We Were Here First

The object glided silently over the tops of the forest before settling down in a field of wildflowers. The area was sparsely populated, but not off the grid. Cell phone cameras recorded the object as it passed overhead. Police received calls about a possible plane crash. Emergency medical techs rushed to the area to assist. But no planes were missing from the radar or had radioed an emergency. The EMTs stopped on the way at the local tavern for a beer after the recall. And everyone laughed at the incident. It was 2020 after all.

The occupants of the ship slowly filtered out onto the surface and scouted the immediate area before venturing away from their craft. They never questioned the existence of the small clearing in the woods where they landed. They followed the beaten path through the woods. It ended in the back yard of an old three-story house. After scanning the house, they drew their weapons and prepared for an incursion. The occupants offered little resistance, even laughing at the intruders who were disturbing their evening meal. The invaders didn’t understand their chatter at first. What was this Covid-19? What was this Bingo Card?

The residents of the house invited the visitors to join in their repast. Their lack of hostility bewildered the travelers. But the visitors were hungry and the prepared food seemed harmless enough. They could breathe the air, but the lowest ranking intruder removed his helmet first as a test. He nodded confidently to the others. “You picked a bad time to come visiting,” the grey-haired man said. “but there’s plenty of room in the house for guests.” The highest-ranking alien let out an earsplitting shrill whistle. The grey-haired man took out his hearing aid and checked the volume control and replaced the battery. “Dang thing is acting up again.”

The rest of the visitors replied with an equally shrill whistle before drawing their weapons and aiming them at the archway between the dining room and the kitchen. Three large armored beasts stood staring intently at the intruders. The hounds, for lack of a better word, looked very much like a cross between a Bernese Mountain dog and an armadillo. A tough leathery hide covered the tops of their head and most of their backs. “Heh,” the old man laughed. “I was wondering where they were. Those critters showed up a couple of weeks ago. We think they ran off from some secret government lab. Pretty tame as long as you keep ‘em fed. Of course, they ain’t been fed yet.”

The old man laughed. The home invaders backed up into the far corner of the room while keeping the hounds in their sights. The sound of breaking glass soon followed. They made their way out of the house through the shattered pane. The old man gave them a head start back up the path into the clearing before releasing the hounds from his control. As the hounds caught up with the visitors, they stopped abruptly and rose up on their hind legs. The largest of the hounds spoke to the intruders as they climbed back aboard their small ship. “Tell your masters not to land here. This world belongs to us.” A shotgun blast from behind to the head felled the hound. The visitors inside the ship killed the other two. “On the contrary,” the old man smiled smugly from behind the felled hound, “this world belongs to us. We were here first.”