Song of the chapter: Solence - Heaven

✖

"Holy shit! I am going to die!" I had not been calm. Not at all. The division between the front of the car and the back let down to allow the General and the driver to communicate. They both took out their guns at the ready. "If not by that thing then by your stray shots!" my breathing was uneven and the heavy movements on the top of the military truck only worsened my fear.

"Shut up!" the General yelled at me before sticking herself out of the truck, shooting at the alien on top of the car. The bullets simply ricocheted off its white astronaut armour, the cloth it was made off clearly out of this world. The General realised quickly the futility and slipped back into the truck.

"Shake it off!" she yelled at the driver, the car immediately spinning in zig-zag notions.

"Evasive manoeuvres! Evasive manoeuvres!" I cried out, unhelpfully. "Crawl into a fetal position and expect imminent death!"

"That's not helpful!" the window next to my head crashed inward and a three-fingered gloved hand broke through it. I yelped and tried to move away as far as possible from the hand, nearly on top of the General. Glass shards were sticking into my legs, and I momentarily wondered if the Traveller had legit just punched its way through a bulletproof window.

The driver swerved the car, the Traveller's hand grabbing onto the doorframe to stabilise itself. My own body got pressed up against the General's, our forms stuck against the opposite doorframe. The General pointed her fun at the Traveller's hand, but I screeched in dismay.

"It's just going to fly around again! At us, this time!" in a strange, almost singular movement, the Traveller brought its other hand onto the doorframe as well and swung its body over, almost like the beginning of a somersault but let its one hand go mid-flight to twist around.

Its elephantine form stuck into the ground and by its pure mass or force, it managed to completely halt the movement of the truck in a matter of seconds. Although the tires were still spinning, the strength it held onto the truck with was immense. It got hold of the nearest tire and cleanly ripped it off, the truck immediately sagging in its direction. My form went flying in that direction, the General holding onto the opposite door for support.

Now, believe me, my voice had been heard. I think my dismay wasn't shielded and my throat still ached from the smoke inhalation. Now when this thing's three-fingered hand grabbed onto my ankle, I lost my shit. I tried to kick off the grip with my free leg, trying to thrash as much as possible to get it to let the fuck go.

It did, luckily, let go of my ankle but it seemed to do so only to rip off the entire door, probably realising it wouldn't be easy to force me through just the window.

And there it stood.

Its bulky form stood unscathed but dirty, now carrying considerably more soot and dirt on the white cloth, being illuminated by nothing except the street light. The shadow that it cast on us had me quiver in my boots, trembling of its vocal cords already echoing in my mind even though it hadn't made a sound.

The General was absolutely flabbergasted at its appearance, I could tell. This wasn't exactly what you pictured when you thought alien, but then again, we had no idea exactly what was beneath the helmet. Something tall with three-fingered hands, definitely, but besides that?

It could be neon pink for all we knew.

It lunged forward and grabbed my ankle I had desperately tried to keep away from it, pulling me out of the truck without much effort. It swung me through the air and over its shoulder, its hand still gripping at my ankle as I laid upside down. I screeched, trying to fight it off even though I knew it was an absolutely wasted effort.

With its freehand, it grabbed at the underside of the truck and with one quick movement, it flicked the truck over and sent it flying offroad. It crashed into a tree, upside down. I could hear faint pained groans from the crash site, but it became even duller as the Traveller began to walk off.

"Hey, dude, put me down! If you need someone to abduct, you should have taken the General! Clearly, the higher authority human would be of more use to you than a nineteen-year-old with no ambition in life!" I screeched, the blood rushing to my head from the upside-down position. I tried to do sit-ups to reach its face but my abs were nonexistent and I was more like a blubbering fish when it came to stomach muscles.

"She carried weapons,"

Wait.

What.

It spoke.

And it wasn't how I expected it to speak. I had expected if it could speak my tongue, that it would be more thick in growls and deeper trills from the back of the throat. This just sounded... normal. Not feminine nor masculine, it was just a voice. A synthetic, emotionless, dead voice.

"You speak English?! Then what was all that groaning from earlier about?" I demanded, pissed off at the entire situation. A deep growl came from within the suit, immediately shutting me up and destroying my earlier thought process.

"You do not speak," it ordered, the suit echoing its voice that punctured my eardrums and had me halt my breathing. "I have downloaded your language onto my translator," it gave a simple answer, its free hand reaching into the belt surrounding its middle and produced my phone. "I have gained data,"

"You raped the internet, didn't you?"

FFRRRZZZ came the demanding purr, shutting me up immediately. This was no time to be cheeky. This thing could literally kill me in a heartbeat. I had no say in this situation. I would not get answers from it.

I was merely a captive.

✖

All military personnel had been deployed and were on the hunt for us, I know. I was deeply hoping that they would find us sooner rather than later.

Since the farm had been built on a bit of a hill and close to all the fertile land, almost in all directions surrounding the farm, was a forest. I had stopped trying to fight it and allowed myself to get dragged along, knowing that it could snap me in half if I pissed it off enough. Every now and then I would lift up my head in an attempt to get some blood flowing through the rest of my body again but it didn't help much. It was painful and I knew my face was bloodshed red from the long walk.

The Traveller headed as quickly as possible into the forest, not stopping to regard anything in the vicinity. The broken tube from its helmet still moved around and I wondered if it was actually breathing oxygen or something else in our atmosphere.

I tried to summon up the courage to ask it what its plan was. Where was it going? What was it going to do with me? Did it really think it could hide from the military?

But I was terrified. With every step it took, a small shockwave rippled through my body and had me tense up. Death would have been preferable to this... anticipation. This wait.

Maybe I should be happy that I didn't have to wait forever before something happened. It had suddenly stopped in a heavily wooded area and brought me in front of it to regard, still upside down by the ankle. It seemed to think for merely a second before its other hand reached to my ankle as well and snapped it to the side.

I cried out in pain as it let me go, my body tumbling into the forest floor. Twigs and rocks dug into my skin, but the pain from my ankle pointing in the opposite direction was enough for my mind to be completely clouded. My judgement was not only thrown out the window but rather it was burned, crumbled into a ball let sink to the bottom of the ocean before being retrieved millennia after, only to be tossed into a volcano.

"You motherfucker!" I cried out, holding near my ankle as hot tears began to force themselves upwards and pooled onto my cheeks. "Why?!"

"You would have escaped," it merely said.

"With your talk, dark and scary demeanour I wouldn't have gone anywhere!" I replied painfully, clinging onto my foot.

"I need reassurance," the synthetic voice was completely apathetic, merely a robotic voice from its translator. It sounded human enough to fool many, but the lack of any feeling was obvious.

It seemed to regard me for a second, the fury etched into my face hopefully an indication of my severe displeasure.

Tour guide broke my ankle. I give it a 0.5/10 star rating on yelp. Upside down view was sometimes pleasant.

Its hands bent up towards its helmet and I froze. With a twist to the side, the helmet unlatched and it pulled it off seamlessly.

I saw its face.

It was stunningly angelic.

It was...

How can I put in words?

Their skin colour was that of pure white, maybe even more untouched than even newborn snowdrops. Their strangely textured hair was just as white and pulled sleekly back across the skull, the sides of their head having no 'hair' and instead reflected more of the glittering white. Their entire face structure seemed... human.

Almost.

Their ears were more like an elf's would be, but the curvature inside the ears and the number of cartilage bones seemed to be different, putting it all on an odd angle. Their nose and mouth seemed to resemble a human's almost exactly, but their eyes...

There were no eyelashes nor eyebrows, but the entirety of the eye was filled-in darkness, a stark contrast to the rest of their face. The darkness had a strange red tint to it, but it seemed to be swarming around, just as the metal from their ship had seemed alive.

Their pure skin had its imperfections to it. Surrounding the eyes was a strangely pink glittering, as minuscule fireflies were surrounding it. From the forehead to the cheek, a long gash sunk deep into their face as a scar crossed their face. On the opposite cheek, another small scar lay bare.

For all of the beauty this creature emitted, the questions behind those scars countered it equally.

"Do all humans freeze up as you do?" they questioned, the lips moving but not at all matching the words my ear registered. The chiming of English words came from the collar around their neck, the mechanical device translating their direct words before they even exited the vocal cords.

It seemed implanted into their throat.

"You look... oddly human," it did not seem to like my comment as their face immediately scrunched up, revealing its razor-sharp teeth that vaguely poked through their lips.

"You are incorrect. My species is ancient. You look like us," it forced out, the echoing of a deepthroated hatred evident behind the translator's chirping.

I breathed deeply, the pain to my ankle pulsating even more as it grew terrifyingly uncomfortable.

The Traveller removed their gloves swiftly and tossed them to the floor, three-fingered bony pale hands revealing themselves. No nails. They worked quickly to undo the belting around their middle and removed all support the suit had. Soon it sat loosely on their frame and they could simply let it drop to the forest floor and step out.

Their frame was tall and thin and so, so unhealthy looking. For a human, anyway. They did not seem muscular at all but seeing how the suit had no real extra support, the power to throw a truck around and rip off tires, must have completely come from them.

They wore a white full-body suit that had odd circuitry inscriptions in silver on it, making them appear even more alien if that was possible.

No shoes, though. Only four toes and an odd archway to their foot's bridge.

Two silver cuff bracelets hung on their wrists. They seemed to stick out to me as they were also a quite lively metal.

In comparison with the bulky and heavy astronaut suit it had worn, they now seemed a lot more like a paper-thin white statue. I still felt nothing positive from them, and their intentions were quite clear after they had mutilated my ankle.

They tenderly touched at their own wrists, fiddling with the cuffs for a moment while growling in thought. Seemingly making up their decision, they headed over towards me, their long legs moving much quicker than before.

They were still extraordinarily tall.

"Don't you dare touch me!" I screeched my empty warning. They did not even seem fazed. They bent down for a second and in a swift movement had grabbed my broken ankle and snapped it back in place, my cries a mixture of pain and surprise.

"Seems right," they commented.

"No, it doesn't!" they did not care for my words and grabbed me by the collar of my pyjamas, lifting me up along with them. "Put me down!"

"Be quiet," they threw me over their shoulder, their feet immediately picking up speed and running off further into the forest. I was completely bewildered at how fast they were running, especially with my body so carelessly sprawled across their shoulder. I wasn't exactly tiny, nor was I built; it must've made it easier for them to carry me.

I felt utterly humiliated.

At least they weren't human.

I nearly squawked and tried to get a grip, my fingers digging into the bodysuit material that was on their back, some of it pulling away from their skin. Their arm was around my waist, holding me tightly onto their shoulder and the support was definitely needed.

They could outrun a car going 50 km/h, easily.

I had to close my eyes to deal with the speed, but luckily my face was facing in the opposite direction of the travel direction. Trees were passing by in near blur-like states and the Traveller was jumping over obstacles and even crossed entire ravines in simple movements at times.

How their brain was keeping up with analysing the terrain at this speed, I did not know.

I peered down at their legs and sure enough, I could outline the curvature of their calf muscles in my head. They were prominent enough that you could not miss them.

"Where..." I started to speak, forcing myself over the rush of wind from the travel. "Where are we going?" I could hear them growl, but at this point, I desperately needed answers.

The military by now would have discovered the General and would figure that the Traveller was slow-moving, thus still relatively close to the farm.

At the rate we have been going for the past minutes alone, we were far out of any search perimeter.

We were not going to be found.

"Shelter. I must hide," they forced through gritted teeth.

"Is that why you brought me along? To use me as a hostage in case you're discovered?" I questioned but they eyed me distastefully out of the corner of their dark eyes.

"I do not fear my discovery from your people," their eyes moved to regard the blurring scenery in front of us.

"I fear mine,"