The Sky Has Fallen

| Chapter 18

When Vera and I returned to the trainways filled with people, we noted the silence. So many looked at one computer, hovering over each other, pushing into the person beside them. David turned around when he saw us, biting his lip.

"What's up?" I asked. "What's going on?"

"The ship's really falling," he said.

I glanced at the screen behind him. "I thought we knew that."

"Yeah, but not at this speed." David pulled me around the group and pointed at the monitors. "See that? It's too close to the buildings near the lake. Another hour or so and it'll take the tops off them."

Slowly, I nodded. "All right." I glanced back at Vera. "Is there a way you can call the ship or something? Like a phone?"

Vera shook her head. "No," she said. "We don't have phones. Not like you guys do."

David growled. I could tell he didn't like the sound of no communication or lack thereof. I just knew there had to be something.

Biting my lip, I looked back at Vera. "How do you contact your people when you're down here?"

"We don't." Vera came beside us, watching the screen, too. Even though the scene was grainy, captured by modern cameras but displayed on outdated systems, you could just see the terrors that would land. What made it worse was that no one was paying attention.

Having aliens so close was too normal.

Vera twiddled her fingers in front of her, nervously. "Unless you have business down on Earth, you don't leave the ship. And if you do, you have an escort, someone official."

"Oh." I nodded, understanding. "Like that guy who came with your dad?"

Vera nodded. "Yeah, Brylon. He's kind of our personal guard."

"Can we call him?" David looked back at her. "A way to reach him?"

Vera bit her lip. "He's probably looking for me now, anyway. Or my father; I couldn't find him either. I'm worried."

I was worried, too. Despite the tight feeling I had in my gut, I knew now wasn't the time to cling to my anxieties. I had to push forward. Like had Vera said—stop the bad, bring the good.

"Well, what if we get on the ship?" I turned, facing both David and Vera. "It's crashing, right? Is there a way to stop it from falling? Something we can press?"

"There's probably something in the control room." Vera looked down at her feet and rubbed her chin. "But I don't know how."

"Okay, fine." I turned to David. "What about everyone outside? No news outlets have picked this up. Nothing?"

"Nah." David ran his hands through his hair as he looked back at his team for confirmation. "It's been quiet."

"Hm." I sucked my bottom lip up between my teeth and exhaled sharply through my nose. "There has to be something..."

Vera looked at the both of us before pushing through the group to stand the closest to the monitor's screen. "Chaos?"

She said it so nonchalantly, all heads turned towards her.

Vera shrugged, glancing at every set of eyes peering in her direction. "You need a reaction, right? No one's paying attention. And it's too quiet, so Holmes is just sneaking around like he doesn't have a care in the world. But if everyone was out, if everyone was making noise, then he'd be stuck, right?"

Vera had a point. As negative as chaos and panic could be, sometimes it was the only way to get the desired reaction. There had been studies that proved it, right? To find our bad guy, we needed to rush out on the streets.