The Sickness
Yellow residue oozed from the cracks in the earth and pooled into oily puddles. I hopped from foot to foot, avoiding the puddles that reminded me of an infected wound. Heavy clouds of radiated dust hung low in the horizon, darkening the orange sunset sky. I made my way back to the Sanctuary, carrying a rope with three misshapen rabbits dangling by my side. I killed them with a crowbar, out past the skeleton city. It was a mother with two babies. I wondered how she managed to have babies in a wasteland like this.
Nobody else from the Sanctuary comes out this far, past the empty, disintegrating city and into the open wasteland. They think I come out here for the rabbits, which is partly true. But the real truth is, I want to know what else is out there. It can’t all be abandoned, like Jadyha says. I walked slowly through the city, past the dead remains of cars that littered the streets. It was quiet, and a hollow wind whipped around the empty frames of buildings.
Suddenly, I heard a noise from deep inside the city. By instinct, I took a fighting stance, my feet apart and my body tight. I slammed my crowbar against the metal frame of the car next to me, making a thunderous noise to scare off whatever malformed, half-starved animal was out there. Sometimes they get frightened by the noise. But sometimes they attack because they’re mutant and rabid and hungry. Luckily I got a good arm and my aim is always spot on. Haven’t missed a shot yet. If I did, I’d be dead.
But the noise stopped, and the city fell into an unnatural stillness. I waited for a moment, listening to the wind and creaking hunks of metal, when then the noise started up again, a soft, metallic clicking noise. It didn’t sound like an animal at all. The noise echoed through the city, and my heart beat faster. I knew Jadyha was wrong, I knew there was something else out there. I crouched low, careful not to step on broken glass or pools of sticky black tar as I moved through the city, following the sound. I ducked around the steel frames of buildings, slowly making my way closer to the large concrete wall where the noise was coming from. Whatever it was, it was behind the wall. I took a deep breath, pushed off with my feet and burst around the other side of the wall, only to find myself standing face to face with a huge, misshapen creature in an orange suit.
The shock knocked me on my back, breathless and terrified. The creature loomed over me while I gasped for air. A black plate covered its face, and two black circles jutted out from its jaw, like sawed off tusks. I lay there in the dirt, frozen like a petrified rabbit. And those are the rabbits that get killed first.
The creature extended its black gloved hand towards me, and I backed away frantically. Questions raced through my mind, piling up on top of each other so I could barely think. Where had I seen that suit before?
“Gree-ttings,” said the creature in a gritty, mechanical voice. It surprised me, hearing it speak. Only the elders said things like “greetings.” I stared at it, trying to make sense of its unnatural shape and strangely familiar orange suit.
“There is a translation device in my mouth. It has knowledge of 100 dialects; do not be afraid to speak, for I can understand your words,” the creature said, standing over me.
“You should update your device then, because no one talks like that anymore,” I said, brushing the dirt from my hands. I found it kind of funny, that it didn’t know it was speaking all fancy, like the elders at rituals.
“What is your calling?” It asked. My calling?
“Um, hunting rabbits, I guess?” I said.
“Hunt-ing Rabbits, I am pleasured to make acquaintance with you,” it held out its gloved hand again, which I just eyed suspiciously.
“Yeah yeah, nice to meet you too, Orange Suited Alien,” I said, standing up.
“Al-ien?” The metallic voice rung, sounding confused.
“You know, like stranger? You’re wearing an orange suit and gas mask with a faulty translation device. You’re clearly not from around here,” I looked around at where I was and my breath caught in my throat. In front of me was an enormous ship, gleaming in the sunset, and in the creature’s hand was a long metal device, making the grainy clicking noise. Where did this thing come from? What was it doing here?
“I am a part of the Research Transportation Object, conducting research on...the...scenery,” the metallic voice warbled.
“Scenery?”
“There is no direct translation.”
“What kind of tests are you doing?” I asked, approaching the ship. Scrawled across the metal were bizarre symbols, a language I could not understand.
“We are testing for plant life. Where is your tribal unit?” It asked, following close behind me. I laughed, what kind of tests would they want to run here? Everything was dead, radioactive, or mutated. Not the place to come vacation.
“Where are you from?” I asked, trying to memorize the way the markings looked on the ship. Maybe I could recreate them at home and Jadyha could decipher them.
“Earth.”
My heart stopped and I froze, my whole body suddenly ice cold. Earth was a word I hadn’t heard in a long time. Not since the sickness. Not since the humans from Earth brought destruction to our planet. Not since they built up the glass cities, filled them with humans, and then unleashed a disease that made everything on the planet die. When everything started dying, the humans left. My hands shook and bile rose in my stomach. I knew why I’d recognized the orange suit; I’d seen it in the videos Jadyha showed us about our planet’s history. Suddenly, the tests this creature was running made perfect sense. They’re testing for plant life, for life on the planet. So they can come back. Because the humans lost their planet centuries ago, and have been trying to find a new home ever since.
A shadow move across the the ship and I turned as the creature lurched towards me, grabbing my arm. I thrashed as hard as I could, realizing my crowbar was still lying in the dirt where I fell. I yanked my arm free and threw myself towards it, but the creature caught my leg and started to drag me towards the ship. I panicked, kicking my legs furiously and scrambling through the dirt for my crowbar. My fingers grazed the metal, but I couldn’t clasp my hand around it. I kicked with all the muscle of my legs, strong from years of hunting, and pushed myself close enough to make contact. As soon as my fingers touched my crowbar, I flipped on to my back to face the creature and swung my arm towards its mask. My crowbar connected with its face plate, and for a moment, everything was still, and all I could hear was the tinkling sound of the glass splitting. The creature stumbled back, a low hissing noise escaping from its mask. After a few moments, it collapsed to the ground, unmoving. Like a dead rabbit.
My entire body shook and I choked, feeling sick. But I knew I was in danger.
The human invaders have returned to Mars, with their death and destruction and metal clicking devices. I tied the three dead rabbits around my waist and started to run, my webbed feet digging in to the red earth. I wasn’t going to end up like them.