One minute left until the ball dropped. Hundreds of people stood here, in Times Square, bursting in anticipation.
…57…56…55…
It’s hard to believe that people have been doing this for nearly two centuries.
…49…48…47…
This was my first time being here though. I could see the ball reflecting all the lights in the square. It was made with almaz – an extremely expensive, but stunningly beautiful mineral founded a few decades ago.
…38…37…36…
I looked up at my friend’s faces; they all had eager grins on their faces as they counted down the seconds.
…26…25…24…
There was a giant Mykro-Screen hanging in front of everyone. It was a type of screen that used natural gas molecules to float in the sky, weightlessly, and produce digital and flash images to the audience.
…19…18…17…
Tonight it’s playing clips from all the previous ball droppings of the 21st century.
…10…9…8…
The atmosphere suddenly felt ghostly, but the chanting grew louder, the giggling harder, the anticipation almost visible in the air.
5…4…3...
I smiled, in spite of the uncomfortable feeling that crept in me, and closed my eyes. I wasn’t going to let my paranoia ruin my first New Years at the Square.
...2...1…
The ball dropped and the crowd roared. The ball kept falling and falling while the audience went wild – most of them kissing their lovers. I looked around; two of my friends were kissing briefly before looking back at the ball.
Suddenly, the ball changed paths and flew straight at the crowd horizontally. Most of the crowd gasped, and some shrieked in excitement. A few guy in 2069 glasses exchanged confused but thrilled glances. The ball made a painfully screeching sound as it reached the middle of the crowd and stopped. Everyone cheered.
Even though I’ve never seen it, I always thought the ball dropped straight down. Everyone said so. This must have been something they’ve only tried for the first time this year. I became so much more excited.
The ball was now glowing a bright bluish color I couldn’t identify. The crowd murmured and ‘oohed’. I did too.
Before anyone could fully take in the new ball routine, the ball exploded. Bits and pieces of the almaz ball flew everywhere. This looked incredible and it must’ve been planned for quite a while. For some reason, however, the uneasy feeling I had buried back in me earlier was now crawling back up.
Something felt wrong, and just as I was thinking that, the group of people surrounding the shattered ball suddenly collapsed. I got down a bit to see through everyone’s legs and saw one of the women who had collapsed holding her throat which was filled with a scarlet red liquid. My heart beat faster and my eyes widened as I noticed the almaz piece glinting between her fingers. This certainly wasn’t planned – was it? My confusion fled me as I saw ghostly bluish smoke floating up from a metallic case that seemed to have been inside the ball.
They were here.
My eyes locked on the fat black bear standing about 15 feet away from me. A sadistic grin grew on my face slowly and I reached over to the next branch to grab my hanging steel bow. I put my hood on and shoved my bow in my bow carrier. Looking down, I could see the hive I had avoided coming up here. It seemed to have gotten closer, but I didn’t mind – I wasn’t bothering the bees so they wouldn’t be bothering me. I turned around and started climbing down the 30 foot tall tree.
I headed towards the direction of the bear, slowly taking out my bow and two steel arrows. There were lots of dry leaves and twigs on the ground, yet the bear’s heavy breathing was still louder than my steps. I got down on one knee and narrowed my eyes. I haven’t gotten game this big in a while so I couldn’t even risk losing it. As I drew the weight of the arrow back, I inhaled and set the aim to perfection. Suddenly, the bear seemed to sense I was there and turned to face me. It’s big, black eyes locked on mine and we explored each other’s eyes for what seemed like forever.
Somehow, I could understand the bear. We both had dangerous enemies. We both couldn’t escape. The forest was a magical utopia for us both. But it didn’t matter how alike our situations were, and how much in common we had, we both knew how this moment right here would end. Ya ponimayu, I whispered so quietly I could hardly hear myself. Or maybe it was because my hard-but-calm hunter’s heartbeat flooded out all the noise. I didn’t understand why the bear was still here, and not running. Still here holding my gaze, as if it’s telling me something. As if reading my mind, the bear ever so slowly backed away, without blinking. It started turning towards the right, but as it did so it quickly blinked. A split-second after its eyes shut, a steel arrow had sealed them shut and the big bear stood for a second longer before collapsing onto the rough ground. I sighed. This was too easy – so easy that I felt guilty.
“Krasota!” I called out, getting up and putting my bow back and the extra arrow I had taken out. Krasota, the beautiful, golden bird flew towards me and waited. I smiled and stroked my fingers through its feathers as it stood on a branch in front of me. “Zavan.” I whispered to it, and it flew away immediately. My best friend Zavan and I decided to use this bird as a hunting assistant when we realized how smart it was. When it comes to me without me and pecks my shoulder lightly, then Zavan has sent it, which means he either needs my help or wants to tell me something. Same goes when I send it over to him. The bird even memorizes where it sees the other person, so when it pecks one of our shoulders it starts flying towards the one who sent it, and the receiver follows. It’s quiet communication – perfect for the woods.
Zavan came as quietly as I did. A large grin was on his face as he stared at the big black bear lying where I had killed it. “Krasota seemed eager, I could tell you had gotten something good but I didn’t think it was this good!”
I smiled, “Yeah, it was just standing there. A suicidal bear, it seems.” We both laughed and walked towards it. “You get the upper I get the lower—” I began planning how to lift the bear, but Zavan had already pulled the arrow out, lifted the bear effortlessly, and swung it over his shoulder before I could even finish my sentence.
Zavan’s blonde hair was a mess, but he looked good anyway. His sharp, angular face perfectly chiseled, as if he were a statue. His face was always tense, like he was ready for a fight at any time, but when you saw him smile, his face would look as innocent as a child’s. He’s been my best friend for five years; since I was 12. He’s the only one who understands what happened to my parent’s and how it feels for me. He’s the only one who understands how important my plans are of finding them. My plans to defeat of the Datura.
We walked in silence for a long time before Zavan abruptly stopped.
“What the—” he breathed.
“What’s wrong?” I asked. My question was answered immediately. The bear was shaking – not shaking in the way an animal would shake from muscle spasms – but it was actually shaking. As if something was in it.
Zavan dropped the bear onto the ground and backed away; grabbing my shoulder and pulling me back with him. We watched as the bear shook violently – as if getting a seizure – and its eyes opened up. It suddenly stood up. Zavan pulled me back further and stood in front of me. I pulled out my steel bow and grabbed one arrow. I usually feel like I can do anything with my bow – but for some reason, I felt completely defenseless this time.
The bear stood up and stared right at us. Its right eye was still injured where my arrow struck it. How was this possible? I’m positive that I had killed it – I have never mistaken a living animal as dead when hunting. The bear started walking closer to us, and I noticed its eyes weren’t the dark black anymore. As a matter of fact they were anything but dark. They were a bluish tone that I immediately recognized.
“Zavan…” I whispered.
“Datura possession,” He said matter-of-factly. “Shh…
“How—”
“Shh…” He said again. The bear stood up on its hind legs and the bluish color escaped it slowly through its skin the same way steam would radiate off your body if you took a hot shower and stepped into the cold. Once it was all gone, I could see the bears eyes were dark again and it collapsed to the ground, the bluish fog hanging over it. This was why my bow and arrows made me feel defenseless. There wasn’t anything we could do now – the ghostly alien would take us and do whatever it is they do with humans after kidnapping them. We were done. Maybe I’ll find out what they did to my parents now.
It almost seemed as if the Daturan alien was whispering. I strained to hear. The alien hissed louder and now I was sure that it really was whispering. I caught a few words this time.
“Pobeg…slishhhhhkommm….pozzzdnoo…”
I recognized the language immediately – it was Russian. The alien had said “Escape…too…late…” Although it made perfect sense, I was confused. Why would an alien say this? They’ve never boasted after catching someone, they just took them.
What the alien did next was shocking. The bluish fog floated away. I looked at Zavan and realized he must be as puzzled as I am because his mouth was opened slightly and his eyebrows furrowed the way they’d be when he’s concentrating on setting a delicate snare. The bear lay dead on the ground as it had before and there was no sign the alien was ever even here. What just happened?
It was impossible to forget the encounter Zavan and I had with the Daturan alien. Why had it left us alone? Had it been the one that was staring at me when I was hunting the bear? That sure would explain why the bear hadn’t run immediately. Zavan said to just forget about it, it must’ve been a distorted alien – an alien that was severely damaged on the way to Earth from Neptune – but I can’t. I feel like there’s something bigger in all of this. The way the alien had stared at me through the eyes of the bear was unforgettable. It wasn’t a sardonic, loathsome stare; it was something else I couldn’t quite identify.
Before Zavan and I left, I went back to the bear’s body – which Zavan had said we shouldn’t bring home with us – and found something unusual. It was a shiny, beautiful broken piece of almaz – exactly like the pieces that had flew out of the ball at Times Square when the Datura had officially conquered the Eastern Sector, which had been known as the Eastern United States. I didn’t let Zavan see it just yet. I can already picture him telling me to toss it out immediately before someone sees it and marks me as a traitor. But no, I wanted to keep it, because we were now living the Sacra, which is an area that used to be known as Western Belarus. And a piece of glass from Times Square laying in a forest of the Sacra is quite unusual – is it not?
There was a sudden knock on my door that scared me enough to make me jump off of my bed completely. I held onto the almaz piece behind my back and opened the door. Rusya, one of the sweetest old ladies that helped in the Institute, was standing there. She used sign language to tell me that dinner was ready and I nodded.
Rusya lost her voice three years ago when a Datura attacked and possessed her briefly. She wasn’t sure what happened after that except that her voice was gone and she was two countries away from where she was originally from. She now worked at this Institute. There were thousands of Institutes scattered around the world as safe havens for humans. We were all under Datura rule now, which meant we had to obey whatever they said and whatever laws they proposed and enforced, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t attack us.
I clenched the almaz piece and headed down to dinner.
It’s been days since I found the almaz piece, but now I discovered something else. When I stared at the almaz piece and concentrated, I could see words in it. Today, I saw:
Найти их
It was always in Russian, which meant the messages weren’t from the Eastern Sector. This message said, “Find them.” And I had a strong feeling that I know exactly who “them” is, but I was still terrified at the messages. Who is sending them to me?
I was on my way right now to find my parents. I was more determined than I had ever been in my life. Zavan agreed to come with me, but only because I told him we’re going hunting far away. When I put the almaz piece in my pocket, I could feel its warmth and suddenly I’d rely completely on my intuition for the directions to one of the Datura Headquarters. My intuitions weren’t bad though, because as we approached the top of a large hill, I noticed a large building which seemed to have been made entirely of almaz. I was awestruck at its beauty. How could such a beautiful place contain such filthy, cruel aliens?
I knew my parent’s were here. I could feel them. Taking a deep breath, I began marching down the hill, pulling Zavan with me. This was it.
As we snuck behind the building, we both sensed, at the same time, that someone was following us. Or something – an enormous fog of bluish Daturan alien smothered us in it. I screamed and tried to fight back, but there was really nothing I could do because my hands just went through it – it was like fighting smoke.
My breathing became a major struggle and my eyes started drooping. I couldn’t move anymore. Right before I gave up, I caught a glance of rows and rows of humans tied in the back of the almaz building – my mother and father held each others hands and walked with the others. They all looked like zombies and had a bluish tone to their skin – or maybe it was because I was covered in the bluish fog. I gazed at them until my body gave in completely and just before I shut my eyes for the very last time; my mother and father caught my gaze…
