Twelve years ago, they came to earth. The Saviours. An advanced race of intelligent extraterrestrials with one promise: to save us, to save the planet.
They wanted nothing in return. They had been watching for years, seeing our faults and our successes, our mistakes and our victories. They knew what it meant to be human and they saw potential for improvement – they’d show us how.
After months and months of talks, the leaders of the world came to trust our visitors. The Saviours forgave their initial threats and their scepticism, offering in return new technology, new medicine, new science – all of which worked. ‘The Saviours’ was a name we had given them. We were thankful.
Their last gift would heal the world, they said. They released a terraforming gas into the atmosphere, cleaning the pollutants and the greenhouse gases responsible for global warming. Later that day, it rained. Crops grew, grass became greener, water became cleaner. The world was a better place. Then, the Saviours went away. They said they’d return in eighty years (the human life expectancy).
Optimism followed, like that after a world war – everyone went at it like rabbits. But it didn’t take long to notice… Negative pregnancy tests for months. More doctors’ appointments, failed IVF attempts. The WHO wanted to keep everything under wraps, but people are smart, they talk, come to their own determinations. It took less than six months before it became breaking news around the globe.
Nine months on from the rain, not one child was born. No foetus ever developed, even those conceived before the rain. A record year for miscarriages and stillbirths. Regardless of age, regardless of sex, regardless of humanity – we were all infertile. There was something in the rain that day, it mutated us, corrupted us. Now, we are the last generation of humans, but the Saviours counted on that too. Because with nothing left to hope for, we simply destroy ourselves. Anarchy followed, chaos, little fight for survival.
‘The Saviours’ was a name we had given them, but with the language they had given us, their true name translated to ‘judges’. It was clear, to those who were willing to see, that the Saviours deemed earth a better place without us.
KYLE SIMMS 