The Ultimates (Watty Awards 2011)

Chapter 15

(A.N.: I'm gonna try to update more regularly. I've gotta meet that deadline you know. And if I don't...then I'm outright screwed.)

I pushed open the door and we all stepped inside. Every head in the room shifted towards us and their eyes stared at us. Their facial expressions immediately changed from what it was before. Smiles flashed across each one of their faces. I remember the last time that happened. That time was a day ago.

Shrieks of joy and happiness filled the room. They rushed to greet us, especially Andrew for coming back safely after recovering from an injury. My expression didn’t really change much; none of all the hugs and kisses in the world could snap me out of the shock of what had recently happened just before my very eyes.

Finally, one of the Ultimates, a small, good-looking brunette girl named Maria asked me with a worried but at the same time excited voice:

“Something wrong Harris? What’s wrong? Did something happen on the trip Harris?”

“Seth’s dead.”

And man did that spread like wildfire. I could hear an immediate rumbling of whispers which replaced the excited shrieks of joy and flooded the room. People calmly but quickly shuffled across the room in all directions upon hearing the news. Someone asked me:

“How did he die?”

“A plane fell on him.”

Others said:

“Isn’t it good that he’s dead though? I mean…he was a traitor.”

To which I would respond:

“Yes, he was a traitor. But despite that he was my friend. And he also had valuable information. We were planning on taking him in for questioning. Maybe that could help us in whichever war we’re fighting.”

Andrew, Ashley, Torov and Chuck were all trying to explain what was going on.  But I knew it wouldn’t be properly explained. Something like that just could not be properly explained. Traitor or not, we had lost a former Ultimate, a former family member.

Suddenly, Maria rushed into the room panting and holding her chest.

“Come into the room and look at the T.V.” she said, “there’s something really weird going on.”

We all diverted our attention and tried to rush into the room. Yet, we ended up squeezing ourselves individually through the crowd to get into the conference room, where a humongous television stood, overseeing our activities for the day.

It was on, of course, and it was on CNN. The anchor man (I could care less what his name was) was speaking frantically, his eyes widened and phrases with stutters squeezed in between:

“Okay, w…well now we’ll um…replay t…the um…shocking, strange video that intercepted our airwaves a few hours e…earlier today.”

They cut to a clip where the camera started to shake and then finally centre on three men in black suits sitting back on seemingly comfortable recliners, each one of them giving off sinister smiles. One of them picked up a bottle with a green liquid and began to drink from it. The one in the middle spoke in relaxed voice:

“Hello humans. My name is Suwor Irugh. My acquaintances here and I are all of a race we call the Jhunges. Do not be fooled, although we look like you do, we are not who you are. We are a much more intelligent species, based on the data we have been able to receive.”

Suwor took another sip of his liquid and began to speak again:

“We are a very proud race and we enjoy conquering. In a very short time, you will be invaded and I assure you it will not be an exciting experience. What we really need are your resources. However, to give you a fair chance, we have decided to intercept your airwaves to tell you what will happen. Prepare yourselves well.”

In a split second he dropped his wine glass and grabbed a rectangular looking object on the ground. The other two people had just recognised this act at got up from their chairs. Suwor’s speed was almost impossible to trace because in less than a second those two people were dead; Suwor had used some beam that came out of it to kill them.  Assumed it was some kind of demonstration of their abilities. When he was finished he turned two the camera and said:

“You will need to be.”

Then, he pointed the rectangular object at the camera and used the object, completely destroying the camera. I looked around, trying to process what I had just seen and I saw everyone’s awed faces looking up at the gigantic screen, trying to figure out what the heck just happened. I dropped to my knees, figuring out what happened.

“Shit!” I shouted very loudly. I grabbed my hair, pulled it and scraped through it because of my stress.

“The world’s screwed!” I shouted loudly again. Hopelessness washed over my body and chilled me. I could not believe that they were going to attack so soon. I had seen it personally; their technology was so much more advanced than ours. How could we possibly defend against them? Plus, we had a huge invasion of the United States by the Revolutionaries that we had to deal with as well.

I started praying for the world. I knew we couldn’t win against all of this but I was hoping for a miracle. Everyone around me fell to their knees as well. Some of them screamed with hopelessness, some of the prayed, some of them just outright panicked but we all hoped for some kind of miracle to happen. The future for the world was looking extremely bleak and we were responsible for fixing it.