GHOSTS

• Cameron Kinsella, Grade 7
• Poetry
• 2013

We‘re Shadow Squad. An undercover exploration team. Living off the grid, working for the Government. Untraceable. Ghosts.

We enter Area 51 and re-enable the magnetic lock on the doors.

- Alpha is the leader
I am Echo - second in charge,
Sierra - combat expert;
Tango - heavy weaponry;
Yankee - technical expert.

Yankee scans the area, details revealed on his receiver. Alpha patrols, checking rooms. I follow. Each is filled with computers. “These are useless!” Sierra shouts. “What’s that?” I ask. A monitor glimmers, light peeking through the cracked screen. We carry over, Tango covering our backs. The keyboard is bloody. “This is…. a diary, dated two days ago.

- 18th March 1997, Specimen escaped test chamber Hangar 17. Search parties sent out. Specimen attacked me. Condition stable. Tests must go on. We’re on the verge of a superhuman vaccine.

Tango yells “Look!” We turn and see a dark silhouette on the ground and a shadow moving. Tango, steadies his rifle and moves closer. The light reveals the alien gnawing a man’s neck. Tango shoots but the alien escapes into the ventilation. “Been dead for days,” says Tango. He stares into the vents above and the alien lashes Tango. Tango grabs, the alien scars his chest. Alpha hurls a grenade into the vent. “GO! NOW”. We burst through the doors hearing an intense bang. “We must reach the core and shut this down before these creatures escape!”

Two hours since first contact with the enemy. I’m now in charge. Sierra disappeared, presumed dead. Alpha was critically injured fending off the creatures. I had to end his life.

We stumble across Hangar 17 mentioned in the diary. Hearing a shattering sound we look around. Turning, we see the room is filled with glass tubes, each contain a body. Too many to count. A body hangs from the roof upside down, its head hanging by chords. Yankee yells. “My scanner shows life forms moving in fast!” “Run!,” I yell. Yankee, Tango and I rush through the hangar. A thud - Tango has collapsed, foaming at the mouth while agonising in pain. His teeth bared, green liquid oozing out his mouth.

Beep. “More life forms!’ Finally, the core. A nuclear reactor bigger than I thought. Aliens attack only to be repelled. Sierra is knocked down by a screeching Tango. Sierra trips him. “I’ll blow this thing!” he screams. We run for what looks like the hangar exit, Sierra fending off the mutant. “A hatch!” We kick it open, climb through as Sierra reveals a detonator strapped to his chest. The hatch closes.

Back in the open we find a motorbike and accelerate as fast as we can. Don’t stop.

We saw the unimaginable. Sierra never forgotten. James and I… we can’t go back to what we were. Instead, we crack down on Government secrecy, fighting for truth to stop madness.

We are Ghosts….

Some say Area 51 still exists.