Project Mogul was an US Airforce secret project to detect nuclear test acoustically with microphones mounted on high altitude balloons – Photo found at factrepublic.com
“Weather balloon my ass,” groused Bill Brazel, who was the first to find the wreckage. “Ain’t no weather balloon with all that machinery attached.”
“You settle down and eat your dinner and don’t stick your nose in the government’s business.” Bill’s wife Ethel sat down at the table with her own plate of stew.
“Trying to keep me out of trouble?”
Her face softened into a smile as she patted his forearm. “Just don’t want my husband getting mixed up in such things.”
“You’ve always been so good to me.” The cowboy smiled back.
The new Ethel’s thoughts drifted to the pod hidden in the corner of their basement, feeding off of the corpse of the original woman. Tonight it would duplicate and replace Bill. Tomorrow, they’d go to work on their neighbors, all thanks to the alien spores which had been inadvertently captured by the failed high altitude balloon.
I wrote this for the What Pegman Saw challenge. The idea is to take a Google Maps image/location and use it as the prompt for crafting a piece of flash fiction no more than 150 words long. My word count is 150.
Today, the Pegman takes us to Roswell, New Mexico. Naturally, my first thought was of the 1947 Roswell UFO Incident. While the government claimed it was a weather balloon that had crashed, by the 1970s and beyond, conspiracy theorists spread various ideas about one or more alien spaceships having been found near Roswell, and that the government had covered it up.
Actually, there was a government cover up, but no aliens were involved. It was a balloon that had crashed, but it was part of Project Mogul which “was a top secret project by the US Army Air Forces involving microphones flown on high-altitude balloons, whose primary purpose was long-distance detection of sound waves generated by Soviet atomic bomb tests.” The object that crashed was “a Project Mogul balloon, probably NYU Flight 4 launched June 4, 1947. Unlike a weather balloon, the Project Mogul paraphernalia was massive and contained unusual types of materials,” so it could have looked alien to the untrained eye.
I also leveraged the 1956 film Invasion of the Body Snatchers. If the alien takeover began near Roswell just over 70 years ago, would there be any humans left by now?
To read other stories based on the prompt, visit InLinkz.com.
Oh, ranch foreman Bill Brazel was the first person to find the wreckage, but the dialog and everything else about the scene in which I depict him is fictional.
poweredbyrobots.com 
Army/Air Force microphones my ass…
LoL
LikeLiked by 1 person
LOL. No, really (wink, wink).
LikeLike
I remember both versions of the Bodysnatchers films.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There were actually three. The original came out in 1956, the 1978 version starred Donald Sutherland and Leonard Nimoy, and I’ve never seen the 1993 movie.
LikeLike
I’ve missed the 1978 version then.
LikeLike
It was pretty good, but I’ll still love the original best.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I loved the old sci-fis.
LikeLike
I like the way you develop your story, James. You cut the ground from under our feet with that sudden ‘new’ in the description of Ethel and soon we’re looking nervously at the person next to us. Alien? Human? How can we tell?
Nice work!
LikeLiked by 1 person
In the “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” films, the alien replacements don’t express emotion, but in my version, they can fake it. As I recall, they’re basically plant matter mimicking animal matter, so I think if you cut one, it oozes green.
LikeLike
That first one is my favorite. Well done!
LikeLike
Thanks.
LikeLike
LOL! Great twist on the legend. I love a good body snatcher story.
LikeLike
Until they come for you, that is. Thanks, Karen.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Creepy, after a “domestic bliss” beginning. I agree with Penny, that “new” is your linchpin, transitioning us from the comforting to the terrifying. Very interesting research into an American legend that is alive and well.
LikeLike
Thank you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So wife is already replaced. Now husband’s turn. Creepy!
LikeLike
It’s supposed to be. Thanks.
LikeLike
You have mixed up facts and fiction nicely.
LikeLike
Facts are stranger than fiction, Sadje. Thanks.
LikeLiked by 1 person
😜
LikeLike
Dear James,
Good job on the story. Needs no explanation. 😉
Shalom,
Rochelle
LikeLike
Actually, it might for some. I’d never heard of Project Mogul before.
LikeLike
I still think it was aliens. Loved the movies too.
LikeLike
It’s funny that after the initial incident, the rumors died until they were revived in the 1970s.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This was proven by the hard work of one Robert G. Todd.
http://www.roswellfiles.com/storytellers/Todd.htm
LikeLike