🔵 By Tyler Bowman. Photo by lauragrafie.
I watched, mesmerized by the stars, listening to the squirrel’s fat sizzle in the heat of the fire. Pa deemed us far enough out in the middle of nowhere to warrant the luxury of a cooked meal, and it was my job to cook it. Ma and Pa were out walking a perimeter, setting up traps, making sure that no other sinners crept up on us just in case we weren’t far enough out in the middle of nowhere.
Ever since the great revelation a few years back nothing ever moved around up there anymore. No planes flying around, no satellites flashing and beeping; heck, not even no more shooting stars. It’s like the entire universe came to a standstill at the same time the planet did. Still, the stars were a beauty to behold and often got me thinking about the others.
Most would argue that it started back in 1947out at Roswell, but most would be wrong. They appeared way before then, for as far back as humans have clung desperately to this dear old rock. Early man scrawled their encounters on cave walls. The ancients worshiped them as gods themselves. The Egyptians built monuments in their honor. Modern man depicted them as little green beings flying around in saucers and managed to convince society – at lest in some part – that their existence was nothing more than some intricate government conspiracy, designed to keep the masses ignorant. Well, I can tell you right now, and this is with hindsight being what it is, that there wasn’t one freaking government on Earth that had a dang clue as to what was really going on.
The truth, or rather the great revelation – as the media would come to call it – was eventually realized by happenstance. Maybe even a little serendipity, if you will. Or, maybe it was by design. Who knows? But the madness all started when one little girl – eight or nine, I can’t remember – decided to disobey her own Pa by following him into the woods as he set out to go hunting. Now, this little girl who was way too young for a cell phone, trained her old man for hours through them woods. Snapping pictures and taking videos all whiles he was unaware. Cindy, whos name the whole world would soon know, couldn’t recall why exactly she disobeyed her Pa and followed him for so long. A part of her was glad she did though, because at the 2:36 mark on her last video her father begins to stumble around, grabbing at his chest, before collapsing to the forest floor. The video got downright weird from there as she took off springing towards him. Trees, moss, and rocks can be seen flashing before it all abruptly stops.
A shaky hand lifts the phone to capture the eery scene unfolding before her. Her Pa lay motionless just up ahead. A solid white object that looked like a stretched egg, but was as big as a UPS truck, hovered over him. By hovering I mean that there was absolutely no discernible propulsion, leading the world’s best physicist to argue about it relentlessly among the different new networks.
The object, which would become known as the tic-tac, hovered for a few short breaths before a blinding white light radiated from it. The thing glowed brilliantly. Even when you watch the video the light somehow managed to blind the viewer through the screen. It made that particular part of the video rather hard to watch and an entire army of people on social media claimed to have come up with some astonishing hacks to get around the light. However, all ended up proving to be useless.
During Cindy’s interview she described the light as something that made her feel weightless, and that it wasn’t blinding to her at all. She sat there on Fox News’ couch, holding onto an overstuffed teddy-bear, all glammed up by Fox’s people. It’s amazing how out of touch they were. I mean, the girl just lost her Pa for Christ sake. Forgive me, Lord. With the world captivated she went on to explain how an angel – her words – stepped from the tic-tac to scoop up her father. The being stopped briefly to glance over at her before carrying the limp body inside. The vessel then flew away at an incredibly velocity, leaving nothing behind but a terrified little girl and a too quiet forest.
The tanned, once overly confident interviewer, sat there in disbelief, awkwardly staring at something off camera. He eventually cleared his throat, then tried to clarify what exactly Cindy was trying to say. Within a few short hours of airing her video and interview, I would become common knowledge that only children of a certain age would see through the unbearable light. The cut-off was typically around ten years old.
Needless to say the world went into an all out frenzy. Doom and gloom everywhere you looked. Cindy’s video had captured the last ever UFO sighting, and it wasn’t long after that things got really weird. The Earth’s rotation slowed. Magnetic fields got all wonky. It was as if the laws of physics were upended.
Enter, the Apocalypse.
Everyone fell into madness. Imagine your typical post-apocalyptic movie playing out in real life, except it wasn’t some virus or nuclear war, it was the Bible, freaking Revelations, man. It’s funny to me, now, as I stare up at the stars, that the almighty had a curbside pick-up service all throughout human history. He started the original gig economy. I chuckle at the thought.
A twig breaks and my eyes dart over to the woodline. The squirrel is almost done and it smells delicious. My mouth waters for the cooked meal. Ma and Pa make their way towards the fire. Immediately I can tel that something is extremely wrong. Greasy, stringy men leak from the darkness behind them carrying rusted weapons. The first thought to cross my mind is that we weren’t far enough out in the middle of nowhere. The glimpse of a tooth necklace sported by one of the men leads me to my second thought of whether or not a tic-tac will be showing up for me?