Earth Man Read Free

hitting Phil with the questions.
    “ What happened to him?” Helen asked.
    “ I’m not sure. I’m guessing he fell, maybe hit his head. We got separated and when I found him he was just lying on the ground. There was no blood or anything, so I think he’s okay, but I don’t know.” Phil replied.
    “ Fuck!” Helen said, falling against the wall. “Can I see him?”
    “ No. He’s in the emergency room right now. I am sure he’ll be fine. Danny’s tough and takes care of himself.”
    Phil said the words but he did not believe them. He ’d seen Danny’s face; whatever had happened to him was not normal. Phil had felt something in the woods and although he couldn’t say what it was or how it had made him feel, there was something.
    Phil hugged Helen again, trying to reassure her.
    “It’ll be okay Helen. Trust me this isn’t how Danny Boyle’s going to die, falling down a hill on a hunting trip. At least you were wrong.”
    “ I was wrong? What about?” Helen asked.
    “ You said we’d probably end up shooting each other. So let’s be happy nobody got shot.”
    Helen laughed and wiped her eyes, turning away so Phil couldn ’t see her cry.
    “ Danny will pull through, Helen, don’t worry. He’ll be good as new.”
     
    Danny lay in the emergency room hooked up to a breathing mask. He suddenly jolted awake, sitting upright and looking around with a dazed expression in his eyes. He startled the Doctor and all three nurses in the room, who tried to lay him back down on the stretcher. Nobody was wearing face masks but the doctor had on a pair of latex gloves. Using one hand the doctor tried to push Danny back down. As he lay back, they all quickly pulled their masks on over their faces.
    “ Please lie down sir. You had an accident and suffered a minor heart attack. The EKG is running now and your heart seems to be okay, but we need you to relax and let us run a few tests.”
    Danny laid down and breathed in oxygen through the mask. He tried to remember what had happened but his memory seemed fuzzy, like he was hung-over. All he could recall was a deer, perhaps two. It was dead now, because of him and yet for some reason he thought perhaps it was not dead after all. Confused he closed his eyes and listened to the beeping machine and the sound of his breathing, letting it lull him asleep. Just before he passed into the realm of dreams he heard a quiet skittering noise like the sound of a thousand tiny little feet.
    “ This hospital is falling apart! Ugh!” shouted one of the nurses as she backed away from the sink. A variety of bugs began to climb up out of the sink drain, spreading out into the washbasin. A second nurse saw them and quickly turned the water up as high as it would go. The two women splashed water on the insects, forcing them back down the drain.
    “ Call the janitors, tell them to bring some Drano up here, this is disgusting!” the third male nurse shouted.

“Drano? Call an exterminator!” The second nurse said.
    Neither of them noticed that the variety of the insects they were dealing with. Spiders, earwigs, ants and silverfish all crawled together, acting as if they were one species or of one mind. It took a few minutes but the nurses soon washed them back down the drain. The male nurse dumped hand sanitizer into the sink, letting the water run for a few minutes until it was boiling hot just to be sure they got them all.
     
    The Second walked along the beach of the Baja Peninsula wearing the human skin it had borrowed in Africa many weeks earlier. Although it had arrived on Earth first, it was designated the Second, responsible for the protection of the one known as the First. The humans were hiding the First, moving it from place to place but they could not hide it forever. Together they needed to prepare the planet for the arrival of more of their kind.
    It muttered to itself, occasionally stopping to bend down and smell handfuls of dirt. Years had been spent trying to cross the