The Return: New Beginnings

By L.M. Morse

The world, as we knew it, ended in the blink of an eye when they returned, bringing with them destruction, chaos, and magic.

What would you do if you were given magic with no instructions? Could you keep your humanity? With the help of old friends and new, can this group of average and now not-so-average people use their newfound gifts to save not only themselves but also some of the new beings that are popping up all over the place like, well, like magic? And save humanity as a whole? Can this group impress them enough to save everyone while learning as they go, knowing that the deck is stacked against them?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Newman Springs Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 23, 2024
• ISBN: 9798887637587

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

Day 12

Day 13

Day 14

Acknowledgment

About the Author

cover.jpg

The Return: New Beginnings

L.M. Morse

Copyright © 2024 L.M. Morse

All rights reserved

First Edition

NEWMAN SPRINGS PUBLISHING

320 Broad Street

Red Bank, NJ 07701

First originally published by Newman Springs Publishing 2024

ISBN 979-8-88763-757-0 (Paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88763-758-7 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

To Joe

You inspired me. You inspired this. I will always love you for it.

All across the planet, a sickly, rotten, pumpkin-colored, foggy light pulsed, spreading its noxious color everywhere. And I mean everywhere. It pulsed like a heartbeat, and in a way, it was. The start of a new life.

Billions of people, when they saw the fog, grabbed their children and other loved ones and tried to hide. Basements, cellars, underground parking garages, subways, tornado shelters, tunnels, including sewers, old fallout shelters, new survivalist bunkers, caves, and even underwater. It was all in vain. The noxious-colored fog? It found every living organism. Every last one was touched. Those that hid or tried to hide should have just embraced the change, but then again, those were some of the beings that didn't like change at all. They fought it. No matter the species, they fought. But in the end? You either changed, accepted change, or died. Some changed due to their circumstances, some changed because they could, but some? Some they offered the opportunity to Change, while others they Changed just to observe. Sometimes? The changes were beneficial, but usually they were just cruel. They didn't care. It was their time now. Or is it their time again?

Day 1

At 7:15 a.m., Tuesday, April 19, 2022, a group of us are standing around outside the airport, enjoying the early spring morning. The first flight has been in the air for about thirty minutes, and the daily shift briefing was done. That's when we noticed the sky start to change color. We step away from the building to see which direction the strange colored fog was coming from. As far as we can tell, it seems to be coming from everywhere, no starting or stopping point. It goes from clear blue sky to dense muddy-orange fog in less than a minute. Visibility drops to just a few feet within seconds. We all look at each other in confusion. A few immediately become fearful, saying that we all need to go back inside.

I'm going to stay out here for a bit, I reply as Mark, Tarina, Sharon, Keven, Carolina, Troy, Denise, and Galen head for the doors. That leaves me, Doris, Alex, Justin, Kevin, Bill, and Tammy staring around. (Oh! I'm Lara, by the way.)

Doris's phone rings, it's her husband Lee, and he's asking if she's seeing the same thing he is. About ten seconds later, everyone else's phones start to go off with that special alert tone. Weeellll, maybe someone has an answer to what's happening. We all listen as Alex puts his phone on speaker. The announcement states that everyone should seek shelter—immediately.

Okaayy. So we all walk back into the airport, but instantly notice that the air in the lobby looks just like it did outside. Everything is tinted with that awful orange strangeness.

Tammy says, How do you take shelter from this?

I don't think that we're going to be able to… It's the air itself. So unless you don't want to breathe? I think we're all probably—what? Already infected? I say.

The supervisor's phone rings, and Alex answers it and listens intently. We can't hear the conversation, but the look on his face and the couple uh-huhs says enough. Almost immediately after he says that he's got it, the special alert sounds over the television in the lobby. The first announcement comes on even though the screen rolls a couple times, and it has a lot of static. It said, Everyone everywhere within the sound of this recording, seek shelter immediately or shelter in place. An unprecedented event is occurring. There is no known data to explain the events that we are experiencing at this time. Repeat, take shelter immediately.

Well, that was helpful. Not.

Alex looks at us and says the phone call was from our big boss and that he's urging us all to leave.

That's a first, so this must be bad.

Kevin gets all of our attention as he says, Oh hey! Look at the board! All of the flights are now showing cancelled.

I really don't think it's going to matter where we go, we're all either infected or marked or whatever. Hiding is not the answer, I say, somehow knowing it's true.

Oh, I agree with you, but I want to be at home with Ashley, Alex says.

Then Justin says, The roads are going to be a mess if we wait too long. On the end of his sentence, the group that had run inside earlier come barreling out of the offices, and they make a mad dash for the parking lot.

I look at Justin, and we share a smile.

Then he says, Well, shit! It looks like it's already too late.

Most of us just shake our heads. I turn and go back out the front door; the rest of my group follows behind me, sharing concerned looks. We can't see much at all, but we can hear Denise yelling to get out of the way and then a couple loud thumps. We can hear the engine before we see Denise driving her car toward us through the grass. I guess she was too impatient or too scared to wait for her turn leaving the parking lot in the right way. Tires squeal as she cuts off Sharon and Galen as they themselves whiz past us. A few more drive past us, but not enough. It seems that a few took a shortcut by going the wrong way on a one-way street.

Now that's using your noodle!

As the last car goes by, all of us standing there feel the earth move. Not much, maybe a three on the Richter scale.

Well, shit! If we felt that, then there goes California! someone says, and most of us chuckle. Some grimly.

As we watch the mad dash going on, several people are making phone calls, including me. I call Joe, my long-distance love. The call goes straight to his voice mail.

Hi, handsome. I take it you're seeing this too. If things are getting nutty here, it'll be a madhouse for you. Stay safe, and I love you, I say, then I hang up, feeling a little letdown.

I really wanted to hear his voice. I realize that our chances weren't great to begin with, but now they seem even slimmer.

Fuck.

I then call my mom who is just freaking out. I tell her to stay inside and that I love her. Everyone else outside with me is making similar calls.

In less than fifteen minutes, cell service starts to become spotty. And for the next hour or so, we listen to traffic sounds, which are about a half mile away. Screeching tires, horns blaring, crashing sounds, yelling, and then bloodcurdling screams.

The muddy-orange whatever has become a very dense fog, muting all sounds, except for a deep-base rumble that we can barely hear, but we can feel it in our bones. Just at the limit of our vision, we can just make out something, or many somethings, moving.

Hey! Is that our deer herd? I ask.

Bill answers, I sure hope so. If not, we might be in trouble.

Well, whatever they are, they're moving away, Kevin says.

If only it were just our residential deer herd and other local wildlife. Luckily we didn't see what else was stealthily moving about, watching, learning, and the reason some of the screaming had stopped. Their hunger now satisfied…for the moment.

About thirty minutes later, it's been totally silent for at least ten minutes or so, and we've all agreed to take advantage of the lull. We've also come up with a plan to try to keep in touch and to meet up again later. As we all leave, I'm the last out of the parking lot. I kept my window rolled down as I crawled down the road at the fast clip of five miles per hour, looking for the deer. Every morning, or whenever I see them, I stop and talk to them. This strangeness is not going to stop me. There are a few standing by the curb as I roll up and stop.

Hello, ladies! How are you? I say as always. Please stay out of the road and watch out. Hopefully I'll see you later. Stay safe! I finish talking with the deer and pull slowly away, never realizing that there had been other beings mixed in and blending invisibly in with the herd.

These new beings? They are ancient, almost primal, but sentient. Some type of communication passed between them and the herd and the other local animals in the vicinity.

The drive home was a white-knuckled affair. Squeezing by wrecked vehicles or just abandoned ones, some still running. Large blood pools? Surrounding some. I'm pretty sure it's blood, the smell gives it away even if they are hard to see. But no bodies. No people at all. It's so eerie. I know that there are businesses and houses along the way, but I just can't see them, not even any lights. I'm just glad there were no other cars on Moody since there is nowhere to pass. I almost missed the turn onto Painter and barely missed the stop sign post.

Sheesh.

As I turned onto my street, I pass Courtney's house, and her dog Diesel starts barking, then Gracie starts up as I pass her house. Even before I pull into my driveway, Chance, who's next door, is barking too.

Yes, I know almost all of my neighbor's pet's names.

After parking in the garage, I step out onto the driveway and yell, Hey! It's just me!

The barking stops.

Wow! Not a soul in sight, but the dogs are okay.

I can hear Chance whining, so I call out to him, Chance! I'm going to bring you a cookie in a little bit. Okay, buddy?

His whining can't be heard anymore as I go in my back door, and I'm greeted as usual by my cats.

Hi, girls! I'm home early, I say as I close the door.

They follow me into the kitchen, but before I finish setting my bag on the counter, the back door bangs open. My girls and I turn to look, but I don't see anything. It seems that my girls sense or see something that I don't.

Poofed tails, backs arched, and Boo's growling is weird, but it's the way they stand on their back legs with their front legs wrapping around my legs—that's the really weird part. Then they just look up at me and do the slow blink a couple times, then go back to their normal greetings and beg for their dinner.

I guess they must be as jumpy as I am from all of the weirdness that's going on. So I go back and close the door after looking out into the garage, making sure it was empty, and then I feed my girls earlier than normal. I also send off a group text, saying that I made it home okay.

After changing into comfy sweats, I turn on the TV. The twenty-four -hour news station was showing a fuzzy and sometimes rolling clip from California. They'd been hit with a devastating earthquake, but it had nothing to do with the quake that we'd felt earlier. The video showed huge tracts of land that were either hundreds of feet in the air or the land had fallen into what looked like a bottomless pit. Houses and businesses were totally destroyed; highway overpasses were just massive ruble piles with a few cars mixed in.

But what catches my attention and that of a couple commentators was the blurred movements from…something. It seems that the blurred things have been caught multiple times, but no one knows what it is, no one can explain it, but something is definitely there.

A reporter from Denver breaks in with a new video and a warning that it's graphic; I can't tell if he's excited or terrified. The video shows a group of people running past a building, they all seem terrified, and there are two cops bringing up the rear, shooting behind them at something beyond the camera's angle. Something blurs past the cops and snatches up a man that was in front of them. The guy screamed as he went beyond the camera's angle, and then blood rained down. The cops had stopped running and just stood there, staring up. One cop dropped to his knees, and the other one disappeared in a splash, but the camera never did, or could, focus in on whatever it was that killed the men.

Holy shit! Graphic my ass!

The news anchors are caught with their mouths hanging open, faces white with shock.

Someone in the background shouts, What the fuck was that?

It appears no one was on the ball since his cussing wasn't bleeped.

I look at my girls since they are sharing my lap and ask the same question, What the fuck was that? The girls just look at me and give me a slow blink.

Thanks! I love you too.

One anchor, reading from a paper that was just handed to him, says that there are many more videos like that last one coming in from all over the globe. Many much worse. The anchor then begged for everyone to stay indoors. Then a commercial.

Of course.

I get up and grab a couple dog biscuits for Chance. Thinking back on what I've seen, I go out the back door and up to the fence. Chance gives a quiet whine as I call him over to the hole where I usually give him treats and rubs. I rub his big head and ears after giving him one of the treats and ask him what he thinks is going on. He just licks my hand and begs for more treats and pets, which I supply.

When I turn to go back inside, I notice that the door is open, but I know that I closed it. Once inside, I see that my girls were still on the couch, but they seem just a bit spooked, and they're looking at me.

Huh? So I look around my living room but see nothing.

The twenty-four-hour news is running segments that I've already seen, so I check my phone. No signal. I putter around a bit, clean up the kitchen, scoop some poop, throw some laundry in the washing machine, and take out the trash. Nothing seems to help, but dwelling on the unknown is useless.

I get to the point where I have nothing else to do. I just don't feel safe enough to mow the grass or anything else outside, so I pick up my tablet. Still no service, which is no surprise, but at least I'll be able to reread some of the stories that Joe had sent to me and have a good laugh at our goofiness. So I settle on the couch and try to escape what's going on in real life. I love those stories, how could I not? He wrote them just for me. They're pure fun. A bit of adventure, some good-versus-evil fights, some romance between us, and some raunchy sex scenes.

If we're all doomed, which, according to what some of the experts on the television are saying, we most definitely are, I might as well go out with a laugh and the warm fuzzies, right?

As I'm reading, I hear—or maybe I feel—voices asking me questions, and I have to answer. It's like the voices give me no choice in the matter. I have no idea about the language it's spoken in, but somehow the meanings are pretty clear. Some of the questions make me smile, some make me laugh, while others make me cry. Some make me very angry, and others scare the shit out of me, but I have to answer them all.

Hours pass as I sit there answering hundreds, maybe thousands, of questions. Then it changes. The questions involve—or devolve—into physical and emotional answers and reactions. I feel physical pain, then agony! Then physical pleasure, aches, hunger, heat, cold, and the list goes on. Then it switches to joy, sorrow, embarrassment, every emotion. I go through them all over the next several hours.

As dawn begins to lighten the sky as much as it can, thanks to the muddy-orange fog, I'm almost able to completely understand. They tell me that they've picked me to change and that I have been chosen.

Two very different things apparently. And very rare.

Oh goody?

Day 2

One of them conveys that some of their brethren have already changed some individuals; not all are human. Animals, insects, plants, and other things have undergone a metamorphosis. Some look the same, but most are very different. Most of them have restrictions? Limits? I know that I have some too, but I don't know what they are, and they won't say. I also know that they are watching and judging.

I manage to sit up, feeling like I've been run over by a bus. At least twice. Everything hurts.

My girls are still with me, though next to me instead of on me, staring at me with wide eyes.

Did I just dream all of that? I ask them.

Boo, my poofy black cat, looks at me, and I can hear her answer, but it wasn't like she was actually talking. A type of telepathy maybe?

Boo says, No. No dreams. We guards yous from them.

What? You guarded me? Protected me? How? I ask.

The Baby answers, We stays with yous, tells them how goods yous feeds us, pets us, plays with us, loves us. Others yous feeds and pets. We loves yous.

I open my mouth, but nothing comes out. So I try again… Nothing.

I mean really? What can I say!

Then The Baby says, They speaked to others. Others tells them they have no fears of yous. The others likes yous. Boo smelled others. Chance? The little thing Boo no liked but was here in box?

What? So they talked to Chance, and uhh…do you mean Bella? The baby raccoon that was here last year? I ask.

I likes that baby thing…was friend…we play, The Baby says.

I sit there, completely dumbfounded. Then I start to laugh. I laugh until tears run down my cheeks. I'm still laughing when I feel a presence. Questioning? I'm still laughing, but I'm also so very happy, and I let them feel that.

Oh, come on! My superpower is being Dr. Doolittle! I love it! Thank you! The feeling I get back after saying that was…confusion?

I finally make it to my feet and stumble down the hall to the bathroom. I get a good look at myself in the mirror and realize that I look the same. Huh. Since I had been reading one of Joe's stories about me as a Valkyrie before they started interrogating me, I guess it's just as well that my superpower is hidden. I mean really, where would I hide my wings? Ha ha ha!

After a shower and breakfast, because I am starving, I check my phone. Service! Hallelujah! Text messages from my group, stating everyone made it home okay, but a few mentioned some sort of horrors they must have just missed. My good mood slowly evaporates the more I read.

So do I tell my friends about what just happened to me? Will they think I'm fucking nuts? Probably.

Then there is a text from Joe, just an emoji really. A thumbs up. Well, okay then. I send back a kiss emoji. I hope he's with his family and that they're all doing okay. Though I do wish for other things when it comes to him.

I sit at the table and think about what all I've learned. I wonder about the others that have been changed and chosen. I mean, how is this going to work? Will we know each other on sight? Will we get along? Or are we destined to battle? This is going to be interesting, no matter what, that's for sure.

My girls are sitting across the table from me, just watching.

All righty then. Girls, I'm going to go try out my new superpower on Chance. Wish me luck, I say.

All I get in return are a couple disinterested looks.

Riigght. Cats.

I go out the back door and call for Chance. Hey, Chance! How are you doing, buddy?

Woof, woof, woof. Hungry, wants food. Are's yoos going to feeds me?

Holy shit! It's working!

Okay, buddy, hang on a minute, and I'll see what I can do for you! I yell over the fence as I walk between the houses.

I knock on the door, but no one answers, and I can hear Chance bark, saying that no one is home, and he's lonely. Poor guy.

I know where a spare key is, so I let myself in and grab his food while I make a call to Frankie since we have service at the moment.

She answers. Hey, Lara, I was just about to call you. Umm…can you take care of Chance for us? We're staying at Greg's place. I was so scared and called him to pick me up… He didn't want to at first 'cause everybody is really scared, ya know? But then he picked me and Dinky up. I know it's asking a lot, but could you take care of Chance until we get back? You know where we keep his food, and it's a new bag… I'm just too scared to be there. I heard a bunch of scary noises, and you know how Dinky gets.

I laugh and tell her that I've got it even as I'm filling Chance's bowl and listening to him, making nom nom noises and saying thank-yous over and over.

After I hang up the phone and make sure the water bowl is full, I rub his big head and tell him that I'll check back on him later. He's too busy eating to reply.

I'm back out front, trying to see beyond five feet in any direction. I'm not sure, but I think I can see a little bit better. The murky orange fog? It is everywhere, but sounds seem even more muted today. I cut back between the houses and walk up to my big tree. There is a slight rustle, and I look up to see a couple birds and a squirrel.

Oh, hey, tree rat. How are you this very weird day? I ask, not expecting any reply, but she starts chittering and barking at me until I hear, More?

No way! Do you want me to refill the feeders for you? Looks like y'all need another suet bar too. In return, I hear a lot of barking and chirping along with some yes, yes, yes from the squirrel and a few of the birds.

This is so awesome! Well, okay then, the bird food and stuff is on my porch, so I go and refill everything and ask if they're happy now. A few new yes and a bunch or crunching noises are the reply. How cool is that?

I go back inside, still in a slight daze as I go over what just happened. The twenty-four-hour news is gearing up to show some new clips, so I sit and watch. Graphic content flashes across the screen before the video starts playing. It starts out with a group of teens, perhaps young men, outside a convenient store. One comes out with a Molotov cocktail, and he throws it off to the right of the screen. It hits something because whatever it was, it comes rushing into the video's frame. Whatever it is, it's on fire as it makes a huge jump and lands on the bottle thrower. It pushed the thrower through the glass doors and just starts shredding him. The screams are awful. The boy's friends try to beat it with what looks like a broom handle and part of a shelf.

It/he stands up, still burning, and it looks like a second set of arms come out of its back and grabs another boy, pulling him close enough so that he can turn his head and take a huge bite out of boy's face. One eye, the nose, and part of the boy's lower jaw are now missing. The poor kid is screaming but is then picked up off the ground and thrown away. Wherever he landed is out of the camera's view.

The creature looks like he's laughing as some of the other boys just stand there. As I watched that, I somehow understand that the creature is really just another boy, one that knows his victims. He was more than likely being bullied by them, judging by the way they're all behaving.

Was that boy chosen or changed? I ask.

Changed…why?

Well, because of the way he was tormenting the other boys. It's like he was giving them a taste of their own medicine. They fear him now.

You knew we were still here? How?

Maybe? I can sort of feel a heaviness over there, I say as I point to a spot on the sectional sofa where I don't usually sit.

Ahhh…

She is learning quickly.

We must keep watch.

A new clip begins, and it has a party of four adults that cross a street and come too close to someone's very nicely-manicured lawn. A tree near the house snakes two limbs out and grabs a woman as she steps off the sidewalk and into the grass, and the tree's limbs tear her in two. The rest scream and scatter, but one steps farther away from the concrete driveway, into the grass, and then it looks like the grass is eating him from the feet up. He screams and flails about, and as he sinks, blood spurts out of the hole he is being drawn down into.

The next clip shows a parking lot covered in bodies. Humans, birds, a dog. All have chunks missing. Then five massive pigeons land and go back to eating the dead. The pigeons are bigger than a turkey, and they have teeth in their beaks? What!

Okay, so the grass and the tree I can see as being changed, but the birds were chosen, right? I ask my seemingly empty living room.

The birds were chosen, yes… The grass and tree were changed…by a human, they say.

Oh, so the human was changed but not chosen? And his superpower is being able to control plants? Any plants? Or just what's near his house? I ask, truly curious.

We are told that his control is minimal, so only close vegetation… It is wasteful.

Uh-oh. So you would consider his change, what? A failure? I ask again, truly curious.

Yesss, they hissed back.

I get the feeling that they want more of my input, so… Well, personally, yeah, that is a waste of what? Power? Potential? I don't think he thought it through very well, I mean, if someone or something takes out that tree, anyone can go up the driveway and get to the house… He's a sitting duck if his backyard isn't as protected as the front yard is, I reply cautiously. Yep, very poor planning.

Coming up next. A Michael Meyer's wannabe beaten to death in a Kansas City mall. The commentator's announcement grabbed my attention.

Oh crap. I watch as the video starts out in a food court. A group of people are sitting around a table. One man starts to shake and then change. His blond hair turns dark, and his skin tone turns white. His tablemates push away from the table, most just take off running. The changing guy stands up with his hands up, nothing threatening in his movements at all. A man from two tables away stands up and picks up his chair, walks up behind the changing guy and starts beating him with the chair. The poor guy's skull is crushed by the third hit.

OMG! That was sad and wasteful.

Another new clips starts with Live at Disney! A reporter comes on, trying to describe the scene. The person acting as Minnie Mouse has somehow fused with her costume. The big plastic headpiece is now her head. The camera shows the once-smiling mouth is now screaming in terror. Real tears are running down her mousey cheeks. Someone, a guy, tries to pull her gloves off, but instead of fabric tearing, her skin does, and she starts to bleed as she tries to pull away. A parent stabs poor Minnie in the chest with a piece of a broken stroller as other people and kids watched in horror or ran.

I sit there, stunned by the brutality and the waste. I'm willing to bet that she, the Minnie actress, loved her job. I bet she truly enjoyed acting the part, making little kids so happy. Only to be killed because she became different on the outside? I feel sorry for Minnie and all of the other changed that this is going to happen to. If others in the park are changing like she was, I hope like hell they have the sense to hide.

I feel an inquiry. I look back at the area of the sofa where I feel at least one of them is with tears in my eyes and say, That was fucking awful. That girl wasn't hurting anyone. She was terrified! They could have just left her alone! It's going to get worse, isn't it?

Ohhh yesss, they hiss.

Well, shit!

The next clip to come on after a moment of stunned silence from the newsroom is from England. The news anchor tries valiantly to give his condolences to the people at Disney before telling his audience that the English clip is already hours old. The clip starts with an English journalist talking about how several London zookeepers had started taking on the characteristics of their charges. One keeper's main charges were ibex, so now he has a beard and long horns curling back from his forehead. Another keeper has gray fur and a long ringed tail like the lemurs that he takes care of. Yet another keeper now has scales and a long forked tongue as well as long skinny fingers tipped with wicked-looking claws.

The last zookeeper—oh, Lord—the poor woman has changed enough to closely resemble a giraffe. Her arms have become long legs to match the ones in the back, long neck, and even a long purple tongue. Brown splotches on her still-white human skin cover her body. The journalist reports that these people will be staying at the zoo so as not to cause a panic, and they will continue to take care of their animals.

Changed? I ask, just to make sure I'm getting the hang of how some of these things go.

Yesss, they hiss.

Well, I'd call that a win…but only because those people were smart, and their coworkers were brave. They were willing to overlook the outside changes and realize that their friends really haven't changed at all, that their personalities are the same. I guess everyone is also lucky that no one took on the characteristics of say, a baboon? I joke.

Perhapsss is hissed back.

Uhmmm.

The next video up is a body-cam footage from Detroit.

The officer whose body-cam footage you are about to watch can't be reached for comment at this time, was spoken over the beginning of the video in which I could see a door opening and someone yelling, Police! Come out with your hands up!

It's difficult to hear much else over the barking, growling, and other sounds of canines in distress.

The camera wearer walks past a kitchen that looks like a tornado had blown through it. Food and dishes scattered everywhere. As the wearer turns a corner, he comes face-to-face with a dog. The dog is at least eight feet tall! Its head is close to brushing the ceiling, and it's almost too wide to make it through the doorway. The poor thing is covered in blood and what looks like slash marks on its muzzle, chest, and one leg. The dog sees the camera wearer and yipes as it tries to turn around and run, but the hall was just too narrow for it.

In the background, someone yells, What the fuck is that thing? and Who cares! Just shoot it!

The camera wearer is mumbling something, and the dog slowly lowers itself to the floor and put its head on its paws.

Someone else yells, Jesus Christ! Just kill that fucking thing already!

But the camera wearer shouts, No! You, motherfuckers, aren't going to touch her! If she's scaring you, just imagine how she feels… From the looks of her, she's been a bait dog. I don't give two shits about what anyone has to say, I'm keeping her. So back the fuck off!

All the while, more barking and other animal sounds can still be faintly heard, and the camera wearer says, You, guys, check the basement over there… Me and Beauty will stay here and guard these doors.

Another voice says, Beauty? Man, you are fucking crazy!

The footage shows the camera wearer letting the huge dog, Beauty, sniff his hand and her letting him stroke her massive head. She even gives him a big lick, one that includes the camera.

Then the wearer takes his camera off and hands it off to another cop while saying, Carter, you film whatever's down in the basement… I trust you. So keep a cool head.

Carter puts the body camera on his vest and says, Sure thing, Sarge.

I watch as Carter walks to the basement doorway with its missing door and as he heads down the basement steps. About halfway down the steps is the body of a man that's been bitten almost in half. The body's entrails are snaking down the steps, blood running down the walls, but the pistol in the man's hand can't be missed or the machete laying a couple inches away.

Carter eases past the mess and says, Watch out. It might get a bit slippery.

Chuckles can be heard as well as some gagging noises. At the bottom of the steps, there is a huge pit dug into the basement floor, lined with plywood. Two dogs are lying in the pit with obvious injuries, but neither try to get up. Along two of the four walls are cages stacked three high. All of the cages contain dogs in various shapes and sizes and in various states of health. From pristine health to dead. Not to mention that there are quite a few puppies.

Oh man.

Wow! I really like that cop. I hope he gets to keep Beauty. I also think it's funny that the networks are forgetting to bleep out the cuss words and blur the gore…but that's okay with me. I think everyone needs to see and hear the unvarnished truth and what they might come face-to-face with soon, right? I ask.

No comments are forthcoming.

Okaayy.

I get up and head for the bathroom, and when I get back, I ask if anyone wants anything from the kitchen. Still no answer, but I know that they are still there. I grab a drink and make some popcorn while waiting for the commercials to end.

The next story is mainly an interview with a guy wearing a Terminix uniform. He says how he was called out to do a job removing bees from the outer wall of an older couple's house. He goes on to say that after the weird light and the earthquake happened, the couple had him come inside their house to wait and see what was happening. He says that he sat with them for a few hours, watching the news and discussing theories. That's when they started hearing the buzzing from the hive getting louder. He says that he stepped out the front door and saw a couple bees flying around, but that they were getting bigger by the second. He says the bees were at least the size of a crow by the time he got the couple to pack up some stuff and go next door to stay with their neighbors, and he went with them. Everyone is afraid to go back and take a look.

Damn! EpiPens already cost a fortune!

After that clip, a rerun comes on, so I look at the section of sofa that I've earmarked as theirs, and I can feel a heavy presence, so I ask, Why are you still here?

They reply after a very long pause, Just as you are learning, so are we.

Huh. Well, all righty then.

As I eat my popcorn and wait for something new to air on the TV, I hear Chance bark/yell, Hi, hi, hi.

Huh? So I go out the back door, and I can hear very muted voices coming from out in front of my house, so I walk in that direction. As I get closer, I hear a few more bark/hellos coming from some of my neighbors' dogs, Bo and Em, Dexter, the other Gracie and Bernice. So I know that Lottie, Dan, Glen, and Greta are close. I call out to them, and we meet in the road.

Hey, how are y'all holding up? I ask.

Their answers vary, but all in all, everyone is fine except for Dan's wife Charlotte. She's feeling under the weather and has locked herself in her bedroom. We all comment on some of the news stories that we've seen, and the others share a few of their own theories. Lottie tells us that when she's able to see better, she's taking the dogs and going to her daughters' house to stay because something doesn't feel right here anymore.

As I rub Em's bushy eyebrows, I shrug but think to myself, If you only knew.

Glen says he and his wife are going to do the same thing, and Dan wants to go to his son's house, but he's going to have to do something about Charlotte and her mysterious illness first. Greta says she's going to her in-laws. Each one of my neighbors, in their own way, tells me that I need to leave too. I tell them that I'll be okay, and besides, I'm looking after Chance who starts barking, Thas me! thas me! at the sound of his name. My neighbors and I tell each other that we'll keep in touch, but as soon as I turn to go home, I feel like that's just not going to be possible. That makes me very sad; my neighbors are really good people.

As I stand by my garage door, I ask, Can you tell me anything about yourselves? Like where do you come from? Or even why are you here?

"Do we tell her?"

"An infinitesimal amount…"

We have always been here, but we have been…apart…for ages… We have remade the world to look closer to what we remember when we ruled. Humans did not exist at that time… We have come back to see if humans can be allowed to continue as a species.

Oh! Well, shit! That was not what I was hoping for. So how are we supposed to do that?

You must Impress us.

What? Well, now this is going to suck! Because from what I've seen so far, very few people have impressed me.

I go back inside, and my phone is ringing. It's my mom.

Hi, Mom, are you okay?

You have got to be kidding, right? Of course, I'm not okay. I just got off the phone with your sister. It appears that while staying with one of her in-laws, one of your nephew's stuffed animals just ate his uncle and his dad! my mom yells in my ear.

What? I ask, dumbfounded. I also try to stifle my laughter.

My mom is not a big fan of my brother-in-law, and now she's upset? I mean, come on, from what I've heard over the years, he was never even close to being father of the year material.

I manage to squeak out, Are the boys okay?

Of course not! They need me! And I can't get to them with the sky looking like spoiled pumpkin… I'll just have to risk it. I have to go! she wails into the phone. And this is yet another reason why I'm glad I didn't have any children.

There is absolutely no way that I can tell my mom that I've been chosen and changed. That I'm supposed to impress them. Or anything about them at all. The drama that would come from that would just piss me off and make me sad.

Well, let me know before you go, okay?

Of course, I will. I've got to go pack… Love you. Bye. Then she hangs up.

Was it one of my nephews?

No, it was a different young human female with a close blood tie.

So it was their cousin? Great. But how do you know?

We can communicate with our brethren.

Oh, okay.

Can this get any more bizarre? Or worse? How are we supposed to impress them when they can communicate with each other over however many hundreds of miles seemingly in an instant?

We are so screwed, but hey! I'm willing to give it a go.

Nothing new is on the news, so I check my text messages.

Ten texts? Hey! I feel so popular!

One is from Mark and Tarina telling me to come over if I don't feel safe being by myself.

Ha! If they only knew!

Bill's message says his wife wants to head for town since something has butchered a couple of their cows. The message from Tammy says