Scorched Flesh (Vine of the Earth Book 1) by Ian Woodhead

Author:Ian Woodhead [Woodhead, Ian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-07-14T22:00:00+00:00

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Going by Stu’s thinking, I guess I would be a multi-billionaire by now. I would have been able to buy back our world with my pocket change. Considering the state of the fucking place, I guess that even pocket change would have been too much. The aliens have left what’s left of our species on a solid ball of death. The only organisms able to survive down there are the travesties of their own making. They make the advance guard of all that time ago look like fucking teddy bears. In a way, I should be glad that I’m up here.

Son, I don’t envy what you and your fellow survivors must confront every day. I only hope that these words, if you do receive them, will somehow help you in your struggle to finally eliminate their taint.

Looking back, I suppose that we should have expected that they would have pulled a stunt like this. After all, it’s not like our species haven’t done the same. Just look back in our history, and you’ll see plenty of examples of a vanquished enemy, ensuring that the victors can’t enjoy what was rightfully theirs.

I just hope that my words, the true tale of what happened before you were born, will be able to help you in your struggle. That is, if they reach you in time.

I will admit that he is the sole reason for me still able to breathe. I may have survived the first change, but if it hadn’t been for his instruction, I have no doubt that I would have died during the first few weeks of the invasion. Stu gave me something else just as important as the tools in which to fight back: he gave me hope and the reason to continue living, even when it all seemed like a pointless exercise.

Getting some sleep before setting out to look for anybody else had proven to be the right decision after all. We weren’t the only ones to have stayed intact after the first change, although from what I heard the next night, there had been even more than the ones we found the next morning.

I think that you’ve already guessed what those organic machines were. Stu and I were probably the only humans who witnessed the creation of the Black Sentinels and lived. We slept through the night; at least, I did. I’m not totally sure that Stu followed his own advice. I think he stayed inside, though. If he hadn’t, the man wouldn’t have been the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes the following morning.

Needless to say, we were told that other survivors didn’t stay hidden when night fell. The machines killed them seconds after they left the relative safety of their hiding places. Not one of them managed to escape their weapons. I once believed that in that first night what little chance of our species surviving died. Of course, I now know that we’re more robust than I ever gave ourselves credit. I wonder if the aliens would have even attacked us if they had known this beforehand.

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