Hell on Earth [Dec2013]

Melanie woke up with a smile on her face, amazed that she even went to sleep at all. The smiling came easy to her now as it had every member of her ragtag team. Who could blame them? For the past two years, they had had more to smile about than anyone else on Earth. As was her morning ritual, she stretched and headed to the shower. Today like most days, she replayed the day, two years ago, in her head as she stood under the streaming water. The date was November 17th, 2015 and she would never forget it.

She and Charlie had been dating for almost two years. So naturally he was there. It just so happened that her roommate had stopped by to bring her a burger at exactly the right time. So there they were. Just her, Charlie and Tracy, sitting and watching her boring little experiment do its thing. It was supposed to be about the effects of electromagnetism on light waves. No biggie…been done about a thousand times. This time however, nature or fate or just the random chaos of the universe, decided to participate. She still had not figured out the particulars of what had happened, but she surmised that lightning had struck the building in which the lab was housed. Somehow that amplification struck a chord with the low level lasers she was using in the project. She heard a sound that was like piano notes mixed with shattering glass. Then there was a weightless, lightless, silent moment, and she was sitting on the ground in front of the library in broad daylight with Charlie and Tracy right beside her.

They stared at each other in amazement then immediately looked around to see the commotion that they had caused. Students and faculty walked all around but did not notice them at all. One girl, Melanie couldn’t remember her name but knew they had a calculus class together, actually stepped over Charlie’s legs without so much as a glance toward him or a word uttered. As they stood, more people changed course to avoid them but acted as if they were invisible. Then they noticed the palpable excitement in all the others. They weren’t quite running but walking determinedly. Almost everyone was smiling and some were outright giggling. Although a college campus can seem to be a pretty happy go lucky place, at least the staff generally looks more serious and stuffy than they did right then.

They tossed the expected question between one another: “What happened? How did we get here? What’s wrong with them?” None of them had any answers. They had tried to stop passersby’s but none paid any attention to them. Charlie had actually tried to push one nerdy looking kid as he trotted by and we all saw his hand go right through the guys midsection. The kid kept walking and smiling, like he was on his way to a Star Trek convention instead of heading into the library. After a few minutes of stunned silence, we each tried our new magical hands and none of us were able to make physical contact with another person. We did realize that we could touch inanimate objects like trees and a coke can that someone had thrown on the ground.

Having no better options we decided to follow the main bulk of the crowd into the library. Inside there was standing room only and several television sets were spread about the main common area. They were all tuned to the same news program. We had no problem getting up front and close to one as people moved out of our way without knowing they were doing it. The news anchor had the same look of happiness that everyone around us seemed to have. The report switched to a pre-recorded video of what could only be described as a spaceship hovering over the White House lawn. The voice over was telling that the President along with the rest of the leaders of the world would be releasing a statement shortly, but they wished to assure everyone that the visitors did not come to harm, but to help us. The bottom of the screen scrolled unbelievable news tags like: “Doctor’s baffled as long term patients show no signs of illness.” and “Fresh water springs appearing in severe drought locations.” and even “No crimes reported since arrival of ships.”

It was Tracy that tapped me and started pointing to the screen. When I tried to tell her to hush I was listening, she got more shrillness to her voice and said: “Look at the date!” The television confirmed that it was still November 17th, but in the year 2017. Somehow we were witnesses to the happenings two years into the future.

Melanie got out of the shower and toweled dry. She slipped into her robe and went to the kitchen to make coffee. Tracy and Charlie were already at the kitchen table. They had all decided to move in together after the event. None of them wanted to not talk about what had happened, but who could they talk to but each other? Who would believe it? Somewhere down the line, Tracy and Charlie had come together while she and Charlie had grown apart, and that was fine. After all, they knew that no matter what they would one day be living in a heaven on Earth.

As she sipped her coffee, Melanie remembered the President’s address to the world. He looked like a kid at Christmas, grinning from ear to ear. He told how the aliens had come from a place in the universe that we had yet to even name, but they were to be called the Uvas. They were similar to our Peace Corp, seeking out civilizations that needed help and providing it. Upon review by them, we humans had been chosen as one of these civilizations because we met certain criteria. Our intelligence mattered, but not much, as the aliens themselves could increase that. The main points that we qualified under were our creativity and curiosity. That coupled with the fact that our species had never broken a universal law led them to us. The Uvas had already seeded our atmosphere with a biotic that cured and destroyed all of our diseases. We would age and eventually die, but it would be a long painless process without infirmity. A human would live to be several hundred years old, determined by their personal DNA, and then would simply not wake up one day. Other projects that had already begun were the providing of clean water to the areas of Earth that did not previously have it, the cleaning and repairing of our atmosphere, the deactivation of all weaponry, and a euphoric agent added to the atmosphere that would ensure the increase in happiness and the decrease in violence and crime. In the near future, the Uvas would teach us so that we could one day become like them and spread good will to others in the universe.
Suddenly, the three of them were sitting in the darkened lab again as if nothing had happened. After much discussion, they decided on a plan for that day in the future. Since they couldn’t share the good news of the future with anyone without being labeled as crazy, they would at least make sure to be in the first group of humans to welcome and thank the Uvas.

Today was that day. The each dressed and loaded into Tracy’s car to make the trip to the White House. The conversation ranged from what each of them had prepared to say to what the best part of living in the new world would be. Wearing the smiles that would soon become as commonplace to others as they had been for them, they entered the White House as part of a tour group.
After much research online, they had booked their tour at the exact time that the Uvas had been invisibly reviewing humans to make their determination.

While on the lawn, Melanie looked up at an apparently empty sky and said, “We know you are there. You are the Uvas and we would like to speak to you.”
The other members of the tour group looked at them like they were carriers of the plague. They all took a few steps away from them. In an instant, the three of them were aboard the ship. It was brightly lit and very open with no real distinguishing characteristics. One of the Uva materialized from nothingness. He was tall and slender with a slight bluish cast to his skin. He was bipedal and proportioned similar to a human being. The biggest difference was that he was completely without hair. Melanie wasn’t sure if this is what they really looked like or only what they wanted her to see. She decided it didn’t matter. He introduced himself as Emed.

“Which of you is so strongly precognitive? We knew your race contained the trait and are thrilled to meet one.”
Melanie spoke first, as they had agreed. After all, it was her interrupted experiment that brought them to this place. “None of us are precognitive, though all three of us have seen the future.” She went on to explain to Emed about the day exactly two years ago. “We just wanted to be the first to say welcome to Earth and thank you so much.”

“Oh my dear, you don’t understand. Despite what you have witnessed previously, we cannot choose to help your civilization. You see, time travel is strictly forbidden by Universal Law as it can undo all of the good work we do…not to mention the mess that a paradox can cause. Although it was accidental, the crime was committed. I am so sorry, but your race must be eliminated before you cause extreme damage to the rest of us.”

Melanie, Charlie and Tracy were suddenly back on the lawn. They were the first witnesses to the very air catching on fire around them. As their lungs burned from the inside and their flesh burned on the outside, they looked out as Hell came to Earth.

reply to post by Cameoii


Hm, this was very thought provoking. S&F mate!

reply to post by swanne


Thank you swanne! I enjoyed yours as well. Good luck!