Chapter 4
These people were obsessed, what a nuisance they were creating for
the world around them, a waste of news time and a waste of tax money making
these two bored cops sit out here in the blistering day because some people
needed to find something out of nothing. The desire to find something
other-worldly from the shooting star or UFO or meteor or Alien Sight or any
other name the people were calling it as Danika and Brett weaved through the
people sitting cross-legged on towels, blankets and cushions. Danika understood
wanting to be part of something, for a sense of community and belonging to a
niche culture, this was absurd and a little crazy.
Denial rang through her mind. She probably would have tented out
here with a few friends for a good time and to see what other people would do
or say in the light of cameras. This situation was connected to her, was a part
of her and she a part of it. She was not an outsider wondering what had
happened and hoping for a peek beyond the yellow tape. Danika was not looking
to mingle with other curious minds, no, she was here to eavesdrop, to listen to
the incoming reports and theories. She was an insider.
“So what’s the plan?” Brett
whispered as we dodged yet another man wearing a tin hat roughly shaped into a
point that stuck a foot into the air.
“This was your idea?”
“But this is your thing.”
“And your idea.”
Brett stopped abruptly,
causing a cluster of girls in tight t-shirts bearing green aliens giving peace
sign salutes to cuss at him before circling around and continuing their wait to
a food truck serving Extraterrestrial
Chili, “We should have some semblance of an idea on what to do next before
we actually do it.”
“Agreed.” Brett gave me a
withering look. We found a shady patch of unspoken for grass and settled down.
“Hi! Do you want a t-shirt?”
A bubbly petit girl with wildly curly blonde hair and heavy plastic glasses in
a forest green with lenses so thick her eyes looked like a real alien's, bounced in front of us with a stack of neatly folded
shirts in black and grey. The black one on top featured a night sky with a girl
flying through the air, her legs melding into a shooting star like a mermaid
tail.
“What other desings do you
have?” Brett stood to see the other shirts the girl brought over.
“Do you know what’s going
on?” I asked, nodding to the newly arrived news van setting up next to the
other two. Two guys hopped out and hurried over to the group of newscasters
already formed in a circle near the caution tape.
The girl looked up from the
mound of t-shirts she had displayed on the grass. Crouched down, she peered
through the throngs of people and shook her head slightly before turning back
to Brett.
“My boyfriend just made
these designs and we had them screen-printed in just a few hours, based off
what people said they saw. They’re probably all crazy but…”
“I’ll take a men’s medium of
the girl with the comet tail.” Brett interrupted the girl.
"So you've heard them talking?" I asked.
"Not really." The girl shifted her gaze from Brett
pulling out a $20 from his wallet to the commotion of newscasters getting ready
to do a new report.
"These designs are based off what people
here claimed they saw? Was it your boyfriend who talked to
someone and drew the design accordingly or did you just overhear a
conversation and used your artistic liberties to create something to sell right back a them?
"Well everyone here is a little," the girl made
a circling motion with her finger around her temple, "you know? They're all babbling about a girl falling
from the sky, how original, sounds like that one movie." She took Brett's
money, piled up the shirts and sauntered away to another set of people.
"Fell from the sky..." She hadn't really said that.
People weren't really saying that.
"I don't know what movie she's talking about, but
it's a cool idea." Brett's smiling face turned to her, new shirt proudly
on his chest, the girl was fair but there was no detail in the face, no indication
if she was scared, happy, or afraid. His smile faded as he looked at her.
"That's what the men in the building said. They said I fell
from the sky."
“You didn’t mention that before.”
“Did you want me to tell you every last detail? I’ve only known
you for half a day.”
“Yeah but telling me you killed two men is fine.”
“I didn’t know them babbling something crazy like I fell from the
sky, was important information to remember or divulge. I thought maybe being
scared I killed them was more important.” I said. I groaned at the image on
Brett’s shirt. A depiction of me, the girl who fell from the sky. That’s
insane.
“Danika.”
“What?” I said.
“What?” Brett gave me a puzzled look.
“You said my name.”
“I didn’t.”
“Oh, I must’ve imagined it.” I sat back down on the ground, giving
in to observing the commotion with the newscasters.
“Danika.” I definitely heard someone say my name. I looked up to
Brett who was settling down next to me. His face was blank, playing with a twig
on the ground.
“Brett, I think I’m hearing things.” My heart began to race at the
idea of not only having amnesia, thinking I fell from the sky, but now hearing
things too.
“Danika report to command now.” The voice again, it wasn’t quite
like a man’s voice, but it definitely wasn’t a woman’s. It had a slight robotic
sound to it, like two voices layered into one. I know longer see the parking
lot ahead or the grass and leaves under my hands. I can feel them the dirt at
my fingertips but I see a blue room and a metal table at under my hands. The voice
is there again, “You understand your mission, you will be deployed today.” The carrier
of the voice was pacing behind me, I knew it then, I could feel it now, but no
matter how much I tried I couldn’t turn my head around to see.
“Of course.” My own voice resonated in the blue and grey room, my
hands folded in front of me, determined and ready. Then it disappeared and the
parking lot, trees and dirt appear again before me. Brett is staring at me with
wide eyes.
“That was insane.”
“Did you see it too?”
“See? Did you see something? You were glowing, you almost looked like
a hologram, straight out of star trek.”
