"Maybe aliens aren't all that terrifying." Quite a few people actually began to think that way.
Perhaps the aliens had abducted the President and the others out of nothing more than curiosity.
Yet they seemed to have forgotten that the aliens had not merely abducted everyone in the White House—they had also razed it to the ground.
Even the Vice President was dumbfounded when he saw the President.
His feelings were decidedly complicated.
On the one hand, he hoped someone would take this mess off his hands. On the other, he had still harbored hopes of inheriting the presidency.
Now that the President had returned, he could forget about becoming president himself. Of course, that also meant he no longer had to worry about dealing with all those headaches.
The original team returned to Washington. Although the White House was gone, finding somewhere to work was easy enough for this small group of the most powerful people in the country.
Immediately afterward, the President issued an Address to the People of the World.
"The aliens have directed their military might toward Earth. I hope the people of every nation will stand united..."
The President did not begin by saying whether he had been abducted by aliens, nor did he explain how he had led everyone to escape. There was nothing he could do about that—he was confused himself.
When he woke up, he was already on the outskirts of Washington. Nearly a thousand people lay packed together before him, every last one of them accounted for.
The President vividly remembered what had happened after their abduction, but none of them had any idea where they had been taken.
At the Alien Base on the moon, the language barrier had prevented them from learning where they were. Their subsequent rescue had