“He’d left but only made it down a couple blocks beforethere was a wreck. By the time he turned around, he noticed people werestopping their cars in the street to get out and look at the ships that’dbecome visible.”
“Become visible?”
“Yeah, Brian said he was driving down the road and then aship just appeared in front of him in the sky. He said it didn’t fly down, justpopped up out of nowhere.”
Poppy leaned her head back and tried to calm her nerves.
“Well, Pix, at least you have Brian there.” Glancing wrylyat her front door, she added, “I may have to keep company with my loud andobnoxious neighbors. I spoke to them for the first time in two years.”
“Once they reopen the streets, you can come here and staywith us,” Pixie offered in her “big sister” voice.
“Yeah, I may have to do that. This whole thing is sounbelievable.” Poppy was now talking more to herself than to Pixie.
“Hey, Pops, Brian just came in. He’s been standing in thefront yard watching everything. We’re going to keep watching the news today. Callme in a little bit to check in, okay?” Pixie waited for her sister to agreebefore saying goodbye.
Without the phone to cling to now, Poppy glanced around theapartment, listening for noises from outside. Nothing but sirens wailing withthe continued, “Stay indoors. Do not panic.”
“Well shit.”
Chapter Two
For the next week, Poppy stayed inside her apartment. Thedoctor’s office she worked for had cancelled patient exams and told her not to bothercoming in until she received a call when they’d reopened. That meant that Poppywas using her vacation time, which sucked for a couple reasons. Like many ofher friends she lived paycheck to paycheck. She had a little savings, but thatamount tended to be enough to splurge on a dinner out every now and then. Itwas definitely nothing to live off.
Between calls to check in with Pixie, she tried to becomemore familiar with her neighbors. She quickly came to realize her fellowapartment dwellers could be lumped into the “crazy Floridians” group. Poppy wasrelieved that she hadn’t felt the need to become friendly before the wholealien invasion. These people drove her nuts. Her first clue to the crazy theysubscribed to was apparent when on the second night she heard gunshots in theparking lot and peered out to see the man she’d talked to previously, now witha dangling bottle of Jack in one hand and a handgun in the other. As he firedshots up at the ship closest to them, he yelled, “Come and get me!” This lasteduntil someone called the police. After some shouting back and forth, Poppyfinally had some peace and quiet when they Tasered him and he was arrested.
Poppy felt slightly guilty when thinking back on it. As theshenanigans had been happening outside her window, she’d popped a bag ofpopcorn and sat watching as if she were at the movies. Who could blame herthough? She was getting tired of watching the news and this was moreentertaining than cable TV. It seemed every channel claimed to have “inside”information about their space invaders. There were stories being leaked thatranged from missing women who were believed to have been abducted and probed tothe aliens being blamed for climate change.
As Poppy sat in her living room flipping through thechannels, her phone rang.
“Hey, Pix.” Apparently it was time for her morning check-in.
“Hey, Poppy, how’s the status quo?” Pixie asked. This wasobviously getting old if that was her opening line.
“Oh you know, the usual… An alien knocked on my door todayto try to convert me to some freaky alien religion, my neighbor went gunshopping again, and I’m pretty sure I’m down to my last roll of toilet paper,”Poppy quipped.
“Hardy-har-har. Very funny.” Pixie’s tone went serious.“These news broadcasts are still freaking me out. Did you hear they believetwenty missing women have been connected to the aliens?”
“Pix, c’mon now. I’m sure the last thing on their minds wascoming down here to steal women. The last lady who was interviewed about beingabducted was wearing a tinfoil hat. She was a total nut ball.” Picturing thewoman in question from the news report caused her to laugh. “But I was beinghonest about the toilet paper…I have half a roll left and no paper towels. I’mgoing to need to leave my apartment soon.”
“Poppy, from what I’ve heard, people have been going outwith no problem. You’re not too far from the store. You should be able to gopretty quick and be right back.”
That thought made Poppy frown. She hated Mega Mart. It wassometimes fun to go in the middle of the night and people-watch if she wasreally bored but actually shopping there was no fun at all. So what ifeverything was super-cheap? The crowded aisles were hell to navigate with theirwonky shopping carts that always tended to lean right no matter how many timesyou switched carts.
“I’d rather drive across town and take my chances at theSuper Store than go to Mega Mart during the day, Pix. You know I hate thatplace.”
Pixie let out a snort of laughter. “So you’re telling meyou’d rather take a chance being abducted by aliens than go two miles to MegaMart?”
“Hellz yes, bish. That’s how I roll.”
Both sisters loved to curse. In fact, they tended to make anart of it and used bad language in every sentence they could. When they werebored and drinking, they’d try to create new words just to mix it up. “Bish”was one of those words. According to Pixie it was like calling someone a bitchbut with a little love thrown in. They used it so frequently their phones hadstopped autocorrecting it when they texted each other.
“Hey, what’s Brian up to?” Normally Poppy could hearbackground noise when talking to her sister but this call had been surprisinglyquiet. Brian was the type of guy who tended to make noise when he was simplysitting down doing nothing, so she could tell when he wasn’t around.
“Well, he decided to go in to the office today. Architectureapparently waits for no man…or alien,” Pixie deadpanned then started giggling.“He actually sat
