A Broken GPS got us kidnapped by Aliens

“Ugh why is the signal so bad here?” My brother, Shravan, groaned. He kept refreshing both of our phones.

“I mean we are in a heavily forested area… and besides we have the car’s GPS and the physical map.”

“Sitara akka, I don’t think the GPS is working right.” He pointed out the revolving arrows on the screen.

“Its just refreshing, don’t worry.” Area 51 ensured the GPS is working and updated, even if they had signal blockers on. Why is this thing so janky? I thought to myself, still driving.

“What kind of secret government agency that you won’t even name in front of me,” he said that part with a hint of bitterness, “gives you a crappy GPS? And also why is the cabin in the middle of the woods with barely any signal. Is this even safe?”

“The entire area is owned by the government, dude. There’s even a governor’s lakeside mansion somewhere.”

“Are you sure we’re going in the right direction?”

“I’m pretty sure.”

“How sure?”

“Shravan Rao, I swear to God if you would stop asking me and check the physical map, and tell me where to turn, we will get there soon.”

He was silent for a beat, and mumbled, “And I thought a sibling weekend would be more fun than going to a stupid wedding.”

“You know my hearing aid is on right?”

“Yeah…”

“Check the damn map!” There seemed to be a fork in the road up ahead, and though there were no cars behind nor in front of us, I didn’t want to risk stopping in the middle of the road. Especially with the sun getting lower and the possibility of wolves or bears stalking about.

“Uhhh…” He tilted the map around

“Well?”

“Give me a minute, I’m too young to read these kind of maps.”

“Dude, I’m hardly a decade older than you.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever..” Teenagers. Ugh.

“Well?”

“Well what?”

“DIRECTIONS YOU-”

“RIGHT!” I swerved the car into the right lane, tires screeching as I do. I took deep breaths, calming my racing heart. “Couldn’t have said that earlier, dummy?”

“Hey, its not my fault the GPS sucks and our phone signal isn’t working.”

“I don’t like your attitude, and I will absolutely turn around and drop you home and you can go to that wedding with mom and dad while I enjoy my weekend at the lakehouse, if you don’t change your attitude right now.”

“Hmmph.” He changed the song playing, and then looked out the window, silent. The tension sat in the air for a few more minutes, before he broke the silence with an apology, and offered me some dark chocolate m&ms. I took some m&ms from him, a silent “I forgive you,” before I munched on the treat. We started talking about space, an interest we’ve always shared. Its too bad he isn’t allowed to know that I work for Area 51 as an intern. He’d probably enjoy my stories of the aliens I work with, the ships I get to check out. Heck I’d figure out how to allow the facility to allow him as a guest and show him the work I do. Regardless, I never deny the existence of aliens in front of him. We’ve discussed old sightings of aliens (I never revealed which ones were real) and we discuss what it would be like to have a colony on the moon from time to time. Right now we talk about NASA’s plans to take people to Mars.

An hour later, we both realize we were lost. We were supposed to be at our cabin by now. But instead….

“Hey didi, uhh…”

“We’re lost.”

I pull over to the side. Shravan desperately tries to get signal by opening his window and tilting both of our phones around. I keep tapping the stupid GPS, which moved on from the refresh screen but now is stuck on the right turn screen from like half an hour ago. I look at the map, but unfortunately, there were no signs around indicating where we are. Just trees and rose bushes. My hearing aid beeped, indication low battery. I have a back up battery in my bag, sitting in the back seat. “I need swap my hearing aid battery.” I say, reaching for my bag, and removing my hearing aid at the same time. At that moment, I heard a faint whirring, from my left ear, the sound muffled in my right. Shravan hears it too, and he starts scanning around. I try to figure out where the noise is coming from, but unfortunately, because of my hearing loss, its hard to decipher where its coming from. Shravan, however, suddenly out his window. “Oh my God.” He says, shocked.

“What is it?”

He points up. “Is that.. is that a UFO? It can’t be? Right?” His finger starts to quiver. I look between him and the blue light coming from above in front of us. Shit. “Akka?”

“Sit down, and close your window. Don’t look outside.” I open the moon roof and stand up. Flying about 2000 feet above of us was indeed a UFO. It was huge, and looked fairly similar to the spaceships you see in movies. Well, at least from here. Its massive, probably as wide as a Costco, with shiny silver plating on the outside. There’s bright white lights along the bottom.

I think I recognize the ship. Well.. at least the system it belongs to anyway. Proxima Centauri. The ships from that systems shared this kind of ship. The planets have an alliance with one another. The aliens there are on good terms with Earth, as far as I’m aware. Wary of humans, though.

I duck back down and shut the moon roof.

“Well?? Could it possibly be a secret Russian aircraft? I heard rumors of one.”

“I-I uh.. I don’t think so..” The whirring is getting closer. “I think we’re gonna have to off road.”

“Off road?”

“Yeah,” I start the car again, and slammed on to the gas, driving off the road toward the right, where it seemed to be a large grass field. “Keep trying our phones, once we’re far enough, I think I have a commu- a radio.”

“Radio? You didn’t mention that- ahhh!!” He yelped in surprise looking behind us. My eyes darted to the rear view mirror. “WHY IS IT FOLLOWING US?”

“I HAVE NO IDEA!!” What the heck?

“Faster!!”

“I’m hitting 90 my guy!!”

The spaceship isn’t traveling super fast but its big enough that it could catch up in decent time.

“Akka look! Is that a big house?”

“Big house?” I looked to the horizon and saw a mansion, surrounded by trees, in the distance. Large and white, it looks modern. “Maybe we can hide out around that property. Someone like that has a lot of money for security. I’m not sure we’d be too welcome there. Not without an invitation at least.”

“You work for the government right? So-”

“Not directly and even then, I’m just an intern.”

“Oh God… The aliens are catching up… we just had to get lost didn’t we?” He started praying to our Gods. I focus on getting to cover. Once we get a minute away, I will call Area 51 for backup. Hopefully they can somehow send the aliens off. I rack my brain to see if there were supposed to be any incoming ships from Proxima Centauri, but I didn’t remember any.

Suddenly, a bright glow surrounded us.

Shit.

“Akka?” My brother’s shaky voice asked grabbing my arm. The car stopped, even though my foot was still slammed against the gas pedal. I hit the gas harder but to no avail. A buzzing sounded around us, and then…

We were floating. Well, the car was being pulled up in the beam of light. Magnetic energy combined with a machine that can turn down gravity in small spaces, if I remember the schematics of the ship correctly.

“Shravan, listen to me,” I say, grabbing his shoulders, his body shaking from fear. “Whatever you do, stay calm. Don’t attack. Let me handle this.”

“We’re literally getting kidnapped by an alien spacecraft!! I can’t just be calm! And how are you going to handle this? Does your hearing aid transform into a mini light saber?”

“Wha- look, just trust me, please? I’m begging you, I’m your older sister, I will protect you.”

“How?” My heart breaks from the fear in his eyes. I remember what it was like seeing aliens for the first time without any warning. Area 51 doesn’t prepare you for your first interview with an alien. Getting to be an intern for Area 51 itself isn’t something you just apply for. They find you. I guess sort of like these aliens for some reason.

“All in time, now be quiet.” We’re now through the doors and inside a large elevator like room that moves once the doors shut underneath us. Its pretty dark in here, with a few small purple lights on the walls. Large claws grabbed on to the wheels of the car and held it tight. The car trembled as the ship went up up up… and… whoosh! I knew we were in space. No gear. No way to home by ourselves. And of course, no phone signal. “Stay down okay.” I whispered.

“Are we… are we.. Are we away from Earth?”

“I-I think so…”

“Hello, humans. You are free to leave your vehicle and roam about the room. We will be with you in a few hours.” A wobbly voice said on the intercom.

“The aliens know English?” My brother asked.

“Yeah… I bet its not their first time on Earth, and certainly not an English speaking country. Maybe they’re confused and thought they were picking up someone that they were supposed to be.. Though..” I had to stop myself from thinking out loud more. I can’t discuss Area 51.

“Are you sure maybe we were just the unlucky humans who got lost on the way to their lake trip and got kidnapped by aliens for experimentation.”

“Pfft, I’m 99% sure they’re not kidnapping us for experimentation. They know better.”

“How would you know?” He raised an eyebrow at me, and I darted my eyes to the front.

“Just trust me dude. Cmon, lets hop out.”

“No! What if those claws grab us again?”

“We’ll be fine dude. This chamber doesn’t have human grabbing claws. Those things re just to hold on to the-” I should not talk so much about this. I cleared my throat and opened my door. “Those things are simply meant to hold on to vehicles. Now cmon, help me look for the radio.”

We both hop out and rifle though our things. “How is a radio going to help this far out from Earth?”

“Just help me out dude.”

“NO.” His voice echoed. He marched around the car and faced me, his arms crossed. “You tell me right now what the heck is going on! You hint at some radio that’s supposedly going to get us in contact with Earth and-”

“Found it.” I grabbed the radio out of the bag.

“Hey pay attention! I’m freaking out here! And you’re acting strange for someone who is getting kidnapped by aliens.”

“I told you, I’m trying to protect you. We have to remain calm.” I hit a button, and the stereo looking device clicked, and I pulled each side outward, revealing a screen. I turned on the device, a communicator from Area 51 which worked outside of regular radio frequencies and could communicate from space, but not farther than the moon’s orbit, without any external satellites. I hit a button on the screen to try and call Area 51, but the signal wasn’t strong enough from here. There’s probably signal blockers within the walls. I know for sure ship like this has dishes that act like antennae

“What is that??”

I sighed. I guess he has the right to know about my secret job, after all… I can’t just expect him to not want answers after being kidnapped by aliens. If the roles were reversed, I think I’d do this same. He expects that I don’t know anything, and to have no means of communication that works in space. “Okay, lets sit down.”

“Why?”

“Trust me, you’ll want to sit down for this.” We both plop down on the floor, the communicator in my lap. “Before I tell you anything, you need to promise not to interrupt me and not to mention a single word to anyone, not even mom and dad.”

“Dude they have to-”

“Swear it!”

“I swear I won’t tell mom and dad, sheesh.”

“Okay..” I sighed. I took my brother’s hands into my own. “So the secret government facility I work for? Its uhh… its Area 51.” His jaw dropped. I could tell he was struggling with whether or not to believe me.

“That place.. isn’t it just an urban legend.”

“We’re in a spaceship dude. An alien spaceship. It is real.”

“That’s why you’re secretive about your job! I thought the government chipped you and you’d get electrocuted if you spoke about it or something…”

“Wha- no no.. If I start blabbing about working with aliens-”

“Wait there’s actual aliens at Area 51?”

“Duh.”

“From where?”

“Classified.”

“Oh c’mon!”

“I shouldn’t even be telling you that I work for Area 51, let alone that it exists. I’m only telling you what you need to know.” So I explained to him why I was confident that no harm would come to us, because aliens from Proxima Centuari wouldn’t kidnap and hurt humans randomly. I also explained that the communicator needs a satellite or any similar device that could amplify the signal and send it back to Earth. Area 51 could then advocate for us and bring us back home.

We both circle around the room trying to find an exit. “I don’t see any way out! Like not even an outline for a door.” Shravan exclaims, desperately feeling around the walls.

“Wait..” I remember that this kind of chamber would have an exit/entrance on the ceiling or the floor. I look up and point at a large circle, that blends in easily with the rest of the ceiling, a deep metallic blue. “That’s a way out, and that also means,” I get down to the floor and find another circle that’s under the car. “Bingo!”

“How did you- nevermind- we can’t squeeze under the car, and we can’t reach the ceiling.”

“I can move the car forward and turn it a bit.” We both get in and I try to start the car but it doesn’t. “Oh crap.. I forgot…”

“What?”

“Most technology that ends up in here becomes disabled.. Ugh that means neither of my hearing aids work.”

“Can you hold me on top the of car?”

“Can I-Dude- no-”

“Well we cannot just sit here…”

I sighed and rubbed my temple. I guess there’s one more secret to reveal. “I can.. I can float us there.” I mumbled.

“You can what now?”

“There’s something else I should tell you. Its a long story but part of my DNA isn’t human… like there’s 2% that’s basically made of space energy… I can explain in detail another time.”

“Wha-Wait, are you adopted?”

“N-No, I told you I’ll explain.. but I have the ability to use light and essentially turn down gravity…”

“YOU CAN WHAT?” His eyes were wider than saucers.

“Dude I can hear you with your normal talking voice, there’s no other sounds.”

“I’m-I’m sorry I’m having trouble wrapping my head around this…” He started to hyperventilate, and normally I’d sit here and try to calm him down, but the sooner we get out and connect the communicator, the better.

“Look, I will explain everything, well as much as I can without revealing too much about Area 51… Even I’m kinda supposed to be classified… uhh.. anyways, cmon. Hop out. I will float us up. I think the room above us will be essentially a snacking room.”

“Snacks??”

“Just-Let’s go…” We get out of the car and stand close enough to float almost straight toward the exit. I close my eyes, imagining the light bending to us. I feel my brother bristle behind me, and I know the light is covering us. We start to float up.. up..

“Wait how do we open the door?” My brother asks, grabbing my arm, afraid to fall. I hit a button, which sits in the crevice of the door. “Nice.”

The door clicks open, and we haul ourselves over. The door closes. We look around, and I was right. The snack room.

And.. an alien