6 Burial

It had clear skin so they could see its organs, and it had five holes in that which had oozed a green substance. Attached to its tentacles were claws, and it had the eight eyes of a spider. Down its neck were some sort of triangular indents - gills, Asher realized - which were also oozing.

"Oh my god," Cain gasped. "I have to go outside."

"Relax, its dead," Asher breathed, letting out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.

"Are you sure?!" PJ screeched. "This is an ALIEN!!! IT MIGHT JUST BE HIBERNATING!"

"You know, I'm kinda glad I didn't come in now," Miriam shouted down from the hole, her voice echoing. Asher nearly jumped straight into the corpse he was so surprised. He'd somehow managed to forget she was there.

"I'm coming up to join you," Cain declared as he walked to the back of the ship shamefully.

"What are we going to do about this?" PJ fretted. "Its an alien. A literal alien! I'd usually never recommend this, but we should get someone else involved."

"Ugh, we already had this conversation. We shouldn't call the Men in Black, or whatever their name is. I don't want to forget this. This is great," Adah said.

"I don't want this to be taken from us either," Asher smoothly stated. "I wouldn't be able to research anything if this craft was taken away from me."

They all stood in silence for a minute, all of them staring at the alien corpse.

"Well, its dead. The honorable thing to do would to be giving it a funeral," Adah remarked.

The blonde girl crossed her arms. "I'm not touching that."

"You won't have to. We're all wearing gloves," Adah told her. "How'll we get it up the ladder though?"

Asher had squeezed his nose and pushed past the chair, and was now looking at the 'keyboard'. All of the keys were the same, runes, a line, then more runes. But the more he looked, the more he thought the runes were familiar.

What could they be? Gaelic, roman…. Or Egyptian! He thought.

"PJ, you know that one Egyptian Alien theories that you're so obsessed with?" He asked.

PJ's eyes shone brighter than diamonds. "Yes?" She asked.

"Did you ever really learn any Ancient Egypian hieroglyphics?"

"A tiny bit," she said.

"Well, I think this keyboard has some," he told her.

"Really!?!" PJ shouted.

"Yep, just look at the upper half of the keys and tell me if you can find anything. Do not press anything," Asher told her.

"I won't, but I think I know enough. We'll be up and flying before midnight!" She declared.

"I don't think so. This thing is busted. I put a hole through the roof," Adah remarked, but PJ was too focused on the keyboard to react.

After a minute she put her hands on her hips and declared, "This has no value. I don't know anything on here."

"Does your phone have any translator?" Adah asked.

"No service. We are under two feet thick of metal, though this thing might be immune to radio waves or something. Perhaps thats why it was undetected," PJ said. "Besides, ancient egyptian isn't something you'd typically find on google translate."

"I can download an app later," Asher told them.

Adah nervously glanced at the chair, the one splattered with alien guts. "What are we going to do about that?" She asked.

"You said it yourself. Give it a burial," Asher replied with a shrug.

"Alright," Adah said, and then padded towards the back of the ship to call up, "Get some shovels, a cardboard box, and cleaning supplies. We're bringing Mr Harbringer to rest."

"Mr Harbringer? Doesn't that seem… disrespectful?" PJ asked.

"Well, its better than just calling it a corpse," Adah defended.

Fifteen minutes later Cain and Miriam got back with the supplies. Cain and Adah, the two strongest people in the group, were going to dig the grave while PJ and Asher removed the corpse.

Miriam had thought to bring in some of his test tubes and petri dishes, so he'd gather samples. Once he got home, he was going to store it in the basement fridge. No one ever really used that one, except for extra icecream and food for his older sister when she was visiting from college.

Asher and PJ, both with two layers of gloves, began scooping the remains into a medium-sized box. The remains were mostly liquified, so a garbage bag had been gutted and taped into the box.

"We're going to have to throw these gloves in there once its over," PJ muttered.

"Relax, I bet my mama can get us two more boxes," Asher said. One of his moms worked as a nurse in the ER. The other one worked for Wildlife Services, and because of that Adah was allowed to help out at the local animal rehabilitation clinic.

"Uh-huh," PJ went as she put the last of the remains into the box. Next, they got out rags and began to clean the chair off. It was fully metal, so it wasn't a problem, except for the couple of buttons on the side. After that, PJ went haywire with the febreeze as Asher slowly went up the ladder, box in hand.

As he stood up, he could see his twin, Cain, and Miriam digging the hole. It was a tiny bit into the woods, close to a tree where the soil would be softer than the typical Alabama mixture. It was just over a feet deep.

"How haven't you gotten much done yet?" Asher shouted, setting down the 'casket'.

Cain ran up to the craft, and Asher could see his face was flooded with sweat. "It is the middle of summer in Alabama. Give us another hour," he said.

Slowly, Asher lowered down the box to Cain, who then exclaimed, "This thing is lighter than it looks!"

Asher nodded. "Yea, I know." He was not the most athletic person.

The boy with glasses called down to PJ, "Get up here. We're going to bury Mr Harbringer soon."

Cain chuckled and nearly dropped the box. "Mr Harbringer?" He roared.

"That's what she's calling him," Asher affirmed.

Just a tiny bit later, they were all standing by the hole under the shortleaf pine. It was not six feet down, but it'd work.

"Soo…. we're supposed to give a eulogy, right?" Cain said, nervously cracking his knuckles as if he thought the corpse was going to rise from the dead.

"Yes. I'll start," Asher replied, taking a breath in. "Even though we didn't know you, you were probably a nice alien."

"Thank you, for even in death your sacrifice will not be in vein," PJ went.

After a minute of silence, Asher asked: "Anyone else?"

Everyone kinda shuffled around and looked away.

"Alright," Asher said. Cain lowered the 'casket' into the ground and dirt began to rain down onto the cardboard.