From the Ashes

“GIVE IT BACK,” she screamed at her brother as he jumped away dangling her new locket out in front of her.

The heart-shaped metal locket spun in James’ outstretched hands and glimmered in the light of the grocery store.

“Ok, fine; here,” he said and reached the locket out to her. Just as she reached for it, he jumped back again out of reach.

“MOOOOOOOM,” she screeched. “James won't give me back my locket!!”

James stopped chuckling and threw the locket in her direction angrily. “I was only messing with you Amber. Honestly, you’re no fun!”

“Stop it you two,” her mom chastised them as she turned speedily into the next aisle of the grocery store. “I want to be home before the meteors start, and that's not going to happen with you two goofing around and harassing each other.”

Amber ran a couple steps to try to keep up. She picked up her discarded locket and hastily looked for dents or scratches. Her mom had given her the locket on her birthday last month. Inside it was a picture of them all together; even her brother who was mean to her most of the time.

Amber put the locket back on, struggling a little at the clasp, and ran to catch up with her mom and her brother who had already made it to the end of the next aisle.

She didn’t want to rush, she thought as she kicked James in the shins and darted away. They had been learning about the meteors for months now. She knew they were supposed to be inside because it would be safer, but they were just rocks. James had thrown a rock at her head once. It had hurt a lot, but she didn’t get out of school the next day.

An announcement came over the speakers of the store and made her jump.

“Attention customers. The store is now closed for curfew. Doors will be locked in about 5 minutes. Please bring your purchases to the registers at this time. Anyone not at the registers by the time of closing will be denied service. Thank you, and have a nice day.”

There was a moment of silence before the music started to play again. Amber looked at her mom as she let out a huff of exasperation.

“Ok, then,” her mom said at last and turned the cart back around to head to the checkout counter. “I guess that’ll have to do for the next week.”

A whole week stuck with her brother...Amber shook her head and looked at her brother James. Summer was bad enough, but at least she could go outside in the summer. This week she would be stuck inside.

“You better not eat all the food, trash goblin,” she said and tried to trip him, but missed as he stepped over her foot and shoved her.

“You better not eat all the food, trash goblin,” he mocked and laughed as he followed after their mom.

“MOOOOOOOM,” she shouted, getting up off the ground.

“THAT’S ENOUGH!”

* * *

Mom was speeding.

Amber held onto the seat in front of her as her mom made another quick turn without stopping at the stop sign. James sat sulking next to Amber because mom had told him that if he wanted to act like a child and pick on her, then he had to sit in the back...which made no sense to Amber because she was back here so wouldn’t that just make it worse?

“Mom, slow down,” James yelled as she swerved to avoid another car that was driving equally crazy.

“I can’t James. I shouldn’t have stopped at the store, but we needed more food for this week. I’ve been so busy at work…” she explained. “If your father was still here-”. She stopped and took a breath. “I’m sorry guys. We’ll be home soon, ok? Just hold on.”

Mom leaned forward in her seat to look up at the sky out of the front window of the car. There were multiple lines in the sky as though someone had set off fireworks. Mom leaned back again and riffled through the radio stations until she found a news channel.

“Mom, my phone isn’t working,” James said grumpily.

“Mine isn’t either, hun. Now shush. I’m trying to hear what the news is saying”. Their mom turned up the radio and James threw his phone onto the seat between them. Amber smirked at him. She wasn’t allowed to have a phone until she was 14, her mom had said. James was 15, but Amber still felt it was unfair.

“-should start making an impact within the next 10 minutes. We expect golf ball sized meteors at the largest, but we still recommend staying indoors as they can really cause some damage. Speaking of damage, people are concerned about property damage, Brent. What's the latest from the insurance companies? Will this be covered by insurance?”

“Yes, that's a great question, and one I’m sure is on the minds of millions of Americans as we wait for the first strikes of these meteors. What we know so far is that the government is planning on sending out payments to Americans that is said to help cover the cost of most, if not all, of the property damages caused by this event. These payments are likely to occur as 3 to 4 installments and will be based on a claim assessment and income. The payments will likely start being sent out 1 week after this event and-”

The radio cut off into a loud screeching static and Amber threw her hands over her ears. Mom swerved in surprise, caught off guard, and quickly turned the radio down. She kept the static on at a very low volume, though, probably in case it started working again.

They sat in silence for a while, with the static humming quietly on the radio. Their mom looked around frantically as she drove. There was barely anyone else outside. Occasionally, they would see someone else driving crazy or someone running outside. It was almost creepy to Amber, who was used to the hustle and bustle of suburban life.

“Almost home,” her mom said aloud as the car sped up even more. The radio had said 10 minutes until the meteors hit, but that was about 5 minutes ago.

The radio stopped screeching and let out three long tones indicating an alert, like they do when there's a tornado warning.

“This is a message from the Emergency Broadcasting System. Reports of meteors as big as cars have touched down in multiple major cities around the US. Take shelter immediately. This is not a dr--”

A loud crash sounded outside their car, and everything went black.

* * *

Amber woke up to her brother yelling her name.

“Amber, you have to get up,” James yelled as he saw her eyes open. “You have to get out of the car.”

Amber looked around, disoriented, to see the car on its side and glass everywhere. “What happened James,” she asked. Her side of the car was on the ground. She unlatched her seatbelt and lay there for a few seconds, shaking.

“I don’t know. I think it was a meteor.” James had somehow already gotten out of his seatbelt and onto the door of the car. He was peering down and holding his hand out for her to grab. Amber took his hand and James lifted her out of the car.

“Where’s mom?” she asked as James helped her off the car and onto the ground. Amber looked around the scene and saw a few giant meteors scattered around the road. Amber couldn’t see anyone else around them, not even inside the houses. She turned around to look behind them at the houses there, but still didn’t see anyone. She looked up quickly, but there weren’t any meteors in the sky above them, so Amber relaxed a little. James looked at her hair and started picking glass pieces out of it. “James, where’s mom,” she asked again as he avoided her gaze.

“It’s fine Amber,” he said, looking at her arms and legs to make sure she wasn’t injured beyond a few cuts and bruises. “Mom went to go get help. She told me she would meet up with us later. She’ll give us a call to let us know where she is.” He held up his phone to show her he had it and put it quickly in his pocket. Amber shook her head in confusion, about to question him further, when the meteor at the end of the block began to crumble.

James pulled Amber behind the car and poked his head around to watch.

“What is it James?” Amber craned her neck trying to get a look, too, but James was blocking her view. She was only able to see the top of the meteor as it shot up into the sky and away from the rest of it by some unknown source. James started and backed away, pulling Amber with him, as the meteor crumbled completely.

Left in the ashes of the meteor was a large spindly balled up creature. It rose up from the ground and stretched out 6 massive grey legs. It had no hands or feet, but the legs came to a sharp point. It looked like a massive spider with a human head.

James grabbed Amber’s arm and ran quietly to the nearest house. Amber joined him as he pounded on the door, but it turned frantic as she looked back and saw the creature staring at them. James, abandoning the front door, picked up Amber and ran to the back of the house. Amber held onto James as tightly as she could as he ran. She watched as the creature lifted its head and let out a loud screech before charging after them.

James set Amber down and grabbed a rock off the ground. He threw it at the window of the door, stuck his arm in, and quickly unlocked it. As they ran inside the house, they heard the beast round the corner. It slammed into the door just as James closed it roughly and locked it again.

The monster shoved its leg through the broken window but recoiled when it cut its leg on a jagged piece of glass.

“What is it James,” she screamed as James grabbed her hand and pulled her back further away from the creature at the door.

“I don’t know Amber.” He looked around the room frantically.

The creature started slamming itself against the door as Amber and James frantically searched behind every door, looking for stairs going down.

James stopped, quickly looked at the splintering door between them and the monster outside. He pulled her to the next room and up the stairs to the second floor of the house. He ran quickly through the hall as Amber stayed at the top of the stairs and listened to the creature still slamming into the door downstairs.

“Here,” James shouted to her triumphantly. Amber ran to him as he made a couple jumps to the short string dangling from the ceiling. He pulled the string and a small ladder unfolded leading to the attic.

The door downstairs smashed open. The creature let out yet another screech as it charged through the house in search of them. It scrambled up the stairs and charged at them as James pulled the ladder and door of the attic closed.

Amber ran to James. They held each other as they listened quietly to the creature screaming in defiance.

As it started to get dark, and the creatures scrambling had quieted, James released Amber and searched for a light switch. Finding a pull cord for a singular light bulb, he switched on the light.

Outside, more of the creatures crawled out from the ashes of the fallen meteors.

Picture credit: https://www.deviantart.com/anidragon/art/Six-Legged-Spider-121196503