The Unusual Family

A Story by Lauren

Short science fiction story about the only two people left on Earth after a massive nuclear war.

The Unusual Family

By Lauren Beaton

Day 27. The world is empty. Nuclear wars have cleaned the place out. The ground still smoulders. The buildings that once stood tall now lie in low mountains of rumble on the ground. The roads that once connected the whole world now have became torn up piles of asphalt leading nowhere but back to the living hell of the present moment.

The only two pairs of feet left walk around the debris. One man and one woman remain. They walk and walk in search for more life and a change of scenery. There is no one to be found.

“Sometimes I think we are alone in the universe, sometimes I think we aren’t: in both cases, the idea makes me dizzy.” The woman quietly croaks to the man, straining her dry throat.

His voice cracks, “If there is anyone else left, they're not in this country, or even this nation,” he says.

The woman examines the man's tired, injured face. Dried blood and dirt coats most of the skin on his forehead and cheeks and a single bead of sweat slides down his temple.

“Why were we the only ones left?” She asks, “Why didn't we get killed?”

He is silent for a moment as he thinks of a response, and then he replies, “Fate. It was our fate to live.”

Just as he finishes speaking, a baby's cry cuts through the atmosphere. It's piercing sound rises from a pile of wood and debris a few feet ahead of the man and woman.

“That can't be! It can't be!” The woman yells in excitement as she begins to run toward the sound. The man hurries behind her and frantically pulls a few planks of wood out of the way; a little blue baby appears. It is not a normal baby. It has three fingers on each hand and two blue antennas stand on top of its oval shaped head. Its large black bug eyes widen in the light, a look of curiosity crosses its face as the man and woman come into its view.

“Is...Is...That an alien?” The man asks the woman in a shaky voice of fear. He bends down to the creature's level and takes a closer look at it. The woman crouches beside him and extends a hand to the little blue creature; she gently touches its slimy skin. The alien's body shifts and it releases a low guttural sound. The woman carefully puts her hands underneath the alien's arms and slowly pulls it out from the dark little space amongst the debris. She cradles it against her lean body and strands of her thick brown hair fall limply onto the alien's head. Its large eyes look up at her thin face; he is scared.

“It's not a real child, Katrina! Put it down, it could be dangerous!” The man screams to the woman.

“Adam, it's a baby! Maybe not a human baby, but it still needs us.” Katrina's voice is serious. She looks hard into the man's grey eyes and then casts her view down upon the baby; her facial expression changes and she grows calm.

Adam studies her face, and moves closer to her, he lays a hand on the alien's head then says, “OK. You're a good person, Katrina. The alien, or whatever it is, does need us, just until it grows a bit.”

The days continue to pass. Katrina, Adam and the alien baby live together in a small shelter that Adam and Katrina constructed out of wood and other materials they found in the destroyed city. They live on rations of food they've collected and the few birds that Adam was able to hunt. The alien becomes a part of their lives. After weeks of caring for it, they begin to understand it. It is much different than a human, but in a sense the same; it has the ability to love and to be loved. Adam and Katrina treat it like a child of their own. It grows with them.

One morning as the sun rises over the mountains of rumble, Katrina and Adam sit together outside of their shelter. The alien baby sleeps in its little bed at the back of the shelter. “Adam, do you remember when I asked you why we were the only two people left on Earth and you said that it was our fate to live?” Katrina asks Adam. Adam's head is resting on his crossed arms over his knees. He looks over to her and nods.

“Yeah, I remember that.” He replies.

“Well, you were right.” Katrina tells him. She looks into Adam's eyes and then looks to the shelter where the young alien is sleeping. Adam's eyes follow her motion and they both know what their fate was.