the-short-stories-account

[the-short-stories-account]

The Five, Part One

January Thirteenth, Two Thousand and Twenty

It has been a long two weeks.

Two weeks ago, everything was normal. In the city of New York, cars lined the streets. There was the usual sound of the city abuzz in preparation for New Year’s Day. Snow covered every place that there was green just months before. People of all ages once again donned their winter coats. Life was good.

Then the Invaders came.

Nobody saw it coming. Not even NASA. One minute, you could hear people talking about the new iPhone XIII, and the next, their warships were among us.

The Conquistadors, they called themselves. Destined to rule the universe. On the day they first arrived in those huge, menacing black ships, their leader, (whose name is unpronounceable in the English language, so we will call him John Daron, which is what he said we shall call him) said that they were in charge now, and if we tried to resist, our city would be vaporized.

We didn’t believe them.

That was a mistake.

Many people resisted immediately, so they decided to show us how serious they were. They aimed their gun at a cluster of buildings nearby, and fired.

They were gone in an instant.

That scared everyone into doing their bidding. Since then, we have done whatever they say. And cruel they are, too. Want some water? They’ll give it to you, but they’ll throw it on you and walk away laughing, while you are standing there, soaked. Want bread? They’ll chain you to a wall and laugh as you try to grasp the bread that is just out of your reach.

The work they started is laborious, too. The weak were cooks and maids, the smart were put to work to advance their technology, and the strong were to build houses and factories. Most of it was pointless work, to show us who was in charge. Some of us, though, have been given rooms in an old jail. The Invaders chose only five. Why they chose the others, I can only guess. I think I know why they chose me, though.

By now, you’re probably asking, who am I?

My name is Oliver Jones. Former millionaire, owner and founder of the world’s leading tech company, FuturTech. I was leading the world into a technological era that would have brought humanity to the very edges of the universe, and we would have been able to learn all there was about the universe. We would be powerful.

But then, I was stopped.

I think the aliens don’t want us to surpass them and ruin their “destiny”. So they are going to do something, anything to make that impossible.

I believe that “thing” involves me.

PART TWO COMING SOON!