III
Mr Jenkins was polishing his beloved Beretta when he heard the squishing sound from his compound. Due to the long, long time spent in the battlefield, not only didn't the daily rings of bomb explosions and rifle cackling destroy his hearing, but instead they miraculously improved them. After the war, every remaining soldiers were brought to the nearest hospital to receive a full body check-up. Doctors and specialists were astounded by the the remaining ability of Jenkins' ears when they did a thorough audio test. Jenkins could detect and identify almost every piece of sound played by the lab coat-clad men. Ranging from the mild sounds of a dog scratching its ears, to the almost-inaudible breathing of a two-month old infant, Jenkins were able to correctly name and describe a mind-boggling 95% of the 60 different sounds tested. This prompted the United States Army to award Jenkins a Certificate of Appreciation, having dubbed this case as 'a rare and encouraging incident'. Up to this day, the certificate is proudly hung on the left wall of Jenkins's living room, where he keeps a cabinet full of military-based documents and also war memorabilia. Sometimes Jenkins would just sit on the cane-weaved armchair located outside his house and listen to the sounds of nature, secretly naming them all, knowing that he is right every single time.
But this time, it was different.
It was no ordinary squishing sound. Jenkins propped his ears against the cool metal door and listened. For a second there he thought he was hallucinating, or perhaps paranoid. Besides, being in the military wasn't a walk in the park, not surprised if it--
"squish"
Jenkins' heart raced faster and faster. Weird images appeared in his space of thought, ridiculous and eerie creatures were fed by the mind in order to match the owner of the anonymous squishing sound. Without much(or any) hesitation, Jenkins dashed to the living room and grabbed the Beretta which was lying lifelessly on the couch.
With much haste, Jenkins sucked in as much courage the army has built in him for the past 40 years and yanked the door open.
What made Jenkins wince wasn't the ear-piercing screech, but the appearance of the creature. Many folklores have been told by the public relating to the existence of aliens,UFO and what-not but they were after all, folklores. Jenkins and his troop of colleagues often dismiss these as moot topics, accompanied by a mouthful of teases and laughters.
But this time, it wasn't. No more jokes about aliens giving anal harassments to the army. No more jokes about the general being an alien in disguise. No more jokes.
Standing, or mayhap crawling on the ground five metres in front of Jenkins, was indeed, indubitably, an alien. No matter what bullcrap the critics said to the public about the non-existence of these beings, there it was, big almond-shaped eyes, staring at Jenkins. People use to say, look into a person's eyes and you will see the true nature of the person. Almost immediately, Jenkins thought of that 60's sitcom starring Barnadete Dullop, where in one of the episodes Barnedete was holding his lover in his arms, and he looked straight into the girl's eyes and said, "How I wish I was the eyelids of your eyes, then i would be able to shield you from the evil of this world." Then Jenkins noticed that this creature did not have any eyelids at all, and all of a sudden this urge of laughing came to him. Jenkins giggled, then the image of Barnadete holding this creature in his arms invaded his mind, and he burst out laughing like a madman.
Almost instantly the creature dashed off to the right, wanting to get out of Jenkins' drug-infested land. Jenkins held up his Beretta as firm as possible and fired two shots in its direction. The first one ricocheted off the barbed wire, but the second one found its way into the creature's left leg. It limped as fast as possible out of the area and into the woods. "Come back here, you son of a gun!" shouted Jenkins, still laughing. "Come back to mother earth! I could feed you some pot if you want!"
The creature dragged itself as far as possible from Jenkins' place and landed onto a pile of dried leaves, surrounded by tall, skinny trees. It winced at the immense pain as it pressed the bloodied wound with its palm. In its mind it could only think of one thing, do not come chasing after me.
Approximately a couple of miles behind, it could still hear the hysterical laughter of Mr Jenkins.
