Asteroids
I was driving and listening to a song in the car. I was having a good time. I kept on driving and soon reached the grocery store. I entered and I quickly realized that everyone was talking to each other.
What could they be talking about?, I wondered. I had no idea what was going on.
I walked by two people; a man and a woman, who were talking to each other in quiet voices, and pretended to look at some apples. All the while, I discreetly listened in on their conversation.
“Have you heard about that asteroid that is about to hit? I wonder how big it is. How much damage will it cause?” the woman said worriedly.
The man shrugged and said, “I have no idea, but I don’t think it will cause too much damage. It will probably just hit this town and nowhere else. Maybe we should just catch a plane and leave.”
Everyone was talking about the asteroid. Many of them looked worried and some looked fascinated.
An asteroid? That’s ridiculous, I thought, an asteroid hasn’t hit Earth for such a long time.
I grabbed all the things I needed and went to the checkout counter. There, the cashier also started talking to me about the asteroid. I quickly paid for everything and hurried to my car. I started listening to my song again when a man on the radio started to talk. Apparently the asteroid was predicted to hit in about a few days.
That night, I researched about asteroids. I learned a lot about them, but I still did not think that an asteroid was going to hit. That hadn't happened in millions of years. I also watched the news, something that I never did. The person talking also seemed very sure that an asteroid was going to hit. It was then that I started to get a bit worried, myself.
Four days passed. The asteroid still had not hit.
I knew it, I thought to myself, there isn’t actually an asteroid.
The next day, I went to the grocery store again. It was my daughter’s birthday and I was going to buy her a cake. I entered the store. No one was talking about the asteroid anymore. Again, I bought everything that I needed and exited the grocery store. I was in a big hurry. My home was just a few minutes away from the market so I intended to get there quickly. Just then, I saw an old friend. We hadn’t seen each other in years. I rushed to talk to her. We were a few minutes into a deep conversation when a man started to scream. He was pointing upwards, towards the sky. I looked up. That was when I saw it. A huge asteroid was coming towards us at a very high speed! I tried to run out of the way, but I knew I couldn’t escape. Once it hit the ground it would destroy the city, or more.
A huge crack appeared in front of me. I screamed. It was like Earth had split apart. I thought I heard my friend call me, but her voice was drowned out by everyone else's screams. The ground started to shake again, and suddenly my friend collapsed. A second later, I was thrown back to the ground. I felt a searing pain in my back. Then I slowly closed my eyes, and drifted off to sleep.
***
I woke up in a small room. I didn’t know how much time had passed. I was wrapped in a fluffy gray blanket but I was still shivering. A creature with a small, grey head and three legs came up to me. An alien?
“How are you?” the creature asked. It gave me a warm smile. Its whole body was grey, and it was wrapped in a black blanket. The shape of its head was odd.
“I am fine, but who are you? An alien? And what am I doing here?” I had so many questions. The room I was in had no windows, so I couldn’t see outside.
“Relax. Yes, I am an alien,” it calmly said with a smile. “ An asteroid hit your planet which is called Earth, I believe. You were the only one that survived. So now, you are the only human in the universe. We aliens happened to be exploring in our rocket ship here. We saw your broken planet and found you lying on the ground and you were alive! We decided to take you with us, so we went back to our planet, Mars. You have been with us for a week. We are going back to Earth now to explore.”
“Wow, that’s interesting,” I said in a confused voice. I jumped off the bed. “Can I leave this room now?” The alien nodded its small head. I slowly opened the door. It was just like a plane! There were a bunch of aliens sitting in rows and rows of seats. There were windows too. I walked through one of the aisles and sat down quietly. I noticed all of the aliens staring at me, so I kept my head down.
Suddenly, I heard a voice over the loudspeakers. “We will be arriving in 10 minutes. Please prepare for landing and keep your seatbelts on!” The aliens scratched their small, grey, heads. Where would we be arriving? What were they talking about?
“I wonder what we will find in this place, called Earth. I hear people there used to have two legs instead of three, like we have,” one of the aliens said with a frown.
“I hear they are very smart,” said another alien.
“Actually, I think they are stupid. They should have known an asteroid was going to hit their planet.” The third alien shook his head disapprovingly. I was slightly offended.
The alien who was flying the rocket ship, shouted loudly, “We will be landing in three, two, one! Seatbelts on!” All the aliens looked through the windows and saw part of Earth. It was big, and blue. The aliens were confused. “Why does their planet look so blue from far away?”
The rocket ship landed and made an extremely loud sound. All of the aliens grimaced and covered their ears. They slowly got out and looked around. The planet didn't look so blue anymore. They touched the ground with their hands. That was when I saw bodies on the ground. Human bodies.
All of the aliens collectively gasped. They ran towards one of the bodies and slowly touched it. “Let's take this back to Mars to study it,” one of the aliens said. “Our leader will be pleased.” I wondered what leader they were talking about.
All of the aliens picked up the body and put it in the back of their big, gray spaceship. “Now we will take it to our lab to inspect it very carefully.” With that, the aliens took off and flew away, to Mars. They reached in about twenty minutes. Again the rocket ship landed and the aliens got out. Three of them heaved the body up and carried into a building. Once they were inside, each of them took turns carrying the body. I walked with them. These aliens were small and for them, a human body was extremely heavy.
“I have always wanted to see a human body,” said one of the aliens with a smile, once they had reached the lab. “It's too bad that there is no human life anymore. Except her, of course.” The alien looked at me quickly. “Us aliens could have become good friends with humans.” The aliens all stood there for a moment, and then they started to inspect the human body. They observed, took notes, and took pictures with their tiny cameras. I watched them in the corner of the room.
“Let’s take a break now,” said one of the aliens. “We will finish this tomorrow. I will take the human to her room.” The alien motioned for me to follow him, and then we walked out of the room, leaving the other two aliens behind. I was led through a long hallway with many closed doors. I wondered what was inside.
The alien stopped at one of the closed doors. He opened it and I was instantly surprised. The room was very big, with a lot of furniture. There was a big bed in one corner, a dresser with a mirror on top of it, a walk-in closet, a desk with a big chair, and more space. “This is nice,” I said. The alien smiled at me and said, “This is where you will be staying. Tell me if you need anything else.” Then the alien walked out of the room.
I walked over to my bed and lay down on it. I was very tired and I just wanted to sleep. I pulled the blanket over my body and closed my eyes. That night, I dreamt about the asteroid hitting Earth.
***
The next morning I woke up. Out of habit, I went to the closet and opened it. The clothes inside were just like the ones from Earth! I took shower, and I exited the room. An alien was waiting for me outside. I couldn’t tell if it was the one from yesterday who had shown me my room, because all of the aliens looked exactly the same. I had no idea how to tell them apart.
“Good morning!” the alien said happily. “Good morning,” I replied. The alien led me out of the hallway and into a dining room. All of the aliens were sitting in chairs. They were eating some green mush that was in a bowl. I sat down in one of the chairs. An alien served me a bowl of mush too. “No thank you,” I said as politely as I could. I was starving but there was no way I was eating that green stuff!
After breakfast, three aliens led me to their lab. They started to study the human again. After some time though, I got very bored. “I am getting very bored. Is there anything I can do?” I asked the aliens.
“You will just have to sit here with us. because we do not actually have any entertainment. We aliens just work in labs all day long so we never have time for anything else. We didn’t know a human would be coming. We weren’t prepared.You can go to your room, though.” The alien smiled apologetically.
“Oh, okay. I will just keep watching you then.” I didn’t feel like going to my room right then. I didn’t know how much longer I would have to live with the aliens.
***
One whole week passed and I didn’t know how much more I could take of this. Living here was so boring! I was thankful to the aliens for giving me a place to live, but there was nothing to do here. There weren’t even any devices. I spent every single day in their boring lab, watching them work on one project or another.
One day, I was with the aliens in their lab, and I had a thought. “What if an asteroid hits Mars? Then what will you guys do?” I asked them. The aliens thought for a while.
“We don’t really know. We don’t have any protection. But if we die, there will be no life in the whole universe.
The next day, I asked the aliens if I could ride in their rocket ship and they agreed. Five aliens went with me. One of them went to the front, so that they could fly the rocket ship, and the other four aliens sat with me. I had such a good time! We flew around Earth, Mars, and Venus. Then the aliens said we had to go back. I agreed and we landed on Mars. Then we went back to the lab.
When we entered the lab, I sat by the window. That was when I saw a big rock. It was plummeting down from the sky and was about to catch fire.
Just like an asteroid, I thought. Oh, no! This couldn’t be happening again! After an asteroid hit Earth it couldn’t hit Mars!
“Ummm, guys,” I said worriedly, “what is that thing in the sky?” I asked, even though I knew exactly what it was, and I pointed upwards. The aliens all looked up.
“Oh no! That is an asteroid. We will have the same fate as the unfortunate humans!” one of the aliens yelled loudly. “Now there will be no life in the universe if we die! It will be the end!”
The asteroid hit the ground. I was thrown backwards once again, and from there, it was like a repeat of what happened on Earth. I felt a pain in my back, and then everything went black.
It was the end of life on all of the planets.
***
I woke up in bed with a sudden jerk. I had been dreaming! I was sweating, and my blanket was thrown on the ground. I bolted up right. Earth was still there and there were no aliens or labs on Mars. It was the end of my dreams.
[ratemypost]