Horizon

Wrath

Three ships now hovered over Paris, but they had been there for a month, and the confrontation at the UN meeting (there had never and would never be a UN meeting again) happened two months ago. The French were terrified of the looming ships, which floated gracefully above Paris like the vengeful hand of God. They were not even informed of the Speaker's proclamation of Paris' condemnation, yet their almighty and invincible appearance struck fear in the hearts of all. The speaker for France, who proposed the nuclear strike on the aliens' ship, or Jean Lackot, sat staring out his window at the impending doom. Today was different, he noticed. The ships had moved slightly. Suddenly each ship fired six large poles that each landed on a different part of the border of the city. A visible forcefield appeared between each pole, effectively closing in the city. There was curiosity amongst the people, but not yet panic. Jean Lackot looked at the pole nearest him, an he knew the punishment was soon to be inflicted. Each ship then released four large shuttles, that all descended into different areas of the city. Jean walked outside and stared at one of the shuttles. It was a large box with a door on one side, and a wing with rocket engines that could rotate 90 degrees to move forward, lift off, or slowly descend, on either side. The entire city if Paris went silent as all eyes watched the doors. All at once, slowly they opened. Very slowly. As soon as there was even a slight crack at the bottom of the doors, a thick yellow gas began to seep out. The doors opened completely, but the insides were somehow to dark to see. Thick clouds of the gas oozed out of the shuttles, and low rumbles could be heard inside. Jean watched carefully at the open door, when a large brown, reptillian arm with long slender fingers lifted itself out of the shuttle and slammed to the ground. From about halfway up the forearm all the way up past the shoulder, on the upper half of the arm, was covered in growths that looked like grey rocks. Another arm lifted itself out of the shuttle and together they dragged out a large creature with a grotesque frog like body, which also had rock-like growths on its back. However there were about 12 growths that looked like spikes protruding from its back. It slowly dragged itself out of the shuttle with it's muscular arms, and carefully looked around. Civilians stood still around it, partly from shook, partly from awe. The creature began violently rocking and shaking back in forth, and the thick yellow gas began pouring from the spikes on its back. The thick cloud came to a calm rest over the crowd, and immediately they began coughing and hacking violently. They attempted to escape from the cloud but collapsed and coughed until death. The city erupted into screams all at once as the people learned the true purpose of the twelve creatures dragging themselves through the streets. Hundreds of thousands of people sprinted to leave as the clouds grow, but couldn't escape the city because of the forcefields. People began locking themselves inside to get away from the gas. Jean sat staring into the street filled with the constantly growing cloud. The few thousand survives that made it inside before it was too late watched the windows carefully as the gas covered the streets. Suddenly one if the ships blasted a series of deafening sounds, and the windows of the city shattered. The survivors watched in horror as the gas began to engulf their only havens, and Jean wept as the gas peacefully crept into the room with him.