Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
My favorite movie is The Fifth Element. Hands down.
I fucking love that romantic science fiction movie from start to finish.
Leeloo is badass, Korben Dallas is kickass, Ruby Rhod is sexy AF, and everyone else is spectacular.
Gary Oldman does Zorg so well that I literally decided that he is an autowatch actor for me because of that movie.
Well, it was unrealistic until I decided to brave the outside world for a walk.
I like being at home, but I also need to see the sun everyday, and since I spent yesterday drinking wine and eating cheese with Bee, today is a go-for-a-walk day.
I walked my furry ass to the park like a good gay, and now I’m watching the construction of a huge building on columns over the business district beside the park.
It’s forming the building layer by layer from the bottom up, and the machines creating it look like they are literally drawing the layers into place at lightning speed.
It’s incredible to watch this massive construction happen.
I join a small crowd of onlookers and ask anyone who’s listening, “Do we know what they’re doing?”
A murmur of negative answers works its way through the crowd, but I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough.
It’s not like the aliens have been mysterious about their actions.
They’ve warned us what they’re going to do.
We’re under their jurisdiction now, and literally every person on the planet is fine with that, or if they aren’t, the aliens are making them fine with it.
Yeah, it’s a little bit of mind alteration, but no one has yet to convince me it’s worse than the alternative.
I was living through the alternative; it was horrible.
This is baffling, but not horrible so far.
My phone buzzes in my hand, and I swipe to answer. “Hello?” I’m not going to be upset about hoping that it’s Lora again, even if it’s weird he called me yesterday.
“Ollie? This is Chad Dooder from Geeks for You.”
I pull my phone away from my ear because it’s shocking how annoying that guy’s voice is over the phone. “Yeah?” I ask, wondering what the fuck he’s calling me about.
“You were supposed to work today. What’s going on? Why aren’t you here?” he asks, sounding all buddy-buddy for a minute. It’s really off-putting how bad at being a human this guy is.
“I called in for the apocalypse. I told HR that I wouldn’t be back to work until there was a clear indication that the world isn’t going to end.
I’m not spending my last few days sitting at a desk staring at a computer screen and listening to you pat yourself on the back.
So, when the aliens let us know that we can return to business as usual, I’ll show up for a shift.
Until then, I’m staying home.” I finish that little rant and hang up.
I’m never going back to that place ever again.
I can find a hundred jobs, and I don’t mind asking if someone wants fries with their shake.
I’m good with whatever as long as there’s income and it’s livable.
“Nicely put,” the woman beside me says, laughing a little. “If you can’t call in for the apocalypse, the company you’re working for is too toxic to exist.”
“Amen to that,” I agree wholeheartedly just as my phone buzzes again. I swipe to answer. “Yes?”
“Hello, Ollie.” Lora’s smooth tone causes me to draw in a deep breath.
“Hello, Lora. You’re calling me again,” I sigh, but the dreamy quality of my own voice startles me. At what point did I decide I enjoyed getting calls from a ScaryDarkAlienVampire?
“I am. Your telephone communication system is quite advanced for your species. We are all very impressed with it.” He rattles in appreciation, and I have to say, I am getting good at interpreting those vocalizations.
“Oh, is this your actual phone number then?” I ask, making a note to save it as his contact.
“It is. What are you doing right now? You are not at your home, and I expected you to stay there for a few days after you gathered so many rations of food.” His curiosity is kind of cute even if it’s only over the phone.
“Well, I’m actually working on walking off yesterday’s binge drinking and cheese overload, but I got stopped by the construction of a massive building happening at the park I usually come to.”
He does that rattle thing again. “Indeed. We are constructing necessary infrastructure for your people today. The ward your zone is in is getting a hospital that will service the district. The ward to the east is getting a first responders depot, and the one to the north is getting an imperial aid center. After those are functional, the next step will be to build community housing in every ward, and community education centers. If you currently own the home you live in, you may be allowed to retain it for now, otherwise you will be required to move into community housing. I do not know whether you will retain your housing arrangement, but I can assure you that the community housing is always comfortable for those living in it.”
That is a lot of information, but it’s good to know they’re building useful infrastructure. “Well, I don’t own my place, so I guess I’ll find out for myself.”
“Just a moment.” He clicks a couple of times, and then returns.
“I looked up the building plans for your district. The zone you currently reside in will be reappropriated for families with one to three minor offspring. Unmated people will be moved into the community center in zone seven of your ward.”
“Huh, I guess this means I should probably start packing, then. How annoying.” I don’t mind moving, it’s just that I moved into this house fully intending to stay for at least five years, and it’s only been three. Dammit.
“I will come help you,” he decides. “I will end the communication now.”
“Goodbye,” I say, but he’s already ended the call.
Looking around at the people, I announce, “It’s a hospital.”
The woman beside me eyes me, surprised. “How’d you find that out?”
“Oh, I met one of the alien overlords a few days ago, and he keeps calling me. That was him on the phone. He said they’re building infrastructure today.
Hospitals, first responders depots and imperial aid buildings.
They’re going to build community housing and education centers next.
” I shrug, making sure my phone is locked and in my pocket in case someone wants to steal it to try to call Lora back.
Though I guess if someone gets violent with me, we’ll be abducted and re-educated, so…
“How did you meet one of them?”
“Were you reeducated?”
“What are they like?”
The rapid fire questions come from the crowd, whose attention I have in full now.
“Uh… He appeared next to my car in a parking lot. I haven’t been reeducated yet, and I don’t know what they’re all like, but this one is interesting. He’s not mean, and he’s pretty transparent about what he and his people are doing.”
I don’t need to mention the instinctual fear or blood letting. I think they can find that out on their own. Any feeding that happens between me and Lora feels private. Besides, I don’t like people enough to share the intimate details of my life with anyone except Bee.
“You said they’re building a hospital here?” a gruff dude in one of those motorized wheelchairs asks, indicating the construction project.
“Yeah. This is a hospital and they’re building a depot for first responders and he said they’re building an imperial aid center to the north.
Not sure what that is. He said today is infrastructure day.
Next is housing, and then education. I don’t know more than that, but I’m sure we’ll all be surprised.
” If there were aliens just walking about we could probably just ask any of them, and I bet my next bottle of wine that they’d tell us anything we want to know apart from how to defeat them in battle.
Actually, I wonder if they’d withhold that knowledge…
A guy in a flannel with the sleeves cut off, dirty jeans, and muddy work boots joins into the conversation with a whole heap of scorn.
“So, they’re just building a hospital? How do we know it’s going to be safe for humans?
What if they call it a hospital, but it’s a euthanasia center?
What if they’re lying to us to make us compliant so they can wipe us out?
” The paranoia with this one is strong, Obi Wan.
I squint at the guy panicking about a hospital, and yeah, I can see how he might be able to get that paranoid, but c’mon.
“President Fuckwit got us into a war with all of the countries the US has been allies with for most of last century, and you’re worried that maybe the aliens are going to do bad things to us?
Honestly, I was expecting a draft letter this week since he issued that executive disorder.
I’m usually all about ‘if I die, I die,’ but I’d rather find out if the aliens are offering a better alternative to dying in what will become a nuclear war. ”
“Yeah, I’ve got three sons old enough for the draft,” an older lady adds, hands on her hips and attitude in her voice. “I’d rather my kids die fighting a space invasion than in a stupid, preventable, and unnecessary war.”
The paranoid guy grumbles something unintelligible before flipping us all the bird and running away like we might give chase.
He gets about ten steps away from us and disappears.
Completely. It’s my first abduction, though I did witness Lora disappearing from my living room, so I’m not a complete newb about it.
Still. It’s startling to see a human disappear with a clap of thunder.
“Did they just—” the lady cuts herself off, and the wheelchair guy answers the unspoken question.
“Yeah. They took him for re-education. Give it a few seconds and he’ll be back, completely different.” He sounds like he knows what he’s talking about and looks like he’s seen some things, so I believe him.
We wait in silence, glancing between the hospital and the place the dude disappeared, and the wheelchair guy’s right.
Thirty seconds later, paranoid guy reappears right where he was taken.
He blinks a couple of times in stunned silence, then slow blinks like his system is coming back online, and then he shoots us a tentative smile.
“Sorry about that. I might have been a little overzealous in my suspicion about the aliens' intentions. They assured me that the hospital is to serve humans and keep them healthy. The guy I talked to even said that they know a better treatment for cancer than chemotherapy. I’m going to be going in for treatment tomorrow.”
Wow. That’s impressive.
World Peace: check
Cure for cancer: check.
All we need is the end of poverty and we’ll have the trifecta of utopian ideals.
Honestly, I wouldn’t say no to that either.