What the hell I'm late again!" she panicked, running on the concrete.
It as a poor decision to stop at Starbucks before heading to work, but she desperately needed the caffeine boost. She ran through the throngs of passerby's, earning her some glares as she weaved in and out of them, bumping one or two in the arm.
"Watch where you're going girl!" one angrily exclaimed, after almost being knocked to the ground.
She turned her head back to look at the man yelling out a quick "Sorry!" before continuing to sprint down the sidewalk, her cup of coffee sloshing as she went.
So far this internship had been nothing but a disaster. It as supposed to be simple, the chance of a lifetime even. As an economic major at NYU, she was required to complete an internship during her senior year. She had been lucky enough to score one with an accountant who worked in one of the insurance buildings on Wall Street. She figured if she did a sufficient job, they would consider employing her after graduation. But so far it hadn't gone well at all. She had unwittingly hit on the CEO (a 30 something but baby-faced hottie), she had messed up one of the client's books, and she could not be on time for the life of her.
She finally reached the insurance building and rushed inside the doors. She glanced down at her watch. 'Alright it's 8:28, I might just make it'. she thought
She bolted into the elevator and furiously tapped at the 18th floor button, trying to will it to go faster, ignoring the looks of her fellow elevator riders. When the doors opened she took a moment to readjust her ill-fitting pencil skirt, smoothed her hair, and walked out of the elevator into the first office.
"You're late Veronica" the man sitting at her desk stated.
She looked at her watch. 8:31.
"I'm so sorry sir I just.." she started.
"Had to stop for coffee?" he finished.
She looked at him sheepishly. "I'm completely useless without my coffee in the morning sir" It was the truth. Between classes, this internship, and her assignments she was lucky if she clocked five hours a night.
"Just get to work" her boss sighed.
Veronica walked over to her desk and sat in front of the giant stack of papers that had been left for her. She pulled out her calculator and her passbook and began working on the first one. Luckily her cubicle was one of the ones near the huge glass windows at the end, and occasionally she would look out into the city below.
Julie, one of her coworkers, walked over to her desk. "Rough night again Veronica?"
She groaned. "I never get to sleep anymore. All this work is really taking its toll. If I get anymore sleep deprived I'm going to start seeing things".
Julie gave her a comforting look. "Just keep drinking your coffee, its a savior I tell you. The workload will eventually dwindle".
She walked back to her desk and Veronica resumed typing at her calculator. The next few hours slowly passed, Veronica slowly making progress, when suddenly there was a loud scream. She looked around the office, surveying her coworkers who were deeply engrossed in their assignments, or listening to ear buds, and looked back confused. Obviously nobody has actually yelled, her brain was imagining it as a side effect of her sleep deprivation. She heard it again, but paid no attention to it, determined to finish her work. The third time she heard it, Dave, the coworker sitting next to the window exclaimed "Oh my god! Look!" he pointed out the window.
The entire office dashed over and looked out.
Absolutely littering the sky were these mechanical beings who were coming down towards the city at an alarming rate. Every person in the office panicked.
"What are those things!". Betty, an assistant, cried out.
"Are we going to die?" panicked another coworker.
The invaders landed on random buildings and started shooting at everything. Others landed on the ground and were running wild. The screaming they had all heard before increased ten fold.
'Oh my god oh my god oh my god!' Veronica panicked internally. She was never one to display too much emotion. 'What are they? What are we going to do?'
Most of the people in the room had backed away from the window and were huddled in the corner. Veronica was still standing near the window, along with some other brave workers. After twenty minutes a man in a police uniform burst in the doors.
"Everybody out!" he ordered. "Go down to the basement!".
The terrified members of the office who were huddled in the corner all ran to the door at once, bottle-necking it. Veronica groaned and remained by the window. Those idiots weren't going anywhere for awhile unless they all stopped attempting to go at once.
They finally started to go through, and Veronica began to follow, when suddenly she heard the sound of breaking glass.
One of the monsters jumped inside the office.
Veronica stared at it, first noticing how ugly it was. It advanced toward her and she screamed. 'I don't want to die, oh my god! I just wanted credits to graduate! Why did I have to pick this stupid internship?" she asked mentally.
Her coworkers screamed and cried "Veronica!" but made no attempt to help her. It wouldn't do any good anyway, they were no match for this thing. Huge and gray, and deathly. It picked her up by her foot and flung her out the window. Her coworkers screamed in horror.
She whimpered as the broken glass pieces hit her body, shielding her face with her hands. She finally uncovered it and looked to the ground below. Bad idea.
She continued screaming as she started to fall and wondered if this was it. She was going to fall down 18 floors down and become a pancake on the sidewalk. She decided she didn't want to watch the ground meet her, and closed her eyes as she felt herself fall.
Suddenly she felt herself land on something hard, but it couldn't possibly be the concrete. She opened her eyes slightly and saw she was on some kind of flying craft, being steered by a red headed woman.
"It's alright, I've got you" she called reassuringly.
"What are those things!" she asked hyperventilating.
"Chituari" the woman responded.
"What the hell are Chituari?" she asked high pitched.
"An alien army being used by another alien in an attempt to take control of this planet" the woman answered, as if it were an everyday thing. She pointed up "See that man up there in the horned helmet?"
Veronica looked up and despite everything giggled. "How could you miss him with that head wear?"
"That's Loki, he's the leader of this group. His plan is to use them to gain control of the planet".
"What are we going to do!" Veronica asked, watching the destruction they were doing.
"I'm going to stop him" the woman said.
""By yourself?" she asked incredulously.
"No, with the avengers" she explained.
"What?"
The craft came to a stop at the nearby subway. "Don't worry, we've got this!" the woman reassured. "Now go down to the subway where you'll be safe".
Veronica jumped off and hurried down. "Thank you!" she said with gratitude. "And good luck!"
"Don't worry" the woman spoke "He's the one who is going to need luck". She flew off and Veronica ran down into the subway among the other terrified people. This day had taught her that there are worse things than working an internship at an office.
Thank you guys for reading! This is just my attempt at trying to do something different. I haven't come across a story like this yet. Let me know what you think of it. :) Was it good? Horrendous? Tell me in the comments below.