A Trip into the Woods

It flashed through the sky and then was gone. Lucy was sure she had seen a UFO and was equally sure aliens were here to secretly make contact with a human being. Maybe they would chose her, Maybe she would get to visit their ship. Maybe, just maybe she'd even get to visit another world, she thought as she drove towards the edge of the woods. Would she be able to breathe? Would she be able to understand their language? What did they eat? She had so many questions and could barely hide her excitement as her car screeched to a stop on the dirt shoulder of the road that stretched out for miles along this woods. She grabbed her flashlight and her backpack and jumped out of the car.

She knew she saw the light vanish over the woods. They had to have landed in there, but where? She checked her phone for the time. 9:26 it read. She tucked it back into her back pocket and flicked on her flashlight.

The woods were dark and damp. Lucy loved the woods especially after a good rain storm, like the one that had just passed the other day. The light of her flashlight only showed a few feet in front of her, but she wasn't afraid. She'd been in these woods a hundred times.

She walked for what seemed to her forever. Searching to no avail. Lucy checked her phone again. It was now 11:39 PM, she noted that she must've reached close to the center of the woods where the trees were too thick to even get a basic signal. She tucked the now overpriced pocket watch back into her pocket and took a quick drink of water from the bottle she had in her backpack, and kept going. She was determined to find the ship. It had to be here she thought.

After going a bit deeper into the woods, Lucy stopped abruptly. “What was that?” she asked to the darkness. She listened. There it was. A growling followed by a high pitched screech. The sound came again, this time sounding closer. Lucy clicked off her light and pressed herself to a tree. She could hear the wrestling of leaves on the damp ground. She froze, feeling frightened for the first time. The creature which she took for a wolf or some other forest dweller was getting closer. She held her breath and closed her eyes tight. The low rumble of the growl coming from close behind the tree. There was a loud snap of a branch a few yards away, no doubt an unlucky rabbit or fox. The creature on the other side of the tree rushed off towards the poor unlucky thing that would no doubt take her place as supper tonight.

Lucy did not miss her chance and took off sprinting in the opposite direction of where the creature had rushed off in. She ran until she was completely out of breath and a stitch in her side caused her to stop and catch her breath. She sat on a gnarled root of a big tree and pulled her bottle of water out and took a long drink. Panting when she pulled the bottle away from her lips. Her own voice chastising herself for being such a baby. She laughed to herself, flicking her light back on and going back to her search for something out of this world.

It wasn't long now before she reached an odd clearing in the woods. Her flashlight reflecting off a metallic surface as she stopped just at the edge of the clearing. She'd found it! An alien spaceship was right there in front of her. She couldn't believe her eyes. She tucked the flashlight into her backpack, and slowly moved towards the ship. She knew she probably should have been scared but this was just too damn exciting. Aliens for real, right here in the woods she'd lived by her whole life.

She approached the ship, stretching her hand out to the feel the warm exterior of the spaceship. How is it so warm she wondered. It was cold fall night and had to have been sitting here for hours. The metal was smooth against the palms of her hands. She slid them around the exterior looking for a way to get inside. She hadn't noticed how eerily silent the night had gotten until her hand slid across a spot that lit up at her touch. The light under her hand was a yellowish color. there was a loud hiss and steam enveloped her as a door opened.

Lucy stepped over the threshold. The interior of the ship was dark, illuminated by a sickly green-yellow light that didn't seem to be emanating from any particular source. The walls looked to be made out of some type of organic matter rather than metal like the outside. She touched one of the walls. It felt wet. She pulled her hand back and looked at it; it was red. She sniffed the substance on her hand, it smelt metallic... was it blood? It smelled and felt like blood. Lucy felt a pang of terror but tried to convince herself that it wasn't anything to worry about and that this was too important of a discovery to let it scare her away.

She wiped her hand on her jeans and pressed on. Further into the ship, she came across a ramp that led upwards, she ascended it slowly. The only sound she could hear was the sound of her footsteps on the wet ground, and her own breathing, which caught in her throat as she came into this new room. It looked like a torture chamber. There were sharp looking tools, mechanisms, and machines made from the same organic matter as the walls and floors. Lucy had no idea what terrible things they did or were used for.

This wasn't what she had hoped for. Not in the slightest. Terror washed over her and she turned to flee. For as much as she wanted to make contact at the beginning of the night, she wanted to get out of here. She hadn't been seen. If she hurried she could make it out and back to the safety of her car. As she started to descend the ramp she heard it. The hiss of steam as the door opened again, and then that high pitched screech and low growling again. She knew deep down that it wasn't a wolf she had heard in the woods. She turned and ran the little way back up the ramp and into that terrifying room.

Frantically Lucy looked for a place to hide. She could hear the alien making their way up the ramp. She hid behind in a crevice in the wall. She could feel the wetness of the wall she pressed herself against soaking into her clothes. She heard the snarling of the creature before she saw it. When she did she wished she could melt into the wall and disappear. The thing was huge, at least seven feet tall, with tentacles instead of legs and arms, a blob-ish center and bulbous head. Its eyes black and seemingly lidless. Slits for nostrils, but its mouth was the most terrifying. Rows of razor sharp teeth that were stained with blood, and had bits of fur and flesh in them. It sniffed the air, the slits of nostrils opening and closing as it did so.

Lucy flattened herself against the wall, in her tiny crevice, as best she could. Snapping her eyes closed and holding her breath. She wished she would have just kept driving and never stopped to search for the ship. She felt something slither around her feet and pulled them out from under her. She yelped as she fell with a wet smack on the floor. Her eyes opened just as she was being hoisted by a tentacle into the air. She screamed and flailed her arms around as she dangled over the creatures salivating maw. It widened like a snake unhinging its jaw. She could only see the teeth and black abyss within the monster as she screamed more. Her screams died as she was dropped into its mouth.