Aliens have invaded Earth, and my girlfriend might be breaking up with me. [27min]
Excerpt:
An hour after she leaves, I am climbing the walls. What do I do? Am I really supposed to look for jobs? Would anyone seriously consider a resume from someone who’s applying for jobs in the middle of an alien invasion? How can I watch the news alone without her dry cracks? I have all these thoughts in my head. If Galiene was here, I’d be telling her about them. I try telling myself, but I start to feel like a mental patient.
Finally, I decide to go on a walk.
The streets are largely empty. People are out and about, but afraid to stay too long in the open. They stick close to buildings. They scuttle back and forth between buildings, crossing streets quickly, uncertain, anxious.
The military is everywhere. Trucks, convoys, foot soldiers positioned down the street, down every street. At the corner of Broadway and Belmont sits a tank. It isn’t the first time in my life that I’ve seen a tank—at a museum or an air show or something—but I don’t think I ever realized how big they were. You’ve got to ask yourself, where does the army keep this stuff? The tank takes up most of both sides of the street, and part of the sidewalk. No matter where they’re stationed, they’re all on battle mode: fingers on the trigger, pointing toward the sky.
At this rate, you could almost not blame the aliens for not coming out. If I didn’t live with Galiene, I wouldn’t, either.
There’s something comforting about the monsters of category horror. Vampires, werewolves, zombies and ghouls - we’ve seen them all so many times that they’re familiar. We know how they act; we know how they work. (Doubt it? Just say the word “sparkle” to a serious fan of vampire fiction and see how they react. Odds are good you’ll get an enraged “Vampires aren’t LIKE that!”) They’re shorthand to a certain set of storytelling conventions and rules, and once you see the first bared fang you know exactly what the ground rules are. The world, in short, is defined by its monsters, and by the same token, defines them.
This is really nicely written. I love the way Alien invasion is kind of subtle, a lot like the emotional cloud hanging over the protagonist that goes away when the situation is resolved.
Cheers
Morva Shepley
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