THEM: RAPTURE (Book Two)

Chapter Six

     The group moved on though an area that seemed like it had been untouched by the calamity at first but the closer they got it seemed it was the other way around. The buildings still stood, the streets lay empty and there were even cars parked like they were about to move again at a light that would never change. The items were hit by the blast, petrified in ways. As long as they were undisturbed they were locked in time never to change. But if touched they would come apart like ash, the effect freezing them unraveling. The further they went in the more eerie it got. There were people there, looking like the figures frozen in stone in Pompeii. Some were walking as if mid stride, fused that way until something finally came to topple them.

"This town was hit by one of the alien's nastier weapons," Rick explained as they passed through, trying to disturb as little as possible. "There were of course the suborbital weapons that went off first, those were messy and fast. They weren't precise and many were able to escape them. This town is close to the destruction. You walk a few blocks to the west and its pretty much wasteland like how we came in. This area was just far enough from the fray that those here thought they had been lucky." 

"Some packed to flee but this was when the military came in and started to fight. The people of this town didn't want to lose everything. The threat of attack from the aliens seemed unreal. The local politicians spoke a brave game, claiming that they had been spared by god or some higher power and that surely the military would now save them. The urged people to stay, people to not flee and to just wait for everything to go back to the way it was. The crazy part was that they believed it, all just going home like there wasn't a seemingly infinite army of killer aliens coming to get them at any time." 

"To the aliens this was an opportunity to test a new weapon. It was like a bomb, going off slowly above the city and sucking energy toward it. Still the people running this city said not to run, assured that they would be protected either by the military or their god. However, as the implosion became an implosion, bathing the people in radiation beyond any protection they discovered just how little water their hope could hold. As you can see many of them are looking up, waiting for something to save them and wondering why it was taking so long."

"I am the kind of person that would rather put their fate in their own hands," Brock admitted.

"Me too," Rick agreed. "For if you meet your end by your own terms at least you can do so knowing you did what you could."

     The next area the pair passed through was something of an anomaly. Like the mountains they came from it was hard for the aliens to come there in force. It once had been a very rural area, its harsh landscape and winding valleys and rivers made it very hard for development. Many of the survivors in the bunker they had come from had come from here. Though the aliens did not much care for it to police it, there was a lot of alien influence in the area.

"Almost makes you think that things are not as bad as they seem," Rick scoffed. "I suppose it is a blessing after the horrors we have seen thus far."

"It's an illusion," Brock replied. "Like when I went through my home town on my way to the survivors bunker. It is easy to kid yourself and pretend that things somewhere might still be the same."

"There are still people out there," Rick commented. "People who do not have the luxury of living in a bunker and have to make do."

"I know that," Brock retorted. "But we can't let ourselves think that maybe things were as they were."

"I suppose it is hard for some people," Rick agreed as he picked up a discarded pack and checked it for anything of value. "Many people kind of get to this point in their lives where they are like, 'This is it. I have done all the choosing I am going to choose and this is my life now.' And after they hit this point change hits them like a truck. For some the idea of adapting to a new lifestyle is just too much to bear."