The Book of Mary

The last thing Mary remembers was the ice cold floor that her face slammed into as her body became unresponsive and refused to move.

She had dropped off her son Luis at school, and had just gotten back home to enjoy her day off with some hot chocolate, a warm blanket; her recliner and a morning full of her favorite soap operas awaited her in her DVR. January could be a brutally cold month at times, but this one was especially brutal. Temperatures dropped into the low teens and even single digits due to what was called an “arctic blast” that dipped down from the north and right into New York. That’s why today sat at a very chilly eight degrees. Luis did not want to go to school, but Mary was pretty adamant about him not missing it, especially since they lived just two blocks away. He moaned and groaned and even tried to come up with a fake stomach ache, but mommy knew all the games and he failed at every attempt to get out of school today.

Her heart ached because she would just love to keep him home and have some wonderful quality time together. She would make his favorite peanut butter, jelly and banana pancake sandwich with a cup of hot coco and melted marshmallows as she would let him play all the video games he wanted to…after he finished his reading and studying. As she sat in her deep leather recliner and let herself smile with thoughts that took her away to the days that her baby was so small and perfect and brittle, her thoughts were interrupted by the familiar alarm of the Emergency Broadcast System that interrupted her program.
The message said: “This is not a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. This is an actual alert. We are asking the public to stay calm, remain indoors and avoid travelling outside at this time. Please stay alert for further instruction from local law enforcement and government officials. This is an alert from the Emergency Broadcast system.”

The message repeated two times and was beginning a third repeat when the power went out…everywhere.
Suddenly, Mary was very scared. The first thing that came to her mind was the rumors floating around the various social media outlets that were filled with rumors of alien invasions taking place all over the world. She did not believe it much, but it still made her a bit uneasy. There were rumors over the past few months of small countries being invaded. There was no mention of aliens, only scattered rumors of military clashes with invading forces in various places around the world. The very first reports were from the Caribbean and all surrounding islands. It was said that there was some sort of violent incursion that resulted in high numbers of casualties in large cities located in these countries.

The mainstream media went silent rather quickly after briefly reporting on the incidents, but many social media outlets were abuzz with photos of the carnage and blurred images of large tubular structures in the sky and protruding from the ground. There was an image of what resembled a very large spider-like creature, but as usual, all of the “experts” and government officials cried “Photoshop!” and “Hoax!” The nation seemed to not be affected, so everyone carried on as usual.

First Haiti went dark, followed by the Dominican Republic; Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago fell silent one by one before the media stopped reporting the events all together. What took over was news of scandals involving politicians and celebrities, the new and sudden release of groundbreaking entertainment systems that featured new holographic features. Everyone was properly distracted and all was well as the American economy avoided panic and flourished while the American people never saw what was happening outside their borders…and creeping closer and closer every day.

For months, there were demonstrations at many political events because access and contact to various countries became restricted and families were not allowed to contact loved ones due to what the government called “Threats to national security.” It was a total media blackout, but social media networks continued to report a full blown alien invasion in the Caribbean islands…then South America, Europe and Canada. The people knew what was happening, but the governments turned a blind eye until one day, the internet suddenly and mysteriously shut off. For one week, there was total silence on all rumors, until the emergency broadcasts. Mary’s heart went into overdrive as she thought of her son, Luis. She had to have her baby with her; she quickly got dressed and like a flash, was out the door.

The moment she left her building, she felt something was just not right. Everyone was standing around, quietly murmuring to each other as they seemed to be looking at something that was around the corner of her building, just beyond her line of sight. One old lady started to speak loudly, on the edge of hysteria, “Oh Lord, oh lord, they’re here!” and she turned and pushed past everyone and ran into the building. Others began following suit, yelling and running as everything fell apart and all hell broke loose.

People started screaming and running while gunfire erupted all over the place and the local thugs started firing at something. She felt oddly calm as she made her way around the corner to see what was causing such a fuss. In the parking lot behind her building, there was a very large, tubular object, hovering just over the cars in the lot. It was wide enough to cover the entire lot, maybe a little wider than her building. She looked up to see how big it was and noticed that it was twice as tall her building, which has fourteen floors. As she stared, transfixed on its mass and light blue, leathery appearance, she noticed through the corner of her eye, the cause of the commotion, as the screaming and panic escalated all around her.

Everyone close to the tube began to suddenly drop lifelessly to the ground. They all lay there lifelessly, but she could see the condensation of their breathing in the cold air. As more and more people dropped to the ground, a mesh of holes began to open along the bottom and lower exterior of the tube and she could see some movement in the darkness just within the openings. As everyone left standing began to run, she seemed to be hypnotized by what was happening. Then, with no fear and against her better judgment, she stepped in closer to get a better look.

Slowly, something shifted in the darkness beyond the openings as they seemed to breathe. Thick tendrils of smoke rose out as if the tube was exhaling slowly into the cold December air. The hair on the back of her neck suddenly rose as a nervous voice in her head said, “Run!” At that very moment, two young men passing in front of her suddenly dropped lifelessly to the ground. She looked down at them and could see their eyes frantically moving about. It was now that she decided to listen to that voice, but as she turned to run, she saw something in the corner of her eye that suddenly got her attention.

From the openings of the tube, something like thick hair began to slowly sprout outwards. She looked closer and realized that she was not looking at hair; those were very large insect legs…enormous, spider-like legs. She turned to run and suddenly, the scent of cinnamon filled her nostrils, followed by a tingling sensation all over that was followed by the immediate realization that her body no longer responded. She could only watch helplessly as she collapsed and the snow and slush covered ground rushed up to her face.

After a moment of numbing pain and shock, the frustration turned into anger and then into a very deep fear as she watched her blood and saliva spread into a widening puddle mixed with the snow and slush that froze her face. She could still see, hear and feel everything, but she just could not get her body to listen to her as she screamed at herself to stand up…to get up and run. She thought of her son and panicked silently as she thought of this happening to her son, just two blocks away and tears poured forth in great waves to collect into the puddle of body fluids growing before her eyes. As her mixed fear and anger danced with fire in her mind and body, something large appeared to stand over her and she had a brief moment of joy as she thought someone came to help her, but her joy turned into sheer terror as she saw legs that were not the legs of a human surround her…attached to something very large that reached down and picked her up. The sheer panic and fear was too much for her as she blacked out with a silent scream filling every fiber of her isolated mind.

When Mary woke up, she felt weak and sore all over her body. She reached up to feel her face and pain shot through her nose and mouth, but the pain was overshadowed by the realization that she could move and she looked at her hands and flexed her fingers with a small measure of joy. She smiled, but the pain took it away quickly and she felt her mouth to realize that her two top, front teeth were gone and her nose felt crooked, obviously broken. She sat in the darkness, spitting out blood and trying to adjust to the pain in her head, suddenly embarrassed that she was naked, cold and wet. Not as cold as it was outside, but just enough to feel slightly uncomfortable. She remembered her son and began to cry as she stood up and with one outstretched hand and slowly made her way around, trying to get a feel of her surroundings as she tried to adjust her eyes to the darkness. She thought she heard a sigh to her left and turned in that direction just as she heard a brief cough to her right. She called out, “Hello? Is someone there?” but only silence and the sound of dripping water greeted her. The silence was periodically broken by small sounds scattered near and far in the darkness, sounds like a whimper, a sigh, dripping water, a deep exhale and mostly the soft sound of wet objects rubbing together. She crumpled into a sitting position on the ground and hugged herself, crying, as so many emotions ran through her. She tried hard to focus on the darkness, to clear her vision and as her vision did, she saw figures on the ceiling and on the ground all around her. She stood up to focus on what she was seeing above her, but she was having a hard time believing her eyes.

Hundreds and hundreds of bodies, as far as Mary could see, all alive, seemed to be fused together, layer upon layer of bodies, in an apparently random net of limbs and torso’s all along the entire length of the ceiling with a thin transparent material, like plastic, between her and the bodies. They were all alive, silently screaming in pain and agony, eyes locked on her in quiet pleas for help as they seemed to be mechanically passing unconscious bodies back and forth, like a busy ant nest passing along scavenged materials from the forest. She felt sudden fear and revulsion and her knees buckled as she dropped to the floor and landed on her hands and knees. Her eyes were adjusting to the darkness more and she saw the bodies, all in the same condition, beneath her as she happened to be kneeling on the same transparent material that separated them. Blood seeped from where the limbs and abdomens were fused together. On the ceiling, the blood dripped from the wounds and collected on the barrier and seemed to change from red to a milky white liquid as it dripped from the ceiling, but here, the laws of gravity was being violated as the blood dripped upwards into the floor, changed color in the same fashion, and collected on the ground. She realized that she was not only covered by this liquid, but it seemed to become as thick and sticky as syrup as it coated her cold, naked body. Revulsion rose up in her throat and she could not hold it down as she began to vomit, and vomit. The corners of her vision darkened and dizziness filled her world followed by uncontrollable sobs of deep sadness.

She dreamed of her son, growing out of her right side like a flower. In her dream, he looked at her and smiled, reaching out to her. She grabbed him, held him tight and whispered in his ear, “Mommy is here baby.” Then she woke up on the cold floor, laying in her vomit. She was not so sure how long she was asleep, but she knew that she had to get out and find her son. She saw what appeared to be a dark opening near her and moved towards it. That opening lead to a long corridor, and that corridor led into another chamber filled with tormented people in the floor and ceiling. She found other dark corridors, some twisting like a maze, but she continued on, determined to get out and find her son. She focused on him and those thoughts brought her comfort as she wandered for what seemed like days lost in the hallways and chambers of hell.

Then she heard a sound that froze her in her tracks like a deer in headlights. Something in the darkness was moving in her direction, something very large that moved quickly. Through the darkness, she thought she could see what looked like a very large spider, and then her heart froze. She stood in a long corridor and there was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. The only thing Mary could think of, by instinct, was to press her body against the wall and be as still and as silent as possible. As it continued to skitter down the corridor in her direction, and got closer and closer, she pressed herself into the wall and held her breath as it was almost directly in front of her.

It moved surprisingly quickly for its size, but it suddenly stopped as it came next to her. I was motionless for a second and seemed to be breathing deeply as its large, bulbous body expanded and contracted with very long inhales and exhales. As it breathed deeply, it also swayed slightly in different directions before settling itself in a slight lean towards her, as if listening carefully. She dare not move and she dare not breath as her fear seemed to build and paralyze her in place…she was even very careful to not think too loudly for fear of her very thoughts attracting the monster. It turned and skittered towards her for a few feet before stopping and she thought she was going to die screaming as it tore her to shreds, but it only stopped and its breathing became more rapid. Tiny tubes in its legs and body seem to stretch out towards her like hundreds of hungry hatchlings in the nest reaching towards their mother. The openings in those many little tubes flared like so many tiny little nostrils.
Like a hungry dog, it seemed to be sniffing in her direction. After a moment, it suddenly turned and continued on its way, leaving her alone and shaken. It felt like an eternity before she exhaled and dropped to her knees in relief. After collecting herself, she decided to move on quickly before any more showed up.

She came across at least a dozen more creatures or so, and they all reacted to her in exactly the same way, barely noticing her, but somehow sensing her for a moment before moving on. Once she was convinced that they could not see her at all, she was less and less afraid of them. She even started to believe that the thick liquid that covered her from head to toe protected her in some way. Maybe it covered her scent or heat signature. She was not sure, but she was happy that she was invisible to them and hoped that her luck did not wear off any time soon.

Defeat and hopelessness crept into her heart as she arrived at the dead end of a very long, dark hallway. She leaned against the wall and wept. Something inside her kept telling her that this was the way out and that she would be with her son soon, but that something now lay silent as she pounded her fists against the wall. As she began to panic, she noticed a thin slit in the wall, just above her head. The slit was about a foot long and ran horizontally to the ground and. It seemed swollen, almost like a pair of lips with no face. She reached up and lightly touched the “lips” with her fingertips. As she reached up, she felt a small strum of pain in her right side, but she brushed it aside as just a muscle cramp.

Taking a chance, not understanding what this was or why she felt like she needed to, she slowly reached up and gradually slid her hand into the lips. Her arm went in up to her elbow and she felt around carefully. It felt as if she were reaching into a bucket lined with wet, warm bubble wrap. As she probed around with her hand, something seemed to softly wrap around her hand, like a very gentle handshake. It felt natural as she gently squeezed and pulled on whatever held her hand. When she did this, the grip released and she removed her hand as she was suddenly blinded by bright, warm sunlight. She blinked a few times, and as her vision adjusted, she was greeted by three weapons pointed in her face.

Three figures were kneeling before her with their weapons drawn at her. They wore very strange, deep red body armor from head to toe, and along with all of their gear that seemed to be seamlessly melded into their armor, their weapons appeared to flow from their arms and hands, like liquid extensions frozen in place. She could not see their faces as their helmets did not seem to be transparent. Two of the figures turned to face the thick jungle beyond as they all hunkered down behind a large, moss covered, fallen tree. The remaining figure stood and approached her with his arms raised as his weapon quickly dissolved into his arm with no trace of it being there at all.

“Help me, please.” Mary whispered as she was confused by the forest and figures that lay before her.
“I have to get to my son, where…who…” Her voice trailed away as she sobbed and attempted to cover herself with her hands as best as she could, suddenly aware and embarrassed by her nakedness. The man spoke softly to her, “I can help you.” As he spoke, his two companions quickly got up and entered the passageway that she just came from, alert with weapons up in case of anything. The man stepped in closer to Mary as the opening closed behind him, once again leaving her in darkness. Instinctively, she stepped past him and tried to push on the wall, trying to stop it from closing, but to no avail. She leaned her forehead on the wall and said, “No, no, no. I have to get out, I have to go. My baby, no….”
With as much compassion he could muster in his voice, “Be calm. I can help you, but I will need you to help me as well. We can help each other at the same time, can we do this.” Mary wanted to speak, but she was too shaken to do so, and she only nodded as her mind raced over what she has just experienced.

“They call me Sniffer. What is your name?”

“Huh.” Mary was a bit confused.

“Your name, what is your name.”

“M…Mary.”

“Hello Mary. I see you. I will help.”

Something in his demeanor, his voice, suddenly calmed her as he continued. This is part of my team. The others are outside performing support roles right now.” He walked slowly down the corridor, his teammates a few meters ahead, alert for trouble, slowly leading the way down the corridor. He walked backwards, facing her, beckoning her to follow, and she did.
“How long have you been here Mary?”

Her right side hurt a bit as she answered, “I don’t know. I woke up in a large chamber uh…I don’t know. It feels like a few days have passed, but I don’t know how long I’ve been roaming these corridors.”

“Mary, can you lead me to where you woke up?”

She thought, “Yes, I think I can but there are some of those spider things along the way. I saw about a dozen or more. They did not seem to notice me much.”

“Those things are called Harvesters. Nasty things, but we can handle them.”

Sniffer noticed her rubbing her right side and asked, “Are you in pain Mary?” He pointed to her side.

She was surprised; she did not realize that she was holding her side. “Oh, I didn’t realize…no. Not really, just a cramp that comes and goes.”

“Okay Mary. Let me know when it gets worst. I will need you to lead me to where you were. We will be close behind you and we can handle the Harvesters.” He paused for a second, “We have been dealing with them for a very long time. You will be safe and I am certain that they will not bother you.”

She turned to him, with her eyes wide, “How do you know?”

He stood motionless for a moment as if in deep thought before he replied, “You’re protected somehow, otherwise, they would have not ignored you in any way.”

She thought about the thick liquid all over her and how indeed, the stuff may have protected her. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly before speaking again. “Okay, I will take you, but I’m not very comfortable going back in there. There are people planted all over the walls, floor and ceiling…alive, in pain…” Her words were caught in her throat as she fought back the tears and she felt a bit of panic arising. She took a step back and, without realizing what she was saying, said “I have to get out, I have to find my son…my beautiful son.”

Sniffer tried his best to be reassuring, attempting to project a feeling of safety to her as he spoke soothingly, “Mary, I am sorry that you’re here. I am sorry that all of this is happening to you and your loved ones…your son…but this is what we are here for. My team and I are here to stop this. We found each other against all odds because we were meant to stop this. You have a strength inside of you that helped you get loose and away from wherever you were. Once you help us, we help you. Consider it a sealed deal.”

“You saved our lives by opening that doorway. We were about to be discovered by a Harvester patrol. If we were, the chances of us surviving were very small. We had no idea that there was a doorway behind us as we took cover. Something led us to take cover at that very spot, and something led you to open that door. This is meant to be and it will work out, I know it.”
Mary’s eyes were swollen from so many tears as she looked downwards as Sniffer spoke. After he spoke, she said quietly, “I will, I’m sorry.”

As Mary continued to lead the team, Sniffer continued to speak to her, “Humans are being harvested and brought here. We are trying to find out why, and to help everyone that we can while here. We knew we were close, but we were unable to find the entrance until now.”

As Mary tried to follow the way she remembered, they entered a large chamber with people attached to the ceiling, walls and floor. Sniffers companions began to quickly take samples of the liquid that dripped everywhere as he slowly turned, looking around and holding his hand against the translucent material on the floor that separated them from the poor, suffering souls below.

Her heart shuddered as she watched how they silently suffered and quietly cried out in pain while their bodies appeared to be on automatic as they passed on new bodies to be planted elsewhere. They continued through another passage, and as they progressed deeper and closer to where she remembers waking up, her side began to hurt more and more. When she stopped to take a deep breath and rub her side, three Harvesters suddenly dropped to the ground ahead of them. They were attached to the ceiling!

Sniffers two teammates quickly jumped into action. They jumped onto the back of the nearest Harvester just as the Harvesters landed on the ground. Daggers seemed to appear from the wrists of Sniffers teammates and they quickly, with a flurry of surgical precision, began to tear and slice into the back of the lumbering beast. It bucked like a Texas bronco and a high pitched whistling came from it as something like steam seeped out of its pores and tiny tubules that protruded from everywhere. It only took them a couple of seconds to do their work as the Harvester’s front legs suddenly went limp and it slumped forward. During this time, Sniffers weapon appeared on his arm and he took position on one knee in front of the Harvester. Now, it lay in a prostrated position with its exposed flesh facing him and he took one silent shot from his weapon as a very sharp beam of light shot out, and into the center of the creatures newly exposed wound.

The other two Harvesters reacted quickly and advanced on the team, but they were not fast enough. Sniffers weapon fired and there was a sound, like a water balloon popping, and a white liquid quickly oozed out of the wound. The liquid seemed alive and with tremendous speed, coated itself all over every inch of exposed Harvester skin. Like a snowball in a bonfire, the Harvester dissolved into a steaming pool of goo, and at that moment, the other two Harvesters stopped dead in their tracks. As they did so, Sniffers companions split up and performed their surgery on each Harvester. As they were done, Sniffer fired his shot into the opening, releasing the Harvester eating liquid.

As the two Harvesters quickly melted away, Sniffer stood up and retracted his weapon into his arm and said, “That…is how we deal with Harvesters.” She was surprised and before she could speak, she doubled over in pain. Her side felt like it was on fire now.

“Are we getting closer?” asked Sniffer.

“I think so. Just in the next room, but how did we get here so quick?” She stood up and walked into the large chamber. The chamber itself was a dead end. Sniffer followed her in and his teammates took up defensive positions in the doorway. She looked around and found the spot where she vomited. “There” she pointed for Sniffer. She felt a sense of urgency and hurried to the spot before Sniffer got there. Then she dropped to her hands and knees, staring down, suddenly horrified. Sniffer took a knee besides her and remained silent as he watched her.

She held her head with both hands. She then covered her mouth with one hand as she reached down with the other as she began to cry with heavy sobs. She wailed and pressed her face and body flat on the floor screaming, “NO!” over and over again.
Very gently, Sniffer spoke. “Everyone here is paired and placed according to their DNA and genetic compatibility. No matter where anyone is harvested, they are matched and placed together.”

There was a pause in her heavy sobbing and she said weakly, with a broken voice, “You knew.

“Yes, as soon as I saw you, I knew.”

“Is this why you insisted I help you?”

“Yes, to help you as well, or you would have been in the forest for a very long time, alone. Like I said, we help each other.”
Sniffer looked down at her. She looked peaceful as she lay there unconscious with her son Luis attached at his chest to her right side. Luis looked up with pain and sadness in his eyes, then he looked back down to his mother and he carefully caressed her hair, lovingly keeping blood and other liquids from her face.
“How long have we been here?”

“It has been eleven years since the Harvesting began in the United States. I can’t be sure how long you have been wandering around in here.”

One of his teammates began going around the room, spraying a yellow gel at intervals along the ceiling, walls and floor, the other kept guard. All of the memories suddenly rushed back to Mary. She closed her eyes for a moment and then turned her head to Sniffer and pleaded softly, “Can you please end this: Don’t let us suffer like this any longer, for my baby more than me. Do what you must, this is what I want. I can’t live like this…my baby cant…”

Her voice caught in her throat as she began to sob deeply again. After a moment she asked, “But how, how did you know that I was…”

“That’s my gift and my curse. I can see and feel things that others cannot. Everyone in my team has their own unique abilities, but this is my own. I come across many people like you who need help, and in turn, they help us. That is why they call me Sniffer.”

Sniffer looked down at Luis, “We will end this, but you need to go to him now. He needs you.”

Mary closed her eyes and thanked Sniffer. She asked him to thank his team and as she spoke these last words to him, she vanished. As she did, Sniffer stood up and looked down at them. Although they were tangled in a mess of people, attached by various means, legs, arms, torso’s, he could clearly see them, as if they were the only two present. She looked like she was asleep, but now she opened her eyes and blinked as her eyes quickly searched upwards to meet his. She nodded, then looked at her son, smiled at him and reached out to hold him tight as they embraced each other.

Mary kissed Luis on the face and hands and caressed his head and arms before holding him tight again. Luis was crying heavily and Sniffer could hear her humming “rock a bye baby” as she appeared to be rocking him slowly. This seemed to calm Luis, and as his crying calmed, she looked up at Sniffer, smiled and nodded. Sniffer could feel her thoughts as she silently thought one word, “Now.” Sniffer nodded as well and Mary closed her eyes. His weapon formed on his arm and hand, he silently fired two quick rounds and stood motionless for a moment as his teammate finished coating the gel like substance around the chamber.

Sniffer and his teammates proceeded to run back the way they came and quickly arrived at the doorway that they entered from. It was sealed and they stood with their backs to the door, facing the passageway, waiting for whatever may come. As they waited, activated their communications, “Chris, the hot gel is prepped and we are Oscar Mike.”
“What’s your ETA?”

“Not sure, we’re at a doorway we can’t seem to open, stand by.”
As he spoke, the door passageway they just came from suddenly filled with at least a dozen Harvesters. As Sniffer and his team readied for a fight, the doorway behind them suddenly opened. The team quickly backed out and it closed, locking the Harvesters inside

“We’re out Chris. ETA to extract is 5 min.”

“Copy that Sniffer. Extract is prepped and I have you covered on a clear run. See you at the pods.”

Sniffer activated a series of commands into a small screen on his left forearm. Satisfied with the results, the three of them headed out to extraction. As he took one last look back at the doorway, he saw Mary and Luis standing outside the doorway, side by side, wearing clean, casual clothes, smiling and waving goodbye.