The day dawned bright and clear. Sunlight touched the buildings, gently illuminating the space without seeming to trouble the cool morning air.
Erica stood outside her door, stretching her arms above her head with a groan.
Why did I think this was a good idea? She asked herself, looking gloomily down at her workout clothes. She had been intending to start this whole 'exercise' thing to help her get fit. She hadn't even started and she already hated it.
Who even wants to be up this early?
She slowly started to jog along the path leading to the nearby park. Recently, the council had added in some free workout equipment at intervals around the walking path, so Erica thought she might try it out. If she could figure out how they worked.
Erica wasn't very overweight, but she was definitely unfit. Exercise was not on her list of things she actually wanted to do, not when she could be curled up with a book, a hot chocolate, and an animal for company. She knew that her health was starting to suffer, though, so she decided to take this drastic (for her) step.
She turned her head suddenly to the right, thinking she'd seen a flash of bright light in the sky. Frowning, Erica scanned the area. Nothing.
She shrugged.
Must be seeing things.
Her feet pounded the pavement in a stuttering rhythm as she tried to figure out a sustainable jogging form. Finally, the open grass of the park appeared before her. It was unexpectedly crowded today, many people out with their dogs in the early morning.
Erica leaned on a tree, pulling in air as she struggled to breathe evenly. She really was out of shape! Suddenly, another bright flash of light appeared in the sky. She looked straight up at it. This time, the light did not disappear, instead seeming to fall down towards the ground. As it approached, its form became clearer. It appeared to be some sort of giant metal cylinder, squat but wide, dropping at tremendous speeds towards the park! As she watched, she saw countless other dots of light appear in the sky around the falling metal, mimicking its trajectory in other areas nearby.
"Look out!" Erica yelled out, ducking behind the tree and crouching down. There was no time to find better cover. She heard yells, screams, and loud barks as the people around her panicked, running and diving for cover as the metal cylinder crashed down with a resounding boom.
Almost instantly, there was a loud hissing noise and the loud sound of many creatures moving quickly away from the metallic source of destruction. Erica was about to carefully peek around the side of the tree when she came face-to-muzzle with the business end of a gun. A rough,crackling sound came from above her head and she froze.
"I said move!" This time, the crackling sound clarified into a voice. It sounded dry, but somehow very wet as well, as if the speaker was shoving a ball of slime through a tube of sandpaper.
Erica stood slowly, not daring to raise her head. She studied her assailant in her peripheral vision as she followed the nudging of the gun towards the centre of the park, where many other people and their pets were being herded.
The holder of the gun was tall and very thin, almost as though a braid of sunflower stems had become ambulatory. Its head, or what she assumed was its head, seemed tall and narrow behind a seamless silvery helmet. Erica took deep breaths, trying to hold in her terror. Even without the leg situation which she was trying to ignore, the attacker was definitely alien.
As for the leg situation... six spindley, spider-like legs emerged from the bottom of the braided-stem torso. Each leg was directly opposite another, do it appeared as though the alien could move suddenly in any direction that it wanted. The pointed tips on the alien's legs click-clacked harshly on the concrete of the running path, sending shudders up Erica's spine.
She soon reached the group of captives, turning around to face the aliens. Thinking about them made her shake, the cold feeling of shock and panic rising in her stomach. She'd always believed that aliens existed, even wanted to meet some one day, but not like this.
The surrounding aliens turned their heads to look back at the door which had slid open in the side of the cylinder. Their guns stayed levelled at the group of people huddles together in the middle of the park. A deeper, louder click-clacking sound began to slowly move towards the door, causing Erica to swallow hard in fear. Whatever else was in that place, she didn't want to encounter it.
Unfortunately, she wasn't given a choice. Slowly, and with great gravity, another alien emerged from the depths of what Erica could only assume was the aliens' ship.
It was 3 times as tall as the others, nearing 12 feet in height. The thought, how did it even fit in there, bend in half? rebelliously slid through Erica's mind, almost making her giggle before she got it under control.
The giant alien swung its head slowly, as if surveying the tiny humans below.
Finally, it rasped, "Kill them."
The surrounding aliens all took aim, as the humans inside their circle began to react. Some screamed, some cried, some stood frozen in shock. Others hunched over their beloved pets, as if to shield them from what was about to come. Beside Erica, an elderly lady held her tiny Maltese, crying softly into its fur while the dog licked her face, trying in confusion to make her feel better.
Then, one of the aliens took direct aim at the little dog.
Erica's emotions seemed to explode out of her; her rage, her fear, her heartbreak for the people around her, and her overwhelming need to make sure that dog and its owner stayed safe.
"NO!"
The word tore its way out of her throat, burning with her rage and despair. In an instant, a bright green light burst out of her, forming a dome that surrounded the group of captives. Just as it snapped into place, the beams of energy silently leapt from the aliens' guns. On contact with the shining dome, the streaks of energy seemed to disappear. The aliens stood in shock.
And five words appeared in Erica's tearstained vision.
[Congratulations on activating the System]