I have never known that it doesn’t take much time for me to establish three levels of meaning of the word ‘aliens’.
If ‘aliens’ in my little brother’s words just made me feel helpless, then that word turned into something like a tool to provoke my anger, when Long the brat interrupted my precious spare time with that damn reason. And now, at the moment I hear those letters from Khanh’s mouth, the third level of ‘aliens’ just encourages me to get back home! Immediately!!!
It’s the third time I heard this word from three different people. You might not know this, but for the Vietnamese, anything that happened at least three times continuously is worth thinking about. How the f*ck can they scare me this way? It chills me to the bone, okay?
Alien attack? No, it’s just the product of the imagination. Exactly.
Though I’m trying to warm up my freezing blood this way, my ears are still uncontrollable, and those freaky whispers are still audible to me. Things get greater when that topic is damn stunning and I’m not the only one who falls into the story named ‘aliens and Nam the poor kid’.
“He is fine. I’ve checked it out.” Another guy comes to the place where two girls are gossiping, then he joins with hard evidence thrown to the center, “My mother got a shift in the hospital this afternoon. She told me that Nam just got some flesh wounds from the broken pieces of the glass window thrusting into his body. He fainted, so his two peepers are safe as well. No need to worry about him.”
“I don’t believe that.” My crush, Khanh, turns on her detective mode, rubbing her no-beard-at-all chin with a serious opinion. “According to my experience, there must be something wrong. Aliens, you know, it’s an abstract concept. They can’t just break into a house and scare someone out of their mind.”
Well, I don’t know that the girl whom I have a crush on has this aspect.
Not so long after that, another ‘detective’ comes up with the newfound proof to make this discussion more captivating and… fearful.
“But how can you know the culprit is aliens? Can’t it be some miserable brat?” This guy is my classmate. He lives just next to that poor dunderhead’s house, so his saying is quite believable. As expected, he says, “I’m his neighbor. My father and I ran into his house right after his parents screamed out. Guess what I see?”
All the audiences look at him with the eyes of curious babies, including me, the one who is moving his backside towards the gossiping group.
“Just a broken window and a computer still in the game Sky Force.” He stops, rolling his eyes, “If you count the victim as well, then we also have a fainted guy on the floor with some wou…”
“Jesus!”
Not waiting for the last letters spoken out of that guy’s mouth, my heart nearly jumps out of my chest. I stand up in the others’ bewildered expression, with only one thing repeatedly running back and forth in my mind like a siren. My face turns pale.
“What’s the matter? You seem so unhealthy.”
Khanh, who deserves to be my crush, realizes my abnormality in a flash. Her question is heartwarming too, but I have no time to explain to her.
“Nah, nothing at all.” I roll my eyes to find Long the brat’s figure. It’s an emergency. I need to tell him this, but I can’t get him in this room. Isn’t it a farewell party for him?
I glance back at the guy whom I have just interrupted. “What time was that? I mean, when you came to his house and found him fainted?”
“Hmph, let’s see,” he takes his phone from the bag, scrolling for three seconds and answering without raising his head, “Half past thirteen. I was going to take a nap later.”
It was approximately the time someone switched off the power of my family. Therefore…
“What’s happened?” At this moment, I hear a soft voice. But before I turned back to identify who was coming, that girl had asked me, “Step aside, please? You’re in my way.”
I step backward, looking at the newcomer. It’s Thuy, my class member and a notorious gangster in this neighborhood, even though she is not an aggressive guy. She goes across me before sitting next to Khanh, bringing a freaky scent, like blood…?
My thoughts get chaotic again, though I don’t expect to do that. This ‘alien’ case is abnormal in some ways, especially when it makes me get goosebumps. But I can’t link all the clues together because of the lack of logic either. Then I tell Khanh, “My mother told me to buy some things, but I forgot that. I might have to go now.”
“Oh, just leave.” She replies to me with a smile, “Don’t let your mother be angry.”
“Thanks. Enjoy the party.” The fake reason is okay, so I don’t stand here any longer, running out of the room as fast as I can.
Where is Long the brat?
Thanks to the fact that Genvere is the restaurant where I am the shareholder, I take the right to find an individual without spending much time. Miss manager shows me that Long is doing something in the garage, but while I’m on the way to get there, that guy has done this stuff and is coming back with something in his hand.
“Hey dude, I have…”
“The aliens…”
We talk to each other at the same time. But I am faster. When Long stops for a second, I open my mouth and express all my clues.
“Look, Long, the ‘alien’ case is abnormal. I got some pieces of evidence here. We have to find a place to discuss this.” While speaking, I pull his collar to get back to the room for the boss.
“Hey, put your hand out.” He responds to me with a humiliated tone when his legs are still following my direction, “Are you going to slash my throat with your forty-feet-long sword? Huh?”
“Listen, Long. This is serious…”
“Then I need an apology.” This brat doesn’t insult his ‘brat’ title, he holds his head up to the sky and glances at me, “Come on, call me ‘dad’, son. And I’ll forgive you.”
I release his collar, looking at his ugly yet obnoxious face. Long looks back with eyes full of haughtiness and a brilliant smile, as if he was damn sure that I would never bend down my honorable spine. How can he underestimate me that way?
“Okay, daddy, I’m sorry.” My answer shocks him, since I don’t care about pronouns any more. But it's not the thing I'm going to talk about. After making sure that no one is in this place, I turn down my voice and narrow my eyes. “On behalf of my respectful father, you may need to protect your son’s little life.”
“Someone, or something, is watching me.”
Long is silent for a moment. His lighthearted look slowly turns into a sharp one, showing the freezing light from his thick glasses—the habit of him whenever he thinks. Unlike the others who can laugh at my face because my statement seems to be unimaginable, my friend just raises a finger to change his glasses’ position, asking me with seriousness.
“Detail?”
Like solving a mathematical problem, let’s analyze with simple eyes.If the culprit is not an alien, there must be someone throwing a huge rock, or something similar to a rock, into Nam’s room. Though a big rock can break the glass window easily, it’s not that easy to move the tool away. It’s in the victim’s room, right? But no one mentioned something like a rock when they talked about Nam as if there wasn’t any rock.All of us know the sound when someone throws a rock through the window. ‘Shatter’, and that sound is loud for sure. But the sign taking the neighbors to Nam’s house is the scream of his parents, not that sound. So, if the tool is not a big rock, then what breaks the window, causing no sounds and leaving a big hole in the road?If we suppose the culprit is something nonhuman, we have another scary scene.The time when that thing attacked Nam was half past thirteen. I didn’t check the clock, but according to Long’s irritating call at fourteen o’clock, I can guess that Nam
On behalf of an innocent man who falls, or used to fall, in love with this beautiful girl, I expect her to say something like ‘take care’. Who you love the first time will not be the one who you will marry, I know it. Khanh doesn’t know my emotions, and I’m not rich enough to say ‘I love you’ or something. My future is full of plans, and this love should end, or at least till the day I can lead a business empire. It’s damn hurt here, in my little heart, so I need something to be a beautiful memory…But what she tells me just drives me insane.“Can you ride Thuy back home with you?” Khanh might realize how resentful my look is. She knows that I’m weak, but it doesn’t stop her from smiling and keeping convincing me for unbelievable reasons. “Thuy is just a girl, and the evening is not safe for her. She is injured as well.”“She is literally light, too.”Thuy?She is a gangster, lady! The girl who is infamous for fighting, till the level where our homeroom teacher complained with her gra
Though our neighborhood is just a suburb lying not so far away from the center of HCMC, we got an area with about one hundred houses abandoned twenty years ago. People said it used to be the place where illegal residents lived without permission. When the authorities moved them away to build a factory here, a monetary problem arose, and they had to stop their plan.From then on, this uninhibited area turned into a point where gangsters and criminals gathered.They can be anyone. Please remember the fact that we’re living not so far from one of the biggest cities in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City. Kidnappers, human traffickers, or even drug dealers can appear in this abandoned area. The only unexplainable thing here is why they can be here.As mentioned, we got a police station near this area. The police check out randomly, so even if this place is on the way leading to our neighborhood, the chance to come across those dangerous criminals is tiny.Here, congratulations, we spin to the box ‘
So, it turns out that aliens are real? Not the synonym of that bad word?It is the final thing appearing in my mind before my body falls to the ground, sliding backward while the broken pieces are splashing on, and I end up slamming the brick wall behind.“Ouch…”I swear on my honor, it’s the most painful moment that I’ve ever gone through. I can barely breathe. My back is so hurtful that it’s no longer sensible. The worst part might be my left arm, which definitely got a crack from that accident and is now causing me terrible numbness, spreading all over my body and worsening my bad health.As the pain gets worse and worse, I crawl up with the limbs, which can’t be still for even a moment. They’re all trembling uncontrollably. There is nothing fine remaining in my body, and for me—a person who can’t even be able to suffer minor pain—it is the true nightmare. Now crawling up is also a difficult task. I got a broken arm, hurting legs, and a blurred vision, which just allows me to see t
“Where are you going?”I grasp Thuy’s wrist with the fastest speed I can reach. She stops, and I ask her in a hasty voice. Some dust from the polluted air drops into my mouth, and I cough uncontrollably.Thuy looks back at me with a calm expression which can’t be any calmer, “I have other things to do now.”I forget to cough as well.It’s not until now do I realize that there is nothing called the most unexpected thing, because it’s just more and more things you can’t expect. According to the restrictions of normal inference, I do not know the way to reply to her as well, though this language is my mother tongue.“What is it?” I ask her. My face might get some wounds after the accident, so it turns to be very painful when I open my mouth. Releasing her hand, I slightly rub my bruises while continuing my question, “What can be more important than your life? Do you know what ‘aliens’ means? You would be a roasted chicken if I didn’t pull you aside!”When saying this, I don’t mean to emp
Slowly, I slide to the ground while that anxious tone is still echoing in my ears like the voice of death. I don’t even dare to breathe so hard, though my heart is racing as if it’s about to explode inside my chest. My head is suffering from the splitting headache, but how strange it is, my mind is more conscious than ever.I open my eyes, staring at the dark for a moment before turning the phone’s screen into the wall so as not to let anyone realize. Then, at the fastest speed, I turn on the silent mode and type a message to ask for help.Now, if I don’t realize that this is a carefully prepared conspiracy to cut my throat, then I don’t deserve to be alive anymore. Though it’s unbelievable and damn luckless, Long’s hypothesis is exact: I am the target, which should be killed in silence and absolute carefulness, for some unknown reason.Using this one as an explanation, I understand why they didn’t kill Nam the poor victim, arrest me in front of Thuy’s eyes, or just show their real ap
Since the moment the substance gets injected into my nape, the only signal I receive from my fragile body is survival impossible. I stop for a second, feeling the siren echoing in my ears with no way to escape from this hell. I have no words to describe this situation. Everything is suddenly painful, attacking me without preparation. Every single cell is screaming louder than ever. My sensitive nerves are on fire, but my head is no longer hurtful.I look at my hands, then glance at the bricks scattered around with a freaky thought arising over the pain, without expectation.It, the soul deep inside me, orders self-destruction instead.Unbearable.“Ahhhh!!!”I’m not sure about what happens next.Perhaps the alien has released me, or Thuy finally attacks that damn thing and pulls me out. The final thing I save in my mind—amidst the chaotic thoughts of slamming my head into some rock—is not to cause any harm, before Thuy grasps my wrist and drags me out of this place, with the alien in a
The first feeling turning back to my mind is the ground below my back’s toughness. I don’t know how long I’ve been here, in that damn faint, but it’s likely that my poor back—which has laid on the soft mattress for eighteen years—has forced me to wake up because it can’t suffer from this unpleasant surface anymore.I open my eyes, seeing someone sitting next to me with nearly all the body drowned in the dark and motionless, as if this person is sleeping in this posture. It may be a girl, who has pretty long hair, hiding almost her face. My sleepy brain doesn’t know who she is. I’m not scared of her either, so I raise one hand, removing her hair to see her while yawning after the sleep.Then I see those bloody red eyes staring back at me as what people usually describe how a nightmare looks like.“Ahhh! Monster! Damn, monster!!!”“What happened?” Immediately after my scream, the ‘monster’ looks up, revealing the familiar face in the dim light, which is not so beautiful but can calm dow
Then I sob while waiting for the alien's action. But it just sits there in silence, and it's quite illogical.The most perfect lie is a combination between right things and wrong ones. My muscles are actually useless after years of being weak, and… yeah, I can't live my life because I am too weak to do anything. Most of my words are spoken from the bottom of my heart. My actions are high quality as I have learnt it from a famous actress.I have to be the director, the script writer, and the actor at the same time. Ain't I talented? Why doesn't the alien trust me?Luckily, the alien comes closer to me, slightly patting on my shoulders. I look up with my tearful eyes, and those compassionate eyes look back at me.“It was a pity to hear that from you. She stole your power and now you have to follow her as a subordinate, begging for her protection…” Those words are fine for me, but the last ones force me to look up at the alien, “Women should never have powers.”Excuse me?‘Women should ne
If you have ever failed in imagining how aliens would look like when they were in war, now I can tell you some with my damn experience.It is just… chaotic, in the way that you will easily recognize that they're in war. Only in war.This hallway is full of aliens, where I can see all the possible combinations of colors, shapes, and sizes on the humanlike bodies, which are the first thing that an Earthling like me has ever seen, smelled, or heard of.The atmosphere here is definitely not good for my health. The scent of grass, mixed with dust, roses, burning flesh, and something metallic like blood. Sometimes you can smell a bad odor as if there is a dead body. It is absolutely terrifying, but I see nothing but a dense crowd in the hallway.The headache tortures me. I want to vomit. But I have nothing in the stomach, and there is just no way to escape from this circumstance.Sighing in silence, I walk ahead, trying to pass through this crowded hallway as if I am one of them… Or maybe n
After that humanlike creature leaves, I look around the room and don't know what to do next.If describing my emotions now as something figurative, then I suggest calling it a mixture of an avocado, some pepper, and a cup of coffee. An inedible mixture, which is as weird as my emotions are.My situation may be the most hellish one ever in humankind's history. After being chased by drones, fighting against an alien battleship, I'm probably caged for the first time ever in my life.Yes, caged. No matter how prosperous my imagination is, I have never expected that one day I will be caught, or caged—if you prefer the second word.I have been a good citizen for eighteen years of my life. A really good one, I can swear on my honor that even if my three years old little brother was a criminal, I would never be. My body is just simply unqualified to be a criminal, so if I ain't the victim, then there's no way that I will be the culprit.Thinking again, the only serious crime that I have commit
PART TWO: Not Home, No Home“Wake up already?”A morning light ray shines in my eyes at the same time I hear this voice. I'm confused for a moment, my sleepy brain hasn't started working yet. I just follow my instinct, turning my head at the place where the voice echoes. Sunlight goes across my skin, leaving some warmth, which makes me feel a little… unfamiliar?Huh?Why is it unfamiliar?“Why are you standing right there? Go and bring those trash bags to the outside. The garbage truck will be here later… Can't you hear me?” The voice appears in my ears again, bringing some anger as I don't pay attention to the content.I look up. My eyes open wide. And, though I don't know why, my mouth has opened and said what it wants.“Mom? Why are you here?”My mother is holding a handkerchief. It seems that she is going to clean the glass window which is covered with fog droplets. She looks back at me with a complicated expression, then she throws that handkerchief at me. That thin object doesn't
Right after making a fragile bond between an unknown danger and a victim, that ‘danger’ picks me back to the control center because I can't walk.The lighting system couldn't escape the fate of being destroyed in the fight. We can't see light from outer space as well—maybe we have gone away from that cluster. The dim green light from the control panel is the only thing we can see in the dark, and it's obviously not enough.I slowly wave my hand on the floor to make sure that I'm not going to sit down on sharp metal pieces, then lean against the cold wall while Thuy comes closer to the control panel. Green light reflects her curious face when she stares at all the virtual keyboard, radar system, and the three-dimensional simulation—an expression which I can barely see on her cold face.“Looks great, right?” I ask her with a low voice but full of obvious pride. All the spaceships I designed in Sky Force follow the highest standards of aesthetics, so how could they be unimpressive?“Yeah
Actually I don't know what I'm thinking about, when I'm still lying on the metal floor and looking up at the electric sparks like a crazy guy.My head is aching, again.It feels like you met some fuckin' scary guys and they smashed you, at your head, with a hard brick. It was painful at first, but when they started changing their weapon into a block of metal, you…No.Now I just want to slam my head into something, or anything possible, to end this unbearable pain. I don't know if this pain comes from the weird substance which I got injected, but it is absolutely worse than the usual ones.For a moment my nervous system has stopped working. But just a second later, it starts, once again, thinking of some negative things like what I had to suffer in the past. They bloom in my chaotic mind as a call from hell, or an ugly hand waving me from the dark.The headache gets worse. Now it feels like someone is stirring my brain, and I can do nothing but bite the sleeve so as not to accidentall
Xeros 5M is never a good choice for face-to-face battles, especially for an unequal fight between a small spaceship and a huge battleship.Though its damage is perfect for long-range targets with a good motion detector, the cannon will break into pieces if we fire closer than the minimum distance. The weapon itself will become a disposable product—and it's a critical, deadly waste in fighting, which is usually prohibited (in Sky Force, at least).Because of that reason, not many players know that it was the muzzle that restricted Xeros' capacity, and it's just enough for an impressive headshot.First I move around the enemy battleship to check if it has anything related to my memories. Although it sounds ridiculous and crazy, I can't hold back thinking that this damn world might have some relation to Sky Force and… my spaceship design.We got a ship with all the functions of my Hurricane, now there is a battleship using something that looks exactly like the camouflage cover I have use
Wars follow humankind on their way to evolution.Before Christ, we had lots of wars in Egypt, Babylon, and the Hittite Empire, which were reflected in several famous comics which I don’t even read.The Roman Empire was in the spotlight for being involved in so many wars until the fall of the East Roman Empire in 1453 A.D.The Middle Ages was known for the Crusade.And the modern era shows us World War I and World War II, which everyone has already known after years in school.Differences and similarities are the main reasons that lead to wars. You’re afraid of something weird, ugly, unknown, and different from you, and then your instinct tells you to destroy that object to prevent any harm. That’s how war happens.No one wants war, or at least we ordinary people don’t. I am too.I don’t believe what the AI system’s voice said at first. I stand up again and look for a camera to check it out, thinking that it's just an error. I have a habit of taking photos of my opponents from behind,
At first, I didn’t recognize what it was.The first scene which catches my eye is a big room with a metal floor, and three huge glass-like cracked windows showing nothing outside. It is pure black, just like any normal scene coming from a science fiction movie. I am not attracted to this, because everything that draws my attention is the way to unlock the control panel. It’s the crucial part here. Nothing else.I’m trying to guess what the alien engineers thought when they created this spaceship. It’s time-consuming and patient-required. I have to make lots of ways, as much as possible, while the right arm—which is not broken—keeps on touching every single inch of the floating plate, to find something useful, shown clearly through lots of blood lines that my fingers left on the way.Where can the control panel be hidden?Aliens are not us. I have to forget all the usual methods of inference to think weirdly, as an alien does. Can this plate be the control panel? If not, why is it here