the alien village and they could have done something to prevent the bloodshed.
Aftermath
When they returned to camp, Kristy, the tall woman told them, “They caved in the well. They tried to steal our seeds but since they accidentally blew them up, they got jack-shit for their trouble. They got some of our crop but not enough to starve us out any time soon.”
Mike asked, “How many died?”
“We’ve counted almost a hundred dead on our side and about the same on theirs. Paul’s interrogating the only surviving alien right now.”
“Where is he?”
Kristy pointed at a house. “In there.”
By the time Mike and Melanie approached the house, Paul was exiting it. He had pale yellow ooze spattered on his clothes and his knuckles were raw.
He jovially said, “I don’t know my own strength,” as he walked away. They heard him laughing to himself.
Inside the house was a lanky alien, dead as a doornail. Pale yellow blood pooled from under its crumpled body. It had a mechanized suit on that was remarkably similar to the ones they had, except that it was shaped for its tall , thin frame and it had different markings and colorations. But the chest plate was about the same shape.
Melanie shook her head. “What the hell did Paul expect? Did he think this guy was going to speak English to him? Of course not. He just wanted to beat him to death. We need to watch that fucking psycho from now on.”
Mike said, “I agree. But I think I can understand the aliens. I’m pretty sure that translator that got plugged into my ear is still inside me. I heard one of the aliens say the word seeds in perfect English as he ran from the dining hall. I doubt they have the exact same word for them as we do.”
“Then next time someone gets the chance to interrogate one of these things, you should do it.”
“Ok.”
Lebensraum
Paul was already rallying the troops by the time Mike and Melanie found him.
Paul yelled, “This is all we have now. It sucks but it’s our future. It’s our job to ensure the survival of the human race, people. We can’t let those tall aliens cause our extinction and one way to make sure of that is to take the fight to them. We don’t need to wipe them all out; we just need to let them know to never fuck with us again.”
A handful of people cheered which only invigorated Paul. “We will retaliate immediately. Who’s with me?”
A bunch of people stood up and yelled out in what could only be described as a confused battle cry.
One guy screamed, “Let’s kill them all,” and the cheers rose in intensity.
Mike had been all for attacking the aliens until he saw how rabid the crowd was. The sight of them reveling in their own bloodlust made him sick to his stomach.
He took Melanie by the hand and said, “I’m not going to fight those aliens. We don’t even know them yet. What if they saw our presence as a threat? They were here first, after all.”
Melanie wrinkled her brow at him. She wanted to join the attack party but not without Mike. Finally she nodded and said, “Well then what should we do?”
“We should move camp to somewhere safer but we can’t do that unless we can find another source of fresh water. I saw a lake at the base of the mountains when we landed. If it’s drinkable, we could uproot and set up camp there. It’s more easily de fensible for one thing because we’d have the mountain at our backs and it’s farther away from the tall aliens.”
“That sounds good. I’m coming with you.”
As they set out, Paul came towards them angrily. “Where the fuck are you two going? We’ve got a war to fight. You don’t get to just wander off on your own.”
Mike put a hand on Paul’s chest when he got too close and said, “I suppose you think you can tell us all what to do now because you gave a little speech. No one asked you to lead and no one wants you to. If you think you can stop us, please try.”
Paul tried to swipe Mike’s arm away so Mike punched