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Short Story: The Society

The 31 Stories in 31 Days in July Challenge, #12 for July 12th.

The Society

“George. What if I told you I was two-hundred-years old?” Thomas asked his friend while they were walking back to the golf cart carrying their clubs.

“Ha! That's funny” Thomas said “We've known each other since we were teenagers. You've aged just like anyone else”

They put their bags into the back of the cart and climbed into the front.

“That's true, George” Thomas said “When we get old, we just get new, young bodies”

George stopped the cart and looked at his friend “Have you lost your mind recently?”

Thomas smiled and looked away. “I'm just getting tired. I thought it was great for a while but... I don't know any more”

“I've met your parents when we were young” George told him “You were raised rich and spoiled, I know you, remember? You were the one who did well in college without breaking a sweat...”

“I'd already passed those courses a couple of times, George” Thomas told him “When I was given my new body a couple of other members are signed up as my so-called parents. It's part of being in the secret society”

George shook his head. He didn't know what kind of game Thomas was playing this time but it seemed to be one of his longest jokes. “I don't even know what you are talking about, it doesn't make any sense”

Thomas nodded “I would have to start from the beginning. I was invited to join a secret society that had devised the technology to give people a young, healthy body again. In exchange for living many lifetimes we would pool much of our wealth with the goal of controlling the world”

George blinked. World domination, he hadn't seen that coming. “You must realize how that sounds to people, Thomas”

Thomas laughed. “Yes, I can imagine. I had the same thoughts when I was invited. Of course back then technology was much more primitive than it is now”

George shook his head. “Can we finish the game? Unless you can show me something, this is getting boring”

Thomas smiled and pointed forward “Drive then”

After the cart was moving Thomas spoke up, looking at some trees to his left “I have saved up quite a fortune in several lifetimes. I didn't inherit that money from anyone except myself.”

George had some questions if Thomas was going to keep playing this game “You were rich in college and yet, you never tried to chase girls and stuff, what's up with that? You only dated and then married Cindy the whole time I've known you”

“She's a member of the society, George” Thomas said “I married her a hundred and sixty years ago and haven't wanted to stray since”

George stopped the cart again. At this rate they would never reach the fifth hole. He took a deep breath and then looked at Thomas “Okay, spill. What's going on? Are you on drugs? Is there a problem at home with Cindy?”

Thomas shook his head. “Nothing like that George. I just wonder if there a point to all this. There are some high government officials in the society but it's not like they have any control after all this time. The society is fabulously wealthy but I just don't see the point. Civilization will collapse before we can save it”

“The riots, the economic tyranny, government out of its gourd” Thomas said, listing the things he and George were always concerned about. “Even with all the wealth the society has, we cannot stop or slow down the collapse, George. It's going to happen”

George already knew that. When every government on Earth is furiously printing more money or deeming it through banks without printing it, the end was near. “I don't know. If a group of super-wealthy immortals can't save us, then we're really doomed” he said with a half-hearted laugh,

Thomas was looking distant and thoughtful. George had expected at least a smile, so he tried again with humor “Good thing Carla and I have a really big bunker full of provisions”

Thomas looked around and then at George. “We're leaving George” he said, as seriously as he had ever seen his friend “Earth can't be saved. We're leaving. Our wealth will be meaningless on another world and we have to start over but it can't be worse that what is going to happen here”

George tilted his head, looking at his oldest friend, and finally believed him. “Ha. All you rich softies trying to raise your own food and mend your own clothes will be a hoot” he said “All those poor butlers might want to stay here”

Thomas nodded “We will take as much with us as possible. We will bring all the robots, machines and equipment we need, hopefully with the new printing devices we can make parts and keep them running for a long time. Of course we won't be alone. We'll find others who have needed skills and will fit into the society more or less easily.”

He was looking right at George when he said the last part.

“You want me to go with you?” he asked. His friend nodded.

“You can take your time giving me an answer” Thomas told him “Don't tell Carla and the kids until just before we leave. Less chance of someone spreading it to the outside.”

They abandoned the golf match and headed straight for the clubhouse. Thomas nodded and waved to the mayor and some others who they crossed paths with. George wondered how many of them were members of this secret Society. How many of them had lived a century or two with these secrets while amassing great wealth, he wondered.

“How can you leave? Space technology is still primitive. We've barely just stepped foot on Mars for crying out loud” George said in a hushed voice as they took their drinks to a secluded table.

Thomas grinned again. More secrets. “It was all done in secret. Like the reincarnation technology, it's all been done in the shadows”

George shook his head. “I was a radar tech in the air force, we could see birds if we wanted to. Anything that reached 60 miles an hour was automatically tracked by the AWACS. No way you guys have been flying around in secret”

Thomas shook his head “Don't think spaceships. Think wormhole”

George was stunned. He was actually looking forward to seeing a spaceship, really. Then he had a thought “I guess spaceships would limit the number of people who could go with you”

Thomas nodded “and the amount of equipment we could move”

George thought for a moment and drained the glass. “How long has this wormhole been used?”

Thomas looked around and leaned forward “Two years” he whispered “We have been furiously building the infrastructure and everything else. Already the wormhole technology has been moved to the other end. Once it is closed, it will be impossible to duplicate”

George leaned back and ran a hand across his cheek. “When will it be closed for good?”

“Two months” Thomas answered “If you decide to go, we will help you take as much stuff as is possible. A whole truck-load if you'd like. Oh, yes we just drive the trucks through”

George shook his head to clear it. “I'm going to need a few more of those”

Thomas put a hand on his and said “Don't get drunk. Not until the move is complete”

…

The major cities were battlefields, many buildings burned during the nights. Police were out-gunned by the gangs and the desperate citizens. The money had become worthless, the wheels had come off the wagon. Grocery stores were bare, farms were plowed under and abandoned. Factories were shuttered.

“Okay, everything loaded?” George asked as Carla and the kids finished putting the last boxes aboard the black unmarked truck. The driver saluted him before taking off, he and the kids would follow in the SUV. George felt the sidearm on his hip, even a short ride to the golf course was dangerous these days.

A mile down the road the truck veered off into the concrete ravine below, George steered to follow it as it went underneath the bridge and toward the golf course. At the end he could see the large grated sewage pipe up ahead, but it opened in front of them and they drove right on inside.

The Society owned the golf course and much of everything in this town. This town happened to be their headquarters, and underground was where everything happened for them. They saw heavily armed guards patrolling the tunnel and then they were waved into another turn, inside of that was a large swirling vortex of light. It looked like a small galaxy and the big black truck drove right through it and vanished.

His family was the last on the list. The guards were closing the big door to the chamber and the grate outside. All of the guards gathered around them and started marching into the vortex.

“This way, sir!” one of the guards said, knocking on his window.

“I guess this is it, then” Carla said “Leaving Earth behind”

“Yeah, we'll be safer there, right?” George said, still not certain about anything except that it could not possibly be worse than an apocalypse. As he drove through the swirling vortex he wondered if that was actually true.

----------------------------

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Short Story: Far-Flung Outpost

31 Stories in 31 Days in July, this is #11 for July 11th.

Far-Flung Outpost

Monthan Outpost on the farthest corner of the Empire

Two soldiers sat a table playing cards.

“You still owe me five credits from last time” The blond-haired man with a toothy grin told the dour-faced guy who had a thick head of black hair in a bowl cut.

“Fine, then we'll call this even and play again” the man answered gathering up the cards on the table and shuffling them.

“Sergeant, are you sure the communicator is still working” the younger, blond man asked.

The other man sighed “Yes, I check it every day, Private”

The younger man shook his head. “It's like there isn't even a war going on”

The superior officer shook his head “It's not for us. For us, we are to hold down the fort here and guard the back yard of the empire. Or the back gate anyway”

The younger man looked across the vast hangar at the hover-tank. It was quite a formidable machine and yet it was useless in the battles on the other side of the empire. It was just sitting there day after day, nothing ever happens here. The twin plasma cannons and quantum missile launcher on the turret and the ground-effect action-pulse engine in the main section hadn't even taken out for a test-drive in six months, the private just dusted it once a week.

It seemed like a waste of a powerful weapon of war.

“Okay, remember this is a draw three game. You can only draw three...” the older man dealt the cards but they flew everywhere when the sirens erupted. He put a hand on his chest to catch his breath and the younger man hit the button on the computer terminal.

“Air raid imminent!” the computer shrieked “Inbound enemy spacecraft”

The sergeant stood up, “Get in the tank!”

They both ran to the massive vehicle and climbed in. The superior officer climbed into the turret and a bubble enclosed over him. He hit a switch and the large doors began to open to the outside. It was a sandy world and just getting dark. Before they even left the hangar they could hear the fwoosh! Of the anti-aerial missiles being launched by the base computers.

The tank glided out of the base and almost as soon black shapes flew over them at extreme speeds and were gone before the base was rocked with explosions. The bombers weren't even slowing down more than absolutely needed to drop their bombs and then they increased power again and achieved orbital speeds.

They would be back around within a quarter of an hour, if they kept up the speed and came around the planet for another pass.

The Sergeant prepared the plasma lasers and missiles to launch seconds before the enemy craft even came into range. They were moving so fast that the anti-aerial kinetic missiles needed to be launched before the enemy was in range the closing speed alone would kill them if they hit.

The private could hear the humming of the plasma cannons as they charged up the necessary power in their coils from the atomic engine. Then the tank fired four missiles in quick succession just before the plasma laser bursts were shot off, raising the hairs on the back of the privates neck.

He could see dark shapes coming from the distance but they were moving very quickly, then one of them broke into two pieces and both of the halves plummeted to the ground on this dead world. The other black shape flew low overhead and the tank shuddered like a dinghy in the wake of a super carrier.

The private closed his eyes tightly and covered his ears. There was a tremendous explosion that threw the tank a good fifty meters but it landed on the gravity cushion under the tank. They had been rocked pretty good, both of the crew had to shake off what happened. Knowing that a concussion was not a good thing, but that things could be worse.

The plasma laser turrets charged up again. This always seemed a bit creepy to the private but he figured he had better things to worry about. He decided the tank should also be moving as fast as possible, his superior yelled “Go, go, go”

The last four missiles were launched automatically and a moment later the plasma lasers discharged their immense energy. The enemy craft nosed down and slammed into the ground just before them, the impact jarred the hover tank, pieces of rock and dirt flew everywhere and the sergeant had been thrown

clear out of the turret and right through the bubble canopy.

The Private donned a special emergency plastic bubble over his head with a small oxygen bottle hanging from it, then he climbed out and ran toward his superior. He unfurled another emergency air supply and put it over the head of his superior officer and inflated it with the oxygen tank. He didn't know if the officer would live but that he had to try to get back to base and see if a safe room still existed there.

Then he looked back and spotted something on the ground, it looked like a big hairless dog and it was still alive, albeit it injured. The creature struggled to sit up and then try and get back on its feet. It looked up at the private and bared fangs several inches long. It had trouble with its hind legs but it was scooting toward the private.

“Sergeant, you have to wake up!” he said but then he checked a life support monitor. The sergeant was already dead. The private would have to save himself. He remembered the sergeant carried a sidearm and he reached down and yanked it from the holster, he pulled back the action and aimed it at the alien creatures face.

It stopped. It laid down on all fours and seemed really tired. The creature checked a wound to its foreleg and then looked straight at the private. “Well, I guess I'm finished. All I had to do was distract you from looking on that side” it said.

The private swung around and there were two more creatures, looking unhurt running towards him at a good clip. He had nine rounds in the magazine and three targets.

That should be more than enough.

-----------------------

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Short Story: STS Classified

 31 stories in 31 days challenge for July. For #10 on July 10th.

STS- Classified

In 1985 the United States government received an emergency and highly secret dispatch from the Soviet Union. The USSR had lost contact with their space station with four cosmonauts as well as the two cosmonauts aboard the Soyuz capsule sent to investigate.

They have picked up nothing but silence for the two weeks since the capsule confirmed docking with the space station. Meanwhile the Russian space agency was noting that the station was starting a slow spin.

The issue went directly to the desk of President Ronald Reagan who held a secret meeting with a few high ranking officials and without any aides. The decision was to make a secret shuttle launch, reported to the press as a launch of an unmanned rocket carrying a military payload. The press would be made to think they had launched a spy satellite.

This would all be done in secret. As a matter of fact Space Shuttle Challenger had been specially prepared as a back-up in case the launch of Discovery had been scrubbed. It hadn't and the Challenger was still mostly prepped and ready to go.

The space shuttle was moved to the launchpad on the regular crawler but was covered in a giant tarp, anyone asking questions was told that this was simply a test of the ground crews and their operations using a dummy ship. After night fell the preparations continued. Someone “leaked” to the media that a Titan 34D would be launched with a spy satellite during the night.

Captain Sean Mallory, Commander Thomas Marshall, Commander Douglas Wright and Sergei Andreyev of the Soviet Union made up the crew on this secret mission. Once the ship was on the launchpad and all systems reported as nominal a very shortened countdown took place.

Then at 3 AM eastern time, it launched. The shuttle launch lit up the night and could be seen for many miles. NASA told the Associated Press and United Press International that a Titan 34D was carrying a military payload into orbit, but said it would not deny or confirm what it was carrying.

It would take hours of orbiting before they would catch up to the Russian space station. The following day there were tours of Mission Control, as usual, but very few people knew there was a second mission control right upstairs. As far as everyone knew, the Discovery was the only shuttle in orbit and NASA made sure to highlight the satellite recovery mission it was carrying out.

Meanwhile upstairs in the second mission control center there was another team of controllers, sworn to secrecy, helping the Challenger adjust its orbit as it caught up to the silent Russian space station. They even used the codename “Disco One” on communications, although these were almost all scrambled, and communications were also minimized.

“11.8 miles from target Disco One” the controllers said “Rate of approach is 3,000 meters per hour”

Challenger was close enough to get a good look at the Russian space station almost a day into its mission.

“Houston, I can confirm that target is drifting and has a slow horizontal spin” Captain Mallory reported “We are still receiving no communication or any sign that someone is home”

“Roger. Proceed with caution”

“I hear you” the Captain said.

Then they saw the Soyuz capsule floating about twelve meters off the space station.

“Houston, reporting that the Soyuz has dislodged or has been moved from target” Captain Mallory said “Should we recover the capsule before checking out the main target?”

The controllers at NASA discussed this for some ten minutes. Then they told the Challenger crew to use the arm to capture the capsule. That one of them should go EVA and get a look inside.

The astronauts found this interesting, their cosmonaut friend remain tight-lipped about the possible reasons for this. Douglas Wright suited up for the EVA, the bay doors were already open so Thomas Marshall, the pilot, maneuvered the shuttle underneath the space station and the capsule, making sure that the tail of the shuttle did not clip the station or any of its solar collectors.

“The solar collectors look like their in bad shape” Mallory said looking out as they passed under the station toward the capsule.

The cosmonaut Sergei Andreyev spoke up “That happened two months ago when one of the Progress supply capsules hit the docking ring too hard.”

Of course the Soviets did not release such information to the public.

“All set” Wright reported “I am ready to go EVA.”

The hatch into the payload bay opened and Wright exited, wearing not a normal spacesuit but an Extravehicular Mobility Unit. This apparatus made him basically his own small space ship, he had thrusters that allowed him to move away from the shuttle. This is where some of the more dramatic pictures from space came from during the shuttle years.

His EMU had a camera, as well as lights, in the helmet that would allow NASA to see what he saw. Wright moved close to the capsule, now held in place by the robotic arm from the shuttle, he was trying to get into place to see inside of the Soyuz.

“Passed the service module” he said moving slowly. “I am near the mid-section of the descent module, I will now move around to find the porthole”

Cameras on the space shuttle were beaming this back to Houston, heavily encrypted. “I see it, let me get close enough to see inside...” All that could be seen was his back.

“I think I see a body, its torso is in the orbital module and I can see legs” Wright told them “I don't see any real damage to the capsule though.. Oh my god!”

“What happened?” Marshall asked but there were voices from Houston too, they were all talking over each other.

“I don't know how to describe it” Wright said breathing heavily “The cosmonaut is moving and looking at me but... he doesn't seem human any more. He is missing some flesh, an eyeball is hanging out and there is blood everywhere, he is trying to bite through the porthole”

Captain Marshall looked at the cosmonaut he had brought into space “What is going on? You know something, you have to know something!”

Within 10 minutes the President of the United States had been woken up, an hour later he was shown the footage taken from Wrights helmet-mounted camera.

“Our best guess is they were working on biological weapons aboard the space station, you can do things in the near-weightless environment that cannot be done on Earth” the President was told, and he began writing a memo to the Soviet Premier with his own hand.

Over the next hour a flurry of communications took place between DC and Moscow, finally the Russian leader privately apologized and said his country had made a “mistake”. Safety precautions would have prevented any of this from being done in space.

“If you ignore safety and procedures bad things are going to happen. You should learn from things like 3 Mile Island.” Reagan told the Russian leader after all the heated exchanges had cooled down.

The next issue was how to proceed. Obviously they would need to see if there were cosmonauts in the space station in the same condition as the one in the capsule. Commander Wright would resume the spacewalk to get a look inside of the space station.

The Russian space station was made up of several modules. There were a lot of antennas and solar arrays that could get in the way. Commander Wright would take his time looking into as many modules as he could, the ones that had portholes at least.

“I am now looking inside of the Spectre module” he said looking into the biggest of the components of the station. “Oh man..” he said “I see a person gnawing on what looks like a femur... I don't want to talk about it, just look at the images”

Images from the inside of the space station were gruesome. It turned the stomach of the select few who saw them. The secrecy level tightened as much as possible with the knowledge that there were living dead out in space.

Reagan and Gorbachev discussed what to do about the situation.

“The only thing we can do is to save the space station” The Russian leader said through a translator “This means the atmosphere needs to be vented, since we do not have ground control I am asking you to open the hatches.”

Ronald Reagan was aghast by this. As he thought more and more about it, even though there was a knot in his gut, he had to admit that the Soviet leader made a good point. These men were already dead, if they vent the atmosphere of the station and let the bodies out into space, where they would eventually burn up in the atmosphere it would be like a cremation.

By this point Commander Douglas Wright had been in the EMU for 3.5 hours, the suits life support was rated for around 8 hours, so he had a comfortable margin of safety on the EVA. He was joined by cosmonaut Sergei Andreyev because none of the other Americans wanted to be the ones to open the hatches. Besides, the cosmonaut knew how to vent the atmosphere.

When Wright got his orders he said “This is not what I signed up for” but he did not refuse to do the job. At least as a helper to the cosmonaut. “It is right and proper than a Russian cosmonaut be the one to do this”. Sergei agreed with this.

Using the only other Extravehicular Mobility Unit that the shuttle carried the cosmonaut went to the Spectre and started turning knobs and punching commands into a touch pad. Finally there were several atmospheric leaks in six directions, meant to keep the station stable during a vent. Then the cosmonaut went up to the Core Module and did something similar, but this time he opened the airlock to space where a Soyuz might be docked.

A rush of atmosphere brought out a body but it grabbed a hold of Sergei and tried to bite through the faceplate on his helmet. Finally the cosmonaut extricated himself and pushed the living dead away, toward the planet which was 223 miles below them.

“Oh my God” Commander Wright said watching the dead body flail and try to swim back to them as it fell away. He didn't see the second body climb out and grab the cosmonaut from behind, threatening the safety of the space suit. When Wright looked back he was able to push the thing away upward and it bounced off the solar array of the Priroda module and then away from the station. It also was still struggling.

A small probe camera was pushed into the space station, now opened to space. They checked every module and found human remains in most of them. Then they moved on to the capsule where the cosmonaut separated the orbital module from the descent and service modules, the hatch was opened and the thing inside tried to lunge at them but it remained inside the descent module.

Finally Sergei grabbed it by the elbow and pulled it out, the creature bit into his shoulder and then scratched at his arm with claws. His suit was ripped on the arm but the creature had a good hold on his helmet until Wright used his thrusters and kicked the creature away. He had to slow down and stop before reaching the cosmonaut who was venting atmosphere.

“Let's get you to the shuttle, hurry!” Commander Wright said but Sergei pulled open the rip on his arm and showed the wound. “I have been infected. I cannot go back, I will only infect others. I will pull the Soyuz back toward the planet and we will both burn up.”

The cosmonaut did this before running out of oxygen.

The rest of the crew only watched in horror and less than thirty minutes later at full EMU thrust they could see the re-entry burning of the capsule and cosmonaut. They knew that none of this would be recorded for history, none of this would ever be known to rest of the world. Their mission would not even get an STS designation number, that even their military missions were given.

Less than three days after taking off the shuttle landed in the night with no media or fanfare and only a skeleton crew on the ground. The shuttle Challenger was towed away to its hangar and the landing strip prepared for Discovery's return a few days later.

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Short Story: The Jury Pool

31 Stories in 31 Days of July Challenge, here is #9...

 The Jury Pool

Holding the notice firmly in his hand he opened the doors with a deep breath and entered, there were two police officers working security. He had to step through a metal frame and then was ushered on. There were two elevators and these other people were going to same place as he was, they were also in the jury pool. He was Potential Juror #36.

After leaving the elevator on the third floor he followed the others left and then left again. This hallway was lined with benches and there were many people seated on them. They would have to wait until they were called to the courtroom.

A woman came out to greet them. She said she was the clerk of the court, she was carrying a large cup of coffee. “Everyone is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed today, I think” she said to some chuckles. She certainly was! She looked like a squirrel on drugs with all the energy that entails.

A table in front of the doors into the courtroom was now being manned by two women, the squirrel and a toadstool with a mischievous smile, they had papers and called the jury pool to line up to prove their membership in the pool. In exchange they were handed a chip. Potential Juror #36 looked at the chip in his hand, it seemed unremarkable, so he slipped it into his pocket. They were told that these chips were very important to the process.

Finally they were ushered inside. The bailiff looked like a bulldog, sort of a young, fat and happy bulldog. They asked the members of the pool to sit because the judge was on his way, in the meantime they were arranged by their jury pool number.

Now he was sitting behind a balding man who incessantly talked politics. That woman running for President was a yapping Yorkshire terrier and you can't trust her, the man told the younger potential juror and captive audience next to him. He also complained about the television personality Bill, the platypus who claimed to have no spin but had a lot.

Finally they were bid to rise for the judge. He entered in his robe carrying a mallet and there double-takes because his head was that of a giant frog. Potential juror 36 looked around and nobody seemed to find this odd at all. He just saw a bunch of bored and antsy people.

The frog judge introduced himself “Hello, I am presiding judge of the 702nd district court. To get right down to it, we'll thin out this herd. If any of you are over 70, you can be excused.”

Nobody got up.

“If any of you are the primary care-giver to a child under 12, and you cannot arrange anything, you are excused.”

Nobody got up.

Judge frog sighed, he seemed put out by this. “If any of you have a medical condition that precludes serving on this Grander Jury, you can be excused”

Again, nobody got up.

The judge seemed disappointed.

“If any of you are police officers, lawyers, judges, bailiffs or have ever been convicted of a felony, then you are excused from serving on this here jury in this here county”

Nobody got up.

The judge sniffed and checked a sheet of paper, holding a monocle to one eye. “If you are being sued or are suing someone, you might be excused” he told them.

A few people did get up. One was a younger man in a pink polka-dotted shirt, another was a pretty well-known goat and CEO of a construction company-businesses were always the target of frivolous lawsuits it seemed.

They were both brought before the judge. The CEO was not excused because he was not being personally sued but the young man was allowed to go. Before that though, they were told to toss their chips to the judge. He caught them in his giant frog mouth and chewed them satisfactorily.

With that out of the way the judge went back to addressing the jury pool. “A Grander Jury is not like a Petite Jury. It only takes 9 of 12 members to send a case brought before them to trial, they do not find defendants guilty or not guilty. You will come here and serve once a month for six months if you are chosen and will be paid $40 for each of those days.”

There were nods and some chatting.

“Okay, it looks like I will have to choose the twelve jurors randomly” the giant frog judge said, “When your name is called you will throw me your chips on the way to the jury box. Today is the first of the six days you will be serving, by the way”

The bailiff had to bark at the jury pool because people started chatting again. “Quiet Please”

“Juror #7” he called and a flamingo with gray hair, a pink purse and a matching parasol walked toward the jury box, only pausing to throw the chip at the judge who snatched it without any trouble.

“Juror #14” he called out and a tomcat of unremarkable appearance wearing a blue t-shirt tossed his chip to the judge and climbed into the box,

The judge called out ten others. None of them were potential juror #36 who was a bit disappointed but it was no big thing to him. All of those not called had to drop their chips into the box by the door on the way out. He glanced back while in the line to leave and the goat was talking to the judge, he had been called last to serve.

“I already gave you my chip” he told the judge “I explained that my business was being sued and you said it would not preclude me serving”

“Not good enough” the judge said, then he bent over and swallowed the goat whole. “Bailiff, go and fetch an alternate juror before they all leave”. Juror #36 was the only one who hadn't left yet. The process had been interesting until then.

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Short Story: Honey! I was abducted, honest!

 31 Stories in 31 Days, this is #8 for July 8th.

 Honey! I was abducted, honest!

Scene: An old trailer house in the desert with a cheap picket fence, painted on yard and pink plastic flamingos. The only sound apart from the wind is an old country song. In the kitchen was a bath-robed woman with her hair up, but much of it was loose too. She was frying something in the frying pan, a can of beer on the table and she was singing along with the radio but her words were different than the song being played.

She was singing about a husband who stayed out boozing all night long and probably woke up next to some bimbo. Then she sang how he would show up at the door and wag his tail and the woman would let him in and forgive him again.

It was almost noon and he'd be starving when he showed up. That is why she was frying some bacon and eggs for the dog.. husband. He wouldn't offer an excuse, just smile sheepishly as he ate the food and then act like it was the best meal he ever had. The old goat -already a promotion- would spend the rest of the day doting on her.

She tilted her head. Then she reached over and turned off the radio. Yes, she could already hear that old truck rattling toward home. Nobody else it would be out here in the middle of nowhere. She bends over the uses two fingers to open the blinds an inch. Yep, he and old Rusty were coming back home, again.

That raggedy old truck with almost no paint left had been his fathers and Gerald has been driving it since he was about twenty-one. He loved that clunker a lot more than he loved his wife, she told herself and shook her head again. She took up her normal position at the door and tried to make herself look frantic and upset about him being gone all night. Really, though, she didn't much care.

She heard the truck stop suddenly as if it was dead for real or just relieved to have made it to its destination and needed a rest. Then the squeak of the door opening and the clang-bang of it shutting with a slam. It wouldn't shut properly without being slammed.

“Claudette!” she heard him shout. Her eyes opened wider, surely he wasn't already drunk again?

She opened the door before he reached it and he stumbles in and sits on the couch, his head laying back and he took a deep breath of the barely conditioned air. Claudette stood there with her hands on her hips trying to look severe.

“Honey!” he told her breathlessly “We have to pack up and leave!”

“Why? What did you do?” she asked, starting to get angry.

He waved his hand side to side. “I didn't do nothing! Nothing!” he said sitting up and nodding “I was the victim in this! The victim I tell ya”

“Gerald!” She shouted over his rambling mumble “Just tell me what happened!”

He motioned for her to sit next to him on the couch but she decided to sit in the love seat instead.

Claudette wasn't used to this. He stopped giving her excuses for his behavior a decade or so ago and she never pushed it. This was worrisome.

“I was out with the boys last night...” as if she didn't know that. He was always going out and drinking with the boys and everyone knew it, there weren't that many people in this county. “.. but before it even reached midnight something strange happened”

She crossed her arms, already bored.

“Well we were listening to the radio, sitting on Matt's tailgate and other stuff when all of a sudden Matt's truck just died. The lights and radio and everything just quit all of a sudden, and that just does not happen. You know if the engine dies or runs out of gas the battery will keep the lights and radio going for a while.... well Matt has a brand new truck with a brand new battery.”

She nodded and got up “Just get on with the story Gerald, I got to check the bacon”

So as she went to the kitchen side of the trailer, just a small bar separating them, he continued with his story.

“After that happened we were all quiet. We all knew that didn't make no sense at all. Then we started seeing lights in the sky, like meteorites or something. Except these lights were not moving in a straight line, then they headed straight for us” he said as seriously as he had ever said anything in his life.

She put down the spatula. “Why are you making up fool stories like that? You never tried to give any excuse for staying out all night”

“I'm not making up a story” he said in a whiny voice then his voice got deeper and more serious “Those lights were hovering over the road and then came towards us. Soon enough it was right over us and shining a spotlight down at us”

“Was it the Sheriff's new helicopter? That darned county commissioners court spent all our money on that stupid machine!”

He shook his head. “These craft were not making any noise at all. There was dead silence when this thing was right over us. Just those bright lights that kept us from running away somehow”

She dropped the plate of bacon, eggs and biscuits in front of him onto the coffee table and sat down on the love seat “I guess your going to tell me you got abducted too! You might as well just tell me your story before I hit you with the skillet”

She knew she would never hit him with the skillet, except for the time about fifteen years ago he was so drunk he brought a bimbo home with him. Knocked him clean out cold. Then Claudette served the girl some coffee and they chatted a while before a friend picked her up.

“Just hold on, Claudette” he said, rubbing the spot on his head she had him on that night, so long ago- he hadn't forgotten. “Something did happen. I suddenly found myself strapped down to a table and there were four other tables where Matt and the boys were also tied down. Everything was gray or black light some charcoal painting.”

She served two cups of coffee, taking one for herself. Gerald drank from the chipped mug with some faded symbol on the side.

“What did they look like?” she asked, wondering if he would make up something interesting. She looked at the clock and thought about turning the television on to watch Maury.

“Like the movies, the little gray aliens with the giant eyes” he said. She rolled her eyes, but he wasn't finished yet “... but that's just a suit, like a spacesuit. Under that they are reptilian-looking creatures and the short ones everybody hears about aren't the whole story. Back on their ship were tall ones, tall like humans!”

Okay, his story was a little more interesting than Maury revealing who the real daddy is. She leaned back in the love seat. “Go on”

Gerald looked into nothing again. “Well, I noticed that I wasn't the only one awake. I noticed Matt opening his eyes and looking at me. Neither of us knew where we were or anything, but I wanted to fight back some how or another” he made fists “I wanted to get away really bad”

With her coffee done Claudette decided this called for something better. She made herself some chocolate milk in a cup that looked like a mason jar with a handle. When she sat down he continued his story.

“Me and Matt got free. We worked the lashings until they got a bit loose and we were able to slip an arm out and then we could easily get the other arm loose too” he told her. “They seemed a bit frightened when we got off the tables and started throwing things at them. They moved back and we went to untie Paul and Denny. They had removed Paul's shirt and Denny was stripped down to his drawers. It didn't matter, we just had to get out of there!”

She leaned forward and asked “So how did you escape?”

He looked confused for a moment and scratched the back of his head. “I don't rightly remember”

Her shoulders slumped. Maybe she should just turn Maury on after all and tell the old coot to take a bath or something. If his story didn't have a good ending, then it wasn't worth listening to. Then he seemed to remember something.

“Oh! Claudette, we gotta pack!” he told her “We need to move right now. Get everything we can carry and go to your mothers house in the city”

She was stunned. Gerald hated her mother, why would he suddenly want to leave and go there?

“They're coming back, I remember them saying they would come back for us tonight! Well, they didn't say it they sort of thought it into our heads or something. They know where we live, Claudette, we have to leave as soon as we can” he told her, he seemed frantic. If he messed around with someone else's wife last night, this time, it would suit him right to get shot for that.

“Well if you want to visit my mother so much, we could have packed last night” she told him as he dug the suitcases out of the closet. She could only shake her head and sigh at his antics.

When the suitcases were in the back of the truck he was still rushing to get her to hurry. She didn't understand what this was all about. “There are hours and hours before dark” she pointed out as she carried her purse and a plastic bag of bottled water to the truck. He slammed it shut for her, almost like a gentleman- in her eyes- before getting in and starting the truck up.

The tires spun in the sand for a second before the truck rumbled to the main road and he turned left toward the city and away from the much-closer small town. “We need to get far from here before dark, really far” he told her as he drove. The problem was that her mother lived several hours away and it might get dark before they arrived.

They only stopped to eat at a Dairy Queen once and then again for gas and to take a restroom break but the sky was darkening before they got to the city. Gerald was getting more and more frantic. But the signs said the city was another 40 miles, maybe an hour or less away depending on traffic. Then he pulled over to take a piss.

Claudette looked around and saw no other cars on this highway. That was strange. It might not be weird out in the desert but it was very strange so close to a major city.

Suddenly the truck engine, lights and radio stopped. There was dead silence.

“No!” Gerald said “No, no, no!”

“Gerald, what's going on? Gerald?” she asked, getting scared now.

“They found me” he said, laying his head on the steering wheel “Looks like they found me. Found us, I guess”

Then she saw strange lights in the sky, moving in odd directions and speed. At first she thought it was lightening but there was not a cloud in the sky.

“What can we do Gerald? Where's the shotgun?” Claudette asked, getting frantic. Gerald was resigned to his fate and slowly shook his head “Nothing we can do, Claudette. Shotgun ain't gonna do no good against them aliens”

The light was right above them now. So bright that all the color was washed away from her vision, everything looked like a blurry pencil sketch. Then suddenly it vanished and replaced with headlights and then she could hear honking. Gerald looked up “Where'd it go?”

As her vision cleared up Claudette could see a big rig had parked on the shoulder facing the front of the pickup truck and the door was open. A large woman in coveralls was climbing out of the drivers side and Claudette was smiling.

“Momma!” she said “Gerald, Momma scared off the aliens!”

Gerald was looking in the sky all around and saw no lights “Well, I'll be. I guess I'm not the only one afraid of her! Her reputation must have gotten around!”

He laughed heartily. His mother-in-law had a use after all.

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