by James Porter
“Are you seeing this?” She was absolutely dumbfounded. This was what she had been searching for years and years. “Trevor! Are you getting this on camera?”
“Oh shit, yeah, getting it now.” He had been so in shock at seeing the alien craft that he had been just standing there staring at it, but now he got the camera into position and started filming the whole thing. The rocket looked like a sleek metal cigar with three thin wings on one end. The wings acted as landing struts leaving the whole ship pointed skyward. A ladder ran up the length of the craft and terminated at a small hatch. It was a magnificent sight for them.
“Ok, on me in three.” Lori had pulled out her microphone and flipped her hair to make it a little more presentable. “Three, two…We have been following leads on an alien sighting here in central Missouri, and our trail has led us here.” She gestured to the clearing behind her. “And to the alien craft that has landed here. That’s right, we are standing at the foot of an actual alien spaceship, leaving no doubt as to the fact that we are not alone in the universe! There has been no sign of alien activity, so we can only assume they are either hiding inside or out trying to abduct people for their nefarious experiments.” Trevor grinned at her over dramatization. Lori always knew how to play to the paranoia of her viewers. As she talked, she had been slowly approaching the craft and he had followed, making sure to include her in his shots of the spacecraft.
“Now we need to see if anyone is home.” Lori turned and grabbed the ladder rung closest to her and started climbing.
“Lori! What the hell are you doing? Get down from there!” Trevor was getting scared now. It’s one thing to find and film an alien ship, but he did not want to actually meet any aliens. “You are going to get abducted you idiot! She was a fast climber and it didn’t take her long to reach the hatch.
“I can see a hatch here, but I don’t see a way to open it, oh wait, this panel seems to have a little give in it.” Lori fiddled with the loose panel and soon the hatch slid open revealing darkness. Trevor watched in horror as the panel opened.
“Lori! Please come down!” He didn’t expect her to do that, he actually expected her to do exactly what she did, which was to enter the opening and disappear into the dark. The panel then slid back into place and Trevor stood there helplessly as Lori was cut off from human help. Trevor lowered the camera and kept staring at the hatch hoping it would open and she would come out. The hatch terrified him, but the thought of what was inside the ship terrified him even more. He wanted so badly to help Lori, but he couldn’t muster the courage to save her himself and he hated himself for his cowardice. “I’ve got to get help!” He said it aloud and the sound of his own voice seemed to snap him out of his shock. “I’ve got to get help.” Trevor turned around and bounded into the woods back the way they came.
Chapter 15
Jake had a mouthful of simulated steak when the door panel slid open and a redhead came stumbling in, he didn’t even have time to swallow before the panel slid closed again. The woman turned around and slapped the panel with her hand.
“Shit.” Lori turned around to look into the room, her eyes still hadn’t adjusted from the brightness of the outdoors, but she could tell there were others in the room with her. “I come in peace?” She silently cursed at saying something so cliché in what should have been a monumental speech from humanity to the beings from space.
“Well, cool. I’m pretty peaceful myself. Guess we’ll get along.” Bud responded. Jake on the other hand couldn’t help but stare at the young woman that had joined their little surprise party. She was about his height with a solid athletic build. Her red hair fell to her shoulders and her green eyes drew him in like an emerald lake in the summer’s heat. He stared into her eyes and could see the confusion and fear in them, especially now that she was like a trapped animal.
“What’s going on here?” Lori looked around the room at the three people there and was truly confused. “Where are the aliens? Is this some sort of scam? Ar-Are you guys aliens?” She was beginning to think that maybe these individuals had built the ship for the media attention.
“This isn’t a scam. The alien should be back soon. She had one more person to, uh, collect.” She looked at the man talking to her, he had the start of a scruffy beard and blond hair, and appeared to her to be some sort of mechanic. “My names Jake. That man over there is Bud, and her name is Misty.” The woman he gestured to was sitting up, but looked to be pretty out of it. “She’s still kind of in shock, but otherwise fine.” The woman stood up on shaky legs and started to speak.
“Where is that devil that kidnapped me? We’ve got to get out of here!” Misty seemed to be panicking.
“Easy there, princess” Bud approached Misty talking calmly but with a tone of authority. “We are waiting for the alien to come back and explain things. She doesn’t want to hurt us, and said that we would be given the choice to leave if that’s what we wanted. The alien just wants a chance to plead her case. For now, I can get you some tea and we can see if this food contraption they have over here can make anything you like to eat.” Bud gently took her arm and led her to the food and drink synthesizer.
“Tea does sound nice.” Misty was still in shock for the most part and tea was something familiar she could focus on in this crazy nonsense world.
“Well, my name is Lori and I am a reporter for Spook 101. We do paranormal news. Seems like I have more of a story here than I thought.” Lori turned and looked at the panel again running her hand over the smooth surface.
“So how did you get in here?” Jake was curious if maybe Lori had figured out the secret to the doors.
“There was a small panel that looked a little loose and out of place, but I don’t see anything like it on this side. Looks like were stuck.” Lori turned back to the group of people while sizing up the situation. “So does anyone know exactly why you were brought here?”
“Well apparently we are the dregs of the universe brought here to do an aliens dirty work.” Jake let the bitter sarcasm drip of his lips like a newborn’s drool.
“Now, Jake, she didn’t say we were bad people, just that she needed our help.” Bud chimed in as he handed a cup of tea to Misty. “Here you go, careful it’s hot”
“Well you weren’t awake to get the full force of her contempt, were you.” Jake’s eyes closed as flashes of the burning oil rig filled his mind. “We’re monsters to her.” And she’s right, at least when it comes to me. His dead friends face floated into his mind’s eye and he shook his head to get rid of it. “So what exactly brings you here?” He looked at Lori with his piercing blue eyes and she almost swooned.
“Well I was following up on a story about a ufo in the area making people crazy. My finely tuned investigative skills led me to the ship. I have a cameraman on the outside…Oh. I should call him for help! Maybe he can climb up and open the door and we can be ready for it!” She pulled out her phone and started dialing.
“It won’t work. Something about the ship. No service in here.” Bud let her know with the tone of someone talking from experience. Lori stopped dialing and looked at her phone.
“Dammit! You’re right, no service.” A cloud passed over Lori’s face as she realized they were stuck here until the alien returned, and then it could be too late.
“Hey, don’t be so glum” Jake came over to her. “The alien isn’t that bad. Looks like a person at least, not some multi-legged insect intent on eating our heads. She has been pretty straight forward with us so far.” Lori couldn’t help but smile at Jake. She felt like she could bare her soul to this man and he would tend to it like a delicate flower. “There, see, not so bad after all.”
“I guess not, and Trevor will surely have gone for help once he realized I was in the ship.” He better have. She went over to Bud. “How do I make this thing give me some tea?”
“Oh my God!” Misty suddenly spurted out. Everyone turned to the source of the outburst. “My poor Gwendolyn is all alone!”
“
Well, who the hell is Gwendolyn?” For the first time Bud seemed to be concerned.
“She’s my cat.” Tears started to run down Misty’s cheeks as the thought of her poor cat, Gwendolyn starving to death overwhelmed her.
“Son-of-a-“Bud trailed off his sentence. “We’re snatched up by aliens and she’s worried about her cat.” He threw his hands into the air dramatically as he turned from the sobbing woman. Lori started to giggle and then Jake let out a full on laugh.
“It’s not funny! She depends on me for everything! She’ll be eaten by coyotes within the hour!
Lori choked back her laughter. “You’re right Misty, it’s NOT funny.” She glared at Jake for him to stop laughing. “I am sure that she is fine. Cats are smart. Try not to worry about her.” Lori put her hand on the woman’s shoulder in an effort to comfort her.
“She’s not fine! What could you possibly understand about anything?” Misty snapped back at her pushing her hand off her shoulder in the process. Misty then walked to the other side of the room and continued to cry.
“Well, I tried” Lori crossed her arms and sulked at the snubbing she had taken. They all fell silent as the depth of their situation started to sink in. Each lost in their own thoughts and regrets. Each of them wondering what was going to happen to them.
Chapter 16
Agent Moot kicked at a broken branch lying on the ground, cursing at the same time “It has to be around here somewhere!” He had been walking around in the woods since last night and was getting nowhere. He was pretty sure he had passed that same branch three times already. “Where is the ship? The signals are too random. I can’t get it to lock onto anything.” He once again started twisting the dial on his contraption, soon he got a picture on his phone like he did yesterday, which was looking out of the alien’s eyes. “Finally!” He started to follow the signal and realized it was coming up on him and he would have to hide. He turned off his device and dived into some bushes to wait. He soon heard voices, and recognized one of them as that dumb kid he tried to help yesterday. She must have used some sort of mind control ray on him, as he didn’t seem to be resisting very much. Agent Moot was prepared to rescue this guy whether he wanted him to or not. Soon the pair passed his hiding spot and continued into the woods, but now Moot had something to follow and would definitely catch them at the ship, he just couldn’t let them get too far ahead of him.
While they were walking, Star had felt that same uneasy feeling as she had yesterday, she didn’t know how, but someone had something that was tuned to her crystal frequencies. She just kept walking and hoped that it was just her imagination, but as she had no imagination she knew she had better be ready for anything.
“There it is up ahead” Star pointed in the direction they were walking and Alan saw the ship.
“Wow that is a real beut! You guys built that?” He whistled in appreciation at the sleek rocket ship.
“Yes, unfortunately we couldn’t get a larger one built. There weren’t enough salvageable engines to provide thrust to a larger version of that.” Her people had argued for days about that one, and finally decided that a smaller vessel could go and return with help for all of them. She had doubts as to whether that was what was going to happen.
Agent Moot could hear them talking and stole a glance toward the ship they were talking about, and there it was. It was like it was taken straight out of a 50’s comic book, sleek and retro looking. He almost laughed a little thinking he might have been set up by his boss, but his seriousness stole back into his face as he recalled how pissed his boss was on the phone. You couldn’t fake that level of irritation, or at least his boss couldn’t. This was the real deal, and that alien who the young man was so easily chatting with was an enemy of the human race, and an abductor. Agent Moot was trying to think how to actually confront that thing. He had to be careful as who knew what kind of evil alien technology it had brought with it, or how many there were. He suddenly thought of the ship as being full of alien reinforcements and almost chickened out. He wasn’t sure he could handle one of these things, and there might be dozens?
“No, those are Americans in there and I won’t let any outer space devil take them away!” He realized he said it too loud and watched in horror as the alien stopped and slowly turned around.
“Who is out there? I know you have been following me, but I will not let you thwart my mission!” Star was scanning the woods, but couldn’t really see anything. Her eyes were set up just like human eyes, she didn’t have any fancy infra-red or x-ray vision that she could have been using. Alan was giving her a funny look, he didn’t hear anything or even suspect that anyone could be following them. Suddenly it occurred to him.
“Agent Hoot, Woot, Zoot? Something like that, but this guy tried to warn me yesterday about you. He had this device…”
“It’s Agent MOOT!” Agent Moot made sure they could hear how his name was pronounced as he stepped from the woods, gun drawn and pointed right at them. “Don’t make any sudden moves alien scum! You’re under arrest!”
Star really didn’t know what to make of this strange little man who thought he could stop her progress. She knew she had to be breaking some kind of rules by taking humans against their will, but she was going to give them a choice, and let them go if they chose not to help. She quickly drew her ray gun and had it pointed at him before he could even react.
“You cannot stop me. I will do as I must to save my people.” She stepped in front of Alan and tried to get him to climb the ladder into the ship.
“You, young man, come over here toward me away from the evil alien. I am here to save you.” He tried to get the kid away from the alien so he could shoot it and be done with it. Alan, however had already agreed to help Star rescue her people, and wasn’t about to go back to doing community service or worse as this was probably some kind of international level incident.
“No man, I can’t, you better drop your gun or her brain worm will kill me for sure!” Alan wasn’t sure if this guy would fall for it or not, but he didn’t want to go to jail for going along willingly with an illegal alien.
Agent Moot clenched his teeth in rage at what diabolical lows this alien had stooped to. “Alright!” he sagged in defeat, “I’m putting it down.” He put the gun on the ground and stepped back from it. The alien shoved the kid up the ladder and slowly followed behind keeping her ray gun drawn and aimed in his direction. A low rumble was coming from the woods behind him as the breeze picked up. They all looked up to the tree tops in time to see a government issue black helicopter come over them. Agent Moot smiled and grabbed his gun as he started running toward the ship. The helicopter swung around to reveal smiling agents inside.
“Give it up alien scum, my reinforcements have arrived!” He yelled up the ladder at them and he started up.
“Crap, get inside and close the door!” Star made sure Alan got into the hatch and pointed her ray gun at the helicopter in anticipation of the coming attack. Agent Moot was halfway up the ladder and ready to finally be victorious.
“Agent Moot, come away from that structure with your hands up!” Came a booming voice from the helicopter. Star and Moot both looked at the helicopter with the same look of confusion.
Chapter 17
“I repeat, Agent Moot come away from that structure with your hands up!” The helicopter was hovering about one hundred yards from the rocket, the side door was open with an agent sitting at a .50 Cal automatic rifle.
“Go away! I’m trying to arrest the alien you idiots!” Agent Moot waved his arms about trying to signal the helicopter to leave. It didn’t seem to be doing any good, Moot looked up to where the alien was and locked eyes with the perpetrator. The alien then moved further up the ladder and going into the hatchway. “Freeze!” He fired a warning shot at the alien in an attempt to get it to stop.
“He’s shooting at us! Open fire!” A loud rattle of machine gun fire from the helicopter was the response as they fired at the rocket. Bullets ricocheted off the hea
vy steel hull and around Moot. “Stop shooting! Whose side are you on?” Moot again was waving his arms in great spiral motions to get the helicopter to depart, which it refused to do. When the helicopter gunner decided to fire again, Moot had to review his options. He looked up to the hatch through which the alien had now entered the ship. Gunfire from the helicopter was peppering the ship between him and the doorway. To his left he saw what looked like another hatch and he tried to get it open the mechanism was being difficult though.
“Agent Moot, this is your last warning! We have been authorized to use extreme prejudice in your retrieval!” Moot scrabbled at the latch in an attempt to get it open. The helicopter was moving slowly hovering around the rocket, and trying to get a little closer to Moot. “I don’t think he’s going to comply, sir” The gunner looked to the pilot for instructions.
“Bring him down.” The pilot swung the helicopter so the gunner had full view of the craft and the rogue agent. Moot managed to get the hatch open and attempted to climb in, however it was too far from the ladder for a smooth transition. The gun on the helicopter barked to life again this time sending a hail of bullets a lot closer to Moot than he liked. He kicked off the ladder and grabbed the frame of the hatchway and was left dangling there for a moment. More gunfire from behind him spurred him on. He pulled himself up into the hatchway and slammed the door shut. Just in case the machine gun was going to be able to shoot through the hull, Moot peeked out, took aim and fired off three shots at the gunner and gun. His marksmanship wasn’t far off and he managed to tag the gun and the gunner, although the gunner appeared to only have a flesh wound to the leg. The gun itself gave a squeal of protest as the barrel ruptured from the damage induced misfire. The gunner gave a look of disgust and ducked into the helicopter briefly and returned with a rocket propelled grenade anti-tank weapon.
