Those Above Us

A Short Story

Zachary Seda
ILLUMINATION
Published in
2 min readOct 25, 2021

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Photo by Iswanto Arif on Unsplash

Every night we wander into town, hopeful to find food in the large green bins to take home with us. Anything will do, we’re not picky. What we can’t find, we scavenge the nearby forest for. Anything fruity, we don’t hunt, it’s not our thing.

In return, we clean the town, out of the kindness of our hearts. It’s the least we can do, after taking their leftovers. The town needs it anyway. Though we must leave before sunrise, and only move amongst the shadows to avoid detection.

We must do this if we are to survive.

Sunlight burns our sensitive skin, catching it on fire. We turn to ash in a matter of minutes. It is a painful process, one not wished on any enemy. Though we’ve come to accept this, and it usually isn’t an issue.

Other problems arose long ago, ones we cannot control.

Our kind isn’t known by humans, and it would frighten many. Humans are harsh when they don’t understand. But they are the only species that behave that way. We can at least befriend the animals that do not wish us to harm for the sake of not understanding. They are easier to control.

Humans are the only ones to take what they don’t need, invading spaces already claimed by others, expanding what doesn’t need expansion. There’s nothing we nor the other animals can do in this matter, as they are the superior species.

They weren’t a problem at first. All those years ago they weren’t a threat to anything. We underestimated them. An oversight we’re most embarrassed about. Earth…it was ours for a long time before humans roamed it. For a while, we wished for our brothers and sisters to find us and take us away from this planet for good. Take us back to Sanctuary. But those hopes have long since gone.

So, we crawl back into our holes, lurking in the sewers and dirt tunnels we’ve created to hide away from humanity. Living under them, all over the world, tunnels connecting us. They haven’t found us yet, and we hope they never do, for it might be the very end of us.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this short story, consider checking out some of my other work. Also, connect with me on Twitter! I enjoy engaging with other writers.

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Zachary Seda
ILLUMINATION

Sci-Fi and Fantasy Writer | Short Stories Author | Writing one day at a time