The Uninvited (standard:science fiction, 1540 words)
Author: Ian Hobson	Added: Dec 29 2006	Views/Reads: 3669/2240	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A short story by Ian Hobson and Dianne Herring. We wrote this via the Internet, adding a few lines and e-mailing it back and forth.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

for Steve, but he was nowhere in sight.   She couldn't imagine where he 
had gone. 

Then, as the ambulance set off, Dorothy caught a glimpse of a faint
light out in the trees, even though it was barely dark. Then she 
remembered that when she first saw Steve at the pickup, she had not 
noticed a vehicle. Now she wondered just how he had gotten there. 

Dorothy leaned over to see if she could tell what was going on with Jim.
The paramedic seemed to be a bit upset.  He was busy hooking up all 
kinds of things. She saw the oxygen mask over Jim's face and the drip 
hanging up on a hook, with the medication going through his veins via 
the needle in his arm, and as Dorothy looked at him, and saw all the 
blood, she felt sure he was going to die. 

Suddenly there was an explosion and a burst of machinegun fire and the
ambulance veered off the road and ploughed into a tree, and Dorothy and 
the paramedic were thrown off their feet.  Dorothy struggled back over 
to Jim's side and was surprised to see him open his eyes.  ‘Did you see 
them?' he croaked. 

‘See who, my love? 

Dorothy thought that Jim was probably delirious but he gripped her arm
and looked into her eyes.  ‘The aliens! Did you see the aliens?' 

Dorothy looked over at the paramedic.  He had struck his head on
something and seemed to be out cold.  Just then the ambulance rear 
doors were thrown open causing Dorothy to look up in alarm, but she 
could see no one.  Jim was still screaming about the aliens, 'Oh, 
Dorothy, can't you see them out there?' Dorothy looked up as she heard 
what she thought were two helicopters hovering above them.  They seemed 
to be slowly dropping to the ground.  Then, through the open doors, 
Dorothy saw the light she had seen earlier out in the woods. It had 
become much bigger and brighter and the colors were odd; they had a 
transparent look to them. 

Jim was still screaming, but not nearly as loud because he was becoming
much weaker. His face looked a bit gray then, as he became silent, 
Dorothy realized that he had passed out.  She started slapping Jim's 
face to try to get him to respond to her, but his body was totally 
limp. She screamed for help, but none came. 

Then Dorothy looked up in horror and saw what Jim had been warning her
about: two impossibly tall, human-like creatures were standing outside 
and stooping to peer inside at her through the ambulance doors.  They 
were dressed in what looked to Dorothy to be some kind of close-fitting 
chain mail, and their faces and hands were pale green.  Dorothy shrank 
back, as one of them reached in towards her, and then she screamed as 
she felt someone behind her.  It was the paramedic who had regained 
consciousness and he was pushing her towards the door.  Then her whole 
world seemed to cave in and she felt herself falling, as if from a 
great height, until she was caught by someone or something.  She was 
about scream again but realized that she only fallen out of the 
ambulance door and that it was a policeman who had caught her before 
she hit the ground. 

She looked around and saw that the ambulance was still parked outside
her house and that there were more policemen, and men in military 
uniforms armed with automatic weapons.  She shrugged off the 
policeman's arms and turned towards Jim who was still in the ambulance 
with the paramedic working over him.  And to Dorothy's surprise, Steve 
was there too, wearing an FBI cap. He looked at Dorothy and smiled.  
‘Jim's going to be alright,' he said. 

‘But what happened?' exclaimed Dorothy.  ‘I was in the ambulance and
then it crashed and...' 

‘Time shift,' Steve replied.  ‘There's been alien activity in the state
for years, mostly recently deep in the woods to the southeast of your 
property.  It was Jim that first reported it to the authorities.  The 
aliens usually evade us by shifting time, but now we've learned to do 
that too, and at last we have two of them in custody.'  He climbed out 
of the ambulance and came to stand beside Dorothy. 

‘But who did all the shooting?' she asked. 

‘Local cops,' Steve explained.  ‘They were in the area, responded to
your 911 call and ran straight into the middle of our operation.  If it 
hadn't been for Jim's truck catching fire our plans might not have been 
compromised.' 

‘Our plans?'  Dorothy looked up at Steve's FBI cap and for the first
time noticed the unusual insignia on the collar of his shirt. 

‘I'm part of a special unit linked to the FBI,' Steve admitted.  ‘I was
recruited when I was in prison, but I can't say more than that.' 

Dorothy looked at Steve with new eyes.  ‘So you're not in the Mafia
then? 

‘The Mafia?'  Steve laughed.  ‘What ever gave you that idea?' 


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