they came like us
by zaji

The night was cool. Stars speckled the sky in various formations, giving shape to things known—a dipper, a dog, a flower or leaf—and things unknown—strange, unearthly shapes. The unknown stood out. The unknown is what circled the sky, seeming to seek a place to land. No one saw this strange circular thing that stood on the air like a magician’s floating ball, no string to be seen, nothing to indicate that it was a trick of the eye. No one saw it, but Kira.

Kira sat on the bank of the river, fishing by moonlight as the strange object hovered far above her--out of reach but within sight. She shook the fishing line, hoping something would bite. One eye was on the moonlit waters while the other observed the object floating about as though trying to make a decision. She lay down the fishing rod on the grass and followed the now descending object. It went down behind the trees, slowly disappearing as it came closer to land.

There was a thud. Quietly she moved through the brush, crouching low and tiptoeing so as not to be seen or heard. Through the trees bright lights beamed, drowning out the darkness save for the thick spot of bushes and leaves that concealed her thin frame. A fog floated around the area from where the light shown. A soft hiss rose above the low hum of what sounded like high tech engines, like a well-made Cadillac that barely gave clue to the fact that it was running. The hiss was followed by another strange hum. Through the fog it seemed as though something was opening, moving from top to bottom, down toward the ground. Other unfamiliar noises climbed the night air, walking toward Kira as though sound were omniscient and could see everything around it and knew someone was there. The sound found her, and threatened to give away her presence. But it didn’t. The sounds kept her secret and didn’t tell that she was there; they didn’t disclose that she was invading what was meant to be a secret moment.

They were humanoid, but not human.

Kira slowly lowered herself to ensure she would not be noticed. The visitors began to look around, sniffing the air, and touching the plants and trees. They made a sound in unison that was almost musical, melodic and hypnotizing. It was like a mating call, but not meant for a mate. It was meant for something she never would have imagined. Within seconds, the trees came alive. Steps crushed leaves; the wind rose and everything around her began to rustle. Animals of every kind walked and flew fearlessly to the place where the visitors landed. Birds, insects, mammals, every animal conceivable advanced to what was now the center of their universe. The visitors welcomed them, touching each animal. None of the creatures showed fear. An eerie thought came to Kira…have they been here before? Who were these visitors? What were they? How did they command the animals with such ease?

She realized she had been staring at this marvel almost entranced. She snapped herself from the daze and thought it best to retreat and never speak of what she saw. As she slowly began to back away, she accidentally stepped on a twig that crackled and disrupted the peace of the moment she just witnessed. Kira looked up sharply, hoping she was not noticed. One of the visitors snapped its head around in her direction and peered through the brush. It spotted her. A shrill cry went up from its mouth, sending the other visitors into a frenzy. A wild and ear piercing shot of fire blasted in her direction. They were shooting at her. But why? She jumped up and began to run. She ran with all her might, hearing footsteps trailing close behind her and fire blazing up all around her from their strange, but powerful weapons. She realized at that moment that she might not make it out alive. She scampered quickly ahead and arrived at a deep patch of water, then submerged herself. Above the visitors looked around. They seemed to be assessing her whereabouts. Remaining underwater was not an option. Air seeped through her lips slowly. The bubbles that surfaced threatened to give her away. They continued to search the area as she felt her life force running out. Just as Kira was about to give up and meet her fate, they were gone. She surfaced, gasping for air that filled her lungs like a long lost friend fills the heart.

What kind of visitors were these who were kind to animals but hostile to humans? She gathered herself and walked through the night. Her car was lost. It was left far too close to the visitors, who by now had searched every area of her fishing spot. She looked up at the night sky, then ahead at her dark empty house just a few feet away. She was soaking wet and tired, but she was alive. She would sleep and try to forget about her experience…try to forget the unforgettable, knowing she had no one to tell, because no one would ever believe her.

****
The news reports kept flooding in. Every day there were no less than twenty missing persons. There was no rhyme or reason…children, adults, teenagers, the elderly, black, white, everyone. There was no pattern. They only needed to be human. There were a few who claimed to come in contact with something otherworldly, but there were no clues as to what was different about those people and why they didn’t disappear after their encounter.

Searches unearthed nothing most times. Other times, certain personal affects were spotted…a watch or a wallet…but no bodies. Detective Jones was one of hundreds on the case around the world. In every country, the story was the same—missing persons, no body found, very little personal items found, sometimes none, no explanation for how they disappeared. Some disappeared from their beds, from next to their loved ones while they slept. They would wake and find no clothes missing, slippers still at the foot of the bed, car in the garage, nothing to indicate that anyone broke into the house forcibly. The only thing Detective Jones had as a clue were the strange fires left behind—fires that never burned an entire area or an entire house. The fires were concentrated into a small space and went out quickly…more quickly than any fire anyone had ever seen.

“Have you got anything on the last kidnapping,” queried Jones. “There’s gotta be some evidence, something that can give us a lead.”

“Something was found in the bathroom, where the last victim was taken,” said Detective Cox. “It was thin and white, almost looked like skin. The examiners said it was definitely biological, but they couldn’t pinpoint what animal it may have come from.”

“What else?” Jones asked, turning in his chair to give his full attention.

“Well, something really strange, boss.” Cox crinkled his eyebrows and paused, shaking his head while looking down at the ground.

“Tell me, what?”

“The doc said there was something wrong with the DNA structure. Like it was broken or something. Said she ain’t never seen no DNA structure like it before in any animal on earth. I figured the doc had one too many Tequilas that morning before examining that sample But she seemed pretty sure there was something weird about it.”

“And what about the ash from the fire,” continued Jones.

“See, that’s the thing, boss. Turns out that is also kinda hokie. The ash contained a strange chemical that no one can seem to identify.”

Jones scratched his head, swiveled around in his chair, leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. He thought about what was happening and for the first time in his career, couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Why were people disappearing around the globe at such an alarming rate? Where were they being taken to?

****

Isi wasn’t like other teenagers. He was a rebel who didn’t like to follow the status quo. His only place of refuge in a world he viewed as insane was up in the mountains in his favorite cave, far from the ruckus of the town he’d lived in for all his life. He and his buddy Jiza would ride up to the cave on their bikes and spend the better part of the day there, talking trash and enjoying the view of the town and parallel mountains. It had been nearly three weeks since Isi and Jiza had been to the cave. They were caught smoking pot and put on house arrest until their parents sorted out the mess. They were lucky. Their parents worked for the government and pulled some strings to keep them from going to jail. As soon as things died down, they made their way back to their favorite spot. Jiza was the first to notice something strange.

“Isi, did you tell someone about our spot?”

“No, did you?”

“No. But someone has been here.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Look. All our stuff is out of place. There are prints everywhere that look like they come from some animal or something. And others that look like they come from people, but without shoes. Their feet look busted.”

“Let’s go further in to check it out. If anyone has tried to jack our spot, they’ve got hell to pay,” chimed Isi defiantly.

They both walked on, moving slowly so as not to alarm any potential thieves. As the light receded and the darkness surrounded them, they took out their flashlights. The walls they had left that were nothing more than rough stone, filled with stalagmites and stalactites, were now smoothed over with strange symbols painted everywhere. The ceiling of the cave was also now smooth and filled with images of hunters scarred with the number of their kill, or in the act of hunting. The hunters looked humanoid, but not human. On a wall farther in, Isi pointed his flashlight. The humanoids were now shown with animals from earth all around them. They were feeding them fruits and plants of every kind. Even the lions ate fruits and leaves, seeming comfortable around all the other beasts of the fields and air. The humanoids depicted themselves as the animals’ guardians. Isi turned to look at Jiza. They both turned back to the walls.

“Can you believe this shit, man?” whispered Jiza. “It looks like we may not be alone in the….”

As Jiza spoke, Isi let out a shriek that echoed through the cave. He fell back and dropped his flashlight in shock, pushing himself backwards quickly on the ground, all the while kicking up dust and dirt. The light from his flashlight randomly lit the cave floor, not settling on anything in particular as it rolled about. Jiza raised his flashlight to the spot that seemed to be the object of Isi’s throbbing fear. On a far off wall, lined neatly with the word “human” below them, were the heads of people. There were children, adults, people of all races and nationality. The heads were mounted on wooden backs with engraved gold toned plates.

Jiza grabbed Isi and pulled him along the cave floor. The boys’ breathing was enough to echo through the cave, bringing the darkness to life as they ran for the entrance. The cave seemed to breathe, but not with the breath of its own fears. It inhaled their fear; it sniffed their confusion and sent a breeze through the alien space. They ran as fast as they could, stumbling and falling with each step.

Near the bottom of the hill, Kira could hear the screams of her child, her teenage son. She knew something had revisited…something she tried to push away. It was back, or it had never left. She saw her boy and his friend running toward the house, sweat pouring from their faces. They were shrouded in terror.

“Mom, mom! There is something up there, in the cave! It has people’s heads stuck up on the cave wall mom!”

Kira grabbed her boy and squeezed him tight. He cried in her arms as though he were still eight years old, not the seventeen-year-old man he tried so hard to be. She stroked his head, told him it would be alright and began to tell him about her experience from weeks earlier. His shock outweighed any emotion that threatened to surface. Something was terribly wrong…and everyone was in great danger.

****
The visitors hunted daily. They started out in inconspicuous spots, taking those no one would miss. When that was exhausted, they began to hunt for others, no matter where they were, in their homes, at their jobs, taking a walk in the park. It didn’t matter to them. It was all about the hunt. They needed their trophies to take back to their planet, to show their hunting buddies what they had accomplished. Some of them even decorated their kills in advance of their trip home. They would seek out the best quality wood or metal on the planet and mount the heads of what they caught. They were anxious to get home so they could adorn their homes, filling their walls with the beautiful creatures they had killed. It was an honor in their world to acquire such exquisite trophies, expressions of their status and superiority.

Humans were a rare commodity in the universe. Although violent and primitive, there was something majestic about them, something interesting, something worth having on a wall for all to see and admire. Besides, there was nothing about them that required the visitors to keep them alive beyond their external form. They were just a lower form of animal that could not communicate effectively with other species. They were nothing like other creatures on earth. Everything else knew things that humans did not know. Other creatures’ methods of communication were so far advanced, it was incomprehensible to the visitors that these humans could find it in their souls to kill them, that is if humans even had a soul. Humans killed each other. The animals the visitors encountered told them stories from ages gone by about humans and their primitive and violent behavior. The birds told it from their perspective, the lion from theirs, the deer and bear from theirs. The insects told their story, the fish, and even the trees and flowers chimed in. They all shared their stories of these primitive creatures that came long after them, and somehow began to act as though they were above them—as though they weren’t the latecomers on the scene of life. The rocks were the most baffled, as they were the elderly of the earth, seeing and hearing everything that has ever happened throughout the millennium. Yet, the infant humans, who have had no ability to communicate with their predecessors, to learn about their origins and their place in the cycle of life, have claimed the earth and universe as their playground.

The visitors listened to every creature in abject horror, wondering how things took such a turn. They watched for centuries, hoping that the kingdom of non-humans were mistaken, or misled. But they weren’t. They had even begun corrupting the non-human kingdom of creatures, slowly transforming their way of life. The visitors eventually realized they had to find out what made humans tick. What made them the way they were? They needed to experiment. Each new experiment yielded nothing. Ages went by and their behavior did not waiver, save for a few who seemed aware, but were powerless to change their situation. The experiments eventually gave way to curiosity by others from their planet. Eventually, people wanted to see these human creatures, what they looked like, how they acted. They wanted to collect them, as souvenirs. So many began to hunt for them. The hunt continues.

****

Detective Jones got wind of the Williams boy’s experience. He decide to take a trip up to the cave, in hopes that it was nothing more than a teenager’s active imagination. He hiked up the mountain, wondering what he would discover, if anything. He couldn’t understand why his heart was beating almost out of his chest.

“What the hell is wrong with me?”

“What you say boss?” asked his deputy.

“Nothing. Let’s go. Move it.”

They climbed until they finally reached the top, and the mouth of the cave. They carefully walked inside, hoping that nothing was asleep that might be frightened into attacking them. The mountains were a home for the black bear, which spotted the hills for miles around.

The men saw some of what the boys had mentioned. They knew then that what they didn’t want to believe was probably further on down inside. Their heartbeats were almost audible, building pace the further in they walked. A light raised to a distant wall adorned with the heads of people. Jones gasped and turned to walk in the opposite direction when he was grabbed by something that outpaced him and was more than a head taller.

It spoke in English.

“Welcome,” it said in a sinister voice. “You will be a perfect addition to my wall.”

“Why are you doing this to us,” Jones cried in terror.

“Because you are primitive and because we can.”

“Because you can? That is no reason to harm us. We’ve done nothing to you. Don’t you have any sense of right and wrong? How could you do this without thinking?”

“How? Why?” responded the visitor. “We learned this behavior a long time ago, and although we had our own way of living, we saw that maybe this was not such a bad thing.”

“Where on earth did you learn that from?” cried Jones, as the visitor squeezed his neck, further cutting off his airway.

“Where? On earth?” the visitor laughed. “Everywhere! Everywhere on earth taught us this. You taught us. We believe you now after centuries that it is ok to take advantage of what is imagined to be a lower life form. And we see you as a lower life form. But have no fear, we do not take all of you…only those who believe as you do, that other creatures are primitive and lower, and not deserving of life. We only do this to those who believe themselves superior. There will be many humans left. But not those who are not working as a part of the cycle of life; those we will study, and examine, and hunt.”

****

There was a strange hush that blanketed earth one day. Overnight it seemed that wars, famine and hatred ceased. The few who were left began anew, nurturing the planet and rebuilding it so that it could sustain every living thing. They did not try to control it, but worked to end control of it, allowing it to heal on its own—that was their method of rebuilding. The change came with very little fanfare. The visitors openly began to walk among those who were left. There was a mutual respect that grew over time, not only for the visitors, but also for every rock, tree and creature on earth. A new form of communication arose from the confusion. The remaining humans learned how to understand all those creatures that had come before them. It was a time of awakening…the question was, how long would it last.