Change can be a slow beast, you hardly notice anything is different until one day you look at your son and think, how the heck did you get soo big, when did you start driving, or how could you be getting married when you are still my little kiddo, that kind of change is good, you get used to it, and you never know it happened until you cant remember how life was before it.
Change can also be a reckless bastard, it comes into your life and punches you in the jaw then before you hit the ground your life is unrecognizable. Last night, every human met that bastard. Sam barely got any sleep after the announcement, he wanted to call Paul but figured that the poor son of a bitch was either full blown crazy or passed out, either way it wasn’t the right time to call.
He wasn’t sure what he should do, but he figured that on Saturday mornings he goes to Starbucks so he got up and went to Starbucks.
“They are getting pranked! This is just some giant 4chan or anonymous hacker trolling” the man expressed to his friend.
“First off, they said they haven't met these ALIENS, they supposedly all got the same message a few weeks back and then have been getting new messages ever since but these messages don’t have pictures or anything else” The man made air quotes when he said aliens.
“Okay so the president said several nations verified the authenticity but how could you ever possibly verify this?, I'm telling you this is a giant scam”. He took a sip of his coffee before walking out the door with his friend in tow.
Sam ordered his usual Vanilla latte with extra pumps this time he asked for an extra shot of espresso. The barista had one headphone in and was clearly distracted, she was most likely listening to the same 4 minute video on repeat or at least excerpts from it, pretty much everyone had been doing the same. Last nights video had already become the most viral video in history as of this morning it was sitting at 1.2 billion views half of those must have come from Sam himself. He could probably recite the damn thing by now. He paid for the latte and got in his car. He turned on the FM radio for the first time in ages and kept scrolling until he heard someone talking about the announcement.
“Its still very early on so its difficult not to speculate as to their intentions, I would advise that we try to stay optimistic” the woman’s voice was calm and collected. “OPTIMISTIC! Are yall hearing this lady? Maam’ did you see how white the president looked, he looked like he saw the whole damn casper family last night!” Sam couldn’t help but laugh, he changed the station, it was a bit too early for the back and forth, he just wanted to hear anything new.
“Sources at the Pentagon have released a few more details, a total of 11 messages have been received from June 17th to August 26th and have been corroborated amongst all of the respective Governments that there has been no deviation in the messages each received. The president laid out the first 3 messages in his address to the world last night, and the remaining 8 messages were posted on the White Houses website.” The rest of the broadcast was a repetition of what Sam already knew.
Eleven messages he bit his nails while he thought. They got eleven messages before they let us know if he wasn’t soo burned out from his mind racing all night he would have probably been angry right now he just felt excitement, half from the announcement and half from his double shot lattee. The president went over the first 3 messages received since they were the most crucial. As Sam drove to his moms house he started to replay the messages in his head for the twentieth time that morning. The first one stated,
Humans, your species has been selected.
The superior Alkanii have blessed your species with the opportunity to survive.
The human race has been Submitted to the Tournament of Lessers for Sector 4934 of our Galaxy. Humans have been provided with the opportunity to promote their species to sub-equal status with the Alkanii and will reap all of the technological advances of the unpromoted lesser species. Refusal to perform in the Tournament will relegate humanity to permanent unproven lesser status. There will be more information to come in subsequent messages. Please take this time to inform your species about this joyous opportunity. An Alkanii Tournament Committee has been dispatched to your home world and will arrive in twelve weeks from the day you receive this transmission.
As the president read the message to the world, he mentioned that it was received physically. All of the messages arrived physically, although he did not specify how that would be possible.
Twelve weeks, Sam thought we could have had 12 weeks to mentally prepare for whatever this committee is but now we just have a few days.
Sam pulled into his moms driveway, the grass needed to be mowed. He could use her mower to take care of it, but he today he would rather just pay the neighbors son to take care of it. As soon as he walked in his mom hugged him harder than he had been hugged in years.
“Wow, okay mom let me get some air back into my lungs” she started to kiss his cheek and forehead alternating every second. “Ma, okay I got it, love you too” he kindly pushed his mom back, her eyes were red and she had crearly been crying that morning.
“Ma, its going to be okay, we don’t even know what all this is yet, don’t get all worked up” Sam made his way into the kitchen, he started making a bowl of cereal,
“Sammy, I want you to go to church with me today” Alissa started to follow Sam into the kitchen. “You and the girls are coming to church everyday this week, Carmen and Vicky already called into work this week”
Sam rolled his eyes, he wasn’t sure if getting abducted by aliens was much worse than church everyday. “Ma, its okay im telling you. We don’t have to worry about whatever this thing is, its got nothing to do with us. We just need to let the government deal with it, this is the kinda shit they train for” His mom was not worked up enough to slap the back of his head for using that language around her.
“Plus” Sam continued “you think the aliens are gonna be scared of father Collins, the old man cant tell an alien from Mrs. Stewards wrinkled face” he made himself laugh hoping his mom would even crack a smile. He was hoping that his mom would be the calming force but he noticed that she needed someone to be there for her this time.
“Lets go for a walk yeah?” Sam stretched his hand out to his mom and they stepped outside.
“What could they want with us” his mom asked after a few minutes of silence.
“They probably just want to meet us and become friends and all this weird talk about Tournaments and whatever is just getting lost in translation. Maybe they think its like a friendly sports match or something” Sam didn’t believe a word of what he was saying but his mom seemed to calm down a bit. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
“Anyway, whats Carmen and Vicky got to say about it” Sams mom stopped.
“They are acting like they arent scared Sammy, but a mother can tell when her children are distressed” she looked worried again.
Sam walked with his mom back to her house, he hugged each of his sisters and tried to not look as worried as they did. He wasn’t sure if it was better to look stoic in the face of fear but he it came to him naturally, nevertheless he could still feel the heat of uncertainty in his chest.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Sam started to ease the ache of the stress with the best tool he knew of, food. He was never the type to binge eat a giant meal, he knew how to pace himself which was probably worse. He would end up eating more than the giant binge eater since during stressful days he could eat 5 big meals through out the day and night. Being at his moms house certainly did not help, after church she started to do what helped her deal with stress, cook. He doesn’t blame his mom for his weight gain but she certainly helped it along.
Vicky helped her mom cook lunch, she was only 16 years old but already knew her way around a kitchen next in line was Sam who could at least fry and egg every once in awhile. Carmen was just a lost cause, its interesting that she was the oldest of the three so you’d think that she would have picked up a tip or two from her mom but in reality if Carmen had any part in preparing your meal, you’d know it before you even took the first bite. Vicky and Ma were making Fried chicken today, they always plan the after church meal the weekend before, it seemed that cooking was at least distracting the two since they were taking their sweet time today.
Carmens head was stuck on her phone, she was scrolling through social media, then switching to one of several group messages she was on. Her phone was lighting up non-stop, Sam supposed that it was her method of distraction too, just keep reading more opnions on it so you don’t have time to sit and process your own thoughts.
Sam was planning on going to the bookstore right after lunch, his mom made him promise that he would come back for dinner.
The silence of the drive made his mind wander to The Announcement again, the press was already referring to it as that. The second message was more confusing than the first, its what most people were focusing on who wanted to stay neutral or maybe even positive about visit. The second message stated.
Representatives of Humanity: The Alkanii expect the message of the Tournament of the Lesser has been widely acknowledged by your species. We understand that such a revelation will not be taken lightly. We urge humanity to act logically and remember that the outcome of the Tournament lies completely in the hands of humanity. The chosen humans will have years to prepare. The Alkanii Tournament Committee will be at your disposal to answer all of your questions relating to the participation in the Tournament.
‘Years to prepare’ that’s what most people were focusing on, Sam read a few articles were people speculated on the sentence, does this mean that we are going to be under invasion for years? Are we going to be okay for 100 years and this becomes our great grandkids issue? The vagueness brought more anxiety.
Sam was starting to think that it made sense as to why the president waited to make his announcement, there are very few people who would have taken this news and not freak the fuck out. Humans aren’t always the most patient and having to wait a few days for this Committee was already feeling like a lifetime, having to wait 11 weeks would have felt cruel, society would probably have broken down by the time they arrived. At least in the day after the message society was still functioning.
Sam looked down at his phone for the 100th time that half hour and noticed a text from Jo, he did not hear the notification since he had to put his phone on silent, every few seconds there was some kind of notification going off, he was starting to see himself spiral into doomscrolling like his sister was and it was much less therapeutic for him. He immediately felt a rush from just seeing the name appear on his phone, he hadn't spoken or heard from Josephine in at least 3 years and it had been about a year since he unblocked her number.
He clicked on the notification and saw her message, it was brief but just enough to send another rush down his spine. I need to speak to you why me and why now he thought. Their breakup was far from mutual and even farther from mature. He didn’t respond, his heightened emotions started to remind him of why things ended with Jo in the first place, they were always raw and passionate together which is not a bad thing for new couples but after 4 years of heightened emotions people get exhausted and start to resent. Even so, he was the one who held on too tight, dragging along the relationship for another bitter 6 months with brief moments of love and lust. In the end Jo left him, blocked him and he in turn did the same to her.
“I cant deal with this today” he cleared the notification from his phone and continued to doom scroll, as if learning more about these aliens would now help him forget that Jo reached out to him.
“Excuse me ma’am” Sam tried to interrupt the Bookstore employee.
“All the alien books are sold out and there aren't any in the back” she blurted out without taking a pause in her step.
“oh okay” he replied but she was already around the next bookshelf.
“did you see the other messages yet?” a young man asked Sam, he was standing a few feet away also looking at the empty section labeled ‘Space Exploration and Related’. He overheard Sams unasked question to the employee
Sam turned to face the young guy, he must have been no older than 17 and a fellow big guy just like Sam, “yeah, I’ve seen them all, the remaining ones aren’t really any additional info except ‘hey remember we are these many days away’ as if we would forget that they were on their way”
“right, there are a ton of weird questions going on, though I was on reddit all day today and saw…”
Sam interrupted “oh you were, did you see my friend Paul on there?”
“uhh what?” the big fella didn’t get the joke.
“Sorry dumb joke, my friend Paul was living on reddit recently, what was your name again?” Sam said stretching his hand out.
“Jackson” the teen shook Sams hand quickly before continuing. “Yeah so, reddit has been going nuts, every thread since the announcement is blowing up and there have been dozens of leaks and then retractions and then more leaks and confirmations and its going wild” Jackson pulled his phone out of his pocket while continuing to talk.
“I guess it would make sense that all the trolls would be out right now shitposting, but also if you think about it .. umm what was your name I forgot to ask?”
“I’m Samuel Barrett, you can call me Sam… if I think about what?” Sam prodded Jackson
“right, if you think about it, it also makes sense for a lot of people who work in government right now to be leaking all the stuff they know about the announcement and the Alks”
“Alks?” Sam asked Jackson “who came up with that already”
“shoot, that’s the nicest term they have for them online, I sure do hope that the Alks don’t check people internet history when they get here because a lot of people are talking a lot of shit already, there is one positive thing about these aliens coming and doing it aggressively, all the online hate has been collectively aimed at our coming visitors. A lot of people realized real fast that humans are one thing and these Alks are a whole other thing”
Sam shook his head in agreement.
“what do your parents think about all this?”
Jackson smiled “dude, my parents hopped in the truck last night and drove straight to their church, their pastor called and emergency meeting and I haven’t talked to them since, honestly id be surprsised if they don’t drink the kool aid the day before the arrival” his smile faded “When they told me to come… no lie, it was the first time in awhile where I actually considered going”
Jackson paused in thought.
“Well, why didn’t you?” Sam asked the young dude, who started to remind him a little bit of himself at age 17.
“Because, it would make me feel better” Sam looked a bit confused.
“Feel better, not be better… I don’t want to just feel better about these Alks coming, I want to do whatever I can to make my situation better, even if it means just trying to research what little info there is out there.”
Sam nodded, he didn’t know this teen but he understood the sentiment.
“That’s pretty mature man” Sam stuck his hand out. “Look Jackson, Im glad to have run into you and you are definitely a smart dude, keep staying informed and keep your eyes open. But do me a favor when you get a chance and reach out to your parents and don’t let last night be the last time you see them.” Jacksons eyes widened a bit.
“I don’t know whats going to happen in 7 days and we all hope for the best, but just remember that our friends and family are all we really have” Jackson listened and started to look serious.
“Yeah, thanks for the advice, I hope you get to see and talk to everyone you love before the arrival” Jackson responded.
Sam smiled and suddenly thought back to his ignored messages. “I'm going to head out, stay safe out there” Sam started to walk away, after a few steps Jackson remembered something.
“Hey Sam hold up a sec I almost forgot to tell you, there’s an online meetup for the arrival day for Weatherford. If you want to come out that day just join this facebook group.” Jackson jotted down the name of the group on a piece of scratch paper and handed it to Sam. “just send a request and I will let you in, see ya around”
Jackson turned to walk toward another person standing near the Space section, Sam could hear the fading conversation as he walked away “…have you seen the other messages yet?”