Death From Above

Amelia couldn’t believe it. She stared at the readings on the screen for a long moment. Teagan, Dr. Hubowski, and everyone else in the lab, stood around in silence. The asteroid was on its way to earth, and it was going to hit in 24 hours.

“I need to contact General Jackson,” Hubowski stated quickly, breaking the silence. He then storms off in a hurry to make the call.

“What are we going to do?” Teagan asked, sounding panicked. She begins pacing the floor and breathing heavily. “I don’t want to die! There’s so much I haven’t done! What about my grandma? I haven’t called her in a while!.”

“Teagan, this isn’t helping.” Amelia interrupted as she took a picture of the readings with her phone. “The Xiza said they would help us.” She sends the picture to Aaron, and gave a quick summary of her experience over text, as she tries to warn him not to let anyone blow up the aliens. She follows up by trying to call him and not getting an answer.

“Oh? Your alien dream friends that are about to eat nukes? What are they going to do with billions of people in 24 hours?” Teagan snaps back, frantically upset about the fact that the world is ending. She continues pacing back and forth, chewing on her fake fingernails.

“Teagan.” Amelia said somberly as she stood up. She walked over and wrapped her arms around her friend. “I’m sorry. We will try to find a way through this, ok?”

Teagan pulls back from the hug, and it looks as if tears are about to fill her eyes. She takes a deep breath, holding back the tears and nods. She hoped Amelia was right, and she usually was.

Amelia then pulls away slowly, trying to call Aaron again. However, once more, he doesn’t answer. She looks at her phone in a silent frustration. It was all she could do not to lash out angrily. She was about to attempt another call, when Dr. Hubowski entered the lab once again.

“I can’t get through to the general!” He spoke out loudly so everyone could hear him from across the lab. “Looks like we need to take a trip.” He points to Amelia and Teagan, “you two are coming with me. Everyone else, stay here and monitor. Inform me if anything changes.”

“Why do I have to go?” Teagan asked, sounding disappointed that she can’t just sit there and worry.

“Because I don’t trust you here unsupervised.” Hubowski said with a sly look, that made it seem like a joke. Amelia and Teagan looked at each other for a moment in confusion. Hubowski was never a funny man. Amelia didn’t have time to question her bosses odd response to pressure, and she started walking quickly in his direction. Teagan would reluctantly follow.

Dr. Marcos Hubowski lead them up to the roof where a helicopter, that he usually rode for important business, was already fired up and ready to go. The sound from it drowned all other noises, so Hubowski just waves the two women towards it. Hubowski climbs in, followed by Amelia and Teagan. Teagan sits beside Amelia, while Marcos sits across from them. They all hurry and strap themselves in their seats. They would also put on head sets so they can talk.

“We need to get to the Air Force Base!” Hubowski tells the pilot through the headset. Then, in the matter of moments, the helicopter starts to take off.

In the Air Force base, a door opens and Aaron steps out. His face was both nervous and frustrated. He was just interrogated about what he had found while among the aliens. They had asked him about weapons, shields, tactics, and many other things he wasn’t trying to get too close of a look at while there. The only thing he really remembers is the creature that was in his head. He told them all he did know, and that wasn’t much.

He tried to clear his mind a bit and went to pick up his personal belongings that they didn’t let him have during the questioning. He picks up his keys, wallet, and phone, looking each over. His phone had fifteen missed calls and multiple texts. He unlocks his phone and sees they were all from Amelia. He checks the texts before attempting to call her back, to see if what she was calling about would be explained. The picture of the computer screen along with the story of Amelia’s unique encounter was in the texts. His heart feels like it sinks to his stomach as suddenly the most horrifying realization came over him. He had done the wrong thing.

With the phone in hand, he turns around and runs back to the room he was questioned in. There were two men in the room, the same ones that conducted the whole thing. They were discussing Aaron’s answers when, Aaron himself, stormed in. They look up at him their brows furrowed with confusion. However, before they could open their mouths to speak, Aaron was next to them, with his hands on the table.

“I need to talk to General Jackson,” He blurted out. “I just learned the truth about all of this. He needs to stop!”

“I’m afraid you can’t talk to the General, Lt. Schwartz. “ The man to his left said bluntly. “He is en route to the president, and the president is already informed on the situation.”

“You don’t understand,” Aaron cut in. He then sets his phone on the table with his texts messages open. “We have an asteroid heading this way, and these aliens are the only ones who can stop it. The creature in my head must have been lying.” He was trusting Amelia’s story completely. It even surprised him, how much he was willing to let go of his already made up mind. Her story did have proof of the asteroid going for it, though.

“Who sent these messages?” The same man spoke out, as both the men looked at them. “Who’s word are we just supposed to take? Did you tell your confidential information to whoever this is? It says here you shouldn’t blow them up, which sounds like they know.”

Aaron paused for a minute, he didn’t want to put Amelia in trouble. He also wanted to not ruin his own credibility by admitting he wasn’t alone in this. So he told most of the truth instead.

“She’s works at HSMA labs,” he decided to put out first. “She is also in the support group the General told me to put together. She’s been visited by them often and, as stated in the messages, she was again.” His eyes shifted between the two men to see if they were believing him, even though it was true. “She knows who I work for, so she’s probably mentioning blowing them up because she’s worried we would.”

“You want us to believe that we are supposed to be saved by these aliens that have been abducting our people? And how can we trust these readings? This is just a picture, I can’t even read this.” The man who had been speaking poured his doubts into Aaron’s sudden change of story based on the messages of someone who could be crazy. However, he was suddenly interrupted by someone else coming into the room.

“Sir, we have some visitors, they are here to talk about our problem.” The man who entered stated in a hurry. Aaron and the two men all traded looks.

“That must be her.” Aaron simply stated, breaking the silence.

Dr. Hubowski’s helicopter had landed on the runway at the base. The three passengers were waiting just outside the helicopter beside some base personnel, while the pilot remained inside the cockpit. From across the base came a jeep carrying Aaron and the two men who had just been questioning him. Amelia couldn’t tell if the two men were military or what their rank would be, seeing that they only wore black suits. Seeing Aaron, however, gave her some relief. She was beginning to worry that something had happened to him. The only thing she could hope now, was that it wasn’t too late. When the jeep pulled up to them, the three men climbed out and walked over.

“We have reason to believe that an asteroid is heading for Earth, and that the extra-terrestrials may be willing to help stop it.” Dr. Hubowski would begin, as the men approached. “We cannot let anyone act hastily when it comes to making a decision about having to attack these beings.”

“Considering your professional line of work, Dr., we can take your word about the asteroid, but we will need a lot more evidence to believe that these things that have been abducting our people.” One of the two suited men would state quickly with a fairly blank expression, considering the circumstances.

“All the more reason to use caution” Hubowski cuts in quickly, “This whole situation won’t even matter if that asteroid hits, it is more important and urgent.” The back and forth carried on, but the voices faded out as Amelia was visibly losing her patience about this situation. She was no longer focusing on what they were saying, since there wasn’t any solutions being given.

“Are you alright?” Aaron asked her after noticing her acting weird.

“No, the world is ending, and instead of talking to the General, we are arguing over small details.” She vocalized her opinion loudly, causing everyone else to fall silent.

“The General is not here, he is meeting with the president.” The black suited man, who was arguing with Hubowski, spoke up.

“Well, maybe we need to go talk to the president too, since we can’t get anywhere here!” Amelia’s words were hardly ones she took seriously, but she was at least trying to point out how pointless this conversation was. However, it seemed that the two men in the black suits thought the gesture was funny. As a matter of fact, their entire demeanor changed. They both pulled guns from their coats and pointed them at the group, specifically Amelia and Hubowski.

“No.” The suited man spoke plainly “News of this asteroid is going no where, and neither are you.” The men didn’t plan on saying much more and that became obvious as his finger begins to press against the trigger. Aaron leaped in and pushed the man’s arm down and away as a shot rang out and a bullet hit against the pavement. The two men wrestled over the weapon, as the other suited man aims his gun for Aaron. Much to everyone’s surprise, the other base personnel that were present began to grab the second man to help Aaron. They had heard enough of the conversation to know this was the right thing.

“Start the helicopter!” Hubowski shouts out as he makes a dash to climb aboard. Teagan was close behind him. Amelia found herself staring blankly at the struggle between the suited man and Aaron. Having been seconds from death made her freeze, but she soon snapped out of it and got on board as the loud engines began to whir. Aaron finally took the gun from the man and pointed it at him, and the other men there grabbed him as well.

“Go, we’ll take care of things here,” The base personnel called out, “Go save the world!” Aaron nodded and kept the gun and climbed aboard the helicopter. In moments the helicopter was up off the ground. Their only hope now, was to make it to the Pentagon. That is where the meeting will be held. What were the odds they would even be let in?

To be continued…