Another one of the short stories from Levels has been submitted to the L. Ron Hubbard Writer of the Future contest. Labels. Thanks. I promise a regular blog next time. :) Maybe. Alan Riehl
WAR
BASTARDS! Everywhere I
look, everyone around me is getting killed!
I know it's war. You have to
expect this kind of thing when you wage war against an enemy that has more
power than you. We didn't start the war
though, but I guarantee that we will end it.
I don't even remember how it started;
all I know is that once it began, I lost my family and friends. We're hungry! Why would we be slaughtered simply
because we are looking for food? What
kind of barbarians would kill without question or reason? We wouldn't.
We eat what we find and they don't make it any easier. We didn't ask to be starving. We didn't ask to be where we are. We just want to live. Is that too much to ask? It must be.
They slaughter us when they see us for
fear that we will take their food. It
reminds me of the brutal acts that happen all of the time in the name of
survival. We had to team up with the
Germans to make a difference. The
Germans are amazing. They see something
and take it! They are ruthless and
relentless and in this war that's exactly what we need. The Americans still don't trust them but we
need them right now. This war is too big
for us to take on the enemy by ourselves.
The enemy is strong. They use chemical weapons and traps of all
kinds to kill us where we stand. Luckily
for us they have no clue as to how many of us there are. We are everywhere and can be hidden if we so
desire. We are non violent by nature
towards those more powerful then us. We
have been forced to turn cannibalistic to eat.
That's how bad it is. No
war has kept us fighting this long. No
one really knows, or probably cares, how or when it began. Like I said, we didn't start it.
We would have never even bothered with
them had they just left us alone. Is
wanting to feed your family a reason to kill us? I really don't understand how they can just
kill without trying to communicate with us.
They capture some of us and then run all kinds of horrible tests on
us. A lot of us never survive those
tests. I guess they want to learn about
how to make a stronger weapon against us.
I wish someone would try to talk to us.
Our greatest minds can't conceive what drives them. This is the worst kind of prejudice.
They call us barbaric as they slaughter
us by the thousands for no apparent reason.
I managed to pick up the trail of those responsible for the last
attack. I know I shouldn't go alone, but
our numbers are depleting and we can't spare the bodies. The majority have to search for food. Food.
It's always food! Why is it always about food? Can we help it that we don't know anything
about farming or making our own food?
Can we be blamed that no one ever taught us to do anything but scavenge
and reproduce? We try to seek out help
but no one will listen to our pleas. We
are forced to live underground. We don't
get all of the fancy domiciles that "they" get. We have no skills. We have nothing.
Destroy! That's the only thing they know how to
do. Well we've had it! I am tracking the people responsible for
wiping us out without a thought. It's
easier to travel at night because we have camouflage for specifically the
darker hours. I'm not the tracker that I
once was, but it started to come back to me.
I can't believe that they would say
time and time again how much we all looked alike. Racist bastards! I can't sit back and take it
anymore. We've lost so many. They have lost no one. What kind of a war is this? How can one side lose thousands upon
thousands and the other side have no casualties at all? The time for reasoning is over. The time for our leaders to come up with a
solution is over. The time for complete
annihilation is here.
The Germans have caused the most damage
because they have infiltrated the very homes of these killers and taken
over. They have destroyed and violated
them to the very core of their existence.
Why can't we be that organized? Even with the Germans helping us, still no
causalities on their end.
I am tracking the army that is
responsible for the latest slaughter. My
only communication is short wave and we can't spare anyone for recon missions
anymore. No one ever comes back. I'm coming back.
I wait patiently as I see where their
leader is going. This is the man that
has the power to destroy us. This is the
man that supplies the chemical weapons and makes sure that we are all exterminated. It's actually rather funny that we survived
the holocaust. The Germans are on our
side.
We always survive. That's what we know how to do despite the
fact that our numbers are frighteningly low.
One man is responsible for the decimation of my faction. It really doesn't seem possible. I see his home. The place where he feels secure. The Germans haven't been here yet. He's ready.
He's always ready.
I work my way to the window and peer
inside. I see his beautiful home. I can see the kitchen from here. Look at all
of the food! That could support my whole
regiment with what I see!
Unbelievable.
This is the man who orchestrated the
obliteration of my team, my friends, my family, my wife. It's my turn now. I'll start with his wife and then him. I position myself at the window where I can
be seen, but not by him. I want his
wife to see me.
It's hard to get her attention without
getting his attention. I know I can
find a way inside. I always do. She is preparing his meal. She is moving back and forth from the window
near me to the kitchen. I am thinking
two, no, three jumps ahead. I
know as soon as she sees me I won't have a lot of time to get inside.
I move back and forth outside the
window for some time trying desperately to get her attention. Then luck smiles upon me as he walks
up to her and I can only assume they are talking. His back is to me and she is facing me. They are only about 20 feet away from
me. It's now or never!
I jump up once and I seemed to have
gotten her attention as I could see her quickly look around him to see
what caught her eye. I jump again and
again. I see her face as she has a look
of horror once she realizes just how close I am to them. She puts her hand over her mouth and he
rushes towards the front door. I make my
break for the front door as well. There are
plenty of places that I could hide in by the front door to allow me a chance to
sneak inside once the door is open.
I hide behind a bush as I see the front
door fly open. He is ready to kill. He has his chemical weapon ready as he runs
over to the window I had just been at moments before. The fool left the door open. It was slowly closing on its own as I make a
mad lunge for it. I didn't want to give
his wife any reason to look towards the front door and I had no idea if she was
waiting at the entrance for his return.
I would have to take that chance.
I knew that if I confronted her, I
would have to take her out of the equation as well.
I dove right in as the door closed
behind me. I looked all around without
moving; wondering if she saw me. I could
see her frantically looking out of the window I was just at. I smiled to myself. I had made it inside the leader's house!
What an accomplishment! An accomplishment that will go
unnoticed. Usually when a soldier makes
this kind of an accomplishment it happens when he's on a suicide mission. I knew that the possibility of me coming back
from this mission was a long-shot. I
know that no one will know how close I came unless I can exterminate the leader
and his wife. Never has so much been on
my back. I could feel the weight of the
world crushing me with this amount of responsibility. It had to be done.
I raced towards the kitchen and hugged
the wall as best I could. I could see
the woman standing at the window looking at her spouse trying to find me. HAHA!
Don't they realize that my kind has been doing this for
generations? If they really knew how
many of us were out there, they would rethink, well, everything!
This is the moment of revenge! This is the time to avenge all of the thousands
of deaths that he is responsible for!
First the woman, so he can watch her die.
I must admit that I am bigger than most
of my kind. I was born for this. It
seemed like everything started going in slow motion from that point
forward. I ran towards the woman just as
I saw her turn around with a look of horror that I will remember the rest of my
days; however many that will be. Just
then he saw me through the window and made a dash for the door to get
back inside! I knew my time was now!
I ran full speed at her as she fell
against the wall, frightened beyond belief at what I am obviously capable of
doing to her, no doubt. Her screams were
music to me as I was so close now.
I never realized they were this
big up close...
SPLAT!!!
The man now stands over his frightened
wife as he helps her to her feet. They
embrace as he moves her away from the scene. The man looks down at his shoe as
he lifts it up and sees the remains of a very squashed and very large
cockroach covering more than half of the bottom of his sole.
"Damned roaches. I must have killed a thousand of those things
just this year alone." He grimaces as he wipes his shoe off with a
tissue he grabbed from one of the end tables.
His wife embraces him again as she
smiles. "If it wasn't for those
'damned roaches', we wouldn't be able to live in our wonderful house. They pay for us to live comfortably."
"Yeah. I guess you're right."
The man smiles as he rubs the back of
his neck. We move out through the front
window and see a van parked in the carport.
It has a magnetic sign on the driver’s side door with a logo of a roach
on its back and the words: Faraday
Exterminators.
We see something under one of the
tires. As we look closer, it appears to
be a roach right by the thickest part of the tread. It appears to be looking towards the
house. As we get closer still, we see
the roach as close as we would dare. The
antennae moving in the direction of the house.
As we get a close up on the mouth, one would easily mistake this look as
a smile.
The war wages on my friend. You think this is over and yet
we are legion. You kill us with your
chemicals and yet we are still everywhere.
You underestimate our numbers. We
will be the last thing you ever see...
The war wages on indeed. As we now see a total bird's eye view of the
street in front of the Exterminator's house. There is movement from tiny
creatures coming from everywhere. Tiny
little bodies coming up from the sewers; out from under Garden Gnomes; out from
holes in rock walls and from every dark spot you can imagine. All converging onto one lone house at the end
of the street.
The age old battle begins anew...Levels by Alan Riehl amazon.com
