Memory Transcript Subject: Richard Crow, Human Sanitation Worker

  Date [standardized human time]: November 7th, 2136

  My mind danced with dreams of home. I could see Aunt Tsula and Grandpa Tucker chatting on the porch about his time in the army. Yona was talking shit about the game we were playing in the field and performed a victory dance to rub it in while I pretended to be annoyed. Their words were a garbled mess, but I knew what they were saying all the same.

  At least, that's what little of it I could grasp as I woke up.

  The book I'd been reading was laid upon my face, one of the pages stuck to my cheek from the moisture of breathing, no doubt. It came off with a worrying sound of tearing and I flipped the page over while checking my face to make sure I didn't have any of it decorating my skin.

  The page I'd stopped on read exactly as my dream, and it occurred to me that I'd simply inserted my family into the scene, doing what it was they would do in the characters’ spots. In reality, the cabin in my dream was nothing like the one I'd grown up in. Yona couldn’t dance worth a shit, for starters.

  I'd no sooner wiped the sleep from my eye than I sensed the irritating buzz as the bugs returned. Ingrid had hoped that the rancid candy-scented incense she burned in her own spot would keep them away, but apparently alien pests weren't bothered by cheap remedies. I raised my head off of the bedroll I laid on to reconnect with my surroundings.

  From my little shelter, I could see that the others in the camp went about their daily ritual as per the usual. Lights shimmered from some of the clusters where people had taken shelter from the wind, tarps and sheets stretched between the trees to provide rudimentary protection from the sun and rain.

  Further along, near the hill to the west, was the main body of the campsite. There, I could see the two hundred tents, shacks, and government-issued yurts gathered at the base in a crescent-moon shape, just as Ma had intended. The place was buzzing with activity from the few hundred people who milled about at their leisure, though it wasn't nearly as busy as the first day that everyone arrived.

  Back then, our numbers were nearly up to two thousand, though people quickly lost faith in the future of the camp or were turned away by the scout camp living conditions. A stomach bug sent many packing while the resultings latrine we had to dig far from camp were what sealed the deal for most. We weren't in Kansas anymore, Todo.

  Thankfully, a few of us were finally able to get things stabilized, and I did my part to help show people how to use a stake to keep their tents from turning into kites in the stiff breezes that blew through.

  My own dormitory was an open-faced shelter stretched between a trio of trees that reminded me somewhat of the crude tree house Tsula had built for Yona and I when we were younger. This far from the main site, I didn't feel my privacy was at risk and it gave me a decent view of our little slice of civilization as well as a decent heads-up of anybody approaching.

  It was for this reason that I could spot the approaching silhouette of Mikey, the first person who I could say I'd befriended since landing on this rock, and an apparent fan of sharing everything he knew about his family's Navajo heritage. Wiry in frame and incapable of not smiling, he was also the son of Martha Blackfox, who we all knew as “Ma” for being our group's mother figure and de facto chief.

  Of course, it wasn't the sight of Mikey I found intriguing, as he would regularly come over to my spot to pester me about hanging with his other friends that he'd met. Instead, what perturbed me the most was that, cowing right up next to him, I could spot the familiar silhouette of a venlil. Squinting to focus better as my eyes still tried to adjust, I could spot the long tail and dark fur, darker than the average venlil's at least.

  “Here, big boy!” I heard one of the campers from another shelter call out to them. “Got a hutch just for ya! And the good grass!” The venlil scrambled to place Mikey between them and the voice that called to them as the heckler howled with laughter at their own joke. I assumed that a venlil wouldn't know what they meant by “grass” to begin with.

  I stood up and waved an arm in acknowledgement to Mikey and he leaned over to say something to the venlil. About twenty meters apart, I could get a better look at the venlil and something clicked as I spotted the discolored ear.

  “You?” I blurted out as I approached him.

  Luka's ears flattened backwards and he froze in his tracks with his tail wrapped around his ankle. He rubbed his paws anxiously together and tilted his head to glance at me better with one eye.

  I met up with Mikey who held out an arm to stop me before I could proceed toward the anxious alien. “He came to me outside of town while the other two were on a grocery run,” he explained. “Thought he was some weirdo trying to harass a predator… but then he brought up your name.”

  “Well that checks out, because he's the kid from the diner the other day.”

  Instantly, Mike's eyes lit up and the subtle smirk on his face widened into the same dumb grin he always had when he was dicking around. “You mean he came all the way out here to find you just to thank you? Well what are you waiting for!”

  He vigorously pushed me toward Luka and I beat him away with an irritated grunt. “I'll talk to him,” I hissed. “You go and bother someone else.”

  His grin remained as he backed away, shooting a look to Luka who shriveled at the sight of his teeth. The venlil twisted his tail in his grasp as he stood still, frozen in fear. I could spot that his presence had garnered a good amount of attention and the kids from the camp trailed nearby, watching him curiously from beyond the tall grass while adults kept an eye on him with stern glances.

  “You look like shit,” Luka blurted out and I snapped my head around to look down at the nervous wreck of an alien and he flinched. Surprised as I was that he took the initiative to start conversation with such audacity, I was moreso interested in why he had come out here.

  I assumed he referred to the bandages on my face where the glass from my visor had pierced my skin. They had scabbed over by now, but I still itched at them habitually when I wasn't thinking.

  “And you look… fuzzy,” I replied. “Last I saw of you, I was loading you into a cop car to be carted to the hospital.”

  “That's, um, that's actually why I came here. I wasn't sure if you got fired after that whole ordeal and I felt guilty about not having a chance to thank you.”

  I lowered a brow as I looked down at him with my hands on my hips. “Thank me? I saw you getting your ass kicked and stepped in. Because it's what any rational person would do in that situation.”

  “It— it is?”

  “I'd think anyone would do the same in my spot, wouldn't they?”

  “No. Not normal people. At least, not non-predators.”

  I drew a long breath at the p-word, and I think the alien realized what he said. “I mean, you saw how the others ran,” he quickly added.

  I did recall a lot of the occupants of the store evacuating before I'd even reached the door, though I was under the impression that it was because of my presence that they left prior to entering. If I had ears as big as Luka's, I could probably hear his heart racing, though I'd have to settle for all of his nervous fidgeting as he stood before me, a human twice his size and covered in bug bites and puncture wounds.

  “C'mon,” I beckoned him, signaling to my own shelter away from prying eyes.

  He twisted the end of his tail with stubby claws and his tall ears whirled about like satellite dishes as he took up my offer. There felt something unreal about inviting an alien over for tea - about as much as giving one a ride home on my bike, or brawling with one in a diner over a petty squabble. My mind still couldn't wrap my head around extraterrestrials being real, and that I was meeting them in my own lifetime. Or that we’d be bombed by them.

  I followed closely behind Luka, keeping an eye on the others behind us to make sure nobody else had any wise ideas.

  I could spot Paul with a cigarette between his teeth near the camp and it didn't take a genius to know he was the most opposed to having an alien around us. After all, despite setting ourselves away from alien civilization, we were still on their home turf and found ourselves receiving regular visits from the Guild to bully us back into city limits. Everyone was on edge, and so I knew I’d need to keep an eye on this alien to make sure no trouble cropped up around him.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Maybe I was too quick to forget what the aliens did to Earth, or maybe it's because I hadn't lost anybody in the bombing blitz, but I found myself feeling rather passive about being in an alien's presence. The least worrying of all were these “prey” whose knees trembled just at the sight of me, with the exception of Marlak the Boss, that is.

  He stopped just shy of the inside of my humble abode, turning an eye to me as he continued to knead his tail anxiously. I presumed that this was supposed to be the venlil equivalent of nail-biting and I figured I'd have to do something to alleviate his stress.

  “Thirsty?”

  His snout twitched and he froze for a moment. “What?”

  “I've got a few drinks here. Nothing fun, just stuff I found while in town.”

  The corners of his mouth flickered as he wracked his mind for an answer. “You pick. I'm not supposed to really be here.”

  “Neither are we,” I retorted. “I found this cola you guys apparently serve.” I cracked open the cooler that wasn't actually all that cold and twirled a couple of bottles in my hand. I offered one to Luka and he studied the label for a moment.

  “Carbonated drinks are meant for old people with upset stomachs,” he stated flatly.

  I whirled the bottle back around to read the label before realizing that I didn't actually know what it said. I could recognize a few characters, but nothing that could form a comprehensive understanding of the print.

  “Well I find the taste of sawdust and cucumbers to be pleasing,” I stated before stuffing the bottle I'd offered him back into the cooler and swapping it for a bottle of water. He more readily accepted the bottle, popping it open and downing nearly half of the contents before stopping to gasp for air.

  Curiosity got the better of me, and I inquired, “So you rode with Mike all the way from town?”

  He took a gulp of air and the tip of his tail flicked back and forth from between his legs before he answered. “How is he allowed to drive?”

  “That's a question to be had between you, God, and the city official who signed off on his license,” I scoffed. “C'mon, have a seat, nobody's gonna come and bother us so long as you've got me looking after you.” I waved an arm toward the limited space left in my shelter that wasn't occupied by me or my belongings, which Luka eyed with a decent amount of suspicion. He reluctantly took a seat and downed the rest of the water bottle.

  “Hate to have you brought all the way out here just to send you back,” I said. “So what's been happening?”

  “War.”

  “I meant with you.”

  “I'm sorry, but I can't get over the fact that there's a whole group of humans that live out here, unchecked.”

  With a sigh, I glanced out where he looked, at the campsite from which smoke and jumbled conversation wafted in on a breeze. Funny enough, this was the closest to home I'd come since leaving Earth; the sensation was almost exactly like the ceremonies Tsula would drag me to when I was younger. Perhaps I'd taken those times for granted when they were just novelty, now that it was daily living for many of us.

  “We're not exactly ‘unchecked’, as you say,” I explained. “We only reside here because the Magister in charge of City Management allows it. Apparently the territory she controls stretches all the way from the city limits to the fringes of the mountain range to the East.”

  “Yes, it's actually smaller than it was made out to be, wasn't it?”

  I took a swig of my own drink, though my nose scrunched up as the flavor crossed my tongue. It wasn't as appealing when it was warm. “You consider it small?” I asked him.

  “The province where Dayside City is held takes up twice the landmass and it still barely breaks the top ten in volume.”

  “Province? I thought we were talking about cities.”

  “They're one and the same. Do you not have them on Earth?”

  I blew out a puff of air as I let his statement set in. From my limited knowledge of border sizes, that meant that the equivalent of a mayor of this “city” held jurisdiction over a landmass the size of Maryland. And that was “small”.

  “We really aren't in Kansas anymore.”

  “What?”

  “Nothing.”

  The native tilted his head and flicked his ear quickly enough that I could hear the air wobble. He had stopped kneading at his tail which now swished freely on the grass behind him as he glared at me. There was certainly more light behind those side-facing eyes than I'd given the aliens credit for - perhaps it was because their eyes reminded me of cattle from back home that I couldn’t take them seriously in a head-on glance. That horizontal slit of a pupil and the independent control over each eye baffled me in the sheep I helped raise, let alone on a creature that I called by name.

  He asked me, “Did you get fired?”

  I clicked my tongue and leaned against the cooler. “I was about to be, but then Marlak had a change of heart when he saw how quickly we got through our routes. Did you know we'd have beat the next fastest truck by a whole hour if it weren't for that fiasco?”

  “Could've fooled me,” he snorted. “Felt like an eternity…”

  I raised an eyebrow and he looked up at me.

  “Because it was my first day, of course.”

  “Of course.”

  He swallowed another gulp of air and licked his lips in a poorly concealed show of nervousness. I still hadn't fully earned his trust, though he hadn’t bolted for the hills quite yet.

  “So who's the girl you were with? Your sister, right?”

  “Vili? She, uh, she's… a handful at times.”

  “The bird told me she's the reason you got your ass whupped.”

  His tail flicked twice in a more forceful motion and his ears lowered. “The bird wouldn't know any better since she wasn't there until after.”

  His cold, flat tone was a departure from the skittish demeanor he'd displayed just moments prior. The hairs on my arm stood up a little and I folded them together to hide the bumps.

  “Right, well how's she holding up? She didn't even seem to realize I was there for the most part.” I had noted her single-minded focus on keeping Luka safe while the krakotl debated with the cops outside the diner. She seemed more irritated than fearful when I was volun-told to carry him to the car, as well.

  “She was a mess,” he muttered. “I'm lucky to even get out of the house to come here with how clingy she's been.”

  “I'm sure it's a travesty to have a sibling who cares about you.”

  “No, that's not it,” he huffed. “It's just—” He rubbed the tip of his snout and sighed. “Nothing's changed.”

  I opened my mouth to speak but couldn't find a response to such a cryptic statement. Instead, we sat in silence for a moment, interrupted only by the fizzy glug from my bottle as I finished the sawcumber drink. I was starting to see what he meant by it being used for stomach pain as I felt a bubble rise up in my chest.

  Gurk.

  The venlil snapped to attention and whirled the bottle out in a defensive position while I covered my mouth. He began to stand up and I couldn't help but let out a dry, throaty chuckle as I bumped my chest to clear the rest of the gas.

  Seeing no point in proceeding with delicacy, I taunted him, “Still a bit on edge, huh? Tell me, then: if you’re still so worried about predators, then why did you seek me out all the way out here?”

  Luka’s bottle lowered from its fencing pose and his snout twitched once more. ”Because…”

  With his ears lowered to face the ground, the arm holding his improvised “weapon” went slack.

  “Because nobody's ever fought for us like that. That I… know of.”

  The air hung with an awkward weight and my lips pursed to keep myself from saying anything clever. I was entirely unfamiliar with venlil kinesics, which made it hard to gauge if he was being genuine. I figured that lying was seen as a predatory trait - these aliens seemed to be obsessed with such semantics - and thus it was unlikely he'd be so quick to lie to my face. Besides, I could find no reason to believe that this was a fib.

  “Okay,” I muttered after what felt like forever. “I guess it must've meant a lot to you, then.”

  Luka let out a breath that I didn't even realize he'd been holding and sagged his shoulders. I placed the empty bottle I was holding in the cooler and held out my arm to offer the same for Luka's. “We try to keep our trash off the ground,” I explained. “Environmentally conscious and all that.”

  Reluctantly, Luka took a step toward me and placed the improvised weapon in my palm.

  From this close, the downy fur of the venlil was unbelievably close in structure to a sheep's wool, though the face, ears, and tail reminded me more of my aunt's cat, Roxanne. The short velvet that covered his face and the paws he used to hand me the bottle was impressively maintained, though the rest of his fur was a mess of tangles and curls. I recalled how coarse it felt when I dragged him to the car, as though dirty and unkempt was its natural state of being.

  He piped up as I clasped the cooler shut, “What's that?”

  I followed in the direction where he waved his tail and my eye landed on the book I had been reading previously. I flipped it over to look at the cover which showed an archetypal nuclear family huddled in front of a cabin. The car behind them, though, wasn't from some 20th century catalog, but rather one that'd have been found in a late 21st century garage.

  The plot from what I'd read was that of a family who was pretending that the world hadn't come to an end while they were on vacation. It was a thinly-veiled allegory of the sentiment of Earth families during the Satellite Wars who pretended things would turn back to normal soon after the conflicts ended.

  “It's a horror story.”

  Luka raised the discolored ear as he began to settle down. “Huh, neat. And that one?”

  His tail motioned toward my bag next to the bedroll, to the black book with golden edges on every page. It was fairly small, smaller than the book I held, but its presence was unmistakable wherever I kept it.

  “Another story. I've only ever read a few chapters in all the time I've had it. Lots of death.”

  “You must like horror.”

  “I like reading about how others interpret the end. Gives some closure.”

  “That's… dark.”

  I shrugged and held up the first book, “I was gonna return this one, though. Care to come with me and meet a few of the others while we're out?”

  He twisted a paw around his wrist and his tail curled around his leg again. Everything looked exactly as he had when he arrived: nervous and uncertain. I was almost certain that he was not as enthused about being amongst the larger pack that resided nearby.

  “Sure.”