The Boy
Survivors in a world ravaged by Monsters.
The few remaining humans live in constant fear of the monsters in this short horror story with a disturbing ending.
This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives).
The Boy
by Trevor Mendham
“Daddy,” the young boy looked up from the floor where he had been stacking wooden bricks. “I’m bored.”
“I know son, I know.” Gary nodded slowly. Kyle was too old for wooden bricks, but there wasn’t much else in the way of toys available. There hadn’t been since the Monsters had appeared. Back before then, just a few short years ago, there were all sorts of thing to entertain people. Television, smartphones, the internet. All those technological toys that they had once taken for granted were now gone. As were most of the people, killed by the Monsters or by the disease and starvation that had followed the collapse of human civilisation.
Now there were just a couple of hundred survivors living in the remnants of this once thriving town. No electricity, no running water, never enough food. All that stood between them and the vast assortment of nightmarish Monsters outside was a wooden palisade, a number of archery towers and the heavily guarded gate. If the Monsters ever managed to breach those defences and get inside... well, he just hoped there were other surviving settlements to continue humanity.
“Can we go and play with the other children, Daddy?”
“The playground? I don’t know, I should get some rest before my next shift on gate duty. Maybe your mother could take you?”
Playground. That really was a grand word for it. A small piece of grass with a couple of wooden seats tied to tree branches, a see-saw consisting a plank and an empty oil barrel, plus a climbing frame made from various pieces of debris nailed together. Meagre as it was, there were always children playing there.
Gary really felt sorry for kids growing up in this world. Was it even fair to have children now? Wouldn’t it be better just to let the human race die out naturally? He and Jenny had agreed that they wouldn’t bring kids into the post-Monster world, but there were times he regretted they hadn’t done it earlier. When civilisation still existed. They talked about it a lot, even picked out names - Kyle for a boy, Anne for a girl. But somehow it had never been the right time, they’d kept putting it off. So now they faced the end of the world childless.
What?
Gary looked down at Kyle. What was he thinking? They weren’t childless, they had a son. Kyle. His son, right there sitting on the floor. Kyle was... how old? He couldn’t remember. In fact, he couldn’t even remember his son being born...
He stared at the boy. “Kyle...” he said, the name feeling strange on his tongue.
On the floor, the boy stared back. His features seemed to shift as a scowl came over his face.
Gary shook his head. This wasn’t his son. He didn’t have a son.
The boy rose to his feet. “Daddy,” he said. “Hugs!” Kyle jumped up at Gary, who instinctively caught the child. The boy threw his arms around Gary’s neck and lay his head on his shoulder.
As Kyle’s arms wrapped around his neck, flesh touching flesh, Gary immediately began to feel more relaxed. Why was he worrying? Working at the gate must be getting to him. This was Kyle, his son. But there had been something... something about picking out names. Jenny... Anne...
“And I think I’m getting hungry,” Kyle said softly. Gary felt a sharp stinging sensation on the side of his neck. He jerked, but an instant after the pain jolted him he felt relaxation as the boy rubbed skin on skin. The throbbing in his neck was nothing compared with the pleasure flowing from the boy’s touch. Everything was ok, of course it was. This was his wonderful son Kyle, for whom he’d do anything.
He reached over and ruffled the boy’s hair. “Okay, little man. We’ll go to the playground.” He set Kyle back down on the ground. With the boy walking in front, they headed through the house towards the front door.
As they passed the bedroom, Gary glanced inside. Jennifer was lying on the bed. But why was she in such a strange position? Was that blood he could see? God yes, there was blood everywhere.
“Jenny!” he almost choked as his brain struggled to take in the scene of carnage before him.
As Gary started towards the bedroom door, Kyle came running back. The boy grabbed hold of Gary’s wrist with one hand and pulled the door shut with the other.
“Mummy’s sleeping, Daddy,” the boy said firmly as he ran his fingers over the back of Gary’s hand.
Sleeping. Yes, of course. Jenny worked hard in the communal kitchen, she probably just needed a nap. Why had he even thought of disturbing her? Blood. There had been blood.
“Your neck, Daddy.”
He lifted his free hand up to the side of his neck, where he could feel a gash. When he brought his hand back down, there was blood on it. What on earth...
“Insects.”
Those damn insects, always biting. He’d put some antiseptic on it.
“Later.”
Later. Yes, he’d deal with it later.
“Let me kiss your hand better, Daddy.”
Gary smiled indulgently as the boy licked the blood off his hand. Once Kyle had finished, Gary ruffled his hair again.
“Well done, son. Now let’s get you to that playground.”
“Thanks Daddy. I’m going to have such a good time with all the other children.”
Author’s Notes:
This story was originally published on Medium.
Like Just A Scratch, this is classic dramatic irony. The reader works out very quickly what’s going on - but it’s not clear how bad things are until the the bedroom scene. I didn’t feel the need to go into gory detail there, just the words ‘blood’ and ‘carnage’ should make the final line of the story very disturbing.