Vampires, Werewolves and Demons. Oh My!

The blast was louder than Arlena had expected. Still, she was able to grip her gun tightly as she and her troop ran into the hole made by the homemade grenade. She saw Temon nod his head and with a determined step, she fell into position behind her commander. She took a deep breath as the first bullet was squeezed from the handgun she carried. She knew that getting emotional could get you killed and she wanted more than anything to live right now. They were so close. They knew what they were looking for was in this building. It was more than just the information from their informant or from the prisoner they had interrogated. It simply made sense. If they were looking for a flying saucer, what better place than Area 51? It all added up. Arlena snapped back to reality as she felt a bullet graze her left arm right above her elbow. The searing hot pain moved with lightning speed up her arm. She grunted with force to avoid crying out and quickly ran behind a wall. She could see her team pinned back against the outer wall. They were gaining control of the situation, but she could tell by the determined look of the soldiers and the garbled cries echoing from the radio that help was on the way and it would not be in favor of the rebels. If they were caught—she shivered. There would be no trial. They would be shot on the spot and accused of breaking and entering—or worse, terrorism. With Homeland Security now the largest government intelligence agency, even her contacts in the CIA wouldn’t be able to save them.

Temon caught her eye and motioned for her to try to make her way over to him. As one of the only women in the group and one of the smallest, Arlena was pretty agile and that made her the “go to” guy on many occasions. This was one of them. She looked out towards the soldiers and throwing caution to the wind, crouched and ran across the room, flinching as she heard the sickening thud of a bullet imbedding itself in a box a few inches from her head. She kept low to the ground and near to the wall as she made her way over. Suddenly, the lights overhead flickered off. She smiled. They were prepared for this even if the soldiers had no idea. She flicked a switch on her helmet and immediately a night vision screen flashed in front of her face. Now she could see perfectly. She found Temon and grabbed his hand. He turned towards her and pointed to a panel on the far wall behind the still shooting soldiers. Arlena sighed. She would have to make her way behind there without being caught and taking out the fuse box. She knew what is was, she had the building schematics in her pocket. If she were able to short out the fuse, it would close the outer metal door, cutting off any help the soldiers may get. Then they could get down to business and finish this.

Arlena crawled along the wall. One of the advantages of being black was that in the dark, well, you sorta blended in. She paused, assessing the layout and looking for a quick, bullet free path through the melee. She didn’t kill if she didn’t have to; after all, these guys were human just like her. Not like the beings they were guarding. Some didn’t even know what was in the two building connected by an underground pathway that was being monitored by her team for any movement. But she did. The first time they had taken her, she was 8 months pregnant. She was driving home from her job as a waitress when her car had simply died. No bang, just a slow sputter until it rolled to a stop. She got out of the car and popped the hood before the light had hit her. She’d passed out and woke on a hard metal table in the middle of a room. She’d known that her baby was gone. She simply knew. When they’d come into the room, she’d screamed at them to let her go, had begged them for her baby, but they’d ignored her and worked on her steadily, taking notes, measurements, samples of body fluids, tissues and cavities. By the time they were done, Arlena hadn’t been able to talk, her throat ravaged by the screaming. She’d awoken in a cornfield miles from where she was taken, bloodied and disoriented. The cops had said she was high on something and had probably killed her baby or sold it, but Arlena knew. She’d learned to keep her mouth closed until she was approached by Temon. He was the counselor for a group of people who had experienced alien abductions and he’d helped her. He’d also trained her and shown her the patterns. In the last 50 years, 90% of people reported missing were children and pregnant women. Many did not return. They weren’t that lucky.

Arlena spotted the fuse box and aimed carefully. She would only get one shot. She could hear the heavy boots of the reinforcements running toward the gunfire. Without thinking, she squeezed the trigger and smiled when the metal box exploded, shrapnel and sparks flying. She heard the groan of the heavy door followed by the ear splitting alarm. The once dark room was broken by the red lights of the alarm as the metal door plunged down. For a moment, the room was free of bullets and she could see the soldiers contemplating their fate. As if hearing her thoughts, Temon started to speak.
“We do not want to hurt you, but we will if you stand in our way. We do not want to fight you, but we will if you do not let us pass.” He threw his voice, so the soldiers were confused and they looked at each other as they tried to figure out the direction of the commands. Arlena smiled. Temon had picked up a few tricks while he was in the military and they had all helped them to survive. She and the others picked up on Temon’s message, repeating it again, adding to the confusion of the soldiers. As they looked around, weapons lowered slightly, Arlena and the others moved closer and closer, until the soldiers were surrounded. One by one the soldiers were disarmed and brought over to Temon where they were bound and gagged. Arlena moved them to a supply closet, quickly shutting the door and placing a chair under the doorknob for reinforcement.

Temon pointed to a door to the left. “That’s it. That leads to the next building. They must be hiding in there.” He consulted his map, nodded and shoved the battered piece of paper into his boot. They ran to the door, quickly opening and scanning. The flashing red emergency lights guided their way as they moved along the empty corridor towards the big building that housed the living and medical facilities for the beings that had crashed to earth in the 50s and caused the moniker ‘Area 51’. They stopped at another door and Arlena frowned. This door wasn’t on the schematics. She knew because she had memorized almost every square inch of the two buildings and this door was not on the map. She saw Temon’s frown and knew she was right. This door was not supposed to be here. Temon nodded to her again and she grasped the doorknob, surprised when it turned and the door opened. Suddenly, she was in a room bright with lights. A being sat in the room. Not a little green space man from a bad B movie. It looked more or less human. Two arms, two legs a torso and a head. It was a light tan color and although the head was larger than normal it wasn’t abnormally so.
“You’ve been seeking us a long time.” The being spoke suddenly, startling Arlena. She pointed her gun. “You are here,” she breathed. “Don’t move a muscle or I will blow a hole in you the size of Texas,” she said fiercely. She grabbed her radio. “Temon,” she called. She waited for a few seconds before trying again. “Temon, I have one of the beings.” No response. She shook the radio and tried again, “Temon!” she called loudly. “Temon, hello, anyone?” She heard a gurgle from the being.
“You’ve been looking a long time.” It said again.

“How do you know?” Arlena snapped, her hand growing tired, but still holding the shiny metal gun aimed at the being.
“I know more than you could ever imagine.” It walked over to Arlena and she instinctively took a step back as the being seemed to grow larger.

“What are you?” she asked.

The being paused, “we are you.”

Arlena shook her head, “no, what are you”.

The being held out a hand, its fingers almost translucent. “We are you. Your future selves. What you are destined to become as a human race.”

Arlena swallowed. “Why are you here? Why do you take us?”

The being gurgled again. “We take you because we must.”

“Don’t play games with me!” Arlena snapped again. “Do you forget who’s holding the gun?”

The being glided towards her again, backing her into a wall. “We are human but we are no longer able to breed. We take you to breed for us. We need you and your babies.”

Arlena felt a sickening twist in her stomach, her mouth tasted bitter and she felt the overwhelming need to vomit. “You took my baby.”

“Yes.”

“You ripped my baby from my body and used it in experiments!”

“Yes.”

Arlena felt the rage build and her finger tightened around the trigger. She ground her teeth together and cried out as the bullet forcefully exited the gun.

Arlena blinked and saw Temon in front of her. “Arlena.” He waved a hand to her attention. “Open the door. Let’s see what inside.” He grimaced. “I hate surprises. This room is not on the map.”

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“Joe!”

Joe sighed as he walked in the door. His wife Martha sat lounging on a chair, one cotton clad leg draped over the other as she smoked her Virginia Slims.

“Joe!” She called again, louder this time.

“Yes Martha,” he answered tiredly.

“Joe, Susan just told me that Ted was going to get a new dishwasher.” Martha waved a hand towards the kitchen. “We need a dishwasher. Imagine not having to wash a single plate ever again.” She sighed dramatically, “That would be great.”

Joe put his briefcase on the couch and looked towards the kitchen. His coffee mug from breakfast still sat on the countertop where he had placed it before leaving for work. The dishes from the kids’ breakfast were still piled in the sink. “Martha, you didn’t clean the kitchen?” he asked, incredulously.

“Honey,” she held the cigarette out in one hand, away from Joe. “I was so busy all day, and then I got so tired.” She reached up and kissed his cheek. “Besides,” she said as she started to walk away, “we need to get a dishwasher anyway.”

Joe sat heavily on the couch and rested his head in his hands. He knew he would not hear the end of the dishwasher idea. He wished he had stayed at work a bit later, maybe she would have had a few drinks and the idea would have been lost in her altered state. As is, with Martha being quite sober, he would have to purchase a dishwasher to keep his sanity. Damn Ted and Susan, he thought bitterly. Ted was supposed to be his buddy. Why would Ted do something this elaborate for Susan without telling him first? Ted knew Susan told Martha everything. Now he would have to join the bandwagon. Hearing footsteps, Joe looked up to see Martha marching back down the hall. Here we go, he thought.

She walked into the kitchen and found a glass in the cupboard, rinsing it and pouring two shots of vodka into it. She added a splash of soda and a lime wedge and brought the glass to her lips. He watched the smooth line of her throat as she drank, her once thin face, fat and puffy. “You know,” she said after her final swallow. “You should go over there and ask Ted where he’s buying his dishwasher. Perhaps you could get a discount.”

Joe silently obliged, rising from his seat and loosening his tie as he headed out the back door towards the wooden fence and gate that separated his house from their neighbors. He could feel Martha peeking out the curtains as he walked. He spied Ted fiddling around on the back porch.

“Hey neighbor!” Ted said as he watched Joe walk over.

Joe waved back, trying to find a way to broach the subject of the dishwasher. He decided the direct approach was always best. “Heard you guys are getting a new toy.”

“What’s that, you say?” Ted asked.

Joe smiled at Ted’s attempt at being modest. “Martha said she talked to Susan about you two getting a new dishwasher.”

Ted shrugged his shoulders and smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, well, I’m always forgetting her birthday and our anniversary and then the scandal with her sister. Let’s just say, I dodged a bullet with that one. I figure I owe her.”

Joe smiled and shook his head. “Martha’s pestering me about getting one.” He saw Ted’s look and ignored it. Truth be told, Ted was a really crappy husband. And the thing with Susan’s sister? Good thing there were others, or Ted would be up the creek. “I don’t want her complaining, so I think I’ll just get one.”

Ted looked at him with pity. “Hey, I’ll see if I can get you a good deal at the place I’m going.”

Joe reached across the gate to shake Ted’s hand. “Thanks. You are a life saver.” Joe walked the short expanse back to the house.

Martha met him at the door. “Well?” She asked irritably.

Joe stopped at looked at his wife. He was always good to Martha. Had been since they got married. He cooked when she was tired, cleaned when she was tired, put the kids to bed when she was tired. He was tired of her being tired, and tired of her being lazy. In one decisive moment, Joe did what he had spent years afraid to do. He looked Martha in the eyes and said, “We need to talk.”

The next week, Joe was getting out of his car and saw Ted walking over. “Hey,” he waved.

Ted waved back before stopping next to Joe. “So did you ever get her the dishwasher?” He asked carefully.

Joe laughed. “No, I actually changed the dishwasher to a carwash.”

“How do you change a dishwasher into a carwash?” Ted asked, confused.

Joe laughed again before bounding up the steps to his house. “Oh, it’s easy. I simply gave Martha a hose.”

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     Everett steered the boat around the small outcrop of tree stumps. He knew every twist and turn in this treacherous swamp. He’d grown up in these murky waters; his daddy and his granddaddy had fished here and he’d seen his first ‘gator, right next to a small clump of trees near this very spot. He cut the motor and spit into the can at his feet, laughing a little as some of it missed and landed in the bottom of the boat. Some fellas tend to spit their dip right into the water, but that don’t make no sense, he thought, ‘specially if you was planning on jumping in the water for some reason. Which he was. He had some business he had to take care of before heading back to town and taking Thelma to church for the funeral.

Everett breathed in the clean, crisp air and nudged the shotgun at his feet. Life in the wetlands were always full of surprises. Just last week, his buddy Earl had gone out into the swamp to take a look at some traps and they had found him two days later, floating upside down in a clump of weeds. Everett said a silent prayer for Earl’s soul. Good man like that didn’t deserve to die so soon. He jumped out of the boat, using a rope to anchor it by tying it around a tree. The water was too full of mud for a boat anchor to really take hold. He grabbed for the gun, held it high above the water and waded to shore. He climbed up the fairly steep enbankment, still spritely despite being nearly 60 and headed for a copse of trees hidden behind dense brush. He parted the undergrowth and removed some branches placed there to help disguise this place. He had found what he was looking for.

The mound of leaves and dirt was barely noticeable; most people would walk right over it. But Everett knew. He laid the shotgun on the damp earth and used both hands to scrape away the sediment, exposing his prize.  She lay eyes closed, her hair brushed back away from her face. He touched her cheek tenderly, and then brushed the dirt away from her eyes before exposing the green orbs to the filtered sunlight streaming through the trees. He leaned forward and lightly placed a kiss against her cold lips. Her body was wrapped in a white sheet, spotless except for the dirt stains. He opened the sheet and stared at her nude body; young, soft and supple and exhaled deeply. He didn’t know her name, he didn’t have to. She was meant to be his. He could tell by the way she’d looked at him then, the same way she stared at him now, as if no one else mattered but him. His hands traveled down her body, to her long, graceful neck, down to the white exposed between her parted breasts and on to her flat stomach. She was beautiful. He fumbled in his haste to remove his clothing, his thoughts focused on touching her body to his.

Later, he laid half in, half out the makeshift grave, satisfied. He caressed his beauty; his eyes closed and inhaled her scent. She smelled of roses and swamp water and musk. He took another breath and sighed. He knew it was time to move on. The next time he came, she would have to be moved to join the others in the bottom of the swamp, before someone else was destined to take her place and his passion.

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