In A Universe Without Stars 1: Skyeater (29 page)

It’s
a star.

Like
a miniature sun.

The
rest of the clouds burn away into a mist, the bright blue sky shows above the
star.

The
booming sound starts to pulsate.

“What…What
is that?” Cole asks.

“You
mean who is that. That is your end human. The eater of false deities, our
father and our god. Numenwolfe,” Ulbe says. He laughs.

The
ships above expand out and start to obliterate the city.

Thora
stares at the hole in the wall. She can feel the pulsating in her bones. She
feels like something is in the smoke.

Something
Safe?

But
that shouldn’t be right. She wants to approach it but…She glances back at
Arnold and Neil at the television.

The
president continues his speech in the bunker. A distant explosion happens above
him. He knows it’s the end. He shakes, he’s scared.

“A-and
because of that…A-and because of that…” he stutters.

The
generals and commanders that were commanding the battle stare at him, with tear
studded hopeless eyes. Headphones and mics off.

They’ve
failed.

Humanity
is done.

Their
forces wiped out.

Everyone
in the room watches him. His secretary cries against the man next to her.

All
hope is lost.

They
stare at him for words he doesn’t have or maybe they just want someone to bide
the time
til
the end.

The
bunker starts to shake.

“And
because of that…” He gets quieter and quieter as he goes on.

They
are all dead.

“When
we…rise up to fight…we…will…
wi
…” Someone screams.

The
president looks up as the building crashes down.

Shouts
and screams are heard around the television in the stadium. Thora turns to
them.

“What
happened?” She asks herself. “Arnold!”

She
runs for him. Arnold looks at her as—

A
piece of the roof crashes down on Arnold, Neil, and the rest. Killing them
instantly.

“Arnold!!!”
Thora screams. She stops in her tracks, too in shock to run.

Blood
runs from under the rubble. A severed hand falls out.

No.
No. No.

”
Noooo
!”

All
her friends are dead. She falls to her knees, not caring for what will happen
to her. A blinding white light peers through the ceiling, coating Thora with
its
bask. It pulsates with the booming sound coming from
outside.

Ulbe
laughs in the smoke.

“What
are you going to do…When the gods come crashing down?” Ulbe asks.

Cole’s
spheres spin furiously around him, he clutches his hands. With this power…

“I’m
going to ascend into the heavens to destroy them all.”

He
points his arm at Ulbe and—

A
sphere burst right through Ulbe. The smirk permanently wiped off his face. The
smoke finally starts to clear.

He
looks up.

Thora
is only a few yards in front of him.

“Thora!!!”
Cole yells. It feels like it’s been eons since he’s seen her.

She
rises from her knees, she heard a familiar voice,
she
turns toward him. The shock on her tear slicked face turns into a smile.

“Co—“

A
black pillar goes through her heart. She’s ripped up through the ceiling.

“NOOOOOOOOOOO!”

He’s
suddenly yanked into the sky by an invisible force.

No!

“Stop!”
he yells.

He
needs to go back!
It pulls him through the air away from the city. The miniature star pulsates, a
flare whips out and destroys the world’s last standing capital.

Eliite
ships spread out to destroy the outskirts of the city. A pulsating sound is
heard again. The star pulsates faster and faster until—

In
a flash, a slab of red crystal-like material appears a few miles above and
below the star. More and more appear quickly after the last, each connected
with the last. It starts to form a shape, building something. It starts to
catch up to Cole until—

A
shape is finally seen, it forms a dome on the bottom and a dome on top of the
star slightly encasing it.

“We
have run out of time, Earth is lost. We need to evacuate the planet,” Jahum’s
voice plays in Cole’s head.

No!
He needs to go back, he has to save Thora!

“Jahum!
Stop!”

The
crystal stops, there is about two miles between the pieces. They are hundreds
of miles wide. The domes start to fill up with dirt, then water then what looks
like concrete and foundations for buildings and—

Cole
vision jolts. He’s back in an empty room on the Astrons ship.

“No…”
He says.

He’s
failed her.

He
falls to his knees and cries.

The
sky is dark
,
red and bleak. Murky red crystal replaces the clouds, preventing the Earth from
feeding off the
rays of the sun
. Reese walks
down an empty road outside of DC, grass plains surrounding him.

His
Air Force jumpsuit is unzipped down to his waist, showing off his muscle shirt.
He only carries Julio’s gun with him. For safe keeping maybe, he hopes he
doesn’t get in any situation where he has to use it.

He
continues down the road, he needs to get off it soon, he’s been lucky so far
avoiding the Eliite. But he’s pushing his luck continuing down this road. “Just
a few more miles,” He says to himself. He knows of a place he can hide in this
area. He stops and peers into the sky. He doubts he can hide from them long,
the object above bears down over him.

Is
he never going to fly again?

…

“Are
you guys ready?!” Julio exclaims. He stands on a high clifftop off the
Mediterranean Sea. The sun is at high noon, the pearl blue aqua stretches out
for ages, water clear enough to see the sea floor fifty feet below. Julio jumps
into the water, flipping like a pro and splashes in.

He
comes up.

“
Woooooo
yeah!! Come on!” He shouts up.

Cole
and Thora look down at him, dressed in bathing suits. Thora visibly shakes. She
glances back, Erin and Arnold sit in one of the five lawn chairs they brought.
Erin has a noticeable bump on her belly but that doesn’t stop her from rocking
her pink two piece bikini.

“Aren’t
you guys going to jump?” Thora asks them. Erin points to her belly, she looks
at Arnold.

“If
I can’t drink a beer I can’t jump,” He says, he looks nervously at the edge.
Erin smiles and grabs his hand and squeezes it.

Thora
jerks back when Cole touches her. He places his arm around her shoulder and
strokes it.

“You
ready?” he asks.

“No,
I-I can’t do this.”

She’s
having second thoughts, it looked like fun from the videos but seeing it in
person is a whole
another
thing. 

“Yes,
you can, you can do anything if you put your mind to it.” He clutches her
tighter.

She
doesn’t answer.

Doing
anything you put your mind to and splattering your mind on a rock are two
different things.

“Come
on, you pussies!” Julio yells from below. “Jump!”

“I’m
not scared, you shouldn’t be either,” Cole says. Why should she care if he’s
scared, that doesn’t help her at this instance? But she should trust him, Julio
did fine but she’s not Julio.

“What
if I hit my head on a rock?” she asks.

“So
what?”

“So
what!?!” She stares at him.

“I
didn’t mean it in that way!” he stammers. He pulls her closer. “We’ve came all
this way, you
gotta
live
a little. We can jump together. As long as you’re with me I will always protect
you, I won’t lead you somewhere dangerous.”

She’s
sure he wouldn’t lead her to her death. She’s never done anything like this
before, but she knew what kind of guy he was when she married him.

“O-okay.”

Cole
grabs her hand and they both back up a couple of feet.

“Are
you ready?”

“No.”

He
looks into her eyes as they both run and jump. Their gaze doesn’t break as they
go down.

She
loves him to death, she can trust him even when they’re doing something
incredibly stupid, because that’s Cole.

The
responsible one.

Well
if they do die, at least they’ll together.
‘Til
death
do us
part.
She smiles as he stares at her with his
hazel brown eyes as they hit the water.

…

Cole
sits in front of a console in a small black room, he’s in front of a giant
display which covers the entire wall. He has his head in his hands, he shakes
slightly. He needs to forget.

He’s
a god now.

On
the display it shows Erin’s, Arnold’s, Neil’s, Julio’s and Thora’s names
highlighted among thousands.

KIA
shown by their names.

“I
must forget.”

He’s
a god now, but what use is that power?

He
screams and looks at the display.

“God
dammit!!!” he screams punching the display.

His
fist goes right through it. It sparks off. He removes his fist and sits back
down. His eyes are bloodshot red, his cheeks slick with tears. He puts his head
back into his hands.

What
the fuck is the use of this power, if he can’t even protect the ones he loves.

Jahum
lied to him.

This
power is useless. This is all a fucking joke, he’s going to end it,
and
with this power he
finally
can. Jahum made a mistake by saying he was going to be the one
to change everything.

The
stars won’t protect him.

They
don’t protect a damn thing.

A
ding comes from the screen, the display crunches and morphs into liquid glass
and fills in the hole. It fixes itself.

This
technology is just an excuse to fill the emptiness of these so called gods. He
hits a button. The display turns back on.
Human casualties counter
appears
on it. Then a zero below it. It counts up.

“Don’t
cry…They’re one with the stars now.”

He’s
not thinking right, he just needs to—

His
thoughts pause. To think on what he’s going to do next. But his memories are
rushing fast into his head. He feels weird, like he’s not really here, before
he ascended he never had so many thoughts in his head, never had so many clear
and vibrant memories of his past.

Is
this what it’s like to be an ascended? Because he doesn’t think he can take it
anymore.

Living.

The
counter speeds past one hundred thousand and continues to speed up. Cole just
stares at the numbers, he can follow every single increase. Which helps him
clear his head. It blows past five billion until it comes to a sudden stop.

6,152,637,917
confirmed human casualties.

It
continues again, but this time a lot more slowly but fast enough to watch the
extinction of the human race. Going up ten every second. A tear rolls down
Cole’s cheek. His watch beeps, he forgot he still had the damned thing.

A
map pops up, it’s of the thing that was forming over D.C.,
it’s
shaped like an oval. A single red dot blinks in the middle of it. The dot
pulsates, letting out a beep each time. The map zooms in and—

Thora’s
name shows up next to the dot.

She’s
the dot.

She’s
alive.

The
beeping sound echoes out in the room.

…

 A
white square room sits empty, sterile as a hospital, a conveyor belt stands
still at the end of it. Thora lies on it, impaled on thin black pillars, body
sprawled out like a starfish. Her eyelids fly open. She inhales deeply. She
turns her head and looks up, bright white lights shine in her eyes. It feels
like she’s just woke from a long dream.

Where
is she? She tries to remember where she was last.  

“
Ahh
!” she screams, noticing the black bars impaling her
through her clothes. She tries to move her arms but can’t.

Her
whole body is numb.

“
Nononono
!” she panics.

She
starts to hyperventilate. Her head flings around, looking for anything,
anybody, but the room is empty, oddly sterile looking.

Then
she remembers, the attack, the Eliite, everything. Then she remembers the
stories of what aliens do when they abduct people.

Dissect
them.

“HELP!!”
she screams but it’s useless.

“Help!!!”
she screams herself hearse.

She
doesn’t want to die like this, not on some freaking metal table getting her organs
pulled out. She manages to glance past the pillars and sees where the conveyor
belt leads. It goes into another room, but it’s too dark to see what’s in it.
But something else is on the conveyor belt in that room, it’s too dark but it
looks…human.

“Hey!!”

He
doesn’t respond, she tries to look back, but she can’t because of how the
pillars irregularly holds her up.

Shouldn’t
she be dead? She’s getting an ominous feeling that later she’s going to wish
the pillars killed her.

A
metallic sound whizzes in the room. The wall in front of her breaks open and
goes into the perpendicular walls. She can finally see what’s in the other
room, or rooms. The walls open in ten rooms in front of her, making a long
corridor. The conveyor leading into a black square hole in the white wall.

Oh
god.

She
sees thirty other people on the conveyor belt, all impaled with pillars in
various ways like her. Tall, short, black, brown, white, all kinds of people,
she even sees a few children. None of them are awake though.

The
conveyor shifts and moves. It maneuvers to the middle in between the two walls.
Two metal tongs come from the ceiling and grabs her and pulls up.

Suddenly
parts of the pillars sticking out of her falls off, the rest –

“AHHHHHHH!”
Thora screams.

The
rest is painfully absorbed into her, not leaving a mark. Thora’s eyes fling
open and she hurls down below, it splatters onto the conveyer.

That
was the most pain she has ever experienced, she tries to clutch her hands to
null the pain but it’s useless. She labors her breathes, she sees a wet spot on
her pants, but she’s not sure if that was from the throw up or piss from the
pain.  

She
can feel the tongs on her skin, barely, the numbness starts to wear off. She
scantily moves her finger. Just a little while longer and she’ll have control
back over her body. The same thing happens to the people in front of her. Hung
up like sheep, yet she’s still the only one awake. Why?

The
line moves forward, inching toward the black square hole. Her heart beats as
she moves toward it. She’s suddenly sprayed with a thick
water like
liquid, she flails like a hog at the
slaughter. It comes from holes that appeared in the walls. It drenches the
entire line.

Her
clothes start to dissolve. She stops struggling. The fear of the situation
setting in, she’s too scared to react. She knows it’s useless to struggle, if
she can’t even move her hands. Her clothes drips onto the floor, she’s
completely naked, and so is every sleeping person in the line.

The
line stops, her body still swings from the momentum. Then it moves up again.

By
one person.

Followed
by a scream, then it moves again, up by one person and another kind of scream.

One
tick a different
flavored
scream.

She
has to wait her turn. She starts to tremble as she gets closer. Why god did she
have to be the one to wake up?

She
ticks closer.

She
starts to cry.

“Why…”

It
ticks again, she’s gets close, only a few more ahead of her. She hears what
sounds like a chain saw as the next scream vibrates in her head.

“
Whywhywhywhywhy
…” She repeats over and over, tears slicking
her face.

Tick.

This
is it.

Cole.

She
forgot about him, her own husband, she’s been selfish. She didn’t even have
time to think about him. To go over her goodbyes and regrets in her head. She finally
moves into the room, the silent man in front of her next. The walls covered in
not only blood but splattered guts.

A
giant mechanical chain saw hooked to a metal arm comes from the ceiling. It’s
clean, refreshed. It dives into the man’s chest without warning.

Blood
splatters on Thora’s screaming face. He howls as it rips down and out of him.
His insides fall into a hole below, the hole closes.

The
belt moves up.

“No!
No! NO!” Thora screams, the saw moves toward her.

“NOOOOOAAAHH!”

It
stops.

It
just observes her,
and
stops spinning.

It
beeps.

A
hole opens below and Thora drops in. She falls into a spiraling tube, like a
water slide, she slides down for a few seconds and—