Humans Alone (G/T)

Chapter Six

As Heath ran and began to get closer to the smoke, a terrible stench wafted through the gentle breeze and he recognized that smell immediately. It'd been a little while since he's smelled it last, but he'd know it anywhere. 

Michael gagged and had to cover his mouth and nose with his shirt, which wasn't much better considering it contains all his sweat and mud from the past few weeks. He let out a slightly startled yelp when large hands lifted him from the shoulder he sat on and he protested as Heath covered his eyes with one of his hands.

"Michael, you won't want to see this," Heath spoke softly, staring at the flames flickering in front of him. "I'm going to turn you around so I can put out the fire. For your own good, don't look."

Taking a deep breath, Michael did as told and stood facing the opposite direction of the fire. But he was curious. And as Heath mumbled unintelligibly behind him, it only made his curiosity grow.  "Is the fire out?" He asked, shifting his injured leg as it was growing more painful. 

"Yes, the fire is out," Heath responded, glancing back over at Michael to make sure he wasn't looking. But as he began to walk back over to the human, Michael quickly turn and his eyes grew wide in horror.

Michael stood, mouth agape at what he saw. A pile of human bodies, burning, charred nearly beyond recognition. He nearly stumbled backward, able to feel his hands shaking. "Wh...Why do your people do this to us?" He whispered, and when Heath started to approach him he backed away. "Stay away from me. Please. Answer my question. And don't touch me."

Heath sighed heavily and knelt down to try and be more eye level with Michael. "Can we talk tomorrow? It's late, and you should get some sleep. Do you want to ride on my shoulders again? It's quite a ways back home. And your leg is injured."

"No, I can walk. I'm fine." Turning away from the Masonin, Michael tried to take a step when pain shot through his lower limb and he nearly fell, but he recognized Heath's arms as they caught him and lifted him off of the ground. 

"I'm afraid that I can't let you do that to yourself." With a deep frown, he carefully moved Michal back onto his shoulders and began the walk home. He didn't want him to see those bodies. He knew that it would scare and scar him. And now the human was paranoid and shaky again. 

It's been quite a while since he'd seen humans burnt that way. It used to happen all the time. 

He could feel Michael trembling, and hated scaring the poor fella. But he didn't want his leg to get injured any more than it already was. "Can I ask you a question?" Heath spoke softly, seeking to break the silence and tension between them.

"Do whatever you want," Michael mumbled quietly, keeping his head on his hands that rested in Heath's hair. He could only hope that one of those bodies wasn't his little girl. 

"Why did humans fight amongst themselves so much?" Glancing over his shoulder, the Masonin offered a warm smile to the human.

"Well...different beliefs. Different goals. You have to look at things in a weird way about this. What Hitler did was wrong, terrible to all of us. But in his eyes and many others? He was right. It depends on where you're from. Like in Vietnam. What we call the Vietnam War, they call the American War." Michael mumbled, taking a moment to think. "We should call this the War slash Invasion of Masonin's." 

Heath stopped walking and closed his eyes with a very visible scowl. "Somehow humans got to our own planet and took the baby. Your kind kidnapped, tortured, and murdered an innocent little girl. And not knowing much about your kind and Earth, we assumed that you all were murderous beings that would come after our children again." He lowered his head sadly, patting one of the human's legs. "But now I've learned otherwise. So perhaps we should journey to the highest class of us and see if we can create peace."

Michael was silent, despite Heath's suggestion and furrowed his brows in confusion. The silence didn't last long as a million questions rushed through his mind. "But...no one could be that heartless, to kill a baby. Why wouldn't anyone say anything? Why would no one speak up? It led to a war and almost complete annihilation of us. "

"Michael I don't know. If I knew I would tell you. Like I said, we thought you all knew." Heath could see the lights of his house and he let out another soft sigh. "Do you want to take that bath before you get some sleep? There's still plastic wrapped around your legs." 

Pausing at the thought of a bath, despite how tired he was getting, Michael enjoyed the idea of being able to get cleaned up. "Yes, a-a bath sounds just fine."

Heath gave the human a firm nod and turned toward the direction of the well. Solemn thoughts plagued his mind. More than half, maybe even more than three-fourths of the human population is dead. Even if peace could be made, the planet would never be the same. 

The two arrived at the well fairly quickly, and Heath allowed Michael to hang onto his shoulder as he hauled the bucket up from the deep pit. He was slow, careful, not wanting the human to slip and fall. "Again, I'll have to boil it to heat it. So you'll just have to be patient. Is that alright?"

"Yeah, sure," Michael mumbled in a nervous voice, trying but failing to not look down the deep hole in the ground. He could imagine falling and landing as a tangled mess of blood and bone at the bottom. He shudders and decides to just close his eyes the rest of the time.