To the Left

Chapter 7

The storm has been brewing all night. When Eli and I get up, we wake to see darker clouds and a warning taped to our doors telling us to stay indoors. Work has been cancelled, so we have no choice but to stay indoors and watch as thunder starts to roar and unnaturally bright lightning strikes the city. I ask Eli if we should leave our town and find somewhere safer, but he says it would be too risky to go out in the open. Just as he says that, a large bolt of lightning strikes a nearby building and the lights snap out. "Eli? Eli!" I start to panic, remembering constant power outages in Left Land and the pain of being alone in the darkness. He grabs my hands. "I'm here. It's fine." I see his face illuminated by the bolts of lightning and exhale. "What do we do now?"

Our tensions rise as the day continues. The storm stays, and every time a bolt of lightning strikes near our building, I can't help but flinch. I wonder if my neighbors in Left Land are feeling the same. How big is this storm? The weird thing is, this whole storm seems so ... wrong. The clouds are a purple, the lightning is too bright and the thunder too loud. It's like someone was trying to create a thunderstorm even though they'd never seen one before. The news man said the storm could be a result of biological warfare, and these strange characteristics may prove that. Overhead, the sky cracks open for another bolt of lightning, but suddenly my world is thrown into a blaze of white. I open my eyes and I'm on the floor. Eli's hands are on my shoulders, and he's whispering something. I dazedly tilt my head up at him and I realize he's shouting. 'E-Eli?" He nods his head, relieved. "Yeah, Ruby. I think lightning hit the building. Are you okay?" I nod, although I'm not sure I am, and realize my side is vibrating. Confused, I pat my hip and realize my phone is vibrating. My boss is calling me. Slowly, I put my phone to my ear and answer.

"Hello?"

"Ruby. Thank God you're there. You need to come to work immediately. Something's come up."

"Yeah, I think I found that out for myself. What happened? Is it okay to leave the building?"

"To be honest, with the lightning hitting the buildings, it's not that much safer to stay in your home. Anyways, we have important data regarding the presence of the storms. You're an expert with your tech, we need you here."

He hangs up. I look at Eli. "I have to go. They need my help." Somehow, he knows what I mean. "Ruby, it's not safe! I can't let you go!" I shake my head. "If they need my help with the storms, I have to give it. This is important, Eli." He sighs. "If you have to go, I'm going too. You aren't leaving me here alone." I agree, secretly glad he's coming. I really didn't want to face the storms alone. 

We set out together, with a few necessary supplies in backpacks on our backs. We run, but I'm still terrified to get hit by lightning. I see buildings on fire from the storms, and the constant roar of the thunder echoes around the city. What has happened here? Luckily, we make it to my office building in one piece. When we get in, I see my boss pacing near the entryway. When he sees me, he quickly goes to me. "Thank goodness." He turns to Eli. "Who's this?" I tell him Eli's my friend and roommate, and my boss looks at him critically before beckoning for us to follow him. "We thought it was just a regular storm, albeit a little crazy, but then we picked up these weird signals. They're baffling our other technicians, but I thought you might know what to do with them." He points me to a large monitor with a series of numbers continually scrolling through it. A few other technicians stand around it, but they don't seem to be making any progress towards "Where did you pick this up?" My boss shrugs. "I'm not entirely sure. We were trying to pick up signals from satellites to see if they could provide any information for the meteorologists, but instead we got this." I step closer to the readouts. 

"They seem entirely unlike any code given out by our computers, which is why it's strange. The thing is," I say, checking the location and trying to see if there are any coordinates in the listings, "This looks like it's coming from space, given the general areas our routers are picking this up from." I squint confusedly at the numbers. "It isn't recognizable because it isn't coming from any of the satellites. It's like something's blocking anything from our systems in the satellites, but any code is still..." I step back, realizing what this means. Eli finishes my sentence. "It's still coming from space."

We look at each other, then slowly walk to the window and look outside. A strange shadow has fallen across the city. 

"We aren't the only ones out there."