Ethereal Phantasm

CHAPTER III

LAIRE'S POINT OF VIEW

My head is still spinning as I wake up, chained in a pole. I roamed my eyes and saw that I was tied together with my squad.

I gasped as I noticed that we are on an island and there's a whole ass village of people in front of me. We are on the seaside but not the place we landed as we reached Earth. And what scares me the most is that this is a pretty overwhelming population of humans.

"Where are we?" I muttered.

"Sa wakas at gising ka na." The presence of a middle-aged woman startled me a little. I noticed the language. Right, we landed in the Philippines. Of course it is expected that everyone here is speaking Tagalog.

"Who are you?" I said with a confusing tone. At bakit ako nakatali? "Bakit kami nakatali? At nasaan kami? Hindi ba kayo natatakot sa mga extraterrestrials?"

"Extraterrestrials?" saad niya. Sa likod niya ay may iilang tao na nagbabantay sa kaniya na tila ba ay isa siya sa mga importanteng tao sa lugar na ito. "Ang ibig mo bang sabihin ay 'yong pagsakop ng mga aliens ilang tao na ang nakalipas?"

I gulped and slowly nodded.

"Matagal na silang wala."

It felt like my world did an upside down turn as soon as I heard that. Wala na sila? I saw their figures last night. They are clearly attacking and trying to kill us. They even killed our Lieutenant.

What the fuck is happening.

"Why are you talking to those weird creatures, Laire?" I heard Kai's struggling voice.

Napakunot ang noo ko. I don't know how to react as my fellow European comrade called my race, Filipino, as weird creatures.

"What?" I asked, trying to clarify what he just said.

"Those weird creatures," he stated again and pointed to the middle-aged woman. "The extraterrestrials."

I blinked twice as soon as he said it. Napatingin ako sa babae. They're humans. That's a good figured human with a normal head and body. What extraterrestrials?

"B...bakit kami ulit nandito?" I asked her.

"Kagabi, akala namin inaatake kami habang kumukuha ng mga gamot sa ibang bayan. No'ng nadaanan ng iilang mga tauhan namin ang bahay, bigla silang binaril na kasamahan niyo," she explained.

Bakas sa mukha niya na hinuhusgahan niya kami dahil dapat ay alam na namin ito dahil para sa kanila, kami ang unang umatake. Kasamahan namin?

Lieutenant.

Si Lieutenant ang unang nagpaputok ng baril? But why would he do that?

"Kasama niyo ba 'yong iilang nga tao na galing sa space?" saad niya. "Hindi na dapat kami nagtatago dahil wala na 'yong mga aliens. Pero sa hindi malamang dahilan, lagi kaming inaatake ng mga tao na galing daw sa space. Tinatawag pa kaming extraterrestrials."

Patuloy akong nakinig ngunit hindi pa rin tiyak ang katotohanan para sa 'kin. If that's true, why am I the only one seeing that they are humans but my colleagues are seeing them as extraterrestrials?