The bus dropped us off in a town only known as StrangerVille around 8:00 in the morning. And I understand why they named it that. I’ll explain all that later.
I was let out of the bus at the front walkway to my new home. Well, our new home. Mom and dad are joining me. They both work in law enforcement. Well, my dad did until he retired. They met in a boot camp style training course. It was required for them to go into the law enforcement career. They decided to support me by taking the same steps as me but not really being part of the military. My dad is an elder. I’m really not sure this was a good idea for him. I guess they both missed their good ‘ol days back in boot camp. I decided to humor them.
We moved into the house for free, but would still need to pay for the utilities we use. The military is going to compensate me during my time here.
My name is Joseph Simself. I am the third in our Generation line. My dad is the second and he likes to be called Junior.
I lived most of my life in Newcrest. My grandfather took part in forming an area of it. Part of his legacy, he built a community park. Then my aunt Jubilee took over. She decided to help the town by building low-class housing. That’s where I grew up. Next to us was my cousin Noelle. She married a guy who ended up being a bad guy. One of my other cousins took over as heir to the family legacy and decided to build a library for the town. He’s also a best selling author. It’s cool to have a famous writer in our family.
Today is Sunday and I don’t report for duty until tomorrow. Lucky me, I am at the bottom and we’re called Raw Recruits. Careers can be advanced quickly with a little hard work and dedication. That is my goal. Looking at this town, I didn’t want to spend any more time than I had to here.
As we’re about to go explore our new home for who knows how long, something caught my eye in our yard. I told mom and dad to go check out our new living quarters and I’ll be right in.
I walk over to what got my attention. It was a wild bizarre plant. Nothing like I’ve ever seen before. This bizarre plant had an odd glow about it, as if it is being controlled by some other entity. It looks as though something is growing inside of it…
I didn’t dare want to touch it, but I took a picture of it. I’ll have to keep an eye on this thing. It reminds me of some alien movie.
When I get inside, I show dad the picture I just took. He says it is probably some light decoration. That it will help us see the yard better at night. This doesn’t look like a night light to me.
By noon, the weather outside was sunny and hot. I had opened the front door hoping there would some sort of nice breeze that would come into our new home. Plus we were able to enjoy the scenery outside from the doorway.
Instead of a cool breeze, I had an unexpected visitor. Some random person walks right into our home. No knock on the door. No standing outside to say hello waiting for an invitation to come in. She just waltzes right in.
She does end up introducing herself as Marlee Burnett. She noticed the military bus arrive. She got curious and wanted to see who was moving or renting this home. She asked if I had any kids. Dad chirped in and said he had one. Then he introduced me to her. Dad can try and be a funny guy. Most of the times are embarrassing. She asked if we had any younger children around. I told her there weren’t and she gave a sigh of relief. By the looks of it, I’d say she hates children. I wonder if she knows she used to be one.
Dad invited her to sit. Then he asked her about her attire. She said she was a conspiracy theorist. This intrigued me because of the bizarre plant I found hours ago. Of course I asked her to tell me more.
Marlee goes on to explain what has been going on the past couple weeks. I’m watching her posture and tone of voice and can come to the conclusion she believes what she is telling me.
I believe that bizarre plant I found is not normal. But do I think it is from space? It looks like it was infected by something, but not aliens. The experiments people do these days, who knows what could have happened to that poor plant. I feel like showing Marlee my photo I took. But she probably would just go all alien on me about it.
I do ask her more about this Secret Lab. She says it’s inside the crater. Marlee thinks her team of conspiracy theorists should go check it out, but would get caught by the government and probably never be seen again. This lady is cracking me up.
I look on acting as if I am interested in all this she is telling me. But I think she takes it the wrong way. Her expression changes and she asks if I am flirting with her. What? She starts pointing her finger at me stating she has no time to act all romantic and all. I didn’t even know how to respond to that.
Actually, I did. I tell her it’s time for her to go. I didn’t tell her she overstayed her welcome, but I was thinking it. I told her I had stuff to do. She said she did too. She was having her conspiracy theorist pals over to go over what’s been going on and needs to cook. She mentions all these types of food I’ve never heard of. And I don’t care to hear more about them either. So I walk her to the door as quickly as I can.
I spend the rest of the day checking out the place with mom and dad. This place is fantastic. If this town didn’t look so strange or have strange people like Marlee, I could see myself living here. But I’m only here to work on my military career. Then I’m out.
As night falls, I do a bit of working out. Even at night, the weather is warm. But I get a fantastic view of the desert and happen to see more of those bizarre plants not just in my yard, but all over. Maybe my dad was right.