Alien

At long last aliens appeared in public. After every possible secretly done harassment, such as abduction, brainwash, experiment on human body. That famous UFOs, they formed and showed off its fleet in the sky high. This time they did not escape nor hide. People who had believed the existence of aliens got exited and triumphant. Other people were simply scared. Governments got panic and urgently fortified air defences. The aliens jacked media, and then by using TV, radio, internet, even words written with crop circles they declared:

“After many researches on humans, we have decided to make this planet into one huge farm. We are epicures. In this regard, the most delicious food we have found in the universe is nothing but human flesh. Therefore, we will breed humans on the planet Earth and serve its flesh as our food. We weigh fairness. So we tell you this in case you wonder.”

By knowing this, people fell into turmoil. Nobody wanted to die like a livestock. They became hardly going out from their houses and everybody became almost closeted. This way, it seemed safer for them, at least. Governments, human rights organizations and many other organizations declared objection against this idea of human farm and providing human flesh. Rather, they begged for their lives. Because the aliens' scientific technologies were tremendous, and it was easily predictable that toy-like missiles and whatnot would not do any harm against them. Also there was a secret intrigue, of course, that only powers and riches tried to be somehow spared by aliens in return of sacrificing common people.

The answer from the aliens was as follows:

“We weigh fairness. We will do exactly the same by learning from humans. Humans have used their superiority and never had mercy on lesser or weaker creatures. You have farmed them, forced them to breed, slaughtered, abused and abused. Once the position is changed, do you immediately change your mind and object to this? We believe that you would not have any complaint against exactly the same deed as yours.”

Thus the Earth became one huge human farm.

Devil

One day, when I was walking on the street in the familiar town, I lost the way and found myself on an unknown alley. Oh, it's weird, I thought, and yet kept on walking, the alley was getting narrower and deeper. It was likely to come into a next street soon, but it did not. As if I stepped into another dimension, the more I advanced the deeper and deeper the narrow alley appeared.

Presently, I found a grocery store. I was thirsty at that very moment, so I made a stopover for the store to buy some drink. The store was crowded with presences easily recognizable as devils at a glance. I wonder if I was sort of numb or something because of losing the way, strangely enough, I was not scared.

I took a well cold bottle out from the buzzing fridge and brought it to the devil at the register. The devil pleased innocently.

“Welcome to our store! Please leave the empty bottle at the garbage pile in front of the store after drink. And take this plastic bag too!”

“So, do you gather garbage to recycle them?”

The devil was surprised.

“No way! Plastic bottles, plastic bags, by spreading them out and throwing them away so we can destroy the world, you know? The sea gets polluted and no one can live in such environment anymore. It's the same result even if you incinerate them. Modern devils make only steady efforts.”

A well thought plan, I was impressed.

“So, are there any other tricks with products in this store?”

With better observation, I noticed that the store displayed strangely so many meat. Chicken, poke, beef and whatnot put on white trays were displayed on the shelves. The devil smiled quite innocently.

“Bingo! As you see, many meat. We are making people numb to blood. So you don't feel sorry when you kill any creature different from yourself. Then it's only one more step to kill strangers, right? Discrimination and war! We do this to make you, deep in your heart, not to respect lives different from you.”

Totally make sense, I was impressed.

“But how such unremarkable, underground effort. I thought devils were more showy beings.”

“But in the end, we've found this way more effective, if we are to corrupt not only one or two humans but the whole planet and destroy it. The knack is, to encourage the sense of egotism in people. The sense that you want to live comfortably, you want to enjoy, and to do so, you don't care things other than yourself. Plastic bags, animal meat, all the same thing. Well, you'll see, in a hundred years or two, what will be happening...”

Paid money devils love, I came out from the store and drunk off the bottle. And then I threw it away into the garbage pile near the store. The garbage pile was flooded and illustrated devils' diligence. After a little walk, suddenly, I found myself on the large street I knew well. I had no idea which alley I just came out from a moment ago. Since then I have never found the alley again.

Fake

Long time ago, there was the following event.

In a tiny village, there was a man running a cheap small liquor shop, making and selling alcoholic beverage. It was the only liquor shop in the village. One day, the man thought: if the alcohol was only little thinner, nobody would notice. So he diluted the alcohol in the huge urn with only a single ladle of water and began to sell it. Of course the price was unchanged. So, as the result, the man gained his profit little more.

Customers did not notice it at all. Rather, some even said: Ye' alcohol got tastier, eh? Therefore the man had confidence in this trick. One more ladle of water, and one more, he had diluted the alcohol little by little, for years and years, with great caution taking a long span between each ladle of water. The village had nothing particular resource but abundant flesh water. Customers' tongue could not catch the change of taste, and they were still content with the alcohol. The man had very cautiously continued this trick, and someday the generation had changed, now his son, and his son's son, had kept doing the same trick on and on. The alcohol had become thinner and thinner, and the profit had gained more and more.

The liquor shop prospered and had expanded its branches to other villages. Surprisingly, the thin alcoholic beverage made a hit. And some other day, after generations and generations had changed, the executive – descendant of the liquor shopkeeper – began to expand his business even more, to not only every drinks but to the food industry as well. He gathered researchers at the recently built research lab, and let them search for a new way to replace the good old ladle of water into alcohol. Thus, artificial sweets and artificial colors and much more other additives were invented. Well cheated food with those additives was, not only nobody realized, but rather well sold with favorable comments as tasty, tasty! Moreover, the more additives added, the more profit gained.

The former liquor shop now grew to a national company providing every kinds of food and drink to all over the country. People had still drunken the alcohol from this company, but it was utterly fake compared to the very first alcohol and almost mere water. Meat, fish, grain, real food was nowhere to find anymore. Everything was fake with some additives added. Chemical fertilizer and artificial feed, it was begun from the very beginning of any production. The trick like this could not compete other companies, one might wonder, but the answer was yes, it could. Because other companies learned from this national flagship company and intended to gain profit by the same trick. Besides, in this age which descended much further from the beginning, people had never tasted any real food. They had eaten and drunken only fakes since their childhood. That was the case even for the descendant of the liquor shopkeeper and other executives in the industry. And people believed fakes, the one national company provided, were very genuine.

Now, one day, a brand new venture business was launched. This company imported genuine raw food from natives living somewhere far away, and began to sell top quality finest food. People loving new stuff lured by the advertisement words “real original food” and tried it. The street in front of the venture company was even crowded with customers. But, as soon as tasting the food, everybody immediately shouted: I've never eaten such a distasteful thing like this, color looks weird too, this is a fake!

People's eye, and their tongue, were already too accustomed with fakes, its appearance and taste. They never accepted anything outside of that standard. To them, fakes were genuine. The venture company was called fraud, and the executive was accused for the activity of selling fakes. The one sued him was the national company, that former cheap small liquor shop.

In the court, all proofs and testimony the accused presented had no impact. The judge, the jury, and even the attorney had the reversed sense of standard to distinguish true and false. Because economy and law, everything was standardized based on the mindset like the national company had been taking. Fakes people make, fakes people being happy with. Fake order and fake law. To their eye, the descendant of the liquor shopkeeper looked a good citizen, the accused looked a fraudster. To their ear, the descendant of the liquor shopkeeper sounded honest, the accused sounded full of lies. Therefore, the accused was sentenced as guilty, and the venture company closed its business soon after.

Thus, taking long, long years and years, genuine things and fakes have utterly exchanged its position. Now genuineness is considered as fake, and fakes are considered as genuine.

Zombie

Had any cutting edge biochemical weapon spread out? Or was this some kind of plague or infection? Or was this a curse of black magic or something? All the sudden I noticed myself being a zombie.

My body decayed and smelled awful. My eyeball was dangling from the socket, and everything was looking blurred. My brain must be rotten as well, so I could not think well. What had I been doing so far, and what for?

Whatever, that I thought, and put my clothes on and went out to the town. Because my food stock was short and so was the toilet paper, my bank account was needed to be checked, and my job was waiting for my report.

The town was full of zombies. Everybody was just like myself, wondering around without any purpose. They had no idea what to do. What should a zombie do for what purpose? Some zombies were crazily sticking to the show windows, absorbed to the products inside. Some zombies were idly watching the television put on top of the building, but in the screen, there was only another zombie being idle. Some zombies were desperately trying to get on the train which did not work anymore, they seemed intending to commute. I was absently looking at those scenes, forgetting my first purpose out to the town.

Suddenly, an idea flashed in my mind. Had we all died from the beginning? Had not we lived at all even for a moment? Had we only believed that we were alive but in zombie mind?

Whatever, soon I thought. Then I remembered my condition of food stock, of toilet paper, of bank account and so on. Gotta make money and make my living, that I thought. The other zombies too were groaning just like myself; make living, make living, don't wanna die, gonna live, gonna live...