The Alien Affair.

"I'm just sayin’, maybe it was good that the aliens took over you know?" Tony said as he forced a shovel into the ground, prying away frost-bitten dirt. "It wasn't that amazing before am I right? It's more clear now you know what I mean?". He filled the shovel and threw the dirt over his shoulder. He was the spitting image of a New Jersey man in a leather jacket that drank and hit his wife too much in order to do what he had to do to do the things he had to do.

It was night. Winter. In a glade. In a pine tree forest. Tony and two other men, Danny, a younger man with a deceiving look of innocence who preferred jeans and bleak uninviting sweaters, and Alfie, older than both of them and had bought his last suit in the 90s were preparing a six feet deep hole to throw a slender corpse with dull facial complexities into which was laying nearby. The scene was lit up by a weak floodlight connected to a separate car battery beside a rusty old van, "to save power" Alfie had said.

"What are you talking about, they took's our freedoms and democracy, Tony, we ain't fuckin' free no more. Just a bunch of slaves for fuckin' aliens." Alfie replied, lighting his tenth cigarette for the night. Snowflakes slowly danced their way down through the air, covering the three men, the trees, the corpse, and the ground in a white sheet. He looked around, scouting for any curious eyes lurking in the dark. Nothing. His eyes were drawn to the star-filled night sky and the pole star.

"When was the last time you fucking voted Alfie?" Tony asked.

"It ain't about if you vote or not, it’s about if you can chose to vote you bozo."

"Look, all I'm saying is that them aliens seem to know what they are doing, not getting into our fratellanza and solving big picture shit. Environment, wars, and stuff." Tony filled another shovel with dirt and flung it over his shoulder. "Start digging the both of you's, I don't want to be here all night and get my willy turned into a popsicle."

Alfie shrugged his shoulders and gave Danny a careless look. "Only two shovels and I'm old. My back ain't what it used to be."

Danny sighed and grabbed the other shovel and started to help Tony from the other end of the grave. "It's Zoringas" he stated.

"What?" Tony replied.

"It's Zoringas, they call themselves that."

"So what?"

"It's their name stupid, not aliens."

"So what?!"

"What do you mean so what? It's their name. Zoringas."

"So. fucking. what?!"

"If you think it's so great with the Zoringas Tony, maybe you should just call them what they are. "

"Look at him, a year at some fancy collage with them educated girls and now he's all some aware wise guy. Fuck you Danny, those bag-faced-blue-skinned-space-sticks are fuckin' aliens. Then, now, forever. Why don't you go and get environmentally certified or something." Alfie cut in.

A dark sedan pulled up next to the van. Alfie reached for the inside of his it-used-to-be-expensive jacket. A man of vast height and width - and an expensive jacket - opened the door, gripped the edge of the roof of the car with his left hand, and pulled himself out. The car's suspension sighed with relief as he stepped out. The scene now basked in the headlights from the sedan. He put a toothpick between his teeth and walked over to the three men and the corpse. Alfie let his hand fall to his side and continued to smoke.

"Hey Big Tony, how you doin'?" Alfie asked.

Big Tony didn't reply but turned to the corpse, took the toothpick out of his mouth and pointed at it.

"Who the fuck is this?"

Tony paused his digging and wiped the sweat off his forehead. "It's the guy."

"That ain't the guy," Big Tony said.

"That's the guy Big Tony" Alfie replied and looked at Danny for support.

"That ain't the fucking guy Alfie,"

"It's the fucking guy!" Tony protested. "You said, take out the guy that walks out of Ellies Bakery, exactly at 11.30 am three days ago, with a light grey suit that walks funny. That's the fucking guy."

Big Tony turned to Tony. "I said Carmellas Bakery you fucking cafone."

During the exchange, Danny had walked over to the corpse, knelt, and poked at its face. "Oh shit."

"What?" Big Tony said without looking at him.

"The skin is coming off."

"The skin is coming off?" Tony asked.

"Yeah that's what I said, the skin is coming off."

"Well take it off then?" Big Tony said.

"I ain't peeling off the skin of like a psycho."

Big Tony turned and loomed over Danny who suddenly felt very insignificant and started to peel away the skin from the corpse's face. Alfie and Tony took place on either side of Big Tony. Underneath the skin was a grey pale head without eyes or mouth. It looked like a grey pineapple with intertwined brain substances. It reeked. They all gasped in disgust. "Fuck me, that's one ugly fuck" Alfie said.

"Shit, I think it's one of those alien community outreach representatives or something," Alfie said.

"Community outreach?" Big Tony asked.

"How can you tell from that ugly brain cake," Tony asked.

"I saw it on the news" Alfie replied.

"What kind of outreach?" Danny asked.

"Some kind of improved relationships-with-humans-representative, or some shit like that. First, they take our freedoms, and now they want to be our friends. Giving us cannoli and suggestions for space recipes and next on the menu is to make us their alien slaves."

"Some kind of buddy-alien" Big Tony murmured.

"Zoringas" Danny interrupted.

"What?" Big Tony said.

"It's their name, Zoringas. Not aliens."

"So fucking what?"

"I'm just saying, that's their name."

Big Tony looked at Danny and frowned, his jaw was filled with rage and he pinched both his hands "You three put holes in the wrong fucking guy, and this fucking guy," he gestured at the corpse. "He's some kind of kinder garden alien teacher from our new celestial fuckin' overlords that are supposed to make em' look good, and you're worried about what I call them?". Danny looked down at the ground, put his hands in his jacket pockets, and took half a step back from the corpse.

Big Tony scratched his head and looked at the grave. He looked back at the alien and then at the grave again.

"I don't think a hole will do it, who knows what kind of space technology those moon sticks have? Mind-GPS or some raise him from the dead shit."

"Danny, your third cousin, what's his name, the short guy, wanted to go major league but busted his knee?" Tony asked.

"Sammy?"

"Yeah him, he still works at the steel mill right?"

"Yeah"

"I say we give him a call and throw this frozen Mars bar here into the fire"

"Sammy.. ain't that the guy who punched Leo at his own wedding?" Alfie asked.

"Yeah that's the guy, Leo came after him and busted his knee with a hammer right out on the field during practice," Tony replied and laughed.

Said and done, Danny called and gave Sammy a lucrative offer. They carried the corpse and threw it into the van along with the shovels and the floodlight. Big Tony weighed down the dark sedan again together with Alfie. Danny and Tony got into the van. An unspoken worry grew among them. The alien takeover was a quick ordeal. They were a bit uncertain of how. The rumor was gunboat negotiations. They had never met a Zoringa before. Few people had. They were mostly seen on TV shaking hands with smiling government representatives, always smiling - and their big ships floating in the sky every now and then. What would happen now that they had offed one of their representatives? Their worry was perhaps not about global politics, but rather, what would happen to them?

Their vehicles did 180s and drove out of the glade along a narrow bumpy road through the forest. The van bounced left and right and the corpse slid slightly along with it.

"Danny, you think like me right? It ain't all that bad with the aliens."

"Zoringas"

"Whatever"

"I don't know Tony, on one hand, we ain't free no more, who knows what kind of rules they will make up in the future. On the other hand, it's not like we're some kind of choir boys either."

"Exactly."

"But everyone ain't made Tony, most are just normal people, right? Just cuz' we don't notice any difference don't mean that other people don't."

"Yeah, I guess" Tony shrugged his shoulders, pulled down the window to create a small opening, lit a cigarette, and exhaled a cloud of smoke. "But on the TV you see all these government people, ours and dictators shaking hands and the aliens putting their best.. men? women? Who knows what they have between their legs. I heard June's kid is gender-fluid nowadays, what the fuck is that? Whatever, it's her life. Anyway, they put their best people on the job right?"

"Who knows what's best Tony? Maybe our way ain't the perfect way but at least we get to choose it. Maybe June's kid is fuckin' happy now, right? Maybe they will make it illegal in the future."

"Yeah sure, but who cares? Normal people just want to be normal, as long as the aliens deliver for most of us, I say let them."

"But what do they want Tony? I think Alfie has a point, it's nice now but then what? What's the price we're paying?"

"We're made men Danny, we ain't paying shit to no-one."

"Except to the Don,"

"Yeah except him."

The headlights from the vehicles lit up the forest and dark outlines of rocks and fallen trees in the shifting shadows played with their minds and fueled their growing paranoia. The road turned slightly to the right and the small caravan followed. As they came out of the turn, they could see the main road up ahead and bumped hard into a hole in the road. "Take it easy," Tony said.

Behind them, there was a slight noise as if something was scraping the floor. Tony slowly looked over his shoulder and saw the Zoringa moving its hands and body.

"The fuck is this, it's moving."

"Jesus Christ, what?! What are we going to do?

"Fuck do I know, shoot him more?"

"Maybe we can just say we're sorry, we took the wrong guy?"

"You think this alien-, this Zoringa stiffy is going to forgive us?"

"Well, he's supposed to be our friend."

"Fuck this," Tony pulled out a gun from inside his jacket and aimed at the community outreach representative. Just as he was about to pull the trigger the van bumped into another hole and threw off his aim and he put a hole in the floor. "Fuck, Danny!" The sound of the gun smashed the eardrums of Danny and Tony and caused a high-pitched ringing noise. Danny threw his hand against his right ear and unwillingly turned the steering wheel to the left. In a panic not to run off the road, he corrected and the van swayed back to the right, throwing off Tony's aim again as he fired on the Zoringa.

The Zoringa on the other hand woke up from the bangs and quickly got up on its feet. Its head seemed to look at them and then at the doors at the back of the van. Tony took aim again. The Zoringa dodged the bullet, rushed against the back doors, opened them by sheer force and jumped out onto the road. The Zoringa ran.

"Stop! Danny fucking stop!" Tony screamed.

Danny slammed the break and the van came to a halt. Seconds later the sedan did the same. They all exited their vehicles.

"What the fuck happened?" Alfie asked.

"The fucking alien escaped!" Danny screamed over the ringing in his ears.

"Escaped? He was dead!" Big Tony replied.

"Well he ain't dead now," Tony yelled.

"Fuck." Alfie said.

"Fuck" Big Tony said.

"What did you say?!" Danny yelled and looked confused.

"I said fuck!" Alfie replied. "F. u. c. k."

"Okay!" Danny yelled back.

"We can't have some half-dead brain slug escape and tell his people what happened." Big Tony said loud enough so that Danny and Tony could hear. "After him, he can't be far".

They all looked down the road back into the forest. "Okay, we drive up and turn around, me and Alfie will take the car you two bozos can walk on each side of the road and look for tracks."

"What, we can't see shit," Tony said.

"Use the fucking flashlights on your phones," Big Tony gave Tony a stern look.

They parked the van and the sedan disappeared into the dark as Danny and Tony flanked either side of the dirt road, guns drawn in one hand and phone in the other, and searched for the Zoringa. The cold shaped their souls into ice popsicles as they pushed through the snow. "I'm freezing," Danny said, the ringing in his ears had slowly ebbed away. "Yeah me too" Tony replied. They continued for some ten minutes until something caught Danny's attention in the corner of his eye. A figure in the shadows hiding behind a rock. He waved franticly to get Tony's attention and then pointed towards the rock. "There!" he whispered. But not low enough.

The figure rose up and darted into the forest along the road. Danny and Tony did their best to follow and fired their guns after it. The bullets dug holes into the trees. The muzzle flashes lit up the forest and they could see the Zoringa disappear again. "Fuck!". Danny quickly opened his cell phone to call Big Tony. "Cazzo, no signal."

"But you had before?" Tony was annoyed. "I don't know, maybe the alien has some kind of signal jammer" Danny replied.

"Zoringa" Tony grinned.

"Fuck you, he ran along the road".

They ran as fast as they could along the road and reloaded their guns. Not long after they returned to the glade and they could see the sedan parked with both front doors open, the engine still running and the headlights turned on. "Hey, Big Ton', Alfie, you's seen the alien?" Danny yelled. No response. "Alfie? Big Ton'?" he tried again.

Danny and Tony looked at each other, Tony motioned that they should crouch. Slowly they approached the car and looked over the hood into the glade. There on the ground, Big Tony lay seemingly unconscious and a few feet away from him the Zoringa stood. It held Alfie in a firm grip as a hostage with its hand over Alfie's mouth.

"Wow, easy now," Tony said. Both he and Danny stood up and slowly walked into the glade. "Big Tony, you there?" Danny kicked Big Tony lightly on the leg. "You alive?" He kicked again. Big Tony groaned and began to wake up. "Yeah yeah, I'm here." He crawled up on his feet.

You are dead. It did not speak, it was not a telepathic communication either. It was more of an emotion that manifested itself in their chests. Your end times are coming. No forgiveness. It was as if a sharp knife slashed through their minds. An immeasurable pain that made them scream.

"Fuck this motherfucker" Big Tony said rubbing his head.

"Sorry Alfie" Big Tony said. Danny and Tony looked at each other. This was it. The backside of organized crime. In the end, even a capo was expendable to protect the family. It was a price that they all had seen others pay before.

"Shoot it" Big Tony commanded. Alfie's eyes widened, some inaudible sounds came from his mouth and he tried to protest with his arms.

"Sorry Alfie" Danny said before he and Tony unloaded their guns on Alfie and the Zoringa. The bullets punched holes into Alfie's body, ripping the flesh of the arms and hands of the Zoringa and finally, three bullets made its brain mound explode all over Alfie's face. The guns went silent. The three men said nothing. Alfie had been a friend to all of them. For Danny, he had been perhaps even more, a mentor and a father figure. For Big Tony, Alfie had been his confidant as a capo. The guy you could always ask before you asked The Don. For Tony, Alfie was his best friend, they had found each other the day they met, Alfie had just made Capo and Tony had just become a soldier.

Above them, a small vessel shaped like a big needle suddenly appeared and hovered above them. An eye-piercing bright light lit up the glade and two gray mists shaped like humanoids appeared before them and levitated in the air. One of them moved over to his fallen comrade and lifted it up in the air. The corpse floated up towards the spaceship. The grey mist returned to its friend. Moments passed by in silence as they looked at the three wise guys.

You are our possession now.