Arrival

ADIRA

A meteor shower.

That’s what we all thought it was.

We were wrong.

But we couldn’t have known…

How could we have?

Most of us thought we were alone…

Earth.

The only planet we knew of that had sentient life. Us.

Aliens were a thing we imagined and placed in sci-fi movies and cartoons.

Or so we’d thought…

So I’d thought.

The fireballs that came down from the sky were a spectacle at first. There hadn’t been any media reports about a meteor shower. It had been a pleasant, wondrous, surprise.

Meteor showers were rare, and this was one you could see in the daytime, no less.

I’d been jogging that day. Headphones in my ears. Music blaring.

The sun had been warm. The streets not too busy.

I had an hour before I had to report to the veterinary clinic where I worked.

I had a surgery to perform that day. On a rabbit.

Poor little guy was going to get neutered.

That’s what I’d been thinking about as I jogged—my furry little patient. I hardly saw the traffic on the road beside me…hardly saw the faces of the people on the sidewalk as I jogged past them.

It was a normal day like any other—

People were going about their shopping. Some were hurrying back to their jobs after getting lunch.

Off to the side, a mother grasped her son’s hand and pulled him along as she picked up pace, hurrying to wherever she was going.

—normal…until I looked up.

My steps faltered. I staggered a little as I stopped ru

Fireballs.

Lots of them.

Shooting through the sky at incredible speeds.

At first, my mind couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing.

There were so many of them. Like massive asteroids falling down.

I didn’t even notice other people stopping what they were doing to stare as well. I couldn’t take my eyes away from the spectacle.

I’d never seen anything like it before…

As I pulled out my earphones, my ears perked with the sudden silence around me.

Cars had stopped.

People had stopped.

Those inside the shops were slowly coming out to stare up at the spectacle.

Time stood still.

I couldn’t take my eyes away.

Looking back now…I should have run from that very moment.

It wasn’t until the first fireball came close that we, I, realized what was happening.

They were coming right at us.

They weren’t burning up in the atmosphere. They weren’t disintegrating.

They were going to crash into the surface.

We all began ru

And then…chaos.

Turning, I began to run.

But the street was suddenly filled with people.

Getting away wasn’t so easy.

Instead of being a clear-cut path down the sidewalk, I bumped into bodies and people bumped into me as we all scrambled to get away.

And amidst the confusion…the fear…the cries…the screaming…there was another sound.

The searing sound of the fireball itself.

Like the air around us was heating up. Crackling.

A loud boom like a bomb going off hit us hard, the impact sending a shockwave that threw us off our feet.

My body hurtled through the air. I landed on my face.

Pain exploded in my skull, my arms, my knees.

Car alarms went off in unison and there was the sound of glass shattering as the store windows blew outward.

Screams.

Sounds of agony.

All mixed into chaos.

People were trying to get away.

Someone stepped on my leg and tripped before scrambling forward and breaking into a run.

In the back of my mind now…I could feel the pain from my fall…the blood ru

But all that was like a dull ache in the recesses of my mind for when I glanced behind me…everything else was forgotten.

The meteor was shrouded in dust and smoke.

It had landed on my favorite sandwich shop and I gulped back the immediate sense of distress that rose within me.

There’d been people inside…

I could have been inside.

Gripping my head with one hand, I leaned on my other elbow as I tried to rise.

What the fuck just happened?

My eyes remained on the impact site, watching the dust and smoke settle to reveal a large…

I don’t know what I expected to see.

A huge, black space rock with rough edges maybe.

But this…this wasn’t rough…or black.

It was…a metal orb, glistening in the sunlight.

It was smooth and reflected everything around it like a mirror.

For a moment, I don’t think any of us knew what to do.

There was silence again. Or maybe I just couldn’t hear what was going on around me.

It all felt like it was happening in slow motion.

Me getting to my feet and turning fully so I could stare at the thing.

And then…

The air vibrated.

There’s no other way to describe it.

A sound almost too low to hear, but one that I felt across my skin.

The hairs on my body stood on end.

The sound alone sent a chill down my spine.

Some baser instinct within me told me I should run, yet…I could not move.

The air vibrated again, the sound passing through us all, and I staggered backward as the orb moved.

Dust billowed from the building it had leveled and something came forward.

A long, winding, metallic…arm.

A metal claw.

It closed around a man standing right beside me.

Screams punctuated the air as people began ru

Unable to comprehend what I was seeing.

Unable to believe.

The old sandwich shop shook, what was left of its walls crumbling as the orb stood, rising through the dust and ash to stand on three legs.

It kept rising, and rising…and my gaze followed it.

What was this thing?

It was as tall as a tower. Taller than anything else around it.

It dwarfed us.

The man it held in one of those metal arms screamed as he struggled to release himself from its grasp.

He was screaming for help, his arm stretching toward me.

But he was too high.

I couldn’t reach.

Even if I could, I couldn’t move.

And then…that chilling sound. That deep boom.

Liquid wet my face as the man’s screams suddenly stopped.

Even as it ran down my face, my body, staining my arms red…my mind refused to accept what it was.

Someone bumped into me as they ran.

I don’t know who they were, I don’t know if they survived, but I owe them my life.

For if they hadn’t collided with me, I might have stood there as that bloodied metal arm descended again.

But I was awake now and fear pushed me to turn.

And run.