Survivors

After their successful first attack, it seemed even harder to say no to Luke. He came up with plan after plan and so it went on with attack after attack. They never took on more than five or six Aliens at a time and all the attacks were meticulously planned.

Luke didn’t exactly stick to his original threat of clearing the mountain. Sometimes they travelled hundreds of miles to attack a base or a small convoy. Luke realised that by dotting the attacks all over the country they were able to keep the Aliens confused about where the assaults were being launched from. They spent so much time camping out, doubling back , covering tracks and moving silently at night that half the time it wasn’t only the Aliens who were confused, Joe often had no real idea where they were or where they were going.

They found that camping was a lot easier with all their animal genes than it had been before. For example, being able to instantly grow a great big shaggy fur coat to keep your skin warm and dry was an absolute godsend. Food was relatively easy to come by as well, they hunted and fished without needing any equipment. If they needed to they could find berries, fruit and vegetables, on very rare occasions they even turned to eating grass to keep their stomachs full. They did their best to avoid the grass because even though they could eat it, it tasted foul and made Joe’s farts smell even worse than normal.

It was strange how quickly the initial fear that they felt on the first raid went away. It didn’t go away altogether, it still gnawed away in the background, but the spine tingling, gut wrenching, brain fogging fear never came back.

About six months after the first attack Holly and Joe were sat huddled together on yet another miserable hillside waiting to launch a strike at yet another Alien convoy.

“Do you get scared like you used to?” asked Holly “Like you did on the first few raids”.

Joe thought for a moment “No, not like I used to”.

“No me neither. I think it’s the animal part of us” she went on.

“Ehh?” replied Joe as intelligent as ever.

“I think it’s like this. Have you seen rabbits in a field. They all sit there eating away, yeah they’re looking around for danger but they don’t seem particularly nervous or worried. Then all of a sudden a fox comes running out of the bushes and grabs one. The rest of the rabbits all shoot off and apart from the fox and a dead bunny the field is left empty”.

“Yeah, so what. Foxes eat rabbits”.

“Yes I know that, but if you went back to the same field an hour or two later what would you find”

“Well a few bits of dead bunny and the rest of his mates all stood around munching grass again”.

“Exactly! I don’t think they feel fear like we do. If they did it would be days and days before they’d go back to the field where their mate had been killed, if they ever went back at all. I mean would you ever want to go back to the base where Bretnel was killed. The exact place!?”.

“God no!”

“But the rabbits do. I know they’re not as clever as us but they should be clever enough to be scared of that field but they’re not. They’re alert and watchful but not scared. I think because we’ve got so many animal genes in us now I think we’re getting more like the rabbits. We react to danger instinctively when it happens rather than worrying and imagining what dangerous things might happen. So until there is that moment of danger, that direct threat, that moment when we see the Aliens we just stay that little bit calmer, and stay that little bit less stressed. Most of the time I just get this sort of hollow feeling”.

“I think you might be right” said Joe nodding. “In the past I would have crapped myself loads of times recently...does that make sense?!”

Holly laughed and smiled at him “Sadly yes, for you it does. It worry about it sometimes though. I worry that us not getting scared is a sign that somehow we’re becoming something slightly less than human”

“So you’re worried about not being worried” said Joe bemused.

Holly laughed again and then rested her head on Joe’s shoulder. He put his arm around her. They had sat this way on many times in the last few months. Occasionally they kissed, soft gentle kisses that were comforting and reassuring rather than passionate or in any way sexy. The way they kissed pretty much summed up what had happened to their relationship. They were two people who were clinging to each other for some sort of a loving emotional connection and the perhaps promise of something better in the future.

Luke’s voice snapped through the silence “Oi, lovebirds! I hope you’re keeping a good lookout”. He grinned at them from across the makeshift camp. There was definitely more than a hint of maliciousness in his face.

“We’re fine” said Joe, hastily removing his arm from around Holly’s shoulders. He still got really embarrassed whenever Luke witnessed one of his and Holly’s little shows of affection. Holly frowned at Joe and looked as if she was about to protest, but instead she stood up and said, somewhat huffily “Are we going then?”

“Ready when you are” replied Luke, he was grinning even more now because he knew he’s annoyed her. “Are you clear on the plan?”

“Of course I’m clear” she snapped.

“Good” said Luke, “Because you were a bit slow coming in last time. I thought you might have been hiding like a scared little bunny” and before Holly could respond he wandered off chuckling to himself.

“He was listening, how the hell!!” Stormed Joe.

“Oh Joe!” Sighed Holly exasperated. “He just used rabbit ears, or something like that”.

“Oh yeah”

“It’s ironic really” said Holly “The three of us are completely alone from any other human beings, but we can never really be alone from each other”.

“What? ... I don’t get it”

“Oh Joe you can be so thick sometimes” said Holly smiling sadly and stroking his arm. “Come on let’s get going. The sooner we get this over and done with the sooner we can go h...”. Holly never finished the sentence. It was like she couldn’t bring herself to say home, but what other words were there.