Invading

Sunday- 10:15 AM

“What IS that?” asked Perry who stood at the window, gazing at an object in the sky.

Linda was in the midst of reading an article about last night’s meteor shower when she looked up to see her mesmerized husband. He hid himself behind the curtains, eying something with great interest.

“I don’t see anything” she said, trying to find where his finger was pointing out.

A soft buzzing through their window finally caught her attention to the object in the sky.

“What IS that?” she asked, unknowingly mimicking Perry.

They continued staring until he realized it: “I think it’s a drone” he said.

Linda nodded her head, “Perry, you notice black thing it carrying” she said.

Perry had noticed it, but thought it was a bird flying under it.

“It’s a package” he finally replied in awe, “it’s a drone carrying a package”.

Linda and Perry looked at each other when they realized it was now descending towards their house.

“I don’t believe it” she said staring back at the drone closing towards their home.

As the flying machine got nearer, their radio and television started buzzing around them. Linda could see the street lights flickering.

“Do you think that drone-thing is doing this? What’s going on with all the electricity?” she asked.

“A drone’s not going to do that- probably just a coincidence” replied Perry. “Is this one of those delivery systems from those websites? I think I’ve heard something about that online.” He said as he was watching the drone landing towards their door.

Linda waved the ridiculous idea off, “Don’t be silly! They don’t actually do that stuff, Perry” she laughed.

“Linda.. You’re watching a drone deliver a package to our doorstep,” he scoffed, “And you’re telling me they don’t do that stuff?”.

Both of them waited until the drone left before rushing to open the front door.

There it was- a package. There was no address or note. Just a black box with an engraving on top. It wasn't made out of cardboard, but a strange metal.

It was one of the strangest packages Perry or Linda had ever seen.

“What the heck is this?” finally asked Perry who looked nervously at the mystery package, “You didn’t order this, did you?”.

Linda shook her head, “I don’t know what it is” was all she said.

They were mesmerized by the package that they didn’t even realize half the cul-de-sac staring at them from windows and porches.

“Well, it’s clearly not meant for us. There’s not even any stickers or tags on it.” said Linda, “Let’s bring it inside” she said.

Perry looked up to notice their neighbors curiously eying them, “I think that’s a good idea” he said, waving a hello to one.

When he went for a grip, Perry suddenly felt different. He felt like the package ran some sort of shock through his hands. He felt uneasy. He went inside and put the package on the counter as Linda closed the door behind them.

“What do you think it is?” asked Linda, touching the white symbol engraved in the black box.

Perry looked at his hands for a moment to make sure they were alright. The sort of spark he got as he picked it up ran through his whole arm.

“Pick it up, Linda. Tell me what you feel” he said.

Linda found the request a little odd, but agreed to pick it up. She didn’t say anything as she held onto it, but felt the same sort of spark Perry felt. It seemed to vibrate through her, she thought. She put it down on the table next to the door.

“What do you think it is, Perry?” she asked, “Some kind of battery box? What’s that symbol on top of it?”

“Maybe some kind of microwave, I figure. Some foreign fancy microwave” he said, “like a futuristic one, but it’s odd that it doesn’t have any buttons, outlets, or anything on it”.

“You don’t think it’s a.. you know”

“A bomb?” asked Perry, smiling at the absurd idea, “Linda, that’s just plain silly. This box looks way to expensive to destroy” he smiled.

Linda felt a little relieved to hear that, “I can drop it at the post office on my way to work tomorrow and have them deal with it” she said.

11:15AM

The doorbell rang.

Linda put down her quilting project and walked downstairs to open it.

She found one of her neighbors, Karen, standing with a pasta dish in her hand.

“Karen, hi” she said as she suddenly was given the tray.

“Made a little too much pasta, so I wanted to share some” she smiled, almost a little too much to Linda’s liking.

“Well, that’s too nice, thank you” replied Linda, “Perry had just gone to the store, so I’ll let him know we have dinner already” she said.

Karen had almost interrupted her, “Go ahead and put that down, it looks heavy” she said quickly.

Linda found her comment a little too pushy, but nodded politely.

When she returned from putting the pasta tray in the fridge, she found Karen already inside the door looking at the box on the table next to her.

“Was this what was delivered by that drone thing? You know our house was having some sort of electricity problem when that thing hovered near it” spoke Karen, ignoring Linda’s unsettled expression.

Linda had known Karen could be a little too much at times and tried to shrug it off.

“Yes, it was” she finally replied, “There must have been a mistake with the delivery address”.

“It’s got nothing but this symbol on it, what does it mean?” asked Karen who was slowly moving her hands all over the object, mesmerized at the strangeness of it. Something in Karen’s eyes changed.

“We don’t know – some kind of fancy microwave, maybe?” replied Linda.

Linda could tell Karen had shrugged the idea off with the loud scoff.

“What do you do again?” she asked, “For work I mean”.

Linda found the question a little odd and random, “A realtor” she said.

“Your husband?” she quickly asked, still touching the box.

“He is an environmental consultant, for the government”

Linda could tell the word ‘Government’ had left a noticeable impression on Karen. Karen was acting strange, she thought.

Before Karen had begun to ask another question, Linda had thanked her for the pasta and began to slowly nudge her out the front door.

Thirty minutes later Perry had pulled into the driveway, feeling a little uncomfortable. He noticed several of his neighbors farther down the street staring at him aggressively as he drove by. He got out of the car and noticed Karen a few houses down with a group of neighbors around her.

Perry tried to smile and waved at them, but was only met with whispers and glares. His eyes followed one of the women to her house and slam the door shut. Next to her door he noticed on of their neighbors Tony staring at the window. When he noticed Perry was looking at him, he immediately shut the curtains.

“What’s their problem” he said to himself, picking up the grocery bags from his car.

2:15 PM

There was another nock on the door.

Perry said he would answer it. Linda had seemed a little nervous and unhappy with her encounter with Karen. Perry had never liked that woman, and he knew she never liked him. If this was her again, she would regret coming back.

Instead, it was Tony who lived on the opposite house on their street. He was a young man in his mid-thirties dressed in blue jeans and a green checkered jacket.

“Tony, how’s it going?” he asked. He seemed a little nervous, “So I heard you had a package flown in by a drone. Everyone’s talking about it. What did you guys order?”

Perry waved his hand in the air- “No, we didn’t order anything. It’s a mistake”.

“Can I see it?” he asked.

“The package? Uh, sure” replied Perry who found it a little odd.

He motioned towards the black box on the table next to the door.

Tony walked inside the house and became almost mesmerized at the object.

“What the heck is that?” he asked.

“No clue, maybe a fancy microwave?” replied Perry who hadn’t give up on the idea.

Tony slowly put his hands on it and felt some sort of static left from his fingers. His expression suddenly changed; he was different somehow.

“Hey Perry, I think this was my package” he said.

Perry had felt a small panic at how Tony was acting.

“Your package?” asked Perry.

Tony smiled, “Yeah, it was supposed to be delivered by drone. Turns out it got sent here by mistake” he said.

“You were in front of your house watching us when we took it in” began Perry, “Why didn’t you say anything then?” he asked.

Tony began to laugh nervously, “Well I didn’t think it was mine, and then went on my e-mail to check the delivery time” he said.

Perry paused in thought, starring at the younger man.

“It’s my property, Perry. I’d like it back.”

“Can I see the e-mail?” asked Perry.

“What?” the young man replied, pretending not to hear him.

“The receipt, Tony, can I see it” said Perry, “Just to clarify, you understand, don’t you?” he smiled.

Perry noticed the man’s expression changed to somewhat anger, “How dare you! I just said I had something delivered by a drone”

“Do you even know what it is?” asked Perry, ignoring the man’s frustration.

“It’s a black box” the man replied, “It’s a uh 20,000-dollar microwave”.

He got the black box right, Perry thought. Karen had probably told his wife about the mystery package.

“Let me see the receipt, Tony. Otherwise, I can’t give it to you” he said firmly.

Tony was in a flaring rage and argued with Perry for several minutes until agreeing to get the receipt. After 5 mins of waiting, Perry realized he was not coming back.

3:15 PM

“The mail man is here!” yelled Perry who noticed the delivery driver here on a Sunday.

“Flag him down, NOW!” Linda yelled back, “get rid of that thing!” she said.

The wave of relief suddenly flew through him. It was on everyone’s mind, even theirs. Perry felt like he needed to know who this was meant for. He needed to know what it actually is to make all this trouble worthwhile.

He had the package in his hand as he ran up to the mail man.

The mailman, an elderly Chinese man, looked up at him with is goggle-like glasses.

“Yes?” he asked, ready to be asked for the millionth time about if he had mail for them rather than waiting patiently for it.

He showed the man the black box, “THIS was sent to my house, its nor ours,” said Perry.

“What is it?” the old man asked, curiously eying the box in all directions.

“I don’t know” replied Perry, “anyway, its not our package”.

“There’s no information with it” the mail man said, “It’s not ours. Even if I knew it was ours I can’t receive a mysterious black package, sir.”

Perry sighed in a frustration, “Well I have no information, and it just showed up at my doorstep by drone”.

“By drone?” asked the mailman, surprised. “We don’t deliver by drone” he said.

“You guys can take it and just leave it somewhere until another mail service asks about it?” asked Perry, now desperate to get the object away from him. It felt odd in his hands.

“Sir, that’s not how mail works. If I gave you a pizza from one place- you can’t just give it back to another place” the mailman replied.

“Well I don’t know where this pizza came from!” exclaimed Perry who was continuing the metaphor.

“If that is the case, then just keep it” the old man said, “Free package isn’t so bad” he smiled.

Perry realized it was useless to continue.

He returned to the house and told Linda the mailman couldn’t take it.

“Should we just give it away? Maybe just give it to Tony since he really wanted it” said Perry.

Linda looked at him, “Give it away? What if the owner of this…thing… comes back? It hasn’t even been a day, Perry”.

Perry’s head was now spinning, he felt like the strange box was maybe radioactive- causing this headache. Linda thought the idea absurd and said the weirdness of it all didn’t help things. Perry sat down and sipped another drink of water which made it better.

8:15PM

And another knock on the door

Perry and Linda suddenly looked at each other from the couch. Potential situations were going through each of their minds. What was going to happen. Was this package speaking out. Who was going to come to the door.

The idea then snapped at the same time- the owner of the package has finally arrived.

Perry paused the show they were watching and both of them walked to the door to open it.

It wasn’t the owner, just Mr. and Mrs. Kowls.

Both Perry and Linda were surprised to see such a prestigious couple show up to their humble home. The Kowls owned the largest house on the block and were well known and respected throughout the community- perhaps the only millionaires everyone around here knew of.

“We’ve brought others” spoke Mrs. Kowls who brought several people inside- all wearing a dark hooded robe which covered their face.

Perry then noticed the front porch light wasn’t even on- the bulb was missing, making it too dark to see any of them.

Three people followed behind the Kowls- each carrying an object in their hands. It was only till they got inside was when Perry and Linda realized what it was- An identical box like theirs.

“Are the robes necessary?” asked Perry who was now nervous on who he actually brought inside.

They didn’t say anything, but Mr. Kowls escorted them into the living room to have a seat.

Each of the three hooded figures put their package onto the table before Mrs. Kowls picked up Perry and Linda’s and placed it next to the three.

It was then the lights in the living room began to buzz with electricity- shutting off and on continuously.

Linda held onto Perry’s arm and Perry tried hard to keep himself composed, for himself and her.

“What’s this about- what the hell is this thing” he asked.

“A lifeform” said Mr. Kowl, “You are now the 4th individual in the last 40 years to receive such a life form. More will come.”

“A lifeform?” asked Linda now a little unsure whether this was actually a prank, “It’s a box”.

The three hooded individuals didn’t say anything as Mr. Kowl continued.

“This ‘box’ controls electricity, it arrived here last night…”

“From the meteor storm that happened last night!” interrupted Linda in excitement before seeing the expression of the Kowls and her husband, “I read it this…uh..morning” she finished, lowering her voice in embarrassment.

“Yes, from the storm” continued Mr. Kowl as he spread his hands across the alien-boxes, “These other lifeforms from their species had instructed the easiest way of transportation on Earth- drones”.

Perry looked from Mr. Kowl to the Box, then to Martha and Mrs. Kowl, and finally the three hooded individuals. He didn’t know what to think about all this. Something he found seemed to make it too silly.

“…And this ‘alien package’ chose our house for…” said Perry.

One of the hooded figures took something out of his robe which resembled a mini-speaker.

“This machine communicates through a type of radio wave; one of our members here, from Nasa, created a little microphone for it…” said Mr. Kowl.

Linda was looking a little un-easy, “I’m not sure if I want to talk to an Alien, Perry. This is starting to freak me out” she said, shying deeper into Perry’s right arm.

Perry gave her a few rubs on her back and reassured her that everything was going to be ok, even though he didn’t quite believe it himself.

The hooded figure ended up sticking a microphone to Perry and Linda’s box.

A few moments of static crept through the speaker until another sound was heard. A voice.

“H…He…Hell…Hello” the alien package began to say through the speaker.

“Uhh, Hello” said Perry after seeing Mr. Kowl motion towards him to say something.

A few moments of static crept into the microphone again as the box began vibrate- causing the other boxes near it to do the same.

“What do you want from us?” quickly asked Linda, hoping this bad dream was coming to an end.

“You’re House…Is…Is at…a Vertex point” the box said.

“A vertex points?” asked Linda.

“A point on the planet that is susceptible to magnetic activity- lets them recover from their journey” chimed in Mrs. Kowl, “All these hooded figures received one by drone because they lived on Vertex points” she said.

“And these hooded figures are...” began Linda.

The box vibrated an electrical wave into the air as it spoke: “h…hoo..hosts”

Each robed individual took off their hood to reveal a strangeness about them- their eyes are black.

“Humans are flooded with electrical circuits,” said Mr. Kowl, smiling sadistically, “these beings need hosts if they are going to invade…” he said.

Perry immediately grabbed Linda by the arm, but something was wrong. She wouldn’t move. He looked at her in confusion then realized it.

Her eyes were black….