“I’m just trying to figure out how to function in this chaos,” yelped a little green creature. A similarly sized purple creature latched onto her and squealed. The cabin of their spacecraft shook violently as they rapidly lost altitude. As they dipped closer and closer to earth, their vehicle broke out of the V formation of flying saucers that it had been flying in. The petite green pilot yanked up on the control panel and the purple creature squeezed its beady eyes shut. The spacecraft lurched upwards slightly, but it was ultimately not enough to stop their descent entirely. Earth’s land began to appear closer and closer as the two squealed. The green pilot frantically slammed its paws into the buttons on her control panel as their spacecraft reached tree level. The cabin rattled and shook with each tree it slammed into, jostling both of the tiny creatures to the ground.

Luckily, the thick foliage slowed the speed of their spaceship. They collided with the forest floor with one final slam, sliding through the dirt before coming to a complete stop.

An eerie silence fell over the once noisy forest. Not even the sound of crickets filled the air. The landscape was dark, but the light emitted from their fallen spaceship illuminated the surrounding pine trees with an alien glow. A faint shuffling noise could be heard from the wreckage. Suddenly, like a baby chick hatching from an egg, a little green face popped up.

“Gneep? Where are you?” She chirped to her companion. Another face sprung out of the debris.

“Florp? Are you okay?” He pawed at one of his antennae, attempting to straighten it out after it had been bent in the chaos. The two looked at each other with wide eyes for a moment.

“We are going to be in so much trouble for this when we get home,” Gneep squeaked after a moment of awkward silence.

“That’s if we ever make it back home. There’s no way we can fix this thing up,” Florp garbled as she pulled her stubby body out of the crash. Gneep helplessly waved his stumpy little arms in the air as Florp dragged him out too. The two scurried around the broken spacecraft, surveying all the damage. Florp dramatically waved her arms in the air in frustration. “It’s completely busted.”

“Surely we can fix it? Maybe we can find the parts here on Earth-” Gneep rambled before being cut off.

“Look Gneep, I know it’s your first voyage, but I’ve been to Earth once before and I’m an expert. Its inhabitants aren’t friendly. We need to protect ourselves from those stinky vermin. My blaster should be..” Florp’s voice trailed off as she spotted the weapon she was searching for. A sci-fi laser gun with a large crack on the side laid in front of her. It was busted just like their ride home. Florp cursed in an alien language and Gneep covered his ears. “We. Are. DOOMED.”

“Florp, I think we need to calm down and search our surroundings. Maybe we could-”

“Find a place to hide!” Florp interrupted Gneep again, causing his antenna to droop slightly. “We need food and shelter. I wouldn’t be surprised if we are abandoned here for weeks,” Florp lowered her tone to sound more spooky. Gneep quivered at the thought of being stranded on a strange planet. Florp scooped up the broken blaster and attached it to her toolbelt. Gneep followed close behind as she hopped over a branch with newfound confidence.

Gneep had never been much of a survivalist. The closest thing he had experienced to this was when he had gotten lost in a corn maze on his home planet, and his parents had to rescue him. Florp hasn’t let him live it down in years. Back on their home planet, Florp excelled in her classes. This landed her as the youngest alien to ever make the voyage to Earth (and probably the alien with the biggest ego as well.) However, evidently she was not ready for the responsibility of manning her own spacecraft yet, especially not with a new recruit on board.

“Florp, look!” Gneep peeped when the sight of a road took him out of his thoughts.

“This is nothing like the fields I saw on my first voyage here. This must be a good sign, let’s see what treasures it leads us to!” Florp declared. Her pace quickened to a jog, leaving Gneep struggling to keep up. Just when he thought his stubby legs were going to give out, Florp screeched to a halt. She put a paw over her blaster, ignoring how shattered it was. Gneep looked up to discover what had frightened her.

A run down building stood before them. Two strange machines with pumps attached lined the outside of the building with a sign labeled ‘GAS’. As beat up and rusted as the exterior looked, several lights still lit up the interior. A strip of bright neon lights caught Gneep’s attention. He felt a slight pang in his heart, remembering the familiar neon lights from home. He turned to face Florp to see that her expression seemed to falter slightly. Even though she’s trying to put on a confident facade, she must be thinking of home too.

“There seems to be resources in there for us,” Florp announces, breaking Gneep out of his thoughts. “Keep an eye out Gneep, we don’t know what kind of monsters could be lurking in there.”

The two approached the tall glass door and pushed on it with all of their strength. With their combined effort, the door opened just enough for the two to slip through. Once they were inside, they could hear the faint buzz of the lights. Four tiny little feet pitter-pattered across the cold floor. Gneep glanced around, nervously scanning for any sign of movement.

Just when he thought the coast was clear, he saw something in the corner of his eye. Gneep tapped Florp’s shoulder hurriedly and she turned to see what he was worried about. A strange contraption was set up against the wall with brightly colored mystery fluid spinning inside. The outside of the machine was labeled ‘Slushie’. The two had been taught how to read some English words, but this was not one that either recognized.

“Careful, Gneep. It might be dangerous,” Florp cautioned. She inched closer to the machine to inspect it. Gneep followed her, but prepared to run if things got messy. Florp pulled herself onto the table with the contraption and stared up at the nozzle attached. “Gneep come look at this!”

Gneep hesitated, but followed her orders. He joined her at the top of the table and observed the nozzle.

“This must be human spacecraft fuel,” Florp nodded to herself, confident in her assumption. Gneep curiously pulled a lever on top of the nozzle, releasing the bright fluid directly onto Florp’s face. She let out a sudden shrill scream that was quickly stifled by Gneep’s paw. Florp swatted at Gneep’s paws as he wiped her clean.

“Florp, quit being so loud we don’t know what else is in here-” Gneep was cut off by the sound of footsteps behind them. A yawning human approached them, stopping dead in its tracks upon seeing the two.

Florp whipped out her busted blaster and aimed it directly at the human. The sight might have been more threatening if she was five feet taller and less drenched in slushie. Regardless, both of the human’s hands shot into the air.

“GET ON THE GROUND!” Florp barked in her adorably squeaky voice. Gneep hid behind her and peered out at the gigantic monster that stood before them. It tilted its head slightly, not understanding their alien language.

Before things could escalate any further, a deep humming noise filled the air. The noise was all too familiar to the two aliens; it was the sound of a flying saucer.
“Florp! They’ve come to rescue us!” Gneep cheered ecstatically. The spacecraft hovered above the convenience store and beamed a much larger alien inside.
“You two are in SO MUCH TROUBLE,” the large alien boomed. Florp dropped her blaster to the ground and waved her paws in the air.

“We can explai-”

“Can you? You’ve been through enough training to know how to dodge a simple asteroid. Not to mention you two managed to be seen by a human after an hour of being on Earth,” the elder alien gestured towards the empty place where the human had been standing. The two young aliens glanced past the elder alien’s hand to see the human escaping out the door.

“It’s escaping!” Gneep exclaimed, but the elder seemed unphased.

“Once we retrieve the saucer you two foolishly left behind, no one will believe that human’s story,” the elder grumbled with a scornful expression. The elder plucked Gneep and Florp off the table and the three of them were beamed back into the flying saucer.

Despite the amount of trouble the two were in, Gneep was relieved to be heading home. Florp would never admit it, but she was grateful to return to the stars as well. Maybe on their next voyage they will get to see more of Earth. That is, if they’re ever let onto a flying saucer again.