“How much for the disk?”

“Two hundred bucks.”

“Seems a little overpriced for just one disk.”

“Believe me, you’ll be eager to get it for a thousand once you see what it does.”

“Alright, show me.” He nodded, and took out an incredibly small disk. He took out a computer as well, and put the light disk into a port. The screen glowed a blue hue. A male voice came out of its speakers,

“Welcome, knowledge seekers. Today, we are going to be learning about the American Revolution.” A picture of Washington crossing the Delaware came up from the screen, as a hologram. I laughed, and clapped my hands in giddy glee.

“It also has a Spanish option, if you’d like.”

“My God, it’s better than I thought! How does it make that picture seem so three dimensional?”

“Wish I knew, buddy, I’m just the tech vendor.” He put the micro-disk on his table. “Two hundred bucks per disk. This one’s about the Revolution, but I have a couple other disks about the Dark Ages and the Crusades.” I was grinning like a buffoon, and pushed up my glasses.

“Do you have anything about Mahatma Gandhi?” We weren’t really learning about him yet, but that was something for myself. Gandhi was my personal hero, and I would’ve loved a holo-disk about him. Unfortunately, the vendor shook his head.

“What about the Chinese Dynasties? That’s what I’m teaching my students now.”

“Sorry, the holo-disks are still brand new. These are the only ones in stock, currently.” I sighed. It would be extremely unorthodox to buy the disks now, but the students will be impressed. Who knows, maybe it’ll give them a head start on the Revolution. I chewed on it for a while.

“Well? You gonna buy the disks, or not?” I finally decided to treat the students (and myself) to this tech.

“Sure! I’ll take the one about the Dark Ages.” That was the closest period in time to the Dynasties. The vendor nodded, and handed me the disk.

“Careful, it’s fragile. It works with just about any computer, but it runs the best on Innovation computers.” That was good. I had an Innovation Screen computer, and it ran perfectly. Inserting my PayCube inside the cashier counter, the vendor got me the disk holder for my new toy. I put the disk inside the holder, and carefully placed it in my pocket. “Have a nice day, sir,” he said gruffly.



I walked off with my prize. The students will be so impressed! It was times like this I was glad to be a high school History teacher. Teaching the kids about the interesting things in history was enjoyable, but it’s on a whole other level when I get my hands on the tech of tomorrow. In a way, I’m teaching the kids about the past and the future. I congratulated myself.

I took a look around where I was. Just another average day on Dallas Avenue. There was a man yelling into a speakerphone about how our world’s society was based on another one’s.

“The government is holding back the truth! There is another world out there, and our ancestors founded ours by using the information already created in their world! The FBI and CIA are working together to suppress this!” I felt bad for the kid. He obviously had no experience speaking in public, and his voice cracked visibly. However, I did think it was important for young people to express themselves. It wasn’t the most ridiculous thing I heard today. I passed a rally on the way to the high school, and they were claiming a similar story. The difference between both groups was that the rally held not-so-convincing evidence of life on another world, and that our history was taken from theirs. Preposterous! How in the world would another species have the exact same history as us? I do think there are people on other planets, it would be arrogant to think otherwise, but I hardly think we are advanced enough to find them yet.

I neared the school. In big, gold letters, it said ‘Laurel Branch High.’ It filled me with pride every time I looked at it. When I walked the pathway to the front door, I waved my greetings to several students and teachers. The white panels held the footsteps of thousands of pupils, ready to learn. My room was on the second floor, right next to the bathroom. Safe to say, it stunk.

When I got in, Principal Dan Green was waiting for me. I smiled, and put down my briefcase.

“Good morning, Mr. Green. How are you today?” I said to him.

“I’m doing fine, Hal. How’s the wife?”

“Still nonexistent.” We shared a hearty laugh. That was an inside joke between the two of us: when we first met, he accidentally asked me that same question. When I told him I wasn’t married, his face turned as red as a rose. I chuckled at that, making him blush more. We became friends afterwards, and I always joked about that moment.

“Anyways, the county school board just contacted me.”

“Really? What’d they say?”

“In your entire career, you haven’t taken any vacation or sick days. Now, the union’s got a bit worried, and threatened to sue if you didn’t get any time off.” I frowned.

“That doesn’t seem fair. I’m fine, and I love teaching the kids! Why would I take a vacation?”

“You could check in on your family, or treat yourself to something nice. Come one, Hal, you don’t even take holidays! You deserve some time off.” I realized that Principal Bell had my best interest at heart, but teaching children was my life.

“I’m sorry, Dan, but I won’t drop off from my job that easily.”

“Alright, I’ve tried playing softball with you. If you don’t take at least one week vacation time, the courts will be onto us like bugs on honey. You can do whatever you like, so long as you’re far from Laurel Branch. I’m sorry, this is just the way it is. If I could’ve done something about it, I would’ve.” I was shocked. I hardly thought that Dan, one of my best friends, would ever be so abrupt with me. Realizing I had next to no choice, I nodded my head reluctantly. I stood up, and took my briefcase slowly. I walked to the doorway, not saying a word. I looked over at Principal Dan, but he remained silent.

I stepped outside. The scene looked nearly identical to when I first came in. People walking to their destinations, cars zooming by. Everyone was in a rush, trying to getting somewhere. Not me. I was fine where I was. Unfortunately, I had to move to somewhere I didn’t want to go. Home was not what I would call my apartment. I reserved that honor to Laurel Branch High. Whenever there was trouble, be it family, tax collectors, or my landlord, I would simply retire back to the school and grade papers. Even in high school, the children retained their innocence. Other teachers didn’t think so at all, and hated the school and all of its students. They taught kids much longer than me, and lived comfortably. Maybe that’s why I prefered the school, because I still haven't settled in yet.

All of a sudden, I heard a faint shriek. Before I could process this, there was a mob of people sprinting by me. I don’t know why, but I started to run with them. Call it peer pressure, call it mob mentality, I knew I had to run with the crowd.
There was obviously trouble down the road, so my instincts didn’t lead me astray. Cars crashed right near me, people trampled each other. We would get rid of ourselves before the mystery danger came even close. I was exhausted from running. From a mixture of curiosity and just plain being pooped out, I slowed to a light jog and looked behind me.
What I saw defied my wildest dreams. My assumptions were scattered when I saw a giant warship floating in the sky. It was like a bulge, surrounded by combat planes and mounted guns. I couldn’t believe it. For some reason, it looked familiar. Maybe it was from my Air Force days. Then, it hit me like a rolling boulder. The battleship was the spitting image of a Behemoth class warship, a giant aircraft carrier recently developed by the military. I had seen it before, and it was primarily designed to burst in and lay siege to entire cities. It was a force to be reckoned with, and at very least demolish half the town before resistance arrived. If I was to escape, I would have to leave the entire area. I started sprinting again.
I knew I would never make it, but that didn’t stop me from trying my best. It was my deepest wish to go back to the school to warn everyone in there, but my own survival was the top priority. I saw people throwing drivers out of their cars and plowing over others in order to get away. I saw a man forcing a woman out of her car, her children screaming in the back. Still retaining my sense of good will, I shoved the man out of the way of the car.
He was sent flying, straight into a rogue car. Before the mother knew what was happening, I lept into her car and yelled at her to drive as fast as she could. Thankfully, she obeyed. A car would be my only chance to get away from the mayhem. I saw some lunatics raiding a grocery store, spilling the tomatoes on sale. This is insanity, I thought. The woman was still too panicked to acknowledge my presence in the shotgun seat. I looked out the window, and the Behemoth was hot on our tail. There was an ominous silence, and then an explosion rocked the car.
We were flung into a hot dog cart. Flames licked the sides of the car, and I instinctively dove out. The blaze turned into an inferno. The car was reduced to a flaming shell, and there was little doubt in my mind that the panicked mother and her children had died. I had no time to process that. A plane zoomed narrowly by me, its engines blaring in my ears. I cursed at myself. Idiot! I was spending too much time focusing on the Behemoth, and not enough time focusing on the planes. I could’ve saved the poor family. I had to focus on the positive, I thought. At least I escaped before I was deafened. Just then, an apartment building fell.
It was slow at first. Then gravity took over, and thousands of steel binders and concrete walls screeched and collapsed. I thanked my Air Force training once again when I rolled out of the building’s path. It groaned, and crashed into the pavement and rubble. Glass and steel rained down. I had barely stood up when the ground beneath me pulled away. Before I knew it, I was on a collision course with the building. Everything went black, and for a brief moment, I was serene.

A flipped over car. A half demolished skyscraper, turned to dust. Fire, rubble and destruction lined the streets. That is what I saw when I woke up. I had forgotten what had happened. Then, I remembered. A car in flames, a family inside it. People looting the supermarket. Yes, it’s starting to come back. I remembered now. The Behemoth! It was still out there. I hadn’t escaped. I took a moment to inspect my surroundings. I was buried neck deep in concrete. For the first time, I realized this was my own apartment. How ironic. At least I wouldn’t have to pay rent. I laughed a bit. Something else came into my eyesight. A strange looking. . . thing.
It had two arms, and two legs. It had barely one nose, and such pale skin. No scales on it at all, nor a tail. What was wrong with these people? And how did they get our technology? They looked obviously inferior to us. And what was that on its head, hair? Only primates have hair, and it covered their entire bodies. Another thing came in, taller than the first being and with less hair. At least that looked better on him.
“Status report, Tennant.”
“Area clear, sir. Aliens all cleared out,” The bald one said.
“What are these things anyways? They look like a mix of an octopus, a human, and a crocodile, with human intelligence to boot.”
“Beats me, sir. Ask Jenkins, he’ll know.” They started walking over to me, and my instincts screamed at me to hide. My body wasn’t responding, anyways, and I could always play dead if they noticed me. Unfortunately, they did. They loomed over my body, and I laid there, motionless.
“Is this one dead?” the bald one asked.
“Is there even a pulse to check for these creatures?”
“Good point.” A scrawny creature walked by. “Hey, there’s Jenkins!” The hairy one ran over to ‘Jenkins’ and started to bombard him with questions.
“Jenkins! What are these things?” I could easily say the same for you, I thought. Jenkins appeared to have glasses, but it looked nothing like the ones on this planet. It only had two lenses, which was insane. How could these things see with just two eyes?
“It’s incredible! These aliens have perhaps even more advanced knowledge than us, and the architecture is nearly identical to ours. They possess everything we have to the dot, mathematics, science, literature, even history! These aliens have the very same history as us! It’s certainly creepy.”
“How’d you find all this out in just three days?” It took awhile for this statement to settle in. I was unconscious for at least three days? I needed to get to water, soon!
“Just by skimming a textbook we obtained from the wreckage of what we believe was a school, we were able to find out incredible things about this planet!” That meant the school was destroyed, along with all the students. That was a saddening thought.
“What about how they have everything we have?”
“We intercepted a secret transmission between two governments before the invasion. They were talking about some groups who were revealing the truth about their society.”
“And that is?”
“The leaders of every nation on this globe have been conspiring together for centuries. They were lying to the citizens about an extraordinary ‘Planetarium’ machine left behind from their last civilization, which has the potential to spy on other civilizations on other planets. It’s truly incredible how they’ve been keeping this a secret. Apparently, this has been going on since the invention of irrigation. We found a disk and a laptop on this guy, that gave us everything we needed to know.” When I realized Jenkins was referring to me and my holo-disk, and I got angry. I didn’t show it, however. I still had some common sense.
“I saw that thing. It projected a holographic image about the Revolution. Amazing stuff.”
“You’re right. Even holo-images are beyond us. These creatures are incredible.”
“Wish they looked a bit better,” the bald one complained. I nearly burst at that. Look at your reflection and you’ll find an uglier blot.
“These aliens were completely clueless in the beginning, barely surviving. It looks like their natural instincts led them to use the Planetarium. They copied our techniques, our society, and made it better. They modeled their history after ours, inventing things much more rapidly than us. Even their historical figures are based off of ours!”
“Really? The same rulers, the same religion?”
“Even that. Christianity, Judaism, everything to Greek mythology, they possessed. We scavenged some other disks, and they also provided ingenious insight.”
“How’d you find out how those gizmos work?”
“Their tech is certainly more advanced than ours, but it is also remarkably similar. We had to assume the disks fit inside the alien’s laptop. We also assumed that those disks are used as entertainment and education purposes. We found other amazing technology in the remaining buildings. Basically, they understood more than we did. The only thing that’s different is the dates, since they advance faster than us.” I couldn’t believe it. The conspiracy theory was true! There was a mysterious race called ‘humans’ that invented all of our history. It was shocking to think that Mahatma Gandhi, my lifetime hero, belonged and looked like these hideous creatures. They couldn’t have been that bad, of all the good things heroes did. Then I remembered all the bad history that existed.
“These beings are extremely good at learning from previous attempts. Their history is only slightly different from ours, and that’s why their tech is more advanced.” The reality of this was building up, and it suddenly hit me. I gasped, inadvertently. All three humans turned around, and saw me lying in the wreckage.
“Looks like we have a live one.” The hairy one looked at Jenkins. “These things go down from headshots?” Jenkins waved his hand.
“Go ahead, we have more than enough test subjects.” The hairy one nodded, and slowly pulled his gun out of his holster.