Hesitant Alien

Chapter One

Sirens wailing, lights flashing. Screams could be heard all around as the owners gripped onto whatever they could for dear life.
Crash!
The loud noise echoed through the forest, the trees shaking with the force of the impact, and thick, grey tendrils of smoke began to rise into the night air, covering the stars in the clear night's sky.

Meanwhile, in the laboratory, a series of fast typing sounds could be heard. A quiet, continuous beep began to ring, causing the typer's head to shoot up and look to his right at the window. He instantly saw the smoke. Standing up, he called for his assistant, pulling on his coat and grabbing his keys.

"Jamia! We have to get to the scene, and fast."

Hurtling down the highway towards the forest at an alarming speed, Jamia and Frank, the typer, made their way to the unknown wreckage. People were already beginning to gather. They had to hurry.

By the time they reached the forest, flurries of news reporters were making their way to the scene. Frank shook his head, grumbled under his breath. Those news reporters, always messing everything up..

The news reporters didn't go too close to the scene, however. Too protective of their lives to risk going into a perpetually dangerous scene such as this. That's what confused Frank. Why did the fear of the loss of their lives hold them back from prying? From finding? From adventuring through what life gave to offer? He shook his head. Now was not the time for such pointless thoughts, not when more important matters lay to hand.

Jamia and Frank arrived at the gate that was the opening of the forest. The car was parked, and they climbed out, putting on their backpacks which contained all the equipment they needed. Sounds of chatter and exclamation from the crowds could still be heard from where Frank was, as they pushed open the tall, rusty metal gate and entered the wooded area. Now you could hear the noises of all the wildlife which inhabited the forest. Their curious cries, their scared screeches.

With torchlights in hand, Jamia and Frank began to make their way deeper into the dark unknowns of the forest. Spider webs didn't phase them anymore, so when they accidentally walked into a few they just wiped the silken tangle from their faces and continued on. They'd seen worse.

The smell of smoke filled their nostrils, signalling that they were getting closer, until suddenly they broke through the underbrush into a small clearing. Well, it wasn't clear anymore. To the right of the center they saw a large wreckage, and surrounding it were scraps of metal and other materials which had broken off from the impact.

Cautiously, the two scientists walked closer to inspect the wreckage, and what it may be hiding. Jamia walked off to the left side, and Frank to the right, until Jamia let out an exclamation. "Frank! Come here, and quickly!". Frank rushed over to the left side of the wreckage, to where Jamia stood, a look of utter amazement covering his face at the sight before him.

There, on the ground before his and Jamia's feet was an unknown being. It was larger than Frank and Jamia by approximately 3 foot, its skin was a pastel pink colour and its brown hair was matted with a greenish substance. Blood, Frank guessed. Well, not normal blood. The being didn't seem to be breathing in anyway, and they could guess that it was probably dead. After a quick discussion, Frank left Jamia to wrap up the being in some tarpaulin whilst he continued to survey the wreckage. Who knows, he thought, there might be something else inside.

Using caution and care, Frank stepped inside the ship. Although the structure had been rather destroyed by the fall, it was in a state where you were still able to move inside it, albeit extremely carefully. Frank looked around at his surroundings as he moved. The ship was decorated in a rather neon, cybernetic way, with occasional signs with phrases written in a language he could not understand nor decipher. This was all unknown to him, and he felt paranoid, so he made sure to keep hold of the gun in his back pocket. It wasn't a normal gun, just a tranquilliser one, and he hoped the beings weren't immune.

He eventually made it into what looked like a control centre, containing boards covered in thousands of individual buttons, each doing their own important job, with two tall backed swivel chaired connected to the ground by the middle board. One of the chairs was facing Frank, the back split in half, and the seat empty. That must've been where the other being had been sat, Frank deduced. The other chair, however, looked more or less intact, and it was facing the dashboard, away from Frank. Pulling the gun from his back pocket, Frank slowly started to step towards the chair, his footsteps silent to the ear. The human ear, at least. The sensing abilities of these beings was unknown, as was everything about them.

When he got to the chair he quickly spun it around and held his gun out, finger on trigger, ready to shoot. The occupant's body collapsed onto the ground before Frank's feet, unconscious, but alive, which you could tell my the sound of it's breaths.

After wrapping the being's body in tarpaulin, lightly so it would still be able to breathe, he evacuated the wreck to find Jamia, to see how she was doing and to get her to help with carrying the heavy body out of the metal coffin the spaceship now was. Pale smoke rose into the air as it fell from Jamia's lips and she tapped the ash off of the end of the cigarette. Frank sat beside her, taking the cig as she passed it over to him and taking a deep drag, speaking as the smoke fell from his chapped lips, "I'm gonna need you to help me. There's another one in there, and I need you to help me carry it out."

"Sure thing, let's just finish this first, yeah?" She took the fag from Frank's fingers and took it in. They both had the final few drags of the cigarette before dropping it to the ground and crushing the light out, getting up and heading into the wreck again.

When they reached where the being lay on the floor, they saw it was still asleep, and internally thanked the lord as it meant less struggle. Jamia holding it's arms and Frank it's legs, they carried the thing out of the crushed metal carefully. After they got both the things into the back of their car, they drove off, leaving the smouldering scene, with the smoke which was beginning to fade away. As they drove down the crunchy road, they passed the crowds. People still remained, but not as many as before. Only a quarter of a fraction, Frank thought. They passed all of them, including the few remaining news reporters, and started their way back home, Black Flag blaring through the car speakers.

They reached the laboratory again, and Jamia shut the car off, climbing out with Frank to begin the process of getting the being's into the lab. It was long and tiring. Eventually, though, they had gotten both into the lab and placed them on surgery tables, strapping them both down. Even the dead one, just to make sure. They then left the room and began to discuss what they should do, what tests they should do.