I.
The hare munches comfortably on a small patch of desert grass as he savours the sweet, dry twilight air. The hare casts a surveying glance around at his darkening surroundings, searching for a hungry predator, although some ancient ingrained knowledge tells him that he is alone. The hare examines the wide-open expanse of desert, bare except for 2 or 3 lonely cacti. He takes in the cliffs to the south and the glimmer of the town to the east, then draws a breath and moves on in search of more delicious grass.
A sharp crack in the sky draws the hare’s attention. The hare looks up at the darkening sky, nose twitching, beady eyes searching, and spots a streak of light moving across the night. The hare, captivated by its glaring radiance, tracks its movement across the sky. The object is rushing quickly to meet the ground. As it gains in speed the speck of light grows in size and brightness, now no longer just a small outline. The object is showcasing its size and is giving off a powerful light that gives the cacti long daunting shadows that seem to try and escape from the physical bodies they are attached to. The light is now too bright to look at and the hare must turn its head away.
The hare hears the object slam into the earth, feels the earth tremble and sees the light extinguish and the shadows retreat back to their owners. Once again feeling safe the hare looks to the west of the cliffs and sees the crash. The hare thinks of venturing over but at the sight of the small pyre on the horizon the ancient knowledge chimes in to dissuade him of the idea.
No longer interested, the hare resume his search for sustenance, but at that exact moment a hawk swoops down and takes advantage of the preoccupied hare. Its neck is broken swiftly and the hare has no time for regrets. Life goes on in the desert and even now an old evil in blowing towards the little town.
II.
Running. The desert. Tears in his eyes, heart pounding in his ears. Running. Always running.
Jake sits bolt upright in bed, breathing deeply.
Running
Heart pounding.
Crying
He sits in his bed letting his eyes adjust to the predawn darkness of his room. He can feel the dream fading away already. He doesn’t know what he was running from or where he was running to, just that he was running. He glances quickly at the clock and sees the time, 5 minutes before his alarm. He laughs internally, “isn’t that always the way” he whispers. With a shake of his head his gets out of bed, his dream already forgotten.
He showers quickly and gets ready for school, by the time he’s ready for school the sky is already streaked with pink, red and orange. He walks through his house towards the kitchen, no beer bottles on the floor now, his dad is home. He loves when his dad is home; his mom cleans up and stops drinking. She also stops hitting him. He reaches the kitchen and is greeted by the smiling faces of his parents. He dad looks up from his paper, “Morning Kiddo.”
“Morning dad.” He says with a smile. If anyone else were to call him “kiddo” he would hate it, but his dad can say it in a way that doesn’t make him seem like just another 10 year old kid. He eats with his parents, the first meal together in over a month, and then starts the walk to school.
Jake loves his daily walk to school, he doesn’t mind have to walk almost 2 miles across the town, it’s his time to think. He leaves the low class part of the small town, where he lives, and starts walking along the main street. He passes The De Pass bakery and can already smell the delicious goods cooking, he walks past Ken’s Grocery and the town barber shop, already with its senior patrons chatting in their chairs. He waves to people as he walks and in no time is at the school.
Jake goes in through the front doors and heads to his locker, picks up his books and heads to class. Upon entering the class, he says good morning to his teacher, Mrs. Beatty, and takes his seat, already anxious to get home and see his dad.
The day crawls by but eventually finishes and Jake excitedly begins the walk home. On the way home he thinks about his dad and how much better life around home is when he’s there. Jake loves his mom but hates her drinking habit and everything that comes along with it. He assumes that she started drinking because she couldn’t handle the times that Jake’s dad spends away at the oil fields where he works, but now that he’s home she won’t go near a bottle.
Immersed in thought Jake nears his home. He walks up the stairs quietly, and when he reaches the thin screen door he can hear his parents whispering and giggling quietly. Jake smiles, backs away from the door and extends his walk, maybe another lap or two around the neighbourhood, he thinks. He walks down the wooden steps and onto the street, and at no point does he notice the footprints under his parent’s window sill. That night they have a great dinner and there are smiles and laughter aplenty.
III.
When Jake awakes the next morning and walks into the kitchen it is only his mother who greets him. They chat for a little while then Jake heads to school. On the way to school Jake considers his father’s absence from breakfast but ultimately dismisses it under the grounds of being tired. Jake passes through town and once again smells the baked goods and sees the grocery but today the barber shop is closed. He walks the rest of the way to school and heads to his class. Jake again wishes Mrs. Beatty good morning but when he turns around he sees a couple empty seats and wonders if there is something going around.
That night when he gets home from school his father is distant and absent. He doesn’t talk much and shows no emotion at any of the conversation. That night there are no smiles and laughs and Jake goes to bed sadder than he has even been when his dad is home.
The next morning his dad is in the kitchen but his mood remains the same as it was last night. When he goes to say goodbye to his mother she jumps and he sees a fear in her eyes, the same fear that he imagines a caged animal would have. She tells him to have a good day then hurries him out the door. He walks through the town again and although the barber shop is open and its elderly occupants are back, the grocery and the De Pass bakery and closed. He has smelled the sweet smell of baked goods every day since he started school and for some reason the lack of the smell makes him scared and makes him want to cry. He pushes it away and heads to school.
When he gets to his class he sees that more kids are missing than the day before, yet all the ones who were missing yesterday are back in their seats. Jack sits and opens his book aware of the heavy silence in the classroom. Mrs. Beatty’s eyes are jumpy today and her speech seems uncharacteristically choppy and when Jake looks around his class he sees his all his classmates who haven’t been away shifting nervously in their seats and the others staring silently up at Mrs. Beatty, not blinking or moving at all. When the final bell rings Jake leaves quickly only when he is back on the road home does he take a breath.
Jake trudges home and with each step hopes that his father will be smiling when he opens the door and that they can be a normal family again tonight. As Jake nears his house he feels bitter tears welling in his eyes, he wills them away but to no avail, he cries for the first time since his mother started to beat him in her drunken rages. He bites his lip, tastes blood and keeps biting. Finally he gets himself under control; he walks up his stairs, takes a breath, opens the door and enters his house.
IV.
The first thing he notices upon entering his house is that there seems to be a smell. The air seems to carry it. It’s a pungent aroma that he has never smelt in his life. It is heavy like a presence and he thinks that he can almost hold it in his hands. He walks in through his house and sees his mums sitting at the kitchen table, head in her hands, she is the picture of exhaustion. Jake walks over to his mom, not taking any great pains to be silent, and nudges her on the shoulder.
“Mom?”
Her head whips around with viper’s speed and he sees her eyes wide open and bloodshot, although there is no alcohol in them. She stares at him blankly for a second and Jake sees her consciously regain her bearing. She lets out a whimper then stands and asks Jake how his day was. Her voice quivers as she does so and her eyes keep darting to the closed door of her bedroom. Jake talks to her until the knob on the bedroom door twists and the door swings inwards. The fear on his mothers face is suddenly magnified tenfold she looks at her son quickly and quietly says, “Quickly! Go take out the garbage Jake.”
Jake is scared but does as he is told; he picks up the bag and heads outside. He takes the bag to the garbage can, it is easy work seeing as it is half empty. He lifts the lid and is instantly struck by the most horrible smell of his life. Jake holds back the urge to vomit and looks into the can for the source of the smell. He sees no dead animals, which was his first guess, but keeps looking. As he touches the top bag in the can it rips and the smell pours out in nauseating waves. Jakes doubles back and breaths in the fresh night time air, he is disgusted by the smell but when the bag ripped he wasn’t sure what he saw. He heads back over to the can, with his shirt pulled over his mouth and nose, and looks in.
At first his brain can’t comprehend what he is looking at, and then the shocking realization takes hold and hits him like a train. The urge to vomit takes hold and he finally throws up beside the can. He is crying now and taking in huge sobbing gulps of air. The image is still burned into his mind. Jake sits on the ground and cries and cries and cries. All he can see is his beloved father’s face staring up at him through the hole in the bag. A second later he faints.
He doesn’t know when he wakes up but then sky is almost completely dark when he does. His face is dry but the desert dust has stuck to the trails that the tears made down his face. He remembers why he is lying on the ground and this makes him want to puke and cry all over again but just before he does he hears a shriek. A shriek from his house. From a voice he knows. It’s his mom. Jake picks himself up and runs up the stairs and into the house. He runs through the kitchen and pulls a knife from the block. There is only one thing on his mind now.
He reaches his parents’ bedroom door and runs into it at full speed. The door crashes inwards and Jake can see the thing
His Dad
crouched over his mother. Its whirls at the sound of the door but not fast enough because as soon as it turns Jake plunges the knife deep into the things chest
his dad
and pushes as hard as he can
his dad’s chest
the thing screams an inhuman, almost animal scream and Jakes pushes harder. Jake pulls the long knife out and, sees the blood mixed with steel, grips it in both hands and rams it as hard as he can into its head. The thing’s shape starts to waver before Jake’s eyes. The wavering grows more and more violent until it isn’t even the shape of a man, then it stops, and lying in the floor is a reptilian thing with slitted, yellow eyes and scaly, green skin. Jake faints again and as his world turns from grey to black he hears his mom shouting his name.
V.
Now they’re on the run. They know that the rest of the “Lizards” will try to find them, they know that most of the town has been impersonated by them and they know that they must keep going. They walk across the desert, a boy and a woman. They have few possessions and many memories, so they run. They talk little and the boy will never smile again, but they run. They hope they can find someone to tell, someone who will believe them, the hope and they run. For the fate of the world and humanity they run.
They run.
VI.
Perched on a telephone wire a hawk, who recently had a good share of rabbit, sits and waits. If he could understand television he would see the president of America giving a broadcast and if the hawk continued to watch he would see, just before the broadcast went to commercial, that the president’s eyes switched from blue to yellow.
