by Laura Watson
“Now, humans are only beasts to the Grays... as you saw first hand. They see them as food, to be penned, killed and eaten.” Sarah looked at Mikel, her face stricken with terror, “It is their fate,” he said gently, in response to the forming questions in her mind. “They killed their gifts, and, Sarah, you must remember, that all fleshly beings have predators. These are the predators of humans. It is sanctified. It is justified.”
“It is the fate of all Humans. The Earth's Harvest is near.”
Mikel looked up quickly at his overhead control panel. “We have company,” he stated. “It is my Father,”
Adam called from the back of the ship.
David of Crios
A large company of ships approached Mikel's small craft. There was a massive ship flanked by an assortment of smaller craft, each one of the smaller ships dwarfed Mikel's small ship. They were all shaped differently, looking like, to Sarah, some of the old pipe fittings that her father kept in his garage.
As she watched the Flotilla's approach, she saw that the ships flanking the massive center ship began to join with the center ship, interlocking to form an even larger craft. A voice came from the control panel's speaker and Mikel adjusted the control, tuning in the Flotilla's Commander. Adam stood beside of Sarah, watching the Flotilla, his face a mask of anticipation and mingled awe. The sight was awesome to see, they all felt tiny in Mikel's small ship as they saw the massive Flotilla looming ahead of them.
“Vessel approaching,” the Commander's voice called over the speaker, “keep your distance.” Mikel pressed the call button and responded, “we will remain at the safe distance.” “You have my son on board.” It was not a question, but a statement. Mikel waited. “We will come alongside and retrieve him.” the Commander's voice sounded a few minutes later. “Hold your position.” It wasn't a request. Mikel didn't need to respond. He adjusted the controls and they hovered there, in the middle of space as one of the strangely shaped craft detached itself from the main body of the Flotilla and raced towards his small ship.
The approaching vessel flashed a sequence of lights, indicating, Mikel told the observers, Sarah, Adam, and now the fifty small children gathered in the pilot area of Mike's ship who were watching the approach, that it intended to come along side. Mikel released the latching equipment as the U-shaped craft slid silently alongside.
They felt Mikel's ship lurch forward, Adam grabbed the back of Sarah's seat to steady himself, the children grabbing hold of Adam and each other to keep from being pitched forward. The Commander's ship secured itself firmly to Mikel's as he deftly performed the docking sequence on his instrument panel. The large hatch on the side of the ship slid open with the practiced precision that only Mikel could administer, and Adam's father stepped on board.
He stood tall, at seven feet. He could have been Adam's clone, the resemblance was so strong. His dark hair, his large dark eyes, and strong rugged features were identical to Adam's. There was a presence about him, though, that Adam lacked. It was an air of authority and age, of wisdom and intention. A grimness that had settled in his eyes and around the corners of his mouth that set it in a firm determined line. His faced changed as soon as he saw his son.
The grimness was replaced by a radiant smile, like the sun emerging from a storm cloud, his face lit up with joy. “Adam!” he shouted and ran to his son, his arms outstretched. “Finally, I see your face again!”
Adam rushed to his father's arms and they embraced tightly for a few precious moments, the long years between them vanishing.
“We were on our way to get you back” the
Commander told his son when he was able to speak again. “We were only able to obtain the coordinates to this star system and have been systematically checking each planet here for you. We have visited three hundred of the four thousand planets here, looking for you.” We knew you were alive, I knew you were still alive, he stated firmly, I felt it in my mind and in my heart.” His hard eyes teared up with relief and happiness.
“Father, I am overjoyed to see you,” Adam
replied, choking back sobs of joy. “I have much to tell you.” “I am sure that you do, my son, but first, I must thank your host for your safe delivery.”
The Commander introduced himself to Mikel. “I am David Houels, from Crios, Adam's father and Commander of the Flotilla that you see before you. I humbly thank you for your assistance in the delivery of my son to me.” David knelt down on one knee before Mikel's small frame, placing his hand on Mikel's small shoulder, engulfing it with his large hand. “Do not thank me,” Mikel replied, “Thank the Highest, I was only compelled to do this by Him.”
“He has my thanks,” David replied, “as do you.”
They stood that way, David kneeling on one knee, his hand placed on Mikel's shoulder, for a half of an hour, while they conversed telepathically, on a channel that only they could tune into in their minds. Meanwhile, Adam talked to the children and explained to them what the Flotilla was and told them they were all going to be going there to return to his home on Crios.
“We get to go to Crios?!” Cherish asked
excitedly, “Oh, Adam, I can't wait to see it!” Cherish loved Adam's stories of Crios and had often imagined herself there on the tiny green world while they sat in the holding pen in the meat plant. She never thought that she would actually ever see it!
Cherish knew what was happening at the meat plant, although she was only four years old, she knew that the Grays were eating the children they took with them when they came to their enclosure. She knew that one day, they would pick her and she would never see Adam or hear about his wonderful home, again. Now she was free and she hugged Adam's legs tightly, her vivid violet colored eyes glowing with an incandescent light as she happily gazed up at him.
Mikel was invited by the Commander, to come over to the Flotilla to look around before continuing on his journey to Sarah's planet. Mikel declined, regretfully, informing David that he was scheduled to report back to his own Commander, Serel, with news of the replacement Grays he had been sent to find.
Mikel was sorely disappointed not to be able to tour David's fantastic Flotilla, it was so incredibly fantastic. His duties were clear though, and after seeing their guests safely back to the U-shaped craft and watching its' return to the main body of the Flotilla, Mikel and Sarah resumed their long journey to Earth, and their former conversation about the Grays.
David had decided to go to the Gray's planet, against Mikel's warning, to help the people still imprisoned there. “You cannot interfere,” Mikel warned him. “You know the precepts, the same way we all know them. You cannot involve yourself.” David told Mikel something then, that Mikel could not argue against. “Mikel,” David said softly, as they conversed silently, his hand on Mikel's small shoulder, “I am being compelled to help them. I must go.” Mikel understood, hadn't he just been compelled to help Adam, David's own son?
“Take care that you do not let them know that you have Adam and the other children with you,” Mikel replied. “They will not be going anywhere near that planet again,” David replied firmly, “They will be returning to Crios in one of the attached ships, flanked on all sides by some of my best fighters, the remainder of my Flotilla will go to Kryox and save as many humans as we can.” Mikel wished him well on his journey there and success on his mission, David returned the blessing in kind and they parted minds.
Sarah and Mikel sat in his small ship, watching as the smaller ships detached from the main body and assumed their former flanking positions. The Flotilla grew steadily smaller in the viewing window as Mikel's ship raced towards Earth. “We were talking about The Harvest weren't we?”, Mikel broke the silence after a couple of hours. Sarah nodded her head, her mind still on Adam and the small children that had just left.
“I hate the Grays,” Sarah said suddenly. “They're horrible and I hope they all die.” She had been thinking about all of the people still stranded there, milling around aimlessly, watched by the Guardians and
being eaten by the Grays. “Why should they perish?” Mikel replied. “It was through no fault of theirs that their sun died. Doesn't every life have a right to survive? To fight for it's existence?”
“Why then, don't the Grays deserve the same right? Mikel looked into Sarah's green eyes, “Their practices, you find revolting, their consumption of human meat, but aren't humans just as disgusting to other beings in their choices of sustenance? It is not for us to condemn or permit. We can only tell you that they have justified it. Only the Highest can judge them, Sarah. They call to the Highest, just as humans do, just as all beings do.”
“So you're saying,” Sarah asked, “that God lets them eat people?” “I did not say that,” Mikel quickly replied. “I said, it is for the Highest to allow or condemn. Just because they do it, doesn't mean it is permitted...or condemned,” he added. “God will reveal all things to us, when He decides to, not when we decide that He should.”
“Do you understand, Sarah?” Mikel asked. “Not really, Mikel, no,” she answered, a frown furrowing her brow.
“Before The Harvest comes,” Mikel said,
“Follow my instructions.” You must tell people what you have seen, what I am instructing you to do. You can survive the Harvest, Sarah, and you must survive it.
Some humans will listen, some will hear you and believe. There are still a number of humans who care for animals, who cherish their gifts. They must be spared the Harvest. The Highest would not have them destroyed. It is for them that you must do this... for them.”
Mikel and Sarah traveled for days through the endless reaches of space. Mikel talked to her for hours at times and at other times they remained silent, each lost in their own thoughts as the planets and galaxies and stars came and went in the wide viewing window of Mikel's ship.
The small blue planet Earth finally became visible and Sarah sighed when she saw the tiny blue orb, happy and sad to be returning home. She took the bio suit off and hung it on the panel in the back of the ship. She saw that her skin had thousands of tiny scratches from the unfamiliar material.
The gray dirt that Mikel had rubbed on it was all over her clothes, her hands and her face. It swirled from the suit as she took it off, but didn't remain suspended in the ship's atmosphere, it settled onto the bare surfaces of the ship and onto her. It smelled so gross, she thought, as she put the garment away.
She seated herself once again in the small chair to Mikel's right and listened to the soft hum of the ship's powerful engine as it raced along, through the starry heavens, towards Earth.
Mikel gave Sarah a long list of instructions to relay to her fellow humans. “You must stay inside,” he said. “The Harvest lasts for four months, no more and no less. Do not go outside during this time or you will be captured and you will be killed.
Be silent. Do not let the Grays detect you or they will put suggestions in your mind to go outside. Stay quiet.
Stay hidden. You may walk around at night but use only natural flames for light, they can't see natural flames.
They can smell electricity, they can smell batteries. Do not use either.
Make sure your thoughts are your own thoughts, not ones they have implanted.
Be good to your animals. Your GOD put them here to help and protect you. The Book of Genesis from your Bible clearly tells all mankind this. They would and probably already have risked their lives for you.
And the last instruction is this, believe in the unbelievable. There are many things and places and times that we know nothing of ...and only the ignorant think that they know everything.”
Part III
Captives
Laura sat on board the alien's ship, her wrists and ankles bound with a clear band. What the bands were made of, she couldn't begin to figure out. Ralph, the man sitting to her right, said quietly, almost in a whisper, “I think that it is some kind of alloy.” There wasn't any need to be quiet, the alien Grays didn't seem to notice if they talked, screamed or whispered.
The material wasn't plastic or acrylic, although it seemed to possess the properties of both. It was a very flexible material, but very tough. Laura had tried, as millions of the others had, to bite through the bands at her wrists. She bit it until her mouth bled, the small droplets falling on her pink blouse, dotting it in a crazy polka dot pattern, but didn't make a scratch on the strange material. It sealed and self-tightened when the Grays threw it on her wrists and ankles. The clear bands tightened snugly without restricting the blood flow.
Laura looked around. There were hundreds of thousands of people on board the massive ship with her.
People from all walks of life, of every race, color and religion. They were all in the same condition as she was...fucked.
Laura and Ralph had been among the first
thousand captured. They had been on that ship for two weeks. The massive ship swayed up and down and from side to side. From the ground, these ships looked as if they were absolutely motionless, up here, however, it was a different picture. Everyone had puked. The ship reeked of vomit, piss, shit and blood.
The alien Grays didn't seem to notice the smell either, or care. They walked back and forth on a platform that was suspended high above their captives.
They carried their tails in their clawed hands. Tails with barbs on the ends of them. Laura had seen them use one of the barbs on a woman who had inch wormed her way over to one of the hatches. The woman fell over on her side and writhed around, screaming and puking cursing the Gray motherfucker before she finally lost consciousness.
There was a bruise on her upper arm where the poisonous barb touched her and it rapidly swelled to the size of a grapefruit. The woman screamed, “It burns! It burns!” as she writhed in agony. Just as rapidly as the swelling appeared, it vanished after about a half an hour. She didn't inch towards the hatch anymore.
There were a lot of people in shock. They stared out with vacant eyes, at the throng of people gathered there. There were a lot of people already dead, sitting side by side with the living. These carcasses would be thrown from the ship before departure. Until then, their rotting carcasses would remain where they were.
The people sitting next to these fortunate dead tried to move as far away from them as they could, but they were tightly packed in that ship. The dead were being covered by the living with any available article of clothing that could be ripped or shredded off of their own bodies. There were hundreds of these sad looking mounds of human remains scattered among the living.
Some draped with scarves, hats, or shredded coats.
A few women had managed to get their blouses torn enough to get them past their shackles and had used them to cover their dead neighbors. “I think I would rather be them right now,” Ralph said when he saw Laura looking at a couple that had just died from withdrawals of their prescription antidepressants.
“Pretty shitty way to die,” Laura said, recalling their contorted faces, grimacing with pain, the shivering, the shaking, the vomiting, and their final death throes,“but, I guess they're better off than we are, huh?”
Through the dirty gray light of the ship, Laura surveyed her surroundings. This ship seemed to be designed for only one purpose, catching humans. There were people everywhere. They had been placed in neat rows of a thousand, from what she could see. The ship was massive, but everywhere Laura looked, and as far as she could see down the enormous room, there were people, all sitting with their shackled wrists on their knees, or laying on their sides in the only position they could, the fetal position.
Troughs ran down the length of the massive room. They were placed in between the groups of a thousand. Laura could count seven of the troughs in all.
This is where they were fed. A foul smelling sludge of unrecognizable goop was pumped into the troughs.
Everyone was forced to eat it. The alien Grays would lower the platform to just above their heads and stick anyone who didn't partake in meal time with their barbs.
Only when the troughs were clean again,
did the platform once more raise, taking those horrid Grays with their monstrous, horror eyes, back up away from them. Laura had seen them frighten a man to death by staring into his eyes with those cold alien eyes of theirs and snarling hideously. His heart must have failed. He clutched his chest, gargling sounds came from his throat, and then he fell over dead. Laura did not look into their eyes.
Forced to eat like pigs from a trough, Laura thought, as she licked up her daily ration of the sludge.
Ralph would not look at her for hours after they were forced to eat. He was sad, ashamed and revolted at himself and the entire population of the ship, humans and Grays. There were people who were pushing other people out of the way, some into the troughs, to get something to eat. It was humiliating, debasing, and Ralph swore he would get as many of those Gray motherfuckers as he could before they killed him.
The only advantage there was in consuming that foul sludge was that they didn't have any urge to take a shit. After a few days of eating it, everybody stopped shitting. Nobody had to take a piss either. Whatever that goop was in the troughs, it satisfied the body's need for food and water and let nothing go to waste.
What little bodily functions still occurring were from the new catches. They always arrived in groups of not less than five, Laura noticed. Never less than five, and it was always the same with them. They puked, they pissed themselves and they shit themselves, the same as she and Ralph had. The painful process they underwent as they were brought on board purged everything from their bodies.
Laura could still smell that nauseating smell that the Grays sprayed them with. Nothing would stay down after being sprayed with it, not for a couple of days anyway. It apparently caused the entire body's digestive system to purge itself, allowing the nutrient soup to replace and refine the digestive process. Everybody spewed out the contents of their stomachs and then some, crapped themselves and pissed themselves. She remembered how ashamed and horrified she was as she was placed beside of Ralph, until she realized that he and everyone else had done the same thing. Vomit was dried and cracking on their clothes, their faces and the floor.