The Faceless

The seasons are changing; the temperature rapidly declining. I am scared but I would never admit so. I am lonely although my heart has never yearned for companionship before.

My mission was simple: to find a living man, another creature of intelligence and love and creativity and the capacity to understand. The other mission was to end my suffering although I realize that perhaps they are both one and the same.

My group was slaughtered some time ago. Time had become abstract, minutes were days and days were seconds. It all became a scope of complexity, a sort of complexity I was not prepared to solve. Perhaps it was my thirst for adventure or the stubborn refusal to admit reality but I have continued - I will survive.

I’ve marched through wastelands and tundra. The Earth has been destroyed, ravaged by the cruelness of humanity. The life force was sucked from beneath the flesh of the colossal sphere in which so many fragile life forms had once called home. The hospitable habitats have become a wild, vicious organism. It truly is the definition of misery.

Three days ago, I happened upon the ruins of a city. Whispers of death were not forgotten here, the blood still red on the walls. Monolithic ruins littered narrow streets, their steel skeletons ripped apart by great winds and fire. Empty towers soared above broken cement sidewalks giving the feeling of a haunted, dilapidated ghost of its former self. Humans had long ago fled this place of sorrow.

Last night was the first snowfall of the season. I found a neat house and settled there quite comfortably. At last the roars of weather had died down enough to allow the cheerful songs of birds to ring throughout the cityscape. I was tired and hunger beckoned me to the outside world.

I looked to the back of the house, securing my area. I heard movement and I held my breath. The clocks were surely cursing me for I sat there, stalking in my own predatory way. A twig snapped and I heard heavy feet on the crunch of the snow. Dinner.

The sound stopped and the cityscape was a harsh quiet once again. Turning the corner of the house, in search of my next meal, I noticed the imprint of human footsteps fresh on the packed snow. They started from the side entrance of the house and continued down the street, weaving through the urban rubble
.
Immediately, I ran. Following the footsteps: down the street, under collapsed buildings, around corners, through intersections, over the hill we go.

The footsteps stopped. I was desperately trying to catch my breath. I stood before the stained green of an underground railway station. 6 Train Uptown was still written in bold, black letters.

I continued cautiously down the steps.

Echoes of a foreign speech were a mere whisper in the darkness of the railway platform. I could neither make out words nor a language; it was a low monotonous tone that bore neither syllables nor articulation.

I walked closer. Yellow light from a small fire silhouetted two dark exaggerated forms upon the wall.

“I saw it, that creature…” the voice was near, hushed and frantic to his companion.

“Was it human?” a feminine sob obliterated the hushed tone of the male.

I turned the corner to face them, my heart a wild animal in my chest. I did not know how this would unravel but nothing great is done without fear. My eyes caught the sight of their fragile, delicate, ape-like faces… the eyes wide in a nauseous fear and disgust, their wet mouths turned down in a vicious frown. The words tumbled out like a rehearsed speech, each syllable greatly emphasized, each word painstakingly labored.

“Hello, friends. I greet you from the planet Nibiru. I do not wish to frighten you; I do not wish to harm you. My mission is to return the lost citizens of Earth to a sentient society. My clan has failed, hopefully I have not.”