Venus dropped down her obsolete children by night, stealing glimpses of madness beyond comprehension. Propelled along the super-highway, bullets of light or metal monsters formed curving lines. And, grey towers, the building-blocks, ruined the horizon at once, though more were added every day.
The spacecraft landed with spotlights and humming in a back-alley of New York City. A drunkard, who had been grabbing food in a dumpster, gave the Interplanetary the finger, and disappeared through a door.
A hatch with a ramp suddenly opened from the crafts’ side; inside could be seen purple mist, surrounding darkness. Momentarily, a biped, hunched over, seven feet tall, had appeared, standing in the doorway. A sniffing, then the creature, which had been joined by two others, stepped off the ramp.
A man followed by a woman, who suddenly screamed, until she choked it off, hastened away.
When the rain started pelting down, the Interplanetary crew paused, looking up, as far as hunchbacks can. Through high apartment buildings obscured by rain and darkness, they investigated space momentarily.
Each of the crew carried a radio of the sorts, in long thin arms. And wore a loincloth with a thin belt.
The creatures hastened toward the door nearest them, that the drunkard had disappeared through. The door flew open to their touch, and they vanished inside without a sound. It was a corridor they’d found, littered with paper, and dark. One of the three removed an item from his belt, and a purple light appeared.
As one, the three quickly and silently moved into the deserted building. Soon, doors could be seen in the purple radiance. They had to move quickly they knew. Trying the third one, it opened noisily.
They entered, prepared for combat, prepared for most anything, and began ransacking the place. After a minute, one of the beings cried a soft, excited note into his radio. He’d found a box of books. The others crowded around, and one opened a bag he’d been carrying. After they had taken as many as they could carry, the leader made strange, soft noises, and they turned to go.
In the doorway crouched a man with a lead-pipe in his hands. An alien moved to engage, then two more entered the room. The first swung hard, but ineffectually, and the alien fried him with lightning cast from a black weapon. ‘Fuck this!’ said the next, before he fell to the lightning-gun. The third turned tail and ran.
The aliens conferred there, in the room, before rushing out, down the hall for the exit. One kicked the human from the door as he left; they laughed. Entering the craft, the hatch and ramp were withdrawn, and the underside of the ships exterior lit-up. Within seconds, it was air-borne, and the police, who had a few squad-cars at the mouth of the lane, never got their chance to engage the strange beings from Venus.
__________
Copyright 2023 Jeffrey Merk
Comments