Evolution

by Jim Reilly

  After he arrived, Steven walked onto the track at his former high school and stretched for a little bit before starting to jog laps around the oval track. He liked the track at night because it was well lit and the lights didn’t automatically turn off until nine o’clock. It was a soft rubber surface, easy on his tired legs after the grueling practices he endured to keep his ranking. He also liked that no one else was on the track, so he could relax and comfortably get his run in. During wrestling practice, the coaches got all over him and his teammates, and they all endured long practices to be on top of their game. This was the time on the track when he enjoyed a period of peace and quiet. It was even more enjoyable tonight because of the nice clear sky with little wind, and unseasonably warm air. Tonight the sky was full of stars with no clouds, except the lights on one aircraft flying high in the sky.

  Steven had just finished three laps of the eight he planned to run on the 400-meter track when a bright flash that lasted about a second startled him. He immediately looked up, suspecting that one of the large lights on the light towers around the athletic facility had blown out. Steven continued his run, knowing that his mother would be waiting for him back home and that he needed to finish up. After he took a few more steps, he started to hear a slight humming sound and then noticed a breeze start to pick up. A few moments later, another light, even brighter than before, lit up all around him as he put his hand up to cover his eyes. Ten seconds later, the light was gone. All that was left on the track was a set of keys for the Moran family pick-up truck and a half-filled bottle of water.

  Realizing he was lying down, Steven figured that he must have passed out while running. He believed that he must be weak from the constant dieting he did to keep his weight down, and he must have passed out when he overexerted himself. He then picked himself up slowly until he could stand. Even though he was still dizzy, immediately he recognized that he was not on the track at the high school and then noticed that he was not alone, because he started to hear voices in the large, dimly lit room. As he came to his senses, he noticed there were lots of voices, all in a panic, with some yelling and some crying.

  One person with Hispanic features grabbed his shoulders and said, “¿Dónde estoy?” (Where am I?) “¿Cómo puedo llegar a casa?” (How do I get home?)

  Another man joined them and yelled, “Où nous sommes?” (Where are we?)

  He pushed them away and started to turn to run when a woman pulled on his arm to say, “Что является этим местом?” (What is this place?)

  Steven pulled his arm away and said, “I don’t know what you are talking about! I can’t understand you.” He tried to run away, but there was nowhere to run because the large room was filled with hundreds of people. Next to him he saw a man of Asian descent wearing a karate outfit with a black belt on it trying to speak to a woman sitting on the floor.

  He said, “誰がこれをした？”(Who did this?)

  The woman, unable to understand him, just mumbled, “Tanrı lütfen bana yardım etmek..” (God, please help me.)

  Then they were joined by another Asian man who said, “我为什么在这里和我什么时候可以回家？” (Why am I here, and when can I go home?)

  The only thing Steven knew was that they were all just as confused and scared as he was. Steven wondered where these people came from, how he got there, and where “there” was. He thought that he had to find someone he understood and yelled out, “Does anyone understand me? Does anyone speak English?”

  Off in the distance he heard, “I can understand you.”

  From another direction came, “Where are you? Raise your hand. I will come to you.”

  As he saw a man and a woman signaling as they moved toward him, he continued to yell out, “Does anyone else speak English? Please? Anyone?”

  Others started to respond.

  Then Steven turned around at the sound of someone running up to him from behind. “Over here! I’m an American. My name is Mark Roth. Do you know where we are?”

  Steven said, “I don’t know. One minute I was running at the high school, and the next minute I remember waking up here. I don’t understand what is going on because these people are definitely not from Kansas.”

  A puzzled Mark reacted to Steven, “What do you mean, Kansas? We’re not in Phoenix anymore? I was hiking down Camelback Mountain trying to finish before it got dark. How long was I out?”

  Steven just looked around the room as he replied, “I just don’t know. I just don’t know anything.”

  Soon others gathered with them, including Marcus Latterri, a drill sergeant from Fort McClellan, Alabama; Tim Parks, a construction worker from Chicago with well-defined muscles; Matt Schaeffer, a national-caliber long distance runner and Rhodes Scholar from Portland; Cynthia Moss, a dancer touring with the Philadelphia Dance Troop; and Janet Livingston, an aerobics instructor from Charlotte, North Carolina. Before long, even more people were gathered with them as the room full of people started to congregate into groups of people who were able to communicate with each other at least somewhat. In each group, the people were relieved they could talk to each other, but they looked frightened that they could not figure out why they were there. Many of the people were bilingual and started to communicate with other groups as they tried to get information. One such person, Gabriel Peters, volunteered, “I am multilingual. I can go around the room to gather any information I can get,” then walked off quickly to do so.

  Many of the groups even divided into subgroups, such the English-speaking group, which held Americans, Canadians, Australians, and people from the United Kingdom. Everyone shoved and pushed their way towards their countrymen. As people made their way, Steven got knocked to the ground, and the person who hit him reached down to help him up.

  “I’m sorry. Let me help you up. Can you please tell me if someone is playing a joke on me?”

  Steven replied, “Hi, I’m Steven. I hope this is a joke because I have this bad feeling this is no joke.”

  Then Mark, who also helped Steven up, looked at the man and said, “I am Mark. Aren’t you D’Shawn Williams? You play wide receiver for the San Diego Chargers and almost set the single-season reception record last year in your rookie year!”

  D’Shawn just shook his head, looking around the room. “I hope this shit doesn’t make me miss practice because my coach is a ballbuster.”

  Mark said, “I hope you make practice, and we all get out of here.” Eventually the three just stood there as they looked at other people who passed them by with looks of anger, nervousness, and confusion.

  Noticing that the group was totally disorganized, Matt Schaeffer, who had been a natural leader most of his life after being a class president and captain of the track teams through school, spoke up: “Does anyone know how we got here, other than there was a bright light and then you woke up here?”

  People shook their heads or said no.

  “Does anyone else have motion sickness?”

  Many indicated yes.

  “Then maybe we’re on some kind of boat,” he suggested, and some people agreed.

  Steven asked, “How many of us are there?”

  “Good question,” said Matt. “Can anyone make a count?”

  Marcus Latterri, a former drill sergeant, volunteered to do it. When he was done, he yelled, “There are 149 people in our English-speaking group.”

  “Good, that was great,” Matt said to Marcus. He asked the group, “Is there anyone who is bilingual so we can communicate with the other groups?” A few hands came up, and Matt sent them off to the other groups to find out what they could.

  Three hours later, Marcus called everyone over and said, “Gabriel was good enough to gather some information. He has spoken to the other groups, and this is what we have so far. First, no one has any idea why we are here. Second, there does not seem to be any door to get in or out. But whoever put us here got us in here somehow. Third, after questioning everyone to see what we might have in common, there
seems to be no common denominator other than most are in good physical shape. There are athletes, bodybuilders, outdoorsmen, and fitness instructors. No one knows the reason for that. Also, there are 552 people trapped here, with ages that range between 19 and 27. But none of this means anything until someone comes out to tell why they put us here.”

  Steven asked, “Does anyone know what kind of room this is?”

  Matt replied, “As you can see, the floor and the walls are very smooth with a metal I have not seen before. We think this rules out this being an oil tanker. There are what look like animal troughs in each corner, but this does not look like a place to store livestock. The center of the room has an area that looks like a large drain, but when you look into it there is a green liquid about two feet down. The whole room is completely clean, so maybe it is used for transporting animals for medical purposes, but no one is sure. We began having some people tap on the walls to see if we get some sort of a reaction. So stay put, and we will let you know if we hear anything.”

  D’Shawn sat along one of the walls with Steven, Gabriel, and Mark while the four looked around. D’Shawn shook his head and said, “I don’t know what the story is for you guys, but I signed a large, long-term contract for a lot of money. These kidnappers are holding me for my money. This has got to be about money. Right now they are contacting my family and team to secure a large ransom.”

  “That makes sense for you, but it does not explain why they would want me. I’m not worth anything. My family just barely gets by off our dairy farm,” Steven said.

  Mark speculated, “Since I’m not anywhere near being wealthy, either, I’m confused, too. Maybe we’re being ransomed as a whole, and the United Nations or our country is being forced to pay up?”

  As soon as Mark stopped speaking, the wall they were leaning on started very lightly to vibrate.

  “Something is happening!” Steven yelled.

  Everyone in the room stood up as the vibration intensified, all looking around the room for the source of the vibration. As people pulled back in their groups, Cynthia screamed out, “The room is getting bigger!” She pointed to the ceiling.

  Many felt their heartbeats accelerate with fear and anxiety. Some panicked, some tried to hide, and some ran, but there was nowhere to go. The relief that they would find out why they were there was overwhelmed by the fear.

  Noticing how frightened everyone was starting to get, Gabriel offered, “Listen, I know that everyone is scared, but we should not let our fear overtake us! My father would always tell me that fear is like a disease, that if you let it, it can devour your whole body and render you hopeless. But if you fight the fear, then you have a better chance to overcome what frightens you. I always trust what my father said.”

  Very slowly, the ceiling rose, and they were able to see a walkway above the room that resembled a guard’s walkway above a prison yard. The walkway had dim silhouettes of people guarding them that went around the whole room even as the ceiling was still rising. When the ceiling with the lighting fixtures embedded in it reached the top, the walkway lit up. The silhouettes were not Somali pirates or Columbian drug lords or any potential kidnapper anyone thought would be standing there. No, they were different.

  Steven stood there looking up at beings he would never have expected to see anywhere but a Hollywood science-fiction movie. They were holding what looked like large floodlights. He quickly noticed that very few of them were similar. Some had long necks, while others had short arms. Some had large foreheads with scaly skin, and some had dark curly hair covering most of their exposed body with eyes set deeply in their heads. Many in the room started to scream and frantically searched for a place furthest away from the creatures on the walkway. Bedlam ensued as some people ran and screamed, while others stood there frozen in total disbelief.

  As people frantically fought to find a place to hide in this room without any place to hide, in walked beings they all recognized but couldn’t believe were standing above them. These were beings they had seen almost every day for the last three and a half years in the newspapers, on television, and the Internet. There had been magazine stories with in-depth descriptions and 3D models. Now, right in front of them, were live Ancient Visitors. They had last been seen alive way back in man’s ancient past. The two fossilized beings had been buried over two hundred thousand years ago in Ethiopia. When people thought about them they thought of about dinosaurs and woolly mammoths, something from the distant past. But now there they were standing and peering down at them.

  They had large heads, but their eyes looked disproportionably large with sunken ears and noses. The color of their skin was gray with a hint of green. A fabric that looked like suede covered their bodies and long limbs. Each had a different style, unlike in the movies, where all the aliens were naked or wearing the same outfit. Each of them had subtle differences in their physical features and in some cases major differences in how they maneuvered their facial muscles. Their heights and body shapes were each slightly different, while some looked stronger and others looked quicker.

  The one that seemed in the lead signaled over to the beings holding the floodlights and guarding the people below as if to begin something. Some of the guards had a strap with some sort of electronics around their necks or a harness, while others had the same type of strap around their torso. The moment they were signaled, some of the electronics started to glow, and then the guards let out a roar as if they were in pain. Many captives screamed while others frantically ran through the sea of people, not knowing what the creatures’ intentions were.

  Cynthia Moss and Janet Livingston joined Mark, Steven, and D’Shawn, and they tried to form a defensive circle as they looked up the wall at the creatures that surrounded them. Then the guards on the wall manning the large floodlights turned them on, all twenty of them. Out came a light aimed at one of the people on the floor, but the light seemed strange, the light stream denser than a beam from a flashlight.

  The first person the light was aimed at started to scream, and her body started to twitch uncontrollably as the people around her ran away in fear. Soon the other guards manning the large lights targeted other people. The first person targeted began to rise off the ground, still twitching, and was lifted high in the air over the guard walk. She was then handed off to two guards with smaller devices hanging over their shoulders. They took her, still floating in the air, into one of the two large openings up above. People on the ground heard her scream as she disappeared into the opening, and multicolored lights shot out in all directions.

  As the guards went around the room capturing people, Mark, Steven, D’Shawn, Cynthia, and Janet tightened their circle as the guards moved closer to where their group stood. Mark yelled out, “Maybe if we hook arms they can’t pick up all of us at the same time.”

  The five grabbed hold of each other as tightly as they could. Janet screamed, “What the hell are they doing with us?” as one of the guards took aim at them. The guard grabbed hold of Mark, but they were still holding on to each other. All the guard could do was pull them up about ten feet in the air before he lowered them.

  Mark, Steven, D’Shawn, Cynthia, and Janet enjoyed a small victory and briefly felt the elation of a catch for a first down or a wrestler’s winning a point or a basketball player’s making a basket to tie the game, and it was all just as short-lived as the guard reached into his pocket for what looked like a ball and threw it at Mark. The ball flew through the air, and as it got closer to Mark it started to glow bright orange and emit sparks. It hit Mark directly in the chest, and he went down as if all the life in his body had disappeared. This broke the circle, and a couple of the guards aimed at the rest of the group.

  Steven was still locked with D’Shawn’s arm as he was pulled in the air, and then another guard captured D’Shawn as he was falling to the floor. Steven tried to reach again for D’Shawn, but he could not reach out. All he could feel was all his muscles twitching uncontrollably. He remembered what it felt like when
he hurt his back during a wrestling match and the trainer working on him used an electrical stimulation device. This had the same feeling, except he was experiencing it all over his body.

  He was lifted over the guards’ walkway where two creatures that looked more like the monsters in a computer game than someone he would come face-to-face with brought him in through the large opening into another room. Inside were containers the size of bathtubs, lined up in rows. Steven saw that there were hundreds of them. Each had tubes and some sort of electronics around the sides. As he was being moved to a tub, he noticed the others being set into theirs.

  People were struggling and screaming as the guards and the aliens who had visited Earth before submerged them into a blue gel or some sort of thick liquid. Once they were submerged in the tub, the gel emitted multi-colored lights before the aliens moved onto the next tub. Steven then realized the guards had stopped moving, and he was being placed in a tub fully clothed. He felt a cool sensation with pins and needles throughout his body pulsating harder and harder. He feared this might be some sort of food processor to prepare him for the Ancient Visitors.

  As his head was about to be pushed into the blue gel, Steven was terrified, and he thought about his family, his friends, but especially Brenda. He would give anything to see her again, even if it were for only a moment. Steven vainly tried to struggle as the gel slowly entered his nose and mouth. He then felt nothing and slowly drifted into unconsciousness.