This is a #storygram (mini-stories) from my Instagram, which you can get to via the social media links at the top of this site. I do my best to make them a daily thing for you to enjoy and share with your friends! I really love making them, as they allow me to simultaneously scratch my photography and writing itches while I’m busy with filmmaking. Thank you very much for reading and sharing them! Don’t forget to check out my film Portfolio too!
The Story:
He stuck a cigarette in his mouth and sat on the bench outside. No lighter. Everyone told him the cigarettes would kill him, but he knew all too well there were worse ways to die. And right now, he needed a smoke.
He pulled out his battered cell phone and hit redial.
“Dan, hey. It’s me… Yeah, they passed it. There was nothing I could do… Get your wife and kids and get moving… Take care.”
Dan would probably be okay. He lived far enough out, and his family was already prepared for the possibility of this law passing.
But Kent’s family wouldn’t be as fortunate. They were deep in the city, and he knew there was nowhere to run. So, he just smoked his cigarette, procrastinating the call to his wife.
Looking up, he saw the alien ship suspended over a once ignorant city. Few had given intelligent life serious thought before they came, and no one could have guessed they would be able to control us through the manipulation of our own courts.
Natural Resources 360–a law where we willingly allow them to fillet the Earth, in exchange for the answers to great scientific questions we haven’t been able to crack.
They claimed minimum casualties from the cave-ins and climate change. We were gambling that we’d be smart enough to figure out a way to save our planet after they leave.
Kent had fought against our own pride and lost. He knew they would never teach us what we needed to know to save ourselves from them. They would only teach us just enough to distract us from how irrevocably damaged Earth would become.
A voice came over a loudspeaker.
“ATTENTION: NR360 HAS OFFICIALLY PASSED. FOR YOUR SAFETY WE ARE DECLARING MARTIAL LAW. A CURFEW OF 10PM IS NOW IN EFFECT. PASSAGE INTO AND OUT OF THE CITY IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED.”
Looking down, he didn’t see one of them walk up to him. When he noticed the sun was blocked, he looked up, staring into those awful black eyes.
The Lendarian reached out to Kent’s cigarette and clicked a lighter. Kent could tell his new friend was smirking, and he was certain this was a message–not a favor.