EarthFall---Chapter 2

   They started down the path, Molly in the lead.
The path wound along a stream, just as Mark had said, that flowed in the direction they were walking. It was late in the summer, and the leaves were starting to turn colors. Despite the early afternoon sun it became noticeably darker as the path and stream both crooked around a small turn and the forest became denser. For the first leg the girls were quiet as they took in the sights and smells of the woods. Although all of them grew up in an area relatively similar, it had been years since they had been around such a peaceful setting, and it uncontentious warranted a moment of silence and respect from all three.
Eventually they began to talk. The topics ranged from stuff in the news to work. A few jokes were made. Finally, they reached the lake.
"Wow." Molly remarked, "This is really beautiful."
The lake stretched out for roughly a quarter of a mile. Being on a small rise, they could see the lake outlined in dense foliage that ringed it's parameter. From their vantage point, the trio could see a trail that led around the bank of the lake. They started down it.
As they progressed the trail, they began to see signs of the storm mark had mentioned. After helping each other over a large tree, Molly took a few steps, stopped, and cocked her head to the side.
"Do you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Mariko asked.
"Someones calling me." Molly said. Her voice had taken an unfocused quality. "It's like--" She simply trailed off. She reached up to touch her face. "Something.." She looked at her fingers. Bright blood shone on them.
Mariko was immediately alarmed. "Molly, what's wrong?"
 Before she could reply, Molly's eyes rolled back in her head and her knees buckled. Mariko managed to get her arms around her before she could drop and with Jenny's help, lowered her to the ground. She cradled her sisters head, and saw blood still slowly leaking from both nostrils. She cleaned the blood off of Molly's face, noticing that the flow had ceased almost immediately.
Jenny was agitated. "What the hell just happened?!
Mariko replied "I don't know, But we have to get her back to the house. She--" Molly's hand suddenly grabbed her wrist.
"No." Molly whispered.
"What?" Mariko "Molly, you just dropped for no reason, not to mention your nose was gushing blood. We don't know if you had a stroke or what, but we need to get you help."
"No." Molly repeated. "I'm fine. It didn't realize how powerful it was broadcasting."
"It?"
 Molly shook her head, and then pulled herself into a sitting position. "Look, it doesn't matter.We need to keep going. It's not far, and it needs our help."
"Molly, what the hell are you going on about?" Mariko asked incredulously, "We need to go back now."
Molly's eyes blazed. "No. I said I was fine, and I meant it. Now If you don't want to go with me that's fine, but there's a signal in my head right now, and I'm going to go insane if I don't follow it and find out where it's coming from. So don't try to stop me, okay?!"
Jenny looked to Mariko "Dude, she's serious." She looked back to Molly "I won't try to stop you. Molly, but if you're going to go on, I'm going with you too." 
Mariko glared at Jenny, who shrugged and then turned back to her sister. "Well, I'm going too. I don't think you're crazy, Molly, but I'm worried. If you can't track down this "signal" in an hour, we're going back. Agreed?"
Molly nodded. "Agreed. Let's get going."



   Molly led them down the trail, with Jenny and Mariko close behind. The trail skirted the edge of the water, then wove up a small crest. As they came over the rise they saw an enormous dead-fall of recently fallen trees. Mariko initially assumed that the storm Mark had mentioned was the cause but as she got a better look something about it seemed to be deliberate. The trees blocked the trail, and before anyone could comment Molly started down towards the water, daftly negotiating fallen tree limbs and torn brush.
"Wait up, Molly!" Mariko yelled. Molly kept moving.
Jenny looked around. "Wait. Do you hear some sort of humming?"
Mariko listened for a second, and then replied "Maybe. I don't know. Look, we need to catch up with her before she really hurts herself." 
"I know, I know, but there's something hinky going on. Let's just be careful."
Mariko nodded before starting after her sister.
 When Mariko reached the bottom of the rise Molly was waiting for her. She looked exhilarated.
"Look at this!" She said as she grabbed her sister's shoulder and half pulled her to the waterline, obviously uncaring of the water soaking their shoes and cuffs of their pants.
  Mariko didn't know what she was seeing. A column shape, almost 15 feet across and 6 feet high protruded from underneath a crown of dirt and tree branches like a tooth from a diseased gum. It was largely buried in the mud of the lake shore, the dead-fall concealing it's initial bulk. 
 As they approached it, Mariko realized that she had difficulties making out it's shape and exact proportions. There was some sort of wrongness to the object; her eyes didn't want to look directly at it, as if they independently found the sight to be too much for them to process, and seemed to slip away on their own accord after a few seconds every time she looked right at it.
From behind her she heard Jenny make it to the bottom of the rise.
"Holy. Shit."
She wandered up to stop next to Mariko, her mouth agape. "Is this for real?"
They slowly walked closer to the object, and the odd distortion affect seemed to diminish. Mariko now saw that there were thousands of branching protrusions curled around each other to make some sections, overlaid and varying in textures. Many parts were blackened and jagged. It had obviously been badly damaged in it's plunge to Earth.  
"It looks organic." Jenny remarked. "And it smells like...like rain evaporating off of hot pavement...weird. Just looking at it makes my eyes hurt. This has got to be where the signal's coming from, right, Molly?"
Molly smiled "I'm pretty sure it is. Well, inside."
Mariko asked "So what now? I mean, this thing couldn't have been here very long. So why didn't anyone hear it landing?"
"I think it came during the storm," Molly replied. "But this has something to do with that dream I had. It needs help."
"It? The ship?"
"No...no. Like I said, there's something inside..."
Mariko, exasperated, said "Molly, That's fine and all, but outside the obvious damage, there isn't exactly a open door for us to walk in. And, oh wait! it's a freaking alien spaceship! Shouldn't we get someone a bit more qualified then us to do this?!"
  Molly wasn't listening anymore. She walked up to the object, stood for half a tick looking at it, and before either of them could move to stop her, pressed her hand against it's surface.
Immediately, the area under her hand began to shift, collapsing back on itself in folds, quickly revealing a tunnel into the bowls of the object.  She turned back to them and grinned.
"There's no way you're going in that." Mariko said.
"I have to." Molly replied simply.
Jenny stepped up next to her. "Are you sure? "
"It called me, remember?"
"Well, yeah, but what if it, I don't know, eats you?"
"Really?" Molly rolled her eyes. "Look, I'm going in."
Mariko said. "Not alone. I suppose I can't stop you, and I'm not even sure if I want to. You were right about this being here, so I'm pretty sure you're right about going into that." She gestured at the object, "So I'm going with you."
Molly smiled gratefully.
"Well, I guess I've gotta go too." Jenny said. "Maybe whatever is in there will be full after eating you two and I can escape to warn the world."

  The passage was barely tall enough for them stand and tilted downwards. The walls of the passage were soft but firm, and nearly featureless. They also glowed gently, shades of colors kaleidoscopeing from earthly shades to bizarre alien hues.
"Ugh, It smells even more inside." Jenny said, "And am I the only one hearing that whispering?"
Mariko replied "No, but it sounds more like buzzing to me. I think it's coming from this ship, if that's what this is. It started as soon as we got in here, and It's starting to give me a headache."
Without looking back, Molly said "It's inside your head, that's why. That's the signal I was telling you about, but I don't know why you can't understand it."
 "And another thing," Jenny said "I'm noticing seams on the walls that I think were doors. Are we getting herded somewhere, Molly?"
"No. I'm pretty sure that the doors were sealed to isolate this section from the rest of the ship during whatever happened to it prior to it crashing. At least, that's what it sounds like, from what I'm hearing. This was a important part of the ship, made to endure damage the rest of the ship couldn't."
"Maybe this is where they kept their version of a black box, huh?"
"Maybe. But it's obviously far more then just a recorder, because I'm pretty sure it's what's sending out the signal."
"Where's the crew?" Mariko asked. "Do you know what happened to them?"
"I think they're gone. With the rest of this vessel. Most likely none of them were able to reach this chamber before whatever happened to the rest of the ship." 
The passage only reached about 15 feet before abruptly terminating in another wall. Other than being only two feet tall, the only difference to the other walls was what appeared to be a small hole, about the diameter of a baseball, set halfway above the floor.
 Molly knelt down in front of the hole.
"What now?" Jenny asked from the back. "Is that where it is?"
"It is." Molly replied, pointing at the orifice. "So I'm going to have to reach in there. Wish me luck." She said, and tentatively stuck her hand into the hole. She couldn't feel anything, so she leaned forward, putting a hand on the wall to steady herself. Her steadying hand slipped on the wall and her arm sank in almost to the shoulder. Mariko grabbed her around the waist as she lost her balance.
"I can feel something." Molly said, and then screamed as said something suddenly wrapped a slimy coil around her wrist. When she did, Mariko panicked, and yanked her backwards as hard as she could. Molly's arm pulled out of the orifice with a nauseating squelch. Trailing from colorless tentacles wrapped around her hands and wrists, coated with clear viscous liquid, a pod of sorts was pulled from the opening.
As soon as the pod left the orifice, the lights in the walls dimmed to nearly nothing. The ship, if that's what it was, suddenly shuddered.
"Um, Molly, what did you do?" Jenny asked, as she helped Molly to her feet.
"I'm not sure. I mean, this--" Several loud cracks interrupted her. The ship started vibrating. Looking around, she saw large cracks distorting the walls. Fluid was squirting out of them with increasing force. 
"We need to get out of here!!" Mariko yelled. The shuddering was increasing by the second.
  Molly had succeeded in getting one of her hands loose, and wrapped her arm around her sister's shoulder as they scrambled back the way they came. She tucked the pod under her other arm. Jenny was the first to make it out and helped the others out the way they came in. The object itself was quickly loosing it's cohesion, as an odorless steam started rising of all exposed surfaces.
   The girls scrambled to safety as the object, which now appeared to be liquifying, quickly started to collapse upon itself. Within minutes, the weight of the trees and soil on top of it buried most of the remains of the ship. Several large pieces of the ship snapped off; They shattered like glass even when they impacted the water, and quickly melted into puddles of shimmering residue, which evaporated within minutes. Soon, the only sign that the object had been there was a tree filled depression marring the side of the rise.
   Molly looked down. She still held the pod from the orifice, only it held her no longer. The tentacles were disintegrating into a clear fluid, along with the outer layer of the pod. What was revealed was a shimmering and dully metallic orb, slightly larger than a softball. It was thrumming softly. Molly raised it up so all of them could look.
"What is it?" Jenny asked.
"A traveller." replied Molly, "But that's all I know."
Mariko was still looking back where the object had been embedded in the ground. "I can hardly believe that just happened." She turned back to the others. "Here Molly, stow that thing in my backpack. We're going to need all our hands to get back up the bank."
Molly nodded and complied. Jenny however, threw up her hands in frustration. "That's it?! Do you realize what this means?!"
"Of course I do. But whatever had to be done here is done. We're filthy, exhausted and we still have a bit of a hike back. We can deal with this later, ok?"
Jenny realized Mariko was right.
"Let's get out of here, then."
   They started back up the rise.