Alien Medical Captives
by Gary Clifton
The first hint of dawn gradually drifted across the isolated, dense forest. In a muddy depression in the dank ground, the earth moved slightly, like worms stirring in a bucket. Then, more movement before two living creatures raised themselves slightly, peering over the edge at the surrounding countryside. Visibility was poor.
One of the creatures, voice shaky, spoke. “Kevin, they’re gone. We can crawl out of this stinking mud hole and maybe escape... Find the highway and flag down some help. My cellular is ruined from this mud and muck.”
“I lost mine, Chad. This mud stinks like an outdoor toilet. Thank God we were able to hide in it.” Kevin brushed futilely at the glut of reeking gore coating his body. The mud-coat was top-covered by leaves and plant debris from the mud hole. The pair resembled dual Robinson Crusoes.
“Those monsters had to be outer space creatures.” Chad stifled a sob. “They captured all the other guys... and girls. I saw, they carried them off in that spaceship thingy.” He was also coated in stinking mud. A bloody knot on his forehead was the result of colliding with a tree while fleeing in pitch darkness.
Skinny, with long, unruly sandy hair, Kevin was a head taller than Chad. “I saw a hillbilly on TV. His name was Billy Jack and space monsters had beamed him up, then performed unspeakable medical experiments. Drilled into his brain... and my God, Chad, he said they cut into his genitals. Oh, Lord help us.”
“Billy Jack? Did he sound like he knew what he was talking about or just went on a drunk and—?”
“I was skeptical then, Chad, but now?”
“They were aliens,” Chad said. “Did you see their faces? Blank, glassy, with no features. Like in the movies. Terrifying.” Chad was a stubby, husky young man who had a habit of batting his eyes.
Kevin peered around a tree. “They seem to be gone. Man, we was just drinkin’ a little beer and doin’ some grass, and then they came crashing down in that spaceship. How did they find us? Some heat-seeking human-victim torture device?”
“Mighta been when you and some of the others started tossing cherry bombs into that pond.” Chad gestured. “Or maybe they saw our bonfire. They must have needed more victims for dissection.”
Kevin said in anguish. “They got our friends right now up there, cutting them up. God, imagine what they’re doing to our girls. I get outta this alive, Chad, I’m gonna quit cussin’ and stuff and never miss church again. Boy, we gotta survive to report this.”
“What are we gonna tell them?”
“We’ll worry about that if we live. It’s gettin’ light enough, let’s try to find the highway. Sun’s comin’ up, so that must be east that way.” He gestured.
They began thrashing through heavy underbrush, scratching their skins and ripping their mud caked clothing.
“We’re gonna catch hell for running off and leaving everyone else.”
“Dude, if you hadn’t run into that tree and knocked me into that stinking mud hole, they would’a had us for sure. You’d already be carved up or brain-lasered. I sure am not ashamed. Man, I never believed any of that space aliens stuff before now.”
“I’m hungry and thirsty,” Chad gasped as he struggled on.
“I just heard a truck,” Kevin said. “Highway must be just ahead. Wait, I see it man. I see the cars moving past. We can climb back under that fence if we can find the spot where we got in. Stay low.”
They crept a hundred yards further. Chad gasped. “Our cars are gone. My dad is gonna kill me.”
“Those monster things are gone, too, I hope. But they’re gonna do worse than kill you.”
Chad said, “The Dean is gonna expel us unless we’re aren’t captured and butchered by monsters.”
Cold and terrified, they hovered within eyesight of the ten-foot, chain-linked, barbed-wire topped fence.
Chad, holding the wound on his head, said excitedly, “Look, Kev, off to our right. That’s where we climbed under the fence.”
They had run about half the distance to freedom when the terrifying roar of the spaceship approached so low over the heavy forest they couldn’t see it. Then, with terrifying finality, the massive monster was upon them, coming to ground in a clearing thirty feet away.
Five creatures piled out of the machine, even more terrifying in daylight than they’d been in the dark. Clad in silver coverall space suits, their blank, glass-smooth faces glistened in the early morning light. Each had a weapon slung over a shoulder.
Kevin and Chad held hands, waiting for the end. Chad said, through chattering teeth, “Those spacesuits are made of some indestructible, off-world material. We resist, we couldn’t penetrate that armor.”
“Chad, it was me that put the glue on your toothbrush. I don’t want to die with that on my conscience.”
“Aww, Kev, it doesn’t matter now that we’re goners,” Chad managed, voice quivering. “So long, old comrade,” he sobbed.
One alien, obviously, the leader, approached. Both boys made a motion as if to run.
“Surrender, there is no escape.” His voice, apparently being translated from alien gibberish to English through the blank, glassy mask was raspy, hideous.
“Please, for God’s sake, Kevin pleaded. “Just kill us. Don’t perform medical experiments on our brains.”
Chad chimed in. “Please Mr. Alien, don’t cut off my genitals.”
The leader turned back to his cohorts. “Okay, men, They’re harmless. Lose the facial shields.” He unsnapped his glassy face and tipped it upward.
Both boys were astonished that beneath the mask, the alien appeared human. The other four also raised their masks to show what appeared to be human faces.
“My God, Kevin, they’re not bug-eyed monsters. They’ve assumed human form. They’re gonna take over the Earth. Humanity is doomed.”
The leader laughed. “Medical experiments? We probably oughta consider cutting off some important parts for all the damned trouble you’ve caused us. I’m Captain Eric Smith, 110th Military Police Battalion, Fort Hood, Texas.”
Kevin said, voice quavering, “Captain, sir, we just drove up from the university to have a party. Sir, we’re not criminals.”
“Do you idiots realize you tunneled under a fence into a very highly sensitive security area? If we hadn’t responded to those firecrackers and grabbed your friends last night, this area was targeted for night artillery practice. They’d never have found any parts of anyone. Your buddies said you’d somehow evaded us and, fortunately for you, we came back.”
“Sir,” Chad said, holding his bloody forehead, “we hid in a mud hole.”
The captain sniffed the air. “Certainly did, boys. You spent the night in the sewage treatment drain reservoir for the entire base. Lucky you didn’t die from methane fumes. Come with us, you can ride in the back of a pickup waiting out on the road. You stink too bad to ride in the chopper. We towed your cars and have your friends. We’ll hose your stinking carcasses off, bandage that head, and get you the hell outta here ASAP.”
“Kevin, you stupid dork, did you really put that glue on my toothbrush?” Chad asked.
Copyright © 2017 by Gary Clifton
