(SSSC) The Cull
1.
The radio clicked on, as usual, at exactly 5:30 AM.
The perky CBC personality began speaking after the final notes of some nondescript music faded. She told of programs and areas which Steve never
listened to as he rolled out of bed and reset the alarm, silencing the ebullient chattering.
The floor was cool to his feet as he trundled off to the washroom, carrying a fresh pair of socks and clean boxers. Glancing up, he saw his face
refected in the dark bathroom window and he grimaced at the tangled halo of fine graying hair which floated around his sleepy eyes.
The morning ritual was a total reversal of the way things had been, he mused with a wry grin. Now he was the one to rise early and get the coffee
going while his wife caught those extra few minutes of sleep before going off to work. Sweet karma... sweet sweet karma.
The routine gradually took him to the kitchen and the requisite brewing of the coffee. The predawn sky was framed in the east window over the sink
and, as he ran the cold water tap, Steve always looked for Venus over the rooftop of his neighbours house, marking its location. The ritual had begun
many years before his retirement and the habit had continued to be a joy for him... a promise of a clear day with the added bonus of a timeless
practise which must have been repeated by millions of humans for millenia. It was a tie between heaven and earth, God and mankind, Steve had always
told his wife and sons who now lived in the distant city.
But this morning, as he stared, he saw something else moving high in the atmosphere, lit by a sun still hiding below the horizon. Judging the motion
against the bright planet, the object moved much quicker than a satellite and it sure couldn't be a jet. Steve mused that it could be the ISS and
looked down to fill the carafe.
Once the coffee began perking, he was about to start making breakfast when he glanced out the window again and saw another bright light moving across
the sky. Intrigued, he went out the back door into the yard to have a look.
Standing openmouthed and incredulous, he watched as several objects crossed above him, growing larger yet dimmer as they fell down within Earth's
shadow. One in particular seemed stationary, but slowly expanded much as a balloon would when someone blows it up for a child.
A sudden fear gripped Steve then and, weak-kneed, he stumbled backwards, dizzy from staring straight up. 'This wasn't right', he thought,
'not right at all'. With his head instinctively scrunched down into his shoulders, he retreated back into the house.
His wife, finally awake and drawn by the familiar smell of the strong coffee, found him sitting at the table staring out into a lightening pre-dawn,
his face drained, eyes staring and mouth agape.
"Honey", she cried, suddenly alarmed, "What's the matter?"
Steve mumbled something inane and pointed out of the large north window which looked over their back yard.
Following the direction of his shaking finger amd peering into the grey dawn light, she noticed the black hulk of a dome beside the water tower
several blocks away.
"What's that!?!", she whispered in his ear.
"I haven't got a bloody clue, babe, but it must have landed on the soccer fields"
"Landed?!?"
"Yeah, Dee, I watched it come down just now... it's huge."
Dee went to the coffee pot, poured two cups and then both sauntered out into the calm cool October air to drink it as they often did, sitting on the
old bench behind the house.
"Honey, there was all kinds of them," he said as he sipped, "I must have counted two dozen at least. This one landed here, but the others landed
all along the lakeshore."
"You don't think it's an invasion, do you?" she giggled, trying to lighten the mood.
"Darlin', it never made a sound as it landed."
They both fell silent then, falling back into the ritual established over their long lifetimes.
Breakfast was well underway and Steve had poured his second cup when the sirens began, breaking the tension that kept them and the object a private
affair. Something was up for sure now. Not long after that, the first popping sounds carried across the subdivision.
Putting his coffee down, he looked at his wife with a queer look in his eyes.
"Those are gunshots, babe..."
The sirens built in numbers as emergency crews were called in. He picked out the various bleats and warbles of ambulances, lots of cruisers and fire
department vehicles converging on the area where the dome had landed. The gunshots continued unabated throughout the riotous morning as the sun
finally began to fill the sky.
"I don't want you to go to work today, honey. Stay home with me, will ya?
Dee looked at her husband and saw the worry in his eyes. 'God, after all these years, he still loves me', she thought. But now she was getting
scared too.
"Let's take the car and see what's going on," she said with quiet determination, refusing to agree with staying away from work.
If it was all over by the time they got there, she decided she'd just carry on like normal and go to work after that. She then rose and went to
finish her prepping in the washroom while Steve took the remnants of his coffee back outside and into the yard.
The sirens had suddenly fallen silent as if a switch had shut them off all at once. There was no more gunfire and he could hear neighbours starting
vehicles, driving by, doing like any workday morning. It all seemed a little surreal to Steve. Could it be that the others hadn't seen the dome?
Perhaps they figured another accident at the busy highway intersection and thought nothing of it. He marvelled at two cardinals flitting and calling
in their quaint 'pip, pip' way as they busied themselves in the forsythia bush gathering berries.
He wondered if he wasn't over-reacting, but then he looked over to the silver grey dome that squatted like a monstrous turtle shell 5 blocks away and
that uncomfortable clench in his gut came back.
"Ready," Dee said cheerfully, breaking off his sombre reverie and handing Steve the car keys, "Let's go see."
2.
A block from the community center, a tangled mess of cars blocked the road... some with doors ajar, turn signals flashing, some with engines running
and others not. Steve pulled over on a side street and locked it up like he normally did. Putting his arm around Dee, they began walking uphill for
the final block.
It was so quiet that they could hear the ticking of engines as they cooled. A few dozen Canada geese flew above, honking their way to the east,
unimpressed with the huge craft that lay not far below them.
The sun, now free of the horizon, blazed with a clear golden light across the race track in front of them . Steve and Dee saw hundreds of figures
milling around the now-silent cop cars and red emergency vehicles that sat scattered willy-nilly all over the fields. It looked like a carnival scene
with a fall fair crowd wandering quietly over the pitch in front of the immense craft. As they drew near, Steve guessed it as at least 200 feet up at
its highest point, dwarfing the water tower.
Dee patted her hand on his chest and pointed at a few prople who were laying down on the green wet grass as if quietly resting.
Drawing closer, Steve indicated small individuals among the crowd. They looked like children, but noticably grey, naked and skinny, with huge
heads.
A cop, hat off and his obviously empty gun holster flapping with each step, walked by them as if in a dream. A young girl, smiling from ear to ear,
nodded at them, her eyes brimming with tears.
Steve glanced at Dee...
"Wasn't that Orville's girl Dana?"
Dee nodded.
"Geez, that's different. I always thought she was the sourest teen on the block"
As they drew nearer, they came upon a woman lying on the ground. Her face twisted in agony and pain. She was obviously dead, her panicked eyes staring
straight up.
"Oh, my God!" Dee was shocked "all those people are dead, Steve! DEAD!!!"
The field was littered with them and people meandered among those bodies as if they were unaware of the horrible loss of life.
Then Dee saw a Grey staring at them and an immediate paralysis froze her to the spot. She could still feel Steve beside her in an unconscious way, but
her attention was rivetted upon the large black eyes of the Grey. A flood of emotion ran through her. She felt a deep fear and then a searing flash of
heat built inside her head, flooding her face amnd coursing down her neck and shoulders, down her chest and guts, burning her thighs and legs as she
stood rooted to the spot, transfixed.
Those dark eyes searched her very soul, she thought, probing her innermost secret self, delving into every corner of her psyche, patting down her ego
looking for dangerous weapons. The burning sensation flushed down and away from her body to be displaced by a liquid coolness rising from the ground
and into her feet, then retracing the path the fire took all the way back up into her brain, suddenly flooded with an amazing and incomparable feeling
of LOVE... love for the creature which still stood 30 feet away, watching her and Steve. Then she felt love flow between them like a river, streaming
back and forth. A joy lifted her heart then and she felt like letting loose a flood of tears. The emotion blossomed, exploding across the field, She
could see it spreading from her and saw other people and Greys, near and far, react to it by streaming the suddenly visible field of emotion back
toward her.
Dee broke her eyes from the amazing scene and looked up into Steve's. He seemed as if he had just seen an angel, beaming as long years of toil and
care melted from his face. He looked down at her and smiled, reminding her of the young man she had fallen in love with 40 years ago.
Dee and Steve turned then, arm in arm, weaving amid the bodies of those who had been too full of hate, too full of fear, too full of selfishness and
greed to survive the deep pools behind those black almond alien eyes.
Life would be so different now, they both knew.
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spelling edit
[edit on 3/10/07 by masqua]
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With an ending like that Masqua, you might have to come up with chapter two.
Now that some writting
