The Unlikely Defenders

by Scott Haworth

  “Alien craft, this is Wright-Patt,” a new voice said over the radio. “Do you require a runway to land?”

  “Negative,” Anthony replied, taking very kindly to speaking like a fighter pilot. “Be advised we are capable of vertical landing.”

  Victoria turned and shot Anthony a sly smile. “You sound like such a douchebag.”

  Anthony smiled back pleasantly while extending his middle finger in her direction.

  “Copy that, alien craft. Three degrees to your starboard you should see a row of hangers. Can you set down there?”

  Nick leaned forward and looked out the left side of the window.

  “Your other starboard,” Anthony said, pointing to the right.

  Nick nodded his head after looking in the correct direction. “Yeah, tell him I can make that.”

  “Affirmative,” Anthony relayed.

  The landing went surprisingly smoothly. While hovering over the target, Nick cautiously pressed and released the red button. The craft jerked as it dropped five feet and then stopped. Confident of the speed of the descent, Nick held down the red button and the Kessiam fighter fell steadily to the ground. Victoria, who was closest to the door, pulled on the handle and stepped outside. She was followed by the two young men.

  Anthony bumped into Nick as he exited the ship. It was quickly apparent why Nick had stopped so suddenly. A dozen men wearing Air Force uniforms and holding assault rifles had surrounded the ship. Anthony, Nick and Victoria raised their hands into the air.

  “Lower your weapons!” shouted a voice to their right. A middle-aged Air Force officer emerged from behind the front of the ship. He reached the trio as they were beginning to cautiously put their hands down. “Colonel Breckenridge,” he said, nodding towards the college students.

  Nick and Victoria nodded back politely. Anthony took the initiative and saluted which drew a sinister look from Victoria.

  “Sorry about the precautions,” Breckenridge said as he motioned towards the base’s security. “We weren’t too sure of your story,” he continued. He paused to examine the three young people. “Still not too sure of it to tell you the truth. You three piloted this thing here?”

  “Yes, sir,” Nick beamed. “It’s really user friendly. Hell, it has less buttons than my Playstation.”

  “Is that so?” Breckenridge said with a chuckle. “Well you were right to bring it here. I can’t thank you enough. If you’ll all follow me to my office…” he said, motioning for them to follow him.

  The three followed behind the colonel walking shoulder to shoulder. Nick was in the center, wisely separating the other two. After about ten steps he turned back to investigate a noise. A dozen Air Force personnel and a forklift were beginning to push the Kessiam fighter into the nearest hanger.

  Anthony was motionless in his bed. He had long since given up trying to sleep. The Halloween party had ended around two in the morning when the last of the guests had gone home. Nick had not been there to see them off with Anthony. He had retired to his bedroom an hour before with the girl he had met earlier that evening. From what Anthony could hear through the wall, it sounded as if they were both still having a very good time.

  A soft female moan broke the night’s silence. Anthony sighed and wiped his hands over his face. Again!? he thought to himself. He rolled over and checked his alarm clock. It was 6:35 AM. I guess four hours of almost sleeping will have to be enough.

  Anthony threw the covers off and propelled himself out of bed. He opened his bedroom door violently and slammed it shut behind him as hard as he could muster. He took a short detour to the bathroom to expel the last of the night’s beer. He made his way to the couch in the living room and flopped down. He turned on the television and increased its volume a few notches. It was not blaring, but it was certainly higher than he normally would have had it when he knew Nick was in bed.

  Anthony flicked through the channels aimlessly. There was, not surprisingly, absolutely nothing of interest on so early in the morning. He clicked through all the stations and paused only briefly on a few of them. He was about to begin his second rotation when Nick’s mystery woman emerged from the bedroom.

  She was wearing one of Nick’s white dress shirts but no pants. Given her height the shirt just barely fell over her panties. She became conscious of this fact when she noticed Anthony, who was illuminated by the light from the television. Embarrassed, she tugged down at the bottom of the dress shirt and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. She flashed a quick smile towards Anthony which was not returned. Assuming he had not noticed her, she brushed off his lack of reaction. She slipped into the bathroom and emerged a moment later.

  She hesitated in the doorway of the bathroom as she looked back and forth between Nick’s bedroom and the living room. After a moment she turned right and walked into the living room. “Hi,” she said in such a low volume that it was almost a whisper. “You must be Nick’s roommate Anthony.”

  “I must be,” Anthony responded coldly. He was sitting on the couch in only boxer shorts. It occurred to him that his attire would make her uncomfortable. He decided quickly that her comfort was none of his concern. She was an intruder in his apartment after all.

  “I’m Vicky. Nick and I met in a history elective this quarter,” she said. Her tone indicated that she wanted Anthony to know that she was not the type of girl who had one night stands with guys she met at parties. She sat down in an empty recliner and pulled a blanket over her exposed legs. “I hope you don’t mind if I sit with you for a while. Nick is snoring, and I’m not really tried.”

  “Free country,” Anthony murmured. He instantly regretted not coming up with a less juvenile response. “Guess Nick’s worn out.”

  “Yeah,” Victoria blushed. “I really like him.”

  “The walls are paper thin. I heard how much you like him,” Anthony replied while turning to look her in the eyes. “Three times,” he added without trying to mask the anger in his voice.

  Victoria was terribly embarrassed but at the same time perplexed. She could not think of any reason why Anthony would be so upset that his friend had gotten laid. Guys were supposed to be happy for each other when that happened. She decided Anthony was upset about being kept up and began to apologize. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize we were keeping you up.”

  Anthony grunted in response as he turned back towards the television.

  Victoria had no idea if the primitive vocalization was an acceptance of her apology or not. She began to wonder what she was feeling so upset about. Isn’t he the one being rude? she thought to herself. He’s the one bringing up sex with someone he has never met before. That’s not proper roommate etiquette even if we did disturb his sleep. He should be yelling at Nick once I’m gone.

  After a few minutes of silence, Victoria decided to stick to being nice. She was just starting her relationship with Nick. Making a good first impression on his best friend was essential. “So what’s your major?” she asked. She knew it was a cliché campus conversation starter. She could think of nothing else to discuss with him though.

  “Education,” Anthony replied.

  After a significant pause it became clear to Victoria that he was not going to elaborate. “I’m in physics. Astrophysics more specifically. And I know everyone gets this image in their head when you say you’re an astrophysics geek, but it’s actually really interesting. I just finished a term paper on that alien thing we picked up here at OSU back in the 70’s.”

  “Alien thing?” Anthony questioned. His desire to shut her out was pushed aside by his desire to find out what she was talking about.

  “Yeah, you’ve never heard about it? It was the most promising radio signal we’ve ever…” she trailed off as Nick emerged from his bedroom.

  “There you are,” Nick said amorously. “Thought you snuck out on me.”

  Victoria walked over and pressed herself against him. “Never,” she said before giving him a very passionate kiss.

  Nick grasped the
collar of the dress shirt she was wearing and tugged it forward, exposing more of the area around her chest. He ran the back of his hand sensually between her breasts. She giggled, tossed her head back and instinctively exposed her neck to him.

  At about the same time both Nick and Victoria remembered that Anthony was in the room. They both shot looks in his direction. He was doing his best to pretend he was still watching television. Nick caught Victoria’s eye and nodded towards his bedroom. She giggled again and followed him inside.

  Anthony heard the mattress springs squeaking a moment later. “Oh come on,” he muttered to himself. “Four times?” He increased the television’s volume another ten points and closed his eyes.

  “Well, how the hell many of them are there?”

  “Where do they come from?”

  “What’s the military doing?”

  The questions were fired at Jeffery Wenzel rapidly. He had just gotten done telling the patrons of the bar everything he knew, which was not much. Now he was beginning to feel very uncomfortable. He did not like being the center of attention. “I don’t know. I’ve already told you everything that happened to me.”

  A woman came out of the bathroom and approached the group with mild curiosity. She had been indisposed when the two Kessiams had been killed although she had thought she heard gunshots. “What’s going on?” she asked.

  “Aliens are attacking,” responded one of the men as if such an event happened frequently.

  “Fucking Mexicans!” the woman yelled.

  “Nah, Martha. Not illegal aliens, space aliens,” he clarified. He turned back towards Jeffery. “How do those ray guns of theirs work?”

  “All right boys, give him some room,” said the patron who had been at the bar when Jeffery had first arrived. He had not given his name but rather insisted that Jeffery call him Tex. “He don’t know anything more than we do.”

  The group of bar patrons mumbled their agreement and walked to the other end of the bar. One of the larger men spoke loudly as he walked off, “Well, seems to me it’s about time to start up a local militia. Can’t expect the Army to come save our asses. If there’s no objections I’d like to nominate myself as captain of this here…”

  Jeffery did not pay attention to the rest of what the man was saying. Instead he turned towards Tex. “Thanks, Tex.”

  “Aw no problem,” Tex said as he delivered a powerful smack against Jeffery’s shoulder. “You did us all a service warning us about them critters. If it weren’t for you they’d have gotten the jump on us,” he said. He looked past Jeffery towards the crowd of soon-to-be Texas militiamen. “We’ve got some time still. They’ll be chewing on that for a while. Where you from? I can’t place your accent.”

  Jeffery had lived in Texas for a long time. He was used to people referring to his accent. “Massachusetts,” he replied.

  “Massachusetts!” Tex said as if it had been on the tip of his tongue. In truth though Tex had no idea where Massachusetts was. He had a rough notion that it was somewhere to the left of Maine. Tex picked at Jeffery’s egg-stained uniform with two fingers. He did not notice Jeffery’s obvious discomfort at being touched. “Did you come all the way to Texas to work at the Mickey D’s?” he asked skeptically.

  “No, actually I was on the fast track at a large insurance company. I couldn’t get hired anywhere after I spent a few years in prison for assault,” Jeffery replied truthfully. He never tried to hide the horrible crime he had committed. To him, hiding it was just the same as denying that it ever happened.

  Tex sized up the short and slender Jeffery. He started to laugh and smacked Jeffery on the shoulder once again. “All right fella, you’re right. It’s not my place to pry into your personal business,” he concluded. Tex looked him over again and shook his head. “Assault… yeah right.”

  Jeffery did not attempt to correct Tex. Honesty was one thing, but announcing the fact that he was a convicted sex offender to a room full of half drunk, heavily armed Texans who were already eager to start shooting things? That would be suicide.

  Tex had noticed something a little off about Jeffery when he had sized him up. For a moment he could not put his finger on it. Suddenly he grabbed Jeffery by the shoulder and pushed him around so he could examine his back. “My God!” Tex exclaimed to a very confused and startled Jeffery. “You don’t have a gun on ya!”

  “Oh, no I don’t,” Jeffery sadly replied. Given the emphasis coming from Tex, he felt as though he was missing a vital article of clothing.

  “Well you ain’t going to be able to shoot no aliens with no gun! Shit,” Tex said. “Don’t you worry none. I’ll help you out.”

  Tex grabbed Jeffery by the shoulder and pushed him towards the back exit. He stopped just before the door as he felt Jeffery squirming to get free. He pulled his pistol from its holster and pointed it one-handed towards the door.

  “Don’t you worry about them aliens. The owner of the bar is a buddy of mine. He lets me park right out back in the alley. No reason for them to be creeping around back there but if they are,” he said. He nodded towards the revolver in his hand.

  Jeffery had no doubt that Tex was as good a shot as any walking, talking Texas cliché could be. Reluctantly he nodded his agreement and followed Tex out into the alley. Tex’s intuition had been correct. There was nothing outside but a beat up truck.

  Tex opened the driver’s side door without having to unlock it first. He reached back to the gun rack behind the seat and handed a rifle to Jeffery. He grabbed another rifle for himself before crawling out of the car and shutting the door.

  When he emerged Tex saw Jeffery standing awkwardly and holding the barrel of the rifle he had been given. “Ya know how to shoot?” he inquired. Given the tone he used, it was almost as if he was asking Jeffery if he knew how to drive a car or tie his shoes.

  “Well… no,” Jeffery responded sheepishly. He suddenly felt very sad about disappointing the man he had met only ten minutes earlier. “I’m from Massachusetts…”

  “Ah, hell. That’s right. Well, you can’t rightly choose where ya get born. Don’t worry yourself none. I’ll teach you the basics.”

  Without warning Tex brought the rifle up to his shoulder and turned sharply. He aimed his rifle down the alley and started to squeeze off rounds at some discarded boxes. Jeffery dropped his rifle and brought his hands up to his ears.

  Jeffery turned his silver BMW into his driveway fast enough that the tires squealed. He loved that sound. He did it almost every day after work even though he knew that it was probably destroying the treads of his tires. He did not care. He could afford new tires with what he was getting paid.

  Bobby came running over from next door as Jeffery turned off the engine. He had started greeting Jeffery in the driveway more and more of late. Like most young boys Bobby had a fascination with expensive cars. Jeffery had tried to dissuade the boy at first, but Bobby had been persistent. Jeffery, secretly longing for the boy’s company, had continued his discouragement only half-heartedly and eventually had given up altogether. Now Jeffery often looked forward to his encounter with Bobby all day at work. He tried to deny it to himself, but he even felt sad when the boy was not home to greet him.

  “That was a good one, Mr. Wenzel,” Bobby said, referring to the tire squeal.

  “There was no traffic on Oak Street so I was able to get the speed up to fifty,” Jeffery replied. He walked around the car to stand shoulder to shoulder with Bobby. He put his right hand on the back of Bobby’s neck and squeezed gently. A wave of excitement washed over him. He had begun touching Bobby gradually over the course of the last month. At first he had found excuses like picking off lint from the boy’s shirt. Bobby had become accustomed to Jeffery touching him. He incorrectly assumed that Jeffery was just being friendly and thought nothing of it.

  “Jeff!” Bobby’s mother Ellen yelled as she ran out of her front door.

  Jeffery removed his hand from Bobby quickly as a sudden wave of fear hit him. Ellen’s yelling
had not been an accusation. He calmed down quickly when he remembered that Ellen had a tendency to yell no matter how close she was to the person with whom she was talking.

  Ellen ran towards her neighbor and her son in a panic. When she reached the pair she put her hand on Bobby’s head and looked towards Jeffery. “I just got off the phone with the hospital. Big Robert got himself into a car accident!” she said, speaking about her husband.

  “Oh my God,” Jeffery said. “Is he all right?”

  “I don’t know, they wouldn’t tell me nothing,” she said as she started to choke up. “They just told me to go down there. I know it’s short notice, but could you keep an eye on Bobby while I’m gone?”

  “Yeah of course,” he said reflexively. He felt another wave of excitement as he processed what accepting the request meant. He would be alone with Bobby.

  “Oh thank you, Jeff. You’re such a good man for doing this,” she said. She rubbed her hand lovingly over Bobby’s cheek before turning and jogging towards her car.

  “Wait!” Bobby yelled. “I want to go with you and see Pa!”

  Ellen turned back and shook her head. “No, you stay here with Mr. Wenzel where it’s safe. I don’t want you running around a hospital with a bunch of sick people. I’ll call Mr. Wenzel’s house just as soon as I find anything out. Now you behave yourself and mind Mr. Wenzel while I’m gone.”

  “I will, Ma,” Bobby reluctantly responded. He wanted to argue some more, but he had been raised in a strict environment. He was always good about obeying his parents.

  Bobby watched as Ellen got into her car and sped off down the street. “She treats me like I’m still a little kid,” he said, tears forming in his eyes. “But I’m not!”

  “I know you aren’t,” Jeffery comforted the boy.

  Bobby was overcome with emotion. He turned and buried his face into Jeffery’s chest as he began sobbing uncontrollably.

  “I’m sure your dad is going to be fine,” Jeffery said. He closed his eyes and slowly started to rub his hands over the boy’s back. After a moment he broke the hug and put his arm around Bobby’s shoulder. “Come on, let’s go inside and get you something to drink.”