Tuesday, April 1, 2014

new story, chapter 1


I'm starting a new story today, and should be adding a new chapter about every week.  I'll say that it's loosely similar to World War Z in that it's transcriptions of oral interviews.  The subject matter is completely unrelated, and since I only read World War Z once (eight years ago), there's probably not going to be many similarities in style.

Anyway, here's the first chapter.  I don't have a title yet.


When the aliens came to Earth, there was no invasion.  They weren't interested in body-snatching, or laying eggs in our stomachs, or plundering the planet's resources.  They did not enslave humanity, secretly infiltrate our governments, or blow up the white house.  The aliens, in their myriad shapes and sizes, came for a completely different reason.  They came as missionaries.  

I have taken in upon myself to create a documentary about our year with, "The Gods," and their followers. I will interview people from around the world to show the different ways that people reacted.  

Interview with Barbara Henkel, asteroid hunter for NASA

"Hello Barbara.  Thank you for meeting with me," I began.

"Yes, of course.  What did you want to know?"

"Were you the one that spotted the mothership?  Did anyone have any idea what it was?"

"Yes, I was the one that spotted it.  It was crossing the solar system very fast- and it was huge- and headed right for Earth.  You must remember how big it was; once it entered our orbit it was like a second moon."

"Yes, I remember.  What did you do after you spotted it?"

"I think I said, 'Holly shit!'  If it had been an asteroid we'd all be dead.  There was no time to do anything about it; that Bruce Willis moive was all nonsense.  Then I called a few people; we have to report that kind of thing."

"Then the emergency broadcast went on, right?"

"Yes!  The window before impact- what we thought would be impact- was about fifteen minutes.  Me and my colleagues spend most of our time looking through telescopes at nothing, and suddenly I reporters were on the phone asking questions, and it was live on television!  Every station!"

"What did you say on the broadcast?"

"Not much.  I could say that something huge was coming at us fast, but there was no time to speculate on the composition of the object.  I couldn't offer any advice to survive the impact, because that would have been impossible.  I know NORAD hiked up their threat level; but that was just for show.  The reporters asked a lot of questions I couldn't answer, and then the mothership decelerated at a fantastic rate shortly before it would have struck the planet."

"Did you suspect aliens at that point?"

"I didn't know what to expect, everyone was excited and scared that day.  Once it stopped moving everyone could look at it, and the reporters moved on to other experts.  A lot of people figured it had to be something alien, but me, I didn't care, I was just happy it wasn't an asteroid."

"What did you do after the ship was in our orbit?"

"I went back to work.  Something amazing had just happened, and I didn't want the moment to be ruined by some rogue asteroid that no one had eyes on."


No comments: