Predator.(Kevin Hughes) “Did you hear that?”

“No…what?”

Grrr….grrr…

“I hear it now.”

“What is it?”

“I don’t know.”

Just then the door burst open, whatever it was sliced Martin up like bologna from a Deli. I barely had time to scream - and it was gone.

So was Martin.

The Police questioned me for two hours before they let me go. There was so much blood …and some of it was on me. There was no body to examen. So, they let me go…reluctantly. I was still in shock. I went home. I was awaked by screams. Well, one scream anyway. A long keening sound of someone pushed beyond the ability of the human mind to comprehend what was happening to them.

I called the Cops. They told me:

“Get in line. We are hearing screams all over the city. We’ll get to you when we can.”

I turned on the News. Blood everywhere…but no bodies. Hundreds of people killed in a single night. Nobody knew what was going on.

Until…

“Good evening everyone. As you all know, my name is Dr. Martha Friedman, I am an Evolutionary Biologist, and also a Forensic Medicine Specialist. A few months back I published a report on the “blood spatter” patterns from several hundred of the “Killings”. I said that in the absence of any strike wounds to verify my conclusions, that the only certainty is that whatever was doing these, had some sort of modified evolutionary advantage when attacking Human Beings.

The blood spatters are all from arterial blood. The amount of splatter…and the direction of it, means that something did a slashing movement in a vertical, or horizontal stroke. And each stroke hit an artery. No veins. That is a pretty specific target. And that is the only clue we had. Until last night.

Last night we finally found one of the creatures that is doing this. Wreaking untold havoc, fear, and uncertainty among us Humans. We call them: “Sheaths.” They are tall thin creatures with hands that closely resemble Scissors. Their feet have what amount to scalpels instead of toe nails. And there knees and elbows have specialized bones that act as tiny spears to anchor into human flesh as they filet a body in less than four hundredths of a second.

They are the perfect Human Predator. They don’t reflect light at all. Making them invisible in the dark. They have special hairs on the bottom of their feet, and on the palms of their hands. It allows them to climb any vertical wall, (or building) much like a gecko does. They make no sound at all. None. And you can’t smell them. They have an unusual camouflage that we have never seen in any other species…they have olfactory neutral glands that mask any smell, even of blood.

So, you can’t see them, hear them, smell them…or fight them. They are the perfect predator.”

There was a stunned silence. Journalist from all over the world had lost their grip on reasoned questions.

Finally a voice squeaked out from the back of the room:

“Are you saying we are their prey?”

The good doctor hated what she had to say next. But the Scientist in her had to respond, with data, facts, and reality.

“Yes. It appears that once Human’s crossed the One Billion Mark, Evolution started working on a Predator to keep the Prey population down. It looks like …and this is still somewhat speculative…but it looks like Nature tried to use Viruses to bring the Population Down. Then some bacterial infections too. Neither made a significant dent in Human over population.

So Nature designed a predator to help reduce the prey population. Sheaths. They can’t eat other animals, in fact blood from anything but a Human will make them drastically ill…and even kill them. We are working on making “blood bullets” from cows and pigs…hoping they might give us some defense against the Sheaths. “

“So…wait…Doctor, are you telling me that just like Mountain Lines become plentiful if the deer population grows to big- that somehow we have generated a Predator to curb our population?”

“Exactly. More and more of these things (pointing to the cadaver of the only known Sheath specimen) are growing every day. Until our numbers drop below one billion…I think they will continue to thrive…and feed.”

A curtain moved on stage. Dr. Friedman disappeared in a fog of blood…arterial blood. The first slice to her neck shot a column of blood almost sixteen feet into the air, the second slice cut her femoral artery diagonally, spraying the lectern with blood that splashed like a garden hose. The third beat of her heart found no blood to spray.

People panicked, crawling over each other to get to the exits. Columns of bloody sprays dotted the room. No bodies were ever found. Humanity started traveling in herds. The fringes were the most dangerous. Scouts covered themselves in animal blood…which saved their lives. Humans were whittled away, sometimes in one’s or two’s…other times in great feeding frenzies like the one in Central Park, where a heard of twenty five thousand were slaughtered in a single hour.

Not a body was ever found. Every once in a while…a Sheath body was discovered. Usually a young one who mistakenly ate a chicken, or a dog. The blood from those animals killed them outright. Adult Sheaths…well, they could survive a small animals blood…but they needed more Human Blood to return to health.

Cruise ships returned to port …empty. Airplanes fell from the sky. Humans worked on a way to detect Sheaths…the blood bullets worked, but only if you hit one with it. It is hard to hit something you can’t see, smell, or hear. Unless Humans found a way to find Sheaths before they attacked…Sheaths might very well become extinct within a week of killing the last Human Being.

Apparently Sheaths know that.

Because Humans were being Herded now. Nomads- being forced from City to City -so that they can’t stay long enough in one place to do research, or find a defense.

Sheaths were designed to feed on Humans…and they knew our weaknesses.

We were prey.

They were predators.

Nature wants a balance.

And, for now, prey is plentiful.

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