Dominion of the Others

At night I can hear them, loud thunderous footsteps in the nearby town of Eyrie—or what remain of it I suppose. Sometimes one of them lets out a shriek, and I surmised that this is their form of communication because once one did it, a whole chorus joined in. It is a bone chilling noise that I will never, ever forget. They stay until just before sunrise some nights, others for just a few hours. They’re only ever active at night, which is good I suppose because that means we can forage and move about during the light of day. But that also means that rest comes sparingly. We positioned our shelter halfway up Mt. Eyrie near a stream that runs down the mountainside. It’s really quite beautiful, but our positioning also gives us view of the burning city below in the valley. Both of us, my partner Ellie and I, Dean, grew up in that cozy mountain town. It’s heartbreaking to watch our childhood home turn to ash right before our eyes. We also had to come to terms with the fact that our families’ skeletons most likely lay to rest in that rubble… Somehow we were lucky enough to have been out whenever the first wave of these—things—came through. We were actually on a camping trip with our dog Oliver in this very mountain range that we now call our sanctuary. I will never forget that first night.

The first thing to happen was the fog. It rolled in suddenly and had a thick acrid smell to it that made breathing close to impossible. Gasping for air, we started to panic running up the side of the mountain to try and escape the turbidity. Our campsite was located near the base of the mountain where the main streams flowed into Lake Plume. Within a few minutes after achieving higher altitude, the fog thinned and we were able to breath more normally again. We looked at each other in desperation, what had just happened? It was then that we heard it, that terribly frightening shrieking. Both of us clapping our hands over our ears we struggled to stand upright. The vibrations ripped through us almost knocking us to our feet. Oliver, who in desperation had chased after us, started to whimper and cower at my feet. I could hear Ellie yelling to me “What is that?!” I looked at her with fear written all over my face and couldn’t choke out a response. I stood there writhing in pain wondering when it would be over. And then it stopped. I took my hands away from my ears and could only hear ringing for the first few moments and then dead silence. No creature within those woods made a single sound, even Oliver seemed fixed on something… something beyond. A deafening crack filled the void, and suddenly Oliver took off down the mountain and back toward our campsite. Ellie and I looked at each other in a panic and yelled after him. By now the fog had significantly cleared down below, but we were both terrified of what awaited us there. I started to chase after him with Ellie at my heels.

When I reached our campsite again I noticed that our supplies had succumbed to some sort of chemical reaction. Our tent was disintegrated, and the rest of our things lay in a similar state. They looked like something had eaten away at them and were completely useless now.  We called out for Oliver but heard no sign of him. That eerie silence of the woods remained and I found myself getting goosebumps. I started off toward the lake thinking maybe he had ventured there, and that’s when I saw them. In the reflection of the lake, I could see—things—in the night sky illuminated by the full moon. Whereas before they were hidden in the forest canopy, as the valley opened up upon the lake, they came into focus. I turned around and saw for the first time the plague that had come over us. Ellie came out of the tree line and followed my gaze. She screamed. I quickly ran to her and put my hand over her mouth thinking that would somehow protect us. She was trembling beneath me and I had to remind myself to breathe. They are hard to describe… I remember seeing eight that night. One seemed to be the leader and it was the tallest of them all, towering above the mountain tops. They were all thin and spindly, their arms reaching down to their kneecaps with fingers that dragged on the ground. Their faces were totally blank save for a large gaping hole that constantly opened and closed exposing the blackness within. I imagine this is where that God awful shriek emitted from. Their skin, if you want to call it that, was totally black—the type of blackness you find in space—and seemingly had no texture to it, but rather an odd filmy outline. They had no eyes, and no other distinguishing features, but they were utterly terrifying. We walked over to the overlook, never taking our eyes off of the night sky, and saw the true horror that afflicted us. These beings surrounded the city below linking hands and swaying around it slowly but deliberately.

“Oh my God Dean, what are those things? What are they doing?” Ellie choked out a whisper to me. I could do nothing but shake my head, my eyes still entranced on this phenomenon that I was witnessing. I thought to myself that maybe this was all some awful dream, that surely I would wake up in my tent next to Ellie and everything would be normal again. But in the pit of my stomach I knew that couldn’t be true. I glanced at my watch and noted that it was nearing midnight. When had this whole ordeal started? I thought of Oliver and looked around for any sign of him. My eyes fell upon Ellie’s face and I saw a single tear run down her ashen cheek. I wiped it away and squeezed her hand pulling her head toward my shoulder. In that moment I remember thinking what this night would have been like alone and shuddered at the thought. Suddenly another loud crack rang through the night and we soon realized what the source was. Those things clapped their hands together all at once, and in that moment the air trembled. We stood watching as our town shook from the shockwave that was sent through it. Again the night was silent, until the sound of falling buildings reached our ears. All we could do was watch in horror as the city we called home fell to pieces in front of our eyes. We didn’t speak for a long time.

The eight beings turned and started to walk around the town, their footsteps shaking the ground beneath which reverberated toward us rippling the surface of the lake. They continued this pattern until just before sunrise. Walking around twenty or so times, joining hands, swaying, and then clapping their hands together delivering more destruction. Eventually, and with one final shriek, they set off in the opposite direction. At one point I swear I saw them floating and rising into the atmosphere above, disappearing. We sat there all night watching them and even after they left, we remained still until the sun washed over us. Ellie’s face was streaked with tears and it glistened in the morning sun. Eventually I rose, glancing around trying to figure out what to do. Obviously we couldn’t return home, and our camp had been ruined, our dog was missing, we had no food, neither one of us had cell service, and we were both exhausted.

That was two and a half months ago. We survived obviously, but the terror that haunted us ever since still remained. Thankfully Ellie and I are capable outdoorspeople, and we had enough skill between the two of us to rough it this long. The weather was also in our favor for now since it was only just late September. We salvaged what we could from our gear, and got creative with what we lacked. We had a few items in our backpacks that didn’t get totally ruined, including this journal you are reading now. We hiked back down to my truck but found that it too had succumbed to the strange decay brought on by the fog. At one point early on we managed to hike around to the other side of the mountain to see if Folk, the other small mountain town opposite of us, was still standing. It seemed that these beings numbered more than the eight we had witnessed because Folk lay in ruin as well. We never managed to gain cell signal, but that was largely due to the downed towers that now became visible to us further up on the mountain. We made our shelter partly underground and higher up to evade the bitter fog that rolled in whenever they came back to visit. At first it was sporadic, going upwards of a week in between visits, but recently it’s been more and more frequent, appearing nightly now for about two weeks. We’re always signaled of their arrival, first from the fog, and then from their shrieks. Why didn’t we try to leave you ask? Well to be quite frank, we were terrified. We knew they never ventured on the mountain, and we were surrounded by little mountain towns that they surely brought destruction to, so where were we to go? It also felt like a great sin to leave behind our home and all the people we loved that were lost there. I had this eternal optimism that one day they would just leave for good, and never come back. Ellie didn’t mimic this and grew increasingly weary at our predicament…

For a long time we wondered what they got out of it. The city was destroyed and surely no one was left alive. And then the fires started. Where did they get the fire? I thought. But then I realized that they were making it. A lot of the time we hid in our shelter when they came around, but one night while they were visiting, about a week ago, I really needed to use the restroom. I got up reluctantly, kissing Ellie on the forehead and ventured outside our shelter. At first I kept my gaze away from the horizon, but then I saw the sparks. We had seen the fires for the past week, but like I had mentioned, didn’t know how they were starting them. But then I saw it. The leader created it. It managed to conjure a great ball of flame within its gaping mouth, which then it passed on to the others standing next to it. They followed suit until every being in the circle had flames flowing from its wide, cavernous, black, mouth. Then at the clap, they blew the sparks and heat onto what remain of the city. I stood there watching this for so long that eventually Ellie came out to check on me. She stood in shock beside me with her hand covering her mouth. Then another odd thing happened that we hadn’t witnessed before. The leader stepped into the rubble and among the fire joined by another. They walked toward each other dragging their fingers along the ground of the broken city. The others around them bridged the gap, rejoining their hands together to form a tighter circle. The leader and the other linked in the center surrounded by flames, swaying.  Not much else was visible, but they stayed like this until just before sunrise, again retreating in the same manner they always did. Ellie and I stumbled back to our shelter to try and get a few hours of sleep before starting our day.

Every night now since then that same ritual has occurred, until last night. Last night only the other returned. We heard it arrive, but there was no fog or shrieking; only its slow footsteps gave us warning. We watched it as it sat among the ash of the city swaying forward and backward. There was an odd humming noise that we hadn’t heard before too. It was subtle, unlike the usual vocalizations we were accustomed to. It was almost, dare I say, relaxing. Eventually we decided to head to bed as it didn’t seem like anything else was going to happen, and we had grown very sleepy watching this singular being.

I am writing this account today in fear of what the future holds. The date is September 28, 2029, and it is currently 6:00am. If you have found this journal, which I doubt anyone will, then Ellie Parish and Dean Trevino are most likely deceased. I have reason to believe that the beings that have taken over our world as we know it have been mating. I fear that their offspring will soon… hatch? I’m unsure. But it appears that they have created some sort of nesting grounds of what we used to call home. I have not told any of this to my partner Ellie, as to not frighten her any further than she already is. She is weak, and I’m afraid her mental stability is slipping farther and farther away each day.

Things have progressed substantially. It’s currently 9:00pm, Ellie is in the shelter sleeping, and I snuck out to observe the nest (that’s what I’m calling it now). It’s… moving? I can see it from here. There’s definitely movement. There’s no sight of the great beings, and definitely no fog, but I can hear thrashing from below. Oh God what is that? There’s more shrieking, but different this time. It’s not as loud, not as deep, but still very prominent and still very bone chilling. I’m afraid it will wake Ellie… I don’t want her to witness this. Please make it stop. Vibrations. The earth is vibrating. In the light of the moon I can see the other— it’s running now toward the nest, arms outstretched. I can see it sifting through ash and debris, and Oh my God. It pulled up another. A smaller being, but similar in appearance, and something is different—it’s—slimy? Its skin looks slick in the moon light. The other set down the smaller being, and pulled out… another. How many are there? I’m sat here and fifteen minutes have passed and I think it’s finally over. In total I counted six creatures being pulled from the rubble. They lay there almost helpless, wriggling about slimy and new. The other stands above them like a protector.

Holy shit we have to get out of here! The other let out a manic shriek and its offspring began to crawl, they’re crawling right toward us! Their mouths gaping wide performing their own melody of blood curdling shrieks as they shiftily make it up the valley. I have to get Ellie and we have to run. How far can we get? It doesn’t matter. The rest are coming now. We have to run—