The Shades of Mars

It was Halloween night 2038 and Ruth Orwell sat in her living room watching the Sci-fi channel. "Welcome to the one-hundredth anniversary of Orson Wells October 30, 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Words. Tonight we are broadcasting The Shades of Mars an imaginative doc..." Ruth changed channels several times before returning to the Sci-fi channel and the show already in progress.

"Well," she laughed, picking up her cellphone and going into the kitchen. "I may as well watch this." Part of her mind listed to the documentary as she popped some corn in the microwave and fixed herself a large glass of diet soda. Picking up her snack she returned to the living room and sit down on the couch.

Out of the corner of her left eye, Ruth caught a movement. At tall lanky shadow passed through the living room wall and into the house from the outside. When she she looked in the direction of the shadow, it was gone. I know I saw someone enter this house, she thought picking up the remote control she turned off the television. Next she reached for her cellphone, which she remember laying on the couch beside her, but the phone was gone.

"Damn," she heard Flight of the Valkyries echoing from the kitchen. Getting up, she rushed into the kitchen and found her phone resting on to of her mother's antique wooden breadbox. Dialing her voice mail, she put in her security, and listened. "Wrong number," she mumbled as she erased the message, put the phone back on the breadbox, and returned to the living room. Sitting down on the couch, she turned the television back on to continuing watching Shades of Mars.

"Doctor Jonas Know-Nothing," said the baritone voice of the narrator. "Believes that War of the Worlds, which Orson Wells supposedly broadcast over the radio on October 30, 1938, actually happened. He claims that instead of dieing, the Martians were transformed into shades or ghost that haunt Earth today. He says the government knows this, but has chosen to keep the American people and the rest of the world in the dark about the truth of the Martian Invasion of 1938." The narrator stops talking, movie trailers about a recent version of War of the Worlds is shown.

"Dr. Know-Nothing claims," the narrator continued. "That certain people can detect these ghostly shapes out of the corner of their eyes. He says that these people are the only people who can save Earth from the Martians, who have already taken over the minds and bodies of politicians and government leaders all over the world. Dr. Know-Nothing says that the reason the world is on the brink of war today is because the Martians, in the guise of these world leaders, are trying to start a war that will destroy human kind from the face of the Earth." The narrator stops for a commercial break.

Again, Ruth saw a shadow move, but when she looked there was nothing there. Placing her left hand on the couch beside her, she felt for her cellphone. "Damn," she whispered her hands trembling. "It took my cellphone. The damn Martian took my cellphone. What do I do now?"

"Now folks," says the Shades of Mars narrator. "Those of you, who are able to detect the Martians may want to know how you get rid of them. Dr. Know-Nothing says that is really easy because they become trapped in technology. They are especially fond of cellphone and become trapped in them." At that moment, Ruth heard her cellphone's ring tone echo from the kitchen. Going into the kitchen she saw the cellphone laying on top of the breadbox.

"So that's how it keeps getting into the kitchen." Putting on a pair of Halloween oven mitts, she picked up the phone and looked around the kitchen. "How do I get Martians out of my cellphone?" She turned around three times before her eyes came to rest on the microwave oven. "Oh! That's how." She place the phone in the microwave, pressed five seconds, turned the microwave on, and dove for the floor.

Ruth wake several hours later laying in a hospital bed, with her neighbor Jackson Myrcroft sitting next to the bed reading the H.G. Wells novel War of the Worlds. "Uh..." she tried to speak.

"Well, Ruth" Jackson put down his novel. "I'm glad to see your survived," he took her hand. "The Fire Department declared both your microwave and cellphone dead when they removed them from your house."

"Then the Martian's are dead, too!"

Word Count: 762