by Phoebe

Hooman #1
carries our finger-gloves
while Hooman #A
carries the chain
that once bound
the dilapidated
warehouse doors shut.

Buttercup takes the lead
into the darkness
behind the double doors,
and I guard the rear
with the silver hair
on her spine spiking
to intimidate my foes.

Buttercup
Be very quiet...

Hooman #A
You hunting wabbits?

Phoebe
We were quiet as lambs
until you opened
your tortoiseshell mouth
and got the hoomans
wound up
in Looney Tunes.

Hooman #1 turns on
her cellphone light
to dispel
the thickening dark.

That's when we see
a dozen lizardmen
staring back at us
from crouched positions
along cockroach-covered
walls, their eyes pinning
in the revealing glow
of hooman phone-light.

I shrill in terror
before I can get
ahold of myself,
which startles Hooman #1
into dropping
the finger-gloves,
and Hooman #2
into dropping
the chain.

Buttercup and I
turn to the cellphone light
to reflect its bright
power like lasers,
blasting several
of the approaching
lizardmen to dust.

Still one lizardman
gets too close,
so Hooman #A
picks up the chain
and swings it hard,
like an iron whip.

Buttercup
Pew pew pew!

We ricochet eye-beams
off the glinting iron chain
into a lizardman
who nearly
clubs me from behind.

Then the room stills
with lizardmen
turned to ash,
scattering into
the layers of dust
on the old
filing cabinets and shelves,
except the two lizardmen
Hooman #A knocked out,
who lie on the floor
looking half hooman
and half Babylonian.

Hooman #1 kneels
beside the bodies,
murmuring disbelief.

Hooman #1
Is this Dick Cheney
and Brett Kavanaugh?

Hooman #A
I killed
Cheney
and Kavanaugh...?

Buttercup
Nah.
These are Babylonians.
They're from
Centauri Proxima B,
not Earth.

Phoebe
So they killed
the hoomans you think
they look like;
or they hid hid 'em
in a coal mine
somewhere...
That's why
Orange Man
wants to keep
the coal mines
in operation.

Hooman #1
Is that really true?

Hooman #A
This world doesn't care
what's true
or what's not.

Hooman #1
Okay...well...
Do I keep
the cellphone light on?

As Buttercup and I
stand on our hinds,
we smile and nod
at Hooman #1,
then we don
our finger-gloves.