A First Date, with Guns... and Mutant Bugs

“I don’t usually bring a gun to a first date, you know,” huffed Simon, as he leapt over the prone corpse of the Sectoid that had momentarily blocked their path. His strange alien-looking weapon had just been unloaded between its compound eyes, allowing them access to the lower tunnels beneath the city.

Aliya said nothing as she was led swiftly along down the tunnel. She had seen so much death in the last few minutes that she was uncertain whether she would ever be able to speak again without her words simply coming out as screams instead.

They ran further and further, Simon taking down every invader that crossed their path, a strange new weapon materializing from somewhere in his tight suit with every encounter. There seemed to be more of the attacking creatures as the couple went on, and Aliya realized with dismay that they were running into some kind of hive.

“You really should not have followed me. I‘ve got enough to do without taking care of you as well.”

As far as first dates went, she thought, this one had really started to suck.

…

Three hours earlier, Sahara had been laying across Aliya’s bed, squeezing a pillow in her arms as her eyes unwaveringly followed her sister’s mad dashes across the room.

“This one? Is it too cutesy?” Aliya looked down at herself as she held up a baby-blue sundress against herself, her brow furrowed in worry. “Or maybe this one?” She twisted around and grabbed a bright red romper off the giant pile of previously discarded clothing items that shrouded her dresser, the sundress falling to the floor to be trampled by her anxious feet. “This one fits me better but it might be too much, with the deep neckline. Ugh!” She spun again, a graceless ballerina, to look at herself in the mirror, lips pursed and pulled to one side of her pretty, dark face.

Sahara said nothing, but squeezed the pillow even tighter in her thin hands. She never knew how to respond when her sister was in these states. Aliya’s nervous energy was a tangible, abrasive cacophony, and Sahara simply wanted to cover her ears and wait for it to be over.

Aliya threw an exasperated look at herself in the mirror, and then a much more compassionate one at her sister and sighed. “I’m sorry, Sahara, I know this is a lot, I’m just so wound up.” She dropped the romper and kicked it aside, wading through the piles of clothes and shoes that littered the floor of her small room. “When you get older you’ll understand, it’s a whole ordeal to present yourself in a way that represents how you actually want to be seen.” She plopped herself down next to her younger sister, gently prying the pillow from what was turning into a chokehold.

Staring at her sister’s nose, Sahara asked, “Why can’t you just show up and represent yourself how you are? Why do you have to put on a costume?”

Aliya blushed. “It’s not a costume Sahara, gosh you make it sound so sneaky. I just…” she bit her lip, her eyebrows knitting together once again. “I just need to put my best foot forward. I’m not good at being alone, you know that.” She lowered her eyes. “Being single doesn’t suit someone like me.”

Sahara looked at her sister’s eyes- it was easier, now that they weren’t aimed right at her but rather still downcast and thoughtful. Sometimes she felt like she could see things clearer than Aliya could, as her sister’s mind was constantly clouded by the fears and assumptions about how she was being perceived. Aliya wanted to be wanted, to belong to someone who could take care of her, and complete her. She, Sahara, never had that problem- she saw things (and people) for what they were. She saw that, despite the myriad of ways in which she was strong, smart, and capable, her sister truly believed she was not whole.

“I think you should wear the red one.”

…

The giant fracture in the wall of the huge chamber in which they arrived looked like a pair of stone lips, parting to allow more and more of the Sectoids entrance.

“Where are they coming from?” whispered Aliya. She and Simon were hiding behind a natural stone column, unnoticeable but uncomfortably close to the growing conglomeration of Sectoids. They had arrived there after what seemed like almost an hour of running through the darkened tunnels that seemed to create something of a colossal anthill below the bustling city above. Simon had left a trail of corpses in their wake, and sighed audibly every time he had to protect the shell-shocked Aliya from harm.

“That crack there leads to their hive,” Simon breathed, pointing to the wide stone mouth, a football field’s distance from their hiding place. “They’ve been digging these tunnels for ages, maybe millennia, and growing in number down here, waiting for… well, I don’t know.” He frowned, looking back at Aliya who was squatting behind him in the dark. “They honestly might have been waiting to evolve to be strong enough to fight us.” He turned back around, focusing again on the fissure. “They’re just bugs, see? Giant, intelligent bugs.”

Aliya watched as the hordes of Sectoids organized themselves into rows, like an army. The earlier ones we encountered were just scouts, she realized. They must have been sent early to assert a base camp on the surface. They hadn’t counted on Simon being there, on a date and armed to the teeth.

…

Aliya had introduced herself to him at 10 in the morning, made aware of his existence by a ‘You’ve Got A Match’ notification. By 2 that afternoon he had responded to her message with an invitation to meet him downtown at Saffron Lounge. She accepted, mostly out of desperation, but also because his messages seemed inquisitive and kind. When he asked her to meet him that very night at one of the trendiest restaurants in the city, promising it was his treat and that there were no expectations, she did not hesitate to accept.

They sat down and ordered their drinks, Aliya smiling shyly up at the man in front of her. He’s better looking than his profile pictures, she thought, and she blushed when her eyes met his. Simon’s steely gaze, however, sobered her quickly. He spoke.

“I want to be up front with you, I am not looking for something serious.” He stared at her, matter-of-fact.

Aliya’s eyebrows raised in surprise. “Oh-uh, well…” she wasn’t sure how to respond. He looked so …intense. “What exactly are you looking for then?” She hoped his response wouldn’t expose him to be a creep, clawing for a hushed night in some dingy motel. He hadn’t seemed the type, when they were chatting.

“I’ll be completely honest, okay? I mostly needed an excuse to be here, tonight.” His eyes scanned the restaurant, and Aliya stared at him, confused.

“An… an excuse?”

“Yes.” He was looking at her now, leaning forward. He seemed tense. “I have a job to do, and it had to be here. This isn’t the type of place a guy can just walk into alone, and I have to be inconspicuous because, well…” He looked around conspiratorially. “They’re watching.”

Aliya stared at Simon’s face, trying to figure out if this was his idea of a joke. She couldn’t tell.

…

Wiping her eyes on the restaurant’s luxurious one-use bathroom towels and leaning in to fix her streaming makeup, Aliya’s thoughts went down a well-worn path.

He is making excuses because you’re ugly.

Of course, you always pick the wrong guys.

Who wouldn’t lie to get out of a date with you?

Presentable once more, Aliya stepped out of the gold-plated bathroom doors and saw the center of the restaurant had been replaced by a gaping black hole. Obscenely large insect-like mutant creatures were tearing through the crowd, leaving those who didn’t run dead in their seats. She saw Simon, expertly firing some alien weapon at the creatures from the corner. She ran to him.

...

Simon had woken up in his motel room alone that morning, surrounded by his whole arsenal of weaponry that he had fallen asleep polishing. A brief search for sustenance and he was back in his room, on his laptop. Gathering data as a freelancer tended to be difficult, but he had a surprising number of sources for this project. Intelligence agencies all over the country were in a panic about the Sectoid threat, smaller outfits having attempted to secure bases in various hotspots already.

From select amount of information they could compile, Simon’s sources had informed him that these smaller units were just the advance guard- the greater mass was still on the way. From what Simon could understand, these bugs had watched and learned, accumulating knowledge on the greatest weaknesses of the human race. They had already stationed spies, and were ready to infiltrate quickly, cutting down any infrastructure at whatever sources they could reach. Their species would take over swiftly and efficiently, as only insects could do.

Of course, they had set up their primary hub right underneath one of the swankiest places in the state; the kind of restaurant where they turned you away at the door if you weren’t wearing a three-piece suit, or accompanied by an aesthetically pleasing woman. He had been scouting dating apps for three days, trying to connect with as many single thirty-somethings as possible. Most seemed unwilling to respond in a timely manner, and the few he invited out for the night said no on account of it being too short notice. His job was to sneak in and take out their only known weakness…

…

“The Queen.” whispered Simon. He shrank back as a line of Sectoids passed uncomfortable close to their hiding spot. “The queen will be hiding in the deepest recesses of the hive, and if I get to her, I can cut off this infestation at the root.” He peeked out once more, as the Sectoids organized their new additions pouring out of the fissure. “These creatures are evolved and intelligent, but they’re still bugs. They’re still genetically tied to their Queen mother, and if she dies they will all feel it and either fall back or die themselves.”

“How will we get down there?” asked Aliya. Her legs were shaking, but she was focused on the task ahead.

Simon twisted his neck suddenly to look back at her. “We aren’t doing anything. You are staying hidden until I finish the job and get back to you.” He shook his head and looked at her with something she thought was close to disgust. “You followed me down here and now I have to take care of you and make sure you don’t get killed, that was your choice, not mine. I never even work with other professionals, much less civilians like you. I told you to run away on the surface, and you clung to me like a child.” He turned back to watch the crowded Sectoids.

Aliya thought she might cry, but controlled herself. Something about this man she barely knew speaking to her like a petulant child allowed and idea to snap into place in her mind. Her sister’s words echoed in her mind; Why can’t you just show up and represent yourself how you are? Why do you have to put on a costume?

What was she clinging to? Why had she followed this stranger into dangerous territory? Why do you have to put on a costume? Was she so afraid of being alone that she would cling to anyone who seemed handsome and capable? Why do you have to put on a costume? Worst of all, she thought; had she misrepresented herself so completely that he could not see the ways in which she might be an asset?

Why do you have to… put on a costume?

Aliya frowned at Simon. “Actually I have an idea if you want to listen to it.”

…

The pair snuck back down the tunnels they had come through- no simple task, as the number of Sectoids collecting in the main chamber was growing by the second. Their huge, armored bodies and strange backward limbs sending a shiver down Aliya’s spine.

They came upon one of the corpses that Simon had dispatched earlier. It was dry and grey, in a puddle of oily fluid. Aliya bent down and stuck her hand in the fluid, then raised it to her face and smeared it across.

“I’d really rather shoot my way through.” Simon whispered, his face contorted in repulsion. “This is way too, uh… covert for my taste.”

“Do you really think you have anywhere close to enough ammo to cover even half that crowd?” Aliya asked. She was not going to back down now- this was a good idea and she knew it. He, with all his guns and training, was wildly underprepared for the sheer numbers they were seeing down there. She took another handful of the oily liquid and smeared it on his face, taking some pleasure in his aghast expression.

“Make sure to cover any exposed skin, ok?” She dipped her hands in again, and dragged them up her forearms, the liquid oozing and staining her red romper. “The pheromones need to cover as much of your human scent as possible.”

Simon reluctantly covered himself in the liquid. He could not believe he was here, taking orders from this random girl, this… prop. Yet, he had to admit, she was right. This was a better plan. He’d known there would be many Sectoids to deal with, but the numbers they were seeing were five, maybe ten times what he had expected. Even his ion grenades and fragmentation bombs couldn’t handle this many Sectoid warriors.

“Okay- empty out as much of him as you can.”

Simon knelt down, and began to work.

…

The oddly dry, gangly Sectoids shambled up the side of the chamber, barely drawing a glance from any of their comrades. The nearby Sectoid warriors’ flicking antennae determined the pair they smelled right, and as far as their low-resolution compound eyes could see, the duo looked pretty much at home. They seemed to be missing a limb or two each, but that was not uncommon in hives this size, where bodies were crowded together, limbs dispensable.

With no reason to pay attention to another simple pair of Sectoid brethren, the rest of the increasingly sizeable insect army looked on as this disguised pair snuck to meet the open lips of the fissure. They peeked in, past the dozens of Sectoids who were marching out, and saw beyond them a cavern as dark as night, with only more of these creatures to meet them as they went on.

“It is working, they aren’t noticing us,” whispered Aliya, the bony exoskeleton muffling her words. “Their eyes aren’t good, especially if they’ve been living in the dark- it’s mostly our smell that’s masking us.”

Simon was quiet, focused- his many weapons were squeezed tight into this strangely proportioned body, and he was struggling to move gracefully. He was also quiet because a thought was brewing in his mind.

“Aliya…” he hesitated. This was odd, and sudden, but he felt compelled to express this feeling. “Aliya, I said before that I work alone.”

Aliya turned back to him- it was more of a waddle, hindered by the suit of the dead Sectoid as she was. Was he really trying to get rid of her? Still?

Simon looked at her, as well as he could through the hollowed out heads they wore. “I think… well, I think I should reassess that rule of mine.”

Aliya was staring at him. It was her turn to be contemplative.

“Do you think you would be open to helping me out in the future? I just…” Simon struggled to get the words out. “I’ve been doing this a while and I realized I could be a lot more effective with someone like you, someone with different ideas, at my side.” He looked down, waiting.

As the hordes of Sectoid warriors filed past them, creating an army the size of which the human world would have no chance against, Aliya was deep in thought, in a bedroom far away.

Sahara had been trying to tell her, in the only way she knew how. Sahara, with her sensitive ears and fidgeting fingers had always seen Aliya as she was. A worthy big sister- strong and able, intelligent, beautiful… Hadn’t Aliya always been the only one Sahara was honest with? Her repetitive tics and outburst were never too much for Aliya, and Sahara had always been fully herself in the presence of her sister. Aliya was Sahara’s whole world, in a way, and Aliya wanted to step into that role fully.

“Simon, if you had asked me that earlier tonight… well, I would have said you’re crazy and delusional if you think giant bugs were going to take over the world, but…” Aliya took a deep breath.

“Listen. I am going to help you, tonight, okay?”

Simon looked up, hopefully…

“But after we get this job done, I think I need to be alone for a while. I have some stuff to figure out.” She paused. “Also, I am absolutely not qualified for this, but you should look for another partner. I think it’d be good for you.”

Simon said nothing, but looked at Aliya with- from what she could see- was an expression of respect. She felt that she might be able to accept a look like that.

Simon hunched down, turned to face the fissure, and steeled himself.

“I think you’re right. Let’s go?”

Aliya turned to face gaping stone maw, and the horrors beyond.

“Let’s go”