"Who Knows..." by Ray Valen

I don’t know when it started. I don’t know, I can’t remember. I think I was in a shopping mall, or some place public. I’m sure there were people around, I think. Maybe a street, I think. I’m not sure. I don’t know; I don’t remember.

Either way, it doesn’t matter. It was over pretty quick. And now we were in this cave; me and Bob. I think his name is Bob. I named him Bob. He doesn’t say much. He has a beard; a nice full curly black beard. He hasn’t shaven in a while. He has similar hair on his head; a nice full curly black head. He looks like a bear almost. He is mute I think. But maybe there’s just not much to talk about. We’re in a cave, and we can’t get out. Well, we can get out, but we don’t want to. We came in here and blocked the entrance. It was the only way, there’s not much choice.

Those things are out there. I don’t know what they do, where they came from or why they are here. I think maybe they were aliens once. Was a decent enough conclusion I suppose. Not much way for me to tell, but it doesn’t matter. I’m alive, and I don’t think anybody else is.

Those things weren’t evil or bad or anything. But they caused people to change. They caused animals to change. They caused anything to change, really. I don’t know how. Or maybe I do. It was eye contact. If you looked at it, and it looked at you, you would change. And it would change. And you’d both be different. And then, if you looked at someone else, and they looked at you, you’d both be different again. And after everybody had looked at everybody a couple of times and everybody had looked back a couple of times, then there was quite a lot of different things walking around. But if you hadn’t looked at anything yet, then you couldn’t cause anybody else to change who hadn’t changed yet. It was weird.

I don’t know. I don’t understand it. I don’t really think about it anymore. It’s been a long time. All I know now is that we were getting low on supplies, old Bob and I.

We had been out a few times. The trick was to watch the ground. Don’t look around. If things looked at you, and you didn’t look back at things then you wouldn’t change. It was a good plan. It kept us alive, old Bob and me. I think there was someone else with us, but he changed I think. I don’t know what happened to him. It was a long time ago.

Sometimes you could sneak a peak at things that hadn’t seen you yet. It was getting pretty weird. Each change would only be small. But after a million changes things were starting to get weird. I once saw a walking toadstool. The world looked like somebody had put children’s colouring books and some strange sci-fi together. There were trees with wings that would plant themselves in different places every now and then. If you found something without eyes you could look at it for a while. I once found a little round ball with butterfly wings. It didn’t have eyes so I tried taking it with me to the cave as a pet but it died after a few minutes in there. I don’t know why.

- - -

We just went for supplies. There’s an old supermarket nearby where we can sometimes find stuff. We found a woman. She doesn’t say much either. But we can look at her, and she can look at us. So we’ve brought her back to the cave. Some things followed us. We managed to lure them into a side cavern of the cave and seal it off. We have less space now. Not that we do much anyway. And we have a new person. That’s good.

I’ve named her Claire.

- - -

Bob looked at Claire. Claire looked at Bob. Bob and Claire changed. They speak now, but I can’t understand them. I managed to get them into the side cavern with all the other things.

- - -

I’m lonely. I’m alone. I want Bob and Claire back. I’m tired of feeling alone. I’ve gone to fetch supplies three times on my own already. Maybe...

- - -

I’ve opened up the side cavern. Bob and Claire are still there. They haven’t changed. I found out it was because the things in the caves don’t have eyes. It’s too dark in there for them to see so they don’t have eyes.

I looked at Claire and I think she said something to me. I think she said I’m dead. She said I’ve been dead a very long time. She said I’m a ghost and that everything changing so much is because it’s my mind trying to explain evolution to me. I think I said “Oh.”