Donors

Written for the Liam Storm 'Mother Nature' Challenge. Details below

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

The mystery of whether we are alone in the universe is no longer a question of the ages. It has indeed... become a fact.

***

The crescent moon, sadden in its steadfast repose, shined on. Enveloped by endless pinholes of light, it was the perfect backdrop for the improbable scene unfolding.

Salina, Kansas

"Honey!!! What the hell is going on? You..um...your skin is glowing!"

Emanating from her pores like tiny geysers of translucent steam, the glow was the lightest shade of blue. It eerily moved like the sun’s corona, spewing out swirling matter and recapturing it, immediately creating alarm.

Random in its appearance, similar incidents involving the supernatural shine began to surface across the globe. Men, women and children of all ages became inflicted with the unknown energy. Scientific communities everywhere were stupefied by a world struck with confusion, begging for explanations.

Racing for answers, all efforts led to a frustrating dead-end. The only common denominator connecting the chosen was their blood type. AB-negative, the rarest. Only 1% of the population circulates it within their veins.

After twelve, unpredictable days of the first reported case, more than 400,000 of the inflicted went into stasis. Their metabolisms slowed, they had no appetite, they barely uttered words. It wasn't for another forty-eight hours, on August 23 of 2046, that the answers would astonish... and terrify.

The drama-addicted media dubbed it The Death Glow, scaring non-affected individuals into believing they could catch it, isolating the deteriorating victims. Others believed it was a sign from God or dark forces readying for war with man. Street-evangelists came out in droves, displaying their cardboard signs, preaching the apocalypse. Chaos couldn't have found a better time to show its destructive face among the living.

***

The evening was dry and calm, normally relaxing. Sad that it couldn't be properly appreciated since man was weary of letting his guard down. It remained dark and tense from their paranoid perspective.

When the atomic clock struck 10pm on August 23rd, the glowers became distracted by something unknown and began to march. Gathering in numbers of fifty or more, they moved through the cities and across the countryside. No one knew where they were going... or why.

After two, solid hours of zombified wandering, they stood motionless as if directed to wait, creating blue, glowing mounds sporadically settled across the land. If you were to look from high above, their assembly resembled the constellations.

It was then that orange and red pulsing light began to appear in different areas of the nighttime overcast. It stretched as far as the eye can see. Everyone's nervous attention was dead set on the anomalous sky.

Milan, Italy

A family of five watches from afar as their radiating loved one, devoid of motion, peered at the sky. Their youngest son, enjoying a red apple and standing alone, was startled when a single glower walked past him toward the nearest group. Starting at his feet and moving up, the glow was turning red. Soon, red became the dominant color of every mound, giving the impression of an ominous mood swing. The boy ran to his mother and clung to her leg.

Galway, Ireland

An old, recluse grandmother, a woman of strict routine, sits quietly on her porch near a small pond covered in green foliage. Her non-belief of what was going on in the world made her cringe at a dozen or so neighbors fixated on the sky. Out the corner of her eye, she noticed the water in her glass rapidly vibrating. Turning her head to check her perimeter, she's tried to understand what was causing it. The vibrations are not isolated to her drinking glass; the pond and every source of stationary liquid was affected. Sound waves beyond the range of hearing was causing it. The origin was about to become very clear.

Surging downward from the clouds with the force of a shock wave, a swell of horrendous sound thrashed every intrigued soul to the ground... sparing the glowers. Not even thunder from a thousand lightning strikes could compare to the experience. What followed was even more unimaginable. A herculean sized hole roiled open in the sky, paving the way for an equally gigantic object making entry. An alien mother ship as large as a city descended below the clouds. Matte gray with red lights on the underside, its presence astounded.

The government indisputably confirmed the detection of fourteen more identical ships situating themselves in and around major populations.

Jaipur, India

India, with the highest concentration of glowers was the first to validate motion coming from the massive, hovering ships. They noticed smaller ships being deployed, each resting over a single mass of glowers. Citizens everywhere were urged to stay calm. Militaries, on high alert, struggled to decide on a way to proceed. They agreed to wait it out, avoiding a premature, intergalactic war.

After the thunderous sound was reduced to howling winds, everyone looked on for what happens next. The visitor's technology allowed them to triangulate a signal to every corner of the earth.

Using our own satellites, a message translated into all languages interrupted every tv, radio and smart device simultaneously. Unsettledness faded enough for people to gaze at the white noise their tv and phone screens displayed. They had no idea they were about to listen the first ever voice of an extraterrestrial. It was calm, almost angelic and apparently female. The voice began to flow with a hypnotic tone. Echoes of it could be heard everywhere.

Please relax and power down your mechanical defenses. They will not function against us. We are not here to harm you... From the dawn of your species, we have been watching, waiting, learning and determining the best course for your future. In two years, many of your kind will begin to see a mutation in your genes. The purpose grants you the right to survive. The air on this planet is becoming more toxic with each passing year. The mutation will add protective glands in the skin to combat the harmful affects the atmosphere will have on humans... This brings us to why we are here. We have no choice but to rid the earth of the AB-negative blood type. Please, do not be alarmed. ABN is detrimental to the process of mutating and will reject the bond every time. If you research your records of every abduction, you will find confirmation of our experimentation. Each of those specimens carried ABN. Our attempts to understand the rejection through abductions have failed, there is no solution. We are custodians of this sector of the universe and are tasked with determining a solution so that you may survive in peace. We are what you call, Mother Nature, controlling the balance of life. We must follow our agenda. Please do not try to alter our methods of extraction. It will only cause further misunderstanding. You may bury your loved ones after the process is complete. We will leave your planet as quietly as we came.

End transmission...

There was no evidence to support this claim, yet mankind was powerless over the alien's superior intelligence. Chaos continued its enduring run as the so-called extractions began.

Every drop of blood from the glowers was siphoned out of their pores, raining in reverse toward the awaiting satellite ships who gathered it with opaque, tentacle-like projections. After thirty, painful minutes, the drained bodies of the glowers were left bony and lifeless in the dirt. The sight was ungodly and created shock. All except the very curious retreated in terror during the process. Military bases were indeed, rendered useless.

A miraculous, yet sad day for families hoping their loved ones would somehow be spared. They had not...

***

The question of whether we are alone in the universe had been finally answered. The revelation came swift, the promises were full of deceit.

Mankind is lucky the only blood they were interested in was ABN. These aliens were a caravan of thirsty vampires, collecting and consuming blood for their own survival. They were not Mother Nature, the furthest from it. They did, however, enjoy robbing her blind.

Their need to synthesize ABN is what they failed at. Depleting their own natural supply, they sought a surplus. During their vast travels across the galaxy, they found sources existing on the inhabited worlds. What they took from earth will last fifty years, fully aware that mother nature will replenish ABN on our planet by then.

Just in time for another encounter, of the 5th kind...