The Bridge of Humanity

He lay down next to eve, there was nothing else he could do, her face so still so pale, translucent as the moon upon the sea. The child by her side whimpered, barely audible, but still alive. He moved closer to her cold body hoping his warmth would warm the child, which softly sighed. He could hear the creatures watching, waiting, biding their time, far away enough to watch, yet not to close just in case. They talked amongst themselves, a high pitch of squeals interspaced with low grunts of aggression. It was these creatures that had done this, all the years they has spent trying to survive on this barren of planets, befriending these creatures and they did this. They had crossed the bridge of humanity, they had gone to far. Adam could not even truly comprehend what they had done, why, how. His poor Eve, how he loved her so, there was no purpose anymore, nothing.

He had struggled to forgive them when it happened, she begged him, they were creatures after all, they did not know any better, how could they. We are of a superior species we have knowledge, power and understanding, our every need being met by the wise ones. There is nothing to question, we simply ask and we learn or receive, there is no hatred or pain, no cruelty or injustice. Our lives are free of this we exist to be.

How did we come to be on this planet you ask. The truth is I am not sure anymore, years it must be. Eve used to make small marks on the inside of our craft door, but when there was no space left, I think she gave up. She realized that they were never going to come back for us, we were  lost forever. She never went to the craft again, except once and that was when it happened. As Adam lay there, tears fell from his exquisite violet eyes, she was crying when she came back, her clothes all torn and there was blood upon her legs and face. She kept saying, over and over again, “its not their fault, please you must not hunt them down, please “

I soothed her and carefully bathed her singing our songs of home. She smiled and fell into a deep sleep and in the silence I mended her torn dress using a surgical needle from the first aid pack we had salvaged. There was very little we could salvage from the craft as we had packed nothing not even a book for we could not have known this was to happen.

When Eve awoke she seemed calm and thanked me for the dress, the tear’s were now invisible. Over the months Eve became hungrier, eating all manner of things from the unusual fruits we had discovered, to purple berrires that oozed liquids and her stomach grew rounder. At night she would sing to it and hold herself as if something was inside her. She told me once that it was coming, she was afraid, she knew nothing about how it would come. What should she do?

I could only stare for I did not know what she meant. I held her close and we snuggled together for warmth, inside her now very rounded stomach, I felt movements and felt very scared.

Then it came, the crying, the pains, the blood. It came out, a bloodied person, perfect in every way, eyes, mouth, arms, legs and fingers and toes. It screamed also and Eve smiled as she held it close to her.

“my child, Adam my child”

She pushed it to her breast to feed, which it did greedily. I bathed them both with such tears in my eyes, such joy.

Suddenly Eve screamed, her body violently jerked, her eyes rolling uncontrollably, she gasped and then fell silent, an eternal silence. She did not move again.

Eve stared at the moon, sleeping with death, her smile gone forever.

As dusk approached the creatures grew impatient, their sound more insistent and guttural. He wearily raised his cold body clutching the small bundle in his arms and walked towards the creatures. They did not move at first, then they began to gather around him, circling him, predators waiting. He lay the child down onto the grass , she began to cry sensing the fear and danger. He looked down and spoke softly, “hush child of Eve and Adam, you will survive, but remember us always”

He placed an amulet around her neck and with a final look he walked towards the creatures.

They made a gap between them to let him pass before following him into the forest. Adams screams could be heard for miles around, the creatures had no use for him.  They beat him to death with their bare hands.

A large hairy creature with kindly brown eyes picked up the child and held it to her breast, letting it find her nipple to suckle which it did hungrily. With a grunt the creature loped on two legs, strangely very similar to their own, before swinging up into the shaded forest trees, all trace of the aliens had now gone. But had it, the child would of course survive and so would begin the human race.