Humans

Sometimes I have this dream.

I am an animal, I don't know where or when I am. The earth looks younger than it does now. The air feels clear, the plants greener and the sky bigger.
I'm in a small herd.We browse in the grass on a meadow, hidden between a line of bushes and some hills The sun is keeping us warm, we have plenty of water and food. We are secure and have everything we need. Bliss is what some would call it.

Then we hear them. They are already close, creeping behind some bushes.These creatures are different from us, different from every other living thing. They are naked, sweaty, hairless, expect for a few patches. They have barely enough flesh to cover their bones, which are mostly visible through the skin. They are the only things, that walk on only two legs. Their movements are weird and unlike ours.

They are Hunters, killers.

Our herd start running. We know what will happen next. They will separate one of us from the safety of our group. I run with the rest of my kind. But i am not strong enough, i fall further back through the trashing bodies and get pushed to the outside. All the while the Hunters cut off escape paths. They are close, so I run the only way they have left me. I even leave them behind. But they are there. They always are. The Hunters can outrun every living organism. They don't make your death quick and without pain, like crocodiles or cheetahs.

I run. And i get far. So far, that they become barely visible. But they are there, they always will be. nobody ever saw a hunter stop running. No matter how far you get, how much you leave them behind, they will stay on the horizon as if they were painted on it.
As i get further, i get tired. My heart and lungs burn. My legs are swollen and throbbing, they can barely carry my weight and they finally give in. I collapse. Exhausted, not able to move any more, except for an occasional twitching of a leg, I lie on the ground waiting for my death.

They surround me. Those bulging eyes, the small noses, and that ugly naked skin start inching closer. I feel the first sharpened stick pierce my skin and enter my body. After that my whole world is filled with horrible pain. I am bleeding and my instinctive screeching has almost completely torn my vocal chords. They carry me away to one of their camps.

They sit there in big groups, some of them wear skins of animals like me.

I am not even dead yet, but I wish I was. The hunters start skinning me, ignoring all of my agony and pathetic, powerless resistance. I feel the knives go through my skin like burning blades, separating it from the flesh.
Before I wake up screaming I am thrown into boiling water to drown.