The light in the field

"Quick! Run!" Ricky yelled grabbing my hand and hauling me towards the old barn.

We had been walking and chatting quietly through the farm with the sun setting behind us. We checked on the animals and closed pens and gates each evening while talking about our day.

The calm had completely left Ricky's voice. I heard the terror but my mind couldn't piece together what was happening.

I heard a soft buzzing and turned my head to look over my shoulder towards the setting sun as it seemed to get darker suddenly. Something blocked the sun completely, a large triangular dark shape loomed on the horizon but hurtling towards us.

Suddenly, the wind picked up, my skirt billowing around my pumping legs, my hair blowing in my face, leaves flying past us. The buzzing turned to a hum growing louder and louder and the sky got darker. The fear in my chest sent tingling to my fingers.

A light flashed on the field to our right, then another farther ahead to our left near our house.

Ricky pulled me inside the barn and slid the door shut, slamming the lock into place.

"What is it?" I yelled over the din.

Ricky stared at the closed door. "I have no idea," he said with a shaking voice.

I stepped forward and looked through the gaps in the wood. Beams of light swept the field and the wind had the long grass of the field lying flat. The noise was getting louder. The sound reminded me of a helicopter but with reverberations that I could feel in my bones and stung my inner ear.

The animals were screaming in panic and I could see them running in their pens and the chickens hiding. The two horses in the barn with us were shuffling their feet and were obviously beginning to get distressed.

Everything stopped. The silence felt like I had lost my hearing after the deafening noise.

A light hit the entire barn. It streamed through the gaps in the walls, through the holes in the roof. The dust hung in the air, floating slowly through the shafts of light.

Goosebumps and a cold sweat broke out across my body. Some ancient instinct telling my body to run, escape.

The roof crashed in and smashed on the dirt floor sending splinters of wood and panels of roofing flying across the ground. The horses screamed in the corner and Ricky yelled behind me.

I turned to see that a piece of the roof had hit Ricky. It was jutting out of his leg, covered in rust and blood. He sat down hard staring in horror at his bleeding thigh. I ran to him trying to stop the bleeding with my hands.

A light from above hit us. It was so bright and powerful I could feel it on my skin.

I shielded my eyes to look up into the belly of the floating beast of a ship above us.

Ricky spasmed under my hand. His body started to shudder violently, froth forming at the corners of his mouth and a wheezing sound came from him.

His body began to levitate, slowly lifting. I pushed down on him with both hands. His leg now forgotten. He floated higher and I grabbed his leg as he moved past my head but I couldn't pull him down. As my feet lifted off the ground my hold slipped and I fell back to earth.

A moment of clarity hit me and I bolted for the back of the barn. I opened the horses gate and the small back door. I grabbed the mane and threw my leg over, kicking the horse into a gallop towards the house.

The sound started again and my breath hitched in my throat.

The horse fell beneath me sending me flying and landing hard on the dirt out side the house.

I ran up the stairs and hurtled into the house locking the door behind me and moving towards the basement. I missed a step, twisting my ankle on the way down. I hid under the shelf beside the washing machine.

A rhythmic banging started above me.

BANG. BANG. BANG.

Then the crashing and crumbling started. The house was falling. The single light bulb in the basement fluttered and went dark.

The floor above fell and I was not crushed only because the shelf and washing machine held the beams but the shelf was cracking.

Light burst around me, filtering in through the gaps and giving me pinpricks on the skin it touched. The rubble began to lift around me and then I lifted with it.

The last thing I saw was the light. I was filled with it. I was the light.

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