Violet
I could remember it like it was yesterday. The panic started with the news. Buildings were falling deep into the ground, there was suddenly a black hole right underneath us and we didn't know. The first-ever occurrence was a very serious earthquake in Finland.
I was just a child, sitting in the living room with Dad, eyes glued to the TV. The news anchor's voice trembled as she described the bizarre event. Her usual composed demeanour cracked, revealing the fear underneath. We watched in silent horror as the footage replayed buildings collapsing into the earth.
Then it happened in Norway and then Sweden. Millions of people were dying every day from the disaster but what had been even more baffling was that the earthquakes happened in countries that had the lowest frequency of it ever happening there.
The United States government became more interested in the occurrences and sent out representatives to get to the root of the matter. It took about three months to hear back from them, by then the same occurrence had happened in three other states. There had been no valid reason as to why the multiple earthquakes began. The whole world was tensed, wondering what country was going to go next. Rescue teams were sent to the affected countries but only a few were saved and some had defects they would have to live the rest of their lives with as a result of the disaster.
Within the short span of a year, 146 countries collapsed in the disaster and it was then glaring that the end of the world had come. The remaining countries began to seek safety in the United Kingdom and the United States. Schools and several organizational systems were shut down out of panic. With the United States overflowing with people, havoc was unavoidable.
All the while we hadn't known that the United States and United Kingdom had joined forces to try making contact with the outside world. More countries went down and the two nations were the last ones standing but yet no reply was gotten showing that we were all alone in the universe and left for our demise.
There had been no hope until they came.
The Zilons.
I remember the first time I heard about them. I had been playing with a worn-out doll while my parents scraped together dinner out of the scraps they could find. The economic collapse had left us with nothing but survival and a glimmer of hope.
Then came the announcement, louder than the usual street noise.
'We are saved,' they proclaimed.
The government revealed their secret efforts and told us a little of what to expect with the extra-terrestrials that were coming to our aid. The screams and tears of joy that followed the announcement could be heard throughout the street. We were told that we only had to wait three days before they arrived. By the next day, everyone was moved to a common base, a temporary haven where we were to wait for their arrival.
My family had nothing of importance to pack. All my parents could put together were a few clothes because that was, we didn't know what to expect with our move to another planet. We all clung to the hope that the next three days would pass without more disasters.
Then came the wait. We all waited hunched up together in excitement, fear, and apprehension.
As the third day dawned without incident, a cautious sense of relief settled over us. But then, it was short-lived. In the early hours of the afternoon, all we had feared came alive.
I was seated on the floor amid the crowd watching my parents queue for food at the front. Then, it happened so suddenly.
One minute they were there and the next they weren't. The ground collapsed right in front of my eyes. It all felt like a bad dream at first but the screams and sound of running feet proved otherwise.
I ran but rather than joining the crowd to run away from the scene, I pushed to run towards the scene. My parents were gone with the quake. I tried making it to them, tired of going with them but the strong hands of a middle-aged man I didn't even know drew me away, and ran from the scene with me in arm. I screamed and trashed for him to let me go but he never did.
Strange sounds suddenly came from right above us and for the first time in my short life, I saw an alien ship. The movies did no justice to their imagination of what it would look like.
The ship before my eyes was one word, Gigantic.
The crowd changed their course, stampeding toward the ship instead.
Metallic stairs extended from the craft, shimmering like quicksilver were sent down the craft. Without beckoning, people scrambled up the steps, their need for safety overpowering any sense of order.
However, that had been the least of my worries.
At 15, I had already lost everything and all I wanted was to join my parents. The man who had refused to let me go climbed into the heart of the ship just like the rest.
My breath caught at the sight of the magnificent structure of the ship. Inside the ship was like a whole different world of its own, bathed in a soft, ethereal glow. Alien beings, blue-skinned and towering, with a single stripe of hair down the centre of their heads in the exact shade of my name, moved gracefully through the crowd of humans, their presence was both intimidating and strangely mesmerizing.
They ushered us into their ship one by one, their strange language a gentle hum in the air. The man who had been holding onto me finally let me go and was about to say something to me when the voice of a woman called out to him. Upon seeing her, he ran up to her and the two little girls she held onto, enveloping them in a tight embrace.
His family.
Seeing them together, my resolve crumbled. My legs gave way, and I sank to the floor, tears streaming down my face.
My family was gone.
After that, I cried myself to sleep, exhaustion and despair catching up with me. The next thing I remember was waking up to the sound of a loud, strange voice speaking in a strange language. Somehow, it was time to get off the ship. Humans were huddled up together in a place, sitting on chairs the aliens must have provided, while I lay on a foldable bed not far from them.
The look of confusion and apprehension etched on their faces, made it was obvious that they didn't understand what the alien was saying. The alien spoke again in the same strange language cascaded with unfamiliar sounds, and received only puzzled looks in return. With a sigh, the alien turned to speak to its companions, who had been observing the whole scene quietly. They conversed briefly, their conversation a series of melodic tones and clicks.
Soon, another slimmer-looking alien stepped forward in place of the previous one.
This new alien took a seat, demonstrating with exaggerated gestures, before standing and addressing us again. After a tense moment, one man finally understood and stood from his seat. The alien quickly nodded his head in what I assumed to be approval. Then slowly, the rest began to follow the first person's lead and stood. Not wanting to stand out, I followed the crowd.
Probably realising that spoken instructions were a complete waste of time, the alien gently took the first man by the shoulder and led him forward. I couldn't see the reaction on the man's face but from the loud gasp that came from him, I could only imagine how frightened he must have been. If I had been the one being held by a seven-foot-tall creature, I would have fainted on the spot.
The alien, however, did not harm him, but left him at the front. Seeing this, others tried to shrink back, attempting to hide in the crowd. I watched closely as the alien rolled its eyes in what looked to be pure boredom, an almost human reaction that might have made me chuckle on any other day.
After a brief pause, he reached out to an unsuspecting human and lifted her. Her reaction was worse than that of the first man. Her piercing scream sent the crowd into a state of panic.
Surprised, the alien let her go almost immediately, saying something to her, but it only fell on deaf ears as she ran towards the crowd. I, on the other hand, stayed glued to my corner, too stunned to move.
An alarm blared suddenly, quieting everyone. The initial alien, clearly the leader, spoke up with a lot of hand gestures. He said something to the other aliens and they all formed a line, then looked at us pointedly as if to say, "Do you see that?"
One by one, people began to understand and follow. The woman who had screamed joined the man at the front, and others followed. Not wanting to be left behind, I joined the line. Once everyone was in a line, the alien led us to a metallic door in the ship and pressed a blue button right by the side of the wall. Slowly, the door slides up to reveal a mini hangar filled with smaller ships.
The alien captain led the first batch of ten away from the front of the line. As we followed behind him, some people looked scared, others apprehensive. Just like that, we were ushered into the space shuttle in a group of ten.
Coincidentally, I found myself seated beside the man who carried me onto the ship and his family. I tried shrinking into myself, hoping he wouldn't notice me but that was futile. He turned to face me with a concerned look on his face.
'Hello, are you okay?' he asked gently. I quickly nodded, wanting the conversation to be over already. Sensing my lack of interest, he didn't press further.
We all spent another long pause in silence, unsure of what to expect next from the alien hosts. Through the opened shuttle door, I could see them leading the rest into the other shuttles. Once everyone was settled, the alien captain spoke in his foreign but melodic language, making demonstrations as though to make a fusing sign.
As unusual, we all stared at him bewildered.
We needed a way to sort out the language barrier.
The alien sighed, an enervated look on his face. Then he matched up to the first shuttle within his reach, grabbed a seatbelt resting on the seats and demonstrated how to fasten it
After that, realization dawned on everyone, and soon the metallic clicks of fusing belts echoed throughout the hangar. Once silence returned, the alien captain spoke again and almost immediately, the other aliens began to close our shuttle doors. With the windows shaded and the shut doors, I lost sight of the outside world, leaving me with only the view windshield. An enormous door opened, revealing the black world called space. An android-like voice crackled through the speakers of the shuttle, startling us. We barely had time to grasp what was happening when the shuttle suddenly zipped like lightning out of the hangar.
Shocked into silence, we watched the shuttle zoom through the star-studded blackness. Just as abruptly as it started, the shuttle suddenly slowed down and the air around us shifted signifying our descent. Slowly, the scenery around us changed from an all-round black into a pinkish sky dotted with clear white clouds. It was a very beautiful sight, that could pass off as a scene in a fairytale.
The closer we got to the ground; I realized that the sky was dull in comparison to the city I could see right below me. It was everything that humans couldn't achieve on earth. We landed smoothly on a well-lit hangar, and the space shuttle opened up, indicating that we had gotten to our stop and it was time to disembark. Hesitantly, we waited for someone to make that first move and then followed suit.
The alien captain once again led us in a straight file to where what looked to be a female Zilon sat. If I had thought that the males were attractive, then their women were celestial. Even from a distance, her beauty was simply otherworldly.
It wasn't until I got to the front of the line that I saw why she was seated there. The female Zilon gave me a small, reassuring smile before reaching out to take my hand, clasping a string band around my wrist. Like magic, it disappeared into my flesh as if it had never been there in the first place.
I shrieked quietly, turning my wide-eyed gaze to the female Zilon. She gave me a soft smile before saying, 'Welcome to Zile'
My mind reeled.
Had I just understood her?
———-
What do you think?
Petite
😌