What was that about a Chicklet?

How does one find a bright yellow rubber ball that is not a bright yellow rubber ball?
He probably was hallucinating Wilson thought as he wove through the geeks in yellow environment suits.
Still it was better that sitting around watching the science nerds go bonkers over DNA. Finally he spotted what he was looking for.
"Sergeant?" The Operations Officer asked as Wilson came up.
"Not much to report sir, the Science Ne- Scientists say they have found that the subject is missing a DNA strand." Wilson said as he came to attention, hands behind his back.
"I guess, considering what I know about you Wilson, that would not seem like much." The officer, Ricks on the nametag, looked back to the reports he was reading on the makeshift desk that sat outside the hermetically sealed Military Transport with big bio-medical symbols on the sides and tons of warning notices around each entrance, Wilson itched to look inside.
"The subject stated that a the labrats removed a ball of light from his possession."
"Yes. The lab rats have it squirreled away in that tin can." Ricks said as he jerked his thumb backwards.
"Any idea what it is, sir?'
"Not a clue- but don't tell the General that when he debriefs you."
"The General is coming?"
"No he will call via Com-Sat in about an hour."
A private ran up and saluted, then handed Ricks a folded note. Ricks read it, frowned then looked at the private.
"When did this come in?"
"0700 hours, Sir."
"Well, this is worth looking into." Ricks looked at Wilson and nodded. "Carry on Private.
The private saluted and began to pivot when Ricks added.
"Send me Reilly and his squad. I have a job for them..'
The private saluted again, nodding even as he said "yessir!"
Wilson raised an eyebrow.
Ricks leaned back in his chair then reconsidered it and leaned forward onto his elbows.
"Sergeant, we have intercepted a private radio call from the locals to an area hospital concerning a gunshot victim."
"Is that important sir?" Wilson shrugged.
"Normally it wouldn't save that the locals switched off their regular channel probably to avoid anyone overhearing that. However, what has attracted our interest, is that fact that the Deputy at the ER is reporting that an alien has been admitted."
"I see..."
"I need you to bounce down there, take Dr. Susan,,, whatever with you and try to find out if there is any truth to what deputy dog just called in."
"Yes sir."
"And Sergeant?'
"Yes sir?"
"Make sure you are discreet." Ricks saluted.
"I am always discreet Sir." Wilson said even as he saluted Ricks back.

Well this is certainly better than a Chicklet. 

What happened to Fijbold?

This world was strange. If Fijbold had the benefit of having lived the human experience he would have found some humor in that apparent fact.
Fijbold wasn't human by any stretch of the imagination. For that matter he knew that he was not even a he no matter what his (mind) kept telling him that was supposed to be.
Fijbold tried for probably the hundredth time to remember what he/she/it had been like before. Fijbold decided he wanted to think of himself as it.
It stopped and looked around. The landscape was the same ugly green thing that Kymat had called grass. Fijbold wanted the air to be....wetter? Yes, wetter was what it wanted. Everything need to be wetter. Fijbold continued to stand in the dry space wanting the wetness that filled his memories to become a reality.
The wetness came. Slowly his skin felt slick and he opened his eyes (a very strange and foreign concept) and looked up into the (sky). The wetness was falling down to the dry place.
Fijbold smiled and spread his appendages wide welcoming the first familiar thing.
Something begin to hurt and it knew that a wave of euphoria was less ecstatic as it was picked up from the ground and flung backwards down into the green things that were all around him.
The wetness was on him, then a ugly human thing blocked his vision and it gave over to the darkness.


"What is that?" Dr. Phil Stone said as the EMT's wheeled in the thing on the gurney.
"Not sure Doc." The EMT spoke as he handed his clipboard over to Stone as his partner paired up the gurney with one from the ER. Several ER personnel rushed over  to help with the transfer.
"Dispatch said the 911 operator got a call from a "concerned citizen" who said two guys in a rusty pickup dumped it on the side of Hickleberry Lane."
"Hickleberry?' Stone asked looking at the scribbled notes on the form that was attached to the clipboard.
"Private road near the I-40 exit to Crossville."
"Oh. Hell." Stone looked at the "man" on the gurney. "I can see your point."
"Yeah. Okay, here we go." The EMT straightened and Stone finally took note of his name. Parker.
"One gunshot wound to the chest area. Lucky for him it had to be at least 20 yards away." Parker pointed the the multiple red stains across the ruin of the man's chest. "Definite penetration but apparently not enough to kill him."
"Shotgun?" Stone said looking back at the form. "Obviously. Hmmm."
"Yes, I see you have noticed that too." Parker said.
Stone squinted at the form. There was a lot of erasing and cross out marks on the form.
"What is all this?" he asked after a moment as he followed the ER staff as they wheeled into OR2.
"This is where it gets bizarre." Parker said but then waited until the ER staff with them moved off to start up equipment. "I am not sure how to put this-"
"Put what exactly?" Stone asked glancing from the chart back to the man on the gurney.
Parker leaned in close.
"That guy lying there is not like any guy I have ever worked on." Parker said, sucked on his lip and then said.
"He ain't human Doc."

"What do you mean not human?"
"I can't explain it. But when I got his shirt open his chest was moving around in a very un-human was and by the time we were halfway here- his skin opened up and kind of spat out the pellets that had been inside him."

Parker signaled to his partner who held up a ziplock bag with several dozen bloody objects that Stone accepted to be shotgun pellets.
Parker looked a bit sick.
"What?" Stone asked dreading what was coming next.
Parker pressed his hands against his forehead then stopped and stripped off his bloodied latex gloves.
"There's something that looks a lot like salt water in each of the wounds."
"No shit?"

"No shit."

WTH and other Acronyms

What the Hell just happened Maggie thought as Luke's left boot went down in the daisies next to her front door.
Luke went down with a yelp of surprise. There are a crunchy thud as he kissed the gravel. Maggie felt a wave of satisfaction.
Luke came back up to his feet, his nose was bleeding and there was gravel in his hair and shirt. He growled and came around her car.
"I am going to fuck you up! Asshole!'

Luke crossed the distance between them and charged Mars who had somehow moved between Her and Luke again. She had to give the man credit, he was incredibly fast.
Luke crashed into Mars and came to a dead stop. Mars did not budge or get thrown off his feet. Luke looked like a car that had slammed into a brick wall thinking it was a picket fence.
Luke tried to take a step back even as Mars suddenly moved and laid Luke out with what looked like a full armed boxer punch like Mike Tyson would throw. Needless to say Luke's mouth and jaw went in opposite directions and teeth flew. Luke followed his teeth through the air to land flat on his back with a bone-jarring crash that Maggie would have sworn she felt.

Mars straightened back up even as Maggie stepped around him to consider Luke who was sputtering up considerably more blood now.
FUBAR
That was the word that came to mind and she could not remember what it meant save that it was an apt description of Luke's face contorted in bewilderment and rage. One of his eyes was beginning to swell and his cheeks were going a shade of purple.
Luke screamed something but ended up biting his tongue and howling instead.
Luke made to get up and Maggie step forward without thinking and kicked him in the crotch.

She did manage to step back before Luke hunched over and puked all over his jeans.

When he was done puking. He crawled to his knees, then got to his feet, stumbled around until he spotted his boot and carefully retrieved it. Mars began to move, but Maggie put her hand on his arm and he stopped. Luke froze then slowly back pedaled out of her short drive, then turned as quick as he could manage and limped away down the road.

They watched him go.

"I could end him." Mars said after a moment.

"No, let him live." She heard herself say as the rage slowly drained out of her.

She looked up at her Alien with a strange sense of pride. He was the first person who had ever stood up for her since her Dad had died seven years ago. Well, stranger things have happened.
She was dog tired suddenly DTTW. She need a shower, a shave and a beer.
She chuckled as she walked back to her door.
Mars still stood looking down the road.
She turned back to this man, no scratch that this alien, and did the unthinkable.

She walked over to him, took him by the arm and escorted him into her home.

her last thought was. "Come into my parlor said the spider to the fly."
She wasn't sure who was the spider or the fly.
At that moment she didn't care.

Who the Hell are you? and other conversation pieces

Maggie saw stars. One moment she was looking at the interior of her trailer wondering who had turned off all the lights and the next her head hurt and she felt herself float free from this realm of existence.
She vaguely wondered how her life had spun so out of control.

Mars watched as Mags went sideways suddenly as the other person collided with her. Then the two struck the side of the door with a thump and fell out of the strange oblong box.
He reacted immediately moving to grab Mags' shirt as she fell and scoop her up into his arms while using his foot to dislodge the other person from her body. It almost worked too.

In the end. He sat on the hard, pointed surface that led to the box, cradling Mags in his arms. The man lay between Mags' legs face down and groaning.
He was sure that this was a strange new way these beings interacted. He would have said weird even, if not for the nagging doubt that it had been much different from the other place he had left behind.

They all sat there for a time. Maggie opened her eyes to look up at Mars and wondered why he was holding her again. A moment of deja vu washed over her before she remembered the attack and her eyes darted to the weight between her legs. There was a blond haired man face down between her legs. She very nearly screamed.
After a moment, he looked up at her.
"Hello Mags."
It was Luke. The asshole ex boyfriend.

Luke clambered to his feet. Maggie just sat there and looked up at him. Mars stood up and pulled her up as he stood. She found her legs could support her weight. She blew out a puff of air that moved some hair and felt like she had been run over, again.

"What the hell do you want?' She said after a  moment of trying to think of someway to tell him off and failing.

Luke looked at her, then he looked down, his blond curls falling over his face. She knew the answer before he spoke.
"Shalance left me." He said and looked up at her through his curls and she knew that was his signature I am weak and need help move.

"That was quick." Maggie replied. "how did you get in my house?"

"I know, right." Luke said straightening. "One minute she's all I love you and the next it's I can't believe you were dating that white bitch and then it was like you are too dumb to date someone like me after you dated someone like her."
The asshole actually managed to smile.
"Besides, I knew you'd take me back, Mags" She really hated being called Mags. "Jimmying your door was easy, I've done it a dozen times."
A dozen times.
Maggie felt a sudden was of self-loathing. This asshole had been in her house at least a dozen times alone without her even knowing that he had violated her privacy.
"Come on, Mags, I forgive you, won't you forgive me?"
Call me that one more time you bastard, she thought trying to marshal a response. How had she fallen for this crap for the last 2 years?

"Fuck off Luke." Someone said. "Get the fuck out of my life."

"What?"

She had said it. "Get the fuck out of my life."

"Really Mags. that is so-"
She lost it she started screaming and slapping at him as he back pedaled towards her house.

"Seriously Mags. not cool." Luke said as he blocked her onslaught. "I'm warning you, cut it out."
She didn't but she did start kicking as well. She even connected with his knee. It hurt her foot like hell too.
Luke took a swing at her at that moment.
His fist never made it.
It crashed into Mars open palm and stopped dead. Maggie could imagine the impact it must have looked like. All she did see was Mars moving between her and Luke and the resounding smack.
Luke looked wide eyed at Mars.

"Who the Hell are you?"

"I am the end." Mars said, closing his hand over Luke's fist before pulling sideways and throwing Luke like a rag doll over her car.

What the Hell is that thing.

There was a noise of squealing tires filled the air.
She was not going to hyperventilate! She would remain in control!
Maggie stopped looking out the windscreen and shut her eyes.
No, she was okay.
What was a military helicopter flying into Crossville for? There had to be a rational explanation.
Instead she turned to look at Mars.
He stared at the fading spectre entranced probably caught up in a memory or something.
She realised the hand brake and eased her foot off the gas pedal. The car lurched forward but she managed to avoid the ditch as she headed home again. About a mile down the road she took a left and bypassed the road that would have taken them back to the road where she had found the three men.

The Military showed up in the movies every time Aliens appeared in the movies. The movies couldn't be completely wrong- right? I mean this could actually be the beginning of an Alien Invasion! She could be aiding and abetting the enemy who would end up impregnating her and then she would...
Mars stared at her with one eyebrow slightly raised and she clamped her mouth shut and put a hand over it.
He was so calm it was scary.
She pointed out the windscreen and tried to say something but nothing came out save for a squeak.

Mars leaned towards her and came so close that he could have kissed her. For a moment, she was sure he was going to. Instead, he breathed soft humid air into her face and said.
"Why do you keep acting so irrationally?"
She just stared at him and then she pushed her face against his and kissed him.

Time seemed to stop and then Mars said something into her mouth. She froze.
The moment passed.

She sat back, he had tasted good for the moment they had almost kissed.

When had she stopped the car? Maggie looked around looked around. She was driving on automatic. They were stopped at the farmed gate.

She held up her hands, then after a moment put the car in park and got out of the car and opened the gate.
She climbed back in and drove down to her trailer.

Some things seemed to be okay, at least, the same.
Well the same crappy trailer, same junk that a previous boyfriend had abandoned in her yard.

She was out of the car and marching to the door before she remembered that she had an alien in the car.
She turned to find him standing a few feet behind her.

She shook her head, she needed a shower, a drink and some sleep in her own bed.
As she thought this a warm memory creeped into her head of mars holding her while she slept.

Dammit Maggie. Get a Grip!
She should have known that something was wrong when her front door just open when she touched it.
But she was too busy to look for the guy coming for her from the darkened interior until it was too late.

Things to do when your world is ending.

After everything had happened it turned out that she had spent the rest of the night asleep in the man who called himself Mars' arms. She couldn't remember how she had gotten there but she felt better when she awoke to the morning sunlight coming through the sunlight.
She yawned and looked up at him as he sat there looking down at her. She smiled at him and he nodded before gently helping her back up to sit behind the wheel. She complied because it felt right. Once she was sitting up he got out of the car and walked into the field until he disappeared into the trees.
She took a look in the rearview mirror and sighed. She was a wreck. Total loss.
Maggie realized she was alone in the car. The other 2 aliens were not there. Aliens. The word did not scare her as much as she thought it should. Where were they anyway. They had left the Walmart and driven towards her home. Then she had...
Shit! Yes, Maggie had gone to pieces. Classic ex-girl friend fashion to boot. At least one of the aliens was cute and the other hugged very nicely. She blew out a breath and considered her options. What does one do with three aliens who are not doing well passing off as human beings.
It would have been good if her brother was here in Tennessee, then she could go ask him. He was the one who read all the sci fi books while the most she had covered was some of his less violent comic books and harlequin romances (hers). Thinking of Lawrence made her flinch, he was still in Iraq fighting that fucking war and might be killed at any point and then all Maggie and Grace would have left was the memory of his smile.
Poor Grace, they had only been married like 3 days when we invaded Iraq. No honeymoon, no time to even really say goodbye. Maggie decided she would call Grace once she got home and showered and -
Oh right the Aliens.
Well that was a game changer as Larry always would say. What would he think of his little sister now? I mean other than the fact I dropped out of school, picked up a string of loser boyfriends and lost my 4th job since he had left?

She looked back out to where Mars had vanished. Then she spotted them standing a ways off in the field talking. Well Mars and Kimat were talking but Fishbowl was running around flapping his arms and screaming. Not for the first time, she was grateful that they were in the virtual middle of nowhere. At least home was on a farm away from the city and her mother's house was at least a mile from her trailer.

Fishbowl suddenly stopped running around and fell into the grass. A wail like a siren erupted from where he had fallen. Obviously he hadn't hurt himself as the other two men took one look at him and then resumed their conversation. She wondered what they were discussing.


Mars looked down at Fijbold in disgust. He figured that the Marcreation (what?) would not make it long on this world. It was a bad turn of luck that Fijbold had not connected near a hydrocarbon mass and gotten a different form. This form lacked a lot but Mars could see some possibilities to it. Of the three, Kymat had the least transition to the new form, his species had been bipedal and adept at walking upright. He had the least adjustment then Mars or Fijbold even though his lower limbs- his legs moved in the opposite direction as his previous ones.
Kymat sighed.
"So it is settled then." he said. "we must go our separate ways."
"We were never friends." Mars said but then stopped as they both realized the strange word did not quite accurately describe their prior relationship.
"I will go with the woman." The word felt right to his body although the concept did match something Mars could not quite define in himself. "I would advise you each to find similar, since the other was less approachable."
Kymat nodded. Fijbold wailed.
"This is a fairly large world. we probably will not need to encounter again." Mars said.
"But should we need to we will all come back to the place we first connected in 2 passes of this world around its star." Kymat said and Mars nodded. Fijbold stopped wailing and nodded.
"I don' like it." was all he said from where he crouched in the grass.
Mars knew it would be very unlikely Fijbold would ever make it back to this place even if he survived.

The men stopped talking and walked away in different directions. Mars walked back to the car. He turned once a raised his hands skyward. Kimat stopped and did the same. Fishbowl did not stop nor look back as he walked away into the woods. Kimat walked away from them down the road.

Mars opened the door and got in. He looked at her and made as if to smile but it did not work. he shook his head and said
"We decided to go our own ways from here."
"Oh." Maggie replied.
"I have decided to remain with you." Mars said.
Maggie's heart jumped inside her chest and she flushed with pleasure. She glanced at Mars who did not look back he was staring at the sky.
"Okay. I guess I will take you home then." She said but he was now pointing up into the sky.
"What is that thing?" He said.
She followed his finger to the Helicopter that was flying back towards town. It was the biggest helicopter she had ever seen.
"Shit." was all she could manage.

How DNA strands does it take to change a lightbulb? Not as many as you would think.

Susan just stared at the DNA Map on Mick's Laptop as it turned. The graphic was clear, Floyd was actually missing a strand of his DNA. It seemed impossible, she glanced over to see Wilson demanding something from Floyd who blubber like and infant and she shook her head, this guy could be missing entire sequences of DNA and no one would notice- definitely not Floyd anyway. She shook her head then turned back as Mick tried unsuccessfully to get his laptop to isolate the strand in question. The result of which is the Mac Book locked up and the apple appeared and Mick started cursing (a lot).
Susan turned back to find Floyd asleep in his chair- snoring. Wilson was nowhere to be seen. Odd.

Dr. Williams stepped back and took his glasses off to rub his eyes. Mick stopped swearing at the laptop and stood up.
"Sorry." He said, looking a bit embarrassed.
"It's okay." Susan said.
"Fucking Macs." Mick said as if that was an explanation.
"I guess we will need a server to pull this kind of crunching." Dr. Williams said. "Is there a university or lab or something around here."
"I'll have to ask around." Susan said as she walked past Floyd to the tent flap.
"In the meantime, Mick and I will try to get the Computer working again."

Why did the Chicken Cross the road or in other words and by that I mean completely unscientific words.

Wilson shook his head in disgust. Floyd would never change, the drunk was never lucid even when he was on his way to being stoned.
Floyd looked up at Wilson and began to cry.
And it was ugly crying.

Wilson took a long step back.
"What the hell?"

Floyd tried to speak and then blubbered with snot running down his ugly face. It took him awhile and most of the sleeve of his one piece that a tech had given him when they confiscated his clothes. But he managed to stop.
"They- them!" He pointed out the tent. "Theys taked it away!"

Wilson rolled his eyes upward and mouthed a 'What the Fuck" and then stepped in front of Floyd.

"What did they take away?"

"I dunno-"

"Oh for crap's sake!" Wilson considered hitting the man then reminded himself that he would be wasting his time.

"I dunno what it was but it was sure pretty and glowing and shit."

"Like?"

"A little ball of light only it felt like rubber."

"Oh. Well I'll check on that." Wilson said straightening his uniform and stepping back.

"Will- they give it back when they are done with it?" Floyd asked.

"Sure." Wilson said before he stepped out of the tent.

Then these Aliens came down from the sky and gave me a chicklet

By the time, Susan and Dr. Williams got to talk to Floyd Wilkinson, it was 9am. The man had been scrubbed clean of everything including his tattered remains of clothing, shaved bald and dressed in a spare hazmat suit. He sat in the tent with a dazed expression, band-aids on his arms where the techs had taken numerous blood samples. He was at least fairly sober.
He looked at them as if trying to focus as they came in under escort. Wilson came in with them. Susan was glad to have him there. not sure why but the Marine's presence was reassuring. Floyd did not show that he remembered or even recognized Wilson.
The man just sat at a hastily erected folding table with a desolate expression.
They brought in their own folding chairs and sat down across from him. After a moment, Mick came in with a laptop and his own chair (somehow) and sat up next to Dr. Williams. It made her legal pad seem insignificant.
Then there was silence (the pregnant pause as it were).
Floyd looked at them, they looked at Floyd.
No, actually, they stared at him hard.

Floyd gulped and looked away.
"What?"

No one responded for a few beats, then Dr. Williams cleared his throat and shrugged.
"Floyd? I am Dr. Bill Williams, this is my lab assistant Mick Ohare," He stopped to point at Mick then pointed at her. "This is Dr. Susan McGraff."

"Youins doctors?"

"No, we are scientists."

"Who's he?" Floyd pointed at Wilson.

"No one important." Wilson said. They must have all looked at him. He shrugged.

"What do you want?" Floyd asked.

"Well, Floyd, we were hoping that you could tell us what happened earlier tonight?"

"Oh. Well like I told those fellers who were just here. I pulled over by the road to take a leak-"

"The road is over 75 yards from where your truck hit that tree." Wilson interrupted.

Floyd peered hard at Wilson then shrugged.

"I guess I pulled way off the road then." He stopped to peer at Wilson who shrugged.

"And then?" Dr. Williams prompted.

"Anyways, I was standing there in the field taking a leak when this bright light comes out of the sky so I look up and blam!"
Floyd sits back and spreads his hands.

"Blam?" Dr. Williams prompts.

"What?"

"Blam, that's it?" Dr. Williams sighs, leans back then takes off his glasses before rubbing the bridge of his nose. "That's all you remember?"

"Well yeah, I mean no. Shit."

"What do you mean, Floyd?" Wilson interjected.

Floyd peered up at him again.

"I know you. Your that cop!"

"I was that cop." Wilson sighed.

"Oh." Floyd answered as if not sure what to say next.

"What do you remember next?" Dr. Williams asked as calmly as he could manage. his right foot had begun to tap.

"Um- right, well there was this bright light and then I was kind of- well I was dreamin' and these aliens came out of the light and gave me a-"

"You have got to be kidding me!" Mick suddenly said.

"What now?" Dr. Williams asked.

"This man is missing some of his DNA strands!" Mick said, staring at his laptop.

"What?" Both Dr. Williams and Susan said together.

"I was running a scan over the bioscans the techs did of that man and look at this-" Mick pointed at the simulation running on his computer.

Susan and Dr. Williams crowded around the laptop. Floyd forgotten.

Wilson stared down at the stunned man.

"What did these aliens give you Floyd?"

Since it is the 66th anniversary of Roswell

Susan spent much of the next two hours looking at the mostly invisible evidence at the event field. When she finally saw the visible evidence- she found that she wished that she hadn't. To put it in basic English, it amounted to green, yellow bile like what you spit up when one is very ill with a respiratory infection. She decided a short walk outside the event area would be better.
The sun was coming up and she stopped by one of the lab trucks to catch her breath.
"I never imagined something like this happening less than 25 miles from where I was born."
Susan looked around to find the Marine from the SUV lounging against a stack of plastic crates.
"You are from around here?' She asked.
He shrugged, took a sip of something that smelled like coffee and then pointed over to his right, south-south east.
"I was born and raised down in a holler near here."
"What is a "holler?" she managed a smile.
He straightened. She made note that he was pretty good looking like most Marines she had met over the course of her dealings with the General. Most men who wore uniforms and were in peak shape tended to be.
He sighed.
"Sorry Ma'am, I forget that if you aren't from the South, there are terms we use that no one else does."
"It's Susan, not Ma'am." She said
"Not sure I can call you that." He said even as the smile crept across his face. "A Holler is a hollow which usually can be a dip in the land or a gap in a hill. These days with all the development, the holler itself is long gone and only the name remains."
"Like Sleepy Hollow?"
"Don't know that one, Ma'am."
She almost replied with the headless horseman but decided against it.
He stood up and bent down and picked up a flask.
"Coffee?"
"Yes, thanks."
He handed her a cup- the lid cup from the flask and poured the black coffee into it, the steam rising into the growing light.
"Looks like they will be combing this site for days." She said then decided that stating the obvious was about as dumb a line as she had ever come up with.
"The locals are going to hate it." He said. The sunlight hit him as it does in the morning and she could see his name tag on his fatigues. Wilson and the other military Abbreviations that always escaped her.
"Speaking of which...." Wilson trailed off as he began looking at something to the right.
She turned to look where he was looking.
A squad of Marines were escorting a rather rumpled man through the tent camp.
"Do you know him?" She asked.
"Yes, it's Floyd Wilkinson- the town drunk- well one of the 50 or so."
She stared at him (probably agape).
Wilson glanced at her then shrugged, he looked embarrassed.
"I was a Deputy Sheriff before I enlisted, so I got to know all of them sots before I left."
"Wow."
"I know. There are other words that come to mind."
"I know, like FUCK."
"Wow. Why is that one of them?"
"Because Floyd may be our only eyewitness to the event."
"So what you are saying is that this is going to become another Roswell Incident."
"Looks like it."
"Fuck."
"I know."

What in the hell happened here?

The SUV continued through the town, which barely registered to Susan as much more the a stop on the interstate. By the time she thought to notice it they were out, moving away from the lights towards what looked like the end of civilization. Leaning back she decided maybe she could catch some sleep.
This proved to be a mistake.

"We are almost there Ma'am." the driver said as Susan fought a sudden bout of queasiness. I hate curvey roads.

One moment it was all darkness then it was all light. Ahead on the left side of the road, it looked like the circus had come to Tennessee. In truth it had.

Two apache type copters streaked overhead as the SUV coasted into what appeared to be a sudden tent city set up on the side of the road. She had to remind herself not to gawk. It was unbelievable at the amount of tech, hardware and soldier all around this clearing and forest. Why would anyone go to this much trouble if-

Wait one damn moment! she thought. Was this actually the first time for real that aliens had come to Earth?

She dismissed the thought as a squad of soldiers approached then surrounded the SUV. They were shepherded to a spot off the side of the road about 100 yards from the "event zone." This is actually what the driver of the SUV called it as if it was scientific and official. Susan was fairly sure that he had just made it up.

She climbed out of the SUV, when a tall lanky man in a lab coat came striding over. He was not handsome, although there was something charming about the sly grin he shot her before holding his hand out.
"Dr. McGraff, I presume. I am Dr. Williams." His voice pitched so she could hear him over the hubbub surrounding him. He looked positively giddy.
"Dr, Williams." She said taking his hand shaking it then letting it go. Sweaty palms.
"Care to fill me in?"

"My pleasure." He replied before gesturing towards the site.
They picked their way around cars, trucks, boxes, light kits and some kind of power unit on a trailer. Leaving the road they walk outside a line of what Susan took to be police tape.
"As far as we can tell, the Ripple connected with the surface approximately 6 hours 12 minutes and 32 seconds ago at the center of this field." he lifted the yellow tape at this point- about 15 yards off the road- she tried to mentally pace it out anyway. It was a nerdy thing to do and she chided herself since she could get measurements later.
She ducked under the tape and Williams followed.
"The ripple came down over there." Williams pointed to a spot surrounded by lights about 40 foot in diameter with what appeared to be part of a beat up pickup truck crashed into a tree projecting into the circle.
"A truck?" She heard herself say.
"Yes, that, it seems the Ripple or event intersected the truck bed and de-atomized the part that fell within its intersect."
"De-atomized?"
Williams gave a micro-shrug and spread his hands.
"He won't say disintegrated." a thin man said before turning around from where he crouched with what Susan had at first taken to be a cluster of lab techs but now looked and smelled more like University interns (she would claim to have a nose for this kind of thing).
Williams coughed.
"I am Mick, Dr. Williams assistant in all things technical."
"He's an intern in my Astro-mapping project at Berkeley."  William's explained, trying to wave Mick off.
"You guys got here fast." She said, an eyebrow raised.
"Well when Nasa informed the Military of what was happening, Some General started calling in favors and a group of G-men showed up at the lab and scooped up me and my staff of six, stuffed us into a jet I have never seen before and flew us pretty much straight here."

Susan was pretty sure she knew what General he was speaking about.

"So, the event field?" She prodded.
Williams chuckled, "Right. The Field. It's amazing isn't it?" He gestured at the circle filled with markers and lab techs scurrying over the space collecting everything in sight- grass, and soil included.
"What the Doc isn't telling you is what we found shortly after arriving here." Mick interjected.
"Well, I wanted her to get an idea of how much space we have to cover." Williams shot back.
"What am I missing?" Susan said trying to figure out what she was not seeing.
"It's unbelievable, that is what it is!" Williams excitement came bubbling up- the man was positively hopping in place.
"What is unbelievable?" She asked
"DNA, tons and tons of DNA." William yelled, he was dancing.
"DNA?"
"What the Doc is saying, Dr. McGraff is that the event field/zone is filled with little bits of DNA that is not terrestrial as far as we can tell at this juncture."

She must have gaped then blinked at the 40 foot diameter that was in fact, perhaps the single biggest discovery of her lifetime.
The Aliens has arrived.

She gulped but then could help wishing that they could have been a little bit bigger.

Touchdown Tennessee

Susan had dozed off by the time the jet touched down in Tennessee at a small airstrip outside Crossville. The Marine who woke her was polite but not overly friendly. He id have what Susan took for a southern accent, but she was tired and getting Ma'amed a lot could dull the senses.
She left the jet and got into the black SUV Escalade that seemed to be the Government's vehicle modus operandi these days.
After a moment she yawned in a very unladylike manner looked over at her driver, the marine was in the seat behind her.
"Where are we?"

"We just left Whitson Field Airport, Ma'am." The driver replied.
The marine made as if to say something but stopped himself and looked out the window into the night.
"Where is that?"

"Well, it's roughly about-" the driver began but stopped talking as he had to make a fairly complicated turn around a pair of pickup trucks stopped in opposite directions so that each drivers side window could be opposite. The men in the trucks were chatting amicably and hardly noticed their passing.

"We just left Crossville Memorial/Whitson Field Airport, we are driving to Crossville which is 4 and a half miles away." The Marine said- he sounded bored. "We are proceeding to State Hwy 298, Genesis road, to an empty field just on the other side of the Cartoosa Wildlife Management area. Which will be about 19 miles away from the center of town."

Susan raised her eyebrows at the soldier and he shrugged once before returning to his reverie

Words from above

Susan McGraff, professional astronomic reassurer, looked out the window of the small jet as it streaked over the US, probably somewhere over Georgia. She was not actually a "professional astronomic reassurer" it was what she referred to herself as. I am actually a theoretical astrophysicist masquerading as a human being. She looked down at the ipad in her hand wanting to increase the resolution on the the radio cameras in orbit hundreds of miles above her. The resolution would come soon, well hopefully soon.
Here she was flying to some place in Tennessee where this wave had intersected the planet. Why Tennessee? Yes, she had actually asked that and was told by the annoyed Lieutenant Max-something that she could discuss this to her hearts content when she got there with some Professor Williams whose SETA team had found the "Ripple" a few weeks ago. Apparently he would be meeting her at the landing strip she was enroute to.
Susan had no idea who Dr. Williams was, much more than he was a mostly ignored member of the Berkeley staff who spent his time and government subsidies searching the universe for intelligent life or something. She should be fair. He probably didn't deserve that remark. But she was not in the mood to be kind.
The pictures of the impact, no effect that the wave "ripple" had on the YSat Communication Satellite were dramatic on the level of a science fiction movie. Well almost. The actual time it took for the effect of the collision took longer than any sci fi fan would have sat still for. Still as she flipped through the footage, the collision remained thrilling as the Satellite shuddered and ripped apart until the thruster fuel or batteries or something ignited and the satellite blew apart. Fortunately, for all those folks up there and the other satellites, it blew into tiny bits. No, she corrected herself as her mind began the calculations, the debris would only impact a fraction of the atmosphere, given the orbit and decay most of the debris would miss the space station and other satellites.

Well, some news is good news.
As to the other news, it was curious and infinitely more troublesome. The early reports coming in were worse, much worse. From the small amount of data that she had been sent so far, it appeared that the ripple had stopped as soon as it intersected the physical surface of the planet and something had happened for about six minutes before the entire wave had ceased in sending. There was still an aftershadow of course where it had been. But the ripple had vanished from the universe as far as the radio satellites could tell. There was a logical explanation for this but the guys with the military were still freaking out about it.
Given what little she knew about overall galactic mechanics, it was unlikely that a natural phenomena could hit the Earth twice. But the behavior of the wave pointed to artificial intelligence which meant that the air force was trying to persuade the president to go to def con 4 most likely as the first real panic in years set in.
What do you do when the aliens invade the planet in six minutes or less?

Okay where are you guys from?

Mars considered this being as she stared out the front of their transport. Her eyes were wide and she (blinked) rapidly. Blinked- what a strange word, it meant something like the quick opening and closing of the fleshy membranes over the optical receptors. Water-like substance began to run down from the receptors, down the (woman's) face. Her (hands) gripped the controls tightly- to tightly like the controls would move on their own or would break apart if she dared to remove her hands from them. The woman (Mags) mouth vibrated- correction the fleshy membrane surrounding her mouth trembled as she closed it over and over again even as it opened over and over again. No sound came out but the trembling increased as the water (tear) flow increased. She is (crying) his mind told him- no (think/thought) not the trace but his own mind (being).
Being in this form was so utterly complex, even with the probes programming and suggestions, he was unsure that he would be able to grasp the complexity in a life time. When all else fails, go with what your body tell yous to do. The thought was the same a the memory of the other self had been told to do when danger dictated demanded he react (quickly). So much had happened in so short a span of (time), would he be able to survive the exile? The other 2 were trying and failing to adapt, Kymat was better but Fijbold continued to fail to grasp the basics like rudimentary movement. Time (time) was relative he supposed, they had all the time in the Universe or at least time as this new form would allow. Mars made the strange noise that he had heard the woman make, it was not identical but close. Time! Time was so different to what they had known in the other place- this place it was like moving through (the word was gone, although the feeling of immobility remained) thickness when compared to the other place. Also, as far as he could grasp this place (time) her was limited to one apparent direction instead of what it was like back there.

"We are from a place so different from this one, I can not make you understand what or why it was different." he told the woman who stopped her crying to stare at him in confusion.
"Where is that?'
'You cannot-" he stopped as his mind tried several words and failed to offer him one. "You cannot go there."
"Go? Why would I want to go there?'
(Good) question. No, he would let his body tell him instead of trying to understand what he was thinking or what she was saying.
"You cannot go, no can we go back." (back) was that the right word. Stop thinking about the (language). it was maddening since his mind was grasping more of the (speech) that he was making with his mouth.
"Can I see it?'
See (see)! That was the word he had originally meant to say. See- sight, what his organic being would perceive through the optical receptors.
"No, it is-" Don't think just say what the body tell you to say- "too far away to see."
Mags leaned back in the seat and held up her (arms).
"Can you point in the general direction?"
Mars' first instinct was to point in the current direction that his mind immediately identified as the (general) direction, but he stopped himself. It was down and to the side in a steep angle. Instead he point up. it was (relative) to what his body told him the direction should be. It had been the direction of the Slipgate when it arrived on this world.
She looked at his finger pointed up and shook her head.
"No." She shook her head, the (tears) slowing "No, no, no-" the tears increased as she shut her (eyes) and began to beat her hands on the controls she had gripped earlier.
"No?" he said not sure why he should but (feeling) that he should try.
"This can't be happening to me. Little green men do not exist, there is no such thing as UFOs! I refuse to believe that you guys are aliens. I mean that kind of aliens."
Without knowing what or why he was doing it, he reached over and pulled her to him as she begin to cry again in intense spasms. She did not resist him and her hair (smelled) (nice).

Where DID you get those clothes

She looked at him, the laughter bubbling up out of the same place as her hysteria. For his part, Mars did not even crack a smile. Kymat tried to imitate Maggie and failed miserably. It only made her laugh harder.
Mars waited until she was mostly done. When she leaned her head back, he began:

"You went into the structure- store (pause as he turned this completely foreign word over in his mind), We observed you browsing through the coverings- clothes (another pause) and then we looked at your display examples."
"What?" Maggie interrupted. "What display examples?"
"They were inanimate simulacrums to you and wore different coverings." Kymat said.
Maggie stared at him until he looked down in embarrassment  (it could have been embarrassment).
"The clothes were on humans who did not move even when Kymat took their clothes off. They were un-living without faces." Mars said.
"Mannequins!" Maggie laughed for few beats. "you are talking about the mannequins."
"Yes, that word must be what they were."
"You undressed the mannequins and no one noticed." Maggie said shaking her head. On the other hand it was 4am in the morning and Kigbowl was running around the parking lot.

She pulled the car over into a closed gas station.
"Let's try this again." She said before opening her door and getting out.
The three men got out of the car and stood there looking at her. She took the clothes out and handed a pair of sweats to Kymat and Kigbowl, then stopped. Mars actually looked okay. His clothes mostly fit and didn't look so bad.
Kymat studied the sweats with interest while Kigbowl just looked at them dumbly.
Maggie sighed and felt he eyes beginning to roll, so she stopped herself. When she looked back Mars was taking his clothes off and then putting them back on. Kigbowl- Okay she knew she had the name wrong, but she seriously doubted anyone was going to spell it. Hell, Mars was the only one with a normal sounding name.
After a few minutes of Mars doing show and tell Kigbowl manged to get the sweats on. Kymat shed the hot pants and slipped into the sweats with a sigh of relief. She looked down at the size 5 hot pants and wondered how he hadn't passed out from the lack of oxygen they must have caused.

She considered them. They were a motley crue but they were at least good looking even if Kigbowl- kickball? kept making strange faces.
"Let's go." She got back into the car.
The men climbed back in, well Kymat and Mars did, they all stopped to watch Kickball try to climb in feet first and then stop, he looked at them a laughed. It could have been a laugh save for the fact that is sounded more like a sucking noise,
The man straightened then made a few attempts at folding his arms and legs only managing to fall down and sit on the pavement. Mars said something that couldn't have been English and stepped out of the car. He walked back to Kickball and grabbed him in a bear hug and tossed him in the back seat. Amazingly Kickball went in smoothly like a ragdoll.
Mars returned to his seat and looked at her.
She looked back at him trying to decide where to go now.

The absurdity of the entire night hit her and she sat staring at the man who she didn't know and should have been scared of. What in the hell was she doing? Fucking up. that was what she was doing. She had almost driven these three weirdos to her house. Somehow she had not been afraid of them, somehow she had ignored the obvious. How could she be so damnably blind!
She turned to look out the window, her hands were white form where she gripped the steering wheel.
Whare should she go? Were they waiting to kill her?
She gulped for air like a drowning victim, she would not cry, she wouldn't!

"Where did you guys say you were from?" she said the fear clamping down on her like a iron vice.

The Way back home

She was driving, she knew that much for sure- as to the rest she wasn't sure. They were on the road, a road, wait a damn minute! They?
Now she was braking, and skidding and stopping.
Wide eyed she looked around to find the man she called Walker looking at her in puzzlement.
She looked back out at the road. she made herself relax her hand from their death grip on the steering wheel. her stomach churned. The road came into focus as did the houses on either side of it. Residential, they were in a suburb. Her suburb... she was driving these men back to her house.
Count to 20 Maggie.
Count to 20 and calmly turn the car around and go to the police station and tell them that she had found 3 naked men on the side of the road. Then for some reason felt compelled to take them to Walmart to buy them clothes and then everything had gone wrong- so wrong and now she was fu-
Walker put his hand on hers and she felt the heat jump into her arm. She glared at him defiantly but her sudden flare of anger melted and she deflated like a stuck balloon.
The police would find her on the side of the road later, Maggie the deflated beach float.
So she looked back at the road tried to count to two and gave up, leaned her head forward and sobbed.

Mars considered this odd creature that his mind kept insisting was a woman- which was something similar to... what? Then the word/thoughts formed into meaning. He would have told the Trace that his mind stopped being the other and became human- if the Trace had been there to talk to. The Trace was gone, perhaps to never return but it had told him that it would come with him before the exile before it had gone silent. He must be... patient, the word had meaning now. he considered it then looked back at the woman.

She was in pain, she needed something more that touch. What should he do? What would he have done for his own... mate (that was the word but it had no meaning for he had no such thing before the exile). He had one thing or rather one other thing before the exile. It had given him comfort when before had had begun the Walk. His new mind began to make associations of a human woman who had held him aloft when his life had begun and- sounded- no, spoken his name.

"Mags."
She continued to cry in a way very similar to Fijbold- perhaps this was like (sorrow). He had done this by now being able to adapt to this new world, new form quick enough.
"Mags."
'What?" She stopped making the noises. The woman, Mags leaned her head against the round thing that must control the transport.
"Mags." What do you say to an stranger (alien)?
She looked up, her face had gone from (nice) to look at to wet and with dark marks all around her (eyes) and (lips?) and other parts that were not translating. She looked at him for a long time then
"How do you know my name?"
"The other said that word and you responded in the container where you were looking through the coverings."
"Huh?"
"I do not know the- erm- words right. But he- the other who chased-" (it was chased he was sure of that)    "-Fijbold around the transport."

She blinked at him a few times, then suddenly reached out a touched the coverings he wore before leaning back in and making a new noise that was like the crying but harsher and more abrupt.

"Where did you get those clothes?" She said.

Quiz time or was it a riddle?

Hey, Maggie?
What?
What does one 4 door Geo, 3 naked men and 1 dumb women have in common?
What?
What?
What!
Oh, nevermind.

Shock was like this or so she thought as she was trying to take in the scene of Bill chasing Fijshbowl around the parking lot. She was in shock- what else could it be?
She knew there were at least six other people who had come outside to watch the display and stood there gawking alongside her. Would any of them have a camera in their cell phone? Would this be on the news in the morning? What in the name of Elvis Presley was she going to do now?

Nope, nothing was coming.
She looked down at the sweats in the bag in her hands.
What was she doing here? Wasn't her life in shambles anyway?
Go home Maggie. Go home now and leave the idiots behind.

So she did. Well, she tried to anyway. At least she made it as far as her car.
She had her keys out when Fishbowl plowed into her, sending her sprawling, the keys went scrittering away. The mercy was she fell on the bag of sweats which cushioned her fall. Not that it helped much since Bill who had been closing in for the kill tripped over her and maced them both in the collapse.

Someone was screaming.
Someone was crying
and someone was cussing.

Maggie sat up in the parking lot and closed her mouth- which was on fire along with her face.
Strangely the cussing stopped. She tried to looked around through the haze. Fishbowl was curled up a couple of feet away from her, there was blood on his face and he was crying in gasping sobs.
So who was screaming then?

Bill was.
Apparently his armed had turned inward after tripping over her and he had gassed himself full in the face with his can of mace. He was also nearby writhing on the pavement in very vocal agony. Idiot!
A shadow fell over her and pulled her to her feet- it was a tall handsome man in brand new clothing. This seemed as surreal as everything else. She tried to speak and opened her mouth but shut it immediately as the burning sensation began again. The man turned her around and propelled her towards the car. On the way, he reached around her, scooped up the keys and put them in her hand.
Somehow she got the door open and found the other man already sitting in the car- in a dress that was at least to sizes to short and had several "hello kitty" stencils on it. She blinked at him a few times before remembering that she was supposed to be driving. Absently she popped the trunk, heard something heavy being dropped in it and it slamming shut. Then the shadow which somehow translated into that Walker guy got in the car and laid a hand over her shaking ones which were on the steering wheel.

"We should go."

Later she would swear it was a dream. Later she was not sure that it had happened exactly like that. Later she would look at the Police Chief and shrug and say that yes, she must have been drinking.

Hey lady, there's a nekkid dude dancing on your car

Dilemma.
Do I go out and shoot the idiot on my car with the shotgun I don't actually have
or
buy the sweats and pretend like nothing is out of the ordinary?

Maggie looked at Bill the security guy and smiled.
"What man?"

Bill swallowed, Adam's apple bobbing, then reached for his radio.
"Control, this is Bill, over."
The radio squawked.
"Yeah Bill?"
Bill looked at Maggie and sighed. She could see him thinking how unprofessional everyone was other than him.
"Is the potential perpetrator still in the parking lot, over?"

Maggie could almost imagine Bill's supervisor, Marge McConnell looking across from customer service to see if anyone at the registers were still watching the display outside.

"If you mean the idiot with no clothing running around on all fours- then that would be yes."
"Copy that, control."

Why me?
Bill looked back at her and waited.
Maggie sighed, counted to five. Nope not working, she sighed again, took a deep breath and counted to ten. Yes that almost worked.
"Okay, thanks for the update, Cousin Eddy is up from Sparta and he is prone to doing weird things." She said as brightly as she could muster. Then shifted her load and began walking towards checkout. Bill almost ran to keep up with her pace.
"I didn't know you had a cousin, Mags?" Bill said trying to take her arm and failing mostly because she changed course so that he would have to put distance between them or run head on into the girl's tee shirt display.
"Oh? Well it's hard enough to keep up with all of them." She said airily. "What with him having that ATV accident and the brain injury and all."
Yes, she was going to hell in a hand basket like her mother constantly would warn her about. Her dad, the liar, would say it just takes one little lie to start a landslide. Well, he would know anyway- since he was still in the county lockup after his last lie landed him there.
"Oh." Bill probably would have said more but Maggie had steered herself to go down an aisle filled with restocking boxes, so Bill had to reroute and Maggie managed to make it to the checkout ahead of him.
She vague recognized the cashier as someone who was from town and smiled at him while handing her load of sweats over. Thankfully he was one of those cashiers who defied company policy and said nothing.
She thanks the heavens, then prayed that her debit card would go through and grabbed the proffered monster bag and then realized that Bill wasn't there.
Anxiously she looked outside into the twilight to see Bill and Figbold playing tag around her car. Bill had his radio out and was yelling something into it.
Defeated- Maggie stopped to consider her next move and then realized that the other two were nowhere to be seen. They were definitely not in the car.
Crap. Crap, crap, crap and double crap.

Walmart @ 4 am and life on other planets.

It wasn't until she drove into the Walmart parking lot at 4 something AM that several things occurred to Maggie.

1. She had three very naked men in the car
2. she had no clothes for them to wear into the store
3. what was she thinking?
4. Would they stay in the car?
5. She was glad no one was in the parking lot
6. what was she thinking?

She looked at the men. The two in the back seat had their whole attention on the store. The one called Fijbold had his face pressed against the window. The good news was neither of them looked like they had figured out how to use the door handle. The man in the front, he was so hot in a way- other than looking muscled and toned- but there was something about him she liked. For Pete's sake, you idiot- he's naked! and hot. 

Anyway, the other two deferred to him, called him something like Walker and he watched everything she did while driving and parking. She felt that he might drive off with her car save she had a feeling he would not know where to go at this point.

"Stay in the car- what you are currently in." This was when they gave her blank looks on car.

"I will come back with some clothes for you to put on." She sighed and rolled her eyes. Absently she pulled her shirt out a ways to show them. When she looked back the one called Fijbold was looking at the car roof.   She resisted the urge to smack her forehead against the steering wheel. 

"Stay." she made a point of looking at Walker when she said this. Said a silent prayer that was much the same and opened the car door as secretly as she could. Walker watched her closely. Dammit, but he was cute!

Stay focused Maggie.

She closed the car door and turned away from the car. 

Would it be large or extra large. What the hell did she think she was doing? Call the cops and be done with it. Go home and try to forget the whole night.

She found herself going through the doors, glancing at the disinterest clerks and creeping down the aisles to the men's section. Sweats, it would have to be sweats- they were the easiest for covering the body. Underwear? Should she buy underwear? What color? Did it matter? Where did these guys come from? Why were they naked? What were they doing out there in the middle of nowhere? Could they be criminals? Could they be aliens? 

Okay, that was a little too much X-Files. 

They were just 3 guys who obviously weren't gay- right? Just out in a field with no clothes and hardly any English who didn't know what a car was- there had to be a logical explanation- right? Oh God, she hoped there was an explanation.

She glanced up to find Bill the Security Guard looking at her.

She let out a muffled scream and dropped the boxer shorts she had been looking at.

Crap and double crap!

"Hi Mags." She hated that name, but he had called her that since they were nine.

She smiled and sucked in a breath. 

"Hi Bill."

Bill was about as average a man as you could get. he was 5 foot 8 inches, 195 lbs, a little dumpy from too much sitting, slightly balding brunette with a whisper thin mustache that looked more like it had been glued on instead of grown. His uniform was mostly clean except for the permanent food drop stain right below his chin which always told the women he talked to that he ate most of his meals in his car, a Mazda -black with a red racing stripe.

"So Mags-" Bill began then looked around and yawned.

Maggie waited.

"Heard you broke up." 

Yep, news travels at lightspeed in the south.

"Yeah" Maggie said shifting the three sets of sweats from one arm to the next then remembering to put the boxers back on the rack.

"If you wanna talk about it?" Bill said and shifted his radio belt. This appeared to be a "cop-thing" the belt shifting. Bill only had a radio and a can of mace or pepper spray. The store wouldn't let him carry anything else apparently. Small favors.

Thanks Bill, but its too-" she began.

"Soon. Yeah I kind of figured that- what with that nekkid guy standing on your car roof in the parking lot."

Crap, crap, and double crap!

Why are you Naked?

Maggie looked in the rear view mirror again.
Yes, there were 3 men, very, very nude men standing beside the road looking at her car. They were not even that bad looking, well with the exception of the one which kept bending over as if to start crawl on out-stretched arms and legs. The long haired one was particularly appealing. Her eyes strayed south and she had to remind herself that- at this point anyway- sex was out of the question. She looked at them and they looked at her.

Time passed and finally when it was clear they were not going to come to her, she put the Geo in gear and backed down the road to where they stood. She rolled down the window and made herself look up at the three men. They looked back with something like curious surprise painting their faces.
"Hi" She said in what she hoped was her most airy voice- it was more a squeak.

The long haired one looked back and moved his mouth but no words came out. The thin one took one look at her chest and then glared down at his and burst into tears. Then froze in place as the tears slid down his cheeks before throwing his hands to his face to rub at the wetness then his look of sadness turned to revulsion at the wetness on his hands and then he tried to vomit- well his mouth opened and he made the sound that some people make like when they're about to vomit. Nothing came out, at least. He turned away and collapsed in the grass mumbling something like "end me."
The other man- also attractive but not as much as the long haired one shook his head in disgust. He looked at the long haired man and then pointed at their companion. The long haired man shrugged then stopped and shrugged again as if he had just learned how to shrug, did the shrug a few more times before kneeling down next to the crying man. He placed a reassuring hand on the other mans shoulder and said something weird- another language or something but it didn't sound like any words she had ever heard before.

She gave her best smile at the remaining man.
"Where you fellers from?"

There was a long pause. The man considered her as if he were chewing each word carefully.

"Where- uhm, where are your clothes?"

More silence. Maggie was starting to reconsider her choices despite the view of these leanly muscled men.
Perhaps she should get moving? Go home like any sane person would.

"From far away. We are lost. We know not where to go now." Yep, that's what the naked man said to her on the side of the road at 3:30 am in the morning.

"How did you get here?" She said looking around for something, anything that would make this make sense. "Did you get robbed?"

"Does not matter- we need help, will you help us?" The man said instead.

Help? Oh crap! That meant exactly what she had hoped then dreaded then hoped he would say. Yes, she was certifiable.
Her defense was a light laugh. Stupid, I am going to end up dead- just you wait and see. Shut up and drive you idiot!
"Okay, I can help, just hop in and we can go to the police or something."
Oh God- she was so stupid, what was she doing? Why couldn't she just shut up.

Then the man considered her car for a long time. Well a few minutes- it seemed like a long time. Finally he shrugged and shook his head. He obviously thought this was a bad idea.
"How do we go?" He asked suddenly.
She blinked. What the hell, everyone knew how to get into a car- right? They had cars all over the world- right? Well she thought they did- how did she know. The farthrest she had ever been was Atlanta.
Before she knew what she was doing, Maggie had opened her car door and jogged around the car to open the passenger doors. She stood back.
The man walked around to where she stood and pointed at the seat. She nodded. He looked at the other two and made a weird noise, then stopped and then tried something else that amounted to blowing air out his nose, sighed and looked at her with- pity. Yes, pity it had to be pity.
"Kymat?" he said finally.
The long haired man stood up and dragged the crying man to his feet. The two men came around the car to join them. Kimat looked at the car and shrugged.
"You have to climb in somehow." the man said.
Kimat looked at the man puzzled then looked down at his body and moved his arms and legs as if trying to figure out how to bend in the right direction. The other man sighed and looked at her.
"(some kind of noise) you show him?" he said.
They all looked at her. Maggie rolled her eyes- why me God, why me?
When she looked back the three naked men were looking up. She snapped her fingers at them. What followed was like a really dumb movie sequence. The men all tried to mimic her snapping and failed. She almost rolled her eyes again, struggled not to laugh and succeeded. Then she climbed into the passenger seat as plainly as possible, buckled her seat belt and looked at them. Kimat and the crying man looked from her to the "normal" one and waited.
Maggie got out and gestured to them.
"Walker?" Kimat said.
The one called Walker nodded and then he followed her display by climbing into the car and buckling up. The other two waited until Walker was in before they attempted the back seat. Kimat made it after 2 attempts. He seemed to struggle to get his legs to bend right and finally succeeded. The other man was much, much worse. First he got in upside down- if that was even possible- she struggled to stop from giggling,
After that failed, he tried to get in backwards and by that she thought he was trying to bend in directions that no human being could bend. She decided that the thin one who the other two called Fig-bowl must be autistic. He did finally fit and she climbed back in the drivers seat after closing all the doors.
It seemed like it took an hour- it might have, but then she looked at the clock on the dash and it was only 4:16 am.
So what do you do with 3 very nekkid men at 4 in the morning in Crossville, Tennessee?
Get them clothes.
Of course, that meant Walmart.

"So, where are your clothes?" she asked again.

Updates

Spent today going back and editing, modifying the text with the idea of where the story will go next and to get a grip on what I had written so far.
Tomorrow, we plunge back in.

Commercial Break from Beyond

It took seeing I AM NUMBER FOUR to make me see that perhaps I should try to get back to my "public writing" 
Yes, it's been awhile. tonight I am going to finally watch DISTRICT 9. Talk about being behind on everything.

So what's next?

me trying to come up with a usable structure/outline to the Slipgate Exile. What I have is like Chapter 1 and 2 and 17. Now I will attempt to outline the story in hopes I can pull it into perspective (briefly)

Slipgate Exile the Outline
in 3-5 acts
Part I: Assimilation

Intro: Incoming Signal. How the Quantum Wave intersects Earth.

Chapter 1: Arrival. Mars and the other 2 Exiles introduced/translated into the middle of nowhere TN.

Chapter 2: Encounters
Mags introduced, 
Mars and the 3 Exiles meet a typical drunk redneck... the TDR (totally drunk redneck) then tries to kill them

Chapter 3: 3 nekkid men, a girl and her geo
What do you do with 3 nude men @ 3AM?
Go to Walmart... of course

Chapter 4: Going home
Mags takes the now mostly dressed men home to her place over her mother's house.
Things should go badly

Chapter 5: Homeless
Mags and co. end up evicted. Spend the night at the bus station

Chapter 6: Eggs and Breakfast Partings
Mars and the 2 exiles go their separate ways. Mars goes with Mags to her Dad's

Chapter 7: Only time will tell
Mars begins his assimilation. Tries to be human, get a job, get a place to live, deal with being human, tries to remember who he was before then.

Chapter 8: Mother's day
Mars remembers his mother in human terms and knows that whatever he was before coming here is irreversibly gone as is any hope of going back.

Chapter 9: Some things never change
Mags is having a bad day and Mars realizes that those back where he came from will not let "sleeping dogs lie." Danger is coming soon

Chapter 10: the trouble with letting sleeping dogs lie.
Mars ends up getting mixed up with Mags' problems and making them much, much worse

Chapter 11: All things come in 3s
Mags loses her job, loses her friends, loses her heart to an alien
Mars loses his job, loses his cool and loses the car (again)

Chapter 12: Who knows (haven't got that far yet)