Me, The Grounded (And Other Things From Skaro)

by The Wishbone

Grounded. Trapped on Earth. Such is the life of twenty-something Eliza Birchwood. One night, a gruesome murder in a back yard in Brooklyn leads her to face her childhood fear; the black Dalek that inhabits Midtown West. How did this strange machine come to be in New York? Little does she know that Sec isn't even a regular Dalek. And his plan to leave Earth goes horribly wrong...

2. Chapter 2: November

Edward Harrison was a man admired among men. A true hero; a symbol of the American dream. He had risen in his life from the depths of poverty, to own a seven bedroom house on Staten Island. While so many were cynical and complained of the new housing projects set up by FDR, he had worked his bones bear to create a better America for the future. He can even be observed in the newsreels that circulated in 1934.

By 1952, he had fought the Kaiser in the Great War and Hitler in the next, despite his occasional nervous tick, returned to New York with the woman he loved, was married and had four sons who grew up to have astonishingly good careers. He lived a full life, enriched by his love of sport and nature spotting, and left the world peacefully in 2006.

Which made no sense what so ever.

Because on November the first in 1930, a bronze UFO had shot him dead in the middle of Central Park, with many witnesses present, and many other victims. Out of all those who became casualties that night, he was the only thought to have recovered. But due to the unusual circumstances of the attack, his sustained injury was described as "Shell shock" and largely ignored.

On November the second, several bodies were removed from a small Theater in Midtown West, while the detonated remains of two UFOs were taken away by the authorities for scientific research.

It was not until January 18th of the following year that the remains of the last victim of the theater massacre were buried in an unmarked grave.

But none of the volunteers recalled having actually seen the body.

It was the same year that Mrs Esmé Stuart returned from her honeymoon in Florida to discover that her brother had been declared missing. He had disappeared mysteriously from his post as manager of a major building project. Everyone said he had jumped, as the funding body behind the project had suddenly withdrawn their support, leaving him redundant. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time to reveal the good news that a private company was now investing the project. And even more unfortunately; the building in question happened to be the tallest building in the world at the time. No body was found. But then again, people had been disappearing a lot recently.