Alien Zoo

by Deb Stratton

  And that is how I know that I am completely insane. I honestly felt that this was the largest case I would ever be forced to crack. It had a million clues and deadends.

  I went home and decided to go out for a run. I ran past ten-year-old Hannah and her little brother. They were playing with toy cars on their porch. I ran past people whispering in their driveways. I couldn’t shut my brain off. I ran even harder and further than most days until I found an old barn. I sat down next to the fence and looked up.

  Nothing stood out as a certain fact. I had nothing to entertain my thoughts with but rumors and conspiracy theories. My strong attitude was slipping and it was taking a lot of work to keep myself together. I was starting to feel anxious and a little off. I needed a break from this soon and it was time to call it a day. I would talk to Frank and take a day off. I just could not do it anymore. At least right now. At least not today. I was completely done.

  No ships were in sight and I walked home instead of running before the sunset. Sometimes it felt like it would be my last time looking at the world I was in.

  On this day the sun began to sink, and the crickets started to chirp. Another chapter of my existence soon came to a close.

  Chapter Five

  I picked up the coffee pot and the steaming brew filled my cup. Something about the sunlight coming through the window caught my eye.

  The wind was gusting through the cracks making the curtains blow. I wanted to just stand still and breathe it all in. My mind became clearer and I knew that I had to pull myself together to help with the missing cases and the fears that everyone close to me had. I just felt so done.

  I was still anxious but ready to give what energy I had left to others. I lunged with my invisible sword to get my energy flowing. “AHA! Take that!” I yelled. I ran to the window and looked for a ship and walked back to get more coffee. The morning turned out pretty good after all.

  My coffee was good and I would have given anything to add some fresh milk to it. My kitchen was bare. I lived off of peanut butter and crackers most days. There were canned goods available from the church. I wanted to pick some up but left it for the families that had children. So the creamy peanut butter became my staple. Once I had a random jar of crunchy and it wrecked my entire week.

  I kept watching the curtain blow in and out while I sipped it. I began breathing with the movement of the fabric. I wanted to feel them. I wanted to figure them out. And so there it was. The desire came back and the worry left. My blood began pumping through my veins like never before. I was ready to take this on and make the day better for someone.

  I grabbed my notebook. I wrote down everything I could think of that needed to be done. I tried to create a timeline and made notes about them. I had so many unanswered questions.

  I did know that they never landed, that I knew of. I looked for evidence of this multiple times. Even Frank’s findings were not proof enough for me. I think they never landed long enough for us to see them but they must at one time or another. They never desired to interfere with our routines. The one time this was an exception was when the power went out. We still do not know that they caused it but it was a strange coincidence that it occurred at the exact time of their arrival.

  My conclusion was narrowing down. The abductions were linked to them. The goal was unknown. What would they have to gain from taking humans to their world? Where was their world? Why didn’t they land? Maybe they did. My head hurt from thinking about it so much.

  What I did know was this. We had to learn to protect ourselves from them. They were not wanted on Earth and a solid plan would need to be in place to survive.

  I talked with Frank, and we decided to take advantage of the old storage units in town. We would start working immediately to secure them and make them livable without the watchers actually knowing what we were doing. That is… assuming they did not know what we were actually thinking or discussing.

  I spent the rest of my week working nearly twenty hours a day on this project and patrolling the area. There was still no sign of Bella or any of the others that were missing. The good news was that there were no new reports. It was like it all just stopped quickly.

  At the end of the week, I sat in bed waiting for some sort of sign that what I was doing was right. There were over one hundred storage units and if they were modified correctly could house quite a few people quickly. We had no other empty buildings that were close enough together to accomplish what we were trying to do.

  Frank had some portable outdoor toilets delivered and fencing. We would manufacture bunk beds in each unit. Some would hold three sets and others held up to seven. Local women began working on the delivery of blankets and pillows. We had a common area to store food and cook. There was so much work to be done. It did seem like there was plenty of time to accomplish most of it but the not knowing was hard. We had no idea how long we actually had. Their actions above us had always been quiet and indicated they were not hostile. The abductions told a different story.

  Frank’s brother Cory had an idea to connect the units and build a wood-based awning system over the units. This would allow everyone that gathered to be outside and unseen. They would be able to go in and out of the other buildings more freely without being visible. A donation came in for tin and after that we made a plan to connect them the roof could be screwed down quickly. We had access to extra tin from local farms if needed.

  Cory was very tall. His construction skills were amazing, and he rarely needed help with his work. His jobs were finished quickly, and he was just the right person to do the job. One great thing about Cory was the fact that he was completely all in. He was hyped about anything involving space or the Star Wars movies. This type of real life action was more like living his dream. I would have never imagined in all of my years that we would be living this idea that Hollywood portrayed for so long. But I did hear once that movies predict the future. If that was true then an ending always comes. What our ending would be was still undetermined. What we were waiting for was nothing short of a horror film in my opinion.

  In the last two weeks we had grown together as a large family. The plan was growing and changing daily.

  There were multiple farms and isolated houses surrounding our area. This was my first choice for new residents at the units. Help would be limited if an emergency occurred. It was best that they move closer to strengthen the community.

  Everyone started to come together with one common goal and that was to survive.

  I had to get out of bed and find the energy to continue. I had slept dreamless and without waking. I made it to the kitchen to start the coffee and drew some lines in my notebook to make a new list while making my list I realized that there were things that I started missing. Bananas were one of those things. Exported food no longer existed and if we could not grow it locally then it was not available.

  My pen was out of ink of course so I called it quits. I could hear that a storm was coming in. The severe weather would bring a quiet sky and help ease the minds that were concerned about the abductions.

  On my list was a recommendation for the condensing of homes and available population for the watchers to observe. Any homes surrounding the neighborhood and town needed to come into the center for protection. The storage units would serve as the main area for this. The roof would be completed quickly to connect them and the main area for cooking and food storage was soon ready as each building has a common area to share.

  I had a group of men in the construction field preparing to bring in any wood they could find to build the new beds and bunk beds. We would also need areas for children to play and sleep. The portable toilets were also scheduled to be moved as close to the buildings as possible to keep them out of view. Construction of the awnings was also in the works. Cory measured the portable toilets to be sure that they would fit.

  It would be just a few days until we could start moving families in.

  There were two hundred and thirty-seven homes in town,
our zoo. There were about 25 homes outside city limits that would need to move in. I mapped out much more than that but some people were insistent on staying to themselves. Some already had bunkers in place and some just liked the idea of taking on whatever it was that was out there in the skies and coming for us.

  We had four buildings with twenty-seven units in each one. I had on the list to check the temperature controls. If we were able to bring in generators, the air conditioning and heat would work throughout all seasons. The main building with the apartment at the front for a live-in manager would serve as the main kitchen area and gathering place. Not all storage units had this type of luxury. Other units had outer doors and no living quarters. We were lucky to have an owner that stored temperature controlled goods instead of offering dry, hot units.

  The main building had a basement underneath and also a loft area for storage. Years ago, when Shannon had the idea to build those fancy units I gave him a hard time and I thanked him for thinking big. The basement was perfect for staying cool or warm without utilities. We would need to discuss the building of beds or bring in sleeping supplies for that area as well.

  I was fortunate to have been offered the front sleeping apartment to monitor the safety of others. There we two separate bedrooms and I would share it with Frank. People always asked about Frank and I. I had no interest in dating someone like him. Not that he was a bad person, but he lied to me once. He told me he liked me and forgot to mention that he was living with another girl.

  That is unforgivable in my world. We were only work partners and there was no reason at all not to mention that when asking me out. So it is what it is. I kept my life simple and stayed single. My best friend and neighbor was Angel. When you have a good friend that’s just about all you need. Her home is not too far from mine, and she would be one of the first to move in the storage units from my street.

  Angel had a family of five, so they would get a larger unit. She has the most crafty mind so moving is a major decorating event for her. The unit will be the most amazing out of all of them I am sure.

  I had the same ideas. I packed a few books and my favorite little trinkets. I needed something to feel like home.

  Each dot represented a bunk bed. The S represented the sick-bay. A necessary place to keep anyone ill that would be at risk for spreading it around quickly. The X areas would be for police officers and anyone protecting the buildings.

  The plan was coming into place very well. Building A would easily sleep over one hundred people. We would meet to discuss this and put a hold on the other buildings for others that could potentially travel this way to stay with us.

  Welcome to the Zoo, the sign would say. Mid-Missouri’s finest storage unit accommodations. It was almost like an Amish Prison.

  As my list got longer, I figured I had better head over to check on the progress and get things moving. It was only ten in the morning and my mind was already exhausted.

  Chapter Six

  I arrived to find Frank talking with Shannon. Many others were around dropping off goods and such. It looked like an entire city was being built. I still felt that this was the best idea we could have followed through on. The storm was looming off in the east. I could smell the rain. I hoped it would stay away just a bit longer.

  “Hey Fynn, you think they are up there knowing what we are doin’?” Frank said.

  I laughed a little and said, “Probably.”

  I knew that if they were able to find us or place us on earth, watch us and take us then they may have some idea that we were doing something new.

  “You better watch it. You might be sittin’ there in your pajamas when the laser beams come down.” Frank continued on with his Alien sarcasm.

  That was OK. I knew that he was joking but was burnt out on the Alien jokes. I had a burning desire to point my rifle at the sky and shoot every single one of them down. I wanted to talk to them and ask them what the heck they were doing. I wanted to know why they thought they had the right to come down and frighten good people. Then I realized how dumb that sounded to even think that. Of course they did not care about us. We were just ants in their ant farm.

  It was all just part of an angry phase I was going through. I finally learned to trust humans again after many years of lies and cheating, as soon I pulled myself together this had to start happening. There must be a reason for it all though. There is a reason for everything, right?

  The skies were still quiet above us. It was hard sometimes to have a conversation or get anything done without stopping every few minutes to observe it. The waiting was exciting and frightening at the same time. It was similar to a tornado warning. I always wanted something to happen but then, on the other hand, I didn’t. So I stood there. The storm was close and even though we had a million things to do I secretly wished for a storm that would blow in a big ship. Maybe this was a coverup for them. Back to my plan.

  Summer would be coming to an end soon and with that brings the school season. The units would be filled with the outer houses, single residents first and then families on a volunteer basis until we were ready to go into full protection mode.

  We agreed to keep the closest units in the middle for families with young children. It would be easier with the bathroom situation. The bathrooms were located in the apartment area in the front. Any senior citizens would be up front as well, and they would not be able to use bunk beds so the units were going to be adjusted to meet their needs.

  Some units still had belongings in them from renters and if we were unable to make contact we labeled the boxes as we went and placed them downstairs if they wanted the items they would have to come to pick them up. The odds were that they would be living there and the items could have some use to them at a later time.

  The most difficult decisions coming in were regarding pets. So many people had dogs and cats. The birds and hamsters were easy but dogs not so much. They would need to be let outside and that could put everyone at risk.

  So as the old saying goes, “Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters”, I brought it up. If dog owners were insisting on having their pets they would have to come up with a solution to the outside area. It could be kennels or a covered area for going out to do their jobs. I decided to bring it up and then leave it alone until the rest of the moving in was ironed out.

  I had an idea and raced to the patrol car to drive out to the farm families.

  “I will catch up with you all in a bit. I am running out to Ruby’s.” I said quickly. Standing around talking about all of the dogs and Aliens was pointless at the moment. I wanted to keep moving forward. That meant getting the farmers that were leaving their homes to get ready.

  They would need to start packing and provide a list of any special needs they had. Even though we were blessed enough to have our power grids running and some normality, stores were at bare minimums with most high demand goods. Store owners were working for free and money was not a goal any longer. It was useless. Medicine was one of the most popular items.

  It was all so complicated. Local radio was broadcasting some information. The radio information was limited and only available when the owners were at the towers.

  Satellite TV was non-existent so we relied on local broadcasts. It was like the 1970s all over again. Our troops stayed on our ground. The White House was no longer conducting official business that we knew of. The complications of the closures were growing. Federal and State prison systems were closed.

  Correction officers and employees were once considered essential employees. That meant they worked whether there was pay or not. Once the gas became a real shortage they quit going to work. The Governor started a release program. One of our citizens filled us in on the details. Drug offenders were let out first. Every hour there were more. After the non-violent offenders were released the violent offenders were released back into what was left of our society. That contributed to the high crime rates.

  In our town we were lucky to not really be impact
ed by this. We had some come and go in town but most locals were just locals. Outsiders were easily recognized.

  The day that the internet went into remission the banks were no longer able to issue debit cards. Credit cards were gone. Money was becoming obsolete and bartering was taking over.