Death From Above

Darkness. There was nothing but darkness. No sound. No sight. Memories began to swirl around in the dark. Memories of a better time. Amelia with her parents, at school, at home, and even memories at her job. All happy memories that suddenly seemed sad to look back at. Even a longing memory of Hubowski criticizing her work. The memories were blurred reflections of what used to be. One by one they faded off into the darkness once more to be replaced by an extremely loud whirring sound that flooded her ears.

Suddenly her eyes burst open along with a loud gasping breath that was instantly drowned out by the sounds of the helicopter she was apparently in. Her vision was blurred for a moment, however, she quickly got a clear image of Aaron and Teagan looking over her seemingly happy she was awake. She could not hear anything they were saying, but when they got her sat up, they gave her a headset so that she could.

“What happened?” Amelia wasted no time in asking, as she wished to be filled in. The last thing she remembered was the monstrous Vreksus chasing her.

“You killed that thing!” Teagan quickly blurted out.

“You shot it in the head, then it landed on you. Hitting the pavement knocked you out.” Aaron added, give a bit more detail. “But Dr. Hubowski didn’t make it.”

Amelia was flooded with the emotions of the mental image of her old boss being killed right in front of her. She didn’t cry, she merely stared off in a bit of shock as everything else that happened also came rushing back. She didn’t have time to weep, the world was now at risk for complete annihilation. What was even worse was that the president was being mind controlled by the Vreksus, and launched nukes at their last hope.

“What about the Xiza?” She finally asked, after her moment of reflection on the events. It was a question that didn’t get a verbal answer. Teagan and Aaron both shared a look of sadness and despair. Teagan pulled up her phone and showed Amelia the reports that were blowing up social media. Amelia grabbed the phone and scrolled through shared videos, articles and pictures of large alien spacecraft from all over the world, crashing and burning to the ground.

Disbelief was all over Amelia’s face. I was a look that slowly shifted to a defeated expression. Time was up and the asteroid would be arriving in earth’s atmosphere in an extremely short amount of time. She handed her friend the phone back, and looked out the side of the helicopter as what felt like a panic attack began to set in.

However, she was not allowed to break down and grieve. Upon looking at the city below, she noticed something heading towards the helicopter. As it got closer it became very apparent that this was a Vreksus that had launched itself at the helicopter. There was no time for Amelia to react. She had only managed half a gasp when it hit the side of the helicopter near the tail. The pilot swore under his breath as he gripped the controls tighter and tried to steady it.

“Hang on!” The pilot called out, even though his advice wouldn’t help them too much. The Vreksus dug its claws into the hull of the helicopter, half tearing the tail off. With claws that cut through metal, being able to handle being shot multiple times, along with mind controlling tentacles, Amelia had her doubts they would be able to fight this thing if they manage to survive a helicopter crash.

This fact, however, only fueled the flames within her. Her anger began to lash out again. As the Helicopter began spinning out of control, she screamed out. Only it wasn’t in fear, unlike Teagan’s screams. This was anger. In her mind, hope was lost, and she was dead anyway. This didn’t mean she had to be happy about it. She reached and grabbed the gun off Aaron’s coat as he tried to hold on. He only managed to offer a look as if she was crazy. Amelia began firing out at the Vreksus.

“Leave my planet alone you son of a…” She didn’t get to finish her killing one liner, when she felt the recoil of the Helicopter hitting something. After that, everything went black once more. This time there would be no memories of the past, just the usual Xiza symbols she used to see when sleeping.

Amelia suddenly woke up in her bedroom. She looked around and nothing seemed out of place. Even her old glasses were still sitting on the nightstand. For a moment she felt safe, as if everything was just a bad dream. She sighed to herself and rubbed her face. Something felt wrong about this though. When she raised her face from her hands she saw the strange figure standing in the corner of her room. The same old figure with the trench coat and hat, with blacked out features. At the sight of this her heart breaks once more. Her experience was no dream.

“Please, don’t keep me here.” She began to plead with the figure. “If Earth is doomed, I don’t want to spend my last moments as your prisoner.”

The figure didn’t move, and remained silent for a moment. Amelia felt as if she could cry, but being in her mind, she had no real tears to shed.

“Please, you took me and gave me false hope that you could save us. You owe me this much.” She finally pleaded once more.

“You are right. We owe you much.” The figure spoke, using the voice of her father once more. “You may wake up, and see the dusk.” The words were less than comforting, but at least she would be released from her mental prison. She soon began to lose all feeling in this dream state, as her vision faded to black. The Xiza symbols floating in the void once more.

Amelia opened her eyes and saw a blinding light. Once her vision gained some focus she could see it was a light that was on the ceiling. She sat up and looked around, seeing many people laying down on tables. It was very similar to her first experience waking up on the alien ship. Fortunately, everyone had their clothes on this time, including her. She saw Aaron laying on the table next to her just as he did before. She continued to look around to see one of the Xiza approaching her. It frightened her for a moment, but she tried to remain calm. As the xiza approached, suddenly, the memories of what happened before this point came back to her.

“The helicopter, what happened?” Amelia couldn’t see her friend, Teagan, here in the ship. The Xiza replied in its chattering language, but she was able to understand.

“You and your friend over there were the only survivors.” The Xiza said, referring to Aaron. This devastated Amelia, she could no longer hold back all the tears she has been preventing herself from crying. On top of everything else, she now lost her best friend.

“You were supposed to save us! Why weren’t you ready in time?” Amelia asked out of desperation. With tears in her eyes, she looked up at the Xiza wondering if everything was for nothing. She needed some hope that everything wasn’t doomed.

“We knew the Vreksus were aware of our presence, but we were unaware how much they knew.” The Xiza began to explain. “By our first calculations, we still had six more months to prepare. Our goal was to have humanity off world with a month to spare. We… were wrong.” The Xiza’s face was filled with a remorse. The disappointment at their failure gave the Xiza a very human feel, that wasn’t there previously. “Now we have doomed ourselves just as much as you have been doomed. Not all hope is lost, however. We can survive in this ship. Our kinsman can survive in theirs. We could not withstand your weapons, but our ships can still provide adequate shelter from the fallout.”

Then, the Xiza turned and gestured towards a wall that opened to reveal a window. The Xiza would then walk closer to the window and Amelia would slide off the table and follow it. The sky was a fiery red, though it wasn’t a sunset. Amelia’s eyes were still glazed over with her tears as the light reflects off of them.

“Then what will happen to us?” Amelia exhaustedly asked. “Can we even come back from this?”

“We can, and we will.” The Xiza spoke with a hint of hope. The hope Amelia had been blindly looking for. “All the humans we have taken before, we have taken again. I am also certain that more humans out there will find a way to survive.” The Xiza then looks down at Amelia. “I’m truly sorry we could not save your world, but if we work together, we can stop the Vreksus from keeping it.”

Amelia did not look back at the Xiza. She kept looking out he window as the asteroid became visible in the atmosphere. Amelia didn’t want to watch, but she couldn’t bring herself to look away. The flames as the atmosphere attempted to burn it up were easily visible as well. When it finally impacted, there was a bright flash of light, as the earth itself reacted and exploded upon being hit. Dirt was thrown into the air hundreds of miles and the landscape was completely destroyed. Suddenly the light coming through the window were blocked out, and the lights in the ship went out. Once again, there was only darkness. The only sound other than the roaring destruction outside was the sound of Amelia falling to her knees sobbing for a world that once was.

The end…?