The buzzing and wobbling zooms of spacecraft permeated the air …


    Sarah and Jacob hid in the basement, prepared. Someone pounded on their upstairs front door.


    "A human?" asked Sarah.


    "Could be, or one of them …" answered Jacob. "I''ll check." He opened a security camera app on his phone.


    A person waved and spoke to the camera, "Jacob, it''s me, Frank. I have my entire family here. Please let us in!"


    "Oh no, not that guy. He’s the one that reported on me for my stash."


    "He''s a jerk, Jacob, but they have children. Let them in."


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    "Fine. You''re right …"


    He ran upstairs, opened the door, and let them come down.


    "They''re abducting all of our neighbors," said Frank.


    "I know, dude, but I''ve got protection."


    "You still have a stash?"


    "Damn right, man, a caseload of alien laser weapons and EMPs. Our politicians made alien weapons illegal. They secretly sold us out as a labor trade. They didn''t want us to defend ourselves. It’s totally against our human nature."


    "But Jacob, what about people who scorched entire cities with lasers?"


    "Psychopaths, dude. We should have made that illegal, not our right to self-defense."


    "And how would you know who''s a psychopath or not, Jacob?"


    "This …" Jacob held up a small metallic box. "It''s an alien device that can scan a brain for deformities."


    "So, they could have been stopped?"


    "Yeah, man, but it''s not on their agenda … Anyways, I need to train you to use these quickly."