Weekend Freewrite - 12/8/2018 - 3 Prompt Story (by @blueeyes8960)

free stock photo from pexel.com, edited by @blueeyes8960

The entire village was outside, waiting for the expected sign in the sky. It came every 6 months, without fail, but this time it was different.

For as far back as Jonah could remember, the ritual never changed. All the loaded containers were taken to the landing zone the day before. Then from the east the bullet shaped ships could be seen first as glowing dots that enlarged with each passing hour. At dusk they arrived overhead and set down on the three specially prepared landing pads.

This time it was hours past the expected arrival of the ships and still no sign of them. The villagers looked up at the sky and back at one another and muttered among themselves. Jonah’s mother was nervously wringing her hands and everywhere he looked he saw a sea of worried faces. The village’s leader, Buck, was standing stoically by himself near the landing spot, arms folded across his chest.

There was no history to guide them, no plan to follow. They all knew the routine. For five months they all labored in the greenhouses, growing the special plants that the Others required. And the 6th month was spent harvesting, drying, and packing the crop into the shiny metal containers provided. Then the Others would appear in their three ships and load up the harvest. In exchange, they left the villagers all the necessary supplies for the coming six months. Out here in the middle of desert, supplies were nonexistent. Perhaps generations ago their ancestors had been able to live off this inhospitable land but after decades of being enslaved and provided for by the Others, that capability had been forgotten. But it was something in their genes, inherited from generation to generation that allowed them to produce this plant. They had been brought to the realization that only they, with their special talent, and this specific habitat, had the ability to grow this rare plant. And along with that they also realized that the Others would care for them, but never let them leave.

"Look at that," she would tell each busload of tourists, pointing at the villagers in their native clothing and crude tools working in and around the greenhouses. But this time there was no one working. All the villagers, seen through the one way glass fencing surrounding the enclosure, were standing around and looking at the sky like a cluster of zombies.
“Why on earth are they just standing around? They are ruining my script! I’m supposed to be talking about how they are keeping up with the growing season and the big mystery as to why they were chosen and kept by the Others. What are the containers still doing there? Didn’t the Others come?” All these thoughts raced through Margaret’s mind as she looked at her group of puzzled looking tourists. Since the tour line was strictly forbidden to make any contact with the villagers, she certainly couldn’t ask any of them. In fact, the villagers had no idea that this area outside of their enclosure even existed, let alone contained a bus load of curious tourists ogling at them.

The world had moved on, now under the control of the Others, for several lifetimes now. Ever since the 30 Minute War of 2019 had wiped most of the humanity that had been bent on destroying itself and the Earth. The Others had landed in the aftermath and cleaned up the nuclear waste. They established a central control over Earth and set up several colonies in odd locations with very specific tasks, such as this one. Everywhere else, humans were basically left alone to live as they wished.

The central control of the Others was absolute in a few areas. There were no politics, no wars, no polluting the planet. Some technological knowledge was released in the areas of transportation, communication, and health. Other than that civilizations were free to develop as they chose. With the exception being those specific colonies that produced something for the Others. Those were left completely shut off from other humans, only to be visited by the ships every 6 months. There was much mystery surrounding these colonies. People were curious as to what these places could produce that the Others couldn’t produce for themselves.

Back inside the villagers’ colony, all the attention was on the sky. There was a red blossoming just becoming visible in the east. Not the three glowing dots that the villagers had been expecting though. It was a growing blob of color and the stain got bigger as they continued to watch. It spread further upward in the horizon and seemed to thicken and darken.
Now a blip of light shot out of the blob and streaked upward. Then another blip of light streaked behind it. The villagers waited for the 3rd blip of light, hoping that this indicated the ships were on at last on the way. The seconds ticked away, but no third blip appeared.

Suddenly, a huge black tentacle of light shot out of the blob and struck the first blip making its way upward. The blip exploded into a fireball as it stopped in mid flight, then began falling earthward. The remaining blip of light seemed to be taking evasive actions as it darted down and back to the west. It was to no avail however, another black tentacle slashed out and easily struck it out of the sky as well.

Margaret stared in disbelief at the unexpected explosions. She called out to her tourists to board the bus as quickly as possible and informed the driver to engage the thrusters and warp speed them back to civilization. The use of warp speed was deemed illegal except for emergencies, but as head tour director, she was calling this an emergency!

The villagers were stunned. Even they could see and understand that their supply ships were being destroyed. Jonah was still watching, and he spied a third blip of light slipping out of the blob low to the ground and heading toward them. He shouted to this companions, “Look, there at the bottom of the angry cloud, the last ship is escaping!” A cheer rose as the crowd urged the ship toward escape. It seemed that the last ship had gotten away and was heading their way. Closer and closer it got as the villagers crowded toward the landing pad to see their ship come in. Then, the stain seemed to engulf the entire sky. The blip of hope was struck as well, exploding right above their heads. Before the debris could even fall to earth around them, the stain had reached the colony and everything was covered in an evil cloud of rolling sludge. There was a brief moment of group intelligence where Jonah felt the minds of his father, mother, and fellow villagers, then existence winked out as the cloud rolled on.

This was a 3 prompt story for the weekend freewrite and each of the prompts is shown in bold italics in the story. Here's the original post by @mariannewest so please come and join us!
https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/weekend-freewrite-12-8-2018-part-1-the-first-sentence