Prologue: They Are Coming...
A new day came when the Sun rose once more to shine upon the town, Rhodes. The winds, reluctantly, started to blow into the town, bringing with it a fresh breath of air, something that the town received abundantly...for the town was upon a hillside looking down upon the woods that surrounded it. It looked like any other day for the town.
The milkman was starting his routine, placing fresh milk onto the porches of the residents. His cheerful whistling alerted insomniacs, cats, and dogs that he was coming and prompted either biped or quadruped to come out of the home to receive his or her ware. Everyone knew the routine. The milkman would come, whistle and milk truck, then the newspaper boy (or girl in some cases) on bike, and finally, the cars of the town would slowly putter out of their garages and leave, almost in simultaneous motion.
For the milkman, this seemed like another ordinary day. What could this day have that no other days have? He may have thought this...or not. In either case, the milkman continued in his work, getting off his truck, putting milk, occasionally saying hi or ma'am to the residents, and getting back on the truck.
He was on his truck, looking straight onto his next route, letting the details pass by his eyes...he thought quietly to himself, partially to break the boredom, 'tree, tree, tree, dog, stop sign he stopped, then continued, Mr. Smith, tree, tree, tree, squirrel, squirrel, tree, squirrel, squirrel, two squirrels, fou-' Suddenly, the milkman stopped the truck. He rubbed his eyes and looked back. He grew pale at what he saw. They lined the streets and the telephone wires and the trees. Some flipped coins; others leaned upon the trees and posts; and others were writing the quantum equations that, inexplicably, the milkman knew was the answer to Nuclear Fusion. All were looking straight at him with their eyes. He turned back and started to look straight, whistling nervously. He zoomed on to his next destination, and finally got onto his next route. He got off the truck, put some milk, and without greeting the resident, turned to the truck. He got on. He took the keys, jangling. He put them shakily in the ignition.
He turned.
Nothing.
He turned again...
Nothing.
He was jittery. He was beginning to think that somehow THEY were involved. "They are coming..." he whispered. Quickly he closed the doors and locked them up, and closed the windows...
He waited.
And waited...
He felt something fuzzy shoot past his back. He turned. His eyes widened, pupils dilating. He opened his mouth...
The sleeping dogs woke and bayed…
The mayor of the town knew the town was in trouble. The people were fearful, moving in jittery manners. He wondered what it was that caused such a panic. He looked out into the woods, contemplating...when he saw something peculiar. A large brown mass was rushing up into his town. 'Is that sewage?' he thought. But he knew instinctively, that sewage does not go uphill. Suddenly, he heard screams. He opened into the outer office of the town hall, only to see pandemonium occur. Secretaries were screaming, the people were rushing about, crashing into each other, picking themselves up and crashing again into a water cooler, a filing cabinet, or a wall. Papers were flying and the phones were ringing like mad.
"What is it?" the mayor cried out. He grabbed a secretary and asked her, "WHAT IS IT?"
The secretary replied with the one word that he hoped he did not hear. Tornadoes, locusts, flies, hurricanes, firestorms, these were things he could deal with. Meteor storms,rampant thuderstorms, even, furious,irate nerdsstormingCity Hall all becauseof the seemingly unfair regulationson the IX-9JJX9b Calculators and how they actually differ superiorly to the inferior IX-9JJX9a Calculators,were some things he could deal with. But the word that threw him into frenzy was the one word that the secretary screamed out.
"SQUIRRRRRRRELLLLLSSSSSSS!"
"No..." the mayor whispered, letting the secretary go off to crash into the fourth wall, which inexplicably does not disturb the modern day reader at all. "It...how..." he started. He only said one other thing.
"They are coming..."