The Blankets

When I landed my time machine in this new age and place I began to make sure the machine was placed in a safe landing spot. I had materialized in a small area of shrubbery and I pulled leafs and branches over it until I was sure that it would not be found and stolen again. I then began to take an interest in what I was wearing, my attire was such that it would stand out anywhere but the Victorian age and since I had apparently landed in the far distant future, the year 1003457 to be exact I was sure people would notice me.

To my far right I could see the paved outline of a road that ran along the bushy area and I decided that I would go out and see what had become of humanity. It took me some time to compose myself and now I stood there hearing the sounds of human feet upon paved bricks walk towards me, and I saw what had become of our race in the distance. They were not wearing much of anything to be honest with you, they were almost my height, they had thick hides for skin and I could see they were thicker than mine, and they had round faces that leapt out at you, the way the eyes of a dolphin might cry out at you when you see them in captivity. They were not speaking English, there cloths were made of some sort of fabric that reminded me in a way of the kind that twenty first century hospital gowns were made out of and that seemed to be all they had on. The females seemed to have precious little that distinguished them from the males other than the females were shorter and had a slightly more inclined upper chest. The color of the skin was something else of interest, the skin was clad in white pale blotches along the arms. There were four males and one female amongst the group and I smiled with my outstretched hand to say "Hello old chaps, I say my name is Herbert."

Rather than extend some welcome to me they looked to each other on the paved road and they looked at each other and began to converse in there strange alien language. As they talked I noticed the atmosphere of the planet, the cool and moderate climate. I looked up at the sky and noticed that the look of the place was as if the sun was setting, it was like that time of day back on my Earth, the cool breeze and the stars in the heavens overhead, but in the distance like a football on the horizon I could make out the sun that had grown small over the years. I felt the quaint little creatures pulling and tugging on my shirt saying one word over and over, "Mdel" as they said this each pointed at me. I began to wondering if I could be this Mdel word that they were saying over and over.

"I don't understand, my name is H.G Wells, the writer, do you understand what I mean? Do you ever read anything at all? Do you have books of any kinds?" I looked down at the hands and realized they only had three fingers on each hand. "Who are you good people?" I asked as I looked at the odd eyes and noticed how they veered away from me similar to the way a deer might veer away from a new person that it has never encountered before.

"Lanks" they began saying to me and pointing to themselves. "Ee Lanks, U Mdel." I shook my head, this was unrealistic and unbelievable. I looked down the paved road that they had come from and then looked back in the direction that they were walking down.

"Where are you going?" I asked and then they all began pointing down the path towards some location where smoke was billowing out of a valley like indentation in the Earth. How had the Earth managed to survive all these years with the sun dying and the planet moving away? I assumed this is what must have happened because how else could the humans have changed, and this change must have happened in order to suit the environment they were open to.

Each Lank began to shiver and shake as they looked at me, and then they reached over their heads and pulled something over themselves as if to show a sign of language that I should understand. I looked and they pointed down the road and said one word that I understood was spoken by them "Cover" over and pointing to themselves. They would then pull a blanket over their heads and point to me as they did. I was beginning to wonder about this, why were they behaving so strange? Was this the human race in the future? I asked if that was the goal of their voyage, to get blankets, and then they began shaking their heads. They would wave down the path and then gesture that I was to follow. No shoes on the feet they were given, little covering cloths that they wore, and now an invitation to get blankets from a market perhaps.

"Are we going to market to get a blanket?" I asked as I walked along with them, feeling warm and toasty in my cravat and overcoat that was perfectly suited for this time period.

No technology was used by these people, at least none that I could see, and when I asked them my last question they answered in excited shaking of their heads. "Market, we must go to market!" Finally they were speaking the words that I could understand and I wanted to hear more of what they were saying. As I kept walking towards the valley ahead I began to smell something, it was something that I understood, and it was the smoldering smell of burning and rotting flesh. The smell that flesh gives off as it mildews and rots, just like in the trench warfare of Germany and France of WWI. That horrible smell that only men and women who have been to war can ever understand how gruesome it is.

What could be the smell I was being subjected to, where was it coming from, and why were these poor creatures walking towards it? I smelt that again and I began to get a horrible thought, the smell might be burning flesh, and these poor creatures might be oblivious to that .I also noticed that the Lanks did not have nostrils, possibly so evolution would not allow them to smell the horrible stench that I was being subjected to, but I looked on and got a clear view of the place that I was going to and the horrors that lay ahead.

Undoubtedly it had to be a factory, and for someone who is sued to being around such things as I am from the eighteen hundreds I cannot figure out why on Earth humans could have constructed so ugly a thing as this. I decided to look closer, and I saw the people walking into the place, in lines with other new creatures standing along the sides of the doorways, these men were taller, almost as tall as I am, but still shorter, and they were waving the Lank into the factory. How were they going to get blankets in there? I moved closer and the smell assaulted my senses and I could not understand what on Earth the point of all this was, why the humans who seemed to have a loss of technology, why on Earth would they have a need for factories?

Over the other side of the valley I could see things parked in large craters that had been made by something crashing into them and burying themselves into the ground. I looked at the things and saw they were alien ships, they were ships that I had recognized on other travels that I had made throughout time and space. I decided I had no other choice but to use my phone to unlock the gruesome secrets as to what was going on here, and when I opened my phone that I had picked up in the late twenty first century. This small and unassuming piece of technology was able to log into any sort of computer system within the nearest hundred miles, and I was within a hundred miles of the space ships, I was going to find out why humans had turned into this.

Now as words began to flash across the computer screen of the smart phone I began to be granted access to the historical records and computer databases of these people. I ignored what they were called and went right into what had happened here years ago and reader oh how I was shocked. Two hundred and fifty years ago they landed, and the fleet of alien ships was so powerful that they impacted the Earth like a meteorite, like the one that had killed the dinosaurs. I kept reading and the files and saw that these creatures began to watch the human survivors and they noticed the change from the apes, to the humans of today, the middle ones that the Lanks called me, and the Lanks themselves who evolved only after the Earth had moved away from the sun and the climate grew colder. The nostrils on the humans began to fade away and one thing was removed after generations of Lanks, the sense of self-preservation that humans have used to achieve dominance over the lesser species that we take for granted.

Running off I decided to check out what the factory was for and what they were doing in there to get blankets. I mean what sort of rubbish was that? Why would these people who had a thick skin enough to sleep in the Antarctic and not feel any cold why were they going here to get blankets?

Now I could see the doors of the factory, and these men that were as tall as I were, but not men more like monsters that had heavy claws and teeth standing at the back entrance, and walking out with huge piles of skins. I covered my mouth when I realized how gruesome it was and when I saw a small flow of red blood spill out from under the doors. I walked over as quick as I could once the creatures were gone and when inside my eyes had to adjust to the total and complete lack of light in this room. I began to look around and feel in the darkness like a blind woman feels around for a sense of furniture to let her know where they are. I felt something, thick, and smooth, it was the hide of a Lank creature! I saw my hands and they were covered in blood, and I turned the light on my smart phone on and saw hanging on meet hooks all around me were the skins of the Lank creatures that were disappearing into the factory, not to get blankets, but to get skinned.

Sounds were coming from another room, further towards the opening of the factory, the room I could hear the intense whirr of machinery and the sound of butchers knives. I walked toward the door and slowly opened one of the double doors, to see the sight that would haunt my dreams for years to come, the sight of death in carnet. Inside the room I could see the same Lanks that I had passed on the way in here, they were being lain down on tables that resembled operating tables of our era and our time but these had knives and other tools hanging on the sides of them. I watched as that kind woman lay down one of the tables, and looked at me hiding in the door, and I saw one of the creatures stand over her and begin to slice her skin open like a butcher hacking into flesh. I saw the things cut the skin off the bones of my friend and she never even cried. I was disturbed beyond words by watching this and ran away as fast as my legs could carry me. I ran not thinking of saving the poor people and as I left the factory I heard two of the creatures talking, "Yes you are right, nothing makes a warm blanket quite like the skin of humans." Then it all made since, the Lanks were not going to get blankets, they were going to become blankets. Then I was out and free of that house of horrors, and on my way back to the time machine where I could return to my era and never again think about these people.

As time swirled around me, and eons passed in seconds I thought of the way man had treated animals, and how we had used them as skins and cloths and blankets the way these creatures were using the Lanks. What on Earth said that humans had the right to do this to others, when seeing it done to my own species was too gruesome for words? I shook my head as I parked my time machine in my little garden and went back upstairs of my house to rest my head on my pillows, how could we have done such a thing to the animals, and now look at what awaited us in the future. I was not able to sleep under my comfortable blankets for many days, and I hope you may be able to sleep better in time my friend, I hope your conscience is clear and you can sleep under those blankets and wear those cloths that make you so pretty and fashionable.

-Your Friend in time Herbert George Wells