Which of us is most savage?
I fire my primitive laser thinking I know where the red-eyed alien is.
But he’s not there.
His race is so far above us in technology, they know when I will fire before I do.
Such great weapons have stripped our world of all we have.
A few plants remain. No buildings.
We live in holes in the ground as if tossed back into caves.
I have never felt so much like an animal as I do now.
We were once a proud and accomplished race, inventors of languages and machines.
I tell myself when peace comes again, we shall restore the earth to what it once was.
Since human brain is our greatest tool, I am convinced that we will find a way to over come these beasts from space.
And in my mind, I need to start with this one red-eyed monster I have found.
So I set my traps and wait.
I sense his hesitation when he nears my bunker.
His machines whir as they read the area for my trap.
This is so open, so pathetically simple, I think even a child can see it from miles away.
My heart beats faster with fear and outrage.
The beast inside of me comes alive feeding on my desire to kill this thing.
I guess some things are just too simply for complex machines to comprehend.
His instruments do not uncover my design.
He, believing too much in the superiority of his machines, steps into my line of fire.
He cannot see me for the ruin he has left, each crack is a place in which my kind can hide.
My heart pumps even faster although I think it will burst.
I still myself I kill this beast for my race to survive.
I pray to God to guide my hand.
But his shield deflects my shot, and his red eye turns to the place from which I made my shot.
Never did the land seem so inadequate to protect me as it does now.
And like a scared rabbit or rat, I rush away seeking better cover.
So anxious is he to kill me, he rushes his shot and misses, and though he pursues me, he machines give him no advantage here, among the cracks of earth.
In these holes and among the broken walls, I rush through a maze that even his technology cannot follow easily.
We are both savages now.
And the winner of this conflict is not the one with the most technology, but the one who can be most savage.
A strange noise comes from the alien machine and I think it may be a curse, and become aware that I am pursued not by one red-eyed alien, but by a pack of them.
The hum and click of their machinery seems so very loud in my ears.
But the heat of their machines only radiate some inner rage that I never imagined a superior race would have and I understand that inside these machines are a species as savage as the most vicious beast on earth, coming after me like sharks after a bleeding man.
And still more of them join in the pursuit, lessening the advantage the landscape gives me, their beams sweeping at me from every direction.
I stumble and fall into a pit and before I can scramble back out, one of the red-eyed alien’s appears at the lip, his weapon aimed down at me as his companions join him.
They seem to laugh as if they have come to the end of the hunt.
But deep down, I know which one of us is the most savage, and I know his weapons cannot save him.
I take comfort from the look of satisfaction one alien gives another as I push the button to the bombs I have installed along the rim of the pit, all of them dying before my eyes as the stones bury me, too, dying like all savages must die, taking as many as I can with me before I do.