Sci-Fi Short Story
The Keepers
The Truth Behind Alien Abductions
Oh no. It’s Them!
He awoke with a start in a cold sweat. John was still in bed but was paralysed. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a strange blue light coming through the window. It was bright. It lit up the six “entities” in his room. He wanted to scream, but his voice was silent.
John’s terror increased as one of the creatures drew close to him. It leaned over, its face coming closer and closer to John’s. Those big black eyes. It was looking into his soul.
A wave of calm overwhelmed John. The fear evaporated.
The entities took positions at each of John’s arms and legs. The “Leader” continued gazing into John’s eyes while the sixth creature stood near the door as if monitoring the house for any activity.
John felt light as a feather. He was floating. He was outside and levitating up toward the source of the blinding blue light. The next few minutes were “missing”. He was lying face down and naked on a cold steel examination table. The grey creatures with enormous heads and hypnotic black eyes were poking and probing him. He wanted to cry out, but no sound came from his mouth.
Why are you doing this? John screamed in his mind.
“Because we must.” Came a whispering reply in his head.
John flipped over onto his back. He could now clearly see three entities in the examination room. Two had the instruments in their “hands” — these were the implements they had used to probe John. The third creature, the “Leader”, picked up a silver rod and stood beside John’s head. It held the rod in its three long fingers and brought it gently until it just brushed John’s forehead.
Suddenly, John’s mind filled with strange images of a world in flames. All around was destruction and desolation. John struggled to comprehend what he saw — perhaps it was the Earth in the future, a warning about climate change? The Leader was looking deeply into John’s eyes the whole while. It abruptly withdrew the rod, and the images stopped.
John was relieved, but a stinging pain resonated within his brain until it slowly receded like an echo in the mountains. His ordeal was not over.
They took him to another room.
In its centre was a metal structure that resembled an upright crucifix. The creatures had soon attached him to the contraption. His arms and legs were restrained, and probes with wires were inserted into the palms of his hands and the soles of his feet. A steel belt around his neck almost choked him — he could not move his head. John was fully immobilised. He struggled and, with a focused mental effort, found he could move his fingers slightly. His eyes were free to look around.
These monsters are torturing me, he thought. The alien voice in his head spoke like a voice on the wind, “No, John. This is a test.”
He scanned the room. The Leader was standing close to the door. A shimmering blue light, like a curtain, separated the two of them. No one else was present — at least within his field of view. At the extreme edge of his vision, he could barely make out the shape of what resembled two syringes — one glowing blue and the other red. They were poised to inject him. The panic gripped John. His chest was tingling on the inside, his heart racing, breathing laboured, and his throat dry. The veins on his neck felt like they would pop, but for the tight metal choker that constrained them.
“Now we begin.” The alien voice whispered inside his head.
It was just a pinch. The red syringe was no longer visible. A warm and comfortable feeling started in John’s neck and quickly spread to the rest of his body. His breathing returned to normal. The panic he had felt just seconds before was replaced with a feeling of strength. He felt positively brave, like the euphoria after sculling Saki or a Whiskey. His vision became sharper — focused — somehow, he could see 360⁰ around the room.
What were those whispers? They seemed to emanate from everywhere. At first, they were too faint to make out, but as John concentrated, they resolved. It was Them — talking to each other. He could understand — the experiment was proceeding normally.
The red medicine had been in his system for less than ten seconds, yet his perception was becoming more acute exponentially. All the grey Aliens on the ship were visible — he realised he was looking through the walls. The Leader was still in the room, and its focus never diverted away from John’s eyes. It was intent.
The elated euphoria John was experiencing began to fade. He felt something more profound. Something deep inside. It began to well up. He felt hot. Anger, hatred and rage began to consume him. He wanted to destroy these insects that had dared to restrain him. He could feel the joy of crushing their heads beneath his feet and the taste of their blood in his mouth — a single thought formed in his head.
KILL!
John’s little finger moved ever so slightly — a blinding green energy beam shot out from it and across the room, directly at the Leader. The shimmering blue light surrounding John intervened to save the Leader’s life as the beam was absorbed. “Release me!” John’s voice was booming and commanding. “Release me, NOW. You insignificant creatures.”
The emotions of the grey Aliens were clear to John. They felt utter TERROR.
“Experiment terminated.” The Leader’s voice was loud in John’s mind. The blue syringe had emptied its contents into John’s neck.
It was cool. The flames of anger and rage inside John were immediately extinguished. The ice torrent was coursing through his veins, and he began to feel like himself again. His mind was in confusion; what had they done to him?
The shimmering blue light disappeared, and the Leader approached John. It continued to look into John’s eyes.
“John,” it said. “We did nothing to you except remove the inhibitor that keeps you in a quiescent state. You won’t remember any of this later. Be at peace, John.” The leader’s voice was soft and soothing, like a wise, loving parent talking to a child.
“You humans are a powerful and mighty race — almost gods. Your kind once enslaved this region and exterminated many civilisations. Only through a miracle, we devised a way to contain your powers and bring you back to this, your homeworld — Earth — where you have been ever since. Our moral code will not allow us to destroy you.” Its voice was a lullaby.
John was beginning to fall asleep, and his mind became cloudy.
The Leader continued, “For twenty thousand years, we have kept your true nature in hibernation, and we will continue to do so — until you are ready. Our mission is to protect the Galaxy from Humanity. We are the Keepers.”
Sun streamed into John’s room. He could hear the birds singing outside. What a great sleep; he felt refreshed and ready to take on the day. It was Saturday — time to go to the cinema. But what to see? For John, there was only one choice.
Superman.
Copyright ©2023 by Andrew Dart All Rights Reserved.
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