1
Joseph shifted in his seat, glancing around the stuffy compartment warily. He was on a subway, riding home after another long day at the Lab. Recently, a signal had been picked up that had the whole agency buzzing. It had come from deep space, and had, with all intents and purposes, seemed to be of organic origin. It was all very high profile, and the secrecy was honestly giving Joseph somewhat of an ulcer and a mild case of paranoia.
At his stop, Joseph warily shuffled out of the subway, making towards his apartment, which resided on the lower west side of town. It wasn't in the best of places, but it was sufficient for the moment, and Joseph, being in his mid twenties and not totally out of shape, was able to ward off most street hustlers and shady figures.
He sighed, starting the stairs towards his room, which was on the third floor. The signal was a simple radio blast, and had been detected by the LTA in Chile. It consisted of a code not unlike human speech, and lasted for about 30 seconds. It would've been totally over looked if it weren't for the fact that the code repeated the same 5 second pattern over and over again. Damn. What could it be?
Joseph shook his head, unlocking his apartment door. I guess we may never know. He thought to himself. He threw his coat onto the unimpressive coat rack next to the door, and slipped out of his shoes. Joseph then made his way towards the 'kitchen' portion of the apartment. You couldn't really consider the kitchen it's own room, because it was merely sectioned off by a counter and ceiling high fish tank, and consisted mainly of necessity-based appliances (i.e. a microwave, oven, dishwasher and refrigerator) and a small table with two chairs shoved into the corner of the tight room. The rest of the apartment consisted of a Spartan-esque living room, furnished with only a simple white couch and television, and a simple bedroom raised on a platform and mainly being a bed, dresser and closet. The only room that actually had a door was the bathroom, which lay right between the living and bed room.
Sighing again, Joseph opened the fridge, hopeing to find something of edible value. His efforts were vain, leaving him with a month old carton of milk, some pickles and a half-eaten pan of now mouldy brownies. Deciding that the milk was boarder-line toxic, Joseph tossed the offensive cartoon into the trash can, then made his was to his bed, stripping as he went.
Down to only his boxers, Joseph didn't bother with any normal hygienic methods, such as brushing his teeth, but instead did what most exhausted people did and fell straight to sleep.
* * *
No less than two hours later, a blaring noise sounded from his bedside table. Fumbling, Joseph finally laid hand upon the source of the noise pollution, his phone. It was David, one of the people he worked with at the Lab. Joseph glanced over to the clock. 2:42am. Why the fuck was David calling at such an ungodly hour? Grumbling, he answered.
"Mhhm Yeah?"
"-CRASH LANDED!"
Waking up a bit, Joseph propped himself up on his arm. "Sorry David what did you say?"
"I said, that an object of obvious intelligent design just crash landed!" David sounded as though he were nearing hysteria.
Joseph rubbed his eyes, trying to rid them of sleep. "Sorry David but I don't understand why you find it funny to call people at such outrageous hours of the day just to pull a silly prank." David didn't really have much of a reputation around the lab as being very mature.
"Joseph. I'm not joking. You need to come to the lab right this minute. They sent out a special forces unit to the crash site and are currently issuing a code red for the company!"
That made Joseph pause. "But if they'd issued a code red, then I would've gotten a text notificatio-" his phone buzzed. Joseph suddenly felt his mouth go dry, and, fumbling some more, pulled up the text message.
Sender: Company Lab
Message: Code Red, company grounds. Services required immediately.
Joseph stared at the message, ignoring the now hysterical David on the other side of the line. "-this could be it! We've finally found it! Joseph, are you there? Joseph what the fuck man? Jose-" Joseph hung up. It was really happening. An... an alien object had actually landed. No. It was probably a false alarm, another hoax attempt or Russian spy satellite that "accidentally" got knocked out of orbit. It couldn't possibly actually be... from out of earth's atmosphere...
Sighing once again at the perspective of going back to work without proper rest, Joseph began to pull on some clothing. He ignored the mass of long black hair on his head, and instead focused on buttoning up his grey shirt and leaving the apartment as soon as possible.
Even though Joseph kept telling himself that this was all just another alarm, he couldn't manage to shake that feeling as though this event was real, as though this event would change the world forever.
* * *
Okay AHHHH this is the first chapter of my first book EVER on wattpad or well anywhere else for the matter -_- derp. Yeah sorry about it being so boring and short, I SWEAR STUFF WILL PICK UP SOON PLEASE HOLD IN THERE!!! yeah I also noticed that Joseph sounds depressing D: Sorry the characters just tend to develop on their own. (Damn you Joseph -_-). Anyway~~ THANKS FOR READING! And honestly, *stares intently* I don't really care if you do or don't vote and fan and comment or whatever, though it's a real honor to have such things happen! So I suggest you vote but lols don't feel pressure X3 (I don't think I made any sense right then lol).
Anyway THANKS FOR READING IT MEANS A LOT TO ME! :D *hands cookie*