Last Encounter

The abductions started at Hickory and Hazel Tree at 7:54 a.m., August 22, 2042. The news doesn't have any new information since the abductions started. It's nearly 10 a.m. now. The government won't do anything, and the military is useless. Their only hope of getting out of there is me. I get to work in the only way I know how. I turn the volume down on the TV and spread out a map on my kitchen table. My notebook is close by, and I start writing a list of all I know.

She took Danny to school at 7:36 a.m. I'm certain they are in there. His school is at the end of Hazel Tree, so they had to be close by.

There seems to be a pattern in who they choose. Which is good, because I can be choosy too. The majority of victims were adults. Those children who were abducted were with adults. Next, they chose people in healthy conditions. All the pictures of the victims on the news tell me everything I need to know. Pictures of hikers, surfers, skiers, and people running marathons. They were all in their twenties to thirties. So they can all fight back. Terrific. That ups their odds of survival.

They were also traveling or getting ready to travel. Last seen with shoes on, keys in their pocket, and standing in the doorway, or running shoes and water bottle in hand, according to witnesses. If they were moving, they were taken, reporters claim. Moving targets are harder to hit, but feels like a predator stalking prey.

My plan to get in there is to also get abducted. So far, no one else has been abducted outside the initial targeted area. I'll take my dog, Teddy, for a walk near Hickory and Hazel Tree while "talking" on the phone, and appearing clueless. That last bit will be hard, the whole not looking up at the alien mothership.

After clipping Teddy's leash on, I step outside into an overcast day. I am not prepared for how massive it is. It seemed smaller on TV. Unreal, but I know my eyes wouldn't lie to me. It's a light blue color that on a clear day might blend in with the sky. Metallic like chrome, but seems like it would be as soft as the clouds it hides behind. So close I could almost jump to touch it, yet so far away that if I jumped to touch it, I would look foolish. It completely blocks out the sun.

There are no birds chirping. No kids outside playing. No dogs barking. There's a lady with pink shorts, a blue water bottle, and short blond hair in a ponytail who usually jogs this time of day. She is not here. Abducted. The white house with the blue door still has the red Jeep in the drive. Abducted. The girl with the purple backpack at the bus stop is not waiting at the bench. Abducted. Are they waiting in the alien spaceship to meet their fate?

There's a flash of light and then it's all dark. I'm inside. It's silent except for a low hum coming from all around me. The only lights are illuminating the dark halls and doors. The lights are green and dim. It appears I'm in a cargo bay of some kind. Loud metallic footsteps approach. I slid inside an alcove.

Clicking, chittering, and guttural noises come from the two almost humanoid figures, covered head to… claws in a shiny metal-like material. I can't make out any more details other than they are at least ten feet tall and have feet like a hawk. Their helmets have a smooth mirror front and spiky tendrils coming out the back.

Looking around, I see I'm in some kind of locker with what looks like weapons. The long metallic object weighs a ton, but almost every weapon has a trigger. I just need to find this one's trigger. My fingers wrap around it and something starts to glow.

Activated by touch perhaps.

As it lights up, I can make out the basic structure of it. If it looks like a rifle, it probably is. There's a groove that my hand fits perfectly into, so I grip it and it glows a bright cyan color. There's a sort of whirring sound like it's powering up.

An explosion of lightning. I'm slammed into the wall of weapons and a few clatter to the floor. All I hear is ringing, and then the clatter of claws on metal. The figures bolt to where I am. I aim at its chest, where there's a large cavity that glows purple and I grip tight again. Another explosion. The blast knocks one of them to the floor, the other raises its weapon at me. Something not quite like feathers flares up behind its head, and a blood-curdling squawk comes from behind the helmet. It slides a piece on the top back, it clicks into place, and it glows purple.

I wonder what that does.

I do the same to my gun. It runs away, tentacles slithering behind.

Ah, so that's what it does.

I aim at it and grip the trigger. It turns into dust.

Perfect.

I shoot the one on the ground for good measure. It also burst into dust.

I head back out into the hall and look for anything I can use for navigation. Three more aliens turn a corner right in front of me, all their weapons glowing purple too. I bolt in the opposite direction into another alcove just as the lightning explosion hits. Near miss. Two more follow. I swing my gun around the corner and fire blindly until the gun overheats. My arm gives way from the weight. It's glowing green now. I grip, and nothing happens. I hear metallic footsteps coming closer behind me. I did fire blind.

Stupid.

Chittering, clicking, and more metallic footsteps coming from in front of me. This time with a human voice. A child.

"Let me go!" A grunt like he's struggling to get away.

"I wanna go home!" He's desperate.

"I just want my mom!" Starting to cry. He sounds familiar. I have to help him.

The light on the gun is turning from green to cyan again. The moment the whole gun is cyan, I jump out and point towards the sound of the kid, and fire at the alien holding him. The boy shrieks in fear, as the alien crumbles to the ground. The aliens behind us cease fire, and I run for the kid.

"Where were you? Were there others with you?" I ask him.

"My mom–" he pants as we run, "Was with me–" he pauses to catch his breath, "But they took her somewhere else."

I look down at him, and he looks up at me. We stop running. We recognize each other and smile.

"Everything will be okay now, right? Now that you're here?" He asks.

"Yes," I pat his head, "Everything will be okay now. Let's go find your mom."

He starts running again, "This way. This is where we came from."

This hall has more lights. Lined with doors that all have windows. They're holding cells. I recognize all these people. The woman with pink shorts, the owner of the red Jeep, and the girl with the purple backpack. They're all here.

At the end of the hall is a double door with top-to-bottom windows. It looks like an examination room. There's a table in the middle of the room with someone on it.

"Mom?"

It's a woman, and she lays still on the table. She appears unharmed, but her eyes are closed.

"Danny?" She whispers.

"Mom!"

He runs over to the table.

Daddy saved me!

"Mr. Henry saved me!"

She looks at me. Stunned, but grateful. She doesn't recognize me. My heart thunders at being so close to her. This is the first time I've ever been so close.

"You know, Mr. Henry. You asked him to walk me home from school every day."

"Who?" Her gratefulness turns confused. She's looking at me like some kind of alien.

"He's the one who leaves the notes on your car once I'm inside the house."

She springs from the table. "What?" The terror in her eyes excites me.

"Don't worry, I always hide the key again before he leaves."

She grabs his shoulders, my son's shoulders, and kneels in front of him.

"Danny, I don't know this person."

You don't know your own husband? The man who has loved you for months now?

I kneel next to him, my face is feeling warm. "Danny, she's not well right now. Those mean aliens did something to her memory. We have to take her away from here. Can you help me do that-"

"Get away from my son!" She pushes me away from my son. My hope that she will love me back, eventually, turns to absolute hatred.

"Mom, you're scaring me…" his eyes are welling up with tears. I won't have her scaring my son. I push her away to hold my precious Danny.

"Don't you mean our son? Danny, she hasn't told you yet? I'm your dad." She's pulling me away from him, but my grip only tightens.

"He's lying, Danny! Don't listen!" She's delirious, the aliens must have drugged her. Good. Now I don't have to.

"Your mother is very sick-" I'm getting impatient.

"Danny, please! Listen to me! He's not a good man-"

"Who are you going to listen to, huh?" Fire burns in my face, everything feels hot now. He's crying. She pleads silently with him.

"How do we get out of here… Dad?" His voice is shaky, but he looks me in the eye with full confidence in who I say I am.

You're mine now. I won't let anything happen to you.

I brush the hair out of his face and look deep into his eyes. Mainly to buy myself time.

Think, think…

"I think the only way out of here now is to cut all the power. They have to land when they have no more power to fly."

That's good. Quick thinking. Keep going.

"We escape out the hatch that the landing gear comes out of," I give him my best kind and understanding smile possible, "Does that sound like a plan?"

He nods, and his smile returns. His mother only weeps. Silence is compliance I suppose.

That's my boy.

I kiss his forehead. I get off my knees, help him up, and grab a hold of his mother's arm. I give her a kind but stern look as she stands. She did not follow the plan, and she will be punished later for it. But she has to survive long enough to see her punishment. I hold his hand and drag her stumbling out of the room.

We walk down the hall as quietly as we can. These halls are getting wider, there are fewer doors, and the alcoves of weapons are non-existent. The lights change color from green to cyan to purple. If green means no power, cyan means a little power, and purple means a lot of power, we may be getting close.

"Daddy?"

"Danny, he's not–" the woman lies.

"Yes, Danny? What is it?" I interrupt the mother.

"Are you sure we're going the right way?" His voice is still shaking.

"Well, Danny, I'm not sure. But if what I know about these aliens is correct, we are going the right way."

Give him a reason to trust you.

"Have I led you wrong yet?"

He shook his head.

"Then we're going the right way." I smile at him. He smiles back.

We get to a big open room with what looks like a generator, and the biggest stash of weapons I've seen yet.

"Wait here," I bring them to the weapon locker.

"If any aliens come through that door, use this," I hand him one of the smaller guns, make the lights turn purple, and hand it to him.

"I'll be right back."

I give him one last smile. The woman just looks at me like I'm some kind of monster. She won't trust me. I don't need her to. I've already got her son. Something isn't right with her. She's shaking, and breathing in short erratic breaths.

I must hurry.

I grab the biggest weapon I can find, and make the lights turn cyan. I want to watch them suffer. If I can remember where they were, I can finish what I started.

The way back wasn't as complicated as I thought. The hall of holding cells is a sight for sore eyes. I look in the windows at their pitiful faces. They need me. They want me to end their suffering.

I find what looks like a keypad at the end of the hall above the door, and blast it with everything I got.

It worked!

The doors are open, and they rush out into the hall. Their thankful voices are like music to my ears.

I turn to see them, and open fire. Blue lightning wraps around their feeble bodies like an embrace from a friend. Falling to their knees to worship me, their screams are rapturous. All those months of stalking, and planning, and scheming have finally paid off. With such a divine weapon too. I couldn't think of a better way to bring them to their joyful end. A knife is too messy, a bullet is too quick, but this alien technology is absolutely perfect.

They writhe on the cold metal ground. After a moment, most are still, but one looks up at me. My favorite is the woman with pink shorts, a blue water bottle, and long blond hair in a ponytail. I tilt her chin up to look at me. One last look. I smile as she begins to cry. I'll be merciful to her and break her neck, so she doesn't feel what's next.

I stand and reach for my belt buckle. Her breath catches in her throat, and she looks at something behind me. The metal ground creaks. Blood rushes to my ears. One last challenge.

How many can I kill?

I spin to see five aliens. Tendril feathers spread wide behind their heads and shake. Their shrieks' are deafening, and make me cover my ears with my hands. One alien to my right raises one of the smaller weapons at me, glowing green, and fires.

Such pain like I've never experienced before. Fire in my veins boiling my blood. I can only scream and fall to the ground. The cool metal is a relief to my burning skin. My vision blurs and pluses. I have no control over my trembling body. The once dim green lights now shine brighter than the sun. The muscle spasms slow, and my vision returns.

The alien standing over me raises a device to my face.

"One final request?" I ask. My throat burns. The alien pauses, and it looks back at its comrades. The chittering and guttural noises return. They are debating my demise.

"Speak," It says to me.

"Shoot me again with that gun," my voice is so quiet I can barely hear it, "It was thrilling." I let out a laugh.

Another pause. More chittering.

"Why do you seek pain? Why did you kill your own people?" It asks.

I have only the strength to laugh in reply. Delirious from the high of adrenaline and bloodthirst, my own skull has never felt so good before. I want to rip it out and drink this feeling from it.

The alien raises a device to my head and there's a flash of light like the one that put me on the ship in the first place.

I'm back on Hickory and Hazel Tree, lying in the street. Teddy trots over to me and licks my face. The heat from the blast still courses through my body, but I manage to get to my feet.

Teddy barks. Danny laughs. I turn to see them. Both of them are here, and unharmed. My precious son is sitting on the sidewalk, and that wretched woman is laying next to him. Danny reaches to pet Teddy. He's holding the notes I gave her. The look of betrayal says everything I need to know.

Now's my chance to make everything the way it's supposed to be. I walk over to her and pick her up. My muscles, sore from my blissful experience, start to shake.

"Come on, Danny," I shrug to get a better grip on her thin, soft body, "Let's go home."

He reluctantly follows, as if he knows what must happen when we get home.

They both must die now.