The End of Night

Written for the Daily Flash Fiction Challenge with a word limit of 300.

The prompts: This story must contain the words: escape, dawn and gift

The End of Night


The moonlight had been a gift; enabling David to cover several miles since his escape. Soon, he would find out if it had been enough. Dawn was coming and with it would come the hunt. The Others owned the day. That was the law. Any human found out while the sun was above the horizon was fair game.

And so it had been for almost thirty years.

No one argued the wisdom of The Truce. After decades of war, it was clear that both species were on the eve of mutual destruction. They had to choose between living and dying. Whichever they chose, they would go through together.

Now man was a creature of the night. In the darkness, he was safe. It formed an impenetrable boundary to The Others. No one understood how a star faring species could not figure out a way to see through the darkness. Thank goodness that had been the case. Otherwise, genocide would have come quickly to Earth’s once dominant king of the food chain.

David stayed in the shadows as best he could. Still he had to take some chances. There was no time to worry about what they would do if they caught him. Failure was not an option. The secrets he had seen must be passed on, even if it cost him his life.

Mankind needed to be ready for the time was near. The Others would gather at dusk and wait for an unsuspecting enemy to emerge into the night.

David had seen their research facilities. Breakthroughs had resulted in the technology they needed to take the fight into the night. The production lines were producing tubes and filaments in vast quantities.

Man needed to know. The Others were coming and they would bring the end of night with them.

Word count 300