Interesting Times

Brandon and April hold hands as they walk their house one last time, searching for anything important left behind. The entire move has been an impromptu affair, with little opportunity to reflect on what truly counts as essential. Certainly not their record collection or even their wedding album. It's weird to think about how much things have changed in so little time, and what used to be cherished heirlooms are now nothing more than dead weight. The less they bring with them, the better.

What's the quote? May you live in interesting times? Surely, an alien invasion counts as interesting.

Holes

Geoffrey spent almost every waking moment in the backyard measuring holes. He'd dig the holes first, usually with a spoon, which took a great deal of time of course. Then he measured them. He calculated their volume, after taking down their circumference and depth. He analyzed each one carefully for soil erosion and texture. He compared one hole to the next, intent on finding even the most minute differences.

This behavior of Geoffrey's worried his parents. Maybe the boy was autistic. Maybe he was preparing for an alien invasion. Whatever it was, this wasn't the behavior of a normal 2-year-old.

The Last Morning Before The Lamps Took Over

It was a Saturday morning when it happened. The flea market regulars arrived just after daybreak and found the entire lot filled with lamps. They came in all shapes and sizes, some barely recognizable as lamps at all.

The vendors debated where they might have come from. Perhaps they were delivered to the wrong address. Maybe a shipment had been stolen by the Stevedore's Union, who'd decided these lamps couldn't be unloaded.

That was when the invasion began. It seems normal now, but in the beginning, no one could have dreamed of an alien race that looked like desk lamps.

This story was written in response to this photo prompt.

Final Contact

First contact with an alien life form came in 2015 when the pods landed. They entered the Earth's atmosphere across the planet. They landed in empty fields and busy streets. They filled the oceans and eventually washed up on shore.

The creatures that emerged were soft, benign-looking, and responded well to cuddling. It wasn't long before every child on the planet wanted one for their very own. Supplies were limited at first, but the pods kept coming, and eventually the fad became outdated.

The creatures took three years to mature. Once they started breeding, the enslavement of the human race began.

Human Resolve

Hernando lowered himself into his chair and began the painful process of unbandaging his feet. The mines took a lot out of him and the thought had crossed his mind many times that surviving might not be worth the effort anymore. He winced at the bloody mess. Even if he'd once been the one lecturing his friends on the need to keep fighting, no matter how small the act of resistance, he was now reaching the end of his resolve.

But if humanity was ever going to win back its freedom from the outerworlders, Hernando could not abandon all hope.

Today's Story was based on a prompt from Lillie McFerrin Writes.

Founding Father

The first documented invasion of Earth occurred prior to the Revolutionary War in the mid-eighteenth century. The aliens had achieved interstellar flight through a complicated series of hydraulics powered by steam. They were an industrious species but their eagerness to rule Earth was not matched by their technology.

The invasion began in less populated parts of North America and mainly affected the natives. The first major settlement they entered was Adamsville, which was completely burned to the ground.

The new world might have been destroyed then and there had it not been for Benjamin Franklin and his invention of electricity.

Alice Who Sings

Alice couldn't speak. She could only sing. Even as a baby, her cries came out as melodies. Her parents were afraid to send her to school because not only the other kids, but also several teachers, made fun of her and treated her as an outcast.

Alice wasn't the only strange one in her family. Her brother was obsessed with astronomy and convinced they weren't alone in the universe.

When the invasion began and they learned that the only way to appease the aliens was through song, that's when everyone realized they were trapped inside an M. Night Shymalan movie.

Mushrooms

At first, the mushrooms were viewed as a plague. Every time one sprouted, the townspeople would vigorously clean the location with the heaviest grade of industrial cleaner, the kind you have to wear masks and gloves to use safely.

They weren't a poisonous variety, but neither did they taste very appealing. Something like a cross between grass and sandpaper. They served no good purpose, and the way they kept multiplying to the point where it seemed you were walking, sitting, and sleeping on mushrooms was creepy.

But when the town survived the alien invasion, people stopped complaining about the mushrooms.

Alice With The Small Hands

She was a freak, her hands impossibly tiny. They all shunned her.

She dreamed her hands were larger than they actually appeared, shrunk on their way through the looking glass, but life was no wonderland.

Her grandmother made her believe. There was always a logic to God's madness, a meaning behind her abomination.

And then, the clockwork men attacked, their precision machinery working in time to destroy the Earth. Alice, only her tiny hands able to fit inside, saved humanity. Her day had arrived.

They still shunned her. Even her grandmother. Her purpose had been served, praise be to God.