Chasing down a fallen star, Nora is sure she's about to take home something amazing. But things take a terrifying twist when she gets taken instead, she now she must come to terms with the existence of aliens-and the unique position she's found herself in among them. *Story idea based off of the classic image of an "alien abduction", slight movieverse but mostly AU*
Hello! This is a sort of prologue. Please let me know what you think.
This story has been bumping around in my head for awhile-it's based on classic "alien abduction" scenes. Also, just to say it, there will be no probing in this story. Guess I'm not that classic. Hahaha...ha. Okay I'm just going to start the story now.
"Sir, we have located the mini-con signature. Locking on to its position now."
The leader turned his helm, optics moving over the three at the command console and to the scout. The bot met his gaze briefly before returning his attention to the helm of the ship. However, the excitement in his optics hadn't been missed.
"Good. Keep the holofield up and continue scanning for enemy activity. We cannot risk an ambush."
"Yes, sir!"
"Don't be such a baby, fuzzball. The catwalk is the fastest way there," Nora chirped, shaking her head at her grandma's dog, Adonis. He gave her a withering stare from under his fringed fur, eyeing the narrow scaffolded structure crossing the river dismally.
"I told Nan I was walking you, after all. Why not take a detour from our normal route?" She continued, turning her eyes to the other side of the Snake River, where the mountainous terrain left the expanse largely unsettled by man.
From the top of one of the hills, smoke was still rising from where something had fallen from the sky. Nora had heard on the news about the upcoming meteor shower which was supposed to last the span of about a week. She and her grandma had stood on the balcony the first night to watch-most of the town had, in fact. The tiny town in Idaho had nothing else to do, after all. What they did have, at least in Nora's opinion, was the most beautiful night sky she'd ever seen what with it being so close to the mountains and away from any major city's lights. She'd remained on the balcony for hours after Nan had gone to bed, enjoying a good read on her kindle under the bright moon and sky which streaked with the occasional falling star even into the early hours of the the morning.
The sun had not yet risen when she'd felt the earth tremor briefly. Immediately Adonis went wild, and her gaze shot quickly from her book to see a flickering light in the hills across the river, dimming even as she watched it through the sizable dust cloud.
Eyes moving to the sky, she immediately suspected what it might be, shooting up from her seat and racing inside, kindle forgotten. She darted down the stairs excitedly, hoping to be the first to find the downed meteor. When she reached the front door, she was met by Adonis, who sat in front of it and whined up at her. He was a mid-sized and somewhat homely thing, whose body stood at knee-height to her and whose mottled gray fur made him appear like an old man. What breed he could be, she couldn't tell, but her grandma insisted there was some cattle-dog in him which made him smart. Nora had yet to be convinced of this last fact.
"You wanna come, Donny?" she asked the notoriously cowardly mutt incredulously. Glancing at the clock, it was nearly 5:30am. Her grandma was an early riser, and if she found her 'baby' missing when she woke up, Nora knew she would freak out.
Making a quick detour to the kitchen to leave a note, she grabbed Adonis's leash and hooked it to his harness and they took off toward the river.
And there they were, greeting the dawn as they made their way to the hills beyond that overlooked the small town.
"Almost there," she whispered, pushing through the long grass and shrubs covering the rocky earth as she made her way to the peak, where she saw smoke still rising up from the landing site. Adonis followed closely behind, whining at her intermittently.
"Shoulda stayed home if you were just gonna chicken out now, oh great Adonis." She laughed at her companion, smirking at the sorry excuse of a canine. Her grandma was always one for the grandiose names, even if they did not match the subject. It seemed to be a quirk that her mother had inherited as well.
At the peak, they were met with scorched brush and burnt earth, a steady stream of vapor leaving what appeared to be a charred hole in the top of the hill. Although it wasn't a perfect circle, the widest parts were about a yard across in diameter.
Holding her breath as she looked down into it, whatever was inside seemed equally as burnt, her eyes only able to make out a black surface through the smoke and dim light of morning. The heat radiating off of the object warned her not to touch, and she frowned. Waving a hand in front of her face, Nora stepped back as she contemplated her next move. Wait for it to cool?
Don't wanna, she thought irritably. She didn't want to risk someone else coming to investigate while she waited. She wanted to pull it out and look at it, take it back to her grandma's if she could. But she'd need to be smart about it.
Looking around, her eyes spotted a tree down the bank a ways, one of the few tenacious trees that gave up their majesty in order to survive the rugged riverbank terrain. The tree had grown outwards along the hillside, its reaching masses of tangled branches seeming to crawl up the the shallow gradient, leaning on the ground for support rather than reaching directly for the sky.
Making her way down to it, her eyes scanned its branches for a suitable candidate. She broke one off using her weight as leverage and eyed the sturdy branch with satisfaction as she turned back toward the peak.
As Nora reached the crater once more, she found the smoke was clearing and she peered inside. What she could see confused her, as it didn't appear to have the texture of a meteorite. The surface of the object was smooth-scorched, yes-but it could only be smooth underneath, without divet or flaw.
Lowering her branch into the hole, she ran an end over the surface and was startled further when she scraped up some of the blackened surface to reveal a shiny and metallic color beneath. The audible screeet that came with the action only added to her conclusion of what the item might have been made of. What…? she thought in befuddlement, not able to comprehend what the item might be if not a space rock. Maybe a satellite fell? Some space junk?
Excited now, Nora moved the end of the branch to the side, working the tip in between the object and the side of the crater. Wedging the end in as far as she could, she began to work the branch around like a lever, hoping whatever the object was was light enough to be jimmied out so she could examine it further. Luck seemed to be on her side, and the object tilted up a bit. This gave her the leeway to push the stick in deeper for more leverage, and soon she had it up on its side.
The thing was surprisingly thin, about 5 inches thick, and she found that it was shaped like a pentagon. Scraping away at the blackened surface, she could tell it was definitely solid and metal. She worked away at it until some kind of crest could be seen partially on one side. Nora was trying to get a closer look when suddenly the wind kicked up, blowing smoke into her eyes and blinding her. At the same moment, Adonis went wild, barking and snarling and whining desperately while pulling madly at the leash. Nora fell back at his yanking, looping the leash into the crook of her elbow so that she could rub her tearing eyes with both fists.
"Don, stop it! Shush, cool it boy, stop!" She snapped, eyes still watering as she blinked them open at the dog who continued thrashing in her hold. He was looking at the sky, the white of his eyes showing as he panicked. "'Donis! Cut it out!" she tried again, his yanking pulling her down the bank until she tripped.
With a startled cry, the leash was pulled from her grasp as she fell, rolling into the branches of the shrub-tree which she grabbed for support. She pulled herself up in time to see Adonis' rear end dipping over the bank toward the catwalk, no sign of stopping as he high-tailed it away. The wind whipped at her long hair and at all the branches around her, which she held onto with sudden fright. The old twisted tree had her caged in its hold just as she held onto it, its body creaking as its limbs were pulled around, the force of the wind growing and seeming to be trying to uproot the thing. And as Nora looked around wildly in confusion, eyes spotting her grandma's house from between the thrashing limbs, something suddenly struck her as off.
The trees in her grandma's yard were stock still.
While windstorms in this part of Idaho were not at all uncommon, Nora had never witnessed one like this. The tree she was entrapped in, her hair, her clothes-it all felt as if there were a great wind beneath them, blowing them upward. Or kinda like, she thought, her mind reeling in horror, something is pulling me up.
When the unfathomable thought hit her, she froze.
Is it...a tornado…? she wondered. But the sky is clear, where's the swirly vortex?
Tilting her head back to see through the flailing branches, all thought paused as her eyes made out a something in the sky. It was just a silhouette-hardly even that, really. Closer to a warp in the atmosphere. But it was a something, nonetheless.
The flying dirt and organic debris betrayed its presence as the dust made contact and rolled over its surface and away. Everything within a 20 foot diameter seemed to be getting sucked up toward it by an unseen force-pulled high in the sky.
Gasping, Nora decided she'd had enough, starting to realize what may happen to her if she remained. She turned, clambering through the branches toward the river. The bark scraped at her skin and pulled her hair, but she felt nothing but terror as she tried to maneuver out of the tree and away.
Before she could make it any further, a blinding light filled her vision and she felt the tree let loose from the ground with a terrible yank, taking her up with it. Holding onto the branches in a vain attempt at stabilization, the scream she let out went unheard even by her own ears under the howl of the force that lifted them from the ground. She felt like she was falling upward, the ground becoming smaller and smaller as she fell away from it at an alarming speed. And just as soon as it started, it stopped, and she was engulfed in darkness that was complete. Her body hit a hard surface with a thud. Nora was out immediately.
Thanks for reading! Review and let me know what you think. More to come soon.