A writing-challenge meme stolen from Merrilee that really forced the brainjuices. I hope this functions as a short story, even outside the constraints of the challenge.
- - -
About five PM on Thursday last week I stepped out of my tin-shack monitoring station to watch a UFO land amidst a tornado of red dust.
Buggered if I know why they came. Control never received any response in thirty years of broadcasting. Down on basement level six, where they keep the records, there are mountains of printouts, the collected data from years of scanning the sky. End result: nothing.
First contact came without warning. Garbled tones, then a burst of static. High, ear-biting screeches as the dish picked up something brooding just beyond our atmosphere. Impossibly huge.
Just thirty minutes later, they broke through the cloud cover and settled twenty kilometres east of Uluru.
Kata Tjuta was the name on everybody's lips for days afterward, as that was the closest rock formation to what became known as the First Contact Zone, and the only thing left standing when they left the following Tuesday night. Lord knows why they did what they did. My guess is they were scoping us out, that those five days were spent evaluating what we had and what we didn't have while we freaked out and ran in circles.
Nations on hold, waiting, refusing to breathe. Ominous sounds echoing across the desert that stole your heartbeat. People in the streets admitting fear to one another for the first time.
Quiet like we hadn't had in years.
Ridiculous, that first contact ended with a great spluttering noise like a giant's fart. Silt and stone flew across the dry-rock plains as the ship began to lift, and there were seven or eight loud pops, like a plastic bag being squeezed to bursting. Then a rush of air, so fast it tore at my skin, and I turned away as the world behind me erupted in flame.
Uluru? Vanished. Wisps of smoke where the great rock once had been. X-rays across the plains that gave every kangaroo in the region sudden, inoperable cancer. Yabbies as big as horses, if that counts for anything.
Zero trace of the aliens, though, and if you bought me a drink and told me it was for the best I would probably agree, and nurse my beer, and pull my coat tight over my belly to hide the thing growing there, slowly expanding, waiting.
13 Responses
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Ooh lovely, a first contact story! Superbly done
Extra points for Uluru!
Oooh good work bro! It has a normal flow too, you might be pushed to realize its alphabetical on first read.
11 out of 10 for extreme creepiness. You have successfully pushed my distaste for yabbies into a full-blown phobia, not to mention creating a very elegant solution to 'k' - nice one!!
"This is pretty good, a little strange, very creepy.. but what's so special about.. oh god oh god it's alphabetical oh god.."
That is my reaction summed up. Even though I know it goes against the alphabetical novelty, I'd love to see this expanded a little.. it could function very, very well as a weird/horror story in its own right.
My only problems with the story were the references to Uluru - which seemed to clash a little with the narrator's voice, but that's probably just a personal reaction; the last line ('Z'), which I think was too long but damn well acceptable considering the challenge, and the fact that it's TOO GOD DAMN SHORT.
Seriously. Great stuff.
Oh that was fantastic! I'm so impressed that you managed to do that within the context of the alphabet sentence challenge - goes to show that you can really do great things even working on such a specific criteria. Well done
What the hell does the mention of Uluru have to do with the narrator's voice??
"What the hell does the mention of Uluru have to do with the narrator's voice??"
I don't know. It's almost certainly a personal thing. Where I live "Ayers Rock" is the more casual name for Uluru, but as I said - all it did was make me stop reading for a moment. It broke the flow for me. For all I know, "Uluru" is the accepted term wherever it is the narrator lives.. in which case, that makes perfect sense. It wasn't an attack or anything, simply an interesting personal note I thought I'd mention.
All it did was clash for me, on my reading of the story. The rest, to my eyes, is near perfect.
That is excellent, a great little story, strong on its own without the alphabet.
This is interesting.Ilike it!
This is interesting.I like it!
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