Drone Ascending is a flash fiction piece I wrote as a spontaneous ‘panster’ exercise, without any prior plotting. My goal was to capture the feelings and atmosphere that might accompany an extraterrestrial presence.
Drone Ascending
The whole town was buzzing with excitement. Finally, proof they are real – thought everyone! Even the elderly seemed oddly at peace with this new reality, putting aside their religious optics to admire and take in their beauty.
They appeared on a hot July day, bleeding through the sky like overlapping maps until they converged into one. Dozens of them floated, bobbing in the clouds like fishing bobs in a shallow pond. Enamored by their beauty, the town residents pulled out lawn chairs, spread blankets on their lawns, and even left work to view them with their families.
“Daddy, what do you think they are doing up there?”
“It doesn’t matter, honey, just enjoy this feeling. And their beauty, just look at them,” her father replied, serene and monotone.
This scene repeated in every town. Globe-wide sightings created a co-dependence. These objects in the sky provided hope, joy, and a constant feeling of wonder—the proper emotion, as Emerson would put it.
Drone Ascending Continued …
Governments put their arms down, neighbors acted like communities, and technologies were becoming less omnipresent. People were soon leaving their communication devices in the past for this new feeling. This feeling was comparable to the heightened senses one experiences during a traumatic event.
They appeared on a hot July day, bleeding through the sky like overlapping maps until they converged into one. Dozens floated, bobbing in the clouds like fishing bobs in a shallow pond. Enamored by their beauty, town residents pulled out lawn chairs, spread blankets on their lawns, and left work to view them with their families.
“Daddy, what do you think they are doing up there?”
“It doesn’t matter, honey, just enjoy this feeling. And their beauty, just look at them,” her father replied, serene and monotone.
This scene repeated in every town. Globe-wide sightings created a co-dependence. These objects in the sky provided hope, joy, and a constant feeling of wonder—the proper emotion, as Emerson would put it.
Humans now chose to only exist in this state of awareness. It was like absorbing all of life’s emotions and experiences into one inhalation. An inhalation that paralyzes them, an inhalation the clears and fills the minds thoughts, an inhalation that never ends. Even professional drug abusers traded in their paraphenelia for this new ‘drug.’
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The more time people devoted to these objects, the more aware and connected they became. This connection turned into a leech by design. Quickly, they forgot how to live and create new experiences, now neglecting to care for themselves.
They stopped cooking. Feeling both full and hungry at once, they saw no need to cook. They no longer sought love and acceptance, as they could extract these from past experiences, reanimating their senses.
They atrophied. Bodies, cars, factories, transportation, etc. ceased to function. What is time anyway, other than a fleeting thought from one moment to the next? If it will be resurrected to live again, if only but in their minds, than why continue living?
For this piece, I used a writing prompt that asked me to describe an incoming extraterrestrial invasion from a unique viewpoint. Instead of detailing the event or the aliens themselves, I focused on conveying the emotions and sensations surrounding this extraordinary encounter.
“Drone Ascending” is a flash fiction exercise written by Willy Martinez. Copyright Mind on Fire Books 2022. Most of the photos used for this article were borrowed from Deb and Martin Art on Pinterest.
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