How to: Survive an Alien Invasion

One - English

The woman named Julia pushed the cart a little faster as we approached another door. I could see the feet of other scientists through a small tear in the white fabric. I was tempted to stick my head out and ask what was going on, but the nice lady told me to stay quiet and out of sight no matter what.

She was the only one who's ever been nice to me in this place. Everyone else just wanted to stick needles in me. I didn't like this place. I didn't like it at all. Suddenly the cart rolled to a stop.

"Hello Julia, where are you going with that?" A female voice questioned from somewhere to my left. I continued to sit criss-cross apple sauce, just like Julia taught me.

"Just delivering it to the kitchen," I recognized Julia's voice as she spoke. Her voice was soft, unlike everyone else's.

"The kitchen is the other way," the lady informed her. I heard Julia take a deeper breath, making her breathing irregular. I wondered what was wrong, but I stayed as still as I could.

"Oh, I know. I'm just stopping by the testing units to see if they have any extra dishes they'd like for me to drop off," she reasoned, though her excuse was torn like this sheet was.

"Why would they have dishes in the testing units?" The woman seemed to be getting suspicious and I felt my palms sweating. I wiped them on my white dress and rolled my neck. It was really cramped in here, but the nice lady promised I wouldn't be in here for very long.

"Any extra equipment they might have," she replied smoothly. I didn't know why I was here. Is she taking me for more testing? Will it hurt like last time? I tried not to think of last time and assured myself that Julia wouldn't do that to me.

"They need disinfectant for the equipment, not dish soap, Julia," the woman continued to grow skeptical and even seven-year-old me knew that this wasn't going very well.

"Yes, but I can also collect the robes to take to the laundry room, Dolores," Julia continued to argue. Why was this woman so interested in where she was taking me?

I assumed that the conversation was over because the cart started to move again. Julia made a few sharp turns and I nearly fell out a few times, but my sharp reflexes kept me on the trolley. I began to hold onto the side of the cart for support as the ride got more aggressive.

I continued to watch my surroundings through the tear until we were in a dark room. "Alright honey, you can come out now." Her voice was soft like nothing I'd ever known. I was envious because mine sounded like one of the robotic machines they'd tested me with. They didn't let me talk often, and when I was allowed to make noises, it was against a leather strap as I cried out.

I crawled out from under the tray and stood up to my full 4'4" height. "You did an amazing job, I'm so proud of you!" She was whispering and I didn't know why, but I decided to go along with it.

"I—" I coughed to clear my throat, "—I did?"

I could see her smile through the dim light. "Yes, you did absolutely fantastic," she continued. There was a knock from outside. It seemed to follow a practiced order and she sighed a breath of relief. She opened the door and it revealed Allan, another scientist who had been nice to me.

"Hi Allan!" I whispered as the door shut.

"Hi!" He replied with just as much enthusiasm before turning to Julia. "Do you have it?"

Julia opened a sachet that I didn't know she had and he smiled at her before kissing her forehead. "Great. Now, the alarms haven't sounded yet so we ca—" as he said it, a loud shrill pierced the air, followed by flashing red lights. "Too late," he finished, ushering me back into the cart. They started to wheel me out and I couldn't see anything anymore, it was dark aside from the flashing lights.

Suddenly, a door opened and sunlight streamed through a tiny hole in the sheet. I wanted to poke my head out of the blanket, but I remained still. "I need you to jump out on the count of three, alright? One, two, three," Allan counted. I hopped into the back of some sort of big metal thing. The chairs were leather and Allan closed a giant door over me. Terror took hold of me and I wondered what type of experimental device this was.

Julia sat in one of the seats in the front and I looked at her fearfully. "Don't worry, this is a car. It takes you places, like the cart!" She explained cheerfully. I beamed at her and looked out the window with excitement. I'd never been out of that building, I wondered where I was going.

Then Allan dumped all the bags in the seats right in front of me and got into the seat with a wheel in front of it. He stuck a pair of keys into a hole beside the wheel and moved a stick back. The car made a loud noise and he reversed quickly. Then he started to drive forward and out of the grouping of cars. I'd picked up most of my vocabulary from the conversations between the scientists, but most of the words were too big for me to understand. They'd give me the occasional book which I loved. If there was one good thing about that place, it was the words.

I loved languages, they were my favourite things ever. When I'd learned that there was more than one, I was 'elated' as I'd learned from one of my most recent reads. As it turns out, I can understand more than one. Many, in fact.

"You need a name, and I don't suppose you want it to be the one those people gave you, hmm?" Julia looked back at me with a small smile. I shook my head exaggeratedly and she laughed delightfully. "Okay, what about... Sunny? Like the sun? It's bright and warm, it's right there."

She pointed to something in the sky and I looked out of the window and up. There was a bright ball of yellow and I stared at it. "You're not supposed to look at it for long," Allan informed me, eyeing me through a mirror with a smile. I looked away and a pink dot followed my line of sight.

"Oops," I replied, smiling sheepishly.