For the second time in thirty years, the entire world has fallen asleep...
Thirty years after the Greymen caused the decimation of her people, high school drop out Rain Collins spends her days learning to pickpocket and hold her booze. Yet she long...
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Trelevan sat up and took in the clearing. On beds of alien heather lay his companions, peaceful and serene. If not for their still chests, they might have been dreaming.
A couple of feet away from the crew sat what looked like a crumpled pile of elephant skin. Trelevan rose and approached it. Staring up at him from the ground was a sagging grey face, wrinkled with unnatural lumps. Its mouth was agape and its eyes were hollow, though they still twinkled with a red that once burned with evil life.
As Trelevan gazed down at the corpse, he could feel fatigue setting in. "It's happening again," he said, yawning.
With as much speed as he could muster, Trelevan ran for the shuttle. He boarded quickly and began fiddling with the controls.
"If Lafayette can do it..." he muttered as his eyelids drooped.
With a whir, a buzz, and a bang, the ship came to life. Yellow, red, and green lit up the control panel. Trelevan slammed his fingers down on the green buttons and, after a few moments, the shuttle was in sudden, swift motion.
Trelevan was thrown to the floor by the force. He feebly reached out for the pilot's seat and dragged himself up and into it.
With heavy hands, Trelevan prodded at the controls on a small monitor. He held a silver microphone up to his lips and slurred, "Mission failure. I am returning home. Aliens attacked us in our dreams. Everyone else is dead. I'm going to sleep now. Trelevan..."
He closed his eyes and his breathing slowed.
***
Lenore Lafayette was sitting with her grandmother in the kitchen of their house.
"Grandmother?" Since her father's disappearance, Lenore had stopped calling her grandmother 'Grammy'.
"Yes, Lenore?" Grammy Lafayette sipped at a glass of iced tea.
"Shouldn't the Mayflower II be returning soon?" Lenore tried to sound casual, but her words were thick with anxiety. The last transmission from the ship had been grim, but Lenore and her grandmother had yet to give up hope.
"You know, I think you're right." Grammy Lafayette placed her hand on Lenore's. "We could watch the skies, if you'd like."
Lenore nodded. She followed her grandmother outside and onto the front porch.
Red and yellow light shone like fire in the sky. From the brightness fell a burning torpedo. As the fiery mass grew closer, Lenore could make out tiny blobs popping off it and onto the ground below.
She watched as one of the blobs rocketed toward the convenience store up the street. It landed without a sound.
Grandmother Lafayette's eyes were wide with horror. As she took in the scene, tears rolled down her cheeks. "So, he really is gone, then."
The two women collapsed into a heap of tears, hugging each other tight. After a brief moment, Lenore hastily wiped her face and stood.
"I'm going to see what that was." Before her grandmother could react, Lenore was off the porch and across the lawn. She ran to the store and wrenched the doors open.
Like a wave, exhaustion overtook her. Lenore fell to the tiled floor and slept.
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