[EternalPen]

Travis held his stomach tight and turned to look again, but his father turned his head and Travis didn't see the thing anymore. Isabel stood behind a nearby tree holding her mouth shut with both hands.

The white picket fence had red tips in one area, and a creature none of them recognized was stuck to it. As if dropped from heaven, the creature was impaled to the top of the fence.

Its body, other than the clothing it wore, was purple. It had a large mouth that was open in a silent scream, its razor sharp teeth stuck out in all directions, some up, down, or to either side. Its entire mouth was lined completely with teeth, like it was designed to eat. Its ears were flat, bowl-sized flaps that had what looked like gills on them. The top of the creature's head was covered in purple hair, but at a closer look, it turned out to be some type of feathers. It wore clothing that made it look ready for battle, but it wore no gloves or shoes. Both hands and feet ended in raptor-like claws.

One of them twitched.

A woman screamed and asked if it was still alive, but everyone thought not. They knew now, though, that it had been freshly killed. Blood ran down the posts leaving red streaks that looked like lightning bolts that threatened to stain the fence forever.

"When did this thing die?" someone asked.

"How long has it been here?" a woman asked.

Questions began flying through the air like bullets in World War II. "Where did it come from? Why is it here? What was it after? Was it dangerous?"

Of all the questions that were asked, one stood above all. "What is that?"

The index finger of Herald's outstretched arm aimed at what looked like a holster. Joe walked to the body and, as if it were contaminated (it could be for all he knew), he cautiously reached forward with his pocketknife and tried to cut the holster off. The holster was as hard as concrete, and he gave up after a few tries. After taking a deep breath, he stepped forward and grabbed a tall, cylinder-shaped machine out of the holster and quickly stepped back.

More questions began flying about with things like, "Is it a weapon? Is it a communication device? Is it working? How do you turn it on?"

Joe examined the machine, turning and twisting it in his hands, but didn't see a switch, a button, or a trigger. It simply looked like a piece of metal with two small trenches that ran in a full circle dug into it, one horizontal, and one vertical.

"Let me take a look at that, Joe," Herald said.

Joe looked up and tossed it to Herald without notice. Herald jerked his hands out and tried to catch it, but wasn't fast enough. It hit the ground and split in two, vertically. A loud buzzing noise erupted from the device, and everyone fell to their knees holding their ears. An old woman tried to find her hearing aid to turn it off, but it shook and shattered in her ear before she could find it. She screamed and fell on her side, motionless, until the noise stopped a few moments later.

Herald got up and checked on the old woman, but Travis was more interested in the machine. He picked it up and noticed that it was still split in half, but the two halves were being held together by the center. Four small, glowing, blue sticks held the two halves together, and Travis began to wonder where the noise came from. He held the devices close, and lightly flicked one of the sticks. That horrid buzzing noise came again, but only for a second and not nearly as strong.

Travis took a better look at the cylinder and noticed that there was more inside it. It looked like there was a screen of sorts, in half, one on each side of the cylinder. Travis pushed both halves together until they connected. He smiled at his thinking skills.

He noticed the other small trench that ran horizontally across the cylinder, and he pulled the device, hoping it would open again, but in a different direction this time. It did after little effort from himself.

There was a screen on the inside when it opened.

"Hey, everyone!" Travis yelled. "Look at this! It's playing some kind of movie!"

Everyone, including the people that were trying to help the old woman, gathered around Travis. Travis held the device in front of himself so everyone could see.

The screen was blue, and everything it showed was slightly tinted that color. The screen allowed it viewers to see a large, saucer-shaped form hovering above a foreign land, but it was obviously cloaked because it was mostly transparent. When the screen panned backwards, it was obvious that someone or something atop a large mountain was recording this. The ship was enormous, and the small town below it was dotted with unsuspecting beings, which closely resembled seals; they began to appear farther away. The thing recording the movie was apparently flying. A large beam, one that encompassed the entire town, floated down to the ground, and everything around it flashed out in fiery destruction. Everyone gasped.

"Are you telling me," Joe started, "that we are all gonna die because of some death-hungry aliens? Those things don't even exist!"

"Tell that to them," Travis said as he pointed out the seal creatures that were being engulfed in the flames.

When the destruction ceased, everything was destroyed but the town that the beam landed on. The bottom of the gigantic saucer opened and a creature that resembled the one stuck to the fence fell through the hole and hit the ground, rolling. It got up and started to decimate the town one creature at a time, and when the creatures came back with weapons, it threw something that resembled the device Travis was holding onto the ground, and all the weapons simply fell apart. The creature finished the destruction, gathered the dead bodies in a pile, and waited. A gun ship flew down and picked both the pile of bodies and the creature off the planet, and entered into the big ship.

The screen continued to show many different attacks like this, all on the same planet.

"Whoa," Herald said, "That blast radius must have covered at least a hundred miles in each direction. And the only thing left was that one town and it was only about ten miles each way."

"But," Joe started, "if they sent an alien down here to get us, does that mean..."

"Does it mean," Devin said, "that we just got bombed?"

"That light..." Travis whispered. "Was that light from the explosion? It almost drove me mad having it torch my brain like it did."

Devin ran off and yelled behind to the others, "I'll go check! I'll be back in about twenty-five minutes!"

Everyone waited in silence for about ten minutes thinking about what it would mean if Devin came back with dire news. The entire town went back to the center of town to wait for him. People began to pack their things ahead of time, thinking that they would have to run when Devin came back with news that destruction is what they saw. Herald did the same, and also got a pair of walkie-talkies in case he needed to contact the people driving next to his car while they were fleeing.

Travis was still messing with the machinery that the creature had, wondering why an attack ship hadn't swooped down to pick up its missing member and the bodies it collected. After messing with it for a while, he found a timer.

It was counting down.

Devin arrived later on, and he was deathly silent when exiting his vehicle. Everyone gathered around and listened carefully as Devin opened his mouth to speak. He only said three words, but that was enough.

"There's nothing left."

[Mizurio]

You had some absolutely lovely descriptions, i really loved the description of the creature at the start. It really makes your mind go to a completely different place when reading. Nice going dude, keep it up.

[EternalPen]

Thank you! ^_^