Halloween Vault #2

II. BEYOND THE GATES

★ WINNER OF THE HALLOWEEN VAULT #2 YA SCI-FANTASY PROMPT ★

Where the hell was everyone? I had been wandering around the weirdly vacant base of Area 51 for close to thirty minutes without seeing or hearing another living thing, human or alien. The only thing I had seen were walls and walls of white cement lined with millions of mysterious matching doors. I had tried a few of them but they were all locked. Near giving up, I tried my luck with one last door and let out a gasp when the knob wiggled in my grip. Let's see what's behind door number 1,347...

I fumbled for my phone so I could record whatever laid inside but when the screen turned on it was filled with static. I thumped it against my leg a few times but the static wouldn't go away. What the hell?

Darkness revealed itself the further the door swung open. The door thudded against the wall and shocked me back into breathing, something of which I had evidently stopped doing in all the excitement. A rainbow of blinking lights flickered off and on in the blackness, but yet again it looked like there was still no evidence of alien life.

I was about to give up completely when a tight grip latched onto my shoulder and wheeled me around to face a guard with a thick mustache. "What the hell are you doing? Do you have clearance?" he screamed into my face.

I was too scared to speak so I just shook my head vigorously. I also might have peed my pants a little.

"You're coming with me," Mustache growled, leading me down the hallway. My shoulder and I had no choice but to follow. He led me to another door and swiped his badge to enter. Inside sat a metal table with two chairs and a single light bulb dangling from a cord. He threw me into a chair and cuffed my hands around one of the table legs. "Stay put."

After Mustache left it wasn't much longer before the door slammed open and another government official entered. This one was a woman with a pantsuit and limp, blonde hair.

"Who are you?" Pantsuit asked with a tone so sharp it could cut me in half.

"T-Toby..." I gulped. "Toby Becker."

"How did you get in here, Mr. Becker?" she asked next.

"Through a door?" I laughed nervously. I couldn't help it, humor was my mechanism for dealing with fear. She didn't find my joke as funny.

"Let me make this as clear as I can," Pantsuit sighed and shuffled a few papers against the edge of the table, creating a crisp sound that echoed around the closet-like room. "Your presence on this base breaks 283 different government violations. You could be staring through a set of bars until you die, and then some. What have you seen?"

"N-nothing! I swear!" I stammered to the point of near incoherence. Pantsuit was scaring me.

"I don't believe you," she smiled behind a terrifying gaze. Something was off about her smile though...her whole face, really. It didn't seem...natural.

"Well, I don't--" I cut myself off suddenly when I blinked and her face disappeared. When I blinked again it was back but I swore that it had been replaced with the same static that had occupied my phone screen. "Did your face just...?"

Pantsuit quickly turned away and began fidgeting with her ear.

"Um...are you okay?" I asked slowly. She snapped her head to look at me and sent me flying backwards in my seat. Where her face was supposed to be was a moving scene of a peaceful brook. Within the context, it felt more intimidating than peaceful.

"Mr. Becker," an English man's voice now came from Pantsuit's mouthless body. Her face switched back to the static I had briefly seen before. "You've seen too much."

Pantsuit moved her arm to press something beneath the table and I finally realized how profusely I had been sweating. Moments later Mustache re-entered the room with a face that matched Pantsuit's. Behind him, a sea of static faces flowed as far as I could see.

Finally I realized why I hadn't seen any aliens. They were running Area 51.