The Extraterrestrials

You Hesitate…
… You Lose

Manan V Shah
WITTY INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL
Pawan Baug Road, Malad (W), Mumbai-400 062
E-mail: wis@wittykidsindia.com
Age: 14 | Grade: IX | Word Count: 999 Words
E-mail: manan04shah@gmail.com Picture Courtesy: wall.alphacoders.com
Professor’s not here, I thought, relieved. But as I was going to enter my class, hardly 5
minutes late, the class monitor, Ralph Hart, stopped me. “Hey, Wacky! Where do you think
you’re going, huh? You’re late, punk. So, out of the class!” he said. “B-b-but I-I’m hardly 5
m-m-minutes late,” I stuttered. “L-l-late is l-l-late, whether it’s 5 or 10 m-m-minutes, get it
W-W-Wacky?” he mocked me.
That was it! I’d had enough! Tears burning my eyes, I ran out of school. I went as far as I
could from school. After what seemed like an eternity, I sat down against a wall and started
crying into my arms.
I’m Bernie, by the way, Bernard Wacker. Just another Homo regulus. We are the closest
inhuman relatives to you Homo sapiens. You’ll live on Earth, we live on Mars.
Suddenly, two strong hands grabbed me by my arms. “Hey! Who are you’ll?” I protested, but
either those two men were babysitters, or they were completely deaf. I was taken into a huge
building, hardly 2 minutes away, still screaming and fighting. Once there, they made me sit
on a huge black chair inside a room called “Interrogation Room”. Everything was dark, and
suddenly a voice asked, “Whom do you work for?” Wait! I knew that voice! “Uncle Tony?” I
asked, somewhat nervously. Suddenly the lights turned on, and I saw that I was sitting in a
humongous room which was blindingly white. In front of me, on a white podium, in a white
suit stood my dad’s best friend- Tony Cress. “Bernie? What are you doing here?” he asked.
But through all of my fear, the only question I had in mind was, “How in the name of Mars
weren’t you visible in the dark?” I could see a faint smile on Uncle’s face, but he stuck to the
point, and when I told him the reason, he seemed fairly calm. “We have deeper problems,
kid.” he said, “Your father has been kidnapped.” I was shocked. Scared. Rattled. “What!”
was the only word that came out of my mouth, and before I could say anything else, my brain
caught up with the events of the day, and I completely broke down.
After patiently waiting for me to finish, Uncle explained, “You are in the Mars
Interplanetary Association, or MIA for short. We are a top-secret organisation, working to
rescue Earthlings from any danger Earth may face. Hard to believe it, but Earth’s days are
coming to an end, and we are trying to delay their doomsday as much as possible. But there’s
another organisation, DRAKON, which is working against us. They want the destruction of
Earth. We believe they have kidnapped your father, and we are sending a team to find out.”
“I’ll go,” I said. “No, Bernie, this isn’t any young kid’s job. I’ll be sending some of my most
experienced agents for this work. DRAKON is a deadly organisation, take my word for it,” he
said. But I stayed adamant, “He’s my dad, uncle. I’ll go. Believe me, this feels right. Please
let me go.” He argued for a while but eventually gave in. “We don’t have time, kid,” said
Uncle, “You have to leave immediately.”
So, in hardly 2 hours, my life was different. Really different. I was restless the whole time in-
flight. I couldn’t sit at a place for more than a minute, expecting something evil to attack us
anytime. But unexpectedly, the journey was quite uneventful. We parachuted into the enemy
facility with ease, and we didn’t find any guards roaming too. It seemed that they were in
some meeting. Still, we walked carefully, watching every step for a trap or a guard. We found
none. Suddenly, as we passed a door, “Bernie!” a voice shouted from our right. We all
turned, and standing in front of us was my dad. “Dad!” I shouted and ran towards him. “Dad!
Where were you?” I sobbed in his arms. “It doesn’t matter now that I’m here, does it?” he
said, adding, “Let’s get out before someone comes.” I started running back, but dad said,
“Bernie, that way has only one-way doors, you can’t go out; we have to go the other way.”
So we ran, an after around 10 minutes we found ourselves inside the meeting room,
completely surrounded. A person, dressed in complete black, said, “Well, well, well. Look
what we have here.” My immediate reaction was “You let us go, or else…” “Or else what,
young man?” a voice spoke from behind us. I wheeled around, and I couldn’t believe my
eyes. “Or else what?” said Hugh Wacker. “Dad…you…what?” I spluttered. He had
completely changed into the uniform of a navy captain, and everyone around was kneeling.
“Yes, Bernie. Me- the leader of DRAKON. Surprised? Well, what’s better than Earth being
destroyed,” said dad, “Our economy, our importance- all will increase. We aren’t even
noticed right now- everywhere it’s those puny Earthlings.” “But, that’s evil,” I said. Dad
smirked, “No kid, nothing is evil. Come, let’s talk in the other room.” He led me to the
adjacent room, saying, “You know, you can stop all of this. Just remove the pistol Tony gave
you and shoot me.” I gasped, “Dad!” He just sighed, “You have 3 choices, kid. One- shoot
me. Two- join me in my mission. Three- Die. It’s up to you now, whether you choose Earth
or me.” I could now see what dad saw- the importance we’d get if there was no Earth to
overshadow us. Maybe joining dad’s mission was the better option. After all, it would be
good for everyone. No, said a tiny voice at the back of my head. It wouldn’t be good for
everyone. Think about those 7 billion Earthlings. There was no other choice. With a loud
THUD, my dad’s body fell on the floor. Grief struck, my knees buckled, and I fell. I could
make out Uncle Tony fanning me.
Then everything went black.