The Sky Has Fallen

| Chapter 01

July 25th, 2085 - 9:08 A.M.

Excited conversations carried in the wind. Music, orchestrated by the Pylons themselves, echoed after every word. Every laugh. While I was eager to see the aliens and their whimsical pride, the sights of Chicago were not my favorite.

It was too loud. Too busy. With the sun so high in the sky, I felt sick. And if it weren't for the crowd, I would've puked. Everywhere.

"No lie..." I muttered the end of my thought out loud. A habit I could never break.

"Country boy out here daydreaming." David, my cousin, wrapped an arm around my shoulder and gave me a good shake. While I groaned, he laughed. "You still do that mumblin' shit?"

I rolled my eyes before I looked up at the sky. After hours under the morning sun, I had lost track of time. And my patience. The World Fair may have been the hot ticket on the internet, but if it weren't for the Pylons hosting it, I wouldn't have been outside with David. Or in the city, for that matter.

But I needed to see the Pylons. Everyone did. After hundreds of years on Earth, the last of the alien species decided to give humans one more show. For many of us, it may have been entertainment. For Pylons, it could've been a final shot at redemption.

Pylons did not leave Earth because they wanted to. They had to.

"What?" Rubbing my cheek, I looked at David before glancing at the line that went on forever.

There was a girl behind me, young and smiling. In her arms was a Pylon plushie, fully designed to look like the aliens we all had come to see. The "I love Chicago" shirt she wore told me she was not from here. I smiled.

Neither am I.

"You're not paying attention." David pulled me close to him. His sports tank-top did nothing to protect his arms from the sun and sweat. Again, it was hot. I bit the insides of my cheeks to keep from complaining.

"What am I looking at?" I cleared my throat as I pushed my hands into the pockets of my jeans. "We're in line."

"Uh, yeah." David smirked.

Looking at my cousin, covered in tattoos, I reminded myself he was accustomed to city life. He lived for the loud, the bright, and the crazy. None of this bothered him as it did me. If I were to be honest, the real reason I'd agreed to come to the fair was my mother.

She had this deep intrigue over the aliens. Never explained it to me, but it was there. It was why we traveled up to the city with my dad when I was a kid; curiosity ran through her veins. But when my dad went missing, so did her love for the species that spent years helping humans survive.

I wasn't sure how sending me to the fair would feed her long-lost obsession, but I happily obliged. In a way, I wanted to experience the fair, learn about the aliens. If I could see a Pylon and hear their history, I could appreciate the love and affection my parents had for the species. Connect with them, just as my parents did.

And while I'm here, I can buy my mom a key chain, too.

"You ain't even notice how close we are!" David gave my back a quick smack, smack. A ball of air left me as he grabbed my chin, forcing me to look ahead. "We're like twenty people away from gettin' in."

Twenty people.

I followed the tip of David's finger. He was right. While the crowds to the right were filled with people trying to get last-minute tickets, in front of us was the prized entrance. If it weren't for my uncle Hector and his city job, we wouldn't have had the chance.