Doomed (3 page)

Doc Collins

At first Doctor Collins had that usual distracted, uncaring attitude he always had but when he finally took a good look at Mike, his eyes went wide and he started to get more animated.

He said, “You’ve gained twenty eight pounds since we met back in February. Have you been working out?”

“Nope.”

“Steroids?”

“Nope.”

“Huh? No growth hormones for sports or anything like that?”

“I’ve never been into sports. This has all happened in the last week or so.”

“That’s not really possible, but I’ll take your word for it. How did you lose all of your body hair? Do you have any severe allergies?”

“No allergies t
hat I know of. I lost the hair last week too.”

“Even the roots are gone. Was your skin always so pallid? And your eyes; were they always so light?”

Mike wanted to say,
I’ve been coming to you since kindergarten so why don’t you tell me
, but he let it go. Doc Collins had always been a piece of shit when it came to bedside manner. But he was a smart doctor.

“The skin and eyes started to go pale last week too. They get lighter every day. I can hardly stay out in the sun for more than a minute or so at a time.”

“Your blood pressure is off the charts. It’s 278 over 199. You should be dead right now. I’m not going to prescribe anything just yet though because we don’t know if it’s related to the other changes you’re going through.”

Mike nodded. He was glad for that. What if they brought his blood pressure down and that killed him?

Doc Collins turned to his nurse and said, “I need a stool sample, blood, and swab his mouth.” Then he turned back to Mike and said, “I’d ask for hair too but you don’t have one to spare.” Then he said, “I’d really like to admit you. I have no idea what’s going on with you but it’s unique.”

“I’m not staying in a hospital doc.”

“I understand. But call me if anything else changes, ok?”

“Ok.”

“I’ll get the lab right on this and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.”

Busted

Mike’s mom met him at the door as he got home. “What did the doc have to say?”

“He doesn’t know but he was pretty excited about it. He took some blood and spit and he said he’d get back to me with the results.”

“The doc was excited. That’s not good. I’ve never even seen him smile or make eye contact.”

“It’ll be fine mom.”

Then, once he was in the door she rounded on him. “A pretty girl came to the door for you an hour ago. He said her name was Melanie. She said she’s your girlfriend.”

“No, we’re just friends.”

“Why haven’t I heard of her before?”

“I don’t tell you everything I do mom. It’s for your own protection,” he joked. Wait ‘til I get to college. You won’t believe the stories I’ll never share with you.”

She looked at him more seriously now. “Is Melanie black or white?”

“You damn racist,” he said to try and alter her thought processes, but it didn’t work.

“Tell me Michael.”

“Her dad’s black. Why?” But he already knew why she was curious.

“Is she going through the same changes that you are? She’s white and her eyes were almost transparent.”

“I think so. I met her at Pizza Hut and she came up to me. I’ve spent a little time with her since then.”

“You need to tell that girl to go to Doc Collins right away. Her condition has to be related to yours.”

“We came to the same conclusion. Listen mom, I’m tired. I’m gonna take a nap.”

“You’re always tired. I’ll wake you up for dinner.”

Super

Mike woke up for dinner and once again, couldn’t stomach the meat. He realized then that he forgot to tell the doc about that.

He doubled up on veggies and then took the trash out. The bags felt like they weighed absolutely nothing in his hands. He barely knew he was carrying anything at all.

Immediately he suspected he had some kind of super strength.

He went into the garage to test out his hypotheses. There was an engine block that his dad had meant to put in a car they no longer even had. His dad died before he ever got around to it. Mike grabbed a hold of it and lifted with all of his might, fearful that it might kill him but too curious to stop himself. It lifted easily. It felt like lifting a sack of potatoes. He put it down and looked around for something else to test himself with. There was nothing around so he tested his vertical leap. He went out to the basketball hoop and sized it up. He’d never even gotten close to dunking on that thing before. He crouched down and launched himself at it. He panicked when he overshot it by a full ten feet. He nearly screwed up the landing because his legs started to come out from under him.

It was every childhood fantasy to gain super strength, but this came with a catch. He was about to be abducted by aliens.

When he went back inside, his mom was standing at the kitchen window. She’d been watching him the whole time. But worse than that was that Melanie was standing beside her.

Melanie shot him a shy smile and said, “Hi superman.”

“You guys saw that, huh?”

His mom smiled but there was concern in her eyes.

Melanie said, “Can I talk to you upstairs?”

“Sure.”

Booyah
!

Melanie took his room in. She didn’t look disgusted so he was happy about that. She sat on his bed and said, “My friend Tiffany won’t let me stay with her. She said her boyfriend

‘s going to be staying there for awhile and she doesn’t want to ask him if I can stay too. She’s a bitch.”

“You could probably stay here. We could take shifts sleeping. If the aliens show up again, we can ask them more or maybe even ask them to stop.”

She looked down at her lap. “I want to stay up first. I want to ask them why they chose me. I wan to ask them if I have a choice.”

“Ask them if they’ll bring my mom too. I can’t leave her behind.”

“Are you so sure you even want to go?”

“They said a rogue planet is coming right at us. If we refuse, it’ll be suicide. Are you saying you’re not sure?”

“Of course I’m not sure. I don’t know anything about alien colony planets. I’ve never even been out of the country.”

“You have to go. You see that, right?”

“I guess so. I mean, I’m just freaked out by it, is all.”

“If you think you’re freaked out now, wait ‘til you meet them face to face.”

“You’re not calming me down, you know?”

“Sorry about that. I’m not any good with people.”

“I could tell.”

On a whim, he asked, “Why did you tell my mom you were my girlfriend?”

“I don’t know. It just came out. Why, you don’t have a girlfriend, do you?”

“No, it’s not that. It’s just that I’ve never had one so it set off her bullshit detector.”

“Well we did sleep together naked. I think that makes us more than just friends.”

God, he wished that was true. The more he got to know her, the more he was attracted to her.

As a joke, he said, “If you ever need someone to gawk at your beautiful naked body again, then I’m your guy. I’d do that for you. I’m a team player.”

She stood up and pulled her shirt over her head and his heart almost flew out of his throat.

Pillow Talk

They faced each other on the pillow afterwards.

She said, “Your skin is really hot to the touch. Do you think that’s another side effect?”

His mind was miles away, wrapped up on a beach with a blanket as it watched the waves roll in. He’d never felt so peaceful after sex before.

He said dreamily, “You’re pretty hot too.”

She smiled and dropped it. He fell asleep and the sounds of his snoring lulled her to sleep too.

Abducted

They awoke in a cavernous white room. It smelled of bleach and farts. There were people everywhere, whispering and milling around. A woman to the side of them was crying, saying, “My baby. What happened to my baby?”

A guy was pacing angrily, yelling, “What the fuck is this? Where are we? Let me out of here. I did nothing wrong.”

Melanie sat up first. They were lying together on the hard floor. Mike sat up next and said, “No fucking way? They took us already. What about my mom? I need to talk to them.”

The sobbing woman said loud enough for everyone to hear, “They know what’s happening,” and pointed at the two of them.

The angry guy came at them quickly. He was pasty and hairless just like everyone in the room. He loomed over them and said, “Tell me where we are.”

Mike stood up and faced him. Then he shoved him away angrily and said, “Don’t you ever come at her like that, mother fucker.” He was just as shocked by his reaction as everyone else around him.

The angry guy was now the incredulous guy.

Mike said to everyone in the room, “We’ve been abducted by aliens.”

Someone snorted but most people accepted it readily.

He continued, “They told me that the Earth is going to be destroyed so they chose a thousand people to start a new colony on another world.”

Someone mumbled, “Bullshit,” and someone else yelled, “Shut the fuck up, let him talk.”

Mike held his hands up and said, “That’s all I know. I talked to one of them for maybe thirty seconds.”

The sobbing woman yelled, “Then where’s my baby?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know any more than I just told you.”

Only then did Mike notice he was standing in front of a thousand people completely naked. He looked around and noticed a few more nudists but most people were in their pajamas.

Melanie tapped him on the back
of the thigh to get his attention.

He sat back down and put his arm around her.

Just then a gravely, robotic voice issued forth from all around them. It was neither male nor female, but monotone like it was computer generated.

It said, “The Earth is doomed. You have been spared. We have altered your DNA so that you may thrive on the new planet we’re taking you to. Its sun is weak because of its distance from the planet and its gravity is twice that of Earth because of its size.
It has arable soils and atmospheric pressures only slightly heavier than Earths. It has breathable air. You will continue humanity on this new world. Feel free to name it whatever you like.”

Mike looked around at all the stunned faces. He would bet money that not a single breath was escaping a single lung in that room.

The voice continued, “We are normally a hands-off race. That means that we observe but we do not interfere. We have decided to interact this time, but our involvement will be very minimal. We’ll drop you off on your new world, but then the rest is up to you. We can not help you beyond that. I hope you all understand.”

Someone yelled out, “We need some basics like drinkable water and vegetation and meat. We need shelters and stuff. We’ll die right away without at least drinking water.”

There was a moment of silence and then the alien voice said, “That has all been arranged. You no longer need meat though. Your bodies do not require it any longer. But we have erected some crude shelters to start you off and there’s a well that taps into a sizable water table. You will find plants already grown and we’ve set aside a store of seeds for future production.”

Someone else whispered, “Thank you,” and the voice said, “You’re welcome. I hope you appreciate what we’ve done for you.”

The woman beside them yelled out, “Where’s my baby?”

The voice said, “Only able bodied members were selected. Your child was not selected. I’m sorry.”

Someone else yelled, “Don’t we get a choice? I don’t want to go.”

The voice said, “You’re welcome to jump ship if you’d like. You were selected to give the colony its best chance of survival. We did not have time to hold auditions.”

Someone asked another question but the voice was gone and didn’t return.

Stasis

A young woman came over and handed Mike and Melanie a light blanket. She said, “I woke up with my blanket. You guys can have it.”

They thanked her and draped it over their shoulders. Then they stood up and wandered around the large white room. It was well lit but they weren’t able to see bulbs or fixtures anywhere. Once they’d made a circuit of the room, they knew there was no way out. There were no windows and if the room had doors, they were invisible or hidden.

The monotone alien voice returned once again. It said, “Now that you are all comfortable with the situation, we have to put you into stasis. The trip is very long. You would never live to see your new planet. You will wake up on the surface. Good luck.”

A handful of people yelled out indecipherably and then a slimy mist descended from above. It coated their skin and permeated their clothing. After a full three minutes of this, and people clawing at the walls trying to escape it, a vivid light flashed once.