Malevolence Unleashed — VII
Invasion
CHAPTER ONE
— Somewhere above the Indian Ocean —
“Your brother is the pilot?” The little girl’s eyes lit up in excitement as she stared at me in awe. Thirty-five thousand feet above the ground, the sun shone magnificently onto my lap through the tiny window slit.
“That’s right, you are in the very capable hands of Captain Mohammed Hassan, right this moment.”
“That is so cool! I want to become a pilot too some-” she started but was cut off by the intercom:
This is your Captain speaking. All passengers are advised to fasten their seatbelts since we’ll be experiencing heavy turbulence. The skies should clear up as we get closer to our destination.
Just when I was considering heading to the washroom.
I cursed internally. However, I must admit some part of me swelled with pride every time I heard his voice. At least my parents had one child to be proud of. As I slid my buckle in place, I noticed the girl struggling with hers.
“Here, let me take care of that for you,” I smiled as I reached over and did hers as well. Suddenly, a wave of dancing light resembling the colors of the Aurora Borealis swept across the floor of the aircraft. Strange, I thought.
“So, you want to become one too, huh?” I said, straightening myself.
When my eyes met her face again, I immediately knew something was wrong. Her expression was blank, and her skin seemed oddly flaky. The cries of babies echoed through the cabin, ringing in my ears. And then, as I watched, the flakiness spread across her body, to her arms and down her torso until her entire body caved inside, reducing to dust. A glass of water shattered against the floor in front of me as the same dark plague claimed the air hostess who was walking towards me.
The aircraft suddenly tipped forward, plummeting towards the ground at an alarming angle. Oxygen masks ejected from the compartment above me as the cabin pressure dropped. My chest tightened up as beads of sweat formed on my temples. I could only count three passengers still remaining in the business class cabin excluding one other air hostess who was barely standing upright. I didn’t know if it was the lack of oxygen or a random spurt of bravery, but I knew there was something I had to do.
After taking one last breath, I took off my seatbelt and started hauling myself towards the cockpit.
“Please, you have to be seated!” the air hostess warned me desperately. I admired her dedication, but I shoved her aside and pushed the door to the cockpit open. She wasn’t really in a position to stop me anyway. As I’d feared, I saw that both of the seats in front of me were empty, save for scattered patches of dust everywhere. I placed my hands on the pilots’ seats and somehow dragged myself forward. I didn’t have much flying experience, but I had to try.
“Come on, come on! Work with me here…”
The big blue ocean was coming up fast. I adjusted the ailerons and pulled up as hard as I could, hoping for a miracle. Just as I felt like I might be able to stabilize the flight, something rammed against the side of the aircraft, hard.
The last thing I saw before blacking out was a massive, glowing, triangular structure towering above me, slicing the aircraft down the middle, cutting through solid metal like butter…
CHAPTER TWO
Loud ringing filled my ears as I struggled to open my eyes. I didn’t know how long I had been out, but the sun was nowhere to be seen now and the moon was reflecting its light across the dancing waves which were gently lapping at my feet. I was quite certain at least two ribs were broken, and a long bloody gash across my left arm made me question how I was still alive.
I seemed to have washed ashore a white sandy beach. The large triangular structure I’d seen earlier was jutting out of the very earth in the middle of the ocean, about what seemed like at least ten kilometers away. The plane was nowhere to be seen and I had to assume that I was potentially the only survivor.
The face of the little girl flashed through my mind again, as I remembered the empty seats of the cockpit.
I hoped he didn’t suffer much. Tears welled up in my eyes, but I pushed the feelings aside as I realized there were more important matters to attend to. With considerable effort, I managed to put myself in a standing position. I cleaned up the cut on my arm as well as I could and tied it up with a piece torn off my sleeve.
Once I felt like I had mustered enough strength, I picked up a scrap of wood from near the beach to use as a walking stick and set out to explore. The beach stretched out into a sizeable mass of land with vegetation, and critters crawling around but was unfortunately surrounded by the ocean from all sides with the mainland nowhere in sight. I suddenly caught sight of a black mound of metal on the opposite side of the island — a small aircraft of sorts; yet it looked like nothing I’d ever seen before. I approached the strange structure warily, afraid of what monsters may lie within.
“Anybody there?” I called out, my heart in my mouth.
I took a few steps closer till I finally got a view of the pilot. I fell back in panic — the creature within was not human. The face reminded me of the demonic beings that had decimated New York all those years ago. I never imagined that one day I’d get to see one this close up; undeniable proof that we were indeed not alone in this universe.
A low piercing growl from behind cut through my train of thought and made my hair stand on end. I turned around to face a vile, nightmarish creature with six terrible limbs jutting out from a black and gold body. Long, sharp teeth lined its face which exuded nothing but unfathomable bloodlust.
“Easy there. I don’t want to hurt you.” I said, clenching my fist around the wooden stick. The creature and I moved around each other in a slow circle, wary of every muscle movement made by the other. I noticed that the brute had been injured across the middle, probably during the crash on the beach, and was bleeding profusely.
“We’re both stuck here together anyway. How about we try to get along and I can help you take a look at that?” I suggested, slowly lowering the stick to the ground.
“The Outriders require no help from filthy Terrans,” it hissed as it lunged for my neck. The creature was surprisingly fast for its size, but I was faster. Ducking underneath its heavy arms, I swung my stick in a wide arc, catching it right where it had been wounded earlier with a satisfying crunch. The outrider let out a piercing shriek as it stumbled over a pile of rocks and fell into the aircraft. I knew I wouldn’t get that lucky again. For a few heart pounding moments, I waited for it to pounce out and claim my soul. However, nothing happened. When my curiosity got the better of me, I inched my way towards the craft and peeped inside. The Outrider lay sprawled on the floor, impaled by a large, dark piece of metal jutting out of its chest.
“Your loss,” I muttered as I slumped down against the hull. As more piercing growls reached my ears from every direction, I picked up my walking stick again with a smile.
“See you soon brother,” I said to myself, as I hobbled towards the wave of darkness.
This piece of fiction was inspired by the characters in Marvel comics.
