Written by: jinnis 

KANDERSTEG, SWITZERLAND

August 5, 7:39 AM

A tentative sunbeam kissed the meadows, promising a glorious day. As the train rolled to a stop, I shouldered my backpack, careful to protect my wrist. Still unsure I was prepared for the reunion, I stepped onto the platform. A trip down memory lane might help me forget that thing in the sky and chase off my morose mood—or it might become a disaster.

"May?" a voice called out, and I turned to see Dan's familiar face. "I should have looked for you on the train."

He hadn't changed. Less hair, a few kilos more around the waist, but his gentle smile was still ready to melt a woman's heart. Not as terrific as Jacques' smile, but it was good to see him.

"Hey, it's been forever. How's the family?"

The shadow of a cloud drifted across his features, but it blew away when a cheerful soprano voice saved him from an answer.

"Maya, Daniel, so glad to see you." Lily kissed him on the cheeks—three times, following the Swiss custom. I'd been abroad for so long it surprised me. Then she wrapped me in an enthusiastic embrace—my arm caught between our bodies.

"Ouch."

"What happened?" Her finger brushed over my cast. "Should you even go hiking like this?"

"Don't worry, my legs are fine."

She shook her head in mock desperation. "I'd never doubt your expertise, Miss Daredevil. Where are Thomas and Stefanie?"

"Knowing Tom, he took the car and picked her up."

As if on cue, a sleek black convertible turned into the parking lot and our friends climbed out. Tom bent to wrangle their packs from the tiny backseat, offering me a chance to admire his fashionable outdoor gear. Were these pants tailored to outline his crisp bottom? His trademark tan and stylish haircut fit the neat appearance of a successful lawyer.

Steff seemed pale in comparison. She had cropped her once-long blonde mane and dyed it crimson. The colour clashed with her green anorak but suited her, and her smile was warm as ever.

Lily checked her watch amidst the greetings. "Sorry to rush, but our bus is about to leave."

We piled into the yellow coach, and the doors closed behind me, their characteristic hiss signalling there was no way back. I was in for the ride. From my seat in the row behind the others, I contemplated my friends. Steff, Lily and I had kept in touch and texted each other on birthdays and New Year's Eve, but the men had dropped out of my life when I'd made the world my home.

Dan whispered something into Steff's ear, making her chuckle. Inseparable since school days, it had come as a shock to us all when he walked out of the relationship a decade ago to marry meek Ruth. Steff had taken the separation to heart, and it split our group, but today, she seemed happy to chat with her old flame.

Lily and Tom were another case. Despite his persistent courting, she'd never returned his feelings. To judge by his smouldering glances, nothing had changed. I sighed. Why had I agreed to reunite with the gang? Out of a nostalgic wish for normality?

I zoned out, watching the landscape while the driver mastered the winding road with enviable ease. When Lily contacted me last month, she convinced me a weekend with the old gang would be fun. Hiking in the mountains instead of worrying about corral bleach—or my relationship with Jacques.

But then the blasted aliens appeared and turned the world upside down. My thoughts drifted back to my horrible flight. What if another ship appeared and blew us from the road?

***

Half an hour later, the bus stopped at the beginning of the path to the Lötschenpass cabin, with no sudden alien appearances.

As expected, Lily took the lead. "Isn't it wonderful to unite for another mountain adventure after all those years?"

The woman was in denial if she wasn't ignoring our obvious lack of enthusiasm. I plastered a smile on my face. "Right, we're here now, so do we talk or attack the mountain?"

Steff shook her head. "Snarky as ever. What was your mountaineer motto?"

"'God created mountains for us to climb?'"

Tom snorted, but adjusted the straps of his pack. "As if god were real. Off we go."

I followed him, fighting the temptation to call off the hike. What would I do instead? Mope about my inaptitude to handle my relationship or the impending end of the world?

The path zigzagging upward on the southern slope offered a glorious view along the valley. I saved my breath while the others exchanged old memories. Even without seeing the spaceship, I sensed its oppressive presence.

Around noon, Dan stopped at the summit of the moraine wall and pointed at the glacier's tongue. "Wow. Last time I was here, the ice still filled this valley."

"Must have been before global warming became real." Steff dropped her pack. "Let's have lunch. I'm starving."

I wasn't, but my arm troubled me more than I'd expected. Glad for the break, I shrugged off my backpack and sat down on a boulder. Dan joined Steff on a rock across from me and pointed at my cast.

"How did this happen?"

"It's a long story." And it involved a topic everyone had been dancing around so far.

"Aren't we here to swap stories?" Tom unscrewed his lightweight drinking bottle. "Lily mentioned you were in the Caribbean when we talked a few weeks ago."

"I was, but when the tourists leave and the hurricanes arrive, I always look forward to coming home. On the flight from Pointe-à-Pitre to Paris, I woke up to the plane shaking as if about to disintegrate."

"Ugh. That's why I hate flying." Steff shuddered. Dan placed a supportive arm around her shoulders, but she shrugged it off. The renewed affection seemed one-sided.

"Crossing the Atlantic by boat is worse." I had tried, and it hadn't been my best experience.

Steff chewed on her sandwich. "And what about your wrist?"

"Right. First, it was as if the plane were hurled upward, and I braced against the seat in front. When the movement stopped, all went silent for a moment. I think we were in free fall until gravity hit—or in my case, a suitcase tumbling from a locker across the aisle."

The captain's stoic announcement had been the last thing to cut through the haze of pain clouding my mind. We are crossing a zone of turbulence. Please remain seated and keep your seatbelt fastened. Smart-ass.

"Sue the company." Tom's dry remark brought back the story of his dad suing the school for poor grades.

I shook my head. "Gee, when I found out what else went down on July 27th, I felt blessed I was alive. Other planes just dropped from the sky. I don't even want to think about the ones who had to land on the surface of that thing."

Dan's eyes widened. "You were airborne when the ship arrived?"

I lifted my cast. "Believe me."

"I bet this was just another turbulence." A crease had formed between Tom's squinted eyes.

"No, it was exactly the right time, three fourteen EST, or four fourteen Caribbean. We only survived because we were more than halfway across the Atlantic when it appeared over the American coast."

Tom crossed his arms, the frown deepening. "Little green men don't exist. The whole thing is a hoax from the US government—or Elon Musk."

Steff and Dan exchanged a knowing glance. Tom could be stubborn once his opinion was made. Like in the old days, Lily attempted to straighten things.

"Come on, Tom. No one said the aliens were green. But you can't ignore the pictures from the ISS. That ship is too big to be a hoax, and while an alien visit may be improbable, it's not impossible."

Dan swallowed the last bite of his sandwich and cut in before Tom could. "I wish they'd go home. We barely recovered from the pandemic and don't need aliens to complicate things. There's war in Ukraine, and the world is drowning in a recession. Not to mention climate change and another handful of minor issues."

"Perhaps the aliens mean to help?" Lily offered. I envied her starry-eyed positivity.

"Then it would be nice if they started helping instead of frightening us out of our socks with their countdown-numbers in the sky. What do they even count down to? Humanity's extinction? The salvation of our souls? Birthday of their captain?" Steff stuffed her half-eaten lunch back into her backpack. "Shall we move? This discussion is depressing. I came here to forget about all this for a day."

***

The wooden cabin basked in the afternoon sun when we spotted our destination. I quickened my steps, longing to set down my pack and get a decent drink. Lily caught up with me and touched my arm.

"Maya, something's wrong."

I stumbled over a rock while I studied the place. Then the penny dropped—the door and windows were shuttered. On a Saturday evening, it should be teeming with a dozen or more tourists.

"Don't tell me they are closed. Didn't you book us in?"

"I did, and they confirmed my reservation two weeks ago."

"Two weeks? That was before the ship arrived."

Her eyes widened. "Why would they abandon the place?"

"Because of aliens in the sky?"

The low occupation of the train and bus on the way here had been a hint not everyone went on with their lives as usual. America might be far away, but the arrival had thrown a metaphorical shadow over the world. We hurried on in silence, leaving the others behind.

Lily had been right. The heavy wooden door was closed, but when I pressed the handle, it opened. We grinned at each other in relief, waiting for the others.

"What's wrong? Why don't you go in?" Steff dumped her backpack and wriggled her shoulders. "I could do with a drink."

"Might be a problem, but let's check."

The entry hall was pitch dark, and I pushed the door wide. The empty shoe and luggage racks left no doubt the cabin was abandoned. I opened the door to the common room and flipped the light switch—in vain.

"Power is down." Somehow, I had expected this.

Dan dug in his pack and handed me a flashlight.

"Thanks." I switched it on and shone it over the empty room. The chairs sat upturned on the tables. "They didn't leave in a hurry."

"Why leave at all?" Steff checked a door to the left. It led into a tidy kitchen. "Everything is clean and ready for visitors."

"Perhaps the warden will be back later." Lily opened one closet after the other. "There is enough food to cook dinner on our own."

After a brief discussion of our options, Dan and I volunteered to find the diesel engine while the others whipped up dinner. The ancient monster squatted in a shed behind the cabin. My experience with boat engines and dive compressors helped to coax the old-timer to life.

Dan clapped my shoulder. "Well done. I doubt I'd have succeeded."

"Thanks. The perks of living at the end of the world." Jacques called me his 'guardian mechanic,' saving him from relying on external help. The thought of him made me smile. "Let's see what the others chased up. I'm hungry."

Outside, the evening sun turned the landscape into a magical scenery of coloured rock, snow, and azure sky. I stopped to take it in. "Beautiful, isn't it?"

"Yes. All the unpleasant stuff seems unreal up here."

The shadow was back, and I had a feeling it wasn't the aliens troubling his mind. "Something wrong between Ruth and you?"

"It's complicated."

Relationships always were—mine included.

I stifled a sigh. "I've time."

He took a deep breath. "We drifted apart over the last few years. Nothing grave, just different interests. But for the girls, we kept things together. Until she met a guy and had a fling. I think I knew from the beginning. To cut it short, he asked her to divorce me and marry him. She refused."

Well, that was a twist. "Good for you, I'd say."

"I'm not sure. She insists she loves me more, but somehow, I can't forget about it. I told her I'd need a weekend off to think things through. And here I am, none the wiser."

"Is that why you tried to rekindle the romance with Steff?"

"Did I?" His eyes widened, and I felt a twang of sympathy.

"C'mon, Dan, I'm not blind. If you didn't realise, she's uninterested."

"She told me she broke up with her macho boyfriend years ago, and how happy she is to be single." He ran a hand over his eyes. "What a mess, and the end of the world lurking doesn't help."

I bit back a bitter laugh. "Right, but some aliens lurking might help us make up our minds. Do you still love Ruth?"

A small smile tugged at his lips. "I do—not the way I did when I first met her, but I love her for everything she is and went through. Did you know she had breast cancer five years ago? How she handled it, and with the kids, was amazing. I admire her strength, and..."

He trailed off and checked the time on his phone. "It's only six thirty. Daylight will last two and a half hours, enough to get back." He strode towards the cabin.

"Dan, don't. You will be past the glacier, but the descent in the darkness is lethal."

"Don't worry, I have a flashlight. Thanks for prompting me in the right direction, May. If we survive, you must drop by and meet the girls."

Minutes later, he had shouldered his pack and was gone.

***

When I returned to the kitchen, golden light filled the room through an open window. Lily looked up from a steaming pot.

"Thanks for fixing the power. Where's Dan?"

"Gone. He wants to spend the remaining time with his family."

Steff took four plates from a cupboard and placed them on the wooden kitchen table. "It's for the best. His girls deserve to have their father around in such troubled times."

"Perhaps they're better off without him." Tom leaned against a counter, his face dark and a frown chiselled into his brow. "Can't you see this is just one big lie? Why does everyone accept what they're doing to us?"

He pushed himself forward and stomped out, slamming the door behind him.

"What was that about?" I knew Tom had a temper, but couldn't imagine why he was so upset.

Lily shrugged and emptied a package of pasta into the boiling water. "He worked himself into a state over the money he lost on the stock market."

"Oh, did he?"

As a dive instructor, I didn't earn that kind of money and hadn't followed the financial side effects of the ship's arrival. But the news talked about millions evacuated in the US and Canada, about riots, broken delivery chains, and random weather patterns. No wonder the stock market was affected.

"He'll calm down." Steff continued setting the table. "It's just that he likes to be in charge, which is difficult when a gigantic ship takes the world hostage."

I collected the tins Lily had opened to improvise a tomato sauce and washed them. We might be doomed, but I had no intention of leaving the place in disorder. What if Lily was right, and the aliens were here to teach humans how to behave? An intriguing idea.

Lily poured the pasta into a sieve. "Wish we had salad, or just something not from a tin. But I guess we're lucky we get dinner at all."

Steph chuckled. "True, and I'm starving. Would you fetch Tom, May? You've always been the one handling his moods best."

This was news to me, but I let it drop. I found Tom sitting on the bench in front of the cabin, watching the sun set behind a peak in the west, both hands buried in the pockets of his anorak.

"Such a peaceful sight. And so deceiving."

"Well, you can't blame the sun for what's happening. Dinner is ready. Lily did her best under the circumstances, so I suggest we avoid talking about aliens and enjoy. Deal?"

To my surprise, he laughed. "No-nonsense like in the good old times. I should have dated you all those years ago."

"Perhaps. Let's go."

This wasn't the moment to tell him about my past crush on him.

***

After a quiet dinner, Lily and Steff checked the sleeping rooms while I helped Tom with the dishes. Muttering something under his breath, he sifted through cupboards and cabinets.

"What are you looking for?"

"The booze. We came here to celebrate our reunion, right?"

"It would be shut away."

"I bet, and this is the only locked cupboard." He chose a solid carving knife from a drawer to attack the lock.

"Uh, isn't this a criminal offence?"

"We booked this accommodation, including dinner. Also, if the world is about to end, better go down with a firework. So—"

The lock snapped open. As Tom had suspected, the cupboard contained a collection of bottles. He studied the labels and lined them up on the counter.

"What's your choice?"

I hadn't planned on getting drunk, but couldn't deny the appeal of a bottle of Vieux Rhum. Tom poured me a glass, chose a whiskey for himself, and slumped down in a chair. The rum was fine, but not as good as the bottle Jacques kept for special celebrations. It hadn't been fair to leave without giving him a proper answer. I'd asked for time and promised I'd be back before Christmas, but that had been before the alien ship started its eerie countdown.

We were on the second round when Steff peeked in. "Here you are. Lily and I are going for a walk. Want to come?"

"I've walked enough today." Tom lifted his glass. "Join us for a drink when you're back?"

"Sure, see you later." She turned, shaking her head.

Tom sent me a devilish grin. "So, it's only the two of us for the party." He downed his glass and refilled it. "To the world's end!"

If only his rakish looks wouldn't send my heartbeat soaring. Would a one-night stand solve anything or just become another worry haunting my mind?

Tom reached over and placed his hand on mine. "Tell me about your Caribbean adventures."

Wrong topic. "I'd rather not—it was messy. What about you? How's life treating you?"

He emptied his drink and chose another bottle for a refill. "Nasty. Let's talk about something nice instead." Tom pushed his chair closer to mine. "Or not talk at all."

He leaned over, the alcohol on his breath a pungent cloud.

"Sorry, Tom. You're a decade late. I'll check on the others."

He sneaked an arm around my shoulders, but I moved away and placed my half-empty glass on the table.

"It's a no, so hold your breath. The world may end, but this doesn't mean we have to behave like animals."

Tom jumped up, toppling over his chair, and reached for the kitchen knife. I stepped around the table, trying to put distance between us. Before his fumbling fingers closed around the knife's heft, he wobbled and collapsed. Appalled, I hesitated for a moment before I checked on him and found him already snoring. So I picked up a bottle of wine and went to search for the girls.

***

I found them outside, sitting on a rock slab side by side, the waning moon outlining their silhouettes in silver. Lily leaned her head against Steff's shoulder, and the other woman had an arm around her. I didn't dare to disturb their moment and returned to the cabin.

Back in the kitchen, I stepped over the sleeping Tom to stow the bottles in the closet and pick up my backpack. I raided a sleeping room for bedspreads and found a sheltered spot outside, where I built a nest from the blankets in the moonlight. Then I switched on my phone. The connection was weak, but I still had power.

Prices for outgoing flights from the Caribbean had gone through the roof after the spaceship's arrival and were still outrageous. I'd heard Americans fled to the islands by boat in the thousands. From there, the wealthy evacuated to Europe and Australia by plane despite increased hurricane warnings. The airliners returned empty to pick up a new load of evacuees. My Jacques was rooted on the island, though, and wouldn't leave his family behind.

I knew what I had to do.

When the booking confirmation lit up, I checked the time. It was early evening in Guadeloupe, and he would be at the dive centre, doing paperwork. I dialled his number.

"May, how are you?" He sounded surprised.

"Fine. Listen, Jacques, I'd like to apologise."

His silence sent a shiver down my spine. Was I too late? Then I heard him inhale.

"You don't need to. It's alright if you aren't ready."

How had I earned someone like him?

"No, I have a flight on Wednesday, and my answer is yes."

The cheering in the background was loud enough to make me hold the phone away from my ear. "Who's there?"

He laughed. "Everyone. I bet you're the only person in the world flying towards the alien ship instead of away from it, May. And I love you for it."

A beep announced my battery was about to die.

"Love you too, Jacques."

<<<<< END >>>>>

Find more stories by jinnis on Wattpad.

Jinn Tiole is a part-time writer living in rural Switzerland. She started inventing stories to satisfy her younger sister's desire for new bedtime adventures. Her works in English and German cover the genres of fantasy, science fiction, paranormal mystery, and children's fiction. 

Most of her stories can be found on Wattpad, where she was part of the former Wattpad stars program. Jinn believes in the importance of strong, independent characters and believable world building. When she isn't working her day job, you'll find her tending to her garden, sailing, travelling, or dreaming up a story with a cup of coffee.