Lucas carried his body across the beach at night. He remembered that he and his friend would play there since his friend was young. Before all the weird stuff happened. Since before they came.

He’d never seen one of them and he was certain he never wanted to. Especially not since the night they took his family. He’d been down in the basement getting wood.

Suddenly his mother screamed. “He’s innocent. He didn’t do it. He was here.”

Then another voice. Deeper, more mechanical, replied. “Evidence is irrefutable. Evidence is proof of guilt. Trial not required.” It must’ve spotted his brother as it continued “Child will be taken in to state care. You will face punishment for siding with a criminal.”

The room was filled with the sound of his family putting up a valiant fight against the ‘thing’.

Eventually it went quiet. Lucas knew they’d lost. He came out of the basement to find everything was strewn around the place. His family was gone and the life he knew was over.

Lucas sat down with his friend beside him, together they planned out the best way to get out of there. So after some time. Lucas got his fathers large truck. In the back he put as many supplies as he deemed ‘essential’ as he could find. He also took a few things for trade.

Looking at his friend with a smile he grinned “I’ll get some tooling work to earn credit.” His friend nodded in response.

They also took the mobile fuel tank. Then, with one last look back, Lucas and his friend took off. All was well for the first month or so. Until one night, out of the blue, his friend was shot. As the bullet hit him he let out a piercing scream. Despite Lucas’s best efforts, a few days later, his friend died in his arms.

That was why he as here. He’d managed to find a boat and he’d prepped it ready to go. There was no way his friends body was going to be thrown in to a communal grave pit. He deserved better than that.

Walking towards the boat, he lay his friends body onto the carefully prepared pyre that lay within. The smell of the fuel that he’d poured over it was strong. It was high tide so the boat floated easily. After a few false starts it began to burn.

It was a clear moonlit night, the sky full of stars. The moon cast its eerie shadows across the scene.

Lucas stood back and said “”George I’ll miss you. You were the best friend I could’ve asked for. I raised you from a puppy. I watched you grow. We had so much fun on this beach I thought it was the right place to say goodbye.” Wiping the tears from his eyes he continued, “I’ll make them pay I promise. Just not tonight .... tonight it’s time to say... to say. Goodbye old friend.”