2
In the northeast part of the sky, there was a bright flash and then a thundering boom. The atmosphere burned at the metal hull of the distant object, though it held fast, taking the entry with ease. To the west, across the vast expanses of desert, alarms were beginning to go off as the object registered on various instruments and radars.
* * *
The team sat in the dark van, staring at each other from across the isle. Everyone seemed on edge, and the tension in the air was so thick, it could be cut with a knife. The guard nearest to the door, sporting a M-60 and a buzz cut, smirked towards the man across the isle.
"Whaddya think it is?" He said, spitting out a bit of chewing tobacco.
The man across from him looked up. "Whatcha mean? I know as much as you know, Jay."
Jay shook his head, his smirk growing even wider. "Man I don' care whatcha know, I wanna know whatcha think it is."
The man across the isle looked a bit dejected, he wasn't too bright. "Well, I figure it's just anoth'r shot aircraft. Or sumthing like that."
Jay looked at the man. "You ain't very creative, are ya? I betcha twenty big 'uns that this is sumthing real big. Big enough to get inno the hist'ry books for sure."
The man across the isle eyed Jay warily, among the platoon he was know to be a slippery fellow. Finally, though, the man came to a decision, and placing his gun across his lap, put his hand out to shake. "I take tha' bet. It never is nuthing and probably never will be."
Jay shook the man's hand, but kept his smirk.
* * *
The Company-sponsored truck rolled to a stop a couple meters out from the fresh crater. The uniformed men, armed head to toe with the latest in weapons, marched out towards the impact site. A second Company truck pulled up behind the first, though it consisted, on the inside, of only four guards and a... human-sized.... cage.
The group of soldiers crept warily towards the crater's edge, guns pointed. There was no movement save for a thin stream of steady smoke coming off of the gleaming metal within.
The object wasn't very large, but could probably fit seven or eight people, easily. It was shaped more like a car as opposed to the traditional UFO, though it had no visible windshields or windows.
Jay stepped right up to the edge, the with some grace, jumped into the crater, and walked up to the object. He then did the unthinkable, and began banging on it. The other soldiers warily followed him into the crater, and watched his lack of progress.
"Well DAMN!" Said Jay, "Them damn greenies just don't seem to wanna play, now do they?" He kicked at the craft some more.
"C'mon Jay, don't be doing that. Who knows what kinda phasers or whatnot they've got on that thing." It was the man from before, who had made the deal with Jay.
The other men had, by this point, gotten closer. Obviously Jay was unharmed, so what is the worry? Maybe it was uninhabited.
"Well I'll be damned if they have a phaser!" Jay laughed, "'Cause they don't even seem to know howda operate this damn thing!" He gave the ship one more decisive kick.
Suddenly a seam appeared in the metal. There was a sound of decompression, and then the metal smoothly slid aside, revealing the inside of the ship.
Mouth agape, the man from earlier handed Jay a twenty.
* * *
Joseph rushed into the lab, looking sleep deprived and irritated. He had missed the last subway for the night and had ended up having to catch a cab, which was expensive and time consuming. Everyone in the Lab, though, looked in about the same shape as him. Joseph rushed through the crowd, trying to make his way towards his office to find out what the hell was going on. He was intercepted by the department head, Howard, before he was even halfway towards the office.
"Joseph! Where the fuck have you been?! This whole half of the U.S. is going crazy with this new sighting!" Howard did not seem happy.
"Good morning to you, too." Joseph replied sarcastically. "If you must know, I was sleeping."
Howard glared. "Cut the shit, Joseph and come with me into my office. You're needed on the ground floor after that, pronto!"
Joseph obediently followed, observing the middle aged man with the grey eyes in front of him. Howard had at one time been the best in his field of advanced medicine, but had eventually fallen upon tough times and was forced to leave due to a disgrace during a debate session. Luckily, he was picked up by the company, and taken to the lab, which resided in Southern Arizona, just north of the mountain range, on the outskirts of Tuscon.
The Company was a branch of the US government that was.... not exactly recognized.... by the US government. It dealt with the grey areas of the military and scientific divisions, and tended to be what supplied the government with a the newest and nicest technology. Joseph had gotten mixed up with the whole Lab thing after an internship gone wrong.
Howard shut the door to his office behind Joseph, interrupting his thoughts. Joseph went to speak, but was silenced by a look from Howard.
"Now," He said, "As you may or may not've heard, Joseph, there was a recent crash not five miles from the ground floor." Ground Floor was the term used for the Lab's sister facility, positioned out in the middle of a government zone of desert, near the boarder. "Now they've found something. Something very interesting." Howard sat on the table, leaned towards Joseph, and lowered his voice. "Now you know that you're the best linguist the company has ever had. Most of the time you decipher codes and shit. But right now, we have something that has never been seen before, and so you are getting shipped out to the ground floor for a couple of months.
Joseph stared at Howard. "The fuck? I can't just up and leave! I have an apartment and.... fish... to feed..."
Howard glared. "Joseph, I'm not in the mood. Tell your landlady that the fish need feeding and then pack for the ground floor. You have two hours."
"But-"
"Don't give me your crap, no buts! Now get out and get packing."
Joseph glared, but knew better than to mess with Howard when he was under stress. Instead he called another cab and went home to start packing.
Two hours later Joseph finished zipping his last bag. He had packed lightly, and only taken two duffelbags full of everything he could possibly need for the next few months, i.e. a toothbrush and some clothing. He had just finished talking to his landlady, who agreed to feed the fish for only a couple more dollars.
Joseph sighed, exhausted from the long night before and the long day ahead of him. Just then, there was a sharp knock on his door. Joseph got up, grabbing his two bags, and headed towards the door. Opening it, Joseph's blue eye were met with the unfortunate view of two men, dressed in all black, staring blandly back.
"Joseph Marks Helton?" One of them asked.
Joseph eyed the suspicious bulges in their pockets as he replied, "Yes?"
"You have been reassigned to the ground floor as a short term linguist, unil classified work has been thoroughly completed."
Joseph nodded, then followed the men to a car.
* * *
The drive had been 5 hours, straight into the middle of nowhere. Joseph had fallen asleep for part of it, getting caught up on some much needed rest. He was then escorted to his new room, house underground so as to keep it cool. The whole establishment was mainly underground for that reason. Also, so as to not draw unwanted attention.
Looking around his new room, Joseph was vaguely reminded of a mental institution. It was small, 8' by 15', furnished with a white twin bed, a white side table, a bare bulb hanging from the celling and a white dresser in the corner. The walls were the same shade of blinding white. The bathroom was a claustrophobic kind of place, white as well, and could be found through a door to the right of the bed. "At least it's private..." Joseph muttered as he began unpacking. He was almost immediately interrupted by a quick secession of knocks on the door.
"Come in! It's open!" Joseph shouted out over a pile of dress shirts. The door opened to reveal a short young lady with a white lab coat and clipboard. She stuck her hand out to Joseph.
"My name is Elizah and you will be working with my team for the period of your stay." Her voice was cold and her eyes calculating. With a slight hesitation, Joseph grasped her hand and shook. It wasn't really a surprise to Joseph that her grip was like a vice, and he was relieved when he finally was able to pull away from the horrid experience.
Elizah pushed a strand of brown hair behind her ear and looked down at the clipboard. " You're a linguist, correct?" She glanced up at Joseph, who only gave a blank nod. "Says here you're the best at the Company. Good. We'll need everything you've got."
Joseph cocked his head to the side, sending his mass of longish black hair flying, and looked at her oddly. "y'know, I haven't been given an explanation for why I'm here yet." he said. Elizah nodded, then motioned for him to follow her. They started off down the hallway.
"Yesterday the Company detected an artificial craft on inhuman origin head towards a collision course with Earth. Early this morning, said craft crashed only 5 miles to the east of this facility. We sent out a team to retrieve it. As it turns out, the craft was not uninhabited. A being was retrieved from the site and is currently in custody here." Elizah paused in front of an elevator door at the end of the hallway. She looked at Joseph, "The problem is that we can't understand it, and vice versa."
The elevator doors opened and Elizah looked away. Going towards the keypad to the side, she typed something in then scanned her thumb. "That, Mr. Helton, is why we need you. Because if anyone has any hope of communicating with the discovery of a lifetime, then it most definitely is you." Just as she finished speaking, the elevator doors slid open, revealing another hallway almost identical to the last, lined with identical doorways on each side.
Joseph looked around uneasily, but then took a deep breath and began to follow Elizah down the hallway.
* * *
So I just heard the ice cream truck outside my window and I was like "AW FUCK this story is going to be creepy enough WITHOUT A FREAKY ICE CREAM TRUCK FROM THE 70's DRIVING AROUND OUTSIDE!!". XD Well~~~ What did you think?? Really since I'm new to this, I could use some feedback D:
Yeah I swear! Plot development is happening! I just needed to write the last two chapters so as to create a good basis for the rest of the story -_-'' Anyway what do you think of Joseph so far ;D If you couldn't pick up from the description (I suck as developing character) he is suppose to have medium length black hair, blue eyes, and is kinda thin.
:D ~~~ anyway~~ *throws cookies* Thanks for reading!