Microfiction #11 — Heading Home
“We just need to get home! Mum and Dad might be ok still.” It’s all I can say to my brother after our car was t-boned by a sedan. Other than a few scratches, we are fine. The same can’t be said of the other driver, whose lifeless body is on top of our hood, missing part of his head.
“But, how are we gonna get there? I mean, where are we right now anyway?!”
I can see our local school in the distance. Just a few more blocks now. We’ll make it.
“Come on, this way!” Little bro diligently follows me and we are off on foot.
This plague is very different from anything else we experienced prior. Forget about death and sickness. This time madness is contagious, and society collapsed so fast there is no fighting back.
Delusions, and hallucinations spread like wildfire. All with one goal in mind: killing everything and everyone. Sentient or not, life is a threat and the goal is to have it exterminated. We heard reports of radioactive waste and pollutants being dumped in the ocean, and poisonous chlorine gas clouds being mass produced to exterminate all animals on land.
With so little hope, I want to make sure that at least we will have a place to wait for the inevitable in peace. I had such fond memories of our house, and I’m sure little bro is looking forward to being there as well.
The path to our house is fairly clear, with only a few deranged men and women slaughtering each other with such fierceness they don’t even notice us.
We finally then get to our place, and it’s looking surprisingly similar to what I remembered. Or maybe I want so bad to get here that my memory is betraying me for my own sake. Regardless, I’m happy to have survived thus far.
Little bro sprints inside before I can say anything and my heart sinks. Who knew who or what would be there? I kept the hope that Mum and Dad could be alive this whole journey, but I always knew it was a small chance.
I run inside and my fears are confirmed. In the kitchen, the dilacerated body of my parents lie on the floor. My brother is crying in a corner as another couple stares at me with blood on their hands and a grin on their face.
I take a knife from the counter and stab repeatedly both of them in an angry frenzy. Once I’m finished, I can hear the woman utter under her breath one final plea.
“Josh… little one…”
Mum used to call me “little one”. Oh no.
One blink and I see what I did. I was so careful, though. I managed to protect little bro from everything. We made sure every night we didn’t have any cuts, gashes, nothing that could let the plague in. The two of us went through thick and thin. Josh and… Josh and…
Behind me the figure crying the corner stands up, turns to me with red bloodshot eyes and stares.
“You got me, Joshy. Took you long enough anyway.”
“I… I was so care — ”
“Yeah yeah. But you weren’t really. Thank you, though. It was really fun tagging along this whole time. Keeping your hopes up gave me so much joy.” The figure’s grimace was getting larger and larger, with its face starting to deform to fit such a menacing, diabolical smile.
“But, the reports… I should’ve died right away. Why wasn’t I killing more people? Am I in charge of what’s going on?”
“I love this part. The confusion, the desolation, the defeated look on your face. The reports also came from me, Joshy. I made them up. And you bought it. Truth is we don’t want to get rid of you as soon as possible. We know we won, and you can’t do anything about it, so we’re having our fun.”
“It’s… evil… it’s — ”
“I don’t care what you think. You opinion is as important to me as the one coming from the smartest mouse in the retched planet. All you need to know is that there is no hope and you can’t win and you killed your parents. And now you’ll kill yourself as well.”
“Why — ”
“Because you’re done. Save yourself the suffering of existing and be done with it. I had things to do. Terraforming an entire planet is a big endeavour, you know? Come on. Stop wasting my time. Come on. Do it. Do — ”
I slice my throat and die. They won and I’m glad it’s over.
