by Vaughn Ashby
As the two boys reached the edge of the property, almost all the way back to the road, the ground below their feet started to sway, it felt like something below the dirt was moving. They glanced back to see the house, which from here seemed to be up on a slight hill, wobbled. It lasted only seconds. Neither boy was sure what it was, but as they stood there looking back at the house, it almost looked like something massive was buried under it. A line ran around the property in a circle. The house and everything in the circle were about a foot taller than where they stood. They both asked each other if it was like that before. Neither was sure.
As they started back to ask Stu about it, they noticed multiple large holes dotting the ground. They were certain those weren’t there before. The holes stopped when they reached the raised circle that encompassed the house.
At the edge of the circle, they cautiously stepped over and up onto the raised circle. Tom wasn’t sure if it was in his head, but the dirt felt different, softer, like it had been loosened.
The whole way back to the house, the boys couldn’t stop talking about the holes, the ground shaking, the sticky notes, all of it. There was something strange going on at their grandma’s house, they were sure of it. So much so that by the time they reached the house and discovered a hole neither of them had seen before descending down below the house, neither of them had an objection to climbing down into it.
Excited at the thought, they climbed down the opening and into the tunnel. (I’ve been told to add a disclaimer here by the Aurora Wasteland. Don’t climb down into holes, the outcome is always bad. When I asked for clarification on the whole ‘bad’ thing, they simply replied with, ‘it would be bad.’ So there you have it, don’t climb down holes because it would be bad. Only for Tom and Henry, it wasn’t bad. It was disappointing for one, confusing for the other.)
The tunnel ended at the edge of the house, there was in fact nothing exciting buried under grandma’s house. Though Tom did discover another sticky note with another number on it, 121393. Henry on the other hand admitted to Tom that he heard slow, long, depressing sounds like air or gas escaping something. Tom believed his brother, like he always did, but confided in his brother that he didn’t hear anything.
After the two boys climbed out of the hole, cleaned themselves up, and compared notes about the whole thing, they returned to Lena and their dad, Stu. Again, Tom checked his watch, again, he was certain they’d been there for hours. But like before, time hadn’t moved as fast as it had felt. Based on his watch it had only been 5 minutes since he’d last checked it, 15 minutes total. That wasn’t possible. He assumed his watch was broken and compared it to the clock in the car as they climbed in. To his confusion, his watch time matched the car's clock.
As Lena scolded Stu about how they don’t come out there enough and that they never stayed long enough, Henry and Tom continued to talk in the back seat. Tom thought they were stuck in some sort of groundhogs day time thing. Henry told him that he was wrong on so many levels and that obviously this was alien related. The lost time, the magnetism, the vents. He was pretty sure there was a UFO under grandma’s house.
As Stu pulled the car away from the house and set off down the drive, Tom told his dad that Henry thought there was a UFO under the house. Stu shrugged and replied, "there could be." He then asked the boys if they saw any of those sticky notes. He saw two of them but couldn’t remember the numbers. Again, they joked that Stu must be adopted and that they were pretty sure Lena had murdered Stu’s dad and buried him under the house.
The laughter built as the car reached the end of the driveway, and Tom looked out his window. He was ready to go. The place felt strange, he couldn’t put his finger on it. The whole place just felt off. He reached into his backpack, which sat at his feet, and pulled his CD player out. Despite what his watch told him, he was in dire need of some music. He popped a new CD in, slipped his headphones on, and leaned back to enjoy the ride home, only to be startled by a banging on his window.
Frantically, Lena knocked. She was panting and out of breath. Stu rolled down Tom’s window and Lena handed them each a plate of cookies. She said she was never going to eat all of them. Then she asked what they had been laughing about.
Henry leaned across Tom to take his cookies and jokingly told her that they were certain there was a UFO buried under her house. They all waited for Lena to laugh, but she didn’t. Instead, she told them that there had been one, a UFO that is, buried deep under her house, lower than the poo field. But that just last month the libs came and took it when they turned her husband, Stu’s father, and Tom’s grandfather gay. And that the same aliens were coming back to take all the conservative leaders with them because none of them were human. They had tried to save us, but must leave now because we’d let them down.
The three boys stared at Lena. That was a lot to take in. Not that Tom’s grandfather was gay, they’d suspected as much for years, but that Lena thought the Liberals showed up at her house and somehow removed a UFO without disrupting her house or anything else on top of it.
They awkwardly said goodbye and set off on their journey home, being sure to ditch the plates of cookies as soon as they were far enough away from Lena’s place.
Tom drifted on in his thoughts as the music from his CD player washed over him. He stared at the clouds and wondered if his grandfather was really just in town or if he had left Lena. Maybe in doing so, he’d broken her brain somehow, and that her thoughts about the UFO and government were her ways of coping with it.
With Henry drooling and asleep next to him, Tom glanced back in the direction of his grandma’s house, and for the briefest of seconds, he might have seen a UFO in the sky, only to have it break apart and drift just like every other cloud.
Newspaper Headlines
“Rise in Conspiracy Theories linked to social isolation” - Edmonton Epoch
“Time doesn’t work the way you think it does” - Brightness Falls Gateway
“Increased streaming of X-Files has led to increased UFO sightings” - E-Calgary Science Digest
“He’s just gone to town” - Tom’s Grandmother’s Newsletter
“Self isolated rural residents at higher risk of poor quality cookies” - Lethbridge Dark Times
Conclusion from the Narrator
That’s it, who knew that the generation who should have seen misinformation coming would not see it coming. And that given the time and solitude granted to them by The Virus, they’d be the first, but certainly not the last, to dive face first into the shit pile of misinformation.
Tom and Henry found nothing at their grandmother’s farm. No UFOs, aliens, nothing. Where their grandma found everything, even if it was equivalent to nothing.
Life during The Virus threw everyone off and had us questioning everything, which can be good, but sources matter. Your grandma’s news feed doesn’t qualify as a vetted source.
I really do wish there was something buried under Tom’s grandmother’s house. But like so many Aurora Wasteland cases, not everything is actually strange and weird, sometimes it’s just life.
THE PREVIOUS INHABITANT LEFT A GUIDE
INTRO FROM THE NARRATOR
So, The Virus took over our lives, and we adapted to it. We changed the way we lived our lives to avoid it. Which changed life. People that could, worked remotely. Interacting with friends and family was done through a screen. Life was altered. Some would argue for the worse, others the better. But like it did with the dinosaurs, life found a way.
The word “Zoom” is now part of the human existence. It will forever be associated with video chats. The term “zoomed” is now linked with having just chatted with someone while being able to see their face, but not experience their bad breath. This was a good change. The number of wasted time interactions before video chat was thrust out into the public is way too damn high. I don’t need to experience the presence of every person I know on my birthday when a ten minute video chat will be more than sufficient. Again, this was a good
change.
But like with any good change, there are outliers. Some people have a tendency to want to be alone. And in a world where being alone is recommended, those people can drift further than others away from… well… everything. Being alone is a good thing, more people need to be ok with it. No, they need to be proficient at it and enjoy it. But at the same time, others need to be careful with its application. Too much time alone for the untrained, unstable mind can be… worrisome.
Welcome to the Aurora Wasteland Quarantine.
Police report
Late night mall pedestrian remains missing
Alberta, Missing Person, RCMP
Edmonton, Alberta – RCMP are currently looking for a missing young woman who had last been seen at the City Center mall located in downtown Edmonton. Staff from the mall have reported an influx of visitors to the mall after the closing. They are unsure how the patrons are entering or exiting the mall, or what is drawing guests there after closing. Though, it’s believed to be the inter-dimensional orgy that takes place at The Gap every Tuesday night as per store policy.
Ok, I may have added that last part. But I mean come on! You know, if there was going to be an inter-dimensional orgy, it would, 100%, be at The Gap.
The Story
I took the police report, connected it to other sources, cross referenced it with the Aurora Wasteland website, and well…ran with it. Below is the story I was able to piece together…
Hiro’s back banged against the bathroom wall. Tile from the wall tumbled to the disgusting floor below. His long hair swayed as the beautiful woman he’d only met minutes ago ran her fingers through it. Her lips felt so warm and comforting on his. It had been too long since he’d felt the touch of… well… anything. He wanted to be nowhere but right where he was. She wrapped her arms around him, spreading her warmth, her grip tightening on him. She kissed him hard, her tongue grazing his own. This was comfort, normalcy, he never wanted to leave here or her. It had been so long, that he… Hiro opened his eyes.
The woman no longer looked like the woman he remembered. Her hair was shorter, as was her skirt, and… she placed his hand on her thigh. She licked his cheek and lowered his face down towards her cleavage that Hiro was sure wasn’t there before. He felt comfort, and the urge to never be anywhere else ever again, migrated along with his blood to his pants.
The woman kissed him again as she slid his hand further under her skirt. As his fingers reached the warmth of her body under her skirt, she moaned and tightened her grip on him. This was all that Hiro had wanted, after all these months alone, he wanted connection, human connection.
The woman’s moans increased, as she pressed his hand further. Only, her sounds of lust changed, from tribal incoherent passion to words, a single word actually. “One”, over and over she repeated the word, “One, one, one.” She screamed it over and over again, as she inched closer and closer to the edge of pleasure. Then, as she passed over the hill, she pulled him close, unwilling to let him move his hand, that was still under her skirt. She smiled at him, “one.” She kept repeating the word over and over.
The tone in her voice quickly changed from lust and passion to boredom as she continued to spout the word. “One, one, one.”
Hiro tried to pull his hand free, but she continued to not let him. He pulled harder. Still nothing. She wrapped both her hands around Hiro’s head and pulled him close for a hug. He pulled again, still he couldn’t pull his hand free.
As Hiro stared at her through the hug, she kissed his head and the bathroom around them seemed to change. The walls rippled. The tiles spun. The bathroom stalls flickered from existence. The room had been a disgusting mess, an embarrassment to bathrooms everywhere . Now, he didn’t know. It was a blur, and he… Nat startled awake, sweat drenched her clothes. She’d never had a dream like that before, it was so vivid, felt so real. Felt so good. God, she needed human contact in more than one way.
Through the darkness of her bedroom, the neon green clock on her nightstand told her it was 5 am. She had two more hours until she had to be up for work. After a few minutes of trying to get comfortable, the soaked pajamas and non stop thoughts of how real it felt signaled it was time to get up no matter what time the clock said. Nat fumbled for her glasses and brushed the hair from her face with her fingers.
Everything felt so silent. Nat got to her feet and stood in front of the window in her bedroom. The small apartment only had two rooms, a bedroom and a living room slash kitchen. She hadn’t had much for options. People weren’t moving when The Virus hit, but she’d broken up with her long term live in boyfriend just days before The Virus. There was no chance she was going to stick around the apartment they shared with him still there. So, she’d found this place. It was one of two that were available and she could afford it. It served its purpose. The size of it made it feel more like a shoebox when forced to spend all day every day in it. If the world had been normal she’d love it, but now with The Virus, her world was smaller than it had ever been.
The routine of it all didn’t help either. Get up, work, eat, work some more, watch something on TV, read a little, go to bed, all while in the same few feet of living space, repeat repeat repeat. Every day that passed made her feel more and more like a robot running on some predetermined automation.
Her office had implemented this software that mimicked their real office. Basically, the software had a floorplan of their office, and Nat had to move her little character around as needed. So, if she was sitting at her desk and working, her avatar should be at her desk. If she had to talk to someone, she moved her character to their desk, then called them. And if she had to pee, she moved her avatar to the bathroom. Though she never did that, it felt strange to let the entire office know she was peeing. Instead, she just parked her character at the coffee machine, it was much less embarrassing.
She had been working for her current employer for almost a year, and she’d made only one friend, though she would hardly classify him as a friend. They mostly just talked about video games, which was funny given that they worked at a video game company and everyone talked about a specific video game all day. Nat worked in finance and was one of the only people to not work with the game directly. Her potential friend, Simon, was head of the new technologies team. He was always telling her about new games on new platforms that she’d never heard about before. He seemed to be focused mainly on virtual reality lately, which had always interested Nat. She’d spent some of her first paycheck on a pair of VR goggles.
As Nat sat down to work after a quick coffee actually bathroom break, Simon showed up at her virtual desk, then Nat’s phone rang. He told her about a new game he’d played the night before. He said it was so good that you could get lost in it believing that it was real. When she’d asked him about the story, he told her there was no story, you just did whatever you wanted, and that she’d understand once she tried it. He was going to send a copy of the game over along with the required VR glasses needed.
Throughout the conversation, Simon repeated over and over again, "it’s so damn good, you don’t even know you’re in it." That sentence would roll around in Nat’s head for the rest of the day. There was no way it could live up to that hype, it was impossible.
After work, Nat continued her routine, eat, watch something on TV, read a little, and just before she went to bed, her phone rang. After the first ring, she knew exactly who it was. There was only ever one person that called her, and it was always at this time of day, her mother.
Like many mothers and daughters, their relationship was challenging at certain points. It would be great for years, then suddenly her mother would say something about how she should be married already, how she would never be a grandmother, that Nat should return to the country she was born in, or, on very special days, something racist or sexist. No matter what it was, it would always lead to a period of time where the two women wouldn’t speak to each other.
As Nat held the phone in her hand, she had flashed back to
their previous conversation over a month ago. Her mother had said something about Nat being too much into her work, and that she should find a man so that she could stay home and have babies. The phone call had ended quickly after that. But something strange happened as Nat held the phone, unsure how to start the conversation, Nat’s mother apologized. She said she was sorry if she ever made Nat feel less than what she was, she just wanted her to be happy, and that she only now understood that their versions of happy were different from each other.
The phone call that night ended with Nat feeling happy and looking forward to talking to her mother again. It was a strange and foreign feeling, but she liked it.
The next day Nat got up and started her routine over again. As she sat down, ready for work, there was a knock at her door and a buzz on her phone. It had to be a delivery. Nat jumped up from her chair and ran to the door, startling the delivery man, whom she’d learned was named Vince. He handed her a package, and despite having a fabric mask covering his mouth, he smiled at her. She smiled back and took the package.
Before the door was even closed behind her, she was ripping the package open. It was from Steven. The VR game and glasses he’d promised to send her were in the package. She smiled and tried the glasses on. They were comfortable and light, but seemed to be lacking in the tech department. The glasses barely looked different from a normal pair of glasses. She tossed them onto the counter and sat down for work. She’d try them later.