Aliens
The letter
The day before, a regular Tuesday, everybody got the letter. It arrived by regular mail in over 7.000 different languages worldwide. Paraphrasing for brevity: Good day / tomorrow we'll come to visit EARTH / at NOON / we have NO WEAPONS / prepare FOOD & SNACKS. This ensured that in a matter of hours the air sirens went off and global military entities readied themselves for full-out all-destroying war. Some people prepared food and snacks.
And as they letter stated, at the precise time they landed all over the world, especially in cities and villages. The spaceships were rather unimpressive, as they weren't more than paratrooper parachutes that would be discarded after touchdown. They could steer a little, the last 20 meters or so they used thrusters to make sure they landed safe, avoiding any humans. They didn’t bring anything of interest, not even a bit of alien technology more advanced than ours.
Thomas was there
The box gently touched the street. His heart was beating in his throat, the crowd (who ignored the request to stay at home from official government outlets; risking severe earthly punishments for doing so) was buzzing. The box was maybe 20 meters away. You could feel the heat of the thrusters for a second before they turned off.
With a pneumatic hiss the hatch opened. In the box was a bit of light, so you could see the 3x3 chairs in which humanoid aliens sat. Very human like they undid their harness and one by one exited the box.
They looked like normal people, maybe a bit ambigious, and slightly different from each other. They were men and woman, about thirty-ish. The clothes they wore were casual human clothes.
"They look massively uncomfortable," the woman standing next to him said. And indeed, they were rubbing their arms and putting hands into the necks of their shirts and sweaters to rub out itches. Then they promptly started to undress, quickly and determined. In less than a minute they were all stark naked. They didn't have bellybuttons, otherwise what you'd expect.
"That didn't go as planned," one of the female-looking aliens said. "Apparently these bodies get very, very irritated by clothes. I hope you don't mind." She said while looking into the direction of the group of people Thomas was standing with. "Any of you got any snacks?"
A puzzling silence came over the humans. Thomas was thinking about the Oreo's he had brought. "I do," he said and started to get it. The female-looking alien started walking up to him. He opened the pack and the alien took some cookies. "Is it okay if I hand them out to the group?" she asked.
And that was that, that’s how the aliens came to earth.
The nudity!
The nudity of the aliens did a lot to a lot of people. Some states started arresting them for indecent exposure, but what's the justice system to do with naked aliens? It would turn prisons into nudity camps and create all kinds of new problems.
Another strategy that was shortl-lived was to force them to wear clothes. They'd gladly put them on when you asked them, but as soon as they reasonably could they'd wiggle themselves out again.
Three unnamed men and a few aliens
The gags they put in their mouths were unnecessary, One knew. One also knew that Two and Three knew this, and One was aware that they knew that he knew. Still they did it, as they always did. They had been working together for almost eight years now. Small team, in the night, grabbing one or two persons and then proceed according to the instructions given.
The first time they got the assignment, it was business as usual. They grabbed some of the aliens on the first night and took them away. Then the information extraction began, which ended in two dead aliens and no information at all. After reporting the failure, the same assignment was repeated, and virtually every night since. The leadership was desperate to know more, they increased payment and allowed for more severe measures to be taken. By now, many, many night later, anything went.
Yet none of the tortures, techniques and drugs yielded any results. Tonight was another night, an old warehouse and two gagged and bagged aliens sitting on two chairs in the middle of the space. Bright lamps right in their faces.
They look so human, One thought, as he saw them sitting on the chairs, hands and legs moving a little occasionally, sweat in the palms of their hands. But also so unhuman, without belly buttons and always stark naked. He walked up to them, removed the hoods and looked at them. They looked back, calm and unbothered. Their breathing was regular and deep. Then they started looking around, curious to see all the things around them.
“Let’s just kill them and call it a night,” Three said, “I mean, this is a waste of time.”
Two made a sound that agreed with Three, and pointed his gun towards the female alien.
“Wait, wait…” One said. “Jesus christ man!” He exclaimed as Two already shot her. Blood splattered all over One and the alien slumped in the chair.
1: Goddammit. We gotta stop this. 3: Waste of time. 2: I just want to go home. 1: I’m all over, christ 3: Yeah like pay attention 2 2: I’m so done 1: We’re all frustrated, but jesus when I tell you to stop you stop 2: Let’s do the other and go home 1: No STOP! 2: All-right allright 1: I’m undoing its gag
One undid the gag and the alien politely thanked him for that. He asked for snacks, and Three told him no and One gave him a piece of gum, which annoyed Two and Three.
"What do you think we should do?" One asked the alien.
"The easiest would be just to let me walk away." The alien replied casually. "You don't have to carry my body and it saves them the hassle of replacing me."
"Who's them?" Three asked.
The alien shrugged.
Closing
Then the accident happened. For the humans it happened in the blink of an eye. Something big out of space flung with impossible speed right at the earth and turned everything to dust.