Alone

If one was to look back on humanity and pass judgement, one could say that they deserved this. The world had it coming. It is laughable, the irony of this. For humans sat by and watched with some sick pleasure as they destroyed themselves and their planet. War, poverty, famine, theft, homicide, genocide, infanticide, violence, and drugs: While humans sat by passing judgement over those around them, while they did the same things themselves. When the time came they so easily fell back into their primal instincts; fear, fight, flight, and hate.

And in the beginning that’s what Jordan did. She hated them, fought them, and most of all She feared them. Being such an intuitive person, even from such a young age, it was easy for her to spot the interlopers that traipsed with the masses. Of course, Jordan had no clue as to what they were, but she seemed to know something was wrong.

The world didn’t change overnight, no. It started with tiny changes that the world for the most part ignored. There was the absence of the usual apathy towards day to day violence, that used to be so apparent. Strangers on the street, with mirror-like flashes just beyond their pupils, were seen with constant sunny dispositions, each with identical scars running across the backs of their necks. These were her silent clues to the major change that was brewing in Jordan’s not so distant future.

Jordan thought little of the changes, at the time. If you were to have asked her, she probably would have told you that she was delighted by them. Life was more peaceful than it had ever been. She could walk home from school, without feeling fearful of getting mugged or kidnapped, as the streets were safer than they had ever been. Schools became a place without fights, jealousy, and God forbid the paste-eating. News stations were suddenly more concentrated on every four year old fifth birthday, instead of court cases, car bombings, or double homicides. People were now able to walk through crowded places without having to worry about pickpockets. It was safe to travel down a dark ally at midnight without worrying about being attacked by the villains of the night. Violence became nearly nonexistent, disease ceased to plague the Earth, cancer was cured, famine disappeared, war came to a screeching halt, and that was when what was left of humanity had realised that the Earth had stopped spinning.

It wasn’t until the two siblings’ mother went off on a business trip and came back as everything but their mother that the fear they should have felt all along finally sunk in. The fear became a crushing reality on the two children’s conscience as they realised that their friends and family were gone; they had been replaced by beings whose origins they couldn’t begin to imagine. It wasn’t long before their dad followed their mothers steps and became as different as she had. It was then that Jesse and Jordan knew it was time to run. There was no one truly left to hold them there and lose themselves as everyone they cared about had been lost.

They packed the night after the discovery of their dad’s change. The siblings were frantic. The naively believed that their life would be the same for them after they escaped. Jesse was twelve while Jordan was seven, and at first they were both adamant on bringing every possession of theirs. They quickly found out that that wasn’t possible. Jordan was incredibly small, and could only hold little more than twenty pounds. She insisted on carrying their only change of clothes. They were limited to what they wore in their backs, and the one change of clothes they had in her backpack, Jesse resolved that food was their best bet for his bag, and he packed as much as he could carry, It wasn’t until later that Jordan realised just how smart her brother was for that. Jesse also packed a few left over medicines, band-aids, medical supplies, and such as Jordan has always been a clumsy child. She would somehow some way manage to hurt herself, and being on the run would only strengthen that clumsiness of hers.

As the sun set into a cool spring night in New York, their parents, or what was left of them sent them to bed, the two siblings fled into the night. They quietly made their way down the fire escape of their small apartment, and set off down the ally, never looking back to the life they had left behind.

They were determined to put as much space as they could between their childish frames and the creatures that were living in their parents skins.

In the cloak of the night it was far easier to blend into the shadows without incident. Few were out so late and so they were free to flee the city without being called out as runaways. They quickly boarded a train to New Jersey, determined to drive themselves into the wilderness as much as possible. They both knew, somewhere deep in their blood, that safety was in seclusion, no matter how lonely it may have been.

In the beginning, life on the run was torture or something quite close to it. Neither Jesse of Jordan were skilled in taking care of themselves. Jesse could easily prepare food, they weren’t accustomed to living outdoors. It lately occurred to them that matches might have been a smart idea. They came very close to simply giving up and going back home, even after what was happening to every human on the planet became clear to them. It was so difficult that they had begun to no longer care about whether or not they were found.

Eventually their food ran out and Jesse had to steal into the night to find more. Those were the times that Jordan was left alone, whimpering in the bushes, always wondering if he would return. It was those times that left her wanting to run home even to the creatures that used to be her parents.

But Jesse would always return. He would take his sister up into his arms as though he hadn’t seen her in years, and sometimes it would truly feel like that. As years progressed, their routines of hiding and stealing seemed to become easier. They were quick to observe the creatures patterns, their way of life, and they were remarkably similar to the humans they embodied, only far more peaceful. It was hard for Jordan to not respect them for their dispositions. That didn’t meant, however, that she wanted to disappear within the confines of her own mind at their hands. Jordan refused to vanish.

Slowly they made their way west. It was far easier to find hiding places than out in the east, but there was always the threat of discovery, even in the shadow of the trees. Population was far more sporadic out west, and thus it was safer to travel longer distances and stay in a single place for a longer time. They were able to stay close to a cluster of towns for months at a time before they became suspicious and the two of them had to move on. They had their fair share of Seeker action due to suspicion, and they were always on their toes so they could make sure that they didn’t run into them. They both knew that Seekers meant death.

It meant death of their souls.

By the time Jordan had turned thirteen, Jesse had taught himself to drive, and they’s stolen a car a few states back. Their travels were much easier, and they could slip away quicker and farther away if they needed to. No more running on foot. Of course, at this point they were both strong enough that they needn’t worry about being overtaken by a Seeker. physically. Jordan was fast and Jesse had the strength of any man twice his size. They’d stolen sleeping bags and tents, now living as comfortably as they could. They could pack up camp in four minutes flat, and finding food and shelter was now their natural instinct. Their biggest problem was medicine.

Their own medicine was lacking. Human medicine quickly disappeared, and it was hard to find their own healing materials outside of their hospitals. By sneaking into the hospitals they truly risked their heads. It was even harder considering that the hospitals were always open and staffed. They only succeeded in getting medicine that they needed through Jesse’s cleverness. They had monitored the supplier trucks’ schedules for days on end, documenting as they went along. The timing had to be perfect. Jordan was to be the lookout, while Jesse sneaked himself into the back of the supply truck and loaded up on everything from No Pain to Seal. They had meticulously planned every aspect of the raids and they were succeeded most of the time.

Most of the time being the operative phrase. They had one rather large slip up.

It started out rather routine, The alien had unloaded a set of boxes onto a cart and they had approximately three minutes for Jesse to load everything into their bag. They didn’t concentrate on how much they got of each. They just ripped open each of the boxes and then stuffed their bag as full as they could. Jesse had a box of Heal, which was the most important important item of the entire raid, but he had been having trouble opening the box when the alien exited the hospital and made his way back to the truck to take in more. Jordan had let out a whistle, as to let Jesse know , but he was determined to get the Heal. And that had cost them their cover.

“Jesse!” Jordan was forced to call out, as the alien was dangerously close to the truck.

“Is someone there?” The Alien asked, rounding the front of the truck.

Jordan booked it, grabbing Jesse’s tall shoulders and yanked, pulling him backward and out of the truck, forcing him to drop the box of Heal. Jesse had let out a groan as the two of them took off running. Jesse barrelled the alien down. Jordan was sure that the worm had only spotted a blur of the two of them, but they would never know.

They ran the quarter mile back to the Jeep, locking themselves in without bothering to buckle into their seat belts. Jesse turned the key and threw it into reverse, before rocketing back to the highway. They drove for hours, not bothering to return to their previous campsite. They’d already worked hard to cover their tracks before they left for the raid, and they were sure that no one would find them.

Oh, it was almost humorous how wrong they were.