Into the Unknown

Another day is almost over. Rosita doesn't know how many of those she has left as she sits in her rocking chair on her porch. She loves watching the sunsets from her porch. Unfortunately, since she lost her eyesight last winter she couldn’t even see those. Nevertheless, she found solace in rocking on her chair feeling the last few sun kisses on her face. Thankfully, she can still feel them. She hears Canela sigh loudly next to her. 

“Don’t be sad preciosa . I am still here. You can sense it I know.” 

The dog rubs her face against Rosita’s knee and then rests her big muzzle on it waiting to be petted. 

“You have been doing this every day this week. You know as pretty as you are, I am sure heaven will be prettier. I will wait for you there I promise.” Canela takes her muzzle away lies down on the porch and sighs loudly. 

Rosita smiles. “You did not like that huh? It is depressing I know. Poor girl, you have to spend your days with me. Don’t worry, Alma will take care of you.”

“It’s a quiet day today huh girl.” As if on cue, suddenly, a large murder of crows flies over the house followed by an even larger flock of birds. Canela perks up immediately and starts barking. 

“Calm down Canela, it’s just some birds flying.” Way too many damn birds, she thought. 

But Canela does not stop barking. She is now on full alert staring at the big field across the porch. 

“Okay now settle down Canela, they are gone. Jeeze what’s the matter with you ?” 

The dog, however, does not stop. She is getting louder. A second later, the dog leaps from the porch to the yard and takes off while Rosita yells at her to stop to come back. Rosita could tell from all the barking that Canela was running farther and farther away from her. Then all of a sudden she stops barking as if she ran into a wall of silence. 

Rosita gets up from her chair and tries to listen intently but strangely everything is in complete silence. She walks two steps forward with her little cane still while calling Canela but the silence continues. A faint whimper stops her in her tracks. Desperate and now definitely scared she screams for Canela as loud as she can. In her desperation, Rosita takes another step unintentionally and loses her balance off the stairs of her porch. Out of mercy, her brain decides to give her a break and she becomes unconscious immediately. Canela never returns. 

Alma knew she shouldn’t have picked up tonight’s shift. She hated working with Dr. West. He is always pompous, and condescending and slept with half of the nurses on 20 East, the top floor where she works, despite him being married with two children. She couldn’t see what anyone saw in him. He is only nice to the nurses he flirts with and a jerk full-time to everyone else. To top it off, Jessica, let two IVs run dry which means she now has to do that on top of everything else. Now, there is yelling and screaming in the hallway. A middle eastern man was screaming at Nicole, the nurse tech, who was now standing next to Alma in tears. Alma calls security and walks furiously towards the Middle Easter who starts yelling as soon as he sees her to which she snaps back:

“Sir, either you calm down or security is coming to escort you out.”

“Do not tell me to calm down. My mother was supposed to go home two hours ago and we are still waiting. So instead of telling me to calm down, go do your job.” He yells back while pointing his finger. 

“Okay, I am not dealing with this.” She turns around as security guards are coming. She looks at them and shakes her head. 

“We got your back Alma.” One of them says. 

She walks back to the station and looks at the chart for room 607. Sure enough, there has been an order for discharge issued almost three hours ago. God damn it, Jessica, she thinks. She orders two new IVs and walks to the room to discharge the patient when the electricity goes out. 

Now what, she mutters to herself. She stands in darkness for a few seconds before the emergency generators kick in. She goes back to the station and by the time she is back, there is already a notification that there was a major problem at the hospital. Messages were already sent to the emergency managers on-site along with the Chief Operating Officer.

“Another day in paradise.” Remarks Trisha, another nurse and former lover of Dr. West

“You got that right.” Responds Alma without looking. 

“This place is going down I swear. It’s not even storming out and we can’t have some damn electricity,” remarks Trisha. 

I didn’t hear you complaining when the doctor was on top of you. Thinks Alma but does not say anything. 

“Are you okay?” Asks Trisha

I will be better if you leave me the fuck alone. Is what she wanted to say but she tells her she is tired. Trisha takes the hint and finally stops talking and for a couple of minutes it is quiet except for the sound of tapping on the keyboard by both nurses. Then, a sound of sonic booms begins. From the top floor of the hospital, the thunderous booms are extremely loud and deafening. Not too soon after, explosions start. They are distant but close enough to be heard. 

“What in the fu. . . .” Trisha is cut off by a massive explosion from a plane that crashes into the northern part of the building. There is something insane going on and no one knows what is happening. Chaos follows. People, both patients and their families begin running while screaming. Some nurses try to stop them but it is futile. Sirens are going off outside as explosions continue. Alma runs to the windows at the end of the hallway and what she sees terrifies her. It is a scene from the end of Days. Buildings are on fire near and far with smoke and fire in every direction. TVs in rooms and hallways begin displaying the Emergency Broadcast System directing people to stay indoors and avoid the outdoors. 

Fuck that, Alma thinks as she heads to the stairs when she sees Dr. West running to the door. He looks at her and tells her to stay back with the patients. Without a moment of hesitation, she tells him “Go fuck yourself you hypocritical fuck” and turns towards the stairs running. Stunned, he stays there for a second before someone pushes him over to get to the door. The whole way down the world seems to be shaking, there are sounds of glass breaking, emergency lights flickering and people trampling over each other. Alma, stops several times to help people up and holds onto their hands while going down the stairs. Once she gets to the parking lot she realizes she doesn't have her car keys. Shit shit shit shit. How is she going to get to her grandma? 

She looks at all the cars taking off and starts knocking on some windows to take her along but no one stops. She keeps running next to the cars hoping that someone would help but again nothing, A minute later, she is thankful that no one did. As the cars are driving, a giant wave of blue laser-like light comes down from the sky and crushes every vehicle driving as if they are soda cans. Alma and several other people gasp and scream. What the hell was that? Oddly, cars that are parked are unharmed. Alma spots a bicycle inside of a pick up truck parked. She runs toward it before anyone sees it and picks it up and starts peddling. 

For the rest of her arduous biking trip, these waves continue everywhere around Alma. There is so much destruction in such a short period. As far as she can see there are no more passenger planes or army jets. Alma tries to process what was going on. This could not be a terrorist attack or another country. This has to be out of this earth. The thought is terrifying. She has to get to her grandmother as soon as she can. While she is thankful that her grandma is not close to the city, the pedaling is taking a toll on her legs. 

As she gets closer, she becomes more worried about her grandma. There are houses abandoned with open doors, bags, and luggage on roads and driveways as she passes by. She starts pedaling even harder than before. When she finally arrives home her heart sinks as she notices her grandmother lying on the ground not moving. Alma jumps off the bicycle and runs towards her grandmother. She feels her breathing still and immediately starts crying in relief. A few seconds later, her grandmother regained consciousness. 

“Why are you crying mijita? And why are you home so early? You barely left.” Rosita asks why still lying on the floor. 

“What happened Abue? How did you fall? Are you okay?” Alma responds with her own set of questions while helping her grandmother up. 

Rosita is about to respond when she suddenly remembers.

“Canela! She ran away! I think something happened to her. She was barking and barking and then took off. I tried to call her back but she never returned. Please, please Alma go check if she is okay.” 

“Oh Abue, you don’t know. . .” 

“ I don’t know what ?! Is Canela okay?” 

“ Oh, I don’t know Abue. I haven’t seen her. I hope she is okay. Maybe she saw something that scared her.” She tries to reassure her grandmother but she is not able to sound convincing. 

“ Abue .. . Do you still have the key to Tio’s house?” She asks as she goes through the pantry frantically trying to pick up every can, and every packaged item they have.

“ What? Why? Alma … we need to find Canela. What’s the matter with you? And what are you doing in the kitchen?”

Then another wave hits. This one is not so far away and Alma could hear the cacophony of destruction mixed with screams. 

“What was that? Alma…. What is going on?”

“Abue…. there is just a lot going on right now and we need to get out of here.” 

“Out of here? Why? I’m not leaving my home, especially without Canela.”

“Grandma! We are not alone. Okay? There is some type of Alien shit going on and people are dying. Lots and lots of people are dying. So, por favor ayudame.” 

“A.. Aliens?” Rosita makes

the sign of the cross. “Dios Mio! De que hablas mija? No no no . . Voy a misa y creo en dios, pero no to these . . . these aliens.” 

“Well that’s too bad grandma. Aliens don’t care if you go to church or what you believe in. They are here and they are killing everyone.”

“No creo. . . This is not God’s plan.”

“GOD’s plan? My dad left my mom before I was born. My mother died giving birth to me. I had medical issues my entire childhood but forget all that. I just saw people getting crushed in their cars like sardines, and planes falling from the skies and you are telling me about God’s plan? There is no plan and there is no God. Now do you still have the key to Tio’s house?” 

Fifteen minutes later, they are both walking down the street surrounded by darkness. Alma is carrying a duffel bag with food and everything she thought they needed. She isn’t really paying attention to the destruction they are walking through, or the fact that the ground and the grass was slowly turning into this dark metal, or the terrified eyes behind windows that show up every now and then. She is engulfed in guilt by what she told her grandmother. The world is ending and she managed to make her grandmother cry. 

Rosita is right next to her walking in tears. She feels devastated for Canela but mostly for those terrible things Alma said to her. She wonders long she has been holding that inside of her. Rosita knows that’s not how she raised Alma. They went to church every Sunday, celebrated all the holidays from dia de la Virgen de Guadalupe to Epiphania. Rosita isn’t really worried about these aliens. She is spending her last few days on Earth anyways. She wanted to stay in her house, feel the sun on her face, smell her roses and not hide in a bunker. But, she didn’t want to be selfish and keep Alma from saving herself. Is it really saving yourself if you are hiding under ground? She wonders. It doesn’t matter. She is going to take care of her to her last breath.

In the far distance, the dark skies suddenly radiate by thousands of circular lights, A booming sound shakes the ground beneath them. Alma looks around. They are not too far from her uncle’s house. She tells her grandma that they need to move quickly. Out of the corner of her eye, the light of hundreds of missiles lights up the sky even more as they target the alien circles of lights. It seems the military is still putting up a fight. Sadly, the missiles are swallowed by some type of a halo and disappear into the abyss of darkness as if they never existed. Less than a second later, another wave demolishes that whole area. Through the light of annihilation, Alma gasps as she observes the transformation of everything around her. Earth is turning into a dark, fallen, and desolate planet in front of her very eyes. Their chance of survival is obsolete. Humans are clearly outmatched. 

Alma lets out a tear which opens the gate to a waterfall. Rosita grasps her hand. 

“There is no hope, Abue” 

“Mija, believe in God or don’t, that’s your thing. I can’t tell you what to believe in. You know the doctors told my mother I was not going to live past five years old. Then they told me I won’t have babies. I’m seventy-eight and I had two beautiful children and three amazing grandchildren. You say no hope. Pero, with Dio, nada es impossible! He has ropes, bridges, tunnels, and ladders for whatever hole we dug ourselves in. Inside all of us there is unbelievable power. We just have to believe. Your abue knows. Now take me to this bunker.” Before Alma could protest, Rosita grabs her hand and pulls her. Alma wipes the tears and follows her grandmother to the unknown that lies ahead.