War For The World

CHAPTER TWO

Heavy footsteps echoed along the pavement and onlookers move to the side as a young woman determined to keep going, finally managed to grab hold of the metal pole and hoist herself up onto the accompanying platform. The bell of the tram tolled loudly as the vehicle began to pick up steam, the young woman now mercilessly gutting her satchel in order to find what the driver ahead of her required. Satisfied with her excavation she produced the coin out before the man
"Here you go, all nice and shiny for you" She exclaimed
The tram driver took the coin and chucked it into the dispenser behind him, motioning to the rows of quickly filling up seats behind him.
Alice Fletcher was a little small for her age, and when it came to dealing with crowds this presented her with an immediate disadvantage, though nothing she knew she couldn't easily overcome. Once more being forced to push through the somewhat tighter crowd of the tram customers, she found an empty seat mid-way down the back and decided to make it her own. Placing the worn satchel on her lap, she opened it up cautiously and began to flick through some of the papers. Headlines labelled in capital letters and in big black font, Marcus had really outdone himself this time, maybe a bit too much.

'RED UNIDENTIFIED SATALITE EJECTED FROM MARS'

'ORBITAL RED METOERITE TRAJECTORY CALCULATED AS EARTH'

'PREVENTIONS AND PRECAUTIONS FOR THE ONCOMING IMPACT'

Pages were incorrectly ordered and ruffled, a side effect of Alice's messy readings and late night revelations the night prior. For all of Marcus's showmanship and dramatic flair, there was indeed something heading from Mars towards Earth. Something unidentified and rogue from all other predicted meteorite storms or satellites soaring past. This type of impact could potentially be catastrophic, not to mention the questions surrounding how such a launch could naturally occur on mars without the intervention of a living purposeful Martian force.
The late-night think tank discussions between herself and her plant came back to the forefront, mulling over these one-way doomsday scenario conversations causing Alice to almost miss her stop.
"Wait! Please! One more!" barely managing to pull her satchel out from behind her before the bell tolled loudly once more and the vehicle laboured off down the street. Staring up at the large brick built building laid out in front of her, she made an attempt to fix her hair and get herself in the right headspace before stepping forward into the crowd of people heading both in and out of Yosemite Square.
The building made an effort to not stand out, consisting of a simple two storied office building with no offensive or remarkable points of interest on its walls. Windows were slightly tinted, and the people that entered through the large revolving glass door seemed to be of no notable importance. Sitting in the middle of San Francisco, a quiet dark office building was thus the perfect place for a US research facility.
Alice frowned, adjusting the sleeves of her jacket and making one last attempt to rub the miscellaneous marks from its sides. The green female officer outfit was one size too big for her, but it had been the only one of its kind available at her local pawn shop and Alice had wanted to make a good first impression. This had been two months ago and although she was more confident with herself now, she still sought after the trust and respect that came with people taking her seriously. Especially today of all days.
Her heart began to race once more and a multitude of different scenarios began playing in her head, different sentences uttered and different phrases made in an attempt to explain precisely the problem at hand. A momentous task to be placed on the shoulders of a receptionist and her low level scientist accomplice.
"Morn'n Alice"
The Tennesee twang woke Alice up from her spiral and she gave a weak smile back. The man known only as Pops held a mop in one hand and bucket in the other, standing at the entrance just through the revolving glass door. Alice had always found she got along better with real people, people with problems and stories and bills to pay. Pops was the janitor for Yosemite Square and going by the usual schedule, he had just finished for the day.
Alice tried to swim out of her thoughts and offer conversation, allowing a meek "Back feeling better?" to form in her brain and escape her mouth.
The old man sighed, his wrinkles constantly moving and shifting creating a very expressional sort of face.