“Come on babe let’s go home already! We’ve been here all day! I’m tired!”
Jamie whined to his girlfriend who was trying on a large black trench coat.
“One sec babe I’m almost done; there’s just one last thing I want to try on!” Maddie said with a shortened breath.
Jamie rolled his eyes, “You’ve already tried on the whole store, what else could you possibly be trying on?” he groaned impatiently.
“Haha, babe what do you think? Can I pull it off?” Maddie said blushing, running out of the changing room in a very long black leather coat. It was almost too big for her small frame, like a kid who decided to wear their dad’s work clothes.
“You look great babe, can we go home now?” Jamie said impatiently, trying to remain serious.
Maddie put the coat back on the rack where she found it. She turned to Jamie beaming, “I’m ready good sir, how about you?” she asked giggling.
Jamie chuckled, “As ready as I’ll ever be my lady.”
He bowed and grabbed her hand. They slowly walked outside of the large mall; its windows still emitted a soft glow from the stores inside. They entered their small red vehicle and zoomed to their apartment complex. As Jamie pulled into the complex, Maddie couldn’t help but notice an ominous glow in the sky.
“Babe what's that light there?!” Maddie asked while getting out of a groggy haze.
Jamie squinted, “I’m not sure! Aurora borealis maybe!” Jamie said, smirking.
Maddie chuckled, “Good one Principal Skinner! Seriously though, what is that?”
She gazed into the sky hoping the answer would just fall onto her lap.
Jamie looked up puzzled. “Are there any meteor showers or something like that that are supposed to be floating by or whatever?” He said, stumbling over his words.
Maddie ignored Jamie and remained transfixed on the glow in the sky. It’s almost as if it were calling to her. As if the light was beckoning from beyond the cosmos for Maddie to come near.
“Babe…babe…….BABE!” Jamie’s voice rang in Maddie’s ears.
She rubbed her eyes and yawned, “Sorry babe I don’t know what happened. I feel like I just woke up from a strange dream.”
“Maybe we should go inside and just head to bed after all it’s been a long day of shopping around” Jamie said eagerly the day slowly catching up to him as he stretched his shoulders.
As they walked to their apartment they couldn’t help but notice that most of their neighbors were out watching the same glow in the sky, it was closer now and remained static in the air. A faint mist surrounded it.
“Is that a submarine?” Mr Howard yelled from his balcony trying not to look intimidated.
“No, I think it looks more like a giant egg!” Miss Leeds chimed in clutching her tiny dog Pringle as close as she possibly could to her chest.
“It kind of looks like the ships I see in this game I play! I’ve got a bad feeling about this, what if it’s blood sucking Aliens?” Richie Beemer stammered.
According to Ms Leeds, he had been spending too much time nose deep in a video game or horror novel. Mr Howard thought Richie a coward whose only purpose in life was to be a stepping stool for others.
Maddie pitied him, “He’s just a regular guy after all so what if he’s a little strange?” she thought.
Jamie, although he didn’t really talk to Richie, never carried ill will toward him, “Mr Howard is a registered sex offender and Ms Leeds can’t take care of an animal to save her life. She’s inadvertently killed every chihuahua she’s ever bought, and even worse she names them all Pringle! Richie’s worst quality is that he tries to shove his interests down your throat. I'd take that over the other two any day.”
Richie must have been showing the disdain he had for Ms Leeds on his face because she immediately shouted out at him, “What’s your problem, Jamie? Don't you know it’s rude to stare?”
Richie rolled his eyes and looked back at the sky. The object was closer now. Steam shot out between the seams of each hexagonal panel covering the pea pod vessel. Two large lights buzzed and whirred, emitting a bright green glow similar to a firefly onto what looked like a small garage door.
“I’ve had enough of this guessing game. I'm shooting the thing down!” Mr Howard exclaimed as he marched toward his apartment for his rifle. He stomped away wheezing as he murmured under his breath.
“Oh no Howie please there’s no need for violence! Come back please before you hurt yourself or worse me!” Ms Leads whined clutching Pringle so tightly she started whimpering.
“I’m too old for this. I’ve helped him with everything. He promised me immortality. He promised me eternal youth and still NOTHING!” Howard slammed his door shut and began shuffling around his apartment for his 12-gauge.
“I swear if he doesn't deliver I'm…” Howard began to cough. His body folded forward as he pressed his forearm to his mouth. He wiped blood from his lips, “I have to get what I asked for.”
Ms Leeds went on raving about how Mr Howard always escalated a situation from bad to worse. She began shouting hysterically that he tried too hard and too frequently to be a hero and for what purpose!
“Ms Leeds… you’re choking your dog again,” Richie interjected, trying not to set her off on him.
While everybody was arguing Jamie and Maddie had taken the opportunity to take a few steps back because in the next few seconds, the ship or whatever they thought it to be was about to land right on top of Ms Leeds. She had started arguing with Richie telling him to mind his own business and focus on the problem in the sky.
Richie took her advice and took a massive step backwards. In that short amount of time, the ship with a massive thrust landed on top of Ms Leeds. Dust engulfed the surrounding area and nearby trees rustled almost as if they were reacting to a punch. All that remained of Leeds was her swollen legs, which were now protruding from the bottom of the vessel.
“Oh god! She’s dead!” Jamie shot out clutching Maddie’s hand.
Maddie looked up at Jamie, “We have to call somebody for help! What if whatever’s inside tries to hurt us like they did Ms Leeds?”
Just then they heard a faint muffled bark. Everyone froze in place. Cold beads of sweat began to run down Richie’s face. Maddie clenched her jaw and Jamie's blood ran cold. He stepped closer to inspect the remains of his neighbor. As he poked and prodded he noticed that there was no sign of Pringle. That little dog would follow Leeds like an unwilling shadow, but it was nowhere to be seen.
“Think Richie, she was holding it close to her so maybe it was crushed along with her top half. Yeah that’s it there’s no way it survived!”
His mind raced on, “But what if something else happened to it? How could the dog have escaped?”
The barking grew louder and louder.
“How could that be possible? Leeds was holding the thing! How’s it still alive?” Jamie said, trying not to seem unnerved.
“Maybe it’s a trick! A distraction of some kind! Whatever’s in there wants us to keep our guards down!” Maddie shouted at Richie who was now attempting to open the door. “Richie stop! You don’t know what’s in there, it's not Pringle! You of all people should know that!”
Richie reached for the only visible handle and pulled it in a downward motion. The handle creaked as the lights emitted a bright red glow. A loud hiss of steam could be heard as the door slowly opened. Jamie noticed a silhouette of a person standing just a few feet away from the opening. The silhouette was holding something.
“Is that thing holding Pringle?” Maddie trembled as she clutched Jamie’s arm.
“Excuse me but that’s not yours.” Richie stammered as his teeth chattered.
The figure was now visible. A few of the lights from the courtyard illuminated the odd features of Ms Leeds’ killer. A lanky man with dim red eyes and silver streaks over his long black hair was standing before them. He wore a long white lab coat that he clutched Pringle to. He stared at everyone for what felt like an eternity.
Richie had finally decided he would be the one to break the silence, “Who are you? What are you doing here?”
The visitor glared with annoyance at the three onlookers.
“Were there not four of you earlier? I only count three.” The visitor sounded unimpressed like a child who doesn’t get what they want on their birthday.
“I can’t conduct a full experiment with just you three.”
“Well then maybe you should’ve been more careful landing!” Howard said, pointing his weapon in Richie’s direction.
“Mr Howard what is this? What do you think you’re doing?” Richie shrieked as tears began to well up in his eyes.
Jamie pulled Maddie behind him, “Mr Howard what hell man? You’re with this guy?”
Howard chuckled, “Of course kid! I’ve been helping him for years with his little experiments. He promised me eternal life if I helped him gather a few… volunteers. I’m almost there too, just a few more and I’ll be on the road to immortality! Now get on the ship! All of you now!”
Pringle jumped from the visitor's arms straight towards Howard. He promptly kicked Pringle out of the way, the dog shrieked as its tiny body thudded to the floor. Howard then aimed at Jamie and Maddie while signaling Richie to enter the ship.
“Babe what do we do?” Maddie whined at Jamie punching his shoulder.
“Ow! Hey, watch it! I don’t know yet, let me figure it out. Let’s just listen for now. I’ll think of something.” Jamie winked at Maddie trying not to speak too loudly.
As everyone walked into the ship Maddie noticed it looked larger on the inside, there were walls and walls of cages all holding strange deformed creatures. Horns, webbed fingers, scales, matted fur, sharp fangs, feathered wings, massive claws, leather wings, exposed bone, petrified stone, crustacean like appendages the ship was a zoo of nightmares.
Maddie gasped in awe, “What is all this? How’d you fit everything in here?”
The visitor turned and smacked his tongue, “Impressive isn’t it! I’ve nearly recreated every species that was alive at the time of my planet's destruction. I need only a handful of different animals left and then I’ll be on my way to find a suitable planet for them to live freely. Once I’m done I’ll...”
Richie interjected eagerly, “How did you recreate them?”
The visitor turned toward Richie, “DONT INTERRUPT ME FOOL! I'M GETTING TO THAT! Like I was saying I’ll be able to let my creatures roam freely then my life’s greatest work will be complete. It was quite simple really all I did was…”
Jamie mockingly asked, “Why not just dump them here? I mean come on, looking for a suitable planet has to be hard right?”
The visitor glared at Jamie, his eyes bled with anger, “Your planet is the last place I would ever even consider for my experiment.”
“Wait why! What's so bad about Earth?” Maddie smirked.
The Visitor groaned “You people poison your oceans with harmful chemicals. You mow down ecosystems to build more businesses. You pump gases into the air that actively increase the planet's temperature. Need I go further?”
Jamie sneered, “Come on guy! You act like you're all high and mighty! How much fuel does your ship use?”
“It doesn't." the Visitor shot back.
The Visitor ran his fingers through his hair as he smacked his lips, “Your kind are nothing but parasites and I wouldn’t dare lead my creatures to the same demise that my planet was met with!”
The visitor turned around and marched off into a hallway shouting as he left, “I’ll return in a moment. I need to get my equipment ready!”
Jamie noticed a large battery blinking softly atop a table covered in an array of charts and graphs. He grabbed the battery and quickly handed it to Maddie behind him.
Richie glanced over at Mr Howard who was trying to pet one of the creatures in the cage. He noticed Howard had placed his weapon on the table before going for the cages.
Richie slowly approached the table. He was almost to the gun when Howard turned and snatched it from the table. The quick motion sent Howard wheezing. He placed one hand on his chest before firmly grasping his weapon pointing it at Richie.
After clearing his throat Howard with a great sense of pride mockingly said, “Nice try kid but you’re going to have to try harder than that! Nobody and I mean nobody is going to stop me from getting my immortality, not you, not them, not even the spaceman himself. If you’re not careful he’s not finishing his experiment if you try that again.”
“With all due respect sir, you move slower than you think you do, the only reason I let you grab the gun was cause I didn't want to risk it slipping from my hands and possibly risk getting shot in the face as it hits the floor,” Richie said softly.
“He’s right old timer, you’re just not as spry as you were back in your day!” Jamie said, trying not to sound too harsh as he didn't want to risk a shot to the face.
“YOU SHUT UP…” Howard whaled before coughing up another spout of blood.
Richie shuddered, “Mr Howard…”
Just then the visitor returned to find Mr. Howard pointing a rifle at Richie.
“What do you think you’re doing?” The visitor snapped at Howard loading a small glass vial filled with blue liquid into what looked like a nail gun.
“Uh, I'm just trying to prevent them from trying any funny business! You know humans!” Howard chuckled, “They can’t be trusted!” He said grinning as he wiped blood from his chin.
The Visitor's face stretched into an eerie grin, “You’re right! They can’t.”
The Visitor aimed and fired at Howard hitting him in the chest. The dart dangled from his flesh as the liquid rushed into his body faster than he could pull out the tiny projectile.
“What… what have you done?” Howard's lips quivered as she began to cry. His skin shriveled as his body shrank. His eyes reduced to the size of toy marbles, his hands and feet hardened into tiny black hooves and his nose flattened out like the snout of a small pig. Howard began to shriek and squeal. His tiny eyes fixated on the first screen surface available to him in his tiny stature.
“I'm hideous, how am I gonna live forever looking so gross?” Howard cried out before his voice was rendered into several feral squeaks and squeals.
He began to sprint around the ship's laboratory bumping into tables and chairs, exposing wires, shifting metal panels, he even managed to break the glass of the ship's emergency switch. With one final blow, he stamped his newly acquired hooves to the switch causing every screen on the ship to fill with 2 words “System Reboot” Alarms rang, sparks flew, cages slowly opened and Howard wailed as if he was just told no for the first time in his life.
Howard continued his spree of destruction until the visitor finally managed to grab him. His eyes fixated on Howard’s small shriveled frame as he dug his bony fingers into Howard’s fleshy hide.
“Do you realize how far you’ve set me back? It took us decades to gather everything we had and now look behind you!”
Every creature began climbing out of its cage. All forms of altered life filled the room and began approaching the visitor. Horrified, Howard had managed to cry himself into a puddle escaping the visitors' clutches. Maddie and Jamie began making their way to the entrance.
Richie panted lagging behind, “Guys please wait for me! I don’t want to die!”
The visitor turned toward the remaining three and snarled, “You’re not leaving here I still need you!”
He curled his fingers into the shape of a gun and pressed his thumb to his index finger. A blast of green light shot from his fingertips causing a loud BANG to echo through the ship. In that moment Richie froze in place unable to propel himself forward, a green aura emitted from him. Maddie chucked the battery she had been carrying straight towards the visitor's head, the force knocked him straight to the ground atop the puddle of liquified Mr Howard. Richie, Maddie, and Jamie all ran toward the door they entered from.
“Guys I saw a self-destruct button on the way in here! We should push it to prevent these things from coming out into the rest of the world!” Richie shouted trying to evade any loose debris that Howard’s rampage exposed.
“Sounds like a plan Richie, what did it look like exactly?” Maddie huffed out, nearly slipping as she ran. A twinge of pain filled her right leg with every step toward the door.
“It was a big red button under a sign that said Destroy you can’t miss it!” Richie shouted back gasping for air between sentences.
“I see it! There it is right next to the door!” Jamie pointed toward the button as it pulsated bright yellow. The three of them ran past the doorway as Richie stepped out of the ship and back onto the soil. He had punched the button so hard that it remained stuck in its socket.
Lights began flashing as the visitor woke up from his battery-induced coma. He sat upright, wiping water from his face. His eyesight felt blurry. His brain swelled in his head causing his ears to ring and his nose to bleed. He wiped the blood from his nose onto his sleeve as he slowly stood up. His knees ached under pressure as his head began to swell faster. He began to make his way to his control room but stopped when he heard a low grumble followed by a loud growl.
A large, scaly beast slowly ran the visitor into a corner. He backed away slowly trying to find something that could aid him in his predicament. He stepped into the puddle Howard left. Suddenly Howard's shriveled body materialized out of the puddle and began biting the visitor's ankle. The large beast pounced onto him, tearing him to shreds. His scream blended with the creatures' roar filling the ship with a shrill cry for help. Maddie, Jamie, and Richie stood outside the ship's entrance paralyzed by the horrific sound that echoed from the chambers within.
The ship began to shrink and fold in on itself. An orchestra of squeals, growls, and creaking metal filled the air. With every crunch of the ship, shrinking metal panels would groan, glass would shatter and several animals cried out. Finally, the ship shrank into nothing leaving nothing but Ms Leeds’ body on the ground. Pringle jumped out of a bush and began to urinate on the woman’s face unaware she would never wake up again.
“Is it over?” Jamie’s said panting.
“I doubt it!” Richie wheezed.
“Guys!? I didn’t realize. Look…” Maddie trembled as she pointed to her leg.
Upon her right thigh a small dart dangled from the bottom of her thigh. Attached to the dart was a small vial filled with blue liquid. Before Jamie could rip off the dart the liquid began to rapidly empty into Maddie. Her body collapsed as the dart fell to the ground.
“RICHIE CALL AN AMBULANCE!” Jamie shouted as he held Maddie. His hand trembled as he caressed her cheek.
“Baby please, please! You’re gonna be okay! You’re strong! You’re gonna be okay” His voice trembling.
Jamie’s vision went blurry, every sound except for Maddie’s slow beating heart remained. Had his senses not dimmed in that moment he would’ve noticed Richie gave the 911 operator the wrong address to the complex before running off into the night. He would’ve noticed Pringles barks grow into a feral snarl towards the sky. He especially would’ve noticed the other pea pod ship descending slowly onto the now large crater in front of him. None of that mattered as he held Maddie in his arms.