They Live Among Us

“Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. Speaking about space, our problems are now transcending on planet Earth. It was discovered that alien life form has been living among us for years. Where are they hiding and how can we find them? Breaking news at eight,” said a female newscaster on the television.

George just clicked the TV off and went on with his morning routine. He always enjoyed a cup of black coffee with two blueberry donut holes. As he was finishing his morning brew, a knock on the door startled him. Outside his home awaited his coworker and close friend of fifteen years; Johnathan Dyer. Johnny was always a believer when it came to aliens. For him, it has always been a dream to come in contact with another life form. George greets him at the door and lets him inside.

“Hey man, did you catch the news lately? Apparently there are aliens here on earth,” said Johnny as he walked inside. George just rolled his eyes as they went back to the kitchen.

“The news said that these aliens have purple blood; how bizarre is that?”

“The media is running out of stories. It’s comedy hour on the morning, evening, and late-night news,” said George while washing his hands.

“Apparently the government is creating special holding facilities to interrogate them! Maybe they have answers to help save our planet,” said Johnny as he took a seat at the kitchen table.

George rolled his eyes again as he finished his breakfast. He took a look at the clock and realized they would be late if they continued to chit chat about these ridiculous news reports. George pointed to the clock and Johnny got the hint it was time to head to work.

Both men work for a life insurance company where they process applications. Above their floor of business, a small group of F.B.I. agents take suspicious entries and send special officers to investigate those homes of possible illegal aliens. The human kind of course.

George is the lead manager; he is the one who reports to the F.B.I. of all the suspicious applications. Lately he has been under scrutiny since being promoted. The agents have been receiving less fraudulent applications and now wonder why this may be. That morning they held a special meeting because of this issue.

“Good morning George Walker. Please take a seat,” said the lead agent Jennifer.

She was extremely tough and had special training in the military to interrogate the cleverest type of criminals. Next to her was special agent Thomas. He never spoke; just wrote everything down to transcribe later. It’s the quiet ones you have to watch out for. Sitting next to Thomas was Janet. She was the nerd of the crew. She was also the nicest one in the room. Janet made sure that all the facts lined up with the information given to her.

“This won’t take long, we just want some answers,” said Jennifer.

“Well, I’m here to comply.”

“Good to know! We want to know why in this new quarter we received only 25 suspicious applications when last quarter was close to 200?”

“I submitted my review on that, and the answer I gave then is the same I’m giving now. There has been a drop in faulty applications since we updated our software. Our new firewalls prohibit specific paperwork to be uploaded from new applicants that are illegal citizens. If they do get through with a false information; that’s when we report it to your team. As of this quarter, only 25 have been able to get past our new software,” said George as he rested easy in his seat.

“Thank you for that update. We did a review on your report and we wanted to make sure things still added up. Our company wouldn’t want one of our own working against us,” said Jennifer as she shuffled her paperwork.

“Is this new concern because of all the alien propaganda on the news,” George joked.

“I hate to burst your reality bubble but they do live among us Mr. Walker. That’s why our division and many other F.B.I agents have joined forces with insurance companies to weed out the non-human entries. Our issues aren’t foreigners anymore; it’s out of space aliens,” said Janet as she gave a soft smile.

Thomas and Jennifer gave Janet a dirty look, as if she had said way too much. George broke out in complete laughter as he tried to make sense of the conversation.

“Listen – I don’t know who is crazier, our government or our news outlets pushing this nonsense! If aliens did exist, why would they care for our planet? Let alone our health insurance benefits,” said George as he continued to laugh to himself.

Jennifer handed him a folder that had ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ written on the front. George explored files of fraudulent insurance applications. The paperwork consisted of what are to be dead individuals applying as new customers. The cross-reference files show that the investigated residences had alien life forms living inside. Other documents included photographs that showed these alien hybrids held hostage in secret cells just like Johnathan said!

“You see Mr.Walker, they do exist. We didn’t want this information to leave the room. It is important we get this under control. The faster we do, the quicker we leave your precious facility and go onto bigger things,” said Jennifer as she watched George with disbelief.

“I can’t believe it! It is all true! This whole time I was in denial,” said George as he looked at the three agents.

“The goal of these space foreigners is to be seen like an everyday human. They invest in stocks, buy homes, go grocery shopping, apply for insurance. It's all a mirage to stay here and take over. They don’t need these services to survive. They need these services just to blend in. It's the first stage to their takeover,” said Janet.

Thomas started to write some information down and shared it privately with the other agents.

“What did he write down! Am I in some sort of trouble,” asked George with fear in his voice.

“Oh no sir, we just think it is best you go home after finding out such information. We understand that such news can flip one's reality,” said Janet.

George started to turn white with such shock. He didn’t know how to process everything. As he got up, so did the three agents. They all shook hands to end the meeting. As he was heading out of the confrence room, Jennifer stopped him at the door.

“Oh, George – one more thing. Don’t let anyone else know about this. Only a select few of employees have been told such information and if it were to leak – we would know who it was. No pressure of course,” said Jennifer while giving an awkward smile. George just nodded with an empty look and walked back to his office.

While George was packing up to go home, Johnny stopped by to see what he was having for lunch. Johnathan was watching from behind as George fumbled his belongings into his suitcase. His hands shook so much, he could barely hold a piece of paper without crumbling it.

“Everything okay buddy,” asked Johnny.

George said nothing while having his back to his friend. Before he could get any type of response – George passed out onto the ground. His face hit the desk on the way down. When Johnathan help support his head onto his lap, he noticed purple blood dripping from his nose.