Energy Consumption

A spindly man sits alone in a crowded bar. A bead of sweat drips from his neck through a cloud of smoke and laughter.

“We have to get out.”

“What are you going on about Blaine?” “Yeah, we’re sick of all your paranoid bullshit Blaine.” “Put a sock in it for once.”

“Danger is coming. They’ll suck out our souls.”

“Shut the hell up” “So help me Blaine, I’m going to come over there and smack you if you don’t…”

“They’re here! Run!”

Blaine stumbles out the door.

“What the hell got into that fella?”

The man who had been threatening Blaine falls over with a snap of electricity. He lays dead on the floor, beard soaking in a pool of spit and beer. His friends back away confused and scared. No bar room brawl can prepare you for a run in with the Reaper himself.

Another man has a spasm. Sparks fly from his body. He collapses like a marionette with cut strings. The others break for the door. Large flannel covered torsos jam the doorway as two more men fall to the floor. The bar strobes with flashes of lighting.

Headlines the next day tell of a freak lighting storms in crowded spaces. Old man Blaine is invited to share his take on these incidents in a televised interview.

“They think we’re food. That’s all we are to them. They’re here because they want to eat us.”

“Who is it exactly that you mean?”

“You know who. Call ’em whatever you want.”

“Is there a way to speak to them?”

“Lady, you can try talkin’ if you want to. I’m gettin’ as far the hell away as I can.”

Meanwhile in a mountain laboratory not far from city limits, a team of scientists is about to make a major breakthrough in the recent attacks. Dr. Susan Suong is using powerful telescopes and electro-magnets to pick up any strange signals from the areas recently hit by the strange phenomenon. What she observes is groups of humanoid organisms made completely of energy. Many seem to be looking in her direction. She suspects instantly that they feed on electricity or heat, both of which are produced by the human body, and coincidentally by the apparatus that she has just created. She sends her theory to her colleagues around the world.

An international effort is made to stop or open communication with the wraiths. Large energy pylons are set up all over the world in an attempt to attract the creatures away from population centers. This strategy works for a time but there simply is not enough energy available to keep the pylons active indefinitely. No line of communication is opened. No way of stopping the wraiths is discovered. They continue to roam the earth, killing as they may.

Perhaps if the people of the world had begun to research renewable energy sooner the pylons could have been kept active and thousands of lives could have been saved.