I recently had an idea for a short story, and i hope you enjoy and learn from it. Due to recent happenings in the world (I won't say what, but you'll figure it out) I have decide to write this. In it are many themes, motifs, and lessons. The ending might be hard at first to understand, but i you need help just ask. PLEASE DO NOT ADD TO THE STORY, IT"S NOT AN ON GOING ONE, BUT JUST A SHORT ONE I WANTED TO SHARE. Here it is:



[CENTER]The Invader
by Kevin Allard[/CENTER]

The lone light from the TV reflected off of Dillard’s glasses, as the quiet chirping of crickets filled the house from the hot summer night. The quiet, dark-haired, man sitting by himself, paid no attention to the loud music from the all-night party next door, nor did he make a motion to pick up the phone as it rang. But not any of that really matters.

The thirty-seven year-old Mr. Dillard, was a worn out, yet successful doctor. He sat in the dark living room, his television flickering in the dim light, resting his tired body on his couch. But not any of that really matters either.

Dillard’s thoughts centered on his own lonely tube, displaying the 11 o‘clock nightly news. He wiped the sleep from his eyes, as he started to drift asleep. However a sudden peak in the newscaster’s volume abruptly awoke the drained physician.

“This just in, a nation-wide alert from the capital. A small group of federally commissioned astronomers have just detected a large unidentified flying object traveling thought the planet’s atmosphere at tremendous speeds. The object was last reported over the western coast, and according to its current trajectory is predicted to land in the local area……….”

Dillard intensely watched the television.

“More breaking news. The Secretary of Defense has issued a statement just moments ago. According to the release, high ranking government officials and experts, believe the object to crash in our vicinity at any sec-“

Without warning, a blinding blue flash of light flooded the house. An incredible deafening roar sent shockwaves through the wooden floor, just as the electricity in the house went out. Dillard, remembering his naval training, quickly dropped to the ground and covered his head. He held his position, frozen in fear. As soon as the light engulfed the house it was gone, along with the terrible noise and vibrations.

Dillard slowly stood up. He wiped the dirt from his clothes and looked around the room. Apart from a few shattered vases, and a broken lamp, the house seemed to be intact.

Making his way though the house, Dillard opened the front door and stepped outside. What he saw next was unimaginable.

Resting upright in large, shallow crater, in the middle of the street, was a massive bullet-shaped object. The foreign Goliath, about fifteen feet high by ten feet wide, was built of a strange, smooth, glistening, silvery metal, possessing no other visible features. Its domed top rose above the streets in the starlight, weakening Dillard’s legs as he looked at the mammoth.

Slowly, one by one, the neighbors on the street trickled out of their small suburban houses and made there way onto the sidewalks. Most brought solar charged emergency flashlights, waving their lights on every part of the large object. Small children pointed to the object in awe, as looks of astonishment swept their parents faces.

Suddenly discussion started to burst throughout the street.

“Is it a bomb?”

“Impossible, it didn’t explode.”

“Don’t go near it, Dave!”

“Maybe part of the sewer burst through the ground.”

“It can’t be! No water pipe looks like that!”

The crowd started to draw nearer to the object, forming a circle around the crater. The group of neighbors gazed at the mass of metal, as if they were animals at the zoo examining a foreign man-made object thrown into their cage.

“It looks like some sort of ship,” Dillard said softly.

As the words left his lips, a large, balding man stepped from the circle into the crater.

“Be careful Mr. McCarthy!” Yelled a younger voice from the loop of people.

McCarthy rubbed his hand over the smooth silvery surface of the ship.

“It’s not even warm,” he spoke with a quiet awe.

The man turned around to a tall, redheaded teenager in back of him.

“Billy, go into the house and call the police.”

The boy ran into the house and within a few seconds emerged hurriedly.

“The phones are dead!” He yelled to his father in the crater.

McCarthy stood in the crater looking back at his son. Then looking towards the ground he stood in silence. He brought his head back up to the ring of neighbors.

“Whatever this thing is, not only made the power go out, it also knocked out our phone lines too.”

In the crowd, a well-dressed businessman shone his flashlight at his watch, looking for the time. After a few seconds a look of dread appeared on his face as he lowered his arm.

“It not only disabled our electricity and our phone lines, but all of our electronic devices as well.”

After a few other people checked there own watches to confirm it, the neighbors in the circle looked at each other with fearful glances. McCarthy shook some dirt from his pants and slowly climbed out of the shallow crater. Upon resurfacing from the bullet’s lair he glanced around at the group and began to talk.

“I don’t know what’s in that’s metal bullet, but whatever it is, it just killed all our communication to the outside world.”

Dillard was the next to speak.

“I think only one thing can be for certain Mr. McCarthy, and that is, wherever this ship came from, it’s definitely not from around here.”

McCarthy raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

“What do you mean by here?”

Dillard spoke slowly, “I mean here as in this planet”

The realization came over the crowd. This was not some prototype government plane, or even a spy satellite. This was a spacecraft from another world.

As the discussion continued, Billy crawled into the crater and made his way silently to the ship, invisible to the spectators watching the conversation.

“Aliens from another planet!” exclaimed McCarthy. “It’s impossible!”

“On the contrary it’s quite possible”, replied Dillard. “This hull is made of no metal I’ve ever seen. Any metal known to us would of suffered sever damage if it created a crater of this size.”

A woman opened here mouth to speak.

“Do you think the…beings inside came peace?”

“Of course not,” answered McCarthy. “Anything that would knock out all our connections, must be hostile. It must of used some sort of energy ray to disable all our electronics.”

“That seems unlikely,” replied Dillard. “When this craft landed, the power went out almost as soon as that blue flash of light appeared, a sign of some sort of ionic shield. That would explain the absence of any burns on the ship’s hull; it’s a defense mechanism for our atmosphere. Surely that kind of power has the ability to accidentally interfere with any of our comparatively primitive electronic devices. That would also explain why the flashlights work, as they don’t run off a regular battery or current like the other things do.”

“Hey Dad!” Cried Billy. “A hole just opened up on the side of the ship!”

The crowd turned to look as Billy peered in a small round opening about the size of a quarter that had appeared on the side of the ship.

“Billy get away from there!” McCarthy yelled to his son.

Without warning a bright red blaze of light blasted from of the opening, smoldering Billy in the face, tumbling him backwards.

“Billy!” Cried a helplessly watching Mrs. McCarthy.

Dillard and McCarthy immediately jumped into the pit. Each grabbing one of his arms they pulled him to the surface of the road. McCarthy watched fearfully as Dillard examined his son lying limp on the pavement.

“Quickly! Cried Dillard. “Someone get my bag! It’s by the front door, inside my house!”

A small boy darted to Dillard’s front door, and back with his bag. The crowd of people huddled around Dillard and McCarthy, as McCarthy tried to revive the teenager. After a few intense minutes of CPR and a few doses of shock depressants, Dillard rose from still body of McCarthy’s son.

“I’m sorry,” Dillard silently said to McCarthy. “That discharge killed him on contact. There’s nothing more I can do.”

McCarthy looked at his son, lying lifelessly on the road. A tear streamed down from his eye, as his wife cried uncontrollably a few feet away. One neighbor solemnly went into his house and emerged with a white sheet. McCarthy took the sheet and knelt down next to his son and covered him. He then rose and wiped his puffed up, tear-stricken eyes. He looked around at the neighbors silently standing around the body.

“That space invader killed my son. It used some sort of energy ray to kill him, and it’s going to kill us all too!

“McCarthy it was an accident,” Dillard said softly. “The visitor is not out to kill anybody. That “energy ray” was not a weapon. It looked like just some excess thrust being burned off-“

“Don’t give me an more of your stupid explanations, Dillard!” McCarthy shouted back. “You can’t even save my son, so don’t you tell me what you think that blast was!”

McCarthy quickly turned to his wife.

“Peggy, get my 9-millimeter from the closet. I want to be ready when that alien comes out of that ship.”

Mrs. McCarthy sobbingly, changed her direction and slowly walked into her house.

“McCarthy, be reasonable,” Dillard started. “It was just an accident, if we act hostile to whatever’s in there now, we could make things worse, not just for me and you, but for everyone on the planet. If that alien could travel through deep space, and crash down onto our street without even getting a scratch, it could of most certainly already of killed us all.”

“Shut up!” Yelled McCarthy. “You’re just some brainless doctor. You don’t know anything about these invaders! Your meaningless ramblings won’t bring back my son! Nothing will! He’s dead, and it’s all because of that…thing in the street.”

Mrs. McCarthy came out from her house with the gun in hand, as McCarthy jumped into the crater and started to bang on the outside of the ship.

“You hear me in there!?” McCarthy shouted at the ship. “Come out, so I can stick your head in front of that ray gun, and fry your brains, like you did my son’s!”

Dillard jumped into the pit and grabbed McCarthy,

“Stop it McCarthy, you’re becoming foolish!” Screamed Dillard, trying to restrain an irrational McCarthy’s wildly banging fists. “That alien inside could probably kill us all right now, but it hasn’t! That means it came in peace!”

McCarthy pushed Dillard away, throwing him down to the ground. McCarthy leaned over and grabbed the pistol from his wife’s hand, as she stood on the edge of the crater in shock. McCarthy pointed the firearm straight at Dillard’s chest.

“Don’t get in my way, Dillard!”

Dillard started to get up.

“McCarthy, listen-“

With a pull of the gun’s trigger the 9-millimeter burst into fire. Dillard’s body trembled as he grasped his chest. Blood started to drip down his shirt, as he kneeled over. Dillard looked straight into the eyes of McCarthy.

“McCarthy…….they came…..in peace….” With those words Dillard closed his eyes as he took his final breath. He lay there motionless, the neighbors watching in shock at the event that took place.

McCarthy looked at the smoking pistol that rested in the palm of his hands. His face turned from one of anger to one of shame, as he dropped the pistol into the crater he was standing in. He turned to the rest of the neighbors, his arms outstretched, in a pleading manor.

“I didn’t mean to kill him!” He yelled tearfully. “I wasn’t thinking! He was my friend!”

McCarthy looked down at Dillard’s lifeless body.

“He was our friend,” McCarthy sniffed.

However the neighbors suddenly focused their attention on the ship. A low buzzing hum came from the inner bowels of the ship. The loop of people drew back, while McCarthy grabbed the handgun lying on the ground and hurriedly climbed out of the crater.

The group watched as a long rectangular section of the hull, pivoted near the bottom of the ship, lowered itself onto pavement, creating a ramp and an open doorway at the same time. Yellow light from inside the ship poured out into the spectators, as they squinted to dilute the bright radiance. The invader was ready to reveal itself.

Standing in the doorway was the silhouette a small, 4-foot high toy-like robot. Its silvery paneling matched that of the ship’s as it glistened in the artificial light. It had just a rectangular box for a body, with a small rolling track for feet. It’s eyes resembled camera lenses, as they focused in and out of the head, making in mechanical sound as they moved. Covering its upper body where a series of buttons and digital gauges that projected a series of mysterious symbols. It had small arms with a mechanical claw at the end of each of them. The robot was almost alive.

The android started to roll down the ramp towards the audience, and the crowd drew back more.

McCarthy raised his gun once again, but this time not at an innocent man, but at a soulless machine crawling towards him.

The robot stopped as it left the ramp, and stood in its place. Another hum sounded, but this time it was quieter, and it came from the invader instead of the ship.

Two small slits of its chest slid back into his body revealing a small, silvery six-inch tube.

The robot bent its metallic arms towards the cylinder in its torso. A motorized whine echoed, as the machine’s small claws grasped the tube. The arms then whined again, and the tube was brought out of its resting place, into the warm night’s air.

One man standing in the crowd couldn’t take the suspense anymore.

“It’s got another ray gun!”

“Let him have it!”

McCarthy hearing his words, immediately squeezed the pistol’s trigger several times, as the bullets hit the invader, sending sparks through the air.

The robot fell backwards, as McCarthy emptied the last of his clip into the killing machine.

Smoke poured from the inanimate machine, as small flames emerged up from its body. As the flames reached the arms, the claws sprang open, releasing the tube. The object of interest rolled onto the ground and made a stop as it went into a grassy lawn.

The scene was like a photograph. Everything was still, the people, the robot, the ship, the tube, Billy, and Dillard. Silent sighs of relief swept through the crowd. It was over. In the end, two people had died. Tragically one was killed by his own fellowman in a state of rage, and not by the object of fear that had been residing on the street.

The lights started to come back on in the houses, and the watches of people started to tick again.

McCarthy looked at the scene from the crowd, gun still in hand he stood there silently, as everything sank in.

“What are we going to do?” Asked a woman hoarsely.

“I’ll tell you what we’re going to do,” said a man assertively. “We’re going to burn this spaceship, with everything in it, just like that robot’s burning right now. That’ll make sure no other invaders are hiding in that craft somewhere.”

The neighbors scattered to there houses and back, carrying cans of gasoline, dumping them over the ship, while a few men carried the remains of the robot inside the ship and quickly ran out. McCarthy did nothing. All he did was watch, his face showing signs of medical shock, as he stood not moving a muscle.

After the craft was covered with gasoline the man who suggested the burning took a pocket lighter and lit a small wick that another man tied to the ramp. The flame sped up the wick as the crowd ran back to avoid the detonation.

As the flame touched the gasoline-soaked side of the ship, an explosion erupted from the mass of metal, sending sparks and shrapnel into every direction. The group of neighbors watched as the wreckage burned, along with all their fears and nightmares.

One of the younger boys, looked around as the spectators watched the great conflagration. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted the robot’s tube lying in the grass. Like any young boy, he ran over to it and picked it up.

Upon closer inspection, he noticed a small red button at the end of the cylinder. Curiosity raced through his blood and he pressed the button. With the sound of a quiet click, a bright blue beam of light emitted from one of end of the tube.

The boy flashed the shaft of energy in multiple directions until the beam shone on his hand, illuminating a small cut he received while playing around his yard earlier that afternoon. As soon as the beam fell upon on his palm, he felt a tingling sensation run through the veins of his hand. The small cut on his palm started to close, and in a matter on seconds it was completely gone.

The young boy showed a look of confusion. Surely this could not be the death ray the neighbors were talking about. This thing didn’t hurt him it healed him. But like most children, the boy’s short attention erased such paradoxes.

The boy pressed the button again switching the light off.

He looked closer at the mysterious tube and noticed some small, red writing at the end of the object. Even though he was a beginning reader, he knew he’d never seen these letters before, and knew that none of the adults have either.

He looked up from where he stood and watched the remains of the ship ablaze. Every living person on the street watched the wreckage burn as the summer night drifted away…

In the months that followed, the government researched every bit of evidence to find out where the ship had come from. Upon examining the tube they found the writing the boy picked up.

After days of intense deciphering, the writing was finally decoded. It was only one four-letter word, a word that no one had ever heard of. After pondering its meaning, the investigators decided it wasn’t of great importance and tossed the findings aside.

What was that mysterious word that eluded the investigators? What was the strange message from the horrible invader from another world?

The little red markings on the tube spelled out just four tiny meaningless letters…n-a-s-a.