transit” worded out in faded red letters on the side.
Setting the bag on the ground, I reached up towards the accordion doors that sat in the middle of the bus and slid them open. I look back towards Jonathan and stepped away so he could hop in first, being generous for once.
“Ladies first,” Jonathan teased. I rolled my eyes, grabbed the bag off the ground, and threw it into the bus, landing on a seat.
“Piss off,” I muttered, crawling into the entrance, and holding onto the safety bar to hoist myself inside.
All the seats had been removed except for two, which we used as makeshift beds. They were tilted in proportion to the angled bus, so they were actually level with the ground outside. The same went for the very back of the bus. We had filled the bottom and back with dirt in a way where it was level with the ground outside as well. It took us forever to figure that out. Below my seat is a metal shelf that was built into the bus, but I use it for my police scanner; something I nabbed while Jonathan and I raided a police station some time ago. Jonathan always argues with me whenever I turn it on, saying that there’s no chance we’re gonna get anybody’s signal, but I still keep my hopes up, just in case.
There was a firepit engraved in the center, with rocks marking out where the edges were. So we didn’t die of smoke inhalation, we made makeshift ventilation shafts leading out of the windows, which were made from aluminum ducts and other ventilation parts, letting us, as well as the fire, breathe. To make it all fit together, we used cardboard, cloth that we ripped up from the remaining bus seats, and a ton of duct tape. Judging by the fact that Jonathan and I haven’t died yet inside the bus, I think we’re pretty dandy.
I glanced through the glass accordion door and watched the sun dip below the horizon; the stars were just barely visible in the dusk sky.
“Let’s start cooking up some food,” I said, plopping myself down on the ground in front of the campfire. I opened a compartment inside the metro, revealing several pieces of stored-up newspaper and kindling, as well as larger pieces of wood. Jonathan had just put down his pack of food and supplies on a ledge, tossing me the flint and steel he always kept in his back pocket.
“Wanna try that pizza soup?” Jonathan asked, flopping on his bed and looking down at me from an angle. I sighed, making sparks fly into the fire pit. The paper caught fire and immediately started burning away at the kindling.
“Well, if you were willing to die for it, then I guess it’s worth a shot,” I joked. Jonathan laughed.
Jonathan and I sat in silence, staring at the fire, watching it lick the air. Jonathan looked like he was between Cloud Nine and a food coma, his head craned straight up.
“Do you think there’s anybody really out there?” He asked, breaking the silence. I glanced over, folding my arms.
“I don’t know, but I like to think so,” I answered, shifting my eyes upward like Jonathan was.
“They couldn’t have killed all of us, right?” Jonathan remained silent, as if he was still disturbed by the reminder that nearly all life on Earth has been wiped out, and he was unsure if he and I were the last people on the planet. I looked back over at the fire.
.
“I’m sorry,” I said, breaking the tension. Jonathan lowered his head, looking over at me with a confused look on his face.
“For what?” He asked. I stayed quiet for a moment, thinking about how to word this properly.
“For being distant to you,” I admitted, “I’ve been kind of.. lost, ever since the Invasion,”
“I kind of figured that,” Jonathan said, folding his arms too. His eyes shifted over to the fire. “If I'm being perfectly honest too, comedy to me is.. more like a self-defense mechanism if anything,” He finished, pausing for a moment. “I know what I said earlier, about ‘that was then, this is now,’ but yeah, I miss them too dude, even though I don’t like talking about it..” He paused for a moment, “If I had the power to, I’d kill every last fuckin Slither in the universe. I know you would too.”
I felt pressure behind my eyes start to build up, so I sighed, trying to get my mind off the heavy topic. It’s late, I don’t want to get deep with this, but I’m also grateful that Jonathan understands too, and that he hasn’t completely given up.
“Yeah,” I muttered, “Hey, listen, I’m... gonna call it a night,” I said, standing up.
“Go ahead, I’ll take care of the fire,” Jonathan offered as I climbed up the bus and onto my makeshift bed.
“Thanks, man,” I replied, sitting up.
“The Q-Mart from earlier, I had an idea to fortify it; turn it into an actual base for us. Sure, It’s got a Buick stuck in the gutter and some Kreel issues, but I think we can get something out of it,” I explained to Jonathan. I don’t know how, but I could hear Jonathan shrug below me.
“I mean, it beats this rust bucket,” he joked, knocking against the metal wall of the transit bus, “We can head back over tomorrow and start planning it out.”
“Sounds good to me,” I agreed, as I reached below me and flicked the scanner on, which static started playing. Jonathan rolled his eyes.
“Again?” He asked, “That scanner hasn’t helped us once, why are we even still using it?” I shrugged.
“I don’t know, but you’ll never know if you don’t try,” I protested, before rolling over in my bed, and pulling my blanket over me.
“Alright ‘Aristotle,’” Jonathan muttered sarcastically, taking a sip of water out of his canteen.
I fell asleep the moment I shut my eyes.
I was standing in a field, with wavy grass all around me. I could see something like mountain ranges off in the distance. It was peaceful. I felt… content.
“Hey, you okay?” A voice from behind me said, nearly making me jump.
“Eve?” I said, not believing my eyes. Eve smiled and cocked her head to the side curiously. She wore a white gown, which flowed with the gentle wind.
“What’s wrong? You look like you just saw a ghost..” she said, her voice kind and soft, but also worried. Without warning, I leaned forward and wrapped Eve in a hug. I felt like crying.
“Please tell me this is real..” I pleaded. I felt Eve’s gentle hands press against my back, returning the hug.
“Of course it’s real,” she giggled, digging her face into my shoulder. After what felt like an eternity, I finally pulled back to look at her again, and my heart dropped to the bottom of my chest.
There was a hole in the dead center of her head, her brain matter visible from the inside and outside. Blood was dripping from every orifice on her face. Her cataract eyes, were red, with darker red veins popping out. Her skin was ragged, so thin the blowing wind could rip it right off her face.
“Why wouldn’t it be?” She asked.
I woke up to Jonathan shaking me awake.
“Hey!” He yelled, “Wake up!” Startled, I waved his hands away, the imprint of Eve’s face burned into my eyes.
“What?” I asked, “What are you-” Jonathan clamped his hand tightly against my mouth to shut me up. He pointed down at the radio below us.
It was faint, but in the static, there were voices. Human voices. Jonathan and I stared at one another, our eyes as wide.
Even while holding the decently heavy scanner, I’ve never ran this fast before in my entire life. Even Jonathan seemed to be able to move much faster than yesterday. Every time the voices faded out, we turned and changed course, just enough for it to come into focus again, kinda like a compass. My mind was racing faster than my legs.
“Is this it?” I wondered. “Is this salvation?” From the sounds coming from the scanner, it sounded like a small group of people, or maybe even a settlement; possibly with technology that can send messages out to others. Can someone even do that? My excitement was suddenly cut off by a thud behind me.
“Jonathan!” I yelled. He was laying on the ground, panting and wheezing.
“I’ll catch up, just give me a minute..” he sputtered.
“No! I ain’t gonna leave you behi-” I protested before getting cut off by a sudden booming noise that startled both of us.
“A Hopper?” I thought. From the look on Jonathan’s face, it looks like he thought the same. We both turned our heads in the direction of the sound. Through the vegetation and trees, we saw a Hopper make its way through an open field.
“Here, catch your breath for a minute, and I'll shut down that Hopper,” I said, setting down the scanner and my bag next to Jonathan. “One more for the road, right?” I grinned, turning on a heel and booking it towards the pod, holding my gun in my arms.
“God, you're a psychopath,” Jonathan joked, watching me run through the empty field.
Suddenly, Jonathan felt something start moving in my pack. It felt like it was shaking like it was alive. Jonathan pulled over my pack and pulled out whatever was moving:
It was the Ziploc bag, full of strange, red liquid.
Just like always, I ran forward, moving around the Hopper to the front. And just like always, I could see the full size of it from an angle. But this time, something was noticeably different. This one was bigger than the other ones we had taken down prior, but that wasn’t the weirdest bit:
One of the locks had already been shot off, making the door hang a bit ajar. Before I had time to think about why that possibly was, the machine rose about seven feet into the air, startling me. Hoppers don’t usually get that high. I fell backward, accidentally swinging my rifle, and firing it.
-POW-
I’m not sure if luck is the right word to describe it; I actually shot the other lock clean off. I staggered to my feet as the Hopper slammed down just an inch from my foot. Hydraulics whirred, but not in a good way. It sounded like screaming. I grabbed my gun and ran backward, watching the doors suddenly open up, drawbridge-like. Suddenly, a very familiar, red oily substance spilled through the crevices of the Hopper, landing on the ground and moving its way toward me like a sheet of red. The liquid flowed through my shoes and continued going downhill.
“What the-” was all I said before I looked up to see black smoke billowing from the open area. My stomach dropped when I saw a large, slimy, tentacle wriggle its way out slowly, followed by a huge, bulbous head. It was red and partially translucent, almost orange in the direct sunlight. That’s a Slither, I turned my head to look over at Jonathan, but to my horror, Jonathan was gone. And the scanner had gone dead silent.
Something that sounded like a swarm of locusts echoed through the forest, making a pit form in the bottom of my stomach.
Hundreds, if not thousands of Kreel swarmed across the forest, crawling and jumping from tree to tree, crawling on the ground, decimating everything in their path. From where I was looking, the hill bent downwards, revealing the swarm in an almost theatrical perspective.
“ADAAAAMMMMM!!!” A blood-curdling, piercing scream echoed from the moshpit of Slithers. My body was frozen stiff, unable to move as Jonathan appeared off in the distance, being held by a Kreel about as big as himself, screaming at the top of his lungs. He was wrapped in one of its tentacles. The Kreel wasn’t patient, as it took one of its other tentacles, and formed it into a point…
..and pierced it straight through Jonathan’s head. Through one ear, and out the other. His body fell limp as the Kreel retracted the tentacle back out of his dead friend's head.
Like an anaconda, one big tentacle wrapped around my body, covering me from my legs to my torso, and only my arms were able to move freely. I was in too much shock to move, as my mind raced a million miles an hour. I hadn’t even realized I had dropped my gun until now. Off in another direction, I could hear even more screaming, coming from a possibly huge number of people. We were right about the settlement, and we were wrong about the Slithers.
“They were never left behind after the Invasion..” I thought. The giant Slither’s tentacle formed a piercing point. With a flash, it came at me at high speed, going straight for my head.
“..they were left here to finish off the rest of us-”