The Last Night Chapter 9 The First Day

Chapter 9

The First Day

29

    Had Martha known of her son and husbands’ fate she would not have been less worried. Having discovered Wyatt’s old red Ford truck and Ariel’s light blue Lexus, sitting cool and empty on the paved driveway that curved in front of their beautiful beach home, she rightly assumed they had not driven anywhere and returned. 

    And after repeated attempts to bring them to the front door, followed by frantic phone calls that yielded nothing but frustrating recorded messages from a person she feared she would never see again, she called Macon Pace.

   “Hello.”

  “Macon!”

 “Martha?”

  “Yes. Have you seen you daughter?”

 “Ariel, she’s with Wyatt, at home.”

 “I’m at their home, they won’t come to the door. Wyatt won’t answer his phone. I called them last night. Forrest is with them.”

“He drove all night?”

 “No. I drove all night!”

 “Martha you’re not making sense.”

 “You calling me crazy?”

 Of course not, that’s not at all what I meant. But Forrest can’t be with him.”

  “Then Wyatt lied. And I know he didn’t. They took him, took them all. I’m sure of it. This should never have happened, would never have happened. If Wyatt had not marri…”

  “Don’t say that.”

  “The truth.”

 

30

 “Martha, blaming won’t help. But you’re right. If they are not home. The aliens took them. Have you seen the news?”

  “No, I just got outta my car a few minutes ago.”

 “Look up.”

  “What?”

 “Sky’s different. You haven’t noticed?”

 “Distracted!” She jerked away from the door, made her away down the brick steps that fanned out from the veranda and rolled her eyes skyward. 

   The sun was risen but was barely peeking through the hazy horizon. “Nothing.” She spat into her cell phone.

  “Keep watching.”

    A silver speck glinted against the pale blue dawn just above the rising sun on the right side of her field of vision. It shivered, grew and shifted against the sky until it finally revealed itself to be a sphere. 

    Martha was standing near Wyatt’s truck. She ducked down behind it, when it zipped down in her direction, making the translucent box that ‘housed’ it undeniably clear and undeniably real, just before it vanished, reappeared an eye blink later in the opposite side of the sky.

  “See them?”

 “Yeah, yes. What does this mean? Are we being invaded?”

 “I’m watching the news. No one has said that. Just that the sky is alive with them. But no attacks just a sky show so far.”

  “She made this happen.”

 “Martha, shut up about my daughter. I’m tired of your selfish mouth. We must get past this silly nonsense. Your accusations are only making things worse.”

  “He failed her. Wyatt was supposed to protect her and now…”

 

31

 “And now you’re attacking your son. Just stop blaming Martha, we are so far past that. We must support one another. Work together. Stay there, I’ve know the key code.”

   “Oh. I’m not going anywhere, unless they come and take me.”

    He started to say. ‘No fear of that,’ but didn’t.