Through the Sky: Chapter One
"April 14th, 2013. The ships came with no warning. NASA knew, the governments knew, the world leaders knew.
The general public, however, was left in the dark. They had no knowledge of the destruction raining down upon them.
I had no warning of what was to come to pass.
Now I'm living in what's left of New York City. My family was mostly killed. Only my youngest brother and myself survived.
He was eighteen, had just graduated from high school, looking forward to going to college in the fall, when they came.
Who am I? My name is Alia, though most just call me Al. I was a writer, twenty years old, struggling to make it in the big city.
Fighting to stay alive. But now that phrase has new meaning. I'm twenty-one,
I'm living with four other people, and my home is an abandoned subway maintainance station."
I looked up from the notebook I had salvaged from the ruined bookstore. It had been one of those rare treats to find such a treasure, but this latest trip to the surface had yielded some luxuries we had not hoped for.
A loud bang sounded not far from my cloth-wrapped room. I sprang up from the mattress, throwing the draping back to see Alexander, my nineteen year old brother, on the floor, his thin body nearly covered by another hulking form, that of our other male roommate, Seth. I rolled my eyes, knowing Alex had done something to attempt to provoke Seth again, getting himself tackled by the large ex-football player.
Seth had played for the University of Michigan football team and was twenty-two. He was instrumental in getting Alex to New York. His calm demeanor, however, was only shattered by Alex's need to be the best person around. He had annoyed me as a child, and he annoyed everyone now he was an adult. Or he would, if there were other people around.
"Seth!" I said loudly. "Get off of him!"
Seth looked up innocently, putting his head on his arms, his blue eyes staring at me. "I'm not doing anything. Just searching for a more comfortable mattress."
I rolled her eyes and walked over, yanking Seth off of Alex. "Yeah, sure. Now here's the more important question...Wha
t did this mattress do to provoke you?"
Alex looked up from the floor. "I didn't provoke him," he said quickly. "Simply stated that he was less talented than myself when it came to scavenging. Which is true."
"Is it, now?" I asked, looking from Alex to Seth. "But I'm better than both of you, so cool your bragging." Tossing my notebook back into my room, I looked at the two men. "Which reminds me, are Jess and Jen back yet?"
Seth shook his head. "No. Jessica was going into China Town, and Jen said something about heading to Broadway. They probably won't be back until nightfall at least."
Jessica, who was twenty-nine, and her seventeen year old cousin, Jennifer, were out scavenging today. With the subway system, we could travel anywhere in the city. The large, painted map on the wall served as our greatest weapon. I walked over to the comm center, merely a table set against the wall by the map with an old police scanner sitting on top. Picking up the microphone, I set it to the lowest setting possible and pressed the button.
"Jess or Jen, come in. This is HQ. Report. Over."
As I expected, Jessica was the first to answer, her voice low in the handheld she had. "I'm fishing, do you mind? There are Browns hanging around, so I'm turning the radio down for a bit. Try not to be too loud. Over and out."
Jen was a bit slower in her response, but much more excited than her cousin. "New clothes, Al! I found an entire wardrobe! Even you'll like something in it. Over."
I stared at the speaker. "What kind of clothes? Over."
"They are sturdy, used to belong to the theaters. But they all look like they belong in either a steam-punk setting or WWI. Over."
"That sounds...nice. Bring back what you can without being spotted. Two bags at most. Watch out for Browns. Over."
"Haven't seen any Browns. Saw one Green, but he wasn't interested in the subway. Over."
My heart rate picked up, my blood thundering in my ear. "He didn't see you, did he? Over."
"No," was her quick answer. "But like I said, he looked like he was in a hurry. Anyway, I'll be back in maybe an hour. Over and out."
"HQ out," I said into the mic, setting it back on the table. Sitting back against the chair, I stared at the map on the wall, thinking about the danger my two friends were in.
They called themselves something I could not pronounce if I tried. We called them Reptilians. They were invaders, a space-faring race who landed on planets and took them over. As far as we could tell, they focused on wiping out cities and subjugating those who seemed promising. As soon as the ships had landed and the first wave of reptile-like humanoids had disembarked, a mass panic had broken out among the humans.
I was sure we were the last five humans left in New York who had not been killed or enslaved. And I wanted to keep it that way. Taking my handheld from the charger, I connected it to my belt. I also pulled down one of the pistols, shoving it into the back of my pants, handle out. I looked over at where Seth and Alex were now sitting on the couch, watching a movie about the battle at Thermopylae. Walking over, I tapped Seth's shoulder, looking at him.
"I'm going out. I'll be back in a bit. Don't call, I might not be in a position to answer."
He simply nodded, knowing where I was going. "Don't be too long. Take your trench." I smiled at him and hurried to my room, throwing my long, tan trench coat over my body before going to the tracks.
The tracks, really just tunnels now, led to anywhere around the city. I took the left branch, heading right to the terminal I needed. We had all memorized the subway layout in the ten months we had been here. I pushed the grating out of the way, walking to the old ticket booth. Leaping over the barrier, I spotted a small amount of daylight still streaming down the stairwell from the city.
Time Square was not as impressive as it used to be. The first time I had seen it was over a year ago on New Year's Eve. A group of friends had dragged me there to celebrate. It was packed with bodies, people screaming and drinking. I had been overwhelmed. But that was the past.
Now, it was littered with weeds poking through the cracks in the sidewalk. A large VTOL craft was parked in the center of the crossroads. It was abandoned now that the Reptilians had moved into the buildings, and I spent time purloining their technology for us. I had stolen their silent generator, monitoring devices, weapons, shields, and food. However, my ultimate goal was to steal the ship. And for that I had to find the instruction manual or some way to learn how to fly it.
Ducking down, I bolted from the subway entrance to the ship's hatch. It was open, as it always was, and I slipped in quietly. My soft soled shoes made no sound on the metal floors. The shoes were ship shoes, also stolen. I made my way easily to the crew quarters, moving to the captain's room with little difficulty.
His room was the only place I had not searched thoroughly yet. I opened his closet, where I had left off last time. Moving aside the clothes I had carelessly strewn across the floor, I found the small safe, it's odd buttons shining at me, and picked it up. Carrying it to the bed, I threw it onto the blanket along with some of the clothes I thought might fit Alex. Wrapping my prizes, I picked it up and carried it to the open door.
That was the first mistake I made. A Green, a Reptilian with green skin, turned the corner just as I exited the room. I froze, looking at him. He also froze, staring at me. He looked young, but with Reptilians one could never tell. His features were mostly human-like. He had two eyes, roughly almond shaped though oddly yellow, a nose, and a mouth. His hair was oddly white and in solid looking spikes that would do any teenage boy proud. He was taller than me, which was a feat, what with my being five foot ten. And he was more muscled than I was.
He was assessing me in the same way, I could tell. I clutched the blanket in one hand, my other hand moving to the pistol in my belt. It would not do me any good here, they were too fast for that, but I could at least try. I pulled it from my belt and pointed it at him. The Green looked at my gun, then at my face, his eyes narrowing in an expression I would call confused, but, again, with Reptilians you could never tell.
I was right, he was too fast. One second I was standing there, my weapon in hand, the next I was on the floor several feet away, my weapon in his hand. My head had cracked off the floor and I landed on the solid safe, bruising my back something fierce. He looked at me and pointed the gun at me, gesturing for me to stand. I did so, slowly getting to my feet with a groan. He gestured at the blanket on the floor, and I picked that up as well. The thought going through my head was not pleasant. I knew he was going to kill me.
That was my second mistake. The Green did the thing I least expected. He stepped aside and gestured toward the hatch with the gun. Shock registered on my face. He was letting me go. I stared at him, wondering who this was. If he was human, I would say he was older than I was. And stronger. But here he was, letting me leave. I pressed myself up against the wall, inching past him. Once I was into the main hall, I ran for the hatch and did not stop running until I was well past the iron grating I had barely pushed back into place.
I collapsed in the tunnels, confused and scared. What had happened back there? I was not about to go back and ask. Picking up my prizes, I hurried back home, preparing to tell everyone what had just happened.
Through the Sky
Stumble!