Halfkinds: Survival and Superiority (Volume 1 - Contact), Page 2

  Chapter 2 - Leonard Lawton - Homecoming

  November 15, 3040 5:01 AM

  I didn't want to leave my brothers and sisters, but I couldn't abandon her. My mother had died, and we left her for the flies. It was wrong; it's not the way mothers should be treated.

  Tiago strongly objected when I told him that we should go back, that we should have given our mom a proper send-off. After all, she raised us through blood, sweat and tears, kept us away from the humans, dogs, wolves, and other animals who won't understand what we are. Tiago never liked her, though. He said she was a whore behind her back and that the only reason we existed was because of her whorish ways.

  I may be the youngest of all my brothers and sisters, and Tiago may be the oldest, but what he said was incredibly immature. How could you say that about your own mother?

  I would hear her talk about the outside world. She would say society would deem us freaks, that they would never understand us. She made sure that we never left the house, that no one could ever see who we are, and I could see her point. I read the news, watched the TV shows and movies she let us see. All of those animals I saw on those programs, none of them looked like us. I saw dogs and cats, humans and frogs, bears and lions, they all looked like what they were supposed to. We, on the other hand, didn't completely look like other humans, we didn't completely look like other animals, and I didn't look like the normal frogs I've seen. No, we looked different; we were special.

  My mother was a human. I can see her human traits in myself. When I was young and I asked her who my father was, who was this mysterious frog that was part of me. She would always avoid the question.

  "It's not important," she would say. Eventually, she said it enough times that I believed it wasn't important. I had my mother, and that's all that I needed.

  It wasn't until I was a little older that Tiago told me the truth about her, that she was a prostitute who serviced not only her kind but other species as well. Gross. My mom said that all eleven of us were unique, that we were the first of our kind. She was right. When I looked things up on the infospace, the results stated that scientific findings proved interspecies breeding is impossible.

  Maybe mom was different. Maybe there was something about her body that allowed it to be possible. She never went to the doctor. Last time she had an appointment was forty years ago, or so she said. She insisted there was nothing to figure out and pretty much balked at the idea of finding the answer. Even if she knew the answer, she wasn't telling us. All of that was a part of a past she wanted left behind.

  But there are some things you can't run from.

  All those times Tiago called her a whore, he was right. She bore eleven children in the span of six years. I guess since we were a mix of different species, some of us were faster to pop out than others. Or maybe mom's unique physiology sped up her maternity. I never really understood the science of it, but all of us are here, and it happened.

  I also learned about the baggage we carried. I had seen a lot on the news, and I researched what I could on the infospace. Interspecies prostitution is universally frowned upon in practically all corners of the world. She was a whore in the most vile sense.

  When I first found out, I was disgusted with her. I didn't talk to her for days. She didn't ask why I was angry, but I think she figured it out. During a dinner, when it was just me and her, she asked me what was wrong.

  "Nothing," I said.

  "What did your older brother say to you?" she asked.

  "Nothing."

  We didn't say anything for the rest of dinner, but later that night I heard her quarrelling with Tiago in one of the rooms. It was hard to make out, but I could hear what they were arguing about.

  "What did you want me to tell him?" I heard Tiago yell.

  "Anything but that I was a prostitute!" she said. "That was almost fifteen years ago. It's something I want to leave behind!"

  "Well, it's hard to leave behind considering the eleven freaks you raised as your own."

  "Don't call yourself that, you're not freaks!"

  "If we aren't, then why do you keep us locked in this house? Why can't we go outside and explore the world?"

  "You know why. They'll hunt you. They'll take you away from me. Even worse, they'll make you experiments. You do understand why I have to protect you from the world, don't you?"

  "Yeah, I do, it's because you're a paranoid psycho."

  Tiago then stormed out of the room and went to the backyard to let off some steam. I didn't understand him. For a guy who claimed he wanted to see the world, he could have left anytime he wanted to, but he didn't. I guess he was as afraid of what was out there as the rest of us. We all were scared, my mother made it very clear that we would not be welcomed into society. She got to him, too.

  It didn't matter to me, though. I had no desire to leave. My mother loved all of us, cared for all of us, and that's all that mattered. When we needed food, she provided it. When we needed clothes, she gave them to us. And for the most part, our family got along. Even Tiago, the sibling I feared the most, was someone I could call my brother. We looked out for each other because we were family. It was the only thing I needed. Let the world figure out its own problems, because I didn't want to be a part of it.

  The house was a great place to live. It was a little rundown, and it was only one story, but what you couldn't see on the surface was that there were a whole slew of rooms underground. That's where my siblings and I lived for most of our lives. We congregated and spent time as a family upstairs, but we had our own space below. My mom lived upstairs. As she put it, it would give off the right appearance in case someone came knocking, though we hadn't encountered anyone in ages. Our street was practically a ghost town. I suppose it was another way my mom kept us under wraps. For the sixteen years I've been alive, the only people I knew of were my family and what I saw on TV and the infospace. I had never seen the outside world other than through what I saw on a screen.

  And I had no desire to see anything else. The world doesn't seem that great of a place. I heard about wars between species going on in some areas of the world. I read online that things weren't always this way, that hundreds of years ago, humans were the only animals on the planet that ruled. But then something happened and other animals became smarter. Not all kinds, but many did. And when you have that many species aware of how smart they are, conflict is bound to arise. I liked my bubble, it kept me away from them.

  But my dream scenario eventually crumbled. Without warning, something happened. We were all eating dinner, like we always did in the evenings, the eleven of us gathered around the supper table enjoying a meal prepared by mother. As we talked about the day's events, mom started coughing really hard. She had always had an issue with her throat, but it was usually very mild. This time she was coughing up a storm. We were all concerned, but after a small fit, she assured us she was okay, so we went back to our meal.

  But then, five minutes later, it happened again. She coughed and coughed and coughed and then collapsed to the ground.

  Immediately, we rushed to her side. My sister Iris quickly raised her head and Isaac, her twin brother, got a glass of water and tried to make mom drink it. She wasn't having it, though, and furiously puked it out. I looked at what she spewed and I saw pieces of blood in it. She turned over to her side and continued to cough and vomit violently.

  "We need to get a doctor!" I yelled. The others looked at me, with uneasy expressions. They wanted to do it but couldn't because of the repercussions.

  "You know we can't," Tiago said. I nodded sadly. We could only sit there and watch.

  The convulsions came. She started to shake violently, flopping around like a fish out of water. One of her arms flailed around so forcefully that the ground cracked.

  I turned around to a corner and shielded my eyes away from the sight. But soon there was nothing to see. Her convulsions stopped and all
I heard was silence. I looked over to see my brothers and sisters gathered around her with their heads down. She was dead.

  And so it came to be that my mother, the only person who took care of us all these years, had died in front of my eyes.

  That night, we gathered in the living room to figure out what we were to do next. There was already talk amongst my older brothers and sisters that the only plan we could pursue was to leave, but we needed to figure out a strategy.

  "We can't leave her!" I proclaimed.

  "Well we can't stay," Tiago said. "Eventually, someone is going to come. Bill collector, mortgage officer, someone is going to wonder why things haven't been paid. You know mom was a on a daily collection plan because of her bad credit. If she was a day late, she might have gotten a visit from the local collector. None of us have access to her information, either. She kept that all to herself. And if we stay here, we're going to be found out. It might take a day, it might take a month, but it's for certain. And you know what's going to happen. We're practically dead if they catch us."

  "And what makes you so certain they're going to harm us?" I asked.

  "Are you a fool?" Tiago yelled. "You spend your time on the infospace, don't you? Have you seen what they do to anyone who is different? Did you read about what humans did to their own kind thousands of years ago? What they do out of fear and ignorance? Mobs of people are going to hunt us down and hang us. At one time, they were considered the most intelligent animals on the planet, and look at how they behaved when faced with something unknown. Things haven't changed. Any animal that can think for themselves will act the same way. They'll murder us."

  "Perhaps Leonard is right," my brother Oscar said. "Perhaps you're only thinking of the worst scenario."

  "The worst scenario is the only scenario," Tiago said sharply.

  "Look," Isaac said, "regardless of how the outside world is going to treat us, we should discuss whether staying here is the best option."

  "I think we should consider exploring the outside world. We can't stay here forever on what food and supplies we have alone," my sister Maddie told the group. "We'll eventually have to go out, as we only have a few weeks of rations. There's no way we can order anything, since mom's insta-item is linked to her accounts. We don't have access to them. Perhaps we should take this time to leave and go to a place where no one will be looking for the bills that aren't going to be paid. There's nothing for us here anymore."

  "And where do you suggest we go?" my brother Alex asked.

  "There are plenty of abandoned buildings around here," Maddie continued. "We can stay in one of those, at least until we figure out what to do next. No one will be looking for us there."

  "How do you know they're abandoned?" my brother Lombardi asked.

  "I know. You're not the only one who goes sneaking away at night," Maddie said. Lombardi looked embarrassed, as did all my brothers and sisters.

  "Looks like Maddie is right," Oscar said. "What do you guys think?"

  I looked around, and I saw everyone nodding their heads in agreement.

  "It seems wise to find a better hiding area," Tiago said. "Then we can plan what to do from there. We'll need to gather as many things as possible and move during the night so we are unseen by any nosey bystanders. Everyone, start packing your things. We're moving out when the sun sets, in less than two hours."

  "But what about mom?" I asked Tiago. "We can't leave her."

  "We don't have time," Tiago said. "We have to move as soon as possible."

  "No!" I yelled. "That's not right. She raised us and we can't even give her a proper burial?"

  My ten brothers and sisters looked away from me, avoiding eye contact. I saw the shame in their eyes. I knew they were thinking with their brains, that survival was their priority, but I wish they thought with their hearts.

  Tiago approached me, "I know this is hard for you to hear, but it's the only thing we can do right now. You're scared. You were the closest to mom and heeded all her advice. But let me assure you, the last thing she ever wanted was for us to be in danger. She didn't want to see us hunted down by an angry mob, but that's what's going to happen if they find us here. C'mon, Leonard, we have to move."

  His words made sense, yet I was still unsure. But with all of my sisters and brothers leaving, I didn't want to be left behind.

  "I suppose, I suppose you're right," I said hesitantly.

  "Good, now get your stuff, it's time we leave this place," Tiago said.

  I took an hour to get my things and met everyone out front. Maddie told us the abandoned building was a warehouse two miles away. We started to walk away, and I looked back to say goodbye.

  Thirty minutes later we finished our trek and arrived at our destination. It's a large building, and it was very empty. We easily broke down the door and entered. All eleven of us made camp and lived off the food and water that we were able to bring with us. Tired from the journey, we settled in and dozed off.

  I had dreams that night of my mother. Well, not so much dreams, but nightmares as I replayed her death over and over and over in my mind. I still couldn't believe she was gone.

  A day passed and I missed her.

  Two days passed and I missed her more.

  Three, four, five days, and all I could think about was her corpse rotting without a proper burial.

  By the sixth day, I had had enough. I needed to go back home to get some closure, to say goodbye, to give her a proper burial.

  It is 5 AM, and my brothers and sisters are sleeping. A week has almost passed since that fateful day. I look for something that will hide my face, and I find a hooded sweatshirt, boots, and some sweatpants. This will do. I make sure no one sees me and I slink into the morning light to make my way back home.

  Things need to be ended.

  I arrive in the front of the house. It's a strange feeling coming back. This is the place that I grew up in, the only home I knew all my life. And now I am coming back to it, like a stranger. Only a week has passed and already I feel like I am not welcome home anymore. It makes me sad.

  I walk through the front door and slowly approach the kitchen. I smell the stench of death, and it is foul. A part of me is scared of what time has done to her body. If the odor is any indicator, it has not treated it well.

  I reach the kitchen and see that her once beautiful face is now bloated. Her peach-colored skin is now grossly discolored, a mix of yellow and light purple from her dead veins. She is still trapped in her shocked state, it looks anything but peaceful.

  I shed a tear. This is not the way she should've gone. She deserved better. A part of me is angry at my brothers and sisters. How could they have abandoned her in this state? All that time she spent raising them and this is the thanks she gets? It is pathetic. How is it that I am the youngest of them all, but I am the only one who understands the meaning of respect?

  I kneel down over her body. I am sorry mother, I should have never left you.

  "Freeze! Hands up!" I hear. I am not alone. My thoughts are interrupted, the shock of this discovery rocks me to the core.

  The man repeats his call again. I am too dumbfounded to comply. How could this have happened? How is it that a man, a cop no less, already knew to come looking for us?

  The man is armed with a gun. He is not here to collect bills, he is here to capture something.

  He repeats his order one more time. I slowly stand up and think about how to handle the situation. If he takes me into custody, I will surely be a lab rat or killed, like my mother warned me. If I run, it will give him another excuse to shoot. Either way, this will end in disaster. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a mob already waiting to take me out.

  I don't know who this man is, but I am not going to be taken. I look down at my mother and remember the lifetime of warnings she gave us. All these years we had doubted her claims about how the world would view us. It looks like she was rig
ht.

  I am not going to be killed. I can only do one thing - fight. I know she's looking down on me. It's what she would have wanted me to do. Time to make her proud.

  I see in the corner of my eye a kitchen knife in the sink. It is the only weapon available, so I make a quick lunge for it. I'm counting on being faster than this man's trigger finger.

  But I am wrong. After I grab the weapon, I turn around and feel two hot burning sensations hit my chest. It is painful, but I can't tell because things are starting to black out. My chest feels like there's nothing there. It's hollow and I can sense movement going through it, like wind flowing through a tunnel.

  It's the last thing I feel.

  I'm sorry mother, I failed you.