Stories

Story – Weeks 12 & 13: Utterly Unexplainable, part 3

Aliens!

At last, the overdue conclusion to Utterly Unexplainable! I blame the lack of internet last week! And I’m hoping to get you a bonus story a little later this week, too!

If you missed them, you should probably start with Part 1 and then Part 2.

Label: FictionDanger: Profanity Ahead

Michelle shielded her eyes from the piercing bright light. Even hiding behind a small copse of trees and boulders a hundred meters from the source of the light it seemed to emanate from everywhere at once and she could see nothing but white light even with her eyes closed. The light faded – Kwótx̱wem had explained the light operated as a sort of scanning device – and standing in the middle of the gap of trees between the road and the clearing stood a tall, white-blonde man in a silver metallic jumpsuit wearing silver sunglasses. Next to him an equally tall woman in a similar silver metallic cat suit, her white-blonde hair in a severe bun, wearing identical silver sunglasses.

In unison they both removed the glasses, nodded at each other, then began to walk towards the clearing ahead of them. One moment the meadow lay peaceful and empty, wan moonlight painting the brush a placid monochrome gray, the next moment an enormous silver disc of a spaceship dominated the meadow sitting heavily on its landing legs – there was no transition between empty meadow and alien ship. A ramp already extended from the underside of the disc to the ground and half a dozen four-foot-tall Grays poured down each carrying small black handles.

“They dropped their cloaking,” Kwótx̱wem’s whisper from behind her startled Michelle.

“Now?” she whispered back to Kwótx̱wem.

“Not yet…”

The Gray in the lead raised the handle towards the man and the woman. One of the Gray’s long fingers twitched, and a brilliant trichrome beam shot from the handle striking the man square in the chest. The silver jumpsuit erupted in rings around the point of impact, like a rock dropped into a phosphorescent pond. If any force made its way through the jumpsuit to the man, it didn’t show; he and the woman kept walking steadily towards the oncoming Grays who had spread out and now all brought their beam weapons to bear. The night lit up with lasers flashing uselessly towards the two silver-clad Nordic aliens.

The lead Gray stopped firing as he came within arm’s reach of the man who casually palmed the bulbous head of the Gray like an NBA player palming a basketball. The gray-skinned alien dropped its weapon and wrapped its fingers around the Nordic’s arm, but the man gripped the base of the Gray’s neck and twisted with a jerk. Even from the distance of the trees, Michelle could hear the sickening crack of the Gray’s neck.

“Eww,” she said reflexively.

“Do not be upset,” Kwótx̱wem whispered, “they are barely more than automatons.”

“Come again?”

Kwótx̱wem sighed as his heavy fur-covered brow knitted in thought. “It is difficult to explain succinctly,” he rubbed his chin with an enormous hairy hand. “The Grays were effectively created by the Reptilians as foot soldiers. They are biological, yes, but they are really not much more than clockwork beings.”

Michelle heard another sickening crack and turned back to see the woman with a Gray in her hands as the man hurled the first now-limp gray like an oblong volleyball towards the still-oncoming Grays.

“Now?” Michelle whispered to Kwótx̱wem.

“Not yet…”

Two more Grays snapped, and the remaining two stopped advancing and kept firing their beam weapons. The Nordics were now a mere twenty meters from the ship. The night air shimmered a meter in front of the Nordic man and then a Reptilian stood a head taller than the tall human-looking alien. Weaponless, the Reptilian swung a massive taloned hand. The Nordic had time to raise his arm to protect his face, but the power of the blow knocked him to the ground. The Nordic woman turned to help her comrade and in doing so didn’t see the Reptilian materialize behind her and caught its punch in the midsection. She staggered but remained standing. Her Reptilian closed on her with blinding speed, but this clearly wasn’t her first encounter with the scaled aliens, as the charging Reptilian itself was caught in the gut by the woman’s silver boot, gasping as the breath left its lungs.

“The Reptilians are here,” Kwótx̱wem exclaimed. “Now!”

Michelle leapt forward, keeping to the edge of the forest, Kwótx̱wem and Qelóth

Behind her. She moved as quickly as she could, but Kwótx̱wem’s long strides carried him past her almost immediately. Qelóth, too, nearly bounded past her, but Kwótx̱wem made a gesture, and Michelle found herself lifted easily off the ground by Qelóth and hauled along as he kept pace with the larger Kwótx̱wem. She twisted her head around and could see the Nordics fully engaged with the Reptilians, both sides exchanging punches and kicks.

One of the Grays closest to the charging Sasquatches spotted them as they raced out of the shadows of trees and towards the ramp. It raised its weapon but before it could be brought to bear, Kwótx̱wem closed on the Gray and slammed a massive fist down on the Gray’s oversized head, driving the alien to the ground like a sack of alien potatoes.

Qelóth released Michelle and the two Sasquatch bent to get under the ship as all three raced up the ramp into the ship.

“You’re sure we’re okay?” Michelle asked as they crossed a barrier that brought them into a brightly lit chamber inside the ship.

“Yes,” Kwótx̱wem said. “This is a landing vehicle. The Reptilians leave a pair of shock troopers planet-side to supervise the Grays and intervene if necessary, but the rest are in their ship in orbit. But we had best not dawdle,” he said, pawing a button on a control panel causing the ramp to retract. “They will send reinforcements.”

“How quickly can they fly down here?”

“They do not have to fly – they beam down…” Kwótx̱wem started, but was cut off as a hatch in front of them slid open and a Reptilian rushed forward blindly slamming into Kwótx̱wem by sheer momentum, their heads knocking together loudly. The Sasquatch and alien stood dazed momentarily, as Michelle stared back and forth uselessly wondering what to do. Fortunately, Qelóth didn’t hesitate and connected his fist with the Reptilian’s head which caromed off his fist slamming into the metal bulkhead, the huge alien crumpling to the ground lifelessly.

“Just two?” Michelle asked Qelóth.

He shrugged.

“Kwótx̱wem?” she reached up and shook the large Sasquatch’s shoulders. “Are you okay?” He blinked several times and then shook his head back and forth.

“Yes… I believe so. That smarts!” he said, rubbing his expansive forehead. “Where did he come from?”

“I was wondering the same thing!” Michelle said.

“It does not matter. We have to get to the transport beam.”

“Lead on MacDuff,” Michelle said.

“My name is Kwótx̱wem.”

“It’s an expression. Let’s go!”

**

Jason stepped carefully over the dead lizard-looking alien on the floor and began searching the room for… anything useful. His priority was clothes of some kind, but a weapon would be nice as well. He pressed a panel which opened with a hiss revealing folded white tunics. The oversized garment hung around his neck dress-like, but Jason kept pressing panels, looking for anything else that would be useful. He found a small laser scalpel on the floor and guessed the alien used that to cut into him. Regarding the small iridescent blade Jason thought it dangerous, but not exactly the most formidable weapon. Still, he dropped it in the pocket of his tunic sparing a moment of gratitude for whomever devised adding a pocket to this utilitarian garment.

A narrow panel hissed open at his touch and Jason emulated another Keanu Reeves. “Excellent!” he said as he reached out to grab the long-handled tool. At the end of the four-foot-long handle a gleaming silver crescent blade extended from one side, its arc bringing the point in line with the handle, both sides honed to razor sharpness. From the top of the handle, a ten-inch diameter saw blade extended. Jason hefted the tool and appreciated its solid weight. Near the bottom of the handle he found a small button which triggered the saw blade into whirring life. “Holy shit!” he exclaimed and then fought down his rising gorge as he imagined what these snake-like assholes used this thing for in this operating room. He shuddered, then turned towards the closed door, bringing the ferocious scythe-saw to guard in front of him as he touched the button to release the aperture.

**

“How many of these goddamn little fuckers are in here?!” Michelle screamed as she punched a Gray, immediately pivoting to kick another incoming Gray, the point of her boot sinking sickeningly into one of its enormous eyes.

“I did not expect them to have this many Grays planet-side,” Kwótx̱wem said as he swatted one Gray with a right backhand and slamming another gripping his left bicep hard into a bulkhead.

Behind him, Qelóth was spinning in a circle, swinging a Gray by the feet, taking out several onrushing Grays. “This is kinda fun!” he giggled.

“This is not a game, Qelóth!” Kwótx̱wem admonished as he hurled one Gray into two more flooding in from a neighboring room, all three collapsing lifelessly to the ground.

“No shit, Sherlock!” Michelle yelled as she wriggled to dislodge her foot from the dead Gray.

“I am not Sherlock. My name is…”

“Yeah, yeah, Kwótx̱wem. For an intellectual being you know shit about human idioms!” A Gray rushed her as she was crouched down. She sprung up with the oncoming Gray, tossing him across the chamber into a wall.

“I resent that remark,” Kwótx̱wem said suddenly without an attacking Gray. He peered through the open doorway. “This way… MacDuff.”

“That’s not how… Ugh!” Michelle groaned as she started his direction.

Qelóth released his weaponized Gray and it flung limply under a bulkhead. “Wait up!” he yelled and bounded towards the doorway that the two disappeared through.

Inside, five transparent cylinders shimmered and pulsed pink to red in the dim light. “Transport beams!” Kwótx̱wem exclaimed hurrying to a nearby console. Hands poised over the controls, his eyes scanned the buttons and read outs.

“You can read that?” Michelle asked.

Kwótx̱wem turned an incredulous stare towards her. “We are interdimensional beings, human. We are not constrained to just this plain – I have encountered innumerable alien dialects over the course of my life!”

“So, you can’t read it then?”

“No,” he said. “Well,” he amended, “not really. But these glyphs are familiar enough… This one…” he pressed a button which caused the solid-looking cylinders to split allowing an entrance. “Now we are making food on fire!”

“Now we’re cooking with gas?”

“That is what I meant.” He pressed another button and the pink-red pulsing within the cylinders turned to a deep azure blue with silver streaks rising from the floor to where the cylinders touched the ceiling. “We are ready. Inside!”

The three rushed to separate cylinders. The two sasquatch stepped in without hesitation, disappearing into the beam. Michelle paused a moment but seeing them disappear and realizing she was suddenly alone, she stepped determinedly into the beam.

She immediately regretted it.

**

When the door slid open he could see the hulking shadows of two Reptilian guards flanking the door. Sparing a moment to think about how to get around these two, he suddenly thought about seeing his organs splayed out. His hand reflexively touched his stomach and belly button ring as his ire bloomed exponentially.

One of the guards turned its head to see why the door had opened but no one had come out. Unfortunately, his head turn came just as Jason slashed viciously upwards towards his face. The outer blade of Jason’s weapon caught the Reptilian deep across the snout and sent him sprawling. Jason didn’t hesitate to swing the staff towards the other guard who already had turned at the sound. Jason triggered the saw blade which whirred up and immediately slowed as it bit into the second Reptilians throat slicing quickly into an artery, causing green blood to geyser out all over Jason.

The first Reptilian started to get to its feet and Jason jabbed at it with the butt of the tool, knocking it flat to the ground.

Both guards down, he surveyed his surroundings. He stood in an empty corridor. In front of him the blue of planet earth dominated the view through the panels running the length of the corridor. To his right, the corridor disappeared around a bend; to his left. Jason looked down at the prone guards. These guys were enormous, and Jason felt sure he wouldn’t have been as lucky without having the element of surprise on his side. He opted to head to the door on his left, hoping he might catch another Reptilian by surprise. He took a few steps, then stopped and looked at the dead guards and noticed they both had long black staffs. He picked one up and felt its weight versus the scythe-saw – about even. He clicked a button in the middle of the staff and both ends crackled with foot-long electrical arcs. He wasn’t sure whether this would be better than the brutal scythe-saw, but used its strap to sling it over his shoulder – just in case.

Halfway down the corridor the doors opened with a hiss and two huge dog-like creatures bounded through towards him. As they closed on him, mouths agape barring enormous fangs, Jason could see they sported a row of sharp spines down their backs. “Chupacabras?” Jason said as he barely had time to get into a fighting stance, “Seriously?!” But the lead Chupacabra bounded past Jason on the right, spinning him around where he bounced off the second Chupacabra charging past him on the left. He steadied himself and watched as they ran past him and fell upon the two dead Reptilians. “Eew!” Jason said, but was interrupted by a call from down the hallway. He turned to see another Reptilian bound through the still-open door, two empty leashes in its clawed hand. Its eyes widened as it focused on Jason. Both exchanged surprised looks, then Jason surprised himself by charging down the corridor towards the Reptilian. He was equally surprised that the Reptilian dropped the leashes and started sprinting the opposite way.

**

She later described the sensation as “feeling like your skin was being turned inside out while on fire.” Though she admitted that didn’t really capture the pure agony of the sensation. Fortunately, painful as it was, it lasted a split second and she found herself stepping out of the cylinder into a nearly identical room.

“Ugh,” she said. “That sucked.”

Qelóth threw up in the corner. Even Kwótx̱wem looked slightly unsteady. “These transport beams are ridiculously inefficient.”

“Where are we?”

“We are aboard the Reptilian warship in orbit.”

“Oh, okay…” she said as nonchalantly as she could manage. “So, uh, now what?”

“We find your mate,” Kwótx̱wem said, moving across the chamber to what appeared to be some sort of equipment rack. He took a staff down and tossed it to Qelóth then took one for himself and turned towards the door to the chamber.

“Ahem?”

“Yes?” Kwótx̱wem asked.

“Where’s mine?”

A smile spread across Kwótx̱wem’s face. “With those Grays in the landing ship,” he started, “You handled yourself admirably, human.”

“Michelle.”

“Human Michelle.” He tossed her his staff and took another one for himself.

She caught it and pressed the button in the middle of the staff. A brilliant arc sizzled to life on both ends. “Fuck yeah!” she said, a dangerous gleam in her eye.

“I like you, human Michelle,” Kwótx̱wem said pressing the button to release the door. It hissed open to reveal four Reptilians who were about to press the button on their side. The sasquatches and Reptilians stood shocked for a moment, but Michelle didn’t hesitate. She ignited the electrical beam of her staff and swung it two-handed at the lead Reptilian, the electrical blade cleanly slicing its hand off as the blade continued up slicing up through the creature’s chin and skull. She stepped forward, reversing her swing and catching a second Reptilian across the face before spinning the staff in her hands bringing the back blade up slicing into its gut. The creature screeched as it collapsed to the ground. She stepped back and noticed Kwótx̱wem and Qelóth dispatching the other two Reptilians. When the last Reptilian hit the deck, Kwótx̱wem turned to her. “I like you, human Michelle!”

“Thanks,” Michelle said panting with the exertion as she extinguished the electrical blade and spun the staff in her hands absently because, well, because she could. Never thought that cosplay fighting class would be useful, she thought.

Kwótx̱wem looked both ways, then motioned them to follow. “This is the way.”

Michelle started after him, but Qelóth touched her on the shoulder, “That kicked ass!”

Michelle blushed and followed after the two sasquatches. They rounded a corridor and nearly collided with green blood-streaked Jason who reflexively swung his bladed staff. Kwótx̱wem neatly dodged the swing “Careful human!”

“Jason!” Michelle yelled, rushing towards him. He dropped his weapon as she embraced him. “Oh my god, I didn’t think we’d find you.”

“Where the hell are we?” he asked while he held onto her tightly.

“Reptilian warship in orbit,” she said flatly.

“Of course,” he replied. “What now?”

“I advise,” Kwótx̱wem started, but his words were cut off by an enormous explosion. The entire ship lurched. Qelóth stumbled, and Kwótx̱wem steadied himself by spanning the two walls with his enormous arms. Jason held Michelle as they rode out the pitching floor.

“What’s happening?” Michelle yelled as several smaller explosions rumbled through the ship.

“I believe the Nordics are engaging the Reptilian warship.”

“Let’s get out of here!” Michelle yelled back.

“That is an excellent idea,” and they all started stumbling down the pitching corridor towards the transport tubes.

Coming around the corner, they regarded two more Reptilians standing over the four dead aliens. Michelle’s staff blazed to life first again as she charged them.

“Michelle!” Jason moved to stop her.

Kwótx̱wem placed a large hand on his shoulder, looked him in the eye and just shook his head.

Michelle cut down the two Reptilians with brutal efficiency before either had time to raise their own weapons.

“Holy shit,” Jason said.

“Right?!” Qelóth nodded. “Badass!”

Michelle extinguished the blade and lurched for the door release. “Let’s go!” she called. Jason and the sasquatches hurried through as the floor bucked violently, another explosion rumbling the walls. Kwótx̱wem punched something on the console and the direction of the beams changed and he didn’t have to say anything for them all to step into the beams.

The four staggered into the transport room in the landing ship, Qelóth dry-heaving, Jason grasping his head moaning. Kwótx̱wem cleared his head with a shake, and Michelle knelt before slowly straightening. Kwótx̱wem hurried to the console and punched in a sequence.

“What are you doing?” Michelle asked.

“Locking the transporter so they cannot follow us.” A series of buzzes indicated success and they hurried towards the exit. Two Grays rushed towards them, but Michelle didn’t even light the blades, slamming the two aliens with her staff.

“Should I worry about her?” Jason quietly asked Kwótx̱wem who gave him a quick shake of his head.

Qelóth hit the button dropping the ramp and the four raced down the ramp into the cool woody air. Just in front of the ship, the two Nordics stood impassively.

“You were successful, yes?” the man asked.

“We were,” Kwótx̱wem. “Were those your people attacking the Reptilian ship.”

“Yes,” the woman answered. “They detected a precipitous drop in life forms and decided to engage before the Reptilians sought to retreat.”

“That was her,” Qelóth pointed to Michelle with a thumb.

Both Nordics raised their brows, then gave Michelle a short bow. “We appreciate your efforts, warrior human.”

“Well, uh… they helped, too,” she said blushing.

The male Nordic approached Jason. “You have something we gave you.”

“I do?”

The Nordic raised the front of Jason’s tunic and his hands reflexively moved to cover his genitals. “Whoa there, Sven!”

The Nordic paid no attention, raising the tunic high enough to reveal Jason’s stomach. He turned his head to the woman, “the Intrelit system is intact.”

The woman nodded and pressed a button on a device she held. Jason’s knees bucked instantly as he groaned in pain and pitched forward. Kwótx̱wem stepped forward lifted Jason under the arms.

“Jason!” Michelle yelled, the blades of the staff igniting.

Qelóth put his hand on her shoulder gently. “It’s okay, human badass.”

She stared at the Nordics suspiciously but didn’t advance.

Jason looked down and saw the belly button ring begin to change color from the metallic silver to a dark indigo, then it began to vibrate gently. He yelled out as he felt a burning sensation. The blue ring melted out of the piercing and fell from Jason’s body into the male Nordic’s open hand. The pain instantly subsided and Jason cautiously tried to stand on his own. The small blue ring expanded in the Nordic’s hand to about 15 centimeters in diameter and Jason could see that the blue color wasn’t solid but in fact held several multi-colored orbs.

“What is that?” he asked.

“This is the Intrelit solar system from the second arm of the Andromeda galaxy.”

Michelle, staff extinguished, stepped forward to regard the ring. “It’s beautiful. Are the people, err…”

“The inhabitants are indeed in there. Their worlds are in stasis at the moment, frozen in time and space.”

“Until we return and expand the system,” the female Nordic finished.

“And when do you plan to do that?”

As if in answer, the two Nordics became spotlighted by two columns of light pouring down from overhead. The beams seemingly stretched endlessly into the sky.

“Right now,” the male Nordic said.

“Thank you,” the female Nordic said just as their bodies became translucent and they seemingly evaporated into the beams of light which then retreated vertically up into the sky.

The two sasquatches and two humans watched the beam of light vanish into the dark then blinked rapidly in the dim moonlight.

“What about this thing?” Jason said, motioning to the disc behind them. On cue, the ramp retracted. The four stepped quickly clear of the ship as a thrumming bass note emanated from the craft. As it lifted from the ground, the landing struts retracted, and it hovered about fifteen feet off the meadow floor for a moment and then shot straight up at an impossible speed. “That answers that,” he said.

“Well, that was… uh… exciting,” Michelle said.

“Indeed, human Michelle,” Kwótx̱wem said. “We, too, must make our farewells.”  Kwótx̱wem held out an enormous paw to Jason. “I am sorry you were a pawn in all of this.”

“Yeah,” Jason said, shaking the sasquatch’s hand, “me too!”

Turning to Michelle, Kwótx̱wem bowed. “Human Michelle, it was an honor to fight beside you.”

Michelle returned the bow. “Thanks, Kwótx̱wem – did I get that right?”

“Yes, very good.”

“Uh, can I keep this?” she motioned to the staff.

“We should confiscate that alien artifact,” Kwótx̱wem started, then changed his tone. “If any alien artifact had come back to earth. But I did not see any. Did you, Qelóth?”

“What? No, no I didn’t,” he said, then bowed to Michelle and stage whispered, “Badass!”

The two sasquatches moved towards the edge of the forest.

“Will we ever see you again?” Michelle asked.

Kwótx̱wem regarded her for a moment, then said, “Strange things happen in the Emerald Triangle…”

“No, Kwótx̱wem, that’s not what they mean by the Emerald Triangle…” she corrected.

The large sasquatch shrugged his furry shoulders, “I do not think this is our last meeting. Farewell!” and both Kwótx̱wem and Qelóth vanished into the trees.

Jason and Michelle stood alone in the quiet meadow. A choir of frogs croaking started up in the distance joined by chirping crickets from all directions. A car sped by on the highway fifty meters ahead of them. Michelle let out a long sigh. “Why don’t we get you into some better clothes?” she said looking at his green splattered tunic.

“Can I get a shower first? Maybe a bleach bath?” he laughed.

“Definitely,” she said taking his hand. They started towards the road and their car still parked on the shoulder. “I wonder if the motel has a continental breakfast…”

Story – Week 11: Utterly Unexplainable, part 2

I know I said this was going to be a two-parter. Turns out, THREE PARTER! This middle part is totally Back To The Future II in that it’s definitely a bridge from last week to next week. But, hey, there’s a homage to Keanu Reeves and woke sasquatches! 

Label: Fiction Danger: Profanity Ahead

How’d we get here? Here’s a Link to Part 1

Jason opened his eyes and saw nothing but white. Then the white resolved into a texture. Then he realized his head was tipped back and he was staring at an acoustic ceiling. He tracked his vision across the ceiling to where it met the ugliest goldenrod-colored wallpaper with gold filigree. He followed the filigree down to the gray and black bouffant of a woman sitting across an avocado green Bakelite table.

“He’s alive!” she said with mock dramatics and a thick Long Island accent.

Jason stared, taking in the scene in front of him, and said nothing.

“What? You’ve got nothing to say?” she prompted.

“I… I’m confused…”

“That’s it? ‘I’m confused,’” she mocked. “No, ‘Oh, Bubbe, it’s been so long! I missed you!’? Just ‘I’m confused?’ Oy!”

“Where am I?”

“Where do you think you are? You’re at Bubbe’s house in Mineola, of course! You didn’t hit your head, did you? It doesn’t look like you hit your head…”

“I don’t know where that is.”

“Oh, come on, Jeremy!”

“I’m Jason.”

“Jeremy.”

“Jason.”

“Jeremy.”

“Jason.”

“Jeremy, this isn’t funny, anymore,” she said with annoyance in her voice.

“It’s Jason,” he said, standing up. “My name is Jason. I have no idea where I am! I was on 101 in Northern California, my girlfriend disappeared, and there was a bright light. Now I’m here. Where the hell is here?!” he yelled at the old woman.

She nodded patiently. “Okay, okay. Sit, sit, Jer—Jason. Sit down.”

Jason looked at her suspiciously, then sat down in the green upholstered chair.

“Sometimes we encounter things in life that are too traumatic, and our brains take us to a comfortable memory to help us cope,” she said in a soothing voice.

“This isn’t my memory.”

“I’m realizing that…” she said, rolling her eyes. “You’re sure you’re not Jeremy?”

“I’m not Jeremy. I’ve never been to Mineola, and I don’t have a Bubbe.”

“Everyone has a Bubbe.”

“Okay, technically – what is that, grandmother? Yes, a grandmother. I have one. Two! I have two.”

“Now you’re going to tell me you’re not even Jewish!”

“I’m not! I’m barely Catholic.”

“Oy vey!”

“Look, apparently my subconscious has managed to dick-up a soothing place, but what’s going on here?

“What do you last remember?”

“Like I told you, I remember a bright light again. Michelle was gone. Wait,” he thought back and his hand reflexively went to his stomach. “I had a searing pain in my stomach. And then the light. And… Where are we? I need to get back.”

“That’s not in our control,” she said. “This would be a lot less uncomfortable if you were Jeremy. We could catch up and time would pass – or at least appear to pass – and then our time would end and you’d cry and we’d hug and you’d tell me you love me.”

“But I don’t know you.”

“I know, I know, I’m just saying, that’s how this is supposed to go.”

“Have you done this before?”

“Oh, yeah, Jeremy’s sister, Tara? Oy, she’s a mess. Let me tell you…”

“So, we just… talk.”

“Until they come for you.”

“They?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know how this works except that we’ll know when the time is up. It’ll be sad. Well, it normally would be sad.”

They both sat silently for a long moment.

“So,” the old woman started, “where in New York do you live?”

“New York? I live in California.”

“This is going to be rough…”

***

Michelle felt herself being dragged through the forest at a breakneck pace. She tried to scream, but a powerful, hairy hand blocked her mouth. She wriggled, but the arm towing her tightened, momentarily squeezing out her breath. She stopped struggling and the grip loosened enough to breathe again. Her feet occasionally bounced off of ruts and rocks and she finally pointed her toes to try to make her passage less painful. Aside from the bushes rushing past, she could hear guttural panting from whatever it was that was towing her.

Michelle had no idea how long or how far she’d been dragged, but they finally came to a clearing. Her captor summarily dropped her to the ground, and she struggled to get control of her muscles and get to her feet and spin to face her abductor. In front of her stood a ape-like monster at least seven feet tall and covered in thick hair. Out of pure reflex, she let out a scream.

The beast roared back at her, chilling her blood.

Taking tentative but hurried steps away from the creature, she tripped on a burrow and landed in the brush on her butt. “Holy shit, Big foot!” she yelled.

The beast closed its mouth, tilted its head to regard Michelle and then said in perfect English, “You know, ‘big foot’ is awfully pejorative. We prefer the traditional Halkomelem ‘sæsq’ec’, but the anglified ‘sasquatch’ is acceptable.”

Michelle sat speechless.

A rustle from the bordering trees caught Michelle’s attention and she turned to see another, slightly smaller (though still terrifyingly massive) sasquatch bound out into the clearing.

“You didn’t get the other one?” the first sasquatch asked.

“Uh, no,” the other one said, his English a little less proper but come on – it’s a talking sasquatch! “They beamed ‘im before I coulda grabbed ‘im.”

The large sasquatch sighed and rubbed his eyes with a massive hand “Qelóth,” he started, “you said you could get him. You were confident you could get him, you started moving before the light even started its acquisition, and yet here we are with one of the two humans, and the Reptilians got the crucial human – no offense,” he said to Michelle on the ground.

“Uh, none taken,” she managed.

“What do you suggest we do now, Qelóth?”

Qelóth gave a massive shrug of his shoulders. “I don’t know, Kwótx̱wem, you’re the one that’s always got the plans. You said you know where the Reptils—”

“Reptilians,” Kwótx̱wem corrected.

“…Reptilianians are camped out. Whatsay we just rush ‘em?”

Kwótx̱wem studied Qelóth for a long moment. “Rush them? That’s your plan? One of the most advanced and violent species of extraterrestrials that has traveled thousands of light years and has perfected a light beam that literally abduct a subject from a distance and you are suggesting we rush them?”

“I mean, you know, it might work…” Qelóth said sheepishly.

“Extraterrestrials?” Michelle asked. “What the hell is going on?”

Kwótx̱wem turned his attention to her as if he’d forgotten she was there. “Oh, I am sorry. This must be incredibly disorienting. There is quite a bit of politics involved here, so I will spare you the long-winded details. The brief version is that you and your boyfriend are pawns in an intergalactic chess match that could potentially lead to the destruction of humanity. I and,’ he sighed, “Qelóth,” he gestured to the smaller sasquatch who gave a little bow, “attempted to take you both off of the proverbial chess board. Unfortunately, I apparently expected too much of my daft cohort and we only ended up with the lesser half – I am sorry, again, I mean no disrespect…”

“Why am I the lesser half? What do these… Reptilians? What do they want with Jason?”

“Your boyfriend – Jason? – Jason is functioning as a sort of key. When he traveled through here last week…”

“You saw him last week?!” Michelle blurted.

Kwótx̱wem squeezed his eyes closed in impatience, then continued, “…When he traveled through here last week he was intercepted by the Grays—”

“The short guys with the almond shaped eyes, right?”

“Yes, that is a decent description. As I was saying, Jason was intercepted by the Grays who were acting on behalf of the Nordics who had rescued a civilization in an arm of the galaxy you know as the Andromeda galaxy. The Draconians had positioned themselves to exterminate the sentient species there and plunder their planet for resources. The Nordics were able to distract the Draconians long enough to remove the solar system.”

“Remove the solar system?”

“It is complicated,” Kwótx̱wem said, “but suffice it to say the Nordics possess technology that allows them to condense matter to an unimaginable degree – it has to do with removing atomic space…” he waved a large furry hand, “I am afraid macro quantum manipulation is not my forte.”

“Yeah,” Michelle said, “Mine either. So, the, uh, Nordics took this miniature solar system – I’m picturing a solar-system shaped snow globe, just so you know – they, what? Handed it off to the Grays?”

“Exactly,” Kwótx̱wem said. “They Grays were able to ferry it away while the Draconians fought with the Nordics. The handoff back to the Nordics was supposed to happen here on earth but the Grays felt the Draconians were closing in and they used your boyfriend to hide… either the solar system itself…”

“The snow globe.”

“…Or a way to locate the solar system.”

“Snow globe. But, holy shit, you’re saying the Draconians have Jason?”

“It appears so…” Kwótx̱wem rubbed his chin.

“We have to rescue him!” Michelle leapt to her feet.

“That was my idea!” Qelóth chimed in.

“Out of the question!” Kwótx̱wem insisted. “It is impossible!”

“But they will kill him!” Michelle said.

“Yes, quite likely. If they have not already…”

“Not cool, big foot!”

Kwótx̱wem fixed her with a steely stare. His face changed to a patronizing smile. “Alright, human. How do you intend to stage a rescue – assuming your boyfriend is still alive – against one of the most savage races in universe.” Michelle opened her mouth to answer but Kwótx̱wem interjected, “I should add, when I say they are ‘savage’ that they have annihilated races far more advanced than humans. They are astute tacticians, utterly brutal warriors, who wear nearly impregnable armor. But please, human, how do you intend to defeat them?”

“I believe we can help,” a white haired man stepped out of the forest. He stood even with Kwótx̱wem, and even in the wan light of the moon Michelle found his delicate features and piercing blue eyes stunning.

“Nordics?” she mouthed to Kwótx̱wem who nodded.

***

Jason stopped drumming his fingers on the Bakelite table as he heard a commotion coming from beyond the red door on the wall to his right. Both the Bubbe and he stared at the door.

“What’s that noise?”

“I think you’re going back now.”

“Going back where?”

The Bubbe took his hands in his and stared intently into his eyes, “Look, Jeremy…”

“Jason.”

“Give me this, okay?” he nodded “you don’t come to this space unless it’s a real umglik in the real world that you can’t handle.”

“Umglik?”

She thought about a translation, “The shit has hit the fan.”

“Oh.”

“What I am telling you, Jeremy, is you’re not going back to a picnic, fershtay?”

“Uh, sure.”

A loud pounding started on the door. “That’s for you, Jeremy. Mazel tov.”

Jason stood up, walked to he red door, put his hand on the knob, and looked back at the Bubbe who deliberately didn’t meet his gaze. The door knob felt hot in his hand. He took a deep breath, and opened the door…

He lay on a cold slab and felt nothing but overwhelming, utter pain from everywhere at once. He couldn’t move his limbs. He moved his head to look at his body and immediately regretted it. He was naked and his torso was split open from just below his neck down to his belly, his organs still connected but hanging out while a giant lizard man rummaged through his abdomen with his long black talons…

…Jason opened his eyes. He was standing in a kitchen with green walls and orangish cabinets. His first thought was the décor was an improvement on the Bubbe’s place.

“Almost done!” an older black woman in a green floral blouse and rust-colored apron said as she pulled on oven mitts. “Smell good, don’t they?”

“Yeah,” Jason said, the word feeling familiar somehow…

“I’d ask you to sit down,” she opened the oven to take the cookie sheets out, “but you’re not going to anyway. And don’t worry about the vase…”

“What vase?” Jason turned and inadvertently knocked a green-glass vase of wildflowers with his elbow. As the vessel tipped and started to fall, he tried futilely to grab at it, but it smashed to the ground.

“That vase.”

“I’m sorry!” Jason said, trying to determine if he should clean it up or try to piece it back together…

“I said don’t worry about it,” she said with a smile, untying her apron.

“How did you know?” Jason asked. The words barely finished coming out of his mouth when it clicked. “Wait a second, this is that Oracle scene from the first Matrix movie!”

The Oracle lit a match from a box and as it blazed to life, waved it at him, “Bingo!” she said as she lit a cigarette.

“So now I’m in the Matrix?”

“Beats someone else’s grandmother’s house on Long Island,” she said, sitting at the table. “Really,” she said gesturing to the chair across from her, “Take a seat. This is the scene you remember, but you’re not Keanu Reeves and I’m not Gloria Foster,” she used the cigarette as a pointer gesturing to Jason and then herself. “Sit.”

Jason moved towards the chair and realized he wasn’t a giant ball of pain. “Wait, I saw… how can I be alive?”

“Oh,” the Oracle said seriously, “you saw that. Well, honey, you’re dealing with alien technology. They can keep you alive as long as they need to until they find what they’re looking for.”

“What are they looking for?”

She shrugged, leaned back in her chair and took a long drag on the cigarette. Letting the smoke out her nose she said, “Beats me! But, it seems to me they may not entirely know either.”

“Why do you say that?”

She tapped the ash of the cigarette into a plastic ashtray. “You alluded to it yourself. You’re still alive and yet they’ve got you torn apart. Why?”

Jason thought for a moment. “Because they don’t know if it’s a physical thing or something in here,” he said tapping his head.”

“Yes!” she said. And your ability to come to these head spaces has got to be frustrating their efforts to find out what you know.”

Jason nodded. “There has to be something more that I can do than sit around here and wait…”

The kitchen walls and the cabinets shuddered like a glitch in a video showing jagged edges, then resolving for a second into dimly lit warehouse with light pouring in through a high stained-glass window, then snapping back to the kitchen and becoming solid again.

“Uh oh,” the Oracle said, stubbing out her cigarette in the ash tray and standing up. “Looks like things are changing quickly, honey.” She took a step backwards from the table, “I think you have more agency here than you think. You’ve got to use your mind – their technology can be overcome if you can figure out a way…”

Jason felt words in his throat. They felt physical, like objects trying to be forcibly thrown up, and he could feel them pushing up his esophagus. Just before they came out of his mouth he heard them in his ears and let them fly with the proper fury and indignation. “People keep asking if I’m back,” he snarled. “And I haven’t really had an answer. But now, yeah, I’m thinking I’m back!” Suddenly two sets of hands covered his head with a thick plastic bag immediately cutting off his breath and ferociously pulling the back tight. Jason struggled against the men, his feet lashing out and kicking the table over. The hands held firm and he could feel his breath, his life start to leave him. His vision began to dim at the edges. He focused through the clear plastic of the bag as he fought, and his eyes fixed on the Oracle, her back against the stove, watching the scene. His lungs burned as he clawed at the thick plastic back and the iron grip of the two men. Then the Oracle drew out an enormous Magnum revolver and put a bullet through the head of the man on Jason’s left. Before the now-lifeless man had a chance to hit the ground, the other man released the bag and started to draw a gun from his shoulder holster to shoot the Oracle. Jason took the moment to whip the bag off his head. As he gasped a breath of air, he noticed the kitchen had changed to the warehouse, and he knew what he would do. He rammed the man with the gun, driving him to the ground, knocking the gun away.

In the real world, Jason formed his hand into a fist and slammed it into the face of the Reptilian who staggered backwards in surprise. An alarm klaxon sounded, and Jason’s organs snapped back into his body cavity like a film in fast reverse. His ribcage reformed, and the skin melted back together without so much as leaving a scar. In the real world, the pain was gone and Jason lunged at the Reptilian. Jason’s consciousness, however, wasn’t there…

Jason was in the warehouse, grappling with the henchman he’d knocked to the ground. The man’s gun had gone skittering across the floor, useless to them both as they exchanged furious punches and kicks in rapid succession. Jason stepped back and the man rushed him, his shoulder catching Jason in the gut. As Jason tried to recover, the man swept Jason’s legs out from under him with a kick and slammed him to the ground hard before pummeling him with punches to his face. Jason struggled to recover his breath as the man wrapped his vice-like hands around Jason’s throat and squeezed hard. Airway cut off, Jason struggled against the grip, the man’s full weight pushing down on him squeezing tighter. Jason pulled in his legs and kicked his knee hard into the man’s stomach. He released his grip and tried to regain the air Jason’s knee just pushed out of him. Jason bounded to his feet with strength and stamina that clearly were not his own and he wrapped his legs around the man’s neck in a scissor, utilizing his much bigger leg muscles to cut off the man’s air supply. The man struggled, clawing uselessly at Jason’s thigh, but he couldn’t break the grip. He fought minutes more, but finally convulsed and went limp. Jason held the hold tight another few moments as he panted catching his own breath. As he did, the warehouse faded away…

Jason lay on the floor of what clearly was some sort of an operating room. Held tight between his legs, the Reptilian lay motionless, dead. With a start, Jason released his leg grip and leapt to his feet. He stared around at the octagonal room, then at the steel table which he clearly had been on a moment ago.

“Where in the hell am I?” he asked aloud.

Story – Week 9 & 10: Utterly Unexplainable, Part 1

Danger: Profanity Ahead Label: FictionWhen he felt the corner of his car shaking, Jason wasn’t too concerned. Sure, he was on a pretty desolate stretch of 101 in Northern California in the middle of the night, but he had a full-sized spare in the back that he’d checked the pressure on before he’d started this trip five days ago. He pulled over to the side of the road and thanked whatever deities he could think of that this was the rear passenger tire – pulling to the side of the road in this state was fairly easy, and he’d be changing the tire away from traffic, shielded by the car. He briefly entertained the idea of using his AAA roadside assistance, but the “No Service” notification on his phone where he had hoped would be some signal bars dispelled him of that thought.
Coming to a stop, he flipped on his hazard lights and opened the rear hatch of his VW GTI. No one on the road behind him – now that he thought about it, he hadn’t seen many headlights for the last hours. But what did he expect? This wasn’t exactly a high-traffic area on a Sunday night. As an extra precaution, he lit the two flares he had and set them back away from the car, their red brilliance casting dancing shadows along the asphalt. Jason set the spare tire on the ground and pulled out the jack and tire iron. The sound of frogs croaking in some pond unseen in the darkness behind him played against the crickets on the cool summer night as he broke the lug nuts loose. He put an old towel from the trunk on the ground before dropping down to lie on his side to place the jack.
The cacophony of night sounds abruptly stopped. Even the gentle hiss of the burning flares faded to silence.
Jason shook his head and wondered with a mild sense of panic whether he was having a stroke or something when a bright white light lit up the drivers side of the car with the brilliance of the sun at noon, no, brighter. On the ground, he could just see the glow and feel the heat being generated. He tried to stare past the wheels of the drivers side under the car to see the source, but the stanchions and guard rail of the center divider blocked any view of the intense light that seemed to grow increasingly brighter. Jason felt more than heard a low rumbling bass note that grew in volume as the light kept getting brighter and brighter…
Jason rolled over and swatted at his phone on the nightstand beside his bed. His flailing hand knocked the silent piece of black plastic, glass, and metal off onto the floor. Heart pounding, he opened his eyes and immediately regretted it – the sun streaming through his bedroom window seemed to pierce his brain and he cringed back under the covers as he realized the noise wasn’t coming from the phone now on the floor, but was the ringing in his ears. He had just about settled down and the ringing faded into background noise when his phone erupted with the ringer on full. He literally leapt at the shock of the noise, half falling out of bed which did have the added benefit of bringing him closer to his phone on the floor.
“Hello?” he answered it without bothering to look at the screen.
“Girlfriend at the door!”
“Michelle?” he replied groggily. “Why don’t you just use your key?”
“You put the security chain on.”
“I… I did?” he managed to get upright and stagger down the hall to the front door. Sure enough, the brass chain hung secure between the door and doorframe. He slid the chain open and Michelle opened the door. “I never put the chain on….” Jason spoke to Michelle and into the phone he still held to his ear.
“Sweetie, you look like shit. Did you sleep in your clothes?” she said taking his phone from him and hanging it up. “What time did you get in last night? You said you would text me so I knew you were okay.”
“What time…? I… I don’t know…”
“Come on, sweetie, let’s put you back in bed…”
Jason obeyed, then stopped as realization hit him: the flat tire. The silence. The light… “Wait!” he abruptly stopped, spun, threw the door open and bolted out to the driveway where his Volkswagen GTI sat next to Michelle’s beat up Toyota pickup.
“Jason? What is it?”
Jason ignored her and jogged around to the passenger side of his GTI. The tire and wheel were fine. He opened the hatch and checked under the panel – the spare still resided in its recess, undisturbed. “I don’t… I don’t….”
“What’s wrong, Jason? You look like you’ve seen a ghost!”
He told her about the flat, about the light, about waking up in bed. To his relief, she didn’t think he was crazy. He thought she might not believe him one hundred percent, but frankly, he didn’t know what to believe in himself. She led him back to his room and took his shoes off and then helped him out of his pants and shirt. “Hey! When did you get a belly-button ring?!” she laughed.
“What? I’ve never had a…” and he looked down at his bare stomach to see a small silver hoop running through a slightly irritated fresh piercing. “What the hell?”
“It’s cute!”
“Where did it come from?!” he stared at the ring like it was a chest-burster from Aliens.
“You tell me!” she gave him an evil smile. “What else did you get up to over the weekend, hmm?”
he looked at her with a wild expression. “I’m serious! I don’t know how that got  there. It wasn’t there last… before the light.”
“Jason,” Michelle said deadpan, “you’re telling me the aliens gave you a belly button ring?”
Jason leapt from the bed. “I don’t know!” he yelled. “I don’t know if there were aliens, I just don’t know. Here’s what I know: at two am this morning I had a flat. There was a bright light. I wake up here fifteen minutes ago, fully clothed, the door is locked from the inside, and I’ve got… a belly button ring!”
Michelle nodded sagely as she studied him raving in his boxers. “Hmm,” she started. “Definitely aliens.”
“Now you’re just making fun of me,” he flopped onto the bed defeated.
“No, sweetie, I’m not.” He glared at her. “Okay, maybe I am a little. But, hey, look, let’s go back out there – where did you say you got a flat?”
“Umm, it was north of Arcata… south of Crescent City, I think. On 101.”
“Okay, let’s go back up there and see what we can find.”
“Now?”
“No, not now. You sleep now. This weekend?”
“Okay,” and Jason dropped into sleep before his head hit the pillow.
The rest of the week passed uneventfully. Jason managed to get caught up after his vacation and followed Internet instructions for tending to his piercing. He didn’t want to keep it, but since he didn’t remember how it got there he thought the best course of action would be to at least keep it from getting infected – though part of him wondered if it was the aliens would they be so careless as to let it get infected? They had, after all traveled across lightyears… this was the point he dropped the argument because the next phrase would logically be “…to give me a belly button ring” and that was just stupid. They both left work early on Friday and drove north on 101 dropping their stuff off in the motel room in Arcata before continuing north to see if they could find the spot Jason had his encounter while there was still sun up.
“There! There! Turn around! Turn around!” Jason pointed, tapping Michelle on the shoulder.
“Hang on, I’m trying!” she pulled onto the shoulder, waited for traffic to clear, then flipped a U-turn and drove the short distance to where Jason had pointed.
Jason didn’t wait for her to turn on the hazard lights before he bounded out of the passenger seat. “Holy shit! Look! Those are my flares!” he pointed at small lumps of ash both with the unmistakable red nub of a flare still present.
“Yeah, I see,” Michelle said carefully timing her exit from the car with gaps in the cars rushing by. “So you were….?”
“Right about where the car is now,” Jason said, hurrying back to stand next to the car. He looked behind him, “There, through those trees — there’s a pond. I remember frogs.” He dropped to his belly and stared across the road from under the car. “This is it! I can see the way the center guard rail lined up…. This is the place!”
Michelle looked around, trying to find some sign that made sense of the location, but failing. “Well, there’s clearly nothing here now — other than your burned out flares.” She took advantage of a gap in traffic for both sides to hurry across the street with Jason following. On the northbound shoulder she looked over the guard rail to the field beyond, overgrown with vibrant green brush and wildflowers — all of which appeared undisturbed. “If something came down here, it didn’t leave any mark.”
“This is where the light came from!” Jason insisted, agitation creeping into his voice.
“Jas, I believe you,” she touched his arm. “I do. I’m just saying, there’s nothing here right now. Why don’t we go back to the motel, take a nap, and come back tonight around the time you were here?”
Jason processed her statements and nodded, looking only a little defeated. He nodded, “Okay.”
They crossed again and drove back to the motel in silence. Drapes drawn, they climbed under the covers and Jason spooned Michelle as they tried to conjure sleep in the middle of the afternoon. “What do you hope to find tonight?” Jason asked quietly.
“I should ask you the same question,” she replied.
He let out a long sigh. “I don’t know,” he said after a few moments. “I’m afraid… there’ll be nothing. I mean, that’s likely, right?”
Michelle turned over to face him. “About as likely as a belly button ring from an alien,” a trace of wickedness in her smile.
They both laughed. Then Jason pressed, “Seriously, though, what do you hope to find? Why’d you suggest we come back up here?”
He studied her face as she stared above his head, thinking. “I don’t know, but the flares were a good start.”
“How do you mean?”
“They prove you were here like you said. You still have the spare in your car, so if absolutely nothing else, there’s the mystery of your belly button ring and also how a flat tire was somehow repaired and you got home.”
“Yeah…”
She tucked her head under his chin and they both eventually drifted off into a fitful sleep.
Despite wake-ups, they managed to sleep until late into the night, getting up shortly before midnight. They showered and dressed and headed out to the car. Besides the difference between the summer daylight and dark night, a heavy fog had crept in over the the town while they had rested, chilling the night air considerably.
“You want to drive?” Jason asked Michelle.
“Sure. You navigate and spot, okay?”
They’d marked their stop earlier in the day on Google Maps, and endeavored to find it in the dark as they pulled out of the parking lot and onto northbound 101. Michelle noticed the road seemed almost deserted at this hour as she sped northwards. The fog that had enveloped Arcata broke up into patches by the copses of trees alongside the freeway. Faster than she remembered earlier, they reached the spot but on the northbound side. Michelle pulled over to the shoulder and they both looked across the freeway to where the nubs of the flares were just barely visible in the fog-dimmed moonlight.
“I’ll go up there and turn around like earlier,” she explained.
“Michelle, what the hell is that?” Jason pointed into the trees that bordered the field they’d looked onto earlier in the day.
Michelle looked into the darkness and suddenly saw two small jets of steam. The nose of an enormous elk poked from the dark, followed by its huge rack of antlers. “Holy shit,” Michelle said. “I’d seen the signs warning of elk crossing, but… goddamn that guy is huge.” Both watched as the elk sauntered into the moonlight slowly. Abruptly it stopped with a jerk. Almost mechanically, it turned its head and latched its black eyes on Jason and Michelle.
“Why is it looking at us?” Jason asked.
“Uh… I don’t know…”
The elk, a dozen yards from them, started towards their car slowly but determinedly.
“Go! Go! Go!” Jason yelled.
Michelle didn’t need the motivation, as she slammed on the accelerator and dropped the clutch, the front wheels spun briefly before catching and launching them forward. Michelle fought the rough shoulder and steered for the road, picking up speed.
“He’s following us!”
“How can he be…” Michelle started, but turned her head to see the Elk directly behind them. The speedometer already registered 35 and climbing. “That’s not possible!” she shifted to second.
“What the hell?! He’s gaining on us!”
Michelle looked over her shoulder to see the elk indeed starting to overtake them as the car sped past 60 and she shifted to third. She drifted towards the center divider, hoping to cut off the freak elk from overtaking them.
“Holy shit!” Jason said, and Michelle turned her head enough to see the elk bound over the center divider and pick up speed, starting to come even with them. Michelle negotiated a curve at 70, throwing the car into fourth as the elk drew even with them. Jason gawked and Michelle stole glances from the road as they both looked over at the elk. Mechanically, again, the elk turned its head and massive antlers to stare directly at them, black eyes locking with theirs.
“Aaah!” they both screamed in unison.
Their screams were drowned out by the air horn of a logging truck running southbound that slammed into the elk at full speed.
The elk exploded. Jason and Michelle continued their scream, but Michelle had the presence of mind to slam on the brakes and swerve towards the shoulder. The car skittered heavily as the ABS kicked in and they stopped with a slide on the dirt shoulder. As soon as the vehicle came to a halt, both jumped out of the car and stared back towards the logging truck. After slamming into the elk it, too, had hauled to a stop. The night air stunk of the acrid reek of hard brake use and the metallic smell of the elk’s blood. They could see the hazard lights of the trailer blinking as the driver climbed from the cab, and stared at the front of grill. They watched him in the wash of his headlights as he took off his baseball hat, shook his head, replaced the hat, then climbed back into the cab. The hazard lights turned off and the air brakes released with a creak and a hiss as the truck lumbered into motion with the driver working the gears. They both kept watching wordlessly as until the lights of the truck disappeared around the bend. Then they both silently climbed back into the car and closed the doors, shutting out the night.
“Michelle,” Jason started slowly.
She nodded vigorously.
“What in the hell did we just see?”
“I…” she stuttered, “I’m really not sure.”
Jason nodded slowly.
Michelle wordlessly started the car, put it into first and started forward with caution. She checked the road and maneuvered the car through a gap in the center divider and started back southbound. Approaching where the semi had met the elk, they both saw the carnage of the impact. “Ewww,” Jason said. While disgusted, sure, Michelle actually drove slowly through the gore with a little relief. Sure, the elk had managed to follow them at 70 miles per hour — which was absolutely impossible — but the viscera on the road declared that this was a flesh and blood animal, not some… Terminator elk.
As if echoing her thoughts, Jason remarked, “I’m glad that wasn’t Arnold Schwarzenegger in an elk suit.”
“No shit.”
They drove on southbound towards their GPS point, Michelle quietly surprised how far their flight from the elk had taken them. When they reached the spot, she pulled onto the shoulder, set the hazard lights, and they both climbed out again. Here the moonlight broke through the fog and bathed the roadway in a silver sheen. Like the week before, frogs croaked in the pond to the west and crickets chirped from everywhere else. The peacefulness of the situation belied the chaos just a few hundred yards north, but both Jason and Michelle were glad to breath in the calm summer night air.
They walked to the back of the car where Jason opened the hatch and retrieved a pair of flashlights and handed one to Michelle. She flipped hers on and cast the beam back down the road northward and remembered gratefully that a curve hid their position from the elk-splosion. Jason turned flashlight across the road towards the field, thinking how weak the beam was compared to the blinding light he’d encountered the week before. They both wandered up and down the shoulder keeping within a dozen feet or so of the car. Jason, approaching the car from the north, caught the lump of a burned out flare in his light beam and he instinctively kicked at it, scattering the ash into a small cloud and the remaining red nub careening towards the edge of the asphalt.
“What was that for?” Michelle asked.
Jason shrugged as they came together. “I don’t know,” he said with defeat. “What are we doing here? I mean, you were right before — what am I expecting to find out here? As if lightning were to strike twice in the same—“ He didn’t finish his sentence before he doubled over in pain. A sharp burning sensation started at his belly button and blossomed into his abdomen, his vision flashing white with pain. He reached for his stomach and the belly button ring felt searingly hot even through his shirt as he groaned.
“Jason?!” Michelle gasped. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m experiencing an incredible amount of pain in my stomach and my belly button ring is, for some reason, super-heated.” Or at least that’s what he wanted to tell her, but the only thing that came out was “Ergg-arg-ooh-fuck fuck fuck fuck owww!”
Several things happened in rapid succession. First, the pain in his abdomen disappeared as quickly as it came leaving him panting in relief. The piercing white light erupted over the east side of the road, just as it had a week ago. Turning towards Michelle to make sure she was seeing what he was seeing, Michelle wasn’t there. He could feel the light getting brighter and now he could hear the thrumming bass note like before. “Michelle!” he yelled, but his voice sounded hollow in his ears as the rumbling bass grew louder. “Michelle!” he tried again, but the light and sound overwhelmed him again. He turned towards the light, trying to shield his face, but the light seemed to penetrate through his hand and blind him, the sound pounding in his chest and blotting out thoughts.
“Michelle!” he tried one more time, but couldn’t even hear his own voice. Then everything went black.