Arrival: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller

35

Several people sprinted past Maya and Reno, most of them screaming or calling the name of a loved one. Some had picked up tree branches or garden tools—as if those could be effective weapons against a spacecraft that had descended into a massive dome.

Reno winced while trying to keep his injured foot from touching the ground. It slowed Maya down, but she refused to leave him behind. She’d get to her kids, and Reno would be with her.

Every three to five seconds, explosions rang out from different parts of the city.

“Why are they doing this?” Reno asked.

Maya didn’t reply. She had no logical answer. All that mattered was getting out of the dome and finding her children. She’d leave the alien invasion theories and interstellar negotiations to the scientists.

She glanced to her right, where people were running from their houses, seemingly unsure what they were running from or toward. A man in his thirties stood observing the chaos from his front porch—a boy and a girl on his right, and another girl on his left. Maya waved to get his attention.

“Get back inside! Now!”

Between the people in hysterics and the explosions throughout Nashville, the man couldn’t hear her. He furrowed his brow and squinted at her.

As Maya ran, she motioned to him to take his kids inside.

A parking lot erupted thirty yards away. Reno jumped onto Maya, sending them both to the ground. He lay on top of her, shielding her from the falling chunks of stone and asphalt coming down around them. Reno then rolled to the side, and Maya looked up at the house where the man and his family had retreated inward, the front door swinging shut. Maya sighed, realizing that the house had been spared the explosion.

“Come on!” Reno said, helping Maya to her feet.

Maya looked to her left, and saw fire and smoke rising from a crater that lay fifty yards away—with no visual indication of what had caused it. She looked around again, trying to find anywhere they could take shelter or, ideally, escape from the dome.

The man who’d been on the porch interrupted her thoughts, storming out of his house holding a shotgun. He loaded the shells and jogged through his yard, heading right for the crater.

He yelled, firing aimlessly into the smoke.

A whirring noise came from inside of the crater, and a yellow beam of light glowed from beneath its rim. The light beam hit the man and he vanished into thin air. Maya watched it all, the instantaneous disintegration of a human being playing out as if in slow motion, the man’s shotgun bouncing off the concrete a moment later. Specks of ash were all that remained of the man’s clothing, floating through the air like fiery pollen.

Maya felt a tug on her arm and turned to see Reno yelling at her. She saw his mouth move, but she couldn’t hear what he was saying, her ears humming at a constant, high volume. Reno pointed ahead, and she then saw six or seven people running for a concrete ramp.

“Maya!”

She shook her head and finally heard his voice, although her ears continued to ring.

“I’m with you,” she said. “Down there.”

They hurried down the concrete ramp and slid fifteen feet into a drainage culvert, joining the others who were already taking cover there. Like World War I troops in trench warfare, Maya and Reno huddled with the others and put their hands over their heads.

Maya closed her eyes, trying to focus on Laura and Aiden. She couldn’t lose sight of what was most important. She would survive this, and she would get to them.

Several gunshots rang out, followed by the hooting of men and a shriek that sounded like a lion roaring through a megaphone. Maya lifted her head and looked up. She crawled forward, but Reno grabbed onto the rear pocket of her pants.

“Where are you going?”

“I have to see it.”

“See what?”

“Them. I have to see what they look like.”

“Maya! No! Stay here.”

“It’ll be okay.” She brushed his hand away and crawled up the cold, wet concrete. Reno called after her again, but she ignored him.

Maya reached the top and peered over, staying low.

Four men stood in the street twenty yards away, each holding a different caliber or type of gun, from a pistol to a semi-automatic rifle. Continuous rifle shots rang out like a string of firecrackers, each round disappearing into the cloud. It looked to Maya as though the men had been firing wildly into the smoke coming from the crater, but apparently, they had visuals on their targets.

Another high-pitched sound pierced the air, and the men hollered again.

“Whooooo!”

“We got that sumbitch!”

Something the size of large bear hit the ground. It was dark, but Maya could see the creature’s translucent skin—the color of light ash. It appeared as if it wore a polymer suit that had been molded to its lean, muscular frame. Boosters the size of soda cans sat on each hip and a protective shell wrapped around the being’s torso, which was ridged like an external ribcage. The thing had a bald head, but with what looked to be black, smooth glass covering its eye sockets. At first, Maya thought she saw steel teeth on it, until she realized that a thin, five-bar protective piece covering the creature’s mouth was part of a helmet or mask.

Whatever it was, it wasn’t moving.

Maya crawled out of sight and made her way back to Reno. She leaned back as more explosions sounded in the distance.

“What did you see?” Reno asked.

“I saw one of them. One of the aliens.”

“Aliens?” a woman on the other side of Reno repeated.

“What’s she talking about, Mom?” a little boy next to the woman asked.

“Nothing,” the woman said to her son. “Don’t listen to the crazy lady.”

Maya whispered into Reno’s ear. “There were men with guns, and they killed it. I saw them. The thing screamed and hit the ground. If every one of those things we saw flying through the air was one of these creatures, then it won’t matter how many guns we have inside of this dome—it won’t be enough. But at least we know they can be killed.”

“That’s good. But what do we do now? We can’t stay here.”

“No, but it’s as safe a place as any while we try to figure out what to do next.”

Maya thought again of her kids when she heard that guttural growl again. She looked at Reno.

“That sounded close,” he said.

“I have to see.”

Maya climbed up the side of the culvert again, raising her head over the top of it.

She gasped.

The creature the men had shot—and presumably killed—had gotten up. It had its back to her, and stood on two legs, over seven and a half feet tall. The men with guns had scattered.

“What are you?” Maya asked herself.

The creature turned its head to the side, and Maya saw a flicker from beneath the obsidian glass covering its right eye. Then it spun all the way around and faced her.

Maya ducked down quickly, her heart beating against her chest.

It saw me. It had to have seen me.

The creature let out a high-pitched shriek, and Maya heard its footsteps fading.

She took a deep breath and lifted her head to look over the top of the culvert again.

Nothing remained but the bitter tang of smoke and spent gunpowder. The alien creature was gone.