by RWK Clark
He had become oblivious to the ranting and screaming, as well as all of the running around going on right outside the door, just as the others listening to the newscast were. Even though a commercial was emitting from the small, antique-looking transistor type radio all of them continued to stare at it, waiting for the next broadcast with fear and disbelief in their eyes.
It seemed like a lifetime before the announcer came on and introduced an emergency state of the union address by President Andrew Mason. He began to speak clearly and calmly, addressing the current alleged ‘spaceship’ situation.
“As of this afternoon we have come to experience what many are referring to as an ‘alien invasion’. Now, while it appears that we are indeed being visited, there has currently been no communication attempts on the part of our guests, and we are having no trouble with broadcasting efforts here in the states. The important thing is to not panic. We recommend you remain in your homes if possible. If you are at work, stay at work. We are confident that we will be able to clear up the confusion surrounding the current situation, and as soon as that takes place we will relate all information to you as well. In the meantime, stay inside and keep your televisions and radios tuned into your preferred channels for updates. Thank you.” He was finished speaking as quickly as he had begun, and the announcer took over once again.
“That was President Mason asking citizens to stay where they are, or get to a safe place indoors as soon as possible. Keep your radios and TVs tuned in for frequent updates on the situation. It appears as if the ‘life on other planets’ question has been answered for us. This is Bob Riley for WDCX news.” Josh had begun to phase out his words right away, and rose to get to his office to contact his family and find out their situation.
Josh was from a small town in Iowa, which boasted around 8,000 residents. He had always loved technology, and having graduated early, as well as at the top of his high school class, had made a full ride scholarship possible. He took his computer studies very seriously, and was drafted by the government while he was still in the middle of his final year at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. His parents would never have been able to afford the furthering of his education, much less visit him had he not stayed so close while in college. His mother had been completely shattered when she learned he would live and work in DC. His father had been so proud his chest swelled. After all, the man had worked by the sweat of his brow his entire life, days at the railroad, nights at a nearby factory that made medical equipment.
Mom had stayed home, thus explaining the separation anxiety she experienced when Josh left Iowa. The first thought in his mind was to let them know he was okay, then to find out what they were enduring. Could they see a ship from where they were? How big were these things, really? It appeared to him from the window that they completely filled the sky above. Was it one or many? There were simply too many questions to satisfy with the scant information he had gathered so far.
He picked up his office phone and called his parents’ house phone. It rang six times before the voicemail feature answered, his father’s voice telling him how sorry he was to miss his call, and if he left a message his father or mother would gladly get back to him as soon as possible. Josh didn’t bother. Instead he pushed the button on the cradle and hung up, released it, and dialed the number again. His father answered on the second ring.
“Hello?” His voice was not the solid, steady one Josh was accustomed to, the voice of reason. Instead it was the voice of a very frightened man trying to hold it together.
“Dad, it’s Josh.” His parents did not use caller ID. They didn’t have anyone to avoid. “I wanted to let you know I’m okay. What is happening there?”
Robert Nichols released a ragged breath. “Josh, thank goodness. Mom, it’s Josh.” His dad and mom always referred to each other just that way. He couldn’t recall them ever calling each other by their first names.
He could hear his mother in the background. “Let me talk to him, Bob.” There was noise as his dad handed the phone over, and then his mother was sobbing into the phone.
“Josh, where are you? Are you okay? They said a ship is directly over Washington. Can you see it? Are you safe? Have you been hurt? I would say the best thing is for you to come home now. Don’t even risk being there another moment. Joshua? Are you listening, Josh?” Even in the midst of all the anxiety her words brought a smile to his face. She was as panicked as they come.
“Mother, I can’t just leave. I am at work, I am safe. With this going on I can imagine they will need me here. You need to breathe in and out. Tell me what is happening there.” He had to make himself be still to give her an opportunity to answer.
She drew a deep breath and let it out. He heard her do it again. “We can see a ship south of here, far, far away though, but, Josh, it’s massive. Overwhelming! I can’t even bear to look out the window. Your father wants to speak to you. I love you and I want you to come home!”
“Mom, as soon as we all know more about what is going on, and I know it is safe, I will come. Let me talk to dad.” More shuffling, then his dad was back on the line.
“So you have one right over you? We have clear sky hear, but the horizon to the south is full of one. You can’t see past it, but it’s pretty far from us. It just seems to be sitting there. What have you heard, Josh?” Josh thought about his answer. He didn’t know any more than they, from the way it sounded.
He took a breath. “Well, I know there are several, and it sounds like they are positioned with intent. It would be interesting to know what is really going on. I have a hard time believing that the powers that be have heard nothing. But I don’t want to hang on the line for long, Dad. I want to get the radio on and listen for updates. You have yours on, right? Or the TV, or something?”
“Yes. Your mother won’t watch, and I don’t want her to. But I need to. Keep in constant touch, please Josh. Don’t make us worry now.”
Josh nodded absentmindedly. “The same goes for you. I’ll talk to you soon, and I love you both.”
After giving his dad time to say goodbye he hung up the phone and got his cell out. He tuned in using the digital radio app he had on it, and popped it into the dock so he could hear more clearly. He closed his office door, sat at his desk, and waited for the word.
Chapter 2
“Kamryn, wake up! Someone is knocking at the door!” Melissa’s words jolted her awake and she sat straight up, swinging her legs to the floor, completely alert.
She shook the cobwebs out of her head. “Did you ask who it was?”
“I didn’t say anything, what, after the last time?” Melissa’s face looked petrified and grief stricken. The ‘last time’ she referred to was when she opened the door to the police and Kamryn was arrested for her extra-curricular computer hacking activities.
They were harmless enough, at least in her opinion. She mostly hacked away for personal entertainment. It wasn’t her fault that the government, colleges, and other people didn’t like it. She was bored, and besides that, she was good at it.
They knocked again, this time Kamryn was able to hear it clearly. This was not your regulation five rap cop knock. This was done with a persistence which bordered on desperation. Who the heck could it be? She glanced at the clock. It was 11:47 at night. Who could be at the door other than the cops? But she hadn’t done any overt, traceable hacking all day.
She rose from her bed and slowly tip-toed over to the door, not making a sound. Melissa sat on the foot of her bed, her eyes glued to Kamryn as she made her way. Her eyes would shift from Kamryn to the door and back every couple of seconds or so.
When Kamryn got to the door she lowered herself to the lighted crack beneath. One set of feet on the other side. Slowly she stood and glanced at Melissa. She didn’t have a tendency to think too clearly in situations such as these. Since she had made an unwarranted trip to the hoosegow with Kamryn the last time, mostly due to ‘guilt by association’, Kamryn felt the need to be gentle with her.
There was a pause. “Kamryn, it’s Chuck. You need to let me in!” She immediately began to fiddle with the deadbolt and chain to let him in. Chuck was her main road dog when it came to her main source of fun and games.
As she opened the door Chuck pretty much fell into the one room apartment. His shaggy brown hair was wet with sweat, and his complexion was flushed. He was breathing hard.
“Chuck, what the heck are you doing? Is there trouble? What’s going on? It’s after eleven, dude!” He looked around the room erratically, his breathing uneven and raspy.
“Kamryn, there are ships! They are hovering all around, all over the planet! Are you listening? We need to get out of here!” Now she found herself amused with him, and thought he likely had tried some new drug one of his grungy friends was always bringing around.
“Chuck, if they are all over the world where do you think you should run to?” A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth, but she saw that he was genuinely upset. She didn’t want to agitate him any further, but her question was doing just that. It was best to rein him in now. “Okay, okay, Chuck. Show me.”
With that he grabbed her by the hand and led her past Melissa, who sat with a wide-eyed look on her bed, to the window. He grabbed the string and raised the vertical blind almost violently. All she could see was darkness above. She looked back toward Chuck. “It’s the night sky, friend.”
He began to violently shake his head. “That’s because it’s nighttime! Look on the street. People are going crazy. This isn’t just me, Kam.” He let out a frustrated growl and jerked her by the arm to the door of the room.
“Hey! Careful! You’re hurting me!” He didn’t seem to hear her, or else he didn’t care. She kept up with him as he led her down the stairs to the lobby of the building, her bare feet slapping the cold tile as they went. “Look, Chuck, why don’t you try to get some sleep. You’ll feel better in the morning.”
He continued to walk, and without looking at her, said in the calmest voice he had used since he arrived, “I don’t know if I’ll ever sleep again, dude.”
His very tone sent a chill up her spine, though she didn’t know why. He put his hand out and pushed on the entrance to the building. It swung outward, and he pulled her into the cool night air.
“Now, look up.”
Kamryn did so immediately, simply in response, but she was not prepared for what she saw. Sure, she had been sleeping quite a bit lately. She had been a bit depressed since the arrest, but how had she missed something like this?
The sky was mostly dark, except for the array of tiny, twinkling lights which were scattered over its surface with no rhyme or reason. There were spotlights, though, shining from the Baltimore ground into the sky, and what they illuminated made no sense to her mind. A slate-gray surface seemed to fill what she had thought was the sky. It was vast, and as the spotlights moved over its surface it appeared there was no end in sight.
“What the heck, Chuck?” He stared at her face as she looked upward, but she was oblivious to his observation. All she knew was what she saw, and she was subconsciously aware that her mouth was hanging wide open, but she just didn’t have enough control over herself to even close it. She nearly pissed down her leg, and her bowels felt loose and watery.
Now Chuck looked up at the massive thing with her. “It’s been all over the radio and TV. This is not the only one, there are several, all around the world.” He pulled his eyes back to her. “What have you been doing all day? Sleeping?”
Kamryn held her eyes on the gargantuan thing above, but her mind went to getting out of jail at four in the morning. She was scared, depressed, and facing some fairly serious charges. She had been told the Feds were considering charging her with espionage. All she wanted to do was sleep, and when she got home she had immediately escaped to the land of her dreams. Melissa had fallen out too; she had seen her when she got up to relieve herself at around five-thirty in the afternoon. Besides, they didn’t have television, and the radio was never on while they slept. How was she to know?
Finally, she dragged her eyes from the ‘ship’ and looked over at Chuck. “How many? Ships? How many are there?
He shook his head and looked back up. He was very calm now, almost hypnotized. “I’m not sure, but I know of four or five in the States’ sky space. They are saying they are all around the world.”
“Come back upstairs,” She tugged his arm in the direction of the building, pulling him back to reality along with it. They both went back through the main door and up the stairs to her abode.
When they entered they found Melissa asleep again, balled up under a blanket on the couch. “Shhh. Let’s not wake her up. She has never been the picture of emotional stability. Over here.” They went into the far corner, away from Melissa’s sleeping, where Kamryn plopped down in a single armchair. Chuck rested his butt on the floor before her.
She turned a knob on a small boom box that threatened to be as old as she was, which was a ripe twenty-five years of age. She didn’t have to worry about finding the news on the radio, because it was on every channel on the dial. She met Chuck’s gaze as they listened to the tinny voice which emitted from the unit. It was just past midnight.
“As of yet no word has been given either federally or on the state home front regarding the ‘visitors’, as they are being called. Government authorities, including President Mason, have clearly stated that any communication attempts on the part of those inside the ships will be reported. They have been overhead for over seven hours, with no reports from any of the areas witnessing this groundbreaking event…”
Kamryn spun the knob, tuning the dial to another channel. “This is Fran Crosby with WXRI, Rock 102. We are still awaiting word regarding the ‘visitors’, as they have been dubbed. London states they have experienced a bit of disruption to their airwaves, but all other locations report nothing similar in any way. Right now it is recommended that we continue to stay safely indoors and wait for word from either local, state, or federal authorities. This is Fran Crosby, stay tuned to WXRI, Rock 102 for information.”
Kamryn turned the radio off. “It’s real?” That was all she could muster, but her thoughts were much clearer. Maybe she wouldn’t have to deal with all these hacking charges after all. She knew it was a selfish way of thinking, but she was a selfish person, and she would be the first to admit it.
“Kamryn, I don’t think the entire world is trying to prank us. Everyone is scared to death. Look, I have to get home and check on my mom and sister. I’m calmer now, but I think you should stay inside with the radio on, and maybe you should think about how you are going to talk to scatterbrained Melissa about all of this.” Chuck held her eyes while he talked, making sure his words were registering.
She nodded, muttering a powerless, “Thanks, Chuck” as he walked out the door. He locked it behind him, and made sure it was securely shut.
Kamryn considered her life and the circumstances around her. Her own parents had been killed during a mountain climbing excursion when she was very young, and she had been taken in by an aunt and uncle on her mother’s side until she was 13. They had abused her in every way imaginable, and the only comfort she had in this world was technology. She was equipped to find out anyone’s social security number, history, or any other information she wanted. She was not really equipped to deal with this, and she had no idea how.
She walked into the bathroom and pulled her hair up into a ponytail. This was her preparation to go online.
After checking on Melissa, she booted up her system and tapped into the Wi-Fi belonging to the guy down the hall. Grinning Thank you it was unlimited, or she would have been busted for this long ago. She would need all the time she could get.
She was going to hack into Washington’s computer system. She was going to find out what was going on, because after all, the entire world knew th
ey were liars on the grandest scale.
Chapter 3
Dawn brought many changes to the world.
Those who had actually listened to the directions to stay inside remained there, sleep robbed from their eyes and minds. Those who had chosen to be defiant to government orders managed to loot, pillage, and plunder all through the night, and they had no fear of apprehension; the police were basically scared to death to come out. Only those in drug or alcohol induced hazes, or had the hearts of true criminals, braved the uncertainty which hovered above.
Josh Nichols had remained at his office all night, listening to the news, comforting hysterical people, and attempting to use what little pull he had to get information, but to no avail. He managed to get a bit of work done, and tried to put all of the focus he could into his work, but writing code was simply not distracting enough when it came to worldwide alien invasion, even of the most seemingly benevolent sort. As of the rising of the sun none of the circumstances had changed whatsoever.
∞
Kamryn Reynolds had used the remainder of her night breaking into the government’s highly secure system from the comfort of her shabby one room apartment, listening to her friend Melissa snore lightly without a care in the world. While the actual hacking had taken up much of the night, she did manage to wrap her eyes around some information that was petrifyingly pertinent. This was around 5:30 in the morning, just as the sun was making love to the horizon, or at least, what little could be seen of it by any of Earth’s inhabitants.
The government had indeed been lying. There had been communication, but most of the records kept thus far were encrypted so well that it would take Kam hours to bust the code. What she did get out of the data she had found is that the ‘visitors’ had not only made contact, they had made demands.
It appeared, as far as she could tell, that these beings were nothing less than scavengers. They desired our resources, particularly the abundance of precious metals which were found here, but their goals were not limited to this. The main point was that every plan they had, every scheme, was solely dependent on the entirety of the human population being gone from the face of the earth. From what she could tell, they were not interested in total genocide. They only wanted to kill off the weak, the helpless, the worthless.