Death From Above

The next morning Amelia woke up in her bed. At least they didn’t put me back on the couch, she thought. She also thought she was completely crazy. She looked around her room at the blurry sight, but didn’t see the stranger. That’s when she knew she was really awake. She then reached over and grabbed her glasses, and looked at the clock. She was almost late for work.

She jumped out of bed and went straight to her closet. Thankful that she had showered before she passed out on the couch, she began to grab clothes from the closet to get dressed. She pulled off her pajamas and began to put on her pants, she happened to glance in the mirror and notice she looked a little thinner than usual, which is strange for someone who just had ice cream for dinner. She stopped to look at herself, then she shook her head wondering why she was even making time for this. She rushed and got dressed, then grabbed a cereal bar, a cup of coffee, along with her briefcase and ran out the door. She jumped in the car as fast as she could.

“Can’t be late again.” She said out loud to herself, as she pulled out of the driveway. She was speeding, as she normally had to on days like today. She quickly ate her cereal bar and drank her coffee on the way there, while zooming through traffic. She did not want to deal with Dr. Hubowski again.

When she arrived at the lab, she was ready to try and explain why she was late. However, when she walked in Dr. Hubowski was talking to a few military personnel. Teagan saw her and made a face that said the big shots are here. Amelia walked over to Teagan, and tried to listen as Teagan began talking as if it was the latest high school drama story, which was evidence enough that nothing ever happened around there.

“The general is here to see if we picked up anything exciting coming from space!”

“But, we haven't... Have we?” Amelia replied, wondering if she missed something.

“No, but the view is a lot nicer with them here.” Teagan said eyeing the younger ones.

“Could you at least act like you are a respectable team member?” Amelia asked nudging Teagan’s arm. “I know you are smarter than you sound right now.”

“You’re funny.” She said, as usual, not caring what Amelia thought. “Now if you don’t mind, I have some… observations to make.”

“That’s doesn’t sound much better.” Amelia stated, realizing she couldn’t do anything to help her friend. Then Teagan looked at her, realizing Amelia wasn’t going to join in on the fun.

“Don’t you have work to do?”

“That sounds a little better.” Amelia laughed, and walked over to her white board. She could hear the conversation from where she was, because they weren’t making much of an effort to be that quiet. Most of it was boring, with Dr. Hubowski explaining everything they have picked up and studied. However, when he was done, the general asked a very strange question.

“Have you picked up anything, extraterrestrial?” The General was very serious about it. He was an older man, who obviously spent most of his life in the military.

“No.” Answered Hubowski pretty quickly. “Despite the probability of life out there, we have seen no sign of it. If we have not found anything yet, I’m beginning to be doubtful we ever will.” However, the look the General gave him in response was unnerving enough to make him question everything about that statement. Then trying to keep his confident demeanor, he asked “Why don’t I just show you first hand what data we have?”

“I’d like that very much.” Stated the General, as if he would expect no less.

“Right this way General Jackson.” Hubowski said, leading them to another part of the lab. However, one of the men didn’t follow. Instead he walked up behind Amelia, while staring at the white board. He stood there, silent for a moment, while Amelia felt a bit uncomfortable.

He was tall, and in uniform. He had dark hair and blue eyes. His hair was short in a military cut. He stood with his hands behind his back, watching her work. She just hoped he wouldn’t decide to talk to her.

“What is this supposed to be?” He said, to her back because she chose not to face him.

“It’s just the prediction for how far away an asteroid will pass by Earth.” She was disappointed with his choice to talk to her, though something seem vaguely familiar about him.

“So what’s the verdict?”

“It’s going to be too far away to do anything to us, but we should be able to see it.” Her voice was very professional and she didn’t even look at him when she spoke.

“Well, that’s good news.” He said, obviously just making conversation.

“What is it that you are doing here, Mr.… um..”

“Schwartz. Lieutenant Aaron Schwartz.” He cut in. “And actually this is what I have to do.”

“What is this exactly?” She asked him curious as to why he and the general was here.

“Just making sure everything looks good up there.” He obviously wasn’t going to reveal much else. She stopped and looked at him curiously. The military snooping around acting strange reminded her of her so called dream last night. She thought back about the table she was on and the voices and the blurry figures she saw. She was obviously having a little anxiety about the realization of everything. She hoped he didn’t see her about to melt down. She was relieved when she saw he was looking at something else.

“What is this?” He says pointing to a piece of paper that she had doodles the symbols from her dream on. Her heart sank as she quickly thought up something to make him dismiss it.

“it’s just doodles, nothing important or work related.” She said sounding more nervous then she even meant to.

“I only ask, because I thought I saw these before.” His eyes were focused on them. A million questions rushed through her head, but the thing that stuck out the most was that if other people had seen them, then what she feared was real, and that was no dream.

“Probably a coincidence.” She casually stated to get him off the subject. He placed a card on top of the paper, and held his hand on top of it for a second before moving it. He then looked up at her.

“You aren’t the only one who have been seeing things like this.” He lingered for a second as she stared at him as if she was confused, and of course she was. He then walked off in the direction of the general. She looked down at the card, and picked it up. It had the name of what it described as a support group, Dreamcatchers. She would rather not go to a support group, the last thing she needed was pity. She shook her head and laid the card down with her stuff, then went over to her computer and tried to focus on her job.

Trying to focus on her work was difficult at the moment, but she tried to at least look over the satellite data from the asteroid. It doesn’t take long for her to notice things are slightly different again. She looks over and sees Dr. Hubowski is still busy, and decides it’s best not to bring him into this. With his reaction the day before, it was something she wanted to avoid. She begins to run the new numbers on the white board, the satellite data had it’s own math, but she had a job to do. Computer error has been a thing before, with funding lacking at times. So the white board was used to second guess the math. It turned out to be correct. The asteroid was now a mile off it’s original course. It was still going to miss earth, but something seemed rather strange about this. To avoid confrontation, she kept it to herself for the rest of the day.

That night was another stressful night. She sat there in bed staring at the mysterious man in her dreams, while his red eyes burned into her. She was surprised that she was still aware that is was a dream. She was capable of freethinking in her own dream which made it feel even stranger. She thought back to the night before with the strange figures, wandering if that was actually happening right now. It made the nightmare worse to think about it, but what choice did she have? The night felt like an eternity.

In the morning she awoke in her bed. Despite the horrible dream from the night before, she felt well rested. She looked around and could see her room more clearly than before. This made her grab her glasses and place them on, noticing a very small difference. Was her eyesight improving? Seemed like a lot of change for one night. She tried to push the thoughts aside for now, because today was her day off of work. She only wanted to take it easy.

She slips out of bed, and notices her pajamas were slightly more baggy than before. She looked in the mirror, and she was clearly thinner. She stared in disbelief for a bit, before smiling a bit. If she could lose weight without eating less, she was going to be happy about it. She went to her closet to pick out something to wear, as she debated going out later. It would be after she relaxed and had some coffee, but she still likes to plan her day.

She would only want to go out to run errands. She didn’t have a social life, even if at times she wanted one. She walked into the kitchen and fixed her coffee, and made some breakfast. After sitting down on the couch, she noticed the card for the support group. With the night before still fresh on her mind, she wondered if this group had seen exactly the same thing. It could either bring her clarity or make her look like a psycho. It was a mystery she had to solve, these nightmares were fabricated and she needed to know why. She finally let out a heavy sigh as she decided to go.

To be continued...