by RWK Clark
That was really all she could deduce, but the deductions she made had her blood running cold and her skin covered in gooseflesh. One question ran through her mind again and again: could this be real? The answer was a resounding “yes”.
Melissa woke at around six that morning to use the bathroom, and Kam had barely heard her, even in the single room. She was completely distracted with thoughts of what she could do to save her own life, what steps she should and would take to survive this horrid experience.
“Have you been up all night?” Melissa stood behind her, one hand on the wall for balance, her long, mousy brown hair mussed all around her face.
Kamryn turned to her with a sharp jerk. Once Melissa’s presence registered she smiled at her comfortingly. “Yeah. I guess after Chuck left I couldn’t get back to sleep. How was your rest?”
Melissa turned and headed to the small bathroom. “Good. I think I might be done. What the heck was his problem, anyway? I thought maybe he had been smoking some of that K2 that Bart Jensen has been bringing around.” The sound of urine flowing into the toilet filled the air as Melissa let it go.
“No, he was clear,” said Kam as she thought her words through. “He wanted to let me know about some ‘co-workers’ that got busted the same night as me. He thought they might have had loose lips, and he just wanted to talk alone.” How easily the lie had sprung from her lips. Maybe she should have been an actress.
The toilet flushed and Melissa appeared once again, pulling a pair of faded and torn skinny jeans over her nearly emaciated frame, like she needed to look any skinnier than she was. “Who was it?”
“No one you know,” replied Kam. “Just some old-schoolers I have known since I was younger.” Another lie. She may have been a hacker, but lying to close friends was not something she had ever practiced, and she felt a pang of guilt. “So, what are your plans for the day? Anything?”
“Actually, I was thinking I would head up to the Jiffy Mart for an egg and sausage English muffin. Do you want something?”
A rush of panic coursed through Kam’s already stressed body. She couldn’t put it off. They would need to talk.
“No, Mel. Listen, sit down here for a minute, would you?” Melissa gave her an unsure look; maybe it was the sound of Kam’s voice that put the doubt in her eyes. She didn’t argue, rather, she sat down on the edge of Kam’s bed, about three feet away from where Kam sat in the chair with her laptop now next to her feet on the floor.
“What’s up? You don’t have any money? I have enough to cover you, if you’re hungry.” Something must have been telling Melissa that this was not the problem, because her eyes remained wide and apprehensive. Funny, what the human spirit knows when we are stupid.
Kamryn shook her head and looked down at the floor. “No, I’m not hungry. Look, I lied to you a minute ago. Chuck didn’t come last night to tell me someone had snitched me out.” She watched her friend’s face carefully. “He came with much more serious news.”
“What’s up? Are we in bigger trouble than we thought?”
Kam nodded. “Yes, but not the kind of trouble you think.” She paused, trying to sort out her thoughts and put her words together appropriately for the listener. “Melissa, alien ships have come to Earth.”
Melissa’s face screwed up into a smile. “You’re goofy!” With that she began to belly laugh. “What the heck, Kam. What kind of mood did you get out of bed in? That’s hilarious!”
Kamryn sat, unsmiling, in her chair. She let Mel have her good morning laugh, but while the girl was still winding down her chuckles Kam rose, took her by the hand, and said, “Come here a minute.”
She led her to the window. The day, while not bright, was lit much better than the scene the night before. She stepped back so Melissa could get a look.
Mel stood agape at the open window. Tears formed, she began to shake, and she screamed a blood curdling scream.
∞
Josh was sitting at his desk listening to the radio when Gary Jimmerson appeared at the door behind him, tapping gently. He spun in his chair, the soft sound startling him.
“What’s up, Gary?” Gary was one of the supervisors on his floor.
He smiled grimly at Josh. “Pretty early. No one wants to see their boss at seven in the morning, and you were hard at work, so it seems.” Josh nodded in response, not taking his eyes off Gary for a second. “I didn’t come to see if you were working. I came to tell you that the president wants all federal employees gathered in their respective buildings in conference rooms. He is going to address us via closed circuit regarding the ‘visitors’.”
Josh responded with a simple, “I’ll be right there”. He turned off his monitor as Gary nodded curtly and left his office. It took him a moment to pull himself together by running a comb through his hair and pausing to clear his mind. It seemed futile to pull himself together mentally. After all, who knew what would happen in the next few moments, much less tomorrow. Alien ships were surrounding the entire world. Nothing seemed quite as unsure to him as the future did right now.
Finally, Josh shook himself out of his confused and apprehensive daze and stood from his desk. He didn’t want to miss the interoffice address. He needed to know as much about what was going on as he could learn and so far, this was the only way he could begin to do that.
The conference room for his division’s building was located one floor down, and like so many of his co-workers, Josh did not feel comfortable taking the elevator. There were countless people taking the stairs, and he was afraid he would miss the address, so he tried his best to make his way down by side-stepping the shufflers. He arrived at the massive conference room to find it filled to capacity and flowing over. The large viewing screen was in the front of the room, and while there was excessive murmuring going on between the workers, nearly all eyes were glued to it, waiting for Andrew Mason’s face to appear and tell them all what was really going on and what they should do.
Four minutes seemed like an eternity to him as he waited, but finally the screen lit up and a spokesman introduced President Mason, as if none of them would recognize him when he appeared. He walked to the podium, a stern, serious look on his face. Josh could have been mistaken, but he could swear the man’s eyes were filled with a bit of fear as well, and why not? He was human, and every human on the planet was afraid right now.
“My fellow Americans, and loyal employees of the United States, we are all aware of the circumstances which surround today’s address. A total of twenty one unidentified individual ‘alien’ aircraft have been positioned around the world, six of them in US airspace. In the last day, until very recently, we had not been contacted by the operators of these ships.” His eyes flickered. Josh detected the dead giveaway of his untruth. “We can now say we have indeed engaged in communication with them, no obviously not on a face to face basis, nor was it through conventional oral means. We have communicated through encrypted messages sent both ways, and our ‘visitors’ have not only explained their presence, they have clarified what they desire.”
He cleared his throat and shifted from one foot to another, barely looking up from the prepared speech which had been placed before him.
“The ‘visitors’ are indeed aliens, and are here from a planet which our interpreters are unable to put into our language. They are referring to themselves as the ‘Oppressors’. That word has been verified with them as being correct.” He fell silent for a bit, then cleared his throat and continued. “They fully intend to remain on the planet.”
Everyone in the room began to talk all at once, and the overall tone was one of complete panic. Josh was quiet, trying to reason this thing through in his own mind, if that was at all possible. His thoughts seemed to make no sense to him, however. Where did they plan to park these ships?
President Mason continued. “The following disclosure is being made only to you at this time. The general public will be briefed once we decide the best course of action regarding the sharing of the information
we have. I ask that you do not panic; our greatest strength will be in the peace and calmness which we demonstrate.” Now he looked directly into the camera that was aimed at him.
“The Oppressors desire to take up complete inhabitation of Earth. They realize there is not room for us and them, and they have expressed no desire to wipe out human kind. They do, however want us gone so they can have free access to the planet and its resources. They have prepared a place on another planet, which has not been divulged to us, but they have clarified that the place they have readied will not sufficiently contain every person alive. Therefore, they are saying, they have compiled a battery of very specific tests which everyone will be ‘required’ to take. These tests, according to them, will determine the strongest and most qualified individuals to be relocated.”
The conference room was completely still except for a few scattered sobs coming from women here and there. Josh continued to stare at the screen and try to make sense of what he was hearing. He was tempted to pinch himself. He had to be sleeping. This couldn’t be real.
“We do not plan to give in easily; however, until we are able to determine a solid and effective course of action we will recommend that everyone maintain the appearance and attitude of cooperation in order to spare their own lives. I know you have questions. I have questions as well, but this is all the information we have at this time. We will be addressing the public with the news and recommendations in a manner conducive to calm. We ask that you keep this information to yourselves, and remain where you are if possible. We will continue to update you as to any progress we make, or any further information we learn. Remember, keep calm. This is the greatest weapon we all have at this time. Thank you.”
The screen went immediately dark, and chaos broke out in the room.
Chapter 4
It had been a week since the arrival, and Kamryn was still experiencing shock at what they had learned in the last seven days. No one, as of yet, had laid eyes on any of the Oppressors, as they were now commonly called. While the world had received instructions from them that test sites should be built in each major city area over which their ships hovered, along with directions as to how to ‘build’ the test sites, Earth’s pioneers were told the Oppressors would not touch foot on the ground until testing was ready to begin.
Kamryn was not satisfied to play along.
Five days ago, the day after everyone was made ‘aware’ of the intentions of the Oppressors, many changes had taken place all over the world. Not only had complete panic spread, but many had been killed by local authorities and the military as they lost their minds. Looting and rape had become commonplace in only one week, and most who really wanted to live had learned to stay inside. Construction had begun, from what she could gather, on the test sites. Earthlings had been given a time limit; they needed to be complete in one month, which was now only three weeks away. Kamryn remained on her computer, hacking away as happily as possible, knowing authorities were not paying any attention to her activities. She had determined that she needed to find out as much information as possible about these circumstances. She had no intention of taking any tests.
Melissa had completely flipped out after the initial announcement made by the president. Kamryn had attempted to calm her hysteria, but the girl would have no part of it. Kam had woke the following morning to find herself alone in the small room, and she hadn’t seen Melissa since, nor had she had any form of communication with any of her other ‘acquaintances’. She prided herself on the fact that she had no family or real ‘friends’. She would figure this out for herself.
In school, Kamryn had been tagged a ‘genius’. She never had to put more than minute effort into her studies, and that usually entailed getting her assignments in on time. She was easily bored, and until she got into computers she had been at the top of the truancy list more often than not. She had full confidence in her ability to not only avoid the testing, but to continue to live on her home planet as well.
She had thought and rethought the situation in the last week, barely sleeping and consuming more coffee than anyone had a right to. She knew she was a bit frazzled, but in her mind it was necessary if she wanted to make it out of this alive and well. Yesterday she made a firm decision regarding the action she would take: she would take her most essential belongings, which consisted of her laptop, a few clothes, notebooks, and some personal hygiene items, and she would travel the forty miles to Washington, DC. There she would be able to pursue the proper information, even talking to pertinent people if need be. Wi-Fi would be no problem; when she couldn’t tap in for free at a library or coffee house, she would steal it. She would mask her location information when needed. She felt good about her decision. Even if it didn’t work the way she wanted, at least she wouldn’t be sitting still, feeling as though she was doing nothing to save her own life. So she left.
The world, or at least some of the people in it, was trying to go about life as normally as possible. Busses were running, and many were driving in attempts to escape to… where? She would make it to Washington in less than an hour once she got a ride.
She went to the Interstate 295 entrance located closest to her apartment. Keeping her backpack slung securely over her left arm, she stuck out her right thumb. Within fifteen minutes a rusty, beat up Tercel pulled over, and a dirty, disheveled couple told her to hop in without even asking where she was headed. It was that easy.
Then she was off.
∞
Josh sat in his apartment, smartphone in hand, reading the latest news update regarding the Oppressors and the construction of the testing facilities. He was shaking his head as he read, unaware of his own actions. He finished and put the phone down on the end table next to the sofa and rubbed his eyes, ignoring the fear in the pit of his stomach. The emotion had become commonplace, not only in his life, but in the lives of everyone around him.
He had been pulling full-day shifts for the last week, and this was his first real day off. He had showered as soon as he got home; he smelled like a garbage can full of onion pizza. He had then intended to hit his bed, but found himself on the damn phone. He needed to take advantage of his time home, and he rose and walked into his bedroom, plopping down onto the bed. They had set up napping facilities at work, and the cots they provided felt like rocks with blankets on them. His bed felt like heaven.
He lay there thinking about work, tossing and turning. He had been given a highly classified assignment involving writing code that applied to the situation. It was the government’s intent to somehow gain access to the information the Oppressors had, while simultaneously blocking our own systems somehow. Josh felt as though he were running in place, and all he could do was go through the motions. He had no idea how to give them what they want, but he was determined. His mind continued to tread through the same mental, work-related waters he had been up to his knees in all week.
Finally, he dozed off, but his sleep was fitful. He awoke a few hours later to discover his blankets knotted around his legs. He was covered in sweat, and he felt the tugging of horror in the pit of his stomach. A nightmare. It slipped away from him before he could recall its details.
He sat up, putting his feet on the floor and his head in his hands. After a moment he looked at the alarm clock next to his bed. Two-thirty in the afternoon. He had slept for a whole two hours. He thought over his next move. He didn’t have to be back to work until morning, but the thought of sitting here doing nothing drove him crazy. He would eat, shower off the sweat, and go back in.
After a microwave dinner consisting of Salisbury steak, runny potatoes, and rubbery corn, he hopped in the shower and got himself together. After dressing he grabbed his briefcase and headed out the door to his car. The sky overhead was still dark. The hovering ship blocked most of the sun, and all the darkness seemed to do was add to the fear and depression.
It was important to drive with car doors locked. Crazy people ran the streets at all times, and when they weren’t being arrest
ed they were being shot down. Carjacking was common, so he double and triple-checked the doors before driving off. The street was amazingly bare of vehicles for this time of the day, but those on foot were everywhere. He checked the locks yet again.
He took a right onto ‘C’ Street after making sure it was clear. He would be at work in just minutes. He must have been operating on auto-pilot, because he didn’t see the girl crossing in front of him at all, and when he became fully aware he had to slam on his brakes to avoid taking her out completely. She froze, her eyes wide and staring directly at him.
He met her eyes, and noticed that her face softened when she realized she would not be hit. The bumper of his car looked to him to be right against her thigh, but he was really about a foot from her; still, too close for comfort. His heart was pounding with a mixture of fright and relief.
She lifted her hand and flipped him off. He rolled down his window and popped his head out. “I’m so sorry. I guess I wasn’t paying attention. Are you okay?”
The girl breathed out a breath that was nearly audible. She nodded and adjusted her backpack. “I’m fine, I guess. You scared me nearly to death!”
“I hope you are really okay.” He unlocked his door and got out of the car, not even concerned that this could be a slick carjacking attempt. This girl was beautiful! “Can I give you a ride somewhere? My name is Josh. Josh Nichols.”
She studied him carefully, both of them oblivious to the horns sounding behind Josh’s car. They were blocking traffic. He realized this, and jumping back in he pulled over to the side of the street. She followed him slowly, with a bit of trepidation, keeping her eyes on him the entire time. Cars flew by, curse words streaming from the windows. When had the traffic picked up?