Invasion of the Hailstones
A Story Every Day in 2024 March 23rd 83/366
Marie was awake. Something had awoken her. She lay there, trying to distinguish what it was. A child crying out? The house creaking? Sometimes, as it cooled down at night after a sunny day, it was almost like it was breathing a sigh of relief, expelling all that warmth in one big crack of sound.
Lying there, vigilant, hearing heightened in the dark, she knew it was something external to the house.
Hail. It had the rat-a-tat-tat randomness of hailstones hitting the house. Rhythmic and yet, simultaneously, completely erratic, it was soothing and now that she recognised what it was, it lulled her back to sleep. Just as she was about to drop off, she heard a strange whining sound that accompanied the staccato tapping.
That's unusual, she thought and lay there, listening. Yes, there was definitely something accompanying Mother Nature's marbles, as her mother had always called them. Not naturalistic at all but more technological. Like a machine or hydraulics.
Getting out of bed, she padded as silently as she could over to the window and pulled the curtain to one side. A clear view of the garden was presented, the night dark and forbidding. Diagonal stripes of hail were bombarding the house, the yard, the trees and she could see that the ground was turning from green to white with their arrival. It was coming so thick and so fast that it looked like a bad TV reception.
Was it hail? There was still that noise. Marie tried to wrack her brain. Where had she heard it before? She was not sharp in the early hours. It sounded science-fiction-y? Like something off Star Trek.
"What is it, Marie?" A sleepy-headed Jamie, her husband, squinted from the bed, hair mussed.
"Hail, I think," Marie said, watching.
She heard the wump as he lay back down.
The hail was getting bigger with more clarity between stones to see. Was it her imagination or was the ground seething? A big stone landed on the garage roof and she focused on it.
It opened. Light inside and something careered out.
Little green men. Not hail at all. Very little green men.
And there were millions of them.
***
365 words
I know with everything else that's going on in the world, being invaded by something external is probably not a place any of us want to go but I wanted to explore the idea of an alien invasion. Rather than the big space ship of Hollywood, why not lots and lots of little invaders? I mean, if the ants of the world ever decide to get together...and Gulliver was a giant to them but was still overrun by Lilliputians (I know he escaped but you get the point).
Thanks for stopping by! If you do read this, please do leave a comment as I love to interact with my readers.
83/366
About the Creator
Rachel Deeming
Mum, blogger, crafter, reviewer, writer, traveller: I love to write and I am not limited by form. Here, you will find stories, articles, opinion pieces, poems, all of which reflect me: who I am, what I love, what I feel, how I view things.
Keep reading
More stories from Rachel Deeming and writers in Fiction and other communities.
Fracking for Tact
"Well, you've finally got the Yorkshire puddings right. Well done!" Neil was pleased with his compliment, hoping that it would get the response it warranted. He was, after all, praising for a change instead of criticising. He was making an effort and he felt sure that it would be noticed.
By Rachel Deemingabout a month ago in Fiction
Match Point
Set point. The moment hung in the balance, a critical juncture that could determine the entire match. The first set slipped through my fingers; I couldn't afford to lose this one too. Across the net, Alex stood poised, eyes locked onto me. In that instant, the world around me faded, and I entered a state of Zen-like focus. Time seemed to slow as I analyzed every nuance of his stance, predicting his next move.
By Arshad Mecci3 days ago in Fiction
Comments (10)
Ooh nice one! Will you continue this one, I want to learn more about the aliens 👽
Hahahahahahahhaa I thought Marie was a little girl until you mentioned Jamie. But who knows, she may be a little girl and he may be a pedo. You put that into my mind in The Mascot hahahahahaha. So back to this story, tiny aliens. That's terrifying!
Oh, those twists of yours! I actually saw those little green aliens once after dental surgery when I was high on pain medicine. I knew they weren't real, but I told them to "stay in their place and we wouldn't have any trouble." BUT Hail...not that is a real fear. I have an old newspaper clipping that tells of a hailstorm that destroyed my mother's great-grandfather's farm in the state of Georgia. That was before 1900.
And here I was expecting a tornado siren, lol. Yep, little green men, women & children. I wonder if we can get rid of them the way we get rid of gnats, with an open jar of water, vinegar & dish soap?
That was great, but I wanna know what comes next.
Interesting take on hail; next hailstorm, I'll be more attentive. There is something unsettling about hail. Ice, that comes from the sky in warm weather! "A Story Every Day" caught my eye. That's a great goal!
Really liked the role nuance of sound played in this! Marie, as the noise detective, was an excellent narrative voice for the invasion discovery!
I agree with Paul here. The normal punctuated by disquiet is such a unique and disturbing experience in the night. You used it to excellent advantage in this story. Really well done. The only problem is, now I want more!
ooooh invasion of the tiny little aliens. I love how they use hail as a method of transport. Wonder if they do that deliberately because earth is used to hail...or it's a happy coincidence. Either way. I loved the quiet disquiet to this. the normal turned not so normal to "shit, we're in trouble now". Well done, Rachel, very well done.
Less immediately dangerous but I suspect ultimately far harder to contain.