Shadow People

This is an unfinished story and for the life of me, I have no idea how to end it.
 I guess it ends on sort of a cliff-hanger. *shrug*

Shadow People

By Floyd Looney

I was just sitting at the computer in the den typing away at the short story when I began feeling uncomfortable. There was tightness in my stomach and I guess I was starting to freak myself out just a bit. The story was not that scary, I told myself, the images in my head were. I was also angry at myself, why could I not put them down in words?

I fancied myself a writer but actually getting the ideas and thoughts down on paper had always been a tough thing for me. It took a lot of effort to just describe the simplest things. The story was crap even though the idea was good enough to actually scare me. I laughed a little at the thought that I had scared myself.

What? I glanced sideways. I was doing that a lot lately. I was always getting the impression that something was watching me. Watching me because I was here maybe? I shake my head and laugh at myself again for my ludicrous thoughts. This was a very large and old house but it was hardly haunted.

Maybe I should write in the day time?

I finished off the glass of water; its ice had melted long ago. I really should get to sleep unless I want to fall over at work tomorrow from exhaustion. The bedroom was next door to this smaller one that might have been a child’s room once upon a time.

The first time I saw this large two-story home I thought it was the perfect place to do some writing. It was full of charm and history and probably a tale or two. It was far removed from the city and it gave me the feeling of being in a different period of time.

I turned on the air conditioner in the bedroom daring me to question the cost of the electricity when I needed to get to sleep as soon as possible. I wondered if the large tiger blanket was childish as I turned off the lamp. Suddenly I had to turn it back on and look around swearing I saw something move near the door to the hall.

This is getting ridiculous. I hadn’t even written the story and I was giving myself hallucinations or something. I blamed it all on my overactive imagination and lay down with the lamp on. Within a couple minutes I had pulled the quilt over my head and had my eyes shut, listening for any sound.

I am way too big to be scared of shadows and imagination I told myself and here I am lying under the cover like there was a monster under the bed. I needed to get a radio, a clock radio with a very bright green time display. I was really angry at myself for scaring me, or something.

I truly despised my job. I worked at the back of a supermarket in the dairy and freezer and bread section of the store. I also swept and mopped the floor several times a day and sometimes helped sack the food and collect the grocery carts from outside. A horrible existence and most of my co-workers had issues of some form or another.

Before I rode my bike back to the old house I skimmed some of the new books and magazines that had been delivered. Stephen King, Tom Clancy and Anne McCaffrey among the books and then there was Popular Science, Popular Mechanics and Strange Tales among the magazines.

The air seemed very still on the way home and I did not see or hear another living thing or even a vehicle. It seemed like a diffused sort of light in hindsight as if the sun had become a low-wattage bulb. It sort of looked the way it would if there was a fog over you but not down to the ground.

I continued pedaling after leaving the asphalt for the gravel and stopped to look at the house before riding up to it. The trees in between the road and the house were swaying slightly but I hardly felt any breeze at all. I thought I was going deaf but when I moved my foot I heard the white stones clicking and clacking against one another.

Every time I come home to this house I get the distinct impression that I am not alone here and this time I told myself to get a dog. I told myself I can afford to feed a dog, just buy a huge bag of feed and it might last two months.

I turn on the computer and soon Yahoo! had automatically loaded. Its front page had a story about some old singer who looked vaguely familiar. I check my mail, eight junk mails and six unsolicited mails from websites telling me they had been updated. One from Odd/Things online magazine told me that my submission had been rejected.

As I sat down in front of the computer I distinctly saw a shadow moving by the door again but as I turned my head it was gone. Where had it come from and why had it vanished? The shadows of a tree do not vanish the second you look at it.

Had a squirrel run across the window? No, it wasn’t a squirrel I could have sworn it was…

That is just crazy I told myself; just absolutely crazy. Was I about to think that I had just seen the shadow of a little man run across the wall?

I get up and walk across the small room to the mini-fridge and I take out a can of soda and a bottle of water. I planned to sit there for hours and just write. Put my fingers on the keyboard until something came out in the English language.

I put my fingers on the keyboard and close my eyes as I tilt my face toward the sky or at least toward the ceiling. No stories at all were coming to me and I was beginning to get disgusted.

Writing was a lot harder than people thought. I guess it’s easy for some people and I wish I was one of them. All of my crazy ideas and thoughts and I was never able to put them down quite the way I wanted to. I just had to try harder or just let the story flow or something.

I go out into the backyard with the glass of water, the grass tickling my ankles inviting me to mow them. I wouldn’t mow them because I am far too lazy and I want to spend my weekends reading and writing. The yard was unkempt to say the least, old trees leaning over as if they would fall over one day for sheer boredom.

I guess I need to get out more. I think I’m seeing shadows that move on their own and trees that get bored. Come to think of it I don’t get out at all. It’s not like I actually know anyone in town.

I did not drink because my father had been an alcoholic and I was not going to voluntarily go into the bowling alley because it might just as well have been a saloon. There wasn’t anything in this town worth doing anyway; the best antique bookstore was all the way in Archer County.

The backyard was going to stay unkempt because I never really came out here and I just did not care to spend time on it.

I get a bottle of water from the downstairs kitchen and go to the living room and just collapse on the couch. Who had I been kidding besides myself that I could actually write something that someone would want to read?

I hold out the remote control to turn on the television set and pause to look at the door to the hallway. I felt as if I was being watched and someone else was in the room with me but there was no one. I looked all the way around but saw nothing moving but that there were shadows in nearly every corner.

I turned the television on and a local newscast was on. I barely heard anything as I spent the entire half-hour looking around at the shadows. An hour after the news went off and I had turned it to a science fiction program I felt better. The idea that I was being haunted by shadows had left my mind.

I spent another two hours on the internet mostly reading posts and articles on science fiction and several writing forums. There was nothing really there to help me out and I saw nothing that would inspire or motivate me to start writing again. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply and I wondered if there was anything that could help.

I opened my eyes and quickly looked into the room across the hall. There was a shadow on the wall and it had been moving. It was now frozen in place. I knew there was not a light source behind me or anything that could cause a shadow. I moved my head a bit but the shadow did not move. It was definitely not being cast by me.

There was nothing else that could have cast it.

I feel a heavy weight in the pit of my stomach but I manage to walk into the hallway and the little shadow was still there. It was now becoming dark outside, I could hear a chorus of crickets strumming their hind legs.

The shadow was barely more than a foot tall and it hadn’t moved since he noticed it. So it obviously noticed him. I chided myself for thinking that a shadow could think or notice anything, it was crazy. Yet I knew what I had seen and I knew it did not make any logical sense.

I stood in the doorway less than eight feet from the shadow and hardly allowed myself to blink. What am I supposed to do now, I wondered. Briefly I considered whether a person could catch a shadow in a jar. I nearly laughed out loud at my own stupid thoughts.

I took my time dropping to my knees and then crawling forward to get closer. It moved a little and now looked more like the shadow of a tiny person than an indistinct blob. I scooted only a little bit at a time, hopefully I wouldn’t scare it away. Whatever this thing was that had been living on my walls.

“I’m not going to hurt you. Don’t hurt me either” I said in almost a whisper. Not exactly the kind of exalted words for the history books. I wonder if Captain Kirk or Spock would have started off a first contact with such babble. “We are not enemies okay?” I said with a bit of a smile.

I still wasn’t exactly sure what the thing was but I knew it could not have been anything that had been seen before. I think I would have heard about the discovery of shadow people in school or on National Geographic television somewhere along the line. I would definitely remember it.

I sat there for a few more minutes just a few feet from the wall where this thing was … what? I can’t call it sitting or anything it’s like a 2-D object. Whatever I’ll just say it was there on the wall probably scared of me. In all likelihood it was frightened or it would have taken off when I noticed it. With me getting so close must have been like torture or something, would it be in trouble with other shadow people?

Other shadow people I thought? There had to be others, it made sense. I hadn’t thought about it until I was right there close enough to touch the thing. Probably a very bad idea but it was in my mind and I could hardly resist.

“Are you an alien?” I asked lightly, not expecting any response. Slowly I reached my arm out and decided that unless it moved or made it plain it didn’t want touched I would do it. Darn it, if this is first contact let there be contact.

My index finger was just inches from the wall when I saw movement around me and then darkness. Suddenly I felt ice cold on my arm and chills spread through me, I saw nothing but darkness. I couldn’t hear the chirping crickets anymore.

The sun was up bright and early when I woke. There were red marks on my arm, freezer burns.

Why did I wake up in this room? I never use this room. This big house is mostly unused – it was a bit much for a single guy. The sun was already streaming through the window and I hastened to get up and prepare for another boring day of working at a grocery store. I had remembered nothing from the night before.

At work a strange thing happened, a girl who worked as a checker at the front was sitting in the break room with her face in her hands. I knew this was a fifteen minute break because she hadn’t been working long enough to get a lunch break and besides, she wasn’t eating anything.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. I thought she was just going to ignore me and I started to return to work when she peeked between her hands and said “Nothing really”

“Nothing? This is nothing?”

She smiled vaguely and looked down at the empty tabletop and I felt embarrassed for asking about her problems. “I’m sorry, I should know better than to…”

“It’s okay. I’m just tired, I’m having problems sleeping and that’s all really”

“I know how that feels. I spend half the night trying to be a writer who can’t write and then I wake up in an empty room” I wasn’t about to be any more detailed than that. My being a loser who works at a grocery store is enough for everyone to know, seeing how I spend the rest of my loser time isn’t going to happen.

“They scare me. I try to sleep covered up but it’s hard to sleep with them walking around” she said in a whisper. I didn’t believe what I had just heard. Or I simply disbelieved it or whatever the psycho babbling term for it was.

“Them?” I asked. My heart felt as if it had just fallen into my stomach. Something was telling me to run and to get away from there. I loosened my collar and felt some sweat on my neck even though I was still cold from working in the freezer. “Who is ‘them’?”

“I’m not really sure” she said. Drat, I was hoping she was talking about her cats or something. I pretty much thought I knew what was coming next. “I thought they might be ghosts or even aliens but they’re not. It’s just really weird. They’re only…”

She stopped talking and looked at me. She was very worried and embarrassed. She stood up and started to leave. “I’ve got to get back to my register, Thomas. I can’t talk any more”.

Before she pushed open the green flaps that served as doors I said “Shadows. They’re only shadows, right?”

She was stunned. Her hands went to her mouth and covered them as her eyes grew very wide, and she nodded before running through the doors to the front of the store. I stood there for a few more minutes, thinking about nothing. My mind was a complete blank.

 _________________________________

THE FOURTH has been released. It is a novel-length science fiction story with elements of space opera and dystopia. It is $2.99 but you can read it free if you are a Kindle Unlimited subscriber.

Tara was created in an underground chamber on an abandoned and quarantined Earth, she feels compelled to bring civilisation back to the remnants that survive there.

Greyson is the child of privilege who was exiled from the planet Roma by his own father before taking up with space pirates. He wants to return home and face his father.

Their paths were destined to cross.

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 NEW ARRIVALS is still only 99 cents.

Character outline: Greyson

Character: Greyson 
A character in THE FOURTH

Greyson is the child of privilege. He was raised as the only son of a member of the Senate of Roma. His father is dedicated to becoming the leader of all Roma and expected his son to conform. It was frustrating to have several slave wives and still not be able to produce a second son. Though he spoiled Greyson in some ways.


...

She carried the wooden sword, a rudis, and the bamboo shield to the field always making sure to stay a few steps behind Greyson. The other boys usually practiced and paid him no mind but this time they were staring with their mouths gaping at the naked slave-girl.

This amused Greyson as he tightened his leather harness and gloves. He would practice with the other boys until teacher arrived from having coffee with dad.

"He is a little young isn't he, Senator?" the teacher was asking. He and Greyson's father stood on the deck behind the large family house sipping coffee and watching the boys "practice" with their wooden swords.

"He is an only child. I've tried of course, I have four wives and we know they aren't the problem." he dad answered "It has frustrated me for years and now he is too old anyway, by the time a brother reaches his age he'll be living his own life. Where ever that may take him."

"Yes, still. I didn't know they produced them so young." the teacher said and paused with the cup at his lips, then shook off another thought.

"Special order: It takes forever to get it right, but they managed. Took them long enough that is for sure."

"Does he call her his wife?" the teacher asked amused by the idea of an eight-year old married couple.

The Greyson's father smiled "Of course. That is what they are after all."

"I must go and see about training them, as amusing as it can be to watch them flail and shout" the teacher said.

For once Greyson felt like the center of attention for after every grueling turn his girl came and wiped his brow and gave him a drink of water. None of the other boys had a girl but they all had brothers. Greyson would never have a brother but his jealousy was quenched a bit by theirs.

How many years would they have to wait to have a woman of their own? Seven or Eight?

Greyson imagined how frustrated they were at home keeping to themselves when a naked slave is around. The punishment for touching one of fathers’ wives was very brutal indeed and they might miss weeks of school or practice recovering.

Ha! He would mock them mercilessly for years. He could do anything he wanted to the girl and they had nothing to compare.

............

Question: When did you fall in love with your slave?

Greyson: I was smitten almost immediately, but I think I knew I was seriously in love when I began studying law.

Q: Why did you name your slave? Isn't that illegal?

Greyson: I wanted something to call her and it was more of a nickname. She enjoyed watching the stars, so I called her Lunares.


Q: Did you tell her about the stars?

Greyson: That human worlds circled many of them, yes. She knew that on other worlds females were free, I hadn't taught her that on purpose, but I was trying to learn to become a diplomat to the Planetary League. She probably overheard me practising speeches.

Q:Why were you exiled?

Greyson: I wanted to study issues more in-depth. I wanted to speak with foreigners about how they saw political issues and the Planetary League. I was set up, probably by my fathers political opponents and framed. It was an embarrassment to my father, who was trying to become Proconsul. He exiled me. 

Q: What happened to your wife and child?

Greyson: They became my fathers. 

Q: What happened afterward?

Greyson: I ended up on an impoverished world trying to survive before I was tricked and kidnapped by space pirates. They forced me to join them.

Q: Will you return to Roma?

Greyson: When I am wealthy enough or powerful enough, I will go back to Roma and face my father. I have many things that need to be settled.

Q: You are bitter and angry about these things, aren't you?

Greyson: I don't care. I think anger makes me stronger and more resolved.

............

   THE FOURTH is available for $2.99 or if you have Kindle Unlimited it can be read for free.

"10 More Stories" ebook is free

"10 More Stories" are stories that have been posted on this blog in a convenient ebook for people who do not read blogs. I hope people who have never heard of this blog will be able to enjoy some of my stories.

Google Play

https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Floyd_Looney_10_More_Stories?id=cAgwCwAAQBAJ

Smashwords
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/600369

Amazon is taking its sweet time to make it free.

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

I want to thank those who buy or read THE FOURTH on Kindle Unlimited!

Not really a prequel

Working on a long-ish short story set on Roma 200 years before the events in The Fourth. Not really related to the events in the novel but set in the same story universe I guess.

"The Fourth" is available on Amazon!

My new novel, THE FOURTH, is now uploaded and available on Amazon for $2.99. I will leave the price for NEW ARRIVALS at 99 cents.

READ IT FREE WITH KINDLE UNLIMITED

You can be the first to buy, read and review the story. You will find that the story is in 3 parts. Her story, his story and their story. Don't let this throw you off.


Tara woke up inside of a cylinder in an underground chamber with no memories. She is told that the world has been devastated by war, disease and mutations. Humankind had evacuated Earth and fled to hundreds of different worlds far away. A quarantine was declared, but this did not prevent pirates and slavers from raiding the villages of the remnant left behind.

Tara feels strangely compelled to "fix" Earth, knowing this could take decades and generations.

Greyson was born and raised as the only child of a high government official on the world called Roma, which modelled itself after the Roman Empire. The women of Roma are created artificially and have no rights. Thus, Roma is a pariah among civilised worlds.

As a young man Greyson is framed for a crime and his own father exiled him from his home world.

Tara wants to find out what it means to be "The Fourth" and to bring Earth back from the dead. Greyson wants to go home and clear his name. Their paths are destined to cross.
----------------
excerpt:

“Have the civilians sent to the bunker.” Tara told Gax, he ran off. Then she turned to Rik “Protecting the people is more important than fighting, Rik, don't forget that.”

“I will protect you.” Rik said “We can't lose you like Sara.”

“Yes, you can!” she said, “None of this depends on me anymore. You and Gax and Dellum and everyone I met along the way, you can do it. You guys are civilized, you guys can move Earth back to what it should be. Even if it takes generations, it needs to happen. I am expendable!”

“No.”

“Yes. Listen to me. There will be a fifth, and a sixth and so on. We aren't going to rebuild Earth by ourselves, that isn't the mission. The mission is to prepare you to do it for yourselves. I think that mission, that particular mission is accomplished!”

-The Fourth

An interview with Tara “The Fourth”

Q: Do you know where you came from?

A: From the desert. I was created by a machine put there long, long ago just before the Earth collapsed into total devastation. Centuries I think.

Q: You are the fourth, does that mean there will be more?

A: I guess. I don't predict the future.

Q: Who set up the machine? Who put aside the supplies and uniform for you?

A: The Third, of course.

Q: The Third left you a sidearm, did you need it? Did you want something more powerful?

A: Yes, I needed it. It got me to where I needed to go.

Q: Will Earth be able to recover from this? The human race has quarantined the whole planet. Doesn't that make it much harder to recover?

A: Those remaining on Earth have to do the hard work, it can't just be given to them. You cannot just gift civilization to the uncivilized and expect they'll be just like you. They have to earn it, learn it and understand it.

Q: The remnant remaining on Earth are deformed, zombies, insane or any mixture of these. What kind of chance at civilization do they have? Pockets of radiation still exist in some regions.

A: They have their minds. They have the same tools and abilities that humans have always had. They can overcome the mindless zombies and the environment that has been left behind for them.

Q: Okay let's assume you have sent Earth on its way to recovery. Your compulsion to fix it is over? Will you settle down and live a normal life, find a man and raise children?

A: (lol.) No, I don't think so.

Q: What about Greyson? Wouldn't he make a good husband?

A: Spoilers. Let's not go there.

Q: After the events of the novel, what's next?

A: It's a big galaxy.

Coming Soon: "The Fourth" novel

The Fourth

Proposed cover

The Fourth is my newest novel that will be uploaded to Amazon soon. Part dystopia, part space opera it is only about as long as New Arrivals.

Tara woke up inside of a cylinder in an underground chamber with no memories. She is told that the world has been devastated by war, disease and mutations. Humankind had evacuated Earth and fled to hundreds of different worlds far away. A quarantine was declared, but this did not prevent pirates and slavers from raiding the villages of the remnant left behind.

Tara feels strangely compelled to "fix" Earth, knowing this could take decades and generations.

Greyson was born and raised as the only child of a high government official on the world called Roma, which modelled itself after the Roman Empire. The women of Roma are created artificially and have no rights. Thus, Roma is a pariah among civilised worlds.

As a young man Greyson is framed for a crime and his own father exiled him from his home world.

Tara wants to find out what it means to be "The Fourth" and to bring Earth back from the dead. Greyson wants to go home and clear his name. Their paths are destined to cross.
----------------

“Have the civilians sent to the bunker.” Tara told Gax, he ran off. Then she turned to Rik “Protecting the people is more important than fighting, Rik, don't forget that.”

“I will protect you.” Rik said “We can't lose you like Sara.”

“Yes, you can!” she said, “None of this depends on me anymore. You and Gax and Dellum and everyone I met along the way, you can do it. You guys are civilized, you guys can move Earth back to what it should be. Even if it takes generations, it needs to happen. I am expendable!”

“No.”

“Yes. Listen to me. There will be a fifth, and a sixth and so on. We aren't going to rebuild Earth by ourselves, that isn't the mission. The mission is to prepare you to do it for yourselves. I think that mission, that particular mission is accomplished!”

-The Fourth

Short Story: When the Tardigrades Came...

They said they came in peace. You know, the usual beginning to a bad science fiction movie or something. In films and television shows the aliens always either looked exactly like us or like people with some Hollywood make-up on.

Not so in real life. Not even close.

The best description was one that floated to the top immediately after they became public. These aliens looked exactly like five-foot-tall tardigrades. Yes, those things. Eight limbs, tiny eyes, one big mouth or whatever in the center of their faces. Exactly like the microscopic tardigrades, except huge. Although, I will admit their babies (early molters) are kind of cute, in a way.

They came to Earth and immediately adopted our culture and ways of life. I don't live in major city, so besides online, the first time I saw one in person was at the Supermarket. The female (I assume because it was wearing a summer dress) was shopping and buying normal items like bread and milk, a baby was in the baby seat demanding candy.

It was a bit surreal. Within a couple of years there were several dozen of their families living in my town, clustered between the river and the flour mill. Some of them acquired jobs in town while most were on government assistance programs.

Still, they had adopted our customs a little too well, a little too quickly. I found it unnerving and it wasn't xenophobia or anything. I brought this up when my best friend Kyle came over for a beer in the backyard.

“There is just something about them that is bugging me, and I can't figure out what it is.” I told him.

He nodded. Kyle was a bit strange himself, wearing his hat and sunglasses on the back porch even though night had fallen. “I know, but don't let anyone catch you saying 'bug' about them in public.”

I sighed and shook my head. “You know what I mean. Isn't it a bit too perfect? The way they came here and integrated into our culture?”

Kyle set the beer down on the little table between us. “I know what you mean. It's almost like they're mocking us or something. I swear I saw an online video of one of them twerking, not pretty.”

Kyle is a bit weird, did I mention?

Recently there had been accusations that almost half the newcomer aliens were welfare bums, and that this was not the part of the culture that should have been adopted. Those who said these things were shouted down and berated by television anchors, some of them lost their jobs and ended up on government watch lists for expressing their opinions.

The only thing that seemed different about them, besides their appearance, was that they all belonged to the local Order. This was a strange and extremely secretive place where no human was ever allowed to enter. Some believed it had something to do with reproduction but others had strange theories.

They came here all dessicated and frozen aboard the Tun-ship claiming to have escaped the destruction of their home world by tyrants armed with nukes. Some of them worked as explorers because they could dive and walk at the bottom of the ocean, the water pressure did not bother them.

Unlike the microscopic creatures they resembled these large ones did eat and could not survive ten years without it, unless they were in their “Tun State”. In their Tun-state they could survive for a decade like being in suspended animation.

Over the months their strange and defensive attitude about the Order locations gnawed at me. At first I had assumed their females didn't carry their babies internally and that this was what the Order buildings were for. Most people had assumed this.

One night, me and Kyle dressed in black. We had decided to sneak into the Order building and find out what goes on there. We found that the basement was divided into several chambers. One of these was a large tank of water, we assumed this was how and where they birthed their tardigrade babies. Not that we really had a clue.

The next was some kind of storage room. Crate after crate of unflavored gelatin, at least that was what the boxes said. Since microscopic tardigrades could survive for years without eating, we always wondered about the large ones that live among us. The big ones seemed to eat daily, officially we are told that they cannot survive long without eating unless they go into their Tun-state.

The last chamber wasn't empty. We walked in on something we should never have seen.

“Oh my god!” Kyle yelled. The four tardigrades standing around the table turned and looked at us. Their ugly proboscis opening and closing, swallowing the remains of one of their own kind. All of these things shopping at the supermarket and visiting restaurants were some kind of show... they were cannibals!

We were blocked from leaving by more of them and soon we were their prisoners. They locked us into a room that contained nothing but a table and some chairs. After a while one of them entered at sat on the opposite side of the table, a long-clawed guard stood by the door.

“I fear you have gotten the wrong impression about what you saw.” The male tardigrade said, “Let me clear it up for you.”

“You were eating your own kind.” Kyle said.

“Exactly.” I said. “Cannibalism.”

If a tardigrade could sigh this one did. “You do not understand. Give me a chance to explain.”

“So you can lie to us?” Kyle asked.

“If we wanted to hurt you, you would have never made it to that room.” The tardigrade said, “We have no intention of harming humans.”

I crossed my arms. “Your people are mostly still welfare cases. You need us right now.”

“While that is unfortunately the case, I believe my people will be contributors to society in due time, but this is beside the point.” It told us, “My peoples' DNA is made up of about 20% foreign DNA, which is a lot. Because we have the Tun-state and absorb foreign matter we are vulnerable to degradation of what makes us sentient. Our species has found that when we die, and we do die, certain organs in us can help sustain our DNA integrity.”

Me and Kyle looked at each other, feeling uncomfortable.

“Look it up.” The alien said, “The tardigrades on your world are the same, they are always changing, branches of the tree come and go. While adaptable and readily changing, they can find themselves burning out like a wildfire. Sometimes a slow evolution is preferable.”

“So that tardigrade...”

“Died, of old age or something. The organs in question must be harvested and ingested immediately by the patients.” It told us. “We thought it was better to keep all of this a secret, but I guess that might have been a mistake.”

Me and Kyle glanced at each other again.

I answered the alien, “No, it's probably better kept secret for a good while. Let people get more acquainted and comfortable with your people being here before you throw that in their lap.”

“And I want to apologize for thinking certain things.” Kyle said, “Your arrival here has given my people advanced space technology and we should appreciate that.”

I agreed, “Yes. If you guys hadn't come here, I might not be able to visit the moon next year. I've been saving up for that vacation.”

The tardigrade sounded convinced. “I am happy that this matter could be cleared up quickly, I assume you two are tired and need sleep. You may go.”

After we exited the building we ran as fast as we could. Then we settled down and stopped at a fast food place just opening for breakfast.

“This is seriously weird.” Kyle said.

“Should we believe them?” I asked, “Still seems too easy. They wouldn't come right out and tell us a secret they've been hiding all this time like that.”

“The truth must be much worse.” He answered.

The nations of the world were busy building many copies of the Tun-ship. The tardigrades were basically running the space program these days. There were even tardigrade advisors to the President.

Kyle had that funny look in his eyes that told me a freaky conspiracy theory was being born, “You don't think they plan to pack humans on those ships and deliver us to their homeworld as food, do you?”

“You have seen too many movies.” I told him. “They would need a lot more ships and, of course, a cookbook.”

He laughed.

I laughed.

We couldn't eat the breakfast sitting in front of us.

end

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My novel NEW ARRIVALS is only 99 cents at Amazon.

War causes refugees to flee to the colony of Montoya, where they were welcomed as settlers, things go bad. The new arrivals are armed and they want to take over. Brad Black and his friends must join the resistance to fight for their colony.

203-Kindle pages

True Horror Story Behind Rudolph Revealed!

You heard the story: "Then one foggy Christmas Eve"... Santa asked Rudolph to guide his sleigh. What they don't tell you is that it really was just one and only one, Christmas Eve. Afterwards Santa took delivery of a highly advanced, nuclear-powered sleigh delivery vehicle.

This is the inside word from of the reindeer involved, Blitzen.

"This solved all the problems Santa had of course, the problem is that all of us reindeer were out of a job.

Once Rudolph had broken tradition, all the traditions were thrown out. Elf magic was augmented by GPS navigation and on-board radar. His old-fashion spectacles were replaced with helmet-mounted night-vision HUD."

Blitzen says this was the beginning of the end for the North Pole Reigndeer Squad "Santa had always wanted to deliver in North Korea. It's hard not to have sympathy for the people in a prison state like that. The problem was it wasn't on the route, he tasked us reindeer to scout it one year, so that he could add it to the next years' itinerary."

"When the time came we all flew in formation, high enough to see the Yalu River from above Seoul. We're reindeer, so North Korean radar couldn't possibly pick us up. We didn't realize at the time that Rudolph was lit up like an AWACS. That nose."

"We didn't realize until Donner exploded and fell into the darkness below. A Chinese-built copy of the Russian 9K22 Tunguska firing SA-19 missiles had taken him out. We scrambled and dived low. Rudolph tried to turn his nose off, but he was panicky and couldn't control it."



Blitzen broke down at this point. "We lost a lot of good reindeer that night. Not just Donner but Dasher, Dancer and Vixen. Vixen, she was my good friend. It was a disaster from the get-go. I ordered Rudolph to head at top speed north to the Yalu River into China while we all went to the north-east towards the ocean passing Wonsan".

"It was bad. Donner went down near Sariwon, we heard later that Kim Jong-eun ate a dinner of reindeer steak to gloat in his victory. Just disgusting. Vixen went down around Anju as we were taking evasive action."

"Rudolph? I was real sore with him for a long time, but we never heard from him again. There were reports of a shoot-down near Kanggye but they were unconfirmed. I think Rudolph went into hiding, I mean, I don't blame him."

"The North Pole Reindeer Squad was officially disbanded. We are all officially unemployed or retired. Sure, elves clean the stalls and feed us 3 squares a day but it's not the same as being out there. I really miss those guys, especially Vixen of course. They went down in action, they died heroes. The rest of us old reindeer will just die old and gamey"

"Well, that is the real story of what happened. I wish it was jollier"

(NOTE: This story originally published Dec 17, 2012)

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