One day, Julian is going to be president of the United States. He can already picture himself with a clear electoral sweep. People are crying tears of joy over his decisive win. He can practically smell what he imagines the White House would smell like. However, his thoughts are thrown to the side when he hears his alarm clock going off.

He opens his eyes, staring up at the empty ceiling of his room. Alas, his dreams of success must be put on hold until he is actually old enough to be the president. For now, he’ll have to settle for Student Senator at his school - UC San Diego.

Julian manages to pull himself out of his bed onto shaky legs. The first thing on his to-do list as Student Senator is change the time the polls open. He can’t believe he has to get to the polling center at a ludicrous time like nine in the morning.

He checks the time on his phone: 8:00 am. He lets out a slow groan as he stretches his arms and legs. “The last time I had to get up this early was when I had that Physics lecture at 8:30 last quarter. Any self-respecting person should not have to get up until ten at the earliest,” he said to himself, knowing no one could hear him at this unthinkable time of day.

Nevertheless, he heads over to the bathroom to take a nice relaxing shower to wake him up. That’s one thing he actually likes about living in an on-campus apartment. It has surprisingly hot water that only takes a few seconds to heat up. Knowing this, he makes sure to take advantage of this hidden treasure by ensuring his showers are always just a notch below scalding.

Today is no different. Humming to himself, he sets the water to his usual temperature, and takes a look in the mirror before it has a chance to fog up. He sees his deep brown eyes staring back at him and makes a few poses, knowing full well how ridiculous he looks.

In the shower, he makes sure to make himself as clean as possible. After all, he wants to look his best at the polling place. The last thing he needs is for someone else to win all because he didn’t take the time to clean himself properly.

After turning the shower off and drying himself, he heads back to his room to get ready for the day. Even though today is incredibly special, he still decides to wear his usual attire: a t-shirt and jeans. After checking how he looks in a mirror, he declares himself ready for the day.

Leaving his room, he makes sure to grab his backpack and heads out the door. He is greeted by the gentle warmth of the sun as he pats himself down to make sure he has his keys, phone, and wallet. Turning around to face the ocean, he decides to stand there for a minute to enjoy the view. Thankfully, the ocean isn’t covered in haze today like it tends to at this time of year. After spending a bit of time admiring the ocean, he makes his way down the stairs and to the dining hall to grab himself some breakfast. After all, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. He wouldn’t dare sacrifice it to get to the polling place early.

Walking up to the hall, the doors slide open and he is assaulted by the sounds of the workers cooking food and students talking amongst themselves in their groups. Trying to ignore the onslaught of noise, he heads over to the counter to order his food. As per usual, he orders bacon and eggs - a classic. While he is waiting for the food to be prepared, he checks his phone. He browses the various social media apps growing evermore bored of the same repetitive content he always sees. He lets out a snort when sees an ad about alien abductions of all things. Thankfully, he is saved from his phone when his food is ready.

Coming to the conclusion that it would be nicer to eat outside rather than inside, Julian sets off toward the exit to find a table where he can enjoy his meal. It takes a bit, but he is able to spot an empty space a ways away from the dining hall.

He takes a seat and digs into his food. He can’t help but make a small face when he grabs a bite of the eggs as they’re a little overdone. However, Julian shrugs and shoves another mouthful of eggs into his open mouth. It’s not like he could expect much better from a dining hall of all places. At least it’s edible. He’s heard the survivor stories others have told him about food they’ve gotten from one of the dining halls. He is just glad he’s never had a terrible experience with the food at school.

Once he finishes up his food, he checks his phone to see the time. It’s almost nine.

“Crap, I need to get to the polling place!”

The others around him make questioning looks at him, but he ignores them, choosing to focus on cleaning his plate up and heading off to vote and ask others to vote for him. He has an election to win.

Julian slowly makes his way across campus to the polling place by walking along the various paths, all while making sure to avoid the areas that would be crowded or under construction.

He finally makes it over to the building where the election is taking place. “Wow. Would you look at that?” he said to himself, in mild disbelief at the fact he is actually running for office. It is a rather small and unimportant role, but it’s still handled through an election, which means it counts.

Arriving at the sight, Julian can’t help but feel underwhelmed by the lack of people. However, he doesn’t let this deter him from his goal of convincing as many people as possible to vote for him. He doesn’t have his Biology lecture until 11:30, which means he can spend the next couple of hours waiting for people to show up. But before he can do any of this, he needs to go vote himself. It is only after doing so that he can start his brief campaigning.

As the time goes by, Julian manages to speak with a number of students about the race and is able to convince around two thirds of them to take some time to vote for him. The rest claimed they needed to go to their next class. By the end of his time at the polling place, he had secured around a hundred people to vote for him. He hopes that’s enough people to turn the tide in his favor, if it isn’t already. He packs up his things and prepares to go to his Biology lecture.

He gets up and starts the walk over to the lecture hall, which happens to be on the other side of campus from where he is. He lets out a small sigh. “I hope I win the race. It’s about the only thing that will make this walk all the way to class worthwhile.”

Like what he did to get to the polling place, he makes sure to avoid the more crowded walkways. However, he is forced to turn around and take the busier way because his normal way is blocked off due to construction. Typical. Not willing to let it get him too down, he heads toward the bustling walkway where hundreds of students are in varying stages of rushing to their classes.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Julian stops in place. He can’t move. It’s like some force is pinning him down. Looking around, he notices that no one else is moving. Above him, a bird is frozen mid-flap.

What is going on? he thinks to himself. Something really weird is happening.

All of a sudden, a blinding light appears above him, followed by a series of robotic arms. The light fades a bit and Julian can see an actual spaceship above him. The awe fades quickly though as the arms reach down and grab him. All he can think about is how scared he is. If he could move around, he would. In fact, if whatever was keeping him still wasn’t there, he was sure he would have peed his pants by now.

He is dragged all the way to the spaceship, which must have been a hundred feet in the air at least, and through a hatch. The arms don’t let go of him until he is securely fastened to what looks like a bed. Looking around the room, Julian sees what looks like an… alien? He tries to speak but his vocal chords refuse to cooperate and all he can manage is some guttural sound.

Whatever the alien was, it looked hideous. It was at least seven or eight feet tall, but it couldn’t have been anything more than skin and bones. It was grotesquely skinny. But, the oddest factor of all were its three eyes. Julian had never seen anything like it.

The alien says something in its language Julian can’t understand. To him, it sounds as if someone put a metal spoon in a food disposer and left it running.

Julian tries to move against the straps holding him in place, but all he can manage is some slight wiggling. He’s stuck, and forced to endure whatever these aliens might want to do with him.

All of a sudden, the thing moves up to him and pulls out a needle. Julian tries to squirm away but to no avail. The alien jabs his arm with it, and his consciousness slowly fades away.

Fuck.