It is their World Now

It is their world now

I hear them constantly shrieking and clawing as they searched for any human that might still not have been captured. It is their world now. The important thing is that they have not found me yet. Hiding is becoming more difficult as more of them seem to arrive all the time.

It started months ago when the world woke up to find strange and monstrous UFOs hovering menacingly about every major city. Armies deployed their most formidable weapons but waited for their leaders to communicate with the aliens to see what they wanted.

“We need your meat,” said a low-pitched voice in everyone’s head.

Leaders tried to reason with the newcomers. “What did that mean? Do you mean our cattle, pigs, and chickens?”

“No, we mean you.”

“This is our world. Go somewhere else. We are not your food.”

Armies targeted the UFOs but found their weapons blocked, useless, or powerless to even dent the exterior of any of the alien ships.

“Then you will die. We need your meat.”

Full-scale war broke out and everyone ran for whatever weapons they could find. They were mowed down in droves. Bodies piled up on the streets. These were quickly carted away. Buildings were razed until there was nothing left in the cities but those of us who had somehow managed to disappear in the excitement. We went down manholes, hid in basements, old cars or went looking for anything we could use to fight back against the invasion.

Then the alien UFOs came to ground. These were not little green men with large eyes. They were hefty, ugly critters that walked like humans but were at least two feet taller. Their bodies were bigger, muscular, and their skin was a light blue. Their arms were extra-long, like gorillas, that did not quite touch the ground but came close. On the end of their hands were dangerous-looking claws that could and would take the face right off anyone who disobeyed.

In the ensuing months, they took over the planet. People were captured and herded into freshly-built pens out of which there was no escape. Anyone that touched a wall or barrier received a shock that knocked them off their feet. They only touched it once.

In every city and town around the globe, huge pens full of humans waited to see what would happen next.

They found out soon enough. They were to be transported to another planet, slaughtered, and fed to the inhabitants.

Humans were used to eating the animals that roamed the earth. Now, they would suffer the same fate that has befallen the hundreds of millions of animals, birds, fish, and other earthly creatures that had died to feed us.

The aliens did not want the animals. They only wanted human meat. Animals were set free and allowed to roam wherever they chose.

Life in the pens was horrific and degrading. There were no toilets. You did what you had to do wherever you could find an open spot. Needless to say, it stunk. There was no toilet paper. Animals did not use it. Why should humans? Now they were just another breed of animal. They were regarded and treated as a food source. Nothing more.

Gone were the days of TV, video, cellphones, sportscars and houses. Now it was just survival – fight for food, a scrap of clothing, a place to lie down and, if you were female, fight off the males who tried to ‘mate’.

Clothes quickly became too worn to wear or were stolen by someone who had lost theirs. Feet quickly became callused. There were fights over raw food that was tossed into the pens, fights over mates, and fights for no reason. The victims survived, or they did not.

But humans have a resilience that the aliens had not figured on. We were pack animals. Tribal, and tribal instincts were still in the human DNA. Survival was the catchword. Small groups formed. Then larger groups. They watched the aliens and how they operated.

They waited until they saw a weakness and then they pounced. One dead alien whose body was surrounded and hidden. It was torn apart and eaten raw. What was not eaten was buried in the pen.

One by one, aliens began to disappear. Occasionally, the alien had a weapon – a treasure that would be vital when the time came to fight back. To take back their planet.

Humans began to look less emaciated. They became stronger by working out when they were not being watched.

To the onlooking aliens, the humans were just a herd of snarling animals. They did not know they were also being watched. Soon, they shied away from the animals in the pens.

Where I had been hiding, I could see one of the pens in the distance. I was on the fourth floor of an old, now abandoned, apartment building. It had a trapdoor in the ceiling of one of the bedroom closets. So far, no alien had thought to investigate it. I had found a child’s mattress. It took some maneuvering to get it up and through the hole into the crawlspace above that served as my hideaway.

For food, I would go out at night and scavenge for anything edible – some of which you do not want to know about. But it kept me alive.

I went looking for anything I could use to fight back or perhaps toss into the nearby pen for others to use.

One night, I met another uncaptured human. We met in an alley. I had started walking down it when a gravelly male voice whispered, “Shh. There’s a patrol at the other end. Come in here.” A hand reached out and yanked me into where he was hiding. It was a doorway, and the door was open. H pulled me inside and locked the door behind us. We crouched down behind it. A light shone on the window and then the aliens moved on down the alley.

“Denny,” he said. “I’m Denny.”

“Hi! My name is Johnny. Nice to meet you, Denny,” I whispered as we sat close together.

“You got any weapons, Johnny?”

“Nah. Haven’t found any yet. You?”

He handed me a long knife. “I found some of these yesterday. Want one?”

“You bet. That will help if I meet one of those uglies. Thanks.”

It was a beauty, and it had a sheath. A foot-long sturdy blade and very sharp. It was almost a bayonet. What I wouldn’t give to wrap my arm around an alien neck and quickly pull the blade across its throat.

I would have to wear the sheath inside my jeans so it could not be so easily discovered. No problem.

I did not know how soon I would have the opportunity to use it.

Denny put a finger up to my mouth.

“They’re coming back,” he whispered. “We must leave here now. Check the alley.”

He walked through to the back of the house. I was about to open the door, but I saw a shadow outside. Something told me that there was something not quite kosher happening. Instead of looking out into the alley, I followed Denny to the back. He was standing with the back door open, talking with an alien. His voice was all grunts and whistles. It sure wasn’t human speech.

I pictured him saying, “He’s in here.” I was trapped. Apparently, shape-shifting was something else the aliens were capable of doing. Well, he was about to find out that he had made a huge mistake by giving me a knife to show that he was a friend.

The alien stepped inside and looked around. He had his hand on a holstered weapon that I assumed was a gun, a laser of sorts. I was standing peering around the edge of the kitchen doorway. As the alien came forward, I stepped in front of it, my knife ready.

I put my hand over his, preventing him from drawing the gun. In one motion I lifted the knife and drew it across the alien’s throat. It tried to scream but all that came out was a gurgle and wet, slimy, yellow blood as it dropped to the floor.

Denny had shifted back to his alien form and he leaped towards me.

“Thanks for the knife, Denny!” I said as I drove it into his chest. I quickly pulled it out and, for good measure, drew it across his throat. Alien Denny fell to the floor like the other one and the yellow blood ran freely.

I knew there was still one more alien to deal with. Quietly, I walked back to the front and turned the latch on the front door, making no attempt to hide the click. Whatever was outside would know it was open.

I did my best to mimic the sounds I had heard coming from Denny’s mouth, trying to put in some anguish and pain. Moving behind the door, I waited.

I did not have long to wait. I could hear shuffling outside. In an instant, the door burst inward. I grabbed the doorknob and held it as the alien rushed inside. I let the door slam shut and prepared as the alien swung around to face me. My knife was ready, and I was so furious that when I pulled it across its throat, it almost took its head off. It grabbed for its throat but fell to the floor and did not move. Neither did the other two.

I gathered up three more knives and three hand laser weapons. I sliced off a piece of Denny’s clothing and put two of the weapons and two knives into the dark cloth. Then, I tied it together. I stood and listened. Opening the back door as quietly as I could, I peered outside monitoring any sound. All was quiet.

Staying in the shadows as much as possible, I made my way to the back of the pen I had seen from my hiding place.

Two or three naked humans were watching me as I scurried up to the fenced pen.

“Who is your leader?” I whispered.

One looked at another one and said, “Go get Eddy.”

He was back in a minute with a tall, older, well-fit man.

“Who are you?” he whispered through the fence.

“Santa Claus. If you are the leader, Eddy, use these well. Get yourselves out of there. Those uglies think this is their world but it is ours. Let’s show those aliens some human resourcefulness.”

I threw the wrapped weapons high enough that it just barely cleared the fence. Eddy caught it before it hit the ground. He looked over at me and gave me a thumbs up.

“Use the knives to dig yourselves out. Scatter and take out as many aliens as you can. Take their weapons, slit their throats, and continue doing that until there are more of us than there are of them. We are going to take back what belongs to us! This is not their world. It is ours!

©April 2021 Robert W. F. Taylor

This is a new story of mine that I will include in my new book entitled ‘Weird Tales’.