Even though this is a high-paying job, I didn't have anything to do at all. I looked at the black shield in front of me and recalled what happened in the last 3 months:
If I am good at something, it is running fast. I run faster than others, but not fast enough for the Olympics but who cares about the Olympics when aliens just came to Earth? That day, 3 spaceships landed in China, Russia, and the USA. They all landed near big rivers, and as soon as they landed, the "Black Zone" happened.
It was something dark that went 1 km around the spaceship, and we couldn't see anything inside. It was like a black shield that blocked everything: guns, water, air—nothing could go inside. All the science in the world couldn't explain it; they said it was a new element that we had never seen before. Man, what is science for when they can't even explain anything at all? The only thing they could do was name the black shield the "Black Zone".
They were also useless when it came to why, 1 km around the Black Zone, all digital stuff failed to work. So, no phones, no digital cameras, nothing worked, and the only thing they could do was name this 1 km area the "Grey Zone". At least they proved that the Grey Zone was safe for humans to live in.
All the effort to talk with the Aliens was ignored. They used all kinds of languages outside the Black Zone, from sound to drawings, to lighting, heavy rock, and Bible singing—man, they really tried everything. So after that, all humans could do was build a wall around the Black Zone and wait for something to happen.
Then something did happen. One day, the black shield suddenly turned white for a moment, and from that, we spotted a group of aliens coming out. They came close to the wall we built and then ran back to the Black Zone again. Later, we knew that all 3 Black Zones in the world also turned white for a moment at the same time.
Maybe they had a way to talk with each other, maybe it was a new form of communication that we had not discovered yet. Russia and the USA were the same; they went out, came close to the wall, and freaked out our soldiers, then ran back inside. But China was different; someone shot first, and it left us the first alien corpse we got.
They just looked like us, only bigger and greener. Now this time, science did not fail us. They said the alien was like us, but they couldn't live long on Earth; our world was just not built for them. They were sure all the aliens were gonna die after 48 hours living outside the Black Zone. Now that was great and useful news, and also they named the alien "Suna".
Suddenly, the whole world changed its mind about aliens. First, we were so scared that aliens were gonna come to attack us, and after seeing that all human science couldn't even do anything with the Black Zone, we were so worried aliens were gonna win the war easily. Riots happened, and 17 died in chaos.
And now, after science calmed us down and said they couldn't even outlive an ant's life span if they got out of the Black Zone, all the world seemed to feel bad for the Suna. It felt like they were just poor people who got bad luck and had to land on a random planet that they couldn't even survive on. Soon they would run out of food and die; now all the world knew what to do with them.
We were gonna get ready for talking and give them food, and they would share their knowledge or get killed by us. I mean, those aliens didn't even bring anything looking like a weapon when they went outside the Black Zone—what peaceful people.
But all efforts to talk seemed to get ignored again. For 2 months, we tried anything and everything to get a reaction from the Suna: K-pop idols, Hitler's favorite song, beer, lion roars, bird singing, Michael Jackson's secret songs… Nothing worked so far, so the science world changed their plan to wait for the Suna to come out on their own.
Since phones didn't work in the Grey Zone, humans returned to the 1950s, where the human way to communicate was running and talking. And that is where they hired me, the guy who runs fast with no family, who can live 24/7 in the Grey Zone with a huge salary. Well, what is the point of money when I can't even have time to use it? But I did it anyway because working with Aliens seemed like a good idea. Maybe I can write a book about this to be famous and get a wife after that, hehe.
Besides, the work is really easy. I just live here and run 1 km outside the Grey Zone every day to make a call to my boss saying nothing happened, and then come back. Maybe there are 10 people like me working like this in the Grey Zone, but we never meet each other.
I can do anything as long as I keep an eye on the Black Zone. I can read books, write, draw, cook… anything else. The only job I have is being ready when the Black Zone turns white and running as fast as I can to make a phone call. But I am sure other people can do that already, or someone from outside the Grey Zone can see it turn white. I am not really sure why they needed me to do this job.
Maybe the real job is to see if living 24/7 in the Grey Zone does anything to my body or not, maybe to see if the Suna come out and meet me, if they are really gonna eat humans or not. But the pay was high, and with nothing more meaningful to do in life, I stayed in this job.
It was a normal morning today. It marked 3 months since I started working this job. I woke up and walked around the Black Zone, touched a little to make this day more special than every other day. It was time to run out to make the daily meaningless call again. But something happened.
I looked at the tower outside the Grey Zone getting blacked out by something black rising. I freaked out and looked around me, and saw something black rising from everywhere. Where the black rose was, it went black like a black hole. I ran back to the center and tried to stay in the light; soon, the only place that had light was near the Black Zone.
With no choice, I jumped into the Black Zone and expected a slam to my face. I hoped somehow magic would happen and I could get inside the Black Zone. But it didn't happen, and I just slammed into the Black Zone and blacked out.
When I opened my eyes, I was on a hospital bed and locked to it. Someone stepped into the room and said, "You are the only one alive, son."