They

April 29, 2032

When I was growing up, the universal idea of an alien was a little gray man with a big head who visited earth in a flying saucer. Pop culture (back when there was such a thing) always depicted aliens with some sort of earthly similarities despite their otherworldly origins, simply because everything we knew about life was based on Earth. I once had a professor who was very open to the possibility of extraterrestrials despite her deep academic credentials. She brought up a very interesting point. Think about earth’s biodiversity. We live on a planet where a puppy and a centipede share the same cellular ancestry. Now think of that diversity on an extraplanetary scale. She theorized that life elsewhere in the universe would have to be so diverse that it wouldn’t even remotely resemble anything on Earth. And she couldn’t have been more right.

The day they arrived, it wasn’t this cinematic vision of an invasion that one would anticipate. There wasn’t much fear or chaos. Mostly just confusion and even a bit of awe. I remember walking outside to take my daughter to the bus stop and seeing all the neighbors out on their lawns with their phones out. Then I saw what they were recording. Just trying to think of a way to describe them gives me a headache. I didn’t even think they were alive at first. I couldn’t make out any kind of biology on them. No eyes, digits, sexual organs. Just big balls of...stuff. I couldn’t even tell you exactly what color they were. They came in all sizes, from a basketball to a station wagon. They attached themselves to every hard surface on our block. Houses, streets, vehicles, telephone poles. There were three on our roof alone, and two on my car. They were completely silent and motionless, yet I could still somehow sense something that was going on within them. People started yelling at them and even throwing stuff at them. Nothing. I got on social media and saw that this was happening on every corner of the planet. Famous landmarks covered in these things. Several months passed and the Orbs (that’s what I call them, but I’m sure they had a scientific name at some point) hadn’t budged. People attempted to return to their daily routines. Some were able to ignore them completely, but there was a sense of dread that lingered everywhere you went.

The day that the true invasion began I was volunteering at a church carnival. My daughter loved church because her father loved it before he passed. I didn’t really believe in any of it but it was a loving environment which I really needed at the time. She won this cheap little heart-shaped locket with the words “God is in Control” carved into the back of it and gave it to me. She loved giving me random stuff. There was a strange beauty to seeing these kids frolicking about despite all the weirdness going on. The church was covered in Orbs at that point yet the kids still played around, completely unfazed by it. Later that night, we noticed an odd smell, kind of an oily, metallic odor. People were pointing up at the sky. There was this weird, glowing pattern, almost like a grid that covered the entire sky. It was so bright that it created an eerie daylight in the night sky. Almost instantaneously, the orbs darted into the sky at a speed so quick it’s as if they teleported. It happened so fast that nobody could even get a picture of it. After months of these strange objects causing distress they were now just gone. There was a moment of relief. Some of the churchgoers started clapping and thanking God. But I had this gut feeling that whatever they were up to was just beginning.

The applause was interrupted by a loud sizzling noise. I noticed it coming from the church before realizing it was coming from every building surrounding us. The sizzling turned into a loud crackle as they all began to collapse at once, reduced to absolute rubble. No foundation or any hope of rebuilding. The same went for cars, power supplies, virtually anything man made. Even the roads turned into a sizzling pile of ash. Instantly there was widespread panic. I’m assuming this happened globally. When it happened, we instantly lost all phone reception. We tried to keep it together for a while until help arrived but obviously that never happened.

People started dying instantly. While the destruction itself took many lives, there were countless suicides and even murders. My daughter and I found a small group of survivors and took refuge in a nearby woods. That lasted for about a week and a half. Conflict within the group turned violent so we got out of there. We found another group who welcomed us in with open arms. That lasted four days. Another group raided us for our supplies and killed everyone except for three survivors, including me. Not including my daughter. Apparently the Orbs disintegrated all weapons as well, so they attacked us with makeshift spears and torches. That somehow made it even more agonizing.

I’ve been a drifter ever since. I come across settlements all the time, and twice as many abandoned ones. I don’t bother with them anymore. I will admit that this “United Colony” seems more promising than all of the other ones I’ve seen. Strong borders, a trade-based economy, no politics. I’ll give it a solid six months. Seeing how humanity has devolved is fascinating, and in a way kind of beautiful. People aren’t worried about all of the bullshit we were so occupied with before. Yes there are new problems, but primal ones. Food shelter, sex. Maybe that’s all we ever needed to begin with.

I personally think this whole time capsule project is a lost cause. I doubt we’ll exist long enough to dig this up in the future. But when the people at the colony invited me to participate and told me I could write a journal entry I thought it’d be a good opportunity for me to get my thoughts out. I hadn’t seen a pen and paper in years. Gotta appreciate the little things cause that’s all we have left. They offered me a place to stay but I declined. At this point I plan on drifting until I die, which could be any day now.

I’m content with the fact that I don’t know why the orbs came. Considering that the sky grid is still there, I don’t think they’ve gone anywhere. I assume they’re watching us. Of course most people resent them, but I’ve come across people who feel the exact opposite. They were living in debt and poverty before the Orbs came. Now they’re free. Some have even formed religions around them. They think that they did this to help us, to correct our mistakes. Give us a chance to start over. Maybe they did.

Anyway, my contribution to this time capsule is my daughter’s locket. My hope is that whenever you find this whoever or whatever you are, this is the last artifact of the old world. As grim as everything I’ve said sounds, somehow I’m hopeful. I honestly think everything is going to be ok. Maybe not for me, but for us as a whole. If they wanted us dead they would have killed us already. I don’t know what their plan is, but whatever it is I think it’s going exactly how it’s supposed to.

They are in control.