Rude Awakening

Why does my head hurt? Jane thought to herself as she slowly regained consciousness. Wait... What is going... She felt like she was going to pass out when the warm blood stung her already blurred eyes. A wave of nausea washing over as she strained to focus her eyes and sit upright.

As her eyes adjusted to the light, a round disk came into view that was more a shadow than anything else. Behind it was a dim, hazy light shining on her, making the disk almost a blur in the blurriness.

Sound was starting to come back to her, filling the silence with sirens and wailing. What's happening? Jane again tried to sit up but was held down by something, maybe just gravity and she was very weak, she couldn't see well enough to tell. She knew how she felt, beaten and sore.

Jane arched her head quickly as an acrid smell filled her lungs. The smoke was not very thick, it seemed, but the smell was unbearable.  It shocked her fiercely and she writhed for a moment in agony and desperation, the rotten, sharp, sulfuric abomination molesting her senses. Then she stopped.

Her eyes were able to focus a little, good enough to see that she was in a car, the disc she saw was a steering wheel. Oh my god!

There was a sudden jolt and a loud divorce of metal as she was pushed into her seat. She felt several tugs and then she was moving. What? Jane looked around and could see her Toyota Sequoia interior. Her bag was on the seat back and papers were everywhere. She looked out the window and saw dirt and broken pipes spinning just outside her side window.

Jane tried to focus on the light that was beyond her front windshield. It appeared to be more than one light source. She tried pushing herself up again, but it was no use. The lights became more clear as she started to get some perspective on the situation.

Jane could now see the cable that was attached to her truck, she was being pulled up. Where am I? she thought. The lights were clear now, they were work lights, three rows of three bright lights. She also noted the flashing of red and blue lights far above her.

As the truck spun she glimpsed the area she was in and the memories of what happened flooded into her with a vengeance. She was in some kind of chasm, a huge gaping crack in the earth. It was vast, maybe a mile wide and several tens of miles long.

She remembered the bright flash of light and the obscenely loud bell. The electricity! Jane remembered the beautiful yet severe lightning that preceded the flash and the bell. The whole sky was electrified in red, yellow and purple crackling bolts.

Her truck crashed into the side of the chasm and she rocked with it back and forth until the tires found the earth and the vehicle started rolling. She was vertical again as the truck can to rest and the light faded out.

Several people came over to the truck and tried the doors. After only a few seconds a man, dressed in a dark blue uniform, leaned in and looked around asking "Where are you hurt?"

"My leg, I think it's broken"

"OK. We need to get you out of here, ummm... What's your name?"

"Jane" She tried to help the best she could. Her leg hurt much worse that her head did at the moment. The man was able to get her out of the truck and set her on the ground.

She saw the fire trucks and police cars as well as several ambulances. There were helicopters flying overhead and several voices on bullhorns or PA systems barking orders and trying to sound reassuring. She continued her scan of the area and saw the other side of the chasm. It must have stretched for miles and, for miles, all you could see were fires and smoke and emergency personnel.

"Oh crap," the officer said. "Here comes another attack! Everybody down!" He jumped on top of Jane to protect and shield her, but she could still see the gigantic, ominously black ship barreling down on them. It fired glowing red bolts of energy out of large, dark portals on it's sides. The sky erupted in red, yellow and purple lightning and there was an extremely loud sound of a bell. "Bong!" The sound shook the very earth and shortly after it felt as if all of the air was being sucked out, replacing what had been there with a forceful, deafening silence.

The dark ship was so massive that it appeared to be moving very slowly, banking up and to the left. It made no sound except the wailing and screaming of the debris in its wake.

The ground rumbled and, in the distance, emergency vehicles fell into the chasm created by the weapon. The chaos was deafening to Jane, she closed her eyes, attempting to wish it all away. The earth that held her safe, gave way. Officers and firemen scrambled to take cover, but their attempts were futile.

The officer picked himself up off of Jane a little and smiled reassuringly, "We aren't going to make Ma'am"."

Jane felt the silence taking her as the sky grew black again and the rest of the world drifted away.