THE THINGS

I have written a science fiction-horror novel entitled THE INVASION OF THE ALIEN THINGS. They came not in spaceships of flying saucers, but in microscopic spores drifting through the infinitude of space. The approximately 100 billion stars and perhaps 100 billion solar systems in SB galaxies like our own SB galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy. Of all the solar systems in the galaxy, why did they have to come to our solar system? Somehow they made it past the powerful gravitational fields of the huge frozen outer planets Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, and Jupiter. Somehow, even more amazingly, they made it through the asteroid belt. Somehow they avoided being drawn into and burnt up on Venus, Mercury, or even the sun. Somehow they manage to land on the only planet in the solar system teeming with life – our planet – Earth. They were monstrous – hideous – snakelike – vine things, parasites that attacked, entered, possessed, then duplicated the bodies of other life forms. They landed near Earlington, a small town in Western Kentucky. They took root and began to grow in the woods and swamps behind the lake. It was a good hiding place. They grew fast. Soon they were ready. They crawled out of the swamps and woods, entered the lake, and swam to all parts of Earlington. They usually attacked at night and stole the bodies, lives, and very souls of the people they parasitized. Some of Dr. David Fugate’s patients began to tell him that some of their friends, relatives, and even spouses were really aliens in human form. Dr. Fugate was a man of science. What these patients feared could not possibly exist except in their poor-sick-broken minds. Then, to his horror, he discovered that his patients were right! Then, the alien things came after him! Dr. Fugate escaped to the next town and warned the police. At first they didn’t believe him, but he had scientific proof – a piece of one of those vine things. Stunned and frightened, the Madisonville police scurried to notify the FBI. The Kentucky State Police, and the governor. Finally, Dr. Fugate was able to relax. He knew that the government would send in the marines and the world would be safe. Dr. Fugate assumed wrong. The world was not saved. Everything went horribly wrong. My novel begins twenty years later. Vast numbers of aliens now live and walk among us; and their numbers are increasing. Dr. Fugate made one mistake, a very bad mistake. He trusted the government, the same United States Government that staged the cover-up of the flying saucer that crashed at Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. To his horror, Dr. Fugate discovers that the government and the CIA have orchestrated another cover-up, this one a dark, sinister, evil conspiracy, a conspiracy of such overwhelming, unimaginable, unspeakable monstrosity, that it gambled with the very future of the human race and lost! Why? Well, evidently the government learned technological secrets from the aliens who crashed at Roswell. The government probably hoped to learn biological secrets from these new-vine thing aliens, in addition to other information about other planets, extra terrestrial life, and extra-terrestrial civilizations. The aliens claimed to have parasitized many different species on many different planets. Theoretically, the government figured that these aliens should possess all of the knowledge of many civilizations, some of them quite advanced. So, some of our top government officials made a deal with the aliens, and the aliens screwed the government. And now we have those alien things in every segment of our society including the government and the armed forces. Now Dr. Fugate is an old man, and in every bad health, both physically and mentally. He has a bad heart, a bad case of arthritis, and he is paranoid schizophrenic. Now Dr. Fugate is trying to find a way to destroy the aliens and save the world again, but how? Now the aliens are too numerous, too powerful, too well entrenched, and too intelligent. And the vine things, resistant to all known herbicides, are growing uncontrollably all over the country. Also, there is another danger. The rest of the world has decided that the only way to save itself from being infested with the aliens, also, is to sterilize the United States with thermonuclear weapons. Of course, the United States will probably fight back. Perhaps, Dr. Fugate thinks the secret to defeat the aliens back in Earlington, Kentucky where he first discovered the alien threat. But if he returns there, he will have to face the aliens who were once his friends and neighbors; and he will also have to face the alien who was once Betty, the woman he loved and failed to save from the aliens. Then , Dr. Fugate discovers that the most powerful man in the world, the President of the United States of America, is one if the alien things! Then, the situation gets much darker for humankind. The alien things, who have secretly seized control of some air force fighter and bomber units, bomb San Francisco and Los Angeles with sleeping gas bombs and vine things in a ghastly attempt to turn the human population of both cities into aliens, like themselves. But the navy comes to the rescue with carriers – based naval fighters, and the navy fights the air force in a bizarre air war in the skies over California. Meanwhile, the citizens below scramble frantically to gather up and burn the alien vine things before it’s too late. The alien things send assassination teams against Dr. Fugate, and he is forced to flee for his life. Obviously, the aliens believe that Dr. Fugate knows something that can be used against them. Dr. Fugate realizes that too, but he has forgotten what it is! If you like science fiction, or if you like horror fiction, I am sure that you will find THE INVASION OF THE ALIEN THINGS a tale to your liking. It is a terrifying mixture if both genres. THE INVASION OF THE ALIEN THINGS is 250 pages long and I think that it will make a great movie someday soon. Jack Nicholson or David Duchnovy would make a great Dr. David Fugate, and Elizabeth Hurley would make an excellent Betty. And the former football great, sports analyst, and occasional action movie star, Howie Long, would be good in the part of Dr. David Banning, another important character in the THE INVASION OF THE ALIEN THINGS. Again, I hope you like what you read. Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, Herbert D. Cunningham