The beamer was ready. Was she dressed right? The manual for earth visits said blue jeans, black t-shirt and white flat leather running shoes with three blue stripes on each side. The first rule on Earth was not to be noticed. Just do not stand out in the crowd. She had given her brother Gandy a list of what to bring on his last trip to earth based on what she had seen on the earth TV programmes and what her brother had told her. Jag was hurrying. She had prepared everything, but now was the time for a quick escape. She had to go now. Gandy was already dead after being caught and Jag was the next one on the list. The Instructor had been killed and his men wanted revenge.
She jumped in and pressed the button. Her body seemed to be floating for a few minutes and then she felt fine. Well almost, although she was wondering how these earth people managed with those jeans. Everything seemed to be a bit tight, but the shoes were good. She could run fast with those. She left the beamer which actually resembled a car, an old Ford to be exact. She took the keys with her and threw them down the next drain she saw. There was no returning.
She was just about to turn the next street corner when she felt a blast of warm air and turned to see a second beamer arriving and three men wearing dark trousers and long raincoats climbing out. They were already on her trail. She walked on and was taken aback by the humans she saw. They were walking next to each other, or behind each other, not looking right or left. They all seemed to have a purpose in the direction they took. She saw many blue jeans and t-shirts, although the t-shirt designs mostly seemed to have the same emblem and all were in the same colours, also black but with a white stripe along the arm.. It reminded her of the army on her own planet, just walking ahead and disregarding everything and all wearing the same clothes.
She again remembered the words in the manual for behaviour. “Look down, not straight ahead, avoid eye contact with the aliens.” That was not difficult she found, no-one seemed to regard the other. All were only interested in their own business.
“Suits me” she thought and continued, but heard a voice behind her.
“There she is” and one of the men in the raincoat was almost upon her. She walked faster and just followed the people in front. Many of them turned to the left and so she also turned left and found that they were entering a large building. Jag moved as fast as she could, the men at her heels, but then she had to stop. The people she was following were standing in rows and at they giving something up as they entered the building. She saw that it was not actually a building, but just an entrance. Inside it was open and there was a large field with seats surrounding it. They had tickets and Jag had none. She looked in the manual once again, but there was nothing about tickets. She was confused, but her followers were not confused. They were standing, watching and waiting. They approached her and there was no escape. Then she saw the red light on her jeans, travelling upwards to her t-shirt. There was no noise, no sound, she just felt the impact of the bullet and dropped to the floor.
“That job is dealt with” said one of the men in the raincoat. The others nodded.
“Should be getting back” said the other.
And the men walked together returning to their beamer. Their beamer resembled a telephone cabin and they entered one after the other. The street was empty, no-one noticed as the cabin dissolved into thin air, it just disappeared.
And Jag. She just lay on the ground, she had been killed. The people were still showing their tickets to enter the football stadium. It was an international game, a qualifying match for the world cup. Tickets were expensive and many of the people were glad to have at last had their dream fulfilled of seeing their country’s team play. Thoughts crossed some minds. “Today’s youngsters just cannot leave those drugs alone and now they just lay in the street.” On that day many people walked passed Jag’s body. They had something more important to do. Some even stepped over her. After all it was none of their business.
Click here for more
No comments:
Post a Comment