Chapter 1 #4
Just then, Tiffany came back with our food, and she set down a plate in front of me that held a massive burger I probably wouldn’t even be able to get my mouth fully around and a huge pile of crispy, golden fries.
Hell, yeah, I’d been looking forward to this all day.
She set an almost identical plate down in front of Jesse and asked us if we needed anything else.
I gave Jesse a pointed look, and he shifted awkwardly in his seat and cleared his throat.
But he didn’t say anything.
Tiffany was still waiting for an answer, and the silence was quickly becoming long and awkward, so I finally turned to the waitress.
“No, I think we’re good here,” I said politely. “Thank you.”
She told us to let her know if we needed anything before she walked away, and I turned back to my friend.
“Coward,” I said with a smirk.
“Excuse me for hesitating,” he huffed. “How about you ask Sadie out first, then I’ll ask Tiffany out.”
“If you say so,” I replied sarcastically, but then I tuned out whatever response he was going to give me and turned my full attention to the behemoth burger on my plate.
That first bite was heavenly.
The meat was perfectly cooked, the way only a really good restaurant could do, perfectly seasoned, and juicy.
I dipped one of the fries into the diner’s homemade sauce and popped it into my mouth. The fries were the perfect balance of soft and crisp, and they were the exact level of saltiness needed.
I devoured my meal, and Jesse did the same.
Jesse had two more opportunities to ask Tiffany out, but he chickened out both times, which I gave him a hard time for, and after that he insisted that he wouldn’t do anything until I asked Sadie out.
We paid our bills and left after that.
We both decided we were too tired to spar or work out tonight, but we agreed to do it the next day, so Jesse and I parted ways outside the diner.
I drove home in silence because all the radio stations had been taken over with constant broadcasts about the alien ships, and it was moments like this that I’d wished I’d spent the extra money for a newer truck model that had Bluetooth, so I could just listen to songs from my phone.
Once I got home, I parked and got out of my vehicle, but I didn’t immediately go inside. Instead, I glanced up at the spaceships and silently wondered what they wanted.
Sometimes it was really easy to pretend they weren’t there, especially because most days felt so normal. But then I’d look up or turn on the news, and I was immediately reminded that things were, in fact, not at all normal.
I shook my head and went inside.
I turned the television on, and the channel was already set to the local news. Then I grabbed some of my free weights, so I could at least get some sort of workout in for the day.
The newscaster rambled on about the government doing everything they could to solve our alien problem, which wasn’t anything I hadn’t heard before, so I tuned out most of what was being said to focus on my workout.
I was in the middle of doing shoulder presses when I noticed the tone of the newscaster changed, and I stopped my workout and focused on the TV.
“There appears to be a change with the alien ships,” the woman on TV said in a rushed tone. “For the first time since arriving, the aliens are attempting to communicate with us!”
My breath hitched slightly as I leaned closer to the screen, and the news camera panned over to the blimp-like ship.
There was a chain of words being transmitted along the side of it.
I wasn’t sure if it was some sort of hologram or projection, but the thing that caught my attention the most was the fact that the words were in perfect English.
For a moment, I thought our government had successfully hacked the ships, but as I read the words, I knew that wasn’t the case.
Suddenly, there was a loud, robotic voice that came on, and it sounded like it was coming from the ship. The voice began to speak in perfect English as well, and it spoke the same words that were scrolling along the side of the spacecraft, almost as if it were reading from a script.
“Greetings, humans,” the robotic voice said. “We would like to invite you to play a game. The chosen contestants are to meet tomorrow at the city plaza at exactly nine in the morning. Those who fail to participate will receive a penalty.”
What the hell? Play a game? Contestants? If I hadn’t been both reading the words and hearing them spoken, I would’ve thought I was hallucinating.
I still sort of did.
“The following list of people are selected to be contestants,” the voice went on.
The voice began listing random names of both men and women, and to my horror, with every name they read off, a photo of the person appeared on the side of the ship. They all looked like photo IDs.
Did the aliens hack our systems to get those?
The robotic voice continued to rattle off names, and photos of people continued to flash across the side of the alien spacecraft.
“Sixth contestant,” the voice went on. “Conner Hale. Seventh contestant, Liam Davis…”
My heart dropped into my stomach, and I watched as my own picture flashed across the side of the blimp.
What the fuck?