It took us by surprise
Connor Braaten
It took us by surprise…
A few days ago, the city was like how it was every other day: filled with good, bad, and the oddly ordinary hum of a normal coastal Californian town. I remember it clearly: just a typical day after work, eating soup in my favorite café, when the old TV began reporting of an inanimate item in the ocean heading slowly for the coastline. Many patrons in the café speculated whether the large stone grey oddity was a UFO. A meteorite? Perhaps a moving island of trash? But after the first thirty minutes or so anxiety turned to curiosity.
As it drew closer to the shoreline, people felt a lesser sense of danger, but at one point the object stalled. It seemed the current pushing it had stopped. The water thickened to change to a dark, mucky stew. I wasn’t sure what I was looking at anymore, not that anyone did, and even the news choppers stayed their distance. One thing everybody noticed was the putrid odor that began to choke the surrounding era. In a city of three million, everyone began to feel the effect, and no one could escape it. Finally, the city made it’s decision: pull the object ashore.
I wanted to see the thing for myself. It didn’t take long, just about a half-hour walk, though around a short distance away I questioned whether participating in the hubbub was a mistake. By the time I got there, a plan had emerged. A large cargo ship was used to give the object the push onto land. Our mayor wanted to have the object studied, so police and firefighters cleared the entirety of the coastline for landfall.
It made touched the surface within the hour; however, something had changed. The object seemed smaller than before.
Scientists on the scene determined it was covered in ice and frozen dirt, mostly melting into the water as it travelled. What remained was bone-white, laced with blue vein-like markings. Though smaller it was, it remained was estimated by officials to be the size of a small building. The smell had dissipated, or I began to tolerate it, yet there was now an uncomfortable warmth in the air, even as the sun was beginning to set. I decided to head home thinking the next day would be like any other day, odd artifact or not.
I started my day as most average adults do with healthy dose of the morning news, watching a man had bought the object from the city for $20 million when it was deemed “city property” after landing in the public beach. The city itself didn’t have any know-how what to do with it or where to put the curiosity that had become a problem overnight. The original plan after dealing with it was set to take the object to a theme park or museum in the nearest city.
That $20 million soon felt like steel when the object opened.
Out came a creature.
It was something resembling a dinosaur. Grey scaled, standing on large legs, its forelimbs wiping sap-like goop from its amber eyes. It mostly stood still only for a large net to snap from underneath the creature. It looked in fear of what unsure of what would happen next, as were most of the spectators.
The mob began to demand the release of this creature but it fell on short ears. The newborn was lifted off toward the unknown, while the officials on standby and the helicopters prohibited anyone from following.
Years later, no one for sure knows what happened to the creature, it took us by surprise and changed us to be more curious and suspicious at the same time.