Them

[Jennifer Fernandez]

The heat was suffocating and yet he decided it was best to keep the windows closed; it was safer. Umberto sat very straight in his car controlling the basic instinct of opening the car door and run away between the paralyzed cars. Traffic jams were pretty normal but not at that time of day and in a Saturday. There was something abnormal about it and he knew it. Everyone knew it. He kept calm trying to figure out who could have said a word to Them to warn them. It was just too much coincidence that the day he had chosen to move to a little town far from the city, an unusual traffic jam blocked his way. He was acting as normal as possible but his brains were wrecked with uneasiness.

Somehow, They knew. They had to know! And the traffic was not moving. Besides his car, one of Them was watching. He was sitting in the back seat of the car beside Umberto’s, looking intently at him. This one had the appearance of an old man and looked as if he were very gentle. Umberto knew he wasn’t. None of Them was. The Old Man turned away and pretended to look at the Old Lady in the front seat. She was one of Them too but apparently uninterested in Umberto. Some cars away a bus was filled with fresh corpses. He had heard in the Underground News that a hiding place full of 200 people was found by Them. They had killed them all and now he was seeing their lifeless arms dangling out the open windows. What a coincidence! There he was, escaping into hiding and there they were: the hidden people who now were dead. Umberto knew They were very obsessive about keeping stuff clean so he started to wipe the windshield as if he were removing a glass stain. This would make him look like he was one of Them and not a human.

On the other side, he saw another face watching him. Now, this was too much. Umberto knew now that they surely knew and they were planning to get him. At that very instant, his car started filling up with smoke. He quickly tried to open a window but, for some reason, they wouldn’t open. He tried the doors but again, it was futile. He grew desperate as the smoke filled his lungs. All around him he could see many of Them looking at him, expressionless and intently. They loved the drama. They enjoyed it. When They first arrived to the planet, They pretended to be friends for a couple of years. They gave the humans technology to build ships, weapons and every sort of machines humans deemed necessary. They even provided the materials! And in just one night They wiped out three-thirds of the human population making those very same artifacts explode. Umberto didn’t understand how They did it or why, but They started to live just as humans did. All he knew it was that They had come from a very far away planet They called Earth. This new beings took over the ordinary activities and just lived life. What kind of invasion was that? Everyone asked themselves this question. The humans that remained went into hiding and were hunted down mercilessly.

Some of them went to live in caves and some of them dug their way down into the earth and buried themselves alive in huge colonies underground. Many of them blended, like Umberto did, to pose as one of Them. This was very difficult but with enough practice it was possible. Umberto’s family had lived like that for 50 years and no one could do it better than them. But somehow, someone had found out about it. Of course, humans knew he was human. Now and then he visited the nearest underground colony to hear the Underground News read in the area designated for gatherings. Maybe someone from the exterminated Colony knew him and had told on him. But he had never gone there… Or maybe someone who knew was visiting that other Colony and therefore told on him after many hours of torture. Yes, They loved to torture humans in every way possible.

Still thinking about which one of his known fellow humans was missing to blame him or her, Umberto tried to fight his way out of the car. It was then that he suddenly thought of the sunroof. It was open and he managed to get out. He was about to let out a cry of victory while standing on the roof of his car when his body started to float forward and upward to the sky. They had planned everything. They knew who he was and They planned for him to feel victorious before causing him more despair. What They did to his body, Umberto didn’t know but he didn’t care. He was going to die for sure. No one survived to Their theatrical deaths. Right now he knew They had cameras on him so everyone could see this in television. Down below he could see two of Them and he knew those two were going to give the final touch to his death. And They did. He felt a strap to his foot and someone pulled at it. He was now falling and he couldn’t help but laugh. Hadn’t he dreamt he was falling eternally just like now in a recent nightmare? Yes, just the night before he had dreamt that. No one had told on him after all. They had always known. They knew who the humans were and where they were hidden. They just wanted to make them believe they were free.

[Artifacs]

Very nice creepy sci-fi story. An enjoyable travel over the alien invasion topic in which the aliens come in peace first just to reveal its perfidious intentions only when its too late for us.
I'd like to read more sci-fi stories of yours. Cheers

[Jennifer Fernandez]

Very nice creepy sci-fi story. An enjoyable travel over the alien invasion topic in which the aliens come in peace first just to reveal its perfidious intentions only when its too late for us.
I'd like to read more sci-fi stories of yours. Cheers

Thank you! I appreciate your comment. I don't write as much lately. I'm planning to take on NaNoWriMo to get me going again.