The road can be as straight as it wishes. The faster he gets out of this forest the better. He peers ahead to where a white sky broadens, opening light-filled wings to embrace him, comfort him, speak soothing words.
Not your fault, not your fault.
They’re the soothing words he’s desperate to hear, from someone other than himself. An objective assessment. He clings to the hope, like he clung to the tree, helpless with fear, with horror.
He stares at the shiny black road flowing beneath the car’s bonnet. Ice? It might be for the best, a sudden loss of grip, a silent slide into the trees … would it be enough?
Not the answer. He doesn’t want to die, despite knowing his mind will play the images over and over … and over. He will never close his eyes again.
Not your fault. Not your fault.
The mantra shakes its head at him. Who was it who decided following bear tracks was a good idea? Who was it who sent her on ahead, laughing at her hesitancy, pointing to the rifle under her arm – a guarantee of safety.
Who was it?
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A straight road through the forest. Time to see what this beauty could really do. After all, they built Mercedes for high speed travel on the autobahns, didn’t they?
Up ahead, Sam could see a blinding light obscuring the road and backed off a little on the accelerator.
What on earth was it? The closer he got, the brighter it became. Beyond the intensity, he could just make out some sort of cigar-shaped vehicle hovering above the ground.
Suddenly, he was airborne – floating in air, drawn into what he now presumed was a spaceship, powerless to resist.
A sudden jolt and both he and the car came to a standstill. Sam looked around at the internal workings of what he had no doubt was some sort of alien craft, bright lights flashing, voice commands in a strange language which, for the life of him, he could not understand.
A being appeared at the driver’s door – a being unlike anything he had ever seen.
A smooth hairless head and body, the skin like that of a reptile. The creature gestured to Sam to leave the car and then beckoned him to follow.
Intrigued, Sam followed the alien through well lit corridors until he arrived at a circular room – with other, similar looking creatures to his guide, busy on what looked like giant computer controls and screens revealing the surrounding countryside.
Probably the cockpit, or bridge of the ship, thought Sam, as he quickly tried taking it all in.
One alien was seated at a central control and Sam presumed he was the ship’s captain or commander.
The creature spoke and, to his surprise, Sam could understand every word.
“My name is Azu. I am captain of this ship,” it said. “We come from the planet Dork in a galaxy many light years from here and we mean you no harm.”
Sam didn’t really know whether to believe him. After all, if they could reach Earth from such a distance their technology was probably so advanced that it wouldn’t matter if they meant harm or not. Earth’s defences were no doubt incapable of matching them.
“Why are you here?” asked Sam.
“We are looking for a new home for our race,” replied Azu. “Our planet is dying and we need to find somewhere else to live.”
“What makes you think Earth is a suitable place for you?”
“The atmosphere is similar to ours and we believe we could easily adapt to your climate.”
“How many people on your planet?” asked Sam.
“Five billion.”
Sam shuddered. Earth could never sustain another five billion people on top of the more than seven billion already living on the planet.
He rightly guessed that Earth’s population would be no match for these highly developed Dorkians if it came to war.
“What is the average temperature on Dork?” he inquired.
“Because we are cold blooded, we are used to living in temperatures of 30 degrees,” replied Azu.
“Well, I’ve got news for you chum,” said Sam. “We’ve had our global warming scare and are about to enter another ice age where the temperatures will plummet to below zero for long periods.
“I suggest you start looking for another planet.”
If it was at all possible to detect from his alien expression, Azu looked visibly shaken as he gave orders for Sam to be taken back to his car and returned to the straight forest road.
Bit of quick thinking there!
Sounds like a terrible fate. Didn’t get a chance to use the rifle before the bear pounced, I gather?
Guess not!