My eyes are numb but my vision is open, sharp and keen. They were running here and there all these days, now hiding. I need to catch them. For the last few days they were my only means of survival. They taste sweet, which I understood lately. I kept my breath low to make sure that they never heard me approaching. In a gasp I would snatch one from the lot and swallow it without chewing.

“I should have chewed! Fellow bugs.”

Suddenly I heard footsteps on my back and to my surprise I realized someone was hiding in that dark corner of the kitchen. It's 12:30 AM and the moon is taking a nap to ensure that no one is having any light. I could remember something named electricity and we had it here long back, not anymore. I moved tiptoe towards the corner.

“Am I the prey now!”

I stopped suddenly to see a bald fatty struggling to hide.

“There is no food there my friend, I am surviving on bugs now. You chose the wrong spot to steal”. I am not sure how I could put up that sarcasm at this moment.

“Please don't hurt me. I am not a thief. Please rescue me, otherwise they will kill me.” he pleaded. I could sense his fear.

“Who is following you? And why?” I couldn't control my curiosity.

“They have had me all these while. And today I managed to baffle their eyes and escape through the nook. Now they will hunt for me.” he started breathing heavily.

“Why are they behind you?”

“Because I know the secret behind all our chaos.”

“What secret?” I couldn't stop asking.

“I can't tell you that. It may affect national security.” I could sense a strong glare in his weak eyes.

I took my eyes off him, moved towards the fireplace and sat on my rocking chair. I lighted my cigar and took a deep puff and whirled my thoughts openly on him.

“You suppose that I will help a stranger just by hearing his hallucination. You can leave immediately, otherwise I have a knife handy.”

His glare started fading and tears started flowing. He couldn't sense my thoughts from my dead eyes. He started whispering and I seized it.

“We are under attack. We should stop them immediately.”

“Who is attacking us anyway? The Pakistanis! They know we will tear them off whenever they put a foot on my land.”

“It's not them. It's the Aliens.”

The smoke went in with a gush of words untold and I coughed wild. 

“Aliens! Are you nuts!” I shouted.

“Yes. They have already started attacking us and we have no clue.” He said firmly.

“Where are they? I have not seen the aliens or heard any news about their  attack yet.” My voice was strong, but I felt like something was true in his words.

“Why have you been wearing a mask for the last 10 years?”. He posed that question and I was about to answer, but something stuck me hard.

“So you are saying that Aliens created Covid virus?” My eyes were wide with a lot of questions in them.

“No. They are not viruses. They are the Aliens.”

I was put aback with that answer. I threw my cigarette away and went close to him.

“But how? With less gravity outside, we expect them to be bigger in size. Are you saying that they came from a planet with a bigger gravity!”. I really wanted him to be wrong now.

“You are following Newtonian law. As per relativity theory, there is nothing called gravity. It is just the bending of time and space.

His statement ward off my suspicious eyes to an extent yet I have a bigger question in my kit.

“But how they traveled. How do they attain the speed of light with such less mass?”

He took a pause and smiled. He continued, 

“They never traveled. They just diffused through the dark matter. It's just the intelligence they shared.”

He started to clang sense, but I still have a lot to ask. Seeing my conflicts, he continued.

“It's not our brain that creates thoughts. The thoughts are scattered around, and our brain is just a receptor.”

Shared intelligence. I have heard conspiracy theories of the same in explaining Dejavu and Ouija Board. I was glued to that thought and a bug crawled beneath my foot. I crushed it to paste, took it in my hand and licked it.

At that moment I heard a gunshot and the man in front crumpled. The bullet designed a deep hole in his forehead. And the military entered through the back door.

“You are late.” I murmured.

“Thank GOD, he reached the right place.” They said, smiling at my face. They took his body, disposed it of, and cleaned my floor. After giving me a salute they went out and I continued my writing.

“Keeping equilibrium is the law of nature and we humans broke that law. And it is now our duty to wipe out the unhealthy from the surface of our earth and that is how we will restore peace from chaos. It took us time to make them understand our situation and they gave a nod in helping us. That is the only reason that I never call them Aliens. They are our brothers.”

I kept my pen on the book and went to take a nap. And the moon came out of the cloud with its inherited light.