Over.
Just as we evolved and at some stage there was only one Neanderthal left, we in turn will be replaced and one day there will only be one human left.
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper
T.S. Elliot
He was the last human on Earth and he currently was huddled in a cave upon the side of the mountain. He was just about to drop into an uneasy sleep. Suddenly from the darkness came a laugh.
Alerted, he ran over the options in his head- flee, fight or hide. He chose to hide in depths of the cavern. He scurried to the back of the cave and buried himself beneath a grey blanket and stayed statue still. There were two silently intruding figures. Kyle knew that the only noises these creatures made were emotional noises, laughter or screams.
This was going to be a long night. It was Kyle’s will and infinite patience that had earned him the honour of being the last human on Earth.
Kyle lived in the dark, not only in its physical form but also metaphorically speaking. He had not communicated with another being in over twelve years, no new ideas, no new information- an intense darkness indeed.
His mother was the only other human face he had ever seen. When Kyle was young they lived hidden in a dense thicket. His mother told him of humans and how they had once ruled the world. The small and scraggy youth listened with intent and spun the grand steel cities she spoke of inside his mind.
His mother spent her days gathering fruits. nuts and seeds while he hunted. Once after a particularly harsh Russian winter, Kyle went out to hunt small game. He clawed at the frozen earth untill he made a hole deep enough to trap a rabbit or fox. He then covered it over and waited. Hours later he heard his trap triggered. With a hungry belly, he sprinted to the pit. Kyle looked down and spotted a white rabbit. The animal turned this way and that, its eyes wide, its breath quick. Watching in fascination, finally the hunter could take no more and with tears blurring his vision, he climbed down into the hole.
He picked up the tense muscular form of the animal and lifted it out of the confining pit. The lad watched the rabbit bound away into the snow blanketed night. Kyle's belly screamed but his heart sang. There would be other rabbits and other meals, in that moment there was only the joy of a gifted freedom. When he returned to the thicket he told his mother what he had done, he hoped that she would understand. She did.
His mother spent hours teaching her son all she knew. Education was a laboured affair as it relied on verbal words and there were not many human words left. In the night she would hold him close and those moments were golden. The child dreamed sweet visions whilst enfolded in her loving strong arms.
The pair stayed clear of The Shining Ones, not because they were cruel but because they were unknowable and therefore inherently dangerous. One day The Shining Ones closed in on the two outcasts. Kyle's mother roughly shoved him while telling him to escape and never, ever, look back. He fled in a blind and desperate panic.
His mother’s face was the last human he ever saw. They had trapped his mother just as the rabbit had been ensnared. Kyle was determined to evade capture at any cost.. It was the only victory that could be hoped for.
Here in this cave as he watched The Shining Ones edging toward him, he clung on to life with the same ragged determination that had enabled his survival thus far. Fear clawed him, racking his nerves with steel claws.
The Shining Ones alerted by the peak in Kyle's emotional state came inside the cave. Their nasal crevices quivered, their eyes were unsheathed- these ones were on the hunt and human was the prey.
The hunters silently made their way through the inky blackness moving with a co-ordinated grace, the two of them knew the movements of the other. They were waiting for Kyle to reveal himself and he was waiting for them to grow complacent. Time ticked on in the silent rock cavern. He used the time to run over the demise of human kind in his head, playing it like a silent animation.
The end of humanity had been a lingering whimpering affair of surrendered territory, loss of water systems and food producing earth. The creatures were not vicious, they simply bred faster than humans, had a dominate gene codes and were a great deal smarter.
The arrival of The Shining Ones was probably thousands of years in the making. Gradually they appeared amongst humans, just as slowly humans had vanished. Kyle was of the blood of the Cossack and his forefathers had lived on the Russian Steppes, isolated.
When aspects of the Shining Ones appeared in the babies, thousands of years ago, the Cossacks killed the mutated infants. In time however there were so many Shining babies that the survival of the tribe began to depend on keeping them alive. Kyle was the last baby born who had all human features, by this time it was he who was considered the mutant.
In their own way the creatures were lovely, their skin was reflective and they glittered in the sun earning them the name The Shining Ones.Undoubtedly they had another name for themselves, who could know when their language was all telepathic. Their adaptions allowed them to flourish on the new Earth which was a drenched, bleached canvas lit by an ever brightening sun.
Suddenly a movement erupted in the silence bringing his attention to the present. Kyle identified the sound immediately, a rat. Normally such a sound meant one thing- dinner. Right now, in this moment, it was a threat.
The rat scurried to the left toward The Shining Ones but then changed track and headed straight for the hidden human. The Shining Ones followed the rat. The damn thing was working like a blood hound for them. They were controlling the animal with their mind.
Urgency consumed him and he wanted to run. There was nowhere to go. Staying still had killed him. He picked up a knife ready to engage in a futile fight. The Shining Ones were closer now.
Kyle’s grip on the knife tightened. Suddenly a burst of light and a high pitched noise erupted inside his cranium and echoed through out his brain. He grabbed the sides of his head. Kyle pushed his eyes closed trying to shut out the agony. It was too late, they had him. Unconsciousness eased the pain.
The human awoke, he found himself trapped behind a wall of glass. Around him were plastic rocks and silk grass with a waterfall trickling from a pipe on the wall. He was disorientated, touching and smelling everything in this new environment.
He ran his hands of the smooth glass walls trying to find a crack. Kyle picked up a plastic rock and threw it against the enclosure as hard as he could. His efforts were to no avail, he was trapped.
Kyle heard that sound again, the laugh of the Shining Ones- only this time there were many of them. He looked up and saw a ring of faces looking down from a platform above the glass case.
Each one had large oblong eyes, nasal cavities where a nose should have been and infinitesimally small mouths and no ears to speak of. They were looking down on him, smiling and pointing. The truth was understood, he was entertaining them. They were amused by his antics.
Kyle, the last human, the ancestor of The Shining Ones, was an exhibit and an entertainment. This was the last chapter of the once great Homo-sapiens’ civilization, soon enough the book would close altogether.
Please click Home to check out some more great features of this site!
By A. Sims
Just as we evolved and at some stage there was only one Neanderthal left, we in turn will be replaced and one day there will only be one human left.
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper
T.S. Elliot
He was the last human on Earth and he currently was huddled in a cave upon the side of the mountain. He was just about to drop into an uneasy sleep. Suddenly from the darkness came a laugh.
Alerted, he ran over the options in his head- flee, fight or hide. He chose to hide in depths of the cavern. He scurried to the back of the cave and buried himself beneath a grey blanket and stayed statue still. There were two silently intruding figures. Kyle knew that the only noises these creatures made were emotional noises, laughter or screams.
This was going to be a long night. It was Kyle’s will and infinite patience that had earned him the honour of being the last human on Earth.
Kyle lived in the dark, not only in its physical form but also metaphorically speaking. He had not communicated with another being in over twelve years, no new ideas, no new information- an intense darkness indeed.
His mother was the only other human face he had ever seen. When Kyle was young they lived hidden in a dense thicket. His mother told him of humans and how they had once ruled the world. The small and scraggy youth listened with intent and spun the grand steel cities she spoke of inside his mind.
His mother spent her days gathering fruits. nuts and seeds while he hunted. Once after a particularly harsh Russian winter, Kyle went out to hunt small game. He clawed at the frozen earth untill he made a hole deep enough to trap a rabbit or fox. He then covered it over and waited. Hours later he heard his trap triggered. With a hungry belly, he sprinted to the pit. Kyle looked down and spotted a white rabbit. The animal turned this way and that, its eyes wide, its breath quick. Watching in fascination, finally the hunter could take no more and with tears blurring his vision, he climbed down into the hole.
He picked up the tense muscular form of the animal and lifted it out of the confining pit. The lad watched the rabbit bound away into the snow blanketed night. Kyle's belly screamed but his heart sang. There would be other rabbits and other meals, in that moment there was only the joy of a gifted freedom. When he returned to the thicket he told his mother what he had done, he hoped that she would understand. She did.
His mother spent hours teaching her son all she knew. Education was a laboured affair as it relied on verbal words and there were not many human words left. In the night she would hold him close and those moments were golden. The child dreamed sweet visions whilst enfolded in her loving strong arms.
The pair stayed clear of The Shining Ones, not because they were cruel but because they were unknowable and therefore inherently dangerous. One day The Shining Ones closed in on the two outcasts. Kyle's mother roughly shoved him while telling him to escape and never, ever, look back. He fled in a blind and desperate panic.
His mother’s face was the last human he ever saw. They had trapped his mother just as the rabbit had been ensnared. Kyle was determined to evade capture at any cost.. It was the only victory that could be hoped for.
Here in this cave as he watched The Shining Ones edging toward him, he clung on to life with the same ragged determination that had enabled his survival thus far. Fear clawed him, racking his nerves with steel claws.
The Shining Ones alerted by the peak in Kyle's emotional state came inside the cave. Their nasal crevices quivered, their eyes were unsheathed- these ones were on the hunt and human was the prey.
The hunters silently made their way through the inky blackness moving with a co-ordinated grace, the two of them knew the movements of the other. They were waiting for Kyle to reveal himself and he was waiting for them to grow complacent. Time ticked on in the silent rock cavern. He used the time to run over the demise of human kind in his head, playing it like a silent animation.
The end of humanity had been a lingering whimpering affair of surrendered territory, loss of water systems and food producing earth. The creatures were not vicious, they simply bred faster than humans, had a dominate gene codes and were a great deal smarter.
The arrival of The Shining Ones was probably thousands of years in the making. Gradually they appeared amongst humans, just as slowly humans had vanished. Kyle was of the blood of the Cossack and his forefathers had lived on the Russian Steppes, isolated.
When aspects of the Shining Ones appeared in the babies, thousands of years ago, the Cossacks killed the mutated infants. In time however there were so many Shining babies that the survival of the tribe began to depend on keeping them alive. Kyle was the last baby born who had all human features, by this time it was he who was considered the mutant.
In their own way the creatures were lovely, their skin was reflective and they glittered in the sun earning them the name The Shining Ones.Undoubtedly they had another name for themselves, who could know when their language was all telepathic. Their adaptions allowed them to flourish on the new Earth which was a drenched, bleached canvas lit by an ever brightening sun.
Suddenly a movement erupted in the silence bringing his attention to the present. Kyle identified the sound immediately, a rat. Normally such a sound meant one thing- dinner. Right now, in this moment, it was a threat.
The rat scurried to the left toward The Shining Ones but then changed track and headed straight for the hidden human. The Shining Ones followed the rat. The damn thing was working like a blood hound for them. They were controlling the animal with their mind.
Urgency consumed him and he wanted to run. There was nowhere to go. Staying still had killed him. He picked up a knife ready to engage in a futile fight. The Shining Ones were closer now.
Kyle’s grip on the knife tightened. Suddenly a burst of light and a high pitched noise erupted inside his cranium and echoed through out his brain. He grabbed the sides of his head. Kyle pushed his eyes closed trying to shut out the agony. It was too late, they had him. Unconsciousness eased the pain.
The human awoke, he found himself trapped behind a wall of glass. Around him were plastic rocks and silk grass with a waterfall trickling from a pipe on the wall. He was disorientated, touching and smelling everything in this new environment.
He ran his hands of the smooth glass walls trying to find a crack. Kyle picked up a plastic rock and threw it against the enclosure as hard as he could. His efforts were to no avail, he was trapped.
Kyle heard that sound again, the laugh of the Shining Ones- only this time there were many of them. He looked up and saw a ring of faces looking down from a platform above the glass case.
Each one had large oblong eyes, nasal cavities where a nose should have been and infinitesimally small mouths and no ears to speak of. They were looking down on him, smiling and pointing. The truth was understood, he was entertaining them. They were amused by his antics.
Kyle, the last human, the ancestor of The Shining Ones, was an exhibit and an entertainment. This was the last chapter of the once great Homo-sapiens’ civilization, soon enough the book would close altogether.
Please click Home to check out some more great features of this site!
By A. Sims
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