It was “one of those things,” you know? Where were you when it happened?
I remember so well. I was with my mother, we were out getting ice cream; it had been a long day and we both needed the distraction. We were sitting on flimsy metal chairs outside the ice cream parlor when the first sound came, like a sonic scream. A scream from the heavens.
We sat there, unable to believe our ears, frozen like spooked deer. We didn’t move until the second sound, an even more piercing scream, and then we ran to the car when we saw the shape in the sky. The immense, black shadow.
Our town was lucky. It wasn’t one of the ones that were hit with canisters; a lot were. We saw the dark shape eject at least ten other smaller, still-darker shapes, into the distance. Lights glowed on the side of the thing, blue, like stars.
My mom was incoherent on the phone, her hands shaking, trying to call my dad. I didn’t know what to do other than reach for my own phone. My best friend, Adelaide, didn’t answer. She lived two towns over. We’d gone to the same school together. Now it was like there was a wall between us.
A few minutes later and our phones went dead. And then the clouds started to appear, rising up from the landscape. Inky, black clouds, like ejections from giant squid. Their intense color didn’t dilute as they traveled up to the sky, not like smoke does when it’s spread too far apart. Instead, they formed a blanket, connecting with other clouds, and then slowly it began to get darker.
We were on our way home when two army vehicles cut us off, one in front, one in back. My mom started babbling and pulling me closer to her, hugging me to her side. I was limp from confusion by that point. Yes, I was in the military, but I wasn’t on active duty. And why had they come for me? I was just one soldier—
That didn’t seem to matter to them. Two men separated us, my mom hysterical, a third—wearing brass that designated him as a colonel, of all things—looking straight at me with a peculiar, grim smile.
“Captain, you’ll need to come with us, please. We have orders. Orders from the Pentagon. We’re to bring you in and get you briefed on this new situation.”
I remember smiling. “You’ll have to tell that to her,” I said, gesturing to my mother, who was being gently restrained. The expression on her face, now that I was looking directly at her, made my smile vanish. She was genuinely horrified, and I was further confused. Sure, the sky was gone, and aliens had apparently just shown up, but her expression was like someone had butchered our dog.
The colonel glanced back at her. His expression became even more grim. “Ma’am,” he greeted her. “Thank you for all you’ve done. We’ll take it from here. I think you know what I’m talking about.”
“The hell you will!” my mother spat, and a strange lump appeared in my throat. “She’s MY DAUGHTER, no matter what you say, I raised her, you can’t just take her like this—”
“That’s all, ma’am,” the colonel informed her sharply, glancing at me once, and the two other men changed position. They took my arm and, pointedly, directed me into one of the army vehicles.
It was a quiet drive. The colonel introduced himself formally as Colonel Blake Forrester, told me a brief summary of the current events. I’d already guessed it. The same thing that was happening here was happening all over. Communications were being wiped out. We were being deprived of our sunlight.
That was the beginning of the end.
(Source: velvetdemon.net)
