Short story essay

                                                The Landing

It is four am in the morning and the first droplets of dew are forming on the grass. At  three am this morning I got the a phone call about some alien like pod landing in Washington, DC. When my boss told me about this pod I didn’t believe him, I thought he was joking or possibly losing it, until I noticed the very urgent and serious tone in his voice. “Elizabeth! Elizabeth! Over here!” I turned my head and saw Bryan standing with a large group of scientists huddled together. I walked over and saw their pens scribbling  back and forth almost in sync with one another. I saw the pod, it had weird almost geometric shapes carved on the cover and the geometric shapes were somewhat transparent, but not enough for us to see what was inside.

“We need to figure out what is inside of this thing” said Craig. “Wait, shouldn’t we wait until we get the pod into an isolated area. What happens if this thing can spread? “ I asked. “Elizabeth, you think too much and do too little. Just let the people who are more experienced than you deal with the situation. I don’t even know why you are here, stand back and watch. One last thing, keep your mouth closed”said Craig.  Typical Craig, jumps in head first at every opportunity he gets. He’ll learn his lesson though, one day, I just hope it’s not tonight, I thought to myself.  Bryan looked sympathetically at me and I just smiled back at him and walked away from the crowd that surrounded the pod. Craig grabbed a drill and began to start opening the pod. After a few attempts it finally opened. A grey gas quickly came out and the gas stung my eyes, I felt paralyzed just bending over and coughing. I wasn’t able to walk around for the fear of walking into someone or something. “ Great idea Craig, now we’re all exposed to a gas that we have no idea what it is or the effects that it will have on us” said Bryan.  “Keep your mouth shut Bryan, go join your girlfriend over....” . A creature emerged from the pod and it was almost the size of a six foot man. This... thing looked ferocious and very furious. All of us just stared at the creature with a blank expressions on our faces.“Why are you here?” asked Craig with his voice sounding shaky. The creature stared at him for a few more seconds and answered in a booming voice: “ All of you discovered my planet and are planning to send a crew out to get samples. To try and grab our people since there are signs of life. We do not want this happening, we want to be left alone. You humans, so ignorant and daring. I am here to delete all of the information that you have collected on our home and our people. All of you who know about it will be destroyed.” 
 We all looked at each other and our faces showed pure shock and fear. What planet is he talking about? I don’t remember anything about an unknown planet with signs of life. I have a high level of classification , but not as high as all of the other scientists here. They are my colleagues and we have to consult with each other on some things , but not everything.  “We’ll do anything you want. Just please don’t hurt us” begged Craig. “Shut your mouth Craig” shouted John. The alien looked at us for a few more seconds and then he went for his wristband. What is he doing I thought to myself? He pressed the button and it released a grey gas, I felt lightheaded and the next thing I remember is falling on the ground and passing out.

I awoke due to the heat and a clanging sound that seemed to come from pipes. I opened my eyes, my head hurt and I was really nauseous. Where am I? I looked around again and realized where I was. I’m in the basement of NASA and tied to John and Brian around a pole.

I nudged Brian and he slowly opened his eyes. He almost fell asleep again , but I nudged him one more time and that seemed to keep him awake. “What...” he started to say but trailed off suddenly remembering what happened. I tried to nudge John a few times, but he was still passed out from the gas. “ What are we going to do?” asked Brian.” I don’t know Brian. Brian what does he mean you found a planet with life on it?” “ Look, we found it two weeks ago, we tried to communicate and we got something back. We were told to keep it as classified as possible so no one in the media gets a hold of it. None of us thought that they would come to Earth. We were planning a mission set for next month that would go to the planet and collect some samples and find out who was communicating with us and what type of  life form was on the planet.” “ How did it know you found out about it’s planet” I asked Bryan. “Craig sent a message saying that we wanted to communicate and that we were planning a mission there to find out more about them. Against all of our opinions, you know Craig he dives in head first at anything”. “Great idea, so now we have an alien who wants to get rid of this information and kill anyone who knows about their planet. I have an idea, i’m not sure if it’s a good one though.” “Just say it, anything is better than being tied up down here in a basement waiting to be killed by an alien” said Bryan. “ The pod seemed to be broken or turned off when it came right? The parts where the shapes were I think used to glow and if it is not glowing then that means that the pod is broken or it is in some sort of sleep mode. “

“Yeah, I remember now that it glowed when we came to the site. Shortly before you came it stopped glowing, so hopefully it isn’t broken, maybe just in some sort of sleep mode” said Bryan. “ You know about mechanics, you helped design some of the equipment we use for other missions.  So since you are the tech guy how about you start working on how to get that pod going again?” “I could try , but I don’t know anything about alien technology.’’ “ Well as long as we try it will be better than nothing.” “ How exactly are we going to get out of these ropes” asked Bryan. “ Hang on a sec, I think that I can slip through it.” I slowly picked up some of the rope since luckily it wasn’t tied around us skin tight. I slid through it section by section and finally made it out.

I helped Brian out and we began to move to the supply closet. “What are you going to do?” “ I’m going to find our alien and try to lure him back to the park. From here to the park shouldn’t take too long since he brought all of us here without anyone noticing. I’m going to try and get him to chase me to the park. I know where the walkie talkies are so we can use those to communicate. You just have to let me know when you and if you get that pod opened.” “ Sounds like a plan” said Bryan. “ Here we are.” I opened the door quietly and grabbed the walkies.

“Radio me when you get to the park and when you get that pod running.” “Okay, be careful Elizabeth.” “ Thanks, good luck” Brian.” Brian started sprinting towards the door and I began to search for the alien. I heard some banging around upstairs. That must be where the alien is, hopefully it ran out of that gas. I walked up the flight of stairs slowly and when I got to the top of the landing I peeked around the corner and saw the alien trying to login into the computers and paper was thrown everywhere. “Squeak”, oh dang it, my shoe must still be wet from the grass.The alien turned it’s head quickly , but luckily I was one step ahead of him by  already cramming myself into the corner. I heard it’s footsteps approaching and I hoped he wouldn't look too closely. I heard the footsteps stop, then slowly the alien started it’s way back to the research lab. Phew. A few minutes after  Brian radioed me:  “ Elizabeth, i’m at the park and trying to work the pod. I think I can figure it out.” “Great”, I whispered very softly so the alien couldn't hear me. “Hurry I don’t think I can hide from this alien forever before it finds me. I already had a close call when my shoe squeaked.” “ I’ll try my best.” I silenced the walkie and and waited for Brian to radio me again. Time passed by so slowly and I started to feel butterflies in my stomach. Oh great, now all I need is even more nausea to top off my mood. Then after what seemed like forever Brian radioed me. “ I got the pod to work, hurry up and get the alien here, I don’t know if this thing will go off again and I don’t want to find out when you and the alien arrive.” “All right, i’ll hurry, see you in a few Brian.” Okay, showtime, I thought to myself.

I looked around the corner quickly and the alien was still really busy. I took a deep breath and walked into the room. “Hey, what do you think you’re doing to the data?” the alien turned around and looked ferocious. I saw the one last file on the table that he did not shred yet and I grabbed it and ran. I heard it’s footsteps thudding behind me and I knew I had to run faster. Down the stairs and out the door I ran, I could see the trees from the park and I knew that if I made it there I would be okay. I looked behind me and still saw the alien chasing after me. I burst through the trees and saw the pod glowing and it was opened. Brian was standing about 500 feet away. I ran faster and faster and once I was close enough to the pod I stopped and looked at the alien. When the alien looked at me I held up the last file that contained the data and ripped into halves and then quarters. The alien growled and started charging after me. I threw the pieces into the pod and ran. When the alien went to dive into the pod he hit his head on the cover and was knocked unconscious. Brian ran up and slammed the cover down.

Once the alien was in the pod and the cover was on, a bright light blinded us and the pod disappeared into the early morning horizon. Brian and I looked at each other and smiled. “Good work Elizabeth, I did not know you could run that fast.” “ Thanks, you did good with operating alien equipment. What do you say we get the rest of our colleagues out of the basement?” I said.  “Sounds good to me, how are we going to explain this to our boss?” asked Bryan. “ I don’t know, all that matters is that alien isn’t on the Earth anymore”. Brian and I smiled at each other . "Let's go get them" I said and we began heading back to NASA.