Non-Resident Alien: Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Earth

Dani had never believed in a god, the Devil, or anything supernatural. She had been so sure that she knew how the world worked. Everything had a scientific explanation. Even if something couldn’t be explained scientifically, that didn’t mean that the answer wasn’t out there somewhere. Dani believed it just hadn’t been discovered yet. 

However, as she witnessed a giant tear in the sky open above New York City, Dani’s faith in the laws of nature was severely tested. It looked as if some interdimensional beast had torn a hole in the fabric of space connecting the sky to somewhere else, somewhere very dark. But that explanation didn’t make much sense. It was far more likely that she had been drugged and she was simply hallucinating. However, the other people that crowded the busy street were also watching the sky, just as she was. Some were screaming and pointing, others just stared, but everyone had their eyes on the black tear that had appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

It was unlikely that all these people were experiencing the same hallucination that she was. Perhaps she had completely lost her mind and none of this was real or maybe she was dreaming. Then, a blue transparent box of text popped into the air directly in front of her. Startled gasps came from several people standing nearby. One guy was swatting at the air like he was fending off an angry hornet. Dani couldn’t see what he was swatting at but she assumed it was related to the text box that hovered in the center of her vision. When she had glanced at the man the text had followed, moving smoothly to stay in her line of sight. 

WORLDWIDE ANNOUNCEMENT

Welcome to the Apocalypse!

As soon as Dani read the words they changed. As if this announcement, or whatever the heck it was, had known she’d read them.

Choose your Class!

The words on the screen changed one more time before the text box disappeared completely. The last words sent a chill down Dani’s spine. She really hoped this was a dream because she had a sinking feeling that things were about to get very dangerous.

Or Die!

***

Dani’s chest heaved as she squeezed between two people. She was pushing her body harder than she ever had before, her lungs ached and her legs felt like jelly. She was terrified, but the adrenaline pumping through her veins only helped so much. She knew she couldn’t keep this pace up for much longer, but what choice did she have? That unbelievable WORLDWIDE ANNOUNCEMENT had sent everyone into a panic. The crowded streets became a dangerous place, especially in a city like New York. The risk of being trampled by frightened citizens attempting to flee was high. 

However, the initial panic wasn’t unfounded. Two minutes after the announcement, a swarm of winged creatures poured from the hole in the sky like a dark cloud. From this distance Dani couldn’t make out much detail, but she could see their basic shape. The creatures reminded her of a monster she’d seen in video games. Their bodies were round and small, with leathery wings and a single large eye that took up most of their face. As they got closer, she saw that they also had a mouth full of sharp teeth. Dani had already been moving away from the gathering crowd, even as more flocked to observe the anomaly. She’d been trying her best to do so calmly, but one look at those teeth and Dani lost any hold she previously had on her nerves. She started running just before the winged monsters descended on the crowd. They attacked and tore into people like piranhas would tear into a wounded animal. 

People were screaming and shoving, but Dani managed to keep her feet and put some distance between herself and the monsters. Dani wished she couldn’t hear the cries for help or the shouts of pain. She couldn’t even bring herself to look back. She didn’t want to see the massacre that was taking place behind her. The horrible sounds were already enough to haunt her dreams for years to come and she knew they would. If she survived…

Central Park was close by and Dani figured taking cover in the trees would be safer than continuing to fight through the crowd on the streets. She considered taking refuge in one of the many buildings, but all the entrances were clogged with panicked people. She also wanted to get home. Her apartment wasn’t far. If she cut through Central Park, she could be there in about thirty minutes. 

THUD!

Her internal conflict was interrupted when she was almost knocked to the ground by a larger man. The interaction made her decision easy and she settled on Central Park. 

A few minutes later she stood at the park’s entrance. It was eerily empty. The paths were usually congested with pedestrians, but Dani appeared to be the only one currently visiting the grounds, given the condition of the city. 

Now inside the park, she was staying off the path to avoid being seen from above. Normally, that would have slowed her down, but she was really running. A sudden screech drew her attention and it sounded close. She turned just in time to see one of the eyeball monsters diving right for her head. Dani stumbled to the side as quickly as she could. It wasn’t graceful, but she managed to avoid the attack. Panting, Dani watched as it swooped back around for another dive. This time she ducked behind a tree, but her success at avoiding the creature was short-lived. It had closed the distance and was lunging for her face. There was no time to dodge, so she put her arms up to protect herself. The monster's teeth tore through the sleeve of her hoodie and deep into her left forearm. 

The pain was excruciating. Dani instinctively began flailing her arm in an attempt to fling it away, but it was latched on tight. That was okay. If it couldn’t let go on its own, she could give it a hand. The body of the beast was only slightly larger than a soft ball. It was all mouth, eye, and scaly pink skin. Dani grabbed onto the back of it with her free hand, and curled two fingers into its giant eye. The beast squealed like a pig, letting go of her arm in the process, but Dani didn’t let go of it. She kept squeezing until its eye popped and its body broke, collapsing into the empty socket. Blood and other fluids covered her hand. She thought she felt a rush of power flow into her, but it was so subtle that she wasn’t sure if she’d imagined it or not. 

Looking at the carnage, Dani was honestly surprised that the monster's blood was just as red as hers. She didn’t know what she’d been expecting. She sighed, then winced at the throbbing pain in her forearm. It was bleeding pretty badly, but she had no clue what to do. Obviously she should wrap the wound with something, but what? She had some spare gym clothes in her backpack, but she’d just bought them yesterday. Dani felt numb. This couldn’t be real. None of this could be real. So why should she have to sacrifice her cute, new gym clothes for an imagined injury? That would just be dumb. 

A snuffling sound coming from a few yards away brought Dani’s attention back to the present moment. An animal the size of a large dog lumbered into view from between two trees. The thing resembled a boar, but everything about it was a little off. Its head and tusks were way too big for its body, its legs were short and its fur was spiked.  It also reflected light as if it was made of some kind of metal. That spiked fur was what freaked Dani out the most. She had this… feeling that the creature would be able to shoot those spikes if she let it get too close.

Trusting her instincts, Dani turned and ran. The beast immediately gave chase, but its tiny legs weren’t designed for speed. She was able to outpace the boar by a good margin, but she was still tired. She had been running quite a while already, and blood loss was making her a little light headed. It was unlikely she’d be able to maintain the fast pace for much longer. 

Then, her right foot got caught on a root and her body lurched forward. 

Great! This is how I die! Tripping on a root!

Dani knew she hadn’t put enough distance between herself and the boar yet. This was not the time to fall. If she did, the monster would be on her in an instant. 

Stealing her resolve, Dani moved, and managed to catch herself on her left foot. It was a near thing, her forward momentum threatened to throw her off balance, but she was able to keep her leg steady and spring back into a run. She still lost some ground to the boar, but it didn’t catch her and that was all that really mattered.

+ 1 Agility

The notification flashed for a moment at the bottom right corner of her vision before disappearing. Dani wasn’t a huge gamer, but she played her fair share of RPGs. She knew that the agility stat directly affected the speed of your character. Dani didn’t know how it was possible, but sure enough she could feel herself running just the slightest bit faster. A small smile made its way to her lips. She wasn’t exactly happy, and after the day she’d had, who could blame her? But the little stat bump had given back something she’d lost. Maybe there was a way to survive this nightmare. She had hope!

***

All hope was lost! She couldn’t shake this damn boar. Every time she thought she lost it, the thing would come careening out of the bushes from some random direction. Dani wondered if there were more than one, or if the beast was just fucking with her. She was exhausted and flagging. Even the unexpected attribute point to endurance hadn’t helped much.

“I’m so dead…” she mumbled to herself as she ran. The words, forced out by burning lungs, brought her no comfort. 

Dani knew the damn mutant pig would catch her soon and that was rather unfortunate because she also knew that she desperately did not want to die. It was sad, really. She had always assumed that in a world ending apocalypse type situation, she wouldn’t be one of the ones so desperate to cling to life. She didn’t want to live in this scary monster world, so why was she still holding on? Why was she still fighting? 

Before Dani could come up with any meaningful answer. Another hole opened up in the sky. It wasn’t that large, at least not compared to the first hole that had dumped all the flying eyeball monsters. This one was maybe ten feet across, and it hovered about a hundred feet in the air. It reminded Dani of a black hole. The anomaly was darker than night and seemed to be growing larger as it absorbed light like a hollow pipe sucking in water. Dani had never seen anything so horrifying in her life. Even the monster that was currently chasing her couldn’t compare. 

Shit! Is that a black hole?

Thoughts of earth slowly being swallowed by this thing flashed through her head. Then, a person fell out of the opening and it snapped shut. Blinking, Dani realized ‘fell’ wasn’t the right word. It was more like they were launched out as if shot from a cannon. The body slammed into the ground not 100 feet in front of her. Of course, Dani assumed they were dead. She didn’t want to look at or get closer to what would undoubtedly be a mangled corpse, but she also couldn’t stop running.

The body happened to have fallen right where she was heading and changing directions wasn’t exactly a safe choice. The stupid pig chasing her could corner surprisingly well. Dani had found that out the hard way and had a new cut across her shoulder to show for it. Grimacing, she braced herself for a bloody scene. However, she saw no corpse, only a naked woman pulling herself from the small crater her landing had created. To Dani’s utter shock, the stranger then spit out a mouthful of dirt as if nothing happened. 

“Are you okay!?” Dani shouted, calling out to the woman on instinct. 

The fact that a monster boar was chasing her had not slipped her mind. Dani was torn between hoping that this stranger could somehow defeat the creature and worrying that she’d just gotten them both killed by not changing directions as soon as she’d seen the girl fall.

“Incoming! Look out!” She shouted, calling out a second time in hopes that a warning would somehow improve this messed up situation. 

However, the woman didn’t respond to her call. She just stood there. The only movement Dani could see was that of her long silver hair flowing in the wind. The lack of response seemed odd to Dani, but she didn’t have time to contemplate the cause. All Dani could do was try her best to change course so she didn’t accidentally collide with the other woman. Unfortunately, the clomping of hooved feet behind her was getting louder by the second. Dani couldn’t make any sharp turns. She would be caught instantly. Cursing herself and hoping the mutant pig would ignore the woman, Dani passed her with only 15 feet of space between them. 

To her horror, the creature did in fact change its target. With a snort, the beast turned towards the silver haired stranger. The boar was just a few feet away from spearing the other woman with its tusks, when she moved. It was a small gesture, just a slight wave of her hand, but with that a spike of ice rose from the ground and impaled the charging boar through its skull. The creature's momentum caused its body to hit the ice with a thud before going still. The spear of ice was as thick as a tree branch and at least as sturdy because it didn’t chip or crack. A stuck pig dangled from its sharp point, but the heavy creature might as well have been a leaf. 

Dani just stood there in shock. She glanced at the naked back of the stranger. Had this woman really done that with just a wave of her hand? Dani didn’t want to believe any of this. It was all getting to be too much for her. She was more than ready to wake from this nightmare.

Indifferent to Dani’s internal struggles, the silver haired woman dropped her hands to her sides and clenched her fists. As she did so, a shockwave of freezing cold air blasted out from where she stood in every direction. Dani let out a yelp as the wave of cold hit and flung her to the ground. The impact hurt but the cold was almost unbearable. Frost clung to her body and her teeth were chattering more violently then they ever had in her life. She wanted to curl up into a ball to preserve her body heat, but before she could the scary ice woman’s crouching form appeared right in front of her. 

She was beautiful. With olive skin and blue eyes, she wore a slightly apologetic smile. The ringing in Dani’s ears and darkening of her vision distracted her from the sight. The ice was now creeping deeper into her tired muscles. The woman’s hand came down to gently rest on her thigh. With a whoosh of air, the cold was gone. It was similar to what the silver haired woman had done earlier, except in reverse. Instead of rushing out, the cold rushed back in. It was absorbed into her body so thoroughly that no sign of the frost remained.

“Sorry, I wasn’t paying much attention to my surroundings,” she said. Her blue eyes narrowed as she looked at Dani with concern. 

Dani was almost too shocked to speak. Of all the encounters Dani had had today, this woman was by far the strangest and likely the most deadly by far. She had so many questions. She needed to know what the hell was going on. How was this woman so powerful? Who was she?

“Why are you naked?” Were the first words that left Dani’s mouth.

She was mortified. Who was she to interrogate this stranger about their attire?

Idiot! What were you thinking? Dani chastised herself internally.

The woman’s expression became more guarded and she crossed her arms to cover herself. 

“I don’t see how that’s your business,” was her only response and she looked at Dani with icy eyes.

Something in the woman’s expression made Dani’s heart hurt. Perhaps it was the slight tremble of her lip or the tightness of her jaw. With a look, Dani knew that whatever the reason, this woman wasn’t naked by choice. Something had happened and Dani had gone and asked a stupid, insensitive question. She sat up and pulled her backpack off her shoulder, wincing silently at her various injuries. Dani unzipped her bag and pulled out the new workout clothes that she had bought the day before. The outfit consisted of dark, blue leggings with a light blue floral design printed on them and a matching sports bra top. 

Dani held the clothes out to the other woman. Her eyes widened slightly in surprise and she made no move to take the offered outfit. She didn’t exactly look happy, and Dani belatedly realized how easy it would be for this woman to kill her. Dani hadn’t even been able to follow the ice attack she'd used to kill the boar. In fact, she had almost frozen to death instead because of a simple lapse of the woman’s attention. Would this be how she died? Offering clothes to a naked stranger who was powerful enough to kill her with a thought? Dani decided not to think about it too much. After all, if the stranger wanted her dead, then there was nothing Dani could do to stop her. 

Let’s just keep pretending I’m fine. Everything is fine. EVERYTHING IS FINE!

Dani repeated the words in her head so many times that she almost believed them… almost.