The Defeat of the Hero

In the empty laboratory, drinking whisky, pondering the energy, the passion, the work he had put in over his lifetime. Discoveries were supposed to be groundbreaking things, not this new archaeological method of examining each pebble and categorizing them appropriately...but then again...

The hero had failed, yet the enemy had been defeated nonetheless - and soundly at that.

He must admit defeat, and yet the very nature of his makeup would allow no such thing. He set his empty glass down on his desk.

The sun had set outside and he simply let the darkness into the empty laboratory. The light of the moon and streetlamps reflected off of the empty glass.

Those Were Not Aircraft At All

Those were not airplanes in the sky.

Tired of the apparent stagnation of society and the unlikely emergence of a technological singularity any time soon, Bill had gone to live in the forests of northern California. Both of his parents gone and with no close family, Bill had little to hold him in San Francisco.

So once his little technology company had been sold, he then in turn sold all his possessions and set out into the wilderness.

He had solar, wind, hydro and a special geothermal generator all set up in redundant configurations; supplies and foodstuffs enough for 20 years; and thousands of books: Bill was not going back to civilization unless at the uttermost end of need.

And yet now, seeing those flying objects, obviously man-made yet unlike anything he had seen before...they had to be man-made…hadn't they? And it had only been 5 years.

Seeing these things: Something stirred inside him. Something dormant and atrophied. Being honest with himself, Bill knew that this feeling was sheer curiosity - a feeling that, again being honest with himself, had been growing for the past few years.

He hadn’t wanted to admit to himself that he was thinking about returning to that overwhelming all-consuming jungle of concrete, steel, electricity and bits - he had been strongly ignoring the thought - hoping it would just go away, but it would grow only stronger as the weeks and months rolled on.

Now, having seen what he just did, those silent flying objects, 3 of them - Bill had to find out what was going on. He had no radio, no computer - no communication devices. Bill would have to travel by foot to the nearest town which was 60 miles away.

...The flying objects had had the American flag on them...

He began packing.