This is my entry for June’s Blog Battle – the theme or word for this month is Corona.
Andit stopped for a moment, the mid morning sun sun forcing him to take off his jacket and tie it round his waist. Even with the forest as some shelter the heat would soon become too much and he would have to seek shelter. Tying the sleeves of his jacket around his waist he once more set out along the path. Andit was only 10 and there was danger in making the trip every few weeks to Keevan’s moisture farm. But it had to be done and this mother couldn’t do everything now that he was old enough to make the trip.
Keevan used to come to them but he was more reluctant to leave the farm and with dad gone, who knows where he was man of the house. What he lacked in strength his size meant he could hide easily from predators, man or beast. It wasn’t nearly as dangerous as going to the city, his mother hadn’t been here in years, not since dad…
What was that?
Andit thought to himself suddenly, slipping behind a large tree. For a few moments he waited, waited. Nothing. Nothing was there. but something else was missing. It took a few moments, there was no sound at all, the birds were silent and the insects too, the silence was like a thick blanket of fog laying across the forest. Suddenly chilled despite the sun Adit moved carefully on, it was farther back than where he was going.
As he moved he listened for anything, animal or otherwise but even the air was still, still slightly fresh with warmth starting to overtake the fresh smell. He took out his scanner and turned to see what was around. Nothing. Nothing at all – that was strange. A chill crept over his body slowly, almost imperceivably. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, but as he looked up he thought he saw something. Removing his eyes he covered them, tears streaming down his face. Wiping then he look back through his fingers to try and shield the glare of the fusion furnace.
There’s something there! Definitely!
Andit stood there as slowly the light faded, the silence continued. Slowly and silently the daylight was robbed by the circular invader as it ate the light from the sun. Andit knew a little about the universe and none of the three moons were due to eclipse now. Only one was even remotely as big as this object.
But then of course it was closer, much closer and it was moving across the sun, so much was covered now that it wasn’t too bad to look at, the bright edge of the sun was still too much to stare at but Andit could focus on the shade. He pulled his jacket back on, as his skin goose bumped, either from the cold or from the apparent fear. His breath now forming a moisture cloud in the air.
Unable to remove his eyes from the spectacle the darkness enveloped him and the landscape. He was always told the woods were dangerous at night, but that danger right now seemed to pale. The invader and the sun were now in perfect alignment and the corona from the nearby star dimly illuminated the land now. Shivering as he stood transfixed he somehow sensed that even the wild animals that come out at night now cowered and fled.
A few moments later and light started to return again, warmth was coming back and Andit continued to watch. Just before the brightness was too much to bear a blue light silent emitted from the circular terror and was shot towards the planet some distance away. In the distance a cacophony of rumbling and thunder could be heard. Andit was unsure how far away it was but he started, sprinting madly towards Keevan’s farm, his heart trying to beat out of his chest. The thunder was ever louder, filling his ears. Whatever was happening, it was coming, much faster than he could ever run. He was still at least twenty minutes from Keevan’s.
He knew there was an old bunker not far n the wood, he would often hide there from the noon sun, scrambling through the branches and thorns his little lungs couldn’t take in the air he needed, his muscles screamed and in blind panic he searched.
Where is it? Where is it?
After what seemed an eternity his eyes found it, pulling the huge metal door open and then shut as he dived into the dark damp shelter, latching the door before collapsing. What sounded like a rock storm seemed to roar outside like some unimaginable beast baying from him as prey. But then as soon as it begun it was over.
Andit finally made it out. The doorway strewn with rock and wood and junk. Squeezing out of the tiny gap he had made he stood on a rock and looked around. The sun shone bright again and a few trees somehow still stood. But where the forest had been was now mostly desolate, as if the desert beyond had decided to devour it in some hideous feast and all that was left was lifeless and barren. The path to Keevan’s was destroyed as was the path home. If either place had survived.
Andit sat on a huge boulder, doing nothing, thinking nothing a tear slid down his dirt encrusted face as he waited. Waited for something, waited for death, for a saviour, for something. Anything.
Andit woke suddenly from sleep it was nearly dark again and chill filled the air. Something had come, footsteps. Keevan’s footsteps.
“There you are boy – you’re alive! Come with me boy, come with me before they find us.”
© Simon Farnell 2020
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