They Are Already Here

They Are Already Here

By

Kyle Meeder

I can’t say for certain how long they have been here. They’ve been with us for as long as I can remember and likely long before I was even born. The creatures hairless and odd they are are truly of a different breed. It really only takes one a few moments of observing the other creatures that inhabit our world just to see how out of place these creatures from space really are. 

From my neighbors I often hear rumors and hearsay of their origins. They came from the sky in a golden blaze and they chose us to be their companions. Others say they came from a rock that crashed out of the sky and when it hit the ground with a thundering crash, they crawled out of it. 

They quickly adapted and began to build and shape the world in their image . When they took over many more savage creatures were killed off, removed from the lands that were once theirs.

I guess the good part is that we still have our land, but we live now as second class citizens. Some of us stay in their homes with them, I guess we looked cute to the oblong things with their large grimy mitts and their ogling eyes. I will say their choice of communication towards us and the toils and strife of their busy everyday lives are beyond my comprehension. For one they love to give us a lot of baby talk that’s for sure.

I sat outside on the porch now waiting for my friend Lucas to show up. He was a real patriot. We had a plan to overthrow the tyrannical invaders and restore our society to what it once was. Back when our people roamed free, exploring the land and hunting as we pleased. 

Lucas was running a bit late. That concerned me deeply. 

Could he have been snatched up by a patrol?

The invaders were always patrolling about. We had to be fast and agile. Thankfully our smaller size allowed us to often give their patrols the slip. They built up a larger world around us. I must say the massive dwellings the other worldly colonizers were able to construct were truly astounding. Far beyond anything we could possibly build. 

It really made me wonder. I gazed up into the sky. How many generations ago has it been since my kind truly roamed free? How long has it been since we ruled this world? I imagined my kind in our hay-day. Many just like me gathered around all shapes sizes, ethnicities all together, I heard we had come together before the invaders arrived and formed a united nation. Now it seemed we were divided. The invaders had done that, purposefully, as Lucas kindly pointed out for me. 

My mind wandered back to my earliest memories. I remembered being proud of how I looked. I knew that I was desirable. I knew some of the other young ones around me were not. 

It didn’t bother me back then, but after meeting Lucas out in the yard one day that had all changed. I had learned of another world. One that my fellow brethren who were deemed undesirable were forced to exist in. It had broken me from my trance of a supposed utopia. I had finally seen the world for what it really was outside of my bubble. It was a harsh and scary place.

My brethren were forced to hide and scavenge for food. Many of them succumbed to disease and the elements. Others were picked up by patrols and imprisoned. Some would be released, however they would be permanently altered, to put it simply, the invaders seemed to be trying to curb our population. All while I existed in my life of no worries and luxury under the care of one of the beings from space. 

Maybe they knew about the resistance Lucas had been telling me about. Maybe all that was their way of demoralizing us. Scaring us into submission. This brought a smile to my face. This wouldn’t stop us. If anything This just fueled me with more passion to fight back, I was ready to stand with my fellow brothers and sisters who were not as fortunate as I.

“You seem quite happy Oliver.” 

I looked up to see my captor, her name was Madeline, standing above me. A towering titan. Her smile was sweet and innocent on the surface, but I knew better, I saw it for what it was, deceiving and downgrading. Made me want to kill her, but now was not the time. Lucas had made that clear, we’d strike when the time was right.

“It's a nice day," I responded. "You know I’d really like a snack right about now.”

Madeline smiled wide. Despite living with these things my whole life and not knowing anything else they always gave me the creeps. Something about her eyes and her smile seemed off, plastic even. I hadn’t really taken notice of it before, not until Lucas pointed it out to me.

She laughed, a cute mocking giggle. “Of course love, you’re probably hungry, I’ll get you a snack.”

“That's what I just said you big oaf.”

She didn’t respond, I swear these things really like to ignore us sometimes, one second they give you so much attention the next everything you say goes in one ear and out the other. She unlocked the invisible barrier leading into the dwelling and pranced inside. You know for a bunch of seemingly intelligent creatures they sure were dumb. Or at least they seemed that way. Lucas told me it was a part of their game. They acted dumb, especially around us. Hard to hate a dumb clumsy towering oaf that fed you and kept you safe, but as Lucas had pointed out, the safety we were given was nothing compared to true freedom. This was all just their way of keeping us subservient and unfortunately for many of us, it worked. Why seek freedom and independence when you can have safety? Why want to have to find your own shelter and get your own food? I often grappled with this myself. As rebellious as I liked to think I was, even I had to admit, what would newfound freedom do for me? Would it be all that it's cracked up to be? Would a pampered pet like me have what it takes to survive without the resources provided by my master?

Lucas told me I’d be able to make it. He did as he always emphasized to me after he escaped his captions and chose to roam free. Only reason I hadn’t joined him yet was because of our plan. We were going to take over this dwelling, that's what he told me.

Madeline came back with a wide smile on her face. She set down a bowl of food in front of me. 

“Here you go Mr. Lovey Dovey,” She said again using the baby voice as she ruffled the hair on my head and scratched behind my ear.

“Thank you,” I said.

She giggled as if I had done something adorable.

Her laugh brought back memories of our time together. I remembered her crying one day. Something had happened to her while she was away for the day and it seemed to have bothered her greatly. I decided I should comfort her. Thinking back to that and to how she looked at me the day she picked me up from the cages, the place where the aliens keep all of us until one of them decides to choose us. She chose me out of all the others. I could still see her beaming face from that day vivid in my mind as if it were yesterday.

“Was it really all just an act?”

“Could I really bring myself to kill her?”

Lucas had hyped me up and told me that I could. I wasn’t about to let him down.

I noticed out of the corner of my eye the bushes moving. I could see a tuft of black and white fur.

Was it Lucas? Was he here to put our plan into action?

Madeline suddenly gasped. “OMG, Oliver, I almost forgot your vet appointment is today.”

Before I could react I was picked up by the scruff of my fur, my orange paws now dangled helplessly in the air. 

Madeline checked the strange device near her disfigured hairless paw. 

“Oh my we’re going to be late.”

She quickly opened the invisible barrier and took me by the scruff back into the dwelling. She then activated the barrier shutting me away from the delicious meal she had laid out for me. 

I quickly found myself stuffed in one of their transportation modules, the barrier activated above me trapping me inside. Man, I was looking forward to that.

I got one last look at the porch and my meal sitting all sad and alone. Man, I was looking forward to that.

It was then I noticed Lucas creeping out of the bushes and towards my food. He looked over at me, gave me a wink and then proceeded to pick up the small bowl with his teeth and then he was off, quickly disappearing into the bushes in a flash of black and white fur.

END