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gurl2irl-blog · 6 years ago

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THE LIVING by River Stastny

"The Living" is a preliminary iteration of a trans-futurist reworking of the cult classic movie They Live by John Carpenter, complete with the outlandish imagery and camped up violence of 80's sci fi movies, but with very different protagonists. Geo Nada, our hero, and her group of trans anarchist friends, take us on a comic romp of alien cop killings and questions what it means do "do the right thing".

CHAPTER 1

A wave of red shone like blood, glittering as it passed through a circle of light at the center of the stage, and opened with a thunderous overture.

Sitting in the third row, nervously readjusting her ill-fitting skirt over hairy, fishnet encased legs, Geo Nada played with the mask in her lap. It was somewhat cartoonish, crudely made and with a multicolored skeleton face printed on the front of it, and had diffraction lenses glued to the back.

The Hypnotist stepped out, wearing a latex catsuit emblazoned with a red circle and a cross underneath it, the ancient pagan symbol for ‘female’. This kind of gendered iconography had been abolished for decades, so Nada was surprised to see it used here, although she also remembered when, forced to be a little boy, she would draw the symbol on her face with lipstick stolen from her mother, or often, secretly write it in her notebooks next to her name to see how it looked.

She was instructed to put on the mask. Suddenly her vision was crystallized into countless shards of rainbow-brite light, and the Hypnotist looked wet, glycerinated by the oil slick splinters produced by the lenses. Nada was mesmerized, drawn in by the way the colors glinted off her glossy thighs and lips.

“Wake up”.

Nada read the words on the Hypnotist’s swollen cherry lips before she heard them.

“Wake up”.

Suddenly, Nada awoke all the way. This had never happened before.

She registered the glimmer of the rubbery Hypnotist, still seductive under the hot, dusty glow of the spotlight, and looked around.

Geo Nada blinked out at the sea of faces in the theatre, at first unaware of anything out of the ordinary. Then she noticed, spotted here and there in the crowd, the skinless, diaphanous faces of the Skels.

They had been there all along, of course, but only she was really awake, so only she recognized them for what they were.

She looked at them, laughing, the smoke from their cigarettes floating in and out of their hollow open skulls, and then peered over her diffraction glasses. The illusion was broken. They transformed back into seemingly innocuous people, flesh regrowing through the empty cavity of their head and bodies.

Nada squinted, and put the mask back on, and the Skels became something else. Their flesh contorted even further, forming multiple eyes and muscusy orifices, their bodies pulsating with raw, pink material that moved gelatinously, recompromising itself from moment to moment.

She was horrified, but understood everything in a flash, including the fact that if she were to give any outward sign, the Skels would instantly command her to return to her former state of unknowing, and she would be forced to obey.

Nada left the theatre, pushing out into the neon night, carefully avoiding any indication that she saw their vacant bodies or fluorescent pink flesh or the multiple beaming yellow eyes of these alien cohabitors of the earth.

One of them asked her, “Got a light honey?” Geo gave her a light, then moved on.

She walked down the street, her pointy heeled boots clicking rhythmically against the metallic pavement that flickered with the reflection of the holo screens that hung high above, promising to fill the internal void with luxury vacations, chemical substances, and increasingly more lackluster and minimalistic designer clothing items.

Glancing up at the advertisements, Nada now saw them for what they were. Empty Skel faces, captioned with sinister slogans such as “Consume, not create”, “Conform”, and “Stay Asleep”.

A Holo-blast notification appeared before her eyes, but she was quick to dismiss it, fearing what she would see. Did they know that she was awake?

“I can’t possibly escape,” thought Nada. “Why fight them?”

But maybe she could.

What if she could awaken others? That might be worth a try.

She walked twelve blocks to the DIY space that her longtime friend and sometimes lover, Lil, ran and lived above. Despite being somewhat of a lazy extremist and a heavy conformist to the punk aesthetic, Geo thought that Lil’s anarchist ideologies made them a good candidate to share her sudden knowledge with. Perhaps she wouldn’t be taken as a complete lunatic.

Nada’s head was spinning, and she struggled to keep her thoughts straight. She was aware of a distinct, embodied want to follow the alien commands brewing deep within her stomach, and she began to feel nauseous. Still she resisted.

She turned the corner on Wyckoff and knocked twice on Lil’s heavily stickered and graffitied door, once timidly, and once great urgency and force, for she could see at the distant end of the block the hollow form of a Skel approaching, its gossamer body seeming to disappear into itself. She heard the dog barking and then heavy footsteps coming down the stairs. Lil answered the door, their short black hair greasy and sticking straight out, in a big black t-shirt and shorts weighed down by various chains. They were wearing their customary grimey Doc Martens encrusted with ancient spray paint that had cracked like marble, revealing the many technicolor layers underneath.

“What do you want?” said Lil.

“I want you to wake up,” said Geo.

“I’m awake,” they replied. “Come on in.”

She went in. The HV was playing. She turned it off.

“No,” she said. “I mean really wake up.”

She explained everything to the best of her ability, even offering them the makeshift mask from the Hypnotist’s show to try on. Lil had tried to hold back their amusement, but was unsuccessful, soon interrupting Nada’s tale with a peal of laughter.

“Geo, I’ve heard you say some pretty crazy shit. But this one is really good! I’m not a fucking idiot, and you’re not going to be able to convince me that things are actually run by a bunch of shape-shifting aliens - humans are bad enough as it is.”

Nada made a noise of intense exasperation and covered her ears. She could hear the HoloVision sets of the neighbors through the walls. Most of the time the voices were human, but now and then she heard the arrogant, yet strangely soothing whisper of the aliens. “Obey the government,” said one hiss. “We are the government, ” said another. “We are your friends, you’d do anything for a friend, wouldn’t you?”

They heard a knock on the door. Nada took her hands off from over her ears and opened her eyes, to see Lil noticeably less amused. “Geo, are you alright?”

“Lil.” replied Nada, her voice hardening. “You are my friend right?”

“Geo-”

“Are you my friend?”

“Yes.”

“Lil. I need you to answer me something.”

“Anything.”

“Do you have any weapons?”

There was another knock on the door. Nada saw Lil’s face fall as they realized all at once that she wasn’t kidding.

Sheepishly, Lil procured a pair of silver pistols from the back of their closet. “Ascaso, like the ones the anarquistas used during our Civil War” they said proudly. “Reproductions.” Lil’s ancestors came from Spain, a heritage that they struggled to hold on to despite the pressures of universality and cultural amalgamation that plagued the contemporary discourse. Despite their never-give-a-fuck attitude, Lil had somewhat of a flair for the dramatic.

Another knock.

“Do they work?” Geo asked nervously. “What do we need for this thing? Bullets?”

“Don’t be stupid.” replied Lil, flicking off the safety and pointing it at a glass on the table to reveal a red beam of light extending from the target back to the muzzle of the gun. “Shoots rays-- I had them converted last year, you know, just in case.” She fired once and shattered the glass with a satisfying zing, although the raygun itself remained disturbingly silent.

“Lil, you’re a sick sonofabitch, I can’t believe you’ve had these this whole time.” Lil smiled, revealing the smudge of black lipstick on their teeth.

“What, you mean you didn’t already prepare for the knowledge that our world was actually run by a bunch of squishy pink polymorphic aliens commanding us to obey through subliminal messaging? You should feel lucky that I am such a sicko.” They tossed the other pistol to Nada who caught it, awkwardly. “Now go answer the door.”

It was one of the aliens.

“Geo Nada?”

The glowing eyes and pulsating flesh faded a little and she saw the flickering image of a fat middle-aged man dressed in a cop uniform. It was still a man when Geo decapitated it with the ray gun, but it was an alien before it hit the floor. She dragged it into the hallway, blue-green blood still gurgling in its throat, and kicked the door shut.

“By any means necessary, huh?” she said, grinning, one foot on the melting corpse as if it were a hunting prize. She drove her heel in a little, investigating the soft elasticity of its flesh.

“You’re starting to scare me. But it’s also kind of hot.”

Nada blushed, and started to try to say something, but was cut off.

“You know Geo, I think I might be awake.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, and we need to get the fuck out of here.” said Lil, gesturing at the formless body still bleeding out on the dingy, foot and paw stained carpeting. “They’ll be looking for you.”

Geo tucked her pistol into the waistband of her fishnets, feeling the still-warm plasma soaking into the skin on her stomach.

“I am awake.” she whispered to herself. “I am awake. I am awake. I am awake.”

She pressed her eyes shut tightly and opened them again, noticing the way that her vision reappeared from the blackness, and she felt new again. She was no longer scared.

“There’s something I have to do” said Nada with great resolve. Lil shuddered at the way she seemed to look right through them. “I think I’m ready.”

CHAPTER 2

Geo’s heels tapped forcefully against the platinum streets, a battalion of two marching to go away to war. Lil trailed behind, glancing over their shoulder every couple of seconds. But Nada didn’t break her gaze.

“I hope you know where the fuck we are going.” said Lil. “I didn’t even ask to be a part of this whole thing and now there’s a telepathic alien bleeding out on my carpet. Maybe shit like this is why we don’t hang out as much anymore Geo, you ever think of that?”

She spun to face them. “Lil. We are going somewhere safe, don’t worry. I didn’t ask for any of this either. You’re my best friend and I need your help. Even if you don’t give a fuck about the fate of our planet, do it for me, because I’m going to die trying.”

“Nice speech.” They scoffed, barely able to hide the strong effect of her words that pumped frightened blood, cold and fast through their chest, pulsing underneath their tough exterior.

“Just don’t be a dick.”

They two soon arrived at The Base, a film library that also served as a front for the real operation, the local chapter of TQILA, The Queer Insurrection and Liberation Army. The group was lead by Jupiter, a tall, muscular and very angry anarchist babe with a afro-halo of gold that often caught the light, making her look otherworldly and transcendental, despite the constant scowl on her face and smell of cigarettes that perhaps would suggest a more earthly residence.

As soon as they were through the door, they were swarmed.

“Are you alright?” “What the fuck happened?” “We saw you on the news!” “You shot a cop?” “There was a holoblast about it just a minute ago!” “You two are fucked-”

“How many people did you kill?” asked Jupiter.

“Not people.” said Geo softly.

“You’re damn right!” she replied, thrown off slightly by Nada’s response, but laughed anyways. “You’re starting to sound a lot like me.”

“No, that’s not what I mean..” Geo began, “Look, I know this is going to be hard to believe…”

She explained her observations and the events to the best of her ability, starting with the cadence of someone who had an enormous truth to reveal, and eventually devolving into that of someone who was forced to tell a lie they don’t believe. She knew how inconceivable her words were, but she didn’t know they would be so hilarious.

Geo put her face in her hands, pressing hard until she saw black, then white, then stars.

Everyone was laughing at her, and she could hear the alien signals buzzing all around her, attempting to take control.

zzzz obey zzzzz, no independent thought, consume, work 8 hours, sleep 8 hours zzzzz play 8 hours, conform, stay asleep, obey, consume, submit zzzzzzzzz buy, no thought, buy, doubt humanity, no ideas, consume zzzzzzz submit, no thought zzzzzzzzzzzz obey authority, surrender, cooperate, zzzzzzz no ideas, no thought, submit, stay asleep, stay asleep, obey, buy, do not question authority, no imagination zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

“Hey, fuck you guys, I was there! Geo is perfectly sane and, more than that, a hero.. And we have proof!” Lil pulled open Nada’s coat to reveal the laboradorescent blood, still shimmering and seething in the artificial light.

“It’s true.”

Everyone turned around, surprised by the unfamiliar voice. Geo shuddered. It was unmistakable.

The Hypnotist stepped out of the shadows, eyes blazing red under thick, scorched black bangs that were sharp enough to cut. The rest of her hair flowed down to her waist in a complex rope-like braid that reminded Geo of a magic beanstalk.

Just like before, Nada temporarily went deaf, reading her glossy lips like a manifesto.

And then:

“Wake up.”

Geo opened her eyes, unaware that they were ever closed. The Hypnotist is explaining everything perfectly and everyone understands. She is passing out the masks, technicolor and splendid in their handmade glory.

Jupiter looked over at Geo and saw something within her that she cannot understand. She isn’t convinced.

“Fuck this.”

Jupiter stormed out, the door hitting the frame like a slap to the face, and tossed a mask into the silver street. Nada ran after her, scooping it up and tucking it under her arm with one swift motion.

“Jupiter, wait-”

She pauses, clenching her fists slightly, before turning around to face her.

“Are you trying to make a mockery of our entire cause?”

“Please-”

“This shit isn’t funny Geo!” Jupiter turned away again, as if to leave.

“You have to believe me, just look.” Nada tried to put the mask on her, and was thrown off, catapulting back with unnecessary force.

“Get that fucking thing away from me!”

Geo paused for a second before following after her, putting her two palms over the part of her chest that Jupiter had pushed. She knew she had to get through to her, and quickly. Speeding up her pace, Nada got close enough to hold Jupiter’s hand and spin her around before she snatched it away, averting her eyes.

“Hey.” She lifted Jupiter’s chin to meet her own, attempting to dampen the urgency that still loitered around the edges of her voice.

“Look, I’m stressed, my court date is this weekend, I can’t handle you and Lil pulling crazy shit like this right now, first of all, you’re putting all of us in danger, and second of all, who even was that hot coven girl you were looking at like she was the second coming…” she paused.

“Geo, to be honest- I've been hearing something on the streets the last couple of weeks. Weird stuff. Some sort of epidemic of violence is what they've been saying. I was talking to someone from Philly. They told me they’ve got some sort of cult up there. End of the world stuff.”

“End of the world?”

“You know, shooting people, robbing banks. Same old thing as always. Whole lot of people going crazy over some nutty dream they had. You want to know the truth? This kind of shit happens the end of every century. It does -- it's just people afraid to face the future. It's all it is.”

“Jupiter, you don’t sound like yourself right now- fuck, they must be getting to you somehow…”

“What are you talking about?”

“Look J, you have to trust me.”

Jupiter opened her mouth, ready to breathe fire.

Geo silenced her by pressing a finger, softly but solidly, to her lips, and then replaced it with her own. “Trust me” she said again, breathing hot and wet and heavy. “Just trust me”. Jupiter pulled her closer for another kiss.

After a few moments, Nada swiftly replaced the space where her face just was with the cardboard mask. “Just look”. She got behind behind Jupiter, one arm around her waist, and the other pointing out to the street.

“Look. Look at them, they're everywhere.”

And she was awake.

Jupiter saw the empty Skel forms in mid-sublimation, she saw others in their peak fleshy fantasy, grotesque and always in flux. How they jiggled when they moved, how they laughed, wobbling and stretching through space and time. She looked up at the absurd holo-screen billboards, on which impossibly shaped creatures played pretend at being people.

[Holovision Skel 1] “Sometimes, when I watch HV, I stop being myself. And I'm a star of a series or a -- or I have my own talk show --or I'm on the news getting out of a limo, going some place important. All I ever have to do is be famous. People watch me and they love me. And I never, never grow old. And I never die.”

[Holovision Skel 2] “The feeling is definitely there. It's a new morning in America -- Fresh, vital. The old cynicism is gone. We have faith in our leaders. We're optimistic as to what becomes of it all. It really boils down to our ability to accept. We don't need pessimism. There are no limits.”

Then she heard the voices, louder and louder and louder and-

zzzzzzzzzzzz obey authority, surrender, cooperate, zzzzzzz no ideas, zzzzzz no thought, submit, stay asleep, stay asleep, obey, buy, do not question authority, no imagination zzzzzzzzzz

Jupiter started to laugh maniacally, the sound echoing recursively up and down the austere metal street.

“It figures it would be something like this.”

She had caught the attention of a Skel dressed as a rich old lady across the street. The creature spoke harshly into her cupped hand.

“Maybe they can see. Myrtle and Broadway”

They heard the soft wrrr of a motor over their heads, and, glancing up, saw a tiny, chrome drone bobbing up and down, constantly refocusing its many lenses on them. It couldn't have been larger than a hummingbird.

“I don't like this one bit.” said Jupiter, blasting the little bot to stardust, which showered down onto their faces like molten glitter.

As they sped up the pace, they noticed more and more Skel faces staring at them and whispering into cupped palms. They seemed to be more around every corner.

The sirens wailed like mourners, closer and brighter and redder with every second. Two cop cars swerved towards each other, narrowly avoiding a crash and cutting off the road.

“Fuck”. There was nowhere to run.

“Where'd you get that mask?” the first one barked. Nada couldn’t focus on anything but the way the creature’s skin rippled like disturbed water. She didn’t respond.

“Nick yourself shaving this morning?” said Jupiter.

“You look as shitty to us as we do to you.”

She flipped her hair. “Impossible.”

“It would be easier if we don't have to splatter your brains.” A little bit of saliva dribbled down this one’s chin as he said this, instantly becoming steam upon contact with the boiling flesh.

Nada looked down at her gun. She knew they had to die.

“Now, you stumbled onto something here. Maybe we can all benefit from this slight misunderstanding”. This cop was becoming an empty Skel, his laffy taffy insides consolidating into a small bundle on the top of his spine.

Geo knocked him to the ground, barreling into his spindly body and crushing it like a pane of glass. She hit the other one in the neck with her lazer gun, it’s guts exploring and exploding all over everything like mentos and coke. She picked up one of the cop guns for herself and tossed the other to Jupiter, who was standing between the two Skel bodies, inspecting them for any signs of life.

“So you bastards die just like we do.”

She heard a scream. Jupiter looked over to find Geo being held by a third cop, about to be handcuffed. She put her gun to his temple and hissed, “Let her go”.

He trembled.

“This one’s human!” Nada warned her.

Jupiter scoffed. “I don’t see anything human about him”. She spat at his feet.

The cop pisses himself.

“Pathetic. Okay, get your ass out of here before I change my mind”. She followed this with a very effective “shoo”-ing motion, gesturing with the gun.

He turned and started to amble away fearfully. Jupiter watched, contemplatively, cocking her head to the side, and then shot him twice in the back.

He collapses like a poorly made tent.

Jupiter, said, grinning, “No witnesses, right?”

Geo, smiled back at her in awe, wiping a blue-green smear of hot alien blood off of her soft brown cheek.

“That’s my girl”.

She takes her hand.

Jupiter surveyed the damage around them, the pink putty bodies like heaps of still being chewed gum rolling over themselves like ancient tectonic plates, islands of hissing molten flesh.

“Geo, we are so fucked. Call Lil on protonchat and tell them- I don’t know- tell them something. We need a safe house so we can all meet and figure out what the fuck is going on.”

Geo, absentmindedly, “I wonder how many more of us there are.”

“Geo! Fuck, are you alright? Listen, Bax is here, they’ve been communicating with some of our comrades from the Sector 4 resistance. They’re sending over all the information they have on these creatures and how to stop them, I’ll protonblast it to you. A couple people from the movement are coming down in a few hours to help us. Bax says they have a plan. But I’m going to be honest, this whole thing is batshit crazy. Lay low and make sure no one is following you, okay? Geo-”

“Yes”

“Who is she?”

(she paused, thinking back to crystalline shards of light bouncing off the tight latex, and the words, “wake up”, formed so perfectly by her plump lips and a salivating tongue )

“I don’t know.”

“Can we trust her?”

“I don’t know.”

“Don't wear the mask too long. Starts to feel like a knife turning in your skull.”

“Lil?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you scared?”

-Beep-

Jupiter is massaging her temples forcefully and pacing. “It's like a drug. Wearing this mask makes you high, but, oh, you come down hard.”

Geo took it out of her hand and stroked her cashmere curls, which were the color of amber and tightly wound like a million little slinkies, before planting a soft kiss on her forehead.

“Take all the guns you can find and let’s get out of here. And be careful with that thing”. She gestured towards the mask.

“The more awake you are the less you’ll need it.”

Jupiter pulled a black bandana over her face from around her neck and another out of her pocket, tying it around Geo’s head, and nuzzled her through the fabric.

A distant siren cries for its mother.

The two took off, hand in hand, each swinging a massive rifle in the other.

CHAPTER 3

Geo and Jupiter hide out in a dark skeezy dive bar where they know the bouncer, ShaSha, a massive butch with pink spiky hair and a penchant for violence.

The bar is empty except for two extremely drunk twinks slow dancing to “Computer Love”, their moves less about flair or musicality and more about holding each other up and trying not to fall.

Jupiter lit two cigarettes in her mouth and silently passed one to Geo.

“Play it again”

Geo tapped her wrist, illuminating a square of space in front of them, and reached out to unpause the video. The smoke undulated around the holo-blast screen, passing right through it, taunting.

“Our impulses are being redirected. We are living in an artificially induced state of consciousness that resembles sleep. The movement was begun eight months ago by a small group of scientists who discovered quite by accident ... these signals being sent through -- [static] The poor and the underclass are growing. Racial justice and human rights are non-existent. They have created a repressive society ... and we are their unwitting accomplices ... Their intention to rule rests ...with the annihilation of consciousness. We have been lulled into a trance. They have made us indifferent to ourselves, to others. We are focused only on our own gain. We ha --[static] They are safe as long as they are not discovered. That is their primary method of survival. Keep us asleep, keep us selfish, keep us sedated. They are dismantling the sleeping middle class. More and more people are becoming poor. We are their cattle. We are being bred for slavery. The revo -- [static] We cannot break their signal. Our transmitter is not powerful enough. The signal must be shut off at the source. We have --” (it cuts out)

The two sat together for a moment, wordlessly.

One of the Skels was on the bar HV, saying over and over again, “We are your friends. We are your friends. We are your friends.” It sounded scared.

Geo went up to the bar and ordered two beers, gazing up and into the hollow, iridescent skull of the newscaster. It suddenly struck her that the thing on the HV no longer seemed to have any power over her, not even as a force that she must resist. “It has to believe it can master me to do it. The slightest hint of fear on its part and the power to hypnotize is lost.”

Her picture flashed on the screen with the caption: HOMICIDAL MANIAC ON KILLING SPREE: THE CHASE CONTINUES. She laughed, then fell silent.

Nada brought the beers over to the table, cigarette still hanging precariously out of her mouth.

“Maybe they've always been with us. Those things out there. Maybe they love it. Seeing us hate each other. Watching us kill each other off. Feeding on our own cold, fucking hearts.” Nada’s tone was dark and hopeless.

Jupiter was clearly perturbed, torn between her steadfast political ideologies which asserted that capitalism, colonialism and oppression were human tendencies, certainly insidious, but human nonetheless, and the possibility that they could be accounted for simply by an alien species that had infiltrated our society and our consciousness.

“Don’t think like that. Maybe they’re just opportunists, mimicking the structures of control that already existed within our culture. How different is this than any other class battle in human history? They’re just the new 1%” she responded.

“But I killed three aliens today! Plus that human you shot. If we aren’t so different than them, then J, we’re just fucking murderers!”

Jupiter took her hand, feeling the intensity of Geo’s pulse slow to meet her own.

“We killed four cops today.”

“It was us or them.” she swallowed.

“I don’t want to lose you Geo, I can’t. We’ve been asleep for god knows how long, and now that we’re awake, I feel like I see you, I mean, really see you. For who you are. Not for your use value, not for your worth, not for your looks. For you. And I’ll do anything to protect that.”

She snorted. “This whole thing is so much bigger than us, Jupiter.”

“Is it? There must be some reason that you and I are awake when the whole world is asleep, I mean Geo, we’re not normal members of society. We’re fucking anarchists.”

“You might have a point. Speaking of fucking anarchists, it’s almost 21:00. Let’s go see Lil and Bax. We’ve got work to do.”

“Thank fuck you two are here, I was so worried!” Lil ran in and gave them both a big hug, then, slightly embarrassed, took a step back and gave them them the once over.

“Are you hurt?” they asked with a quiver, fear clearly seeping through their hardcore veneer.

“No, we made it fine.” Jupiter replied shortly, distracted by the Sector 4 comrades that seemed to be running the show. It was obvious that not being in charge wasn’t sitting too well with her.

“Good, the city's crawling with cops looking for you. And most of the cops are human. They basically think that we're just commies trying to bring down the government. And some of them are being recruited. Creatures are trading wealth, power…”

Lil is joined by a small, completely hairless person that Geo doesn’t recognise.

“Holy fuck, you mean people are joining up with them?”

“Most of us just sell out right away. Then all of a sudden we get promoted. Our bank accounts get bigger. We start buying new houses, gadgets. Perfect, isn't it? We'll do anything to be rich.” Bax’s voice is dripping with sarcasm like sap from a tree, sweet blood.

“What do these things want from us?”

“It's in our best interests. They're free enterprisers. The Earth is just another developing planet. Their third world.”

“And you are?” Jupiter asked accusingly.

“Trance. I’m from Chicago. My entire community was brutally wiped out two months ago by these creatures for refusing to submit to them. Only I survived, and I’ve been researching them ever since.”

“I’m so sorry to hear that” said Geo softly, before asking, “Do you know why they are here?”

“We are like a natural resource to them ... deplete the planet, move on to another. They want benign indifference. They want us drugged. We could be pets. We could be food. But all we really are is livestock. Look around the environment we live in. Carbon dioxide, fluorocarbons, and methane have been increasing since 1958. Earth is being acclimatized. They are turning our atmosphere into their atmosphere.”

“We need an assault unit. Someone to hit them hard when the time comes.” said Lil.

Bax cleared their throat loudly and began to speak, pulling a black beanie over their buzzed head.

“All right, now everybody listen up. We can’t be getting sloppy. Now, their detection is becoming more effective. So we have to be more careful.”

Trace continued, “Stay aware of keeping up appearances. Do what's expected of you. We've gotten reckless. And the movement's suffering for it.” They looked right at Jupiter and Geo, who rolled their eyes.

“Time to stop talking about it, trying to figure out how it happened. Now we need to start spilling some blood!” Jupiter’s abject call to arms was met by various shouts of agreement by the rest of the crew.

Bax shot back, “We don't stand a chance with a few guns and grenades.”

“So what are we supposed to do?” asked Geo earnestly.

“We bide our time.” said Trance.

“There is a signal broadcast every second of every day, through our holovision sets. Even when the set is turned off, the brain still receives the input. We need to seek out and locate their signal, and shut it off. Wake people up!”

“Trance’s friend works at NBC. He claims that the signal may be coming from one place-”

A voice swept from the through the room like a cool gust of wind, clear as water, each syllable uttered with the attention to detail of a marble sculptor, chipping away at each sound with just the right amount of force. Geo would recognize it anywhere.

“NeuroBlast Channel is clear. The transmission is going out clean. The signal is coming from somewhere else.”

Nada turned around to find the glassy eyes of the Hypnotist locked in her own, the space in between like a tightrope or a balance beam leading her ever so precariously.

Bax replied, “All right, this is the point. It's important to find out exactly where this signal is coming from. And the only way we can do --”

“I gotta go talk to someone.” Geo whispered in Jupiter’s ear, before bee-lining to the back of the room.

“Who are you?” Nada tried to sound strong and accusatory like Jupiter.

“You know who I am.” She said, smiling.

Nada furrowed her brow, confused by her answer and even more perplexed by her smile, which seemed at once an attempt to transmit ancient secrets of the universe and also completely empty, lacking of any real empathy or emotion.

“Who are you! Why did you wake me up?” she repeated, more insistent this time.

“My dear,” she said with that same saccharine grin peeling off her face like the skin of an orange, “I couldn’t do that. You did it to yourself.”

“But--”

“Hush little baby. You will understand soon. For now, take cover.”

“Wha-”

CRASH!

The library is up in flames, sparks flying everywhere. Everyone is screaming.

Then the gas. A helicopter searchlight beams down, white hot and blinding.

Then the sirens, like a nursery full of of still bloody, orphaned newborns in plexiglass cases.

Then the SWAT team, yelling in brutish, foreign sounds that are mangled by the high pitched zinging of their AR-25s.

Everyone is shooting. Everyone is getting shot.

The screams are getting less and less.

Geo realizes she isn’t screaming either.

Geo realizes everything is lava and the Hypnotist is gone.

Geo realizes she isn’t paralyzed anymore. She presses play on time.

She picked up a gun from the nearest dead body and ran backwards, firing at every uniform she saw. She stashed two more in the waistband of her skirt and one in her bra.

Something caught the red light of the sirens. It was Jupiter, her lion’s mane magically illuminated like the burning bush. She was passed out against the wall, clearly in shock from the blast.

Nada dragged her out the back door and into the alleyway, summoning every ounce of her strength. She remembered what Jupiter has said to her earlier, and regretted how flippant she had been about it.

“I don’t want to lose you” she said out loud. “I can’t”.

Now she wanted to scream.

She didn’t realize she was until two cops came around the corner, running. She shot them mid stride without even looking, and knew from the characteristic sound of their flesh sizzling and then falling with an enormous cascading squish, and the damp heat that came off their freshly-dead bodies, that they were Skels. She was relieved.

The screaming and the shooting had woken up Jupiter, who started to groan.

“Fuck J, are you okay, are you shot?”

“I think I’m okay. That explosion scrambled me though. Where’s everyone else?”

“I didn’t see anyone alive. They must have either ran away or gotten arrested.”

Jupiter tried to stand up, still unstable. “We have to go save them!”

Geo started to cry. “Jupiter. You know we can’t go back in there. It’s crawling with cops looking for survivors to question. We just have to hope that they’re okay.”

“And if they’re not?” She was angry, but she was crying too.

“Then you and I are the only ones that know the truth.” Geo looked up at her friend. She wasn’t crying anymore.

Another set of cops raced around the corner, and then another, disturbing the thick, silent grief that had temporarily frozen them in the moment. Jupiter grabbed the gun in Geo’s bra and started shooting. Without looking back, she gestured for Nada to throw her a second one.

The two advanced, both with a gun in each hand. The cops hardly had a moment to unholster their weapons before they were turned into a shapeless, slimy mess, thrown to the floor like liquid in a thin plastic bag.

Two more more appeared and were shot at, one human, one Skel. The human one somehow managed to limp away with one leg shred up like an incriminating document.

The other one had been hit too, and, looking around at the many steaming, leaking bodies that surrounded it, the Skel started to whisper more and more frantically into its cupped hand.

Geo and Jupiter squinted, suddenly blinded by a purple-blue light that seemed to come from below them.

Their eyes adjusted slightly to reveal a glowing, pulsating hole opening up in the middle of the alleyway. It spoke:

“Portal closing in five...”

“What the fuck is that?” Geo yelled over the noise, which was at once like a vacuum and like someone blowing bubbles in water through a straw.

“Four”.

“I don’t know… some kind of alien secret hideout maybe...”

“Three.”

The cop trustfell backwards into the hole.

“Two”

“Well baby, we’re about to find out!” said Geo, before pulling Jupiter towards her and wrapping her arms around her waist. She threw her weight backwards, taking Jupiter tumbling down with her.

The portal closed behind them with a loud, wet suction noise, like lips smacking after a delicious meal.

CHAPTER 4

A robotic voice echoed in the long dark tunnel, which was quickly self illuminating from the furthest visible point, light rushing towards them in a tidal wave crescendo.

“If you need assistance in finding your destination, bilingual instructions are posted at the end of each corridor.”

The two scrutinized the marks on the wall, which were squirming like mealworms in a small container.

“What kind of language is that?” said Jupiter, marveling at the way the printed text seemed animate, able to reconstitute itself much like the species that it derived from.

Geo tapped all around walls and, standing on her tippy toes, the ceiling.

“I think we're under the city. Maybe some kind of underground base or something.”

She kept looking for clues.

“Stay perfectly still.” said Jupiter suddenly, standing straight up.

She mouthed the words “do you hear that?” and pointed down the tunnel, opposite the way they had came. Geo did hear it, although it was very faint, like the beating of butterfly wings or a lizard’s heartbeat.

They crept towards the sound, guns drawn.

The sound clarified itself slowly, first becoming applause, and then becoming louder, and then louder, reaching a deafening roar by the time they reached its source.

It was a grand ballroom, sparkling with mindless luxury, vomiting platinum and glass and pristine modernist details that seemed almost sacred, too rich to be touched. On the tables were piled all manner of rare delicacies, caviar, chocolates, fine wines in crystal glasses. Many other things that Jupiter and Geo had never seen, but could recognize as something rare and precious.

Human and Skel alike had embraced their gluttony, unabashedly stuffing their faces and tossing their drinks down their throats, often staining their minimalist haute couture getups. They didn’t care. They thought they were among friends.

A pink skel sloshed across the stage, tapping the mike to gain everyone’s attention. They fell silent.

“Our projections show that by the year 2035, not only America, but the entire planet, will be under the protection and the dominion of this power alliance. The gains have been substantial, both for ourselves and for you, the human power elite. You have given us entrée to the resources we need in our ongoing quest for multidimensional expansion. And in return, the per capita income of each of you here tonight ... has grown, in this year alone, by an average 39%. And I've just received word that our forces have won a major victory. The underground terrorist network has been destroyed here on the East Coast. We are off crisis alert. The situation is normal again. Have a wonderful rest of your night and remember, money isn't the nicest thing in life, it's the only thing!”

The audience of humans, so comfortable in the presence of the creatures on the stage, unable to see the bubbling, pink folds of flesh that bulged and swirled under their eveningwear, applauded and clinked their glasses.

Geo looked at the crowd, decked out in glittering excess, as they celebrated their demise. Then she recognized them.

“Holy shit Jupiter.”

She felt the walls closing in on her.

“Is that Lil and Bax? I can’t believe they’re alive! They look fucked! I’ve never seen either of them in anything that formal...or with that much makeup on...or with their hair brushed….”

“Or without their souls.”

“Stay cool, I think they saw us.”

Lil waved like a docile, contributing member of society and got up, making their way towards them.

“Jupiter! Geo! Oh, how lovely! I didn't know you'd been recruited.” they said with a glossy, plastered-on smile.

“Welcome aboard! You know, you girls really should have dressed for the party ... now you can afford it.” they said the last part with a knowing twinkle in their eye that almost made Geo puke, it was so unlike them.

“Isn’t the place just splendid!” they continued. “Have you gotten the grand tour yet?”

Geo wanted to say something cruel, but she knew she had to play along.

“Come with me!” they gasped, taking both Jupiter and Geo by the hand, and dragging them out of ballroom and into a tunnel that was very similar, but not quite the same as the one they had just used to enter.

Lil pulled them around a corner that seemed to appear just at the moment that they started to turn.

They were in a room of nothingness. A cold, steel platform stretched out into the dark, the open night sky unraveling before them like a lover, naked and glorious.

The three stood, gazing out at the vastness in horror and awe. Geo had stared up at the stars and felt so small and insignificant so many times, that her life was meaningless, that she was just a little speck on the planet earth, as ineffectual as a grain of sand or a dust mite. But here she was, at the center of a cosmic battle for liberation. She felt the weight of the world on her shoulders.

Attention commuters, flight Alpha 7 to Andromeda is now ready for boarding. Please step in to the transmission platform. A robotic voice interrupted her thoughts.

“That's where they come from.” whispered Lil excitedly, pointing out into the endless black pit.

“I don't know how it works exactly, but it has to do with some sort of gravitational lens deal -- bending the light, or some damn thing. But you can move from place to place, world to world if you want to. You see, the whole thing works like one big airport. Ladies, let me tell you, they got their act together. Believe you me.”

Jupiter looked over at Geo and made a face that said “I can’t do this anymore.” She knew she was about to lose it.

“What’s next… oh! I’ll take you to the HV studio! That’ll be fun!”

Geo replied, “I’d love to!” and shot back a look to Jupiter that meant, “Just a little bit longer.”

“Let me show you something else-“ they said. “We’re supposed to save this for emergencies… but it’s just so damn fun!”

They whispered something into their hand and the floor opened up at their feet, pulsing with cool, inviting neon light. Lil took their hands again, and jumped.

“And here we got the brains of the whole operation. NBC! That's where the signal goes out from here to the satellite. We bump it out all over the world. Pretty fancy, huh? Not too familiar with it myself. Well, ladies, that’s as far as we go.” They said, lighting a cigarette nonchalantly.

Jupiter and Geo looked through the glass to see a set of alien newscasters, awkwardly stuffed into human business casual attire. They really were quite ridiculous creatures in their fleshy form, hypermorphic rave slugs that stretched and sucked at themselves with every motion that they made.

“They led us right into the belly of the beast. ” said Jupiter under her breath.

Geo turned back to Lil, her face forming back into a forced smile.

“Can you get us inside?” she seeing how far she could push it. “I've never seen the inside of a HV studio before.”

“Well, I guess it wouldn't be that much problem. You see the guards over there? Friends of mine. Hey, fellas, I got a couple of my friends here. Thought I'd give them the grand tour. Think we can go inside?”

Jupiter’s jaw dropped. Geo knew what she was thinking. Seeing Lil this friendly with cops was like seeing a pig excited for slaughter, laying down in position with a happy little squeal.

The guard replied “Be serious. You have your authorization cards?”

Lil looked down for a moment to take their card out of their pocket. Jupiter locked eyes with Geo. “Now!” She yelled.

Before Lil’s hand was even out of their pocket, the guards were dead, their ultraviolet innards slithering on the floor.

Inside the HV studio, cameras were rolling, completely ignorant to the bloodshed.

Lil was screaming, and Geo clapped a hand over her mouth to silence her.

Jupiter knocked on the glass.

“Soundproof. Where's that signal?”

Geo uncovered their mouth. They stopped yelling, embarrassed.

“It's up on the... roof, I think.” Stuttered Lil nervously, eyeing the loaded guns and the bodies at their feet.

“Let’s go.”

“Wait, wait, you're making a big mistake!” cried Lil in desperation.

“You made the mistake.” Jupiter hissed.

“No, no, you got to listen to me. I thought you two understood. It's business, that's all it is. You still don't get it, do you? There ain't no countries anymore. No more good guys. They're running the whole show. They own everything -- the whole goddamn planet. They can do whatever they want. What's wrong with having it good, for a change? And they're going to let us have it good, if we just help 'em. They're going to leave us alone. Let us make some money. You can have a little taste of that good life too. Now, I know you want it -- hell, everybody does.”

“You turned your back on your own kind.” Said Geo to herself, still shocked by Lil’s new capitalistic tendencies and happy-go-lucky demeanor.

“What's the threat? We all sell out every day. Might as well be on the winning team.”

Jupiter, only half joking, said, “Lil, you sound crazy. I’m gonna shoot you if you don’t stop talking about all this self righteous bullshit, you fucking zombie.”

Lil shrugged, their glassy expression still pleasant even while under threat. They really were so far gone.

Jupiter couldn’t wait any longer. She barreled through the glass door with ungodly force, shattering the fourth wall that, until just moments before, had kept the HV broadcasters in the dark.

Geo soon followed. She felt like the hero in an action movie.

“I have come here to chew bubblegum ... and kick ass.” she said, reloading her guns.

“And I'm all out of bubble gum.”

She set the room ablaze, sending streams of razor sharp lasers through their soft, kneaded eraser-like flesh.

“Cut to a commercial!” someone yelled.

“I’m going to head to the roof, try to find the signal.” said Geo.

[HV Commercial] Oman's collection puts passion before fashion.

The very un-elegant form of a fully expanded Skel in the advertisement looked ridiculous, lounging on and around and underneath a grand piano, a martini wedged between two of its many fluctuating folds.

The alarm starts to scream, a piercing noise that was neither man made or mechanical and resembled the sound of two stones grinding against each other at high speed.

Security alert. Intruders are here -- head for the roof. Repeat. Intruders --

“Come on, come on! Jupiter, watch the door.”

Nada dashed up the stairs, the bone crushing sound of the alarm system echoing through her entire body. She felt a shiver go down her spine.

[HV] Dash and trash are back. Out goes glitter, and in comes divine excess.

The hatch door swung open like a drunken punch to the jaw, the air around it whipped by the blades of the helicopters bobbing high above.

On the edge of the roof, the silhouette of a person stood, arms raised high above her head. She was humming some sort of incantation, softly but audibly nonetheless.

Geo knew who she was.

The Hypnotist turned around, smiling that same smile so void and yet somehow so meaningful.

“Just say it already!” Geo shouted. She had grown tired of her manipulations. “Just say it into the satellite! That’s what you’re here for, right?”

“No Geo. I’m here to stop you.” She pursed her perfect lips.

Nada scowled, not understanding. “But you were the one who woke me up!”

“Not everyone can stay asleep. It’s an ecosystem, Geo. One must have balance in order to have peace. One must have a conflict in order to have a plot.”

“You call this peace?” she shouted, pointing at the countless police helicopters and sirens that drew ever nearer.

The cops yelled from the sky. “Drop your weapon! Stand away from the dish, or we will open fire.”

“Come inside with me.” The Hypnotist beaconed. “If you end this now I can keep you safe. They will not hurt you.”

“You have ten seconds. Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six.” A voice barked from a speaker.

[HV] The fall collection revels in freedom of expression. Gay abandon rushes to meet ... the roaring-

“Fuck it.” Geo shot the Hypnotist down in one quick motion.

Her brains splattered against the cold aluminum of the satellite. Then she shot the disk, exploding it into little bitty particles of metal ash, melting under the flames like like the Wicked Witch to water.

Laserfire criss-crossed through Geo’s vision, narrowly missing her each time. The ground below her feet began to tremble, erupting into smoke and lava.

A police searchlight beamed down on her. She felt like a movie star. She looked up into the light, completely ignoring the building that was exploding all around her.

“No justice, no peace!” she shrieked at the top of her lungs, and flipped off the cameras, before being enveloped completely in thick, dark fog, disappearing from view.

THE END

#prose

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