Earth Has Fallen

Tristan Harlow:

Sitting in the back of my family’s minivan, I stare toward the endless, empty fields of the Kansas countryside.

“Hey, Tristan,” my younger brother, Josh, yells. “What are you looking at?”

“Nothing much,” I reply, “Just enjoying the scenery.”

“Oh, what’s so special about grass in an empty field,” ask my younger sister, Ruby. “You know you have plenty of grass back home. In both your front and back yard. ”

Sighing, I turn my head and look at my parents and siblings. My dad is busy driving while my mom is keeping him company. Josh is back to playing on his phone while Ruby is focused on drawing in her notebook. All the while, I have nothing to do but look out the window.

“Cheer up son,” my dad says from the upfront. “Today is your birthday! You should be happy.”

“I am, Dad,” I say, yawning. “But what I’m not happy about is how early we had to get up. We got up at six in the morning and have been driving non-stop since.”

“I’m sorry that your grandparents lived three hours away,” my mom says, “But hey, think about it like this. Once we’re at your grandparents’ house, in the wide-open countryside, you can do anything and everything you want.”

“What I want is to get back to sleep,” I whisper.

“Only one hour left before we arrive,” dad yells.

“Swell,” I say, putting on a fake smile. “I can’t wait.”

“Yeah,” Ruby laughs, still drawing. “I can’t wait to see them.”

A little curious to see what my sister is drawing, I lean over. It appears to be two skeletons, with hairs and clothes almost identical to grandpa and grandma.

“Well, that’s a little creepy,” I think.

Returning to the scenery view, I stare out the window. For a while, everything looks normal. Until the clear, blue sky turns black and red almost instantly.

“Hey,” my mom says. “What happened? It was clear a few seconds ago.”

Mesmerize by the sudden black sky, our attention is redirected to something else, something appearing in the sky. Looking like a frisbee, it is round and silver and covered by bright white lights on its sides. The silver thing looks as big as two football fields side by side. Out of nowhere, four more saucers appear. They are all slowly descending from the black sky.

“What are those,” I ask, pressing my face and hands against the windows.

“What,” Josh asks, looking away from his game. Bumping me out of the way, he looks out the window.

“What in the world,” he says, his wide eyes matching all of ours. All of us watching the saucers, even my dad, see some of the bright white lights come flying off. Flying down, they land all over, some in the empty fields next to us, a few behind us, and a couple right beside us. The balls of bright lights, not much bigger than a basketball, hover for a while before exploding!

The field beside us blows up, and a rainstorm of dirt and pebbles shoots out from the ground and into the sky. The road behind us is covered in fires and potholes. The ones beside us shake the van so bad, it nearly tips over.

“Drive,” my mom yells, hitting my dad on his chest over and over.

Without a second to waste, my dad stomps on the gas and launches the van forward. Driving faster than we ever have, my dad is trying to drive fast while dodging the exploding balls of lights! As more and more come flying off the saucers, my mom looks back and tells us to keep our heads down!

“Come on,” I scream, grabbing my brother’s and sister’s heads and pushing down. Covering our ears with our hands, we listen as my dad screams more!

“Come on,” he starts, swerving right and left. “Come on! Come on!”

Lifting my head for a second to look out the window, I see more flying saucers appear, their lights flying off and heading right for us! Soon, they almost become impossible to dodge! As my dad takes a sharp right, the rubbers burning off our tires, I see something not too far away.

“Dad,” I scream, grabbing the corners of the seats and pulling myself up. “Mom! Look over there!”

Pointing to what looks like a small farmhouse only a few miles further up the road, my dad straightens the van and heads right for it. Still dodging the lights, I grab Josh and Ruby and pull them up.

“Look,” I cry, pointing at the farmhouse. “Help! We can get help here! Help!”

Feeling a burst of joy after what seems like an eternity, we finally reach the farmhouse.

“Oh my god,” my mom says as we pull up to the farmhouse.

The farmhouse is destroyed. Both the giant, red barn, and the house next to it we didn’t see before are destroyed. All that remains are piles of simmering, black pieces of wood. What is worse than the burnt buildings are the two burnt corpses.

Laying on the ground, not too far from us, are two burnt corpses. They're red and still sizzling and both of them look as if they are trying to crawl away. One arm is far out in front and the other near the head, one leg bends while the other is behind.

I'm sickened by all of it. I feel like throwing up. As I turn away, I see Josh covering his eyes and Ruby crying. My mom is hyperventilation and my dad's hands fall off the wheel and drop to his sides. While looking at the corpses, we forget about the flying saucers and their floating lights. Before we can do anything, the bright lights surround us. Even before my dad can place his hands back on the wheel, they all explode.