The city was silent. My quiet footsteps seemed to echo forever off of the blank walls of the nearby buildings. The sound unnerved me, but I kept moving forward. There was nothing else to do but keep moving forward.
A slight movement to my left made me freeze, turning as slowly as I possibly could to face what would most likely be my end. Instead, I was greeted by a dancing plastic bag. I almost had to laugh, but it died in my throat as I remembered that in this new age, laughter didn't belong. I sighed and looked up towards the sky. It was nearly dusk, and I needed to find shelter soon. I trudged along the street littered with papers, most claiming that the end of the world was nigh, save yourselves, your children, that 'they' were coming. We all thought they were crazy. But somehow, they knew. They knew the monsters that were coming to claim our beautiful green world for their own. It was sudden – we didn't expect it, nor could we prepare for what happened all within the time-space of a week. It started with new beings.
No one knew how they came here. We never had any crashes, and any reports of 'lights in the sky' were dismissed as being the talk of crazy people. They started appearing in streets, walking in small groups, seeming to be timid and almost nervous, though we later found out they were just as good at acting as the human race was.
They were beautiful. Tall, human-like, skin tinted blue and with a long elegant tail-like extension. Eyes that were cold, yet somehow, they entranced you. And the irresistible dust that shifted on their skin, providing the survivors of the first wave with a name for them - Shifters. Little did we know that they were our destroyers. The beautiful sparkling powder that enticed us to touch it was deadly to our frail systems, and to touch or inhale it was instant death. Our own curiosity about these new lifeforms was our own undoing. I shivered, remembering the day I first saw a Shifter. It held it's hand out to me, beckoning me to touch it. It was the third day of the invasion, and by then, we knew what the consequence was for touching one of these creatures. I ran as far and as fast as I could, leaving behind family and friends. I mourned their loss every day, berating myself for being a coward, yet trying to reassure myself that there was nothing I could do, that if I would have stayed in the same room with it that I surely would have inhaled the dust and died.
I shook my head, bringing myself back to the present. I hadn't seen a Shifter for at least a week, and it had been nearly a year since the invasion. I kept to the old cities mostly. Since taking over, the Shifters had built their own cities in what seemed a superficial attempt to project their own being onto the planet. Everything they created was the same strange blue hue of their skin. Even their deadly dust seemed to float above their cities, giving them the appearance of being in a complete haze, a sparkling ambiance to tempt any survivors to their midst.
I was wandering through what used to be downtown Seattle, making my way towards the waterfront. The giant sign for Pike Place Market hung off it's hinges, the smell of fresh fish long gone, the flowers that used to be sold every day dead and dried on the sidewalk. I ducked inside the first building I saw that looked like it used to be a restaurant, making my way to the back kitchen, hoping for some canned vegetables, or even sardines. My stomach turned at the thought, but I knew whatever I found I'd be scrambling to find a can opener for. Pulling open the fridge, I gagged and closed it quickly, my eyes watering. Whatever was in there was long spoiled. I grabbed for a cloth and pressed it to my face, wiping my eyes and rubbing at my nose, as if that could make the smell go away. I moved for the cupboards, opening them one by one, each one empty to my dismay.
"That's alright..." I said to myself, my stomach growling loudly in protest to my words. "There's other places to check." I had a sinking feeling however, that the longer I stayed in larger cities, the less food there was likely to be. The places I'd been looking in had been getting progressively emptier, probably a result of other survivors coming through and ransacking the place.
I sighed and turned to leave when a small cupboard I'd missed caught my eye. I quickly slid towards it, yanked the door open and breathed in relief. Victory – a can of sliced pears, and a package of saltine crackers. Not much, but I was so hungry I didn't care anymore. Sitting on the floor I ripped into the package of crackers, their salty scent making my mouth water. I found a knife not far away and jammed the lid of the pears open, making a small meal out of the fruit, crackers, and drinking the juice out of the can to keep my mouth from drying out.
Finally putting my hunger pains at bay, I set myself to finding a place to sleep. It normally wasn't hard, but I still made sure to search to find the least likely place that the Shifters would be searching for stragglers. I grimaced at the thought of waking up, only to see my death standing over me in the shape of a deep blue figure with ice in its gaze. It gave me a shiver and I hugged myself, walking out of the eatery, walking aimlessly down the street. For being Seattle, it was surprisingly nice, although I shouldn't have been surprised – It was August, after all. I turned a corner and found myself on the waterfront, raising my eyes to greet the lapping waves of Puget Sound. The sunset was beautiful, hues of orange and purple and red, turning the sky into its own beautiful rainbow. It made me smile slightly, to remember the sunset I once shared with friends, planning our lives, our futures. My smile fell. No more of that, I suppose.
Shaking my head, I turned from the beauty and walked towards the center of town. I don't know what made me turn to look back. All I know is if I hadn't, I wouldn't have seen the bright blue streak heading straight for me, a blur exploding from the sunset and landing straight into a building in front of me. I shrieked and dove for cover behind a crumbling wall, pieces of metal and brick flying over my head, smacking into the ground and breaking behind me. My heart raced. I couldn't breathe. All this time of playing it safe, of not getting caught, and now a new arrival was going to get the upper hand on me? Not this time. I didn't even take the time to see who or what this creature was. I ran.