Escort asset  — female, mid twenties, fresh-faced, attractive — through the building to safety by way of the escalator. Asset’s stress is palpable. Maintain composure.

Why?

Why must we do this?

So frightened…

Building identified —  open, airy plaza; glass walls; floors, a hard light speckled tile; crowded. Approach with care. Stay alert.

So exposed.

So many people.

Enter through glass doors on the building’s north side. Bright sunlight reflects off  multitudinous surfaces – tiles, windows, counters. Escalator identified — dead ahead; moves steadily toward upper level. No cover. Flank asset. Guide her. Toward the escalator. Through crowd.

NOT people… Doesn’t anyone see?

Their faces…shift from human to… insectoid…

Red-fleshed, huge iris-less eyes, proboscis-like mouths protrude

from bulbous heads…

Shift back…

Threat identified! Close ranks. Weapons ready. Pick up the pace. Press forward to the escalator. Move!

Dizzy… Nausea rising…

Spreading… Thinning…

Falling apart… Flying apart…

Hold! Hold! Fall back! Maintain perimeter! Asset… changing — whole, solid no longer… Becomes a sudden swell of light, brighter and brighter, blinding…

Someone… Anyone…

Asset, engulfed in light — is light — shifts out of register, seems to occupy multiple dimensions… Identifiable… streaming light, seems smeared over the surrounding area in great broad strokes from  center.

* h   e   l   p *

It’s over people! It’s over! Fall in! Fall in!

Feel the ‘snap’… the ‘returning’… like a blow.

Dizzyness remains. Nausea remains.

Weak limbed. Breathless.

Stay on target! Fall in! Threats at 10 o’clock… 2 o’clock… Close ranks! Move move move! To the escalator! Flank her! Ahead and behind! Not through yet! Look alive, people! We don’t know what’s up there!

Happening again… Too soon…

Can’t… hold…

together…

 

— C.Birde, 2/19