The meteor appeared from behind the Sun. It was massive, about six miles across, but the scientists told them not to worry. On its course, it would miss the Earth by a large margin. All that would happen would be a rather pretty, rather small meteor streaking by in two weeks' time.

News stations ran stories about this 'mysterious meteor' for a day, theorizing about where it had come from. Aliens was a common one, blasted upon the internet like a drug, earning chuckles from those who did not believe and held breath from those who did. Others said it was merely large debris from the asteroid belt that bisected the rocky and gas planets in the Solar System. Others simply didn't care where it came from and went on with their day.

The meteor would enter their sight in two weeks, and it would disappear in a night, both from sight and from the Earth's population's minds. It would amount to nothing. There would be nothing in the history books, nothing from the news stations after it left. It would be as if nothing ever happened.

But it did not disappear.

As it lumbered closer to the Earth, its velocity started to slow. Those who owned telescopes swore it saw parts of the meteor begin to be replaced by metal before lazily switching back to its original rocky state. Scientists told them not to worry. It was slowing down due to the gravity of Earth, and it would use it as a slight accelerant as it passed, but it would still not hit the planet. It was still on course.

That was until it stopped. It had gotten closer to the Earth, visible through its hazy atmosphere, clouded with pollutants and clouds. Those all over the world watched in horrified fascination as it slowed to a complete stop.

Most of Earth was plunged into complete electronic isolation as an electromagnetic pulse erupted from the meteor with a viciousness that rivalled the Sun's solar flares. But while its atmosphere and magnetic field protected Earth from these far-reaching solar flares, there was nothing it could do from such a short distance. Electronics were disabled everywhere. Cars that relied on electronics stuttered to a stop, causing massive pileups on several highways. Airplanes were suddenly flying in the dark without aid, causing many emergency landings.

Another pulse of energy was sent from the meteor, and governments all over the world were found unable to communicate, both through radio waves or electronics. Radios played eerie silence, interrupted by occasional static. Televisions, if they were still standing after the first wave, had nothing to broadcast. People were unable to make frantic calls to their loved ones, and those that were on the phone already were silenced.

Those who could see the meteor watched as its exterior slowly dropped away to reveal an unworldly spaceship. Large enough to fit the entire planet's human population if they were crammed like sardines, the ship had started to move with a slow gracefulness. It descended into Earth's atmosphere easily, and when it landed somewhere in the middle of a populated park, large figures exited the spacecraft.

That was the day that humanity had unwillingly left Earth behind.

***

The cargo bay that they had shoved what seemed to be the entire population of the United States into was, as you could guess, cramped, hot and smelled terrible. Truthfully, Viktor had no idea how many people were in here. All he knew was that he had been sitting in an uneventful algebra class when the lights had gone out and his phone had stopped working. Panicked shouts came from across the classroom and the school, so Viktor had shrugged it off as a weird power outage, though that did not quite explain why his phone had stopped working. He shoved it into his pocket as his teacher ushered them out into the school's front lawn, watching as the rest of the school trickled out.

The weather had just begun to turn into winter, so he was a bit miffed about being outside. He didn't even know what time it was, but he knew that it was not the end of the school day. So it came as a slight surprise when the principal made them all go home. Viktor grumbled in annoyance, waving goodbye to his friends as they eagerly walked to their own cars in the parking lot. He had no way to get home without walking since his father worked until he got out of school. His dad was usually the one to bring him home, as he was only just starting to get his learner's permit at the ripe age of fifteen. He began his walk home, hands shoved into his pockets, not noticing that some of the cars were unable to start.

At least, he had started walking home. He was interrupted by a shrill screaming from behind him. He turned around, mouth opening in slight shock as he saw what had garnered the scream of fright.

It was a fuckin' spaceship. Just hanging around in the sky. What the hell!

Millions of tinier spaceships exited the bigger one and began flying off into the distance. Alarmingly, one of them had rushed towards them, and Viktor soon realized with a sense of dread that it was not tiny and was in fact about three times as large as his school. It could fit the whole town in that thing!

Which is what it did. And now, Viktor was stuck in this cargo bay, watching as a bunch of other people were ushered in from other ships. He was nervous and a bit scared. A lot scared if he were honest with himself. He had no idea where his father was. There were a lot of people he recognized since he had been gathered with a bunch of people from his school, but there seemed to be people from all over the world in this little cargo bay. He nervously shuffled in place, listening to the others around him.

"What do you think's gonna happen to us?" One of his classmates and friend, John, asked his other friend, Jake. Jake shrugged, looking unflappable but he was picking at his nails nervously.

"I don't know, man. Did you get a glimpse of that thing when it came off the ship? It was fucking ugly, dude," he said, looking over at Viktor. Viktor didn't get a chance to look at whatever came off. He had been in the middle of the crowd as it had been prodded into the small ship. Even when they were unloaded into the cargo bay, he still hadn't seen anything.

"Was it some freaky social experiment?" Viktor asked, hopefully. His hopes dwindled as Jake fearfully shook his head.

"It was, like, twice as tall as us. And reddish. It looked buff, too," Jake whispered. "I think it was an alien."

"No way, man. They aren't real. It's probably just some, some weird government thing. Maybe the military is doing a new fear program." John spoke confidently, but he didn't seem to believe himself. Viktor didn't either. The pit in his stomach only worsened.

Aliens? Viktor knew that there had to be some sort of life out there, but what did they want with them?

The ground underneath his feet started to shake, and he gave a shout of alarm that mixed in with all the others as almost everyone was thrown to the ground. He fell on top of someone, and someone else fell on top of his legs. He gave a yelp of pain, but it was short-lived, as everyone started to scramble back up to their feet with varying degrees of success. Wherever they were going, they were going fast. It was difficult to even raise his arms to hoist himself up, let alone stand. This seemed to go on for ages, hours at least before the resistance steadied and everyone was able to get back to their feet. Murmurs of alarm, fear and apprehension filled the large room, and Viktor felt the pit in his stomach grow. He had a bad feeling that wherever they were going, it was a long way from Earth.

***

Man, Viktor thought, sat on the floor with his limbs all scrunched up like a pillbug, this road trip was long.

It had only been an hour or two into the ship's ascension and subsequent take off from Earth, but Viktor felt as though it had been days, especially since he had nothing to amuse himself. He found out his phone had slipped out of his pocket when he had been ushered in here with everyone. His dad was probably going to kill him when he found out. Regardless, without his phone, he felt like he was going to go insane. There were no windows in this cargo bay, not that he would've been lucky enough to get a window seat, so they had no idea if they were really out of orbit from Earth or not. No scenery to take in. Just steel walls and stinky people.

Maybe the 'aliens' were just weird cosplayers or something. Viktor held tightly onto that hope.

He had separated from his friends and classmates with the reasoning that he was going to find his dad. The whole town seemed to have been corralled into this cargo bay, so there was a chance at finding him. When they had been escorted into the bay, there had already been plenty of people milling about it in confusion and worry. Viktor suspected that there were even more bays along the ship's interior, especially since it was so damn big.

Which meant that his dad might not even be in this room.

After searching for another hour, shoving through throngs of people and asking others if they've seen a man with his dad's description, Viktor was forced to give up. He couldn't find his father anywhere. He must not be in this particular cargo bay.

Defeated, he slowly made his way back to his classmates, sitting beside his friends with a huff. After a quick glance at their own dejected faces, he figured that they probably couldn't find their family, either.

"I wonder what they want us for," John piped up. Viktor shrugged.

"Maybe they need our DNA for something."

"Like, for what?" Jake asked.

Viktor gave him a smile, chuckling as he said, "Like... to hatch their egg babies or something. They probably need our brains to nourish them. Like zombies." Viktor did his best zombie impression by reaching over to grab John's head.

Jake laughed as John shoved Viktor. The slight uneasy laughter died down as they slowly came back to reality. Still stuck on a ship. In space, probably. The reality was slowly starting to set in.

No one really knew what they were doing in here. When Viktor had gotten corralled into the ship, it had been in the middle of a crowd of people. He hadn't managed to get a glimpse of... whatever it was that was herding them in like animals.

Whispers were that they had shut off electricity all over the world. Viktor had scoffed at this, at first, before he was reminded that solar flares from the sun could do the exact same thing. It was probably possible that humans could design such a thing, too. Warfare made geniuses, after all.

"They had guns," Jake confided, telling those who had not gotten a look at the alien. Personally, Viktor was still a bit skeptical about the whole alien thing, but it was something to think about other than their uncertain future. "No one wanted to see if they were real or not. None of the adults seemed to know what to do, either."

The feeble hope that this really was some sort of weird school/government drill was fizzling out quicker and quicker. Viktor hoped that wherever they were going got here soon. The suspense was killing him.

***

A/N: we now have a discord! Come and check it out if you'd like! https://discord.com/invite/UcAe9769dY