by Dane Bagley
***
“Wow, did you see that. Check out that building burn. One shot, and it is gone. The caption says that that building was like their capital.”
Mr. Gilmore was enthused, but not as enthused as Johnny, who was jumping up and down and shouting, “Take that aliens, ha, ha, ha, ha. Take that!”
Mark started to get excited, but the pain in his side kept him from getting too stirred. After watching the building burn for a few minutes, they cut to a new scene. In the background was some sort of old fashioned electrical equipment; but this time there was a person—an alien on the scene. The camera’s zoomed in for a close up. It was a girl, a young girl. And boy was she pretty! Mark sat up and looked forward despite the pain. She was sitting on a blanket on her lawn, and reading a book. They panned up close. She was smiling, and clearly had no idea what was coming. Mark’s heart began to pound. She was a vision! He had never seen such beauty as was currently before his eyes! A shiver ran down his spine. He wanted to shout, “RUN!”
It wouldn’t matter, she couldn’t have heard him, and what they were watching took place already an hour ago, anyway. “It’s a girl, were not going to kill her are we?” shrieked Tess.
“Yeah, were going to take out the hot alien chick, “yelled Johnny.
“Oh, this is horrible. Honey, maybe the children shouldn’t be watching this,” said Mrs. Gilmore turning to her husband, to which he neither responded, nor looked in her direction; he just kept focused on the scene.
The girl had now just caught a glance of the ships filming her, and her countenance changed instantly. If it was possible that her face could turn whiter than her natural light complexion, it certainly did then. Horror spread across her face. She was nothing short of an angelic vision, moments before. She was still a vision of beauty, but a tragic figure now. Mark’s rapidly beating heart sunk. He felt a sickness that he had never felt before.
The cameras continued to pan back, and she could be seen getting to her feet and dropping her book. She stood there momentarily, and then began walking backwards towards the substation. As the view continued to pan out, the ship, that would be doing the firing, appeared out of nowhere behind the girl and the substation. For a few moments the screen showed the ship, but it had not fired. Then, the fire came from the missile just launched. It approached rapidly, but she backed up against the substation just before impact. The view was panned up close again, the girl was horrified, and then the screen was bright; as the view panned out, the substation was gone, as was the girl.
“Ohhhh,” screamed Tess as she ran out of the room, looking like she was going to lose her lunch. Mark hardly noticed. He was shaking his head, and feeling anger build up inside of him.
“We got her,” shouted Johnny as he continued to dance around.
Mr. and Mrs. Gilmore looked at each other with eyes wide open, neither one knowing what to do, or say.
“What‘re we doin’,” said Gramps in disgust. “Oh, Steve, how’d ya get caught up in this?”
***
“Mack, that was pretty gruesome. Did you need the close up shots of that girl?”
“Just giving the people what they want. They want us to take out the aliens. If they don’t like it, maybe that isn’t such a bad thing.”
“Are they really that bloodthirsty back home?”
“Yeah, a lot are. Hopefully we can quench their thirst without causing too many problems. Scene three, let’s go.”
***
Bellerie was just about ready to brave the walk back down to her house, when instantly in the sky were two large black ships heading towards her. She stared at them in amazement. She had heard that Aspiria was on something like this, and that they may be returning with her. But why would they be heading directly towards her? The idea of it was one thing, but to see it directly, that was another. She began to feel very scared inside.