She had thought of the sunrise then as well. But somehow she’d fought back. She didn’t feel like fighting back now. Her mind repeated, “It’s over, it’s over.”
“It’s not over,” Stephen said.
Beth hadn’t realized she was mumbling out loud.
“I’m tired.”
“I know you are, but we have to keep moving. Hawking will get us somewhere safe and then you can rest and we can…”
Hawking had shot some kind of nasty look back at Stephen that silenced him.
Stephen nodded, and then lowered his voice to just below a whisper. “I can’t tell you much because the invaders are hooked into your brain. You understand, right?”
Beth nodded. She understood that it was over.
7. DEREK VOGT’S PUNCH OUT
Derek was surrounded. All his hope abandoned him. Just like everyone else in his life. Melinda was the most recent example. But he could talk about his father, mother, sister, and his best friends of whatever era of life he was in.
This was nothing new. No reason to get down, Derek thought. He was going to die trying if he had any say in it. Of course, the aliens who surrounded him weren’t bothering with English, and the only thing that kept the fight from commencing was their argument.
“Fight me, damn you.”
No, Derek wasn’t even worth a threat. He was surrounded. They must’ve been arguing over the order of dismemberment.
“Screw it.”
Derek attacked. He had forgotten how quick he was now. He felt the seeds of hope germinating, and then he was staring at a pile of eight dead invaders. He slapped his hands together.
“Is that all you got?”
They had been scared of him. That was the look that they had. It was alien for fear. They were arguing over who had to try to subdue him. That argument was over, now that they were dead. The roots of Derek’s hope spread. But they didn’t get far.
Instead, he remembered his father’s disappointment when he couldn’t drive a manual transmission. He burnt out the clutch. He had to drive a mini-van to school. It was half rusted out and all the seats had large tears and missing chunks of foam.
But he survived that too.
He remembered the time he took the whole cheerleading squad out for fast food. His was the only vehicle they’d all fit into. Of course, Crissy Nelms tainted the memory. She saw him in that van full of bimbos and never wanted to speak to him again. She never did. She was smart and beautiful, and didn’t have hairy toes. She sat in front of him in sandals all-year-round. But Derek wasn’t a foot guy. He didn’t even know girls could get hairy toes until Melinda.
It was just…
Melinda. She angered him so much. It was true. She really was some kind of secret agent, and she really did only date Derek because she thought he was a spy and wanted to catch him red-handed.
A flurry of memories popped into his head, all the suspicious moments suddenly made sense. There were so many times she practically told him that she hated him. He should’ve known when she refused to watch Star Wars with him. That was always the sign. If a girl refuses to watch Star Wars with you, it’s because she has ulterior motives. She only likes you for what you can offer her, not for who you are. And Derek had known that. He had tried six times. And now the memory of Melinda lying, as she said, “I’ve just seen them too much.” No one has seen Star Wars ‘too much.’ No one.
That’s what Derek wanted. He wanted to get off this stupid alien space ship and watch some lightsabers. He’d be done with these alien bastards if he had one. And then he remembered how he could never make one, because they weren’t real and he was terrible at making anything. He was only good at breaking things and watching television and passing out.
There was hope in Derek. But it wasn’t worth having.
***
“We have to stay. You chose to stay,” Beth’s father said. He had brought a picnic for them, but it was almost impossible to eat. All Beth wanted to do was go home.
“It’s not pretty anymore.”
“It’s the same day that you didn’t want to leave.” Her father broke out a baseball and gloves. She remembered laughing as they played catch. Soon the bugs didn’t bother her as much. She was too busy running around, fielding bouncing grounders before the ball would roll into the lake. They stopped and had lunch and then Beth was tired. She wanted to go home and play with her toys or just take a nap.
“We can’t go. You chose to stay.”
Beth complained. And her father just smiled at her.
“Just wait a little longer. Everyday has to end.”
“We could,” Hawking said, answering some suggestion Stephen had made. The little alien loomed over Beth. She had fainted in Stephen’s arms. “You are slowing us down. We will have to leave you.”
“No, I can keep up.”
“That’s the invaders telling you that. You are beaten Beth Bailey. You best lie down and give up.”
“Come on, Hawking. She’s on our side.”
“You are blinded by your attraction to her. I must admit, it had given me great debate, but alas, I recognize that our missions cannot be successful if we let lust get in our way.”
Stephen blushed.
“I’m not leaving her.”
“Then you doom your planet.”
“Go,” Beth said. “I was doing fine on my own.”
“Huh,” Hawking said. It looked Beth over. “That is unexpected. I feel as though we are being tricked. We should be safe and exterminate her.”
“What?”
“What!” Beth’s weakened state became even more obvious as her reflexes almost caused her to trip. She braced herself against a glowing wall.
“Your sacrifice will be noted so long as we are successful.” Hawking pointed its finger at Beth as if Stephen was supposed to deliver the killing blow.
“I’ve been fighting beasts, I’m stronger than you think I am.” Beth hoped her bark was scary enough to disguise the fact that her bite would be like a geriatric’s.
At the very least, Hawking took a cautious step back. The alien turned to Stephen Norris again, as if it was his job. But Stephen still refused.
“You were right. We’ll just leave her. She is slowing us down.”
“It’s too late for that.” Hawking’s little alien frame shook, and then he burst out in rage, “Squash her! Squash her now!”
Stephen shook his head. “You’ve lost it, man. I can’t do that.”
Hawking had enough. It turned and ran as fast as its little alien legs could. It made it ten feet before a beast took its alien head right off its shoulders.
The beast stepped onto Hawking’s decapitated corpse. It sounded like bubble wrap. The beast itself was big, but was not a gelatinous-blob like the last level 100+. It was more like a Rastafarian Tyrannosaurus Rex, only its dreads were made of electric blue snakes, and it had long arms that dragged along the floor at the knuckles.
Beth was in no shape to fight it.
Stephen looked like he saw a ghost.
Beth sighed. The day was done alright.
***
Derek marched through the corridors of the alien space ship. He made a game out of it. He didn’t hope to live. Punch an alien. Pop a bubble. Kick a beast. He would save earth, and then Melinda would know he wasn’t a spy, that he did love her. He delighted in her future sobs as she realized there wasn’t a better man on the planet. But he’d have his pick of any hot female on the planet. They’d all be thankful, and Melinda would be jealous.
Memories tried to invade his mind, but he refused them with this one thought. He would prove it to her.
The corridors lead Derek down a spiraling path. The beasts and invaders in his way encouraged him to trek further. He was mid-splattering of a goat-looking beast when he spotted a familiar bald alien.
Bub.
Bub spotted Derek as well.
“Run! Run!” the alien exclaimed as several guards shoved him across the corridor and behind some loc
ked door. Derek knew what the alien meant, but Derek ran to the door instead. He was overcome with the idea that Bub still knew the correct way to stop the invasion. He had to save him first.
Derek peeled back the locked door like a tuna can. He was careful not to cut himself on the jagged edges as he stepped through.
It was a dark room. Derek could make out lights at the far end, but they were small and very far away. The ground shook at his feet. It was a fair warning before the ground dropped away. Derek rolled upon impact. He was even more aware of his small stature now that he couldn’t see the light from the door he had broken through. Also, the lights in the distance now resembled planes in a night sky, distant and unreachable.
But soon, the vast room revealed itself.
A series of lights clicked on, one after the other, for what seemed like a mile in all directions. Above him was a circle of spectators. More invaders. They watched Derek intensely, and waited for him to notice what lay in the center of the pit.
Derek wished he hadn’t. There were only so many fears and memories of self-doubt that Derek could ignore. But what waited in the center of the pit broke the levies and Derek prayed and begged God to spare him. He begged and prayed for the existence of God. He begged and prayed to be forgiven for all his doubts.
This would end badly.
The beast was a collage of hate, agony, and red scales. That was, if it was only a beast of the invaders’ design. But it looked more natural, like it was man’s only predator, designed to cull back the human race whenever it started to run amok, or, in this case, kill the strongest of them.
But that description still feels, too nice, perhaps even too ordinary. No, this beast had a blue mane like some Muppet, or street punk brandishing a mohawk that trailed its back and split down two tails. Of course that blue mane was not something fuzzy, but was sharp, like thousands of blue syringes with an electrical current snapping between needles. Red scales lined the rest of the beast’s body. They ranged from thick like a snapping turtle’s and to tiny like a silky snake’s belly. Did it have eyes? Yes and no. There was no pair to stare down. But bubbles between the thickest of scales resembled what is typically called eyes. They gave the beast no blind spots. Whether they actually saw or just sensed movement would be better left for a biologist. Derek didn’t have anytime to consult one.
At least he didn’t think he did, until the invaders began to shout at him, in English this time.
“Greetings, Derek Vogt. We come in peace.”
Derek didn’t think they could hear him, as high up as they were, so he didn’t shout ‘bull shit.’
“It seems a great error has occurred. You have mistaken our intentions. No thanks to this Sunskrut,” the invaders pointed at Bub. “You see we have no immediate need to invade the planet of Earth. Yes, we stole your life away from you, momentarily, we assure you. It was always in our best interest to return you to your people. The memories of our investigator would be returned to you, after all that is why we connected and consulted with your memories to keep you performing in accordance with how your loved ones perceived you. We meant no harm. Now we understand we made a mistake in how we hoped to motivate you to give up your destructive passage through our home. Forgive us, for our species is still young and eager to experiment in the field rather than calculating the possibilities that might give us concern. As a result, we did try to bring your loved ones here in order to recondition their mind so as not to remember the mistakes we made in your place. Forgive us, Derek Vogt.”
The invader waited in silence as if hoping for a response.
The beast in the center of the pit was a mouth-breather. It had either eaten something foul recently or Derek was staring at the wrong end.
“Okay. So you can fix everything and I can go back to my life like normal?”
“You do not need to shout, Derek Vogt. We can hear you quite easily, but the rwarn in the pit may be disturbed by your tone.”
“Sorry?”
“It is quite acceptable. We do not expect you to know much about rwarns, sunskruts or even ourselves. We are the Geyrn. And to answer your question, yes, we can set your life back to normal to the extent of our abilities. We would prefer to help you handle the transition by removing your experience on our home. We understand that would require a lot of faith on your part.”
“But you’ll still invade later, won’t you?”
“Invasion is always a possibility, but it has never been an actual course of action. If the sunskrut who removed you from your life support had been honest, it might’ve told you we saved them from a dying planet, and that their people live free amongst us, many have taken our people as mates, and our cultures have embraced one another, as we hope mankind will one day. But we will not force it. We are more delighted to observe your people in their natural state. You are a beautiful species.”
“What happens to Bub?”
“Is that the name you have given the sunskrut?” the invader produced the sound of a laugh, but it didn’t sound or look natural. “Humankind has a wonderful irreverence. Yes, Bub, will have to face the laws of his people, this is not his first offense. But you must worry about what on your planet is a deemed severe punishment. We do not take life, Derek Vogt. We seek to preserve it. Bub will get every opportunity to correct his mistakes and in short time he will thank us.”
“Okay, so if you want to talk peace, how come you brought this thing?” Derek didn’t have to point to the beast in the center of the pit.
“You are quite feisty. We had to make sure you stopped bashing things long enough to speak your language.”
Derek started to remember his coach from little league. He had plunked Derek with a fastball in his thigh and said it was the only way to get his attention. He also remembered movies like Close Encounters and E.T. and John Carpenter’s Starman. Good aliens weren’t just a fabrication of Hollywood. He felt awful for all the destruction he had caused. It all kind of made a little more sense now. Bub was always a jerk. All the times Bub belittled Derek echoed in his mind.
“Oh, here they are.” The invaded beckoned forth Melinda and the two agents. “See they are in good order, and we will work with their understanding of our presence a little more, but we just thought you would like to know they are safe. She is safe, Derek Vogt.”
“Melinda!”
She turned her head away from Derek.
“We’ll make her understand you’re the good guy. Once again we must apologize for our mistakes.”
“What about Beth? Beth Bailey?”
“Oh, yes, the pretty one. She is safe as well. I believe she turned herself over an hour ago to be reconditioned and returned. You know you are a smart human, you knew we never killed her fiancé and it was just a body double in our terrible, terrible attempt to manipulate a surrender.”
“I’d like to see her,” Derek demanded.
“Unfortunately, she’s not available at this moment. However, since we are close to reaching an understanding, it won’t be long and we can take you to her and assure you of her safety.”
“Okay.”
Bub moaned. The little bald alien drooped his head in failure. For a second Derek still believed what Bub had told him. But it made more sense to believe the Geyrn. They could’ve killed him if they wanted, the place was surrounded, and the beast in the center of the pit wouldn’t have to help if it didn’t want.
Derek raised his hands, and gave his surrender.
***
Beth’s father refused to get up. He sat by the side of the lake and caught his breath. “We can’t go. You chose to stay.”
Beth complained, she was tired and wanted to get home in time for diner. And her father just smiled at her.
“Just wait a little longer.”
And so they did. Beth stared at the lake and sulked.
“Turn around,” her father said. He had to twist her by her shoulders. And then Beth saw it.
The sky faded to teal and then purple and pale yellow, and then
red and bright orange. The sun set behind the trees, the sky was softly reflected in the lake.
“Do you like it?”
“It’s beautiful.”
“Worth waiting around for?”
“Yes,” Beth said.
“Be patient. Nothing that is bad ever lasts.”
Beth stumbled forward. Did she win? Did she lose? Did Stephen Norris fight alongside her, or did he run? Beth couldn’t remember. She didn’t even feel as if she’d kicked or punched the beast, but there were faint traces memories of fighting. She could’ve been remembering past fights. If she had been tired before, she was delirious now.
She didn’t realize it at first, but she wandered toward a pulsing orange and red light. She felt like she was stuck back in that day on Lake Anna. She mumbled to her father, “Let’s go home already.” She wished her father were there. Her father’s words repeated, “Nothing that is bad ever lasts.”
She hoped he was right.
She fell into the pulsing chamber. The orange and red light was cold. It wasn’t what she expected. She expected warmth, like a tanning bed or sauna; like the sunset. Her mind drifted back to that day on the lake.
“It’s going to get dark now.”
“Yes, but there will be another sunrise and another sunset tomorrow. Don’t you want to stick around until then?”
Beth thought of wild animals and ghosts, things that would come out at night.
Beth’s father pretended to be serious for two more seconds, but he saw the growing worry on his daughter’s face and then laughed. “Your mother will kill me if we you don’t make it home before bedtime.”
Invasive Species Part Three Page 2