Free In A Universe Without Stars 1: Skyeater by J Alex McCarthy

up as a shock wave rips out as their fist meet, ripping the buttons off
of Cole’s shirt.
    The
grunt’s bones crack and split as its fist stops but Cole’s keeps going. Its
smirk is wiped off. Cole’s fist goes up its arm and out the back, splitting it
in half like an ax into a log. 
    The
grunt jumps back, arm flailing, blood spurting everywhere. It spurts on Cole
but he doesn’t stop.
    They
bleed red just like us.
    The
grunt screams as Cole grabs its other arm and rips it off.
    The
grunt falls on its back. Cole jumps on top of him and wraps his bloody hands
around its neck.
    He
squeezes with all his might, with all his pain and suffering, with all his
anger. With all his fears and problems he squeezes its neck until it snaps.
    Dead .
    He
continues to squeeze, his hand submerges in its blood as he breaks the skin.
Cole cries, he’s just so tired of everything.
    His
tears drip into the slush that is the grunts exposed neck. He brings up his
hands and looks at them, the grunts spunk drips from them. He suddenly
remembers where he is.
    Cole
stands, nothing approaches him.
    He
tears off a piece of his shirt and wipes off the gunk. SE6 is only a few yards
in front of him.
    Cole
has to do this.
    He
runs toward it and leaps but halts half way in mid-air.
    “What!?”
    Cole’s
frozen, he struggles to move but can’t. A beam of light shoots out from SE6 and
engulfs him.
    Its
front turns away and shoots off into the sky. Cole is still engulfed in the
light.
    “NOOO!”
    Suddenly!
He’s ripped off into the sky. Cities, mountains, valleys, all zoom under him at
incredibly fast speeds. He’s pulled above the clouds and flies toward SE6 which
just hovers off in the distance. He approaches it and slams his eyes shut as
he’s about to hit.
     
    ---
     
    Bermea
wakes up under a pile of rubble. He’s on the top floor of the apartment
complex, the roof was torn open by the plane crash. The sun peers in.
    “ Hahaa ! Yes! I’m alive! Suck it, motherfuckers!” Bermea
hollers. He did it, he survived. Him, Bermea! Even he didn’t think he
would.
    But
enough celebrating, he needs to find a way out of town. He looks around for the
stairs and jumps as some rubble moves to the side of him. He sighs in relief as
it turns out it was nothing, just some rubble covering a statue.
    He
brushes them off and takes a closer look.
    He
lurches back, it wasn’t a statue. It is a couple clutching each other in their
last moments, frozen in the moment. Dust covers their dead bodies, bloody tears
on their faces.
    Bermea
loses his smile. He hears something, the sunlight is cut off as a shadow comes
overhead.
    A
monstrous looking ship, Cell, hovers down the hole. It doesn’t have a clear
shape, it’s a large black oval but it’s covered in weird misshaped ridges.
Hundreds of long thin black pillars stretch out from its nose.
    Bermea
just stares at it, it inches closers to him. It hovers for an uncomfortable
amount of time. I should try to run is his last thought. Three of the
pillars shoot out and pierces Bermea. He screams as he falls limp and it hovers
out, carrying his body.
     
    ---
     
    Kabus’s
body is still pierced with shrapnel. It opens its eyes.
    “I’m
sorry…Leif.” It mutters. A light comes down. A seven-foot tall alien projects
from the light. It’s Leif.
    “ It’s okay, my child,” he says in an oddly calming tone. “You
shall be rewarded for your efforts.”
    It’s
the same voice from the invasion warning and the same being from the beach.
Leif touches Kabus and both of them disappear in light.

6
- Jahum
     
     
    Cole
opens his eyes. He’s inside a circular empty room. He falls
to his knees panting. Is he in the ship? The lettering SE6 is imprinted in the
middle of the floor.
    Behind
him in the wall is a giant curved window. They’re flying through the still blue
sky, away from the battle. The sky is the most beautiful shade of sapphire he’s
ever seen. Whatever those aliens did to the sky has turned night into