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POD

What if you woke up to find not a stranger but a Pod waiting downstairs? Oct 2012 release.

By M. Aamir NaseerPublished 7 years ago 4 min read
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1

Dahlia had been staring at it for about an hour. Curiosity took over her mind. She couldn’t think, even if she tried hard. What was this thing? How could it be here without warning or any sound? The only questions that continued to provoke her.

Jolting as it were waking up, strolling down the stairs and suddenly you find, not a stranger, but something this huge. Strange. Like it was an alien object. Ambiguous. It stood there. Nothing like the controversial alien saucer advertised on TV. But indeed. An unidentified object. What she thought of as a “Pod”, as it stood motionless.

Speaking of TV, it was the loud static that had woken her up through the night. And then it wouldn’t switch on after that. It seemed that the internal power was completely out. A power cut? Yet, outside, the porch lamp was on, the street lights were working.

Her dark dilated eyes stared at this thing. The fact was, she was alone. She had no friends around here. Right now, her psychological self was against her. She felt something churning her stomach. Impulsively.

Could the pod be watching her? Monitoring her vital signs, her body language? It stood at just over waist height was circular, more tall than wide. It seemed heavy. She thought it looked like a giant coke can. She remembered seeing a small coke can in the backyard this morning when she moved in. Maybe, what she assumed was a coke can was not? But then, this didn’t seem quite like a coke can. It was bright orange.

. . .

Despite seeming like a benign object, she was frightened to approach it.

What if it were contagious?

2

A quarantine team arrived to carry out an investigation. Extremely baffled, for them to consider such a thing. A biohazard. They approached it. Dahlia watched from an outside window, nearby of the porch light. For what she were to witness in the next moment. It was terrifying. The horror. Her mouth fell open with dread.

Just as the team approached the pod, it suddenly turned to lime green—sort of a sensory response. It was “cautious” now. The team paused, startled. When they gained closer, with slight caution. It turned to red and tore wide open. A potent burst of powerful gas burst forth, followed by particles of something acidic.

It vaporised the entire team. Even their biohazard suits. Reduced to burning black ash. Dahlia gave off a quick low pitch scream and ran out into the centre of the road, startled in a frenzied panic. Baffled. Her face reduced to a wince. Was she hallucinating again? Protrusion of Dahlia? It had to be?

Extreme anxiety was causing her to quiver. Burning tears rushing to her eyes. Breathing out of her lungs, as she cried out. Her heart throbbed loud into her throat. Dahlia struggled to find her voice. She’d realised as she watched the team die horrific deaths in front of her eyes, that it was indeed an alien object. And that nothing on this earth could possibly stop it.

She glanced everywhere for help, but what came next wasn’t help. Suddenly from every house on the block, everyone came rushing out. Screaming over their voices. At the sighting of a giant unidentified object found resting in their living room.

. . .

It turned amber, giving off a calling out flashing beacon.

And then a klaxon blared out loud into the distance.

3

Her bulging eyes watched as it approached her. Glistening tears waited. Dahlia wasn’t frightened. No such symptoms of frenzied panic. Her mind was like a writer's block. She had seen it emerge out from the Pod. The foreign invader. Unusually elongated, slender arms and legs, 6ft in height. A huge head shaped like an inflated balloon. The protrusion of Dahlia it wasn’t. This was very real.

It stood in front of her with its twig-like neck arched over her. Large cat-like emerald eyes stared at Dahlia, intimidatingly. She was reflecting in its diamond-shaped pupils. Dilated with curiosity. The first time it had seen a human being.

Her teary eyes had widened as she stared at those emerald eyes turn to red, and then it’s balloon-head tore wide open as powerful gas burst forth. Her nostrils plug by some sort of sleep-inducing fumes. It sent a tingling sensation along her nose-bridge. Dahlia broke away choking, uncontrollably. Her sight grew blurry and distorted before she fell unconscious onto the ground.

Its head grew back together from solidifying gas particles. Cat eyes turned to amber before it teleported away with Dahlia. A bubble bursting kind of expression. Instant. Without sound.

. . .

The amber fluorescent created from a gaseous form had solidified along with Dahlia. She was enclosed in a suspended state, within this jelly-like translucent cocoon.

Her eyes remained shut as if in deep sleep. Some sort of coma. Still mentally conscious. She was still alive.

. . .

The second sound of the klaxon began to blare outside.

Dahlia could hear the sound, but she was trapped within the claustrophobic space of the Pod.

Escape was inevitable.

extraterrestrialscience fiction
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About the Creator

M. Aamir Naseer

Storyteller. Scientist. Volunteer. Artist. Blogger. Bookworm. Cinephile. Dyslexic. Dysnumeric. Insomniac. Thinker. ☮

https://medium.com/@aamir_tw33ts

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