What they came for

“It’s almost dawn we have to go” she said as the sun began to leak thru the dust scattered across the mountain tops of what used to be London, Ky. That was before “They” came and life as we know it changed forever. I can still remember the smell of the weapon they used to level the entire eastern part of the United States. It burns in my nose from time to time like an erie reminder of the fate I barley escaped. If Uncle Tom hadn’t pushed me and Carla into the underground cellar just before the explosion I’m not sure we would have made it. I’m not sure how many others made it, but we heard a signal on an old battery powered radio Uncle Tom kept down in the cellar telling any survivors to meet down in what used to be Knoxville, Tennesse so that’s where we are going. We had to move during the day and hide at night. That’s when “They” were active. We haven’t seen them yet but we can definitely hear them at night flying around. You could feel an electric vibration in the air whenever they are near. We guess they sleep during the day like some form of vampirism alien species but that’s just speculation. This is all too new to really have any answers it’s only been a week since the explosion an only the second time we was brave enough to leave the cellar. “Are you ready” Carla asked. You could see it in her eyes she was afraid but she was too stubborn to let me know that. We couldn’t stay in the cellar any longer we had run out of supplies so we had no other choice but to find somewhere to go. We walked for miles it seemed without saying a word. I think we was both just determined to get as far as we could before nightfall started to set in. Finally in the distance I seen the place where the sign used to be to mark the Tennessee border. “We have to find a place to stay now” she demanded and I knew she was right. Neither of us could fathom the idea of being without shelter. “Just a little farther” I said hoping she would agree. “ No we don’t have time “ she said with a growl in her voice and I knew it wasn’t a good idea to challenge her. As much as I hated to admit it my sister always tried to look out for me. “I think I see a cabin up ahead in the woods, let’s see if we can stay there.” She said so I began to follow her up the side of the mountain. We knocked on the door and looked in the windows but no one appeared to be inside so I picked the lock and we finally opened the door of the cabin. “This looks like it will work for the night” Carla said “Try and get some sleep we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow “ so I unrolled my sleeping bag and laid it on the old dusty floor of the rustic cabin and laid down to try and rest. The silence filled the room and all you could hear is the click of the Heart shaped locket opening and closing that Carla kept around her neck. Daddy gave it to her the day he died and she has kept it firmly wrapped around her neck since that day. I was too young to remember him but she was very close to him and would often tell me stories about the adventures they had when she was my age. She was 8 years older than me and I was only a year when he passed. “You miss him don’t you?” I asked and she paused for a long time before she answerd. She took a deep breath and said “ more and more each day, if daddy was here he would know what to do.” She said as her voice began to crack and I could tell the question was hard to answer. “What is inside the locket? I asked but her tone immediately changed and she almost seemed mad I even asked. “None of your business!” She said as she rolled over to face the cabin wall. “Now go to sleep” so I just laid there and stared at the ceiling until I drifted into a dream.

Suddenly I’m an shaken awake by a hand around my mouth and a “shhhhh” in my ear. It took me a moment to come to my senses and realize where I was. I could feel the electric buzz in the air and I knew “They” must be close. I jumped up and quickly gathered my things in the case we had to leave in a hurry. As we stood there in terror we heard a loud thump on the roof of the cabin and the creaking of the wood as something walked across the rooftop. Carla looked at me with fear in her eyes and motioned me to follow her towards the back of the cabin and crouched next to an open window. We sat there waiting for the inevitable to happen but it never came. They must have left because we never heard anymore sounds and the electric buzz seemed to dissipate. So we sat there in silence until the sun began to rise on a new day and we knew we was finally safe. “Wonder what they came here for?” I asked curiously as Carla opened the door to the Cabin. “I don’t care why they came but we have to find a way to make them go away” she stated as she stepped out on the forest floor and we began walking south towards Knoxville again. In the far distance tftcdecc effect e fcould see smoke and subconsciously headed in that direction.

I’m not sure why but I kept replaying that conversation over and over in my head. I couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t tell me what was inside of the heart shaped lockett. Why would she keep something like that a secret? Then my mind began to wander as we walked. What could it be? A picture of daddy and her was the obvious and most simple explanation and maybe it pained her to speak about it, but maybe it was something more. The ideas flowed thru my head as fast as the water that rushed over the Cumberland falls and began to take a dark twist. What if she has something secret inside the Lockett, maybe alien dna from the species that invaded our planet? Nonsense I thought how would that even be possible? We just now realized we are not alone in the galaxy she couldn’t possibly have alien dna inside of a heart shaped lockett our daddy gave her. Still my mind began to wonder and I found myself pondering about the possibility of the lockett being the reason for the invasion. Finally I became so overwhelmed with questions I blurted out the same question I had asked inside the cabin. “Whats inside the lockett?” Carla stopped dead in her tracks almost made me bump into her and she turned around and gave me the meanest look I had ever seen her blue eyes give. “None of your damn business “ she screamed and I was almost shocked to see her take such a tone over a simple question. At this point I can feel my blood begin to boil and I begin shaking as I contemplated what I was gonna say back but the words never found there way to my tongue and sat in the pit of my stomach like acid eating away at my desire for any kind of confrontation so I brushed past her and kept walking in the direction of the smoke still engulfing the treetops ahead. I’m not sure why but I wanted to blame her. I wanted to scream “this is all your fault”. I wanted to kick and scream and take all my anger out on her for everything that had happened and all the people we had lost but instead I said nothing and kept putting one foot in front of the other until I could smell the smoke we had been walking towards. As we came into the valley we could hear people somewhere in the distance and I smiled because for the first time in over a week other than the radio transmissions I knew other humans had survived little did I know things were about to turn from bad to awful.

Just as we walked into a clearing towards the sound of people we heard the clicking of guns and a loud voice screaming “ get on the fucking ground” I looked up and what seemed like the entire military had us surrounded with automatic weapons pointed directly at our heads. “ I won’t ask again, get on the fucking ground” the voices shouted again. I immediately fell to my knees next to my sister and we both layed flat on the ground with our heads down and waited for what seemed to be our impending doom. As we waited for what seemed a lifetime a man walked up and with a loud voice and said” what’s your business here?” I wasn’t sure if I should answer so I remained quiet but my sister wasn’t as shy. “ We heard a radio transmission with instructions for all survivors to come to Knoxville “ my sister exclaimed with a shaky voice. “ well you come to the wrong place, seize them” the man said and the men in uniforms quickly grabbed us and took us into a dark building and locked us in separate rooms. I layed there for hours and hours wondering what mess we had fallen into when I heard the squeaking of the door thru the wall where the had put my sister. I could overhear the conversation very faintly. “ Did you bring it?” I heard the man say. “ Yes general, daddy told me to find you if something like this was to happen” I layed there confused wondering what other secrets my sister had been keeping from me. Did she know more than she told me? Obviously she knew who the General was so that much had clearly been kept from me. Then my mind instantly rememberd the heart shaped Lockett and I concluded that must be what they had been referring too. That’s why she didn’t want to tell me. I knew daddy was part of an elite military group but I had no idea it was this serious. As I tried to eavesdrop on the conversation I fell asleep against the cold hard wall of the room where I was being kept.

The chirping of birds wake me up and I find myself laying in my bed. Overcome with confusion I sat up and tried to make sense of everything. Did I really just dream all this? Had the world not been attacked by an alien species? I rushed to my window and peep outside to find everything was perfectly normal. There was no explosion, no military, no aliens. How did I make up such an extraordinary dream in my mind? Then I remember the Lockett around my neck daddy gave me last week and I grasp it and laugh to myself. I have to stop watching so many apocalyptic documentaries at night I say to myself as I walk down the stairs to find Uncle Tom and Daddy sitting in the kitchen having a cup of coffee reading the daily news paper with the headline “What they came for” maybe it wasn’t a dream but instead a premonition of things to come.