The Gray Ones

The corn was tall and dense. You couldn’t see very far as you peered through the crops. Each step through the maze made you feel smaller and smaller. As you were brought deeper through the large green stalks, your heart started to pound as the sun began to set. Unbeknownst to you, as you traveled through the maze, dusk had come faster than you had planned when you’d started the endeavor. You took a deep breath, pushed your concerned thoughts away, and went to locate the end of the maze before the darkness enveloped you.

As the sky grew darker, a breeze began to sway the crops around you. You pulled your jacket close to your body as the cold started to seep through. The black sky grew more prevalent as you meandered farther through the corn crops. The stars and the moon started to dot the black canvas; the only glow left that could help lead you through the darkened maze. Worry had overtaken you. Lost and confused about where you had come from and where you had yet to go.

When you were about to abandon hope, a large open space came out of the blue. A scarecrow stood watch at the center of the open area, a tad worse for wear, but he was a welcome change of scenery. You contemplate what your next move would be: stay here under the dark sky up to dawn or try to complete the dreadful maze alone, a lamp absent to see your way through.

After much thought, you presumed that the safest bet was to stay around the open space and scarecrow. You sat on the grassy floor below and leaned down to look up at the fluorescent stars that were scattered across the sky. As you started to doze off after the rough day you had, a powerful glow beamed down on your face. Your eyes peered up at the beam, barely able to see out of them. You sat up and scrambled away from the gleam. What you saw was a green beam that came from a round metal structure that hovered several feet off the ground.

Mouth agape, you watched the scene unfold. Two gray creatures were shot down from the strange beam and sauntered toward you. You stood up on shaky legs as they approached, and took note of the appearance of them. They had large black eyes that took up most of the reversed dew drop-shaped faces, two small slashes where the nose should be, and almost unseeable mouths.

No words were shared between the three of you. They both took hold of one of your arms. The creatures’ hands were cold and clammy as they led you back to the beam they had come from. Too stunned to pull away or run, you let them abduct you. As you were pulled under the metal saucer, the beam started to suck you up toward the structure. You closed your eyes as your stomach turned to mush, and floated away to a new adventure.

You must have passed out because when you awakened, you were strapped to an uncomfortable slab. There were three separate straps around you. One around your shoulders, another around your abdomen, and the last one around your ankles. You thrashed about as you attempted to loosen them and break free. None of the straps budged after a few seconds of harsh movement.

Eventually, you gave up on the straps. You were trapped and couldn’t get away from your captors. A few seconds later, the sound of a door could be heard from your left. You turned your head and saw a Gray One pad over toward you. They stared down at you, a blank look on the creature’s face due to the lack of features.

The Gray One grabbed a long, slender metal rod and focused the end of the staff on your forearm. You braced yourself for the agony that was soon to come, but when the end of the pole touched you, you felt a soft shudder run through you. The creature coasted the rod up your arm, all the way toward your shoulder, and left goosebumps as a result of the coldness from the metal.

The Gray One moved onto another area, and then another. You don’t know how long you were strapped down as you were poked and prodded by the black-eyed space monster. You’ve heard a story or two about locals who were abducted, but everyone passed them off as crazy or drugged-up losers. They made the tales sound awful and spooky, but as you lay there at the creature’s mercy, you felt at peace. There seemed to be no real danger as they learned about someone who wasn’t of the same genus.

Soon, more showed up, all gathered around you as they looked on. You felt as though you were a school project and everyone wanted to take a gander at what the student brought for show and tell. You couldn’t make out the language they spoke; they were not words from Earth. They weren’t even words at all, just a bunch of nonsense strung together at a fast pace. But you knew they’d probably feel the same way about most of the languages on your own planet, so you pushed your judgments away.

The room slowly reduced as the Gray Ones started to leave the room one by one. There were only two left by the end. Were they the same two who had brought you here, you wondered? They all resembled each other. No clear-cut contrast between any of them as far as you could tell.

One of the creatures started to unbuckle the straps at your ankles. The other lowered a small mask that covered your mouth and nose. A sweet scent permeated your nose as your eyes clouded over. A foggy haze washed over you as you were overcome by darkness.

You awoke under a clear blue sky. The corn around you once more. You sat up and rubbed your eyes as you remembered what had happened. You thought what had happened may have been a dream, but the strange mark on your arm, a round welt, made you suspect the encounter was true. So, after a long breath, you stood, dusted off your pants, and stepped back through the crops to complete the maze, so you could go home.